NEW YORK - An estimated 41.3 million people saw “The Hurt Locker” top the popular “Avatar” for best picture in the most-watched Academy Awards telecast since 2005.

Oscar viewership was up 14 percent over last year, the Nielsen Co. said Monday, keeping with a trend of bigger audiences for major events on broadcast television a month after the Super Bowl set the mark for most-watched telecast ever.

In true film fashion, the Oscars built to a big climax when the Iraqi war thriller “The Hurt Locker” and its director, Kathryn Bigelow, topped “Avatar,” directed by her ex-husband James Cameron. Bigelow was the first woman to win the Oscar for best director.

The audience was up from the 36.3 million who saw “Slumdog Millionaire” win best picture last year and 32 million — Oscar’s smallest audience on record — in 2008, Nielsen said. The Oscars had just over 42 million watch in 2005, when “Million Dollar Baby” was the big winner.

The Oscar ratings fall in line with bigger audiences for awards shows in recent months. The Golden Globes were up 14 percent over the year before, and the performance-heavy Grammys up 36 percent, Nielsen said. The Emmys, the Tonys and the Miss America pageant all saw higher ratings.

Analysts say fewer chances for Americans to gather in front of the television set for communal events may help make these events more popular. With a poor economy, more people are staying home, too. The Internet may also help draw viewers; experts say many people are online while the shows are on, and they comment about them to friends.

Ratings for the New York market appeared unaffected by a business dispute between Cablevision and ABC’s parent, Walt Disney Co.

ABC had been dropped by Cablevision for its 3.1 million subscribers in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut on Sunday, and the network was not restored until 13 minutes after the Academy Awards telecast began.

Still, New York ranked No. 13 among among the 56 biggest media markets in the country, Nielsen said. New York’s overnight rating was 11 percent above the average for all of the big markets.

Source (article): MSNBC

Source (picture): AMERICANSUPERMAG

NORWOOD, Pa. - As the high-speed Acela train came thundering down the rails, a teenage girl screamed at her friends to get off the tracks.

But Gina Gentile and Vanessa Dorwart did not move. They hugged as the train bore down on them at speeds up to 110 mph, carrying out a suicide pact that the witness herself had backed out of only moments before.

The loss has shaken Norwood and its neighboring towns just outside Philadelphia. There were hints the pretty and popular high school sophomores may have been suffering from depression, but experts say such suicide pacts are extremely uncommon — especially among teens

Pacts are made because suicide is so daunting — and they are broken for the same reason, said Thomas Joiner, a psychology professor at Florida State University.

“This is a deeply fearsome thing,” Joiner said. “We’re not wired for it; our bodies will recoil from it.”

As close as sisters
Gee and Ness, or Gee-Gee and Nessa, were funny, outgoing and as close as sisters, said classmates at Interboro High School in Prospect Park.

Dorwart’s obituary describes a teen with “a wonderful, caring personality, amazing blue eyes and a pretty smile.” The second of five children, she had played youth soccer and softball and was a former Girl Scout. She would have turned 16 on Wednesday.

Gentile, whose father died a few years ago, was one of six children. The 16-year-old didn’t judge her friends, always thought of others first and “was never one to worry about herself,” said Patricia Roeder, a junior at Interboro.

But Gentile had been hard hit by the recent death of her boyfriend, who was killed by a car while riding his bike. And Dorwart’s parents say their daughter seemed withdrawn from family events and had talked of seeing a school counselor, even as she planned her upcoming Sweet 16.

On the snowy morning of Feb. 25, police say Gentile and a friend cut class with the intention of killing themselves. They walked the two blocks to the Norwood regional rail station, where Dorwart — who had stayed home that day — met up with them.

As the train barreled its way south from Boston to Washington, Gentile heard the whistle and stepped on the tracks. Dorwart ran to join her, even as the third girl reneged and implored them to stop.

Text messages between Dorwart and the witness seem to confirm this was no accident, police said. The Delaware County medical examiner agreed, ruling the deaths suicides.

Underlying problems
But Kimberly Dorwart, Vanessa’s mother, finds that hard to accept.

“I know she wanted to live,” Dorwart told the Delaware County Daily Times. “I know my daughter did not leave here with the intention of being hit by a train.”

The Associated Press was unable to contact the Dorwarts; Gentile’s relatives have requested privacy.

About 1 percent of suicides result from pacts, most of which are between older, partnered adults who have endured a recent hardship, said Brian Daly, an assistant professor of public health at Temple University.

Experts say suicide clusters — single occurrences that happen closely together — are more common in adolescents. Last year, the city of Palo Alto, Calif., was sent reeling by four teen suicides-by-train in less than six months. Two suicidal students from Manasquan High School in New Jersey were fatally hit by trains within two months in 2008.

Media reports that romanticize or sensationalize suicide can encourage copycats, said Dr. Paula Clayton, medical director of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. At the same time, she said, suicides should not be covered up.

“It’s a fine line,” Clayton said.

She noted nearly all suicides stem from underlying psychological problems such as depression. Nationwide, about 4,400 people between the ages of 10 and 24 kill themselves annually, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

‘It just breaks your heart’
Pat Carr, who sells train tickets at the Norwood station, is grateful she wasn’t working the day of the suicides. And as the grandmother of two Interboro students, Carr was taken aback at the loss.

“It just breaks your heart, my God,” Carr said Monday. “They’re so young.”

Later that day, teens gathered to grieve outside the ticket office at an impromptu shrine of candles, balloons, stuffed animals and flowers. Some brought homemade posters of Dorwart and Gentile, covered with photos and messages.

A few feet away, Roeder sat next to a pair of crosses overlooking the tracks. She said no one will ever understand what took place that morning.

“What happened here is going to stay here,” Roeder said. “You’re never going to know.”

As she spoke, Roeder slowly became surrounded by a group of students who began to share their feelings as well.

Then a train hammered by — WHOOSHWHOOSHWHOOSHWHOOSH! — and the teens fell into an uncomfortable silence.

That was like a slap in the face, said one.

No, said Roeder, that’s just life moving on.

source [article] MSNBC

source [picture] wanderlustandlipstick

SAN BERNARDO, Chile - The Desarmes family left their native Haiti two weeks after the devastating Jan. 12 earthquake, joining the eldest son in Chile for what seemed a refuge from the fear and chaos of Port-au-Prince.

Their sense of security lasted barely a month. It was shattered at 3:43 a.m. Saturday when one of the most powerful quakes on record shook a swath of Chile.

All the Desarmes’ immediate family survived both quakes. But twice cursed, the family now sleeps in the garden of a home that the eldest son, Pierre Desarmes, found for them just south of the Chilean capital of Santiago. They fear yet another temblor will strike.

“I left my country and came here because of an earthquake,” Seraphin Philomene, a 21-year-old student and cousin of Desarmes, said Wednesday. “And here, the same thing!”

“My God, I left my country and I didn’t die, but I’m going to die here!”

Pierre Desarmes, 34, managed to get his family out of Haiti thanks to personal contacts at the Chilean Embassy in Port-au-Prince and the Chilean armed forces. Nine members of his family — his parents, two brothers and their families, and three cousins — arrived in Santiago on a Chilean air force plane Jan. 23.

Desarmes, the lead singer of a popular Haitian reggaeton band in Chile, still gets choked up when he recalls seeing his family for the first time stepping off the plane.

“I saw them but I didn’t believe it. I said, ‘My God, they’re here.’ It was a very difficult moment,” he said, speaking in French in the garden of the house the family now calls home.

“Each time I think about it, I get sad, because I realize I was able to do this because I was here. But there are so many people who are there and I don’t know what’s going to happen to them.”

Deeply unsettled
His relatives had to leave Haiti with only hours’ notice, receiving instructions on where to go via cell phone text messages from a relative in the United States who was in contact with Desarmes in Santiago. Philomene didn’t even have time to pack, dashing to the Chilean Embassy when she received word the family had been cleared to fly out.

Saturday’s earthquake has made a difficult transition even more traumatic.

“When the aftershocks come, they refuse to stay in the house,” Desarmes said, sipping a Coke at a table in the garden, his relatives sitting nearby.

“I have to talk to them all day long telling them: ‘There are no problems, it’s a country that’s prepared for earthquakes, it’ll pass, it’s not so bad.’ But they don’t hear me. Psychologically for them, they’re still really affected by it.”

Desarmes’ brother, Stanley Desarmes, 32, is deeply unsettled. The father of a 2-year-old girl, Nelia, who plays in the yard, he worries for his family’s safety and is thinking about uprooting them again to move somewhere with less danger of earthquakes.

“I don’t know what I can do, but staying isn’t possible,” he said. “I could die and I could lose my family. I have to leave. I don’t know where, I don’t know how. But I don’t want to die with my family here.”

Philomene, his cousin, plans to stay, hoping to bring the rest of her family to Chile. She was the only member of her immediate family to get out because she was living with the Desarmes in the Haitian capital to finish her studies. Her mother, father, two sisters and a brother are still in Cap-Haitien, a town in northern Haiti about 90 miles from the capital.

“I’ve had no news from them,” she said, choking up.

‘God is looking out for us’
Reached late Wednesday by The Associated Press in Cap-Haitien, Philomene’s father, Luigene Philomene, was elated at the news that his daughter was safe. He said he hadn’t heard from her since before Chile’s earthquake and had been trying to reach relatives in Port-au-Prince for an update.

The elder Philomene said when he heard that his daughter had been in the Chile earthquake he thought of a Haitian saying that loosely translates as “we saved her from the river and she ended up in the sea.” Now he feels she has divine protection and the 43-year-old said he would eagerly join his daughter in South America if he could.

“God is looking for out for us,” he said. “Our family didn’t die in Haiti so they aren’t going to die in Chile either.”

Francius Pierre, a cousin of Seraphin’s in Port-au-Prince, had already learned from a brother that his relatives in Chile survived. Pierre, a university student who injured his knee in the Haitian quake, said Seraphin and his other relatives moved from Haiti for safety.

“If they knew something like this could happen again they never would have gone,” he said.

Source (article): MSNBC

Source (picture): BAHAMASLOCAL, DAILYMAIL

SANTIAGO, Chile - A massive magnitude-8.8 earthquake struck Chile early Saturday, killing at least 85 people, triggering a tsunami and damaging buildings more than 200 miles away.

President Michelle Bachelet declared a “state of catastrophe”.

At least 23 aftershocks were reported, including one registering at 6.9 on the Richter scale.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the earthquake struck 56 miles northeast of the city of Concepcion at a depth of 22 miles at 3:34 a.m. (1:34 a.m. ET).

Jessica Sigala, a geophysicist with the USGS told NBC News that the quake released 500 times more energy than the than the one that hit Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on January 12. The quake was felt in Buenos Aires, Argentina, which is located more than 800 miles away.

Tsunami warnings were issued over a wide area, including Hawaii, South America, Australia and New Zealand, Japan, the Philippines, Russia and many Pacific islands.

NBC station KNHL reported that the first tsunami wave was expected to reach Hawaii’s coastline at 11:19 a.m. local time (4:19 p.m. ET). It warned that “urgent action should be taken to protect lives and property.”

Giant wave
Reuters reported that a tsunami caused by the quake caused “serious damage” to Chile’s sparsely populated Juan Fernández Islands. Citing local police, CNN reported that the islands had been hit by a 40-meter (131-foot) wave.

Bachelet, the country’s president, urged people to stay calm. She told Reuters that 85 deaths had been confirmed.

Edmundo Perez Yoma, the interior minister, warned the death toll “will continue rising.”

An Associated Press Television News cameraman said some buildings collapsed in the capital Santiago, which lies about 200 miles north of the epicenter.

In the moments after the quake, people streamed onto the streets of the capital, hugging each other and crying.

Jen Ross, a journalist based in Santiago, told NBC’s TODAY that she felt “three minutes of shaking”.

Broadcaster TVN reported that several hospitals had suffered structural damage and were being evacuated.

‘It’s like the end of the world’
“Never in my life have I experienced a quake like this, it’s like the end of the world,” one man told local television from the city of Temuco, where the quake damaged buildings.

Simon Shalders, who lives in Santiago, told Sky News: “There was a lot of movement. The houses were really shaking, walls were moving backwards and forwards, and doors were swinging open.

“Santiago has got a history of earthquakes and basically there’s not a lot of old construction in Santiago because of these earthquakes.

“The new buildings in Santiago are designed to withstand fairly strong quakes and they probably held up pretty well.”

There were blackouts in parts of Santiago and communications were still down in the area closest to the epicenter.

Santiago resident Leo Perioto told CNN that “windows were wobbling a lot” in his six-story building.

“The whole building was shaking,” he added. “We could feel the walls moving from side to side.”

An earthquake of magnitude 8 or over can cause “tremendous damage,” the USGS said. The quake that devastated Port-au-Prince on January 12 was rated magnitude 7.0.

‘Threat to more distant coasts’
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said the Chile quake generated a tsunami that may have been destructive along the coast near the epicenter “and could also be a threat to more distant coasts.”

According to a 2002 census, Concepcion is one of the largest cities in Chile with a population of around 670,000.

In 1960, Chile was hit by the world’s biggest earthquake since records dating back to 1900.

The 9.5 magnitude quake devastated the south-central city of Valdivia, killing 1,655 people and sending a tsunami which battered Easter Island 2,300 miles off Chile’s Pacific seaboard and continued as far as Hawaii, Japan and the Philippines.

VANCOUVER (AP) — All that pressure, all those expectations. Kim Yu-na could feel the weight on her dainty shoulders.

The “Queen” took it all on and delivered royally.

A gold medal.

A world record.

A women’s figure skating performance that likely will be remembered as one of the best of all time.

The South Korean soared to the Olympic gold medal Thursday night, scoring 228.56 points and shattering her previous world record by more than 18 points. It is South Korea’s first medal at the Winter Olympics in a sport other than speedskating, and it’s sure to set off wild celebrations from Seoul to Pyongchang.

Even Kim seemed to be dazzled by the show she put on, gasping when she saw the monstrous score. Coach Brian Orser gave a Rocky-like victory pump, shaking his clasped fists over each shoulder.

“I still can’t believe it,” Kim said. “I waited a long time for the Olympics, and it feels like a large weight has been lifted off.”

The 19-year-old grinned as she hopped up to the top spot on the podium, tugging at the bottom of her dress. When the gold medal was slipped over her head, she kissed both sides and held it up. Her lip quivered when the South Korean anthem began, and then came the tears.

She made a beeline for someone holding the South Korean flag as she set off on her victory lap, and carried it triumphantly as fans serenaded her with cheers and applause.

“Truly I still can’t believe that I did what I wanted to do at the Olympics,” she said.

Longtime rival Mao Asada of Japan won the silver medal, but it was no contest — even with Asada landing both her triple axels, one in combination with a double toe loop. Asada was more than 23 points behind Kim, a margin so big Kim could have done nothing but figure 8s for the last half of her program and still finished in front.

In fact, Kim’s score was so off the charts, it would have put her ninth in the men’s competition — even though they skate 30 seconds longer and do an extra jump.

“It’s one of those programs that, when it’s done like that, when it’s perfection …” Orser said, his voice trailing off.

Joannie Rochette, skating four days after the sudden death of her mother, won the bronze, giving Canada its first women’s medal since Liz Manley’s silver in 1988.

“I had to be out there as Joannie the athlete and not the person,” she said. “It’s not easy at some points. There’s always some moments when emotions take over. But I really tried to be strong to make my mother proud and my father, who was in the stands.”

The Americans, meanwhile, are going home without at least one medal for only the second time since 1952. The other time was 1964, three years after a plane crash wiped out the entire U.S. team on its way to the world championships.

But there is hope on the horizon with 16-year-old Mirai Nagasu finishing fourth. U.S. champion Rachael Flatt dropped two spots from the short program and was seventh.

Kim came in bearing almost incomprehensible pressure. Not only was the reigning world champ the biggest favorite since Katarina Witt in 1988 _ she’s lost just one competition during the last two seasons _ she carried the weight of an entire nation. Maybe her sport, too.

The most popular athlete in South Korea, she’s been dubbed “Queen Yu-na” — check out the sparkly crowns that twinkle in her ears — and she needs bodyguards whenever she returns home from her training base in Toronto. Anything she does creates a frenzy, and even a simple practice draws a rinkful of photographers.

Figure skating is also counting on her to bring back the sass and star power that has traditionally made the women the must-see event of the Olympics. Think of some of the greatest Winter Olympians ever and Dorothy, Peggy and Michelle — no last names needed for die-hard fans — immediately come to mind. But the sport has lost some serious luster since Michelle Kwan stopped skating.

Kim seemed to shrug off any jitters earlier this week, saying after the short program that it felt like any other competition. But it was clear Thursday that it meant so much more _ for her and Orser, a two-time Olympic silver medalist who was devastated when he lost to Brian Boitano at the 1988 Calgary Games.

“It’s more gratifying,” Orser said. “(But) it’s definitely her medal. She’s a champion.”

There were simply no visible flaws in Kim’s performance, from her skating to her expressions to that lovely cobalt blue dress. While other skaters slow down as they approach their jumps to steady themselves, she hurtles into them at full speed yet touches down with feathery lightness. Her connecting steps are like art on ice, and her edges show not even the slightest hint of a harsh scrape. Her spins were centered so perfectly the tracings looked as if they were made with a protractor, and she must be quadruple-jointed to pull off all those positions in her combination spins.

What really makes her transcendent, though, is her performance skills. She breathed life into Gershwin’s “Concerto in F,” moving across the ice like notes on a score. As the music lifted the first time, she put one hand on the small of her back and gave a flirty little smile that set shutters clicking throughout the building.

When she finished, you could almost see the pressure fall away as Kim bent over and cried. So many stuffed toys and flowers littered the ice the full complement of sweepers had to be deployed _ not once, but twice.

“It’s not any time to hold back. It’s not a time to be conservative or cautious. Be Olympic,” Orser said. “We’ve talked about that, coming here. You’ve got to be Olympic. You’ve got to be a competitor. Yes, you’re beautiful. Yes, the programs are beautiful. Beautiful lines. Great presentation and choreography.

“But you’ve got to be Olympic and you’ve got to be fierce. And she was.”

It almost wasn’t fair that Asada, skating next, had to try and one-up that.

She couldn’t. Not even close.

“Because there was so much noise from the crowd, I was not able to hear her score,” Asada said. “But judging from the loud reaction, I knew she must have had a great performance.”

Asada, who has swapped titles with Kim since their junior days, is one of the few women who even tries a points-packing triple axel, and she did two on this night. But she melted down later, stumbling on the footwork into her triple toe and forcing her to cut it to a single. She did only four clean triple jumps, two fewer than Kim, and did not do either a triple lutz or a triple toe.

Asada looked stone-faced as she waited for her marks. She didn’t even crack a smile when she got her silver medal.

“The triple axel I landed I’m happy with,” Asada said, “but I’m not satisfied with the rest of my performance today.”

For Rochette, the medal is a culmination of “a lifelong project with my mom.” Therese Rochette, 55, had a massive heart attack just hours after arriving in Vancouver to watch her daughter skate, and Rochette has been the picture of courage this week.

Supported by her father, Normand, and longtime coach Manon Perron, Rochette decided to go ahead and compete. Her performance Thursday wasn’t perfect; she two-footed and stepped out of a triple flip, and had shaky landings on a couple of other jumps. But she made up for those errors with an emotional and expressive portrayal of “Samson and Delilah.”

When she finished, Rochette blew a kiss skyward.

Source (article): MSNBC

Source(pictures): CLEVELANDPEOPLE, GIRLSPIC.BLOGBUS, CLEVELAND

ORLANDO, Fla. — A veteran SeaWorld trainer was leisurely rubbing a killer whale from a poolside platform when the 12,000-pound creature reached up, grabbed her with its mouth and dragged her underwater. Despite workers rushing to help, the trainer was killed.

Horrified visitors who had stuck around after a noontime show watched the animal charge through the pool with the trainer in its jaws. Workers used nets as an alarm sounded, but it was too late. Dawn Brancheau had drowned. It marked the third time the animal had been involved in a human death.The whale, named Tilikum, apparently grabbed Brancheau by her long ponytail, according to the head of animal training at all SeaWorld parks, Chuck Tompkins. He told ABC’s “Good Morning America” that her ponytail swung out in front of the whale.

“That’s when the trainer next to him (Tilikum) said that he grabbed the hair, pulled her under water. And of course, held her under water.”

Brancheau’s interaction with the whale appeared leisurely and informal at first to audience member Eldon Skaggs. But then, the whale “pulled her under and started swimming around with her,” Skaggs told The Associated Press.

Some workers hustled the audience out of the stadium while the others tried to save Brancheau, 40. Skaggs said he heard that during an earlier show the whale was not responding to directions. Others who attended the earlier show said the whale was behaving like an ornery child.

But Tompkins said the whale had performed well in the show and that Dawn was rubbing him down as a reward for doing a good job.

“There wasn’t anything to indicate to us that there was a problem,” Tompkins told the CBS “Early Show.

“Another audience member, Victoria Biniak, said the whale “took off really fast in the tank, and then he came back, shot up in the air, grabbed the trainer by the waist and started thrashing around, and one of her shoes flew off.

“Two other witnesses told the Orlando Sentinel that the whale grabbed the woman by the upper arm and tossed her around in its mouth while swimming rapidly around the tank. Brazilian tourist Joao Lucio DeCosta Sobrinho and his girlfriend were at an underwater viewing area when they suddenly saw a whale with a person in its mouth.

The couple said they watched the whale show at the park two days earlier and came back to take pictures. But on Wednesday the whales appeared agitated.

Because of his size and the previous deaths, trainers were not supposed to get into the water with Tilikum, and only about a dozen of the park’s 29 trainers worked with him. Brancheau had more experience with the 30-year-old whale than most. She was one of the park’s most experienced trainers overall.

“We recognized he was different,” said Tompkins. He said no decision has been made yet about what will happen to Tilikum, such as transferring him to another facility. SeaWorld has also suspended the killer whale shows at all of its parks, which also include locations in San Diego and San Antonio, to review procedures.

A SeaWorld spokesman said Tilikum was one of three orcas blamed for killing a trainer in 1991 after the woman lost her balance and fell in the pool at Sealand of the Pacific near Victoria, British Columbia.

Steve Huxter, who was head of Sealand’s animal care and training department then, said Wednesday he’s surprised it happened again. He says Tilikum was a well-behaved, balanced animal.

Tilikum was also involved in a 1999 death, when the body of a man who had sneaked by SeaWorld security was found draped over him. The man either jumped, fell or was pulled into the frigid water and died of hypothermia, though he was also bruised and scratched by Tilikum.

Brancheau’s older sister, Diane Gross, said the trainer wouldn’t want anything done to the whale because she loved the animals like children. The trainer was married and didn’t have children.

“She loved the whales like her children, she loved all of them,” said Gross, of Schererville, Ind. “They all had personalities, good days and bad days.”

Gross said the family viewed her sister’s death as an unfortunate accident, adding: “It just hasn’t sunk in yet.

“Dawn was the youngest of six children who grew up near Cedar Lake, Indiana. Her passion for marine life began at the age of nine, Gross said, on a family trip to Sea World.

According to a profile of Brancheau in the Sentinel in 2006, she was one of SeaWorld Orlando’s leading trainers. Brancheau worked her way into a leadership role at Shamu Stadium during her career with SeaWorld, starting at the Sea Lion & Otter Stadium before spending 10 years working with killer whales, the newspaper said.

She also addressed the dangers of the job.

“You can’t put yourself in the water unless you trust them and they trust you,” Brancheau said.

Billy Hurley, chief animal officer at the Georgia Aquarium– the world’s largest — said there are inherent dangers to working with orcas, just as there are with driving race cars or piloting jets.

“In the case of a killer whale, if they want your attention or if they’re frustrated by something or if they’re confused by something, there’s only a few ways of handling that,” he said. “If you’re right near pool’s edge and they decide they want a closer interaction during this, certainly they can grab you.”

And, he added: “At 12,000 pounds there’s not a lot of resisting you’re going to do.”

Mike Wald, a spokesman for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration office in Atlanta, said his agency had dispatched an investigator from Tampa.

Wednesday’s death was not the first attack on whale trainers at SeaWorld parks.

In November 2006, a trainer was bitten and held underwater several times by a killer whale during a show at SeaWorld’s San Diego park.

The trainer, Kenneth Peters, escaped with a broken foot. The 17-foot orca that attacked him was the dominant female of SeaWorld San Diego’s seven killer whales. She had attacked Peters two other times, in 1993 and 1999.

In 2004, another whale at the company’s San Antonio park tried to hit one of the trainers and attempted to bite him. He also escaped.

Wednesday’s attack was the second time in two months that an orca trainer was killed at a marine park. On Dec. 24, 29-year-old Alexis Martinez Hernandez fell from a whale and crushed his ribcage at Loro Parque on the Spanish island of Tenerife. Park officials said the whale, a 14-year-old named Keto, made an unusual move as the two practiced a trick in which the whale lifts the trainer and leaps into the air.

Source (article): WFTV

Source (pictures): DIARIOSUR.ES, ISLANDCRISIS.NET

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo of China won their elusive prize in the pairs competition at the Vancouver Olympics Monday, coming out of retirement to add a gold medal to their two previous bronzes.

It wasn’t the best skate of their career, but it was good enough for gold — and that was all that mattered.

Their score of 216.57 points was more than three points ahead of teammates Pang Qing and Tong Jian. When Shen and Zhao finished their routine, Zhao knelt to the ice, burying his face in his hands while his wife patted his back. He pumped his fist several times while she beamed, her grin so bright it could light up the entire arena.

“It’s been so many years,” Zhao said, “to finally get this gold today is so exciting.”

Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy of Germany — in second place after the short program — dropped to the bronze medal after a flawed free skate.
“I think everyone knows we’re a little disappointed,” Szolkowy said. “Our performance tonight was not the one we wanted to show.”

It is the first time since 1960 that a Russian or Soviet couple is not atop the Olympic podium, ending one of the longest winning streaks in sports. Even more surprisingly, the Russians are leaving empty-handed, with no medals of any color in the event.

Shen and Zhao, bronze medalists at the last two Olympic Games, retired in 2007. They got married, and lived the easy life of retirees, doing shows and appearances. But something was lacking — that gold medal.

They returned this season and despite being 31 and 36, ancient in pairs skating, dominated everywhere they skated. And the Olympic competition was no different.

“So many years have been devoted to this dream,” Zhao said.
Skating last, and knowing the couples who could steal their gold had made errors, they performed with the passion that has become their new trademark. The interpretation to “Adagio in G Minor” was mesmerizing, with their choreography perfectly in tune to their music.

“To get the figure skating gold and silver has been a hope for so long,” Shen said. “Now it’s been realized.”

Shen and Zhao did have one mistake, and it was shocking — she slipped down his back during one of their lifts, a move that is normally automatic for them. The crowd gasped, and a look of exasperation crossed her face.
But they recovered immediately, and finished the program with a beautiful carry lift that circled half of the ice.

Shen and Zhao have long been pushed by their Chinese teammates, and Monday was no different. While Savchenko and Szolkowy and Russia’s Yuko Kavaguti and Aleksandr Smirnov stumbled, Pang and Tong soared.

Pang and Tong won the world title in 2006, but have since struggled to recapture that brilliance. The pair picked the right place to do it, winning the free skate in Vancouver to jump from fourth after the short program to the silver medal.

They have stunning athleticism and tricks that defy gravity and comprehension. Their throw jumps were, by far, the best of the night, her skate blades carving the ice on the landings with the precision of a surgeon’s knife.

But like Shen and Zhao, what’s most impressive is how the quality of Pang and Tong’s performance has grown. Their interpretation of “Impossible Dream” could play on any Broadway stage, and the flamenco portion of their program was sizzling.

“Every moment is perfection,” Tong said.

They beamed for the last 30 seconds of their program, even through a difficult lift. When they finished, he bowed down and kissed the ice as she skated around him, disbelief and joy crossing her face.

Savchenko and Szolkowy, winners of the last two world titles, were just .70 points behind Shen and Zhao after the short program, a margin so small the Germans could have changed the standings with just one element.

Szolkowy, who has a long history of botching their jumps, had to fight to save their opening triple toe loop-double toe sequence. But he had no chance on their side-by-side double axels, drawing a gasp from the crowd as he fell to the ice, taking their gold medal chances along with him.

They were also noticeably out-of-sync on their combination spin; he came to an upright position while she was still turning, crouched low to the ice.

“It’s the Winter Olympic Games, one long program in four years — of course you want to skate clean. And you have to skate clean if you want the gold medal,” Szolkowy said. “This one chance we had, and maybe it’s too much.”

Any chance Kavaguti and Smirnov had of keeping that Russian winning streak going ended when she bailed out on their throw quadruple salchow and turned it into a triple. Not a good one, either, since she skidded and twisted across the ice on the landing.

Despite their low finishes — the best U.S. couple has always finished seventh or better — the inexperienced Americans showed promise. If they can improve their singles elements, they have a real shot at climbing the international ranks, maybe even as high as the medals podium in 2014.

Evora and Ladwig’s signature carry lift alone is worth the price of admission. With her hands outstretched, he supports her one-handed for most of the lift. When he does finally use his second hand, it’s only because he’s picked up one foot and is skating backward. Try doing that on flat ground, let alone on a sheet of unforgiving ice.

But they need to clean up those side-by-side jumps and spins. Evora two-footed the first jump in their triple toe-double toe combo and he doubled it. She also turned out of the landing on their double axels. Denney and Barrett’s side-by-side triple toes were downgraded to doubles, and each erred on their double axel sequence.

