Reaping In The New Year
The grim reaper has been reaping them very early in life
very early on in 2008...
The usual contest sought out is to able to grasp the honor
of having the first-born babe of the year.
Some unlucky souls find themselves to be the first ones to go
in the opposite direction, though...
Or, perhaps, they are the lucky ones in that.
They are in "a better place" now - as they say...
Stefanie Rengel, 14, the daughter and stepdaughter
of two veteran Toronto police officers,
was killed on Jan. 1st.
(Photo released by Toronto Police Service)
Rengel's death is the city's first homicide of 2008.
My condolences to her parents and friends.
There were 84 homicides in Toronto during 2007,
fifteen more than there had been in all of 2006.
Toronto measures up, hence, to the numbers reported
by many other large urban centers in North America...
The trend upwards, though, is seen only in a few places
while others saw a small decrease in the number of homicides
committed on their territory...
Such are the pitfalls of urban life
in burstling metropolises...
I may keep going downtown
but I think I am not boarding a bus
for a long, long time now...
First there was the American tragedy, pictured below,
and then it was the Canadian one,
in Bathurst, New Brunswick...
Long distance trips are sometimes best never undertaken...
In this photo released by the Utah Department of Public Safety on Monday, Jan. 7, 2008, a charter bus carrying people from a Colorado ski resort sits upright after running off a wet road and rolling several times down an embankment in far southeastern Utah Sunday, Jan. 6, 2008, killing eight passengers and injuring about 20 others north of Medicine Hat, Utah.
(AP Photo/via Utah Dept. of Public Safety)
My condolences to all bereaved parties.
A sudden death in the family is always so hard to take.
One like this, out of left field, is twice as hard on the system.
You can all share your condolences by signing here.
At "press time" over here (blog publishing time, really)
there were already close to 500 pages worth of sympathy.
An illustrious old-timer also passed away
early in this year of Our Lord, 2008...
Explorers Sardar Tenzing Norgay of Nepal, left, and Sir Edmund Hillary of New Zealand who conquered Mount Everest in 1953, are in this 1953 handout photo. Hillary, the unassuming beekeeper who conquered Mount Everest to win renown as one of the 20th century's greatest adventurers, has died, New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark announced Friday, Jan. 11, 2008. He was 88.
(AP Photo/NZPA,Penguin Books, HO)
My condolences to Sir Hillary's family.
And there were more demises, many more,
of course - Death sees no difference whether it is a new year
"full of promise and hope, for the future" - or not.
Deaths -violent ones at that- occurred on New Year's Day itself
(no, the Rengel tragic end was not the only one to occur
at the most unexpected time, on the most unexpected day)
And, as always, Death picked them in an undiscriminatory way -
all ages, creeds, races and colors list among the notables
as, also, among the anonymously departed,
those who are a mere faceless, nameless number
in all of these death tolls reported by news feeds everywhere...
More - in the comments section.
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Labels: Bowman, C. Green, D. Hétu, Debbie Anne Owen, Fischer, J Granville, Joanne Hoeppner, Ledger, Lucas Boldt, M. Aman, Montgomery, Princess Galyani, Renfro, Sir Hillary, Stefanie Rengel
posted by Luminous (\ô/) Luciano™ @ 10:27 PM
31 comments
31 Comments:
U.S. diplomat killed in Sudan
KHARTOUM, Sudan, Jan. 1 (UPI) --
A U.S. diplomat was killed as he returned from a New Year's Eve party in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum in an attack that also left his driver dead.
The Sudanese government said John Granville, 33, was near his home when 17 shots were fired from another car, The New York Times reported. Granville was on his way home from the British Embassy.
Walter Braunohler, a spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Khartoum, said Granville died at a hospital a few hours after he was wounded.
While Braunohler said it was too early to say whether Granville was killed by terrorists, Sudanese officials described the attack as well-planned. Officials said another car blocked Granville's and two men got out, one firing at the diplomat and the other at his driver, identified as Abdel Rahman Abbas, a Sudanese employee of the U.S. embassy.
Relatives said Granville first went to Africa as a Peace Corps volunteer in Cameroon and also had received a Fulbright fellowship. He then went to work for the U.S. Agency for International Development, first in Kenya and later in Sudan.
© UPI
Thai princess dies at 84
BANGKOK, Jan. 2 (UPI) --
Thai Princess Galyani Vadhana, the older sister of King Bhumidol Adulyadej, died of abdominal cancer Wednesday at the age of 84.
The princess had been treated for the cancer at Siriraj Hospital since last June, the Bangkok Post reported.
Princess Galyani, who was born in London, studied science, chemistry, the arts, history and languages, and went on to become a teacher, the newspaper said. She also was heavily involved in charitable work, including the Foundation of Voluntary Doctors. In addition, she created her own foundation for funding the studies of gifted young musicians.
© UPI
At least 10 die in Nigerian violence
PORT HARCOURT, Nigeria, Jan. 2 (UPI) --
A series of attacks by a street gang Tuesday left at least 10 people dead in Port Harcourt, Nigeria.
Authorities said the assaults, which appeared coordinated, occurred at two police stations, a hotel and a restaurant, The New York Times reported. The victims included at least four police officers and several of the attackers, the newspaper said.
Police officials said the assailants were believed to be members of the Niger Delta Vigilante, one of many gangs and military groups that have operated in the oil-rich region plagued by kidnappings and violence, the Times reported.
The attacks were believed to have been in response to strikes by the Nigerian military on the headquarters of the Niger Delta Vigilante in the town of Okrika, not far from Port Harcourt, which is home to the gang's leader, Ateke Tom.
"They are trying to say, 'You did not wipe us out; we are still here,'" said Patrick Naagbanton, a human rights activist in Port Harcourt. "This was a show of force."
© UPI
At least 30 killed in Iraq attack
BAGHDAD, Jan. 1 (UPI) --
The funeral for a retired Iraqi army officer exploded into bloody chaos Tuesday when a suicide bomber blew himself up, killing at least 30 mourners.
Police said the attack in Baghdad also left at least 32 more wounded, the BBC reported.
The explosion occurred as mourners gathered for the funeral of Nabil Hussein Jassim, who had been killed by a car bomb in Baghdad Friday, the British network said.
The latest attack came the same day Iraqi officials released statistics showing the number of civilians killed in the war-torn nation continues to fall. The December death toll was 480, down from almost 900 two months earlier and about 2,000 in December 2006, the BBC said.
U.S. military deaths also fell in December, slipping to 21 compared to more than 100 in December 2006, the network said.
© UPI
Kenya church torched, 50 reported killed
By ELIZABETH A. KENNEDY and TOM ODULA, Associated Press Writers Tue Jan 1, 6:01 PM ET
NAIROBI, Kenya - A mob torched a church where hundreds had sought refuge Tuesday, and witnesses said dozens of people — including children — were burned alive or hacked to death with machetes in ethnic violence that followed Kenya's disputed election.
The killing of up to 50 ethnic Kikuyus in the Rift Valley city of Eldoret brought the death toll from four days of rioting to more than 275, raising fears of further unrest in what has been one of Africa's most stable democracies.
The latest violence recalled scenes from the genocide in Rwanda in 1994, when more than a half-million people were killed. The question facing Kenya is whether the politicians will lose control of the mobs, triggering a civil war.
President Mwai Kibaki, who was swiftly inaugurated for a second term Sunday after a vote that critics said was rigged, called for a meeting with his political opponents — a significant softening of tone for a man who rarely speaks to the press and who vowed to crack down on rioters.
But opposition candidate Raila Odinga refused, saying he would meet Kibaki only "if he announces that he was not elected." Odinga accused the government of stoking the chaos, telling The Associated Press in an interview that Kibaki's administration "is guilty, directly, of genocide."
The violence — from the shantytowns of Nairobi to resort towns on the sweltering coast — has exposed long-festering tribal resentment.
The people killed in Eldoret, about 185 miles northwest of Nairobi, were members of Kibaki's Kikuyu tribe.
They had fled to the Assemblies of God Church on Monday night, seeking refuge after mobs torched homes. Video from a helicopter chartered by the Red Cross showed many homes in flames and the horizon obscured by smoke. Groups of people were seen seeking sanctuary at schools and the airport, while others moved into the forest.
On Tuesday morning, a mob of about 2,000 arrived at the church, said George Karanja, whose family had sought refuge there.
"They started burning the church," Karanja said, his voice catching with emotion as he described the scene. "The mattresses that people were sleeping on caught fire. There was a stampede, and people fell on one another."
Karanja, 37, helped pull out at least 10 people, but added, "I could not manage to pull out my sister's son. He was screaming 'Uncle, uncle!' ... He died." The boy was 11.
Up to 50 people were killed in the attack, said a Red Cross official who spoke on condition of anonymity because her name would identify her tribe, and she feared reprisal. Even first aid workers were stopped by vigilantes who demanded their identity.
Karanja said his two children raised their hands as they left the church and they were beaten with a cane, but not killed. His 90-year-old father was attacked with a machete, but survived, he said.
"The worst part is that they were hacking people and then setting them on fire," he added.
The attackers saw Karanja saving people and began stoning him, he said. Karanja said he ran and hid — submerging himself in a pit latrine outside the church property. He stayed there about 30 minutes until he heard people speaking Kikuyu, he added.
The Kikuyu, Kenya's largest ethnic group, are accused of turning their dominance of politics and business to the detriment of others. Odinga is from the Luo tribe, a smaller but still major tribe that says it has been marginalized.
There are more than 40 tribes in Kenya, and political leaders have often used unemployed and uneducated young men to intimidate opponents. While Kibaki and Odinga have support from across the tribal spectrum, the youth responsible for the violence tend to see politics in strictly ethnic terms.
In Nairobi's slums, which are often divided along tribal lines, rival groups have been fighting each other with machetes and sticks as police use tear gas and bullets to keep them from pouring into the city center. The capital has been a ghost town for days, with residents stocking up on food and water and staying in their homes.
Parents in the capital's slums — home to a third of its population — searched for food, with many shops closed because of looting.
Anne Njoki, a 28-year-old Kikuyu, said she fled her home in a shantytown after she saw Kikuyus being attacked and their homes looted. She was camped near a military base with her sister, 3-year-old nephew and 7-year-old niece.
"They have taken our beds, blankets, even spoons," she said of the looters.
In the Mathare slum, Odinga supporters torched a minibus and attacked Kikuyu travelers, witnesses said.
"The car had 14 people in it, but they only slashed Kikuyus," said witness Boniface Mwangi. Five were attacked by the machete-wielding gang, he said.
The prospect of even more violence is ahead. Odinga insisted he would go ahead with plans to lead a protest march in the capital Thursday. The government banned the demonstration, but Odinga said: "It doesn't matter what they say."
The widespread violence and gathering international pressure could lead Kibaki to seek a compromise with the opposition.
The European Union and the United States have refused to congratulate Kibaki, and the EU and four top Kenyan election officials have called for an independent inquiry. In Britain, Kenya's former colonial ruler, Prime Minister Gordon Brown urged Kibaki and Odinga to hold talks.
Election commission chairman Samuel Kivuitu said Tuesday he had been pressed by both an opposition party and Kibaki's Party of National Unity to release the results of the vote. Western ambassadors "wanted me to delay announcing the results, even if it is for a week," to allow the commission to investigate alleged irregularities, he said.
Kibaki, 76, won by a landslide in 2002, ending 24 years of rule by Daniel arap Moi. Kibaki is praised for turning the country into an east African economic powerhouse with an average growth rate of 5 percent, but his anti-graft campaign has been seen as a failure, and the country still struggles with tribalism and poverty.
Odinga, 62, cast himself as a champion of the poor. His main constituency is the Kibera slum, where some 700,000 people live in poverty, but he has been accused of failing to do enough to help them in 15 years as a member of parliament.
Kenya's tourism industry, which brings in some $900 million and attracts more than 1 million visitors a year, is sure to suffer from the violence. The United States has warned tourists against all but essential travel to Kenya, and Britain has advised against travel in some areas.
Stuart Dickson, a Canadian who was vacationing in Nairobi, said he was cutting short his visit.
"We are leaving early because of the riots and how dangerous it is to be out on the streets," he said. "With shops being closed and everything, it is not the best place for a tourist or traveler to be right now."
___
Associated Press writers Tom Maliti, Katharine Houreld and Malkhadir M. Muhumed contributed to this report.
Boy, 2, wanders outside on cold Minn. night, mother finds him dead in a snowbank
Thu Jan 3, 12:46 PM
By The Associated Press
NEW ULM, Minn. - A two-year-old Minnesota boy has died after reportedly crawling out of bed next to his sleeping mother and wandering outside on a frigid night.
Dara Lenz says she found the body of her son, Lucas Boldt, in a snowbank about less than six metres from her home. She called police but they were unable to revive him.
The temperature outside was near -23 Celsius.
Police say they don't suspect foul play in the death, which occurred overnight Tuesday night.
However, police spokesman Cmdr. Myron Weiland said Thursday they were still investigating.
Lenz, 26, said she and Lucas went to sleep in her bed at 9:30 p.m. Tuesday, but when she woke up Wednesday morning, he was no longer next to her.
He wasn't in his room, and she raced outside and found him in the snow.
"I woke up into a nightmare," Lenz said. "This is nothing you want to wake up to. ... It's just not fair. ... He was my pride and joy."
It was unclear if the doors had been locked.
"I don't know how it happened," Lenz said. "He's never wandered away before."
WHAT OTHERS HAVE SAID ABOUT THIS NEWS STORY
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Protect the ...
My sympathy to the mother.However, I am totally against mothers who pay little attention to a child's safety in the home or outside.After having a child a mother should automatically take proper security precautions.Many mothers today think of themselves or their partners first,I have no respect for those. A child should take first priority in a mother's life. Young mother's have become selfish and careless and neglected,should they have children....?
POSTED BY: Protect the ... on FRI, JAN 04, 2008 05:47 AM -0500
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No Photo Available.
I have grandchildren o that age and yes they can open doors and venture outside for all that are critical of the mother i hope your perfect ways don't come back to haunt you. Children and my own they are now 34 and 24 with kids and my granddaughter at 2 was able to open a door in my place without me hearing here so think beforeyou judge someone
POSTED BY: donna t on FRI, JAN 04, 2008 05:41 AM -0500
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William Q this is the canuck back just to tell you that maybe it is you that should keep your silence. You are most likely one of the f***ing morons saying the women should spend the rest of her life behind bars.As for trying to keep your children safe, I personally dont think you have that much inteligence.If was your kid you would be whining up A f***ing storm here over these useless coments that she somehow killed this baby.
POSTED BY: the_old_canuck on FRI, JAN 04, 2008 05:35 AM -0500
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often kids can open doors/windows, etc by themselves, but when you have small kids, shouldn't parents make Electrical Appliances, Electrical Outlets, Windows, Doors, Stairs all Child Safe? i know my parents did when we were growing up... its tragic what happened to this 2 yr old child :(
POSTED BY: samantha on FRI, JAN 04, 2008 05:33 AM -0500
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Ftr Rl yes it can happen !! It happened here in Edmonton Alberta Canada a couple of years ago. The most amazing part is although the child was clinically dead they were able to revive her due to the low temp of her body.
POSTED BY: srin on FRI, JAN 04, 2008 05:32 AM -0500
Minnesota or Montreal -
Mothers with Misguided ideas on how to Monitor their child are everywhere...
7-year-old Quebec girl suffocates in snowbank
Tue Dec 18, 2:48 AM
MONTREAL (CBC) - A seven-year-old girl has died after suffocating in a snowbank outside her home near Quebec City.
The girl, whose name has not been released, apparently got stuck in the snow in Lévis on Monday while trying to reach a fort built earlier in the winter.
The girl's father went to find her after she'd been playing outside for 20 minutes and discovered her unconscious in the snow with no vital signs, Lévis police spokesman Sgt. Alain Gelly said.
"It seems that as she digs in, through the small hole, she got stuck, and as she got stuck she tried to move back to try to escape from that hole, but she was not strong enough," Gelly said.
Ambulance technicians were not able to revive her and she was declared dead a short time later.
No one could predict such a thing could happen, Gelly said.
The only thing parents can do, he suggested, is to keep children within sight when they're playing outside.
WHAT OTHERS HAVE SAID ABOUT THIS NEWS STORY
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leslie p
What an unfortunate event. It makes you thankful that your own child(ren) is around to argue with you. My condolences to the family who will never have a 'perfect' Christmas again. The best way to think of it is that God needed a special little angel and this little girl was the very best He could find. I pray that your family receive the deepest blessings fo rthis tragic event. It's always around this time of year that sad and depressing stuff seems to happen.
POSTED BY: leslie p on WED, DEC 19, 2007 02:48 AM -0500
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caper4
A terrible tragedy to happen to this or any family, some say a lack of supervision thats nonsense how many of us a skids listened to our parents when we went outside to play in the snow, build forts, tunnels, or just jump off snow banks into snow i imagine most. As kids its the thrill of being outside in snow remembering what parents tell us is the last thing on their minds. Look at most adults now the simply stupid things they do who needs the supervision. All condolences to the family ........
POSTED BY: caper4 on WED, DEC 19, 2007 12:15 AM -0500
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eric
I remember building forts in the snow as a child and having the 'roofs' caving in on me. Thank goodness I had an older brother or sister to drag me out. Of course I don't remember it being dangerous, and I'm positive my parents weren't watching at all times. Our hearts and prayers are with the family this Christmas. Please stop blaming the parents for this accident, its not fair --- well spoken Dea G, well spoken.
POSTED BY: eric on TUE, DEC 18, 2007 11:53 PM -0500
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No Photo Available.
The death is an unfortunate accident but what's with this "keep an eye on kids at all times" attitude? Is there no freedom in childhood anymore? I would argue that on a societal level, it's much more valuable to let children have unsupervised playtime for at least a portion of each day rather than have finger-wagging adults constantly hovering over them.
POSTED BY: mdjvatta on TUE, DEC 18, 2007 11:00 PM -0500
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My condolences go out to the family of that poor little girl. What a tragic accident. All the people who post here should be saying the same thing instead of blaming the parents for not watching her. It's really disgusting and I hope you all burn in hell.
POSTED BY: pj_co24 on TUE, DEC 18, 2007 10:17 PM -0500
Snow kills them all indiscriminately though -
young and adult, tall or small...
RCMP identify victim of fatal avalanche at Whistler Mountain
Thu Jan 3, 1:18 PM
By The Canadian Press
WHISTLER, B.C. - Whistler RCMP have released the name of the 29-year-old skier killed in an avalanche on Whistler Mountain on New Year's Day.
Curtis Green of Whistler was killed when he and a 21-year-old snowboarder triggered an avalanche when the duo ventured into a permanently closed section of the mountain.
The slide swept both men over a 50-metre cliff, killing Green and seriously injuring his 21-year-old companion.
The name of the younger man, who also lives in Whistler, has not been released and he remains in hospital.
Staff Sgt. Steve LeClair says the survivor could face criminal negligence charges for ignoring posted signs and knowingly entering a permanently closed section of the mountain.
WHAT OTHERS HAVE SAID ABOUT THIS NEWS STORY
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Hope it is good. I got it at the niche interracial dating site named interracialconnect.com . As you know thousands of new members join daily to meet dream date in this comfortable community of cultures and ethnicities. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
POSTED BY: julee on FRI, JAN 04, 2008 05:44 AM -0500
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Lorrie people sue all the time . Even people who are breaking the law. Like burglars who fall through skylights and basement windows. It's obscene what jury's let people get away with. That statement is not as stupid as you think. I do agree with you , he should be held accountable for his actions.
POSTED BY: H Cat on FRI, JAN 04, 2008 04:20 AM -0500
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Hey Lorrie W GOOOOOTTTTTTTTTTTTCHAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!
POSTED BY: H Cat on FRI, JAN 04, 2008 04:10 AM -0500
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trenaud87
i hope ben is ok- yea ppl, maybe they made a bad decision, but we all have. many of my friends are close of the injured man and they are all worried about his condition- God Bless
POSTED BY: trenaud87 on FRI, JAN 04, 2008 03:59 AM -0500
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Hey H Cat that has to be the most stupid response there is ..This guy worked in Whistler and all the signs were posted not to out of bounds .......To sue someone for there own stupidty is nonsense ...He should be charged for trespassing ...the death of his friend and made to pay for the rescue costs ...His ignoring the signs put alot of people at risk....Anybody that does this should pay for it ..The signs are there for a reason ...Wake Up ...
POSTED BY: Lorrie W on FRI, JAN 04, 2008 03:47 AM -0500
Pregnant shooting victim was 'fun-loving' mother of 4: family
Recently quit prostitution, drug use, says friend
Last Updated: Thursday, January 3, 2008 | 5:51 PM CT
CBC News
The family of a pregnant woman killed in Winnipeg Wednesday says she was working to "get her life on track" and planning to move away from the house where she was shot.
Joanne Hoeppner, 28, was killed when someone fired a gun through the front door of a home on Magnus Avenue in the city's North End neighbourhood early Wednesday morning.
'We are blessed to have spent the last week of [Joanne's] life with her during the Christmas holidays,' the Hoeppner family said Thursday in a statement.'We are blessed to have spent the last week of [Joanne's] life with her during the Christmas holidays,' the Hoeppner family said Thursday in a statement.
(Family photo - see it here.)
Theresa Fontaine, a friend and roommate of Hoeppner, owns the home where the shooting took place and was present when it happened.
Someone rang the doorbell, she told CBC News, and when Hoeppner, who was eight months pregnant, went to answer, shots were fired through the door.
"When the shooting stopped, which was three shots … I grabbed the phone and I called 911 and told them, 'My girlfriend's been shot!'" Fontaine said.
"They said to turn her over, so I turned her over, and her beautiful eyes were open, and they weren't blinking."
'Loved by many'
In a statement released Thursday, Hoeppner's adoptive family described her as an "outgoing, fun-loving girl with a good sense of humour."
"We are still in shock and disbelief that her life and the life of her unborn daughter have ended this way," the family said in a statement.
"She was loved by many people, including her adoptive family, her biological family, foster families and many friends."
Fontaine said Hoeppner had worked in the sex trade and had used drugs, but was clean and sober at the time of the shooting.
"When she knew she was pregnant, she wanted to stop all that. So, she was doing really good," she said. "She's got the ultrasound right by the Christmas tree.… She was very happy. She wasn't a bad girl."
Members of the Hoeppner family said she planned to move and was seeking custody of one of her four children.
"She wanted so much to get her life on track, and she was looking forward to moving into a place at the end of the month where she could raise her baby, and get custody of her son," family members said.
No motivation for shooting: roommate
Police said Wednesday they had ruled out a domestic motivation for the shooting, but said it was not yet clear if the incident was gang-related.
Investigators have not identified any suspects in the case. Police spokesman Sgt. Kelly Dennison appealed for anyone with information to contact the force.
"Obviously this is a plea to the public, to anybody out there who may have any information at all about this incident, to please contact the homicide unit," he said.
Neighbours told CBC News they believed the house had been used for drug dealing and prostitution. Police would not confirm those allegations, although they said the house was known to them in the past.
Fontaine admits illegal activity has taken place in her house in the past; police found guns in the house in November, and she was stabbed in October. But she told CBC News that Hoeppner didn't live in the house at that time and she doesn't know who is responsible for the shooting.
"I just don't understand who would hate us or who would come to shoot us," she said. "It's a cowardice move, and I'd like for them to be caught, for sure."
Fontaine said she'll probably put the house up for sale and move out of the North End neighbourhood.
