Unnamed: 0
int64 0
287k
| id
stringlengths 40
40
| article
stringlengths 117
14.7k
| highlights
stringlengths 37
3.97k
|
|---|---|---|---|
24,470 | 456763f8f19c588af9f453134a7fbeeac0f743f3 | (CNN) -- Many saw the renaissance of American golfer Tom Watson at the recent British Open in Turnberry, as clear evidence that romance is alive and kicking in one of the world's most ancient of games. Tom Watson considers narrowly missing out on the British Open title. Little over a month shy of his 60th birthday, the winner of eight career majors defied the odds and the skeptics, to not only lead the championship for much of the duration, but to obdurately defy his advancing years and effects of a hip-replacement to come within a whisker of winning the Claret Jug for a sixth time. Somehow the wily wisdom of Watson provided the perfect approach to the infamously tough Turnberry links that had proved too much of a challenge for many a younger contender. But was this romance or just further proof that golf really is an old-man's game? Let us know your thoughts in the Sound Off below. It is maybe hard to swallow for fans of the pitch and putt but where else is the red-hot heat of global competition for one of the game's most desired trophies fought over by a man nearly three times older than some of his fellow competitors? Watson talks to CNN about his near miss. » . World number one Tiger Woods was not just tamed but embarrassed. Buffeted by the stiff, salt winds of the shoreline course, the task proved too tough for the 33-year-old - who missed a cut, for the third round, for only the second time in his professional career. The casualty list of whipper-snappers who withered away was long and included pre-tournament hopefuls Paul Casey, Padraig Harrington and Sergio Garcia among the numbers. Watson showed guts and great talent to come within a shot of winning the coveted trophy. Fans were captivated by the way the weather-beaten Stanford graduate, who last won a major in 1983, could roll back the years to evoke his famous victory on the same greens in 1977. A true great of the game and another vintage performance for a gracious man. But did the culmination of the Open not just highlight the fact that golf is less a pursuit of athletes and more an energetic game of chess with a bit more grass? | Tom Watson came within a shot of winning the 2009 British Open at Turnberry .
The 59-year-old was aiming to secure his first major win since 1983 .
The American golfer had won the title five times previously in his career .
A triumph of romance or proof that golf is game for old men? Sound Off below. |
188,377 | 7fefd8297535f9cc20fe218e7a934b340d80288c | By . Annabel Fenwick Elliott . Hair style fads come and go, but braids of all shapes and sizes have held on tightly in the follicular popularity stakes for many a season now. Which is perhaps why Instabraid - an Instagram account started by two then-15-year-old best friends in 2012 - now boasts a cult following of over one million braid-worshipers. Shir Ben-Zikry and Sophie Rose, now both 18, from Boca Raton, Florida, posted the first of what would be many self-styled photos of pretty and interesting braids during a school trip two years ago, and have now turned the account into a money-making entrepreneurial success. Instagram fame: Instabraid has a cult - and celebrity - following of over one million braid-worshippers, and posts several pretty inspirations daily (pictured) Run by teens: The account was founded in 2012 by then 15-year-old high school students and best friends Shir Ben-Zikry (left) and Sophie Rose (right) Of their very first post, Sophie tells Today.com: 'One girl in our school had one - she was the coolest girl in school - so Shir and I were like, "Why don’t we try to make an account, and see what happens? We’ll post this braid photo and see how it goes."' Now, the girls post three to four braids each day, spend eight to ten hours per week on the account's upkeep, and have earned more than $16,000 from sponsored posts. Some of the braids are selectively chosen from daily email submissions, others are regrams of photos tagged #Instabraid. The girls also post braid-sporting celebrities from time-to-time; Jennifer Aniston recently featured with her fishtail selfie, as well as Emmy Rossum and Paris Hilton - both of whom follow Instabraid themselves. Star quality: Some of the posts are styled by Sophie and Shir, others are sourced from braid-sporting celebrities including Kendall Jenner (pictured) Pretty: This regram was captioned, 'How perfect is Jennifer Aniston in this fishtail?!' Rapunzel locks: Some of the more complex braids are accompanied by step-by-step tutorials on the Instabraid offshoot website . Lucrative: Sophie and Shir have now turned the account into a money-making entrepreneurial success, and have made over $16,000 from sponsored posts . Hard workers: The girls post three to four braids each day and spend an average of eight to ten hours per week on the account's upkeep . Other photos are styled by Shir and Sophie using models, often artfully shot in their homes and backyards, but some have been snapped during their summer travels to far-flung locations including Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii and California. 'Getting a braid is the ultimate way to instantly feel like a goddess' Many of the unique braids are accompanied with step-by-step tutorials on their Instabraid offshoot website. This week, the girls also launched their own range of hair elastics in collaboration with online store Emi Jay; another entrepreneurial powerhouse run by teenagers. So what is it about these interwoven hair styles that has brought Sophie and Shir such success, and holds such an enduring appeal for women? Elaborate: Some of the braids are selectively chosen from daily email submissions, others are regrams of photos tagged #Instabraid . Fiddly: Braids of all shapes and sizes have been popular for several years straight, with many salons boasting Braid Bars as part of their offering . In a twist: Many photos are artfully shot in Sophie and Shir's Florida homes and backyards, but some have been snapped during their summer travels to far-flung locations including Australia, Hawaii and California . Expanding business: This week, the girls also launched their own range of hair elastics in collaboration with online store Emi Jay . Nikki Lee, co-owner of Nine Zero One Salon in West Hollywood, which opened its own Braid Bar three years ago says: 'Getting a braid is the ultimate way to instantly feel like a goddess. 'There are so many different styles you can do with braids. Just when you thought you've seen every braid, someone comes up with something new.' Kayley Pak, a stylist at John Barrett's Braids Bar in New York, notes: 'I think braiding has remained such a popular trend because it is a quick and easy effortless style, which looks very natural and feminine. Braids make women feel youthful and fun.' | Instabraid boasts one million followers, including celebrities Emmy Rossum and Paris Hilton .
The account was started by then-15-year-old best friends on a school trip, and is now a money-making business . |
269,372 | e8eb6ce792c694e1e0eb3ae71a8124063d1357b1 | PUBLISHED: . 00:59 EST, 7 June 2013 . | . UPDATED: . 14:36 EST, 7 June 2013 . Mourners in a Bolivian village seized a 17-year-old boy who was named by police as a suspect in the rape and murder of a 35-year-old woman and buried him alive alongside her at the woman's funeral. About 200 inhabitants of the small town near the Colquechaca municipality in the Potosi district of Bolivia's southern highlands became enraged as they mourned the death of Leandra Arias Janco on Wednesday evening and threw Santos Ramos into the grave, which was then filled with earth. Prosecutor Jose Luis Barrios said Thursday that police had identified . 17-year-old Santos Ramos as the possible culprit in the attack on . 35-year-old Leandra Arias Janco. Scroll down for video . Indigenous justice: A suspected rapist and murderer has been buried alive in the grave of his alleged victim by enraged villagers, according to reports from Bolivia . Poor: Inhabitants of the Potosi district of Bolivia are often poor, scraping a living from the remains of the once-prosperous silver mine that was all but emptied by the Spanish, and lynchings are not uncommon . A local reporter for an indigenous radio station, who would only speak on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals, said that Ramos was tied up at the woman’s funeral before mourners threw him into the grave. Lynchings are not uncommon in Bolivia, where the justice system is often corrupt and communities are known to police themselves. Also on Wednesday in Potosi, residents of the Quechua indigenous community of Tres Cruces stoned to death a suspected thief and burned his accomplice alive, Barrios said. The two had earlier robbed a car and killed its driver. Mob justice: The state has sanctioned indigenous justice in Bolivia, where there is an indigenous majority, but the line is blurred when it comes to defining jurisdictional boundaries . Earlier this year, a Bolivian police officer was lynched by an angry mob after he was confused with a thief in the city of El Alto. Evo Morales, the country's first indigenous President, signed into law in 2009 a measure extending institutional recognition of 'indigenous justice,' but it's difficult to define the boundaries between the indigenous and Western systems of justice. Rich in history: The city of Potosi is UNESCO listed, but its days of prosperity from its silver mine are gone, and most miners live in poor rural villages . Potosi is the highest city in the world, at 13,420 feet above sea level, and Colquechaca is a village of 5,000 inhabitants. The area was exploited by the Spanish for its silver and funded much . of the Spanish Empire's expansion into the New World due to its Cerro . Rico (Rich Mountain), which has been mined for more than 500 years. Many inhabitants of the area are poor miners, still mining the . mountain for rare silver and tin. Due to poor worker conditions and . unsafe mining practices, present-day miners have a short life expectancy . with most contracting silicosis and dying within 12 years of beginning . work in the mine. | During the funeral of 35-year-old Leandra Arias Janco, villagers threw 17-year-old Santos Ramos into her grave and piled earth on top of him .
Villagers suspected Ramos was responsible for Janco's rape and murder .
Residents blocked the road to the community, preventing police from reaching it . |
286,382 | ff13a0714cf5bfe56bf86f7b8b6415ce79a07445 | Selfie fans know that even the best filter action can’t take the place of good lighting. But flipping the camera around on a smartphone means you’re often left in the dark, or squinting against a front-facing flash. Now a new smartphone case, which can illuminate the iPhone 5 and iPhone 5S, means that a flawless selfie can be taken anywhere. Scroll down for video . Dubbed the LuMee, the iPhone case was the brainchild of 57-year-old Allan Shoemake from New Jersey . Dubbed the LuMee, the device was the brainchild of 57-year-old Allan Shoemake from The Boonton Township, New Jersey. He came up with the idea while he was Skype to video chat with his daughter, who was studying abroad in Italy. ‘I said, “I can hardly see you. Why don’t you go by the window?”’ Mr Shoemake told Alexa Valiente at ABC News. ‘I said to my wife, “Why don’t they have a light out there to help light up cellphones or computers?”’ With that in mind, Mr Shoemake plugged in Christmas lights around a foam board and attached it to his computer. Mr Shoemakec ame up with the idea while he was Skype to video chat with his daughter, who was abroad. the photographer has now created the LuMee case which currently sells for $40 (£24) on Amazon . To adjust the brightness, users can use the dimmer at the back of the case. The lighting lasts around two and a half hours on its highest setting of brightness and 36 hours on the lowest setting . Taking the idea a step further, the photographer has now created the LuMee case which currently sells for $40 (£24) on Amazon. The case has built-in LED lights at the front, is powered by its own battery and takes around 30 to 45 minutes to charge. To adjust the brightness, users can user the dimmer at the back of the case. The lighting lasts around two and a half hours on its highest setting of brightness and 36 hours on the lowest setting. The cases are made in China and Mr Shoemake says he is now producing around 18,000 cases each week. Samsung Galaxy S6 will be able to buy a LuMee case this October, and a similar case for iPad and other tablets is currently in development. Celebrities take them to show off their lavish lifestyles and normal people use them to document their movements on social media sites. But experts have linked selfies with mental illness and have suggested that people regularly searching for the perfect angle from which to portray themselves could in some cases be ill. One leading psychiatrist said the majority of patients he sees with Body Dysmorphic Disorder take a lot of selfies. Dr David Veale, a consultant psychiatrist in cognitive behaviour therapy at the South London and Maudsley NHS Trust told MailOnline: ‘Taking Selfies is not an addiction - it’s a symptom of Body Dysmorphic Disorder that involves checking one’s appearance.’ Selfie fans with BDD can spend hours trying to take pictures that do not show any defects or flaws in their appearance, which they are very aware of but which might be unnoticeable to others. Often, people who take selfies take several photographs until they find their best angle or pose, but picking out small details can make people very self-conscious about the tiniest of ‘flaws’. In one extreme case, a British teenager Danny Bowman tried to commit suicide because he was unsatisfied with his appearance in the selfies he took. | The LuMee was invented by 57-year-old photographer Allan Shoemake .
Case has LED lights at the front and is powered by its own battery .
It takes around 45 minutes to charge and brightness can be adjusted .
Samsung Galaxy users S6 will be able to buy a LuMee case in October .
A similar case for iPad and other tablets is currently in development . |
248,009 | ccecca24e2e1bbb34032acee04e9010f221b844f | By . Daily Mail Reporter . PUBLISHED: . 14:49 EST, 6 March 2014 . | . UPDATED: . 17:55 EST, 6 March 2014 . A passenger plane flying from Lebanon to Iraq was forced to turn back after the Iraqi transport minister's son missed the flight and phoned Baghdad to stop the aircraft from landing, a spokesman for the airline said. Marwan Salha, acting chairman of Middle East Airlines said the flight, scheduled to leave at 12.40pm, had been delayed for six minutes while MEA staff looked for Mahdi al-Amiri, son of Hadi al-Amiri, and his friend in the business lounge. 'We made the necessary announcements and the last calls,' he said. 'The plane took off but one of the passengers turned out to be the son of the minister of Iraq.' A Middle East Airlines jet flying from Lebanon to Iraq was forced to return to Beirut after the Iraqi transport minister's son, who had missed the flight, called to Baghdad to stop it landing, it has been claimed . Salha said that when Amiri arrived at the gate he was angry and said: 'I will not allow the plane to land in Baghdad.' Twenty-one minutes into the flight, the Baghdad airport station manager called MEA operations to tell them there was no clearance to land, Salha said. The plane then returned to Beirut and the passengers disembarked. 'It's very disturbing because this is pure nepotism,' Salha said, adding that he hoped to resume flights to Iraq on Friday but that there would not be another flight on Thursday. Denial: A spokesman for Iraqi Transport Minister Hadi al-Amiri said the flight had been turned around due to 'airport cleaning' Transport Minister Hadi al-Amiri is head of the Badr Organisation, once an armed Shi'ite militia, and a political ally of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. Many Iraqis believe that relatives of elected officials and leaders of political parties act as if they are above the law. Iraq's Transport Ministry confirmed the airliner had been turned around but said this was due to airport cleaning and that the minister's son had not been due to be a passenger on it. Kareem al-Nuri, the transport minister's media adviser, said: 'There were cleaning operations in the airport and specific measures were taken. 'We asked all flights not to land in Baghdad airport after 9 a.m. but this flight arrived after this time, so we asked it to turn back. 'This information (about the minister's son) is not true and the minister is not accepting such behavior. The minister's son was not scheduled to take that flight at all.' An official at Baghdad airport, who asked not to be named, said air traffic was normal, with 30 flights landing on Thursday. The only one turned around was the one from Beirut. Iraqis mocked Amiri and his son on social media as news of the incident spread. A girl named Diana wrote: 'Sounds like Uday and his father rose from the grave', a reference to the late Saddam Hussein and his son Uday, known for arbitrary behavior. | Flight delayed while staff looked for Mahdi al-Amiri son of Hadi al-Amiri .
He was reportedly furious to find the plane had taken off without him .
20 minutes later Baghdad airport called to deny it clearance to land .
Plane was forced to return to Beirut where the passengers disembarked .
Iraq transport ministry denied al-Amiri was booked on the flight .
It claims the plane had been turned around due to airport cleaning . |
239,428 | c1fdad0bab32c7d8419bbbf7b62b9d724043f89a | Although victory rolls and ankle length skirts may seem a little dated to many women in their twenties, for one it is a way of life. Holly Foster, 22, prides herself on her lady-like attire, adopting the style of women in 1950s, which has recently seen her crowned Miss Vintage UK. However, her floral prints and pearls are more than just a style statement as Holly says dressing this way - and 'not like Miley Cyrus' - is the only way to demand real respect from men. Scroll down for video. Holly Foster dresses in an entirely vintage style wardrobe and shuns modern day provocative dressing . Encouraging her peers to lengthen their skirts - the fashion enthusiast has controversially claimed girls today were often left 'vulnerable' because of their provocative clothing - and are led to believe they will achieve fame and fortune like the controversial singer by not wearing much. Holly, from Welling, Kent, even suggests that women who dress in a more revealing manner could encourage unwanted attention. Holly said: 'Girls my age will go out on the town in skimpy - largely unflattering - clothing and they are surprised when they are not treated with respect. Holly says that by dressing in this fashion young women can provoke a better reaction from men . Holly lives by the motto 'dress like a lady and be treated like a lady' 'If you dress like a lady you will be treated like a lady. A short skirt or perhaps more a see-through top, encourages a man to come and take advantage, it encourages unwanted attention.' Holly added that she had witnessed it in action when she has been on nights out with friends. 'I go to nightclubs like other girls my age and when I do I'm always struck by the same thing. 'You walk into a room all the guys are looking at you, just up and down like you're a piece of meat and I think if girls had longer skirts they would feel more confident and safe. The 22-year-old was recently crowned Miss Vintage UK (pictured here) and says her role model is Dita Von Teese . Controversial: Holly says dressing like Miley Cyrus attracts the wrong sort of attention . 'I think there is a certain element of responsibility that comes with designing clothes and an element of responsibility when it comes to wearing them.' Holly recommends converting to her strict dress regime in order 'to be treated like a lady.' 'I think if girls dressed more demurely they would find they would be treated more as adults particularly and treated like ladies. 'If you compare a modern day woman with a vintage 1950s lady, the difference is just that - she's a lady.' Despite her admiration of the burlesque stripper Holly shuns Miley Cyrus and says her provocative dress is a bad influence on young girls . Holly says that modern media is to blame for negative teenage body image and if young women were to embrace the 50s silhouette there would be less body confidence issues . The 22-year-old was quick to add that although she would never wish any harm on women because of the way they dress she believes they should be wary. 'I don't believe anyone under any circumstances anyone should be taken advantage of, however when it comes to clothes young women have to take responsibility for their look if they do not wish to be left in a vulnerable position. Holly blames current pop stars for their influence on young stars with her being particularly unimpressed by one chart topper. Favouring the style of Audrey Hepburn she added: 'I think Miley Cyrus in particular who is always in the news for wearing very little just gives the wrong image to young girls. 'It tells her young fans that being naked means success and she is influencing them to wear very little in the hope of fame and fortune.' Holly's penchant for retro outfits has become more of an obsession over the years and she admits to spending her entire maintenace loan at uni on skirts, cardigans and cotton gloves . Holly didn't start her vintage transformation until she was 17 and said before she discovered the retro styles she had felt awkward in high street fashions . Despite her shunning of the scantily clad, Holly's idol may come as a slight surprise and slightly contradictory in the form of a Burlesque stripper. However, Holly claims this kind of nudity is slightly more tasteful. 'I think Dita Von Teese has got it absolutely right, though she is incredibly sexy and a burlesque dancer she dresses like a lady, she leaves something to the imagination - she looks classic.' Holly's vintage influence began at an early age. Growing up with her grandparents, Holly would watch endless old movies from the 1940s and 1950s and soon became a big fan of the musical Grease. Holly first became fascinated with all things 50s while watching the movie Grease as a child . The Miss Vintage UK winner controversially added that she believed that revealing clothing 'encourages a man to come and take advantage' But it wasn't until she joined a musical theatre course when she was 17 she had the confidence to undergo her vintage make over - first purchasing a 1960s crimplene dress in a charity shop. While studying at university of Norwich, Holly admits that her habit soon became an obsession blowing her 'entire maintenance loan' at vintage fairs becoming addicted with cardigans, cotton gloves and long circle skirts. Now she will only wear 'granny style' clothing and has spent more than £2,000 creating her pin-up 1950s collection. Holly says that not everyone is as keen on her vintage look with her mum dubbing her outfits 'granny style' Obsessed with homing the perfect look and collecting precious items, Holly hopes to purchase a Lilli Ann suit worth up to £3,000 which she describes as the 'Ferrari of the vintage world.' But Holly wasn't always so confident in her appearance, and says that before discovering retro styles she had struggled to accept her body growing up and blamed feeling awkward in 'ill fitting high street fashion'. The blogger, who works in retail, believes if women were encouraged to dress for their shape rather than fashioned on the 'straight up and down Primark mannequins' less teens would suffer from body image issues as she did. 'I definitely feel in the recent years we've seen more coverage of why its irresponsible for magazines to print stick thin models. Holly has now spent almost £2000 funding her habit . 'It encourages girls to want to try and emulate that kind of figure without considering the consequences - it results in anorexia, girls looking gaunt.' Holly added that the contemporary media obviously played a large part in influencing young women and vintage influences had been more realistic. 'What is really interesting is when you look at vintage magazines the 1950s really embraces all shapes and sizes because young women were told how to dress for their shape. 'Someone like Audrey Hepburn was very slim but it was never about that it was about her fabulous style. 'Today in our fashion magazines, the fashion industry uses tiny models as clothes horses in baggy tops and tight jeans and young girls are left disappointed when they look fat or ill shaped in their clothes. 'If more girls dressed for their figures, they embraced the fifties outlook on fashion I believe we would have less eating disorders, less girls being so desperate to be skinny. 'Young people would concentrate on wanting to look nice rather than being as thin as possible. It would be about the clothes and not about the size of them.' Last August she was crowned Miss Vintage UK for ability to put together 'the perfect 1950s outfit' and now models within the Vintage community. 'I think I love the vintage community because it embraces more than just wardrobe, everyone is very respectful and well mannered. It has old fashioned values which has been lost in our society today.' Although Holly hopes to inspire others to join her way of dressing she admits that her friends and family are not entirely on board. 'I have friends who dress 'normal' and they accept me for the way I am. They find it funny sometimes but I suppose its each to their own. 'My mum struggles with it sometimes because I don't dress like her friends daughters she will describe them as my 'granny dresses' but overall my family are supportive of my look.' As for gaining respect from men Holly says that she receives a very positive reaction from the opposite sex. 'Men I meet tell me I look attractive because I leave a little something to the imagination and I find older people will often come up to me and say "I used to wear that"' | Holly Foster, 22, was recently crowned Miss Vintage UK .
She says that her way of dressing encourages the right reaction from men .
She controversially adds that dressing in a revealing manner 'encourages a man to come and take advantage' |
241,214 | c444a05bc46798e5d1cfea0db2ef3a7a7a798df1 | Smartphone cameras are getting more advanced all the time, but now a DIY fan has revealed how crafty iPhone owners can make a microscope for their handset for under $10. Using a block of wood, some plexiglass and the lens from a laser pointer, a video shows how users can make a microscope with 175x magnification for an iPhone. Once the project is completed, the smartphone can be used to take photos of things as small as the nuclei of plant cells as well as for macro photography projects. Scroll down for video . One crafty DIY fan has revealed how to make a microscope for an iPhone using a few nuts and bolts, a piece of wood and plexiglass plus a torch and a lens taken from a laser pointer . According to crafting website Instructables, the DIY microscope can be made in just 20 minutes and costs under $10, excluding the price of the smartphone. The lens for the microscope comes from a cheap laser pointer and the website explains how it can be freed from its casing and placed in the correct way against the camera lens of the iPhone using a hairpin. It is this lens that creates the larger field of view and can itself be used to take macro shots of insects, for example, just pressed against the phone's camera lens. The lens for the microscope (pictured) comes from a cheap laser pointer and Instructables explains how it can be placed in the correct way againt the camera lens of the iPhone using a hairpin. It is this lens that creates the larger field of view and can itself be used to take macro shots just pressed to the phone's camera lens . However, to create the microscope, a 'rig' must be built to keep the phone steady and it is made from a sheet of plywood for a base and a couple of pieces of plexiglass to make the camera stage as well as the place to put the specimens. They are held in the correct position by carriage bolts and wing nuts. The assembly of the rig requires basic DIY skills, including the use of a drill, as well as a few nuts and bolts. A hole must be drilled in the camera stage just large enough for the lens to sit in and it is vital it is as close as possible to the camera. According to Yoshinok, who penned the original how-to, plants cells can be seen really clearly under the home-made microscope. This is an image of red onion cells taken using an iPhone 4S with the DIY microscope attachment . Another hole is made directly below the lens for the light source - a small torch or LED light - and then the drilled components can be assembled into the final rig. Full instructions of how to put the rig together as well as the dimensions of components are available on the Instructables website. According to Yoshinok, who penned the original how-to and lives in Iowa, plants cells can be seen very clearly under the DIY microscope. The website claims these simple parts costing under $10 are all that is needed to create the microscope - as well as 20 minutes of spare time, some DIY know-how and the smartphone . | A video shows how users can make a microscope with 175x magnification for under $10 that is built for an iPhone .
The home-made microscope can be made in just 20 minutes with some basic DIY skills, according to crafing website Instructables .
Using the rig, the smartphone can take photos of things as small as the nuclei of plant cells . |
273,631 | ee7615dfb500dff1f706de6ae6f4e58706a5d772 | By . Eleanor Harding . Seven-spot Ladybird Beetle, feeding on pollen from a cherry flower, now believed to be a more amazing creature than previously thought . They may be smaller than the size of your fingertip. But when it comes to ladybirds, size is no barrier to might, according to new scientific research. Experts have discovered the insects can reach the same speed as a racehorse and fly at altitudes close to the height of Ben Nevis. For the first time, a detailed study has shown the creatures travelling at heights in excess of 3,600ft and reaching speeds of 37mph. Researchers also examined the stamina of the insects and found that they were able to remain in the air for up to two hours. Up until now, scientists believed that anything over seven foot was a long-distance flight for a ladybird - but the new data shows they can actually travel up to 74 miles in a single flight. The study of the common or garden ladybird was undertaken using a monitoring device at Rothamsted Research, an agricultural research institution based in Harpenden, Hertfordshire. It involved an analysis of data recorded over more than a decade of two species, the seven-spot and the invasive harlequin. Dr Lori Lawson Handley, from the . University of Hull, who led the study, said: 'When we saw them in the . flight cubes, we could barely keep up with them. They were so incredibly . quick. They are very active, fast fliers and are built to fly very . well.' The recording equipment used by researchers sends radar signals vertically, in a cone shape, to an altitude of almost 5,000ft. The harlequin ladybird is one of the most numerous types, along with the seven-spot ladybird, and both share their incredible traits . It is able to detect the direction of flight, speed and altitude, of all objects that pass through this airspace. It can also detect the size and shape of each item, which allowed the team to tell which were ladybirds. While most ladybirds were detected at lower altitudes, between 500ft and 1,600ft, the highest recorded were at around 3,600ft. The research, published in the journal PLoS ONE, also found the average speed recorded was 20mph, although some flew at almost double this speed. The fastest ladybirds were seen at the greatest heights, where they were able to take more advantage of stronger wind speeds. The monitoring equipment was not able to establish to what extent their flying speed was 'wind assisted'. However, high velocities were also observed in a second strand of the research, which involved studying the insects' flight in a Perspex box in a laboratory. Average flight time was found to be around 37 minutes, but to the surprise of researchers, they could remain airborne for up to two hours. Dr Lawson Handley told the Sunday Telegraph: 'We were expecting them to go for about 15 minutes. It means that if they are flying at their maximum speed of 37mph for two hours, they can cover 74 miles. Whether they are doing that in the field, we don't know. They have that capability. This is another side of ladybirds people don't see.' | New research reveals tiny bugs don't care about their size .
They estimate ladybirds can fly incredibly fast, reaching speeds of 37mph .
They can also stay in air for up to two hours, making long distance flights .
Can travel up to 74 miles in a single flight, according to new data .
Scientists at University of Hull carried out perspex box experiments . |
230,791 | b6da190275e561ac5f9494620427a01bc8cc9f82 | A Texas appeals court on Thursday overturned a judge's ruling that had voided the marriage of a transgender widow whose firefighter husband died battling a blaze. The 13th Texas Court of Appeals sent the case of Nikki Araguz back to the lower court, saying 'there is a genuine issue of material fact regarding [Araguz's] sex and whether the marriage was a same sex marriage.' In 2011, state District Judge Randy Clapp in Wharton County ruled that the marriage between Nikki Araguz and her husband Thomas Araguz was 'void as a matter of law.' Victory: An appeals court has overturned a decision that voided Nikki Araguz's marriage to her first husband Thomas Delgado because she was born male . Thomas Araguz's mother and his first wife Heather Delgado had challenged the marriage's validity, arguing the fallen firefighter's estate should go to his two sons because Nikki Araguz was born a man and Texas does not recognize same-sex marriage. Attorneys for Delgado called the appeals court an 'activist court' relying on 'junk science' after the ruling. Nikki Araguz, 38, had argued in court she had done everything medically and legally possible to show she is female and was legally married under Texas law and that she's entitled to widow's benefits. 'It’s never been about the money for me.' Nicki said as she celebrated the court ruling with supporters Thursday night. 'If I would have stayed quiet, the only narrative anyone would have heard was that I was a trickin' tranny who lied to my husband.' Honest and loving: Nikki Araguz says her first husband was fully aware of transgender journey . Marriage: Nikki Araguz pictured with her first husband on their wedding day in 2008 . At a press conference Friday, attorney for Delgado Ted Burwell demurred. 'Whenever someone says it’s not about the money, you know what it’s about,' he said. The battle is over $635,000 in death benefits that the widow of a firefighter is entitled to. However, there is potentially millions more at stake. A lawsuit alleging a faulty light was responsible for the 2010 blaze which killed Thomas Araguz could result in millions in damages. Kent Rutter, Nikki Araguz's attorney, said his client was very pleased by Thursday's ruling. 'This decision recognizes that transgender Texans have the right to marry the person that they love,' he said. Araguz has remarried since her first husband's death. Second time around: Araguz has since remarried, to William Loyd . Attorneys for Simona Longoria, Thomas Araguz's mother, and Delgado, his ex-wife, did not immediately return phone calls seeking comment. Longoria and her family have said Thomas Araguz learned of his wife's gender history just before his death and had planned to end the marriage. But Nikki Araguz, who remarried in 2013, has insisted Thomas Araguz fully supported her through the surgical process to become a woman. She underwent surgery two months after they were married in 2008. Thomas Araguz died July 2010 while fighting a fire at an egg farm near Wharton, located 60 miles southwest of Houston. He was 30. In its 26-page ruling, the three-judge panel of the Corpus Christi-based appeals court wrote that Clapp erred by essentially saying in his ruling that Nikki Araguz was a man at the time of her husband's death. Equal love: William Loyd (left) escorts fiancee Nikki Araguz and daughter Charlotte Loyd, nine, from Nueces County Courthouse Thursday, September 18, 2013 after Araguz's first hearing. The couple married outside the court minutes later . Marriage equality: Attorneys against Nikki Araguz described the appeals court as an 'activist court' relying on 'junk science' 'I fully expect the other side to fight back as hate mongers often do,' said Nikki Araguz said Thursday.Burwell said that hate was not an issue in the case. 'To construe that anyone is hate mongering is Nikki is just grandstanding,' said Burwell. Attorneys for Longoria and Delgado had argued Nikki Araguz was born with male sex organs and had such organs at the time of her marriage, making it invalid. Widow: Araguz stands to collect $635,000 in benefits and possibly millions more for the death of her firefighter husband . The appeals court said more expert testimony on this issue is needed as the only such testimony presented was an affidavit by one of Nikki Araguz's doctors, who wrote that she was medically and psychologically female as a result of her compliance with the standards of care adopted by the World Professional Association of Transgender Health. The three-judge panel also wrote that changes made in 2009 to the Texas Family Code that allowed transgendered people to use proof of their sex change to get a marriage license legislatively overruled a previous court decision that had been used as legal precedent in such cases. In that 1999 case, a San Antonio woman's wrongful-death claim brought on behalf of her husband was thrown out, with a court ruling that although the woman had undergone a sex-change operation, she was actually a man, based on her original birth certificate. | A Texas appeal court overturned a decision to void the marriage of Nikki Araguz and her late husband Thomas Araguz .
A judge originally ruled that because Nikki Araguz is transgender, the marriage was a same-sex marriage .
Texas does recognize same sex marriages .
Thomas Araguz, a volunteer firefighter, died fighting a blaze in 2010 .
The case was brought by Thomas Araguz's first wife, who argued her children with Thomas Araguz should get the $635,000 death benefits and not Nikki Araguz .
The widow of a firefighter is entitled to the money .
The case will now center on what Nikki Araguz's legal sex is .
A separate case that alleges a faulty light was responsible for the fire that killed Thomas Araguz could be worth millions more dollars . |
69,192 | c4347746948e0333c0a70fd82b62d068af982524 | Brimfield Township Police Chief David Oliver keeps a picture of John Wayne in his office, but admits it's hard to know what the Duke would say about a self-described old-school cop using Facebook to sound off about enforcing the law in a small Ohio town. "I'd like to think he'd appreciate that we're communicating effectively with people," Oliver said. "But have a low tolerance for nonsense." The police chief has earned national headlines for poking fun at so-called mopes, or suspected criminals, on his department's Facebook page. Oliver's candid comments have made it the third most viewed police department page in the United States, according to Nancy Kolb, senior program manager for the International Association of Chiefs of Police. With more than 64,000 likes, it trails only the New York City Police Department and the Boston Police Department. "Up and at 'em. It's 65 degrees outside of the Center for Mope Studies," Oliver wrote in a typical post this week. The chair of Brimfield's board of trustees says Oliver's teasing of criminals is in good fun, while criminal justice experts say it falls in a gray area between traditional practices and the unethical. Oliver launched the Facebook page in 2010, after viewing a couple police department pages and deciding one would fit into his management philosophy, which is to try to run the department like a business and serve the community from within. He and his staff of 16 full-time officers say they want social media to work for those they serve. "If our customers are on Facebook and Twitter, we have to be there engaging them," said Oliver, who spoke by phone from Brimfield. "The more we communicate, the more we inform, the less people are suspicious of us." 'It takes away the moral high ground' Brimfield Township is a suburb of Kent, Ohio, with a population of more than 10,000 that is growing rapidly again after being hit hard by years of economic downturn, said Mike Kostensky, the chairman of its board of trustees. He has known Oliver for 12 years. "Dave has such a way with words," Kostensky said. "He makes people comfortable. His office is open to anybody. I guess it's a little bit of how small town America used to be." But not everyone sees productive humor in Oliver's Facebook discussions. Steven Lab, a professor of criminal justice and chairman of the Department of Human Services at Bowling Green State University, says Oliver's posts only deepen the divide between authorities and people who are suspicious of the system, but are often the most in need of its help. "It takes away the moral high ground of whoever is supposed to be in charge," Lab said. "It's going to raise more disrespect." Oliver disagrees. He got the term "mope" from the 1970s police show "Kojak," and stresses his teasing of suspects is just a part of what he posts. "A mope is a person who leeches off us and usually is engaged in criminal activity," Oliver wrote recently. "We do not believe everyone who has ever committed a crime is a mope. People change." On June 20, the police chief likened the Brimfield police station to a ship in the U.S. Navy. "It's 54 degrees outside of Mope-us Interruptus," he wrote in a post that also thanked World War II veterans, wished singer Lionel Richie happy birthday and quoted comedian Jay Leno. Sometimes, Oliver details calls to police and their response. "I think that as a society we have become desensitized," he said. "I'm trying to keep a lot of the criminal element in plain view, so we can address some of the causes and the results of the crime." 'I just don't get along well with criminals' Lab, who doesn't use Facebook and had not viewed the Brimfield page, said now that it has gone viral, it no longer serves its intended purpose because the majority of its audience is in no way connected with Brimfield. "It's titillating," he said of the page's surge in popularity. "It's morbid voyeurism by people in general." Molly Merryman, associate chair of sociology in the Criminology and Justice Studies program at Kent State University, which is about 15 minutes from Brimfield, says social media plays an increased role in informing communities like Brimfield that are not connected to a major media market. "He's been a chief for a long time and knows his community very well," she said. If the Facebook page is "an extension of the police department and has the community's blessing, then it certainly can be appropriate." Merryman said the U.S. criminal justice system has a long history of public shaming that can be traced to the Puritans. Shaming is still commonly used in the juvenile justice system, where the goal is to make the violator recognize society's expectation for proper behavior, she said. Oliver said that while what he posts about alleged criminals is public record, he never uses names, pictures or exact locations when discussing suspects' purported actions. "I don't want anybody humiliated," he said. "I'm very sensitive to collateral damage by people who commit crimes and I don't want a family member suffering." According to the FBI, in 2011, approximately one crime was reported for every 36 people living in Brimfield Township. Almost 96% of reported crimes were property crimes, of which larceny and theft made up 80%. Brimfield Township reported no murders or homicides in 2011, and a total of 12 violent crimes, half of which were rape. A native of nearby Akron, Ohio, Oliver has spent his entire 19 years as a police officer working in Brimfield, the last nine as chief. "I'm an inner-city kid," he said. "I did my share of running the streets. ... I don't see color. I don't see sex. I have friends of all persuasions. I just don't get along well with criminals." | The Brimfield Facebook page is the third most liked police page in the United States .
Chief David Oliver isn't shy about having little patience for "mopes," or criminals .
Criminal justice and sociological experts say his approach could have mixed results . |
36,226 | 66bc0b6240a0e5655132e386e0455b5ef92905c7 | William Buckman, 61, a nationally known figure, was found dead in a hotel room on Tuesday . The death of a prominent New Jersey defense and civil rights attorney who helped expose racial profiling by the State Police in the 1990s has been ruled a suicide. The body of William Buckman was found on Tuesday at the Residence Inn in Mount Laurel, New Jersey. His death was discovered around 8:45 a.m. said Mount Laurel Police Lt. Stephen Riedener reports NJ.com. He said officers had been asked to check on Buckman's well-being. 'The manner of death was suicide,' Riedener said. Riedener said the 61-year-old was found in his room and pronounced dead at the scene. He said no foul play was involved, and the investigation has been closed. Buckman, who was married with two children, rose to prominence while defending Pedro Soto of Gloucester County in a drug case. He successfully won a motion to suppress evidence seized during a State Police highway stop on the basis of racial profiling. The judge ruled that troopers routinely stopped minority motorists in New Jersey based on the their skin color. He found such stops to be illegal and threw out drug and weapons evidence against Soto and 16 others. Buckman famously said he was never stopped on the turnpike because troopers don't look for 'a short, chubby Jewish white person.' Buckman's body was found around 8:45 a.m. at the Residence Inn, said Mount Laurel Police Lt. Stephen Riedener. He said officers had been asked to check on Buckman's well-being . 'Bill was a true believer and a dedicated advocate for the principles of freedom, justice, and equality, and New Jersey is a better place because of the work he did,' said Edward Barocas, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey told Philly.com. 'He was a man with a great sense of humor, a great sense of empathy, and a great sense of justice,' Barocas said. 'He will be greatly missed.' Surinder Aggarwal, a former associate of Buckman's told Burlington County Times: 'He was a legal giant and a trendsetter.' 'The bar has really lost a giant.' Buckman was president of the William H. Buckman Law Firm in Moorestown and specialized in civil rights cases. His last tweet was on 13 October and read 'Attorney shuts down police stop of black handyman: ‘Now please leave our neighborhood’ with a link to news website. His family have not yet commented on his death. | William Buckman, 61, found dead at the hotel in Mount Laurel, New Jersey .
Mount Laurel police ruled his death on Tuesday a suicide .
Police said foul play was not suspected in his death .
Buckman credited with helping to expose racial profiling by police . |
174,153 | 6d61ce2e60fb25c4248a448ccbd931513952c26f | WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Some 65 years after their service, the 300 surviving Women Airforce Service Pilots are being honored with the Congressional Gold Medal. The House of Representatives on Tuesday passed a measure awarding the women one of the national's highest civilian honors. The Senate passed a similar measure in May and President Obama is expected to sign it. Jane Tedeschi when she was in the Women Airforce Service Pilot program. With only about a quarter of the former WASPs still alive and all in their late 80s or older, it was important for the House to act quickly, Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Florida, a sponsor of the bill, told CNN. "This is a largely overlooked veterans group. They haven't gotten the medals they deserve, the recognition they deserve," Ros-Lehtinen told CNN. From the time she was about 8 years old, Jane Tedeschi wanted to fly. "[Charles] Lindbergh was flying across the Atlantic, and a lot of other people were flying air races and things like that. It was very romantic," she said. Flight was still relatively new in the 1920s and 1930s, and female pilots were few. But Tedeschi was determined. In 1941, she found a childhood friend who taught flying and started taking lessons. After the friend was sent off to war and the airport near her home in Bethesda, Maryland, was closed to private flying, she traveled about 40 miles to Frederick and spent nights on the floor of a farmhouse to continue her lessons. Around the same time, Deanie Parrish was working in a bank in Avon Park, Florida, and kept seeing aviation students who were attending a flying school there. "I asked an instructor 'Why can't I learn to fly,' and he didn't have an answer...so I decided to find out for myself." She found an instructor and started taking lessons. These two women were not only fulfilling a personal dream. Along with 1,100 other women, they would become an instrumental part of the war effort during World War II, becoming the first women to fly U.S. military aircraft. The Women Airforce Service Pilots was born in 1942 to create a corps of female pilots able to fill all types of flying jobs at home to free male military pilots to travel to the front. In the days after the outbreak of the war, Jacqueline Cochran, one of the country's leading female pilots at the time, went to a key general to argue that women would be just as capable pilots as men if they were given the same training. She won the argument, and the program was launched. Parrish joined up at age 21 in November 1943. "Everybody was doing something," she said. "I wanted to do something for my country." Some 25,000 women pilots applied, and 1,830 were accepted. They had to pay their own way to Texas for 21 to 27 weeks of rigorous training, for which they received less pay than the male cadets in the same program, Parrish said. Candidates had to be at least 21 years old and at least 5-feet, one-half inch tall. When Tedeschi underwent a physical, she was told her height was only 5 feet. Watch Tedeschi recall WWII » . "I frowned," she recalled. "I said I need that half-inch, so he wrote it down." She was in. Eventually 1,102 women completed the program and were assigned to one of 120 bases across the country to start their missions. Depending on the base, they did everything from participating in ground-to-air anti-aircraft practice; towing targets for air-to-air gunnery practice with live ammunition; flying drones; conducting night exercises; testing repaired aircraft before they were used in cadet training; serving as instructors; and transporting cargo and male pilots to embarkation points. "We were still civilians. All of our training was to make [Army] Air Corps pilots," Tedeschi said. They flew more than 60 million miles in every type of aircraft -- from the PT-17 and AT-6 trainers, the fastest attack planes like the A-24 and A-25 or heavy bombers such as B-17s or B-29s. Paid $250 a month, the women were not officially part of the military -- receiving no benefits, no honors. Eventually Parrish was sent to Florida where she flew a B-26 bomber for air-to-air target practice, training gunners for combat. Tedeschi, who graduated in May 1944, was sent to a Selma, Alabama, base which did more engineering work. "We did whatever they asked us," she recalled in a CNN interview. "You knew enough about flying you could adapt ... sometimes it was a little tougher." For instance, she would take planes up after repair which could involve acrobatic work -- "which, of course, we liked to do," or be called to do night flying. While the work was technically non-combat, it could be dangerous. Thirty eight of the pilots were killed. Parrish recalled the military would not allow the flag to be put on a colleague's coffin. "It still bothers me," she told CNN. As the war was winding down in December 1944, the program was closed -- with no recognition from the government and not much help for the women who served. "You got home the best way you could," said Parrish. "I paid my own way home." The women then went off to restart their prewar lives -- but without getting any of the help that male veterans were getting. Several of the women, however, said they were not bitter since the only reason they had signed up was to do their part for the country, pointing out that they were just like the thousands of other women who also learned new skills and went to work in the factories to replace male workers sent off to war. "We were proud of what we did, and the war was over. It was time to get on," said Tedeschi, who is married and 89 years old. But many Americans were not aware of their efforts. The WASP records were sealed for more than 30 years. In 1977 Congress voted to make them eligible for veterans' benefits. "I didn't care for veteran status, but now I could have a flag on my coffin ... that is important to me," Parrish said. Parrish married a pilot after the war. She and her daughter, Nancy, for over a decade have documented the work of the WASPs. Read more about the WASPs at the Wings Across America Web site. While some of the WASPs say the medal itself is a nice gesture, more importantly they say they hope the publicity will teach younger generations about their accomplishments and remind some still skeptical men just how capable women are. "People all over the country will hear about it. It will be a national event," Parrish said. | NEW: Congress votes to give women Congressional Gold Medal .
First women to fly U.S. military aircraft are honored for service .
Women helped train male pilots during World War II . |
188,323 | 7fdf1102fc9127c8f0ce88ea6a98bfdc954cc3d7 | Five policemen were killed and 12 more wounded when a suicide bomber detonated an explosive vest at the the entrance to a concert hall in Chechnya yesterday. The suicide bomber was wearing a police uniform and presented police credentials as he tried to go through metal detectors set up outside the concert hall in Grozny, the capital. When police moved to stop him, he detonated the explosives. No civilians were reported wounded. Scroll down for video . Dead bodies of police officers who prevented a terrorist attack lie on the floor in Grozny, Chechnya, yesterday . The five policemen were killed when they went to check on an individual who was acting suspiciously . Despite two separatist wars in the 1990s and a festering Islamic insurgency, Chechnya has seen a period of relative calm under the rule of Moscow-backed Ramzan Kadyrov, and suicide bombings have been fewer in recent years. The concert hall where the attack was launched was due to host festivities planned to celebrate Grozny's city day holiday, which is also Mr Kadyrov's birthday. 'Police officers who were manning metal detectors at the entrance of the concert hall noticed a suspicious young man,' a local police officer told RIA news agency. 'When the police officers decided to check the individual, the man blew himself up.' The attacker was identified as Opti Mudarov, a 19-year-old resident of Grozny, BBC News reports. He reportedly disappeared two months ago, breaking contact with his family. The concert hall attacked was due to host festivities celebrating Grozny's city day holiday . Police cover the bodies of their colleagues. Right, Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov . Following the Chechen separatist wars in 1994-96 and 1999-2000, an insurgency spread across the predominantly Muslim North Caucasus, fuelled by anger over corruption and alleged rights abuses. Yesterday's attack was the first major act of violence since the death of insurgent leader Doku Umarov who was killed in a clampdown during Russia's hosting of the Winter Olympics in Sochi, on the western edge of the Caucasus Mountains. Mr Kadyrov, who has been threatened personally by the insurgents, who call themselves the Caucasus Emirate, has vowed to wipe out the militants. But he has faced criticism from human rights groups for torture and disappearances of those suspected of being linked to the insurgency. He calls the accusations an attempt to blacken his name. The last suicide bombings in Russia took place late last year in Volgograd, a city north of the volatile Caucasus region. The last suicide bombing in Grozny was in 2012 and killed at least four soldiers. In Kabardino-Balkaria, nearly 125 miles west of Chechnya, security officials also killed two militants on Sunday, Russian state TV said. Sorry we are not currently accepting comments on this article. | Attacker intended to disrupt festivities planned for Grozny's city day .