“It’s an inspiration for me to see these Olympic champions, and what it takes is a lifetime of work and sacrifices,” Evora said. “So we know there is still hope for us in the future.”

Source (article): MSNBC

Source (picture): CHINESELOOP, SPORTS.STV.TV

HESPERIA, Calif. — A man who authorities say killed his 9-month-old son and himself in San Bernardino County reportedly had details about his murder-suicide plans posted on facebook.

Sheriff’s officials say 25-year-old Stephen Garcia of Pinon Hills was on a court-ordered visit with his son Wyatt Sunday when he drove to a dirt road in Twin Peaks, killed the boy and committed suicide.

The Victorville Daily Press is reporting that Garcia left a chilling Facebook letter, saying he did it out of love in an attempt to save his son from a difficult life.

“I led everyone on my side of the family to believe I wouldn’t of done this because I did not want them to know…” the letter reads.

“I had been thinking about doing this for months.”

Garcia also claimed he carried out his plan in order to punish the baby’s mother, Katie Tagle, for refusing to come back to him, the Daily Press reported.

“Our deaths are a lot for her,” the post continues. “It will have to suffice as her punishment. But that is not the reason I did it. It was the only way we could be happy without Katie. I did this out of love for our son, to protect him and myself.”

The note was reportedly posted on Garcia’s profile about eight hours after he and his son were found dead.

It appeared Garcia arranged to have someone else post the letter on his behalf.

Hesperia Sheriff’s Station received a report Saturday night that Garcia took his son and threatened to kill the child and himself.

Their bodies were found inside his car the next day.

The department did not say how the pair died, only that they “sustained traumatic injuries.”

Garcia’s online post also read as a will and mentioned the use of a gun, the newspaper reported.

Anyone who may have information about this case is asked to call Detective Ryan Ford or Sgt. Frank Montanez at the Sheriff’s Homicide Detail at (909) 387-3589 or call WeTip at (800) 78-CRIME.

Source (article): CNN

Source (picture): ALISONTUCK

Alone in the darkness beneath layers of rubble, Dan Woolley felt blood streaming from his head and leg.

Then he remembered — he had an app for that.

Woolley, an aid worker, husband, and father of two boys, followed instructions on his cell phone to survive the January 12 earthquake in Haiti.

“I had an app that had pre-downloaded all this information about treating wounds. So I looked up excessive bleeding and I looked up compound fracture,” Woolley told CNN.

The application on his iPhone is filled with information about first aid and CPR from the American Heart Association. “So I knew I wasn’t making mistakes,” Woolley said. “That gave me confidence to treat my wounds properly.”

Trapped in the ruins of the Hotel Montana in Port-au-Prince, he used his shirt to bandage his leg, and tied his belt around the wound. To stop the bleeding on his head, he firmly pressed a sock to it.

Concerned he might have been experiencing shock, Woolley used the app to look up what to do. It warned him not to sleep. So he set his phone alarm to go off every 20 minutes.

Once the battery got down to less than 20 percent of its power, Woolley turned it off. By then, he says, he had trained his body not to sleep for long periods, drifting off only to wake up within minutes.

Woolley’s job keeps him tech savvy. He oversees interactive projects for the Christian child advocacy organization Compassion International in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

With his injuries tended to, he wrote a note to his family in his journal: “I was in a big accident, an earthquake. Don’t be upset at God. He always provides for his children even in hard times. I’m still praying that God will get me out, but he may not. But even so he will always take care of you.”

The journal is stained with his blood.

After more than 60 hours, Woolley was pulled from the rubble.

“Those guys are rescue heroes,” he said of the crew that pulled him out.

His colleague David Hames has not been found. The two had been standing together when the earthquake struck and the Hotel Montana crumbled. They were making a film about poverty in Haiti and had just gotten back to the hotel, heading to the elevator in the lobby.

“Then all of a sudden just all craziness broke loose,” Woolley said. “Convulsions of the ground around us, the walls started rippling and then falling on us. [Hames] yelled out, ‘I think it’s an earthquake!’ I looked for someplace safe to jump to and there was no safe place.”

When the shaking stopped, Woolley couldn’t see. And his friend was not with him.

He turned on the focus light of a camera he was wearing around his neck, but he didn’t have his glasses. “So I actually took some pictures and would look at the back of the lens of the camera and saw in one of those pictures the elevator that I ended up hobbling over to. And that became my safe place.”

Once in the elevator, he used the app — called “Pocket First Aid & CPR” from Jive Media — to tend to his injuries. Woolley said his phone “was like a high-tech version of a Swiss Army knife that enabled me to treat my own injuries, track time, stay awake and stay alive.”

Woolley heard voices of some other people trapped nearby, and they spoke with each other.

“About a day, maybe day and a half in, we heard rescuers, and they had a list of our names at that point, because they were able to talk to one of the people we were talking with. And so then it seemed like, OK, this is going to happen, we’re actually going to get rescued.

“But then it just took a long time and there were times where I didn’t hear anything or I’d hear drilling in a far part of the building and just didn’t get any reassurance they were still coming for me,” Woolley said.

“The scene outside was a lot more chaotic and less simple than I imagined in my head. … But eventually they came for me and did an amazing rescue.”

Back home now in Colorado Springs with his wife Christina and children Josh, 6, and Nathan, 3, Woolley said he’s grateful to God for getting him through the ordeal.

“Happiness is a morning with … family, filled with Legos, kissing boo-boos and normalcy.”

Source (article): CNN

Source (pictures): PDACORTEX

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - John Travolta has flown a jetliner carrying relief supplies into the Haitian capital, along with doctors and ministers from the Church of Scientology.

The 55-year-old actor piloted his own Boeing 707 from Florida with six tons of ready-to-eat military rations and medical supplies for survivors of Haiti’s devastating Jan. 12 earthquake late Monday.

His wife, Kelly Preston, was also aboard.

“We have the ability to actually help make a difference in the situation in Haiti and I just can’t see not using this plane to help,” Travolta said.

Travolta compared the mission to aid efforts following Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. “We were there right away, with this airplane, because you know we have the ability and the means to do this so I think you have responsibility on some level to do that.”

Aid groups have been desperate to fly their own planes into the over-stressed airport. U.N. humanitarian spokeswoman Elisabeth Byrs said Tuesday that at least 800 planes with relief items are on a waiting list for the airport, which can handle only about 130 flights a day due to a lack of space to park planes as they unload.

The aid group Doctors Without Borders has complained that the flight scheduling priorities of U.S. military controllers running the airport delayed the arrival of field hospitals, resulting in some deaths.

More than 150,000 people have already been buried since the magnitude-7 quake, which destroyed entire Port-au-Prince neighborhoods and landmarks and crumbled nearby towns.

Hundreds of thousands of people are living in the streets, with scores of injured wanting for proper medical care.

Travolta and Preston returned to Florida as soon as their supplies and passengers were unloaded.

Source (article): MSNBC

Source (picture): THELATESTNEWS

No question, the two church-goers from New Jersey had the best intentions in the world when they arrived in Port-au-Prince this week to help victims of Haiti’s killer earthquake.

Trouble was, that was all they had in a land where food, water, shelter and transportation are at a desperate premium, said Laura Blank, a disaster communications manager on the ground for World Vision, a Christian humanitarian aid group with long ties to the country.

“They seemed very eager and very passionate about helping the people of Haiti, but they didn’t have a ride to get out of the airport,” said Blank, who had to direct the pair to assistance.

More than a week after a magnitude-7 earthquake devastated the country, disaster organizers say they’re seeing the first signs of a problem that can hinder even the most ambitious recovery efforts: good intentions gone wrong.

From volunteer medical teams who show up uninvited, to stateside donors who ship boxes of unusable household goods, misdirected compassion can actually tax scarce resources, costing time, money, energy — and lives, experts say.

“Everyone wants to be a hero. Everyone wants to help,” said Dr. Thomas Kirsch, co-director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Refugee and Disaster Response. “It’s not the way to do it.”

Even a medical crew from his own school — Kirsch declined to identify them — arrived in Haiti so ill-prepared they had to seek sustenance from non-governmental organizations.

“They had no bedding, supplies or food,” he said. “They ended up glomming onto some of the NGOs.”

Volunteers simply show up
What to do with well-meaning volunteers is not a new problem. In every disaster, large numbers of people simply show up to help. A handbook published by California disaster officials estimates organizers can count on 50,000 “convergent” volunteers after any severe earthquake. After the Sept. 11 terror attacks, more than 40,000 unsolicited volunteers arrived at Ground Zero in New York.

In the U.S. and around the world, aid organizations are walking a fine line, trying to encourage skilled professionals who can provide indispensable assistance — and waving off those who might not be

up to the task. At the federal Center for International Disaster Information, a stern note warns the well-intentioned:

“Volunteers without prior disaster relief experience are generally not selected for relief assignments,” it reads. “Most offers of another body to drive trucks, set up tents, and feed children are not accepted.”

It’s an effort to help would-be Samaritans recognize the reality of the situation, said CIDI director Suzanne H. Brooks.

“It’s very romantic in the TV and movies,” she said. “They think it’s flying in for a weekend. They need to think of it in terms of months.”

Those best suited to help are probably already there, experts said. They’re trained crews who not only have experience working in disasters, but also in developing nations, Kirsch said. The best teams also have a command of Haitian Creole and French, if possible.

When teams arrive without those skills and without their own supplies, they drain resources that could better be used for actual victims, said Dr. Kristi L. Koenig, an emergency physician at the University of California, Irvine, who specializes in disaster response.

“Unless you’re part of a team before the disaster happens with a formal mission, you’re going to be part of the problem,” she said.

Even worse, certain volunteers have required emergency intervention themselves, Kirsch noted.

“Most people do quite well, but about 10 percent don’t,” he said. “They end up totally freaking out and having to be evacuated.”

Winter coats and high-heeled shoes?
A different but equally pressing problem is the flood of ill-advised donations that aid agencies already are facing, organizers said. A handful of “Help Haiti” food and clothing drives across the country are inspiring cringes among some workers, said Diana Rothe-Smith, executive director of the National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster, a coalition of agencies.

“I would strongly recommend that no donation drives be conducted unless there’s an existing organization on the ground, in Haiti, that has asked for the help,” Rothe-Smith said. “It does pile up very quickly.”

Donations of old clothes, canned goods, water and outdated prescriptions are accumulating, said Brooks. While such items sound useful, they’re actually expensive to sort, to transport and to distribute, she said. Cast-off drugs can be dangerous.

Oftentimes, the household items donated are simply not useful to the disaster victims they’re intended to help.

“I guarantee you someone is going to send a winter coat or high-heeled shoes,” Brooks said.

In fact, after the tsunami in Indonesia in 2004, aid organizers in Sri Lanka were forced to deal with donations of stiletto shoes, expired cans of salmon, evening gowns and even thong panties, according to news reports. In Florida, a truckload of mink coats showed up during the 2004 hurricane season, Rothe-Smith said, a likely tax write-off for a retailer having trouble pushing furs.

The compassion behind some donations is understandable — and laudable, she added. People see dire images on television or in news reports and they want to help.

“It seems to make logical sense to go through your own cupboard and gather those items,” Rothe-Smith said.

The reality, however, is that inappropriate donations actually do more harm than good.

“If you buy a can of peas and it costs 59 cents, it’ll cost about $80 to get it where it needs to go,” Rothe-Smith said.

Mathematics of donation favor cash
Many agencies try to motivate donors with the mathematics of the situation. Jeff Nene, a spokesman for Convoy of Hope, a Springfield, Mo., agency that feeds 11,000 children a day in Haiti, urges cash donations that allow his group to buy in bulk from large suppliers and retailers.

“When people give $1, it translates into $7 in the field,” he said. “If they spend $5 for bottled water, that’s nice and it makes them feel good, but probably it costs us more than $5 to send it. If they give us $5, we can get $35 worth of water.”

That’s a sentiment echoed by virtually every aid agency.

“I would really say at this point, honestly, right now, money is the best thing to give,” Rothe-Smith said.

Donors can find vetted agencies helping in Haiti on sites such as Charity Navigator.

Still, trying to direct the flood of compassion can be tricky, Nene acknowledged.

“Some people get a little miffed by it. They think they’re trying to help and when you don’t receive it in that attitude and spirit, they get upset,” he said.

“You just have to tread lightly. You don’t want to crush people when they’re so willing to help.”

Source (article): MSNBC

Source (picture): MSNBC

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - Some of the dead in this shattered city line the roads, carefully placed garments shrouding their faces. Others are carried into the hills for quick burials. Hundreds are arrayed in a macabre tangle of limbs outside a morgue, just feet from the grievously wounded.

The living and the dead here share the same space — the sidewalks, the public plazas, the hospitals. The living are frightened of being inside in case another earthquake hits; the dead are everywhere.

On the doorstep of a pharmacy, six bodies were lined up shoulder to shoulder. On the body of one woman, covered in a sheet, rested a small bundle, the tiny leg of an infant sticking out of the wrap.

“It’s beyond description. The disaster, the damage, is just so overwhelming,” said Karel Zelenka, a Catholic Relief Services representative in Haiti. “Everyone has a scarf or something, because the smell is unbearable. … You literally have bodies all over the place.”

The international Red Cross estimates up to 50,000 people were killed in Tuesday’s earthquake. For now, few know what to do with the bodies. People say they’re being left on roadsides and doorsteps so relatives who may have survived can find them, or for families to find transportation for burials.

‘Highest regard to families’
Some families wouldn’t wait. Relatives of one woman who was killed in the earthquake dug her grave about 20 feet from the road, her body wrapped in a sheet and strapped to a door. Across the street, others dug graves and built a bonfire to keep away flies and ward off the stench.

While the odor can be overpowering, health officials sought to dispel worries about the spread of disease. Pan American Health Organization officials — speaking from Washington — stressed dead bodies are not a significant contagion danger, and cautioned against rapid mass burials or cremations.

“The management of dead bodies needs to be done with the highest regard to families, their wishes and their sensitivities,” said Dr. Jon Kim Andrus, deputy director for the Pan American Health Organization.

In front of the morgue at the Hospital General downtown, family members come to stare over hundreds of bodies covering the parking lot. A woman described the clothes of her daughter to city workers, who moved a sheet to look closely at a body. The smell of death was so strong that everybody not wearing a mask held their hands to their faces.

Nearby, the injured sit on makeshift beds, awaiting medical assistance. The living and the piles of dead are only separated by about 20 feet.

As relief organizations struggle to get supplies and aid to the survivors, few plans were being made for the dead. The international Red Cross said it would ship 3,000 body bags along with tons of aid being sent from Geneva on Thursday night.

Voodoo rituals for the dead
Meanwhile, Brazil army officials issued a statement saying many followers of the Voodoo religion would not accept the dead being touched until all of their rituals were concluded. Some experts on the faith validated the claim while others rejected it.

Voodoo, a mix of African religions and Roman Catholicism, is central to Haitian life and is widely observed in some form. The religion often has been wrongly associated with black magic or sorcery, leaving a lingering stereotype against its followers.

But suggestions that survivors are stacking corpses outside Port-au-Prince hospitals because they are waiting for a Voodoo ceremony is inaccurate, said Patrick Bellegarde-Smith, an expert on Haitian Voodoo, also spelled Vodou, in the department of Africology at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

“None of what the Brazilian authorities say makes any sense,” Bellegarde-Smith said in a Thursday e-mail. “They are absolutely wrong! Most Haitians, though they believe in Vodou, are devoted Catholics or Protestants.”

Bob Corbett, professor emeritus of philosophy at Webster University in St. Louis, Missouri, said most Haitians would certainly want a Voodoo priest or priestess to be at a burial ceremony.

“Relatives would want some consolation, some guidance and ritual,” he said from his St. Louis home. “But it’s clear there is a huge public health problem there with all the bodies, so it’s hard to say what people would prefer in this situation.”

Late Thursday afternoon, the sunset mingled with the concrete dust from the crumbled buildings, tinging the city in a golden mist.

On a patch of dirt on a busy street corner a woman took her last breath. She was 26. Her family said she had been injured in the quake and suffered for two days.

Her family and about two dozen passers-by crowded around. They said a prayer and gently wiped the corners of her mouth before closing her eyes and covering her with a blanket.

Her father sat at the woman’s feet. Like the rest of those in the crowd, he didn’t cry. He sat, visibly drained, seemingly distant. When a journalist asked his daughter’s name, he just shook his head.

Source (article):MSNBC

Source (picture):MEDIA.MASSLIVE.COM, TELEGRAPH.CO.UK, MASHABLE

There is a chance that snow flurries could fall in Central Florida over the weekend.

“It’s very rare in Central Florida, but it has happened before that we’ve had a couple of flakes, so it’s possible we could do it again,” WESH 2 News meteorologist Amy Sweezey said.

A cold blast began making its way toward Central Florida on Friday, causing a huge difference in temperatures on the coast versus inland. Melbourne was at 67 degrees at noon, while temperatures in Ocala and The Villages had only climbed to the high-40s.

A freeze warning is in effect for Flagler, Marion and Sumter counties from 3 a.m. to 9 a.m. Saturday. A freeze watch was issued for other areas of Central Florida, which may be upgraded to a warning.

“The timing is going to make such a difference on whether or not we can have a little bit of sleet and frozen precipitation,” Sweezey said.

The front should move through the region early Saturday morning. Residents in the northern counties could see some flakes before sunrise. In metro Orlando and Daytona Beach, the best chance would happen after sunrise, and in areas south and east of Orlando, the best opportunity should be around noon.

Southerly winds and clouds had temperatures climbing before sunrise Saturday into the 40s in most locations.

The wintry precipitation expected on Saturday won’t be anything like what those who have lived up north would consider snow.

“It’s not actually going to be big snowflakes. Instead, a little bit of an ice pellet, maybe a little bit of sleet. That’s it,” Sweezey said. “The timing all has to come together.”

While it’s rare in Central Florida, snow flurries fell in January 2008, January 2003 and in December 1989.

Source (article): MSNBC

Source (picture): LUMINOUS-LANDSCAPE

Casey Johnson, the heiress to the Johnson & Johnson fortune who recently made tabloid headlines with a purported engagement to reality star Tila Tequila, has died at age 30.

The Los Angeles Police Department confirmed the news to Access Hollywood on Monday night.

Earlier in the evening, Tequila herself confirmed the news on her Twitter account.

“Everyone please pray 4 my Wifey Casey Johnson. She has passed away,” she wrote. “Thank u for all ur love and support but I will be offline to be w family.”

A short time later, however, the former reality star suggested Johnson was not dead, writing, “I just got news that my fiance is not dead but currently in a coma!!! Omg please pray that she will make it! Hang in there my love please!!!”

Johnson, a member of the Johnson & Johnson dynasty, passed away in Los Angeles, TMZ was first to report.

The body of the 30-year-old socialite was discovered on Monday morning, according to the Web site.

No details were immediately available about the cause of death.

Shortly after the news broke, a rep for the Johnson family issued a statement.

“The Johnson family is mourning its tragic loss, and asks for privacy during this very difficult time,” the statement read.

Tequila and Johnson first announced their engagement via Tequila’s Ustream account on Dec. 9.

“Tonight, my beautiful girlfriend had just asked me to marry her,” Tequila said in the clip.

“Casey Johnson and Miss Tila Tequila are now officially engaged,” she added.

Making headlines
In recent weeks, Johnson made a host of headlines for things other than her romantic life.

Johnson, who leaves a toddler daughter Ava whom she had adopted, was the great-great granddaughter of the founder of the pharmaceutical giant, and the daughter of New York Jets owner Robert Wood Johnson.

An openly gay socialite, Johnson had a knack for attracting paparazzi — and trouble. A nasty fight with ex-girlfriend Courtenay Semel, daughter of former Yahoo chief Terry Semel, reportedly resulted in Johnson’s hair catching on fire last October. Then in November, she was arrested for allegedly breaking into another former girlfriend’s house.

As for Tequila, she Tweeted on Sunday she was happy with her life heading in to 2010.

“I feel so blessed,” the Internet-turned-reality-star wrote. “Thank you God for my life…..I know there is so much more on it’s way! I hope to bring my fans along the fun ride!”

Tequila has announced personal news via Twitter before.

Previously, she announced she was pregnant and carrying a child for her brother and his wife.

Later, she clarified that she was not yet pregnant, but was planning to become pregnant in the surrogate role.

Source (article): MSNBC

Source (Pictures): EXAMINER.COM

PepsiCo-owned Gatorade said the decision to axe the Tiger Focus drink was made a few months ago.

Since the 14-times major winner crashed his car on 27 November, many women have claimed to have had affairs with Woods.

There are also reports that adverts featuring Woods have vanished from US prime-time broadcast and cable TV.

According to data from US media research firm Nielsen, the last prime-time advert featuring the 33-year-old golfer was a 30-second Gillette item on 29 November.

That commercial was broadcast eight times during November, Nielsen spokesman Aaron Lewis said.

Woods’ other sponsors include consultancy firm Accenture. He is reported to be the first sports star to be worth more than $1bn.

Nike has been Woods’ biggest sponsor since the start of his career, signing its first contract with him as long ago as 1996.

‘Mentally tough’

He signed a five-year deal with Gatorade in 2007 for an estimated $100m (£61.7m).

“We decided several months ago to discontinue Gatorade Tiger Focus along with some other products to make room for our planned series of innovative products in 2010,” said PepsiCo in a statement.

The marketing of Gatorade is closely linked to sports. Other athletes it sponsors include former basketball player Michael Jordan and sprinter Usain Bolt.

Gatorade Tiger Focus was launched as a sports drink aimed at athletes.

Gatorade’s website describes Gatorade Tiger Focus to be a drink “designed with athletes in mind, helping them to be as mentally tough as they are physically”.

The decision to drop the drink was first reported by soft-drinks’ industry newsletter, Beverage Digest, on 25 November - two days before Woods crashed his car and sparked off the chain of events which continues to feature in the global media.

Tiger Force was launched in March 2008, and according to Beverage Digest the Woods-backed drink represented less than 5% of Gatorade’s volume.

Source (article): BBCNEWS

Source (picture): EXAMINER

BUDAPEST, Hungary - Talk about a reversal of fortunes.

Two brothers who are so poor they live in a cave on the outskirts of Budapest and get by selling scavenged junk are in line to receive a $6.6 billion inheritance from a long-lost grandmother, the U.K. Daily Telegraph reports.

Zsolt and Geza Peladi have been informed that they are entitled to the fortune, along with a sister who lives in the United States, the newspaper reported Wednesday.

Charity workers in Hungary passed on the good news to the brothers after being contacted by lawyers handling the estate of their maternal grandmother, who died recently in Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany, the Telegraph said.

“We knew our mother came from a wealthy family but she was a difficult person and severed ties with them, and then later abandoned us and we lost touch with her and our father until she eventually died,” Geza Peladi, 43, was quoted as saying by ATV television in Hungary.

“If this all works out it will certainly make up for the life we have had until now — all we really had was each other — no women would look at us living in a cave,” said Geza Peladi.

“But with money, maybe we can find a partner and finally have a normal life. We don’t know yet if she even told our grandmother about us. I understand it was only while they were carrying out genealogical research that lawyers found we existed.”

Under German law, direct descendants are automatically entitled to a share of any estate. As the grandmother’s daughter is dead, the money goes to her grandchildren.

Source (article): MSNBC

Source (picture): TIMESONLINE

GARDEN GROVE, Calif. - Thieves in Orange County stole $100,000 in toys and food donated to the poor, leaving an agency scrambling to recover just 24 days before Christmas.

Sgt. James Colgrove said crooks broke into an underground storage facility in Garden Grove over the weekend. They took an estimated 20,000 pounds of food and about $25,000 worth of toys that were donated to the United Labor Agency of Orange County.

Colgrove says the goods were being collected for homeless families and those whose breadwinners recently lost jobs.

“There are going to be a lot of homeless and underprivileged children and families who are going to go without,” Colgrove told The Orange County Register.

Colgrove told the California newspaper that detectives believe the heist happened between Friday and Monday morning. Employees were being interviewed to determine how someone could haul away the huge load without being noticed, the newspaper reported.

Source (article): MSNBC

Source (picture): THECHRISTMASGUIDE,

The golfer was found semi-conscious with facial injuries after his car reportedly hit a fire hydrant and tree.

In a statement on his website the golfer said the only person responsible for the crash in Florida “was me”.

He added: “The many false, unfounded and malicious rumours that are currently circulating about my family and me are irresponsible.”

The incident occurred in the suburb of Isleworth, an exclusive area near Orlando, at 0225 local time (0725 GMT) on Friday.

Florida police officers were told Woods’ wife Elin had used a golf club to break the car’s rear window and help him out.

Police were expected to question Woods about the incident on Sunday but the Associated Press reported that the meeting was cancelled for the third straight day.

Sgt Kim Montes of the Florida Highway Patrol said Woods’ lawyer did not reschedule the meeting.

In a statement posted online about an hour before he was due to be interviewed, Woods said: “My wife, Elin, acted courageously when she saw I was hurt and in trouble. She was the first person to help me. Any other assertion is absolutely false.

“This incident has been stressful and very difficult for Elin, our family and me. I appreciate all the concern and well wishes that we have received.

“But, I would also ask for some understanding that my family and I deserve some privacy no matter how intrusive some people can be.”

On Sunday authorities released a recording of a 911 emergency call made by the golfer’s neighbour after the incident.

In a shaken voice, he says: “I need an ambulance immediately. I have someone down in front of my house. They hit a pole.”

Woods, who has been married for five years and has two young children, has recently been the subject of tabloid allegations about his private life.

Asked about reports the couple had been arguing in the hours leading up to the crash, the police said they were treating the incident as a traffic accident, not a domestic issue.

According to the highway patrol, alcohol was not a factor in the incident.

Chief Daniel Saylor of the Windermere Police Department said: “From what we understand, his wife came out of the house when she heard the accident, him hitting the fire hydrant, (and) used a golf club - that’s what we were told - to break out the rear window to gain entrance into the vehicle, removed him from the vehicle and laid him down in the street.

“He was in and out of consciousness with lacerations to his upper and lower lip, with a little bit of blood in his mouth, but he was conscious enough to be able to speak a little bit. According to my officers, it was not life-threatening injuries.”

In comments to the Associated Press news agency, Chief Saylor said his officers found the 33-year-old lying in the street with his wife hovering over him.

“She was frantic, upset. It was her husband laying on the ground.”

Source (article): BBC.CO.UK

Source (picture): THEMEHYBRID, INTOTHEROUGH

Holding back tears, Oprah Winfrey told her studio audience Friday that she would end her show in 2011 after a quarter-century on the air, saying “prayer and careful thought” led her to her decision.

Winfrey told the audience that she loved “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” that it had been her life and that she knew when it was time to say goodbye. “Twenty-five years feels right in my bones and feels right in my spirit,” she said.

Winfrey talked about being nervous when the program began in 1986, and thanked audiences who had invited her into their homes over the past two decades.

“I certainly never could have imagined the yellow brick road of blessings that would have led me to this moment,” she said.

The powerhouse show became the foundation for her multibillion-dollar media empire, but in the last year, has seen its ratings slip 7 percent. Winfrey, 55, is widely expected to start up a new talk show on OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network, a much-delayed joint venture with Discovery Communications Inc. that is projected to debut in 2011. OWN is to replace the Discovery Health Channel and will debut in some 74 million homes.

Winfrey said she and her staff were going to brainstorm ideas for the final season of “The Oprah Winfrey Show” and that she hoped viewers would take “this 18-month ride with me.”

In Season 25, “we are going to knock your socks off,” she said. “The countdown to the end of ‘The Oprah Winfrey Show’ starts now.”

CBS Television Distribution, which distributes the show to more than 200 U.S. markets, held out hope it could continue doing business with Winfrey, perhaps producing a new show out of its studios in Los Angeles.

“We know that anything she turns her hand to will be a great success,” the CBS Corp. unit said in a statement. “We look forward to working with her for the next several years, and hopefully afterwards as well.”

Many fans heading into Harpo Studios on Friday morning seemed to support Winfrey’s decision to end the show.

“You always want to end a show when people want more — and not when people are sick of watching you,” said Rebecca Switaj, 31, of Chicago.

Said Sandra Donaldson, 59, of Indianapolis: “It’s time to elevate to something new. Whatever she does is going to be a blessing. It’s going to be rewarding and eye-opening. Her name alone opens doors.”

Once a local Chicago morning program, the production evolved into television’s top-rated talk show for more than two decades, airing in 145 countries worldwide and watched by an estimated 42 million viewers a week in the U.S. alone.

“Oprah Winfrey is in a category of her own,” said Robert Thompson, professor of television and popular culture at Syracuse University. “This is a great American story and like any great American story it’s supersized.”

Fans expressed hope that Winfrey would announce another project on Friday.

“Oprah, she impacts everybody, her life, the way she gives,” Shawana Fletcher, 29, of Chicago, said outside Harpo Studios. “I hope she’s not totally done. That’s what we’re praying.”

Winfrey’s 24th season opened this year with a bang, as she drew more than 20,000 fans to Chicago’s Magnificent Mile for a block party with the Black Eyed Peas. She followed with a series of blockbuster interviews — Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield, singer Whitney Houston and ESPN’s Erin Andrews, and just this week, former Alaska governor and GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin.

As a newcomer, “The Oprah Winfrey Show” chipped away at talk-show king Phil Donahue’s dominance. Later, it turned to inspiration. The show’s coverage ranged from interviews with the world’s celebrities to an honest discussion about Winfrey’s weight struggles.

“As the show evolved, it really kind of dressed up the neighborhood of the daytime talk show,” Thompson said.