Charges laid in Pauingassi death
Last Updated: Thursday, January 3, 2008 | 5:10 PM CT
CBC News
Murder charges have been laid in the death of a woman stabbed on a northern Manitoba reserve on New Year's Day.
Debbie Anne Owen, 25, died at the nursing station on the Pauingassi First Nation on the afternoon of Jan. 1.
An autopsy revealed she died as a result of "blunt force trauma," RCMP said Thursday.
Owens' 29-year-old common-law spouse has been charged with second-degree murder.
RCMP said alcohol appears to have been a factor in the stabbing.
Pauingassi is located about 280 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg.
Once again, nightly visitors turn out NOT to be Santa...
Not even Santa's helpers...
Satan's emissaries, maybe?
Attacker dies in botched home invasion east of Calgary
Last Updated: Thursday, January 3, 2008 | 6:15 PM MT
CBC News
A violent home invasion east of Calgary ended with one of the attackers dead and a second suffering serious stab wounds early Thursday morning.
Two men broke into a rural home near Langdon, Alta., about 40 kilometres east of Calgary, around 3:30 a.m. and attacked a sleeping couple, said the RCMP.
Two men broke into this rural home near Langdon and attacked a sleeping couple, say police.Two men broke into this rural home near Langdon and attacked a sleeping couple, say police.
(CBC)
There was a confrontation in the bedroom where the male resident fought off the invaders, one of whom died at the scene. Police said the dead suspect is a 32-year-old man but are not releasing his cause of death pending an autopsy.
"It is a homicide. He didn't die accidentally. Whether it's a murder investigation is not yet clear," said Cpl. Patty Neely of the Strathmore RCMP.
"The Criminal Code authorizes people to use as much force as necessary to protect themselves and their property," she said. "However, that force must be the minimum amount necessary." Hard to decipher how much of that minimum is required to truly nullify the threat to ourselves and/or our property, sometimes...
THAT's the thing there...!
The second suspect, aged 27, suffered serious stab wounds and fled the home. He later showed up at a local hospital and was transported to Calgary, where he is listed in stable condition.
The male resident, 35, was slightly injured in the incident and was taken to hospital as well. His girlfriend, a 24-year-old woman, was not hurt. Police said the couple rented the home on the rural property.
The people in the house and the attackers all knew each other, said police, but the motive for the home invasion is still unknown.
"We have no ties to criminal activity at all at this point," Neely said. "At this point we have no connection to gangs or drugs that we've determined."
No names have been released.
Man found in Altadore yard was killed, confirm police
Last Updated: Thursday, January 3, 2008 | 6:21 PM MT
CBC News
A man found dead in front of a southwest Calgary home on New Year's Day died from a stab wound, according to an autopsy completed Thursday.
The owners of this Altadore home said they were shocked to discover a dead body in their yard on New Year's Day. The owners of this Altadore home said they were shocked to discover a dead body in their yard on New Year's Day.
(CBC)
The victim has been identified as Mohamed Aman, 33, of Calgary. Aman was known to police, but acting Staff Sgt. Chris Matthews said his death was not connected to the recent string of gang violence in the city.
Matthews also said signs in the snow not far from the area where Aman's body was found indicate there was a struggle.
Aman's death is the city's first homicide of the year. He was originally from Yemen but spent most of his life in Calgary, said Matthews.
Owners of the bungalow on the 1900 block of 49th Avenue S.W. in the Altadore area said they were shocked to discover the body in their front yard Tuesday morning.
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Police ID 14-year-old victim of Toronto's first 2008 homicide
Last Updated: Thursday, January 3, 2008 | 5:53 PM ET
CBC News
A 14-year-old-girl killed on New Year's Day has been identified by Toronto police as Stefanie Rengel, the daughter and stepdaughter of two veteran Toronto police officers.
Under the provisions of the Youth Criminal Justice Act, her identity had to be shielded from the public.
However, Rengel's parents consented Thursday to release their daughter's name and photo.
In an online memorial on Facebook, Rengel's stepmother Maureen expressed her grief.
"Your Dad and I are missing you terribly. Our world will never be the same. We love you so very much and don't know how we will ever go on … Know that both your parents, and brother were by your side at the hospital."
She also urged anyone with information to talk to police, and called for changes to the Youth Criminal Justice Act.
"We want these monsters to be tried as adults for first-degree murder. Take this to your local politician and fight," she wrote.
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All three teens knew each other: police
Rengel was identified just hours after two teens facing first-degree murder charges in connection with Rengel's slaying appeared in a Toronto court on Thursday for a bail hearing.
The teens — a 17-year-old male and a 15-year-old female — were arrested on Wednesday not far from where Rengel was found stabbed.
At court on Thursday they were ordered remanded in custody until their next court appearance, which has been scheduled for Jan. 16.
The names of the accused are banned from publication under restrictions imposed by the Youth Criminal Justice Act. However, police said that all three teens lived in the same neighbourhood and knew each other.
Rengel, who attended Cosburn Middle School, was found on the sidewalk by a passing off-duty officer just after 6 p.m. Tuesday in the area of O'Connor Drive and St. Clair Avenue East. She was bleeding from a stab wound in the abdomen.
She was taken to Toronto East General Hospital where she was pronounced dead.
============================================
Female wasn't at scene of crime: lawyer
Police arrested the male suspect Wednesday at an apartment not far from where the victim was found. They did not say where the second suspect was located.
Lawyer Marshall Sack, who is representing the female suspect, said outside the courthouse that his client shouldn't be facing any charges. He said his client wasn't present at the scene of the crime.
"In the synopsis I was given by the Crown, it makes no reference at all to my client's involvement in the actual crime, save and except to say, that my client is alleged to have indicated at some point in time that she wanted the deceased not to be alive. Beyond that, I see nothing. And that's not first-degree murder," Sack said.
Rengel's death is the city's first homicide of 2008. There were 84 homicides in 2007, 15 more than in 2006.
Heavy snow paralyzes parts of Bulgaria, Romania; 3 dead as ship sinks
Thu Jan 3, 12:21 PM
By Veselin Toshkov,
The Associated Press
SOFIA, Bulgaria - A bitterly cold winter storm swept parts of Europe on Thursday.
At least thee seamen died when a Bulgarian ship sank in rough waters at while approaching the Black Sea, while heavy, drifting snow stranded thousands at airports, on mountain roads and in remote villages. Forecasters said temperatures fell to -20 Celsius, while snow drifts were up to two metres deep.
Authorities in northeastern Bulgaria declared a state of emergency, with the army called in to help civil defence officials clear roads and reach stranded motorists.
The nasty weather also caused problems in neighbouring Romania, where Bucharest's two main airports were closed.
Parts of Turkey and Greece, as well as Western Europe, were also affected.
Some 311 Bulgarian villages were left without electricity and dozens were cut off without food supplies or fresh water, authorities said.
The northern Danube municipality of Ruse declared a state of emergency after heavy snow blocked many roads, said Andrei Ivanov, chief of the Balkan country's civil defence service.
At least three crewmen were killed when a Bulgarian ship carrying scrap metal sank during a storm on the Azov Sea between Ukraine and Russia, officials said.
The Vanessa was carrying a crew of 10 and a Ukrainian pilot who was guiding the ship as it approached the Kerch Strait, which connects the Azov Sea to the Black Sea, said Sergei Petrov, a spokesman for the Emergency Situations Ministry for southern Russia.
Rescuers pulled one survivor and three bodies from the sea, where waves were as high as three metres, Petrov said.
Thousands of passengers were stranded in Romania after Bucharest's two main airports were closed due to heavy snowfall. The snow also blocked many roads in the south, forcing the closure of at least one border crossing with Bulgaria and prompting train delays.
In Turkey's capital of Ankara, snow caused traffic jams and accidents, but no injuries were reported.
Temperatures in Greece fell to -18 in the north of the country, where snow blanketed roads.
In Western Europe, ice and snow disrupted traffic. The Mont-Blanc tunnel linking France and Italy was closed to trucks until Friday because sharp temperature differences between the two sides threatened to disrupt the tunnel's ventilation, traffic authorities said.
A Boeing 737 arriving from Marrakech, Morocco, slid off an icy runway at an airport in Deauville, northern France, airport authorities said.
The plane, operated by Atlas Blue, came to a halt in grass. The 169 passengers were evacuated unharmed.
Are casualties to be expected too
on Vancouver Island...?
Blowing winds knocks power out to thousands on Northern Vancouver Island
Thu Jan 3, 10:36 PM
By The Canadian Press
VANCOUVER - Gusting winds have knocked down trees and cut off power for thousands of people on Northern Vancouver Island and the Sunshine Coast.
More than 2,500 residents in Courtenay lost power this afternoon.
The lights are also out for some residents and businesses in the communities of Tahsis, Zeballos, Tofino, Port Alberni and Sechelt.
Smaller power outages are being reported on B.C.'s Lower Mainland.
The heavy winds have also forced the cancellation of B.C. Ferries sailings between Tsawwassen and Swarts Bay and Tsawwassen and Duke Point.
Wind warnings or watches with winds reaching up to 100 kilometres per hour have been posted for much of Vancouver Island, Metro Vancouver and the B.C. Central Coast.
At a musician's funeral, memories and arpeggios
January 5, 2008 05:43 PM
willie%20robinson%20funeral%202.jpg
(John Tlumacki/Globe Staff)
Bluesman James Montgomery told a story about Willie Robinson at the funeral.
By Anna Badkhen, Globe Staff
Weepin' Willie Robinson, known as the elder statesman of the blues in Boston, was celebrated today in a funeral attended by more than 250 family members, friends, and fans.
Jazz piano arpeggios spilled from the fingertips of onetime Robinson band member David Maxwell and streamed through the packed pews of the Central Congregation Church in Jamaica Plain.
Willie L. Robinson, 81, died in a fire sparked by a cigarette last Sunday, when he lit up in his bed at the Mount Pleasant rest home in Jamaica Plain.
His funeral was a tribute to the bluesman’s life – first as a sharecropper in Georgia, then as an Army veteran, emcee and doorman in the blues clubs of Trenton, N.J., and, finally, as a legendary blues singer in Boston.
One of Robinson’s 10 children, Ray Robinson, cried openly by the side of his father’s casket, awed by the number of people who had come to the funeral to pay their respects.
"It touches me and my family deeply to see all of you," he said. His chin shook, and a female relative handed him a tissue.
"I needed my father often," he continued. His voice trailed off. "Thank you, thank you for caring for him."
Troubled actor Brad Renfro dies at 25
By JACOB ADELMAN,
Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 15 minutes ago
LOS ANGELES - Actor Brad Renfro, whose career began promisingly with a childhood role in "The Client" but rapidly faded as he struggled with drugs and alcohol, was found dead Tuesday in his home. He was 25.
Paramedics pronounced him dead at 9 a.m. Tuesday (January 15th), said Craig Harvey, chief investigator for the Los Angeles County coroner's office. The cause of death was not immediately determined, Harvey said, but an autopsy could be conducted as early as Wednesday.
Renfro had reportedly been drinking with friends the evening before his death, Harvey said.
Renfro's lawyer, Richard Kaplan, said he did not know whether the death was connected to any problems with addiction.
"He was working hard on his sobriety," Kaplan said. "He was doing well. He was a nice person."
Renfro recently completed a role in "The Informers," a film adaptation of a Bret Easton Ellis novel that stars Winona Ryder, Brandon Routh and Billy Bob Thornton.
"Brad was an exceptionally talented young actor and our time spent with him was thoroughly enjoyable," Marco Weber, president of the film's production house, Senator Entertainment, said in a statement.
The actor served 10 days in jail in May 2006 after pleading no contest to driving while intoxicated and guilty to attempted possession of heroin.
The latter charge stemmed from his arrest in Los Angeles' Skid Row area, when he attempted to buy heroin from an undercover officer in 2005.
For several years he was better known for that drug bust and the resulting criminal case than for acting.
After one court appearance, he talked to reporters about drug rehabilitation, saying he was "tired of paying the consequences" for drinking and drug use and eager to get clean.
"It's definitely been an eye-opener," he said of his rehabilitation program.
Other run-ins with the law included a 1998 charge of cocaine and marijuana possession, for which he avoided jail time in a plea deal. He was also placed on probation in January 2001 and ordered to pay $4,000 for repairs to a 45-foot yacht he and a friend tried to steal in Florida in August 2000.
He was arrested again in May 2001 and charged with underage drinking, violating the terms of his probation, and was ordered into alcohol rehabilitation the following March.
A native of Knoxville, Tenn., Renfro's film career began when he was 12, acting opposite Susan Sarandon and Tommy Lee Jones in "The Client." His other credits included "Sleepers," "Deuces Wild," "Apt Pupil" and "The Jacket."
Le musicien Daniel Hétu s'est éteint à l'âge de 57 ans à Montréal
mercredi 9 jan, 13 h 43
La Presse Canadienne
MONTREAL - Le musicien québécois Daniel Hétu est décédé, mardi soir, à Montréal à l'âge de 57 ans. Il avait connu un grand succès populaire à la fin des années 1970 avec la ballade romantique "Je t'attendais" qu'il interprétait.
Daniel Hétu avait été hospitalisé d'urgence récemment pour une hémorragie gastrique, pour ensuite plonger dans un coma dont il n'a pu sortir. Victime d'une cirrhose du foie il y a quatre ans, il souffrait aussi du diabète.
Né à Montréal en 1950, le fils du musicien Lucien Hétu avait étudié le piano dès l'âge de quatre ans avec André Mathieu. A 11 ans, il avait enregistré son premier disque.
Au cours de sa carrière, il a été organiste, pianiste, arrangeur, accompagnateur, chef d'orchestre et auteur-compositeur-interprète. Il a travaillé avec de nombreux artistes, notamment avec René Simard et Ginette Reno.
Il avait accompagné à plusieurs occasions la chanteuse Shirley Théroux qui a souligné qu'il était un génie de la musique "et un gars extrêmement sensible." Elle a rappelé qu'il avait été adulé par le public pour ensuite tout perdre, ce qui a été difficile à vivre pour lui.
Daniel Hétu avait aussi beaucoup travaillé à la télévision pour des émissions comme "les Coqueluches", "Les Tannants" et "Michel Jasmin". Il avait composé le thème musical de plusieurs émissions, ainsi que la musique de nombreuses chansons popularisées par d'autres interprètes.
AP
Attack on Kabul luxury hotel kills 6
By JASON STRAZIUSO, Associated Press Writer Mon Jan 14, 5:52 PM ET
KABUL, Afghanistan - Militants stormed Kabul's most popular luxury hotel Monday, killing at least six people as they hunted down Westerners who cowered in a gym — a coordinated assault that could signal a new era of brazen Taliban attacks.
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The gunmen threw grenades and fired AK-47s, and one even blew himself up despite heavy security at the Serena Hotel. One American and a Norwegian journalist were among the dead, officials said.
More than 30 U.S. soldiers in a half-dozen Humvees rushed to the hotel as part of a quick reaction force, and security personnel from the nearby U.S. Embassy ran through the building looking for U.S. citizens.
"There was blood on the floor all the way to the kitchen. There was a lot of blood in the lobby," said Suzanne Griffin of Seattle, who had been in the hotel gym at the time of the attack.
"There were empty shell casings outside," added Griffin, 62, who was working for Save the Children.
She said she had to step over the lifeless body of a woman when evacuated from the locker room.
"Thank God I didn't get into the shower because then we heard gunfire, a lot of it. It was very close, close enough that plaster came off the ceiling," Griffin, her voice shaking, told The Associated Press shortly after the attack. "We all just sat on the floor and got as far as we could from any glass. ... We turned our phones on silent."
It was the deadliest direct attack on a hotel in Kabul since the fall of the Taliban in 2001.
The assailants appeared to concentrate their assault on the Serena's gym and spa, where foreigners relax and work out at night, suggesting the militants had cased the hotel in advance.
The Taliban has targeted aid workers and civilian contractors with kidnappings and killings, but this was the most daring and sophisticated attack yet and was aimed at a prominent symbol of foreign presence in the country, apparently designed to point out the vulnerability of the Western presence.
Taliban attacks have typically targeted Western and Afghan government or security personnel, not Western civilians.
The multipronged assault began around 6 p.m., when the Norwegian Embassy was hosting a meeting at the Serena for visiting Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon described Stoere as the target of the attack.
Witnesses said they first heard gunfire, then several explosions — likely from hand grenades — and also one large blast — the suicide bomb.
"There were two or three bombs and there was complete chaos," Stian L. Solum, a photographer from the Norwegian photo agency Scanpix, told Norway's state radio network NRK. "When I started to walk out (of the elevator), a bomb went off a little way from me. There were shots fired by what I think was an ANA (Afghan National Army) soldier."
The attack killed six people and wounded six, said Interior Ministry spokesman Zemeri Bashary. He spoke before news of the Norwegian journalist's death and it was not clear whether he was counted among the six dead.
One of the militants was shot to death and a Taliban spokesman said a second died in the suicide explosion. It was not clear what happened to the other attackers.
Zabiullah Mujahid, the Taliban spokesman, told AP that four militants with suicide vests attacked the hotel — one bomber who detonated his explosives and three militants who threw grenades and fired guns. The claim could not be verified but came very soon after the attack. The bomber was not included among the count of the dead.
In Washington, two State Department officials said that one American citizen had been killed. The victim's identity was being withheld pending notification of relatives, the official said on condition of anonymity ahead of a formal announcement.
White House press secretary Dana Perino said the attack was carried out by extremists "killing innocent people to pursue their political objectives.
"It underscores the reason we have to stay on the offense against the extremists in places like Kabul but also in other places around the world," she said. "We're in for a long, hard fight. These are deliberate, patient people who will murder innocents including our own people."
There are more than 50,000 troops from at least 39 countries, including about 25,000 U.S. forces, in Afghanistan.
A reporter for the Oslo newspaper Dagbladet, identified as Carsten Thomassen, 38, died from wounds he sustained in the attack, according to the paper's Web site. "We feel great sorrow and powerlessness," managing editor Anne Aasheim said.
A Norwegian Foreign Ministry employee was also among the wounded but was out of danger at a Kabul hospital, officials said.
Stoere, who was in the hotel basement with a Norwegian delegation at the time, said he was about to start a meeting when the explosions hit, and everyone was ordered to get on the floor for about 10 minutes.
"I don't think anyone could experience this without feeling you are in a serious situation," Stoere said on the TV-2 television network.
"Our security guards undertook an armed evacuation, where we went from corner to corner in the cellar until we reached a safe area," he told Norwegian reporters.
The U.N. secretary-general said Stoere was the target but did not say why.
"They do not care whoever, whatever. This is really a serious crime against humanity," Ban told several reporters at U.N. headquarters.
The 177-room Serena is a newly built luxury hotel frequently used by foreign embassies for meetings, parties and dinners. The nicest hotel in the city, visiting Westerners often stay, eat and work out there. Located in downtown Kabul, it is near the presidential palace, although separated by fences, blast walls and checkpoints. It is also near several government ministries and a district police station.
On its Web site, the hotel bills itself as an "oasis of luxury in a war-ravaged city." The Serena has a double-gated entrance for cars, several armed guards and a metal detector at the entrance.
"In the wake of this attack, the management will strive to further reinforce the security in and around the hotel to prevent further attacks and ensure the safety of its guests and staff," the company said in a statement from Paris.
While the number of casualties from the attack could have been higher, the militants were still able to penetrate a well-guarded and high-profile target, a symbol of progress in an otherwise downtrodden capital.
The reverberations of the attack could be felt for months. While Western aid workers, embassy employees and businessmen enjoy a fair amount of freedom of movement in Kabul, security companies could now restrain their Western clients from visiting restaurants at night if the Taliban start targeting them.
Griffin had contacted the U.S. Embassy, which told her to not open the door to the room unless she heard an American voice. U.S. soldiers evacuated her, she said.
Stoere said Afghan President Hamid Karzai called to express his concern, and offered assistance, including accommodation in the presidential residence if needed.
Aftenposten journalist Tor Arne Andreassen told the Oslo paper's Internet edition that he heard a grenade explode and looked out a window and "could see shots being fired at the guard post by the gate."
"The plaster flew around our room and the whole building shook," Andreassen said.
In 2003, a rocket exploded near the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul, knocking some guests from their restaurant chairs and shattering windows. No injuries were reported.
___
Associated Press writers Alisa Tang, Amir Shah and Fisnik Abrashi in Kabul; Matthew Lee in Washington; Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations; and Terence Hunt in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, contributed to this report.
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Figure skating champion Christopher Bowman dies of possible drug overdose
Fri Jan 11, 1:57 AM
By Denise Petski,
The Associated Press
LOS ANGELES - Christopher Bowman, the former U.S. figure skating champion dubbed "Bowman the Showman" for his flair on the ice, died Thursday of a possible drug overdose, authorities said. He was 40.
Bowman was pronounced dead at 12:06 p.m., said Coroner's Lt. Joe Bale, who wasn't immediately able to provide more details about the possible drug overdose. Bowman's body was found at a motel in the North Hills section of Los Angeles, and an autopsy was planned for this weekend, Bale said.
"He just passed away in his sleep," Bowman's mother, Joyce, told the Detroit Free Press, which first reported details of his death. "His friend told me that he was fine. He just went to bed and didn't wake up."
Bowman, a former child actor, was one of figure skating's bigger personalities in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Immensely talented, with a gift for performance that few others could match, he won the U.S. men's figure skating titles in 1989 and 1992, and was runner-up in 1987 and 1991.
He also won a silver medal at the 1989 world championships, and a bronze the next year. He skated in the 1988 and 1992 Winter Olympics, finishing seventh in 1988 and fourth in 1992.
"If I had to pick the three most talented skaters of all time, I would pick Christopher as one," Brian Boitano, the 1988 Olympic champion, told the Chicago Tribune. "He had natural charisma, natural athleticism, he could turn on a crowd in a matter of seconds and he always seemed so relaxed about it."
But as talented as he was on the ice, Bowman could be just as big a challenge off it. He bounced from coach to coach, including former Canadian champion Toller Cranston, long before it became fashionable - he once won Skate America when he was in-between coaches - and freely admitted that practice was something that just didn't interest him much.
"Each and every competition that I train for, prepare for, is always a personal challenge for me because, as we all know, the training and discipline between each event is very difficult for me," Bowman said in 1992.
He battled drug problems, and underwent treatment at least twice - once before the 1988 Calgary Olympics and then again after the Albertville Games in 1992.
He also had run-ins with the law.
In November 2004, he pleaded no contest to two misdemeanours involving having a gun while drunk in Rochester Hills, Mich.
In 1993, while skating with the Ice Capades, he was beaten at a hotel in a seedy neighbourhood in Pittsburgh, according to a police report.
Richard Callaghan, coach of Bowman's longtime rival, Todd Eldredge, said he was saddened to learn of Bowman's death.
"When Todd told me, I said, 'What a shame,"' Callaghan told the Free Press. "Christopher was such a nice person. Even though he was troubled, he was very genuine and friendly.
"There was a great rivalry between Christopher and Todd because they were so opposite. Christopher was always on; he was the star when it came to doing any competitions. Most of us didn't know how he did it, but he did."
Born in Hollywood, on March 30, 1967, Bowman had a part in the TV series "Little House on the Prairie" for one season and appeared in dozens of commercials. He got into coaching after his skating career was finished, and the Free Press said he had lived in the Detroit area from 1995 until last February.
Recently, Bowman had returned to acting. He had a role as an assistant coach in the upcoming Brian J. De Palma-directed movie "Down and Distance" starring Gary Busey.
Bowman had a daughter with his former wife, Annette Bowman, according to the Free Press.