He's ID'd as 19-year-old Grozny man who went missing two months ago .
Bombing is first major attack since killing of Islamist insurgent leader . |
245,412 | c9a173437daba8e935d847ffdb3eb9171f5e2bab | Sleepy Hollow has the legend of the Headless Horseman. Does a community 150 miles farther up the Hudson River have a Headless Ranger buried in an unmarked cemetery from the 18th century? In the middle of the Hudson sits Rogers Island, site of a 34-acre parcel considered the birthplace of today's U.S. Army Rangers. The town and village of Fort Edward had long sought purchase of the land and with its completion also gained control of an unmarked Colonial-era cemetery that could hold the remains of hundreds of people, including some of the famous frontier fighters known as Rogers' Rangers. Local Neal Orsini walks through the Colonial-era cemetery on Rogers Island in Fort Edward, N.Y. The cemetery could hold the remains of hundreds of people, including some of the group called Rogers' Rangers . Archaeologist uncovered seven skeletons, all of which were intact — except one that was missing its skull. It couldn't be determined if that body was originally buried without its head . In 2006, a local couple who served as caretakers for the then-privately owned property uncovered seven human skeletons buried at the site, including one that was missing its skull. State archaeologist later determined the burials were likely part of cemetery dating back to the French and Indian War (1754-63), when Fort Edward was Britain's largest fortification in North America. The skeletons were reburied where they were found, and no excavations have been conducted at the site since. But six weeks after closing on the decade-long effort to purchase the island property, local officials are starting to think about what's needed to turn the overgrown, undeveloped parcel into a public park that will draw tourists to this economically struggling riverside community 45 miles north of Albany. The immediate plans will include trails and signage detailing Fort Edward's key role in the war that set the stage for the American Revolution. So far there have been no discussions on whether to leave the burial site alone or allow archaeologists to return and search for more graves. 'There's not going to be any digging right now,' said Neal Orsini, a restaurant owner who serves on the town board. 'I'm sure down the road there will be discussions about that. We just want to get a basic road map of how to move forward.' More than 250 years ago, Rogers Island was part of a sprawling British fortification that was home to more than 16,000 British and Colonial American soldiers and civilians, making it the third-largest city in the 13 colonies, behind only Philadelphia and Boston. The island, named for Maj. Robert Rogers of New Hampshire, was the base of operations for the frontiersmen he led on scouting and raiding missions in the northern forest. A plaque remembers those buried in the Colonial-era cemetery on Rogers Island . In 1757, after a string of British military disasters, Rogers wrote his 'Rules of Ranging,' 28 guidelines for waging guerrilla warfare in the North American wilderness. They've since been revised and shortened to 19 by the Army Rangers, who still use them to train Ranger candidates at Fort Benning, Georgia. The Rangers consider Fort Edward, especially Rogers Island, to be hallowed ground. State archaeologist Christina Rieth led the team that examined the skeletons after they were found eight years ago. She said all seven were intact, except one that was missing its skull. It couldn't be determined if that body was originally buried without its head, Rieth said. None of the skeletons have been identified. If they are from the French and Indian War, it's likely they were either Colonial militiamen or British regulars, or possibly some of the hundreds of Rangers encamped at Fort Edward during the war, said David Starbuck, who has led archaeological digs here since the early 1990s but never found the cemetery. 'Very few French and Indian War cemeteries have been located,' Starbuck said. 'After years of archaeology on that island, we always wondered where the dead soldiers might be.' A plaque from the cemetery marks the location where the rangers were found . | The town of Fort Edward, New York, is home to a 34-acre parcel of land that is considered the birthplace of the US Army Rangers .
A local couple who served as its caretakers uncovered seven human skeletons buried at the site, including one that was missing its skull .
Archaeologist uncover seven intact skeletons .
But one was missing its skull and it couldn't be determined if that body was originally buried without its head . |
46,044 | 81b8500eddb666f88a4d295da8ef218f61487828 | By . James Salmon . Follow @@JamesSalmon79 . Millions of ordinary investors will be given the chance to snap up free shares in Lloyds spin-off TSB. Lloyds has confirmed plans to start floating the new challenger bank on the stock market next month. TSB is still remembered by many for its 1980’s slogan ‘the bank that likes to say yes’. Lloyds has confirmed plans to start floating spin-off challenger bank TSB on the stock market next month. Pictured: Dr Paul Pester relaunching TSB in Baker Street, London . But it was re-launched in September almost twenty years after disappearing from the UK High Street. It is made up of 631 branches Lloyds was forced to sell off by the European Commission as a condition of its £20billion bail out by taxpayers during the financial crisis. A quarter of the shares will be sold initially, with the offer open to ordinary retail investors as well as institutional investors such as pension funds. To entice retail investors they will be offered one free ‘loyalty’ share for every 20 they buy, as long as they hang on to them for at least a year. Lloyds wants to prevent savers from trying to make a quick profit by cashing in their shares early- as happened with the float of Royal Mail last October. But investors will have to wait until 2017 before TSB is in a position to hand out dividends. Retail investors will only be allowed to buy a fifth of the shares on offer, with the remainder allocated to institutional investors. Lloyds will also foot the bill for any mis-selling that occurred under its watch, including payment protection insurance which has cost the bank almost £10billion so far. The announcement comes just days after over-50s cruise and finance firm Saga launched a £2.1billion float on the stockmarket. Half of the shares were bought by retail investors, but the float was considered a flop as the shares were sold on the cheap. Chief executive Paul Pester (above) said TSB would be different from other scandal-hit lenders on the High Street . Yesterday chief executive Paul Pester launched an appeal to customers and potential investors, promising that TSB would be different from the other scandal-hit lenders on the High Street. ‘We are building a very straightforward simple bank where every penny invested by savers is only used to support mortgages and loans to other TSB customers.’ He added: ‘You can never say never. But I’m doing everything in my power to minimise the likelihood that there will be a new mis-selling scandal at TSB.’ Offloading the branches has proved a major headache for Lloyds, with the Co-op pulling out of a £750million deal to buy the branches last April. Lloyds has run up a £1.6billion bill to create a separate lender, which it called TSB – resurrecting a brand which disappeared when Lloyds merged with TSB in 1995. Launched in September, TSB has 4.5million customers - most of whom were transferred from Lloyds TSB and Cheltenham & Gloucester. TSB is the seventh biggest bank on the High Street, but is planning to boost its share of the market and expand its network of branches. Lloyds has to sell off the rest of TSB by the EC deadline which falls at the end of next year. The first sell off next month will also clear the way for the Government to sell off a third tranche of taxpayers’ stake in Lloyds in the Autumn. It is expected to finally open up the offer to retail investors, having raised £7.4billion from selling two tranches of shares to institutional investors. This has reduced taxpayers’ stake from 39pc to 25pc. | Ordinary investors will be given the chance to snap up free shares in TSB .
The Lloyds spin-off bank will start floating on the stock market next month .
TSB was re-launched last year almost twenty years after leaving high street . |
285,163 | fd817c7703f151255c52ae4fa3b5f7541ab22c63 | The debate over the "Redskins" name in sports isn't just at the professional level. Students at an Oklahoma City high school were refusing to go into Capitol Hill High School on Wednesday morning because their mascot no longer has the controversial name, according to CNN affiliate KOCO. Dozens of students stood on the lawn outside the building rather than heading into class. The city's public school board voted Monday to change the name in response to Native American students' feelings that the mascot name was offensive. The vote to change the mascot, which has been in place since the 1920s, was unanimous. School administrators will immediately start phasing out the Redskins mascot and will create a committee of current and former students and community members to pick a new mascot before the end of the spring semester, spokeswoman Tierney Tinnin said in a statement, according to The Oklahoman. In the NFL, Washington Redskins football team owner Dan Snyder has repeatedly defended his team's use of the name and wrote in a March letter that the name "captures the best of who we are and who we can be, by staying true to our history and honoring the deep and enduring values our name represents." The support of a handful of Oklahoma City high school students isn't likely to help Snyder's cause. President Barack Obama said last year that he might change the name if he were the team owner. In June, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office found that six team trademarks were offensive and canceled them. The team appealed, and the patent office ruled that the Redskins could use the logos until the years-long appeals process was complete. The National Congress of American Indians has spoken out against the use of "Redskins" and other Native American mascots. | High school students protested over removal of mascot name .
The Capitol Hill High School mascot is no longer the Redskins .
An NFL team has been repeatedly criticized for keeping the name . |
215,677 | a32ab2f394fac502f86576a1855f2184bba25ef5 | By . Ryan Gorman . PUBLISHED: . 18:56 EST, 26 October 2013 . | . UPDATED: . 07:56 EST, 27 October 2013 . A suburban Los Angeles town is outraged after learning a serial rapist is moving in - and they aren't going down without a fight. Christopher Hubbart, 62, dubbed the ‘Pillowcase Rapist’ after being linked to dozens of sexual assaults on women during the 1970s and 80s, has been cleared to move to a Lake Los Angeles home close to a park, multiple schools and a bus stop. The depraved man has admitted to 41 rapes, but said there were about 70 unreported, according CBS Los Angeles. He is being released into the area because he previously resided in Los Angeles, officials said. A very sick man: Christopher Hubbart admitted to raping 38 women, but said about 70 other rapes went unreported . Announced earlier this week during a hearing in San Jose, the conditions of Mr Hubbart’s release are sealed – people living on the street he is targeted to live on by the end of this year are not happy. ‘I have a daughter, so this isn't going to work for me,’ Bart Stone told NBC Bay Area. Also seen in a CBS Los Angeles report, Mr Stone stood in front of the house and pointed about 100 feet down the street to a school bus stop. ‘That’s where children get off,’ he angrily shouted. The home is within a few miles of two schools and only 2,200 feet from a nearby park – just outside the limits of Jessica’s Law, which prohibits predators from living closer than 2,000 feet to any park or school. Home sweet home: This is the Lake Los Angeles home officials have decided will house the serial rapist . ‘The bus stop is right in front of my house, with all the kids,’ Steve Villavicincio told CBS Los Angeles, ‘I don’t know what the heck’s going on with that.’ Markeisha Brooks, 19, pointed to three houses where children live, telling CBS Los Angeles that ‘a lot of children live around here… he’s a rapist and he can do it again.’ Mr Hubbart was put on parole multiple times, and kept raping women in both the Los Angeles and San Francisco Bay areas, terrorizing the state with his deviancy. Furious: Bart Stone says he has no choice but to move if the rapist relocates to the neighborhood . Just a door down from a bus stop: 'You see that right there, past the PT Cruiser, that's where the drop the kids off' Mr Stone points to and explains . Officials are also united in their displeasure to dump the rapist in the community. The pervert’s most recent sojourn back into custody came because he couldn’t control his violent urges, Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael Antonovich told KNX. ‘He belongs in a mental institution, a state hospital’ Mr Antonovich said during a recent press conference, ‘he does not belong in a community with children where he will once again commit these crimes.’ ‘His past behavior is not a one-time occurrence where he made a mistake. We’re talking over and over again,’ Mr Antonovich added. So many arrests: Mr Hubbart was released into parole multiple times, and he assaulted women every single time - forcing officials to arrest and reincarcerate him . ‘They're taking someone who is not from here — who has a horrific criminal record — and they're dumping him in the [area],’ a Palmdale city spokesperson told the Los Angeles Times. ‘We don't think that's right,’ the spokesperson added. Palmdale is only a handful of miles from the home slated to house Mr Hubbart. California authorities are giving the public until Nov 29 to voice their concerns. A website has been set up for locals to submit comments. The modest ranch home was recently listed for rent on Craigslist. The ad asked $850 for the three bedroom, two bath house - it is no longer on the site. 'That's crazy': Steve Villavicincio lives next door, the bus stop is in front of his home, he cannot believe officials think the home is suitable for a rapist . Not in our neighborhood!: Residents are furious the predator is set to live only feet from a school bus stop and within a few miles of multiple schools . Mr Stone called the home’s owner during a local media report, furiously asking if he knew who the rapist was and asking why he’d rent to him. Other locations are also being considered, an official told the Times, but it will be in Los Angeles County. Mr Hubbart was first arrested in 1972 for multiple rapes in southern California, he soon admitted raping 20 women, records cited by the Times show. Only seven years later, he was released from a mental health institution after doctors deemed him a changed man. He was snagged again in 1982 for raping more women. Based on his own estimates, Mr Hubbart raped well over 100 women. ‘It really angers me,’ another local resident told the Times. ‘My wife and I are getting to the point where we're anxious to leave California anyway. That might get us to... move quicker.’ Mr Hubbart will be required to wear a GPS monitor at all times, an official told the Times. The monitor will be able to alert authorities if he violates the terms of his release by beng to close to a school or park, or even if he violates curfew. Still, that’s not enough to satisfy people living in the proposed area. ‘This is like a bad dream right now because I'm going to have to move out of this neighborhood,’ Mr Stone told NBC Bay Area . He doesn’t appear to be alone. | Christopher Hubbart admitted to 41 rape, he told authorities another 70 went unreported .
He is set to be released by the end of the year .
Residents of Lake Los Angeles are infuriated he is set to move near schools, a park and a bus stop . |
285,198 | fd8c4ed368c071246a9bfd70f8ee86e6b6667ce5 | By . Chris Wheeler . Burnley's players have been seeing a psychologist to prepare them for the mental battle of staying in the Premier League. Sean Dyche’s team were promoted against the odds in April and are favourites to go straight back down again ahead of their opening game against Chelsea at Turf Moor on Monday night. Burnley captain Jason Shackell revealed that Dyche has called in sports psychologist Simon Clarkson since taking over nearly two years ago, and the players are now ready for what promises to be a season of struggle. VIDEO Scroll for Dyche: Burnley fans haven't always called me the 'ginger Mourinho' Simon says: Burnley captain Jason Shackell revealed manager Sean Dyche has called in a sports psychologist . ‘He delivers a little presentation with quite powerful messages and I think the lads buy into everything he’s done,’ said Shackell. ‘There are key messages and he thinks a little bit outside the box, which is nice. ‘The general message is we’re not going to get it all like we did last year, but it’s not getting too low with the lows and not getting too high with the highs. It’s just trying to keep it on a nice even keel and take one game at a time.’ Tough start: Burnley boss Dyche will take charge of his first game in the Premier League against Chelsea . Burnley were strongly tipped for relegation from the Championship last year as well before going up in second place, and Shackell believes his side thrive when they are written off. ‘It brings a certain freedom and freedom can be a powerful thing,’ he said. ‘With the pressure off, there’s no weight on our shoulders.’ | Burnley squad have been seeing sports psychologist ahead of new season .
Sean Dyche guided Clarets to promotion to Premier League last term .
Burnley kick off new season against Chelsea at Turf Moor on Monday night . |
148,689 | 4c466edc5e82fb12638c21e925a7d8cbaa0a3815 | By . Daily Mail Reporter . Last updated at 10:05 AM on 17th November 2011 . Around 17 tons of marijuana have been seized after the discovery of a tunnel which police said was one of the most significant drug-smuggling passages ever found on the U.S-Mexico border . The tunnel stretched around 400 yards between warehouses in San Diego and Tijuana, was lined with wood supports and equipped with lighting and ventilation systems. Authorities announced the bust at a news conference yesterday near packages of dope festooned with labels of Captain America, Sprite and Bud Light - the coded markings used to identify the owners. A hole lot of pot: A soldier opens the access to the tunnel in Tijuana as others stand guard near packages of marijuana yesterday. The passage and its adjoining warehouses on the U.S-Mexico border contained around 17 tons of the drug . Iconic labels: The packs of marijuana were covered in stickers of action figure Captain America, a Sprite can and a bottle of Bud Light, which were used as codes to identify its owners . About nine tons of marijuana were seized inside a truck and at the warehouse in San Diego's Otay Mesa area, said Derek Benner, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement special agent in charge of investigations in San Diego. Mexican authorities recovered about eight tons south of the border. Photos taken by Mexican authorities show an entry blocked by bundles that were likely stuffed with marijuana, said Paul Beeson, chief of the Border Patrol's San Diego sector. The tunnel was about four feet high and three feet wide. It dropped about 20 feet on the U.S. side. Two men allegedly seen leaving the warehouse in a truck packed with about three tons of pot were pulled over on Tuesday on a highway in suburban La Mesa and arrested. Complex: The entrance to the tunnel in Otay Mesa in southern California which has been described as one of the most sophisticated passages on the U.S-Mexico border . Extensive: Soldiers stand inside the tunnel during a presentation to the media in Tijuana yesterday. The passage was on average about four feet high and three feet wide. It dropped about 20 feet on the U.S. side . High-end operation: The tunnel was lined with wood supports and equipped with lighting and ventilation systems . A California Highway Patrol officer was overwhelmed by the smell, according to a federal complaint. Cesar Beltran and Ruben Gomez each face a maximum penalty of life in prison if convicted of conspiracy to distribute marijuana, said Alana Robinson, chief of the U.S. attorney's narcotics enforcement section in San Diego. They were scheduled to be arraigned today. Cross-border tunnels have proliferated in recent years, but the latest find is one of the more significant, based on the amount of drugs seized. Raids last November on two tunnels linking San Diego and Tijuana netted a combined 50 tons of marijuana on both sides of the border, two of the largest pot busts in U.S. history. Those secret passages were lined with rail tracks, lighting and ventilation. Proud haul: A Drug Enforcement Administration agent and a border patrol officer stand next to some of the 17 tons of the seized marijuana . Gripping find: An Immigration and Customs Enforcement special agent handles a package with a Captain America logo . As U.S. authorities tighten their noose on land, tunnels have emerged as a major tack to smuggle marijuana. Smugglers also use single-engine wooden boats to ferry bales of marijuana up the Pacific Coast and pilot low-flying aircraft that look like motorized hang gliders to make lightning-quick drops across the border. More than 70 tunnels have been found on the border since October 2008, surpassing the number of discoveries in the previous six years. Many are clustered around San Diego, California's Imperial Valley and Nogales, Ariz. California is popular because its clay-like soil is easy to dig with shovels. In Nogales, smugglers tap into vast underground drainage canals. Authorities said they found a drug tunnel Tuesday in Nogales, running from a drain in Mexico to a rented house on the U.S. side. San Diego's Otay Mesa area has the added . draw that there are plenty of warehouses on both sides of the border to . conceal trucks getting loaded with drugs. Its streets hum with . semitrailers by day and fall silent on nights and weekends. Staring them down: Investigators, accompanied by a sniffer dog, examine the hole inside a warehouse in Otay Mesa as they collate all the evidence . Media scrum: Authorities hold a news conference to announce their massive discovery which they say suggests a major Mexican drug cartel was involved . After last November's twin finds, U.S. authorities launched a campaign to alert Otay Mesa warehouse landlords to warning signs. Landlords were told to look for construction equipment, piles of dirt, sounds of jackhammers and the scent of unburned marijuana. U.S. authorities linked the November finds to Mexico's Sinaloa cartel, headed by that country's most-wanted drug lord, Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman. The cartel has expanded its sphere of influence to Tijuana in recent years. U.S. authorities said the sophistication of the latest tunnel suggests that a major Mexican drug cartel was involved, but no link has been established. | One of the most significant drug-smuggling passages ever found on U.S-Mexico border .
Tunnel linked 400-yard stretch between warehouses in San Diego and Tijuana .
Stickers of big-brand logos were codes to identify owners .
Two men arrested after allegedly driving truck laden with three tons of dope . |
215,480 | a2ed0b2204ba4536393eff9bbddc00f9c6637568 | (CNN) -- Bad news: Your Facebook page is likely about to slow down. Good news: The change will help keep online thieves away. According to a recent blog post, Facebook is in the process of moving all of its users in North America -- and soon the rest of the world -- to a type of Internet connection that is more secure but also tends to slow down Web browsing a bit. Called HTTPS, as opposed to less-secure HTTP, it's the connection you see on online retail sites when you're about to enter credit card information or a password. Sometimes a little lock icon appears in the browser window when you're connected to a site with HTTPS. (The "s," by the way, stands for "secure.") "As the Web evolves, expectations around security change," Facebook's Alex Rice wrote last year when he announced that HTTPS would become an option on Facebook. "For example, HTTPS -- once a technology used primarily on banking and e-commerce sites -- is now becoming the norm for any Web app that stores user information." The new change is that Facebook is starting make HTTPS the default setting for all its 1 billion-plus users, so people who haven't selected that option soon will get added security -- and, potentially, slower browsing. "People will be able to opt-out of HTTPS for maximum speed if that's how they roll," according to the blog TechCrunch. "It is far from a simple task to build out this capability for the more than a billion people that use the site and retain the stability and speed we expect," Facebook's Frederic Wolens told that tech news site, "but we are making progress daily towards this end. "This may slow down connections only slightly, but we have deployed significant performance enhancements to our load balancing infrastructure to mitigate most of the impact of moving to HTTPS, and will be continuing this work as we deploy this feature." How will you know whether you're using HTTPS or HTTP? Look at the top of your browser window, where you enter Internet addresses. If you go to Facebook and see https://facebook.com in that box, then you're browsing on the more-secure connection, which scrambles data as it sends it back and forth to Facebook's servers, making it more difficult for someone in the middle to nab your passwords or other sensitive data. "Think of it like this: you're having a private conversation with your new boyfriend or girlfriend, and your ex -- unbeknownst to you -- is a few tables over listening to every word," the blog Lifehacker writes in a post titled "WTF is HTTPS." "That's the sort of risk HTTP poses, whereas HTTPS would be more like if you and your new romantic interest were speaking a new language that only the two of you understood. To your stalker of an ex, this information would sound like gibberish and s/he wouldn't get any value from listening if s/he tried. "HTTPS is a way for you to exchange information with a web site securely so you don't have to worry about anyone trying to listen in." Other online services, including Gmail, already use HTTPS by default. | Facebook is moving to HTTPS connections by default .
That may result in slowed speeds for some users .
The switch is designed to offer additional security .
People who are unhappy with the change can opt out . |
254,206 | d5062523e34c1685be6ff125240d7f20d9df7bf0 | (CNN)Zhang Qiuli is a pedicurist. Zhao Dan has a room barely wider than a single bed. Zhang Hao has left his one-year-old son thousands of miles away to "make it" in China's capital. Together they are members of what the Chinese press unkindly refer to as the "rat tribe" -- people who live underground in a warren of basements and air raid shelters in Beijing. Usually migrant workers, they can't afford private housing and, without the official resident permit known as the "hukou" they have no access to low-cost government housing, so they find themselves living underground. Estimates suggest there may be more than one million people living underneath the Chinese capital. Photographer Sim Chi Yin has been documenting their lives for the past five years. "I had a hunch that they were just normal people," she says. "They are actually pretty funky people, most of them are kind of young and all of them have aspirations to move up the social mobility ladder." Sim said subterranean living is not as squalid as it might sound. Some use dehumidifiers in summer to take away the damp and in Beijing's freezing winter months it's warmer than above ground homes. "The living space might seem pretty pathetic to us and maybe I went in with this pitying attitude as well, but what I found was the people make the best of their lives down there." Annette Kim, a professor at the University of Southern California, has mapped Beijing's underground city by studying more than 7,000 online rental ads. She found the median size was 9.75 square meters, or 105 square feet, and the mean rent was $70 a month -- although she believes the rentals she studied were at the higher end of what's available. Kim says it's hard to know exactly how many people live in this type of informal housing. Estimates vary from 200,000 to 2 million. She says 1 million is a reasonable estimate. All buildings constructed in Beijing are required to have basements -- initially a national defense policy that began in the 1950s -- and until 2010 it was perfectly legal to live in these spaces as long as they met building codes. However, the official policy is now to evict people, but it's not being implemented evenly, Kim says. The number of rental ads for underground housing increased during her year researching the phenomena in 2013. Alternative low-cost options include living in "urban villages" on Beijing's outskirts. But Kim says: "They would rather live underground than commute for a long time. It means that sometimes they could have two jobs." Kim found the "rat tribe" had little interaction with those living above them. "The people above ground preferred to be as separate as possible and that built up fear of who these people are." Zhang Qiuli, the pedicurist, was the first person Sim befriended and photographed. After years spent living beneath a posh condominium in east Beijing, she has since moved "above ground." "She is one of the success stories," says Sim. "I think for some people there is true upward mobility but for many people the hukou system, whereby migrants can't actually buy homes and settle down, is still a huge barrier to them building lives and families here." "Most think they will eventually go home and maybe set up a shop and raise their families." CNN's Anjali Tsui and Kristie Lu Stout contributed to this report . | It's estimated that one million live underground in Beijing .
They're mainly migrant workers, who can't afford private housing .
Photographer Sim Chi Yin spent five years documenting their lives . |
207,664 | 98e09806ca95df6d248c96824c0be777f4a0b924 | The fiancée of a father-of-two who drowned after being swept into water trying to rescue his dog has told of the moment she frantically tried to save her partner who could not swim. Joanne Wardle and Alex Hardy were walking his pet on Hendon Beach in Sunderland when the 32-year-old fell on a slip way where his dog was chasing a pebble in September. A poor swimmer, the security guard was struggling in the water when Miss Wardle jumped in to try to save him. Joanne Wardle recalled the frantic moment she tried to save partner Alex Hardy as he drowned in the sea . But she too was overpowered by the current and was unable to keep her partner from drowning. She said: 'There was this awful crack as his head hit the ground and for a few seconds he just lay there. 'Then another massive wave came crashing in and swept him in.' 'When I saw he was in the water I didn't even have to think about what to do. 'I knew he couldn't swim but I am a strong swimmer. I just thought if I could get to him and get hold of him everything would be fine. 'But as I jumped in, the current took my legs away and I tumbled in the water, coming up near Alex. That’s when I knew it was really serious. 'I got to Alex, he was conscious but not responsive. I got hold of him but I know the fall had incapacitated him. The couple were then separated again and the dog, Fudge, tried to reach his owner. 'We then got separated again. I tried to hold on to him but the waves just separated us. 'It was then I had to fight for my own life. I was being battered about like a ragdoll. The 32-year-old had been trying to save his dog, Fudge, when he slipped and fell into the strong waves . The father-of-two had been trying to rescue his cocker spaniel from the strong current when he tragically died . The couple were walking Mr Hardy's dog on Hendon Beach in Sunderland (pictured) when he fell into the water . 'A fisherman was throwing a rope down to me tirelessly. He was shouting to me to time the waves. That really helped but I couldn’t reach it. I got very light-headed and shouted to the fisherman ‘I can’t do this.’ Ms Wardle, who had planned to marry Mr Hardy in 2016, was rescued by an RNLI crew shortly afterwards. Mr Hardy, however, could not be reached for hours. Michelle Taylor said she missed her son every day . At an inquest into his death, Ms Wardle described her late partner as 'the love of my life'. 'Alex was such a loud, lovable character. From the moment we first met we just looked at each other and knew we were going to be together. 'He was so caring. He was my world, the love of my life.' Mr Hardy was an NHS security guard with two sons, aged 12 and 11, from a previous relationship. Miss Wardle said: 'Fudge and I are the same, I don't think either of us can quite believe he has gone. 'Every time a car pulls up in the street his ears prick up.' Describing his death, coroner Vicky Ross said: 'He was swept into the sea. Alex wasn’t a swimmer. 'Miss Wardle herself bravely went into the sea herself. Unfortunately Alex couldn’t be rescued. Recording a verdict of accidental death by drowning, the coroner told Miss Wardle: 'You did everything you could to rescue him.' Later, his mother said drowning had been one of Mr Hardy's biggest fears. 'His biggest fears of death were drowning or fire but it was the drowning that took him.' 'He was a fun loving man who lived for his boys. He loved his family - it meant the world to him. 'I miss him every day.' | Alex Hardy drowned trying to save his beloved pet dog Fudge in the sea .
His partner Joanne Wardle tried to rescue 32-year-old who couldn't swim .
Miss Wardle and dog brought to safety by RNLI lifeboats in Sunderland .
Recalled moment she had to fight 'for own life' on tragic day in September . |
41,417 | 74d135ee43ef4ce6b391c303184caafdf835563c | It has been another difficult week for Liverpool. A last-minute equaliser conceded in the Merseyside derby followed by a Champions League defeat to Basle has put the club in the spotlight. Since losing in St Jakob-Park, players have been questioned and Brendan Rodgers has been scrutinised, as have Liverpool’s dealings in the transfer window just gone. Amid all that gloom, though, is one shining light: Raheem Sterling. So on Friday morning, when I saw the back page of this newspaper, I was sent into a rage. A headline reading ‘Kop fight to keep Sterling’ was not what was needed before a game of huge significance for Liverpool. VIDEO Scroll down to watch Raheem Sterling nutmeg Rickie Lambert during training . Raheem Sterling (right) shares a smile with Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers in midweek . Sterling's performances have been a rare high point for Liverpool during a stuttering start to the season . The Daily Mail back page on Friday . Do not underestimate the importance of the showdown with West Brom. If Liverpool fail to win again, the international break will be an absolute nightmare and the mood will worsen. Now, before we go any further, I want to make it clear I have no issue about a journalist unearthing a story. Nor, on a separate matter, do I have a problem with agents trying to get the best possible deal for their clients. In both circumstances, people are just doing their respective jobs. The reason for my fury was the timing of this particular story. Whoever has let it be known that Sterling is in no rush to commit his future to Liverpool has made a massive mistake. No thought has been given to the big picture. If anyone around me had put out a story like that about me during my career, never mind the day before a game, our relationship would have been over. My agent, certainly, wouldn’t have done anything like that and I would never have allowed that, even if he had wanted to. No matter what your job, we all like to see our wages increased but in the 18 years I played for Liverpool, I never put pressure on them or went asking for a new contract, as the club were renowned for rewarding those who made progress quicker than anticipated. They still do it now. Daniel Sturridge’s new deal is evidence of that. Video courtesy: R Buxton / @RichardBuxton_ . Daniel Sturridge has committed to the club with the England forward penning a new five-year deal . Sturridge has endeared himself to Liverpool fans since joining from Chelsea last year . I regularly signed four-year deals that were ripped up within 18 months, either by Peter Robinson — Liverpool’s fabled former chief executive — or his successor Rick Parry, when the club felt my performances had improved. That was the way it was done. Had I found myself central to a story like that, I would have been mortified having to face my manager, so how would Sterling have felt on Friday morning when he walked into Melwood and saw Rodgers before training? What particularly frustrates is that it isn’t the first time we’ve seen stories about Sterling — who has been linked with Real Madrid — and his contract. He is one of Europe’s finest young players, a star in the making, but he is old enough to have his own voice and put a stop to things like this happening. Whoever believes it is a good idea to put pressure on Liverpool has failed to understand the emotion of fans. There is never a good time for these stories to appear but when your team is losing, the last thing you want to read about is potential problems for your star player. It also creates a perception that a player is more interested in money than football, which in turn creates an image. Part of an agent’s duty, after all, is to portray his client in the best light whenever he can. Rodgers and Sterling talk in training this week as Liverpool prepare for a vital fixture with West Brom . Sterling (right) ghosts past Everton's James McCarthy in trademark fashion during the Merseyside derby . They have also not grasped just what Liverpool have done for Sterling since he signed as a 15-year-old in 2010. He and his family have been looked after; Rodgers, meanwhile, has protected and nurtured him, providing him with the platform to showcase his talents. Young players should concentrate on playing games, not get distracted by what is going on off the pitch. That is why it was heartening to see another young star across Stanley Park sign a new contract in the summer without any fuss, how it should be done. Ross Barkley, who is only 20, may have been linked with Manchester City recently but he has committed to Everton and he should not be giving any thought to leaving Goodison Park until after the next World Cup in 2018. That message would also apply to Sterling. If, in the future, both players feel they want to try a new adventure, it should be when they are 24 or 25 and a team will be formed around them. If they were to leave too early, they would simply become pieces in a jigsaw rather than the main building block. Alongside Sterling, Ross Barkley (right) is one of England's brightest stars for the future . Barkley signed a new four-year deal with Everton in July and is recovering from a knee injury . Sterling and Barkley are the two most exciting young players in England and now is the time for them to repay the clubs that have given them such fantastic opportunities and will continue to guarantee them regular starts. Continue as they have been and Liverpool and Everton will have no hesitation about paying them what they are worth. Indeed, Brendan Rodgers has said that it is only a matter of time before Liverpool ‘reward’ Sterling, who has three years remaining on his current deal. This, to be clear, is not a criticism of the money these young players are being paid — I was on the receiving end of such comments from old pros when I was starting out — and I appreciate we all maximise what we can earn. There are, though, ways and means of doing things. The best is behind closed doors. This week I'm looking forward to: Watching Danny Welbeck take another test . The game of the weekend is at Stamford Bridge and you can be certain that both John Terry and Gary Cahill will know they have been in a battle. When Danny Welbeck moved to Arsenal from Manchester United on transfer-deadline day, I thought it was a good signing but not necessarily one that would take them to the title. It looked more like a buy that was made with the future in mind. Welbeck, however, was outstanding in the Champions League win over Galatasaray and the good news for Arsenal supporters is that Arsene Wenger has a track record in nurturing promising young forwards into world-class front men. The evidence is provided by Thierry Henry and Robin van Persie. Danny Welbeck became the 11th Englishman to score a Champions League hat-trick against Galatasaray . Arsene Wenger has a history with raw but talented strikers, such as Thierry Henry (left) and Robin van Persie . To look at Welbeck’s physical attributes, he ticks all the boxes. He has power and pace, a relentless work-rate and he is the type of forward who will never give a defender a moment’s rest. He will be at Terry and Cahill from the start. What he needs to show now, though, is that he has composure in front of goal. Wednesday night was a positive step. His finishing was impressive but holding your nerve when Terry and Cahill are trying to hunt you down is different. Another big performance, though, and Welbeck will be moving in the right direction. Here’s to game's Marvellous characters . It was a treat last week to sit and watch the fittingly named BBC Two drama Marvellous about a man called Neil Baldwin. He was, among other things, Stoke’s kit man under Lou Macari and, if you have not had the chance to see it, I would strongly recommend that you try and view it on catch-up TV. It provides a reminder to all football fans that there is more to clubs than just the players. Characters like Neil Baldwin make clubs what they are. Since I retired, I have been asked numerous times about what I miss most. The first answer, of course, is running out every week at Anfield and winning big games for Liverpool. The story of Stoke kitman Neil Baldwin (right), played by Toby Jones, is a tremendous tale . A close second, though, is not seeing people behind the scenes at Melwood every day: Kenny and ‘Big Jimmy’ on the gate, Anne who worked on reception, Graham, our kit man, and Paul Small the masseur. You see these people every day and then, in a flash, it stops. Every club will have people who work away from the spotlight and get no public credit, but they help create the atmosphere and are worth their weight in gold. That’s why it was enjoyable to see Neil Baldwin get that recognition. | Raheem Sterling is one shining light in the gloom surrounding Liverpool .
I was sent into a rage upon reading the headline 'Kop fight to keep Sterling' in Sportsmail ahead of the showdown with West Brom .
This is a game of huge significance for Liverpool - if they fail to win again, the mood will worsen .
If anyone around me had put out a story like that about me during my career, never mind the day before a game, our relationship would have been over .
I can't wait to see Danny Welbeck face John Terry and Gary Cahill .
And why football needs characters like Neil Baldwin, star of Marvellous . |
181,778 | 775d9bf4e1aca4cfd4d2e9267c252ff31f976295 | By . Deni Kirkova . She has been slowly overtaking the Duchess of Cambridge as ruler of the Windsor fashion roost, and now the Queen's style has been given the ultimate seal of approval. Donatella Versace has said she sees the monarch as a fashion icon. 'She is couture,' said the Italian designer. The Queen in a sunny yellow number at the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (l), Versace (r) 'I could put her in the colours in this collection, the lilac, pale pinks and purples, but my dream was to put her in black,' she said to the Sunday Times as she discussed her new summer range . Her latest, glamorous collection will grace the runway at Paris couture week at 8pm tonight. Versace thinks the Royals are behind the rise in young and wealthy Britons coming to her with a keen interest in couture. 'I call it the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge effect,' she said. The designer said she would love for the Duchess to wear one of the sleek Grecian draped dresses from her summer collection. 'She can wear anything because she has a fantastic body.' Elegant: Lady Gaga was unveiled as the face of the spring 2014 Versace campaign . | Versace said she could put Queen in the 'lilac, pale pinks and purples'
But her 'dream was to put her in black'
Says Duchess of Cambridge has 'fantastic body', and can wear anything . |
120,326 | 27856235c546051e9eb14c653ac9f0ceef7480a6 | Tokyo, Japan (CNN) -- Wearing a dark, Japanese style business suit, New Zealand environmental activist Peter Bethune sat in-between two uniformed court officers as his trial began on Thursday in downtown Tokyo. The officers stared ahead, unflinching, as 44-year-old Bethune scanned the courtroom. The head judge ran through each of the charges in Japanese. When the court interpreter began translating into English, Bethune turned to listen. The charges are serious, announced the court: trespassing, damage to property, assault, forcible obstruction of official business and possession of an illegal knife. If convicted on all counts, Bethune faces a maximum of 15 years behind bars. Bethune was captain of Sea Shepherd's futuristic boat, the Ady Gil. The batmobile-esque, $3 million boat collided with a Japanese whaling ship, the Shonan Maru 2, and sank in January. Weeks later, Bethune jumped aboard the Shonan Maru 2 and attempted to make a citizen's arrest of the captain. He was arrested and brought back to Japan to face criminal charges. In court Thursday, Bethune admitted to all the charges, except for assault. "I admit that I boarded the Shonan Maru, but I believe that I have good reason to do so," he said. "I admit that I fired the butyric acid, but there were additional circumstances that we will discuss in court." Prosecutors say the butyric acid burned two crew members of the Japanese whaling fleet, but Sea Shepherd calls it a harmless, albeit rancid, liquid. Butyric acid is found in rancid butter and vomit. Bethune's Japanese attorneys have mounted a defense on the assault charge, which will be fought out until the trial ends on Monday. Bethune's case is the first time a Sea Shepherd activist has been tried in a Japanese criminal court in the group's long-running battle with Japan's whalers in the icy waters of the Antarctic. Japan annually hunts whales in the Antarctic, despite a worldwide moratorium on whaling, under the loophole that a country may legally do so if its purpose is scientific research. Sea Shepherd, who notes the whale meat then gets sold in Japanese markets and served in restaurants, calls the science argument a sham. Sea Shepherd's Seattle-based attorney, Dan Harris, is in Tokyo for Bethune's trial, though he is not Bethune's official Japanese counsel. "This whole trial has been brought about for political reasons, far more than criminal reasons. If you look at what Peter Bethune did, he didn't do anything," Harris said. "He climbed aboard a Japanese ship. Nobody was in any danger. No one was under any threat. No one was afraid. For Japan to act like it's enforcing a criminal law is a little disingenuous, when you look at what Pete Bethune did." Japan maintains that when its laws are broken, it will prosecute. "We all recognize the right of protest, right of demonstration, right to express their views. That does not mean you can attack people with force, attack our vessels and crews with their vessels," said Joji Morishita, from Japan's Fisheries Agency. Bethune testifies on Monday. A verdict is expected on June 10. | Charges against Peter Bethune include trespassing .
He was taken into custody in February aboard the Shonan Maru 2 .
Verdict is expected on June 10 . |
264,914 | e322cc7e82a4a61d57b9fe68bf528a484595fb3d | Stunning images of outer space have been released, which have been taken by amateur astronomers and photographers. The Central West Astronomical Society received more than 200 entrants across Australia and picked the best of the best for the 10th annual David Malin Awards, as part of the CWAS AstroFest. The overall winner of the astrophotography awards was Paul Haese of South Australia for his incredible image of the Orion Nebula - titled 'Dust and Gas'. Judged by world renowned astrophotographer, Dr David Malin, who told Daily Mail Australia the standard of this year's entrants was highly outstanding. Scroll down for video . Paul Haese's deep sky image of 'Dust and Gas' won the overall 2014 Central West Astronomical Society Astrophotography Awards . Phil HartWide-Field's was another winner of the competition for his photo 'Dusty Heart of the Milky Way' Stefan Buda's composition of Mars over several months - entitled 'Mars 2014' - was also awarded . Paul Haese's image, submitted in the Solar System - Wide-Field category, was the photo editors pick. It's entitled 'Prominence' Phil Hart also entered an image in The Moon category, with his award-winning photo 'Marine Moonset' David Fitz-Henry's photo 'The Horsehead and Flame Nebulas' was also awarded the Photo Editor's Choice . Dr Malin, who's been in the industry for 40 years, was particularly impressed by Mr Haese's image. 'I think it is the best true-colour image of the Orion Nebula I have seen for a long time,' he said. 'It has everything. The basics are well covered by a realistic-looking colour balance and the dynamic range, which makes the heart of the nebula look brighter than everything else, which is as it should be. But the other things are right too, including the delicate, faint nebulosity that fills the field and the careful handling of the bright stars, which don't dominate the image.' AstroFest organiser John Sarkissian told Daily Mail Australia he was satisfied that CWAS is able to showcase the Australian talent. 'Each year the event has become better and better and the quality of the photos are phenomenal,' he said. Winners were presented with their awards at the CWAS AstroFest conference dinner in Parkes, central west region of NSW, on July 19. An exhibition of the photos will be on display at CSIRO Parkes Observatory's Visitors Centre until July next year while a second touring exhibition, with a selection of images organised by the Powerhouse Museum, will travel to selected venues throughout Australia. It began at the Sydney Observatory and is now in Melbourne. Last year, Mr Sarkissian said the exhibitions attracted about 234,000 viewers from across the nation. Stefan Buda's 'The Witch Head Nebula' earned an honourable mention during the CWAS AstroFest conference dinner in Parkes - central west region of NSW - on July 19 . 'Greenland Moon' (left) by Judith Conning and 'Venus and Zodiacal Glow' (right) by Grahame Kelaher . 'Convergence' by Michael Goh who's image will be part of the exhibition at the CSIRO Parkes Observatory's Visitors Centre . '47 Tucanae' by Steve Crouch also earned an honourable mention during the competition awards night . 'Flow' by Greg Gibbs was one of the 200 entries in this year's competition which has been running for 10 years . This stunning image by Marcus Davies, titled 'The Trifid', was entered in the Deep Sky category . A wonderful photo taken by Stephen Humpleby, named 'London Bridge Stars' Another image by award-winning Phil Hart who entered this image called 'Rho Ophiuchi Region' Stephen Mudge's remarkable image of the sunset. He's called it the 'Partial Solar Eclipse Sunset Series' This striking photo was taken by Erik Monteith, entitled 'The Eagle and the Pillars of Creation' An amazing photo taken by Julie Fletcher, titled 'Pathway of Light'. It was entered in the Wide-Field category . Peter Ward's black and white image of the moon, entitled 'Selenic Construction' A beautiful image capatured by Andrew Wall, called 'April 29th 2014, Partial Solar Eclipse Setting' | The Central West Astronomical Society received more than 200 entrants across Australia .
Judged by world renowned astrophotographer, Dr David Malin, he picked the best of the best for the 10th annual David Malin Awards, as part of the CWAS AstroFest .
The overall winner of the astrophotography awards was Paul Haese of South Australia for his incredible image of the Orion Nebula - titled 'Dust and Gas'
An exhibition of the photos will be on display at CSIRO Parkes Observatory's Visitors Centre until July next year .