Source (article): MSNBC

Source (pictures): SISTERSPACE, SUNTIMES, CELEB-PHOTOS

SANFORD, N.C. - When 5-year-old Shaniya Davis was reported missing, suspicion turned to a man described as her mother’s boyfriend. As he was let go, police targeted another man spotted on hotel surveillance footage holding the child. Then, authorities arrested the girl’s mother and accused her of offering her daughter for prostitution.

The arrests offered a glimmer of hope Shaniya would be found alive. But on Monday, searchers discovered the girl’s body off a rural road, nearly a week after her mother reported her missing from a mobile home park in Fayetteville. The Medical Examiner’s Office confirmed her identity Tuesday but said the official cause of death was still undetermined.

Shaniya’s father, Bradley Lockhart, arrived at a vigil Monday night with help from friends gripping his arms. Tears flowed from his face as he looked up and spoke.

“Lord, I come to you with open arms and it is hard. It is hard,” Lockhart said as he stood among a crowd of about 500 gathered in a store parking lot. “Don’t give up on me and don’t give up on Shaniya. She’s right there with you.”

At a second memorial about 40 miles away in Sanford, where Shaniya’s body was found, dozens of people attended a Baptist church.

“We have kids and it just hit so close to home. It’s unbelievable how somebody can just do something that horrible to something so precious,” said organizer Crystal Godfrey.

Hundreds of volunteers who helped look for Shaniya left the search area dejected, unable to bring her home to her father, 7-year-old brother and the dolls she so loved.

“I still feel kind of sick to my stomach,” said Angela Jackson, 27, of Sanford, who has a 2-month-old daughter and searched for consecutive days.

Accusations against mother
Particularly disturbing were the accusations against Shaniya’s mother, 25-year-old Antoinette Davis. Police charged Davis with human trafficking and felony child abuse, saying Shaniya was offered for sex.

Davis was calm and quiet during a court appearance. She provided one-word answers to the judge’s questions. She requested a court-appointed attorney and did not enter a plea.

Her sister, Brenda Davis, 20, said she does not believe the charges.

“I don’t believe she could hurt her children,” said Brenda Davis, who spoke with her sister at the jail Sunday. Davis’ aunt, Yvonne Mitchell, said the mother had two jobs and would never harm the child.

Authorities also charged Mario Andrette McNeill, 29, with kidnapping after they said surveillance footage from a Sanford hotel showed him carrying Shaniya. Authorities said McNeill admitted taking the girl, though his attorney said he will plead not guilty.

Fayetteville police spokeswoman Theresa Chance declined to talk about additional charges. She also wouldn’t comment on a cause of death or the condition of Shaniya’s body, except to say that investigators planned to retrieve it about 100 feet off the road.

“Detectives have been running off adrenaline to find this little girl and to bring her home alive,” Chance said. “You have a lot of people in shock right now.”

‘Hoping that someone could carry her home’
Davis reported Shaniya missing from a mobile home park Nov. 10. Authorities first arrested Clarence Coe, but charges against him were dropped a day later when investigators tracked down McNeill after receiving a tip from a hotel employee.

Additional information led investigators to a search site near Sanford on Sunday. They continued searching Monday, scouring miles of landscape, roads, ravines and fields on four-wheelers and with helicopters.

“We were hoping that someone could carry her home,” said Syd Severe, 42, who came from Raleigh to help with the search. “It’s just sick.”

A cluster of emergency vehicles and law enforcement gathered where Shaniya’s body was found. Authorities blocked access to the road, a rural area popular with hunters that is less than a mile from a lakeside community.

Shaniya’s father said he raised his daughter for several years but last month decided to let her stay with her mother. He had pleaded for her safe return.

Lockhart told The Associated Press on Saturday that he and Davis never argued about him raising Shaniya, and Cumberland County courts had no record of a custody dispute. He described his relationship with Davis as a “one-night stand” and said he did not know McNeill.

Davis struggled financially over the years, but she recently got a job and her own place, so Lockhart said he decided to give her a chance with their daughter.

“I should’ve never let her go over there,” he said Saturday night.

Source (article): MSNBC

Source (picture): MSNBC

“Food was my friend, my blanket, my comfort, my lover – my drug,” said Kimberly Anne Evans. “I replaced my need for love with [meals] … I walked around in a food coma for 39 years.”
The 42-year-old member of the Joy Fit Club, who once weighed 347 pounds, relied on fatty foods to satisfy all her emotional needs. From early childhood, Kimberly viewed food as something she could always count on to comfort her in times of distress. “In school, I was called many names, had things thrown at me, and had kids whisper and laugh behind my back,” she recalled.
Kimberly spent the next three decades gaining an abnormal amount of weight, subsisting on a diet of large portions: two McDonald’s breakfast burritos with hash browns in the morning; two cheeseburgers with fries and shakes for lunch; and a pizza with four scoops of ice cream for dinner. Overall, it came to roughly 9,000 calories and 150 to 200 grams of fat per day. “Little did I realize it was slowly killing me,” she said.
Kimberly felt like a prisoner of her size. Her life was entirely controlled by its limitations: She couldn’t walk long distances, fit into airplane or restaurant seats, or even apply for a job without feeling like her weight stood in the way. “I worked extremely hard to prove that, despite my outward appearance, I was highly competent, hard-working,” she recalled. “‘Normal’-size people have no idea what they take for granted.”
Kimberly thought she would outgrow her obesity, but as she approached 40, she began to believe she might always be fat and that her goals, including having a relationship, would remain forever unfulfilled. She was 39 years old and had still never been kissed. “I stopped thinking about my soul mate, and when I would see [romantic movies], my heart would ache. I would cry, reminded of how truly lonely I really was.”

Although Kimberly was unhappy with her lifestyle, it took years until she finally felt motivated to make a change. It all came down to one moment with a DVD – and Gerard Butler.
She had just turned 39 when a friend loaned her a copy of the movie musical “Phantom of the Opera,” whose title character, like her, was an outcast yearning for love. It had a huge impact. “Gerard Butler’s portrayal of the Phantom changed my life,” Kimberly said. “His talent woke me up from my food coma. From that moment on, my soul was alive.”
Kimberly completed changed her eating habits, switching from pizza to Subway sandwiches for lunch, ditching fast food meals for baked chicken or tilapia, and recruiting family and friends to locate nonfat ice cream that tasted “just like the real thing.” She began tracking all her calories and looking for nutritional information on restaurant menus and supermarket food labels. “The problem is, so many dishes appear healthy by their title, description, or look – but they aren’t,” she explained.
That doesn’t mean Kimberly doesn’t allow herself a well-earned reward now or then. “When I do indulge on the holidays, I appreciate the taste of the food so much more – it is such a treat.”
As for exercise, Kimberly took baby steps, starting with walking every day. She then graduated to a stationary bike, slowly increasing the intensity and time over several weeks. After a while, she added in weight-lifting and general floor exercises, and committed to working out seven days a week.
The transition wasn’t easy; it was often hard to find the energy to exercise in the morning. But Kimberly soon learned that “once you start, you feel the energy come to you.”
In just under 21 months Kimberly was able to shed 211 pounds, and she now weighs in at 136 pounds. She finally feels confident about her appearance, and has found a new zest for life. “I literally run up and down the stairs now. I am never out of breath and look for opportunities to hit the stairs more for exercise … it is unbelievable!”
Physically, she’s now able to enjoy simple everyday activities that once thwarted her, like crossing her legs or sitting in an airplane seat comfortably. In fact, Kimberly just recently met a man, who finally gave her what she fantasized about for three decades: a kiss. “He told me he wished he’d known because he would’ve made it even more special,” Kimberly said. “He’s very sweet and we’ve been getting along very well.” As for her future, Kimberly looks forward to many more exciting “firsts”:
“I want to live for the first time and experience everything – I want to travel, have fun and [go on an] adventure. I lost so many years to my ‘fat suit’… I have a lot left to do.”

Source (article) MSNBC

Source (picture) MSNBC

LEBANON, Pa. - A soccer mom who gained national attention when she openly carried a loaded gun to her 5-year-old daughter’s game was shot dead Wednesday along with her husband in what appeared to be a murder-suicide, police said.

Meleanie Hain and Scott Hain were pronounced dead Wednesday night at their home in Lebanon, a small city about 80 miles west of Philadelphia.

The couple’s three children were home at the time but weren’t hurt, police said. They were taken to stay with friends and relatives.

Meleanie Hain, 31, and Scott Hain, 33, had been having marital problems for about a week, neighbor Mark Long said. Scott Hain had left the couple’s home on Tuesday, and Meleanie Hain didn’t know where he was, but he returned Wednesday, Long said.

Autopsies on the Hains were to be conducted Thursday, coroner Dr. Jeffrey Yocum said.

Meleanie Hain made headlines after she attended a children’s soccer game in a park on Sept. 11, 2008, with a handgun in plain view holstered on her hip, upsetting other parents.

The county sheriff, Michael DeLeo, revoked her gun-carrying permit nine days later.

Hain successfully appealed the permit revocation, although the judge who restored the permit questioned her judgment and said she had “scared the devil” out of other people at the game.

Harassment
Hain sued DeLeo in federal court, alleging that he violated her constitutional rights and prosecuted her maliciously when he took the permit away. She said that because of his actions her baby-sitting service had suffered, her children had been harassed and she had been ostracized by her neighbors in Lebanon, which has about 25,000 residents.

A mother who murdered her two daughters as they slept has been jailed for life and must serve a minimum of 33 years.

Rekha Kumari-Baker, 41, stabbed 16-year-old Davina 37 times and 13-year-old Jasmine 29 times at their home in Stretham, Cambridgeshire.

Her ex-husband said the killings were “an act of calculated viciousness”.

The 33-year minimum sentence handed down at Cambridge Crown Court is one of the longest jail terms given to a woman in the UK in modern times.

David Baker, Kumari-Baker’s ex-husband, said he had been “robbed” of his daughters.

‘Mystery motive’

Kumari-Baker admitted killing the girls in June 2007 but denied murder on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

However the jury did not believe her and took just 35 minutes to find her guilty of murder.

Sentencing her, Mr Justice Bean said the Parole Board would not consider her for release until 2040, when she will be 72.

He said she had been found guilty of two brutal murders on the basis of “clear and compelling evidence”.

“Most people will find it inexplicable that a mother could kill her own children and you have given no explanation for it,” he said.

He said she was “certainly upset” at the breakdown of her relationship with boyfriend Jeff Powell.

He added: “I think mild depression was probably combined with a wish to retaliate against David Baker and destroy the happiness in his life but to some extent your motive remains a mystery.

“Your defence of diminished responsibility was flimsy and unsubstantial. You knew quite well what you were doing and you were not mentally ill.”

The judge considered whether Kumari-Baker should ever be considered for release but concluded that the premeditation was significant but not substantial so a “whole life order” was not warranted.

In a victim impact statement read to the court by prosecutor John Farmer after Kumari-Baker was convicted, Mr Baker told of the “incalculable” loss he had suffered.

“Having them taken away from me in such a brutal way and by the woman who was their mother… has had an incalculable effect,” Mr Baker said in his statement.

“I am haunted by the horror of the events of that night and probably will remain so for a very long time.”

His statement continued: “She tore them from us all and life can’t be the same for those who remain.”

Prosecutors had said Kumari-Baker was trying to “wreak havoc” on her ex-husband.

Asda knives

During the two-week trial, jurors heard that she attacked the girls in the early hours of 13 June.

The court heard evidence showed that Davina - whose body was found kneeling on the floor - had struggled. Jasmine was found dead in bed.

The prosecution said Kumari-Baker bought the knives she used to attack the girls at an Asda supermarket two days earlier.

She argued that she had been suffering from a mental disorder and mounted a “diminished responsibility defence”.

Source (article): BBC

Source (picture): BBC

Dirty Dancing film star Patrick Swayze has died aged 57, his publicist says.

Annett Wolf said that the US actor, who had been battling pancreatic cancer for nearly two years, died with family at his side on Monday.

Swayze was diagnosed with advanced stage four pancreatic cancer in January last year.

The actor had been starring in US TV show The Beast since being diagnosed with the disease. He had also planned to write a memoir with his wife.

“Patrick Swayze passed away peacefully today with family at his side after facing the challenges of his illness for the last 20 months,” said a statement by Annett Wolf.

Jennifer Grey, who co-starred with Swayze in Dirty Dancing, said in a statement: “Patrick was a rare and beautiful combination of raw masculinity and amazing grace. Gorgeous and strong, he was a real cowboy with a tender heart.

“He was fearless and insisted on always doing his own stunts, so it was not surprising to me that the war he waged on his cancer was so courageous and dignified.”

Rob Lowe, who played in a number of films with Swayze, said: “Patrick lived a thousand lifetimes in one lifetime. He was an expert dancer, he wrote hit songs, he starred in hit movies, he was an amazing horseman.

“But the thing I will remember him most for was his amazing love affair with his wife Lisa.”

Demi Moore has also paid tribute to her co-star in the hit film Ghost, saying: “Patrick you are loved by so many and your light will forever shine in all of our lives.”

She added: “I love and will miss you Patrick.”

California governor and former Hollywood actor Arnold Schwarzenegger called Swayze a “talented and passionate artist who struck a memorable chord with audiences throughout the world.”

“He played a wide range of characters both on stage and in movies and his celebrated performances made the hard work of acting look effortless - which I know from experience is not easy,” he said.

Swayze’s dream

In January, Swayze admitted he might only have two years to live, but denied he was near death.

In a US TV interview, he admitted he was “scared” and “going through hell”.

“Am I dying? Am I giving up? Am I on my death bed? Am I saying goodbye to people? No way,” Swayze told TV interviewer Barbara Walters.

“I keep dreaming of a future, a future with a long and healthy life, not lived in the shadow of cancer but in the light,” he said.

The film star’s biographer, Wendy Leigh, who wrote the book Patrick Swayze One Last Dance, said he had endured physical pain throughout his life.

‘Determined’

“As a high school athlete he injured his knee tremendously badly, yet he still carried on playing football,” she said.

“As a dancer he had all sorts of injuries and Patrick learnt to live with pain, to fight pain.

“When he got diagnosed with this awful, awful disease he was determined to fight it and actually he lived far longer than most people who are diagnosed with stage four pancreatic cancer, which was what Patrick had.”

Pancreatic cancer is one of the most virulent forms of cancer which medical experts say has a 5% five-year survival rate.

Source (article): BBC

Source (pictures): POPULAR-CULTURE, KSTT, TVGASM

ANTIOCH, Calif. - Phillip Garrido’s unspeakable private life began unraveling in a very public place: a college campus.

He arrived Monday at the police office at the University of California, Berkeley, with two girls, ages 11 and 15. He announced he wanted to hold a religious event on campus related to a group called God’s Desire. He seemed weird and unstable. But it was the pale, blonde, blue-eyed girls in drab dresses who really set off alarm bells.

“There were some things about him and the kids that were really alarming, that just didn’t settle right with me,” said Lisa Campbell, the department’s manager of special events, who previously worked as a police officer in Chicago and a background investigator for the Los Angeles Police Department.

So she arranged another meeting for the next day, and called upon officer Ally Jacobs to join her. Jacobs ran a records check — and discovered that Garrido was a registered sex offender who had been convicted of rape and kidnapping more than 30 years ago.

The girls unnerved Jacobs, as well. They seemed programmed — “almost like ‘Little House on the Prairie’ meets robots,” she says.

The younger girl “was staring directly at me,” says Jacobs, the mother of two small boys. “It was almost like she was looking into my soul. … Her eyes were so penetrating.”

When Jacobs asked her about a bump near her eye, “she immediately replied with this very rehearsed response: ‘It’s a birth defect … I’ll have it for the rest of my life.’

“I was a little taken aback. … She just wouldn’t stop smiling.”

‘Kids were like robots’
The older daughter, meanwhile, stared at the ceiling and looked at her father “in awe, as if she were in worship of him. I kind of got the feeling that these kids were like robots.”

Garrido gave them copies of his book he had written called “Origin of Schizophrenia Revealed.” They had a hard time following his conversation.

But he revealed the girls were home-schooled by his wife, with an assist from him. The girls said they had an older sister at home, 28 or 29, and that seemed strange, too, that she was even mentioned.

Finally, Jacobs says, Garrido grabbed his oldest daughter and said: “‘I’m so proud of my girls. They don’t know any curse words. We raised them right. They don’t know anything bad about the world.’”

By then, she says, “my police mode turned into my mother mode.”

A call was made to Garrido’s parole officer. A terrible secret was about to be revealed.

‘Creepy Phil’
Garrido — known to kids as “Creepy Phil” in his neighborhood — had a reputation for peculiarity. He rambled nonsensically. He was dismissed as “kind of nutty.” He said God spoke to him through a box.

Neighbors were worried enough about him to call police, but no one knew how bizarre his world truly was until last week when authorities revealed the stunning news: Hidden in the backyard of his cinderblock house on Walnut Avenue, behind a 6-foot (1.8-meter) fence, leafy trees and a tarp, was a compound of weathered tents, wood sheds and buildings.

What looked like a messy campground with mattresses, small chairs, bikes, books, piles of toys, a trampoline, showers, an outhouse, swing set — even a carved pumpkin — was really a prison, of sorts. Its inmate: Jaycee Lee Dugard, the carefree little girl abducted in 1991 who, authorities say, had been raped, held captive and shut off from society for nearly two decades.

As shocking as that was, there was one more stunning revelation: Jaycee was now a 29-year-old mother. She had given birth to two of her suspected abductor’s children, two girls raised in isolation. They had, according to authorities, never attended school, never visited a doctor — and Jaycee, it seems, had never reached out to anybody.

When Jaycee resurfaced last week — she called herself Allissa — 18 years had passed. One daughter was 15, the other 11, the same age Jaycee was that day when she was heading to catch a school bus and instead was pulled screaming into a Ford Granada and driven here, 170 miles from home.

Garrido, 58, and his 54-year-old wife, Nancy, were arrested last week in that kidnapping. On Friday, they appeared in court and pleaded not guilty to more than two dozen charges, including forcible abduction, rape and false imprisonment.

Even with their arrests, there are more questions than answers in this mystery, questions about who knew about Jaycee, why she remained there, how she and her children lived — and how a man with a rap sheet, a parole officer and years of suspicious behavior managed to keep a sordid secret even when authorities were in his house.

Source (article): MSNBC

Source (picture): OURMISSINGCHILDREN

In a poignant farewell for his family and thousands of mourners, the elaborate funeral procession for Senator Edward M. Kennedy is expected to begin from his family’s Cape Cod compound Thursday afternoon on the 72-mile journey north to Boston, where the motorcade will wind around city landmarks that were important in the life of Mr. Kennedy and his family.

Mr. Kennedy died at age 77 late Tuesday night in Hyannis Port, Mass., after battling brain cancer for 15 months.

A Senate stalwart and the longest-surviving brother of a tragic and triumphant political clan, Mr. Kennedy was hailed by many who knew him as a man as fiercely dedicated to public service as he was to his extended family.

Accordingly, the day’s events began in Hyannis Port with a private Catholic mass for the family that was closed to the press. A flag flew at half-staff in the center of the circular driveway surrounded by clusters of fading brown hydrangeas.

Around noon Eastern time, family members entered the white-shingled, green-shuttered house, The Associated Press reported, including Mr. Kennedy’s son Patrick Kennedy, a Rhode Island congressman; Caroline Kennedy, daughter of Mr. Kennedy’s brother John F. Kennedy, and Maria Shriver, daughter of his sister Eunice, who died in early August.

The Mass, according to a pool reporter, was held overlooking the ocean in a room traditionally reserved for family masses, but one the Kennedy clan called its “fun room.” Father Donald MacMillan from Boston College officiated.

About an hour later, the hearse, a motorcade of black limousines, hulking black Cadillac Escalade sport utility vehicles and motorcycle police from both local and state agencies were still lined up outside the house.

Members of the honor guard, with nine representatives of all branches of service from Washington D.C were stationed in front of the hearse.

Mourners gathered along the streets of Hyannis Port and in the Boston Common on a refreshingly cool, sunny late summer day to view the procession Thursday afternoon. The planned route was scheduled to end late in the afternoon at the John F. Kennedy Library in Dorchester, Mass., where Mr. Kennedy’s body will lie in repose for public viewing Thursday evening and Friday. The funeral mass will take place at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Basilica in Boston on Saturday morning, with President Obama delivering a eulogy. Mr. Kennedy is to be buried at Arlington National Cemetery outside Washington on Sunday, near his brothers John and Robert. The motorcade on Thursday is due to reach Boston around 2:30 p.m., heading first to St. Stephen’s Church in the city’s North End, where his mother, Rose, was baptized and her funeral mass was celebrated, according to a statement from Mr. Kennedy’s office.

From there, the motorcade will cross over the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway, the park Mr. Kennedy helped create, and pass by Faneuil Hall, the colonial-era landmark where Mayor Thomas Menino of Boston will ring the bell 47 times — once for each year Mr. Kennedy served in the Senate.

It will also pass by 122 Bowdoin Street, where Mr. Kennedy had his first office as an assistant district attorney. His brother John lived on Bowdoin Street while running for Congress in 1946.

From there, the procession will pass by the John F. Kennedy Federal Building, where Senator Kennedy maintained an office in recent years, and travel to Dorchester Street in South Boston and then to his brother’s presidential library and museum, which Senator Kennedy helped to build.

The visitation will be held at the library’s Stephen E. Smith Center. The Boston Globe reported that since Mr. Kennedy’s death, museum officials have been hastily constructing an exhibit in the center’s foyer, with photographs and artifacts relating to his speeches, including his 1968 eulogy for his brother Robert F. Kennedy and his Democratic National Convention addresses from 1980 to 2008.

By late morning, crowds had gathered at the library, and mourners had already left American flags, flowers and a stuffed teddy bear, according to The A.P.

James Jenner, a 28-year-old culinary student from Boston, placed his Red Sox cap at the impromptu memorial.

“It was Teddy’s home team,” Mr. Jenner said, according to The A.P.

“It just seemed appropriate to leave him the cap. It symbolizes everything that he loved about his home state and everything he was outside the Senate.”

Source (article): NYTIMES

Source (pictures): OURCOMMONCONCERN, LEWISCOUNTYDEMOCRATS, I.DAILYMAIL

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Los Angeles County coroner has ruled Michael Jackson’s death a homicide and a combination of drugs was the cause, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press, a finding that makes it more likely criminal charges will be filed against the doctor who was with the pop star when he died.

Forensic tests found the powerful anesthetic propofol acted together with at least two sedatives to cause Jackson’s death June 25 in his rented Los Angeles mansion, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the findings have not been publicly released.

Dr. Conrad Murray, a Las Vegas cardiologist who became Jackson’s personal physician weeks before his death, is the target of a manslaughter investigation by the Los Angeles Police Department. A designation of homicide means that Jackson died at the hands of another, but does not necessarily mean a crime was committed.

A search warrant affidavit unsealed Monday in Houston includes a detailed account of what Murray told investigators.

According to the document, Murray said he’d been treating Jackson for insomnia for about six weeks with 50 milligrams of propofol every night via an intravenous drip. But he said he feared Jackson was forming an addiction to the anesthetic, which is normally used in hospitals only, and was attempting to wean his patient by lowering the dose to 25 milligrams and adding the sedatives lorazepam and midazolam.

That combination succeeded in helping Jackson sleep two days prior to his death, so the next day, Murray told detectives he cut off the propofol — and Jackson fell asleep with just the two sedatives.

Then around 1:30 a.m. on June 25, starting with a 10-milligram tab of Valium, Murray said he tried a series of drugs instead of propofol to make Jackson sleep. The injections included two milligrams of lorazepam around 2 a.m., two milligrams of midazolam around 3 a.m., and repeats of each at 5 a.m. and 7:30 a.m. respectively.

But they didn’t work.

Murray told detectives that around 10:40 a.m. he gave in to Jackson’s “repeated demands/requests” for propofol, which the singer referred to as his “milk.” He administered 25 milligrams of the white-colored liquid, — a relatively small dose — and finally, Jackson fell asleep.

Murray remained with the sedated Jackson for about 10 minutes, then left for the bathroom. No more than two minutes later, he returned — and found Jackson had stopped breathing.

“There’s no surprise there” that death could result from such a combination, said Dr. David Zvara, anesthesia chairman at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

“All those drugs act in synergy with each other,” Zvara said. Adding propofol on top of all the other sedatives “tipped the balance.”

Besides the propofol and two sedatives, the coroner’s toxicology report found other substances in Jackson’s system but they were not believed to have been a factor in the singer’s death, the official told the AP.

When he died, Jackson was skinny but not overly emaciated, and his body had bed sores, the official said. The singer is believed to have developed bed sores in the months following his 2005 acquittal of child molestation charges, when he went into seclusion and spent long stretches in bed.

Murray has spoken to police and last week released a video saying he “told the truth and I have faith the truth will prevail.” Murray did not say anything about the drugs he gave to Jackson. Murray’s attorney, Edward Chernoff, had no immediate comment but has previously said Murray never administered anything that “should have” killed Jackson.

A call to the coroner’s office was not returned Monday.

Jackson’s family released a statement Monday, saying it has “full confidence” in the legal process and the efforts of investigators. It concludes: “The family looks forward to the day that justice can be served.”

The 25 milligrams of propofol Murray told police he gave Jackson the day he died “is not a whopping amount,” said Lee Cantrell, director of the San Diego division of the California Poison Control System. But by combining propofol with a cocktail of the other sedatives, known as benzodiazepines, it “may have been the trigger that pushed him over the edge,” Cantrell said.

Cantrell said it’s perplexing that someone would give various benzodiazepines if one was found not to be effective.

“This is horrible polypharmacy,” he said, referring to the interaction between the various drugs. “No one will treat an insomniac like this.”

The affidavit says Murray told investigators he didn’t order or buy any propofol and had found about eight bottles of it in Jackson’s home along with numerous other medications. But investigators served a search warrant Aug. 11 at a Las Vegas pharmacy and uncovered evidence showing Murray legally purchased from the store the propofol he gave Jackson the day he died.

Murray didn’t tell paramedics or doctors at UCLA hospital where Jackson was rushed June 25 about any drugs he administered other than lorazepam and flumazenil, according to the affidavit. The document says it was only during a subsequent interview with Los Angeles Police detectives that Murray gave a more full accounting of the events leading up to the 911 call.

The coroner’s office has not publicly released its autopsy findings, citing a request from police detectives to withhold results until their investigation is complete.

Homicide, or “death at the hands of another,” is one of several possible findings in a coroner’s death investigation. The designation does not necessarily mean a crime was committed though it is a useful starting point for prosecutors, said Dr. Michael Baden, the former chief medical examiner in New York City and a forensics expert involved in many high-profile murder cases.

“It is an easier prosecution when the medical examiner calls it a homicide,” said Baden, who is not involved in the Jackson investigation.

Source (article): MSN

Source (picture): ARTIEWAYNE

ROME - A lucky lotto player in Tuscany won Italy’s record $211.8 million state lottery Saturday, pocketing what has been billed as Europe’s biggest jackpot.

The winning ticket was purchased in the Sisal Biffi coffee shop in Bagnone, a town of about 2,000 in the province of Massa Carrara near the Tuscan coast, lottery officials said. In Italy, lotto winners rarely come forward.

The winning combination — 11, 27, 10, 79, 45, 88 — was selected after weeks of mounting lotto fever that prompted tourists from around Europe to visit and play the Suprenalotto game. No one had won the top prize since January 31.

The biggest winner has been the Italian state, as players have spent more than $2.8 billion since the start of the year, and half of all the money played goes into state coffers.

Source (article): MSNBC

Source (picture): NEWSIMG

MIAMI, Fla. — The body of a shark was left lying in the middle of a Miami street after two men apparently tried to sell it to several fish markets.

Live news footage Tuesday night showed the dead animal in the street with police officers and cruisers nearby. Two stations reported that a pair of men had tried to sell the animal to at least three fish markets for around $10.

Rob Orta, an employee at Casablanca Fish Market, tells Miami station WSVN that the men offered his business the shark, which was about five feet long.

“But we don’t buy sharks off the street,” Orta told the station.Police referred questions to wildlife officials, who didn’t return messages from The Associated Press late Tuesday.

Source (article): WFTV

Source (picture): GROOVYADVENTURES

PENSACOLA, Fla. - A wealthy Florida Panhandle couple slain in their home during a precisely executed break-in were being laid to rest Friday as investigators said they still have more people they want to talk to about the crime.

Byrd and Melanie Billings, known for adopting 13 special needs children, were shot to death and a safe was taken from their nine-bedroom home west of Pensacola last week. Six men and a teenager are charged with murder, and a woman, Pamela Long Wiggins, is charged with being an accessory after the fact.

An arrest report on Thursday said the woman’s husband told investigators that the safe was hidden in her backyard in suburban Gulf Breeze. Authorities would not say where they had found the safe or what was in it.

Long Wiggins was released on $10,000 bond and has not returned numerous phone messages.

At least one of the other suspects told investigators that her red minivan had been left near the Billings home to help the suspects get away. Some suspects said the safe and guns were transferred to the minivan, which was later spotted at an antique store she owns in Gulf Breeze.

The report said information indicated Long Wiggins was in the van with the guns and knew they’d been used during the break-in.

Family and friends gathered Thursday night for a visitation for the couple at Liberty Church west of Pensacola. A funeral was set for Friday at the church.

‘Simple’ motive
State Attorney Bill Eddins said the case was mostly wrapped up.

“In our opinion, this was a home invasion robbery where the people stole a safe,” he said. “It was as simple as that as to the motive.”

But Escambia County Sheriff David Morgan said at a news conference with Eddins that other motives may emerge and there are still people investigators want to talk to.