WHAT OTHERS HAVE SAID ABOUT THIS NEWS STORY
*
inhisgrace007
This is sad news. Chris Bowman left a legacy. Not many singles skaters, in competition, skate for the audience as much as Chris Bowman, Kurt Browning, Ilia Kulik and Scott Hamilton.
POSTED BY: inhisgrace007 on SAT, JAN 12, 2008 04:49 AM -0500
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Vaynard
I saw him live at the 88 Olympics, he sure was a showoff. I think that a lot of naturally talented people don't practice, and this guy was no exception. He did like to swing it in front of the cameras. Need more people like him today, not enough talent or showmanship these days.
POSTED BY: Vaynard on FRI, JAN 11, 2008 03:49 PM -0500
*
No Photo Available.
I remember his great rivalry with Kurt Browning. Skating just hasn't been the same since the two of them stopped skating. Deepest sympathies to his family. He was a great showman for sure.
POSTED BY: Anonymus on FRI, JAN 11, 2008 02:59 PM -0500
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KR
OMG i loved him!! i had such a crush on him-- im soo shocked- i had his calender picture on my wall for years!! i cant believe thats him in the picture- he looks soo different (fat)
POSTED BY: KR on FRI, JAN 11, 2008 02:37 PM -0500
*
No Photo Available.
God, I used to watch him skate on TV! Sad.
POSTED BY: writing.diva on FRI, JAN 11, 2008 02:00 PM -0500
1 - 5 of 5 | More...
Edmund Hillary, first atop Everest, dies
By RAY LILLEY,
Associated Press Writer
Fri Jan 11, 6:48 AM ET
WELLINGTON, New Zealand - Sir Edmund Hillary, the first person to stand atop the world's highest mountain, was remembered Friday as a deeply driven but unassuming man who strived to help the people of Nepal in the decades after his ascent of Mount Everest.
Hillary, who died Friday of a heart attack at 88, will have a state funeral in New Zealand, where he began the mountaineering career that took him and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay to the tallest point on earth, a spokesman for his family said.
He is survived by his children Peter and Sarah and wife June, who said Friday that her family was comforted by the messages of support from around the world.
She said Hillary had been hospitalized on Monday and died peacefully.
"He remained in good spirits until the end," she said.
Hillary's life was marked by grand achievements, high adventure, discovery, excitement — but he was especially proud of his decades-long campaign to set up schools and health clinics in Nepal, the homeland of Tenzing Norgay, the mountain guide with whom he stood arm in arm on the 29,035-foot summit of Everest on May 29, 1953.
Yet he was humble to the point that he only acknowledged being the first man atop Everest long after the death of Tenzing.
He wrote of the pair's final steps to the top of the world: "Another few weary steps and there was nothing above us but the sky. There was no false cornice, no final pinnacle. We were standing together on the summit. There was enough space for about six people. We had conquered Everest.
"Awe, wonder, humility, pride, exaltation — these surely ought to be the confused emotions of the first men to stand on the highest peak on Earth, after so many others had failed," Hillary noted.
"I removed my oxygen mask to take some pictures. It wasn't enough just to get to the top. We had to get back with the evidence. Fifteen minutes later we began the descent."
Then, upon arriving back at base camp, he took an irreverent view: "We knocked the bastard off."
But New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark, announcing his death, took a grander view of his achievements.
"Sir Ed described himself as an average New Zealander with modest abilities. In reality, he was a colossus. He was an heroic figure who not only 'knocked off' Everest but lived a life of determination, humility, and generosity. ... The legendary mountaineer, adventurer, and philanthropist is the best-known New Zealander ever to have lived."
Spokesman Mark Sainsbury said Hillary's family had accepted the offer of a state funeral, on a date not yet set.
Tributes quickly began flowing.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, whose nation sponsored the expedition that led to Hillary's triumph, said he "was a truly great hero who captured the imagination of the world, a towering figure who will always be remembered as a pioneer explorer and leader."
"Sir Edmund's name is synonymous with adventure, with achievement, with dreaming and then making those dreams come true," said Australia's acting Prime Minister Julia Gillard.
"He was a hero and a leader for us. He had done a lot for the people of Everest region and will always remain in our hearts," said Bhoomi Lama of the Nepal Mountaineering Association in Katmandu.
For all his description of his ascent, Hillary consistently refused to say whether it was he or Tenzing who was the first man to step atop Everest, saying the two had climbed as a team to the top. It was a measure of his personal modesty, and of his commitment to his colleagues.
Not until after Tenzing's death in 1986 did Hillary finally break his long public silence about who was first.
"We drew closer together as Tenzing brought in the slack on the rope. I continued cutting a line of steps upwards. Next moment I had moved onto a flattish exposed area of snow with nothing but space in every direction," Hillary wrote, in his 1999 book "View from the Summit."
"Tenzing quickly joined me and we looked round in wonder. To our immense satisfaction we realized we had reached the top of the world."
He later recalled his surprise at the huge international interest in their feat. "I was a bit taken aback to tell you the truth. I was absolutely astonished that everyone should be so interested in us just climbing a mountain."
More than 200 people have died trying to conquer Everest.
Despite his achievement, Hillary didn't place himself among top mountaineers. "I don't regard myself as a cracking good climber. I'm just strong in the back. I have a lot of enthusiasm and I'm good on ice," he said.
The first mountain Hillary climbed was 9,645-foot Mount Tapuaenuku — "Tappy" as he called it — in Marlborough on New Zealand's South Island. He scaled it solo over three days in 1944, while in training camp with the Royal New Zealand Air Force during World War II. "Tapuaenuku" in Maori means "footsteps of the Rainbow God."
"I'd climbed a decent mountain at last," he said later.
From there, he sought adventure in places as distant as the Arctic and Antarctica.
In the 1957-58 Antarctic summer season, he made what became known as his "dash to the Pole" aboard modified farm tractors while part of a joint British-New Zealand expedition.
Hillary got into hot water over the move as he disregarded instructions from the Briton leading the expedition and guided his tractor team up the then-untraversed Shelton Glacier, pioneering a new route to the polar plateau and the South Pole.
In 1977, his "Ocean to the Sky" expedition traveled India's Ganges river by jetboat to within 130 miles of its source.
Hillary was known as ready to take risks to achieve his goals, but always had control so that nobody ever died on a Hillary-led expedition.
In 2006 he entered a dispute over the death of Everest climber David Sharp, stating it was "horrifying" that climbers could leave a dying man after an expedition left the Briton to die high on the upper slopes.
Hillary said he would have abandoned his own pioneering 1953 climb to save another life.
"It was wrong if there was a man suffering altitude problems and was huddled under a rock, just to lift your hat, say 'good morning' and pass on by," he said. "Human life is far more important than just getting to the top of a mountain."
By the time he was 40, he was touring in the United States and Europe for three months at a time, speaking at more than 100 venues during a tour.
Then in the mid-1980s, he was named New Zealand's ambassador to India, and became the celebrity of the New Delhi cocktail circuit.
But Hillary never forgot Nepal, and without fanfare or compensation, he spent decades pouring energy and resources from his own fundraising efforts into the country through the Himalayan Trust he founded in 1962.
Known as "burra sahib" — "big man," for his 6-foot-2-inch frame — by the Nepalese, Hillary funded and helped build hospitals, health clinics, airfields and schools.
He raised funds for higher education for Sherpa families, and helped set up reforestation programs in the impoverished country. About $250,000 a year was raised by the charity for projects in Nepal.
A strong conservationist, he demanded that international mountaineers clean up thousands of tons of discarded oxygen bottles, food containers and other climbing debris that litter an area known as South Col valley, the jump-off point for Everest attempts.
His adventurer son Peter has described his father's humanitarian work there as "his duty" to those who had helped him.
Hillary's commitment to Nepal took him back more than 120 times, last visiting in 2007.
It was on a visit to Nepal that his first wife, Louise, 43, and 16-year-old daughter Belinda died in a light plane crash March 31, 1975.
Hillary remarried in 1990, to June Mulgrew, former wife of adventurer colleague and close friend Peter Mulgrew, who died in a passenger plane crash in the Antarctic.
Unlike many climbers, Hillary said when he died he had no desire to have his remains left on a mountain. He wanted his ashes scattered on Waitemata Harbor in the northern city of Auckland where he lived his life.
"To be washed gently ashore, maybe on the many pleasant beaches near the place I was born. Then the full circle of my life will be complete," he said.
Like many good mountaineers before him, Hillary had no special insight into that quintessential question: Why climb?
"I can't give you any fresh answers to why a man climbs mountains. The majority still go just to climb them."
Water buffalo gores 4 in Vietnam
Tue Jan 15, 5:27 AM ET
HANOI, Vietnam - An enraged water buffalo went on an hour-long rampage in northern Vietnam, goring four people and destroying food stalls before being shot to death by police, officials said Tuesday.
Crowds of curious onlookers scattered for safety after the 1,000-pound beast gored the villagers during a three-mile tear Monday. No one was seriously injured.
"It hit everything in its way," he said. "I haven't seen anything like that before."
Water buffalo are commonly used to plow rice fields and transport goods in Vietnam's countryside. They are typically gentle animals often seen carrying children or wallowing in mud.
19 Gazans, kibbutz worker killed
By IBRAHIM BARZAK,
Associated Press Writer
Tue Jan 15, 4:01 PM ET
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Israeli troops killed a son of Gaza's most powerful leader along with 18 other Palestinians on Tuesday in the bloodiest day of fighting in the coastal area since Hamas militants seized control last summer.
As fighting raged in Gaza, a Hamas sniper shot and killed an Ecuadorean volunteer working in the potato fields of an Israeli border farm. That killing, and Tuesday's high death toll, stoked the flames of violence at a time when Israel and Palestinian moderates are making halting attempts to talk peace.
Tuesday's bloodshed began before dawn when Israeli infantry, tanks and helicopters pushed into northern Gaza in what the military said was a routine operation aimed at Palestinian militants who launch rocket barrages at Israeli towns near Gaza almost every day.
Three Palestinian civilians were killed in the ensuing fighting, along with 14 armed militants — one of them Hussam Zahar, 24, the son of hard-line Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar. The Israelis pulled out Tuesday with no casualties. A later airstrike on militants firing rockets into Israel killed two more Hamas men.
At the morgue at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, a weeping Mahmoud Zahar held his lifeless son's bloodied head in his hands and closed his eyes, then kissed him three times on the forehead and recited verses from the Muslim holy book, the Quran.
Zahar is widely seen as the most powerful Hamas official in Gaza and is thought to have masterminded the group's violent takeover of Gaza in June. Another of his sons was killed in 2003, when an Israeli F-16 dropped a bomb on his house in a failed attempt on the Hamas leader's life. Zahar has two surviving sons and four daughters.
Hussam Zahar was not targeted by the Israelis, Israeli Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai said.
Hamas, Mahmoud Zahar vowed, will respond to Tuesday's raid "in the appropriate way. We will defend ourselves by all means."
Not long afterward, a Palestinian rocket slammed into the southern Israeli town of Ashkelon, not a regular target for militants. The southern outskirts of the city of 120,000 people lie about six miles from Gaza. Most Palestinian rockets land much closer to the Gaza border.
Several Palestinian factions, including one allied with Hamas, claimed to have fired the rocket. Hamas said it fired a barrage of rockets at Sderot, the first time in months the group has targeted the Israeli town. Israeli rescue services said five people were slightly injured by shrapnel and power supplies were cut for a while.
Hamas also took responsibility for killing Carlos Chavez, 19, of Ecuador. He was volunteering on a kibbutz, or communal farm, near the border when he was shot in the back by a sniper.
Chavez was taken to the kibbutz infirmary, where a medical team pronounced him dead, police and the military said.
His death underlined why Israel's military operations in Gaza are vital, said Maj. Avital Leibovich, a military spokeswoman.
"The shooting of the Ecuadorean youth demonstrates the necessity of the defensive measures the military is carrying out with pinpoint operations," she said.
Swaths of Gaza farmland planted with olive trees, cucumbers, tomatoes and squash were destroyed in Tuesday's operation, Palestinians said, and a used car market in Gaza was hit by three tank shells.
The three civilians killed included a 65-year-old man, militants and doctors said. Fifty-two people were wounded, among them an 8-year-old boy who was seriously hurt, medical officials said. Shifa Hospital in Gaza City appealed for blood donations because of the large number of wounded.
Dr. Moaiya Hassanain of the Gaza Health Ministry said the wounds suggested the Israeli tanks were firing flechette shells, an anti-personnel weapon that throws out thousands of metal darts.
The military had no comment on whether such munitions were used.
The Hamas government called a three-day mourning period and ordered flags on all government buildings to be lowered to half-staff.
Israel is holding peace talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who took control of the West Bank after losing Gaza to Hamas. But Israeli forces continue to battle Gaza militants who bombard southern Israel with rockets and mortars and attack troops along the border.
Thousands of rockets have hit inside Israel in the past six years, killing 12 Israeli civilians and causing hardship for the 30,000 Israelis who live around Gaza.
Hamas' senior political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, denounced Abbas for trying to make peace with Israel.
"Shame, shame, for those who shake hands with the leaders of the occupation, those who sit with the occupation leaders, and those who give compromises to the occupation," Haniyeh told Hamas TV.
Abbas, Hamas' most bitter rival, denounced the raid and said it undermined peace efforts. A Hamas official said the prime ministers of Qatar, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia called Zahar to express their condolences.
In Damascus, Syria, the exiled leader of Hamas said Israel's Gaza raid was the result of President Bush's visit to the Middle East.
"This crime is the ugly fruit of Bush's visit to the region. He has incited the Zionists and has exerted pressure on the Palestinian side to become more hardline against Palestinian dialogue," Khaled Mashaal said in an interview in his office with The Associated Press.
Mashaal was referring to Abbas, whose mainstream Fatah faction has been locked in a bitter power struggle with his Hamas group that now controls Gaza.
"Bush's visit to the region gave the Zionists a green light and this is the practical implementation by the criminal (Israeli Prime Minister Ehud) Olmert in the Gaza strip," Mashaal said.
"This proves that our people are great and our leaders sacrifice their sons. These are the real leaders that meld with their people and defend them, not those who infiltrate to the futile negotiating table with the Zionist entity," he said of Fatah.
Mashaal said Hamas will retaliate to the Gaza raid with "more resistance, steadfastness and national unity."
"We will not offer more concessions because of these crimes," he added.
___
Associated Press writer Albert Aji in Damascus, Syria, contributed to this report.
Bus bombing kills 23 in Sri Lanka
By RAVI NESSMAN,
Associated Press Writer
40 minutes ago (on January 16th, around 1:30AM)
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka - A roadside bomb ripped through a packed civilian bus Wednesday, killing 23 people in southeastern Sri Lanka as the government officially withdrew from a tattered cease-fire with Tamil Tiger rebels.
The blast, the latest in a string of attacks in government-held territory in recent months, struck the bus in the remote town of Buttala, 150 miles southeast of Colombo.
Doctors from Colombo were being flown to the area by emergency helicopters to treat the wounded, government officials said.
The bomb, planted by the side of the road, exploded about 7:30 a.m., said military spokesman Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara. In addition to the 23 killed, 67 people were injured, he said.
Soon after the attack, a second roadside bomb struck an armored military vehicle in the same region, lightly injuring three soldiers, he said.
The bombings came just hours after the official end of the 2002 cease-fire agreement, which had largely broken down over the past two years amid renewed fighting.
Though scrapping the truce has little direct impact on the raging war, the Cabinet's unanimous decision to end the deal was criticized by peace mediators and foreign governments as a move that would make it even more difficult to end the decades-old conflict.
In the two weeks since the government told officials from Norway, a key broker of the deal, that it would end the cease-fire Wednesday, more than 300 people have been killed in violence along the front lines in the north, according to military figures.
The most immediate effect of the end of the cease-fire is the dissolution of the Sri Lankan Monitoring Mission, one of the few independent groups with access to both rebel-held territory and the government.
The Tamil Tigers have been fighting since 1983 for an independent state for Sri Lanka's ethnic Tamil minority in the north and east after decades of being marginalized by Sinhalese-dominated governments. The fighting has killed more than 70,000 people.
President Mahinda Rajapaksa has said he abandoned the cease-fire because it wasn't working and the rebels used it as cover to build up their military strength. At least 5,000 people have been killed since the cease-fire was signed.
The cease-fire was hailed as a crucial step toward ending the fighting when it was initiated in 2002 and for several years the violence plummeted and trade and travel flowed easily across the frontier between the rebel's de facto state in the north and government-held territory.
But new fighting broke out two years ago, leading to a wide-scale government offensive that forced the rebels out of the cities and towns of the east in July.
Japanese peace envoy Yasushi Akashi, who rushed to Sri Lanka for talks before the cease-fire expired, said Tuesday his country was concerned that the end of the truce would lead to even greater violence and more civilian casualties.
Baghdad bombings kill al-Qaida opponent
By ELENA BECATOROS, Associated Press Writer Mon Jan 7, 6:43 PM ET
BAGHDAD - The head of a key U.S.-backed Sunni group was killed Monday in a double suicide bombing that claimed at least 11 other lives and highlighted the deadly precision of attacks on Sunni leaders choosing to oppose al-Qaida in Iraq.
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The main target — a former police colonel who led resistance to al-Qaida in one of its former Baghdad strongholds — was first embraced by a bomber posing as a friend. Seconds later, the attacker stepped back and triggered an explosion, a witness said.
A suicide car bomber then struck as rescuers tried to evacuate the wounded. At least 28 people were injured in the twin blasts — the latest in a spate of attacks against Sunnis who have joined a U.S.-supported movement against extremists and credited with helping sharply reduce violence around Iraq.
But the mounting al-Qaida backlash has stoked worries of a wider showdown brewing as extremists try to reclaim havens and intimidate the so-called "Awakening Councils" opposing them. In an audiotape released Dec. 29, Osama bin Laden warned that Sunni Arabs who join the groups will "suffer in life and in the afterlife."
Monday's bombing occurred at the entrance of a Sunni Endowment office, a government agency that cares for Sunni mosques and shrines, and near an Awakening Council office in Baghdad's northern Azamiyah district, which had been a stronghold of insurgents and a safe haven for al-Qaida in Iraq.
The first bomber approached Riyadh al-Samarrai, a former police colonel and head of the local Awakening Council, and claimed to be a friend, said one of al-Samarrai's bodyguards, who was wounded in the attack.
"He met him and embraced him and after a few seconds, the explosion took place," the guard said from his bed in al-Nuaman hospital. He spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.
As people rushed to aid the wounded, a suicide car bomb exploded just yards away, said Baghdad's chief military spokesman, Brig. Qassim al-Moussawi.
Sunni Endowment leader Ahmed Abdul Ghafur al-Samarrai — who is from the same tribe as the colonel — blamed bin Laden for encouraging the attack. But he said the bloodshed Monday had "increased Iraqis' strength ... against those who want to create sectarian divisions."
Casualty figures from the attack differed.
Cmdr. Scott Rye, a U.S. military spokesman, said 12 people were killed and 28 were wounded. Earlier, al-Moussawi said six people were killed and 26 wounded. A police officer had put the death toll as high as 14.
The switch of allegiance by insurgents in Azamiyah was one of the most significant in a series of similar moves across Baghdad's Sunni neighborhoods.
Azamiyah is home to Iraq's most revered Sunni shrine, the mosque of Imam Abu Hanifa, and many in the area served as officers in Saddam Hussein's military and security agencies, giving an edge to the insurgency after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.
The U.S. military has credited the general drop in violence around Iraq to several factors, including the new Sunni allies and cease-fire declared by radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr for his Mahdi Army militia.
But commanders frequently say the improved security is fragile and could be reversed.
"It is tenuous at best," Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, who leads U.S. forces south of Baghdad, said last week. "On any given day, the security situation could go backward by some catastrophic attack, or by the local population not seeing continuing forward progress."
Other attacks in the capital Monday killed at least seven people, police said.
____
Associated Press writer Mazin Yahya in Baghdad contributed to this report
Suicide bombing kills 24 in Pakistan
By ASIF SHAHZAD, Associated Press Writer
Thu Jan 10, 2:26 PM ET
LAHORE, Pakistan - A suspected Islamic militant walked into a crowd of police guarding a courthouse and blew himself up Thursday, killing 24 others and wounding dozens in the first major attack in Pakistan since the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.
The blast at Lahore High Court, minutes before a planned anti-government rally by lawyers, was a bloody reminder of the security threats facing this key U.S. ally ahead of Feb. 18 parliamentary elections.
Echoing an extremist tactic in Iraq, suicide attacks have become as commonplace in Pakistan as in neighboring Afghanistan, adding to rising pressures on President Pervez Musharraf as he struggles to stay in office eight years after seizing power in military coup.
At least 20 suicide bombers have struck the past three months in attacks that killed 400 people, many of them from the security forces — the most intense period of terror strikes here since Pakistan allied with the U.S. in its war against al-Qaida and other extremist groups in 2001.
Police said the attacker got into the midst of some 70 officers in riot gear and detonated explosives on his body, spewing shrapnel in a blast that sprawled mangled bodies in pools of blood. All but three of the dead were police officers.
A horse lay dead, still harnessed to a cart. An abandoned motorcycle was toppled in the street a few yards away. Police boots, riot shields and helmets littered the ground.
"There was a huge bang," said Munrian Bibi, 60, a school cleaner caught in the blast as she headed home from work. "I saw people falling on ground crying for help. I don't know what saved my life from that hell," she said in a hospital where she was treated for leg wounds.
There was no claim of responsibility. The government has blamed previous attacks on Islamic radicals allied with al-Qaida and the Taliban who are intent on expanding their reach from strongholds in Pakistan's lawless tribal region along the Afghan border.
Musharraf blamed the same militants for the Dec. 27 gun and suicide bomb attack that killed Bhutto, a secular former prime minister who had repeatedly pledged to battle Islamic extremism in this country of 160 million people.
Bhutto's supporters have questioned whether elements within the government may have had a role in the opposition leader's slaying after a campaign rally, and are demanding an independent U.N. investigation.
To allay critics, Musharraf last week invited British police to help investigate the attack. The small team of Scotland Yard investigators was in Lahore on Thursday to examine evidence stored at forensic laboratories, but that was far from the bombing site.
The attack in Lahore, which until Thursday had been spared the worst of Pakistan's rising violence, shattered windows and set off tear gas shells carried by the police, preventing people from getting close to the victims in the moments after the blast, witnesses said.
"A man rammed into our ranks and soon there was a huge explosion," said police officer Syed Imtiaz Hussain, who suffered wounds to his legs and groin. "I saw the bodies of other policemen burning. It was like hell."
The city police's chief investigator, Tasaddaq Hussain, said the mutilated head of the suicide bomber had been recovered and would be reconstructed for identification. The bomber's other body parts were being examined by forensic experts to extract DNA, he said.
"The bomber seems to be a young man who was wearing a track suit. He had a thin beard," Hussain said.
Police experts estimated the bomb contained up to 30 pounds of explosives.
The attack occurred about 15 minutes before lawyers planned to demonstrate in front of Lahore's courthouse as part of a nationwide protest movement against Musharraf for the November ouster of independent-minded Supreme Court judges who could have ended his rule.
Although it did not appear the lawyers were the target, the bombing could stifle further street protests and the willingness of Pakistanis to attend election rallies.
But Shamim Akhtar, secretary of the Lahore Bar Association, said the lawyers' struggle would continue. "Such cowardly acts cannot deter us from our struggle against authoritarian rule," he said.
Information Minister Nisar Memon said the bombing was an attempt to scare people from participating in the democratic process. He vowed the national election would go ahead next month and said those responsible for the attack would be captured.