A second touring exhibition, with a selection of images organised by the Powerhouse Museum, will travel to selected venues throughout Australia . |
204,393 | 949eb0fe4f482d3db64339b4d7c3c33207ceb371 | With her plaited blonde hair, dazzling designer gown and toned, bronzed figure, Joanne Froggatt — the one-time Plain Jane of Soapland — looked like an entirely different person at the Golden Globes this week. After almost two decades of acting, Froggatt has become a familiar face on our TV screens. It’s just not a face associated with Hollywood glamour. Instead, the British actress has made her name playing dowdy TV roles, from dinner lady to prison inmate. Scroll down for video . Alchemy: Joanne’s girl-next-door look at the BAFTAs in 2001 (left) has evolved into the golden girl with a Golden Globe, seen this week (right) So watching her this week collecting the best supporting actress in a TV drama award, for her portrayal of Downton Abbey rape victim Anna, the transformation was incredible. The 34-year-old looked completely at home among Hollywood’s finest as she gave a gracious acceptance speech. Could it be that she will be the one of the very small handful of British former soap stars to successfully carve out a career in Hollywood? If she doesn’t, it certainly won’t be for the want of trying. So just how has the 5ft 2in Yorkshire-born girl transformed herself from Britain’s average Jo(anne) into a Hollywood princess? The answer is a clever campaign involving a hugely expensive stylist and crack PR team. Plus, the personal grittiness to succeed that she has shown since aged 11. There was nothing accidental about her perfect grooming at the Globes. Behind this transformation is the outrageously outgoing Brad Goreski, a stylist to the stars. Joanne’s embellished Marchesa dress — worth north of £5,500 — was his choice, and he is apparently now picking out her outfit for the Screen Actors Guild Awards. Goreski’s clients include global stars Jessica Alba, Demi Moore and Christina Ricci — and his services do not come cheap. A ballpark estimate for his personal services at a Hollywood event is up to £10,000. Pictured left in 1996 on The Bill as a fresh-faced ingénue, Frogatt was 15 when she landed a role in The Bill as an underage prostitute. Right, she is pictured in 1997-98 on Coronation Street as single mum Zoe Tattersall . Here she is pictured left in 1999 in the series Bad Girls, as plain prison inmate Rachel Hicks, who took her own life during the first series. Pictured right in 1999 in Dinnerladies, she is distinctly dowdy in a cameo role in the Victoria Wood sitcom, appearing as work experience girl Sigourney . Left in 2000 she is pictured in Lorna Doone as mousy Lizzie Ridd in the BBC adaptation of R. D. Blackmore’s novel. Pictured right in 2001 and acting opposite David Jason in A Touch Of Frost, Joanne looks a little more glamorous with her short bob and make-up . For this, a stylist will secure the loan of a dress, or dresses, plus sourcing a suite of matching jewellery and arranging the right hair and make-up. In Joanne’s case, rising hair stylist Ashley Streicher created her messy plaited up-do for the Golden Globes. But make no mistake, Joanne did not come across these style gurus by luck. They will have been handpicked by her seasoned Hollywood personal publicists at ID PR. They arranged for her to attend all of the better pre-Globes parties, including an ‘It girls’ lunch hosted by fashion magazine W, along with Kim Kardashian. She has come a long way. Born in Littlebeck, Yorkshire, to Annie and Keith Froggatt, who ran a corner shop before moving to a smallholding near Whitby, Joanne grew up on a rare-breed sheep farm. ‘My parents always taught me and my brother Daniel to be open-minded and go for the things we want.’ At 11, she joined a local drama group in Scarborough and eventually got the funding for a boarding place at Redroofs theatre school in Berkshire, aged 14. Left, she is pictured in 2006 in Life on Mars: With a girl-next-door prettiness, Joanne played Ruth Tyler, the mother of time-traveller Sam. Right, in 2006, she was compelling as Maureen Smith, sister of killer Myra Hindley (Maxine Peake, left), in the Bafta-winning drama See No Evil: The Moors Murders . In 2007 she starred in Murder In The Outback (left), in which her low-level beauty let her nail the real-life Joanne Lees. And right, in 2008, she looked prim in another Plain Jane casting, this time as field office leader Hannah in Spooks: Code 9 . She made her television debut at 15, playing an underage prostitute in The Bill. But she had to leave drama school after her GCSEs as funding dried up. She was working full-time in WHSmith when a casting director from Granada got in touch about an opening in Coronation Street. What was meant to be four days’ work in 1997 turned into 18 months. Her character Zoe Tattersall — a teenage single mum who sold her baby and stole it back before the infant died of meningitis while she was out clubbing — set the tone for her future typecasting. After Corrie, came a string of roles perfectly suited to her everyday look — prison drama Bad Girls in 1999, then dinnerladies with Victoria Wood and parts in A Touch Of Frost and Spooks. In See No Evil: The Moors Murders, her portrayal of Myra Hindley’s sister Maureen Smith was a triumph, and the show nabbed a Bafta. Her role in Army drama In Our Name in 2010 won Joanne Best Newcomer at the British Independent Film Awards. In 2009 she starred in Robin Hood (left) in a sexier role when she joined the BBC’s much-hyped adaptation in its third series as villager Kate. Right, in 2010, in the film In Our Name, playing a traumatised private returning from Iraq which won her Best Newcomer at the British Independent Film Awards . Pictured left in 2010 in the Royle Family Christmas special - this time looking pretty and radiant as Anthony’s girlfriend Saskia. Right, in 2010-2015 in Downton Abbey as a rape victim, accused of murder — housemaid Anna is another unglamorous role, but it has finally made Joanne a global star . Froggatt had established herself as the go-to actress for gritty, realistic characters, . As Anna the maid in Downton Abbey, she received Emmy nominations in 2012 and 2014. But while her style on camera remained dowdy and demure, on the red carpet Froggatt began to flourish. And the grit that saw her propel herself from a Yorkshire farm to Britain’s biggest drama series is about to take her to Hollywood, too. She and husband James Cannon, a software programmer, plan to move to LA in August so she can meet film and TV executives in person. But Froggatt understands — despite her Hollywood makeover — where her skills lie. ‘I’m not classically beautiful. I always play girls who are traumatised, or a plain girl. I’ve played really interesting characters — but I couldn’t compete with Julia Roberts.’ Yet on Sunday night, when she swung confidently into the HBO party after the Golden Globes then on to the night’s starriest gathering, the Weinstein Company bash, she looked every bit the Hollywood film star. Julia Roberts better watch out. | Actress Joanne Froggatt looked an entirely different person this week .
She has made her name playing dowdy TV roles, such as a prison inmate .
But she dazzled at the Golden Globes in a stunning designer gown .
This week she won the best supporting actress in a TV drama award . |
117,168 | 23493308637747aae5a34207c53e08bcb805c4dc | By . Kieran Corcoran for MailOnline . A young woman was beaten unconscious by two men who attacked her after taunting her for being a lesbian, . Kerry Byrnes, 23, claims was struck repeatedly on the head after being taunted about being gay in the attack near her home in Oakham, Leicestershire last Sunday. Just moments before the two young men attacked her, they claimed they recognised her from her job in Tesco, and knew she was homosexual. Attack: Kerry Byrnes told how she was jumped by two men on her way home from a night out in Oakham, Leciestershire. She is pictured left just after the attack, and right beforehand . Miss Byrnes said: 'I just want these lads to be caught before they do this - or something worse - to someone else.' She was walking home alone at 1.30am on Sunday July 17 when the two men - both white and in their 20s - started following her. They began taunting her, saying they knew that she worked in Tesco and was a lesbian before punching her in the head. Miss Byrnes is afraid to leave the house after the attack, and is desperate for witnesses to come forward and help bring her attackers to justice. She said: 'We'd gone out for the evening I was just walking home like I always do. Alone: Miss Byrnes was only a few minutes away from her house when she was attacked at 1.30am last month . Appeal: Miss Byrnes has spoken on how she was her attackers to be found. She is pictured above more recently after she has begun to recover . 'I turned around and saw two lads walking behind me but I really didin't think anything of it. 'But then I heard one of them say: "That's the one that works on Fruit and Veg in Tesco, that's the lesbian". 'And then the punch came out of nowhere and I hit the floor. They just started hitting me in the head and I lost consciousness. 'I don't know how long I was out for, it must have been about 15 minutes. It's all a bit of a blur, so I don't remember very much about it. 'I know I went home and my housemate looked at me called the police straight away. I had to go to hospital and the doctors have told me there might be a slight fracture in my cheek. 'I'm not feeling great at the moment, but my friends are with me and they are doing their best to make me feel better.' 'It was horrible and I don't know how long I was unconscious for or how I managed to get home. 'I haven't left the house since it happened - I'm too scared to go out. Job: Miss Byrnes says her attackers recognised her from Tesco in Oakham, pictured, where she works . 'I've never suffered homophobic bullying like this. I've no idea who they are, I really get on with everyone here. 'I was just a couple of minutes from my house and that's one of the scariest things. Police are now appealing for help to trace the men. PC Mark Barlow, of Rutland police, said: 'This was a nasty assault which resulted in the victim receiving hospital treatment and she has been left badly shaken up. 'If you were in Oakham on Saturday night or the early hours of Sunday morning and you saw these men, or you think you know who they are, please contact us.' The men are white, in their 20s and approximately 5ft 7ins. One was wearing a hooded top and the other had spiky blonde hair. | Kerry Byrnes, 23, was jumped by two men after a night out .
Was knocked down and beaten on way home in Oakham, Leicestershire .
Miss Byrnes says men came from behind and said they recognised her .
Police are appealing for help to find the men, who are white and in their 20s . |
220,639 | a99ceac05ee87272aa689e3d0412c0e4cc23ca5d | By . Beth Stebner . PUBLISHED: . 11:31 EST, 28 November 2012 . | . UPDATED: . 11:31 EST, 28 November 2012 . Killed: Dennis J. Pegg was considered a mentor to the Boy Scouts he trained, but now it is thought that Pegg sexually abused his murdered at a young age . A former scoutmaster who had deep local ties to his New Jersey community was brutally murdered over the summer and was found with his throat slit and multiple stab wounds over his body. Dennis J. Pegg was considered a mentor to the Boy Scouts he trained, but months after his grisly murder, darker questions have arisen. Clark Fredericks, the 46-year-old man who confessed to Pegg’s murder, said that the scoutmaster sexually abused him as a boy, and said that he ‘got what was coming to him.’ Now, months after Pegg’s gruesome murder, others have echoed Fredricks’ complaint of sexual abuse. Pegg was a lifelong resident of Stillwater, New Jersey, and had been active not only in the Boy Scouts, but many police honor legions, the NRA, and historical societies. He had also served in the military during the Vietnam Era. But while his obituary painted the 68-year-old as an upstanding citizen, Fredericks’ affidavit showed Pegg in a drastically different light. Fredericks said in his affidavit that Peggs ‘got what was coming to him’ because he had been ‘a child molester for years,’ and had exploited his time as a scoutmaster in the 1970s to get closer to young boys. The court records, obtained by the New Jersey Star-Ledger, allege that Fredericks went to Pegg’s home in Stillwater on the night of June 12, joined by his friend, Robert Reynolds. The two men were carrying knives in their vehicle. According to the affidavit, the two began stabbing Pegg as soon as they arrived at his quiet rental home. Boys turned to men: Court records allege that Clark Fredericks (left) went to Pegg’s home in Stillwater on the night of June 12, joined by his friend, Robert Reynolds (right) Chilling photographs from Pegg’s entryway show large blood spatters where he was allegedly knifed. Pegg was later found on his living room floor with more than 20 stab wounds to his torso. His throat was also slit. Fredericks then drove to his mother’s house in Stillwater and removed his bloodied clothes, hiding the murder weapons in the process, the affidavit stated. His mother, Joan Fredericks, tried in vain to get her son to seek medical attention for wounds he had apparently received from the assault, but Fredericks merely took some sleep medication and went to bed, the document said. He was charged with first-degree murder. Reynolds, 47, was charged with conspiracy to commit murder and being an accomplice. Both men have pleaded not guilty to the alleged crimes. Shaming the badge: Prior to his death, Pegg had been involved with the Stillwater, New Jersey Boy Scouts, as well as a number of other community organizations and historical societies . Scene: Pegg was later found on his living room floor with more than 20 stab wounds to his torso. His throat was also slit . According to the Los Angeles Times, a source told police that they had seen a box containing pictures of child pornography at Pegg’s house in the 1970s. Authorities retrieved a box of pictures of young boys from Pegg’s house, though none were considered to be pornographic. Pegg was never married and had no children. ‘The witness described seeing this box . roughly 35 years ago, so it’s not overly surprising we were unable to . find it,’ Sussex County Assistant Prosecutor Gregory Mueller told the . paper. There were no files of abuse on Pegg, a Boy Scout spokesperson said. Pegg’s . estate is being overseen by his friend and attorney Ernest Hemschott . III, who told the Times: ‘I’d have put my life in his hands. I trusted . him that much.’ Mr Hemschott continued: ‘If it did happen, my heart goes out to the victims. But I just find it hard to believe.’ The . prosecuting attorney over the case speculated in June that the alleged . attack was carried out only a day after former Penn State assistant . football coach Jerry Sandusky went on trial. News . of Pegg’s murder and of Fredericks’ abuse allegations come as the Boy . Scouts face close scrutiny for their handling of past molestation . claims. The files, kept at . Boy Scout headquarters in Texas, consist of memos from local and . national Scout executives, handwritten letters from victims and their . parents and newspaper clippings about legal cases. The documents contain details about proven molesters, but also unsubstantiated allegations. The allegations stretch across the country and to military bases overseas, from a small town in the Adirondacks to downtown Los Angeles. In some cases, local law enforcement did nothing - despite a confession - seeking to protect the name of Scouting over their victims. Boxed files containing witness accounts, complaints, and unresolved allegations of sexual abuse in the Boy Scouts were released in October. They contain cases collected between 1959 and 1985, with a handful of others from later years. The files also document other troubling patterns. There is little mention in the files of concern for the welfare of Scouts who were abused by their leaders, or what was done for the victims. But there are numerous documents showing compassion for alleged abusers, who were often times sent to psychiatrists or pastors to get help. In numerous instances, alleged abusers are kicked out of Scouting but show up in jobs where they are once again in authority positions dealing with youths. The files also show Scouting volunteers serving in the military overseas, molesting American children living abroad and sometimes continuing to molest after returning to the states. But one of the most startling revelations to come from the files is the frequency with which attempts to protect Scouts from molesters collapsed at the local level, at times in collusion with community leaders. Chilling: Boxed files containing witness accounts, complaints, and unresolved allegations of sexual abuse in the Boy Scouts were released in October spanning more than two decades . | Dennis J. Pegg, a former scoutmaster, was found murdered in his home in June .
Former Boy Scout Clark Fredericks confessed to Pegg’s murder, saying he 'got what was coming to him' for being 'a child molester for years'
Comes after Boy Scouts released hundreds of abuse files from 1959 to 1985 . |
196,338 | 8a18f90d7c0e75f76631842d669b706d1c1b0062 | Andy Carroll fully admits that he is not yet in a position to fully trust his body after a latest injury setback – but believes he is ahead of schedule and confident of retaining match fitness in December. The £15million man, who has endured a spate of fitness problems during his time at Upton Park, turned an ankle in pre-season training and missed the Hammers’ impressive start to the Premier League season. And Carroll revealed three separate specialists in the capital saw nothing wrong with the ankle before he sought more advice in America. It was there where they ordered an immediate operation. Andy Carroll was rushed back into the West Ham team last season to cover for a lack of striker . Carroll has had a frustrating time since joining West Ham with injuries limiting his playing time . ‘Nothing was said, everything was all right. Then I was still thinking of the start of the season, there was no issue,’ he said. ‘I’ve seen three specialists in London and everything was fine, so I continued training. Then I knew myself and my physios knew something wasn’t right. ‘I had that [the operation] immediately and he gave us a four-month timeframe. It's only been two months since so everything is going well. Running at this stage is earlier than expected. ‘At the minute I'm not 100 per cent so it's in the back of my mind when I'm running.’ The former Newcastle and Liverpool striker hopes to be fit enough to play again by December . Carroll has begun running again but says he still does not feel comfortable enough with his body to play . Carroll – who was speaking at West Ham’s launch of their new members’ initiative ‘Club London’ - was rushed back into the first team last year because of manager Sam Allardyce’s lack of options up front, but believes he can be afforded more time now because of the signings made in the summer. ‘It’s harder being injured when it’s just come after the last injury. It’s a lot harder. I just try to focus on the positives,’ he added. ‘There was a lot of talk about when I was going to be back and I probably rushed it a bit quicker than I should have. This time has been a lot better and the lads are doing well. I just need to take my time, really. The West Ham striker hopes to repay the £15million that the club paid to sign him from Liverpool . ‘They have put a lot of faith in me, paying a lot of money. I don’t feel I’ve let them down because obviously it’s an injury that I couldn’t have helped. I’ve done it in training and in a game. It’s an injury that I don’t want and obviously no-one at the club wants.’ West Ham have designs on establishing themselves as a top-six club when they move into the Olympic Stadium in 2016. That, Carroll asserts, is a picture Allardyce painted when he signed from Liverpool last year. An overground view of West Ham's new stadium located in the heart of Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park . West Ham showed off the newly-decorated Olympic Stadium on their official website on Tuesday . West Ham fans may get a decent view out of the East Stand 'Kop' window from the Arnold Hills . ‘The way we are going the players we have signed and in future with the stadium, I don’t see why we can’t do that. ‘Before I signed I spoke to Sam and obviously he was telling me about the plans going forward.’ Carroll was talking at the launch of West Ham's new members' club - 'Club London' which offers fans the chance to experience what vice-chairman Karren Brady labelled as an 'unrivalled hospitality experience'. Season ticket holders and members will soon be able to visit the new Reservation Centre at Westfield Stratford City to hand-pick their new seats at the Olympic Stadium. | Andy Carroll is recovering from surgery on his ankle .
Three specialists told Carroll there was nothing wrong before it was revealed he needed the surgery .
West Ham striker hopes to be fit again by December . |
15,086 | 2ade4d06bb2a2f0efb4f5348940e722afd461da2 | By . Jill Reilly . PUBLISHED: . 07:38 EST, 13 June 2012 . | . UPDATED: . 13:11 EST, 13 June 2012 . Parts of England and Wales faced the risk of flooding once again today after warnings of more heavy rain. The Environment Agency urged people in Devon, Cornwall, west Somerset, North Wales and parts of the Midlands to remain prepared for the possibility of floods as the Met Office issued a weather warning for heavy rain. Intense thundery downpours are expected this afternoon, which could lead to flash flooding in some areas. Devon and Cornwall are at an increased risk of floods, and caravan and camping site operators across the South West should be ready to take action if flooding occurs, the Environment Agency said. Making the most of it: A boy plays in a dingy along a flooded road in Felpham near Bognor Regis in West Sussex near the area where the villagers had to be evacuated . The Environment Agency currently has five flood warnings (meaning that flooding is expected) for rivers in place. There are also 21 flood alerts for rivers across England and Wales, meaning that flooding is possible . Today . the agency has sent equipment to pump out floodwaters in Newburn near . Newcastle where a collapsed culvert led to a build up of water on the . River Dene, and in Felpham and Bognor Regis where residents had to be . evacuated after heavy rainfall flooded their homes earlier this week. Sussex Police, West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service and council officers also said they were working together to evacuate people from flooded homes in the village of Elmer, near Bognor Regis, after reports of flooding of up to 6ft in some homes. They used inflatable boats to reach 250 vulnerable homes, knocking on doors and searching properties to make sure people were safe and received the help they needed, a Sussex Police spokeswoman said. Be aware: The map on the left shows the rain concentrated in the South Wast this week while the map on the right shows where there is warnings of heavy rain . Lapping waters: Felpham Way, in Felpham, Bognor Regis, was underwater today as were any unfortunate cars left parked on it . Residents were taken to Arun Leisure . Centre in Felpham, West Sussex, and 10 people are being looked after and . offered the support of designated housing officers to help find . accommodation and liaise with insurance companies, she added. Chief Superintendent Paul Morrison . said: 'I can assure residents that working with partner agencies we are . doing all we can to care for those affected by the floods. 'We are constantly reviewing the . situation with partners and have created a multi- agency adverse weather . office to coordinate our response.' Nigel Croad, deputy chief executive of Arun District Council, said: 'As a . district council our role is to support the emergency services in their . response to this incident and working with others our priority is . always to help people who have been evacuated from their homes, ensuring . they have somewhere safe and dry to stay and helping with housing . advice. 'Three rest centres have been set up across the district in the last 24 hours in response to the exceptional weather conditions. Further unsettled weather is predicted for the rest of the week, and the Environment Agency is keeping a close watch on river levels, after heavy rain has left many areas more vulnerable to flooding. Environment Agency teams have been working round the clock, with other emergency responders, checking flood defences, clearing blockages, monitoring river levels and issuing flood warnings. The Environment Agency urged the public to remain vigilant and check its website and Twitter feed for the latest situation. It also advised the public to stay away from swollen rivers and not to drive through floodwater. A spokesperson for the Met Office said: 'A good portion of the UK will be sunny dry and sunny today, but there will also be some heavy showers across certain regions.' Meanwhile three of the UK’s biggest water . companies are lifting hosepipe bans, imposed to deal with drought, . following weeks of heavy rain, from midnight tonight. Anglian Water, Thames Water and . Southern Water are to end restrictions because of the ‘exceptional’ rainfall over the last three days, on top of April’s record levels. Seven water companies across southern . and eastern England brought in hosepipe bans after two unusually dry . winters left some groundwater supplies and rivers as low as in the . drought year of 1976. But . the restrictions were followed by record rainfall across the UK in . April and more rain in May and the beginning of June, leading to . flooding in some areas. Richard . Aylard, sustainability director for Thames Water, said: 'While we . prepared for worst, bringing in restrictions to save water to ensure . there would be enough if the dry spell continued, the topsy-turvy . British weather had other ideas. Water cycling: A man makes his way along the flooded road in Felpham, Bognor Regis today after the South East and mid Wales were worst hit by the rain which has battered Britain . Water world: Much of the Riverside Caravan Park on Shripney Road, Bognor Regis lies underwater today after the region was hit with nearly a month and a half's worth of rain in 36 hours . 'We . are really pleased we can now lift the ban but, with groundwater levels . still low and the possibility of a third successive dry winter, we . still need to be careful. We don’t need a ban, but we do need to ask . everyone to keep on using water wisely.' Southern . Water’s water quality and strategy manager Meyrick Gough said: 'While . our focus remains firmly on dealing with the aftermath of the torrential . rain and flooding in the south over the last few days, it is also right . for us to lift the water restrictions.' In . its latest drought briefing last week, the Environment Agency said the . wet weather had significantly reduced the risk of drought and widespread . water restrictions this summer. River levels and reservoir stocks . have improved significantly and further water restrictions for the . public and businesses are unlikely, the Government agency said. But . groundwater levels are still well below normal in some areas, with some . as low as in the drought year of 1976, and are unlikely to improve . before the winter. Companies which rely primarily on underground aquifers for supplies are maintaining their hosepipe bans. Mike Pocock, water resources manager . of Veolia Water Central, said: 'Months of wet weather, particularly . during the next autumn and winter period, will be needed to restore . groundwater to normal levels. 'The . current temporary use ban, which includes hosepipe usage, has been . assisting to reduce demand and conserve our water resources and we would . like to thank our customers for their incredible support. 'Unfortunately, . at present we will not be relaxing the temporary use ban further, as we . need to conserve our supply of water to prepare for the possibility of a . third dry autumn and winter.' Meanwhile Britain's washout summer has caused a slimy new problem for farmers - an invasion of millions of crop munching slugs. The . wet spring and summer has produced ideal breeding conditions for the . creatures now hungrily devouring crops after multiplying rapidly.Farmer Phil Thomas of Linscombe Farm organics, near Exeter, Devon, has been particularly badly hit. The . carrots and aubergines he grows organically have been decimated by the . pests which get under the edges of his polythene greenhouses. And because he doesn’t use pesticides it means he is faced with a horror job of killing as many slugs as possible - by hand. He said: 'The crops have taken a hammering. 'The slugs eat the growing tips out of the middle of the plant which really knocks the plant back. 'We have to come in the middle of the night and pick them off the plants. 'Then you have to either drown them or crush them - it’s not the nicest of jobs. Unhappy: Farmer Phil Thomas from Linscombe Farm organics, near Exeter, Devon, whose produce has been hit by an invasion of millions of crop munching slugs . Problematic weather: The wet spring and summer has produced ideal breeding conditions for the creatures now hungrily devouring crops after multiplying rapidly . 'You have to wear gloves because you’ll never get the slime off your fingers otherwise.' A spokesman for the National Farmers Union said the slug infestation was disastrous. He said: 'On a good night a slug can munch its way through 50 wheat seeds after they’ve been planted. 'They can travel over five metres a night, they can smell food over 60 centimetres away and then they’re all over it. 'They’re not good news.' | The Environment Agency is asking people .
in Devon, Cornwall, West Somerset, North Wales and parts of the Midlands .
to remain vigilant and prepared for flooding, after the Met Office .
issued a weather warning for heavy rain .
Intense thundery downpours are expected this afternoon and further unsettled weather is predicted for the rest of the week .
There are also 21 flood alerts for rivers across England and Wales, meaning that flooding is possible .
Britain's washout summer has caused a slimy new problem for farmers - there has been an invasion of millions of crop munching slugs . |
90,796 | 00c3f383b4ebd2f68bb5a9d47d5059d1a6dbb5ae | (CNN) -- Virginia State Police say they have identified the gunman who fired a high-powered rifle at four county deputies, killing two of them, officials said Monday, but they still don't have a motive for the shootings. Buchanan County Deputies Eric Dewayne Rasnake, 32, and Shane Earl Charles, 25, were shot multiple times after responding to a "larceny in progress" call at a salvage business in Vansant, Virginia, Sheriff Roy Foster said. The wounded deputies were able to crawl to a nearby residence for cover. Deputies Cameron Neil Justus, 41, and William Ezra Stiltner, 46, were shot with the same high-powered weapon after they rushed to the scene to help their fallen comrades, police said. Justus and Stiltner died at the scene. "Please take comfort in knowing that their sacrifice was not in vain," an emotional Foster said Monday. "These two men gave their lives for what they dedicated their lives to doing," Foster said. On Monday, Virginia State Police named Randy Gilbert Newberry as the suspect in the shootings. Officials say the 52-year-old was hiding on a ridge when he fired at officers responding to both crime scenes. After the shootings, officials said, they found Newberry about a quarter of a mile up the road from the salvage business, talking on a cell phone. Police said they repeatedly asked Newberry to "put his hands up and get on the ground," but the suspect ignored their orders and instead aimed a handgun at officers. According to the state police, Newberry was then shot and killed. The Buchanan County Sheriff's Office is dealing with the tragic loss of its men while Virginia State Police tries to determine a possible motive. Foster praised his officers for their valiant efforts in a difficult time. "I appreciate every single one of you that was there fighting for the lives of your fallen brothers," he said. "It's been about 40 years since Buchanan County lost a man in the line of duty," Foster said, and "to lose two more and to have two more seriously injured in the same day is overwhelming." Wounded deputies Rasnake and Charles both remain hospitalized. Rasnake was shot three times, according to Foster, and Charles is on a respirator. Both remain in critical condition. "Our prayers go out to their families to the hope that they will recover and maybe one day return to wear the uniform that we so proudly wear," a tearful Foster said. The close community is coming together in support of the fallen deputies. Local media report that a Facebook page has been set up to seek prayers for the deputies. The site, which has more than 3,000 friends, is encouraging people to attend a candlelight service Monday night at the Buchanan County Courthouse. Foster says churches will also be open for support and encouraged the community to come in and fellowship. | NEW: Buchanan County community to honor deputies killed, wounded in line of duty .
NEW: Suspect is identified as 52-year-old Randy Gilbert Newberry, state police say .
NEW: The suspect was shot and killed after refusing police orders to surrender .
NEW: Virginia State Police continue to search for a motive . |
274,584 | efaec84a4645dd145f64419d7e9c9effb4a43ea3 | Melbourne, Australia (CNN) -- Li Na outperformed Maria Sharapova at the Australian Open, but can China's biggest sporting star now do the almost unthinkable and surpass the Russian as the world's richest female athlete? Maybe -- and that's according to the man who represents both players. "She could," Max Eisenbud, the duo's agent, told CNN after Li won her second grand slam title. "It'll be interesting to see how that shakes up. A lot depends on how she plays and how Maria plays. But they're both in the same stratosphere, for sure." Sharapova has been No. 1 in the earnings department as named by Forbes magazine every year since 2005, the season after she opened her grand slam account as a 17-year-old at Wimbledon. Li's triumph in Melbourne last weekend, though, will increase her chances of landing more sponsors in her homeland, the world's most populous country and its largest second economy. CNN estimated China's economy to be worth $10 trillion in 2014. Li finished at No. 3 in the 2013 Forbes list, one spot behind the dominant force in women's tennis, Serena Williams. She was No. 2 the year before. "Maybe we can do another one or two deals," said Eisenbud. "But we can't add five more deals for her." Li was certainly a popular women's champion at the season's first major, being the crowd favorite throughout the fortnight. Her on-court interviews have always evoked laughter and the soon-to-be 32-year-old especially sparkled during the trophy presentation after downing Slovakia's Dominika Cibulkova. There she thanked Eisenbud for making her "rich" and had more words for her husband Jiang Shan. "You are so lucky to find me!" she quipped. As of Monday, the speech had been viewed on YouTube nearly one million times. Her light-hearted personality, along with the tennis success, makes for a desirable combination for sponsors, according to Michael Stirling, founder of Britain-based Global Sponsors. "Sponsors will find her progress in winning the Australian Open, together with her public persona of being fun and honest in her interviews, refreshing and engaging," he told CNN. "Winning the Australian Open will make many more people globally aware of who she is as a player and this will attract brands." But overtaking the longer established Sharapova -- upset by Cibulkova in the fourth round in Melbourne -- might prove difficult. "The Sharapova brand has been in existence for many years and the essence of it was caught when she won Wimbledon," Stirling said. "She has built her brand over many years, and provided Sharapova continues to be a top-10 player her brand value remains enduring and more relevant as a global brand. "Whereas, Li's brand is a new regional phenomena, which carries significant value in the emerging markets of the Far East and will ripple into other regions of the globe." Along with a host of established backers, Sharapova launched her own candy line, "Sugarpova," two years ago and pulled in $29 million in endorsements and prize money last year, Forbes said, as the Russian once again held top position. After Li became the first Asian player to win a grand slam singles crown at the 2011 French Open, her value soared. Companies including Samsung, Nike and Mercedes Benz helped Li achieve $18.2 million in last year's list, Forbes said. Li counts a following of roughly 22 million on Chinese social media and her popularity is set to increase, according to Renjie Liu, a journalist with Chinese website SINA. "The people who have the most social media followers in China are movie stars," he told CNN. "They have something like 80 million. It's a big difference. But Li Na is right behind them. She's the top of the sports industry. "She was quite popular already but after the win it's getting more and more. People realize she's not only a tennis player. She's kind of a national hero. She also represents Chinese women in a very good way so I believe her image is getting bigger not only in China but in front of the world." And to think Li almost didn't play at the Australian Open. She considered retiring -- for a second time -- after an early exit at the French Open last May. Criticism from the Chinese media in the wake of that second-round defeat to American Bethanie Mattek-Sands left her reeling. "They gave me a very tough time when I played the French Open and it continued to Wimbledon," Li told reporters. Li decided to continue and, with famed coach Carlos Rodriguez by her side -- he formerly guided seven-time grand slam winner Justine Henin -- strung together a solid second half of 2013. She reached the quarterfinals or better at every tournament after Roland Garros, highlighted by an appearance in the final of the year-end championships in Turkey. Li was the first to admit she got somewhat lucky in Melbourne, only fending off a match point in the third round when Lucie Safarova missed a makeable backhand down the line. The unexpected exits of Williams and two-time defending champion Victoria Azarenka meant Li didn't have to face anyone in the top 20. But she was unfortunate in last year's final against Azarenka, falling twice, injuring her ankle and head. The previous year she was beaten by Kim Clijsters, taking the former world No. 1 to three sets in her maiden grand slam final. More than dollars and cents, Eisenbud said this title was about Li proving she wasn't a one-slam wonder. "I don't think this win is about the money," he said. "I think it's a big statement. A lot of girls have won a grand slam but winning that second one puts you in a different category. "She's a wealthy girl and will get more deals and that will come, but this win is more about legacy. "One of the things we're really looking to do is to solidify her desire to have a tennis academy in China. So that'll be a really big focus, having some sort of partnership with a property company there." | Li Na is one of the world's richest female athletes following success in recent years .
The Australian Open champion added $2.4 million in prize money to her wealth .
Li is poised to sign more deals, says agent she shares with Maria Sharapova .
Li, who will soon turn 32, has 22 million followers on Chinese website Weibo . |
183,350 | 797db6491b66df06cfff557dc3f8f432c8d968d2 | Congress is on pace to have its least productive year in modern history, earning a "do-nothing" label and adding another unwanted statistic to a body already facing chronically low approval ratings. Cue the blame game. "To date, the House has passed nearly 150 bills this Congress that the United States Senate has failed to act on," Republican Speaker John Boehner argued Wednesday. "The Senate (and) the President continue to stand in the way of the people's priorities." Democrats are tossing responsibility right back in the GOP's lap, arguing that hardline House conservatives are blocking legislative progress. Meanwhile, America's national legislature is growing increasingly dysfunctional. No deal, but sides said to be closer on budget deal . So far, 56 bills have been signed into law in the first session of the 113th Congress. Assuming legislators don't pick up the pace next year -- and the smart money says they won't as the midterms draw near -- this will become the least productive Congress in at least the last 40 years, according to a CNN analysis of congressional records. Is the fact that fewer bills have become law necessarily a bad thing? That depends on your point of view. But representatives and senators on both sides of the aisle readily acknowledge that some major issues have not been addressed. GOP obstruction of Obamacare is closing hospitals . Congress hasn't passed a budget, among other things. None of the 12 annual spending bills has made it to the President's desk. We don't have a new farm bill. Immigration reform is stalled. Tax and entitlement reform are dead in the water. Adding insult to injury, in October the federal government had its first partial shutdown in nearly two decades. The most important issue in Washington political circles, naturally, is who's responsible. Democrats point out that roughly one-third of the 148 bills passed by the GOP-controlled House so far this year were attempts to repeal, delay or defund Obamacare that had zero chance of passing the Senate or surviving a certain presidential veto. Washington could still screw up your holidays . More than a dozen of those measures were also partisan, piecemeal spending bills passed during the government shutdown that had no chance of being signed into law. Some of them had nothing to do with major issues at all, such as the bills renaming courthouses in Sherman, Texas, and Fergus Falls, Minnesota. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has called the House GOP a bunch of "modern-day anarchists." But Republicans argue that Democrats are standing in the way of priorities such as entitlement reform. Democrats are standing in the way of a major overhaul of the tax code, they insist. While both the House and the Senate passed farm bills, Democrats are blocking much-needed changes to the country's agriculture laws, Republicans say. As is usually the case in Washington, your opinion of which party is to blame is probably determined by which party you belong to. Meanwhile, Democrats and Republicans are growing more ideologically distant by the day. And that is a recipe for gridlock. Opinion: Here's something Congress could actually do . | Congress is on track to have its least productive year in recent history .
Boehner blames the Democratic Senate, White House, cites 148 House-passed bills .
Many targeted Obamacare, dealt with shutdown with no chance of passage .
Democrats blame House conservatives for impeding legislative progress . |
277,079 | f2faaf8633ee36a22b9585b5293982fddf452da0 | By . Emily Andrews, Andrew Levy and Eleanor Harding . PUBLISHED: . 00:57 EST, 15 October 2012 . | . UPDATED: . 05:30 EST, 16 October 2012 . A doctor desperately battled to save his wife and four children as they were killed in a suspected arson attack at their family home. At the same time as the house blaze, a neighbour’s car was torched. Police are investigating the theory that the five may have died at the hands of yobs who have attacked other cars on their estate. Scroll down for videos . Victims: From left Hira, 13, Sohaib, 11, their mother Sabah Usami, Rayan, six, and Muneeb, nine, all perished in the blaze. Three-year-old Maheen, on the far right, survived and is being treated in hospital . Couple: Doctor Abdul Shakoor survived with severe smoke inhalation while his wife Sabah Usmani died . Yesterday officers revealed how Abdul . Shakoor, 45, ‘fought hard’ to rescue his family after an intense fire . engulfed their end-of-terrace house as they slept. His wife Sabah Usmani, also a . qualified doctor, their sons Sohaib, 11, and Rayyan, six, as well as . 12-year-old daughter Hira perished in the blaze early yesterday. Dr Shakoor, his third son Muneeb, nine, and daughter Maheen, three, were taken to the hospital where he works as a registrar. The two children were later transferred to a burns unit, where Muneeb died. Maheen remains in a critical . condition, while Dr Shakoor is being treated for severe smoke inhalation . and is ‘utterly distraught’. Police have launched a ‘major crime . investigation’ while they try to establish whether the fire was . deliberately started, and by whom. Burned out: Special fire crews attend the scene of a major house fire in Barn Mead, Harlow, Essex . Tragedy: Four children died in the blaze, aged 13, 11, nine, and six. Fire damage can be seen at the back of the house, on the brickwork and the walls are black with smoke . Among various lines of inquiry is the . theory that the Shakoor family were singled out because of issues . within the local Muslim community, in which they were reportedly very . popular. Officers stressed, however, that there is no evidence of any racial motivation. Another theory is that the Shakoors . were not deliberately targeted, and the fire was either intended for . previous tenants or started by arsonists who had attacked other cars on . the estate. Neighbours reported seeing as many as . four people in the street beforehand, and said other vehicles had been . previously targeted by arsonists in the area. Firefighters were called to the Shakoors’ rented house in Harlow, Essex, shortly before 2am yesterday. They found flames pouring from both . front and back doors and temperatures inside in excess of 1,000 degrees . Fahrenheit. Nearby a Ford Focus was also on fire. Neighbours told of ‘horrible screams’ and a woman calling for help from inside. Dr Shakoor had jumped from . the house to raise the alarm, then desperately tried to fight the flames . to get back inside to rescue his family. Blaze: Fire damage can be clearly seen at the upstairs window and smoke has stained the brickwork of the end-of-terraced property. It is not known how the fire started yet but it's being treated as suspicious . Remembered: Floral tributes laid at Barn Mead following a house fire in the street in Harlow, Essex, where a woman and four young children died and one other remains in hospital . 'Lovely people': A note left with floral tributes at Barn Mead following a house fire on the Harlow street . Assistant Chief Constable Gary . Beautridge, of Essex Police said: ‘In the history of Essex Police, . seldom has there been an incident of this gravity, in which five people, . four of them children, have lost their lives.’ Ruling out any suggestion that Dr . Shakoor was involved, he continued: ‘I would like to stress that the . father of these children was in the property at the time and fought hard . to save his family in appalling conditions. ‘He, as you would expect, is in . severe shock. Our work with Dr Shakoor to establish some of the facts of . this case will, inevitably, take time because of the emotional trauma . he has suffered at the loss of his family.’ But he indicated that the answers to . the mystery lay in the local community of Harlow, and appealed to anyone . with information to come forward. Chief fire officer David Johnson said . the blaze, which started downstairs while the family was asleep . upstairs, had developed rapidly suggesting some kind of fuel and . accelerant may have been used. The family are originally from . Karachi, Pakistan, but had moved to the UK in 2009, first settling in . Winchester and then moving to Harlow just over a year ago. Both parents were doctors but while . Dr Shakoor worked at the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Harlow as an . endocrinolgist and diabetes registrar, Dr Usmani cared for their . children. A white forensics tent is set up at the scene and a special fire sniffer dog can be seen with its handler . Two specialist fire officers discuss the blaze as the charred suitcase remains on the driveway . Probe: Essex Police Assistant Chief Constable Gary Beautridge (left) and Detective Superintendent Rob Vinson (right) speaking at a press conference at the force's headquarters in Chelmsford . Staff at the hospital were deeply shocked at the family’s ‘devastating loss’. Clinical director Dr Yvonne Barlow described the doctor as the ‘kindest, gentlest person I have ever met’. She added: ‘He is universally respected and is an extremely popular member of staff.’ Dr Shakoor’s cousin, Abdul Ishaqani, speaking from Karachi, said he did not believe the family had any enemies. Belongings: A partially-burned suitcase on the ground outside the house while experts investigate the cause . Family home: The suitcase lays on the ground outside the house which has been cordoned off . Devastating: A close up view of an upstairs window with the glass missing and the frame is also charred . An aerial picture showing the scene at Barn Mead in Harlow after the blaze which has gutted the house . Gutted: Police seal off a neighbour's car which was torched at the same time that the blaze swept through Dr Shakoor's house . A sniffer dog works around the car at the scene on Monday - the car does not belong to the family . Police are treating the car fire as arson and it's seen being taken away on a recovery vehicle . The burnt-out car is wrapped in black sheets and removed from the scene of a fire . Mr Ishaqani said: ‘They are a very . happy, loving family. They still have a home in Karachi and visit . regularly, but they were settled in Harlow and the children were doing . very well at school. 'The last time I saw my cousin was three months ago when he came back to Pakistan. 'His mother had been staying in the UK with them for six months and he brought her home. ‘We were told about the fire but we’re still trying to find out what happened.’ Local couple Parvez Hamid, 43, and wife Safia Anwar, 38, were good friends with the Shakoors. Police at the scene of the fire. Detectives believe the blaze could have been started with fuel . Investigation: Fire investigation officers arrive at the scene in Harlow to piece together how the fire started . Officials: The fire investigation officers wear red overalls as they begin their work. One neighbour said she heard 'horrible screaming' from the house and the sound of a woman screaming 'help' He said: ‘The family were amazing. They had only been living here for a while but in that time our two . families became very close. ‘Our kids used to play together and I always used to say how well behaved and polite they were. They were the model family. ‘Abdul is a doctor and very academic. I’ve heard he jumped from a top storey to raise the alarm which sounds . like him as he is that sort of person. He was very heroic. ‘He and his wife adored their . children and would do anything for them. My wife has been in tears all . morning as she was best friends with her. The family are in our prayers . and we just hope Maheen pulls through.’ Neighbours said all the boys loved . cricket and attended nearby Abbotsweld primary school, while Rayyan . would often be seen riding his bicycle near his home. Family friend Jackie Lee said Dr . Usmani was a ‘lovely person’, adding: ‘Her eldest son and mine were . friends and were playing together yesterday. It is so sad. They were a . lovely family. Always smiling.’ A spokesman for Harlow Islamic Centre . said they were working closely with police. They added: ‘Dr Shakoor and . his family were very much liked and respected in the local community. ‘This loss of life will be felt throughout Harlow and the UK.’ Mystery: Firefighters look at the remains of the burnt-out silver Ford Focus found near the house . Fire: A burnt-out car is seen close to the fire-damaged house (right) in Barn Mead, Harlow, Essex which has now been cordoned off while police investigate the blaze. Firefighters: Two fire engines can be seen at the scene of the blaze. The children's father suffered smoke inhalation. Police are treating the incident as suspicious and say fuel could have been used . Injuries: Princess Alexandra Hospital in Harlow where Abdul Shakour works and where he has been treated for minor injuries. His wife and four of his children died in the blaze . VIDEO: Assistant Chief Constable Gary Beautridge discusses fire investigation . | Huge blaze at house in Harlow, Essex, began in early hours of Monday .
Dr Abdul Shakoor suffered smoke inhalation as he tried to save his family .
Wife Sabah, sons Sohaib, 11, and Rayan, 6, and daughter Hira, 12, died .
Muneeb, 9, and Maheen, 3, taken to local hospital - but Muneeb later died .
Police still unsure of motive and say racism wasn't a problem in local area .
Neighbour's car was torched at the same time as the house fire . |
58,462 | a5c1360888f5206f4aa40080c24ca405ac835369 | (CNN) -- Myanmar released 56 political prisoners in a presidential amnesty, the government's official MRTV reported late Tuesday. The inmates were released from a dozen prisons, according to Tun Kyi, a member of government's committee on political prisoners. Most were charged under an unlawful association law, he said. In July, President Thein Sein said that there will be no prisoners of conscience in Myanmar by the end of the year. One month later, he stressed that while there will be no such prisoners, individuals found guilty of committing violent crimes for political reasons should still serve their sentences. Myanmar is gradually emerging from decades of authoritarian military rule that resulted in internal oppression and international isolation. Myanmar works to turn the lights on, and keep them on . Myanmar movie star buries the dead . Journalist Phyo Wai Lin contributed to this report. | The inmates were released from a dozen prisons .
President: No prisoners of conscience by years end .
Myanmar is gradually emerging from decades of authoritarian military rule . |
47,843 | 87023184d655ab899f94c67bd92581056373c583 | By . Rob Cooper . PUBLISHED: . 02:40 EST, 1 May 2013 . | . UPDATED: . 03:23 EST, 1 May 2013 . Two police officers have been injured after they were attacked by a man wielding a knife. They were taken to hospital following the alleged assault while answering a call last night about a row between neighbours in Old Trafford, Manchester. One of the officers is being treated for injuries to his head while the other was hurt on the shoulder when a man lunged at him with a blade inside the terraced house. Attack: Police investigate the scene in Old Trafford where two officers were attacked by a man wielding a knife last night . Investigation: A forensic officer in a white suit leaves the property where the male police officers were attacked . The officers bravely managed to arrest the suspect despite being attacked and back-up was called in. Neither of the men have suffered life-threatening injuries. Neighbours living nearby reported seeing armed police and ambulances arriving at the scene a short while after the incident happened at 8.15pm last night. Detective Inspector Myra Ball said: . 'Thankfully neither officer appears to be seriously injured, but this . demonstrates the daily dangers faced by our officers when responding to . incidents. 'Officers managed to take control of the situation, despite the injuries suffered, and quickly made an arrest.' The officers had been speaking to a witness to the argument between neighbours when the man attacked. The suspect remains in custody where he is being questioned. Susannah . Blakeley wrote on Twitter last night: 'Major incident old trafford. Police everywhere road cordoned off, helicopter overhead.' And Tanya Kirby wrote: 'Crazy living in Old Trafford, choppers, loads of police and it is only Tuesday.' Knife: The terraced property in Old Trafford where the police officers were attacked by a man while responding to an argument between neighbours . Probe: An investigation was underway at the property last night as the two officers were treated in hospital . | Male officer suffers a head injury while the other has an injured shoulder .
Man arrested following the incident in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester . |
212,814 | 9f917b0ecdca668e477ca27b6bff2b795978604d | By . Chris Hastings . Shot to fame: Violinist Nicola Benedetti . The violinist who became an overnight sensation when named BBC Young Musician of the Year today reveals how she struggled when plunged into an 'extremely cut-throat' world, writes Chris Hastings. Speaking on today's Desert Island Discs, Nicola Benedetti tells of the relentless demands placed on her at 16 – including 110 concerts in a year. She adds: 'By the age of 17 or 18 I was going through a very tough time.' Nicola, now 26, won the contest in 2004 and tells interviewer Kirsty Young that senior figures in the industry failed to help her even as it was clear she was riddled with anxiety and self-doubt. She says: 'I look back on it and I am slightly disappointed with a couple of experiences where I felt someone could have been more advisory. 'I think I did feel that some of that support wasn't necessarily there within the profession. It is extremely cut-throat.' Nicola signed a £1 million deal after winning the BBC prize and immediately embarked on a punishing performance schedule. She says: 'The Young Musician of the Year final happened and I think the next day my photo was on the front page of The Times and a practically full concert diary materialised within a very very short space of time.' She was made an MBE in 2013, but says the workload hampered her progress as a musician.'It was actually far too much for that age and for the stage that I was at in my violinistic development... I actually wasn't ready for that. 'I knew I wasn't fulfilling my potential at all. I knew I was going on stage underprepared, extremely nervous. I was trying to make sense of, “Why I am here? Why do I have all this opportunity? Do I deserve it?”.' Despite her glamorous image, she says she and her boyfriend, German cellist Leonard Elschenbroich, have no interest in being the Brad and Angelina of the classical music world. She says: 'Glamorous is definitely not a word that I would associate with my life.' Nicola had a 'tough time' after winning the BBC Young Musician Of The Year aged 16 . | Nicola Benedetti won BBC Young Musician of the Year aged 16 .
Faced relentless demands - including 110 concerts in a year .