“We have some people of interest that we’re continuing to look at and I can tell you that those are now numerous people,” Morgan said.

Surveillance cameras at the Billings home captured footage of masked men — some dressed as ninjas — slipping into front and back doors, and one of the people investigators want to talk to may have been someone who failed to carry out an assignment to disable them.

The surveillance videos led investigators to a full-size red van — not the red minivan — used as an initial getaway car and eventually to the suspects, a loosely connected group of mostly day laborers who knew each other through a power washing business and an auto detailing operation.

Web of suspects
Morgan has said Wiggins is a friend and landlord to 35-year-old Leonard Gonzalez Jr., described as a “pivotal person” in organizing the break-in. Gonzalez, who is charged with murder, proclaimed his innocence in court Tuesday. He and the other six, including a 16-year-old male, are being held without bond on two counts of murder each.

Morgan also confirmed that the Drug Enforcement Administration is assisting with the investigation of the suspects, but he said the agency is not investigating the Billings family.

Nine of the couple’s adopted children were home during the break-in. Three saw the intruders but were not hurt. The couple also had four children from previous marriages. The adopted children are together and staying with family members.

Source (article): MSNBC

Source (picture): JODOMLEGALVIDEO

PAMPLONA, Spain - A charging bull gored a man to death Friday at Pamplona’s San Fermin festival, the first such fatality in nearly 15 years. Nine others were injured in a particularly dangerous and chaotic chapter of the running of the bulls.

The San Fermin festival Web site said the unidentified man was gored in the neck and lung during a run in which a rogue bull separated from the pack, which is among the worst things that can happen at Spain’s most popular fiesta.

Photographs showed the young man lying on a stretcher moments after the goring, his face and neck stained with blood and his eyes only half-open. An emergency medical worker is leaning over him, applying what appears to be gauze to his neck wound.

Three other people were also gored, and six suffered bumps, bruises and other lesser injuries, said Fernando Boneta, director of Virgen del Camino Hospital.

The last fatal goring at the running of the bulls claimed the life of 22-year-old American Matthew Tassio in 1995. In 2003, a 63-year-old Spanish man, Fermin Etxeberri, was trampled in the head by a bull and died after spending months in a coma.

Friday’s death raises to 15 the toll since record-keeping began in 1924.

This run, the fourth of eight held at San Fermin, was by far the most perilous of this year’s festival. The last three runs were comparatively placid affairs, with no serious injuries.

Spooked and aggressive
The bulls covering the half-mile course with six accompanying steers tend to mind their own business and keep running as long as they stay in a pack. A bull that gets separated is more likely to get spooked and aggressive and that is just what happened Friday.

A brown, 1,130-pound bull named Cappuccino fell early in the run and ended up on its own.

When it reached a stretch right outside the bullring that marks the end of the course, it started charging right and left, and even ran back the wrong way several times. Runners scurried for safety to wooden barriers along the route as the bull attacked. Herders waving sticks tried in vain to guide it into the ring, even yanking on the animal’s tail to turn it around.

This went on for a minute and a half, which is a long time at San Fermin.

At one point the bull picked one man up with its horns and flipped him into the air, then kept going after him as he lay curled up on the ground, covering his face. But that man got up and ran away, and was apparently not seriously hurt.

It was not clear if Cappuccino was the same bull that gored the young man who died. The festival Web site said the victim was killed at an earlier stretch in the route.

The bulls used in Friday’s run, from a ranch called Jandilla, have a reputation for being fierce at San Fermin. They hold the record for the most gorings in a single run — eight, one day in 2004.

Source (article): MSNBC

Source (picture): BOSTON, Z.ABOUT

LOS ANGELES - Michael Jackson’s casket will be taken to the singer’s star-studded memorial in downtown Los Angeles, adding to the spectacle that promises to be among the biggest celebrity sendoffs of all time.

“Mr. Jackson’s remains will be going to the Staples Center. We’re not giving any details,” Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton said Tuesday.

A motorcade has left the home of Jackson’s parents, apparently heading for a private service in advance of a star-studded memorial in downtown Los Angeles.

Numerous vehicles under California Highway Patrol escort headed out from the San Fernando Valley property shortly before 8 a.m. Tuesday. The motorcade included five Rolls-Royces, three Cadillac Escalades and 10 identical black Range Rovers.

The motorcade is believed headed for Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills for a private ceremony.

A freeway has been shut down amid Los Angeles’ morning rush hour for the motorcade.

Police have blocked off roads and warned those without tickets to stay away because they would not be able to get close to the downtown venue. Some fans were allowed past street barriers into the immediate area around the Staples Center early Tuesday.

More than 1.6 million people registered for free tickets to Jackson’s memorial. A total of 8,750 people were chosen to receive two tickets each.

A few dozen people, some wearing the gold wristband that will allow them into the service, gathered early Tuesday at the perimeter set up outside the Staples Center among those without passes.

“They’re touching us and saying, ‘Can you bring the love in for us?”’ said Mishelle Van, 37, who said she drove from Hesperia to spend the early morning hours meeting other Jackson fans.

Among the memorial participants will be Stevie Wonder, Mariah Carey, Usher, Lionel Richie, Kobe Bryant, Jennifer Hudson, John Mayer and Martin Luther King III.

About 50 theaters across the country, from Los Angeles to Topeka, Kan., to Washington, D.C., were planning to broadcast the memorial live, for free.

“There are certain people in our popular culture that just capture people’s imaginations. And in death, they become even larger,” President Barack Obama told CBS while in Moscow. “Now, I have to admit that it’s also fed by a 24/7 media that is insatiable.”

All those involved say the heart of Los Angeles will become a circus. In one way, that characterization became literal early Tuesday.

Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey starts a run at Staples Center on Wednesday, a booking long planned in advance. In the pre-dawn hours before Jackson’s memorial, the elephants walked from the train station to the arena, arriving some five hours before the memorial.

Jackson died at age 50 with hundreds of millions in debts. But a court filing estimates his estate is worth more than $500 million. His assets are destined for a trust, with his three children, his mother and charities as beneficiaries.

Early Tuesday, roads were closed and media massed at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Los Angeles. The night before, activity had been spotted there involving the Jackson family.

La Toya Jackson, wearing sunglasses and a wide-brimmed hat, was seen being driven away from the cemetery. KCAL-TV showed helicopter footage of a hearse backing up to the Hall of Liberty — a circular building at the cemetery that contains a 1,200-seat auditorium — to deliver a casket.

A few hours later, the casket was reloaded into the hearse and delivered to another nearby building, this time covered in a blue cloth.

Los Angeles was the epicenter of Jackson-mania, but the outpouring of emotion was worldwide. Belgium’s two national public broadcasters were to broadcast the memorial live later Tuesday and several hundred Jackson fans gathered at a Hong Kong mall late Tuesday.

Holding white candles, Hong Kong singer William Chan and Taiwanese pop star Judy Chou led the audience in observing a 30-second silence. Many of the fans clutched red roses and wore black; some donned Jackson’s trademark fedora hats.

Debbie Rowe, Jackson’s ex-wife and the mother of Jackson’s two oldest children, had planned to attend Tuesday’s memorial but backed out Monday. “The onslaught of media attention has made it clear her attendance would be an unnecessary distraction,” her attorney Marta Almli said in a statement.

ABC News on Tuesday aired portions of a 2003 interview with Rowe that was largely unaired in which she called Jackson’s children “the ultimate love children.”

“If it hadn’t been for how much I love him, I would have never had children,” she said. “People make remarks, ‘I can’t believe she left her children.’ Left them? I left my children? I did not leave my children. My children are with their father, where they’re supposed to be.”

Source (article): MSNBC

Source (picture): BLOG.MIRROR, NOVINITE

SUMTER COUNTY, Fla. — A nearly 9-foot albino Burmese python got out of its cage overnight and slithered into a 2-year-old girl’s bed where it bit and squeezed the small child to death. Lt. Steve Binegar, of the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office, said the toddler was strangled by the snake at a home on County Highway 466 in Oxford

Pythons can kill by wrapping themselves around a human. Paramedics said the girl was dead when they arrived at about 10:00am. Authorities remained outside the small, tan home, bordered by cow pastures Wednesday afternoon, finally entering the home to retrieve the snake around 4:45pm after obtaining a search warrant. The snake was still alive, despite obvious wounds from being stabbed by the owner. Investigators said the snake measured 8-foot-6, despite earlier reports suggesting it was 12 feet.

According to officials, 32-year-old Charles Jason Darnell, the snake’s owner and boyfriend of the victim’s mother, 23-year-old Jaren Ashley Hare, said he locked the pet snake up in a glass case Tuesday night, but when he awoke Wednesday the snake was missing from the case. He then searched the home and found the snake on 2-year-old Shaunia Hare and noticed bite marks on the child’s head.

When Darnell found the snake wrapped around the girl, he stabbed it until he could pry it off the child while others called 911. Another snake, reportedly a 6-foot boa constrictor, was also in the house.

“She got out of the cage last night and got into the baby’s crib and strangled her to death,” a crying Darnell can be heard on the 911 call released early Wednesday evening.

According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission, the Burmese python is a “reptile of concern” and requires a $100 permit, which they said Darnell did not have. Failing to have the permit is a second-degree misdemeanor with a maximum fine of $500 and/or 60 days in jail.

Additionally, either Darnell or Hare could face criminal charges for child neglect or endangerment.The snake was transported to a veterinarian to determine whether or not it can be saved. If it’s put down, it’ll become evidence. If it can survive, it will be brought to a permitted facility. George Van Horn, owner of Reptile World Serpentarium in St. Cloud, said the strangulation could have occurred because the snake felt threatened or because it thought the child was food. “They are always operating on instinct,” he said. “Even the largest person can become overpowered by a python.”Jorge Pino, a spokesman with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, said that pythons are not native to Florida and can easily grow to 10 or 12 feet long.

Some owners have freed pythons into the wild and a population of them has taken hold in the Everglades. One killed an alligator and then exploded when it tried to eat it. Scientists also speculate a bevy of Burmese pythons escaped in 1992 from pet shops battered by Hurricane Andrew and have been reproducing since. “It’s becoming more and more of a problem, perhaps no fault of the animal, more a fault of the human,” Pino said. “People purchase these animals when they’re small. When they grow, they either can’t control them or release them.” The Humane Society of the United States said including Wednesday’s death, at least 12 people have been killed in the U.S. by pet pythons since 1980, including five children.

Source (article): WFTV

Source (picture): WESH, XMWALLPAPER

Billy Mays, the burly, bearded television pitchman whose boisterous hawking of products such as Orange Glo and OxiClean made him a pop-culture icon, has died. He was 50.

Tampa police said Mays’ wife found him unresponsive Sunday morning. A fire rescue crew pronounced him dead at 7:45 a.m. It was not immediately clear how he died. He said he was hit on the head when an airplane he was on made a rough landing Saturday, and his wife, Deborah Mays, told investigators he didn’t feel well before he went to bed about 10 p.m. that night.

There were no signs of a break-in at the home, and investigators do not suspect foul play, said Lt. Brian Dugan of the Tampa Police Department, who wouldn’t answer questions about how Mays’ body was found because of the ongoing investigation. The coroner’s office expects to have an autopsy done by Monday afternoon.

“Although Billy lived a public life, we don’t anticipate making any public statements over the next couple of days,” Deborah Mays said in a statement Sunday. “Our family asks that you respect our privacy during these difficult times.”

U.S. Airways confirmed that Mays was among the passengers on a flight that made a rough landing on Saturday afternoon at Tampa International Airport, leaving debris on the runway after apparently blowing its front tires.

Tampa Bay’s Fox television affiliate interviewed Mays afterward.

“All of a sudden as we hit you know it was just the hardest hit, all the things from the ceiling started dropping,” MyFox Tampa Bay quoted him as saying. “It hit me on the head, but I got a hard head.”

Tampa police spokeswoman Laura McElroy said linking Mays’ death to the landing would “purely be speculation.” She said Mays’ family members didn’t report any health issues with the pitchman, but said he was due to have hip replacement surgery in the coming weeks.

Laura Brown, spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration, said she did not know if Mays was wearing his seat belt on the flight because the FAA is not investigating his death.

U.S. Airways spokesman Jim Olson said there were no reports of serious injury due to the landing.

“If local authorities have any questions for us about yesterday’s flight, we’ll cooperate fully with them,” he said.

Born William Mays in McKees Rocks, Pa., on July 20, 1958, Mays developed his style demonstrating knives, mops and other “As Seen on TV” gadgets on Atlantic City’s boardwalk. For years he worked as a hired gun on the state fair and home show circuits, attracting crowds with his booming voice and genial manner.

AJ Khubani, founder and CEO of “As Seen on TV,” said he first met Mays in the early 1990s when Mays was still pitching one of his early products, the Shammy absorbent cloth, at a trade fair. He said he most recently worked with Mays on the reality TV show “Pitchmen” on the Discovery Channel, which follows Mays and Anthony Sullivan in their marketing jobs.

“His innovative role and impact on the growth and wide acceptance of direct response television cannot be overestimated or easily replaced; he was truly one of a kind,” Khubani said of Mays in a statement.

After meeting Orange Glo International founder Max Appel at a home show in Pittsburgh in the mid-1990s, Mays was recruited to demonstrate the environmentally friendly line of cleaning products on the St. Petersburg-based Home Shopping Network.

Commercials and informercials followed, anchored by the high-energy Mays showing how it’s done while tossing out kitschy phrases like, “Long live your laundry!”

Sarah Ellerstein worked closely with Mays when she was a buyer for the Home Shopping Network in the 1990s and he was pitching Orange Glo products.

“Billy was such a sweet guy, very lovable, very nice, always smiling, just a great, great guy,” she said, adding that Mays met his future wife at the network. “Everybody thinks because he’s loud and boisterous on the air that that’s the way he is, but I always found him to be a quiet, down-to-earth person.”

His ubiquitousness and thumbs-up, in-your-face pitches won Mays plenty of fans for his commercials on a wide variety of products. People lined up at his personal appearances for autographed color glossies, and strangers stopped him in airports to chat about the products.

“I enjoy what I do,” Mays told The Associated Press in a 2002 interview. “I think it shows.”

Mays liked to tell the story of giving bottles of OxiClean to the 300 guests at his wedding, and doing his ad spiel (”powered by the air we breathe!”) on the dance floor at the reception. Visitors to his house typically got bottles of cleaner and housekeeping tips.

As part of “Pitchmen,” Mays and Sullivan showed viewers new gadgets such as the Impact Gel shoe insert; the Tool Band-it, a magnetized armband that holds tools; and the Soft Buns portable seat cushion.

“One of the things that we hope to do with ‘Pitchmen’ is to give people an appreciation of what we do,” Mays told The Tampa Tribune in an April interview. “I don’t take on a product unless I believe in it. I use everything that I sell.”

His former wife, Dolores “Dee Dee” Mays, of McKees Rocks, Pa., recalled that the first product he sold was the Wash-matik, a device for pumping water from a bucket to wash cars.

“I knew him since he was 15, and I always knew he had it in him,” she said of Mays’ success. “He’ll live on forever because he always had the biggest heart in the world. He loved his friends and family and would do anything for them. He was a generous soul and a great father.”

Besides his wife, Mays is survived by a 3-year-old daughter and a stepson in his 20s, police said.

Associated Press Writer Sarah Larimer in Miami and Ron Todt in Philadelphia contributed to this report.

Source (article): ABCNEWS

Source (picture): SPTIMES, DEADLYVIPER

LOS ANGELES - Michael Jackson’s mother, Katherine, is taking care of the singer’s three children and the family will go to court Monday in part to protect her rights to custody, the family’s spokesman said.

Londell McMillan, the Jacksons’ attorney, said the family hasn’t heard from Deborah Rowe, the mother of Jackson’s two oldest children, about custody.

“I don’t think there will be anybody who thinks that there is someone better” than Katherine Jackson to have custody, McMillan said on the TODAY show. “She is a very loving host of other grandchildren.”

Jackson left behind three children: Michael Joseph Jackson Jr., known as Prince Michael, 12; Paris Michael Katherine Jackson, 11; and Prince Michael II, 7. The youngest son was born to a surrogate mother.

Given the secrecy surrounding Michael Jackson’s children throughout his life, it’s no surprise that there are lingering questions about who will care for them after his death. What is almost certain is this: Their fate will be decided in a courtroom.

Experts say the person who has the strongest legal claim to Jackson’s two oldest children is Rowe. As for the youngest child, Jackson’s wishes will be more influential. It remains unclear who Jackson designated as potential guardians for his children. Those details — likely contained in the 50-year-old singer’s will — have not been released.

Rowe’s attorney, Marta Almli, wrote in a statement Saturday that “Ms. Rowe’s only thoughts at this time have been regarding the devastating loss Michael’s family has suffered. Ms. Rowe requests that Michael’s family, and particularly the children, be spared such harmful, sensationalist speculation and that they be able to say goodbye to their loved one in peace.”

Jackson’s manager, Frank DiLeo, said on ABC’s “Good Morning America” that he was the one who told the children their father had died.

“They knew when I came into the room,” he said. “I’m sure they just saw it on my face. They said, ‘say it’s not true,’ and I just said, ‘I’m sorry.”’

Jackson never told his family who he had in place to handle his business affairs, a person close to the family told The Associated Press on Friday. The person, who requested anonymity because of the delicate nature of the situation, said they were told by the singer’s phalanx of advisers that he likely had a will, but it may be many years old.

Prince Michael II’s mother has never been identified, and while she may surface, it is likely that she signed away her rights, said Stacy Phillips, a Los Angeles divorce attorney who has represented numerous high-profile clients.

Jackson was by several accounts an attentive and loving father.

“He was a great father,” said Raymone Bain, Jackson’s former publicist and general manager. “Those kids knew three and four languages. Even the little one. They were well mannered and sweet. I can’t imagine these children without him.”

He was extremely protective of his children, who weren’t often seen in public, and were photographed wearing veils, masks or other items covering their faces when they were.

Rowe, a former nurse for Jackson’s dermatologist, married Jackson in 1996 but filed for divorce in 1999. She later gave up her custody rights to the children, but petitioned to have those rights restored in 2003 after Jackson was arrested on child molestation charges, and an appeals court sided with her.

Jackson and Rowe apparently agreed in 2006 regarding her rights, but the terms have never been disclosed. The couple’s divorce case that was heard in Los Angeles Superior Court remains closed.

Phillips said if her parental rights remain intact, she’s presumed to be first in line to receive custody of her two children. “That could still be contested,” she added.

Rowe would have to undergo an evaluation by the court to determine if she’s the best person to care for Jackson’s children. So, too, would anyone else who applies to become the children’s guardian — some of whom may have Jackson’s blessing.

“If he did indicate a preference, that will be given great weight, but that will not be determinative,” said Los Angeles attorney Gloria Allred. “Children are not property, they cannot be willed to another person.”

Allred agreed that Rowe has better legal standing than others who apply for custody of Jackson’s eldest children. “She’s definitely going to have an advantage.”

But judges in California often take into account who is left in the children’s lives with a strong bond, said Charlotte Goldberg, a family law professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles.

“It’s really a balance between continuity and stability and a biological relationship,” Goldberg said.

A judge deciding the matter may even seek input in chambers from Jackson’s children about who they feel comfortable with, she said.

But a court will also take into account with whom the children have a relationship bond, and that may not work in Rowe’s favor. She wrote in a 2001 petition to sever her parental rights that she thought Jackson was doing a good parenting job.

“Michael has been a wonderful father to the children, and I do not wish to share any parenting responsibilities with Michael because he is doing so well without me,” Rowe wrote. She also indicated in court filings during the 2006 custody struggle that she had not seen the children since 2005, shortly after his trial ended in acquittal on all charges and Jackson moved the children overseas.

It is unclear how often Rowe has seen the children since Jackson returned to the Los Angeles area in recent months to prepare for a 50-show concert engagement in London. It is also unclear what role the children’s godfather, British child actor Mark Lester, may play in the proceedings.

Whoever wins custody of Jackson’s children won’t automatically gain control of their inheritance, Phillips said.

“For many people, the person or persons who are taking care of their kids are not necessarily taking care of their money,” Phillips said. “There’s a benefit to that — a sort of a check-and-balance.”

Rowe, or whoever is designated the children’s guardian, will receive payments based on Jackson’s estate, Phillips said.

More clarity about the fate of Jackson’s children will likely come once court proceedings start.

Phillips said the custody issue will now be handled by a probate court. If it is filed at Los Angeles’ main downtown courthouse, Phillips said it will be handled by judges with significant family law experience.

Phillips said the looming custody fight could be unlike any other.

“In all the cases I’ve read all over the country,” she said, “I’ve never seen a fact pattern like this.”

Source (article): MSNBC

Source (picture): EXAMINER, BABBLE

We’ve just learned Michael Jackson has died. He was 50.

Michael suffered a cardiac arrest earlier this afternoon at his Holmby Hills home and paramedics were unable to revive him. We’re told when paramedics arrived Jackson had no pulse and they never got a pulse back.

A source tells us Jackson was dead when paramedics arrived. A cardiologist at UCLA tells TMZ Jackson died of cardiac arrest.

Once at the hospital, the staff tried to resuscitate him but he was completely unresponsive.

A source inside the hospital told us there was “absolute chaos” after Jackson arrrived. People who were with the singer were screaming, “You’ve got to save him! You’ve got to save him!”

We’re told one of the staff members at Jackson’s home called 911.

La Toya ran in the hospital sobbing after Jackson was pronounced dead.

Michael is survived by three children: Michael Joseph Jackson, Jr., Paris Michael Katherine Jackson and Prince “Blanket” Michael Jackson II

SOURCE: TMZ

(CNN) — Farrah Fawcett, the blonde-maned actress whose best-selling poster and “Charlie’s Angels” stardom made her one of the most famous faces in the world, died Thursday. She was 62.

Fawcett’s death was confirmed by Paul Bloch, one of her representatives at Rogers and Cowan, an entertainment public relations firm.

Fawcett, who checked into a hospital in early April, had been battling anal cancer on and off for three years.

Bloch told CNN that Ryan O’Neal, Fawcett’s romantic partner since the mid-1980s, and her friend Alana Stewart were with Fawcett at Saint John’s Hospital in Santa Monica, California, when she died.

“Although this is an extremely difficult time for her family and friends, we take comfort in the beautiful times that we shared with Farrah over the years and the knowledge that her life brought joy to so many people around the world,” O’Neal said in a written statement.

He had recently told People magazine that the sex symbol was declining.

“She stays in bed now. The doctors see that she is comfortable. Farrah is on IVs, but some of that is for nourishment. The treatment has pretty much ended,” he said in a story posted May 7.

Fawcett’s cancer journey has been documented in a television special partly shot by the actress. Fawcett began shooting “Farrah’s Story,” by taking a camera to a doctor’s appointment. Eventually, the film expanded to include trips overseas in hopes of treating the cancer.

The documentary aired on NBC on May 15.

Fawcett’s beauty — her gleaming smile was printed on millions of posters — initially made her famous. But she later established herself as a serious actress. She starred as a battered wife in the 1984 TV movie “The Burning Bed.” She appeared on stage as a woman who extracts vengeance from a would-be rapist in William Mastrosimone’s play “Extremities.”

She reprised the “Extremities” role on film in 1986. Other Fawcett films include “Logan’s Run” (1976), “Saturn 3″ (1980), “The Cannonball Run” (1981), “The Apostle” (1997) and the Robert Altman-directed “Dr. T and the Women” (2000).

To many, Fawcett will always be best known for her red-swimsuited image on the pinup poster, which sold a reputed 12 million copies after its release in 1976.

Fawcett was a model best known for bit parts, commercials and as “Six Million Dollar Man” actor Lee Majors’ wife when she shot the poster in early 1976 at the behest of Pro Arts, a Cleveland, Ohio, company.

Photographer Bruce McBroom placed Fawcett — then known as Farrah Fawcett-Majors — in the Indian blanket-draped front seat of his 1937 Chevy and snapped away. Fawcett did her own hair — a long, tousled cascade of blonde locks — picked out the red bathing suit and chose the frame later used for the poster, according to a story in the Toronto Star.

The poster, with Fawcett’s million-dollar smile front and center, became a sensation.

Soon after the photo shoot, Fawcett was asked to join the cast of a new Aaron Spelling TV show, “Charlie’s Angels,” about a trio of female detectives who work for a mysterious man named Charlie, whose only appearance in the show was through his voice (supplied by John Forsythe).

Fawcett, who played Jill Munroe, was the last to be cast. Co-star Kate Jackson was the known name at the time, but thanks to her poster, Fawcett became the breakout star.

The highly rated TV series kicked off what came to be known as “jiggle TV,” series full of pretty actresses who appeared in bikinis at the drop of a hat.

“Denunciations of ‘massage parlor television’ and ‘voyeurism’ only brought more viewers to the screen, to see what the controversy was about,” wrote Tim Brooks and Earle Marsh about “Charlie’s Angels” in their indispensable reference, “The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows.”

ABC’s “Three’s Company” and CBS’s “The American Girls” were among the shows that immediately followed, and shows such as “Baywatch” owe “Charlie’s Angels” a debt.

But Fawcett didn’t stay with “Angels” long. At the end of the first season, unhappy with her contract, she left the show and was replaced by Cheryl Ladd.

Fawcett’s career stagnated for a time after “Charlie’s Angels.” She appeared in a handful of forgettable films and divorced Majors.

But her career received a major boost with her starring role in “The Burning Bed,” a 1984 TV movie co-starring Paul Le Mat. Fawcett played an abused wife who sets fire to her husband’s bed as he lies sleeping. Fawcett received an Emmy nomination for her performance.

Fawcett also became romantically involved with O’Neal around this time. The pair had a son, Redmond, in 1985.

In recent years, Fawcett has appeared sporadically in the public eye. She posed nude for Playboy in 1995. In 1997, she appeared on “The Late Show with David Letterman,” an interview that became notorious for Fawcett’s apparent incoherence. She later said she was just having fun with Letterman.

She reunited with her “Charlie’s Angels” co-stars, Jackson and Jaclyn Smith, for an awards show in 2006.

Fawcett was born in Corpus Christi, Texas, in 1947. She married Majors in 1973; they divorced nine years later.

She was diagnosed with cancer in 2006.

Source (article): CNN

Source (picture): GRANEYANDTHEPIG, CELEBRITYSMACKBLOG

KISSIMMEE, Fla. — Tempers flared as detectives seized some bizarre weapons, which are illegal to sell, at a Kissimmee flea market Tuesday and it was all because WFTV reporter Eric Rasmussen first exposed the illegal sales last month.

It was information from WFTV’s last report that convinced investigators to get two search warrants to go looking for more illegal weapons and they didn’t leave empty-handed.”I’m Sgt. Fisher with the Osceola County Sheriff’s Department. We’re here to serve a search warrant on your booth,” Mohammed Ibrahim was told as deputies arrived Tuesday.

In two teams, members of the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office simultaneously moved in on two booths at the Main Gate Flea Market in Kissimmee (see map). They’re the same two locations where an Eyewitness News hidden camera caught vendors illegally-selling brass knuckles last month.

Tuesday, detectives found a more-troubling version of the old weapons, nine sets in all of metallic knuckles with six to eight-inch knives attached. The same man, who promised to take the brass knuckles off of his shelves when Eyewitness News confronted him in May, was behind the booth.The other owner, Ibrahim, tried to claim he was set up.”Somebody send you to me?” Ibrahim asked Rasmussen.”You’re not the only booth we visited, sir,” Rasmussen told him.”No, no, somebody sent you to me. No way! Somebody send you to me. I know!” he exclaimed.The men were not arrested, because the charges are misdemeanors, but they could still face up to 60 days in jail.The sheriff’s office says it wanted to send a message to vendors at a place that seems to have become a hot spot for illegal weapons.”We have been out here before and, hopefully, after this, we won’t have to come back here again,” said Twis Lizasuain, Osceola County Sheriff’s Office.Eyewitness News tried to reach managers at the flea market to see if they knew anything about what the two vendors were selling, but haven’t heard back. The weapons can be big business; In 2006, customs seized 14,000 brass knuckles flown into Orlando International Airport.

Source (article): WFTV

Source (picture): MYHOLES.CO.UK

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama on Saturday challenged Iran’s government to halt a “violent and unjust” crackdown on dissenters, using his bluntest language yet to condemn Tehran’s post-election response.

Obama has sought a measured reaction to avoid being drawn in as a meddler in Iranian affairs. Yet his comments have grown more pointed as the clashes intensified, and his latest remarks took direct aim at Iranian leaders.

“We call on the Iranian government to stop all violent and unjust actions against its own people,” Obama said in a written statement. “The universal rights to assembly and free speech must be respected, and the United States stands with all who seek to exercise those rights.”

Obama has searched for the right tone in light of political pressures on all sides. On Capitol Hill, Congress pressed him to condemn the Iranian government’s response. In Iran, the leadership was poised to blame the U.S. for interference and draw Obama in more directly.

Obama met with advisers at the White House as developments in Iran grew more ominous, with police seen beating protesters.

“Suppressing ideas never succeeds in making them go away,” the president said, recalling a theme from the speech he gave in Cairo, Egypt, this month.

“The Iranian people will ultimately judge the actions of their own government,” Obama said. “If the Iranian government seeks the respect of the international community, it must respect the dignity of its own people and govern through consent, not coercion.”

Protests at White House
Obama’s comments came as protesters outside the White House waved Iranian flags and denounced Iranian government efforts to suppress the protesters.

Protesters in Iran have demanded that government cancel and rerun the June 12 elections that ended with a declaration of overwhelming victory for hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Reformist presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi says he won and claimed widespread fraud.