"We are after them. We will get them. They are on the run," he told Dawn News TV.
Late last month in Lahore, intelligence agents arrested a retired army major with alleged links to al-Qaida and linked him to a Nov. 1 bombing of an air force bus that killed eight people and wounded 40 in the town of Sargodha. It was not clear if that arrest, disclosed this week, was tied in any way to the courthouse bombing Thursday.
Musharraf condemned the latest bombing and reiterated his resolve to fight terrorism, saying he was "not to be deterred by such acts," the state news agency reported.
But Bhutto's husband and political heir, Asif Ali Zardari, said the attack was further proof the president had "miserably failed" to maintain law and order.
The attack came on the eve of the Islamic month of Muharram, which is often marred by bombings and clashes between Pakistan's Sunni Muslim majority and its Shiite minority. Authorities had already boosted security at holy sites across the country.
Military investigates 3 soldier deaths
By LOLITA C. BALDOR, Associated Press Writer
Tue Jan 15, 2:06 PM ET
WASHINGTON - Three Army soldiers who were gunned down during an intensive, three-hour firefight in the Salad ad Din province north of Baghdad last week, may have died from friendly fire, military officials said Tuesday.
The three 101st Airborne Division soldiers were part of an Army company that was attacked by as many as 15 insurgents on Jan. 8, after discovering several large caches of explosives.
Military officials said the incident is being investigated to determine whether the soldiers were killed by shots from the enemy or by U.S. forces, including members of their unit and aircraft called in for backup later in the battle.
A detailed account of the incident was described by several officials to The Associated Press. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is not complete.
The three soldiers were part of Alpha Company, 2nd Battalion, 327th Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team. They were searching buildings southwest of Samarra early that Tuesday morning when they found more than 1,000 pounds of homemade explosives, two 55-gallon barrels rigged to blow up, a roadside bomb, and bullets and bomb-making materials.
Soon afterward they found that a second building was also filled with explosives, guns, ammunition and a disassembled suicide vest.
According to reports, the soldiers continued searching the area, and later discovered four vehicles loaded with explosives. And at that point they determined that there were at least two insurgents hiding nearby.
When they moved in on the insurgents, reports said the soldiers discovered an extensive tunnel and trench network that was being defended by 10 to 15 of the enemy, who attacked the company with mortars, grenades and guns.
The two sides fought for about three hours, escalating to a massive battle with U.S. aircraft blasting the insurgents with rockets, several 500-pound bombs and .50-caliber guns.
At some point during the fight, soldiers discovered that two members of their unit — Pfc. Ivan E. Merlo, 19, of San Marcos, Calif., and Pfc. Phillip J. Pannier, 20, of Washburn, Ill. had been killed. Three others were injured, and one of them — Sgt. David J. Hart, 22, of Lake View Terrace, Ca. — died later.
The names of the injured soldiers have not been — and are not routinely — released. It is not clear how many enemy insurgents were killed.
___
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9 killed in Utah charter bus crash
Mon Jan 7, 4:56 PM ET
MEXICAN HAT, Utah - A chartered bus taking skiers home to Arizona ran off a curvy road and rolled down an embankment in a crash that split open the vehicle's roof and threw some passengers 100 yards. Nine were killed and about 20 others injured.
The Arrow Stage Lines bus was southbound on State Route 163 when it failed to negotiate a curve Sunday night, went off the road and rolled over several times down the 41-foot slope, said Trooper Cameron Roden of the Utah Highway Patrol.
Although the road was described as wet from light rain, weather was not the "main factor," Roden said. "The main thing we're looking at is the driver failed to negotiate the turn."
The highway is known as a challenge for drivers.
"It's just a narrow road. No shoulders, sharp curves," said Jim Hook, the fire chief in Bluff, who was among the first at the scene. "Truckers and buses know that. You don't go in there at night."
The scene of the crash was a mess of barbed wire, steel posts, luggage and ski equipment. The roof of the bus split open, tires were stripped off the vehicle and some people were pinned under the wreck, Hook said.
"The roof of the bus was on the ground," Hook said. "There were people scattered 100 yards from where the bus went off the road."
The driver suffered minor injuries, he said. The bus was returning to Phoenix after a ski trip to Telluride, Colo.
The bus, which was carrying 51 people, crashed about 10 miles north of Mexican Hat, in the Four Corners region where Utah meets Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico. Rescue crews from all four states were sent to help.
Hook said passengers were a mix of families, people in their 20s, and children ages 5 and 6. Two of the dead were students at Deer Valley High School in Glendale, Ariz., said district spokeswoman Diane Drumwright.
An Arrow Stage executive, Bruce Neuharth, was traveling to the crash site Monday from Omaha, Neb., headquarters. He said the company and its subsidiary, Corporate Transportation 'N Tours, were cooperating with authorities.
The bus was a "new motorcoach that was in perfect working order," Neuharth said in a statement.
Arrow has had seven bus crashes in the past two years, according to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration database. Four of those accidents involved injuries. No other details were available from the online database.
Elsewhere, two people were killed Monday morning in a car that collided with a school bus near Bartow, Fla., the Polk County sheriff's office said. None of the 11 students on the bus or their driver were injured. Deputies said the car veered into the path of the bus.
In Mapleton, Maine, a school bus went out of control at a sharp turn, clipped a utility poll and landed on its side Monday morning, sending six school children and the bus driver to a hospital with non-life threatening injuries, police said.
N.B. town mourns tragedy that claimed 8
Seven students and one teacher die in crash
Richard Foot, Canwest News Service
BATHURST, N.B. — Anne Arseneault stood on the edge of the highway in the crisp, winter sunshine outside this heartbroken city Sunday, and wept.
“Those poor little boys,” she cried. “God wanted them. They’re all angels now.”
The wreckage of a bus from a crash in New Brunswick is towed on a trailer. The accident killed seven student and one teacher near Bathurst on Saturday. (CNS) View Larger Image View Larger Image
The wreckage of a bus from a crash in New Brunswick is towed on a trailer. The accident killed seven student and one teacher near Bathurst on Saturday. (CNS)
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In the ditch beside the asphalt, a scar of dirt and bloodstained snow are all that remain of the terrible Friday night accident that injured Arseneault’s grandson Brad, and killed seven teammates from the Bathurst High School Phantoms senior basketball squad.
Brad Arseneault and another player survived the tragedy with broken bones. So did Katie Lord, a Grade 12 student at the school who had accompanied the team on its road trip last week to play a game in Moncton, two hours away.
The fourth survivor was Katie’s father Wayne Lord, the Phantoms’ much-respected coach, who was driving the passenger van in difficult weather when it veered into the left-hand lane and collided with an oncoming transport truck.
The accident also killed Lord’s wife Beth, a well-known and widely loved mathematics and music teacher who had worked at schools across northern New Brunswick.
While eight families here now grieve the loss of children and loved ones, Anne Arseneault’s family carries the trauma of feeling relief that their own boy survived the crash, while eight others were not so lucky.
“Oh my God we won the lotto we did,” said Arseneault. “No money can buy the life we got yesterday. But then you think of the others, and you’re sick to your soul.”
It could have been worse. Three members of the basketball team were too sick to make the journey to Moncton. Another boy, Brad Arseneault’s older brother Cal, quit the team in November to focus on his studies in the months leading up to Grade 12 graduation.
“Cal could have been in that van,” said Arseneault. “He’s taking this really hard. Two of the boys who died were his best friends in the world.
“The whole city is crying. I stand here and look at the flowers and the little candle there in the snow, and I just can’t imagine that those boys are gone.”
Along with Beth Lord, the dead include Nathan Cleland, 17, Javier Acevedo, 17, Codey Branch, 17, Justin Cormier, 17, Daniel Hains, 17, Nicholas Kelly, 15, and Nick Quinn, who turned 16 on Saturday.
Arseneault says the team had just finished singing Happy Birthday to Quinn inside the van after midnight — and was only minutes away from the McDonald’s restaurant in Bathurst where parents of the boys were waiting — when the crash occurred.
Half-an-hour later, the parents were asked to go to the hospital instead. They watched as four survivors were carried out of ambulances on stretchers, and were then told the other passengers were dead.
Among the parents, Anna Acevedo escaped war-torn El Salvador with her eldest daughter 20 years ago, and came to Canada.
Friends say when Javier was born, Anna treasured the fact that she would never have to worry about saving her son from political strife, the way she did her other children.
At the crash site Sunday, a folded, brown-paper Tim Horton’s bag was placed in the snow and inscribed with a simple tribute: “Javi — we love you and we miss you. Love, your family.”
Pilgrims came all day to the site, parking their cars on the shoulder of the road and gazing at a makeshift shrine of flowers, photographs — and a pair of portable basketball nets erected by students from Bathurst High.
Inside the school in downtown Bathurst, students filled eight white tablecloths with messages of love and sorrow. Flowers also filled the hallways.
The school intends to open for classes on Monday for those who want to attend. Dozens of teachers and psychologists from across the school district will also be available for students and staff seeking counselling.
“Although classes will be held, we know that tomorrow will definitely not be a normal day for any of us,” said Don McKay, the vice-principal, as small groups of students came to the school doors to lay flowers, and share hugs.
Bathurst is no stranger to bad news; the town’s once-prosperous pulp mill shut down two years ago putting hundreds out of work. But no human tragedy, taking the lives of so many young people, has ever hit so hard.
Flags on dozens of buildings are at half-mast. Sign boards across the city carry the same sentiment as the one outside the Home Hardware store: “God Bless our BHS Phantoms Angels.”
At the homes of grieving parents, friends and relatives came and went all weekend, carrying plates of food and messages of comfort.
And at church services, the names of the dead were read aloud, as worshippers whispered about the accident and prayed for the families.
“I had a hard time getting through those names I’ll tell you,” said Harvie Aubie, who struggled to hold back tears as he read the list during the Sunday service at Saint George’s Anglican Church.
After the service, people gathered over coffee to digest the news.
“I think everyone’s still in shock,” said Rod Black, the Anglican priest. “The school’s sports teams mean a lot in this town. They’re the movers and shakers. Those boys were involved in many things and knew a lot of people.”
Said Sharon Derouaux: “Mrs. Lord touched every child in the school system.
“Everybody here in Bathurst is somehow connected to the victims of this tragedy.”
RCMP officers said they are still investigating the crash, but throughout the weekend have downplayed any suggestions of wrongdoing as the cause of the crash.
School and city officials said the three surviving students remained in hospital on Sunday — one downgraded from intensive care — while Wayne Lord was allowed to go home on Saturday.
“It was an accident and nobody’s fault,” said Dale Branch, who lost his son Cody, and placed a picture of the tall, athletic teenager at the crash site.
“My heart goes out to all the other families,” he said. “I really, really appreciate the support of an entire community, and the calls we’re getting from all over Canada.”
The tragedy was remembered by the National Basketball Association Sunday when the Toronto Raptors held a minute of silence before their game against the Portland Blazers.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper also sent his condolences on Saturday.
Said John McLaughlin, the Bathurst school’s superintendent: “This has really been just simply a terrible weekend for all of us. The loss of seven students and one of our teachers is such a horrific accident, it’s something none of us could ever have dreamed we’d ever be planning for.”
Two public wakes for the victims, to be held in the city’s hockey arena, have been scheduled for Tuesday, followed by funerals on Wednesday.
©CanWest News Service 2008
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GEORGIA FRONTIERE: 1927-2008
Rams owner had a lot of memories
by Richard Goldstein, New York Times
Saturday, January 19, 2008
Georgia Frontiere, the owner of the NFL's Rams for nearly three decades and the first woman to take control of a league franchise, died Friday. She was 80.
Her death was announced by the Rams on their Web site. She had been hospitalized with breast cancer for several months, her children said in a statement posted there.
Frontiere, an occasional night-club singer and chorus line performer who hoped to become an opera star, was thrust into the pro football world in April 1979 when her husband, Carroll Rosenbloom, the owner of the Los Angeles Rams, drowned in the ocean while swimming near his Florida home.
Rosenbloom had groomed his son from a previous marriage, Steve, as his successor, but he left 70 percent of the Rams' ownership to his wife, evidently to minimize estate taxes. She quickly asserted control, firing Steve Rosenbloom and replacing him as the team's top executive with Don Klosterman, the general manager.
She bristled at what she apparently perceived to be snickering from the news media and the football world at a woman running an NFL team. "There are some who feel there are two different kinds of people - human beings and women," she said at her first news conference.
The Rams went to the 1980 Super Bowl, losing to the Pittsburgh Steelers, and Frontiere was in the spotlight, appearing on the cover of Sports Illustrated kicking a football and with Rams players in an American Express commercial, "Do You Know Me?"
In July 1980, she married her seventh husband, Dominic Frontiere, an award-winning composer. Then came troubling times. Her husband was indicted in 1986 on tax charges relating to his involvement in the scalping of more than 2,500 tickets to the 1980 Super Bowl. Georgia Frontiere said she had given the tickets to her husband to be given away, and she was not charged in the scheme. She divorced Frontiere in 1988, a year after he was released from prison.
Georgia Frontiere put her stamp on the Rams' franchise when she moved the team to her hometown of St. Louis in 1995, obtaining a lucrative deal for a domed stadium.
The Rams won the Super Bowl in 2000, defeating the Tennessee Titans 23-16, and appeared in the 2002 Super Bowl, losing to the New England Patriots 20-17.
Frontiere became a prominent figure in St. Louis; she made extensive charitable donations and was a patron of the arts.
But she had a reputation as something of an eccentric. She was often on the sideline during games and planted kisses on players who had turned in an outstanding effort. When Cabbage Patch dolls first came on the market and proved hard to get, she bought one for each of her players. She pursued astrology and drew up charts for some of the Rams' stars.
Frontiere, as a youngster, appeared with her mother, Lucia Pamela Irwin, a blues performer, and her brother, Ken, in a singing group, the Pamela Trio, performing at state fairs and ballrooms. In the late 1950s, she was a talk-show host in Miami and she made appearances as part of NBC's "Today" show cast when Dave Garroway was the host.
She met Carroll Rosenbloom, then the owner of the Baltimore Colts, in 1957 at a dinner given by Joseph P. Kennedy at his Palm Beach, Fla., estate. They were married in 1966, a month after Rosenbloom was divorced from his wife, Velma. At the time, Georgia and Carroll had had two children together.
Carroll Rosenbloom became the owner of the Los Angeles Rams in 1972, in a franchise swap, and Georgia became a part of the Hollywood social scene as a hostess in their Bel-Air mansion.
She is survived by a son, Dale; a daughter, Lucia Rodriguez, from her marriage to Rosenbloom; six grandchildren; and her companion, Earle Weatherwax.
As a woman in the NFL, Frontiere expressed a determination to succeed. On the eve of the Rams' appearance in the 1980 Super Bowl, she told USA Today: "From the time my late husband died, it has been a constant effort to do what he expected me to be able to do. He said: 'If anybody can, you can. You always stick to your ideas. And nobody pushes you around.' "
This article appeared on page D - 3 of the San Francisco Chronicle
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Young Celebrities Prompting Early Obits
City's violence begins to rattle residents
Ranch the size of San Francisco to be protected from development near Mt...
Bacteria race ahead of drugs Falling behind: Deadly infections...
Fast home sales require attention to pricing and promotion
More men turning to implants for chests of gold
Obama's straight-ahead style
Proposed wood burning ban draws fire
Kuleto readies latest S.F. restaurants
City's violence begins to rattle residents
Imagining San Francisco 100 years from now
More men turning to implants for chests of gold
Best evidence yet of caffeine-miscarriage link
Writers Talks Could Resume Next Week
Atty: Personal Problems Led to Slaying
Arrests Made in Trashing of Poet's House
Tom Ridge: Waterboarding Is Torture
O-kaaaay... If you say so...!
© 2008 Hearst Communications Inc.
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Many surprises, on Martin Luther King Day...
(Yes - this comment was posted on January the 22nd)
For me, it also meant another JJBP Day - not just MLK Day.
It was also MDEP Day - by association...
(See TLB Prime to see what I mean.)
None of these make up the surprises, no...
On the 22nd, I learned of a Great One whose passing just occurred two days ago - boxer Duilio Loi.
Mr. Loi truly made his law stand out ("loi" means law in French - though he is Italian, really) with his career totals that are more than just impressive: 115 wins, only 3 losses and 8 draws. He was NEVER knocked-out but handed the K.O. to 26 opponents.
And I'd never heard of the guy.
And my name is Luciano...
R.I.P. Duilio Loi 1929-2008
The passings of chess champ (and controversial figure) Bobby Fischer and actor (and also controversial, one could say) Heath Ledger are both MORE than surpriding though - they are downright SHOCKING.
Fischer was only in his early sixties.
Ledger was a very young Joker too - aren't Jack Nicholson AND even Cesar Romero still alive after all...? (No - I didn't verify on C.R. - haven't been 100% here - too tired to do so...!)
R.I.P. Heath...
R.I.P. Bobby...
Also on this day, I learn of the passing of an elderly man, 86 years of age - a death subsequential to a KICK ON THE CHEST FROM A GUY 60 YEARS YOUNGER... The older gent was effectively KICKED OFF A BUS, IN MALEVOLENT MONTREAL...!
Even a bus driver admitted it: NO ONE IS SAFE IN A BUS, IN MONTREAL...
(Never mind that the fact that the bus driver who spoke out happend to be the victim's SON. No - he wasn't driving the bus his Dad got kicked off by another commuter-punk... "The victim" had a name - and it was Isacio Ferreras, by the way)
R.I.P. Isacio Ferreras
On MLK Day, also, I saw an odd prediction come true - the Boston Bruins traveled to the aforementioned miserable town of Montreal and lost a hockey game, just as predicted by someone I care not to name... And it appeared that the opposite result was more likely, as the Bruins had clear momentum heading into that game... Oh well - it's just a GAME. Nobody lost their LIVES, while commuting from point "A" to point "B" there...
And there were other items worthy of mention too...
Maybe we'll get to them eventually - here or elsewhere on the TLB Prime Network!
More on the three SHOCKING deaths mentioned here - coming right up.
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But first...
Provincial police chief killed in Mosul
By KIM GAMEL,
Associated Press Writer
Thu Jan 24, 1:57 PM ET
BAGHDAD - A suicide bomber killed an Iraqi police chief and two other officers Thursday as they surveyed the site of the wreckage of a blast a day earlier that devastated a predominantly Sunni neighborhood in the volatile northern city of Mosul.
The casualty toll from Wednesday's explosion rose to at least 34 dead and 224 injured, said Hisham al-Hamdani, the head of the Ninevah provincial council. The blast obliterated a three-story apartment building and ravaged adjacent houses just minutes after the Iraqi army arrived to investigate tips about a weapons cache.
Brig. Gen. Salah Mohammed al-Jubouri, the police chief for surrounding Ninevah province, was killed as he left the blast site after being confronted by an angry crowd shouting "Allahu Akbar" or "God is Great" while he inspected damage near the crater.
Mosul, 225 miles northwest of Baghdad, has become one of the latest fronts in U.S.-led efforts to rid the country of al-Qaida-linked militants who fled crackdowns in the capital and surrounding areas. While the levels of violence have fallen in much of the country, attacks have persisted north of Baghdad.
In Thursday's attack, a bomber disguised as a policeman blew himself up as the entourage was just yards away from their vehicles, said police spokesman Saeed al-Jubouri. Al-Jubouri is a tribal name common in Mosul.
The police chief was killed, along with two other officers, and five people were wounded, including three Iraqi police, an Iraqi soldier and a U.S. soldier, the U.S. military said.
The military said initial reports indicated al-Qaida in Iraq was behind Thursday's attack, but Wednesday's explosion remained under investigation.
Ahmed Ibrahim, a 40-year-old tailor, said he went to the area early Thursday to check on his shop and found the building intact. But others were not so fortunate, finding entire blocks reduced to rubble and a massive crater at least 30 feet deep where the apartment building used to stand.
"The building that exploded has disappeared while the houses next to it were leveled. Other houses farther away were damaged," Ibrahim said.
"When I stood near the leveled houses, I heard the voices of people calling for help from under the debris. I went to the firefighters and told them about the voices," he said. "Some relatives were searching among the debris for their missing relatives. The whole thing is a disaster."
On Sunday, U.S. military spokesman Rear Adm. Gregory Smith said the military had largely chased al-Qaida in Iraq out of all major urban centers except Mosul, the country's third largest city and a major transportation hub with highways leading west to Syria and south to Baghdad.
"Mosul will continue to be a center of influence for, a center of gravity for al-Qaida because of its key network of facilitation — both financing and foreign fighters," he said. "The flow to Mosul is critical for al-Qaida in Iraq."
Provincial Gov. Duraid Kashmola imposed an indefinite curfew starting at noon Thursday in the city following the attack.
He said a preliminary investigation showed al-Qaida in Iraq was behind Wednesday's explosion in a bid "to terrorize Mosul residents."
Wednesday's explosion came after the Iraqi army received calls that insurgents were using the vacant building as a shelter and a bomb-making factory, police said.
A bulldozer worked through the night to clear the debris, with vehicles providing light as dozens of people watched on the rim of the water-filled crater, footage from the local TV station showed.
The TV footage showed one woman looking stunned as she held a bandage to her face in an emergency room and doctors rushed to treat a man whose face was bloodied.
The blast in Mosul was the latest in a series of bombings across Iraq, including in some areas that have seen a relative calm recently with the security gains from U.S.-Iraqi operations and a Sunni revolt against al-Qaida in Iraq.
Al-Hamdani, the provincial council chief, said rescue operations continued despite the attack on the police chief and he expected the death toll to rise as more bodies were pulled from huge piles of concrete rubble.
Many of the recent attacks have been against Sunni tribal leaders and officials who have joined forces with the Americans against al-Qaida in Iraq.
Clashes erupted for about two hours Thursday on the outskirts of Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad, between insurgents and members of the local Awakening Council, as the U.S.-allied group is known. A local police officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he feared retribution, said two militants were killed.
In other violence, a roadside bomb struck a police patrol in central Baghdad, killing two officers and injuring two, along with three civilians, police said. The explosion was in the predominantly Shiite neighborhood of Karradah.
An explosion also targeted a U.S. patrol in the mainly Shiite northeastern neighborhood of Ur but killed one civilian and wounded two others.
___
Associated Press writer Sinan Salaheddin contributed to this report.
Three Canadian inmates hurt and one dead
KINGSTON, Ontario,
Jan. 24 (UPI) --
One prisoner was found dead and three injured at a federal prison in Kingston, Ontario, following an unexplained incident, police said.
Authorities said the three seriously injured prisoners were brought to Kingston General Hospital from Joyceville Penitentiary late Wednesday by ambulance, but have not determined how one prisoner died, the Kingston Whig Standard reported Thursday.
"It's definitely not a riot or any sort of thing like that as far as we know -- at this point it's all very preliminary. Right now we don't know what the cause of death is," Ontario Provincial Police Sgt. Kristine Rae said.
Rae told reporters for now, the fatality was being handled as a sudden death, the Globe and Mail reported Thursday.
No prison staff was injured during the incident and the situation has remained calm, Correctional Service of Canada spokeswoman Janine Chown said.
Inmates were sent to their cells and the institution was locked down for the remainder of the evening following the incident.
© UPI, Headline News
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Deputy coroner allegedly stole from dead
AUGUSTA, Ga.,
Jan. 24 (UPI) --
A deputy coroner in Georgia has been charged with stealing gift cards from a woman who killed herself on New Year's Eve.