Now 26, she says senior figures in the industry failed to help her . |
86,853 | f67e86e98effe46db5117681251990852d87dde7 | Beijing (CNN) -- Chinese President Hu Jintao, set to begin handing over power to his successor, warned Thursday that a failure to deal with corruption could bring down China's ruling Communist Party and the state it controls. Hu was speaking at the party's 18th National Congress in Beijing, a key meeting of top officials that will usher in a new set of leaders of the world's most populous nation. After a decade in power, Hu is expected to hand over the party's top job to Vice President Xi Jinping. "If we fail to handle this issue well, it could prove fatal to the party, and even cause the collapse of the party and the fall of the state," Hu said of corruption during his speech at the start of the congress in the Great Hall of the People in the heart of the Chinese capital. His comments to a vast room full of delegates stood out in light of the huge political scandal that has rocked the party this year. The controversy involved the former high-flying politician Bo Xilai who is now under criminal investigation after being ousted from his posts and the party itself. He is accused of corruption, abuse of power and improper sexual relationships; official news reports have said Bo made "severe mistakes" related to the killing of a British businessman -- a crime for which Bo's wife was imprisoned -- and a diplomatic incident involving his former police chief in Chongqing. More than 2,200 delegates from across China are gathering for the Congress, and they in turn select the 200-plus members of the party's Central Committee, who in turn appoint the Politburo and ultimately the all-powerful Politburo Standing Committee -- the country's decision-makers. But most, if not all, of the outcomes are predetermined after a long period of secretive deal-making between party power brokers. The congress itself meets every five years. It is designed to assess the country's progress, and set new directions. Every 10 years it selects the new leadership. This year, the legacy of the Hu years is under the microscope. Under Hu and Premier Wen Jiabao, China's economy has continued to grow, lifting tens of millions of people out of poverty. China is now the world's second-biggest economy and closing fast on the United States. But there have been disappointments and discontent along the way, and Hu's much vaunted "harmonious society" is showing signs of cracking. Chinese leaders have endured a tumultuous year. The veil of secrecy around the party has been lifted, with reports of rifts and infighting. And the fall of Bo brought about China's biggest political scandal in decades. Bo, once party chief of the massive metropolis of Chongqing, is now in disgrace awaiting trial. His wife, Gu Kailai, is in prison, convicted of murdering a British business associate. Senior party leaders and their leaders have had to deal with unusual scrutiny of their affairs, with Western news organizations publishing investigations into the wealth accumulated by the families of Xi and Wen. Chinese authorities responded to the reports by blocking the websites of the news organizations involved: Bloomberg News and The New York Times. But China's army of censors is having to grapple with the rapid rise of social media platforms on which information moves and mutates at a dizzying pace. China is treading many fault lines: a widening gap between rich and poor, rising unrest about issues like pollution and land seizures, and a slowing economy that some say is in need of serious reform. Hu mentioned some of those tensions Thursday along with several other contentious issues -- like food safety, health care and law enforcement -- acknowledging that "there are a lot of difficulties and problems on our road ahead." Another issue Hu's government has struggled to tackle during its decade in power is the discontent and unrest among Tibetans living under Chinese rule. Authorities were given a grim reminder on Wednesday of the disillusionment and desperation of many Tibetans in western areas of China after four people set themselves on fire to protest Chinese rule. One teenage Tibetan monk died and two were injured after self-immolating in a majority Tibetan region of Sichuan Province, said Penpa Tsering, a spokesman for the Tibetan parliament in exile in Dharamsala, India. And a 23-year-old Tibetan woman died a separate incident in Qinghai Province, Tsering said, citing unidentified people in Tibetan areas. Dozens of Tibetans are reported to have set themselves ablaze in the past 18 months to express their unhappiness with Chinese rule. In his speech Thursday, Hu also made a case for China to strengthen its presence on the seas off its coast. Beijing has become embroiled in a string of territorial disputes with countries like Japan, the Philippines and Vietnam over areas thought to contain large reserves of natural resources under the sea bed. The leadership should "build China into a maritime power," Hu said, citing the need to exploit marine resources and "resolutely safeguard China's maritime rights and interests" among the goals. CNN iReport: What do you think of the power transition? Share your comments and experiences and best could be used online or on air. CNN's Stan Grant, CY Xu and Jaime FlorCruz contributed to this report. | Thousands of delegates gather in Beijing for the meeting .
The key meeting follows a year beset by scandal for the party .
Four Tibetans set themselves on fire, the Tibetan government in exile says . |
184,095 | 7a7609e41e3b77195b25654de0e779c1d4f71003 | By . Daniel Miller . PUBLISHED: . 11:35 EST, 12 July 2013 . | . UPDATED: . 05:28 EST, 13 July 2013 . Hollywood is bracing itself for one of its most disappointing months in recent memory after a series of big budget productions have bombed at the box office. This summer has seen fierce competition at cinemas with over 20 films boasting budgets of $100 million (£66million) or more fighting to fill the seats. Top of the flops appears to be Disney's $225 million 'The Lone Ranger' which despite starring roles for Johnny Depp and Armie Hammer, only brought in $29 million on it's opening July 4 weekend. Scroll down for video . Bombs away: Disney's $225 million 'The Lone Ranger' starring Johnny Depp and Armie Hammer brought in a disappointing $29 million on its opening weekend . It followed a disastrous opening for Sony’s $150 million 'White House Down' which garnered a paltry $25 million on the weekend of June 28. And there are serious concerns over Guillermo del Toro's $180 million sci-fi monster romp 'Pacific Rim' which is expected to open at around $30 million this weekend. 'R.I.P.D.', the Jeff Bridges and Ryan Reynolds thriler about a team of undead police officers is projected to pull in less than $15 million, despite a hefty $130 million production budget. White House Down had a disappointing opening weekend and R.I.P.D. is not projected to open with a boom . There are concerns for Guillermo del Toro's $180 million sci-fi monster romp 'Pacific Rim' which is expected to open at around $30 million . And even the normally reliable Dreamworks production house could be left with a stinker as 'Turbo', a $135 million family film about a snail with dreams of speed, is also expected to do badly when it opens on the same weekend. It's a far cry from July 2012 when the last in the Christopher Nolan Batman series 'Dark Knight Rises' puled in $168 million. The Lone Ranger($225m) $29m . White House Down($150m) $25m . Pacific Rim ($180m) $30m (Projected) R.I.P.D.($130m) $15m (projected) 'Turbo', ($135m) $30m (projected) But according to the report on thewrap.com there are some encouraging signs on the horizon. Sony’s $80 million 'Grown Ups 2 starring Adam Sandler is expected to bring in between $40 million and $45 million . And Fox's X-Men spin-off 'Wolverine', starring Hugh Jackman is projected to draw a healthy $70 million when it opens on July 26. Tinseltown VIPs will be hoping the dreadful JUly wil prove to be mearly a blip between record-breaking grosses in May and June from the likes of 'Man of Steel' and 'Monsters U'.August will begin with opening weekends for Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg's 'Two Guns', 'The Smurfs 2', 'Elysium, starring Matt Damon and Jodie Foster, 'We’re the Millers,' 'Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters' and 'Planes'. | Johnny Depp's $225 million 'The Lone Ranger' pulls in just $29 million on opening .
It follows disastrous opening for .
Sony’s $150 million 'White House Down'
August is looking encouraging with a raft of potential blockbusters to come . |
241,116 | c4264ebd65f762037a9a7405bca3b85b9258f79c | (CNN) -- "I shall never surrender or retreat." So stated William Barret Travis in an 1836 letter he wrote as Mexican soldiers bore down on his overmatched troops at the Alamo. Now, more than 175 years later, Travis' Texas fighting heirs -- or, at the least, the state's governor -- are drawing their line in the sand for another reason: not to grant benefits to same-sex partners of its troops as they would for opposite-sex spouses. "As a state agency, Texas Military Forces must adhere with Texas law, and the Texas Constitution, which clearly defines marriage as between one man and one woman," said Josh Havens, a spokesman for Gov. Rick Perry's office. Despite its proud and longstanding tradition of independence, the Texas Military Forces is not like other agencies. In fact, given that it includes the Army National Guard and Air National Guard (in addition to the Texas State Guard), in some ways it is more a federal agency than a state one. As such, some argue, its policies should fall in line with those out of Washington. Following a landmark Supreme Court ruling that effectively struck down the Defense of Marriage Act, which prohibited federal benefits from going to same-sex partner, the door has now been opened to gay and lesbian spouses. Shortly before leaving office earlier this year, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta announced that same-sex partners who sign a military "Declaration of Domestic Partnership" form will be eligible for several benefits, including military identification cards as dependents. Those who did would be allowed unescorted onto bases, get access to commissaries, have the right to visit their partners in military hospitals and be eligible for many survivor benefits, including life insurance benefits. Military extends benefits to same-sex partners . The Pentagon estimated at the time that there may be 5,600 troops on active duty seeking such benefits, as well as 8,000 retirees and 3,400 National Guard troops. Tuesday was the first day all partners of same-sex troops could claim such benefits, the Pentagon has said. But in the latter category, Texas isn't readily coming aboard. Texas, like some other states, expressly prohibits same-sex marriage under its law. That state law trumps federal law, argues Perry and others. "(Texas Military Forces) is a state agency under the authority and direction of the Texas state government," wrote the forces' adjutant general, Maj. Gen. John Nichols, in a memo dated August 30. "... Due to the potential conflict (between state and federal law), we are unable to enroll same-sex families ... at our state-supported facilities until we receive legal clarification." In a statement Tuesday, the Texas Military Forces insisted that while Nichols is asking the state's attorney general for an advisory opinion, "the state is not denying any federal benefits to military personnel or same-sex spouses of military personnel." "This is a processing issue, not a denial of benefits issue," the agency says. "As such, we fully encourage eligible members to enroll for their federal benefits at one of the 20 nearest federal installations, which are dispersed throughout the state of Texas." Judge: U.S. can't deny benefits to lesbian war vet's wife . The office of state Attorney General Greg Abbott did not respond to a CNN request for comment on the matter. Yet Stephen Peters, the president of the American Military Partner Association, sees what's happening in Texas as "truly outrageous," claiming that same-sex partners are being denied certain rights and benefits simply because they're based in the Lone Star State. "Gov. Rick Perry should be ashamed," Peters said Tuesday, accusing Texas policymakers of playing "politics with our military families." "Our military families are already dealing with enough problems, and the last thing they need is more discrimination from the state of Texas." CNN's Dave Alsup contributed to this report. | Texas Military Forces' chief cites conflict between state, federal on same-sex marriage benefits .
"Eligible members" can request benefits, agency says, calling it a "processing issue"
Governor's office: No benefits since state law restricts marriage to 1 man, 1 woman .
A gay rights advocacy group blasts Texas officials for playing "politics with our military families" |
165,258 | 61b0836f2fbe1f8937a18678c0723452cd3d9326 | By . Alex Greig . PUBLISHED: . 00:57 EST, 30 November 2013 . | . UPDATED: . 01:59 EST, 30 November 2013 . Iconic images of history's most famous public figures and moments have been reimagined in our narcissistic era of the 'selfie.' The images were created for the Cape Times, a South African newspaper, by advertising agency Low Cape Town. The reworked photographs were used in advertisements for the paper, accompanied by taglines such as, 'Every story feels like a first-hand account,' and 'You can't get any closer to the news.' Royal wedding: Prince William snaps a picture of himself and new wife Kate Middleton in this imagined selfie from the couple's 2011 wedding . The Kennedys: A smiling Jackie Kennedy captures a moment with husband John F Kennedy in 1960, before he was elected president and three years before his assassination . In each shot, famous people capture themselves on their smartphones during historic moments.Famous faces featured in the campaign include Kate Middleton and Price William, whose wedding kiss Prince William captures with one extended arm, Jacqueline Kennedy in a smiling selfie as she sits beside her doomed husband John F. Kennedy and a cigar-smoking Winston Churchill.Cape Times executive editor Alide Dasnois said, 'At first we weren’t sure it would work, but the campaign has been brilliantly executed. Lowe has done the Cape Times proud.' Happy snap: British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in an imagined selfie, taken at the politician's home in 1947 . The kiss: The famous photographed, as captured by the sailor himself in Times Square on VJ day in New York, 1945 . The agency, realizing that print media is under threat from digital and social media, wanted to remind readers of the importance of good reporting with a method that would resonate with the times. 'In the past we have spoken about the objectivity of great journalism, this time we wanted to speak about good reporting being close to the source,' says creative director at Lowe and Partners Kirk Gainsford. Celebration selfie: Anti-apartheid activist Beyers Naude and Archbishop Desmond Tutu and celebrate Tutu¿s Nobel peace prize with a selfie in 1984 . 'We tried to match the time of the story to the masthead of the news paper at the time of the story.'The rise and rise of the selfie - a self-conscious, self-taken snap of oneself - has resulted in the Oxford English Dictionary naming it the word of 2013. The shots, reimagined as self-portraits, turn the iconic images into intimate glimpses into the lives of the great and the good. | The photos take well-known images and reimagine them as selfies .
The images were created for an advertising campaign for the Cape Times . |
152,220 | 50bca0f487c263ede8e52bb82abba2e38ec98e14 | Rocker Jon Bon Jovi is part of a Toronto group that has submitted paperwork expressing interest in buying the Buffalo Bills. It is unclear if the group would eventually want to move the NFL team to Toronto, but the franchise is on the market after Hall of Fame owner Ralph Wilson died in March. An Associated Press source confirmed that Bon Jovi discussed his interests during a restaurant meeting last month with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. In line: Jon Bon Jovi is part of a Toronto group eager to buy the Buffalo Bills . Still rocking: Bon Jovi, pictured with wife Dorothea Hurley, has submitted paperwork regarding Buffalo Bills . The Bills most recently were valued by Forbes at $870million. They are projected to be sold for at least $1billion, partly because NFL teams rarely go on the market. The team is essentially locked into playing at Ralph Wilson Stadium through the 2019 season because of a strict nonrelocation clause included in a 10-year lease agreement reached with the state and county in December 2012. The Bills would incur a $400m penalty by even broaching the prospect of moving during the lease’s term. There is a one-time exception that would allow the Bills to break the lease for just under $28.4m in 2020. The group also includes Larry Tanenbaum and the Rogers family. Tanenbaum is chairman of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, which controls the NHL’s Maple Leafs and NBA’s Raptors. The Rogers family includes Edward Rogers, who is deputy chairman of Rogers, the Toronto communications giant. The group is on a list of prospective buyers who have submitted a nondisclosure agreement form to Morgan Stanley, the banking firm overseeing the Bills sale. The Toronto group has retained the Goldman Sachs banking firm to assist in the bid. Bon Jovi previously expressed interest in owning an NFL franchise but never specifically mentioned the Bills. This is the first real indication linking him to Tanenbaum and Rogers. Run: The Bills are on the market after Hall of Fame owner Ralph Wilson unfortunately died in March . Kicking off: The Bills are projected to be sold for at least $1BILLION because NFL teams rarely go on sale . Part of the deal: The Buffalo Bills cheerleaders, named the Buffalo Jills, perform during a game . Cheer: The Buffalo Jills will keep doing their thing as Bon Jovi and the Toronto group try to sort the deal . | Jon Bon Jovi is part of a Toronto group that submitted paperwork to express interest in buying NFL outfit Buffalo Bills .
Franchise is on market after Hall of Fame owner Ralph Wilson's death .
Bon Jovi met NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell last month to discuss .
Bills were valued at $870million, but would sell for at least $1BILLION as NFL teams rarely go on the market . |
101,605 | 0ef27932211e04bcd02f8da02aab4359d75c4a5c | Star Wars creator George Lucas has made millions from merchandise on the back of his famous films, but even he would surely never have dreamt of this. A French fast food chain has revealed a promotional snack which really has gone to the Dark Side, a Star Wars-inspired burger with completely black buns. The burger chain Quick cooked up the black-looking bun - named Dark Vador - to tie in with the release of Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace in 3D. Peckish: The Star Wars burger has a distinctly overdone look . Although the buns look like decidedly . burned, they are in fact simply dyed, and have two beef patties with . cheese, lettuce and tomato inbetween. The relevance is questionable given that Darth Vader only appears in The Phantom Menace as 10-year-old Anakin Skywalker. As . well as the Dark Vador burger, Quick have also created an . only-slightly-more appealing Jedi burger, and a Dark Burger, based on . Darth Maul. These aren't the burgers you're looking for: The Dark Vador burger features completely black buns, which are dyed rather than burnt. The meals will be served until March 1 this year - although any Brits who have ever had to fill up at the fast food outlets on long journeys around the country may decide they are yet another reason to steer clear. The stunt is not the first time the French fast food chain have raised eyebrows with their promotional material. In February 2010 the chain decided to . serve only halal meat in eight restaurants, sparking criticism from . politicians that its menu discriminates against non-Muslims. Would you like fries with that Mr Vader: Whether the sith lord, pictured here in The Empire Strikes Back, would approve of a burger in his name is debateable . The French chain previously raised eyebrows when it introduced halal-only menus in February last year . And in November 2010, Quick said it intended to offer foie gras 'burgers' at bargain prices as a treat for customers ahead of Christmas. Quick burger's 'Supreme Foie Gras' consisted of the normally expensive duck foie gras, beef, relish and lettuce and go on sale for only 5 euros ($6.57) at more than 350 outlets across France. | French fast food chain unveils Dark Vador meal . |
54,200 | 9991114f0492d96345b8bf7d509d401c27435fb8 | Editor's note: Julian E. Zelizer is a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School. He is completing a book on the history of national security politics since World War II, to be published by Basic Books. Zelizer writes widely on current events. Julian Zelizer says it's not enough for Republicans to oppose Obama's plans, they must offer their own ideas. PRINCETON, New Jersey (CNN) -- One of the best Marx Brothers movies, "Horse Feathers," played in movie theaters at the height of the Great Depression in 1932. In the film, the comedian Groucho Marx played the new president of Huxley College, Quincy Adams Wagstaff. During one of the most memorable scenes, Groucho introduces himself to faculty and students by singing about his philosophy of governance: "Your proposition may be good/But let's have one thing understood/ Whatever it is, I'm against it!/And even when you've changed it or condensed it, I'm against it/ I'm opposed to it/On general principle. I'm opposed to it." If Republicans want to rebuild their party after the calamity of 2008, the party leadership needs to avoid the Quincy Adams Wagstaff approach to politics. When Obama proposed his economic recovery bill last week, the first words to come out of House Minority Leader's John Boehner's mouth sounded a bit like Wagstaff. With the economy imploding and the international economic crisis worsening, Boehner said: "Right now, given the concerns that we have over the size of the package and all of the spending in this package, we don't think it's going to work. And so if it's the plan that I see today, put me down in the 'no' column." Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has been more restrained in his response, leaving open the door to compromise. If Boehner is simply acting as Dr. No to get a better deal, Republicans can come out of the negotiations over the economic recovery bill as partners, planting the seeds for a new Republican approach toward dealing with economic matters. But if Boehner's plan is for his party to act as an oppositional force -- trying to block, delay and prevent legislative action -- then the GOP could find itself in big trouble. If the Republicans don't agree with Obama's approach, given the severity of the crisis, they need to offer an alternative rather than just sitting still. To be sure, there is the possibility that if the economy continues to deteriorate after a bill has passed and the public loses faith in Obama, the House GOP could reap the benefit from their opposition. They could say "we told you so." But even that would be a high-risk maneuver, particularly given the state of public opinion about the Republican Party. Even if a bill passes and the economy continues to struggle, voters would be looking at a Republican Party that didn't have anything better to offer. The public likes hard-working politicians. President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal ideas didn't always work -- some like the National Recovery Act were downright failures -- but voters valued a president who tried to offer arguments about how to end the crisis and who rolled up his sleeves to make the nation better. The election of 2008 revealed that the Republican Party lacks the kind of big ideas that Ronald Reagan used in 1980 to bring the conservative movement into power. The various factions of the conservative movement came together around the themes of anti-communism, deregulation and tax cuts. Reagan didn't just sell tax cuts for the wealthy as good in themselves, but connected them to supply-side economics, which claimed that cuts would stimulate investment, generate economic growth and ultimately bring more revenue into the coffers of Treasury. Even after the Soviet Union collapsed, Republican leaders found ideas to sell their movement to the public. Newt Gingrich and a cohort of young Republicans focused on sharp attacks about the dangers of government intervention and corruption of government. For a short time it seemed that under George W. Bush, the war on terrorism would provide a new thematic focus to Republican efforts. But this was not to be. The controversies over Iraq and the continued dangers in countries such as Afghanistan undermined Republican claims of superiority on national security policy. Controversies over the erosion of civil liberties and due process in the pursuit of terrorism also weakened their claims. When the economy collapsed in fall 2008, Republicans' arguments about the wisdom of tax cuts and deregulation were made suspect. Americans might not always like government, but they dislike being broke even more. Sen. John McCain struggled in his campaign, not just because of the weaknesses of his campaign, but because his party seemed to lack any answers as Wall Street and Main Street spun out of control. Furthermore, the fact that the federal government continued to expand under Bush -- both when Republicans and Democrats controlled Capitol Hill -- made it difficult to sell Republican arguments about the dangers of big government. Back in the 1970s, when Republicans felt as if they were in the political wilderness, they invested a great deal of their resources into the market of ideas. Conservatives built think tanks like the CATO Institute, established talk radio shows, and financed academic scholarship about conservatism so that when opportunities arose in the elections of 1980 and 1994, Republicans had something to say. At some point, Republicans have to tap into the 1970s enthusiasm about generating ideas if they want to rebuild their party and win over the hearts and minds of voters. Simply reviving the philosophy of the 1970s won't work. Rather the GOP needs to offer new arguments and new policies to achieve economic recovery. If they repeat what happened in the 1930s, when Republicans sounded a lot like Groucho Marx and just said no as FDR rebuilt the nation, they are likely to remain on the outskirts of power for decades to come. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Julian Zelizer. | Julian Zelizer: House Republicans are signaling they will oppose stimulus plan .
He says Republicans are in trouble if they simply act as an opposition force .
Democrats gained sway for decades by seeking to improve the economy, he says .
Zelizer: If GOP opposes stimulus plan, it should offer alternatives of its own . |
154,963 | 544603b85d9c31991db1c276dd1a14d1b9efbea5 | By . Lucy Waterlow . PUBLISHED: . 07:14 EST, 21 October 2013 . | . UPDATED: . 14:42 EST, 21 October 2013 . It's a big week for baby Prince George of Cambridge as the world will be watching on Wednesday as he's christened. But from the look of these pictures, he's already getting used to posing for the cameras with his mother and father, Kate and Prince William. The images show him scrubbing up in a bubble bath with his parents, being fed by his father and being snapped on a mobile phone by his great-grandmother, the Queen, before she helps tuck him into bed. But look closely and you'll see this isn't a rare insight into the life of the royal new parents. It's the work of artist Alison Jackson, who is renowned for her elaborate 'spoof' productions which give an imaginary and amusing behind-the-scenes look into the world of celebrities and royals. Bath time: Kate blows bubbles to entertain baby Prince George in this picture imagined by Alison Jackson . Daddy's co-pilot: Prince William's choice of bath toy for his son is obviously a helicopter . Saving water: This version of the royal couple are conscious of the rising cost of living . Scrubbed up: The Prince George lookalike after his bath . Cuddle with great-granny: After his wash he's ready to meet The Queen . One is not amused: But like most babies, he doesn't stay clean for long! Reflecting reality: Jackson gives an insight into Prince George's life, baby sick and all . A far cry from the official family portrait: Jackson gets her scantily clad Duchess and shirtless Duke to pose on a bed with their baby . Bonding: Jackson portrays the Duke and Duchess getting some skin-on-skin contact with their newborn . Duchess gets her hands dirty: Glamorous Kate changes a nappy . Hands on father: But Jackson imagines Prince William pulls his weight with the nappy changes too . Daddy daycare: But it's not just nappy changing Jackson thinks the Duke can do, she also imagines he helps out with feeds . Milk monster: Growing babies are hungry but Daddy is prepared . Taste tester: Jackson envisions the prince sampling the milk before Kate feeds her baby boy . Trying on a crown for size: The real Prince George will one day wear one as third in line to the throne . Happy family: The couple cuddle up on the sofa as George has another feed and Prince William holds the baby, right . Doppelganger: Jackson is famed for her pictures giving a spoof insight into famous homes . Learning curve: Jackson suggests the royal parents get some tips from Mother and Baby magazine . Great-granny knows best: The Queen is always on hand to give some parenting advice . Tickle you under there! The lookalikes get their little prince to smile . Will he take after grandad? The couple fool about with false ears as they teach the baby to recognise Prince Charles and Uncle Harry's faces . Step aside Michael Middleton! Jackson thinks the Queen could snap a great family portrait . This will be one's screensaver: Jackson sees Her Majesty taking family photos on her mobile . Time for bed: The Queen helps tuck in her great-grandson after Jackson imagined the parents getting the nursery ready when Kate was pregnant, right . Once upon a time, there was a prince: The Queen could read George a bedtime story . For more details on Alison Jackson and her work, visit www.alisonjackson.com, twitter.com/alisonjackson and www.facebook.com/AlisonJacksonOnline . | Artist uses lookalikes of royals to create intimate and amusing scenes .
She imagines Prince William changing nappies and the Queen taking pictures on her mobile . |
18,584 | 348c3c2c79abd10aa8dea1c5d0b547a44b30df2d | President Barack Obama played down the rocky relationship he and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel have had throughout the Pentagon chief's two-year tenure at a retirement ceremony on Wednesday afternoon. 'In an era of politics that too often descends into spectacle, you’ve always served with decency and dignity. And in a town of outsized egos, you’ve never lost your Midwestern humility,' Obama said of Hagel, a Nebraska native. 'You’ve always been frank and honest and said what you thought. And I have so profoundly benefited from that candor,' Obama added. Scroll down for video . Fondly recalling their time serving in the Senate together and calling outgoing Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel a 'friend,' Obama sought to avoid turning a celebration of the former combat soldier's 30 years of service into a haranguing today . Fondly recalling their time serving in the Senate together and calling Hagel a 'friend,' Obama sought to avoid turning the celebration of the former combat soldier's 30 years of service into a haranguing. A military man turned politician, Hagel represented Nebraska in the U.S. Senate for two terms before leaving the upper chamber in 2009 to work in academia. Obama plucked him out of retirement from public service in 2013 to serve as one of his top military advisers. The relationship between the two men of opposing political parties soon soured, however, and less than two years after taking the position, Hagel resigned, reportedly under pressure from the president himself. Obama said at a ceremony announcing the departure in November that it was Hagel's decision to leave. But the White House has since maintained that he and Hagel 'arrived together at the determination that new leadership should take over' at the Pentagon. A senior Pentagon official told NBC News at the time that Hagel was asked to step down because the president no longer had confidence in his ability to lead the military as it struggled to defeat Islamic extremists waging war in the Middle East. 'He wasn’t up to the job,' the official said. Obama's spokesman, Josh Earnest, told reporters that wasn't true and that Hagel 'has been the right person for the job, and he has performed to the president's expectations in a way... [that] will contribute to the ongoing effort that has made the US military the most powerful force for good in the world.' Still, Earnest admitted that the challenges now facing the Pentagon are different that those that were at the forefront when he was nominated for Defense Secretary. At that time, Earnest said, 'the threat that was posed by ISIL was not nearly as significant as it is now.' 'The priorities of the department, or at least of the new secretary, have changed given changes in the international community,' he said. 'It doesn't mean that Secretary Hagel hasn't done an excellent job of managing these crises as they have popped up,' Earnest continued, but it does mean 'that another secretary might be better suited to meet those challenges - that was something the two of them agreed.' Less than two years after being nominated to lead the Pentagon, Hagel resigned in November, reportedly under pressure from the president . Today Earnest's stand-in, Deputy Press Secretary Eric Schultz, said 'friction' between the White House and the Pentagon is 'something that predates this administration.' Asked specifically about Hagel's predecessors, Leon Panetta and Robert Gates, both of whom wrote scathing critiques of their time in the Obama administration once they'd exited the president's service, Schultz said the president and his staff 'always deeply value and respect the input of our military leadership.' 'That's something that is placed at paramount value here at the White House and something that goes into every consideration the President makes as Commander-in-Chief.' Schultz said the White House believes it has 'good relationships with the military leaders.' 'And most importantly the President has an open ear, and values their input around the table or over the telephone,' he stated. The president has nominated former Pentagon official Ash Carter to serve as the next Secretary of Defense. He's expected to undergo a smooth confirmation process. Senators on the Armed Services committee will question Carter next week. A vote of the full Senate on his nomination will likely come soon after that, allowing Hagel to finally leave his post more than two months after formally offering the president his resignation. Hagel said today that he'd 'cherished' leading the Department of Defense, but 'of all the opportunities my life has given me, I am most proud of having once been a soldier' Despite alleged differences that ultimately cost Hagel his job, Obama had nothing but praise for the 68-year-old veteran at this afternoon's ceremony. Thanks to Hagel's 'guiding hand,' Obama said today, the Pentagon is 'better positioned for the future.' His 'greatest impact' perhaps,Obama said, 'a legacy that will be felt for decades to come' is the example he set for the nation's men and women in uniform. 'It’s not simply that you’ve been the first enlisted combat veteran and the first Vietnam veteran to serve as Secretary of Defense. It’s how your life experience - being down in the mud, feeling the bullets fly overhead - has allowed you to connect with our troops like no other Secretary before you.' Obama said he's 'grateful to Chuck on a very personal level.' 'Exactly 10 years ago this month, I joined you in the United States Senate, along with the Vice President,' he recalled. 'I was new and green; you were a veteran legislator. I was the student, and you shared some of the lessons of your service. I was young and you were....well,' he trailed off, eliciting laughter from attendees. Speaking before the president, Gen. Martin Dempsey, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, heaped on Hagel's 'incredible' and 'remarkable' record of service. 'His resolve is simply as solid as steel,' Dempsey said, 'but his love of his country is even stronger.' Vice President Joe Biden, another former colleague of Hagel's in the Senate, said the outgoing Defense head has the type of 'integrity' that everyone who has ever served with him in any capacity agrees 'is recognizable immediately.' Biden, a close friend of Hagel's who reportedly opposed his ousting, said he was 'truly going to personally miss' working with his friend. 'Thank you for all you've done....all you've done for me, all you've done for the country,' Biden said. 'I'm proud to call you a friend' he said, 'and I'm proud to stand by you as a Secretary of Defense about to retire.' Hagel told Gen. Marting Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, right, 'I have been very fortunate to have you as my partner in this job. especially during those spirited "self-help" and "educational" opportunities called congressional hearings' After Obama's remarks, Hagel took the stage and thanked Obama for allowing him to serve on his cabinet for the last two years. To Dempsey he said, 'I have been very fortunate to have you as my partner in this job. 'Especially during those spirited "self-help" and "educational" opportunities called congressional hearings,' he joked. He additionally thanked his wife, Lilibet, and replacement Ash Carter, whom he commended for his previous service at the Pentagon and 'for his continued commitment to public service.' Hagel also set aside a few minutes of his speech to offer his view on international affairs. 'We must recognize that there is not an immediate answer to every problem', he said that some challenges require the 'patience to seek higher ground' to get the intended results. The world is not 'moving toward less complicated' challenges, he said, in fact, challenges are becoming more global, and countries need to focus on how to 'solve problems through coalitions of common interests.' 'With all of the world's trials and problems it is still a hopeful world, this I believe,' he concluded. Hagel said he'd 'cherished' leading the Department of Defense, but 'of all the opportunities my life has given me, I am most proud of having once been a soldier. 'The lessons from my time in uniform about trust, responsibility, duty, judgment, and loyalty to your fellow soldier...these I have carried with me throughout my life,' he remarked. | 'I have so profoundly benefited from that candor,' Obama said today in a speech commemorating Hagel's 30 years of service .
Obama fondly recalled their time serving in the Senate together and called Hagel a 'friend'; he avoided turning the celebration into a haranguing .
Hagel resigned from his post in November, reportedly under pressure from the president himself, after less than two years .
The outgoing Pentagon head said he'd 'cherished' leading DOD but 'I am most proud of having once been a soldier' |
111,741 | 1c17695a5c061a17fff4634b16ec788d1397d03d | Anderson Cooper is opening up one of his Hamptons homes to renters this summer for a cool $150,000. And because the CNN anchor owns the home next door, there's always the chance to share a few beers come the Fourth of July. Living like a blueblood in the quaint hamlet of Quiogue will cost you though. While renting the home from Memorial Day to Labor Day is $150,000 - the home can also be rented on a monthly basis. The cost for June is $30,000 while July goes for 60,000 and August to Labor Day is $80,000. This six-bedroom home in the tony Hamptons could be yours for $150,000. CNN anchor Anderson Cooper, who luckily owns TWO homes, is renting his newer purchase out . Neighbors: Cooper also owns the home next door which means prospective renters can look forward to being the CNN anchor's neighbor - at least for three months . Cooper, who is the son of socialite and jeans designer Gloria Vanderbilt, purchased the home two years ago, talking down the asking price of $3.5million to a steal of $1.7million. A source told the New York Post at the time that Cooper bought to property to make sure it wasn't torn down and replaced by a McMansion. The home was built in 1946 and was previously owned by Hollywood screen writer Budd Schulberg who penned 1954's 'On the Waterfront' there. In 2003 he paid $1,150,000 for his first home, next door to the rental. Since becoming the new owner of the pedigreed Quogue home, Cooper has completely renovated the six-bedroomsh the help of a 'well-known' designer, according to listing agents at Douglas Elliman. Features of the home include views of Aspatuck Creek, a heated pool, white chef's kitchen and a separate above-garage apartment. The waterfront great room comes with a brick fireplace, vaulted ceiling and french doors which lead out to the patio on the creek. To escape the blistering summer heat, renters can chill in the air conditioning in the den while watching a movie on the 60-inch television or take a dip in the gunite pool. The shingle style home, seen top, features views of Aspatuck Creek, a heated pool, a separate above-garage apartment and a great room. It is being rented furnished . Anderson reportedly purchased the home for rent two years ago, seen left, in order to prevent a McMansion from being put up in its place. He has owned the home next door for over a decade . The pool area also has a Jacuzzi and pool house with bathroom and a sitting room. The home has one master suite and three other bedrooms for guests. In addition to the rooms inside the home, a breezeway leads to an above-garage apartment with its own living area, bedroom and full bathroom. The home up for rent is just one in Cooper's expanding real estate portfolio. In the New York City, Cooper lives in a renovated firehouse in Greenwich Village with boyfriend Benjamin Maisani. He purchased the home in September 2009 for $4.3million. Main stay: Cooper's main home is a re-purposed fire house in New York's Greenwich Village neighborhood . | The CNN anchor also owns the home next door in Quogue .
He is the son of socialite and jeans designer Gloria Vanderbilt .
Cooper purchased the home in 2012 to make sure it wasn't torn down and replaced by a McMansion .
The home was built in 1946 and previously owned by Hollywood screenwriter Budd Schulberg who wrote 1956's 'On the Waterfront' |
70,451 | c7ad04f062f6eeb5e983b1233bb75cf54d90f677 | By . Daily Mail Reporter . PUBLISHED: . 14:01 EST, 11 March 2014 . | . UPDATED: . 16:25 EST, 11 March 2014 . A divorce lawyer from Seattle has been accused of bilking one of her clients out of more than $100,000 and is now facing felony theft charges. King County prosecutors claim Dana K. Fossedal made off with money that was awarded to her bus driver client, as part of a settlement. According to court papers, Mrs Fossedal, 41, raided a trust account that held the man's money and used it to pay personal expenses. Dana K. Fossedal, 41: She is a divorce attorney accused of making off with more than $100,000 owed to one of her clients. Fossedal now faces felony theft charges after raiding the account where the cash was being held . After being hired by Fossedal, the man was awarded $117,000 as part of the settlement. However, instead of receiving the money directly, though, the settlement payment ended up in a trust account held by Fossedal. Although Fossedal's bill for representing the man was less than $10,000, she cleaned out the entire account. According to Seattle PI, she is alleged to have done so without ever acknowledging the settlement had been paid. Steven Nels Fossedal: After Dana Fossedal's client sued her and and won a $162,000 judgment, only a small amount of that debt has been paid with the court seizing her husbands (pictured) pay as part of the settlement . Her client ultimately sued Fossedal . and won a $162,000 judgment but only a small amount of that debt has . been paid with the court seizing her husbands pay as part of the . settlement. Fossedal has been charged with first-degree theft. If . the charges are proven, it would appear the attorney who has been . practicing for 16 years took advantage of her client when they were at . their most vulnerable. Fossedal even purports to be a great navigator during times of crisis on her website. ' I have a great deal of skill helping to guide my clients through these . confusing and overwhelming times with knowledgeable advice and . representation, coupled with respect, understanding, and compassion. The . legal process can sometimes be cold, confusing, and overwhelming, . especially if you are already dealing with an emotional family . situation. Unlike a contract or business dispute, in family law, you are . laying the most important and valuable people and things in your life . before the court.'Fossedal's license is now suspended pending the outcome of the charged. Many . of her former clients would find the details of the current court beg . to differ with the treatment they've received according to some of her . online reviews. 'I do not . recommend Dana Fossedals,' one client wrote who was having a will . prepared. 'It was incompetently done according to another attorney with . mis-spelled names, lack of page numbers and most of all, didn't really . qualify as a legal will since it was so incomplete. Avoid this attorney - . it was a humiliating and frustrating experience.' Another . client who used her to facilitate their divorce is even more damning in . their judgement saying that calls at emails were not returned. 'I . feel that this attorney had only her own interests at heart. She gave . every excuse for this from blaming her assistant to technology, just to . name a few. She was home sick, on vacation or just plain gone more than . not. When questioned why commitments made were not met, her responses . were frequently quite defensive. Paperwork, . spreadsheets and letters took forever to get composed and many times . were full of errors found by the opposing side, requiring much rework. She spent a lot of time fighting over small stuff that cost more in . billing hours than the items were actually worth. The case was dragged . out way longer than was necessary.' A final review has echoes of the current court case. 'We . feel very mislead with this attorney. Our retainer was paid almost 4 . months ago and after many promises, we feel we have been mislead. There . still have been no papers filed or completed, we do not get timely (if . any) return phone calls, we consistently have to call the office and . leave messages without a response.' | Dana K. Fossedal is accused of raiding a trust account that had been set up for her client .
She has now been suspended from practicing law after 16 years . |
49,187 | 8aed55e01fda9f48b066dce2505587eae2ea5f3a | By . Ruth Styles . Sheila Thomas, now 64, was just 17 when, on Boxing Day 1967, she gave birth to her much-loved baby daughter Jacqueline. But as an unmarried mother at a time when single parenthood was frowned upon, she had just six weeks with her child before she was taken away from her forever. Now, almost half a century on, Sheila says she has never been able to have other children because she 'didn't deserve to'. Scroll down for video . Reunited: Sheila Thomas, right, was forced to give up her daughter Jacqui when she was just six weeks old . 'I knew . that I couldn’t [have children] because I would be a bad mother,' she says, tears welling up in her eyes. 'I don’t . deserve children. I gave one away, how could I? I just gave her away . without a fight. 'I . don’t see myself as a mother now, I can’t see myself as a mother,' she continues. 'I . haven’t had that real opportunity of bringing a child up all through the . trials and tribulations that kids go through. I haven’t done it.' Sheila, who now lives in Sussex, was born and brought up in a south London semi, where she lived with her mother, father, two brothers and grandmother. 'My life now is a world away from where I grew up,' she explains. 'We lived in a three up two down in south London and there was my mum and my dad, myself, my two brothers and my nan in the front room, which meant we only had the back room for the five of us. It was tight, it was tight.' Tragic: Like Philomena Lee, whose life was turned into a film, Sheila never gave up hope of finding Jacqui . Sad: Although the real Philomena's search ended sadly, Sheila got a happy ending . Aged 15, she left school and got a job as a receptionist. But it wasn't long before she found herself caught up in a relationship with an older married man. 'I was bowled over by him,' she remembers. 'I felt like a silly schoolgirl. It was exciting. The whole situation took us both by surprise, I think. He was the one. I fell completely in love with him.' But within a year of striking up the relationship, Sheila discovered that she was pregnant. 'I was 17 and I was frightened,' she says. 'My boyfriend was married so I couldn't turn to him. I couldn't ask him for help. I thought, "This can't be happening, it can't be true". 'When the time came and I couldn't hide it any longer, I had to finally face my parents. I told them and I had no idea what was going to happen. But mum and dad, they took charge.' She broke up with her boyfriend and gave up her job, while her parents found a mother and baby home for her to go to. On Boxing Day 1967, she gave birth to her baby daughter, Jacqueline. 'It was amazing when I first held her,' remembers Sheila. 'I thought, "Wow! I, me, have had a baby. I just need to look after this child now. That bond. It's so strong. It didn't dawn on me that that child would be taken away from me.' Unbeknown to Sheila, her parents had made arrangements to have the baby given up for adoption and when the time came, she felt she had no alternative but to go along with their plans. 'A lady came in from the side and she said I'm going to take your child now,' she remembers. 'And she picked her up and I said: "Are you going to keep her name?"' Coldly, the woman replied: 'I can't tell you that.' And with that, Sheila's baby was gone. 'The double doors opened and she was gone,' says Sheila. 'That's when it dawns on you, she has gone. 'I don't know how I could have done it, how I could have gone along with it,' she adds. 'I should have said, "Mum, come on. We can make this work, other people do it, why can't we?" But I never did, I never said it.' 10 years later, Sheila met and married her husband David and moved to Sussex, But the couple never had children of their own. Notorious: Mother and baby homes such as this one in Chester were once to be found all over the country . 'David and I found each other and before . we got engaged, we said we didn't want children. I felt that it would be slightly . disrespectful to Jacqueline. 'How could I have a child and give her away? How could I have done it?' But things are finally looking up for Sheila after she was reunited with her daughter with the help of ITV documentary, Long Lost Family. Jacqueline, who much to Sheila's delight is still called Jacqueline, lives in Kent with her 13-year-old daughter and says that she believes her mother did the right thing. 'I've always known [I was adopted],' she says. 'I cannot remember a . time when I was sat down and told. The right thing . happened for me and it all worked out well.' 'I knew immediately it was her,' said a delighted Sheila immediately after their reunion. 'Her eyes lit up when she saw me and she held out her arms to me and that was the best hug ever. 'I just want to be a little part in her life, just a little bit in the background,' she continued. 'It's time we go forward now.' Sheila and Jacqueline appear on Long Lost Families, tonight at 9pm on ITV . | Sheila Thomas, now 64, was 17 when she had to give up her daughter .
Mrs Thomas, then a single parent, got to spend six weeks with her child .
Says she felt too guilty about what happened to have any other children .
Has now been reunited with her daughter after more than 40 years apart . |
45,758 | 80edd85eb7868955a8cca126386ba14b57869449 | By . Leon Watson . PUBLISHED: . 05:39 EST, 11 July 2012 . | . UPDATED: . 07:17 EST, 12 July 2012 . Two journalists arrested by detectives investigating corrupt payments to public officials have been released on bail, Scotland Yard said. Justin Penrose, crime correspondent of the Sunday Mirror, and Tom Savage, deputy news editor of the Daily Star Sunday, were questioned on suspicion of conspiracy to corrupt and of conspiracy to cause misconduct in a public office. The latest arrests mean 41 people have been arrested by detectives on Operation Elveden, the investigation into suspected corrupt payments to public officials. Scotland Yard said a 37-year man was detained at his home in Kent and a 34-year-old man also arrested in connection with Operation Elveden . It is being run alongside Operation Weeting, the Scotland Yard probe into phone hacking. Both men were held at separate police stations and have been bailed to a date in October pending further inquiries, police said. A Yard spokesman said yesterday: 'A . 37-year-old man was arrested at his home in Kent and a 34-year-old man . at his home in south-east London at approximately 6am this morning, on . suspicion of conspiracy to corrupt (contrary to the Prevention of . Corruption Act 1906) and of conspiracy to cause misconduct in a public . office (Contrary to Common Law). 'The two, both journalists, were taken to police stations in Kent and south-east London. 'Both have now been bailed to return pending further inquiries to the same police stations on dates in October.' The GPS locator on the website of Tom Savage shows him at East Dulwich police station . Penrose has been with the Sunday Mirror . since 2004, when he joined as a general news reporter. He was promoted . to the position of full-time crime correspondent in January 2006. Trinity Mirror said officers searched Mr Penrose's desk yesterday morning and took away 'various items', including his computer. A . spokesman said: 'Following a prearranged meeting at 11am, the police . now have in their possession various items from Justin Penrose's desk, . including his computer. 'There is no further comment to make at this stage.' In evidence to the Leveson Inquiry into press ethics, Mr Penrose said the newspaper never paid police for stories. In . a written statement, addressing the question of what ethical issues . need to be held in mind by a journalist communicating with the police, . he said: 'The main ethical issue is that we never pay police officers . for stories or seek to put the police in a position where they feel that . they should provide information to us in exchange for anything that . they consider that they are getting from us.' Decision: Britain's Director of Public Prosecutions, Keir Starmer, pictured, says 14 NotW staff will find out if they face charges within weeks . He also warned that there was a 'climate of fear' stopping officers talking to the Press. He wrote: 'I believe that officers . should be allowed to speak to the Press about their cases without the . fear that they are going to be accused of corruption. At the moment . there is a climate of fear in which officers are too scared to talk to . the Press.' The other . suspect was Daily Star . Sunday deputy news editor Tom Savage, who was shown on a GPS locator on . his website at East Dulwich police station in south-east London this . morning. The pair are being questioned at separate . police stations on suspicion of conspiracy to corrupt and of conspiracy . to cause misconduct in a public office, the Met said. A spokesman said: 'Today's arrests . relate to suspected payments to a public official and are not about . seeking journalists to reveal confidential sources in relation to . information that has been obtained legitimately.' The latest arrests mean 41 people . have been arrested by detectives on Operation Elveden, the investigation . into suspected corrupt payments to public officials. The operation is being run alongside Operation Weeting, the Scotland Yard probe into phone-hacking. The Met spokesman said: 'A . 37-year-old man was arrested at his home in Kent and a 34-year-old man . at his home in south-east London at approximately 6am this morning on . suspicion of conspiracy to corrupt (contrary to the Prevention of . Corruption Act 1906) and of conspiracy to cause misconduct in a public . office (contrary to common law). 'The two, both journalists, are being questioned at police stations in Kent and south-east London.' It comes after the Director of Public Prosecutions Keir Starmer revealed more than a dozen former News of the World journalists will find out by the end of this month if they face phone hacking charges . Keir . Starmer says he is 'reasonably confident' the Crown Prosecution Service . will make a final decision on the 14 suspects within weeks. Probe: Former NotW staff arrested under Operation Weeting, pictured clockwise, include Rebekah Brooks, Andy Coulson, former assistant editor Ian Edmondson, and former Managing Editor Stuart Kuttner . Journalists arrested and bailed include former editors Andy Coulson and Rebekah Brooks, who may have directed or allowed their staff to intercept mobile phone voicemails. Former . assistant editor Ian Edmondson, chief reporter Neville Thurlbeck and . managing editor Stuart Kuttner were also arrested as part of the . Metropolitan Police's hacking operation, known as Weeting. Starmer . told the Guardian that alleged phone hacking cases would be dealt with . as 'a batch' meaning that the fate of those allegedly involved will be . dramatically announced on the same day this month. Any hacking charges would be the first brought since 2007. The . News of the World's former royal editor Clive Goodman and private . investigator Glenn Mulcaire were then jailed for four months and six . months respectively for intercepting messages from members of the royal . family and their staff. Prosecutors . are currently using a 'broad interpretation' of the Regulation of . Investigatory Powers Act (Ripa), Starmer said, which will allow . journalists to be charged with hacking even if the person had listened . to the voicemail first. Former Met assistant commissioner John . Yates had said previously it was not clear if someone could be . prosecuted if a message had already been played back. Starmer . also told the Guardian that alternative charges would also be . considered 'in so far as it was necessary,' including conspiring to . intercept communications and computer hacking. He added that the 'public interest' test was being applied to every case. If the person allegedly being hacked had acted with 'serious hypocrisy', like having an affair for example, this will also be considered, he said. | Justin Penrose and Tom Savage held in dawn raids .