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said there was no ballot rigging. He warned of a crackdown if protesters continued their massive street rallies.

Then on Saturday, police in Iran beat protesters and fired tear gas and water cannons at thousands who rallied in open defiance of Iran’s clerical government. Witnesses described fierce clashes after some 3,000 protesters chanted “Death to the dictator!” and “Death to dictatorship!” in downtown Tehran.

Obama’s criticism came one day after both houses of Congress voted overwhelmingly to condemn the actions by the Iranian government against demonstrators and moves to interfere with Internet and cell phone communications. That was seen in part as a veiled criticism of Obama’s response, too.

Responding to critics
The president already was on record as saying the United States stood behind those who were seeking justice in a peaceful way. He responded to critics that he hadn’t been forceful enough in support of protesters, telling CBS News: “The last thing that I want to do is to have the United States be a foil for those forces inside Iran who would love nothing better than to make this an argument about the United States. That’s what they do.”

That was Friday, before the conflict in Iran appeared to deepen.

Obama has refrained from passing final judgment on the underlying question of the legitimacy of the election itself, although he has expressed “deep concerns” about it.

The president returned Saturday to his theme that the world is watching the way the Iranian government responds.

Obama cited Martin Luther King’s statement that “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”

Source (article): MSNBC

Source (picture): UPI

GREEN BAY, Wis. - Ten-year-old Kennedy Corpus has a rock-solid excuse for missing the last day of school: a personal note to her teacher from President Barack Obama.

Her father, John Corpus of Green Bay, stood to ask Obama about health care during the president’s town hall-style meeting at Southwest High School on Thursday. He told Obama that his daughter was missing school to attend the event and that he hoped she didn’t get in trouble.

“Do you need me to write a note?” Obama asked. The crowd laughed, but the president was serious.

On a piece of paper, he wrote: “To Kennedy’s teacher: Please excuse Kennedy’s absence. She’s with me. Barack Obama.” He stepped off the stage to hand-deliver the note — to Kennedy’s surprise.

“I thought he was joking until he started walking down,” Kennedy said after the event, showing off the note in front of a bank of television cameras. “It was like the best thing ever.”The fourth-grader at Aldo Leopold elementary in Green Bay already knew what she was going to do with the note: frame it along with her ticket to the event. She said she’d make a copy for her teacher.

Kennedy said she had never seen Obama before. “He’s really nice,” she said.

Source (article): MSNBC

Source (picture): MSNBC

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - President Barack Obama arrived Wednesday in Saudi Arabia, where he will begin his latest bid to open a dialogue with the Muslim world by paying a call to Saudi King Abdullah, guardian of Islam’s sacred sites in Mecca and Medina.

Saudi Arabia’s monarch greeted Obama at Riyadh’s main airport with a ceremony when the new U.S. president arrived after an overnight flight from Washington. A band played each country’s national anthem, the Saudi national guard was on hand and there was a 21-gun salute.

Obama and Abdullah then sat together in gilded chairs, sipped cardamom-flavored Arabic coffee from small cups and chatted briefly in public before retreating to hold private talks on a range of issues at the king’s desert horse farm. There, guards on horseback flanked the long driveway, carrying swords and flags of the two countries as the king and his guest arrived.

Obama and Abdullah were set to discuss a host of thorny problems, from Arab-Israeli peace efforts to Iran’s nuclear program. The surge in oil prices also was on the agenda. The president was to stay overnight at the king’s horse farm in the desert outside Riyadh before heading to Egypt.

Saudi Arabia is a stopover en route to Cairo, where Obama is to set deliver a speech that he’s been promising since last year’s election campaign — aiming to set a new tone in America’s often-strained dealings with the world’s 1.5 billion Muslims.

Many of those Muslims still smolder over Iraq, Guantanamo and unflinching U.S. support of Israel, but they are hoping the son of a Kenyan Muslim who lived part of his childhood in Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim country, can help chart a new course.

“I … don’t want to load up too many expectations on this speech. After all, one speech is not going to transform some very real policy differences and some very difficult issues surrounding the Middle East and the relationship between Islam and the West,” Obama told NBC’s Brian Williams on the eve of his trip.

“But I am confident that we’re in a moment where in Islamic countries I think that there is a recognition that the path of extremism is not going to deliver a better life for the people,” the president told Williams.

‘Sustained effort’
Aides cautioned that Obama was not out to break new policy ground in his Cairo speech, which follows visits to Turkey and Iraq in April and a series of outreach efforts including a Persian New Year video and a student town hall in Istanbul. And they said the president is not expecting quick results, even though the speech will be distributed as widely as possible.

Officials said Obama also wouldn’t flinch from difficult topics, whether it’s the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts, the goal of a Palestinian state or democracy and human rights. Obama has been criticized for setting the address in Egypt, where President Hosni Mubarak has jailed dissidents and clung to power for nearly three decades.

Obama likely will be looking for help from Saudi Arabia on what to do with some 100 Yemeni detainees locked up in the Guantanamo Bay prison. Discussions over where to send the Yemeni detainees have complicated Obama’s plan to close the prison. The U.S. has been hesitant to send them home because of Yemen’s history of either releasing extremists or allowing them to escape from prison.

Instead, the Obama administration has been negotiating with Saudi Arabia and Yemen for months to send them to Saudi terrorist rehabilitation centers.

The president was to stay overnight at the king’s horse farm in the desert outside Riyadh. Abdullah, who hosted then-President George W. Bush at the ranch in January of last year, keeps some 260 Arabian horses on its sprawling grounds in air-conditioned comfort.

Saudis are key
In any effort to court Muslims, the Saudis will be key — not just for their oil wealth, but by virtue of the authority they wield at the center of Arab history and culture.

Obama’s meeting with the 84-year-old Abdullah will be his second in three months. The two saw each other at the G-20 summit in London, a meeting both sides called friendly and productive. Perhaps a bit too friendly: Critics accused Obama of bowing to the Saudi monarch during a photo-op. The White House maintained he was merely bending to shake hands with a shorter man.

“This in many ways will be one of the pivotal relationships President Obama can develop,” said Robin Wright, a scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center. “Saudi Arabia is important not just in terms of the Gulf and oil prices. It sets the tenor. It’s one of the most conservative regimes. It’s also important because King Abdullah is, among the various royals, more open-minded than others. These are two men who might actually deal well with each other.”

Source (article): MSNBC

Source (pictures): MSNBC, MONROEANDERSON, TEHRANTIMES

A massive search is underway for an Air France jet carrying 228 people from Rio de Janeiro to Paris believed to have gone down off the northeast coast of Brazil a few hours after takeoff.

The jet lost contact with air traffic controllers after flying into a strong thunderstorm over the Atlantic Ocean and signaling it had an electric problem. Chief Air France spokesman Francois Brousse said “it is possible” the plane was hit by lightning.

Air France Flight 447, an Airbus A330, was carrying 216 passengers and 12 crew members, company spokeswoman Brigitte Barrand said.

The flight left Rio on Sunday at 7 p.m. local time. About four hours later, the plane sent an automatic signal indicating electrical problems while going through strong turbulence, Air France said.

The plane disappeared about 190 miles northeast of the coastal Brazilian city of Natal, near the archipelago of Fernando de Noronha, a Brazilian air force spokesman said. The air force began a search Monday morning near Fernando de Noronha, he added, speaking on condition of anonymity in keeping with air force policy.

Three Brazilian military planes began searching the area at dawn, flying over the area where the plane vanished and are trying to follow the same route, according to the Brazilian air force. Around 300 Brazilian military personel are involved in the searches. They are searching from the Fernando de Noronha archipelago on, in the direction of Paris. According to military sources, the searches are considered to be of extreme difficulty due to the size of the area.

The are also reports that several French military planes, as well as some Cabo Verde planes, are helping in the searches. A French military plane, the Atlantic 2, the only one specialized in this kind of operation, has left Dakar to help in the searches. It has 13 crew members and a flight autonomy of 15 hours.

The plane “crossed through a thunderous zone with strong turbulence” at 0200 GMT Monday (10 p.m. EDT Sunday). An automatic message was received at 0214 GMT (10:14 p.m. EDT Sunday) “signaling electrical circuit malfunction.”

Contact with the plane was lost at 0220 GMT Monday (10:20 p.m. EDT Sunday), an official said.

Aviation experts said the risk the plane was brought down by lightning was slim.

“Lightning issues have been considered since the beginning of aviation. They were far more prevalent when aircraft operated at low altitudes. They are less common now since it’s easier to avoid thunderstorms,” said Bill Voss, president and CEO of Flight Safety Foundation, Alexandria, Va.

He said planes have specific measures built in to help dissipate electricity along the aircraft’s skin.

“I cannot recall in recent history any examples of aircraft being brought down by lightning,” he told The Associated Press.

Barrand said the airline installed an information center at Paris’ Charles de Gaulle airport for the families of those aboard.

“Air France regrets to announce that it is without news from Air France flight 447 flying from Rio to Paris,” she said. “Air France shares the emotion and worry of the families concerned.”

The flight was scheduled to arrive in Paris at 0915 GMT (5:15 a.m. EDT), according to the airport.

Air France said the 216 passengers included one infant, seven children, 82 women and 126 men. It says the plane entered service in 2005 and last underwent maintenance April 16.

Portuguese television reported that there were 60 French nationals on board, as well as 5 Italians, 3 Moroccan and 1 Portuguese. But French TV is saying that only 40 French nationals were on board and that most passengers were Brazilian. They are also reporting that 20 German passengers were on board.

A police official on Fernando de Noronha said the weather was clear last night into this morning.

“It’s going to take a long time to carry out this search,” Douglas Ferreira Machado, head of investigation and accident prevention for Brazil’s Civil Aeronautics Agency, or ANAC, told Globo news. “It could be a long, sad story. The black box will be at the bottom of the sea.”

Air France-KLM CEO Pierre-Henri Gourgeon, at a news conference in Paris, said the pilot had 11,000 hours of flying experience, including 1,700 hours flying this aircraft. No name was released.

Aviation experts said it was clear the plane was not in the air any longer, due to the amount of fuel it would have been carrying.

“The conclusion to be drawn is that something catastrophic happened on board that has caused this airplane to ditch in a controlled or an uncontrolled fashion,” Jane’s Aviation analyst Chris Yates told The Associated Press.

“I would suggest that potentially it went down very quickly and so quickly that the pilot on board didn’t have a chance to make that emergency call,” Yates said, adding that the possibilities ranged from mechanical failure to terrorism.

Airbus declined to comment until more details emerge.

Barrand said the airline set up an information center at Paris’ Charles de Gaulle airport for the families of those on board. That center said 60 French citizens were on the plane. Italy said at least three passengers were Italian.

“Air France shares the emotion and worry of the families concerned,” she said.

A source at the Paris airport reportedly told AFP they have “lost hope” for the missing jet.

France’s minister in charge of transport, Jean-Louis Borloo, said there was a “real pessimism at this hour” about the fate of the aircraft.

“We can fear the worst,” he said on Europe-1 radio.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy expressed his “extreme worry” and sent ministers to Paris’ Charles de Gaulle airport to “do all they could to help find the aircraft. In a statement, the Elysée said that the President had been informed of the loss of contact this morning and had expressed “the greatest anxiety.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source (article): FOXNEWS

Source (picture): FOXNEWS

For toddler Auston Banks, the difference between life and death amounted to the lack of a pencil sharpener.

The 18-month-old tot was frolicking with his family at a Meridian, Idaho, playground when one of the more bizarre accidents imaginable happened. He picked up a stray pencil from the ground, and then collided with a girl on a swing. The force of the collision jammed the pencil into the back of Auston’s throat and sent his family on a frantic, life-and-death run to the emergency room.

Miraculously, Auston survived his predicament, and his thankful parents Ty and Amber Banks happily showed off their recovering son live on TODAY Wednesday.

“We feel tons of relief,” Amber Banks told Meredith Vieira as she held energetic Auston in her arms. “It’s the best thing I could ask for with the worst thing that could happen to me.”

A sudden cry
The drama unfolded May 9 as Ty and Amber took Austen and his 3-year-old brother Brandon to a playground near their home. “We go out every morning before lunchtime and we play to let the kids run their energy out before nap time,” Amber related.

“I looked over at him, he was playing with his older brother,” she told Vieira. “I turned back to talk to somebody and it wasn’t 20 seconds later I heard this high-pitched sound — not even like a scream, because his tongue was pinned down.

“He was lying on his back in front of the swing. I said, ‘You’re all right,’ and brushed his back off and saw the pencil sticking out, and thought he was chewing on a broken piece of pencil.

“So I went to pull it out — and it had no give.”

St. Luke’s Children Hospital is only a 5-minute drive from the playground, but it still seemed like an eternity for the parents. Ty Banks caught every red light along the way. “It just took forever,” the day told Vieira. “I was freaking out, I was scared.”

Amber said she could literally feel the life draining from her son’s body as the 6-inch green pencil protruded from his mouth.

“We came to the light directly at the hospital and it was red,” she said. “All of the sudden he just went limp in my arms. I had his hands pinned down so he couldn’t pull the pencil, and I put my hands on his chest. I could barely, barely feel him breathing.

“I said, ‘Ty, you’ve got to run this light, we’re losing our baby.”

A near miss
Upon arriving at the hospital, doctors at St. Luke’s discovered a near-miss of amazing proportions. X rays showed the pencil tip was dull, and had missed his spine while pushing his carotid artery to the side.

“The doctor told me that if it would have been a sharpened pencil, it probably wouldn’t have moved the vein over; it would have went right through it,” Amber explained. If it had, Auston likely would have bled to death before he ever reached the hospital.

Doctors successfully removed the pencil from Auston’s mouth in surgery captured by the local NBC affiliate’s cameras. Three days later, the toddler was out of the hospital and back to running around with his family.

Amber Banks says she found the girl who had dropped the pencil on the playground, but instead of scolding her, the grateful mom thanked for wearing the pencil down to the nub before discarding it. That act likely saved her son’s life — but Amber admitted her nerves are still on edge over the one-in-a-million accident.

“It is really emotional — we came really close to losing our baby,” Amber said, choking back tears. “It’s just really hard to think how close I was to never seeing him again.”

Auston sucked on his pacifier during his star turn on TODAY interview — and sent Vieira scurrying across the set to retrieve his “binky” when he spit it out. Amber Banks said the family has instituted a new rule to keep foreign objects out of the tot’s mouth.

“I told Ty he’s not leaving the house without his binky,” she told Vieira. “If he would have had his binky on the playground that day, he wouldn’t have had any chance of the pencil getting in his mouth.”

Source (article): MSNBC

Source (pictures): MSNBC

CLEVELAND - LeBron James chewed on his fingernails as he talked quietly with Mo Williams in the corner of Cleveland’s muted locker room.

As they reviewed the game’s final seconds, the two stars stared blankly at a boxscore floating in an ice tub above James’ feet.

They looked stunned. And for good reason.

No longer untested, no longer unbeaten. The Cavaliers finally met their match in the playoffs.

Dwight Howard scored 30 points, Rashard Lewis added 22 and the Orlando Magic rallied from a 15-point halftime deficit to hand James and the Cavaliers their first loss of the postseason, 107-106 on Wednesday night in the Eastern Conference finals opener.

James finished with 49 points, eight assists and six rebounds, but the league MVP limped off the floor after Cleveland’s loss — just its third in 46 home games.

“Nobody said it was going to be easy,” said Cavs guard Delonte West, who missed an open 3-pointer with five seconds remaining. “This one hurts.”

Lewis made a 3-pointer with 14.7 seconds left and the Magic, who dethroned the champion Boston Celtics in seven games in the previous round, survived two shots by Cleveland in the closing seconds. Williams missed a catch-and-shoot jumper off a jump ball as the horn sounded, dropping the Cavs to 8-1 in the postseason.

“It’s a big victory,” said Howard, who broke one of the shot clocks with a dunk in the opening minutes. “We kept fighting the whole game. We kept believing we could win.”

Hedo Turkoglu scored 15 points with 14 assists for Orlando.

Game 2 is Friday night at Quicken Loans Arena, which fell eerily silent after the Magic’s win.

As fans headed to the exits, they turned to observe James still on the floor and bent over in obvious pain. He seemed to be bothered by cramps in the fourth quarter and was tended to by Cleveland’s training staff before slowly making his way to the locker room.

Perhaps the long layoff — the Cavs hadn’t played since May 11 — contributed to James not being himself at the end.

Cleveland gave this one away. The Cavaliers lost their grip on the game with a stagnant third quarter that carried into the fourth.

Orlando, which went 2-1 vs. Cleveland in the regular season, took its first lead at 85-84 with 10:06 left when Anthony Johnson buried a 3-pointer from the left corner. The bucket seemed to suck the air out of the raucous building and Cavs coach Mike Brown quickly called a timeout to stop the Magic’s run and get James back in.

The Magic, though, kept making big shots with Lewis hitting a jumper with 31.6 seconds left to give Orlando a 104-103 lead.

James then drove and scored on a runner while drawing a sixth foul on Howard, who added 13 rebounds. James completed the three-point play for a 106-104 lead but Lewis came down and nailed his 3-pointer over a closing Anderson Varejao.

Source (article): NBCSPORTS

Source (pictures): EVERYJOE, BBALLCITY

Oprah Winfrey’s decision to put her name on KFC’s online coupon promotion turned quickly into a “PR nightmare,” as described by QSRweb, which covers the quick-service restaurant industry.

The nightmare isn’t, as you might think, due to Oprah’s hypocrisy in lending her name to one of the worst chicken-abusers in the food business, but rather to the overwhelming response of consumers demanding their promised free food. Gawker spread a rumor that there were “riots” breaking out on Wednesday at a Midtown Manhattan KFC outlet.

There weren’t, but there were a lot of angry people who thought they would get a free two-piece Kentucky Grilled Chicken meal but didn’t because the store had run out. The coupons were promoted both on The Oprah Winfrey Show and at Oprah.com.

A spokeswoman from KFC owner Yum Brands (YUM) told the Louisville Courier-Journal that the promotion created “extreme demand nationwide.

So extreme that KFC President Roger Eaton had to write a note of apology to would-be freeloaders who flocked to Oprah’s Web site to download their coupons. “We are so sorry,” he wrote, “but due to the overwhelming response to our FREE Kentucky Grilled Chicken meal coupon, we can no longer redeem the free coupon at this time.” The company would offer rain checks, along with a free Pepsi, to those who already had coupons, he assured.

Advertising Age called in a “crisis expert” to assess the situation. “The combination of free food and Oprah is a tsunami,” said Robbie Vorhaus. “Clearly KFC wasn’t ready.”

Have KFC executives ever watched Oprah give stuff away on her show? What did they think was going to happen?

Meanwhile, almost lost amid all the hoopla is the question of why Oprah would lend her name to KFC, which is a primary target of animal rights activists who say the chain uses suppliers—chiefly Tyson Foods (TSN)—that house chickens in deplorable conditions before killing them in a deplorable manner.

Oprah has reapeadtedly rallied against factory farming and was once targeted by the meat industry for her on-air avowal to avoid burgers.

Paul Crossfield of Civil Eats wrote that because “Oprah has marketed herself as one who cares about animals, even getting a ‘Person of the Year’ award last year from PETA, this KFC campaign is a serious disappointment to say the least.”

Not that we should be shocked. Oprah has repeatedly shown that her principles are flexible.

Source (article): THEBIGMONEY

Source (pictures): HOTELRESERVATIONDEALS, SWAGGRABBER

TAMPA, Fla. - At age 11, Zach Bonner has already walked farther and done more for charity than many grown-ups.

Now he’s about to make good on his vow to walk more than 1,200 miles from Tampa to Washington to bring attention to the plight of homeless kids in the United States.

The boy with the spiky red hair came up with the idea in 2007, then hiked nearly 300 miles from his home near Tampa to the state capital, Tallahassee. Last year, he walked another 270 miles or so from Tallahassee to Atlanta.

On Monday he’ll set out for the final and most demanding leg of the journey, well over 600 miles from Atlanta to Washington. He figures it’ll take about two months.

Zach expects to cover around 11 miles a day. Along the way, he’ll collect donations and letters from people urging President Barack Obama to take more action to alleviate homelessness among children. He’s contacted the White House about meeting with Obama, but has yet to hear back.

“I just decided I wanted to do something big,” the soft-spoken fifth-grader said earlier this week.

Charitable child
Zach became a local celebrity of sorts at age 7 when he pulled his red wagon around his neighborhood collecting bottled water and food for victims of Hurricane Charley, which hit Florida in August 2004. He ended up sending 27 pickup truck loads of stuff.

Once he started helping people, especially kids, he couldn’t stop. He put together and distributed about 1,200 backpacks full of toiletries, food and other necessities for homeless kids. Now he even has his own registered nonprofit charity, the Little Red Wagon Foundation Inc.

“My plan is to help as many kids as I can, have fun and keep it simple,” he says on the Web site.

President George W. Bush found out about Zach’s work and gave him a Presidential Call to Service Award during a Tampa visit in 2006. Standing beside Air Force One, Bush shook the boy’s hand and told him how proud he was.

Zach said he was inspired by a TV program about a peace activist named Mildred Norman, known as “The Peace Pilgrim,” who walked back and forth across the country for 28 years. That’s when the idea for the “My House to the White House” walk came to him.

“He told everybody before I had a chance to say no,” said his mom, Laurie. “It’s just him. It’s who he is.”

Film crew follows along
His long walk during summer vacation isn’t expected to interfere with school.

A Tampa RV dealership is donating use of a motor home that Zach will sleep in and his mom will drive. His 21-year-old sister, Kelley, will be in a red Volkswagen Beetle decorated with the logo of his foundation. He’ll try to get campground space and meals donated along the way. The trip is budgeted at $6,000.

The nonprofit Philanthropy Project has a film crew following Zach, too, and plans to make a movie about his life. British rock legend Elton John counts himself among Zach’s fans and has pledged $25,000 to the boy’s charity if he finishes the trek.

Staying away from the interstate highways, Zach’s sojourn will take him through Greenville, S.C., Raleigh, N.C., and Richmond, Va. His progress will be charted on a Web site, http://www.zachtracker.com.

Source (article): MSNBC

Source (picture): STANDUPFORKIDS

The swine flu epidemic crossed new borders Tuesday with the first cases confirmed in the Middle East and the Asia-Pacific region, as world health officials said they suspect American patients may have transmitted the virus to others in the U.S.

Most people confirmed with the new swine flu were infected in Mexico, where the number of deaths blamed on the virus has surpassed 150.

But confirmation that people have been infecting others in locations outside Mexico would indicate that the disease was spreading beyond travelers returning from Mexico, World Health Organization spokesman Gregory Hartl told reporters on Tuesday in Geneva.

Hartl said the source of some infections in the United States, Canada was unclear.

The swine flu has already spread to at least six countries besides Mexico, prompting WHO to raise its alert level on Monday but not call for travel bans or border closings. On Tuesday, countries, including Canada, Israel and France, warned their citizens to avoid nonessential travel to Mexico. On Tuesday, the WHO said the number of swine flu cases confirmed by tests in a laboratory has increased to 79 around the world.

“Border controls do not work. Travel restrictions do not work,” Hartl said, recalling the 2003 SARS epidemic that killed 774 people, mostly in Asia, and slowed the global economy. “There was much more economic disruption caused by these measures than there was public health benefit.”

Hartl said WHO is advising countries to provide sick people with treatments such as Tamiflu, and make sure national plans are in place to ease the impact of a larger outbreak.

No natural immunity
Hartl said WHO is advising countries to provide sick people with treatments such as Tamiflu, and make sure national plans are in place to ease the impact of a larger outbreak.

“Governments will need to start thinking about larger-scale care for a specific disease in accident and emergency wards,” he said. “Do they have the infrastructure? Do they have the equipment? Do they have the medicines? This is the time, now, to prepare.”

WHO raised the alert level to Phase 4, meaning there is sustained human-to-human transmission causing outbreaks in at least one country. WHO’s pandemic alert system was revised after bird flu in Asia began to spread in 2004. Monday was the first time it has ever been raised above Phase 3.

Flu deaths are nothing new in the United States or elsewhere. The Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that about 36,000 people died of flu-related causes each year, on average, during the 1990s in the United States.

But the new flu strain is a combination of pig, bird and human viruses that humans may have no natural immunity to.

Tuesday, Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard ordered gyms, sports clubs, swimming pools and pool halls closed — extending a growing shutdown that already included schools, state-run theaters and other public places.

The city was evaluating whether to keep open a subway system that provides 5 million trips a day.

New Zealand reported Tuesday that 11 people who recently returned from Mexico contracted the virus. Tests conducted at a WHO laboratory in Australia had confirmed three cases of swine flu among 11 members of the group who were showing symptoms, New Zealand Health Minister Tony Ryall said.

Officials decided that was evidence enough to assume the whole group was infected, he said.

Israel’s Health Ministry confirmed Tuesday the region’s first swine flu case in the city of Netanya. The patient, 26, recently returned from Mexico and had contracted it. A hospital official said the patient had recovered, but will remain hospitalized until the health ministry approves his release.

Meanwhile, a second case was confirmed Tuesday in Spain, Health Minister Trinidad Jimenez said, a day after the country reported its first case. The 23-year-old student, one of 26 patients under observation, was not in serious condition, Jimenez said.

With the virus spreading, the U.S. stepped up checks of people entering the country and warned Americans to avoid nonessential travel to Mexico.

“We anticipate that there will be confirmed cases in more states as we go through the coming days,” Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said on NBC’s “Today” show on Tuesday.

The Food and Drug Administration late Monday issued emergency guidance that allows certain antiviral drugs to be used in a broader range of the population in case mass dosing is needed to deal with an outbreak.

Mexico, where the number of deaths believed caused by swine flu rose by 50 percent on Monday to 152, is suspected to be the center of the outbreak. But Mexican Health Secretary Jose Angel Cordova late Monday said no one knows where the outbreak began, and implied it may have started in the U.S.

I think it is very risky to say, or want to say, what the point of origin or dissemination of it is, given that there had already been cases reported in southern California and Texas,” Cordova told a press conference.

Mexico City Health Secretary Armando Ahued said three people died in the capital Monday, but it was unclear if they were included in the national toll. He said 6,610 people went to city hospitals Monday with flu symptoms, but only 29 were remained hospitalized.

Dr. Nancy Cox of the CDC has said she believes the earliest onset of swine flu in the U.S. was on March 28. Cordova said a sample taken from a 4-year-old boy in Mexico’s Veracruz state in early April tested positive for swine flu. However, it is not known when the boy, who later recovered, became infected.

A decision by WHO to put an alert at Phases 4 or 5 signals that the virus is becoming increasingly adept at spreading among humans. Phase 6 is for a full-blown pandemic, characterized by outbreaks in at least two regions of the world.

Cases declining in Mexico
Sixty-eight cases — none fatal and most of them mild — were confirmed in the United States.

Amid the alarm, there was a spot of good news. The number of new cases reported by Mexico’s largest government hospitals has been declining the past three days, Cordova said, from 141 on Saturday to 119 on Sunday and 110 Monday.

Symptoms include a fever of more than 100, coughing, joint aches, severe headache and, in some cases, vomiting and diarrhea. Many victims have been in their 30s and 40s — not the very old or young who typically succumb to the flu.

So far, no deaths from the new virus have been reported outside Mexico.

It could take four to six months before the first batch of vaccines are available, WHO said. Some antiflu drugs do work once someone is sick.

The best way to keep the disease from spreading, the CDC’s acting director, Richard Besser, said, is by taking everyday precautions such as frequent handwashing, covering up coughs and sneezes, and staying away from work or school if not feeling well.

Russia, Hong Kong and Taiwan said they would quarantine visitors showing symptoms of the virus.

Source (article): MSNBC

Source (pictures): MSNBC

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. - Usually, it’s an empty threat: “If you kids don’t stop fighting, I’m going to stop this car right now and leave you here!” But a mother from an upper-crust New York suburb went through with it, ordering her battling 10- and 12-year-old daughters out of her car in White Plains’ business district and driving off, police said Tuesday.

A judge on Wednesday modified a temporary order of protection against 45-year-old Madlyn Primoff and her two daughters. Her lawyer, Vincent Briccetti, said Primoff is no longer barred from living or talking with her children.

Primoff, a partner in a Manhattan law firm, pleaded not guilty to a charge of endangering a child on Monday.

Briccetti would not comment on details of the case. But he said, “Madlyn is a great mother connected with a great family, and she is grateful for the outpouring of support from friends and family.”

There wasn’t much support from strangers, however. Mothers interviewed near the scene said they couldn’t imagine doing what Primoff did, though some understood the urge.

Iris Gorodess, 49, of Mahopac, who has four children ranging from 10 to 19 years old, said she sympathized with Primoff’s actions, right up to the point where she pulled away.

“I used to pull over and make the kids change seats. Also, I make sure the kids have their iPods and their games. And I have a minivan, so they’re not up my neck all the time.

“But I can’t see pulling away. That has to be too scary for the children.”

‘Good Samaritan’ finds one girl
White Plains police said Primoff ordered the arguing girls out of the car Sunday evening as they were driving home. She left them at Post Road and South Broadway, an area of shops and offices 3 miles from their home, then drove off, the police report said.

The report does not say whether the girls had cell phones.

Police would not say if Primoff ever returned to look for the girls, but they said, without explaining how, that the 12-year-old eventually caught up with the mother. The 10-year-old was found by a “Good Samaritan” on the street, upset and emotional about losing her mother, police said.

The girl gave police her mother’s name and their address in well-to-do Scarsdale, and they asked Scarsdale police to check Primoff’s $2 million house. Shortly afterward, Primoff called Scarsdale police from home to say the 10-year-old was missing, said Scarsdale Detective Lt. Bryant Clark.