Charlena Graham was arrested Wednesday in her office in Richmond County, the Augusta Chronicle reported. She was immediately dismissed from her position after being charged with a single count of theft by taking.
Graham allegedly appropriated five gift cards with a total value of about $400 from stores that included Target, Macy's and Victoria's Secret, officials said. Because Graham is a public official, the alleged theft is automatically a felony.
The gift cards belonged to a woman who shot herself at the Baymont Inn and Suites on Dec. 31.
Sheriff's deputies gave the woman's personal items to Graham, the report said. Family members later reported that gift cards appeared to be missing.
Investigators have evidence that includes videotapes of Graham allegedly using the gift cards to buy items for her own use, Sheriff Ronnie Strength reported.
Graham started in law enforcement as a police officer in Augusta and then worked for the county when the city and county police forces merged.
© UPI, Headline News
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Not dead yet, Chilean man wakes up at his own wake
Sun Jan 20, 4:05 PM
SANTIAGO (AFP) - An 81-year old man in the small Chilean village of Angol shocked his grieving relatives by waking up in his coffin at his own wake, local media said on Sunday.
When Feliberto Carrasco's family members discovered his body limp and cold, they were convinced that the octogenarian's hour had come, so they immediately called a funeral home, not a doctor.
Carrasco was dressed in his finest suit for the wake, and his relatives gathered to bid him a final farewell.
"I couldn't believe it. I thought I must be mistaken, and I shut my eyes," Carrasco's nephew Pedro told the daily Ultimas Noticias.
"When I opened them again, my uncle was looking at me. I started to cry and ran to get something to open up the coffin to get him out."
The man who "rose from the dead" said he was not in any pain, and only asked for a glass of water.
Local radio also surprised listeners by announcing a correction to Carrasco's death announcement, saying the news had been premature.
WHAT OTHERS HAVE SAID ABOUT THIS NEWS STORY
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ginamakai
Oh Tony you maid my day. I haven't laughed so hard for a long time.
POSTED BY: ginamakai on THU, JAN 24, 2008 08:40 PM -0500
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u8n8i8x
exactly the same thing happened to me
POSTED BY: u8n8i8x on THU, JAN 24, 2008 05:44 PM -0500
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No Photo Available.
I would check if he's dead before arranging a funeral..
POSTED BY: koshiishichan on THU, JAN 24, 2008 03:30 AM -0500
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robbi_bitner
Also where the phrase "graveyard shift came in. A few centuries ago, coffins were exhumed with scratches on the INSIDE of the lid. Tokar is right - they rigged up a bell, but after burial, someone had to sit by the grave listening for the bell. Graveyard shift. Frankly, I'd like to imagine my family would call the doctor to confirm my death, rather than go straight for the funeral home.
POSTED BY: robbi_bitner on WED, JAN 23, 2008 10:01 PM -0500
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soft tail
OK Yahoo: You have blead this story to death. Move on.
POSTED BY: soft tail on WED, JAN 23, 2008 06:40 PM -0500
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U.S. group wants Botox warning after 16 death reports
Thu Jan 24, 6:02 PM
By Lisa Richwine
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Botox and a similar injection should come with stronger warnings following reports of 16 deaths after the botulinum toxin spread inside the body, a U.S. consumer group said on Thursday.
Public Citizen asked U.S. authorities to require the strongest possible warning, highlighted in a "black box," on Allergan Inc's Botox and Solstice Neuroscience Inc's Myobloc.
Botox is famous for smoothing facial wrinkles but also has approved medical uses such as treating cervical dystonia, or rigid neck muscles. Myobloc is cleared only for the neck condition.
Both injections are made with forms of the botulinum toxin, which blocks nerve impulses to muscles and makes them relax.
Public Citizen said it reviewed 180 reports submitted to the Food and Drug Administration by manufacturers involving patients injected with Botox or Myobloc. The reports detailed cases of muscle weakness, difficulty swallowing or aspiration pneumonia, a serious condition caused by breathing a foreign material into the lungs.
Reports to the FDA do not prove a product caused a particular problem, but the agency uses them to look for patterns of potential complications. Experts believe most problems are under-reported to the agency.
Officials at Allergan and Solstice did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Allergan projected in November that worldwide sales for Botox would top $1.1 billion in 2007.
Sixteen cases reported to the FDA were fatal, including four involving children under 18, Public Citizen said. Eighty-seven patients were hospitalized.
Dr. Sidney Wolfe, director of Public Citizen's Health Research Group, said such problems can occur if botulinum toxin spreads from the injection site to places such as the esophagus, causing partial paralysis. Instructions for Botox and Myobloc mention the issue but it is easy to miss, he said.
Public Citizen asked the FDA to order a black-box warning to highlight the concern, plus a letter to doctors. The agency also should require a consumer-friendly guide explaining the risks that would be handed out by doctors when the drug is injected, the group said.
"These significantly improved warnings to doctors and patients would increase the likelihood of earlier medical intervention when symptoms of adverse reactions to botulinum toxin first appear, and could prevent more serious complications, including death," Public Citizen said in a petition to the FDA.
Early symptoms include dry mouth, difficulty breathing or swallowing, slurred speech, drooping eyelids and muscle weakness.
The group said European regulators have warned physicians to watch for signs of botulinum toxin complications.
FDA spokeswoman Karen Riley said the agency would not comment while the Public Citizen petition was under review.
Allergan shares closed down 1.4 percent to $64.12 at the end of regular trading Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange.
(Editing by Tim Dobbyn)
My condolences - even premature ones if need be - to all those deeply affected by the preceding stories...
Including the Botox beauties - who died for their cause.
It takes dedication to do that.
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A few more...
Father of 2 killed after gunfire erupts on busy Toronto street
Fri Jan 18, 2:12 PM
TORONTO (CBC) - Toronto police identified Hou Chang Mao, a 47-year-old father of two, as the man who was shot and killed near a busy street corner at around suppertime Thursday.
The man worked at a grocery store on Gerrard Street East near Broadview Avenue and was shot in the chest around 6 p.m. Shoppers ducked for cover as bullets struck store windows and parked cars.
Mao was hit while working outside the Fu Yao supermarket, during an apparent shootout between rival groups, and later died at St. Michael's Hospital.
A post-mortem performed Friday showed he died of a gunshot wound to the chest, police say.
Describing Mao as an innocent bystander, police say he arrived from China two years ago and had just recently brought his 18-year-old daughter to Canada. Mao also has a 23-year-old son, said police.
Police said Friday they are looking for two black men - whom they described as witnesses and possibly intended targets - who drove away in a silver-coloured car with a shiny front grill.
At a news conference Friday afternoon, Det. Sgt. Pauline Gray said the killer or killers have much to answer for.
"Even they have to understand the depth of what they've done," Gray said. "They've killed an innocent man."
Speaking to reporters, she had a message for the killers.
"You ask me what I'd say to them? 'I've got you on camera,'" Gray said bluntly. "Somewhere, somehow, in the hundreds of hours we're about to look at, we'll find you in there."
Residents worry about safety
Meanwhile, area residents gathered near the crime scene Friday expressed outrage at the shooting.
"When people start pulling this stuff in broad daylight without any regard for citizens because they don't care, because they know they're going to get a slap on the wrist...that's the problem," said longtime resident Stan Gruska.
Others, like Jerry Duffet, said that unfortunately it's part of life in an increasingly violent city.
"When you're younger, it's a shocking thing, it's terrible. But as you get older and you see so much of it, it's a desensitizing thing, unfortunately, but that's just the way it is," he told CBC News.
But Toronto Mayor David Miller doesn't agree.
"I know that area very well," he said Friday morning. "And it goes without saying that someone has the right to safely go to work without people engaging in gun battles."
At a news conference later in the day Friday, the mayor repeated calls for a ban against all handguns in Toronto.
Last weekend, 42-year-old John O'Keefe was shot in the head as he walked by a downtown Toronto club after a night out with friends. Police said the victim was not the intended target.
Two men have been arrested and charged in connection with that incident.
WHAT OTHERS HAVE SAID ABOUT THIS NEWS STORY
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No Photo Available.
When the Killers are caught give them the justice CHINESE STYLE in the front door see the judge.......move to the middle of the bus get the sentence and receive the punishment at the back of the bus........a choice firing squad or the needle....then its good bye to bad rubbish. No reoffenders. No l0 years of appeals. No drain on the taxpayers to warehouse them instyle. Quick, and easy. They pay for their crimes. Justice is served. Canada has become a scary place we need to send a message
POSTED BY: vangal on WED, JAN 23, 2008 07:26 AM -0500
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xyamaca
Sound the alarm to the Government change the LAWS that innocent people cannot die because of GUNS. GET the guns off our streets. Any one caught for these crimes should be sentenced to DOUBLE the age of the Deceased person with no possiblity of PAROLe .
POSTED BY: xyamaca on SAT, JAN 19, 2008 03:49 PM -0500
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mrs architect
Hi Self Imposed. Wow, Jurong is so far north. Sorry for the mistype, I'm actually in the true north strong and free now. Worked EVERY Saturday (.5 day) when I was with the PWD/New KK Hospital. The law there works well for women. I was harrassed by a Chinese laborer in a construction lift and when he got reported, he was back to China in a week! Singapore takes the law seriously. I also think they have dossiers on everybody but as long as one's law-abiding, it can be a good place for anyone.
POSTED BY: mrs architect on SAT, JAN 19, 2008 08:40 AM -0500
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mrs architect
Hi Self Imposed. Wow, Jurong is so far north. Sorry for the mistype, I'm actually in the true north strong and free now. Worked EVERY Saturday (.5 day) when I was with the PWD/New KK Hospital. The law there works well for women. I was harrassed by a Chinese laborer in a construction lift and when he got reported, he was back to China in a week! Singapore takes the law seriously. I also think they have dossiers on everybody but as long as one's law-abiding, it can be a good place for anyone.
POSTED BY: mrs architect on SAT, JAN 19, 2008 08:39 AM -0500
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mrs architect
Hello Dicks500. You mentioned Sarawak and I had goose bumps. The nice thing about Singapore's smallness, when one gets bored, it becomes a great hopping point for cheap travel in Asia. Spent time in Kuching then road trip across to Sibu, Bintulu up to Miri then planed in to Mulu, to explore the Mulu Caves--Deer (featured in BBC's Planet Earth), Lang, Clearwater and Wind Caves. Astounding, breathtaking. Asia is tropical paradise. I shall return!
POSTED BY: mrs architect on SAT, JAN 19, 2008 08:07 AM -0500
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More... here
Roadside bomb kills 78th Canadian soldier on Afghan mission, two hurt
Thu Jan 24, 9:30 AM
By Stephanie Levitz,
The Canadian Press
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - Another roadside bomb has claimed the life of a Canadian soldier in a region that's been pockmarked several times this month already by the crude, but powerful explosive devices.
The soldier was killed and two were injured when their light armoured vehicle hit a roadside bomb in Panjwaii district in southern Afghanistan on Wednesday afternoon.
The name of the dead soldier, the 78th to die on the Canadian mission in Afghanistan since it began in 2002, was not released at the request of his family.
The two injured soldiers were able to notify their families and have since been released from hospital.
"Through their devotion and effort, our soldiers bring the hope of a better life for the Afghan people," said Brig-Gen. Guy Laroche in making the announcement. "A life that provides an opportunity for Afghan children to grow up in peace as young Canadians do back home."
The first three weeks of January have exacted a deadly toll in Afghanistan in a way not seen during this season in recent years.
The winter months are generally quiet in Afghanistan with the cold weather hampering the movement of insurgents.
The last time a Canadian was killed in January was in 2006, when a suicide bomber claimed the life of diplomat Glyn Berry.
But Wednesday's death marks the fourth fatality this month and the second from a roadside bomb.
The tempo in the field remains the same now as it did during the spring and summer months, Laroche said.
"The difference is there is no direct engagements obviously," he said. "What they have been using is IEDs obviously as their weapon of choice."
On Jan. 15, Trooper Richard Renaud was killed while on a reconnaissance patrol in the Arghandab district.
His Coyote vehicle hit an IED, which also injured two soldiers.
Though Renaud's death occurred in what's previously been a more secure area of Kandahar province, the volatile Panjwaii district that was the scene of Wednesday's death has seen a number of IED incidents in recent weeks.
The improvised explosive devices, homemade bombs fashioned out of whatever insurgents can scrounge, have been hitting not only Canadians, but Afghans as well.
On Jan. 19, five Afghans were killed when the taxi they were riding in hit a bomb in Panjwaii, and three others were injured.
"Usually the Taliban are planting mines for Afghan and NATO forces but this time it exploded on civilians," local government leader Shah Baran said at the time.
On Jan. 16, seven Canadian soldiers suffered minor injuries in two separate explosions hitting two vehicles in the same convoy nearly three hours apart.
Two days earlier, a blast in the same region caused only property damage.
On Wednesday, the soldiers had been on a road clearing operation that involved bulldozers and other pieces of equipment designed to rid the area of bombs.
"What we are doing essentially, we are conducting operations to secure the area, not only for us but also the Afghans," he said.
"We won't stop helping the people of Afghanistan."
The Afghanistan NGO Safety Office, a security company that surveys the security situation in Afghanistan for aid workers and other groups, said in a year-end report for 2007 that 1,977 civilians were killed in insurgency-related violence last year.
IEDs have been responsible for the majority of Canadian deaths and injuries in Afghanistan.
Also this month, four Canadian soldiers were injured in Zangabad, about 35 kilometres southwest of Kandahar city, when their vehicle struck an IED that was planted along a dirt road.
The troops were on a road-clearance patrol aimed at finding and defusing mines at the time.
The patrols see the troops using specialized equipment to help locate and destroy the mines.
But observers of Canada's mission in Afghanistan, including an independent panel chaired by former Liberal leader John Manley, have said the only way to protect against the devices entirely is to get soldiers off the road by using helicopters or airplanes.
Since 2002, 78 Canadian soldiers and one diplomat have been killed in Afghanistan. Here is a list of the deaths:
2008
Jan. 23. - An unidentified soldier was killed and two others injured when their light armoured vehicle hit a roadside bomb in the Panjwaii district of southern Afghanistan.
Jan. 15 - Trooper Richard Renaud, 26, of Alma Que., a member of the 12e Regiment blinde du Canada, killed when the Coyote light armoured vehicle he was travelling in hit a roadside bomb while on patrol in the Arghandab district, north of Kandahar city.
Jan. 6 - Warrant Officer Hani Massouh, 41, and Cpl. Eric Labbe, 31, of 2nd Battalion, Royal 22nd Regiment, killed when their armoured vehicle rolled over in wet, rugged terrain southwest of Kandahar City.
2007
Dec. 30 - Jonathan Dion, 27, gunner with 5th Regiment d'Artillerie legere du Canada from Val-d'Or, Que., killed when his light armoured vehicle struck a roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan.
Nov. 17 - Cpl. Nicolas Raymond Beauchamp of the 5th Field Ambulance in Valcartier and Pte. Michel Levesque of the Royal 22nd Regiment, killed when their light armoured vehicle hit a roadside bomb near Bazar-e Panjwaii.
Sept. 24 - Cpl. Nathan Hornburg, 24, with the King's Own Calgary regiment, killed by a mortar shell while trying to repair a Leopard tank in southern Afghanistan.
Aug. 29 - Maj. Raymond Ruckpaul, 42, died from a gunshot wound in his room at the headquarters of NATO's International Security Assistance Force in Kabul. He was an armoured officer based at the NATO Allied Land Component Command Headquarters in Heidelberg, Germany.
Aug. 22 - Master Warrant Officer Mario Mercier, Royal 22nd Regiment; Master Cpl. Christian Duchesne, 5th Field Ambulance unit, both based in Valcartier, Que., killed when light armoured vehicle struck by roadside bomb after battle for strategic hill west of Kandahar city.
Aug. 19
-Pte. Simon Longtin, 23, of Longueuil, Que., on Montreal's south shore, a member of the Royal 22nd Regiment, killed when his light armoured vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb west of Kandahar city.
July 4 - Cpl. Cole Bartsch, Capt. Matthew Johnathan Dawe, Pte. Lane Watkins and Cpl. Jordan Anderson, all of 3rd Battalion Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry based in Edmonton; Master Cpl. Colin Bason, a reservist from The Royal Westminster Regiment based in New Westminster, B.C., and Capt. Jefferson Francis of the 1st Royal Canadian Horse Artillery based in Shilo, Man., killed by a roadside bomb west of Kandahar city.
June 20 - Sgt. Christos Karigiannis, Cpl. Stephen Frederick Bouzane and Pte. Joel Vincent Wiebe, all of 3rd Battalion Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, killed when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb near a forward-operating base at Sperwan Ghar, west of Kandahar.
June 11 - Trooper Darryl Caswell, 25, of the Royal Canadian Dragoons, killed when an improvised explosive device detonated underneath his vehicle north of Kandahar City.
May 30 - Master Cpl. Darrell Jason Priede, a combat photographer based at CFB Gagetown, N.B., killed when a U.S. helicopter was reportedly shot down by the Taliban in Helmand province.
May 25 - Cpl. Matthew McCully, 25, a signals operator from 2 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group Headquarters and Signals Squadron based at Petawawa, Ont., killed by an improvised explosive device in Zhari district.
April 18 - Master Cpl. Anthony Klumpenhouwer, 25, of Listowel, Ont., died after falling from a communications tower while on duty with the elite Special Operations Forces Command, conducting surveillance in Kandahar City.
April 11 - Master Cpl. Allan Stewart, 30, and Trooper Patrick James Pentland, 23, both of the Royal Canadian Dragoons based in Petawawa, Ont., killed when their Coyote vehicle struck an improvised explosive device.
April 8 - Pte. Kevin V. Kennedy, 20, of St. Lawrence, Nfld., Sgt. Donald Lucas, 31, of Burton, N.B., Cpl. Aaron E. Williams, 23, of Lincoln, N.B., Pte. David R. Greenslade, 20, of Saint John, N.B., Cpl. Brent Poland, 37, of Sarnia, Ont., all of Gagetown, N.B.-based 2nd Battalion, RCR; and Cpl. Christopher Stannix, 24, of Dartmouth, N.S., from the Halifax-based Princess Louise Fusiliers, killed when their armoured vehicle hit a roadside bomb in the Maywand district.
March 6 - Cpl. Kevin Megeney, 25, of Stellarton, N.S., a member of 1st Battalion of Nova Scotia Highlanders, killed by accidental shooting at NATO base in Kandahar.
2006
Nov. 27 - Chief Warrant Officer Bobby Girouard, his battalion's regimental sergeant major, and Cpl. Albert Storm, both of Royal Canadian Regiment based in CFB Petawawa, killed when suicide car bomber attacked their Bison armoured personnel carrier on outskirts of Kandahar City.
Oct. 14 - Sgt. Darcy Tedford, based at CFB Petawawa, and Pte. Blake Williamson from Ottawa killed in ambush west of Kandahar.
Oct. 7 - Trooper Mark Andrew Wilson of Royal Canadian Dragoons, based in Petawawa, Ont., killed when his armoured vehicle hit by roadside bomb in Panjwaii district.
Oct. 3 - Sgt. Craig Gillam and Cpl. Robert Mitchell of Royal Canadian Dragoons, based in Petawawa, Ont., killed in series of mortar, rocket attacks just west of Kandahar City.
Sept. 29 - Pte. Josh Klukie of First Battalion, Royal Canadian Regiment, based in Petawawa, Ont., killed by explosion in Panjwaii while on foot patrol.
Sept. 18 - Pte. David Byers, Cpl. Shane Keating and Cpl. Keith Morley, all of 2nd Battalion, Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry based in Shilo, Man., and Cpl. Glen Arnold, 2 Field Ambulance, based in Petawawa, Ont., killed in suicide bicycle bomb attack while on foot patrol in Panjwaii.
Sept. 4 - Pte. Mark Graham, based at CFB Petawawa, killed when two NATO planes accidentally strafed Canadian troops in Panjwaii district.
Sept. 3 - Sgt. Shane Stachnik, Warrant Officer Frank Robert Mellish, Pte. William Cushley and Warrant Officer Richard Francis Nolan, all based at CFB Petawawa, Ont., killed in fighting in Panjwaii district.
Aug. 22 - Cpl. David Braun, based at Shilo, Man., killed in suicide bomb attack in Kandahar City.
Aug. 11 - Cpl. Andrew Eykelenboom, 23, of Comox, B.C., stationed with 1st Field Ambulance, based in Edmonton, killed in suicide attack.
Aug. 9 - Master Cpl. Jeffrey Walsh, 33, of Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, based in Shilo, Man., killed by apparent accidental discharge of rifle.
Aug. 5 - Master Cpl. Raymond Arndt, 31, of Loyal Edmonton Regiment, killed when large truck collided head-on with his G-Wagon patrol vehicle.
Aug. 3 - Cpl. Christopher Reid, 34, of 1st Battalion of Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, based in Edmonton, killed by roadside bomb. Three other members of same battalion killed in rocket-propelled grenade attack by Taliban forces west of Kandahar: Sgt. Vaughan Ingram, 35, Cpl. Bryce Keller, 27, and Pte. Kevin Dallaire, 22.
July 22 - Cpl. Francisco Gomez, 44, of Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, based in Edmonton, and Cpl. Jason Warren, 29, of Black Watch, Royal Highland Regiment of Canada, based in Montreal, killed when car packed with explosives rammed their armoured vehicle.
July 9 - Cpl. Anthony Boneca, 21, reservist from Lake Superior Scottish Regiment based in Thunder Bay, Ont., killed in firefight.
May 17 - Capt. Nichola Goddard, artillery officer based in Shilo, Man., with 1st Royal Canadian Horse Artillery, killed in Taliban ambush during battle in Panjwaii region. She was first Canadian woman to be killed in action while serving in combat role.
April 22 - Cpl. Matthew Dinning of Richmond Hill, Ont., stationed with 2nd Canadian Mechanized Brigade in Petawawa, Ont., Bombardier Myles Mansell of Victoria, Lt. William Turner of Toronto, stationed in Edmonton, and Cpl. Randy Payne, born in Lahr, Germany, stationed at CFB Wainright, Alta., all killed when their G-Wagon destroyed by roadside bomb near Gumbad.
March 29 - Pte. Robert Costall of Edmonton, machine-gunner, killed in firefight with Taliban insurgents in Sangin district of Helmand province.
March 2 - Cpl. Paul Davis of Bridgewater, N.S., and Master Cpl. Timothy Wilson of Grande Prairie, Alta., killed when their armoured vehicle ran off road in Kandahar area.
Jan. 15 - Glyn Berry, British-born Canadian diplomat who had served with Foreign Affairs Department since 1977, killed in suicide bombing near Kandahar.
2005
Nov. 24 - Pte. Braun Woodfield, born in Victoria and raised in Eastern Passage, N.S., killed when his armoured vehicle rolled over near Kandahar.
2004
Jan. 27 - Cpl. Jamie Murphy, 26, of Conception Harbour, Nfld., killed in suicide bombing while on patrol near Kabul.
2003
Oct. 2 - Sgt. Robert Short, 42, of Fredericton, and Cpl. Robbie Beerenfenger, 29, of Ottawa, killed in roadside bombing southwest of Kabul.
2002
April 17 - Sgt. Marc Leger, 29, of Lancaster, Ont., Cpl. Ainsworth Dyer, 24, of Montreal, Pte. Richard Green, 21, of Mill Cove, N.S., and Pte. Nathan Smith, 27, of Tatamagouche, N.S., all killed when U.S. F-16 fighter mistakenly bombed Canadians on pre-dawn training exercise. Eight other Canadians wounded in friendly-fire incident.