Released until October pending further inquiries . |
215,085 | a27022ce16a9fd999a91a10c4eae30790ede8d7a | A couple have gained thousands of fans after they 'counter-protested' anti-abortion pickets with bizarre slogans like 'Bring back Crystal Pepsi' and 'Who farted?'. Grayson and Tina Haver Currin came up with the idea in March to break the ice with pro-lifers outside an abortion clinic near their home in Raleigh, North Carolina. Since then the photographs of their surreal placards have gone viral - prompting dozens of other pro-choice activists to join them every Saturday morning. Scroll down for video . Not your usual pastime: Tina Haver Currin (right) and her husband Grayson have won hordes of fans with their surreal protests against pro-life activists outside an abortion clinic near their home in Raleigh, North Carolina . Not seeing the funny side: Mr Haver Currin (left) said activists have prayed for him and called him wicked . Odd one out: In many of the photos the protesters look as though they are trying to ignore the comic signs . Music writer Grayson, 31, and copywriter Tina, 27, married last year and came up with the idea to stand next to activists on Saturday mornings with a sign saying: 'Weird hobby'. Others since then have read 'I like turtles', 'World's worst nanny ad' and 'Only racists salt their watermelon'. The slogans earn them some bemused reactions from the activists themselves - who perhaps unsurprisingly, have failed to see the funny side. 'They pray for us,' Mr Haver Currin told MailOnline. 'They tell us that God will destroy the wicked, including us. They tell us that we were once sinners just like them. 'They tell us that we're angry because we believe in God so much it hurts us - this one is particularly cute! Mr Haver Currin said: 'Mostly, they put down their signs and bullhorns and berate us instead of the women' Covert: Sometimes the activists appear behind their rival activists to sneak funny photos behind their backs . Overt: And sometimes, their methods are designed to attract as much attention as is humanly possible . 'But mostly, they put down their signs and bullhorns and berate us instead of the women and families going into the clinic for whatever reason they might have.' He added: 'That is the goal - to provide a distraction and shield for the people who need the clinic. And the ultimate goal is to drive these people away completely.' The couple, who met four years ago at a rock concert, began their idea spontaneously when they passed an anti-abortion protest on their way home from a garden centre. 'We both clinched up a bit, and I said, in an offhand way to Tina, 'It would be funny to make a sign that said Weird Hobby with an arrow and point it at the folks holding Babies Are Murdered Here signs', he said. 'I thought she'd just laugh it off, because I'm full of silly ideas. But she was into it. Provocative: The couple admitted they had experienced hostile reactions from some of the pro-life activists . Surreal: To show what they see as the illogical side of pro-life thinking, the picketers make their signs absurd . Joke: The pro-abortion activists also can't help poking fun at the spelling abilities of their rival protesters . 'On our way home, we did the deed, post it to our various social media outlets, and people flipped.' Their protests over one of the nation's most hotly-contested issues duly made headlines when they posted the images on their blog Saturday Chores. Since then the images have been shared thousands of times, and earned them some heavy flak from pro-life advocates who say they are trivialising an important debate. But Mr Haver Currin said: 'There are things that need protesting in this world, and we're not always sure how to protest them. 'By adding humor, we've refused to have an argument with the pro-life movement, because we know that argument will not be won. The argument must be changed. Bemused: The slogans are deliberately designed to be as ludicrously inappropriate as possible . Positive note: The couple said they wanted to combat protesters with chirpy and irreverant messages . Serious: There are also more earnest messages too after dozens of people began joining the couple . 'This is a conversation about equality and freedom.' Anti-abortion protests are widespread and earned a big boost in June, when the Supreme Court said a 'buffer zone' stopping activists from getting to close to clinics violated free speech. The justices struck down the 35ft zones in Massachusetts saying they was too sweeping, taking in sidewalks which have been a place for political campaigning for hundreds of years. To date the couple have only picketed the same protesters at a single clinic less than 10 miles from their home, the A Preferred Women's Health Center (APWHC) in Raleigh. If they manage to evict the protesters out of embarrassment or simply annoyance, they claim they will move on to the next clinic. Support: Nowadays, the couple are far from alone in their comedic Saturday morning vigils in North Carolina . Catchy: The idea has been taken up in San Francisco, where a copycat protest was held last week (pictured) But some allies are way ahead of them - as a copycat 'counter-protest' sprang up in San Francisco last week. And the couple have no plans to scale down their operation. 'The goal has never been to go viral, to be some cute Internet couple or whatnot,' Mr Haver Currin said. 'The goal has been and remains to shame people who feel like shaming women and families exercising their legal right and to distract them from shaming those people.' | Grayson Haver Currin, 31, and wife Tina began their protests in March .
Signs point at pro-lifers declaring 'He's single' and 'Honk if you're horny'
More surreal ones say 'Bring back crystal Pepsi', 'Jesus slays' and 'Pro Dog'
Thousands of people have shared the images since they were put online .
Dozens join protests Raleigh, North Carolina, as they spread to west coast . |
145,101 | 47aa98e105b4566183bdb4e2fc56dbc1e244063b | (CNN) -- Some athletes earn the right to be considered a sporting legend. Few, in truth, are truly deserving of such an honor. But there can be no quarrel over the greatness of Ethiopia's Haile Gebrselassie who, in a career spanning 16 years, has redefined the art of long-distance running. Haile Gebrselassie during the epic 10,000 meter final at the Sydney Olympics in 2000. It is regularly described as one of the greatest track races of all time. Born in the rural town of Asela in the central province of Arsi, Haile Gebrselassie was seven years old when the Ethiopian Miruts Yifter triumphed in the 10,000 meters final at the 1980 Moscow Olympics. Listening to the victory on the family radio the feat implanted not only a desire to run, but also a belief that it was possible for Ethiopian athletes to succeed at the highest level. Gebrselassie soon took up running. Poor transport services in Ethiopia necessitated that he regularly run 10 kilometers to school and back with his books tucked under his left arm. When he began to run competitively -- he won his first 1500 meter race at primary school when he was eight years old -- he ran with a crooked arm, as if the books were still there. But the bent arm didn't hinder him and it has remained a distinctive feature of his running style ever since. Spurred on by his physical education teacher, Gebrselassie started training after school. Extra sessions running around his father's farm soon reaped rewards as he began to win not only local but regional races. When he was 15 years old, he and his brother joined an athletics club in Addis Ababa and tried to make the national team. The young Gebrselassie's devotion to running initially annoyed his father, who implored his son to forge a career as a doctor or a teacher, but he kept up his training schedule and the more he practiced, the faster he got. In 1992, the same year he met his future wife Alem, a 19 year-old Gebrselassie won the 5,000 and 10,000 meter finals at the World Junior Athletic Championships. The following season his senior career would take off in spectacular fashion. At the World Athletics Championships in Stuttgart, Germany he claimed the 10,000 meter title. The following year he broke his first world record -- 5,000 meters at a meet in Hengelo, Holland -- surpassing the time set by the Moroccan Said Aouita seven years earlier. 1995 produced further extraordinary success. Not only did Gebrselassie retain his World 10,000 meter crown -- he would eventually win four -- but he clocked three world records in just 71 days. Still only 23 years old, his fledgling career reached its pinnacle when he won the 10,000 meter Olympic gold at Atlanta in 1996. In doing so, Gebrselassie had emulated his boyhood hero Miruts Yifter. The next four years saw Gebrselassie go unbeaten over 5,000 and 10,000 meters, smash records indoors and out -- taking his career world record tally to 15 -- and star in the 1999 Disney movie "Endurance" which chronicled his life. His triumph over his great rival, Kenyan Paul Tergat at the Sydney Olympics in 2000 is perhaps his most famous race. Gebrselassie -- who had spent the weeks prior to the games struggling with an Achilles tendon injury -- piped Tergat on the line by 0.09 seconds to retain his 10,000 meter Olympic title in dramatic fashion. The victory secured him national hero status at home in Ethiopia, and hundreds of thousands of fans cheered him through the streets of Addis Ababa in a homecoming parade. His attempts to win an unprecedented third Olympic title in Athens in 2004 were dashed by a recurrence of the Achilles tendon injury. Any sense of personal disappointment -- it is difficult to tell as Gebrselassie has always worn a smile in triumph or defeat -- was replaced with elation as his protégé and countryman Kenenisa Bekele took the gold medal. The previous year Gebrselassie had finished runner-up to Bekele in the World Championship 10,000 meters in Paris. Gebrselassie soon turned his attentions away from the track and began to focus on road running, in particular the half-marathon and the marathon. In 2006, he duly added the half-marathon world record to his collection and in September 2007 he broke the marathon world record in Berlin to register his 25th world record mark. Now 34 years old, his body shows no signs of fatigue -- physical or mental -- and he retains a hunger to achieve. Whatever happens in the future, his performances merit a permanent place in the pantheon of truly great sportsmen. Off the track, Gebrselassie has maintained his links with Ethiopia, choosing to live and work in Addis Ababa. He remains committed to promoting the Ethiopian cause, not always through charity -- although he lends his vigorous support to numerous projects -- but by repeating the mantra of reward through hard work. There can be few better role models for sport and life than he. | Inspired to start running after watching the 1980 Moscow Olympics .
Early promise quickly realized as he triumphs at World Junior Games .
Serial world record breaker completes Olympic double in 2000 .
Marathon glory in 2007 caps an unprecedented running career . |
20,383 | 39d4393802f8cb36a5e5f17d17ce2e79ace686bb | KATHMANDU, Nepal (CNN) -- The leader of Nepal's former communist rebels was named as the country's new prime minister Friday. Prachanda is still the supreme commander of the Maoists People's Liberation Army. Pushpa Kamal Dahal, also known as Prachanda, was elected four months after elections in which his Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) became the largest party in the 601-member constituent assembly. Prachanda received 464 votes of the 577 votes cast, while his rival Sher Bahadur Deuba of the Nepali Congress party received 113 votes. Most of the parties in the assembly voted for the Maoist candidate. A simple majority was enough to be elected the prime minister. Prachanda's victory became certain on Thursday when the third and fourth biggest parties in Nepal's assembly decided to back him. He will now lead a coalition government, although talks are ongoing on about the allocation of ministerial portfolios. The Maoists signed a peace deal with the government in November 2006, joined an interim parliament and government in 2007 and fought multi-party elections in April this year. The Communist Party of Nepal unexpectedly became the largest party in the elections, winning 220 of the 575 elected seats in the assembly. The assembly declared Nepal a republic in May and in July elected Nepal's first president, physician Ram Baran Yadav. Prachanda, 54, entered politics when he was 17 but went underground in 1981, making his first public appearance after 25 years in 2006. The Maoists launched an insurgency to abolish the monarchy in 1996 and the ten-year conflict claimed more than 13,000 lives. According to the peace deal agreed in 2008, the estimated 19,602 Maoist combatants would be integrated into the country's security structure, the process of which is yet to be worked out. Prachanda remains the supreme commander of the Maoists People's Liberation Army. Besides completing the peace process, the new government has to face many challenges including inflation, lawlessness, impunity and ethnic aspirations. | Prachanda, Communist Party of Nepal chairman, won 464 out of 577 votes .
A simple majority was enough to be elected the prime minister .
Assembly declared Nepal a republic in May and July elected first president .
The post of president is largely ceremonial. PM has executive powers . |
219,377 | a7f53289d27a32652b77ceb8c76335919b46e14e | Diane-Louise Jordan, the former Blue Peter presenter - who now appears on Songs of Praise - has been handed a police harassment order over an incident with her son-in-law's lover. It is claimed that Ms Jordan, 54, had a row with her daughter Justine's husband David Linton and his girlfriend last month. Mr Linton and his estranged wife continued to live in the same house in Cambridgeshire for the sake of their children. Scroll down for video . Diane-Louise Jordan, pictured, was handed a police harassment notice after the alleged incident last month . Ms Jordan, left, was the first black presenter of BBC's Blue Peter when she joined John Leslie, centre and Anthea Turner, right, on the long-running children's television show where she remained for six years . According to The Sun, Justine told her estranged husband and his girlfriend to leave the house and Ms Jordan turned up where there was allegedly a row. Her alleged victim said: 'Diane was being very aggressive, poking and pushing me. She was in my face saying you're scum, you're scum. 'I felt threatened and called police. She grabbed my wrist and twisted it round. She pushed me into a cupboard to get the phone out of my hand. Then she grabbed it off me and told the police I was lying.' Ms Jordan said: 'I want to categorically state that the allegations made by the woman are manifestly untrue. Due to ongoing court proceedings involving my daughter, I am unable to make much further comment.' Ms Jordan adopted her daughter, who was originally her niece when she was aged two, when Ms Jordan's sister died suddenly. Ms Jordan became the first ever black presenter on BBC's flagship children's programme Blue Peter in 1990. She remained on the show for six years and after she left she was asked by the then Prime Minister Gordon Brown to sit on the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Committee. She later became the regular presenter on BBC Radio 2's The Sunday Hour show as well as regularly appearing on Songs of Praise. When she took over The Sunday Hour role, she said: 'I feel both privileged and excited about being invited to present such an established and much-loved BBC gem.' Christopher Trace was forced to quit Blue Peter after he had an affair in 1968 on a trip to Norway . Christopher Trace was an early presenter on Blue Peter and was forced to quit the show when in 1968 on a trip to Norway he cheated on his wife with a 19-year-old Tone Keri Fjalstad. After the affair became public knowledge, Trace was dumped by his wife and he was forced to become a mini-cab driver. He was declared bankrupt in 1973 and he died of throat cancer in 1992, aged just 59 and penniless. Peter Duncan was a popular presenter during the 1980s performing daring stunts on screen . Peter Duncan was the presenter who put the 'blue' into Blue Peter after details of his early career as a soft-porn actor emerged in 1984. Almost a decade earlier, as a 21-year-old, Mr Duncan starred in a low-budget porn film called 'The Lifetaker'. When copies of the movie surfaced, Mr Duncan quit the show, before filming 'Duncan Dares'. He later returned to Blue Peter for a further year. Michael Sundin presented the show in the 1980s until a video of him as a nightclub stripper emerged . Michael Sundin joined Blue Peter after Peter Duncan left and was a noted acrobat and former World Trampoline champion. However, Sundin only lasted nine months on the show after a video, filmed in the Hippodrome Night Club in London showed him removing all his clothes during a raunchy on-stage performance. Sundin danced on a Rick Astley pop video in 1989 and died later that year of an Aids-related illness. Richard Bacon, pictured, was forced out of Blue Peter after he was uncovered as a secret cocaine user . Richard Bacon was forced to quit Blue Peter after he was uncovered as a secret celebrity cocaine user. As the scandal emerged, Bacon was forced out and the head of children's TV programming said 'he has not only let himself and the team down, but he has let you all down'. He has since rebuilt his career and reputation and is a regular radio presenter. John Leslie was presenting This Morning when a rival TV channel named him in connection with the rape of Ulrika Jonsson who claimed she was attacked by a fellow celebrity who she refused to name in her book . John Leslie was dropped by ITV's This Morning when an allegation linking him to the alleged rape of Ulrika Jonsson after she had written about an attack involving an unnamed celebrity in her book. His name circulated widely in media circles as the alleged attacker and was then blurted out live on air by Matthew Wright on his morning talk show. Leslie never faced any charges in connection with this allegation. However he was later charged with two indecent assaults against a 23-year-old woman. He was found not guilty following a trial and left the court 'without a stain on his reputation'. While appearing on Blue Peter during the 1990s Anthea Turner had a squeaky clean image . Anthea Turner presented the show between 1992 and 1994 before going on to present The National Lottery. At the time she was widely viewed as a 'sweetheart' to the nation. But the gloss from her pristine reputation was tarnished after she sold the rights to her marriage to Grant Bovey to a chocolate company which used the event as an advertisement. The sponsorship deal, which featured cheesy photographs of the ceremony. The couple later split over claims that Bovey had an extra-marital affair. | Diane-Louise Jordan issued a police harassment order following incident .
It is claimed Jordan had a row with her son-in-law and his girlfriend .
Jordan arrived at her daughter's Cambridgeshire home before the incident .
David Linton has split with Jordan's daughter but was still living at home .
Jordan denies all the allegations made by the alleged victim . |
280,710 | f7a83b95df2312e1e2943178933c773b22968601 | A mother who was too fat for the Nintendo Wii - making her computerised character balloon when she stood on the Wii-Fit board - can now play with her children again after losing an incredible nine stone. Mrs Rose was horrified to be told by the Nintendo Wii that she was too heavy for the board when she went to play the game - including bowling and skiing - on the console with her young daughter one Christmas. Weighing in at 22st 6lb, the machine told her it could not cope with her weight - even making her computerised character blow right up on screen. Debbie Rose pictured, left when she weighed in at 22st 6lb and right looking healthier after losing just under nine stone . Wake-up call: Mrs Rose was told by the Nintendo Wii that, at 22st 6lb, it could not cope with her weight - even making her computerised character, pictured, balloon on screen . After years of battling the bulge, it was the wake-up call the 33-year-old needed - and forced her into shedding weight. The size 28 mother-of-two has incredibly managed to lose just under nine stone in two years - and can now join in with family fun and play with her children on the console. Mrs Rose, who lives in Brownhills, Staffordshire with husband Tim and daughters, Alana, eight, and Summer, two, said: 'I was so miserable, but didn't realise how sad I was until I look back at that time. Result: Mrs Rose pictured with her daughters who she can now play with on the Wii-Fit console . 'We bought my eldest daughter Alana a Wii Fit for Christmas but when I got on it the game made my character explode before we could even start. 'I was stunned when it said that I was too heavy for it. I was just mortified. 'But it really spurred me on to go and do something about my weight. It was the kick-start I needed.' Deb's diet before she lost weight: . Breakfast: Four slices of toast with butter and jam . Morning snack: Biscuits and crisps . Lunch: A cheese sandwich with a packet of crisps and a chocolate bar . Afternoon snack: A piece of cake . Dinner: Full-fat curry with chips, rice, naan bread and onion bhajis . Deb's diet since losing weight: . Breakfast: Branflakes with banana and raisins . Morning snack: Piece of fruit . Lunch: Ryvita with low fat cheese spread and salad . Afternoon snack: Low fat yogurt and a Weight Watchers bar . Dinner: Healthy curry with rice, a finger of naan bread and salad . The machine, which helps users keep track of their fitness and weight with interactive exercises, states the maximum weight for gamers is 21.5st. Mrs Rose, who works at Asda, joined Weight Watchers at the Park View Centre in Brownhills in January 2010. She swapped her diet of biscuits, crisps, and curries for fruit, cereals and low-fat meals, and hasn't looked back. 'Things like going shopping for clothes used to be an emotional trauma,' she said. 'I'm still keen to lose more weight and it would be wonderful to get to my goal of 11st 10lb this year. And she's back on the Wii Fit with her daughters weighing in at 13st 12lb. 'As soon as I'd lost enough weight to use the Wii I was on it - and I can join in with the family Wii parties as well. 'I can actually play the skiing game now and we have a good time playing with it now. I can finally stand on the board without the character blowing up like a balloon and exploding.' | The Wii-Fit console told her, that at 22st 6lb, it could not cope with her weight .
After years of battling the bulge, it was the stark wake-up call Deb Rose, 33 needed to lose weight . |
80,422 | e3fcdbf5b6b1f911e379161c29dcbbf7196d6f98 | The similarities are plentiful. Both congressmen are Republican. Both represent central California -- their districts share a border. Both are recently elected to Congress. Both have outspoken positions on immigration reform. And that's where the similarities end. Republican v. Republican . Rep. Jeff Denham, who represents California's 10th Congressional District, is actively lobbying his Republican colleagues to get on board behind immigration legislation that includes a path to legalization. "The entire system is broken," Denham said in a recent interview with CNN. "It's a big issue for our nation. It is a big issue for California and for my home district." But Denham's views don't cross district lines. His congressional neighbor and fellow Republican, Rep. Tom McClintock, couldn't disagree more. While his 4th District is next to Denham's, a wide gap exists between the two on this issue. "We have a path to citizenship and it's a path that has been followed by millions of legal immigrants who have obeyed all of our laws," McClintock said. "It's unfair to have 11 to 20 million illegal immigrants cut in line ahead of them." Denham was the first Republican to come out in favor of comprehensive legislation. He signed on to the Democrats' proposal, which includes a path to legalization for the 11 million undocumented immigrants currently in the country. It's a controversial position within Republican circles. In his first week back in Washington after the holiday break, Denham got right to work. He met with 20 Republican members to hash out their differences on immigration. But McClintock is working on his own immigration campaign. He vowed to "speak out at every opportunity" in opposition to a path to legalization. John King: Obama at odds with himself on immigration . Boehner's haul . Denham and McClintock epitomize the challenge that lies before House Speaker John Boehner regarding immigration reform -- a divided party with divergent views on immigration. The establishment and moderate components of the party want to overhaul the immigration system because it's broken and because it would help a party unpopular with the fastest-growing segment of the population. Meanwhile, conservatives know what's popular with the base -- and in their district. The principles Boehner unveiled at last week's Republican retreat sought a middle ground -- a path to legalization but not citizenship, and only after those already in the country get in the back of the line and the federal government provides proof that work is continuing to secure the border. So close yet so far . About 2½ million of the 11 million undocumented immigrants in the country are in California. So how did two vocal Republicans, both from central California, emerge with such different positions? Their districts help tell the story. McClintock represents a predominately Republican district, which overwhelmingly voted for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney in the 2012 election. His district is 78% white and wealthy, with residents earning a median income of more than $61,000 per year. James Lai, Santa Clara University associate professor of ethnic studies, describes McClintock's district as the "white flight" district, meaning that wealthier, older, white residents move to the Sacramento suburbs or Lake Tahoe to retire or get away from congested urban areas. "There aren't that many districts like that in California," Lai said of the profile of McClintock's district, which allows him to have a conservative, anti-immigration position. Denham's district, which is adjacent to McClintock's, is so close in proximity yet so far in ideology. Denham represents "the nation's salad bowl," an agriculture mecca that supplies much of the country's produce. Forty percent of the residents are Latino and only 47% voted for Romney. McClintock and Denham "reflect the complex topography of California, but at the same time, their positions are reflected in their constituents," Lai said. Re-election at stake . While McClintock coasted to victory, Denham had a tough re-election bid 2012 and could have another tough race against a Democrat in 2014, a threat that could be compounded if Republicans fail to act. Denham's constituents are very aware. Many of them are agriculture workers, and they and their families are directly impacted by any action -- or inaction -- on immigration. "I've seen it in my own home district where families have been torn apart," Denham said, describing the current maze of immigration laws and enforcement. Once fearing deportation, immigrant among first lady's guests . Republican Party leaders are acutely aware, acknowledging that the party must address the issue to prevent becoming irrelevant as Latinos and Asians grow to a larger percentage of the electorate. But in a deeply divided Congress, with more than 200 safe Republicans, immigration is hardly worth upsetting the base. McClintock says his view is in line with his constituents'. "I can tell you the sentiment in my district is very strongly for the rule of law and assuring that those who come to our country come with the intention of becoming Americans," he said. A difficult race for McClintock is much more likely from a primary challenger than from a Democrat. Rosemary Jenks, executive director of Numbers USA, a group that favors a reduction of immigration, said McClintock is more in line with Republican voters' views. "I think the majority of Republicans understand that their constituents do not want this and can't afford this," she added. Special interest support . Jenks said Republican leaders are being pushed by business groups who want institutionalized cheap labor. The California Chamber of Commerce has been active, pushing Republicans to get on board with immigration reform. Like the national Chamber of Commerce, the California outpost has sent letters to the California delegation, held news conferences and lobbied Congress. "This is so important to California's economy. This is more important here than anywhere else," CalChamber President and CEO Allan Zaremberg said in July. "(California's representatives) can't let somebody else, who doesn't have a stake in this, determine the outcome." But giving McClintock cover, however, is the local chapter of the Chamber. Michael Ayala, CEO of the Tuolomne County Chamber, located in California's 4th District, says immigration isn't a priority for county residents. "If the federal government would enforce existing law, we wouldn't have the problems we currently have," Ayala said, a position that McClintock echoes. Work in Washington . While Denham might be a minority in his caucus, that minority might have the momentum. States take the lead in immigration game . House Majority Leader Eric Cantor has been advocating his KIDS Act proposal to address the status of children of parents who came to the country illegally. And Boehner unveiled Republican principles last week, an indication that he is testing the waters on possibly moving an immigration bill this year. Denham called discussions at the Republican retreat productive and said he's pleased that Boehner floated a starting point. He's trying to convince McClintock and like-minded Republicans that the United States has "de facto amnesty" and that the Republican Party should "fix the system." McClintock doesn't seem likely to buy it. "The Republican Party has always stood for the rule of law and it has welcomed legal immigrants to the country with the desire to come and be Americans and I believe we should continue to do so," he said. The tale of two Republicans will have an ending. It's just unclear what it will be. | Two neighboring California Republicans represent the GOP's challenge on immigration .
Rep. Jeff Denham backs immigration reform while Rep. Tom McClintock is fighting it .
An estimated 2 ½ million of the 11 million undocumented immigrants live in California .
House Speaker John Boehner recently unveiled immigration principles to his caucus . |
263,171 | e0df044932b407c4addf05f5a148a72cf36d9796 | This is the terrifying moment a tiger tamer was mauled mid-act at a circus in Spain. Hundreds of spectators could only stare in shock as the beast pounced on Danny Gottani's back and tried to rip him apart. Mobile phone footage filmed by an audience member on Friday shows the big cat slashing at the 35-year-old's throat, legs and back. An audience member took this mobile phone footage of the big cat slashing at the 35-year-old's throat, legs and back . Savage attack: The tiger pounces on the tamers holding him with its paws and mauling him . The tamer's 60-year-old mother, who was watching the show from the audience, suffered a severe panic attack . Circus workers sprinted into the ring with sticks to try and fend off the animal. Gottani, part of the family who'd just set up the Gottani Circus in the Aluche neighbourhood of Madrid, was then rushed to hospital. He's currently being treated for his injuries, which doctors believe are non life-threatening as they did not affect his vital organs. The tamer's 60-year-old mother, who was watching the show from the audience, also needed urgent medical attention after suffering a severe panic attack. A circus worker was seen sprinting into the ring with a stick to try and fend off the animal . The events inside the cage were obscured by clouds of dry ice as the tamer got free of the tiger and was led to safety . Ambulance staff then rushed the tamer to hospital where he's currently being treated for his injuries . Despite being savaged, doctors believe the tamer's injuries are non life-threatening as they did not affect his vital organs . Spanish media reports that the circus was stopped so Gottani could be removed from the ring. But it re-started again shortly after. The Gottani Circus website reveals the tamer had been working with tigers since he was 18-years-old. | Hundreds of spectators in Madrid could only stare in shock .
The beast pounced on Danny Gottani's back and tried to rip him apart .
The big cat slashing at the 35-year-old's throat, legs and back .
The tamer's 60-year-old mother was .
watching the show from the audience .
She also needed medical .
attention after suffering a severe panic attack . |
257,531 | d94ee13fa0942d274883ea8b857aedd794ef6c3c | By . Lydia Warren . PUBLISHED: . 16:11 EST, 19 June 2013 . | . UPDATED: . 16:38 EST, 19 June 2013 . A 14-year-old boy who allegedly murdered his great-grandmother has told a court how he and a friend took turns hitting her with a hatchet and a hammer so they could kill her and steal her money. Antonio Barbeau gave the chilling details as he testified in the trial of his friend Nathan Paape, who has pleaded not guilty to the grisly crime in Sheboygan, Wisconsin in September last year. Barbeau told the court that the weekend before the murder of 78-year-old Barbara Olson, he and Paape had talked about ways to get money and how they could steal from his great-grandmother. On the day of the murder, they asked Barbeau's mother for a ride to 'a . friend's house' and then they walked two miles to the home, where Olson found them in the garage. Testimony: Antonio Barbeau raises his hand to take the oath before testifying during a trial for his friend Nathan Paape, with whom he allegedly killed his great-grandmother last year . 'We were going to try to scare her to . get money and use force if needed,' said Barbeau, who has already been convicted in the case and is now awaiting his sentencing. When asked what type . of force they planned to use, Barbeau said: 'An . attack, I guess to kill.' She invited them into her home and as she turned her back to call Barbeau's mother, Barbeau hit her on the head with the hatchet, the Shaboygan Press reported. He said he then ran to the bathroom as he was feeling sick but that when he emerged, he saw Paape hit the woman with the hammer multiple times. 'Accomplice': Nathan Paape, pictured right with defense attorney June Spoerl, has pleaded not guilty . Weapon: Sheboygan Falls Police officer Nicole Schmelter holds up an axe allegedly from the crime . 'She was still yelling when I went to the bathroom, but had stopped when I returned,' he said. Barbeau then hit Olson with the hatchet again, and said Paape then took the weapon from him and hit her once or twice too. Victim: Barbara Olson, 78, was found in a pool of blood at her home last September . The account came in stark contrast with Paape's, the Shaboygan Press reported. Paape claimed the robbery and . murder were Barbeau's idea and that he only hit Olson twice . with a hammer because he feared his friend would turn on him. Paape thought Barbeau was joking about killing Olson, his lawyer said. But Barbeau said his friend never suggested he thought it was a joke. He has pleaded not guilty but if convicted, he faces life in prison and a minimum 20 years in prison. Barbara Olsen's body was found in a pool of blood outside her home last September. Once the teens realized Olsen was . dead after the horrific attack, they attempted to drag her body to the . car, leaving a trail on blood through the house, police said last . September. After failing to load Olsen into the vehicle, they dumped her in the garage. The boys then allegedly stole several items, including a purse, loose change and jewelry. The . perpetrators then hopped into Olson's car and sped off. They eventually . dumped the vehicle in the parking lot of a local bowling alley and . walked to a nearby eatery, where they shared a pizza. Savage: Barbeau, left, and Paape, right, provided conflicting stories about who was behind the attack . Investigation: The teens were arrested just 12 hours after the woman's body was discovered at her home . The . teens later returned to the abandoned car and tried to wipe off their . fingerprints, the complaint states. They left some of their loot in . plain sight, along with the car keys, hoping that someone would steal . the vehicle and get blamed for Olsen's murder. They locked the weapons in the trunk of the car, along with a bloody piece of cloth. Olsen’s body was discover in the driveway of her Westridge Drive home and 12 hours later, the boys were arrested. | Antonio Barbeau testified in trial of Nathan Paape, also 14, on Wednesday .
The boys 'decided to steal money from Barbara Olson, 78, went to her home and took it in turns beating her with a hatchet and hammer'
Differs from Paape's account, who said it was not his idea .
Paape faces life in prison if he is found guilty; Barbeau has already been found guilty and is awaiting sentencing . |
48,079 | 87b84cc4e797285633a69f3d3724a1a5003b6d67 | Caracas, Venezuela (CNN) -- When the World Bank's arbitration body weighs in on a dispute between Venezuela and ExxonMobil, President Hugo Chavez says he won't respect the decision. The oil giant and officials from the South American nation have been feuding since 2007, when Chavez's government nationalized a joint project in the country's crude-rich Orinoco belt. A case before the World Bank's International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) is pending. "I will say it once. We will not recognize any decisions of the ICSID. We will not recognize them," Chavez said on state television Sunday. A hearing in the ICSID case is scheduled for the first quarter of 2012, according to a summary of the dispute published in an Exxon financial report. Last week Venezuela's state oil company PdVSA said it would pay ExxonMobil $255 million after the Paris-based International Chamber of Commerce ruled that Venezuela owes ExxonMobil $907 million. Past debts and asset seizures make up the difference, officials from PdVSA said in a statement. Chavez criticized ExxonMobil, which has asked for billions of dollars in compensation, for continuing with the case. "Since they couldn't do it in Paris, now they are going to the ICSID in the United States," he said. ExxonMobil affiliates filed the ICSID arbitration case against Venezuela in September 2007 over the Cerro Negro Project, which was a joint venture until the Venezuelan government took over ExxonMobil's 42% interest in June of that year. ExxonMobil has argued that PdVSA breached obligations under an investment treaty. Venezuela argued that taking over the project and others in Orinoco belt was its sovereign right. Chavez, who has nationalized numerous industries and land holdings during his 13-year tenure, said Sunday that he supported Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa's proposal to create a new arbitration body "where we can settle whatever differences there are between governments and companies in Latin America." Venezuela -- along with allies Bolivia and Nicaragua -- has said in the past that it would withdraw from the convention that created the ICSID, arguing that the international body gives transnational companies a gateway to violate national sovereignty. Chavez repeated those concerns Sunday, saying the arbitration panel was being used to threaten his country. "They are trying to achieve the impossible, that we pay them what we are never going to pay," he said. World Bank directors devised the international arbitration panel in 1965. More than 140 countries are members, according to a statement on the ICSID website, which describes the body as an "autonomous international institution." CNN''s Catherine E. Shoichet and journalist Osmary Hernandez contributed to this report. | Venezuela and ExxonMobil are feuding over the 2007 nationalization of a project .
A case is pending before a World Bank dispute arbitration body .
President Hugo Chavez Venezuela "will not recognize any decisions" of the panel .
This month a Paris-based body said Venezuela owes Exxon $907 million . |
97,290 | 093001aefecf0537c5afd0d04173dbe3c36f1d18 | By . Anna Hodgekiss . PUBLISHED: . 13:03 EST, 8 February 2013 . | . UPDATED: . 12:56 EST, 9 February 2013 . A toddler who captured the nation’s hearts when he drove down the aisle to deliver his parents' wedding rings in his favourite remote-controlled car has lost his battle with cancer. Two-year-old Charlie Harris-Beard had been battling acute myeloid leukaemia since he was diagnosed in April 2011. Today his parents said 'heaven had gained another angel' after he died this afternoon. Scroll down for video . Charlie Harris-Beard was his father's best man when his parents Fiona and Joe hastily brought forward their wedding last November after learning he had just weeks to live . A message on the family Twitter page today said: 'Heaven gained another angel today as our little soldier Charles Joseph Harris-Beard peacefully passed away' Charlie was his father's best man when his parents hastily brought forward their wedding when they learned he had just weeks to live last November. Despite the odds, he defied doctors by living to see his last Christmas. But the experimental drug his family hoped would prolong his life later failed. Courage: Charlie drove the rings down the ailse . Today, his older sister Ellie Louise, 12, told his 45,000 Facebook fans around the world he had finally lost his battle at 2.04pm, surrounded by family and friends. In a heartbreaking Facebook tribute she said: 'Hello everyone, it's Charlie's big sister Ellie Louise. 'Minutes ago I had to sit with my mom, dad, family and Charlie, to say goodbye as the angels came down. Thank you everyone, (your) thoughts and prayers meant a lot.' A message on the family Twitter page added: 'Heaven gained another angel today as our little soldier Charles Joseph Harris-Beard peacefully passed away.' Today Charlie's mother Fiona said she was too devastated to talk about the passing. She said: 'Everything is just so raw at the moment.' charlie returned home from hospital in . January last year following a successful bone marrow transplant using . stem cells from an American baby's umbilical cord. But in November last year his parents Fiona, 31, Joe, 31, decided to . bring their wedding forward so that their beloved Charlie could play a . leading role as his dad's best man. Charlie, wearing a smart black wedding suit, brought a tear to the eyes . of the 300-strong congregation as he delivered the rings to his parents . in his favourite remote-controlled car. After the service at St Mary's Church in Kidderminster, Worcestershire, he smiled for pictures with his proud family. His plight captured the hearts of the nation and his favourite football . team Aston Villa even invited him and his family onto the pitch before a . match to meet his idols. Pictures of the plucky youngster driving the wedding rings down the aisle in his favourite toy car made headlines around the world. Football mad: Aston Villa fan Charlie with (from left) big sister Ellie-Louise, mother Fiona and his grandfather . In a final attempt to save his life, Charlie had started a trial of the drug Aurora Kinase in December. The revolutionary drug, which is . administered over 72 hours every 21 days via intravenous infusion, is . intended to inhibit cancer growth by blocking the enzymes which cause . cancerous cells to grow. But just weeks later, his parents announced the devastating news that the potentially lifesaving drug had failed to save him. Side-by-side: Two-year-old Charlie was there for his father Joe as best man at his wedding throughout the day . Today, followers took to his Facebook page to pay tribute to Charlie. Paula Gouldstone wrote: 'Rest In Peace Charlie, such a brave little boy. My heart bleeds for all his family and friends. Cant imagine how they . are all coping right now, Such a shame. Sleep tight little angel xxxx' Tanya Cunningham added: 'Night night Charlie Bear - you and your family . have touched the hearts of so many and you'll never be forgotten - Rest . In Peace little one xxxx' Devastating: Charlie was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia on Easter Sunday 2011 . Earlier today a picture had been posted showing a frail looking Charlie being cradled one last time by his big sister. His heartbroken mother Fiona posted: . 'Ellie loved her picture with Charlie yesterday [Thursday], she wanted . to show the whole world how much she loves him. "However, . until Charlie is feeling stronger that will be his last picture, we . know it can be upsetting seeing someone so poorly and don't want to . offend anyone but it was important for Ellie to show you all how much . she loves her brother.' | Charlie Harris-Beard had battled leukaemia since April 2011 .
His parents brought forward their wedding when he was given weeks to live .
Was his father's best man and drove rings down the aisle in his toy car .
Last ditch attempt to save him using experimental drugs failed last year .
Today after he died his parents said 'heaven had gained another angel' |
193,943 | 870fc9e5a30646ec4f7ec8712b6144a0369a6d26 | The Republican-led House may have settled on a strategy to attack President Barack Obama's immigration 'amnesty' plan without shutting down the government, while giving tea party conservatives a way to vent their anger. It's the 'CRomnibus' – not to be confused with the 'cronut.' The plan calls for a symbolic vote to de-fund Obama's executive actions on immigration, along with a hybrid budget plan that puts the White House's immigration authorities on a short leash. House Speaker John Boehner told lawmakers Tuesday to expect a straight de-funding vote this week. The Senate, still under Democratic control, would ignore the measure and the president would veto it in any event. That would tee up a budget battle that's more about Republican infighting than the usual GOP-versus-Democrats squabbles. SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEOS . House Speaker John Boehner told reporters on Tuesday about his attempt to strike a balance between conservatives determined to stop President Obama's immigration order and other lawmakers just as determined to avoid another politically damaging government shutdown . Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson testified Tuesday on Capitol Hill, insisting that lawmakers shouldn't hold his budget hostage to a D.C. war over immigration policy . The most recent 'Continuing Resolution' (CR) funding the federal government expires on Dec. 11, just as the outgoing Congress packs its things. House conservatives want to let it expire, or extend it for only a short time. Moderates, including Boehner and other party leaders, want an 'omnibus' budget passed instead, funding the government through the end of next September when Uncle Sam's fiscal year ends. They fear a showdown with Obama would bring another partial government 'shutdown' that the White House would successfully pin on them. Right-wingers, meanwhile, see that position as a white flag of surrender to Obama's immigration plan. So, faced with a tea party caucus large enough to block an omnibus budget, Boehner is considering a plan that would give the party's right wing something to crow about while keeping the White House from going on the attack over a shutdown threat. Enter the CRomnibus. The latest solution to GOP infighting is a hybrid bill that would fund most of the government through September 2015 – all except for immigration authorities, which would get a three-month 'CR.' That strategy would let Republicans gin up another battle in early 2015 when they control both houses of Congress. 'The cavalry is coming,' Ohio Republican Rep. Jim Jordan promised on Tuesday during a monthly 'Conversations with Conservatives' meeting in Washington. He argued that anything passed in the house should tie Obama's hands until January. 'And then if Harry Reid and the Senate don’t pass that ... then let’s do something very short term,' Jordan said. 'Let's wait for the majority in the Senate to change.' Arizona Republican Rep. Matt Salmon told Roll Call that he believed, 'as many of the members do,' that Obama's immigration plan is unconstitutional. 'So you just want me to fund the unconstitutional act for 60 days?' Salmon asked. 'Isn't that kind of like being a little bit pregnant? No, that doesn’t work for me.' Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who will lose his leadership perch in January, signaled his support for the idea, calling it 'a big accomplishment if we could get a bill over here that would fund all the appropriations subcommittees except for one.' 'I think it's kind of unfortunate that they're talking about not doing Homeland Security but that’s the way it is,' he told reporters on Capitol Hill. The White House also expressed disappointment with the option currently being considered by Congress on Wednesday but restrained itself from issuing a veto threat. Repeating previous assertions that the White House would like Congress to pass a budget that funds all areas of the government through the end of the fiscal year, the president's spokesman said today that Republicans should refrain from adding 'unnecessary ideological riders' to the current budget legislation. 'There will be ample opportunity for Republicans, next year, when they have control of both the House and the Senate to pursue any number of ideological ideas that they may want to codify into legislation,' White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said. 'There's no reason they should attach them to a budget proposal,' he added. Republican Majority Leader-elect Mitch McConnell will meet with Obama at the White House on Wednesday to discuss the budget plan, among other issues, but the White House was unwilling to provide reporters insight on that meeting during Wednesday's briefing. CATBIRD SEAT: Obama is wagering that Republicans won't risk losing their Election Day luster by threatening to shut down the government in order to stop his executive 'amnesty' order . While Democrats seemed willing to accept the current plan, Senate conservatives are itching for a fight. 'The Chairman of the Republican Party made a promise to America on executive amnesty: ‘We can’t allow it to happen and we won’t let it happen… everything we can do to stop it we will,’ Alabama Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions recalled Tuesday. 'Unfortunately, the plan now being circulated in the House fails to meet that test.' Sessions objects to the 'CR' part of the 'CRomnibus' proposal, arguing that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Enforcement should be left twisting in the wind entirely. 'Congress must respond to the president’s unlawful [immigration] action by funding the government but not funding illegal amnesty,' he said. 'This is a perfectly sound and routine application of congressional authority.' In the House, Boehner faces a tough challenge: how to give outraged tea party conservatives a toothless outlet to vent over Obama's unilateral move to mainstream millions of illegal immigrants without permission from federal lawmakers. A symbolic vote to de-fund USCIS's planned ramp-up of green cards and work permits would be one solution. 'We're looking at a number of options in terms of how to address this. This is a serious breach of our Constitution,' Boehner told reporters on Tuesday. 'It's a serious threat to our system of government, and frankly we have limited options and limited ability to deal with it directly.' Johnson could find himself on a short leash for a few months if the 'CRomnibus' plan goes into effect . Publicly, the speaker said no decision had been made. But aides and lawmakers said he indicated during a closed-door meeting with the rank and file that a vote on legislation to block Obama was the leading option. It would be on a bill by Florida Republican Rep. Ted Yoho, aimed at blocking Obama from unilaterally allowing categories of unlawful immigrants to live and work here. Party leaders then hope to move on next week to voting on must-pass spending legislation to keep the government running. In the wake of their midterm election victories last month to win full control of Congress, Republican leaders are eager to show they can govern responsibly. But Obama's administrative moves on immigration and the resulting GOP fury has created complications. Some outside conservatives were quick to register opposition, arguing that the approach would do nothing to stop Obama's plans stripping away the money to carry out the policy. 'If conservative members agree to this plan, they are just as complicit in Obama's amnesty as everyone else. Don't be fooled, once this budget bill passes the amnesty will be irrevocable,' wrote Daniel Horowitz, a columnist for the Conservative Review. Meanwhile Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson defended Obama's new immigration plans before a House committee where Republicans took turns denouncing them as an unconstitutional power grab that would incite a new rush of illegal immigration at the border. 'The president's unilateral actions to bypass Congress undermine the Constitution and threaten our democracy,' said Texas Republican Rep. Michael McCaul, the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee. 'We will see a wave of illegal immigration because of the president's actions.' Johnson disputed that point and others, arguing the president acted within his executive authority to temporarily defer deportations for certain immigrants who are not priorities for removal anyway. The actions apply mostly to people who've been in the country five years or more and have kids who are citizens or green card holders. 'I'm fully comfortable that we have the legal authority to push forward these reforms,' Johnson said. 'Deferred action is an inherent executive branch authority that can and should be used from time to time, and we've done so here.' The spending measure the House will vote on next week will top $1 trillion and fund the day-to-day operations of cabinet agencies through the Sept. 30 end of the 2015 fiscal year. Johnson spoke out strongly against putting his Homeland Security Department on a short-term budget, saying it could prevent him from funding needed priorities including hiring protection for presidential candidates heading into the 2016 elections. | Conservative Republicans want to de-fund parts of the government that would implement Obama's orders legalizing millions of illegal immigrants .
Moderates including party leaders want an 'omnibus' budget passed, fearing a showdown with Obama would bring another partial government 'shutdown' that the White House would successfully pin on them .