He directed her to White Plains police headquarters, where she was arrested.

Dr. Richard Gersh, director of psychiatric services at the Jewish Board of Family and Children’s Services in Manhattan, said Primoff’s behavior was not appropriate.

“It is a traumatic situation for a child to be abandoned by a parent like that. You can imagine what emotional issues might arise,” he said.

Source(article): MSNBC

Source(picture): MSNBC

Most nonagenarians are content to take things slowly. Not Stanley Murphy, who despite being 90 has had an unexpected taste of life in the fast lane.

Motorists hurtling along the A27, a busy major road that runs through Sussex, were surprised to discover the pensioner chugging along the carriageway in his eight mph mobility scooter. Mr Murphy, from Shoreham, near Hove, was also somewhat startled.

His trip had begun sedately enough, when he popped out to buy a newspaper yesterday lunchtime. One wrong turn later and he was suddenly traveling westbound along the A27 towards the Shoreham flyover with cars and lorries racing past him at 70mph.

James Dunne, who owns a paving company, spotted Mr Murphy and pulled over. He switched on the flashing lights on his truck in a bid to stop the slow-moving scooter, attempting to flag him down while also calling police.

“The old chap looked pretty confused and scared and looked like he was not going to stop,” said Mr Dunne, 46.

The pensioner initially attempted to overtake his truck, but apparently thought better of it an pulled in.

“He did not say very much and looked pretty shell-shocked,” Mr Dunne told The Argus. He did not tell me his name but said he was trying to get back to Mill Hill, where he lives with his daughter.”

Police arrived soon afterwards and obligingly gave Mr Murphy a lift back home. Mr Dunne loaded the scooter onto his truck and drove it back for him.

Once home after his adventure, Mr Murphy expressed his gratitude to those who had made sure it ended safely.

“I don’t know how I ended up on the A27 but I am thankful to everyone who helped me,” he said.

A Sussex police spokesman said that by law an electric mobility scooter, as a mechanically propelled vehicle, requires a tax disc and number plate before it can be driven on a main road like the A27.

“However, this gentleman was obviously confused and in the circumstances it is unlikely that we would take any further action.”

SOURCE: TIMESONLINE

FORT PIERCE, Fla. - Authorities say a Florida woman called 911 three times after McDonald’s employees told her they were out of Chicken McNuggets.

A police report says 27-year-old Fort Pierce resident Latreasa L. Goodman told authorities she paid for a 10-piece last week but was later informed the restaurant had run out.

She says she was refused a refund and told all sales were final. A cashier told police she offered Goodman a larger portion of different food for the same price, but Goodman became irate.

“This is an emergency. If I would have known they didn’t have McNuggets, I wouldn’t have given my money, and now she wants to give me a McDouble, but I don’t want one,” Goodman told police, according to The Stuart News. “This is an emergency.”

Police say Goodman was cited on a misuse of 911 charge. A current phone listing for Goodman couldn’t be found.

A McDonald’s spokesman says Goodman should have been given a refund, and she’s being sent a gift card for a free meal.

SOURCE: MSNBC

Charter boat captain Erik Rue, 42, photographed the animal, which is actually an albino, when he began studying it after the mammal first surfaced in Lake Calcasieu, an inland saltwater estuary, north of the Gulf of Mexico in southwestern USA.

Capt Rue originally saw the dolphin, which also has reddish eyes, swimming with a pod of four other dolphins, with one appearing to be its mother which never left its side.

He said: “I just happened to see a little pod of dolphins, and I noticed one that was a little lighter.

“It was absolutely stunningly pink.

“I had never seen anything like it. It’s the same color throughout the whole body and it looks like it just came out of a paint booth.

“The dolphin appears to be healthy and normal other than its coloration, which is quite beautiful and stunningly pink.

“The mammal is entirely pink from tip to tail and has reddish eyes indicating it’s albinism. The skin appears smooth, glossy pink and without flaws.

“I have personally spotted the pink dolphin 40 to 50 times in the time since the original sighting as it has apparently taken up residence with its family in the Calcasieu ship channel.

“As time has passed the young mammal has grown and sometimes ventures away from its mother to feed and play but always remains in the vicinity of the pod.

“Surprisingly, it does not appear to be drastically affected by the environment or sunlight as might be expected considering its condition, although it tends to remain below the surface a little more than the others in the pod.”

Regina Asmutis-Silvia, senior biologist with the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society, said: “I have never seen a dolphin coloured in this way in all my career.

“It is a truly beautiful dolphin but people should be careful, as with any dolphins, to respect it - observe from a distance, limit their time watching, don’t chase or harass it

“While this animal looks pink, it is an albino which you can notice in the pink eyes.

“Albinism is a genetic trait and it unclear as to the type of albinism this animal inherited.”

A close relation of dolphins, the Amazon River Botos, called pink dolphins, live in South America in the Amazon.

SOURCE: TELEGRAPH.CO.UK

WASHINGTON — Army officials have suspended most research involving dangerous germs at the biodefense laboratory at Fort Detrick, Md., which the F.B.I. has linked to the anthrax attacks of 2001, after discovering that some pathogens stored there were not listed in a laboratory database.

The suspension, which began Friday and could last three months, is intended to allow a complete inventory of hazardous bacteria, viruses and toxins stored in refrigerators, freezers and cabinets in the facility, the Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases.

The inventory was ordered by the institute’s commander, Col. John P. Skvorak, after officials found that the database of specimens was incomplete. In a memorandum to employees last week, Colonel Skvorak said there was a high probability that some germs and toxins in storage were not in the database.

Rules for keeping track of pathogens were tightened after the 2001 anthrax letters, which killed five people. But pressure to improve recordkeeping and security at the Army institute intensified six months ago after the suicide of Bruce E. Ivins, a veteran anthrax researcher, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s announcement that prosecutors had been preparing to charge Dr. Ivins with making the deadly anthrax powder in his laboratory there.

A spokesman for the institute, Caree Vander Linden, said an earlier review had located all the germ samples listed in the database. But she said some “historical samples” in institute freezers were not in the database, and the new inventory was intended to identify them so they could be recorded and preserved, or destroyed if they no longer had scientific value.

One scientist, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment, said samples from completed projects were not always destroyed, and departing scientists sometimes left behind vials whose contents were unknown to colleagues. He said the Army’s recordkeeping and security were imperfect but better than procedures at most universities, where research on biological pathogens has expanded rapidly since 2001.

The suspension will interrupt dozens of research projects at the institute, whose task is to develop vaccines, drugs and other measures to protect American troops from germ attacks and disease outbreaks. Ms. Vander Linden said some critical experiments involving animals — often used to test vaccines and drugs — would not be halted.

News of the suspension, first reported Monday by the Science magazine blog ScienceInsider, comes as the Justice Department has been interviewing scientists at the Army institute to prepare the government’s legal defense against a lawsuit filed by the family of Robert Stevens, the Florida tabloid photography editor who was the first to die in the 2001 letter attacks.

That lawsuit, filed in 2003 and delayed by the government’s unsuccessful efforts to have it dismissed, accuses officials of failing to assure that anthrax bacteria at Fort Detrick and other government laboratories were securely stored. Dr. Ivins was not suspected in the attacks at that time, but the F.B.I.’s conclusion last year added new weight to the lawsuit’s claims.

The F.B.I. has released evidence of Dr. Ivins’s mental problems and of a genetic link between the mailed anthrax and a supply of the bacteria in his laboratory. But many of Dr. Ivins’s former colleagues at the Army institute have said they are not convinced that he mailed the letters.

The F.B.I. has asked the National Academy of Sciences to convene a panel of experts to review its scientific work on the case, and the bureau and academy are completing a contract for the review, said an academy spokesman, William Kearney.

The anthrax case has underscored the threat of biological attack by biodefense insiders like Dr. Ivins, who have access to pathogens and the expertise to work with them.

The number of such researchers has grown rapidly since 2001, when the anthrax letters set off a spending boom on biodefense that led to a rapid addition of laboratories working on potential bioweapons, notably anthrax.

Before 2001, only a few dozen such facilities worked with anthrax. Today, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has registered 219 laboratories to do so, said an agency spokesman, Von Roebuck. He said 10,474 people had been cleared to work with dangerous pathogens and toxins nationwide after background checks by the Justice Department.

SOURCE: NY TIMES

DENVER (AP) — A good Samaritan who pushed three people out of the path of a pickup before he was struck and injured has been ticketed for jaywalking. Family members say 58-year-old Jim Moffett and another man were helping two elderly women cross a busy Denver street in a snowstorm when he was hit Friday night.

Moffett suffered bleeding in the brain, broken bones, a dislocated shoulder and a possible ruptured spleen. He remained hospitalized Wednesday in serious but stable condition.

The Colorado State Patrol issued the citation. Trooper Ryan Sullivan told the Rocky Mountain News that despite Moffett’s intentions, jaywalking caused the accident.

The other good Samaritan was also cited for jaywalking. The pickup driver was cited with careless driving causing injury.

Sullivan says the two elderly women haven’t been cited but the investigation is ongoing.

“It’s a horrible tragedy,” he said.

Sullivan said Moffett and the others weren’t in a crosswalk, but said he didn’t know why the bus stop was in an area without one.

SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS

SOUTHLAKE — From the flowers to the banquet hall, donations poured in to give a North Texas bride the wedding of her dreams.

At Paradise Cove, which is on the shore of Lake Grapevine, family and friends came to celebrate the wedding of nine-year-old Jayla Cooper. The ceremony was put together in less than one week.

“We didn’t expect to do this when she was nine years old, but she has taught us all how to love each other and to be strong,” said Lisa Cooper, Jayla’s mother.

Jayla has battled leukemia for the past two years. It’s a battle that will likely end in a few weeks.

“He is very cute and I love him,” Jayla said of the groom, Jose Griggs.

Jose and Jayla met at Children’s Medical Center and quickly formed a strong bond.

“He knows what’s going on,” said Charla Griggs, Jose’s mother. “He understands that she is going to a better place.”

The young boy’s parents said Jayla helped their son with his own battle with illness.

“He’s brighter, happier and more content with all that they go through in the hospital,” said Lawrence Griggs, Jose’s father. “She changed that, brought it all out [and] opened up a side of him I hadn’t seen.”

The symbolic wedding was a celebration of life and friendship.

“I can’t explain how I feel right now,” Cooper said. “I’m happy, but at the at same time I am sad because I know my child is going to go to heaven with the Lord.”

Cooper said she is ready to cherish the time she has remaining with her daughter — and has a message for other parents.

“Show your kids that you love them every moment of your life because you never know,” she said.

A fund has been set up in Jayla Cooper’s name at the Grace Community Health Clinic, which can be reached at 817-305-4650 or visit www.gracegrapevine.org.

SOURCE: WFAA.COM

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — For five years, Keele Maynor carried a walking cane, cropped her hair short and coaxed co-workers, neighbors and cancer survivor groups to be generous as she battled breast cancer. She accepted 194 days of paid leave donated by co-workers and blogged about protecting her children from the trauma of hospice care.

“I know God has a reason for me to be here,” she wrote in an Aug. 2 blog entry. “I just don’t always understand or like what I have to go through to stay here.”

It was all a lie. Physically healthy, she played the part of a terminally ill woman in need. When her deceit _ she later described it as a “charade” _ collapsed, she resigned suddenly from her government job as a $24,000-a-year senior assistant in the city’s land development office.

Maynor acknowledged in a Dec. 12 e-mail to her boss that she has been cancer-free since a scare in 2000.

“I started fabricating this story about cancer in 2003 and it has snowballed and finally came to a head,” she wrote. “I am relieved for two reasons. I don’t have to keep up the charade anymore and I am finally getting some help to figure out why I did this in the first place.”

On Thursday, authorities arrested the 38-year-old in Union City, Ga., on eight counts of theft and one count of forgery, charges leveled this week by a grand jury in Chattanooga. Each of the most serious allegations carries a penalty of up to 60 years in prison.

She had been staying just outside Atlanta since leaving Chattanooga after her ruse unraveled, said Bill Cox, a prosecutor in Hamilton County, Tenn.

An officer at the Georgia jail said Maynor was in custody there. Cox said she would be returned to Chattanooga but no court appearance was immediately scheduled.

Maynor has refused to talk to reporters. A young man who answered a knock on her apartment door recently declined comment and said she did not want to comment. A knock at the apartment door the next day was not answered, although her car was parked outside.

Maynor accepted money and $18,000 worth of paid leave from her co-workers, according to Richard Beeland, a spokesman for the mayor’s office. Her colleagues said they have been asked not to talk about the case.

The city’s Web site, in promoting a fund raiser for a breast cancer foundation, used to describe Maynor as a seven-year cancer survivor who “continues everyday fighting and surviving. Keele is very loved and admired by everyone and we are inspired by her faith, perseverance, and humor. She is a terrific mentor to fellow cancer patients and eagerly offers her assistance to them with a harmonious blend of kindness and ‘tough-love.’”

That posting has been removed.

The local cancer community was taken in, too, unwittingly offering her emotional support and a public forum. In a Sept. 13 blog entry for Hope Prevails, a nonprofit group that provides personal Web sites for cancer patients and their families, Maynor referred to herself as a struggling single mother and said her oncologist “would like for me to start talking hospice and of course I said I would not. I will not take my kids through that again. I did tell him at the end I would bring hospice in, but with the help of him I will be taking on my pain.

“Am I okay you ask? NO I am not I cry doing anything. I am so emotional and it is so aggravating, because I’m suppose to be the strong one. Mentally and emotionally I feel like I am going crazy, but at least I do realize I have a lot to take in. I do know one thing I want some happiness before I leave this world.”

In the resignation e-mail to her supervisor, Maynor said she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2000 but in 2001 “my margins were clear after my first mammogram after the radiation treatment.”

Maynor’s e-mail also said she is now seeing a therapist.

Larry Stansell, a former neighbor who occasionally loaned Maynor his lawn mower and gave her a “little tiny bit” of money for groceries, said she has three well-behaved and well-mannered teenage children. He said they kept a neat yard before moving about three months ago when a tree fell on the house Maynor rented.

“You probably couldn’t ask for a better neighbor,” he said.

Stansell, 52, said Maynor sometimes walked with a cane and “had a lot of people coming out to help her with stuff.”

Cancer support group leaders who knew Maynor said they were shocked by her years of dishonesty. Stansell, who sells auto parts, also described her as “basically a good person.”

“I think Satan roams the world to steal and kill and tempt and he does it in different ways and she has fallen into temptation,” Stansell said. “She needs to pay for whatever crimes she did but she needs to be forgiven also.”

Maynor has not disclosed any motive for her actions.

Jeffrey Bishop, an associate professor of medicine and an ethicist at Vanderbilt Medical Center in Nashville, said people diagnosed with cancer and other diseases sometimes get caught up in the “secondary gain from an illness.” That can include emotional and psychological support from family, friends and the community.

“Cancer occupies a very socially sensitive place and people really want to reach out to people with breast cancer,” Bishop said. He said sometimes people get “drawn into getting kindness and concern.”

SOURCE: FOXNEWS

ROSSFORD, Ohio (AP) — Workers at an Ohio pet shop are used to worried pet owners bringing their animals in to be treated in the store’s clinic.

But an unaccompanied visit Saturday by a deer to the PetSmart in Rossfield was a first for the store.

Manager Trudi Urie says the wounded doe was hanging out behind the store and then ran through an open door into a stockroom.

Staff members made sure the animal couldn’t enter the shop area and called police and a veterinarian.

Agustin Cuesta had the deer brought into the clinic and closed a wound on its hind leg with dissolvable stitches as assistants held it down.

He says he couldn’t tell how the animal got hurt.

The door was reopened and the animal ran back into the wild.

SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS

BATTLE CREEK, Mich. (AP) — A Michigan zoo is hosting an exotic, erotic afternoon on Valentine’s Day, when consenting adults will get an unabashed look at how wild animals make babies.

WWMT-TV says the $50-per-couple, adults-only event at Binder Park Zoo — dubbed “Zoorotica” — is sold out and there’s even a waiting list.

Visitors will receive champagne, hors d’oeuvres, a video presentation and a guided tour, including the homes of snow leopards, giraffes, zebras and various primates and reptiles. Some stops will be areas not usually open to the public.

The Battle Creek Enquirer reports that other zoos have offered similar programs — with cute names like “Woo at the Zoo” and “Jungle Love.”

SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS

HAMILTON, Ohio (AP) — Authorities say they have arrested an Ohio woman who told them she set fire to at least 10 homes and garages because she was angry. Hamilton fire and police officials arrested 42-year-old Gina Ann Gray on Tuesday. She is charged with seven counts of aggravated arson and three counts of arson.

Fire investigator Tom Angst said Gray told authorities she set the fires at homes and garages in Hamilton, about 30 miles north of Cincinnati. The fires occurred between September 2007 and November 2008.

Angst said Gray sometimes sought revenge against people. He said at other times she spotted something flammable near a house, lit it with a lighter and then walked away.

Gray remains in the Butler County Jail. It was not clear whether she had an attorney.

SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS

LONDON, England (CNN) — The founder of one of America’s latest pizza chains has offered unexpected advice to his customers to limit themselves to only one or two slices.

During an interview on BBC’s Radio Four program in the United Kingdom, John Schnatter, said, “you can’t eat five or six slices.”

He was responding to a question from presenter Adam Shaw about whether he was concerned about the impact of the British government’s anti-obesity drive on pizza sales.

“No. Pizza’s actually healthy for you if you don’t eat too much of it,” Schnatter replied, adding, “You can’t eat five or six slices but if you eat one or two slices it’s very nutritious.”

The pizza chain boss had just finished telling BBC listeners that the UK market was a “huge priority for Papa John’s International.”

The company has 118 outlets in the United Kingdom, its second biggest market outside the U.S. after China.

Sales in the UK jumped 60% on Monday alone after heavy snowfalls were estimated to have encouraged around one in five workers to stay at home.

Schnatter is in the United Kingdom for the annual franchisee conference, a marketing tool to encourage more small business owners to buy into the Papa John’s brand.

While it’s impossible to know whether his comments have dissuaded anyone from investing in the company, BBC presenter Shaw suggested shareholders might take issue with his suggestion.

“I’m not sure your investors would want to hear you tell people don’t eat too much of our pizzas,” he laughed before thanking Schnatter for his time.

Schnatter opened his first shop in 1985, after selling his beloved Camaro to buy his first pizza oven. There are now more than 3000 restaurants worldwide.

SOURCE: CNN.COM

Financial problems may have led to the murder-suicide of a woman and her sailor boyfriend who posted a controversial YouTube video of his shipmates dancing, MyFOXDC.com reported.

Electronics Technician 2nd Class Michael Joseph Missimer was shot and killed Jan. 27 by his 43-year-old live-in girlfriend, who then took her own life, police in Annapolis, Md., said.

Helen Clapsaddle had recently lost her job and was having money problems with her previous employer, police said.

“Right now we’ve determined there may have been some financial problems between the two,” said Sgt. Gilmer told MyFOXDC.com.

While serving aboard the aircraft carrier Enterprise, Missimer filmed and edited a five-minute video of his shipmates dancing and spoofing a YouTube clip known as the “Numa Numa video,” the Navy Times, reported.

Click here to see the video.

His video, called “Enterprise Numa Numa,” has been viewed almost 2 million times on YouTube.

The man in charge of Missimer’s unit told the Navy Times that not everyone liked the spoof, which wasn’t made for public distribution.

“He caught a lot of flak about that,” Petty Officer John Fallowfield said. “It was just something they pulled together when they had some time on the carrier … we did this with the understanding it would be in-house.”

Police say Clapsaddle called 911 shortly after midnight telling them that when police arrived at her apartment, they’d find two people dead — including her, MyFOXDC.com reported. She abruptly hung up.

The couple lived together at the Harbour Gates Apartment Complex in Annapolis.

SOURCE: FOX NEWS

CENTERVILLE, Utah (AP) — John, a porcelain commode gunned down in an accidental shooting at a fast food restaurant’s bathroom, has died. His age was not immediately known.

The toilet was shattered by a bullet Jan. 12 when a man’s gun fell from its holster as he was pulling up his pants, police said. Police do not plan to file criminal charges in connection with the incident.

Christian Martinez, manager of the Carl’s Jr. where John was gunned down, held a memorial service Friday at the restaurant. He gave away bottles of John’s favorite toilet cleaner, Kaboom Bowl Blaster, to the eatery’s first 50 patrons.

A Bountiful flower shop provided a large floral arrangement.

“In all my years, I can say without a doubt that I have never delivered for a toilet,” said deliveryman Doug Graham, “but I thought it was the funniest thing I’ve ever heard. I got a kick out of it.”

Remnants of John hit and cut the gun owner’s arm, but he was not seriously injured.

Police blamed John’s death on the gun and style of holster the man was using.

“He was survived by the men’s urinal and wash sink,” said Martinez. “He left us way too soon.”

SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS

(CBS/AP) “The ordeal is over.”

So said newly-sworn-in Illinois Governor Pat Quinn, referring to the State Senate’s vote yesterday to remove Rod Blagojevich from office.

After weeks of shocking twists and turns, the conclusion of Blagojevich’s tenure as Illinois governor offered little surprise.

Accused of trying to sell Barack Obama’s vacant Senate seat, Blagojevich becomes the first U.S. governor in more than 20 years to be removed by impeachment.

Once the State House impeached him earlier this month for abuse of power, the Senate did what was expected and voted to throw Blagojevich out of office. And on an identical 59-0 roll call, it barred the two-term Democrat from ever again holding public office in the state.

“He failed the test of character. He is beneath the dignity of the state of Illinois. He is no longer worthy to be our governor,” said Sen. Matt Murphy, a Republican from suburban Chicago.

The state’s Democratic Lieutenant Governor (and one of Blagojevich’s strongest critics), 60-year-old Quinn, was promptly sworn in as governor.

Blagojevich, 52, had boycotted the first three days of the impeachment trial, calling the proceedings a kangaroo court. But on Thursday, he went before the Senate to fight for his job, delivering a 47-minute plea that was, by turns, defiant, humble and sentimental.

He offered familiar lines: He was innocent. The trial rules were unfair. His goal always was to help people.

“You haven’t proved a crime, and you can’t because it didn’t happen,” Blagojevich told lawmakers. “How can you throw a governor out of office with insufficient and incomplete evidence?”

“I think what’s been very disappointing and very frustrating to everyone involved in the process … is that the governor could have brought forward information and evidence and witnesses, and he refused at every turn to do so,” Illinois State Attorney General Lisa Madigan said on CBS’ The Early Show. “He didn’t participate when the House was considering impeachment. He obviously refused to participate in the actual trial in front of the Senate.

“But he did come to make a closing statement where he wasn’t under oath, and therefore said a whole series of things that ultimately were taken as incredible, as well as potentially going to be used against him in his ultimate criminal trial.”

In a solemn scene, more than 30 lawmakers rose one by one on the Senate floor to accuse Blagojevich of abusing his office and embarrassing the state. They denounced him as a hypocrite, saying he cynically tried to enrich himself and then posed as the brave protector of the poor and “wrapped himself in the constitution.”

“I think this is a new beginning for our state and one that is absolutely necessary in the aftermath of a very destructive tenure of the governor,” Madigan (left) told Early Show anchor Maggie Rodriguez. “And so it is actually a good day. Certainly difficult times ahead and challenges, but we are going to move forward.”

Blagojevich did not stick around to hear the vote. He took a state plane back to Chicago.

He did, however, use his last day in office to grant clemency to a prominent Chicago real estate developer and a former drug dealer, just hours before the vote to oust him.

However, his troubles are not over; Federal prosecutors are drawing up an indictment against him on corruption charges.

The new governor also canceled the former governor’s security detail, which ended when Blagojevich arrived home from the state Capitol.

Outside his Chicago home Thursday night, Blagojevich vowed to “keep fighting to clear my name,” and added: “Give me a chance to show you that I haven’t let you down.”

Madigan was asked by Rodriguez if Blagojevich’s actions up to and after the trial were delusional or signs that he was in denial about what was happening to him.

“I think a lot of people have speculated,” Madigan said. “Certainly you’ve heard what our mayor has had to say, that there’s something the matter with the governor.” [Chicago's Richard Daley had called Blagojevich "Coo-coo."] “You know, it’s incomprehensible to me as a lawyer why you would conduct yourself in the manner that he has. If you were really serious about being innocent and if you believed that you can prove that you are not guilty, then use the forum that’s presented to you - work within the law.

“Instead he chose to fly off to New York and be on every possible TV talk show that was available to him and really never directly answered the questions that were posed to him, even on those talk shows, but [which] obviously were being dealt with by our State Senate. So obviously it appears that there must be some sort of a problem.

“At a bare minimum, he seems quite comfortable in mispresenting the truth.”

“Do you think this will end with the governor being convicted and going to jail?” Rodriguez asked.

“I do.”

“We Have This Thing Called Impeachment And It’s Bleeping Golden”

The verdict brought to an end what one lawmaker branded “the freak show” in Illinois. Over the past few weeks, Blagojevich found himself isolated, with almost the entire political establishment lined up against him. The crisis paralyzed state government and made Blagojevich a punchline from coast to coast.

Many ordinary Illinoisans were glad to see him go.

“It’s very embarrassing. I think it’s a shame that with our city and Illinois, everybody thinks we’re all corrupt,” Gene Ciepierski, 54, said after watching the trial’s conclusion on a TV at Chicago’s Billy Goat Tavern. “To think he would do something like that, it hurts more than anything.”

The verdict capped a head-spinning string of developments that began with the governor’s arrest by the FBI on Dec. 9. Federal prosecutors had been investigating Blagojevich’s administration for years, and some of his closest cronies already have been convicted.

The most spectacular allegation was that Blagojevich had been caught on wiretaps scheming to sell an appointment to Mr. Obama’s Senate seat for campaign cash or a plum job for himself or his wife.

“I’ve got this thing and it’s (expletive) golden, and I’m just not giving it up for (expletive) nothing. I’m not gonna do it,” he was quoted as saying on a government wiretap.

Sen. James Meeks, a Chicago Democrat, mocked Blagojevich during debate: “We have this thing called impeachment and it’s bleeping golden and we’ve used it the right way.”

Prosecutors also said Blagojevich illegally pressured people to make campaign contributions and tried to get editorial writers fired from the Chicago Tribune for badmouthing him in print.

Mr. Obama himself, fresh from his historic election victory, was forced to look into the matter and issued a report concluding that no one in his inner circle had done anything wrong.

“Today ends a painful episode for Illinois,” the president said in a Thursday night statement. “For months, the state had been crippled by a crisis of leadership. Now that cloud has lifted.”

Even as lawmakers were deciding whether to launch an impeachment, Blagojevich defied the political establishment by appointing a former Illinois attorney general, Roland Burris, to the very Senate seat he had been accused of trying to sell. Top Democrats on Capitol Hill eventually backed down and seated Burris.

As his trial got under way, Blagojevich launched a national media blitz, rushing from one TV studio to another in New York to proclaim his innocence. He likened himself to the hero of a Frank Capra movie and to a cowboy in the hands of a Wild West lynch mob.

The impeachment case included not only the criminal charges against Blagojevich, but allegations he broke the law when it came to hiring state workers, expanded a health care program without legislative approval and spent $2.6 million on flu vaccine that went to waste. The 118-member House twice voted to impeach him, both times with only one “no” vote.

Seven other U.S. governors have been removed by impeachment, the most recent being Arizona’s Evan Mecham in 1988. Illinois never before impeached a governor, despite its long and rich history of graft.

By Thursday night, Blagojevich’s name and picture had disappeared from the state’s official Web site. Instead, an unobtrusive “Pat Quinn, Governor” was in the upper right corner.

CBS Station WBBM also reports that signs on the Illinois Tollway system touting open-road tolling will be replaced. The signs, which prominently feature the name of Blagojevich (who had pushed for the open-road tolling system) were erected in 2004 at a cost of $480,000.

The Financial Burdens Accrue

CBS Station WBBM correspondent Mike Parker reports the former governor also faces financial stress, having lost his $177,000 annual salary just weeks after wife, Patty, lost her $100,000-a-year fundraising job.

Blagojevich also won’t be able to collect state unemployment benefits because he was fired for misconduct. Blagojevich will also lose his governor’s pension if he’s convicted in federal court.

In addition, Federal prosecutors could try to seize the multi-million dollar Blagojevich campaign fund. If they do, he won’t be able to use those funds to pay for his legal defense.

Meeting these financial burdens will be difficult given Blagojevich’s limited options. Cindy Canary of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform told Parker, “He’s tarnished goods. He is in a bad spot.”

SOURCE: CBSNEWS.COM & ASSOCIATED PRESS

PHILADELPHIA — A destructive winter storm left more than a million customers in the dark before barreling into the Northeast today, delaying flights and turning the morning rush into the morning slush as communities braced for the worst.

The storm has been blamed for at least 23 deaths and a glaze of ice and snow that caused widespread power failures from the Southern Plains to the East Coast. Authorities said it could be a week before some communities have electricity again.

Tree limbs encased in ice tumbled onto roads and crashed onto power lines in hard-hit Arkansas, Kentucky and Oklahoma on Tuesday and overnight. In Arkansas — where ice was 3 inches thick in some places — people huddled next to portable heaters and wood-burning fires as utilities warned electricity may be out for a week or more.

David Stark had an adventurous trip on Interstate 71 to get to work in La Grange, in northern Kentucky.

“The roads look clear but you can’t do over 40 mph,” he said during a stop at a convenience store for gas and food. “There’s a lot of black ice. I slipped and slid everywhere.”