WHAT OTHERS HAVE SAID ABOUT THIS NEWS STORY
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It's time to start focusing on Canada rather than sacrificing our soldiers in far away lands. I doubt 78 Afghanis would fight for our "freedom" if the call went out. Let's concentrate on the terrorists we already have in this country who earn money to support the Taliban's activities in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Things haven't changed there for thousands of years....no amount of Canadian lives will change that.
POSTED BY: turk182 on FRI, JAN 25, 2008 02:30 AM -0500
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KNOTAWAHOO-This is a caution-I've noted 3 abusive posts from you -(2 to me and one to another) no info just belittling -if you persist I will report you for abuse and let yahoo judge -personally, your insults are meaningless
POSTED BY: einmensch on THU, JAN 24, 2008 09:02 PM -0500
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einmensch i don't argue with morons SWEETIE take whom evers hand is up your butt out think for yourself you puppet you might want to also pull your head out of your a$$hole while you're down there yes a pipeline was to be built to serve who ? the US and who was originally going to build the pipeline ? timeline on construction ?c'mon answer up dummy
POSTED BY: knotawahoo on THU, JAN 24, 2008 08:13 PM -0500
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You know, people in W. Europe (except the US' 51st state of course) are bewildered by the fact that Canada is so uncritical of the US, and allows America to use our troops as a bait for the Taliban in one the most dangerous areas of Afghanistan (and then they thank us by bombing some of our soldiers in what they call "friendly fire"). Anyway, F, G, I or S couldn't be caught dead sending their troops to be butchered, they know this "war" cannot be won and only help to rebuild infrastructure.
POSTED BY: Arctic on THU, JAN 24, 2008 06:33 PM -0500
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With all the technology available why are military vehicles carrying live soldiers transgressing routes planted with IED's without remote controlled vehicles preceding them. It may cost dollars but human life is not measured in dollars.
POSTED BY: William C on THU, JAN 24, 2008 06:09 PM -0500
1 - 5 of 85
More... here
Body of 78th Canadian soldier killed in Afghanistan begins journey home
By The Canadian Press
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - The latest Canadian soldier killed in Afghanistan is on his way home.
Twenty-one year old Corporal Etienne Gonthier was killed Wednesday from the blast of an improvised explosive device that hit his light armoured vehicle.
Hundreds of people, from soldiers to civilian employees, lined the tarmac at the Kandahar airfield in the early morning in Afghanistan to bid him farewell.
Two other soldiers were injured in the explosion.
Gonthier was a combat engineer from Quebec City who had been working on a road clearing operation when he was killed.
The injured soldiers have been released from hospital.
Pregnant Marine didn't feel threatened
By MIKE BAKER,
Associated Press Writer
Tue Jan 15, 6:59 PM ET
JACKSONVILLE, N.C. - A 20-year-old pregnant Marine who disappeared in December told victims' advocates at Camp Lejeune that she didn't feel unsafe in the presence of the colleague now wanted in her death, Marine Corps officials said Tuesday.
Marine Cpl. Cesar Armando Laurean never violated the military protective order directing him to stay away from Lance Cpl. Maria Lauterbach, continued to report for work on time in the weeks after her disappearance and denied having any kind of sexual contact with her, said Col. Gary Sokoloski, the judge advocate general officer for the II Marine Expeditionary Force.
"At no time did she indicate that she was threatened by Cpl. Laurean," Sokoloski said. "When she was asked if she felt threatened by Cpl. Laurean, she said she did not feel threatened."
Authorities confirmed Tuesday that remains found over weekend in a fire pit in Laurean's backyard were those of Lauterbach and her child. Dr. Charles Garrett, the Onslow County medical examiner, said Lauterbach, who was eight months pregnant when she vanished, died of "traumatic head injury due to blunt force trauma."
The autopsy did not answer all the questions about the circumstances of Lauterbach's death, said county prosecutor Dewey Hudson. Detectives are still unsure whether she gave birth before her death, he said.
Authorities believe Laurean fled Jacksonville, N.C., early Friday after leaving a note in which he admitted burying Lauterbach's body. But Tuesday, they said he is believed to be hiding and no longer needs to travel quickly or far to avoid capture.
"We believe it's certainly possible, based on him being out there for this long, and not having any sightings, that he is getting help," said Onslow County Sheriff's Capt. Rick Sutherland. "We think we have a handle on all his contacts, but there could be someone else out there helping."
Authorities towed Laurean's pickup truck on Tuesday after finding it abandoned at a motel parking lot in Morrisville, not far from where it was seen by witnesses in Durham, about 150 miles northwest of Jacksonville. It will be taken back to Onslow County to be processed by the State Bureau of Investigation, said Paul Ciccarelli, an agent with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service.
It was unclear how long the truck had been at the Microtel Inn. Sherrie Joyner, who works the front desk, said Laurean never checked in.
Lauterbach's ATM card was found at a bus station in Durham, and authorities received reports from several witnesses Sunday who said they saw Laurean at a bus station in Shreveport, La. Onslow County Sheriff Ed Brown has said detectives have been unable to confirm the validity of the Louisiana sightings.
In his note, Laurean alleged that Lauterbach committed suicide by cutting her own throat. Brown rejected that idea even before the medical examiner weighed in, citing blood spatters on the ceiling and a large amount of blood on a wall in Laurean's home as signs of a violent confrontation.
Authorities believe Lauterbach was slain around Dec. 15. Officials have offered a $25,000 reward for information leading to Laurean's arrest and have posted or plan to post billboards with his picture in cities nationwide, including Columbus, Ohio; Tampa, Fla.; and Las Vegas.
Marine indicted on murder charge in N.C.
By ESTES THOMPSON,
Associated Press Writer
Thu Jan 24, 5:16 PM ET
JACKSONVILLE, N.C. - A prosecutor offered a deal Thursday to Mexican authorities and a Marine wanted in the killing a 20-year-old pregnant colleague: If he is arrested in Mexico, he won't face lethal injection in North Carolina.
Investigators believe Cpl. Cesar Laurean has fled to his native Mexico, which refuses to send anyone back to the United States unless provided assurances they won't face the death penalty.
"The choices presented to me were either a possible life without parole sentence, or the defendant living in Mexico the rest of his life and never brought to trial," Onslow County District Attorney Dewey Hudson said in announcing an indictment charging Laurean, 21, with first-degree murder.
The remains of Lance Cpl. Maria Lauterbach, 20, were found with those of her fetus earlier this month in a fire pit in Laurean's back yard. Lauterbach, who had once accused Laurean of rape, had been missing since mid-December. Military investigators are still working to identify the father of Lauterbach's unborn child, Hudson said.
Laurean fled Jacksonville in early January, leaving a note for his wife, Christina, that said Lauterbach slit her own throat with a knife, and he then buried her in the woods near their home. Detectives have rejected that claim, and an autopsy found that Lauterbach died of blunt force trauma to the head.
Authorities have determined that Lauterbach's child had not been born at the time of her death, Hudson said, so prosecutors can only charge Laurean with one count of murder.
The grand jury also charged Laurean with robbery with a dangerous weapon and a charge involving an unauthorized financial transaction involving card theft. The indictment states Laurean forced Lauterbach to remove money from her bank account Dec. 14, the day authorities believe he killed her.
Laurean is also accused of trying to use Lauterbach's ATM card on Christmas Eve, and was charged with attempted card fraud and obtaining property by false pretenses.
Authorities believe Laurean entered Mexico on a bus Jan. 14, two days after he left Jacksonville. Earlier this week, a man identified as his cousin said Laurean walked into his liquor store in Guadalajara last week, but left without saying where he was headed.
"Because of the all the attention, I hope (Mexican authorities) will move on this case very quickly," Hudson said.
Christina Laurean is still cooperating with investigators, and she does not face charges, Hudson said. She learned of Lauterbach's death roughly a day before Laurean fled, but only then told police and turned over the note he left behind, according to court documents.
Authorities have previously said Lauterbach was killed Dec. 15, citing the timeline provided by Laurean's wife. Hudson declined to address the discrepancy in detail, saying only that the "best evidence available" now indicates Lauterbach was killed Dec. 14.
Although Laurean refused to speak with detectives looking into Lauterbach's disappearance before he fled, authorities have said they didn't consider him a flight risk because they had information the pair had a "friendly relationship" even after she reported the rape allegation to military authorities.
Lauterbach, of the Dayton, Ohio area, had accused Laurean of rape in May, a charged he denied. Naval investigators have said they have no evidence to corroborate Lauterbach's claims, but Lauterbach's and Laurean's regimental commander was intent on taking the case to a hearing that could have led to a trial.
Laurean had told members of his unit that he would flee to Mexico if it appeared he would be found guilty. Laurean, of Las Vegas, was born in Guadalajara. Family members there have said he moved to the U.S. more than 10 years ago.
R.I.P. Maria Lauterbach
R.I.P. Étienne Gonthier
R.I.P. Hou Chang Mao
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* Jan 24, 2008 9:29 pm US/Eastern
* Digg | Facebook | E-mail
Man Convicted Of Arson That Killed Mom, Toddler
LAWRENCE, Mass. (WBZ) ― A federal jury has convicted a Lawrence man of committing arson that caused the death of a 26-year-old mother and her 2-month-old daughter.
Harry Guzman faces a sentence of between seven years and life imprisonment and a maximum fine of $250,000 for the 2003 arson. Sentencing has been set for April 10.
Prosecutors said during a seven-day trial that Guzman, 27, set the fire to the rear porch of victims' home on his own or while aiding and abetting another person.
Most of the residents in the apartment were able to wake up and escape the 3 a.m. fire.
Prosecutors say, however, that 26-year-old Matilda Medina and her infant daughter, Angelic Duran, suffered fatal carbon monoxide poisoning in their third-story bedroom. Medina's older daughter was helped out of the burning building by a boarder.
(© 2008 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
(As I am only saving it in my virtual scrapbook here, as I would clip and save articles from the papers in the old days, for the purpose of educating, inspiring, reminiscing, commemorating, honoring, etc... (Re-read my LUMINOUS DISCLAIMER, for God's Sake!) I believe that the A.P. has no cause to be alarmed here - and the CBS Eye, much less! And, geez, you can RETRANSMIT IT ON your Facebook, this article, e-mail it, DIGG IT (didn't Macho Man Randy Savage used to say that?) but you can't put it in a SCRAPBOOK?!? Of course you can.)
Let this not detract from the core subject here though...
R.I.P. Matilda Medina
R.I.P. Angelic Duran
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Arsonists like Guzman deserve to burn themselves - just enough to feel atrocious pain. They would have never recklessly set fire to anything if they had been touched by the unforgiving embrace of a flame beforehand.
US military deaths in Iraq at 3,931
By The Associated Press
Thu Jan 24, 7:53 PM ET
As of Thursday, Jan. 24, 2008, at least 3,931 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. The figure includes eight military civilians. At least 3,200 died as a result of hostile action, according to the military's numbers.
The AP count is the same as the Defense Department's tally, last updated Thursday at 10 a.m. EST.
The British military has reported 174 deaths; Italy, 33; Ukraine, 18; Poland, 21; Bulgaria, 13; Spain, 11; Denmark, seven; El Salvador, five; Slovakia, four; Latvia, three; Estonia, Netherlands, Thailand, Romania, two each; and Australia, Hungary, Kazakhstan, South Korea, one death each.
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The latest deaths reported by the military:
• No deaths reported.
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The latest identifications reported by the military:
• No identifications reported.
___
On the Net:
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/
Student killed in Ottawa crash remembered as ambitious leader
Last Updated:
Thursday, January 24, 2008
11:32 PM ET
CBC News
The family of a young man killed in a car accident in Ottawa early Wednesday says he had a great impact on the world during his short life.
Mark MacDonald died after the SUV he was driving was hit by a city bus just before 2 a.m. Vanessa Crawford and Brianne Deschamps, both 19, were also killed. Two other passengers, including one who is still in critical condition, were injured in the crash.
The five friends — all students at Carleton University — were said to have been partying at a popular karaoke night at the campus bar on Wednesday night.
MacDonald's family told CBC News they will remember him as a young man who loved life and loved to laugh. They said MacDonald, who grew up in Arnprior, just west of Ottawa, was ambitious and a born leader, with plans to help people in underdeveloped countries.
His mother, Hazel MacDonald, said her son's death has shown the family how much Mark meant to others.
"He lived only 20 years but he made an impact on so many people, and I think now that he's not with us anymore, we're finding out just how much impact he's made on everybody that he's met."
Continue Article
Visitations will be held in the morning and in the evening in Arnprior on Sunday. A funeral service has been scheduled for 11 a.m. Monday at Glad Tidings Pentecostal Church.
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'He knew what he wanted, and he was going to go and get it.'— Andrew MacDonald
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MacDonald's older brothers, Simon and Andrew, were in Arnprior Wednesday, helping their mother make funeral arrangements. His father, who was overseas at the time of the accident, was expected to arrive in Ottawa Thursday.
Simon MacDonald said his little brother was his best friend, and recalled a young man who was always the life of the party.
"He always had a laugh … that would make you laugh, and that's one thing that I'm always going to remember, and I'm going to miss it so much."
Andrew MacDonald described his brother, a talented athlete, as an ambitious young man who was fond of quoting Winston Churchill.
"He knew what he wanted, and he was going to go and get it. It's just the way he was."
R.I.P. Mark MacDonald
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And
R.I.P. Vanessa Crawford
R.I.P. Brianne Deschamps
Carleton mourns 3 students after deadly crash
Last Updated:
Thursday, January 24, 2008
8:11 AM ET
CBC News
Family and friends are mourning the loss of three Carleton University students who died Wednesday morning after an SUV collided with a transit bus in Ottawa's south end.
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Vanessa Crawford, 19, grew up in Petrolia with her best friend, Brianne Deschamps, said Deschamps's father. Vanessa Crawford, 19, grew up in Petrolia with her best friend, Brianne Deschamps, said Deschamps's father.
(In Loving Memory of Vanessa Crawford Facebook group)
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Two other people were injured when the 1992 Toyota 4Runner SUV carrying five people was struck by an OC Transpo bus near Riverside Drive and Heron Road around 1:50 a.m., police said.
The man driving the bus and his lone passenger were not injured, the Ottawa Paramedic Service said.
As of 2 p.m., Ottawa police said they have identified the young man driving the SUV and two female passengers who died in the crash, but would not release the information at the families' request.
Friends and family identified the dead as Carleton University students Mark MacDonald, 20, Brianne Deschamps, 19, and Vanessa Crawford, 19.
Steven Deschamps, father of Brianne Deschamps, said the two young women were best friends and roommates who grew up together in the southwestern Ontario town of Petrolia.
He said his daughter dreamed of becoming a music teacher.
"She just loved life and she just loved being around people," he said.
The Ministry of Transporation has confirmed that the SUV involved in the crash is registered to MacDonald.
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Ottawa Paramedic Service team leader Stéphane Gareau said the driver's side of the SUV 'was encroached inside the cab of the vehicle by a good two to three feet.'Ottawa Paramedic Service team leader Stéphane Gareau said the driver's side of the SUV 'was encroached inside the cab of the vehicle by a good two to three feet.'
(CBC)
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As of 10 a.m., one young man from the SUV remained in hospital in critical but stable condition with head injuries, while a woman with back injuries had been released, police said.
Friends identified the young man as electrical engineering student Ben Gardiner, 20.
Emily Jackson, one of several friends gathered at the hospital, said the injured passengers also went to Carleton.
Carleton University president Samy Mahmoud issued a brief statement Wednesday calling the news of the crash "devastating." He extended his condolences to the families of the dead students and said the university's flags were lowered to half-mast in their memory. He added that he prays for the recovery of the two injured.
Carleton University Students' Association president Shelley Melanson offered her condolences also.
Police said the bus was travelling north on Riverside Drive when it collided with the SUV heading westbound on Heron Road.
The bus driver told investigators that he had a green light, Const. Mike Herasimenko of the Ottawa police collision investigation unit said Wednesday morning.
"But there are no independent witnesses at this time so it's still under investigation," he said.
Intersection open again
The intersection reopened by late morning, but police were still examining evidence such as traffic camera footage. They said alcohol may have been a factor. Herasimenko said the two vehicles involved were to be checked for mechanical problems.
The wreckage of the SUV — a crumpled frame with smashed windows and blown tires — was loaded onto a flatbed truck.
Ottawa Paramedic Service team leader Stéphane Gareau said the driver's side of the truck "was encroached inside the cab of the vehicle by a good two to three feet."
The bus was about 20 metres away, down an embankment, where it came to a stop after hitting and dislodging a traffic light, CBC reporter Karina Roman said from the scene.
According to a City of Ottawa road safety report, there were 39 collisions at Riverside and Heron in 2006 — more than at any other intersection in the city.
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5 trucks crash on Highway 401 amid thick smoke, killing 1
Last Updated:
Thursday, January 24, 2008
10:04 AM ET
CBC News
A collision involving five tractor-trailers early Thursday in eastern Ontario killed one of the drivers and sent another to hospital by airlift.
The westbound lanes of Highway 401 between the Morrisburg and Iroquois exits were expected to remain closed until at least the afternoon, Ontario Provincial Police Const. Pete Robertson said Thursday morning. The section is about halfway between Prescott and Cornwall.
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The driver of one tractor-trailer slowed down because of low visibility and was rear-ended. That led to a chain reaction, police said.The driver of one tractor-trailer slowed down because of low visibility and was rear-ended. That led to a chain reaction, police said.
(CBC)
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Investigators believe the collision was triggered when a driver slowed down after encountering poor visibility caused by thick smoke on the highway around 12:30 a.m., said OPP Const. Patrick Dussault.
Someone with a burn permit was disposing of flammable materials nearby.
The truck, which was carrying peanut butter, slowed down and was rear-ended by a second truck that was hauling corn syrup.
"That caused a chain reaction," Dussault said.
The driver of a third truck, which was empty, suffered fatal injuries in the collision.
Another driver was sent to hospital.
Two other trucks, one carrying paint and hardware and one filled with paper flyers, were also involved in the pileup.
My condolences to the family of the lone unfortunate (?) one who saw his earthly life shortened so abruptly and tragically.
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Homebrew led to death, illness of Joyceville inmates: Corrections Canada
Last Updated:
Thursday, January 24, 2008
4:58 PM ET
The Canadian Press
Homemade alcohol was likely behind the death of one inmate and the illness of three others in a federal prison near Kingston Ontario, Corrections Canada said Thursday.
Provincial police were called to the Joyceville Penitentiary at about 5:30 p.m. Wednesday after staff discovered four inmates in varying stages of medical distress.
All four had been drinking homemade alcohol, Corrections officials said.
The prison remained locked down pending the police investigation.
Christopher Morriseau, who was serving a sentence of two-years and nine-months for aggravated assault, was pronounced dead at the prison.
Three other inmates were taken to hospital, where one remained in critical condition and two were in serious condition.
Police say all three are being treated for "consumption of a noxious substance."
Located about 20 kilometres northeast of Kingston, the facility houses about 450 inmates.
With files from the Canadian Press
© The Canadian Press, 2008
R.I.P. Christopher Morrisseau
At least you died in a haze - and got to forget for a moment where you were stuck in when you got to depart this earth.
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Beijing denies 10 deaths at Bird's Nest
Mon Jan 21, 11:15 AM
By Nick Mulvenney
BEIJING (Reuters) - Beijing organizers on Monday denied a report that 10 workers had died during the construction of the showpiece stadium for the 2008 Olympics, which start in 200 days.
A British newspaper reported on Sunday that China had covered up the accidental deaths of at least 10 workers since construction of the $400-million National Stadium, nicknamed the Bird's Nest, began in 2003.
"The report by the Sunday Times that 10 people have died in the construction of the National Stadium is not true," said Sun Weide, spokesman for the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games (BOCOG).
Sun referred questions as to whether there had been any fatalities on the site of the National Stadium to the 2008 Construction Office. No one at that office was available for comment.
"At the moment construction has been going well and according to plan," Sun added. "The Beijing municipality and BOCOG attach great importance to safety in the construction of the venues."
The 91,000-seater stadium is the only one of the 36 Olympic venues in China not completed by the end of last year and is scheduled for completion by the end of March.
It will host the opening and closing ceremonies as well as athletics and soccer at the August 8-24 Games.
Sunday's report said the "conservative estimate" of 10 deaths "was reached by comparing numerous accounts of witnesses who worked at the site in different periods."
The stadium earned its nickname because of the interwoven steel trusses that encase the concrete bowl of the arena. The design means many of the construction crew often have to work at great heights.
The building of a big stadium without any fatalities is unusual and at least one worker has died during the construction of the main arenas at the last three Summer Games.
"We have taken into account safety, quality, timeline, function and cost in the project," he said. "We have taken resolute measures to ensure the quality of the project."
Some 17,000 workers, mainly migrants from poorer provinces outside the Chinese capital, were working on Olympic projects at the height of construction.
(Editing by Jeremy Laurence)
WHAT OTHERS HAVE SAID ABOUT THIS NEWS STORY
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No Photo Available.
This planet is up against a hard future. Which socio-economic system is most experienced in managing limited resources? Which culture is best prepared for living in a closed system? Oriental. What political system depends most heavily on unencumbered growth? What faith based culture requires pride in self over community as normal behavior? Occidental. Who is best prepared for the future we all face? ... ask yourself.
POSTED BY: Mowe Slowley on THU, JAN 24, 2008 07:06 PM -0500
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Why are the olympics even being held in an oppressive communist state? That's not what the olympics are about. SHAME, i'm boycotting the olympics. I suggest we all do the same. They ain't making money off my viewership. BOYCOTT!
POSTED BY: juder111 on THU, JAN 24, 2008 05:01 PM -0500
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For the last 2 years, China has been turning the other cheek. Much has been written about this country and most of it negative. Wait til the Olympics are over. Things will go back to normal and no more turning the other cheek. Chine is in a great position to flex some muscle and it will and the U.S. will most likely be the first target, financially.
POSTED BY: bouski65 on THU, JAN 24, 2008 04:50 PM -0500
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What a great way to run a country....communist social system...capitalist economic system....and they get away with it while we rush to Walmart for the latest sale on Chinacrap. Only ten deaths?...yea right!
POSTED BY: bosco on MON, JAN 21, 2008 08:15 PM -0500
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Riders1Fan
If it is only 10..it is a blessing.
POSTED BY: Riders1Fan on MON, JAN 21, 2008 07:58 PM -0500
1 - 5 of 16 | More... here
(for a while anyway - before it is taken down by Y... you know who!)
R.I.P. TEN
If not more...
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Montréal
Les fils d'un vieillard poussé hors d'un autobus demandent justice
Mise à jour : 21/01/2008 19h42
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Regardez le reportage de Denis Therriault- ici.
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À Montréal, les fils d'Isacio Ferreras se remettent difficilement de la mort de leur père, qui a perdu la vie dans des circonstances troublantes.
L'homme de 86 ans a succombé à ses blessures, quatre mois après avoir été poussé d'un autobus de la STM.
L’incident s’est produit le 28 août dernier, à la suite d’une altercation entre M. Ferreras et un jeune homme. Le vieil homme est tombé sur le dos et sa tête est venue frapper le trottoir.
Humberto Caceido a d’abord été accusé de voies de fait graves, mais il fait maintenant face à une accusation d’homicide involontaire.
Les fils de M. Ferreras promettent de suivre les procédures judiciaires de près. Advenant un verdict de culpabilité, ils espèrent que la peine sera très sévère.
I don't think I have to translate the short text above - evidently it is about the elderly man who got brutally kicked out of a bus and hurt his head on the pavement in the process. After spending four months in the hospital, the injury proved to be fatal.