The most recent 'Continuing Resolution' (CR) funding the government expires on Dec. 11, just as the outgoing Congress packs its things .
Latest solution to GOP infighting is a hybrid 'CRomnibus' bill that would fund the government through September 2015 – except for immigration authorities, which would get a three-month 'CR'
That strategy would let Republicans gin up another battle in early 2015 when they control both houses of Congress . |
283,736 | fb921e0b7ce2fbca21883357d78a4e3caacbce19 | (CNN) -- Virender Sehwag plundered the second-fastest Test double hundred as India piled on an incredible 443-1 off just 79 overs on the second day of the deciding third match against Sri Lanka in Mumbai. The opener reached 284 off only 239 balls at stumps on Thursday -- the third-highest individual score in one day's play -- for his sixth double ton, a record for India, and is poised to become the first player to complete three triple-centuries. India, seeking a victory which would take the No. 1 Test ranking above South Africa and seal a 2-0 series victory over second-placed Sri Lanka, have already achieved a first-innings lead of 50 runs. The tourists had resumed on 366-8 with Angelo Mathews unbeaten on 86, but the all-rounder fell one run short of his maiden Test century when he was run out by the narrowest of margins following a throw by Sachin Tendulkar. When wicketkeeper Mahendra Singh Dhoni lodged the bails, replays showed that Mathews' bat was over the line -- but not grounded -- thus he departed as ninth man out for 99 off 131 balls. Young left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha then claimed his third wicket to go with the four that his senior partner Harbhajan Singh claimed on Monday as Sri Lanka were all out for 393, 27 minutes into the day's play. That brought Sehwag and inexperienced opener Murali Vijay to the crease, and they launched a blistering attack on the Sri Lankan bowlers putting on 221 in just 39 overs. Vijay, playing only his second Test, was finally trapped leg before wicket by spinner Rangana Herath, having made 87 off 121 deliveries, with 10 fours and a six. The explosive Sehwag, who made 131 in India's innings victory in Kanpur, then found another solid partner in Rahul Dravid, who calmly fed him the strike in his patient 62 off 121 balls. Sehwag passed three figures from 101 deliveries and then raced to his second century off just 67 -- the only man to pass that milestone quicker is New Zealand's Nathan Astle, who took 153 balls against England in 2002. "I missed out on a double-century in the last Test in Kanpur and I wanted to make amends," Sehwag told reporters. "I batted the best way I thought was possible. "I was cautious at the start because I did not want to give the opposition any chances as I had done in the two previous matches. I thought I would bide my time, see off the new ball and then take my chances." Sehwag hit 40 boundaries and seven sixes, and was particularly hard on Sri Lanka's veteran world record-holder Muttiah Muralitharan, who has struggled all series. The 37-year-old, who has taken 788 Test wickets, conceded 119 runs off his 20 overs. "Muralitharan is a big challenge and when playing a quality bowler like him you have to attack early, otherwise he will dominate," Sehwag said. "I thought rather than let him dominate, I would attack him from the start and keep him on the back foot." Meanwhile, Pakistan stumbled to 161-6 on a shortened first day of the second Test against New Zealand in Wellington. Daryl Tuffey celebrated his comeback after a five-year absence with two wickets as he replaced injured strike bowler Shane Bond, while captain Daniel Vettori took 3-42 with his left-arm spin as bad light ended play early. Imran Farhat and Salman Butt put on 60 for the first wicket but then fell in quick succession along with captain Mohammad Yousuf as Vettori snared two wickets in three balls. Australia fast bowler Brett Lee has had elbow surgery in a bid to save his career. The 33-year-old needed an operation to correct a damaged ligament after twice breaking down this year amid fears he would have to retire, and is not expected to be fit again before March. The player, who missed the Ashes defeat to England, has taken 310 Test wickets in 76 matches and 324 one-day scalps in 186 appearances. | Virender Sehwag plunders 284 not out as India pile on 443-1 off just 79 overs .
The opener is aiming to become the first player to complete three triple-hundreds .
India, seeking to claim the No. 1 Test ranking, bowled Sri Lanka out for 393 in Mumbai .
Pakistan stumble to 161-6 on opening day of the second Test against New Zealand . |
250,275 | cfe97c63c79435df6b0d481f1d5c94b90bfd832b | By . John Hall . An elderly couple suffering from ill health embarked on a joint suicide pact after telling relatives they 'could not live without each other', a coroner heard today. Retired nurse Olive Climpson, 82, wrote a note to daughter Nicola stating the couple's intention to take their own lives at their home in Earley, Berkshire on September 28 last year. Mrs Climpson and her husband James, 82, had both been suffering from deteriorating health and were found dead at their home by their daughter and a friend. Pact: Retired nurse Olive Climpson wrote a note to daughter Nicola stating the couple's intention to take their own lives at their home in Earley, Berkshire (pictured) Mr and Mrs Climpson both suffered from poor health and told relatives they 'couldn’t live without each other.' Ms Climpson had visited her parents the previous day and although Mr Climpson seemed his normal self, her mother was 'more touchy feely' and thanking her 'for all the help and support.' The inquest heard how the couple had been devastated by the recent death of their other daughter, Mandy, which Mr Climpson, a retired accountant, described as 'the biggest disaster he had known.' They were both also suffering from deteriorating health, with Mrs Climpson, a type-two diabetic, having recently spent 11 days in hospital with high blood pressure. During this time Mr Climpson had struggled to cope without his wife and had not been able to have a bath or shower while she was away. Berkshire coroner Peter Bedford was told that on September 28 last year, Ms Climpson tried to call her parents but got no answer and eventually went around to the house with her friend, Lynden Lee. She found her mother wrapped in a blanket on the sofa, bent forward, with the TV turned on. 'It just looked as though she had been watching TV,' said Mr Bedford. 'On touching her she was cold and you feared the worst.' Ms Climpson then went into the bedroom and found her father lying dead on the bed. - Mr and Mrs Climpson's daughter Nicola . An ambulance was called but the couple were declared dead at the scene. The inquest heard that since Mandy died, the couple had talked a lot about death and said they would not want to be kept alive. Describing the moment she found her parents dead, Ms Climpson said: 'I wasn’t as shocked as I thought I would be.' 'The fact that they went together, that’s what they would have wanted. As far as I’m concerned they both took their own lives.' 'I think they were just very concerned that they couldn’t look after each other. They were miserable.' 'I think my mum knew she would cope without my dad but she knew my dad wouldn’t cope without her.' Mr Bedford said: 'Both Mr Climpson and his wife had expressed a wish in life not to live without each other.' Addressing the couple’s daughter, the coroner added: 'You have no doubt what happened here. Between them they’ve said ‘is this worth continuing?' Mrs Climpson had recently asked the local council about care that could be provided for them, but the coroner said nothing could have been done to prevent their deaths. Mr Bedford recorded a narrative verdict on the deaths. For confidential support call the Samaritans in the UK on 08457 90 90 90, visit a local Samaritans branch or click here for details . | James and Olive Climpson, both 82, killed themselves in September 2013 .
They were found dead at their home in Earley, Berkshire by their daughter .
The elderly couple had suffered deteriorating health for a number of years .
Note to daughter Nicola said the couple 'couldn't live without each other' |
265,981 | e48602586a28e4dbdad31505b67e303378b9b5a5 | A woman who suffered from crippling endometriosis and was given an ultimatum to either lose weight or sacrifice her womb is now trying for a baby now she has lost 13st. Doctors told Laura McCullough, 30, that the only way to cure the ill health she had experienced since her teenage years was to lose weight through bariatric surgery, or undergo a full hysterectomy which would leave her infertile. After making the agonising decision to go under the knife, the symptoms of Mrs McCullough's endometriosis eased and she is now having IVF treatment in the hope of falling pregnant. Scroll down for video . Laura McCullough, who suffered from crippling endometriosis and was given an ultimatum to either lose weight or sacrifice her womb, is now trying for a baby now she has lost 13st . Laura has dropped from 26st 7lb and a size 28 (left) to 13st 7lb and a size 12 (right) after bariatric surgery . Mrs McCullough, of Worthing, West Sussex said: 'Since a young age I knew I'd always wanted kids. 'On the other hand, the symptoms of my endometriosis were getting steadily worse. My health was failing and I was so miserable because of the pain that I was having suicidal thoughts. 'I told the doctors: "you've got to do something, I can't go on like this". 'The choice was quite clear - either to have a hysterectomy and give up the chance of having children, or go for weight loss surgery, which I was told would make the symptoms easier to deal with. 'I didn't know what weight loss surgery entailed but I knew I didn't want to give up the possibility of children.' Mrs McCullough, a nanny, was diagnosed with endometriosis and polycystic ovary syndrome when she was 17 years old after years of pain, disrupted periods and weight gain. She said: 'My sister Claire, who is two years younger than me, is exactly the same in nearly every way but we looked so different. We ate the same food when we were children but whereas Claire could eat four burgers in one go and still stay a size six, I just put on more and more weight. 'My periods were sporadic and always agonising. Sometimes they lasted for six months at a time and then would disappear for a year. At one point I had a period which lasted a year and a half. Nothing could stop it. Laura made the decision to undergo weight loss surgery when doctors told her her only other choice was to have a total hysterectomy (pictured before her surgery left, and today right) 'I had anaemia and an enormous amount of pain. It was depressing and lonely. I couldn't get out of bed to do anything. The only thing I could do was go to the loo, and even that was next to impossible. 'None of my other friends were bed-bound when they were on their periods. At 17 I knew I needed to see a doctor about it.' Laura (left) sister Claire would eat similar foods but Laura's condition meant she put on weight more easily . Due to a combination of the weight-gaining effects of polycystic ovary syndrome and endometriosis, and long periods of inactivity caused by the pain she experienced, Mrs McCullough saw her weight balloon to 26st 7lb by the time she was 25 years old. Laura, pictured with her nephew Reece, and niece Ruby-Rose, always knew she wanted children one day . She said: 'Weight loss wasn't my priority - there were so many other health problems I was contending with, and I knew that my personality wasn't defined by my size. 'I was told that the pain and other symptoms would be easier to manage if I lost weight, so I tried dieting and taking prescribed medication to stop the gain but nothing worked.' By January 2009 Mrs McCullough's pain was worse than ever and she was severely depressed. She said: 'I'd become suicidal because there didn't seem to be a way out of the cycle of pain. I begged my doctor to do something. 'She said I could either have weight loss surgery or have my womb removed completely. I hadn't considered weight loss surgery for a moment. But then I did some research online and read case studies of women whose endometriosis had improved enormously after the surgery. Laura met her partner Chrissy McCullough, 23, an ambulance technician, after her weight loss surgery . 'I went back the next day and told the doctor that although I was nervous about it, I wanted to go ahead with it.' Mrs McCullough went under the knife in June that year. She said: 'I was so nervous the night before the surgery that I didn't sleep a wink. Unfortunately, the procedure didn't go as planned. I couldn't keep any food down after I was discharged from hospital so I went back in, and was told my body had rejected the procedure. 'I stayed in hospital for six weeks, during which time I was very unwell, but I pulled through and I slowly got used to it. Laura, pictured on her wedding day, noticed her symptoms reduced almost as soon as she had lost weight . Laura and Chrissy, pictured on their wedding day, have now started IVF in the hopes of starting a family . 'Once I'd recovered, I realised that all the symptoms of my endometriosis had stopped completely. It was as if someone had flipped a switch. 'I was over the moon when I realised I'd made the right decision and I didn't need to worry about having a hysterectomy any longer.' Three years after the procedure, Mrs McCullough had dropped down 13st, shrinking from a size 28 to a size 12. She met her partner Chrissy McCullough, 23, an ambulance technician, who she would go on to marry in November 2013. The NHS explains: 'Endometriosis is a common condition where tissue that behaves like the lining of the womb (the endometrium) is found outside the womb. These pieces of tissue can be found in many different areas of the body, but they are most commonly found on the ovaries, on the lining of the pelvis behind the uterus and covering the top of the vagina. The condition is estimated to affect around two million women in the UK. Most of them are diagnosed between the ages of 25 and 40. Endometriosis is a long-term (chronic) condition that causes painful periods or heavy periods. It often also causes pain in the lower abdomen (tummy), pelvis or lower back, as well as fertility problems. It may also contribute towards a lack of energy and depression. However, the symptoms of endometriosis can vary significantly and some women have few symptoms or no symptoms at all. You should see your GP if you have symptoms of endometriosis so they can try to identify a cause.' Source: NHS.co.uk . She said: 'It was the perfect winter wedding - just as we'd both dreamed of. I looked in the mirror and couldn't believe how slim and pretty I looked in my wedding dress. It was a magical day.' Shortly after the wedding, the couple turned their thoughts to having children via IVF and sperm donation. Mrs McCullough said: 'We couldn't have funding for IVF on the NHS because there is no such facility to do so for same-sex couples in Worthing. I think the postcode lottery is very unfair, but we were determined enough to have the treatment privately. 'Unfortunately the first round of IVF led to the return of the endometriosis, so we're waiting on some more consultations and tests before we can try again. But we're never going to give up - having a family is our dream. 'If it wasn't for the weight loss surgery, I would have been forced to have the hysterectomy and we wouldn't even be able to consider it, so I have that to be thankful for.' Mrs McCullough is now hoping to raise awareness of endometriosis, a condition which affects as many as two million women in the UK. She has found support at the Facebook group EndometrioSisters, which has more than 2,200 members. She said: 'It's very common but even close friends of mine don't know exactly what it is. It should be talked about more openly because it affects so many lives.' To join the EndometrioSisters group, search for 'EndometrioSisters' on Facebook. | Laura McCullough was diagnosed with endometriosis and polycystic ovary syndrome at 17 .
Suffered with agonising symptoms, erratic periods and weight gain for years .
Doctors told her she had to lose weight or have a total hysterectomy .
Knowing she wanted children, made decision to have weight loss surgery .
Dropped from 26st 7lb and a size 28 to 13st 7lb and a size 12 .
Is now having IVF treatment in the hope of falling pregnant .
Endometriosis affects more than 2m women in the UK . |
238,818 | c12795ab0c93e164ab18b7268b65c9052c4862f8 | A San Antonio-based barber and artist is combining his skills by creating portraits of celebrities on his clients' heads. Rob Ferrel has spent the last few years studying the faces of various well known stars and working out how to define their features on a human scalp. Using standard hair clippers, he crops the hair to varying lengths to create an outline of his chosen subject's features. Scroll down for video . San Antonio-based barber and artist Rob Ferrel combines his skills by creating portraits of celebrities on his clients' heads, using just a pair of clippers and coloured eye pencils. I this picture, he shows off his portrait of Bob Marley . Rob then uses a black and coloured eyeliners to fill in the more intricate details. Ellen Degeneres, Kim Kardashian and Bob Marley have all been given the Rob Ferrel scalp treatment to date, among others. His work has become so popular that clients have travelled from across America to get their idols faces imprinted onto their heads. He has also appeared on television shows with the likes of Queen Latifa to demonstrate his work live. FEMAIL have picked out some of the best of Rob's hair portraits below: . This client has been been imprinted with Kim Kardashian . A step-by-step guide to his artwork of Albert Einstein . This portrait of Dr Dre shaved into a man's hair is eerily realistic . Ellen Degeneres was given a healthy dose of white pencil for her eyes and teeth . Even Christiano Ronaldo is given a show . The Notorious B.I.G portrait is drawn using the help of a picture on an ipad . TV chat show host Jimmy Kimmel's comedic nature shines through in his picture . Robin Williams's eyes are penetrating in this image . | Rob Ferrel from San Antonio is a barber who shaves portraits into scalps .
He has created images of stars including Bob Marley and Ellen Degeneres .
Rob uses just a pair of clippers and coloured eye pencils . |
96,721 | 0879aeb3b6d3d1b1dd6e468553ecac3347aa7bc1 | By . Ted Thornhill . PUBLISHED: . 04:37 EST, 10 January 2014 . | . UPDATED: . 22:37 EST, 10 January 2014 . A British tourist has died after the snowmobile she was driving hit a tree. Charlotte Mei Ling Lee, 31, lost control on a mountain trail in Canada. Miss Lee, a magistrates’ court assistant from Portishead, Bristol, suffered severe head injuries and died in hospital five days later. Tragedy: Tributes have been pouring in for Charlotte Mei Ling Lee (left), pictured with her boyfriend Domynique Tamaire, who survived the accident in Quebec . Her boyfriend Domynique Tamaire, a . passenger on the rented snowmobile, was seriously hurt in the crash at . Ferme-Neuve, 100 miles north of Montreal, last Saturday. Miss . Lee’s family flew to her bedside where on Thursday they decided to . switch off her ventilator and donate her organs for transplant. Messages of support to Mr Tamaire have been flooding in on Facebook. One from Bon Rayment read: ‘I don't know what to say to you Dom as no words will make this tragedy any better but I wanted you to know that we are thinking of you and send you lots of love. ‘I hope you make a speedy recovery from injuries. Thank you for making Charlotte so happy since she met you.’ Another, from Annabel Stewart, said: ‘I'm so sorry she is gone as you made each other so happy. We are all thinking of you and sending you love.’ Messages of support to Mr Tamaire over the death of his girlfriend (centre) have been left on Facebook . Ms Lee was negotiating a mountain trail when she suffered catastrophic head injuries during a festive holiday with Mr Tamaire. He was a passenger on the vehicle and was also seriously hurt in the smash in picturesque Ferme-Neuve, Quebec. The pair were rushed to hospital where they were later joined by Charlotte's distraught family, who flew to her bedside from their home in Bristol. But five days after the crash they made the agonising decision switch off her ventilator and donate her organs. In a statement, mum Elaine, dad Frank and sisters Helen and Jenny said: ‘We are all absolutely devastated by the loss of our beautiful, tender-hearted Charlotte. ‘Although our hearts are broken we are taking great comfort from the overwhelming amount of love, support, kind message and generosity of the many people that have been in touch. ‘Charlotte was loved by so many people and will forever be in our hearts.’ The accident happened at a popular spot for trekking and outdoor activities on Saturday. Tragedy: Ms Lee was treated at Montreal hospital, but her life support was turned off after five days . Local police say Ms Lee - known as Lottie to pals - had little experience driving the rented snowmobile and might have lost control while doing a ‘bad manoeuvre’. The magistrates court assistant was transferred 100 miles to Montreal Hospital after the incident. A spokesman for the Quebec Provincial Police said: ‘A young woman from the UK was involved in a snowmobile accident which was driven into a tree. ‘It appears she was driving along a trail and lost control of the machine, maybe she did a bad manoeuvre. ‘The snowmobile had been rented and there is some evidence that she did not have a lot of experience when it came to driving the machine. Ms Lee was negotiating a mountain trail near Ferme-Neuve when she suffered catastrophic head injuries . ‘She suffered major head injuries and the man who was with her also suffered serious but not life-threatening injuries. ‘Both of the victims were transported to hospital but the woman died later at the hospital.’ It is understood her family are still in Canada arranging repatriation. An online appeal to help her family from Portishead, Bristol, foot the medical bills has already raised more than £12,000. On Thursday a family friend said they had now discovered Ms Lee had insurance which will cover the bills and potentially the full cost of repatriation. But donations have continued to pour in, and website creator Janie Digby said the money will now probably be put towards her funeral, the family's travelling costs or donated to a charity in Ms Lee's name. In an online message she said: ‘Your messages of support and enormously generous donations have really touched us and we don't think that we will ever be able to fully express our gratitude. ‘It's been a truly terrible week, but knowing that so many people care, send their support and want to help has been a huge comfort to Jenny and Elaine.’ When Ms Lee was declared dead by the Montreal Coroner on Thursday, she posted: ‘Her body remains on a ventilator as her parents have made the very generous and brave decision to donate her organs for life saving purposes. ‘The recipients of the donated organs will be prepared and the family anticipate that this and the turning off of the ventilator will take place this evening Canadian time. ‘Charlotte's sisters Helen and Jenny are so touched by how many of you have been wishing Charlotte and the family well and we are all completely blown away by the generosity of people donating to Charlotte's fund.’ | Charlotte Mei Ling Lee from Bristol suffered fatal head injuries in the crash .
Her boyfriend, Domynique Tamaire, was left seriously injured .
The crash happened in picturesque Ferme-Neuve in Quebec .
Police said Ms Lee's lack of snowmobile experience may have been a factor .
The pair were rushed to Montreal Hospital around 100 miles from the crash .
Ms Lee died on Thursday, five days after the tragic accident .
The family made the heart-breaking decision to turn off her ventilator . |
179,059 | 73d9da631ca0fa86cd7389c88b8c9f49eb8e0804 | Knowing that he wouldn't be there for her wedding, a terminally ill father walked his 11-year-old down the 'aisle' years early with the pastor sweetly pronouncing them 'daddy and daughter'. Jim Zetz, 62, from Murrieta, California, who has stage 4 pancreatic cancer, proudly held his daughter, Josie's hand during their backyard ceremony on March 14 and placed a sparkling ring on her index finger. The tear-jerking event was staged by photographer Lindsey Villatoro, who heard about the Zetz's heartbreaking story and decided to do something out of the ordinary for their final days together. Scroll down for video . Proud dad: Knowing that he wouldn't be there for her wedding, Jim Zetz, who has stage 4 pancreatic cancer, walked his 11-year-old daughter Josie down the 'aisle' years early . In just 72 hours she went about getting financial contributions from the local community, and secured a wedding cake, dress, catering, flowers and even hair and make-up free-of-charge. 'One day [you] wake up and realize you’re . given the opportunity to change someone’s life for the better. 'You get . an idea, don’t think twice and run with it,' Mr Villatoro wrote in a . description of a video slideshow she made from the event and uploaded to Vimeo. Emotional: The event took place in the family's backyard in California with friends and family present . Cherished memories: Mr Zetz placed a sparkling ring on Josie's index finger . Last minute: The tear-jerking event was staged by photographer Lindsey Villatoro, who heard about the Zetz's heartbreaking story - she managed to get everything, including the wedding cake and outfits, donated . In keeping with tradition: There was even a gift table at the wedding ceremony . Ms Villatoro first met Josie and her father when she photographed them, along with Josie’s mother, Grace, for one of their final family portraits together. Mrs Zetz mentioned that Josie was upset about the fact her father would not be there for 'memories down the line' so Ms Villatoro decided to try and help out. She suggested holding a 'mini-wedding' for Josie to coincide with her 11th birthday and got the go-head. Friends and family rallied around in support, as did complete strangers. For her 'wedding' Josie wore an elegant long, lacy white dress and carried a pink-and-white bouquet. Soft waves were put in her long brown hair and beauticians applied natural make-up. Her father meanwhile opted for a smart camel-colored three-piece suit, topped with a flat cap. Strong bond: Grace Zetz said that her daughter Josie was upset about the fact her father would not be there for 'memories down the line' - so the idea for a fake wedding was born . Mixed emotions: Although there were tears, there were also lots of smiles too . Source of support: Josie, pictured with her mother, Grace, and father . 'Your dad may not get to see you get married, but he is here to walk you down the aisle today,' said Gary Galbraith, the pastor, according to The Press Enterprise. After their ceremony Josie and Mr Zetz shared a quiet moment together, before returning to join the 'reception'. In one of Ms Villatoro’s photographs Josie is seen being kissed on her cheeks by her mother and father with tears streaming down. But along with tears there were also lots of smiles, as the pictures show. 'Down the road, this will mean a lot to [Josie],' Mr Zetz said. 'She will always remember it.' Mr Villatoro said that it was an 'honor' helping the Zetzes. 'Josie, you will forever have a video of you and your dad walking you down the aisle to play at your wedding in years to come, as if he was physically there,' she wrote. | Jim Zetz, 62, from California has stage 4 pancreatic cancer .
His young daughter Josie says she's sad he won't be there for 'memories down the line'
Her early 'wedding' took place on the same day as her 11th birthday . |
227,195 | b2300670fde4ce7d7d8d4c62745021d09646ad63 | By . Daniel Miller . PUBLISHED: . 05:30 EST, 28 November 2012 . | . UPDATED: . 08:02 EST, 28 November 2012 . A four-girl burglary gang broke into homes stealing cash and jewellery to fuel their addictions to the prescription painkiller Oxycotin, police claim. Samantha Smith, 19, Brandy Kinney, 19, Alyssa Conrad, 23, and Caroline Catarzi, 20, have been arrested and charged with carrying out burglaries on at least 20 residences in Southgate near Sarasota, Florida. According to deputies they would knock on doors and, if there was no answer, head round the back and break in through a window. Vice girls: (Clockwise from top left) Alyssa Conrad, 23, Caroline Catarzi, 20, Samantha Smith, 19 and Brandey Kinney, 19, carried out a series of raids on homes in Southgate, Florida, to fuel their Oxycotin addictions . Sarasota Police Captain Paul Sutton told Tampa Bay's Ten News: 'They had an issue with prescription pills. 'All four abused prescription pills and they were committing these burglaries to support their habit.' The gang are suspected of suspected of committing at least 20 burglaries over the past two weeks. Smith and Kinney are charged with five counts of burglary while Conrad and Catarzi are charged with five counts of burglary as well as one count of fraud and one count of dealing in stolen property after allegedly giving false information to a pawn broker. The sheriff's office said the women are . also suspects in a number of other burglaries currently being . investigated by the Sarasota Police Department. Burglaries: The girls targetted homes in Southgate near Sarasota, Florida, stealing cash and jewellery . One of their victims, Jeanette Schwaed, who has a five-year-old adopted daughter Jocelyn told Ten News: 'I noticed this odd thing sticking out of my curtains in my bedroom and I thought, "Wow that's odd," and I noticed that the screen has been mashed. 'I would really love the opportunity to speak with them and tell them what this did to my little girl. It's much more far-reaching than they realize," said Schwaed. | Gang, all under 23, stole cash and jewellery to fuel Oxycotin addictions .
They would knock on doors before breaking in through a back window . |
181,770 | 7759eb00e2e09f952f3649840621e03b86da9cbc | Editor's note: Hank Sheinkopf, a CNN contributor, is a longtime political consultant who was a member of the media team for President Bill Clinton's 1996 re-election campaign. Sheinkopf was a media consultant for Eliot Spitzer's campaign for New York attorney general in 1998 and has represented candidates around the country and the world. He represented Rep. Steve Israel, a Democrat whose name has been mentioned for the New York senate seat, in 2000, but hasn't had a business relationship with him since. Sheinkopf, who also represents corporate clients, does not represent any of the other politicians whose names have been mentioned for the Senate seat. For a rival view, read here. Hank Sheinkopf says Caroline Kennedy hasn't earned the nod for a Senate seat from New York. NEW YORK (CNN) -- Judging by the screaming newspaper headlines and the steamy ecstasy of the gossip columns, people from other worlds might presume that it has already come to pass: that a woman who happens to be named Caroline Kennedy was pole-vaulted above the crowd and sent with magic wand and golden slippers to the U.S. Senate from New York, in the hope of saving the Empire State and bringing goodness to all its inhabitants. After all, why shouldn't she be sent to the Senate? Her unique experience of writing a book or two, smiling well, appearing from time to time -- but not too often -- at city mayoral news conferences announcing help for those who attend New York City public schools -- and, well, just being a Kennedy -- should suffice. Her social standing alone, some might argue, would give her the advantage of all advantages. A Kennedy. Camelot. Ah! The greatness of it all? Not. The man who has to make the decision whether or not New York is to be so vaunted in representation is Gov. David Paterson, the former lieutenant governor who had the fortune of replacing morally triangulated Gov. Eliot Spitzer after Spitzer's resignation in the face of a publicly humiliating sex scandal. Paterson will have to face the voters in 2010. So will his pick to fill the seat that will be left vacant after Hillary Clinton is confirmed as secretary of state in early 2009. The governor's poll numbers suggest that voters like him. Paterson has taken a tack much unexpected by challenging all to tighten belts, cut spending, pay more fees to the state and get rid of waste after Wall Street's collapse and the subsequent free fall in tax collections from the financial services business. Paterson could have a tough time. Voters don't like losing money, they hate losing services, and all the earnest explanations about fighting the good fight together won't put better food on the table or pay the bills. He needs someone who can help him win, and he needs someone who can win. He and the senator he chooses will both face the voters together. With that in mind, is Caroline Kennedy the correct choice? On the issues of the day, Kennedy has been mighty silent. Financial cretins stealing for fun, profit and because they can? Not a word. The wars? Syllable-less. Millions of humans evaporated in Africa's inner madness? Quiet and silent. The auto bailout? Nada. The printing of a trillion soon-to-be inflated dollars that will further sap our savings? On such matters, Kennedy remains absolutely silent. What about the destruction of the economy of western New York? Does she know that there is a deeply pained world beyond the Westchester County border just a bit north of New York City that benefited little from some fairy-tale place called Camelot and less from well-orchestrated and timed public relations campaigns afforded only by the rich? Why should Caroline Kennedy be named a U.S. senator? Is it because merit no longer matters? Surely, Kennedy offers the dazzle of an unmistakable surname and the kind of celebrity appeal that seems to follow members of the New York social elite. But for the white ethnics who gave their vote to Democrats on the promise of fairness and merit, Kennedy's star quality may not suffice. The simple fact is that if the governor passes on other options -- candidates, many of whom serve in Congress and have earned their right to represent New York -- then he does so at his own risk. In 1964, Robert Kennedy wanted then-Sen. Kenneth Keating's job so badly that he ran for office. President Lyndon Johnson's landslide victory in New York helped Kennedy win the election, but not before the challenger ran a campaign that made its appeal to voters and proved worthy. His niece has done neither. If Kennedy wants to be New York's junior senator, she should stand in line and run for office in 2010. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Hank Sheinkopf. | Hank Sheinkopf: Some treating Caroline Kennedy's Senate bid as a done deal .
He says Kennedy hasn't been vocal on many of the key issues we face .
Sheinkopf: What qualifies Kennedy to be given priority for the vacant seat?
He says Gov. Paterson has to worry about facing voters in 2010 . |
241,497 | c4950ced93f570bbb73a85d186e52127ede075f8 | (CNN) -- As investigators in Georgia looked into the death of a 22-month-old boy left seven hours in a sweltering SUV, they seized computers from the father's office, a source with knowledge of the investigation told HLN's Nancy Grace. The officers found something startling: an online search for information about how long it takes animals to die in hot cars, the source said. It's unknown when the Internet search was conducted and whether the father did the searching. Police have declined comment when asked about the computer search. The father, Justin Ross Harris, has pleaded not guilty to charges of murder and second-degree child cruelty. He sits in jail without bond, with an appearance before a judge set for next Thursday. Police in Cobb County, just outside Atlanta, have been tight-lipped and haven't said whether what they found on the computer is one of the reasons they arrested Harris. Father won't attend son's funeral . The funeral for Cooper Harris will be held Saturday in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Justin Harris, 33, won't be allowed out of the Cobb County Jail to attend, sheriff's office spokeswoman Nancy Bodiford said. The child's mother wanted to obtain photos of her son from the seized computers for use at the funeral but Cobb County police turned down her request, said Maddox Kilgore, the attorney for Harris. Police spokesman Michael Bowman told CNN, "If we have evidence, we will not be releasing that due to chain of custody issues." Bowman would not confirm what, if any, evidence they had in their possession. A charity fund at Harris's employer, The Home Depot, will pay for the funeral, company spokeswoman Catherine Woodling told CNN. Harris, who worked as a web designer, has been placed on unpaid administrative leave, she said. The funding of the funeral from the Home Depot charity, the Homer Fund, is a "standard approach," she said. In an obituary for Cooper appearing in the Tuscaloosa News, the family asks that in lieu of flowers donations should be made to the Homer Fund. 'What have I done?' Initially, police described the June 18 death of the toddler as the result of tragic absent-mindedness. They said the dad had apparently forgotten the boy was in the back seat of his Hyundai Tucson; he didn't remember until he was done with his workday, drove a couple of miles and pulled into a shopping center parking lot. But suspicions grew as police investigated. "The chain of events that occurred in this case does not point toward simple negligence, and evidence will be presented to support this allegation," said Cobb County Police Chief John House. A criminal warrant released Wednesday described the events that led to Cooper's death. A timeline of events . On the day Cooper died, Harris stopped for breakfast at a fast-food restaurant and afterward strapped his son into a rear-facing child restraint seat on his SUV's back seat, police said. He drove to his workplace, a Home Depot corporate office, about a half-mile away. He works as a Web designer there. Usually, he would take his son to an on-site day care. But that day, police said, Harris left him in the car seat. During his lunch break, he returned to his car, opening the driver's side door to put something inside, police said. After work, around 4:16 p.m., the 33-year-old father got in his car and drove away. A few miles away, he stopped the car at a shopping center and called for help. When it became clear Cooper was dead, Harris was so inconsolable police had to restrain him. "What have I done?" he wailed as he tried to resuscitate the boy. A wave of sympathy . Each year, dozens of children die from heat strokes in cars, according to KidsandCars.org. More than 40 died last year. The organization says its tally is likely incomplete and much lower than the real toll. The charging of Harris triggered a wave of sympathy and a vigorous debate over whether the heartbroken father should be punished. Two change.org petitions urging authorities to release Harris were started and then shut down this week. One petition posted this note: "I think that based on the recent developments this petition is no longer relevant. I still pray that this was truly an accident. If that is the case, the DA now knows that the community does not want Justin prosecuted on murder charges." Another, set up at YouCaring.com, has raised more than $22,000 for the Harris family. "Please don't listen to the media. It just upsets me to watch it," wrote Heather McCullar, who set it up. "Please don't listen to the media. The family will speak when they can." Contacted by CNN via e-mail, she wrote back, "No one is allowed to comment right now." "The manner of death is homicide" As Harris sits in jail, his wife, Leanna, would not discuss the case with the media. The Cobb County medical examiner's office found the child's cause of death "consistent with hyperthermia and the investigative information suggests the manner of death is homicide," according to a Cobb County Department of Public Safety statement issued Wednesday. Temperatures hit 92 degrees Fahrenheit on the day of his death. The medical examiner's office is waiting for toxicology test results before making an official ruling as to the cause and manner of the toddler's death. Read the criminal warrant (PDF) CNN's Victor Blackwell, Devon M. Sayers, MaryLynn Ryan and Joe Sterling contributed to this report. | NEW: Funeral for Cooper Harris will be Saturday in Alabama; father can't attend .
Source says police seized computers from father's office after startling Web discovery .
It's unclear who conducted online searches on animal deaths in hot cars, source says .
The boy was left in a hot car, strapped to his seat in suburban Atlanta last week . |
194,656 | 87f7b546cdf6ba5bff87da943dcdabdb39810fac | He's broken every record in the book and won a glut of Olympic and world titles, but even at the age of 40, Haile Gebrselassie has no intention of resting on his laurels. "A day without running is not a good day," the Ethiopian athletics legend told CNN's Human to Hero Series. "Running, you continue until you die." Which spells bad news for his fellow competitors, although Gebrselassie does acknowledge he will have to call it quits at some stage. "Competition stops somewhere, but when I don't know," he says. "What I'm thinking now, is that I want to break all the Masters records -- over 40, over 50, over 60. "I don't know how long I'm going to live after this, but I hope the next 100 years!" he adds, breaking into his trademark grin. "The smiling assassin" -- as he was once famously dubbed -- has been dispatching his opponents with ruthless efficiency for over two decades and is hugely popular wherever he runs, not least among his dedicated following of Ethiopian fans bedecked in their country's green, yellow and red. "Haile, Haile" will be the chant as their hero winds up the pace before unleashing his trademark blistering finish to leave rivals trailing. His longtime Dutch manager Jos Hermens summed it up perfectly: "His smile makes athletics smile." Throughout his glittering career stretching over two decades, Gebrselassie has proved an impeccable ambassador for track and field. Despite increasing business commitments, he is finding time to pass on that experience to pass on to the next generation -- acting as a mentor for 14 young athletes from disadvantaged backgrounds for the G4S 4teen program ahead of the London 2012 Olympics. Those youngsters, who came from around the world, would do well to heed his renowned sportsmanship, because win or lose it was always with that smile on his face. "Of course there is disappointment when you lose a race," he told CNN. "For me, it's in my character, maybe I can say good character. I am always joyful." Glittering career . Disappointments have proved few and far between since his first competitive race at the age of 14 and while still in his teens he captured a 5,000/10,000 meters double at the world junior championships in Seoul. The next year in 1993 saw Gebrselassie's senior breakthrough as he claimed the first of four straight 10,000m world championship titles after a battle royal with Kenyan Moses Tanui in Stuttgart. His world-record-breaking spree started in 1994, covering distances from 2,000m on an indoor track to the full 42 km of the marathon. Watch: The best long distance runner ever? Gebrselassie rates his 5,000m performance at the Weltklasse meeting in Zurich in 1995 as his "most memorable achievement" -- he smashed the record of Kenya's Moses Kiptanui by nearly 11 seconds with a time of 12 minutes 44.39 seconds. "That was amazing," he said. Metronomically lapping the 400m track at just over four-minute mile pace for over three miles, he says that as he ran the beat of the 1995 hit song "Scatman (Ski-Ba-Bop-Ba-Dop-Bop)" kept ringing around his head. "It's nice music, if's fast written, that's why I could break a world record, by that music," he recalls. "I'm a Scatman! Dum dum and then you know the timing and at the same time your style changes immediately." Olympic gold . Gebrselassie won his first Olympic gold at Atlanta '96 over his favored 10,000m distance, just edging out his arch-rival Paul Tergat. Four years later, in Sydney, he became only the third man in history to retain that title -- the Kenyan again the victim. "I won that race nine-hundredths of a second from Paul Tergat. That was really the one still I love to watch. It was a very special moment." By the time the 2004 Olympics came around, the balance of power had shifted to his compatriot Kenenisa Bekele, and Gebreselassie came fifth as he missed out on a hat-trick, but by then he had already turned to road running and marathons. Olympic gold over the classic distance has eluded him; he decided against competing in the marathon in Beijing in 2008 because of the air quality, and was controversially left out of the Ethiopian team for the London Games last year. But over distances from 10 km through half-marathon and the full marathon, the records have tumbled. Successive wins in the Berlin marathon in 2007 and 2008 each came with world bests, the second of two hours three minutes and 59 seconds -- the first man under the two hours four minute mark. Scatman rhythm . For the longer distances, he says the Scatman John tune is replaced by the need to set the perfect pace and to keep a close eye on the opposition, often years younger. "You are just thinking about your race. Who is next to you, who is behind you, who's in the race, how fast does he run, what is the way breathes," he reveals. "When you run a marathon especially, the first 15k they're perfect, but the things happen after 20k. You can look and see, 'Oh this guy, now he's getting tired,' so it's easy to beat him." Years of disciplined training, getting up at 5 a.m. each morning, have left Gebrselassie a battle-hardened veteran and have helped him in his life outside of track and field. Watch: Gebrselassie dominates Dubai marathon . Two grueling training sessions are interspersed by a day spent in his office -- he employs over 500 people in range of enterprises based right across Ethiopia. He is usually in bed by 10 p.m. after spending time with his wife and family -- he has a son and three daughters. Gebrselassie certainly knew the value of hard work from his formative years, growing up in humble surroundings in the town of Asella in Arsi Province, living nearly 2,500m above sea level. One of 10 children, he used to run several kilometers each day to school and back to his family's small farm. Early inspiration . Inspired from an early age by the 5,000/10,000 Olympic double of great Ethiopian runner Miruts "The Shifter" Yifter in the 1980 Moscow Games -- "I was dreaming to be like him" -- Gebrselassie acknowledges that his environment was the perfect platform. "We live at altitude, we were born in altitude," he says. "Going to school, helping our parents, fetching water from the river. My training started when I was two. It was part of my life." But Gebrselassie is concerned that the neverending trail of talent from his country, characterized by the likes of Bekele and women's champion Tirunesh Dibaba, could be under threat from increased affluence -- welcome though that is in a country which has suffered so much. "Life is changing a little bit. That's why it's very difficult to produce more long-distance runners from Ethiopia," he says. "The more good things you have, the less athletes you have. You don't see so much athletes from Addis Ababa (the capital). You don't see so much athletes from the city, most of our athletes they come from the countryside." With his ambassadorial work, Gebrselassie is doing his best to make sure the conveyor belt of champions continues for a while yet. Role model . "It's important to inspire people. Without a role model it's not an easy job," he says. "I'm teaching everybody how they become successful. One is to be disciplined. Second, commitment or a goal, and third is hard work." He has one key message to his youngsters and the wider public: "Win for yourself." "What is that? Sometimes you know people promise to stop smoking, to stop drinking, to stop taking drugs. But they, after one day or after two days, they cannot, which means they've lost for themselves. "I ask people win themselves first, which means you can win anything that you dream, that you plan, what you want. This really is my tip for everyone." Allied to his incredible talent and will to win, Gebrselassie has certainly "won for himself" in bundles down the years -- dominating distance running and becoming one of the most recognizable sportsman on the planet. Judging by his recent performances -- winner of April's Vienna half-marathon, third in a world-class Manchester 10 km last month and smashing the best for a 40-year-old at the distance -- Gebrselassie will be delighting his fans for a few more years to come as he sticks to his endearing philosophy for life. | Running superstar Haile Gebrselassie has broken 27 world records .
The 40-year-old Ethiopian is still competing in long-distance events .
Gebrselassie won two Olympic 10,000m golds before turning to marathons .
He acts as a mentor for young athletes and has a burgeoning business empire . |
99,471 | 0c26b614560fbdc4e6f1e47a619e11b8ea8085bf | President Franklin D. Roosevelt called her "Little Miss Miracle." Such was the power of Shirley Temple during the Great Depression, a dark time when millions were out of work and struggling to survive. Into their midst came a little girl in curls, whose films -- such as "Little Miss Marker," "Curly Top," "Bright Eyes" and "Captain January" -- allowed them to forget, if just for a little while. "Shirley could make people believe, if only for 90 minutes, that there were no problems in the world," said a fellow child star, Dickie Moore. Shirley Temple Black, perhaps the biggest child star in history, died Monday. She was 85. There had been child stars before Shirley Temple -- Jackie Cooper and Jackie Coogan, to name two -- and there is certainly no shortage of them now, with reality TV and child-targeted cable networks minting a perky new imp every six months. But with her sparkling personality, song-and-dance talent and sheer box-office power, there has likely been no equal in history. Photos: Child star transformations . "(She) represented, for many, the epitome of childhood goodness and sentiment, a beacon of hope for the future of America and the physical embodiment of the perfect child," wrote a British sociologist, Jane Catherine O'Connor, in "The Cultural Significance of the Child Star." Share your memories . Shirley Temple everywhere . At the peak of her fame in the mid-1930s there were Shirley Temple dolls, Shirley Temple dresses, Shirley Temple china, Shirley Temple notebooks, Shirley Temple soap and Shirley Temple sheet music. There was a nonalcoholic cocktail -- ginger ale with a touch of grenadine, topped with a maraschino cherry -- named for her. She was awarded an honorary Oscar in 1934. She was the No. 1 box office star in the nation from 1935 to 1938. She almost single-handedly led 20th Century Fox, her studio, back to profitability. She was so well-known, so iconic, that even the number of curls in her hair was publicized. (It's 56, incidentally.) "I stopped believing in Santa Claus when I was 6," she once wrote. "Mother took me to see him in a department store and he asked for my autograph." Through it all, she was barely touched by scandal. There were no stories of abusive parents or predatory agents -- though her mother, who did help push her daughter into show business, shaved a year off young Shirley's age to make her more marketable. Indeed, the mere suggestion that she was something less than innocent was enough to prompt a furious outcry. When British author Graham Greene, then an editor and film critic, wrote in a 1937 review that the 8-year-old Temple was an "adult impersonating a child" and that her co-stars reacted to her "well-shaped and desirable little body," 20th Century Fox sued. The legal challenge ended up putting Greene's magazine out of business. Adulthood, however, did finally put an end to Temple's film career. In 1940, 20th Century Fox decided not to renew her contract, which was OK with Temple and her family. She went off to a Los Angeles school and, gradually, adjusted to noncelebrity life. She was just about to turn 13. Shirley Temple Black, the ambassador . Class and diplomacy . She did a bit of acting while in school and after graduating -- one film, 1947's "That Hagen Girl" with Ronald Reagan, made it into the book "The Fifty Worst Films of All Time" -- but after marrying her second husband, Charles Black, she decided to retire in 1950. At 22, her movie career was over. But her life was just beginning. Shirley Temple, child star, became Shirley Temple Black, diplomat, who raised three children, served as a U.N. representative and U.S. ambassador, and generally kept a low and genteel profile. Only rarely did she venture back into acting, most notably for a late-'50s television series. To younger generations, she soon became just a well-known name, her films seen only on late-night TV, her Depression-era celebrity all but vanished. Children of the '70s may know her best for an episode of "The Brady Bunch" in which Cindy Brady becomes obsessed with her. Children of the 21st century may not know her at all. And these days, when being a child star almost invariably comes with a 24-hour media circus -- followed by calculated moves to showcase adult-like sex appeal -- one wonders if the fame of a Shirley Temple could last longer than the duration of a YouTube video. (Even in her time it was no easy feat, as biographies of any number of child stars indicate.) No doubt she'd be analyzed, objectified and vivisected all over the Internet, paparazzi lurking outside her door, waiting for a swear word or a blown-up skirt. Still, child stars of any era could do worse than model themselves on Shirley Temple. When she was a movie star, there was nobody bigger. When she wasn't a movie star, there were few classier. Her philosophy was summed up in something she once said in an interview. "Some people are stuck on this image of the little girl. She is not me," she said. "We shouldn't live in the past. My life is now." | Shirley Temple was a leading movie star of 1930s .
She represented "the epitome of childhood goodness and sentiment," said one observer .
Fame was gigantic -- there were countless Shirley Temple products .