Since the storm began building on Monday, the weather had been blamed for at least six deaths in Texas, four in Arkansas, three in Virginia, five in Missouri, two each in Ohio and Oklahoma, and one in Indiana. Winter storm warnings were in effect from Texas to New England today.

Power was being restored to thousands of residents of Oklahoma, which was spared the destruction caused by an ice storm that killed nearly 30 people and darkened a half-million homes and businesses for days about 13 months ago.

But next door in Arkansas, about 300,000 customers lacked power this morning. More than 470,000 were in the dark in Kentucky, where Pearl Schmidt’s family endured a cold night without power at their Paintsville home.

“We bundled up together on a bed with four blankets. It’s freezing,” she said.

In Missouri, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio, nearly 300,000 homes and businesses were in the dark as ice and snow coated parts of the states. Ohio’s top Republican lawmaker, Senate President Bill Harris, slipped on ice outside a hotel near the Statehouse in Columbus, broke a leg and missed the governor’s State of the State address today.

Tracey Ramey of Waynesville, Ohio, a village about 20 miles southeast of Dayton, said her husband left for his job as a snow-plow operator late Monday with an overnight bag and hasn’t been able to return. He did call her this morning to caution her not to go to her data-entry job.

“He said, ‘There’s 2 inches of ice on the road and there’s no way you’re going to make it to work,’” she said.

Air travelers hunkered down at airports throughout the region. Philadelphia International reported scattered cancellations and delays this morning. Airlines canceled more than a dozen flights each out of Columbus and Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport. Arrivals and departures were delayed as long as three hours at New York-area airports.

The snow and sleet abated somewhat in southeastern Pennsylvania as temperatures rose above freezing later in the day. But in northern and central Pennsylvania, snow accumulations could reach 4 to 8 inches. Up to 8 inches was expected in parts of western Pennsylvania.

Cynthia Lahiba of Baltimore walked through the ice and snow about six blocks to her downtown office today.

“My $65 pair of shoes are going to be ruined. It’s pretty bad out here,” she said.

The storm was already turning to rain in New Jersey by this morning, creating a soggy commute.

Some parts of Vermont expected 14 inches of snow, and the entire state was under a winter storm warning through early Thursday. Inland areas of Maine expected 2 feet of snow before the storm ends, and snow also fell over New York and Boston, extending commute times.

Forecasters said northwestern Connecticut could get 8 inches of snow, while Hartford and other inland areas could get 6. The National Weather Service expected the snow to turn into rain in the afternoon and evening.

The weather gave President Barack Obama a chance to rib his new hometown on its winter weather wimpiness.

“Can I make a comment that is unrelated to the economy, very quickly?” the new president told reporters at a gathering with business leaders. “And it has to do with Washington. My children’s school was canceled today. Because of what? Some ice?”

The president said he wasn’t the only incredulous one.

“As my children pointed out, in Chicago, school is never canceled,” Obama said to laughter. “In fact, my 7-year-old pointed out that you’d go outside for recess. You wouldn’t even stay indoors. So, I don’t know. We’re going to have to try to apply some flinty Chicago toughness.”

SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS

A Jacksonville promotions company plans to sell a doll as a tribute to slain toddler Caylee Marie Anthony.

The Inspirational Caylee Sunshine Doll will go on sale Tuesday for $29.99.

The blonde-haired, 18-inch doll wears jeans and a T-shirt depicting a sun and the phrase: “CAYLEE SUNSHINE.” The song “You Are My Sunshine” plays when her belly button is pushed.

Jaime Salcedo, president of Showbiz Promotions, said he is not selling a doll that looks exactly like Caylee because it would be too morbid and difficult for the public.

Instead, he said, they want to honor and respect Caylee’s life by bringing awareness to her case.

“We want it to be a tribute,” he said.

Salcedo said this is the first product his promotions company will sell that is inspired by the victim of a crime.

Salcedo said he plans to donate a portion of the proceeds to charity — though he does not have an organization lined up yet.

Salcedo said he’s waiting to hear back from several organizations, including the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. He is considering donating $3 for every doll sold.

Asked about whether it’s appropriate for his company profit on Caylee’s death, Salcedo said he is anticipating critics.

“I think that that is going to come up,” he said.

Salcedo said the public does not understand what it costs to make the doll, ship it, import it, and his company’s expenses.

SOURCE: ORLANDO SENTINEL

MIAMI — A Boca Raton couple got a new dog, and it’s just like their old dog. Not just the same breed and gender, but the same DNA.

Nina and Edgar Otto picked up their cloned yellow lab puppy at the Miami International Airport Monday night. Lancelot Encore was cloned from the DNA of the Ottos’ late dog Lancelot, which died of cancer in January 2008. Guessing that pet cloning would one day be possible, the Ottos had DNA samples of their dog frozen five years ago.

The Ottos paid $155,000 in a San Francisco biotech firm’s dog-cloning auction last July.

BioArts International created Lancelot Encore in South Korea, where he was born 10 weeks ago. The Ottos say he’s the first single-birth, commercially cloned puppy in the United States.

SOURCE: FOX NEWS

Postponement of the nationwide transition from analog to digital TV broadcasting was virtually assured after the U.S. Senate Monday unanimously approved delaying the switch until June 12. With President Obama and the House of Representatives already signaling their approval of the delay, the measure should be settled this week.

The switch, originally scheduled to occur on Feb. 17, will affect several million Americans who still receive television broadcasts over old analog sets, typically through the use of rabbit ear or rooftop antennas. The Neilson rating company has estimated that at least 6 million Americans won’t be able to get digital broadcasts with converter boxes. Some Americans — there are no accurate estimates of how many — won’t be able to receive analog or digital reception after the switch. To get reception, they will have to buy satellite or convert to digital cable.

“This is a big step toward ensuring that consumers can adequately prepare for the DTV transition,” Sen. Amy Klobucher, D-Minn., said in an e-mail. “Delay allows federal agencies to adequately prepare.” She said the current capacities of federal call centers can handle only 350,000 daily calls from consumers of the 1.5 million who are expected to call in the days immediately following the switchover. The campaign to delay the switch was spearheaded by Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.V., and Klobucher in the Senate.

The FCC has already auctioned the old analog spectrum for nearly $20 billion, most of it going to AT&T (NYSE: T) and Verizon (NYSE: VZ) Wireless. Government officials decided the 700-MHz spectrum could be vacated, because most consumers had moved to cable and satellite reception and weren’t using the spectrum anyway. A portion of the 700-MHz band was set aside for use by public safety agencies, but there were no serious bids for that section of the spectrum. FCC officials have said they want to schedule another auction to sell spectrum that can be used for public safety purposes.

Sen. Klobucher, who said 21% of Minnesotans still use analog broadcasts, noted that the analog spectrum serves an important public safety role. “Consumers who do not successfully make the transition,” she said, “will lose access to the Emergency Alert System and Amber Alert messages.”

The federal program to assist consumers in making the move from analog to digital broadcasting ran out of money recently, interfering with the flow of coupons consumers can use to purchase converters that will enable their old analog sets to receive digital broadcasts.

SOURCE: INFORMATION WEEK

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Mayor Sam Adams, who has admitted lying about a sexual relationship with a teenager, said Sunday that he would not resign.

A city commissioner, Randy Leonard, told The Associated Press that Mr. Adams had left a phone message in the morning saying he had decided to remain in office.

Two other commissioners told The Oregonian of Portland that Mr. Adams, the city’s first openly gay mayor, had told them the same thing. The fourth, Amanda Fritz, declined to comment.

Efforts to reach Mr. Adams were unsuccessful.

The Oregonian’s editorial page has called for his resignation, as have three smaller Portland newspapers and the police union.

Mr. Adams is being investigated by the Oregon attorney general. The case has divided the city, including its gay and lesbian community, although Mr. Adams has found strong support to remain, including a rally Friday on his behalf at City Hall that drew more than 400 people.

Mr. Adams, who was elected in November, met separately with the four commissioners on Saturday to discuss his political future.

Last week, Mr. Adams publicly apologized for lying about the sexual relationship he had with an 18-year-old man in 2005.

The man, Beau Breedlove, has said he did not have sex with the mayor until he was 18, even though they met when Mr. Breedlove was 17.

Mr. Breedlove, now 21, told The Oregonian on Saturday he had kissed Mr. Adams twice when he was 17 and welcomed the romantic interest. The statements contradicted Mr. Adams’s claim that he had told Mr. Breedlove he was not interested in a relationship at the time.

But Mr. Breedlove again said that he did not have sex with Mr. Adams before he was 18 and that the relationship was consensual. He also said he considered himself an adult before he turned 18.

“I do not see any relationship that I ever had with Sam as me being taken advantage of,” Mr. Breedlove told the newspaper. “I do not feel like I was ever a victim.”

SOURCE: NY TIMES

Versatile author Neil Gaiman has won the most prestigious writing award in American children’s literature for “The Graveyard Book,” the story of an orphan raised by ghosts.

The English novelist, graphic novelist and screenwriter now lives in Minnesota, apparently making him eligible — unlike, say, J.K. Rowling — for the American Library Association-sponsored Newbery Medal.

The ALA’s Caldecott Medal for children’s book illustration went to Beth Krommes for “The House in the Night.” The Printz Award for young adult literature (which carries no American residency requirement) went to Australian Melina Marchetta for her boarding school novel “Jellicoe Road.”At the National Book Festival last fall, Gaiman called his award-winner “the book that took me the longest to write.” It began with a notion that came to him more than two decades ago. Wouldn’t it be fun, he thought, to write something like Rudyard Kipling’s “The Jungle Books,” except instead of having his protagonist raised by animals, he’d be raised by a graveyard full of ghosts?

“I wrote about a page and a half and I looked at it, and I thought: This is a better idea than I am a writer,” Gaiman said. Eventually he decided “I’m not getting any better” and finished “The Graveyard Book.”

The 2009 Youth Media Awards were announced today in Denver at the American Library Association’s midwinter meeting.

Kadir Nelson, who both wrote and illustrated “We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball,” won the Coretta Scott King Award for his writing. The King illustration award went to “The Blacker the Berry,” illustrated by Floyd Cooper.

Among the other award recipients were:

Newbery Honor Books: “The Underneath,” by Kathi Appelt; “The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba’s Struggle for Freedom,” by Margarita Engle; “Savvy,” by Ingrid Law; and “After Tupac and D Foster,” by Jacqueline Woodson.

Caldecott Honor Books: “A Couple of Boys Have the Best Week Ever,” illustrated and written by Marla Frazee; “How I Learned Geography,” illustrated and written by Uri Shulevitz; and “A River of Words: The Story of William Carlos Williams,” illustrated by Melissa Sweet and written by Jen Bryant.

Printz Honor Books: “The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II, The Kingdom of the Waves,” by M.T. Anderson; “The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks,” by E. Lockhart; “Nation,” by Terry Pratchett; and “Tender Morsels,” by Margo Lanagan.

The Pura Belpre award, honoring Latino writers and illustrators: “The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba’s Struggle for Freedom,” written by Margarita Engle and “Just in Case,” illustrated by Yuyi Morales.

King Author Honor Books: “The Blacker the Berry,” written by Joyce Carol Thomas; “Keeping the Night Watch,” by Hope Anita Smith; and “Becoming Billie Holiday,” by Carole Boston Weatherford.

King Illustrator Honor Books: “We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball,” illustrated and written by Kadir Nelson; “Before John Was a Jazz Giant,” illustrated by Sean Qualls; and “The Moon Over Star,” illustrated by Jerry Pinkney.The Margaret A. Edwards Award for lifetime achievement in writing for young adults went to Laurie Halse Anderson for “Catalyst,” “Fever 1793″ and “Speak.”

SOURCE: WASHINGTON POST

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Benedict Friday became one of the oldest people to have his own YouTube channel, and he cautioned the young to use new media wisely and to avoid on-line obsession that can isolate them from real-life.

The Vatican channel, www.youtube.com/vaticanit, will broadcast short video news clips on the 81-year-old pope’s activities and Vatican and Church events, with audio and text initially in English, Spanish, German and Italian.

The video news clips will be about two minutes long each day. They will be produced by the Vatican’s television center and journalists and web managers of Vatican Radio.

The launch of the channel was combined with the release of the pope’s message for the Church’s World Day of Communications, whose theme is “New Technologies, New Relationships: Promoting a Culture of Respect, Dialogue and Friendship.”

Henrique de Castro, managing director of European sales and media solutions for Google, which owns YouTube, told a news conference Google would not make any money from the venture.

“Our strategy is to get people to come to our sites,” he said.

The YouTube channel will have no advertising and provide links to a number of Vatican and Catholic websites and video channels, including some run by Churches around the world.

The channel marked the Vatican’s deepest plunge into new media. The Vatican’s website, www.vatican.va, began in 1995.

Archbishop Claudio Celli, head of Vatican communications said the Vatican could not exclude that someday it would have its own space on Facebook, the social networking site.

In his welcome message to users of YouTube, the pope said he hoped the initiative would be put to “the service of the truth.”

In his separate, written message for the Church’s communications, he cautioned young people to seek quality and not quantity in their on-line relationships and not to forget human contact.

“It would be sad if our desire to sustain and develop on-line friendships were to be at the cost of our availability to engage with our families, our neighbors and those we meet in the daily reality of our places of work, education and recreation,” the pope wrote.

“If the desire for virtual connectedness becomes obsessive, it may in fact function to isolate individuals from real social interaction while also disrupting the patterns of rest, silence and reflection that are necessary for healthy human development,” he said.

The pope also said it would be “a tragedy for the future of humanity” if a so-called digital divide were allowed to widen to the point where it excluded disadvantaged areas of the world that are already economically and socially marginalised.

SOURCE: REUTERS.COM

WASHINGTON (CNN) — What a long, strange trip Barack Obama’s first full day as president turned out to be.

He began the day pushing for more transparency in government, only to end it by keeping TV cameras out when Chief Justice John Roberts re-administered the oath of the presidency.

All this started at Obama’s historic swearing-in on Tuesday, where Roberts flubbed a line in the oath of office, leading to this comical scene, via transcript at CNN.com:

Roberts: … that I will execute the office of president to the United States faithfully …

Obama: … that I will execute …

Roberts: … the off — faithfully the pres — the office of president of the United States.

Obama (at same time) … the office of president of the United States faithfully.

But many legal experts pointed out that Obama became president at noon on Tuesday, regardless of whether the oath was off or not.

So I didn’t think too much of the story until about 7:20 p.m. on Wednesday, when I noticed something odd as I stood in the West Wing of the White House, just a couple hundred feet from the Oval Office.

Suddenly I overheard White House senior adviser David Axelrod say, “Thank you, Mr. Chief Justice, for coming over.”

It’s not very often that I’ve heard a phrase like that, especially one day after the inaugural. So my ears perked up at the possibility that I had bumped into the chief justice and landed a big scoop headlined, “Chief justice visits White House to apologize to president about inaugural snafu.”

I really didn’t even think about the possibility of a second swearing-in. It seemed so implausible. So I started digging around to try to confirm my assumption: that Roberts, mortified over the mix-up, had come over for a quiet and quick apology to the new president.

Instead I had stumbled upon a bigger story. White House officials confirmed to me that new White House Counsel Greg Craig had advised the president to get sworn in a second time, just to nip the issue in the bud and not let any controversy linger that perhaps the president had not been sworn in legitimately.

“And out of an abundance of caution, because there was one word out of sequence, Chief Justice Roberts administered the oath a second time,” Craig said in a prepared statement.

The move allowed one controversy to die, but a new one popped up.

Word started spreading that White House officials had invited just a small group of print journalists in to witness the historic moment a second time, but had failed to invite a representative from the five major U.S. television networks.

CNN and other television networks have complained to the White House but have not gotten a clear answer from White House officials about why the video cameras were locked out.

So the whole point of the ceremony — getting the word out there that the president was in fact inaugurated — was undermined by the fact that now there’s no videotape to prove he was sworn in.

Not to mention that it may run counter to the main message the president was trying to deliver Wednesday with his executive order pushing for more openness in government.

SOURCE: ED HENRY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT

(CNN) — Jamaal Young was watching Barack Obama and his family greet an ecstatic crowd in Chicago, Illinois, on Election Night when he realized that something seemed wrong.

Obama didn’t shout at his wife, Michelle, to shut up. The first lady didn’t roll her eyes and tell Obama to act like a man. No laugh track kicked in, no one danced, and no police sirens wailed in the background.

Young had tuned in to celebrate the election of the nation’s first African-American president. But he realized that he was witnessing another historic first. A black family was being featured as the first family, not the “problem family” or the “funny family.

“They are not here to entertain us,” says Young, a New York Press columnist. “Michelle Obama is not sitting around with her girlfriends saying, ‘My man ain’t no good.’ You’re not seeing this over -sexualized, crazy black family that, every time a Marvin Gaye song comes on, someone stands up and says, ‘Oh girl, that’s my jam.’ ”

The nation didn’t just get a glimpse of its new first family when Obama and his family waved to the crowds on Inauguration Day. The Obamas are offering America a new way to look at the black family, Young and other commentators say.

America has often viewed the black family through the prism of its pathologies: single-family homes, absentee fathers, out of wedlock children, they say. Or they’ve turned to the black family for comic relief in television shows such as “Good Times” in the ’70s or today’s “House of Payne.”

But a black first family changes that script, some say. A global audience will now be fed images of a highly educated, loving and photogenic black family living in the White House for the next four years — and it can’t be taken off the air like “The Cosby Show.”

“The last time we had an image of a black family that was this positive it was “The Cosby Show,” but this is the Real McCoy,” says Jacqueline Moore Bowles, national president of Jack and Jill of America Inc., a predominately black organization for youths.

The new first family could inspire some of their biggest changes within the black family itself, some say.

In 1965, the late Daniel Patrick Moynihan, a Democratic senator from New York, warned the nation about the rise of fatherless black families. The “Moynihan Report” concluded that many black families were caught in a “tangle of pathology.”

The relationship between Obama and his wife may help untangle some of that pathology, some black commentators say.

It could start with black intimacy. The American public is routinely exposed to sexually charged relationships between black men and women. “Street lit” books with titles such as “Thugs and the Women Who Love Them,” and “A Project Chick” now crowd bookstores and public library shelves.

Yet the new first couple offers America an example of a black, passionate, marital relationship, says Jennifer Brea, a writer for EbonyJet.com.

“They are the most natural and accessible first couple this country has ever had,” Brea says. “You see a politician give a peck on his wife’s cheek after a speech and often it looks staged. When you look at them, you feel like that there’s this chemistry and spark.”

Several black women actually sighed as they talked about how much Obama seems to touch his wife and exchange soulful glances with her in public. They said Obama will show young black men how to treat women — and young black women how they should be treated.

“We don’t get to see black love,” says Heidi Durrow, the prize-winning author of the forthcoming novel, “Low Sky Dreaming.”

“But every time you see them [the Obamas] on stage, it’s been super,” she says. “It’s an amazing image to see these dynamic, smart, progressive people just openly affectionate. I’m all for it.”

Obama’s apparent closeness to his wife may help untangle another pathology — the preoccupation with skin color and “looking white,” Bowles, president of Jack and Jill, says.

Bowles says some powerful black men marry women who are white or fair-skinned. Obama’s decision to marry a darker-skinned woman like Michelle Obama shows black women that black can indeed be beautiful.

“Too often successful black men look for other things … a white woman or someone who light, bright and darn near white,” Bowles says. “She [Obama] is a true sister, and she makes no bones about it.”

But what about those blacks who haven’t been considered “true sisters” or “true brothers.” A black first family changes that script as well, some say.

Obama’s family shows that there is not one way, but many ways for someone to claim membership in the black family, some say.

Brea, the writer for EbonyJet.com, is the daughter of white mother and a Haitian-American father. She says she felt pressure to claim one race growing up. She never quite felt like a full citizen.

Obama’s biracial background and his “exotic” upbringing relieves her of that pressure. Obama will help other blacks who come from multiracial backgrounds and immigrant communities to be comfortable in their own skin, she says.

“It’s changed everything,” she says. “You can sort of be whatever you want in all of its complexity, and it’s something to be proud of.”

The Obama’s two daughters, Malia and Sasha, also offer America a new way to look at black kids, others say. Throughout Inauguration Day, the two girls stood before the cameras and waved, smiled and played to the cameras.

Durrow, the author of “Low Sky Dreaming,” says it’s refreshing to see well-spoken black children on television who act nothing like “Bebe’s kids,” the unruly black kids from the ghetto immortalized by the late black comedian Robin Harris.

“It’s wonderful for people on the world stage to see young black kids who are so poised and vivacious,” Durrow says. “They’re not ‘Bebe’s Kids.’ I see them and I get the sense that they’re going to be OK.”

Though the new first family may seem like a novelty to some, but for others they are familiar.

Barbara McKinzie, international president of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, says she grew up in a small town in Oklahoma surrounded by black couples, and an extended family of teachers and neighbors, who were knit together like the new first family.

She didn’t need to look at the Inauguration Day festivities to see a vibrant black family.

“It’s not new, but it appears new,” she says. “The president and his wife and children are not a novelty in the African-American community.

“It’s the only family I’ve know in my life.”

SOURCE: CNN-NEWS

Scientists have found more evidence of possible life on Mars.

NASA announced Thursday that its researchers and university scientists found methane in the Red Planet’s atmosphere. The finding suggests biological or geological activity.

NASA’s Infrared Telescope Facility and the W.M. Keck telescope showed prisms that separate white light into a rainbow and showed three lines that indicate the presence of methane.

“Methane is quickly destroyed in the Martian atmosphere in a variety of ways, so our discovery of substantial plumes of methane in the northern hemisphere of Mars in 2003 indicates some ongoing process is releasing the gas,” Michael Mumma of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., said in a statement.

Mumma, who authored a paper on the finding for Science Express, said that Mars releases methane “at a rate comparable to that of the massive hydrocarbon seep at Coal Oil Point in Santa Barbara, Calif.” during its northern midsummer.”

Methane is the main component of natural gas. Most of the Earth’s methane comes from living organisms as they digest nutrients. However, other events, like iron oxidation, can also cause release of the gas.

“Right now, we do not have enough information to tell whether biology or geology — or both — is producing the methane on Mars,” Mumma explained. “But it does tell us the planet is still alive, at least in a geologic sense. It is as if Mars is challenging us, saying, ‘Hey, find out what this means.’ ”

NASA said that if microscopic organisms produce methane, they are likely far below the surface, where it’s warm enough for water to remain in a liquid state. Water, carbon, and energy sources are necessary for all known forms of life.

“On Earth, microorganisms thrive about 1.2 to 1.9 miles beneath the Witwatersrand basin of South Africa, where natural radioactivity splits water molecules into molecular hydrogen and oxygen,” Mumma said. “The organisms use the hydrogen for energy. It might be possible for similar organisms to survive for billions of years below the permafrost layer on Mars, where water is liquid, radiation supplies energy, and carbon dioxide provides carbon.”

He said that methane could accumulate in similar underground areas before escaping into the atmosphere through pores or fissures that open during warm seasons.

The team said it found methane over the northern hemisphere of Mars, where there’s evidence of ancient ground ice or flowing water.

More research is needed to determine whether the methane came from biological or geological sources.

SOURCE: INFORMATION WEEK

The puppy was just weeks old, missing his two front legs and found abandoned with his siblings in a box along a Central Florida road.

To Jude Stringfellow, hundreds of miles away in Oklahoma, it was a sign from God.

“God sends some people to Africa, and some people he gives two-legged dogs to,” she said. “I’m obviously that one person.”

Next month, she will adopt the puppy, Tanker, and bring him home to meet Faith, Stringfellow’s Chinese chow chow, who also was born with two legs. Faith, now 6 years old, has dazzled and inspired people around the world with her ability to walk upright.

It’s too soon to say whether Tanker, now about the size of a guinea pig and with a white stripe down the middle of his face, will also be able to walk upright — it depends on his breed, which is still unknown, and how big he gets. Stringfellow might equip him with wheels instead. Either way, she already has plans for him.

Tanker will play the puppy version of Faith in a movie Stringfellow is working on about her dog. It will be a fictional story about a soldier who loses his legs in Iraq and finds the will to live when he meets Faith. Director and writer Ken Farmer said he will use makeup to lighten Tanker’s fur so he better resembles Faith. Farmer is an independent filmmaker and said he hopes his movie, called Faith, becomes a sleeper hit.

As for Tanker, he has no idea that he’s any different from his littermates.

“Right now, he’s just a puppy,” said Judy Walker, a volunteer at Pet Rescue by Judy in Sanford, who has been caring for Tanker. Judy Sarullo, the shelter’s founder, met Stringfellow and Faith at a convention. When she saw little Tanker, she immediately thought of them.

For now, Tanker wriggles around, powering himself forward with his hind legs and clumsily moving the little nubs where his front legs should be. He’s under Walker’s constant care, even accompanying her to square-dancing class.

Stringfellow said she’s certain that Faith and Tanker will get along well. The former English professor left her job when Faith came into her life about five years ago.

With a spoonful of peanut butter and a lot of determination, she taught Faith to walk.

The dog is somewhat awkward, but she has captured hearts wherever she has gone. She has walked across the stage on The Oprah Winfrey Show and other TV programs.

She and Stringfellow visited so many injured soldiers that the pooch was given an honorary commission as a sergeant in the Army.

“There are times when the doctors will call me and say, ‘Listen we’ve got a soldier here who hasn’t spoken in four weeks. Can you bring the dog up?’ ” Stringfellow said. “It won’t take 30, 40 minutes before he’s loosened up a bit.”

They go on motivational tours across the country. Stringfellow has written books about Faith. When Stringfellow was teaching part time she liked to tell her students, “If I can make a dog walk upright, your homework will be turned on time.”

Faith was born at Christmastime, just like Tanker. Stringfellow named Tanker in honor of her son, who is serving in Iraq. In the movie, in addition to playing the puppy Faith, Tanker also might play himself.

At the movie’s end, Stringfellow envisions Faith turning to the puppy and saying, “We’ve got a lot of work to do.”

SOURCE: ORLANDO SENTINEL

CAIRO, Egypt – Osama bin Laden urged Muslims to launch a jihad against Israel, seeking to harness anger over the Gaza offensive with a new message posted on the Internet on Wednesday.

The al-Qaida chief vowed to open “new fronts” against the U.S. and its allies beyond Iraq and Afghanistan and also criticized Arab leaders, accusing most of them of being allies of the U.S. and Israel.

The White House dismissed the call to jihad, saying it reflects bin Laden’s isolation and shows he is trying to remain relevant at a time when his ideology and mission are being challenged.

Bin Laden spoke in a 22-minute audiotape posted on Islamic militant Web sites where al-Qaida usually issues its messages. The 51-year-old al-Qaida leader has been in hiding since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, believed to be living somewhere along the lawless Pakistan-Afghan border.

It was bin Laden’s first tape since May and came nearly three weeks after Israel launched the offensive against Hamas that Gaza medical officials say has killed more than 1,000 Palestinians.

He said President-elect Barack Obama has received a “heavy inheritance” from George W. Bush — two wars and “the collapse of the economy.” He predicted that burden will render the U.S. unable to sustain a long fight against the mujahedeen, or holy warriors.

There is “only one strong way to bring the return of Al-Aqsa and Palestine, and that is jihad in the path of God,” Bin Laden said, referring to the revered Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. “The duty is to urge people to jihad and to enlist the youth into jihad brigades.”

He also appealed for donations to finance the fight, saying the “tithes from any of the great Muslim or Arab traders” would be enough “for jihad on all the fronts.”

The authenticity of the tape could not be independently confirmed. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said he had no reason to question its authenticity but was not certain whether the U.S. had verified the voice.

“It appears this tape demonstrates his isolation and continued attempts to remain relevant at a time when al-Qaida’s ideology, mission and agenda are being questioned and challenged throughout the world,” said Gordon Johndroe, a spokesman for the National Security Council at the White House.

“This also looks to be an effort to raise money as part of their ongoing propaganda campaign,” Johndroe said.

The tape, entitled “A call for jihad to stop the aggression on Gaza,” was played over a picture of bin Laden and the Al-Aqsa Mosque, one of Islam’s holiest sites. There were no English subtitles or the flashy production graphics that usually accompany such messages.

That suggested the message had been hastily put together to exploit Muslim anger over the Gaza offensive. Israel says the offensive aims to halt rocket fire from Gaza against Israeli towns but Palestinian medical officials say half of those killed have been civilians.

“The bin Laden speech is an obvious and cheap attempt to capitalize on the Arab world’s boiling anger about the Israeli invasion of Gaza,” said terror expert Eric Rosenbach of the Center for International Affairs at Harvard’s Kennedy School.

He said links between al-Qaida and Gaza’s Hamas rulers are “tenuous at best” and that Hamas, which seized power in Gaza in 2007, has historically distanced itself from bin Laden’s terror movement.

Bin Laden and his lieutenants frequently use the Palestinian issue to try to rally support for al-Qaida and often call for holy war to free Jerusalem. But there has been little sign that the terror group has carried out attacks in Israel.

Bin Laden made no direct reference to Hamas, and al-Qaida leaders have frequently criticized the Palestinian militant group for participating in elections and failing to seriously pursue jihad against Israel.

The al-Qaida leader also accused Arab leaders of “avoiding their responsibility” to liberate Palestine.

“If you are not convinced to fight, then open the way to those who are convinced,” he said. Bin Laden accused most Arab leaders of allying themselves with the U.S. and Israel.

Rita Katz, director of SITE Intelligence Group that monitors militant Web sites, said bin Laden was “attempting to convince Palestinians and the Muslims around the world that the only group that can help them is the jihadists” and that “Arab rulers and the Palestinian movements have failed them.”