His aggressor will now face charges of involontary manslaughter.
It seems almost unbelievable that such a savage act could be non-premeditated. Only an animal indeed would act so furiously, with unbridled brutality, at the merest hint of annoyance... Only when one has a score to settle with someone do you see such violence and total lack of mercy. Humberto Caceido appears to have no such motive though - hence he deserves to have the book thrown at him, in court.
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And now a very hallucinating tale that makes one wonder "what if the cop had been more perspicacious... or provided with a more acute "trained eye" for this sort of thing..."
Maybe two children would still be alive.
And their auntie would be in a home where they could have, maybe, gotten her to be once again "all better..."
Maybe...
Woman Cited Hours Before Highway Deaths
Jan 25, 9:33 PM (ET)
By DENISE LAVOIE
BOSTON (AP) - A woman who killed herself and her sister's two small children by walking into oncoming interstate traffic had a minor car accident and State Police cited her just hours before the double murder-suicide.
Marcelle "Marci" Thibault, 39, showed no signs of impairment when three State Police troopers arrived to the scene of the accident - the same highway where she would later die - around 6:50 p.m. on Jan. 11, State Police Capt. Barry O'Brien told The Associated Press on Friday.
Thibault told troopers she must have fallen asleep at the wheel and brushed her 2003 Lincoln sedan against a guardrail, causing minor damage to the sideview mirror, O'Brien said.
Initially, another motorist had stopped to assist and told police Thibault appeared agitated, but she was rational and responsive when troopers arrived, O'Brien said.
"They interacted with her for about 15 minutes, and they didn't observe any impairment, no signs of any drug or alcohol, she had a valid license, so after she was cited, she continued on her way," O'Brien said.
Less than three hours later, she killed herself and her twin sister's two children by walking into oncoming traffic on Interstate 495, less than 10 miles from her earlier accident.
After being cited for failure to stay in marked lanes, Thibault drove to the home of her sister in Brentwood, N.H., where she picked up her 5-year-old niece, Kaleigh Lambert, and 4-year-old nephew Shane Lambert for a planned sleep-over party.
On her way home to Bellingham, authorities say Thibault pulled over to the side of Interstate 495 south in Lowell, undressed herself and the children, took them in her arms and walked into oncoming traffic. They were fatally struck by two cars.
Middlesex District Attorney Gerry Leone has said the woman had a brief history of mental illness. Leone announced last week the deaths were not accidental.
"We were aware of the prior traffic stop and a complete development of the facts supported our findings in this tragic incident," Leone's spokesman Corey Welford said Friday.
Ken and Danielle Lambert, the parents of the children, said in a statement Friday night that the events leading to the deaths of their three family members were "most unfortunate." No one could have possibly predicted the outcome, they said, adding that they would never have intentionally put their children in harm's way.
"Our hope is that families and officials will gain a better understanding of mental illness and provide better treatment protocols in the future," the parents' statement said. "Perhaps increased knowledge of these issues will prevent incidents like this from happening in the future."
Friends and family said Thibault was a doting stay-at-home mom to her teenage children and volunteered to organize activities for teens at her church. She often threw parties for her young nieces and nephews, like the "pirates and princesses" sleep-over she picked up her sister's only children for Jan. 11.
Young said earlier he did not know the specifics of the mental health treatment Thibault had received, but described it as a "brief, isolated incident in her life" within the past year and said she appeared to have fully recovered.
R.I.P. Kaleigh Lambert
R.I.P. Shane Lambert
R.I.P. Marcelle Thibault
May God Have Mercy On Your Soul
for having led to death little ones entrusted into your care...
May you find the serenity you lacked, now...
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1 Killed, 1 Missing in Calif. Avalanches
Jan 25, 9:29 PM (ET)
By ROBERT JABLON
WRIGHTWOOD, Calif. (AP) - Mountain avalanches killed an off-duty ski patrol worker and left another person missing Friday as California strained under nearly a week of snow and rain.
One avalanche struck Friday afternoon at Wrightwood in the snow-laden San Gabriel Mountains. A 23-year-old employee of the Mountain High ski area was pulled from the debris, but died at a hospital later that afternoon, a hospital spokeswoman said. His name was not released.
As night fell, searchers were still looking for another person who was missing after a second avalanche about a half-mile from the first, on national forest land.
"I'm sure that the avalanches are due to the amount of snow that has fallen over the past several days," said Tim Wessel, division chief for the San Bernardino County Fire Department.
The avalanches were outside Mountain High's boundaries. The resort, which was closed by high winds a day earlier, remained open.
An avalanche advisory was issued for the ski area at nearby Mount Baldy, a 10,000-foot peak about 40 miles east of Los Angeles, and the lifts there were closed, Angeles National Forest spokesman Stanton Florea said.
Elsewhere, utility crews repaired electrical outages while highway crews worked to keep mountain routes open.
Nearly 11,000 homes and businesses throughout Southern California were without electricity, including about 6,700 Los Angeles Department of Water and Power customers.
A 40-mile stretch of Interstate 5 over Tejon Pass north of Los Angeles reopened after being closed for two days and stranding hundreds of drivers. Highway Patrol officers escorted cars over the summit.
"If it becomes snowy or icy, they'll close down the freeway at once," Officer Miguel Leuvano said.
A Metrolink train on a morning commute from Ventura County to Los Angeles through a narrow, rocky gorge hit a slide of mud and rocks on the tracks. The stranded train had to be pulled by another train to the next station and four other trains had to be halted, delaying 2,000 passengers for 2 1/2 hours, said Metrolink spokeswoman Denise Tyrrell. No injuries were reported.
In the Woodland Hills area of Los Angeles, mud washed down a naked hillside below a construction site and flowed into two homes.
"We have a flooded kitchen, flooded laundry room, driveway had a foot of water in it," a resident told KCAL-TV.
Rain caused delays of up to two hours Friday morning at San Francisco International Airport, and officials expected the delays to continue.
"We're on a ground-delay program from 9 a.m. to midnight," said airport duty manager Linda Perry. "It is raining very hard, so we are seeing delays for the arrivals and subsequent departures."
Off the coast of Corona Del Mar, Orange County harbor patrol deputies rescued a cat from a moored 42-foot boat just before it went down in heavy seas, said sheriff's spokesman Jim Amormino.
A new storm system was expected to arrive Saturday night and dump several more inches of rain through Sunday.
---
Associated Press Writer Rob Gloster in San Francisco contributed to this report.
Avalanches in California.
It's the end of the world.
My condolences to the family and friends of the 23 year-old.
+++
Ledger Body Leaves NYC Funeral Home
Email this Story
Jan 25, 9:41 PM (ET)
By TOM HAYS
NEW YORK (AP) - The body of Heath Ledger left the funeral home as the family prepared to bury the "Brokeback Mountain" actor Friday, the same day police insisted they have no interest in interviewing Mary-Kate Olsen.
Details about Ledger's funeral remained shrouded in secrecy. The body was moved from the police-barricaded funeral home at about 4 p.m. amid a swarm of cameras and reporters. Ledger's publicist, Mara Buxbaum, said funeral arrangements "will continue to be kept private at the family's request."
Their immediate plans were not known, though Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said his government would do whatever is needed to help the family bring back Ledger's body to Australia.
Also Friday, Olsen said Ledger was a "friend" in a brief statement released Friday, her first word since the Australian-born actor's death. In its entirety, it reads: "Heath was a friend. His death is a tragic loss. My thoughts are with his family during this very difficult time."
Police said the masseuse who found Ledger's body Tuesday spent nine minutes making three calls to the Olsen twin before dialing 911 for help, then called Olsen a fourth time after paramedics arrived. At some point during the flurry of calls, Olsen, who was in California, summoned her personal security guards to the apartment to help, police said.
NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said investigators have no interest in talking to Olsen. They interviewed everyone at the scene, each of whom was cooperative. That eliminated "any need to interview Miss Olsen," he said.
Olsen's whereabouts were unknown Friday. A private viewing had been scheduled for Ledger on Friday at the Frank E. Campbell funeral home in Manhattan.
Ledger's family placed a death notice in The West Australian, a newspaper based in his hometown of Perth, remembering him as "the most amazing 'old soul' in a young man's body."
"As a close knit and very private family we have observed you so determined yet quietly traveling in your self-styled path in life, nothing would get in your way ... no mountain too tall, no river too wide," said the notice, which the newspaper said had been submitted by Ledger's relatives. ".... Our hearts are broken."
The actor's sister, Kate, said she could "hardly breathe" as she tried to write her tribute. "We were the ultimate soul mates," she said.
"You were so many things to so many people, but to me you were just my little brother."
The cause of Ledger's death will not be known for at least a week, after medical examiners complete toxicology tests. Authorities suspect a possible overdose, but nothing conclusive has been determined. Several prescription drugs were found in the Manhattan apartment where Ledger's body was found.
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Associated Press writers Clare Trapasso and Verena Dobnik contributed to this report.
When the mortal remains
leave the funeral complex
- it is then that the finality of it all truly hits those left behind.
I know it - because I lived it.
Two years ago.
Before then,
we look at our loved relative
and he appears to be asleep
only asleep
not "gone" yet
by any stretch of the imagination.
Such is human nature
to cling on to hope
even when there is none.
We would all want to be so lucky
to see our dear one just... rise up
like that Chilean man did recently.
99.9999999999% of the time though
when they're in the casket
they stay in it.
And the next time we will see them
will be in our very own
out-of-body experience.
My condolences to the Ledger clan.
+++
Speaking of the family...
'Hearts Broken,' Ledger Family Remembers
Jan 25, 11:44 AM (ET)
SYDNEY, Australia (AP) - Heath Ledger's family remembered the actor as "the most amazing old soul in a young man's body." In a separate tribute, his sister said she could hardly breathe as she tried to write about "my little brother."
"As a close knit and very private family we have observed you so determined yet quietly travelling in your self-styled path in life, nothing would get in your way ... no mountain too tall, no river too wide," the family said in a death notice published Friday in The West Australian.
"You dreamed your dreams and lived them with passion and intelligent commitment. We have been privileged to accompany you on a ride through life that has simply been amazing and through it all we have loved each other beyond imagination," the notice added. "Our hearts are broken."
In a separate notice, Ledger's father Kim wrote: "Heatho, Beef ... my beautiful boy, so loving, so talented, so independent ... so no more chess games mate ... this is it, couldn't beat you anyway.
"We were one, in soul and commitment, just ... father and son."
The actor's sister, Kate, said she could "hardly breathe" as she tried to write her tribute.
"We were the ultimate soul mates," she said.
"You were so many things to so many people, but to me you were just my little brother. You will never leave my thoughts, 'Roast', ever."
Ledger's mother, Sally Ledger-Bell, said the family would always be there for his 2-year-old daughter, Matilda, whose mother, actress Michelle Williams, was separated from the actor.
The newspaper said the notice had been posted by Ledger's family, who were flying to the U.S. from Australia and could not be reached for comment.
The 28-year-old actor was found dead in his New York apartment Tuesday, where police also found several bottles of prescription drugs. Authorities suspect a possible overdose, but toxicology tests have not yet determined the exact cause of death.
The actor's body was taken to the Frank E. Campbell funeral home in New York for a private viewing. Neither Ledger's family nor his U.S.-based publicist, Mara Buxbaum, have confirmed any details about the funeral or burial arrangements.
The West Australian said Ledger would likely be buried in his hometown in western Australia of Perth after a star-studded funeral service in Los Angeles.
Australian model Sophie Ward, whose sister reportedly had a brief romantic relationship with Ledger last year, said she was planning to fly to the United States for his funeral.
"I think we're going to L.A.," Ward told the newspaper. "This is just a funeral service. He'll probably be buried in Perth."
Ward, 22, is the older sister of Australian-born supermodel Gemma Ward.
"My sister will probably make a comment at the funeral," Ward was quoted as saying. "Heath was an amazing actor and person and she is very upset. She has lost a very good friend."
Sophie Ward also told the newspaper that Ledger had been "a bit edgy" over his recent split with Williams.
"He was clean and wasn't drinking any alcohol or taking drugs," Ward said. "He smoked cigarettes, but that's about it. He was drinking diet Coke when we were together and he said he was very committed to not drinking alcohol. I don't believe he took his own life deliberately."
I can only imagine that aspect of it - how hard it can be to outlive your own child.
Losing a sibling is like a part of oneself that goes away, too...
Much courage to the three of you.
+++
Not sure if I safeguarded this here or not anymore...
It can be revisited twice rather than once.
N.B. limits use of 15-passenger vans following fatal crash last weekend
Fri Jan 18, 3:50 PM
By Michael Tutton,
The Canadian Press
SACKVILLE, N.B. - The New Brunswick government suspended the use of 15-passenger vans on Friday to transport children to and from school after a highway accident a week ago that killed seven young basketball players and their coach's wife.
Although the restriction on the vehicles for the rest of this school year doesn't prohibit their use for extra-curricular activities, some school districts were voluntarily taking the vans off the road or deciding to no longer rent them.
Education Minister Kelly Lamrock said so far, there is no evidence that the accident near Bathurst last weekend was tied to the 15-passenger van the team was travelling in as they returned home from a game in Moncton.
But he said a number of questions have been raised in the aftermath of the tragedy that has created an air of uncertainty about the vans.
"The Department of Education recognizes that it is up to each school to determine their means of transportation to and from extra-curricular activities," he said.
"Given the sensitivity surrounding the accident in Bathurst, it is unimaginable that any parent, teacher, student council leader, coach, principal or administrator would be comfortable using this vehicle in the current climate of doubt around the use of 15-passenger vans."
The vans are commonly used by schools and community groups in Canada, although since the accident many schools across the country have taken their 15-seat vans out of service. A number of school boards, meanwhile, have said they will review their travel policies.
In the United States, schools are banned from buying or leasing new 15-seat vans but some states allow the use of older ones. Schools are prohibited from using them in Nova Scotia.
A study by the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board concluded in 2002 that the stability of 15-passenger vans decreases when fully loaded.
After Lamrock's announcement on Friday, three of the larger school districts in New Brunswick covering urban areas of the province said they will extend the suspension to extra-curricular activities.
Superintendent Alex Dingwall of School District 18, which includes Fredericton, said only one school owns a 15-passenger van, but it would advise schools not to rent the vehicles as well.
"Our natural fall-back is to use school buses because we already have a process in place, but there is a cost issue, a scheduling issue and that's why schools have tended not to go to school buses," he said.
The district that includes Saint John said schools in its area don't own the vans, but it has decided to stop renting them for the remainder of the school year.
Superintendent Karen Branscombe of the district in the Moncton area said all four of its 15-passenger vans were parked as of Friday.
"Most schools have been moving to the mini-buses in recent years," she added.
Dingwall said he's talking to all schools in his district to assess the impact and offer support getting through the current schedule of extra-curricular activities, such as basketball games.
Lamrock said he will meet with the school districts to talk about how to provide alternative transportation.
"There are all kinds of eventualities that change where you find money, how you do it, and whether the department or the school district does it," he said. "We need to go through that process now."
The RCMP and Transport Canada are still investigating the Bathurst accident.
Frank Wilson, a civil engineer who's co-ordinating the team looking into the crash for Transport Canada, suggested on Wednesday it was ice on the road that doomed the vehicle rather than any possible flaws with the van involved in the accident.
Wilson said it's too early in the investigation to know conclusively what happened, but he cautioned that most vehicles would have trouble in weather that saw freezing rain and snow blanket the roads in the small community.
The van, a 1997 Ford Club Wagon, was returning to Bathurst shortly after midnight Saturday when it went out of control, crossed the centre line and slammed into a transport truck, killing eight of its 12 occupants.
Beth Lord, 51, was the only adult killed in the accident. Five of those who died - Nathan Cleland, Justin Cormier, Daniel Hains, Javier Acevedo and Codey Branch - were 17 years old. The other two students were Nick Quinn, 16, and Nicholas Kelly, 15.
A mass funeral for the boys was held in Bathurst on Wednesday, while Lord was remembered at a private ceremony Thursday.
Lamrock also announced Friday the establishment of a government working group that will review the facts of the Bathurst accident and report back to him.
"I think these were accepted vehicles that many people used for many years with safe endings. . . . Let's study the use and outcomes of them," he said in Sackville, where he was attending a meeting of Atlantic premiers and cabinet ministers.
"What are alternatives? What would be likely to happen if we don't use them? And what is the best way to reduce the risk as much as possible."
Asked why there won't be a public inquiry after the Bathurst accident, he responded: "The findings of fact will not be given behind closed doors, and the response won't be behind closed doors."
Police have said there doesn't appear to be any wrongdoing on the part of either driver in Saturday's accident.
The van didn't have winter tires, which Lamrock said runs counter to the Education Department's recommendations to school districts.
Lamrock said the public will have to await the findings of the internal inquiry to see whether the Education Department will toughen or change the policy on requiring winter tires.
WHAT OTHERS HAVE SAID ABOUT THIS NEWS STORY
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all this was ... it a political decision to get more votes because of compassions yes it was an accident very tragic at that but even a bus would not haVE SURVIVED THIS ACCIDENT A LOADED TRANSPORT IS LIKE A RUNAWAY FREIGHT TRAIN
POSTED BY: pierre on SAT, JAN 19, 2008 08:57 PM -0500
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The van didn't have winter tires?!!!!! This is not about a design flaw with the vehicle it is about a CONSCIOUS decsion that someone made to not install winter tires!! How can a school district JUST recommend winter tires rather than ensuring that each and every vehicle that could POSSIBLY transport our children be correctly and safely equipped. Whoever made the decsion to allow the vehicle on the road without adequate safety should be held CRIMINALLY responsible!!!
POSTED BY: enuffalready on SAT, JAN 19, 2008 05:37 PM -0500
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Bob&Doug
Folks, .. argue until the cows come home, but in this tragedy, the combined force of the van (out of control) and the big semi at speed, would collide with a force that would crush ANY light vehicle out there (besides a tank).Yes, a school bus,being bigger and able to absorb more impact energy might have helped,but there still would be fatalaties,even with a school bus. Prevention is the key.Don't travel on icy roads and have proper snow/ice tires. Control on black ice at speed is unpredictable
POSTED BY: Bob&Doug on SAT, JAN 19, 2008 03:02 PM -0500
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Well I would've been happy just to see them restrict the number of occupants to max 8 by removing the last two rows, daily tire check and have install winter tire on them. Still if one really think about it, there is no rationality and economy of using a van with a big engine at half capacity, when you can have a minivan operated with more economical engines doing the same thing.
POSTED BY: wotan2021 on SAT, JAN 19, 2008 02:14 AM -0500
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My condolences to the widower
and the fifteen other families affected - including all the friends of the victims.
+++
Now the kind of thing that scrapbooks, virtual or not, demand...
Or maybe it's just the historian in me talking here...
Fisher's 1972 match was Cold War battle
By GUDJON HELGASON and BRIAN CHURCH,
Associated Press Writers
Sat Jan 19, 6:58 AM ET
REYKJAVIK, Iceland - The historic chess match between American Bobby Fischer and Soviet champion Boris Spassky was the Cold War played out with pawns instead of missiles, a combat of mind games between two masters at the height of their powers.
Dubbed the Match of the Century and played in 1972 in the then-obscure Icelandic capital of Reykjavik, it made Fischer famous — and vice versa.
It was in that same city that he died Thursday at age 64 — one year for each square on the board — an outcast from the chess world and estranged from the United States.
Fischer called the match nothing less than "the free world against the lying, cheating hypocritical Russians." The affable Spassky, backed by an all-powerful, state-sponsored chess machine, just wanted to play.
The Soviet Union had held the chess crown since the end of World War II, Spassky since 1969. It was clear the freewheeling Fischer — U.S. champion since 14, grand master since 15 — was the most serious threat to their dominance.
The obnoxious but brilliant boy from Brooklyn, N.Y., relished humiliating Soviet players, in part, he said, because they agreed to quick draws in qualifying games between themselves, then forced him to play long, tactical and physically exhausting matches.
Fischer's confidence rose as he vanquished a succession of world-class players with trademark attacks that employed offensive tactics to crush opponents, not just simply defeat them.
The Spassky match almost didn't come off. Fischer threatened to boycott the Reykjavik match after complaining about the small prize money.
London financier Jim Slater stepped in, matching the $125,000 put up by the organizers in Iceland, who also gave the players a share of the money from television and movie rights. The winner would get more than $231,000, the loser more than $168,000.
Fischer finally flew in at the last minute and was met by relieved Icelandic chess officials.
But there were more problems. Fischer complained about the lighting, the room temperature, the size of the chess board and the size of the table. Compromises were reached between the players on the lights and temperatures, the mahogany table was shortened, and the board was redone four times.
At one point, even Henry Kissinger intervened. "This is the worst player in the world calling the best player," the then-national security adviser is said to have told Fischer in a telephone call while taking a break from peace negotiations to end the Vietnam War.
Retired Associated Press correspondent Andrew Torchia, who covered the Reykjavik match for the AP, recalled the difficulty in dealing with Fischer's demeanor when the young chessmaster was asked questions by reporters at the tournament.
"Sometimes you'd get a question, and Fischer would just look at you — and go somewhere else," Torchia said.
The match was front-page news around the world. Chess was watched in bars across the United States.
Fischer lost the first game with a basic mistake, falling to the temptation to take a side pawn with his bishop, which was then trapped by Spassky's other pawns.
The American then complained about the TV cameras being too close to the players. For the second game, he refused to leave his hotel room.
Spassky sat by himself on stage for five minutes before leaving. Organizers waited an hour, according to international rules, before giving the win to Spassky by default.
With Fischer now trailing 2-0, Spassky agreed to concede to the American's demand that they play the third game in a back room away from cameras. Fischer won the game, his first ever victory against Spassky.
Fischer followed with more wins — in the fifth, sixth, eighth and 10th games — and never fell behind Spassky again.
In the last game, Spassky was losing and under increasing pressure from Fischer. With his pawns under attack, Spassky resigned after his 41st move. Fischer was world champion, winning 12 1/2 points to 8 1/2 points, in 21 games.
"Chess is war on a board," Fischer once said. "The object is to crush the other man's mind."
Spassky was graceful in defeat — too graceful for many back in Moscow, who criticized his performance and for failing to cope with Fischer's arrogance. Spassky eventually became a French citizen.
Reached at his home Friday in France, Spassky said he was "very sorry" to hear of Fischer's death.
Fischer lost his world title in 1975 after refusing to defend it against Anatoly Karpov. He dropped out of competitive chess and largely out of view, spending time in Hungary and the Philippines and emerging occasionally to make outrageous and anti-Semitic comments.
He praised the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, saying "I want to see the U.S. wiped out," and described Jews as "thieving, lying bastards." Fischer's mother was Jewish.
An unofficial rematch with Spassky was staged in 1992 in Yugoslavia. Fischer again complained about playing conditions, and again won. But the game was in violation of U.S. economic sanctions imposed to punish Slobodan Milosevic, then leader of Yugoslavia.
In July 2004, Fischer was arrested at Japan's Narita airport for traveling on a revoked U.S. passport. He was threatened with extradition to the United States to face charges of violating the U.S. sanctions.
Fischer renounced his U.S. citizenship and spent nine months in custody before the dispute was resolved when Iceland — a chess-mad nation of 300,000 — granted him citizenship. He moved there with his longtime companion, the Japanese chess player Miyoko Watai, who survives him.
"(Fischer) was an exceptional figure, who made his mark not only on the history of chess but on the history of the world," said French chess commentator Jerome Maufras. "For some, he was a genius. For others, he was a crazy man."