After movie career, she had successful adult life as diplomat . |
226,591 | b163b20f9d849fbc693717d5f523cdc8885ce1e7 | (CNN) -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is considering how to best regulate electronic cigarettes as tobacco products. While some regulation is needed, the current proposal entails a huge paperwork burden that will create a barrier to entry into the market for all but the biggest players -- namely, Big Tobacco. Specifically, the FDA has indicated that it may require e-cigarette manufacturers to complete a long paperwork process before it will consider a product for approval. Many industry watchers believe that only very large manufacturers (i.e., Big Tobacco companies) would have the financial resources to meet the requirements, which could demand an estimated 5,000 hours per application, with every product combination requiring a new application. According to the Consumer Advocates for Smoke-Free Alternatives Association, only 25 products among thousands currently available would eventually be licensed. The tobacco industry will then be able to buy the small e-cigarette makers that are unable to meet the FDA's requirements. Big Tobacco will then get to decide which products are sold such that it can manage its own transition from cigarettes to e-cigarettes, or end e-cigarettes as a product category entirely, whichever better serves its financial interests. In other words, the tobacco industry will be given a monopoly over the first new product to come to market that genuinely stands a chance of disrupting the business of selling smoked tobacco. Needless to say, the tobacco industry's primary concern is not the health interests of the public. The World Health Organization has assessed that "effective tobacco control and the commercial success of the tobacco industry are fundamentally incompatible ... accordingly, the tobacco industry can be expected to seek to avoid, prevent, weaken and delay effective policies and programs, which are against its interests." Electronic cigarettes, also known as vapor products, are designed to mimic the experience of smoking. By heating up liquid nicotine in battery-powered devices, vapors -- rather than tobacco smoke -- are released. While it's too early to predict the long-term health effects of e-cigarettes, some experts say they are a safer alternative to regular cigarettes, which produce myriad toxic chemicals. For many smokers who have trouble quitting, e-cigarettes are a viable substitute. The e-cigarette industry is young, thriving and innovative. There are hundreds of online suppliers, many of which have been pioneers in developing next-generation vapor products known as "mods" or "vaporizers." Unlike traditional retail outlets -- such as gas stations, large grocery store chains and pharmacies -- where point-of-sale data is collected and monitored by financial analysts, growing sales at vape stores and online websites are not being tracked. Dedicated vape stores have sprung up nationally. The numbers have grown from around 10,000 one year ago to about 16,000 today, according to Ron Tully of Smoke Free Alternatives Trade Association, an advocacy organization for the vapor industry. Vapor products are increasingly attracting consumers. In Britain, an estimated 700,000 people (5% of all smokers) have transitioned to vapor products, mostly in the past two years. In France, e-cigarettes have helped reduce tobacco smoking according to one survey. These data show an impressive decline in tobacco smoking. Since the surgeon general issued its landmark 1964 report on the dangers of smoking, public health officials have tried to combat it. However, high-profile researchers believe that e-cigarettes have the potential to save millions of lives among populations of tobacco smokers. All consumer products are regulated, and e-cigarettes should not be an exception. Consumers need to feel confident that they are purchasing safe, high-quality items. But the regulation of e-cigarettes needs to be proportionate and not discriminatory, especially considering the potential they offer for eliminating the scourge of tobacco-related diseases. In the United States, e-cigarettes have become a top choice for smoking cessation according to a survey. Meanwhile, Big Tobacco is muddling along, rolling out its vapor products with their underpowered batteries and limited capacity for e-liquid. Yet, almost unbelievably, their one salvation has arrived in the form of the FDA. How the regulation of electronic cigarettes play out would have huge repercussions on public health and medical drug policies. The FDA should consider creating a tailored regulatory framework, one that would allow the e-cigarette industry to continue innovating to the point that smoked tobacco is made redundant, which could help save many lives worldwide. And what would this framework look like? In lieu of its proposed regulations, the FDA should begin by requiring e-liquid and e-cigarette makers to register the ingredients and designs of their products. The agency should work closely with expert third parties -- manufacturers and scientists -- to develop strong product standards. The FDA should also conduct epidemiological research to make sure that e-cigarettes are contributing positively to smoking rate decline. It's about burdens. If you start from the precautionary principal -- treat something as bad until proved good -- you miss the context that e-cigarettes are designed to replace one of the most dangerous consumer products invented. The FDA cannot afford to miss this opportunity to get it right on e-cigarettes. | The FDA is considering how best to regulate electronic cigarettes as tobacco products .
Oliver Kershaw: FDA proposal will benefit Big Tobacco companies, and that's bad .
He says if tobacco industry is given monopoly of e-cigarette products, public health will suffer .
Kershaw: FDA should let e-cigarette industry innovate to save tobacco smokers' lives . |
203,306 | 932f0735166c4ce3bd7a9fce9b6a9e11e02b4c5b | Aston Villa midfielder Aleksandar Tonev will have a medical on Monday ahead of joining Celtic on a season-long loan. The 24-year-old Bulgarian was a target for Celtic before joining Villa for £2.5million last summer. He flew to Glasgow on Sunday night and talks will continue on Monday. VIDEO Scroll down to watch Ronny Deila on wanting to build a new team . On his way: Aleksandar Tonev (pictured) looks set for a move to Celtic . Elsewhere, Paul Lambert is hoping to keep hold of defender Ron Vlaar amidst interest from Ronald Koeman's Southampton. Lambert is keen to open talks with the 29-year-old centre-half once the transfer window shuts, but was far from impressed with Koeman for admitting publicly that Vlaar was 'an option'. The Villa boss said: ‘There is been absolutely no enquiry, not one iota on it. The only thing I am disappointed in is people talking about him, who should know better than to talk about other people’s players. ‘I don’t think you accept it. I think out of respect you don’t do it, you don’t get involved in that. That is my opinion. You will have to ask others what they think but I am just giving my opinion.’ Staying? Paul Lambert is hoping to tie Ron Vlaar (above) down to a long-term contract . | Aston Villa midfielder Tonev set for Celtic medical .
Bulgarian was a target for Celtic before £2.5million move to Villa . |
78,960 | dfcec0db54d8fedc603bea0b0119bcfae9f52944 | After 22 years on a cold case, the New York Police Department finally has a lead. The NYPD was able to identify the mother of "Baby Hope," a little girl whose body was found in a blue and white picnic cooler in a wooded area near the Henry Hudson Parkway on July 23, 1991. The girl, then believed to be 3 to 5 years old, was smothered and sexually molested. Her body was so badly decomposed that several sketches were made to suggest what she looked like. Thanks to a tip, the department has confirmed the identity of the girl's mother through DNA testing, according to Police Commissioner Ray Kelly. The body was exhumed in 2011. "A DNA match was made with the mother and the mother has been cooperating," Kelly told reporters Tuesday. He declined to name the mother or provide details on the case. There have been no arrests. "Homicide is a distinct possibility here, so it's going to go forward in that direction," Kelly said of the investigation. Baby Hope -- named by the police officers and detectives moved by her unknown story -- finally has a name and an age. The NYPD, however, is not ready to release this information so as to not disturb the ongoing investigation. NYPD hasn't given up on Baby Hope . The girl was never reported missing and police could not track down anyone who might have known her. The NYPD Cold Case Apprehension Squad never gave up hope, continuing to hand out flyers and canvas nearby neighborhoods every year on the anniversary of the discovery of the body. "We have been able to identify the mother of Baby Hope as a result of, in my judgment, outstanding detective work," Kelly said. Detective Robert Dewhurst, a member of the squad, told CNN in July that several detectives were still on the case and that people with information may speak many years later for many reasons, such as feeling safer after moving to a new area where they don't see the person responsible every day. Sometimes people "want to get it off their chest," said Dewhurst. For months after Baby Hope's body was found, police went back to the site hoping whoever was responsible, driven by guilt, had left some type of memorial that would have helped police. Baby Hope, two years after she was found, was laid to rest in a donated plot. She was buried in a white dress bought by a detective's wife. "This is what my squad does," Dewhurst said. "Twenty years is not uncommon for a cold case." "I have hope. Otherwise I wouldn't be doing this." Police confirm identity of baby's remains found in New York river . | Body of unidentified child -- named Baby Hope by police -- was found on July 23, 1991 .
Authorities able to identify the mother through tip, DNA .
No arrests have been made . |
246,466 | caf9a2a35f699f3eb497ca02b735011281285286 | A father has died and his wife and two young children are in a critical condition after the family struck was by lightning while sheltering from severe storms on the Gold Coast. It's understood the group were gathered under a shelter at a park near the Worongary State School when they were hit at around 3.30pm . The school had been used as a polling booth for the state election. Onlookers tried to help resuscitate the man until paramedics arrived and took over. Police confirmed the man, a woman and two children, a little boy aged 18 months and the other just 12 weeks old, were all injured in the accident. It's understood the deceased male was holding the 18-month-old boy at the time of the accident. A spokesperson for the Gold Coast University Hospital confirmed four people had arrived shortly after 5pm (AEST). A father has died and his wife and two young children are in a critical condition after the family struck was by lightning while sheltering from severe storms on the Gold Coast . It's believed the wife and two children are in a critical condition. "It appears ... the father, he has taken a direct strike by lightning, it has then travelled into an 18-month-old male child," Queensland Ambulance spokesperson Michael Augustus told the ABC. "There was also an adult lady, the mother, who also had with her a 12-week-old infant and unfortunately they all suffered some form of injury." The incident comes as large hailstones and destructive winds pound parts of south-east Queensland. Severe storms with golf-ball sized hail have hit Ipswich and south Brisbane. The Bureau of Meteorology says the storms are moving northeast and are expected to hit Brisbane's bayside by 6pm (AEST). | A father in his thirties has been killed after he was struck by lightning .
His wife and two children, both infants, are in a critical condition .
The family were under a shelter at a Gold Coast park when they were hit .
Victim was holding his 18-month-old son at the time, also injured .
The family arrived at hospital at around 5pm, father died at around 7pm . |
73,204 | cf970429240d2770a7f88e3a1f95770f5edd0cbb | By . Corey Charlton for MailOnline . A three-year-old boy narrowly avoided plummeting down a drain after a manhole cover gave way beneath his feet while he was playing outside with his sister. Shocked parents Stewart and Amy Akenhead want more checks to be carried out after young Oliver almost fell into the hole in Kelloe, County Durham. CCTV footage shows the youngster walking across a grassed area used for children’s games when he stepped on the manhole cover. Scroll down for video . An image from CCTV footage shows the manhole cover flipping over as Oliver first steps foot on it . One side of the cover flipped over when he placed his weight on it and Oliver fell into the shaft. Luckily, he threw out his arms and stopped himself falling further down the shaft - only going in as deep as his chest. His panicked screams were heard by his sister Daisy, eight, and passers-by, who pulled him to safety and returned him to the family home, on nearby Ann Avenue. Oliver was left distressed and suffered cuts to his legs and back and a blow to his left cheek, where the opposite side of the cover came up and struck him. Mr Akenhead said: 'What would have happened if he’d fallen all the way down? 'Daisy might have run ahead. Oliver wouldn’t have been able to get out on his own.' Mrs Akenhead added: 'I think Northumbrian Water need to do more surveys to spot things like this. 'For something like that to happen to a little boy, he was traumatised. It will affect him.' Northumbrian Water responded by cementing the frame and securing the lid later the same day. Three-year-old Oliver Akenhead with his sister Daisy, who he was playing with when he fell down the drain . The manhole cover through which Oliver fell, pictured, has since been cemented by Northumbrian Water . A spokesman said: 'We are sorry to learn of Oliver’s frightening fall and glad that he doesn’t appear to have suffered any serious injury and that he’s hopefully none the worse for his ordeal.' The firm has nearly 500,000 manholes in its North-East sewerage network and spends around £800,000 a year maintaining and improving them. The spokesman added: 'It is impossible for the company to regularly inspect them all and in addition to our own monitoring we depend on the public, agencies and councils who maintain grassed areas such as this one in Kelloe to report any faults, which we immediately deal with as a top priority. 'We appeal to anyone who knows about a manhole that needs work to please let us know about it.' | Oliver Akenhead, 3, fell through the manhole cover as he walked across it .
CCTV footage shows him in the drain but holding himself at chest height .
Child was left distressed with cuts to his legs and back, and sore face . |
91,883 | 023125dd2c3241c13168b33e0a5d4362bba068a3 | By . Daniel Martin, Whitehall Correspondent . PUBLISHED: . 18:36 EST, 23 August 2012 . | . UPDATED: . 02:59 EST, 24 August 2012 . Heard the one about the golf course which banned golf buggies? Or the cafes that refused to heat up baby food? They might sound like bad jokes, but in fact they are just two of the ten most unjustifiable bans in the often bizarre world of health and safety. Other examples include a council which stopped a nursery teacher taking children to an allotment, and a manager who banned a woman from wearing flip flops in the office because they did not have enclosed toes and a supported back. World gone mad! Cafes refusing to heat up baby food 'in case it burns the child's mouth' The list was published by the Health and Safety Executive, which says too many middle managers are banning low-risk activities. It also accuses companies of using elf ’n’ safety as a cover for unpopular, but profitable, policies. One example was an airline which said a traveller could not have a blanket on an aeroplane – unless she bought one for £5. Since April the Myth Busters Challenge Panel, established by the HSE, has invited those who believe they are victims of a ludicrous health and safety ruling to email in and get a professional view. The panel may then contest decisions made by insurance companies, local authorities and employers. All the examples on the list were deemed to be cases where an organisation was using health and safety wrongly, perhaps as a smokescreen for an unpopular decision or poor customer service, or because of a nonsensical interpretation of the law. In the golf example, buggies were prohibited because they were not ‘health and safety authorised’. The cafes that wouldn’t warm up baby . food apparently told the mother they couldn’t ‘in case it burns the . child’s mouth’. Yet they were selling hot drinks. Ridiculous! Campers told they would have to pay for two plots because they had a camper van and a tent . Ministers have promised reforms of health and safety laws. Employment minister Chris Grayling said: ‘It’s hugely frustrating when excuses are being made in the name of health and safety. The Myth Busters Challenge Panel is helping the man and woman on the street fight back against the jobsworths.’ | Bizarre list published by Health and Safety Executive . |
88,714 | fbcc838e5faa11a076df8656fc203a8afcfb7fad | (CNN) -- Jazz guitarist Jim Hall, who played with the jazz greats of the 20th century and influenced the younger ones, died Tuesday, his family said. He was 83. Hall's seven decades in music covered the evolution of modern jazz, and his role included showing that the guitar could replace the piano, said guitarist Julian Lage. Hall legitimized the guitar as an instrument in jazz and many other styles of music, he said. "I wouldn't be doing what I am doing if not for him," said Lage, 25, who played for several years in Hall's trio. Hall became the first jazz guitarist to be given the National Endowment for the Arts' Jazz Masters award in 2004. "One of the things that made Jim so special as a player, he had a beautiful sound on the instrument," guitarist Russell Malone told CNN on Wednesday. "He had a really full, nice, round, sweet sound." Hall died in his sleep of heart failure at his home in New York's Greenwich Village early Tuesday, his wife Jane Hall told CNN. He is also survived by a daughter, Devra Hall, who acted as his manager in recent years. "There's not a person in the world who doesn't love Jim," his wife said. "He was the kindest person in the world." "He was such a lovely human being," Malone said. "I might get a call anytime of the night and it would be Jim Hall at the other end of the phone laughing and telling me how much he loved me." "Jim was one of the most generous, kind and funny people I have ever known and those attributes were so woven into his character," Lage said. Born in Buffalo, New York, but raised mostly in Cleveland, Ohio, Hall began playing guitar at age 10. After graduating from the Cleveland Institute of Music, he joined the Chico Hamilton Quintet in 1955. Hall toured South America with Ella Fitzgerald in 1960. He joined the Sonny Rollins Quartet in 1961, playing on Rollins' "The Bridge." "The interplay between Rollins' fiery solos and Hall's classic guitar runs made this one of jazz's most essential recordings," the National Endowments for the Arts biography of Hall said. "It was an electric guitar, but the natural acoustic qualities of the guitar were never lost," Malone said. "It's the first thing that people hear. His sound was so appealing it made you want to listen to what he was saying musically." "He didn't play a whole lot of notes, but he always figured a way to play the notes that counted and they always meant something," Malone said. "Nothing was ever wasted." The trio Hall formed in 1965 continued performing and recording through the end of his life. People we've lost in 2013 . | NEW: Jim Hall legitimized the guitar as an instrument in jazz, guitarist Julian Lage says .
Hall's guitar had "a really full, nice, round, sweet sound," guitarist Russell Malone says .
"He was the kindest person in the world," his wife says .
He was the first jazz guitarist given the NEA's Jazz Masters award . |
229,590 | b54e23f7697a315cf2e412bafcc3c7abd5442c70 | The TSA officer shot dead by a gunman at Los Angeles International Airport earlier this month lay bleeding for 33 minutes before paramedics helped him, it has emerged. Law enforcement officials have revealed that paramedics were forced to wait just 150 yards from where Gerardo Hernandez was wounded because police had not declared the terminal safe to enter. The gunman, Paul Ciancia, was only active for five of the 33 minutes; after that there was no threat . as he had been shot and was in custody. Hernandez, who was only 20 feet from the exit, was eventually wheeled out by police to an ambulance - but the married father-of-two could not be saved. Scroll down for video . Questions: Gerardo Hernandez, 39, was left to bleed for 33 minutes after he was shot by the LAX gunman. Investigations are now underway to determine what conversations police and fire officials had . Officials are now examining what conversations took place between police and fire commanders to determine when it was safe to enter the building following the November 1 shooting. They are also looking at whether paramedics could have gone inside earlier to help Hernandez, although it is not known if he would have survived after immediate medical attention. Formal conclusions may take months to reach, but what's known raises the possibility that a lack of coordination between police and fire officials prevented speedy treatment for Hernandez and others. The tragedy unfolded after Paul Ciancia, a 23-year-old unemployed motorcycle mechanic, entered Terminal 3 with a duffel bag, pulled out an assault rifle and started shooting, authorities said. They added that he had a note in his . bag that said he wanted to 'kill TSA' and that he wanted to stir fear in . them, criticizing their searches as unconstitutional. He fatally shot Hernandez and injured another officer, Tony Grigsby, who is recovering. Scene: Police stand by the scene of the shooting on November 1. For 28 minutes after the gunman was apprehended, the victim still lay on the ground as paramedics waited to enter . Chaos: After the shooting, paramedics were forced to wait outside - even when the shooter was in custody. Pictured, police officers and passengers wait outside the terminal following the gunfire . Ciancia was then shot by airport police officers four times, in the mouth and leg, before being taken into custody. He remains in fair condition in hospital and will appear in court when he is well enough. Suspect: Paul Ciancia, 23, allegedly targeted TSA agents for being 'unconstitutional' The Associated Press explained that paramedics did not immediately rush inside due to concerns there could be further threats inside - such as bombs or accomplices. After Hernandez was shot, officers from multiple agencies bent down to check on Hernandez before moving on, officials said. None administered first aid. Police broadcast over their radios that Ciancia was in custody at 9.25am, five minutes after Hernandez was shot in the chest. A nearly 26-year veteran Los Angeles police officer then checked on Hernandez several times, repeatedly telling officers who came by from various agencies 'he's dead', an official said. When Hernandez was finally taken to hospital, trauma surgeon David Plurad said Hernandez had no signs of life. Doctors worked for about an hour to revive him despite significant blood loss. 'When somebody is shot and they're bleeding to death, lifesaving skills need to be implemented immediately, in a couple minutes, and they're very simple, pressure dressings, tourniquets, adequate bandages to stop the bleeding,' said Dr. Lawrence E. Heiskell, an emergency physician for 27 years and a reserve police officer for 24 years who founded the International School of Tactical Medicine. Grief: Ana Hernandez, left, sits with her children Stephanie and Louis, right, during the public memorial service for her slain husband on Tuesday . Memorial: Attorney General Eric Holder walks past an image of Hernandez after giving remarks at the service . Responding to a situation with a shooter on the loose has changed since the 1999 Columbine school massacre, when officials huddled outside to formulate a plan while shooters continued firing inside and a teacher bled to death without timely treatment. Now police immediately charge in to stop the shooting as quickly as possible; officers are trained to step over the wounded and stop the gunman first, then tend to victims. During active shooter training last month with the LAX police and LAPD, Los Angeles city firefighters wearing ballistic vests and helmets dragged survivors to areas where they could provide treatment. Because police are often the first at the scene where there are injuries, California law requires officers receive first aid and CPR training in the academy and regular refreshers afterward. A recent audit by Los Angeles Police Commission Inspector General Alex Bustamante found that the LAPD had a zero percent compliance rate. Survivor: Injured TSA agent Tony Grigsby (center) gets a hug from a fellow agents at the service . Only 250-sworn officers in the Metropolitan Division out of the department's more than 9,900 sworn officers received the refresher training, it states. Airport police have the training. The Los Angeles . Police Department, Los Angeles Fire Department and Los Angeles Airport . Police said they couldn't comment on the ongoing investigation until reports are finished. For now, TSA workers are left wondering if Hernandez could have been saved if he had been seen to earlier, said Victor Payes, . who works at the airport and is president of the local union. 'I . basically think there's a lack of coordination between entities at this . airport. That lack of coordination may have led to something that . shouldn't have happened,' Payes said. 'We may be talking about Officer . Hernandez as a survivor.' | Gerardo Hernandez, 39, was fatally shot in the chest on November 1 .
Paramedics were forced to wait just 150 yards away from where he was shot because police had not declared the terminal safe to enter .
No one administered first aid to Hernandez as he lay on the ground .
Shooter Paul Ciancia was in custody minutes after Hernandez was shot .
Investigations are now underway to determine the conversations police and fire commanders had about entering the building . |
243,903 | c7b383de7f88bec83a7880e5f289990a69d911e9 | The family of a mother who was found beaten to death by her husband six hours after a neighbor called 911 for help have filed a lawsuit against the city of Denver. Loretta Barela's heartbroken relatives said in a federal lawsuit filed on Monday that the 44-year-old might have survived if dispatchers had sent police sooner. A neighbor called 911 around 2am on November 18, 2012 to report seeing a shirtless Barela being punched and dragged across the street by a man. When police failed to arrive after 45 minutes, the neighbor called 911 again. Attack: Loretta Barela, left, was beaten to death by her husband Christopher Perea, right, in November 2012. A concerned neighbor called 911 at 2am but her body was not discovered until 8.15am . Scene: Officers showed up at the home an hour after the first 911 call but knocked on the couple's door, pictured, but left after no one answered. Perea called cops himself hours later to report the killing . Officers finally arrived around 3am and knocked on the front door and shone lights through a window but left when no one answered. Eventually, Barela's husband, 41-year-old Christopher Perea, called authorities to say he believed he had killed his wife. He said her body was 'cold' and that her jaw was 'stiff'. Her beaten body was found inside their home around 8.15am. Perea was arrested and later convicted in her murder. 'I just want to know why they didn't do anything about it,' he daughter Marie Cruz said to 9news at the time. 'She is tiny. She's only 90 pounds getting beaten by a man.' The lawsuit names the city of Denver, four 911 employees and two officers, who they say failed to thoroughly investigate before leaving 18 minutes after they arrived. At the time, Fox31 reported that police sources said they can only kick in a door when it appears to be an emergency, but it was unknown how much the officers knew. Heartbroken: Her daughter, left, and sister, right, said after the attack that they wanted to know why officers failed to help Barela. The family has now filed a lawsuit against the city, dispatchers and police officers . The lawsuit also says that the dispatchers ignored the urgency of the neighbor's calls reporting a life-threatening emergency. At least one dispatcher resigned. 'Somebody can find another job but you can't replace my mom, you really can't,' her tearful daughter told Fox31. The case was among several recent problems at the 911 center. In April 2012, a 911 caller reporting a threatening situation was told Denver police wouldn't take a report unless he returned to city limits. He returned to Denver and was killed within blocks of the earlier incident. And this April, Denver police officials said they were delayed saving a woman after a dispatcher who failed to relay information to officers about the gravity of the situation. In that case, Kristine Kirk frantically called 911 saying her husband Richard was hallucinating after eating marijuana-infused candy and was getting a gun from a safe. Failed: In another Denver case, Kristine Kirk, left, called 911 saying her husband Richard, right, was threatening to shoot her after eating marijuana-infused candy. She was shot after a slow police response . She was shot dead more than 12 minutes into her 911 call. Officials made several changes to their response policies after Kirk's killing, including requiring dispatchers to give certain calls, such as those involving weapons, the highest priority. The new rules also give officers more authority to decide how to respond to calls in which a person is in imminent danger. The suit says the cases show 'a widespread custom or policy of failing to identify and/or prioritize situations involving imminent danger or a life threatening emergency'. City Attorney Scott Martinez said late on Monday that he had not seen the lawsuit and he could not comment. | A neighbor called 911 after seeing a man hit Loretta Barela and drag her across a Denver street in November 2012 .
When officers failed to respond, the neighbor called 911 an hour later .
Police arrived at the house but left after no one answered the door .
Barela's husband Christopher Perea, 41, himself called police at 8am to say that he believed he had killed his wife .
Her family are now suing the city of Denver, dispatchers and the officers . |
29,459 | 53bbeb039a69281171ed341b0785ac998d9b4106 | (CNN) -- Three human heads and three decapitated bodies with notes aimed at high government officials were found Thursday in different parts of Guatemala's capital, national police said. The notes were addressed to Interior Minister Carlos Menocal and Eddy Morales, the nation's director of prisons. One of the notes said the officials must impose order in the nation's prisons or these atrocities would continue, police said. The other said that impunity against lawlessness must end, according to police. The heads were inside plastic bags, one of them in front of the main doors to the national Congress in Guatemala City, police said. "That's obviously a first for Guatemala," said Samuel Logan, an expert on Latin American gangs and founding editor of the Southern Pulse intelligence report. "That's something we've seen the Zetas (drug cartel) do in Mexico." Donald Gonzalez, a spokesman for the national police, attributed the slayings to the Zetas or another narcotrafficking group, the Prensa Libre newspaper reported. Gonzalez did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment. Logan did not discount the possibility that anti-crime vigilantes could have been responsible. "It could also be death squads," he said. "Off-duty police officers or other types hired by local businessmen who say, 'Go after the street gangs.' "There's a lot of moving parts to this story," said Logan, who recently wrote a book on the Mara Salvatrucha gang of Central America and is working on a book about the Zetas, which has emerged as Mexico's most ruthless drug cartel. Logan said in an interview last year that there are two main criminal elements in Guatemala: drug cartels that deal in large-scale exportation and street gangs that sell drugs at the retail level and are involved in other crimes, such as robbery and extortion. In some cases, they work together. When those criminals get arrested, they continue their activities inside prison, said Fernando Carrera Castro, director of the Central American Institute for Fiscal Studies in Guatemala City. "The prisons, in general, are centers of corruption," Carrera said last year. "From inside prison, they direct kidnappings, extortion, drug trafficking." Prison officials are often targeted for violence. In September, three coordinated attacks killed four prison officials in a five-hour span. Left dead were a prison assistant director, a warden and two guards. One guard and a shooting suspect were wounded, as were three citizens. One of the wounded was a woman in the eighth month of pregnancy, news accounts said. At least three prison guards have been killed and five wounded in five attacks this year, published reports say. Logan said that all of Central America is under attack from organized crime cartels, because the region is pinched between Colombia and Mexico, the two biggest sources of drugs in the area. U.S. interdiction efforts that have targeted the flow of drugs through the Caribbean Sea also have forced cartels to travel through the Central American isthmus, Logan said. Within Central America, he said, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador have the worst problems. Among those three nations, Guatemala stands out. "When you talk about a country being hollowed out by organized crime, Guatemala is at the top of the list," Logan said. There are two main reasons, he said: geography and an incompetent and corrupt government. "Guatemala bunches right up against Mexico," Logan said. "Any spillover effect is almost certainly going south." Said Heather Berkman, a Central America analyst with the Eurasia Group consulting firm, "The narcos are coming down from Mexico." In addition, Logan said, the federal government is not able to control large segments of the country. For example, Peten state in northern Guatemala, bordered on two sides by Mexico, is lawless, he said. Berkman made the same point in an interview last year. "The narcos control about 40 percent of the territory down there, which is pretty amazing," she said. Berkman also pointed out that the Guatemalan government reduced anti-crime spending in the 2010 budget because of the nation's dire economic situation. "If you don't have resources, you can't pay for troops and supplies and intelligence," she said. Journalist Alexia Rios Hayashi contributed to this report. | NEW: Beheadings are "a first for Guatemala," analyst says .
Notes to top officials found with bodies .
Notes said atrocities would continue unless order brought to prisons .
Severed head found in front of national Congress . |
278,625 | f4f1b719b8f74b1ad34749b38ca9b7639712242e | A man who made a deathbed confession that linked him to a cold case murder from 1995 now faces jail because of what he thought was a last-ditch effort for a clean conscience. James Washington was having a heart attack when he called a police officer over to his hospital bed in 2009. While he hoped for absolution, what he got instead was a medical miracle. And now, a murder charge. Grim prospects: James Washington was having a heart attack in 2009 when he confessed to a murder dating back to 1995 . Record: When Washington had the heart attack, he was in jail for a different crime. He had always been linked to the murder of Joyce Goodener in 1995 but there was never enough to charge him . Washington had long been linked to the murder of Joyce Goodener, who was found stabbed in the neck, beaten to death with a cinderblock and set on fire in an abandoned Nashville, Tennessee house. A lack of sufficient evidence- most significantly there were no DNA samples- kept the police from arresting anyone over the past 17 years. 'I didn't have any trust in the system,' Ms Goodener's daughter Sonya Kimbrell told local station WSMV. 'All of a sudden, I got this phone call and they said, "We think we found him."' Victim: Joyce Goodener was found with a stab wound to her neck, having been badly beaten with a cement block and then lit on fire after she was killed . Relief: Goodener's daughter Sonya Kimbrell (pictured) did not believe that they would find her mother's killer . At the time of his 2009 heart attack, Washington was in jail for a different crime, so when he was escorted to the hospital with the severe chest pains, there was a police officer nearby. 'He kind of got as best as he could, motioned, and said "I have something to tell you. I have to get something off my conscience and you need to hear this,"' said transport guard James Tomlinson. 'He said "I killed somebody. I beat her to death,"' Mr Tomlinson added. Confessor: James Tomlinson was the guard who transported Washington to the hospital during his heart attack, and he was the one to hear Washington's confession . With that weight lifted off his conscience but added on to his rap sheet, Washington proceeded to live through the heart attack and was sentenced to life in prison. Even though he tried to talk back the confession in the wake of the hospital stay, he was found guilty in court and now faces up to 51 years behind bars. WATCH THE VIDEO HERE . WSMV Channel 4 . | James Washington was always connected to the 1995 murder of Joyce Goodener but there was insufficient evidence to charge him .
He had a heart attack in 2009 and thought he was going to die .
While in the hospital, he confessed to Goodener's murder .
Now he faces life in prison for the crime . |
54,772 | 9b2734f33b37af7ead890fc5dd0f25169520c0a1 | (CNN) -- If you want to use Facebook a little more like Snapchat, you might soon get your chance. The social-media giant is testing a feature that would let users set a time for their status updates to disappear. A Facebook spokesman said the feature is part of a "small pilot" and is available only for certain people using Facebook's iOS app. Several users reported noticing the test on their iPhones. One post on Twitter showed a list of expiration options ranging from one hour to seven days. It's not the first time Facebook has tried to emulate emerging social media services designed to be used in the moment without leaving a permanent digital mark. In 2012, Facebook toyed with the concept with a standalone app, Poke. Apparently coded in part by CEO Mark Zuckerberg himself, the effort was described as something of a lark over a holiday weekend. It was shut down this year and replaced by Slingshot, a similar app on which short-lived messages show up only once two users have sent them to each other. The ephemeral has become increasingly alluring in the social-media world, particularly among younger users, in the past couple of years. The runaway success of Snapchat, which lets you send photos, texts or videos that disappear in a matter of seconds, has led the way. The scheduled deletions on Facebook, as being considered, obviously have a longer shelf life than a few seconds. Users might also want to delete updates that would no longer be of use after a short time, i.e. "I'll be in Atlanta until noon tomorrow" or "I have two tickets for tonight's concert. Who wants to go?" | Facebook users might be able to schedule expiration times for their posts .
Facebook says it's doing a small test of the feature .
Delete times would range from one hour to seven days . |
119,535 | 26684b4b5b85b2e0630e51c6603b36361006bcf3 | New York (CNN) -- CNN has obtained an exclusive photograph of Pedro Hernandez, suspect in the death of 6-year-old Etan Patz, who remains under the care of doctors after being ordered to undergo a psychiatric examination to determine whether he's competent to stand trial. The photograph was taken five years ago and shows him in a suit and tie, wearing glasses. Investigators are currently digging into a computer drive and two satchels, among other items, removed during the execution of a search warrant at the home of Hernandez, the attorney for Hernandez's wife said Thursday. The search warrant was executed as part of the ongoing investigation into Etan's disappearance in 1979. Hernandez was arrested last month. Police said he confessed to strangling the boy and throwing his body away in a trash bag. The search began Wednesday afternoon and wrapped up at 3 a.m. Thursday at the couple's New Jersey house, said Robert Gottlieb, who represents Rosemary Hernandez. He said his client "doesn't know what they were looking for." The satchels contained personal items including paperwork belonging to Rosemary Hernandez, he said. Gottlieb said his client was home during the search and cooperated fully. "An assistant prosecutor called me before investigators entered the house and asked whether she was willing to be there to offer assistance, and she did. She was there in five, 10 minutes." Rosemary Hernandez feels that her husband's confession is unreliable and is coming from a mentally ill man, Gottlieb said. The suspect, who is being held without bail at New York's Bellevue Hospital, is receiving a medication called olanzapine, according to a source familiar with his medical history. The drug is used to treat symptoms of schizophrenia, according to the National Institutes of Health. Pedro Hernandez admitted choking the boy after luring him into the basement of a bodega, a small grocery store, on May 25, 1979, police said. Etan's remains have not been found. His attorney previously told a judge that Hernandez has a history of mental disorders, suffers from hallucinations and is bipolar. "Mrs. Hernandez has seen her husband's delusions and hallucinations and other mental illnesses for a very long period of time," Gottlieb said. He would not elaborate on the mental disorders, nor would he provide an example of what his client observed. "She does not believe the confession at all," Gottlieb said. Investigators have been trying to build a case against Hernandez, looking for evidence to back up his statements to them. Police have said they have no other evidence or a motive to support his confession. A relative has said she reported that Hernandez told family members in the 1980s that he killed a boy in New York. Norma Hernandez, the suspect's sister, said she went to police in Camden, New Jersey, back then but felt that they didn't believe her. Police have said they have no record of that report. Hernandez said her brother also told a prayer group about killing a boy. Gottlieb said he was asked to represent the wife because of her growing frustration over the case and her desire to make sure prosecutors "understand the severity and nature of the mental illnesses." A spokesman for the district attorney's office had no comment Wednesday. Rosemary Hernandez has not seen her husband at Bellevue Hospital but has spoken to him by telephone. "It's a very difficult time for her and her daughter," Gottlieb said. Pedro Hernandez's next court appearance is scheduled for June 25. | The search began Wednesday afternoon and lasted into Thursday morning .
Police say Pedro Hernandez has confessed to killing Etan Patz in 1979 .
Attorney: His wife says her husband is mentally ill and his confession is unreliable . |
52,639 | 953d73377051855dec0e721c076d5bc41d472ea7 | British police have reduced the number of detectives investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann despite officers getting permission to question a number of new witnesses. Police are preparing to return to Portugal to quiz around ten potential witnesses for the first time, but two detective sergeants and four detective constables have reportedly been removed from the case in the past year. Six extra civilian staff have been brought onto the investigation, so although the number of detectives has been cut from 29 to 23, 37 people continue to work on the case, which has so far cost £7.3million. Scaled back: British police have reduced the number of detectives investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann despite officers getting permission to question a number of new witnesses . A police spokesman told The Mirror: 'Staff numbers are open to change depending on the needs of the review.' The investigation into Madeleine's disappearance from the holiday resort of Praia de Luz on May 3, 2007, was reopened by the Metropolitan Police in 2011 and the reduction in detectives involved could be interpreted as the probe being scaled back. News of the numbers working on the case came as prosecutor Ines Sequeira paved the way for a new British police visit to the Algarve by approving a fifth international letter of request which had been gathering dust following her predecessor's departure in the summer. Officers in Faro are now scheduling the interviews, which will take place at the PJ police station in the town where four suspects were quizzed at the start of July. Parents: Madeleine's parents Kate and Gerry McCann have continued to fight to find their daughter after she disappeared seven years ago . Missing: Last week a new picture of three-year-old Madeleine dressed as a pumpkin was released by a campaign group with the blessing of her parents. She vanished from the room she was sharing with her younger twin siblings in Praia Da Luz more than seven years ago . It was thought three of the suspects would be given a new grilling when the Operation Grange team led by DCI Andy Redwood returned to Portugal. But Mrs Sequeira, 49, is understood to have authorised only interviews with a string of witnesses who British police have never questioned directly. Respected Portuguese daily Jornal de Noticias said Scotland Yard opted out of asking for permission to reinterview the suspects in their fifth letter of request, which state prosecutors received in August. Around ten witnesses are expected to be quizzed, including some who were questioned by Portuguese police after Madeleine vanished from her holiday apartment in Praia da Luz more than seven years ago. The unnamed witnesses are expected to receive police summons in the coming days. As happened during the July round of interrogations, British police will sit in on the interviews but they will be led by Portuguese officers who will ask questions on their behalf. Lead investigating officer Detective Chief Inspector Andy Redwood (second left) with British police and their Portuguese counterparts investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann in June of this year . The Operation Grange team last visited Portugal three weeks ago. A small team of three officers including DCI Andy Redwood met Policia Judiciaria bosses in Faro for an update meeting before travelling to the university city of Coimbra a five hour drive north to visit a lab where many of the DNA samples collected after Madeleine's disappearance are held. British police told bosses at Portugal's Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences they wanted to retest some of the samples to try to crack the mystery of Madeleine's disappearance. They are yet to send a sixth international letter of request which mother-of-four Mrs Sequeira will have to authorise before Met Police forensics experts are allowed access to the lab or given permission to take samples to Britain to analyse them. The forensic material includes hairs and pieces of the curtains that hung in apartment 5A at the Ocean Club holiday complex where Madeleine was sleeping with baby siblings Sean and Amelie, now nine, while her parents Kate and Gerry ate tapas nearby. British police shifting through soil on an area of wasteland during a search for Madeleine McCann in June 2014 . It emerged last week nearly 100 strands of hair tested during the original Madeleine McCann investigation were never DNA-matched. Portuguese forensic experts analysed 444 hair strands they believed could hold the key to the youngster's disappearance. They found 432 were human and 12 non-human. They were unable to DNA-match 98 of them and only obtained partial results from 19 of them, it was reported last week. Institute president Francisco Brizida, said after the October 14 meeting: 'I have the certainty they went away very happy. 'The tonic of the meeting was about the possibility of the tests on samples collected in 2007 being re-done. 'The British police wanted clarification on the examinations the institute had carried out during the early stages of the inquiry in the areas of genetics and biology. 'We talked about non-identified material that was collected in Madeleine's apartment. 'I can't say for sure new DNA tests that didn't yield a conclusive result in 2007 could now yield an objective result. 'But technology nowadays allows us to go further than years ago in areas like genetic markers. The Ocean Club in Praia Da Luz where Madeleine McCann was staying when she disappeared in May 2007 . 'Several possibilities are open. One could be that British police do the tests in Britain with British technology and another that the institute does them. 'But that's an area in which the institute does not have the last word. There's a situation of judicial cooperation and a new international letter of request would be necessary.' The Operation Grange inquiry is running in parallel with a new Portuguese probe, reopened in May more than five years after being shelved. Scotland Yard detectives suspect Madeleine, three when she vanished, was killed during a bungled break-in. They dug up waste ground and inspected sewers in Praia da Luz in June in a grim search for her body. One of the suspects questioned in July was a former Ocean Club worker and another a 51-year-old schizophrenic drug addict. They both denied any involvement in Madeleine's disappearance. Portuguese police believe Madeleine was snatched by a foreigner no longer living in Portugal. However they have not ruled out the involvement of junkie burglar Euclides Monteiro, whose widow they questioned last year. Last month, it emerged the cost of the British police search for Madeleine will soon top £10 million - double the original amount estimated by the Home Office when the force was called in by David Cameron in 2011. The Home Office has defending the rising cost of the probe, insisting: 'The Government believes it is right that it does all it can to support the search for Madeleine McCann.' | Number of detectives on the case has fallen from 29 to 23 in the last year .
Six extra civilians have been brought onto Scotland Yard's investigation .
Prosecutor Ines Sequeira paved way for new British police visit to Algarve .
She is understood to have authorised interviews with witnesses British police never questioned directly after Madeleine's disappearance in 2007 .
Unnamed witnesses expected to receive police summons in next few days .
British police will sit in on the interviews led by Portuguese officers .
Three-year-old Madeleine McCann vanished from the room she was sharing with her younger twin siblings in Praia Da Luz more than seven years ago . |
25,151 | 473ecfaea72756ab01079bdd6460de010cb6b5e8 | It is a mystery that has puzzled biologists - including Charles Darwin - for 320 years. Biologists had been unable to work out how the Falklands wolf came to be the only land-based mammal on the isolated islands, which are 460km from the nearest land, Argentina. Previous theories have suggested the . wolf somehow rafted on ice or vegetation, crossed via a now-submerged . land bridge or was even semi-domesticated and transported by early South . American humans. Illustration of 'Dusicyon australis', the Falklands wolf, from Zoology of the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle. Researchers have now solved the mystery of how the wolf gor to the Flaklands - and say it skated across a frozen sea . The Falkland Islands wolf (Dusicyon australis), is also known as the warrah and occasionally as the Falkland Islands dog. It was the only native land mammal of the Falkland Islands until it became extinct in 1876, making it the first known canid to have gone extinct in historical times. The first recorded sighting was by Captain John Strong in 1690. He took one, but during the voyage back to Europe it became frightened by the firing of the ship's cannon and jumped overboard. When Charles Darwin visited the islands in 1833 he found the species present on both West and East Falkland, and tame, but numbers were dwindling and he predicted that the animal would join the dodo among the extinct within 'a very few years.' Islanders hunted it for its fur, and were also concerned it would attack sheep. Now, University of Adelaide researchers have found the answer - and say the animals skated across a frozen sea, probably chasing a penguin or seal. Researchers from the University’s . Australian Centre for Ancient DNA (ACAD) extracted tiny pieces of tissue . from the skull of a specimen collected personally by Darwin. The 320-year-old mystery was first recorded by early British explorers in 1690 and raised again by Charles Darwin following his encounter with the famously tame species on his Beagle voyage in 1834. The findings were published in Nature . Communications today and concluded that, unlike earlier theories, the . Falkland Islands wolf (Dusicyon australis) only became isolated about . 16,000 years ago around the peak of the last glacial period. 'The eureka moment was finding . evidence of submarine terraces off the coast of Argentina,' says study . leader Professor Alan Cooper. 'They recorded the dramatically lowered sea levels during the Last Glacial Maximum (around 25-18,000 years ago).' 'At that time, there was a shallow . and narrow (around 20km) strait between the islands and the mainland, . allowing the Falkland Islands wolf to cross when the sea was frozen . over, probably while pursuing marine prey like seals or penguins. 'Other small mammals like rats weren’t able to cross the ice.' The team also used samples from a . previously unknown specimen, which was recently re-discovered as a . stuffed exhibit in the attic of Otago Museum in New Zealand. The 'submarine terraces' that enabled the Falklands wolf to cross from Argentina during the Last Glacial Maximum (around 25-18,000 years ago). The image shows a shallow and narrow (around 20km) strait between the islands and the mainland . The yellow dots show the areas in Argentina the relatives of the Falklands Wolf were found, and the red marks its population on the island . 'Previous studies used ancient DNA from museum specimens to suggest that the Falkland Islands wolf diverged genetically from its closest living relative, the South American maned wolf (Chrysocyon brachyurus) around seven million years ago,' said Associate Professor Jeremy Austin, Deputy Director of ACAD and co-lead author with Dr Julien Soubrier. 'As a result, they estimated that the wolf colonised the islands about 330,000 years ago by unknown means. 'Critically, however, these early studies hadn’t included an extinct relative from the mainland, the fox-like Dusicyon avus. 'We extracted ancient DNA from six specimens of D. avus collected across Argentina and Chile, and made comparisons with a wide group of extinct and living species in the same family.' ACAD’s analyses showed that D. avus was the closest relative of the Falkland Islands wolf and they separated only 16,000 years ago – but the question of how the island colonisation came about remained. The Falkland Islands wolf (Dusicyon australis), also known as the warrah and occasionally as the Falkland Islands dog. It . was the only native land mammal of the Falkland Islands until it became . extinct in 1876, making it the first known canid to have become extinct . in historical times . The Falklands wolf had baffled scientists, as they could not work out how it crossed from Argentina . The . first recorded sighting was by Capt. John Strong in 1690.He took one, . but during the voyage back to Europe it became frightened by the firing . of the ship's cannon and jumped overboard. When . Charles Darwin visited the islands in 1833 he found the species present . on both West and East Falkland, and tame, but number were dwindling and . he predicted that the animal would join the dodo among the extinct . within 'a very few years.' Islanders hunted it for its fur, and were also concerned it would attack sheep. | Experts were baffled by how the now extinct animal crossed the sea .
Mystery was first recorded in 1690 - and raised again by Charles Darwin .