“His other purpose is to exploit the conflict to exhort others to jihad and build support for al-Qaida,” she said.

Katz said the bin Laden’s appeal for money to finance jihad was unusual and “might reflect financial difficulties facing al-Qaida.”

Bin Laden pointed to financial problems facing the U.S., saying that was a sign that the U.S. power was falling apart.

“The Islamic nation’s jihad is one of the main causes of these destructive results for our enemies,” he claimed.

He pointed to wars in Afghanistan and Iraq since the Sept. 11 attacks, saying al-Qaida was prepared to fight “for seven more years, and seven more after that, then seven more.”

“The question is, can America continue the war against us for several more decades? The reports and signs show us otherwise,” he said. He said Bush had left his successor “with a heavy inheritance,” forcing Obama to choose between withdrawing from the wars or continuing.

“If he withdraws from the war, it is a military defeat. If he continues, he drowns in economic crisis,” bin Laden said.

SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS

SAN FRANCISCO - A California man has been arrested for arranging for his 14-year-old daughter to marry a neighbor in exchange for $16,000, 100 cases of beer and several cases of meat, police said.

Authorities in Greenfield, a farming community on California’s central coast, said they learned of the deal after Marcelino de Jesus Martinez, 36, asked them for help getting back his daughter after payment wasn’t made.

Martinez was arrested Sunday. He’s scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday in Monterey County Superior Court on felony charges of procuring a child under age 16 for lewd and lascivious acts, statutory rape and cruelty to a child by endangering health, according to the prosecutor.

The prosecutor’s office said Martinez did not have an attorney of record yet.

Police also arrested the intended groom, 18-year-old Margarito de Jesus Galindo, on suspicion of statutory rape, but prosecutors have not decided whether to charge him. Police did not return a message Tuesday for information on whether Galindo had an attorney.

Martinez is a member of an indigenous Mexican Trique community. Greenfield police Chief Joe Grebmeier said the case highlights an issue confronting local authorities in that arranged marriages with girls as young as 12 are not uncommon among the Trique.

He hesitated to say the girl was being sold into marriage, as the money was intended as a dowry and the beer and meat were for the wedding. But, he added, the arrangement violates California law, where the age of consent for marriage is 18, and with parental approval, 16.

NBC News’ Dara Brown reported that the deal specifically involved 100 cases of Corona beer, 50 cases of Modelo, six bottles of wine, 50 cases of soft drinks and 50 cases of Gatorade.

“This is not a traditional trafficking case because there is no force or coercion in this,” Grebmeier said. “We’re aware of the cultural issues here, but state law trumps cultural sensitivity.”

Grebmeier is planning to meet with leaders in the Trique community to talk about how some cultural practices might conflict with California law.

“Initially, when everyone was talking to us, we learned a lot because they had no realization that it’s against the law — an arranged marriage for money with a minor,” Grebmeier said.

Many Trique immigrants are part of the stream of farmworkers who tend California’s fruit and vegetable fields, living in communities scattered along the coast and the state’s agricultural Central Valley. The often speak only Trique, an indigenous language, and come from villages with cultural traditions that set them apart from other Mexicans.

Service organizations have been working to help them integrate, said Jonathan Fox, a professor of Latin American and Latino Studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz, who has worked extensively with indigenous immigrants.

“This is certainly not the first such case I’ve heard of,” he said of the marriage involving an underage girl.

Members of the indigenous community protested the news reports and public discussion of the case, saying they were painted in a very negative light.

“No one put a ‘for sale’ sign on this girl, and that’s how it sounds,” said Rufino Dominguez, an indigenous immigrant and head of the Greenfield office of the Binational Center for the Development of the Indigenous Communities.

He said arranging marriages and exchanging goods that will contribute to the wedding party are common, but money is not usually part of the transaction. When that does happen, it’s not seen well within the community, he said.

“Most people don’t agree with it,” he said.

Police learned of the deal in mid-December, when Martinez reported his daughter as a runaway. Further investigation found the girl had not fled but moved in with Galindo as part of the marriage arrangement. Grebmeier said the girl was a willing party to the deal.

Martinez would face at least a year in prison if convicted. Because he’s an undocumented immigrant, he’s under an immigration hold and is not eligible for bail.

SOURCE: MSNBC.COM

SYDNEY, Australia (AP) — Position: Island caretaker. Duties: Lazing around Australia’s Great Barrier Reef for six months. Salary: 150,000 Australian dollars ($100,000).

It sounds too good to be true, but it’s for real. Billing it the “Best Job in the World,” Australian tourism officials say they are seeking one lucky person to spend six months relaxing on Hamilton Island, part of the country’s Whitsunday Islands, while promoting the destination on a blog.

Within 24 hours, more than 200,000 prospective applicants had clicked onto the Web site advertising the sweet gig.

The eager reaction — and worldwide media attention — delighted tourism officials, who listed the job as part of a AU$1.7 million ($1.1 million) campaign to publicize the charms of northeastern Queensland state.

“The global response in the first 24 hours has outstripped even our expectations,” Australia’s Tourism Minister Desley Boyle said.

Boyle said the campaign had already reached some 29 million people through television and print media coverage — the equivalent of nearly $10 million in publicity.

While the advertisement is a stunt, the job is still genuine. Applicants must submit a 60-second video application, and 11 finalists will be flown from their home countries to Hamilton Island in May for the final selection process.

In exchange for the plush salary, free accommodation in an oceanfront villa and airfare from the winner’s home country, the employee will be required to stroll the island’s white sand beaches, snorkel, maybe take a dip in the pool — and post photos and videos of his or her experiences on a weekly blog.

As of late Tuesday, at least 200,000 people logged onto the Web site to check out the listing, Boyle said. Only about 200 video applications had been submitted, but officials said they expect thousands more.

Applications are open until Feb. 22. The job begins on July 1

SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS

The body of a Somali pirate who reportedly drowned soon after receiving a huge ransom has washed ashore with $153,000 in cash, his uncle says.

The man was one of a group of pirates who seized the Saudi supertanker Sirius Star in November.

They reportedly received $3m (£1.95m) for freeing the tanker but five were said to have drowned after fleeing.

A relative of the drowned pirate told the BBC the family was now trying to dry out the recovered money.

The pirates’ boat capsized when they were hit by rough seas as they were heading back to their homes in central Somalia, the leader of the pirates told AFP.

‘Parachute drop’

The pirates disembarked the Sirius Star on Friday, after a small plane was seen apparently dropping the ransom by parachute on to the tanker.

A negotiator for the pirates told the BBC’s reporter in Mogadishu by telephone that a $3m ransom had been paid shortly after the ship was released.

The ship’s owner has refused to comment.

The tanker had been held for nearly two months off the coast of Somalia, near the town of Harardhere.

Eyewitnesses in the coastal town said five of the pirates had drowned while trying to make off with the loot.

“One of them was discovered and they are still looking for the other ones,” resident Omar Abdi Hassan told the BBC.

The uncle of the pirate who washed ashore, Abukar Sheikh Hassan, told the BBC that the family had found $153,000 in a plastic bag in his pocket.

He said some of the money was wet and the family was now trying to dry it out.

Three pirates managed to survive, but lost their share of the ransom when swimming to shore, reports said.

The drowned pirate was apparently the only one who managed to hold on to his share of the ransom.

The Sirius Star was carrying $100m-worth of oil - a quarter of Saudi Arabia’s daily output - when it was seized more than 450 nautical miles south-east of Kenya.

There were more than 100 reported pirate attacks in the busy shipping lanes off eastern and northern Somalia in 2008.

An international force headed by the US is due to be established by the end of the month to tackle the problem.

On Friday, Kenya’s port authorities said a fishing vessel had been attacked and three Indian crew kidnapped, Reuters reported.

Pirates are still holding a Ukrainian cargo ship, the MV Faina, which was seized in late September carrying 33 tanks and other weaponry.

For more than a decade, Mack wore women’s pantyhose under his clothes to keep him warm while he worked as a landscaper. But four years ago, Mack, 35, discovered “mantyhose” —pantyhose for men.

“It’s nice because they are specifically made for men, so I felt less weird about it,” said Mack, who declined to give his last name (because his wife does still feel weird about it). “They are tougher, less delicate than women’s pantyhose, but not as bulky as long underwear.”

He says that he enjoys the fit and feel of the “mantyhose” so much that he wears them year-round, even though he now holds an office job.

Mack is one of a growing number of men — from construction workers to athletes and businessmen — who’ve found a passion for pantyhose, claiming they wear the hosiery for support, comfort and aesthetic purposes. Luckily, there are now pairs made specifically for men so that they don’t have to ravage their wives’ or girlfriends’ dressers to nestle into a pair of nylons.

European men have been sporting hose for several years, but the trend has been slow to catch on in the U.S. (It is important to note that the trend has no connection to men who wear hose to cross-dress, since they prefer to wear pairs that are more feminine.) The “mantyhose” is also part of a larger trend of untraditional men’s underwear designed to lift, sculpt and suck in that beer belly — from the “mirdle” (man-girdle) to Australian designer Equmen’s Core Precision Undershirt, touted as the “Spanx for men.” A small group of male pantyhose enthusiasts from America, Canada and Europe even set up a Web site, the U.K.-based e-mancipate.net, “to speed up the mainstreaming process of male pantyhose” for men all over the world.

Atlanta-based Luxelegwear.com, which makes European hosiery brands available around the world, has sold 75 to 80 percent of its products to men since it started in 2005, according to managing director Deborrah Ashley.

Steven Katz, co-owner of Ohio-based Comfilon, which creates and distributes men’s pantyhose, says that while the market for men’s pantyhose in the U.S. is “tiny,” 2008 has been “our best year ever.”

The “mantyhose” comes in a variety of colors and designs, but, Katz says, basic black holds the title as most popular.

Katz came up with the idea for creating men’s pantyhose after surfing the Internet and finding complaints from men who were frustrated about their lack of options.

“Men were being told by their doctors that they needed compression legwear for knee problems,” Katz said. “So they were sent to buy women’s hosiery, and that was embarrassing for them.”

One such man was 55-year-old Steve, who suffers from restless leg syndrome; he declined to give his last name for publication. “My legs would ache at night and I wouldn’t be able to sleep,” he said. “I thought they would help with my circulation, so I ordered a couple pairs, and my legs haven’t bothered me since.”

Four years later, Steve, a coffee shop manager from Greenville, S.C., can’t imagine life without wearing men’s pantyhose.

Katz, who was looking for a way to boost his company’s sales, said he wanted to fill a void in the market and cater to men like Steve. He began designing pantyhose styles that had masculine proportions and fly openings, and in 1998, Comfilon’s Activeskin Legwear for Men was born. The company now sells hosiery and intimate apparel for men only through the Internet, and also distributes a men’s pantyhose line from the mainstream French hosiery company Gerbe.

Comfilon’s sales tagline? “This is NOT your mother’s pantyhose.”

That’s what Dave Andrews, 40, found when he first tried a pair of “mantyhose” in 2006, after he had worn women’s pantyhose for six months.

“The benefits were there — you can’t argue with the muscle support when you’re on your feet all day,” said Andrews, a sales representative from Indianapolis, Ind. “Plus, it’s made for the male anatomy, so there’s added comfort, and the control top makes you look better.”

Katz says his Activeskin line isn’t sold in stores because there is continued stigma about men wearing pantyhose.

“There are a lot of guys who like wearing the product because of the benefits — the support, the warmth — but the gender hang-ups about pantyhose are still so pervasive,” he said.

Many men who wear “mantyhose” say it isn’t them or even other guys who are embarrassed —it’s mostly their wives and girlfriends.

“My wife was really uncomfortable at first — she was nervous about going out with me in public when I had them on,” said Andrews. “But then we went out and she saw that no one noticed or had any adverse reaction.”

Mack says his wife still isn’t keen on the world knowing about his hosiery.

“I understand how people can be taken aback by it, but men used to wear this legwear before women ever did,” he said. “No one’s gonna stop me from wearing what I need to wear.”

Andrews often gets positive reactions from people when they see that he’s wearing “mantyhose.” And for those who are still turned off by men wearing hosiery, Andrews responds with a couple of clichés.

“Don’t knock it till you’ve tried it, and don’t be afraid to take the leap,” he said.

An atheist advertising campaign has been launched on buses across Britain.

A fund-raising drive for the promotion, carrying the slogan “There’s probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life”, raised more than £140,000.

The campaign, which will also feature on the Tube, is backed by the British Humanist Association and prominent atheist, Professor Richard Dawkins.

The Church of England said Christian faith allowed people to put their life into a “proper perspective”.

A spokesman said: “We would defend the right of any group representing a religious or philosophical position to be able to promote that view through appropriate channels.

“However, Christian belief is not about worrying or not enjoying life.”

Pressure group Christian Voice has questioned the campaign’s effectiveness but the Methodist Church said it would be a “good thing if it gets people to engage with the deepest questions of life” and suggested it showed there was a “continued interest in God”.

The advertisements will run on 200 bendy buses in London and 600 vehicles in England, Scotland and Wales.

The British Humanist Association said the buses carrying the slogan outside London would operate in Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow, Edinburgh, York, Leeds, Newcastle, Dundee, Sheffield, Coventry, Devon, Liverpool, Wolverhampton, Swansea, Newport, Rhondda, Bristol, Southampton, and Aberdeen.

‘Exasperation’

Four posters featuring quotations from the likes of Douglas Adams, Albert Einstein, and Katharine Hepburn will also be placed at 1,000 London Underground locations.

The campaign was devised by comedy writer Ariane Sherine.

She was inspired to seek donations after objecting to a set of Christian advertisements on a bus.

When people went to a highlighted website address, they were told that whose who rejected God were condemned to spend all eternity to “torment in Hell”.

Ms Sherine said she sought donations for a “reassuring” counter-advertisement.

She said: “I think there have been a lot of people out there who have been looking at evangelical advertisements and not saying anything and thinking that these advertisements have been approved and just shrugging it off.

“Now finally they have an opportunity to express this feeling of exasperation.”

Professor Dawkins made a donation of £5,500 himself.

He said: “Across Britain we are used to being bombarded by religious interests, not just Christians but other religions as well…

“In the House of Lords we have bishops sitting as of right and we are still very much dominated by religious interests.”

Other supporters at the launch of the poster campaign included philosopher A C Grayling, Guardian columnist Polly Toynbee, and Graham Linehan, co-writer of the Father Ted TV comedy series.

SOURCE: BBCNEWS

SAN FRANCISCO - George Francis, the nation’s oldest man, who lived through both world wars, man’s first walk on the moon and the election of the first black president, has died. He was 112.

Francis died Saturday of congestive heart failure at a nursing home in Sacramento, his son, Anthony Francis, said Sunday.

“He lived four years in the 19th century, 100 years in the 20th century, and 8 years in the 21st century. We call him the man of three centuries,” said the younger Francis, 81.

UCLA gerontologist Dr. Stephen Coles, who maintains a list of the world’s oldest people, said Francis lived 112 years and 204 days.

With Francis’ death, Walter Breuning of Montana, who is 112 years, 98 days old, becomes the country’s oldest living man. At 114, Gertrude Baines of Los Angeles is the nation’s oldest living person. The world’s oldest person is Maria de Jesus of Portugal, who is 115 years, 109 days old, and the oldest man is Tomoji Tanabe of Japan, who is 113 years, 101 days, Coles said.

Francis, who at his prime barely weighed more than 100 pounds, was born June 6, 1896, in New Orleans. As an African-American in the South, he felt the sting of the Jim Crow-era segregation laws in his early life.

His son said Francis tried to enlist in the U.S. Army during World War I but was turned down because of his stature.

“We always attributed his longevity to his mental and physical toughness,” Anthony Francis said.

George Francis quit school after the sixth grade, became an amateur boxer as a young man and later worked as a chauffeur, an auto mechanic and a barber.

He and his wife, Josephine Johnson Francis, had a son and three daughters. Josephine Francis died of cancer in 1964.

Even in his waning days, Francis never lost his passion for politics, his family said. He voted for Franklin Roosevelt in the 1930s and for Barack Obama in 2008.

In an interview with The Associated Press after Obama’s victory, Francis, who used a wheelchair, said he felt like jumping up and down.

“He is going to give black men a break in the world, and give them a better opportunity to live and make more money,” he said. “For people who say voting doesn’t matter, I think that’s crazy.”

Anthony Francis said his father was devoted to his family and that he attributed his longevity to them.

“He said, ‘My children and my friends, I live off of them,’” he said.

Besides his four children, Francis is survived by 18 grandchildren, 33 great-grandchildren and 16 great-great grandchildren.

SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS

ORLANDO, Florida (CNN) — The remains found in a wooded area last week in Orange County, Florida, are those of Caylee Anthony, authorities confirmed at a news conference Friday.

The announcement marks the end of a six-month search for the 2-year-old.

“It is with regret that I’m here to inform you that the skeletal remains found on December 1 are those of the missing toddler,” Orange County Medical Examiner Dr. Jan Garavaglia said.

She said the cause of death was homicide, but she could not determine how Caylee was killed.

Casey Anthony, 22, faces charges including first-degree murder in the June disappearance of her daughter. Remains described as being those of a small child were found last week a half-mile from Casey Anthony’s parents’ home, in the area where a meter reader first directed police.

At Friday’s news conference, police will identify the meter reader who, they said Thursday, called the department four months ago, directing them to the site of the remains three times in August.

At a Thursday news conference, Capt. Angelo Nieves, a Sheriff’s Department commander, said investigators were looking into whether the tips, called in August 11, 12 and 13, were properly followed up.

In one of those phone calls, the meter reader reported seeing a gray bag on the side of the road, Nieves said. On August 13, a deputy responded to the site and did a “cursory search” but found nothing, Nieves said.

Nieves said police were getting more information from the tipster and the deputy who responded to the tips. He said the department was investigating the “thoroughness” of the deputy’s response but would not identify the deputy.

The meter reader “is not a suspect,” Nieves said. “He is a credible witness.”

Nieves’ latest announcement is raising questions about whether police missed several chances to find remains believed to be Caylee’s.

The meter reader is not the only one, or the first, to have pointed police toward the site containing the remains.

KioMarie Cruz, Casey Anthony’s childhood friend, also told police to investigate the same wooded area near Hidden Oaks Elementary School a month before the meter reader, according to CNN affiliate WFTV.

In an interview with detectives, according to WFTV, Cruz said that she and Anthony “pretty much used to hang out there most of our time,” would “snack on food for hours” and went there to “get away from our parents.”

The Sheriff’s Department followed up on that tip, but the wooded area was covered in floodwaters, preventing a search. Nieves said the water may have been present at the time of the meter reader’s tips as well.

Nieves also said Thursday that searchers combing the site after the skull’s discovery had found “significant skeletal remains” consistent with those of a small child on the outer perimeter of the search area.

The area will be enlarged, and processing and searching of the site will continue, probably into the weekend, he said.

Some of the remains have been sent to the FBI lab in Quantico, Virginia, in an effort to identify them. Authorities have said the remains are believed to be Caylee’s, but an identification is pending.

Sheriff’s spokesman Carlos Padilla said last week that authorities believe the remains are Caylee’s for three reasons: No other children have been reported missing in the area; the remains are consistent with those of a child of Caylee’s age; and the remains were found near the home of the grandparents, where the 2-year-old and her mother were living just before Caylee disappeared.

FBI spokesman Richard Kolko said Monday that he did not know when tests would be complete, but an attorney for Anthony’s parents said the FBI is likely to have results “within the next week.”

Casey Anthony could face a sentence of life in prison if convicted. Prosecutors said this month that they would not seek the death penalty.

SOURCE: CNN.COM

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba - Blaring from a speaker behind a metal grate in his tiny cell in Iraq, the blistering rock from Nine Inch Nails hit Prisoner No. 200343 like a sonic bludgeon.

“Stains like the blood on your teeth,” Trent Reznor snarled over distorted guitars. “Bite. Chew.”

The auditory assault went on for days, then weeks, then months at the U.S. military detention center in Iraq. Twenty hours a day. AC/DC. Queen. Pantera. The prisoner, military contractor Donald Vance of Chicago, told The Associated Press he was soon suicidal.

The tactic has been common in the U.S. war on terror, with forces systematically using loud music on hundreds of detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay. Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, then the U.S. military commander in Iraq, authorized it on Sept. 14, 2003, “to create fear, disorient … and prolong capture shock.”

Now the detainees aren’t the only ones complaining. Musicians are banding together to demand the U.S. military stop using their songs as weapons.

A campaign being launched Wednesday has brought together groups including Massive Attack and musicians such as Tom Morello, who played with Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave and is now on a solo tour. It will feature minutes of silence during concerts and festivals, said Chloe Davies of the British law group Reprieve, which represents dozens of Guantanamo Bay detainees and is organizing the campaign.

At least Vance, who says he was jailed for reporting illegal arms sales, was used to rock music. For many detainees who grew up in Afghanistan — where music was prohibited under Taliban rule — interrogations by U.S. forces marked their first exposure to the pounding rhythms, played at top volume.

‘Plenty lost their minds’
The experience was overwhelming for many. Binyam Mohammed, now a prisoner at Guantanamo Bay, said men held with him at the CIA’s “Dark Prison” in Afghanistan wound up screaming and smashing their heads against walls, unable to endure more.

“There was loud music, (Eminem’s) ‘Slim Shady’ and Dr. Dre for 20 days. I heard this nonstop over and over,” he told his lawyer, Clive Stafford Smith. “The CIA worked on people, including me, day and night for the months before I left. Plenty lost their minds.”

The spokeswoman for Guantanamo’s detention center, Navy Cmdr. Pauline Storum, wouldn’t give details of when and how music has been used at the prison, but said it isn’t used today. She didn’t respond when asked whether music might be used in the future.

FBI agents stationed at Guantanamo Bay reported numerous instances in which music was blasted at detainees, saying they were “told such tactics were common there.”

According to an FBI memo, one interrogator at Guantanamo Bay bragged he needed only four days to “break” someone by alternating 16 hours of music and lights with four hours of silence and darkness.

Ruhal Ahmed, a Briton who was captured in Afghanistan, describes excruciating sessions at Guantanamo Bay. He said his hands were shackled to his feet, which were shackled to the floor, forcing him into a painful squat for periods of up to two days.

“You’re in agony,” Ahmed, who was released without charge in 2004, told Reprieve. He said the agony was compounded when music was introduced, because “before you could actually concentrate on something else, try to make yourself focus on some other things in your life that you did before and take that pain away.

“It makes you feel like you are going mad,” he said.

‘Sesame Street’ tunes used for interrogation
Not all of the music is hard rock. Christopher Cerf, who wrote music for “Sesame Street,” said he was horrified to learn songs from the children’s TV show were used in interrogations.

“I wouldn’t want my music to be a party to that,” he told AP.

Bob Singleton, whose song “I Love You” is beloved by legions of preschool Barney fans, wrote in a newspaper opinion column that any music can become unbearable if played loudly for long stretches.

“It’s absolutely ludicrous,” he wrote in the Los Angeles Times. “A song that was designed to make little children feel safe and loved was somehow going to threaten the mental state of adults and drive them to the emotional breaking point?”

Morello, of Rage Against the Machine, has been especially forceful in denouncing the practice. During a recent concert in San Francisco, he proposed taking revenge on President George W. Bush.

“I suggest that they level Guantanamo Bay, but they keep one small cell and they put Bush in there … and they blast some Rage Against the Machine,” he said to whoops and cheers.

Some musicians, however, say they’re proud that their music is used in interrogations. Those include bassist Stevie Benton, whose group Drowning Pool has performed in Iraq and recorded one of the interrogators’ favorites, “Bodies.”

“People assume we should be offended that somebody in the military thinks our song is annoying enough that played over and over it can psychologically break someone down,” he told Spin magazine. “I take it as an honor to think that perhaps our song could be used to quell another 9/11 attack or something like that.”

The band’s record label told AP that Benton did not want to comment further. Instead, the band issued a statement reading: “Drowning Pool is committed to supporting the lives and rights of our troops stationed around the world.”

Tactics to make men go mad
Vance, in a telephone interview from Chicago, said the tactic can make innocent men go mad. According to a lawsuit he has filed, his jailers said he was being held because his employer was suspected of selling weapons to terrorists and insurgents. The U.S. military confirms Vance was jailed but won’t elaborate because of the lawsuit.

He said he was locked in an overcooled 9-foot-by-9-foot cell that had a speaker with a metal grate over it. Two large speakers stood in the hallway outside. The music was almost constant, mostly hard rock, he said.

“There was a lot of Nine Inch Nails, including ‘March of the Pigs,”’ he said. “I couldn’t tell you how many times I heard Queen’s ‘We Will Rock You.”’

He wore only a jumpsuit and flip-flops and had no protection from the cold.

“I had no blanket or sheet. If I had, I would probably have tried suicide,” he said. “I got to a few points toward the end where I thought, ‘How can I do this?’ Actively plotting, ‘How can I get away with it so they don’t stop it?”’

Asked to describe the experience, Vance said: “It sort of removes you from you. You can no longer formulate your own thoughts when you’re in an environment like that.”

He was released after 97 days. Two years later, he says, “I keep my home very quiet.”

A no-cutting-in-line conflict between two large groups of shoppers helped to spark the Black Friday stampede in which a Wal-Mart worker was trampled to death, Nassau police said yesterday.

Shoppers who remained inside their vehicles in the parking lot until the Valley Stream store’s special 5 a.m. opening apparently clashed with people who had stood in line for hours outside Wal-Mart, police said.

When the store’s doors opened, the conflict between the two groups - with “a considerable amount of people” who had stayed in their vehicles rushing to enter the store without waiting in line - fostered “mob mentality,” Nassau Police Lt. Kevin Smith said.

“A whole lot of people started getting out of their cars and made a beeline for that door,” Smith said, referring to the one set of doors open to shoppers.

“It’s definitely a contributing factor - the mentality of ‘They’re not going to cut in front of me.’”

In the crush of an estimated 2,000 people, the set of doors was broken and Jdimytai Damour, 34, of Jamaica, a temporary security worker, was trampled, dying of asphyxiation, police said. No one has been charged in connection with the death, though police are investigating possible criminal charges.

Meanwhile, an attorney for Damour’s family yesterday filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against Wal-Mart in state Supreme Court in the Bronx, The Associated Press reported. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Elsie Damour Phillipe, the victim’s sister.

In a written statement, Hank Mullany, president of Wal-Mart’s Eastern Division, said the company is working to implement stronger safety measures.

“We consider Mr. Damour part of the Wal-Mart family, and are saddened by his death,” Mullany said. “We have been in communication with members of his family to do what we can to help them through this difficult time. Our associates know that when incidents like this occur, we take care of our own.”

The statement did not address the family’s lawsuit.

Police reports on the Black Friday disturbance showed a total of five cases requiring medical attention, with people suffering injuries ranging from a broken ankle to complaints of pain, along with three reports of harassment and Damour’s death, Smith said.

Police are learning about events leading up to the stampede and Damour’s death by interviewing witnesses and examining the store’s video surveillance cameras. They could not say how many people left their vehicles and rushed for the doors or how many vehicles were waiting in the parking lot before the Wal-Mart opened.

Attorneys interviewed by Newsday earlier in the week stated that the chances of charges being filed against anyone aren’t good.

Police officials conceded that point. “The likelihood of our being able to find, identify and attribute criminality to them will be very difficult,” Smith said.

Earlier that morning, Nassau police officers responded to the Wal-Mart at about 3 a.m. after receiving a call about a disturbance. The officers left about 20 minutes later because the crowd was orderly, Smith said.

Officers were called back to the store about 5 a.m. because Damour had been trampled.

The lawsuit filed by Damour’s family is not the first in connection with stampede. On Monday, Fritz Mesadieu, 51, and his son Jonathan, 19, both of Hempstead, filed a notice of claim against Nassau County and a separate negligence suit against Wal-Mart.

They say that the county was negligent, alleging it failed to have proper police in the Wal-Mart parking lot. Their lawsuit seeks $2 million.”A whole lot of people started getting out of their cars and made a beeline for that door,” Smith said, referring to the one set of doors open to shoppers.

“It’s definitely a contributing factor - the mentality of ‘They’re not going to cut in front of me.’”

In the crush of an estimated 2,000 people, the set of doors was broken and Jdimytai Damour, 34, of Jamaica, a temporary security worker, was trampled, dying of asphyxiation, police said. No one has been charged in connection with the death, though police are investigating possible criminal charges.

Meanwhile, an attorney for Damour’s family yesterday filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against Wal-Mart in state Supreme Court in the Bronx, The Associated Press reported. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Elsie Damour Phillipe, the victim’s sister.

In a written statement, Hank Mullany, president of Wal-Mart’s Eastern Division, said the company is working to implement stronger safety measures.

“We consider Mr. Damour part of the Wal-Mart family, and are saddened by his death,” Mullany said. “We have been in communication with members of his family to do what we can to help them through this difficult time. Our associates know that when incidents like this occur, we take care of our own.”

The statement did not address the family’s lawsuit.

Police reports on the Black Friday disturbance showed a total of five cases requiring medical attention, with people suffering injuries ranging from a broken ankle to complaints of pain, along with three reports of harassment and Damour’s death, Smith said.

Police are learning about events leading up to the stampede and Damour’s death by interviewing witnesses and examining the store’s video surveillance cameras. They could not say how many people left their vehicles and rushed for the doors or how many vehicles were waiting in the parking lot before the Wal-Mart opened.

Attorneys interviewed by Newsday earlier in the week stated that the chances of charges being filed against anyone aren’t good.

Police