Researchers analysed DNA from famously tame animal found by Darwin . |
217,478 | a58dc185d41582d5c336f56488652479655e3256 | By . Sam Webb . A mugger was thwarted and jailed thanks to two postal workers who chased him through the streets after hearing his victim's cries for help. Drug addict Daniel Hall, 33, snatched a woman's bag after she got off a bus in Plymouth, Devon. But the 42-year-old victim's cries were heard by Royal Mail workers Martin Harris, 49, and Sharon O'Connor, 38, who were driving past in their mail van. The heroes that deliver: Sharon O'Connor and Martin Harris, who chased down mugger Daniel Hall, after he snatched a woman's bag . They chased up with the thief, who flung down the bag before making his escape. He was arrested just a few hours later because of the detailed description the two postal workers gave police. The father-of-one, who has more than 29 previous convictions, began an eight month jail sentence this week after admitting robbery at Plymouth Crown Court. Mr Harris and Ms O'Connor described how they were doing their morning round on January 30 when they heard the victim shouting for help. Addict: Daniel Miller, who has more than 29 previous convictions, began an eight month jail sentence this week after admitting robbery at Plymouth Crown Court . Mother-of-three Sharon said: 'The man was running towards us and we could see he had something. As we were watching we could hear the woman shouting "he took my bag". 'We looked at each other and I just put my foot down and went after him. 'I knew we could cut him off at the top of the lane if we were quick enough. We did not have time to think, the adrenaline took over.' Once Hall was cornered, Mr Harris leapt out and demanded he hand over the bag. He said: 'I jumped out of the van and asked him to give the bag back as politely as I could. He hesitated so then I asked him again more forcibly and he threw it at me before he ran off. 'I took the bag down to the lady and she saw that no money had been taken and she was saying, "thank you so much". 'She was shaken up but she gave me a hug and was very happy.' The court heard Hall of Devonport, Plymouth, had 29 previous convictions and had been on drugs since he was a teenager. His lawyer said he was expecting his second child but Recorder Simon Foster said he had choice but to send him to jail. Mr Harris, who has been a postman for 12 years, said he would do the same again if he saw a defenceless woman being targeted. He said: 'They have started calling us Batman and Robin at work and saying the crime rate is going to go down on our patch. 'I just did not want this kind of person to get away with it. He has mugged some defenceless woman which is not the toughest thing to do. 'It is only afterwards that you think, well anything could have happened.' Co-workers have started calling the fearless duo 'Batman and Robin' after their brave intervention . | Martin Harris and Sharon O'Connor heard victim's cries as they did round .
They cornered the thief and he dropped the bag he had stolen .
Their description helped police catch mugger Daniel Hall, 33, just hours later . |
139,142 | 3fee0fb044e4fe16a59a39d3b8dd6ddbbd79a228 | Click here to read Q&A as it happened . Thursday was 10 years to the day since Arsenal’s Invincibles won the last match in our unbeaten run of 49 games (a 3-1 win at home to Aston Villa). That run included the entire 2003-04 Premier League season when we won the title and received a golden trophy. In my weekly Q&A I described how we did it... I won the Premier League title in 2003/04... and received a golden trophy afterwards! Was this your greatest achievement in football? Nothing beats being first choice. I wasn’t at that stage but recognised the quality of the group and adapted — I was desperate to be involved. It provided a natural end to my career and I had a testimonial at the end. It couldn’t really get any better! When did you realise you were on to something special? It was special the minute Arsene Wenger arrived at the club. He surrounded us with great players and you knew then that we could go and achieve big things. I knew we were on to something special as soon as Arsene Wenger arrived... he truly delivered . Who was the most important player during that run? It was all about the strength of the group. Of course there were obvious stars — Thierry Henry rescued us on more than one occasion. We tried to get those men into positions to win games, but it was all about the group. What was the best victory? The game against Liverpool when we came from behind to win 4-2. We had gone out of the FA Cup (to Manchester United) and the Champions League (to Chelsea) so the side was quite low, but Henry rescued us with an incredible hat-trick. Thierry Henry was superb against Liverpool as we won 4-2 after FA Cup and Champions League exits . But there were several great players who I was lucky to play with . What were Wenger’s tricks? He was a very scientific manager and used to give us sugar lumps at half-time for a quick boost. Some people thought it was just to keep us quiet during his team talks! He also used to not let us have tea or coffee and he banned ketchup, but that caused a bit of a mutiny and we got it back. He even stopped me from having tea and toast the night before a game, which was one of my habits. But I did occasionally sneak a bar of chocolate in. During that period, how much did you dislike Manchester United? I vowed never to hate any opponent — that can be dangerous. You don’t play sport to stop others, you play to win for yourself. There are moments in games when you look for revenge but before the game it wasn’t about that. I vowed never to hate any opponent (even Manchester United), it was too dangerous . Do you think the run will ever be bettered? I think it can be. I feel Chelsea could go unbeaten this season and maybe extend that run. Was it the greatest side of the Premier League era? A team unbeaten for a season has to be the best, although there was always a feeling that we should have won the FA Cup and the Champions League. Diego Costa and Chelsea have every chance of going unbeaten themselves this season . VIDEO Monaco speculation taints Wenger's "Invincibles" anniversary . | Arsenal won the 49th match in an unbeaten run 10 years ago .
I would have liked to start every game... but it doesn't get much better .
I knew it was going to be special as soon as Arsene Wenger arrived .
Thierry Henry and Patrick Vieira starred but everyone contributed . |
147,814 | 4b22bec278734c58cdb2efcf14abe6b81cdcd67e | True to form, the celebrity lawyer known in legal circles as the 'Diva of Divorce' is not letting a little thing such as being laid up in hospital get in the way of extracting every last penny for her wealthy clients. Ayesha Vardag has spent this week firing off emails and fielding calls on her mobile phone from her bed in the swanky Lister Hospital in Chelsea. So what exactly has laid her low? A tummy-tuck operation, she tells me cheerfully between visits from her nurses in her well-appointed private room. Rivals: Celebrity divorce lawyers Ayesha Vardag (left) and Raymond Tooth, pictured out in Mayfair, central London, are involved in a court battle . Such cosmetic tweaks, the glamorous 45-year-old Miss Vardag points out, are vital if she is to impress her well-off, mainly female, clients. 'And I do a lot of television,' she adds. 'It's all to do with public image.' Likewise, she says she wouldn't be seen dead without her vast wardrobe of Dior, Chanel and Donna Karan business suits. And she arrives for meetings at the wheel of a red, open-top classic Mercedes 280SL. 'It's a 1984 model,' she explains. 'I grew up watching Dallas and Pamela Ewing drove one exactly like it. It's the epitome of glamour.' Suffice to say, the colourful Miss Vardag, who runs her own £10 million-a-year legal firm, is not your average divorce lawyer. No wonder she's causing ructions in the cloistered world of London's top matrimonial solicitors. Not least because she's gone into battle with the most formidable of adversaries: her former mentor and rival for the role of Britain's top celebrity divorce specialist, Raymond Tooth. Cigar-chomping lawyer Raymond Tooth with Fiona Shackleton leaving a restaurant in Mayfair, central London . Nicknamed 'Jaws' because of his fearsome reputation, he's won millions for clients who have included Jude Law's ex Sadie Frost, Cheryl Barrymore and Roman Abramovich's former wife, Irina, who he advised during her £1.2 billion split from the Chelsea FC oligarch. Cigar-chomping Mr Tooth isn't a man you'd want to be on the wrong side of. Yet it's been reported that Miss Vardag has been caught red-handed trying to steal rich and famous clients from under his nose. And it's caused Tooth — who has, until now, always insisted on keeping a low profile — to come out fighting. 'It's a very poor show, I'm afraid,' an angry Tooth told me this week. 'I think it's so underhand, particularly as I helped her in her career — talk about biting the hand that fed you.' The row has erupted over claims the law firm Miss Vardag owns hijacked the website of Tooth's Mayfair-based partnership Sears Tooth. Her firm, Vardags, paid for an advertisement on the website Google AdWords which meant anyone using Google to search for Tooth's company was led to a 'puff' for his rival's operation. Legal eagle: Glamorous lawyer Ayesha Vardag appearing on ITV show This Morning . Under the logo of Tooth's firm, the advert boasted: 'Vardags is a world-renowned, top family law firm, dealing with many high-profile cases; from celebrities and foreign royals to high net-worth and international individuals.' Much worse, as far as 73-year-old Tooth is concerned, it implied that he was past it and that Miss Vardag was his heir apparent. The promotional spiel continued: 'Sharing elements of Ray Tooth's flamboyant and forceful style, Ayesha Vardag has been described by senior members of the profession as the modern successor to the family law “crown”, which Tooth wore through the Eighties and Nineties.' 'Vardags', it added, 'have had a number of clients transfer to them from Sears Tooth.' No wonder Mr Tooth is incandescent. Miss Vardag claims the whole thing has been a misunderstanding caused by an over-zealous advertising agent. But Tooth insists it's a case of dirty tricks orchestrated by his ambitious former underling. In response, he hired lawyer Niri Shan of City firm Taylor Wessing to have the advert removed. Now Vardags have settled the case out of court by agreeing to pay £5,000 in damages and another £38,000 in costs. They've also had to promise not to do it again, although they deny liability. The row has highlighted a major clash of styles. While the ageing Mr Tooth avoids the limelight, meeting his famous clients late at night to keep their identities secret, the thrusting Miss Vardag boasts openly about her court successes and is a regular face on television, including ITV's This Morning. Despite the settlement, Tooth does not seem inclined to let bygones be bygones. 'It was an absolutely naked attempt to get our business,' he told me this week. 'I do not accept that Ayesha Vardag somehow excuses herself and her firm from what happened. 'This whole argument has been about someone behaving in a way where they pinch another person's clients in the most unscrupulous way. And to suggest she didn't know about it is nonsense.' But Miss Vardag was quick to hit back. In a pointed dig at her former mentor, she insisted: 'We've had most of the high-profile divorces of the past year, so we've got enough to keep us busy without Ray's clients as well. It's always difficult for our competitors when we expand our market share. We've got a very modern way of doing things.' The fall-out comes as the battle to land Britain's biggest divorce cases turns increasingly hostile. Newcomer Miss Vardag, the daughter of a single mother, won a place at Cambridge and qualified as a barrister before launching her own firm in 2005. The divorced mother-of-three divides her time between a rented £7 million Queen Anne-style mansion next door to Winchester Cathedral, a £1.7 million Georgian house she owns in Islington and a stylish farmhouse in southern Italy. Ayesha Vardag made her name acting for Katrin Radamacher who sued her estranged husband Nicholas Granatino over the enforcability of a pre-nuptual marriage agreement . She made her name acting for Katrin Radmacher, the German heiress who won a landmark case in the Supreme Court in 2010 which ruled a pre-nup to protect her £100 million fortune from her French-born ex-husband was legally binding. She currently represents former Miss Malaysia Pauline Chai, who is seeking £500 million in her divorce from her Laura Ashley-owner husband Khoo Kay Peng. Against Miss Vardag is the equally flamboyant Tooth, who, like his protegee, charges a reported £500-an-hour. In 2005, after his divorce from second wife Debbie, he bought a £5 million townhouse in Chelsea. Meanwhile, he's known for being driven around town in a £220,000 navy-blue German-built Maybach limousine, which comes with its own Champagne-stocked bar. His reputation for being ruthless has brought the Oxford-educated lawyer a host of rich clients. He won £4 million for Sadie Frost in her divorce from Jude Law, plus a £2 million house and £15,000-a-month maintenance. He also helped Eimear Montgomerie walk away from her marriage to golfer Colin with £15 million. Court battles: Russian businessman Roman Abramovich and his wife Irina before their split (left) and (right) British actor Jude Law and his wife Sadie Frost . Ironically, Tooth also represented Miss Vardag in her 2000 divorce from fellow lawyer Xavier Hunter, with whom she has two sons Jasper, 18, and Felix, 17 (she also has a daughter Helena, 11, from a later, failed relationship). But despite his low public profile, Mr Tooth has been touched by controversy on occasion. In 2011, Stacey Van Rossum, a former filing clerk at his firm took him to an industrial tribunal claiming that when he found out she was pregnant, he offered to 'kick the baby out of her stomach'. The lawyer, who denied Ms Van Rossum's claims, did admit asking her to scratch his back. Miss Van Rossum lost the case when it was ruled that she had quit Sears Tooth before she was fired. Meanwhile, Pattie Boyd wrote in her 2007 memoirs that she decided not to hire Mr Tooth for her divorce from Eric Clapton after visiting the lawyer at his office. She said he 'frightened me so much I thought he was going to have Eric assassinated!' Former commercial lawyer Miss Vardag joined Tooth Sears in 2001 but left the following year after falling pregnant with her daughter. Nine years after launching her own firm from a room in her North London home, she employs 50 lawyers and says her firm has had a 300-400 per cent growth rate in recent years. But Mr Tooth scoffs at her claims that she's secured the majority of big-money clients from under the nose of his firm in recent years. 'It's complete nonsense,' he says. 'Ayesha's a self-confessed publicist. I'm not here to empire-build. I have managed to keep confidential most of my well-known clients because I make a big effort to ensure it doesn't get out. 'Part of Vardags' ethos is to get clients publicity, not realising that the judges do not like it and it hurts their case. But it's all part of her own publicity campaign. 'I don't have personal ill-will, with the exception that I think what she did [with the website] was really underhand.' However, Miss Vardag is not overly repentant. 'It's one of those unfortunate things,' she says. 'An ad went out without my authority and as soon as we learnt about it, we got it taken down. 'I'm really looking forward to locking horns with Ray again, but only for our clients in the future.' For the time being, however, who'd be brave enough to take bets on who'll come out on top? | Ayesha Vardag has gone into battle with divorce specialist Raymond Tooth .
Both are celebrated lawyers who have acted for the rich and famous .
Cigar-chomping Tooth is nicknamed 'Jaws' because of his reputation . |
159,686 | 5a68c7a6ebb2ee4753f8a82f867ef2690f89b032 | By . Jamie Mcginnes . PUBLISHED: . 03:39 EST, 10 May 2012 . | . UPDATED: . 10:38 EST, 10 May 2012 . Two suicide blasts rocked the Syrian capital today, killing 55 people and leaving scenes of carnage in the streets in the deadliest bombing since the country's uprising began 14 months ago. The blasts in the al-Qazzaz suburb of Damascus injured another 370 people and damaged a military intelligence building involved in President Bashar al-Assad's crackdown on pro-democracy protests, according to the Interior Ministry, which is in charge of the country's internal security. After visiting the scene of this morning's carnage, Major General Robert Mood, the Norwegian head of the United Nations observer team in the country, said the Syrian people did not deserve this 'terrible violence'. Scroll down for video . Scene of carnage: Extraordinary aerial images released by the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency show some of the destruction caused by explosions in Damascus . Devastating: Two blasts struck Damascus during morning rush hour, killing more than 40 people and injuring dozens . 'It is not going to solve any problems,' he said, when asked what his message was to those who are carrying out such attacks. 'It is only going to create more suffering for women and children.' The explosions, said to have ripped the facade off a military intelligence building, happened at about 7:50 am local time (0500 GMT), when . employees usually arrive at work. The building is part of a . broader military compound for a feared section of the intelligence . services known as the Palestine Branch. Syrian foreign ministry spokesman . Jihad Makdissi posted a message on his Facebook page urging people to go . to hospitals to donate blood, saying that today's blast 'might be the . strongest' of a wave of explosions that have hit Damascus since late . December. The explosions left two craters at the gate of the military compound, one of them 3m (10ft) deep and 6m (20 feet) wide. Residents said there was initially a smaller blast, quickly followed by a much bigger one. 'The . house shook like it was an earthquake,' said housewife Maha Hijazi, who . appeared shaken as she stood outside her house across the street from . the targeted compound. Blasts: Flames and smoke rise from burning cars following today's rush-hour explosions . Eyewitnesses reported seeing smouldering . cars and pickup trucks after the explosions and the grisly sight of . medical workers collecting human remains. The outer wall of the military intelligence building collapsed, although the structure inside appeared intact. The Syrian government, which blamed 'terrorists', said the explosives used weighed more than 1,000 kilograms (2,200 pounds). Central Damascus is tightly under the control of forces loyal to al-Assad, but has been struck by several bomb attacks, often targeting security installations or convoys. Victim: Syrian civilians help a man injured in today's explosions in Damascus . A previous explosion in the capital on April 27 occurred when a suicide bomber detonated an explosives belt near members of the security forces, killing at least nine people and wounding 26. Syria's conflict started in March 2011 with mass protests calling for political reform. The government swiftly cracked down, . dispatching tanks, troops, snipers and pro-government thugs to quash . dissent, and many members of the opposition took up arms to defend . themselves and attack government troops. There has not yet been any claim of . responsibility for this morning's blasts, but an al-Qaeda-inspired group . has said it was behind several past explosions; raising fears that . terrorist groups are entering the fray and exploiting the chaos. The . British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least one of . the explosions was caused by a car bomb and that the target was . buildings in the area's military intelligence complex. Opposition to al-Assad, which began . with peaceful protests in March last year, has grown increasingly . violent and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said this week he was . worried by an 'alarming upsurge' in bombings. The UN says Syrian forces have killed more than 9,000 people in their crackdown on a 14-month uprising. But . Syrian authorities blame foreign-backed Islamist militants for the . violence, saying they have killed 2,600 soldiers and police. A . UN brokered ceasefire was supposed to come into force four weeks ago . but, despite an initial drop in the level of violence, the bloodshed has . continued. Activists say government forces have . shelled several cities and rebels have maintained attacks on security . forces. Today's blasts came a day after Ban Ki-moon told the UN General . Assembly of his concerns about an increase in bomb attacks in Syria. Desperate: Civilians and security personnel try to remove a car from an explosion site . 'There is no escaping the reality that we see every day,' he said. 'Innocent civilians dying, government troops and heavy armour in city streets, growing numbers of arrests and allegations of brutal torture, an alarming upsurge in the use of IEDs [improvised explosive devices] and other explosive devices throughout the country.' Aftermath: A body is removed from a blast site . International diplomacy has failed to stop the bloodshed, but the UN has ruled out military intervention like that which helped bring down Libya's Colonel Gaddafi, partly out of fear it could increase the violence.Yesterday, a roadside bomb hit a Syrian military truck in a southern province just seconds after the head of the UN observer team was driving by in a convoy, demonstrating the fragility of the international plan to end the country's bloodshed.In Washington, meanwhile, President Barack Obama took steps to extend sanctions against al-Assad's government, saying Syria poses an 'unusual and extraordinary threat' to US national security and diplomatic goals. Stunned: Syrian security officials and emergency workers inspect craters left in the aftermath of explosions, which damaged a military intelligence building (right) VIDEO: Syrian State TV have released aerial footage of the devastated area . | Explosions take place as Syrians arrive at work, killing at least 55 .
Interior Ministry says 370 people were injured by blasts, described as one of the 'strongest' waves to hit the capital .
Syrian government blames 'terrorists' but no group has yet claimed responsibility .
Blasts follow roadside bomb hitting a Syrian military truck in a southern province yesterday - seconds after the head of UN observer team drove by .
'Terrible violence' is condemned by head of the UN observer team in Syria .
Explosives weighed more than 1,000 kilograms (2,200 pounds) |
81,706 | e78b7ab9bbcaf8ba05f309f297b2dc36e3df8f1e | PUBLISHED: . 19:05 EST, 22 May 2013 . | . UPDATED: . 21:58 EST, 22 May 2013 . A professional basketball player might not be feeling very grown up today after he debuted a huge back tattoo only for someone to point out a glaring spelling error. The word? Mature. While not on the court, Oklahoma City Thunder’s Kevin Durant has been busy getting a lot of ink done. A masterpiece appears to take up basically the entirety of the 6-foot-9 ballers back. All grown up? Down at the bottom of this massive tattoo, 24-year-old basketball star Kevin Durant's back now permanently misspells 'mature' The 24-year-old forward debuted his body art, which features an angel looking down upon a crucified Jesus Christ, on his Instagram feed Tuesday night. Beside the religious imagery is a bible verse, and it is those words that have Durant, whose contract with the Thunder will pay $85 million, looking juvenile. ‘All done,’ wrote Durant along with his post. ‘James 1:2-4…look it up.’ Unfortunately for Durant, a reader at Deadspin did look it up and found something suspect. Grounded: The tattoo features an angel with a basketball and Jesus Christ's head, along with the misspelling, which is within a bible verse . But they needn’t have gone through the trouble because no matter where the words come from, ‘mature’ is always spelled the same way. And Durant’s back has it wrong. ‘Let it do its work,’ the tattoo reads, ‘so you become mautre and well-developed…’ The ‘U’ and the ‘T’ have evidently been transposed. As embarrassing as this must be for the two-time NBA scoring champion, he’s not the first high-profile, high-earning name to get incorrect ink. Hayden Panettiere, the young star of ABC’s Nashville, recently opened up in an issue of Glamour Magazine about some words inked onto her back. Common: Starlet Hayden Panettiere is also in the famous people with misspelled tattoos club, one of the Italian words seen here is incorrectly spelled . The phrase, in Italian, reads ‘Vivere . senza rimipianti’ or ‘Live without regrets.’ However, there is an extra . ‘i’ and it’s supposed to read ‘rimpianti.’ ‘So . I literally have to live by that advice,’ joked the starlet, who said . she’ll likely get it fixed but isn’t overly concerned for now. Britney . Spears made a similar mistake when she once got a tattoo of Chinese . characters on her hip intending it to say ‘mysterious,’ but it actually . meant ‘strange.’ And heavily inked David Beckham is even in the club. He once got a tattoo that misspelled wife Victoria’s first name. As mockery of Durant's mishap swelled Wednesday along with the inflamed skin of his back, he apparently rushed to get the mistake fixed. He updated his Instagram feed around 8pm along with a new picture, writing: . 'I got mature spelled the right way lol.' All better: Durant was mocked across the Web Wednesday and apparently knew it: he updated his Instagram to show he's now fixed the mistake . Permanent: Heavily tattooed David Beckham is in the club, too. He even misspelled wife Victoria's name . | Oklahoma City's multi-million dollar baller is looking mighty juvenile, but Hayden Panettiere, David Beckham, and Britney Spears are also in in the incorrectly inked celebrity club . |
207,637 | 98d9497e2c74e7bf0c156dee8e19b98eb67280e6 | (CNN) -- A man authorities say was part of a Brooklyn husband-and-wife identity theft team has been convicted of the murder of two of his three identity theft victims, prosecutors announced Thursday. A federal jury found Dmitriy Yakovlev, 43, guilty of the murders and identity thefts of Irina Malezhik and Viktor Alekseyev, the U.S. attorney's office in Brooklyn announced. The remains of Malezhik, a Russian-language translator who lived in Brooklyn and worked in the federal courts, were never found; Alekseyev disappeared in December 2005, and his body was found in New Jersey in 2006. Yakovlev was also found guilty of stealing the identity of a third Brooklyn resident, Michael Klein, who disappeared in November 2003. "Today's verdicts is the result of years of hard work and dedicated investigation by a team of law enforcement officers committed to bringing the defendant to justice for his crimes," Loretta Lynch, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said in a statement on the verdict. She called Yakovlev's conviction "a successful and satisfying conclusion." Yakovlev faces a possible sentence of life in prison. No sentencing date has been set. In addition to the murders, Yakovlev was also found guilty of bank fraud and bank fraud conspiracy charges in connection with the stealing of his victims' identities, the press release said. Yakovlev's wife, Julie Yakovlev, pleaded guilty earlier this year to identity theft charges and is currently out on bail pending her sentencing, said Robert Nardoza, spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office. She was not charged in connection with the slayings. The couple was originally charged in August 2009 with illegally using the identities of three people between 2003 and 2007. Their attorneys did not return phone calls seeking comment Thursday. | Dmitriy Yakovlev was accused of killing two people and stealing their identities .
He faces life in prison after his conviction by a federal jury . |
119,661 | 26977d50fcd014430ae09632a6fad1696e538598 | By . Pa Reporter . Sea The Moon, fancied by many to win this year’s Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, suffered a shock defeat at the hands of Ivanhowe in the Grosser Preis Von Baden. Previously unbeaten in four starts, the impressive German Derby winner was installed as ante-post favourite for the Paris feature after his 11-length romp in the Hamburg Classic back in July. However, after making his own running in the hands of Cristian Demuro for the majority of the Group One event, Sea The Moon was overhauled inside the final furlong and readily eclipsed by Filip Minarik aboard Jean-Pierre Carvalho’s four-year-old. Success: Sea The Moon is fancied for the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, despite a shock defeat . Taking the lead: Coral have eased their odds from 7/2 to 6/1 but still fancy Sea The Moon for the Arc . Coral reacted by easing Sea The Moon to 6-1 (from 7-2) for the Arc, while Ivanhowe was introduced into the market at 16-1. Last year’s winner Treve is the 9-2 favourite. There were two big-race British successes in Turkey when Pether's Moon and Glory Awaits landed sizeable pots for their connections. The former, trained by Richard Hannon, lifted the £150,000 International Bosphorus by a length from Village Wind following a typically patient Richard Hughes ride. Glory Awaits, partnered by Neil Callan, was aggressively ridden from the front and found plenty when challenged by Our Channel and Toormore to score by a hard-fought half a length in the £225,000 Topkapi Trophy. | Sea The Moon was unbeaten in four starts .
Ivanhowe won the Group One race in Paris .
The horse is fancied by many to win Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe . |
267,830 | e6de679ac611c63531d31370fbb851f618677260 | A new implant could help the many people who struggle with standard hearing aids. Peter Kay, 70, a business consultant from Bramhall in Greater Manchester, had one fitted, as he tells CAROL DAVIS. THE PATIENT . Peter Kay, 70, from Bramhall in Greater Manchester . My first indication that I had a hearing problem was nearly 20 years ago when my wife, Olwyn, and I were on a summer holiday in Switzerland. I couldn't hear the crickets or the fact that I'd left our car indicators on - Olwyn had to tell me. Back home, my GP referred me for hearing tests at Wythenshawe Hospital, in Manchester - the audiologist confirmed I had age-related hearing loss, caused by the tiny hair cells in my inner ear dying off. These cells help transmit nerve signals to the brain. It happens to everyone, but can be worse in some families - my father had it severely in his 70s. I didn't need hearing aids straight away. But six months later, a test showed my hearing had worsened to the point where I needed one for my right ear and, six months after that, I had one fitted in my other ear as well. The hearing aids helped, but the plastic inserts felt strange, and the sound was distorted. And after five years, I began to suffer from severe infections caused by the hearing aids - they stopped oxygen getting into my ear, which meant bugs could flourish. I also developed eczema in my ear, and had to have skin and debris syringed out regularly. Every few months I was having steroid and antibiotic drops to get rid of the infection - changing hearing aids didn't help. And because I couldn't tolerate the hearing aids when my ears were infected, my hearing was still bad - Olwyn didn't like me going out alone, as I couldn't hear the cars. So, four years ago I was referred to Manchester Royal Infirmary where I saw Kevin Green, a consultant ear, nose and throat surgeon. He told me about a new implant called Vibrant Soundbridge that would boost the sound signals reaching my brain - this would involve having an operation to fit a special vibrating device, about the size of a grain of rice, to the tiny hearing bones in the middle ear. These bones move in response to sound and the vibrations are then transmitted to the hair cells - the extra stimulation from the implant would send stronger vibrations to my inner ear, to help my damaged hair cells function at their best without a hearing aid. I should also stop getting ear infections, too. A few weeks later, once the blood from the surgery had cleared, I would be fitted with external processors, held behind each ear with magnets, to pick up the sound. The new implant, Vibrant Soundbridge, boosts the sound signals reaching the brain . In August 2010, I had the three-hour operation to have the implant put in both ears. When I woke up I couldn't hear anything at all. This was very disconcerting, but I knew it was temporary - caused by the build-up of blood. Once I had the external processors fitted I could suddenly hear normal conversations again, which was great. Within four to five weeks I was able to listen to the TV at its normal volume - my hearing is almost as good as it was in my 30s. My eczema and skin infections have also gone. THE SURGEON . Kevin Green is consultant ENT surgeon at Manchester Royal Infirmary . More than 600,000 Britons have severe hearing loss. The most common is age-related, which affects everyone by their 60s or 70s. When we hear, soundwaves move through the ear canal and make the eardrum vibrate. The vibrations are passed via three tiny bones in the middle ear, to the inner ear. This contains a structure called the cochlea, which has thousands of tiny hair cells that convert the vibrations into nerve impulses which are carried to the brain. As we age, these hair cells become damaged and die. Peter, 70, pictured with wife Olwyn on their wedding in '67, says hearing is 'as good as it was in his 30s' For most people, small digital hearing aids - which work by amplifying sounds - will be effective. But some people suffer from repeated ear infections because the hearing aids block the ear canal. One alternative is a bone-anchored hearing aid, where a sound processor is attached to a screw in the skull. But some people don't like the idea of this. Also, this procedure works best for those with conductive hearing loss, when sound cannot pass freely to the inner ear, perhaps due to a blockage or a problem with the hearing bones. Until a decade ago there wasn't much more we could do for people with sensorineural hearing loss - caused by damage to the hair cells. This is where Vibrant Soundbridge comes in. It was developed in the U.S. around 20 years ago, but has only become widely used in the UK in recent years. As with a conventional hearing aid, the implant boosts hearing across all frequencies, including the high frequencies that people tend to lose first - women's voices and speech. It also uses sophisticated technology to cut down on background noise. Many people do well with hearing aids and don't need surgery, but this could help thousands of Britons with moderate to severe hearing loss who don't get on with hearing aids, including people with damage to their middle ear or inner ear. The operation takes 60 to 90 minutes under general anaesthetic. First, I make a 6-7cm incision behind the ear and drill a 3-4mm wide tunnel through the mastoid bone behind the ear to reach the middle ear. I then clip a vibrating device to the central bone in the middle ear. The vibrating device - called a transducer - is 2.3mm by 1.8mm and is like a tiny generator which vibrates. It has a wire wrapped around it - this wire runs to the other part of the implant which works like a radio receiver. I tuck this 'receiver' under the muscle and tissue close to the skull behind the ear, closing the incision with dissolvable stitches. This will transmit signals to the transducer. Once the blood from surgery has cleared, usually after two or three weeks, we use a magnet to attach an external audio processor to the skin, on the other side of the implant. This picks up sounds, which are transmitted to the receiver and onto the transducer, making it vibrate. The operation carries small risks including loss of hearing - potentially permanent - if we damage the delicate middle ear bones. There is also the risk of bruising the nerve supplying taste sensation - though this should ease after a few weeks - and damaging the facial nerve which runs through the mastoid bone, leading to temporary or permanent facial paralysis. But I'm delighted to see this operation worked well for Peter. It has transformed his life. ANY DRAWBACKS? As well as the risk of hearing loss and bruising to nerves, touching the hearing bones could lead to tinnitus, says Mike Pringle, consultant ENT surgeon at Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust. He says: 'Previously, patients with Soundbridge could not have an magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan because it was thought the magnetic charge would displace or demagnetise the implant. 'But recent experience has shown the risk is small. Overall, this is a great device which has stood the test of time for reliability and effectiveness.' The operation costs £12,000-£15,000 privately and £8,000-£10,000 to the NHS - it is available in 15 NHS and private centres. | Peter Kay, 70, from Bramhall, Greater Manchester, had the new implant .
He had age-related hearing loss as hair cells in the inner ear were dying .
Now his hearing is almost as good as it was in his 30s, he says .
Vibrant Soundbridge implant boosts the sound signals reaching the brain . |
166,484 | 63490dfeba63c8a86dce9e030479747112f084cb | Dubai has become the latest city to be mapped by Google’s Street View facility. It is the first time that the feature has become available in an Arab country, and it is hoped that it will boost tourism to the city. Available from today, the tool gives users a 360-degree, panoramic and street-level view of the city's main streets and attractions. Dubai has become the latest city, and the first in an Arab country to be mapped by Google's Street View tool . Two years ago Google launched a Street View applications for Dubai's Burj Khalifa - the world’s tallest building. The same was created for the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, while the desert of Liwa has also been mapped. It was captured using a camera device strapped on top of a camel. However, this is the first time that Street View has become available for the city’s streets. The city is located in a region where local population are protective of their conservative culture. Like in other countries across the world, Street View in Dubai blurs out people’s faces and vehicle licence plates. The tool gives users a 360-degree, panoramic and street-level view of the city's main streets and attractions . While it covers tourist locations, it is not available in private residential areas. Dubai had been in talks with Google for about a year before launching the service. The company now hopes to roll out Street View in Abu Dhabi and the rest of the United Arab Emirates very soon, said Najeeb Jarrar, product marketing manager at Google in the Middle East and North Africa. ‘We decided to start with a city that is receiving large numbers of visitors so this can help them,’ he said. While Street View covers tourist locations in Dubai, it is not available in private residential areas. The city had been in talks with Google for about a year before launching the service . The company now hopes to roll out Street View in Abu Dhabi and the rest of the Emirates in the coming years . ‘At the same time, it is a city where residents are extremely internet savvy and this service would benefit them as well. ‘There are also residents in Dubai who use the maps on a daily basis in their movement. Moreover, the regional office of Google is based in Dubai.’ UAE is among the top countries in the region for internet usage, with over six million of the 9.2 million population using the internet. Abdul Hakim Malik, director of geographic information systems at Dubai Municipality, which worked with the company on permissions for the project, said Street View will indirectly promote tourism to Dubai. A Google Street View Car with a camera mounted on its roof maps the streets of Central London . He said. ‘Tourists are very much interested before they visit Dubai to see what Dubai looks like in real life. ‘When they go to Google Maps and see 360 degrees all around important and popular streets, I think this will be interesting for them.’ Asked about future collaborations with Google, Mr Malik added: ‘I think this is just the beginning.’ Launched in 2007, Street View has expanded throughout much of the Western world and is already being used in 3,000 cities across 63 countries, as well as parts of the Arctic and Antarctica. Launched in 2007, Street View has expanded throughout much of the Western world and is already being used in 3,000 cities across 63 countries, as well as parts of the Arctic and Antarctica . Dubai is aiming to become one of the most visited cities in the world by 2020, when it aims to welcome 20 million annual tourists. ‘For us, as tourism industry, we are focusing a lot on technology,’ said Essam Abdul Rahim Kazim, CEO, Dubai Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM). ‘In fact, we see technology as a principal driver for the tourism industry,’ he added. ‘This is considered a tourism attraction element and adds to Dubai’s international reputation,’ Malek said. | Tool gives 360-degree, panoramic and street-level views of the city .
The facility was initially used to map interior of Burj Khalifa skyscraper .
Launched in 2007, Street View has expanded through the Western world .
It is used in 3,000 cities in 63 countries, as well as the Arctic and Antarctica . |
44,287 | 7cdffadd7c11226ad6973a1707e404fef96dd541 | By . Wills Robinson for MailOnline . This is the moment a London tourist bus driver mounted a pavement to block two cyclists in their tracks before yelling at them to 'get a Highway code'. Ali Choudhry, 19, and a friend were riding through central London, sticking to marked cycle lanes, when they found themselves in conflict with an open-topped double-decker. As they approached the Tower of London on Lower Thames Street, they were directed onto a shared pavement by the road markings. Scroll down for video . Road rage: The bus driver confronts the two cyclists after cutting them off on a pavement in central London . Furious: During his rant the driver is seen telling Ali Choudhry, 19, and his friend to 'get a Highway Code' - after he had mounted the pavement . Halt: The bus driver perches a wheel on the pavement and waits for the cyclists to approach the doors . But the angry driver - who has since been sacked - apparently overtook them in his tour bus and pulled straight onto the pavement in front of them - stopping the pair in their paths. He then climbed from his seat, opened the door and yelled at the two cyclists - telling them to 'get a Highway Code'. Mr Choudry, of Ilford, Essex, said: 'This idiot driver decided to spice things up a bit for us with a spectacular display of road rage. 'He tailgated us at literally three feet and got angry for being held up for a few seconds but had all the time in the world to stop and vent his fury.' The incident happened at around 6pm on August 2, and was captured by Ali’s helmet-mounted camera. 'He said he had a bus full of witnesses, but I said my camera was a more reliable witness, and he shut the doors,' he added. Approach: The two cyclists - who recorded the footage from a camera attached to a helmet - approach the end of the cycle lane on Lower Thames Street in the centre of London . Turn: The bus begins to indicate left before a corner as the pair ride along the pavement . Blocked off: The bus driver pulls onto the pavement, stopping the cyclists in their tracks . Mr Choudry has sent the footage to bus operators Golden Tours and is still waiting to hear back from them. He said: 'I hope they do sort it out as best as they can. The driver really needs to control his irrational anger and what he does as a result of it.' The Metropolitan Police have not been contacted about the incident and have not taken any action. A spokesman for Golden Tours told the Evening Standard: 'Golden Tours were notified of an incident that occurred on 2 August 2014 when a video was uploaded by Ali Choudhry to YouTube. 'After reviewing the evidence provided by Mr Choudhry and the CCTV footage from the bus, the driver was dismissed from his service with Golden Tours with immediate effect on 4 August 2014. 'Golden Tours employs a rigorous recruitment and training process to ensure that the highest level of customer service is provided to our customers and to other shared road users. 'We are grateful that matters such as these are highlighted to us, so that we are able to maintain the high standard of professionalism.' Confrontation: The driver then opens his doors and starts shouting at the cyclists . Aftermath: Following the angry confrontation, the bus driver simply pulls away and carries on with his journey . | Ali Choudhry, 19, and a friend were sticking to cycle lanes in central London .
Found themselves in conflict with an open-topped double-decker bus .
As they approached the Tower of London, the lane merged onto a pavement .
The driver then overtakes them and blocks them off, causing them to stop .
He then opens the doors and shouts 'get a Highway Code' at the cyclists .
Firm says they have reviewed the footage and the driver has been dismissed . |
93,128 | 03ce363db939124d94fe448399fa4a02003696ec | (CNN) -- George Zimmerman, from his comments to police to the arguments of his lawyers, has steadfastly maintained he shouldn't be found guilty of murder in the death of Trayvon Martin, contending he shot the teen in self-defense. But jurors weighing his fate won't hear that from him directly. On Wednesday afternoon, Judge Debra Nelson asked Zimmerman if he'd made a decision about taking the stand in his own defense. "After consulting with counsel," Zimmerman replied, he'd decided "not to testify, your honor." Moments later -- and after Nelson refused a request from Zimmerman's team to dismiss the case before the jury could weigh in -- the defense rested its case. That closed another chapter in a case that has transfixed much of the nation on issues such as race and gun violence and set the stage for closing arguments starting Thursday and a jury decision as soon as Friday. What exactly the jury will be deciding, though, is still in question. Zimmerman, 29, is accused of second-degree murder in the February 26, 2012, death of Martin, a 17-year-old from Miami who was staying with his father in Zimmerman's Sanford, Florida, neighborhood. He was shot dead after an altercation with Zimmerman that occurred as he was walking back from a nearby convenience store. Prosecutors asked the court Wednesday to let jurors consider two charges other than murder in relation to Martin's death: manslaughter and aggravated assault. Zimmerman's lawyers objected, saying it should be murder or nothing. Nelson, with Florida's 18th Judicial Circuit responsible for overseeing cases out of Seminole County, is expected to decide that matter Thursday. Another point that will be addressed is whether Florida's controversial "Stand Your Ground" law -- which gives a person facing a "presumption of fear of death or great bodily harm" extra protections should they respond with force instead of retreat -- can be applied by the jury. Zimmerman has never denied shooting Martin. But he's contended that he had to do so to save his own life, portraying himself as the victim and Martin as the aggressor. But the late teen's backers insisted the shooting could not be justified, with activists leading widely attended rallies and taking other steps urging authorities to press charges. Faulting Zimmerman for ignoring a 911 dispatcher's direction not to follow the teen, they believe Zimmerman profiled Martin because he was black. Zimmerman trial: It's about race . Many of those arguments, on both sides, will likely play out during closing arguments. Those start Thursday afternoon, when Bernie de la Rionda makes the prosecution's case for up to two hours. Defense lawyer Mark O'Mara will make his case, for up to three hours, on Friday morning, followed by a rebuttal of up to one hour from prosecutor John Guy. Then, later Friday, the case will be in the hands of the all-female jury. Lawyer wrestles with foam dummy . The prosecution had once stated its intention to call up to three witnesses in the rebuttal phase of the trial. But for various reasons -- because the judge ruled they couldn't pursue one line of questioning, amid uncertainty if one witness was unavailable and in the other case unexplained -- they did not. That means the last witness the jury will have heard from is Robert Zimmerman, George's father. He testified -- like his wife, Gladys, had earlier in the trial -- that he believes it was his son who was screaming on the infamous 911 recording of the altercation that ended in Martin's death. Contrast their testimony to that of Martin's mother, Sybrina Fulton, who said she was "absolutely" certain that the panicked voice was that of her son Trayvon. The late teenager's brother, Jahvaris Fulton, made a similar declaration in court. Defense attorneys argue Zimmerman shot Martin in self-defense after the Miami teenager charged him. Prosecutors argue Zimmerman followed Martin through his neighborhood and shot him without provocation. Besides Robert Zimmerman, others took the stand Wednesday as well in the defense team's fourth day presenting their case. They included a "use-of-force" expert and Olivia Bertalan, who spoke of being appreciative of her neighbor Zimmerman's support after being the target of a home invasion. Still, the day's star may have been a foam dummy. O'Mara grappled with the life-size model inside the courtroom, working to show rapt jurors the competing versions of what happened the rainy night Martin was killed. Assistant State Attorney John Guy brought out the dummy in an effort to demonstrate that it would have been difficult for Zimmerman to retrieve his handgun from his pocket with Martin straddling him, as defense attorneys have argued was the case. The fatal gunshot, Guy reminded defense witness Dennis Root, was fired at a 90-degree angle into Martin's body. 'Raise your voice, not your hands,' cops urge as Zimmerman verdict looms . "Wouldn't that be consistent with Travyon Martin getting off of George Zimmerman and George Zimmerman raising the gun and firing it?" Guy asked Root, a use-of-force expert. "It could be consistent with any kind of movement ... We weren't there so the info that we have is George Zimmerman's statement," he said. Later, defense attorney Mark O'Mara straddled the dummy himself, pounding the back of its head against the carpeted courtroom floor, demonstrating how he says Martin gave Zimmerman the head wounds seen in police photographs from the night of the shooting. He later asked Root -- a former police officer with extensive training in firearms and self-defense -- if it would have been possible for Zimmerman to reach around Martin's body to get at a gun located near his hip. "Yes, sir," Root replied, minutes before Nelson called a lunch break. Earlier, Root testified the apparent fight between Zimmerman and Martin went on for a relatively long time -- some 40 seconds -- and was clearly marked by a high level of fear and anxiety. "I have personally sat there and timed it myself, where it is about 40 seconds of time. That's a very long time to be involved in any type of physical altercation," Root said. "We have a golden rule," he told defense attorney Mark O'Mara. "If you have not successfully completed the fight, if you have not won the fight in 30 seconds, change tactics, because the tactics you are using are not working." In trial, it's a jury of millions . HLN's Grace Wong, Graham Winch, Jonathan Anker and Anna Lanfreschi and CNN's John Couwels contributed to this report. | The defense rests their case after George Zimmerman declines to testify .
This comes after rapt jurors watch attorneys tussle with a dummy in the courtroom .
The judge will mull a request to include a manslaughter option .
The prosecution will close on Thursday; the defense will do so Friday . |
48,969 | 8a42889cc924ffc93148ab45fee445179246bca5 | WASHINGTON (CNN) -- There is "no remaining hope" of finding six men trapped for almost a month in a Utah coal mine alive, a federal official said Saturday. Isaac Arellano holds a candle and sings during a fundraiser for miners Tuesday in Price, Utah. "Over the past 25 days, the Mine Safety and Health Administration has exhausted all known options in our attempt to reach the six miners," Richard Stickler, head of the agency, said in a statement. "The thoughts and prayers of the dedicated professionals at MSHA are with the families." Sympathy for the failed efforts also came Saturday from the White House. "Last night, a difficult decision was made to end the search," President Bush said in a statement. "Laura and I are deeply saddened by this tragedy and continue to pray for the families of these men." Labor Secretary Elaine Chao called the ordeal "heartbreaking." "The grueling around-the-clock rescue operation that claimed three lives and injured six others has also taken a tremendous toll on the many brave rescuers and the local community, and our thoughts and prayers are with them all," Chao said in a statement. After drilling seven holes into mine tunnels from the mountaintop above, there has been no sign of the miners -- and microphones have picked up no sound from the men. See a timeline of rescue efforts » . Tests showed underground oxygen levels were too low to sustain human life. "We basically told the families that at this point in time we've run out of options," Stickler said at a news conference late Friday. "We've consulted with the people that we have here, we've consulted with the technical support in Pittsburgh and we've consulted with private consultants in terms of where we can go," he said. "And basically, through all the information we've gleaned over the past nearly four weeks in terms of the conditions we found, in terms of the air readings we found down there and ... everything else, we just don't know where else we can put a hole to get any other information." See photos of the rescue mission » . There were no public statements Saturday from Bob Murray, president and CEO of Murray Mining, co-owner of the Crandall Canyon Mine, who was the outspoken face of the rescue operation for the first three weeks, then largely disappeared from public view. Federal officials became the spokesmen. No one from Murray Mining was present at Friday's news conference. "They are done. It's finished," the attorney for the families said, according to the Saturday edition of The Salt Lake Tribune. "It's a hard and bitter pill for our families, and there were quite a few tears shed," the newspaper quotes Colin King as saying. The men were trapped during a collapse on August 6, and it is not known whether they survived the cave-in. Efforts to reach them were suspended 10 days later when two rescuers and a federal mining official were killed, and six people were injured in a second collapse as they tried to tunnel horizontally toward the area where the men had been working. Murray said last week that the search effort would stop if no signs of life were found at the sixth hole. Under pressure from the families, however, he agreed to try one more time. Families wanted officials to drill a hole large enough to send down a rescue capsule. The effort to lower the robotic device down a seventh hole had been called "a long shot" by an official. MSHA's Stickler said that hole was drilled into the Crandall Canyon Mine on Thursday, but there were problems with a robotic camera that teams were trying to lower into it. Work resumed Friday, this time at the fourth hole, but the camera could only descend about 7 feet, he said. "Basically, what it saw was really not that much. There was quite a bit of mud in there, water coming down the hole. It really couldn't go any farther than seven feet," he said of the latest try. In addition, the roof was sagging. "The families asked many, many questions and we answered them all the best we could, basically coming to the conclusion that we had run out of options." Murray said last Saturday he has already filed paperwork with federal regulators to permanently close and seal the Crandall Canyon mine. "I will never come back to that evil mountain," he said. Friends and family have identified the six missing miners as Luis Hernandez, Manuel Sanchez, Kerry Allred, Carlos Payan, Brandon Phillips and Don Erickson. E-mail to a friend . | NEW: President Bush says he and first lady are deeply saddened by the tragedy .
Mine Safety and Health Administration chief: We've run out of options.
The six men have been trapped underground since August 6 .
Seven bore holes drilled into the mountain have found no signs of life . |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.