___
Brian Church reported from London. Associated Press writers Jill Lawless in London and Jamey Keaton in Paris contributed to this report.
R.I.P. Bobby Fischer
+++
Chess champ Bobby Fischer dies at 64
Fri Jan 18, 10:18 AM
WINNIPEG (CBC) - Former chess champion Bobby Fischer has died of kidney failure following a long illness, his spokesperson said Friday. He was 64.
Fischer, a brilliant chess player who rocketed to grandmaster status at 15, was hailed as a Cold War hero when he defeated Russian Boris Spassky in 1972 to become the first American world chess champion in more than 100 years.
Experts praised his innovative and independent style.
"He did everything on his own," Malcolm Pein, the Daily Telegraph's chess editor, told CBC News.
Pein contrasted Fischer, who was primarily self-taught, with contemporary chess champions who work with multiple trainers and coaches from an early age.
Fischer remained world champion until 1975, then disappeared for two decades until he resurfaced for a 1992 rematch against Spassky in the former Yugoslavia.
The United States alleged the exhibition match violated international sanctions imposed on the former Yugoslavia.
Fischer was detained in Japan in 2004 while trying to fly to the Philippines.
He moved to Iceland in 2005 after being freed from a Japanese detention centre and later received Icelandic citizenship.
The prodigy's name was introduced to a new generation in an acclaimed 1993 movie called Searching for Bobby Fischer, about a seven-year-old boy whose father grooms him for stardom on the competitive chess circuit. The title refers to the search for the "next" Bobby Fischer.
Fischer has long held controversial opinions on a variety of subjects that led to questions about his mental stability.
After the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks against his home country, he told radio interviewers in the Philippines that the United States should be "wiped out."
He has also described Jews as "thieving, lying bastards," even though his own mother was Jewish.
"He was a flawed genius," Pein said, "but today we will remember him for his achievements on the board."
With files from the Associated Press
WHAT OTHERS HAVE SAID ABOUT THIS NEWS STORY
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Amazing character, a genius of chess, he will be missed for everything he did in his way for human kind God rest him in peace!
POSTED BY: care on MON, JAN 21, 2008 01:17 PM -0500
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what has politics got to do with chess? war game do you play for fun or fame? I think most people cant fathom what being the best in the known world is like.Ego is a dangerous thing,i believe a balanced person can laugh at themselves.sleep well Bobby.
POSTED BY: affaman3 on MON, JAN 21, 2008 04:39 AM -0500
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Rest in peace. All he said about the two countries in question is right, correct.
POSTED BY: Dick Longo on SUN, JAN 20, 2008 08:26 PM -0500
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64 chess squares = 64 years of a chess players life - now that's an amazing coincidence - in his later years he seems to have gone way outta da scene and heard only the voices in his head - poor genius
POSTED BY: peter.chuck on SUN, JAN 20, 2008 07:30 PM -0500
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R.I.P. MAESTRO
POSTED BY: OLENA C on SUN, JAN 20, 2008 06:56 PM -0500
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Beirut bomb kills terrorism investigator
By SAM F. GHATTAS,
Associated Press Writer
Fri Jan 25, 6:27 PM ET
BEIRUT, Lebanon - A car bomb Friday killed one of Lebanon's top terrorism investigators who was probing assassinations of prominent anti-Syrian figures and a series of other attacks in recent years.
Capt. Wissam Eid, 31, worked for the police intelligence agency which is closely tied to the Western-backed government and had survived two previous assassination attempts. The attack also killed his bodyguard and three passers-by and wounded 37 people, police said.
A huge plume of black smoke rose from the site of the attack in the Lebanese capital. Television footage showed orange flames shooting up into the sky, as several cars burned and firefighters struggled to put out the flames.
Graphic televised images showed a body slumped behind the wheel of a delivery truck ripped apart by the blast and two other bodies on the ground. The bombing set a dozen vehicles ablaze and ripped a crater in the asphalt 12 feet wide and 6 feet deep. It shattered windows hundreds of feet away and knocked motorcyclists off roads.
Lebanon is deeply and bitterly divided along pro- and anti-Syrian lines. A prolonged crisis has left the country without a president since Nov. 23 because the two camps cannot agree on a candidate or the makeup of a future government.
Since 2005, the country has seen a series of bombings including the assassinations of eight prominent anti-Syrian figures.
As a senior officer in the intelligence department, Eid had handled "very important" files including "all those having to do with the terrorist bombings," national Police Chief Brig. Gen. Ashraf Rifi said.
His work in the technology field was believed to include sifting through millions of telecommunication tips and cellular phone contacts as part of those investigations.
Eid was "one of the most important officers in the intelligence department," Interior Minister Hassan Sabei said. "They are trying to hit the backbone of the Lebanese state, which is security."
Sabei pledged the attack would not deter Lebanon from working "toward the goal which is independence and freedom."
As news of the killing spread to Eid's hometown of Deir Ammar, north of Beirut, dozens of angry villagers burned car tires and blocked a highway leading from the Mediterranean coast to the Syrian border for a few hours.
Eid had survived two other assassination attempts, including a bomb targeting his house, Sabei told LBC television.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was asked whether she saw Syrian involvement in Eid's killing, and said "it's far too early to know who might have been behind it but we've seen this sort of thing before.
"We condemn any bombing and terrorist activity but we also call again for all involved, and that means Lebanon's neighbors in particular, to support a process in Lebanon by which the people of Lebanon can elect a president and can do so freely and can do so without intimidation," said Rice, who was in Colombia on Friday.
The police intelligence department Eid worked for is close to the anti-Syrian majority that controls Lebanon's government and parliament and it and has been often criticized by the pro-Syrian opposition.
Syria has been fingered in many of Lebanon's recent bombings, including that of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in 2005. His assassination triggered political upheaval and international pressure that forced Syria to withdraw its army from Lebanon that same year, ending almost three decades of domination of its smaller neighbor.
Islamic militants also were suspected in some of the explosions.
Legislator Saad Hariri, the former prime minister's son and leader of the anti-Syrian parliament majority, implicitly blamed Syria for the "despicable crime." Seeking Arab nations' help, he said the killing should prompt a "new appeal ... (to make) the Syrian regime take its hand off Lebanon."
"They shall pay the price," he said of the culprits. "We fear no one but God and we will defend Lebanon's independence."
Damascus has denied any role in the bombings. It also condemned Eid's killing, as did its ally Hezbollah, the Islamic militant group which leads the Lebanese opposition.
Arab League Chief Amr Moussa, who earlier this month failed in Beirut talks to reconcile the feuding factions, warned against letting Lebanon "slip into an abyss."
Lebanese Sports Minister Ahmed Fatfat said Eid was on his way from a meeting at the headquarters of the U.N. commission investigating the Hariri's assassination.
But Sabei said Eid was on his way to work and the discrepancy could not be immediately reconciled.
The blast ripped through the Christian eastern neighborhood of Hazmieh. It was the deadliest bombing since last September, when a pro-government lawmaker Antoine Ghanem was killed along with six other people in another Christian suburb.
The amount of explosives used in Friday's blast — 154 pounds — was the most since Hariri and 22 others were killed in a February 2005 by more than a ton of explosives.
The explosion came just two days before Arab foreign ministers were to meet in Cairo to discuss the Lebanon crisis.
R.I.P. Wissam Eid
+++
Death toll in latest Kenya clashes at 25
By ELIZABETH A. KENNEDY,
Associated Press Writer
Sat Jan 26, 7:29 PM ET
NAKURU, Kenya - Men sobbed as police unloaded 16 charred bodies at a mortuary in this western Kenyan city. People with machete and arrow wounds overwhelmed the main hospital and were forced to share beds. Hundreds of homeless took shelter at a church.
And even as Nakuru struggled to recover from an explosion of political violence, there were signs Saturday that it was far from over. Those whose homes were burned vowed revenge. Gunshots rang out, and youths with sticks manned roadblocks.
At least 25 people were killed when the turmoil over Kenya's deeply flawed presidential election finally reached Nakuru, the country's fourth-largest city that had largely been spared the unrest. Men fought street battles with homemade guns, machetes and bow and arrows, while mobs torched hundreds of homes.
At the city mortuary, police wearing rubber gloves unloaded 16 burned bodies. Men standing by broke down in tears.
"I have never experienced this in my country," one man said, his face marked with grief. "I just pray that our leaders end this thing immediately."
Riots and ethnic fighting following the Dec. 27 vote have killed more than 700 people nationwide and forced 255,000 from their homes.
Much of the violence has pitted ethnic groups who support the opposition against President Mwai Kibaki's Kikuyu tribe, long dominant in Kenyan politics and the economy. Opposition leader Raila Odinga accuses Kibaki of stealing the election, and local and foreign observers have said the vote tally was rigged.
Kibaki and Odinga remain far apart on the question of who won the election. Both men are under international pressure to find a way to share power. But Odinga is insisting that new elections are the only way to restore peace.
While ethnic clashes have accompanied past Kenyan elections, the scale of the violence this year has been far worse. It has destroyed the East African nation's image as a peaceful haven in a region rife with conflict.
"We cannot accept the pattern every five years these sorts of incidents take place and no one is held to account," said former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who has been trying to broker talks between Kibaki and Odinga. "Let's not kid ourselves this is an electoral problem. This is much broader."
The fighting in Nakuru, the capital of the Rift Valley with 300,000 people, started late Thursday after Kibaki, emerging from his first talks with Odinga, insisted his position has head of state was not negotiable.
At Nakuru's main hospital, dozens of people with machete and arrow wounds were lying two-to-a-bed Saturday. One man's face was a maze of stitches; he appeared to have been slashed. Bed sheets were soaked in blood.
Michael Ndegwa, 21, thought he found a corpse behind some kiosks Saturday morning when he was walking through town, but when he got closer he saw the body trembling.
"I saw him and he was lying by the side of the road," Ndegwa said, sitting at a hospital with the wounded man, Steven Mwangi. "I carried him here. I thought he was dead."
Mwangi, whose forehead, ear and nose were bandaged, kept his eyes closed as he waited for treatment, tears streaming down his face. He did not speak.
Soldiers patrolled the streets and a dusk-to-dawn curfew was imposed. A barrier of rocks and wood blocked a main road, manned by youths with sticks.
In Naivasha, also in the Rift Valley, scores of youths went on house-to-house searches in a slum, and two people were hacked to death, witnesses said.
At a Catholic church in Nakuru where hundreds were taking shelter, 23-year-old Njenga vowed vengeance. "We are planning revenge, we are searching for weapons," he said, giving only his first name for fear of reprisals.
"Now it will be the survival of the fittest," he said.
___
Associated Press Writer Tom Maliti contributed to this report from Nairobi.
R.I.P. Kenyans who departed - even though the circumstances of your hasty departure from this world was a senselessly violent one...
My condolences to all Kenyans.
+++
On a lark, I checked out what was on cable TV, late Saturday afternoon... And, as I zapped through the channels, I noticed that A&E had chosen to hold a Godfather marathon. I sat and watched as much as I could (though masterpieces -as long as parts I and II are concerned- the tone of these films is quite depressing, you must admit. Having Sopranos commercials peppered with black humor at every single commercial pause didn't really help either. I never thought I would say this, but I actually miss A&E's TRUE STARS - repeats of Banacek and McCloud or the all-new, all-different Rollergirls and DOG, The Bounty Hunter... But that is another story.)
The one scene I prefer in the whole SAGA is, of course, the one in which Michael Corleone goes to the hospital to find his father hooked up to all those tubes - and without a single bodyguard in sight. He takes control of the situation then, like a seasoned mob pro, and gets a nurse to help him move his father to another room, before hitmen get there... And then, once his father's safe, he leans closer and talks to him. "I'm here now," he says, though his father seems not to be able to hear him, either asleep or near-comatose. But he is very much conscious of what is going on around him and does hear his son - and shows it eventually as a smile appears on his face. For my money, this is the highlight of both Al Pacino's and Marlon Brando's careers. Life imitated by art? Pacino was such a mirror image back then of Brando's real-life son, Christian. The interaction between the two actors had to be enhanced by that dynamic, also. Brando expressed so much - with so little. And also, I confess, I could have sworn that the resemblance was close to 100% then - with my own father.
So, I am watching this and after a while, during one of the 101 commercial pauses, I zap to CNN...
And I learn of what just happened to late actor Marlon Brando's true son, Christian, then...
Christian Brando dies at L.A. hospital
By ROBERT JABLON,
Associated Press Writer
Sat Jan 26, 8:11 PM ET
LOS ANGELES - Christian Brando, the troubled eldest son of the late actor Marlon Brando, has died from pneumonia at a Los Angeles hospital, an attorney said Saturday. He was 49.
Brando died Saturday morning at Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center, said David Seeley, an attorney representing Marlon Brando's estate. Seeley said Brando was taken to the hospital on Jan. 11.
"This is a sad and difficult time for the family," Seeley said.
Born on May 11, 1958, Brando was a high school dropout and never had much of a career. He had small roles in a handful of movies, including 1968's "I Love You, Alice B. Toklas!" but he was better known for his brushes with the law.
He spent five years in prison after pleading guilty to manslaughter in 1990 for killing his sister's boyfriend, Dag Drollet, at the Brando family's hilltop estate.
Brando said he accidentally shot Drollet as they struggled for a gun during an argument over whether Drollet, 26, had beaten Brando's pregnant half-sister, Cheyenne.
Cheyenne, who later gave birth to Drollet's son but lost custody of the child, committed suicide in 1995. She was 25. Family associates said she had been distraught since her boyfriend's death.
In a 1991 interview with the Los Angeles Times, Brando said he never intended to kill Drollet, but wanted to scare him. "I just sat there and watched the life go out of this guy," Brando said.
At his son's trial, Marlon Brando pleaded for leniency, telling the court: "I think that perhaps I failed as a father."
Brando's ex-wife, Deborah Brando, sued him for domestic violence in 2005. She claimed that shortly after their 2004 marriage, Brando repeatedly beat her and threatened to kill her in the presence of her teenage daughter.
Brando countersued, alleging that his ex-wife broke into his home and beat him because he wanted to annul their marriage only 10 weeks after exchanging vows.
The lawsuits were settled last year on undisclosed terms.
Brando was charged January 2005 with two counts of spousal abuse and he later pleaded no contest. He was placed on three years' probation and ordered to drug and alcohol rehabilitation as well as a spousal-abuse prevention program.
Brando also was the one-time lover of Bonnie Lee Bakley, who was shot to death in 2001. At one time, Bakley claimed Brando had fathered her child but tests showed it belonged to actor Robert Blake, whom she later married.
Blake was tried for her murder and acquitted but later ordered to pay $30 million in a wrongful death lawsuit. During that civil case, Blake's lawyer suggested Brando was the killer, although police never implicated him.
Brando, who had denied any involvement, invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination on the stand during the trial.
Seeley said Brando was not married at the time of his death and did not leave any children.
Brando was the eldest of the actor's nine children, according to a will the Oscar-winner left following his death in 2004. Brando's mother was actress Anna Kashfi. She and Marlon Brando divorced after a year.
That touched off a 16-year custody battle for Christian, who was 5 months old at the time of the separation.
"I found him to be an extremely personable, bright gentleman," said Bruce Margolin, an attorney who represented Brando. "He was very well-loved in his family. I think his life was too short."
There are no funeral plans yet scheduled, he added.
R.I.P. Christian Brando
Like the Onassis princess, Von Erich princes and so many other heirs to a famous parent's prestige, you never did have much serenity in your life.
May your afterlife be filled with it - as Marlon, Cheyenne and others that are lesser known welcome you home, on the other side...
+++
* Jan 26, 2008
5:07 pm US/Eastern
* Digg | Facebook | E-mail
Blind Wellesley Woman Killed In Smoky Fire
WELLESLEY, Mass. (WBZ) ―
A blind Wellesley woman was killed in a two-alarm fire Friday night at her home.
Wellesley police officials said fire crews arrived at her home on Halsey Avenue around 7:42 pm and worked to put out the fire.
Carol Cauley, 55, was killed in the blaze. Officials said she was legally blind and was home alone when the fire broke out. By the time her husband and teenage daughter came home, the house was fully involved.
Fire investigators said the fire was caused by a space heater. The house was not totally damaged, but the smoke was deadly.
Friends and neighbors said Cauley was a mother of three and had multiple sclerosis. Her youngest daughter was treated for smoke inhalation after trying to save her.
On Saturday, Cauley's daughter's classmates came to pay respects and remembered their friend's mother.
"She was really limited in her mobility but very nice," said family friend Sarah Roslansky. "She was usually on the couch talking to everybody and smiling."
(© MMVIII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
R.I.P. Carol Cauley
You See The Light - Now.
+++
I remain deeply convinced that all dead are "born into the afterlife" equal (notwithstanding their track records; the Grim Reaper's concern lies not there anyways and Judgment Day has not yet arrived)
However, some deadmen are luckier than others still...
Dead man found lying on northwest street
Tue Jan 29, 7:57 PM
CALGARY (CBC) - Calgary police are trying to determine whether a man found lying in the middle of a Mount Pleasant street died of natural causes or was a victim of foul play.
Police were called to 25th Avenue and 5th Street N.W., behind St. Joseph School, at about 3:15 a.m. Tuesday for a complaint about a drunk male lying on the street. They arrived to find a black man in his early 20s already dead.
Temperatures dipped to -33 C overnight in Calgary but police said the extreme cold was not a factor in the unidentified man's death.
Investigators said they're treating the case as suspicious until an autopsy can be completed Wednesday.
Parents and students going to the elementary-junior high school were diverted away from the six blocks that were cordoned off as officers scoured the area for clues.
A black tent was placed over the body so children would not see it.
"We just want to make sure that the area is clear of anything that we might be looking for," said acting Sgt. Ron Brown.
WHAT OTHERS HAVE SAID ABOUT THIS NEWS STORY
*
i think this is relevant news...first of all the dead man is barely a man..a 20 year old..it is a suspicous death..secondly..the photo is of a school yard..not a usual place to find a dead body in any city..thirdly..it's freaking -40 out there..fourthly..it's a quiet, mixed, pleasant neighborhood..i dunno..he is part of our community..we should care to know!
moon
POSTED TUE, JAN 29, 2008 11:48 PM -0500
More (and much stranger) comments - here.
Man struggles to return from the dead
Tue Jan 29, 9:09 AM
WARSAW (Reuters) - Red tape is preventing a Polish man from returning from the dead.
Piotr Kucy, 38 and from the city of Polkowice in southwest Poland, was wrongly identified by authorities last August as a drowned man, only to show up a few days after his own funeral.
Despite pointing out the fact that he was alive to government officials, Kucy still remains dead in official records, stopping him from working and paying social insurance.
But on the bright side, a local newspaper reported on Tuesday, he no longer needs to pay taxes.
"We are nearly through January, and my documents still say I'm dead," Kucy told Gazeta Wyborcza, adding: "It's a bit of a joke." But a registry office official was adamant about the situation. "This citizen does not exist," she told the paper.
(Writing by Barbara Sladkowska, editing by Peter Millership)
WHAT OTHERS HAVE SAID ABOUT THIS NEWS STORY
*
cdngirl2008
Red, I agree with you. This spam has went to far. I will sign that letter and Good luck getting Yahoo Canada to notice this crap that is on their site. As for this poor guy which this story is about not porn poor guy can they not see he is not dead?
POSTED BY: cdngirl2008 on WED, JAN 30, 2008 03:04 AM -0500
*
No Photo Available.
What the...? I was reading a story about a Polish man who had been wrongly declared dead and was being prevented from returning to life by red tape. This was followed by a lot of comments about porn spam. Something's mixed up here. I feel very sorry for the Polish gentleman. Polish bureaucrats must be as screwed up as are the people running this email service.
POSTED BY: matt.bentley on TUE, JAN 29, 2008 10:51 PM -0500
*
No Photo Available.
There are so many comments about the spam I forgot what the story was baout. there may be some irony in there somewhere. But I too do not like to see porn spam in a news forum and made sevral complaints to Yahoo and to there credet they sent me emails conferming they had recived and since there seems to be no more of it here I guess our time wasn,t wasted. As for the story above
POSTED BY: Magic rat on TUE, JAN 29, 2008 10:41 PM -0500
*
No Photo Available.
I too have made a minimum of 10 complaints to yahoo about this sex spam garbage....in the past I would recieve a acknowledgement from yahoo in regards to my complaints , however i would still see the trash spam on here....however today I made 3 complaints , but recieved no response from yahoo ...however i am not seeing any lucy, or rosa garbage as of a few hours ago....way to go people!! we have at least temporarily achieved something ....
POSTED BY: guitare_lesson on TUE, JAN 29, 2008 10:19 PM -0500
*
No Photo Available.
The adds are gone and to be honest yahoo is doing a good job cleaning them up. Probably the work of our resident freedom fighters is paying off.
POSTED BY: I AM CANADIAN! on TUE, JAN 29, 2008 10:07 PM -0500
1 - 5 of 21 | More... (and do you see now what I mean by "stranger" - hmm?) here.
R.I.P. Calgary man
T.I.P. Warsaw man
(T.I.P. = Thrive In Peace!)
+++
More children deaths...
More young lives cut so very short.
And these were to die at school.
Not a shcool shooting, mercifully.
But these were not pampered, overevaluated and well-fed kids either.
And the cruel irony of it all is that they likely enjoyed going to school much more than their North American counterparts.
They knew how much of a privilege it was.
They didn't take it for granted - or as burden either.
Source article:
School collapse kills at least 11
NAALYA, Uganda,
Jan. 31 (UPI) --
A school building under construction in Uganda collapsed, leaving at least 11 workers dead and an unknown number buried in the rubble, officials said.
At least nine workers survived the Wednesday morning collapse at the St. Peters Secondary School construction site in Naalya, near Kampala, but several were hospitalized in critical condition, The Daily Monitor in Kampala reported.
Police spokesman Gabriel Tibayungwa confirmed the toll of dead and injured workers so far but declined to say how many more might have been caught by the falling debris, the Monitor said.
"Let's keep searching. We shall know when we clear the whole site," he said.
Christopher Mukiza, a security guard at the school, said he was a few yards away when the four-story building collapsed.
"I saw the site foreman, Sam Kafere, go inside carrying a book where he registers the casual laborers. Only five minutes after he got in, the building came flat on the ground at once," Mukiza told the newspaper.
One survivor, Alexander Mackay, 18, told the Monitor there were about 38 workers at the site and only a half-dozen were able to quickly jump out of the way when the building came down with the remainder trapped in the 32 debris.
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May the eleven now rest in peace.
And their thirst for knowledge be satisfied now - on the other side.
We know it will.
+++
Blame it on Batman.
Bat deaths in NY, Vt. baffle experts
By MICHAEL HILL,
Associated Press Writer
Wed Jan 30, 5:04 PM ET
ALBANY, N.Y. - Bats are dying off by the thousands as they hibernate in caves and mines around New York and Vermont, sending researchers scrambling to find the cause of mysterious condition dubbed "white nose syndrome."
The ailment — named for the white circle of fungus found around the noses of affected bats — was first noticed last January in four caves west of Albany. It has now spread to eight hibernation sites in the state and another in Vermont.
Alan Hicks, a bat specialist with New York's Department of Environmental Conservation, called the quick-spreading disorder the "gravest threat" to bats he had ever seen. Up to 11,000 bats were found dead last winter and many more are showing signs illness this winter. One hard-hit cave went from more than 15,000 bats two years ago to 1,500 now, he said.
"We do not know what the cause is and we do not know how it was spread, either from cave to cave, or bat to bat," said Hicks. "You have this potential for this huge spread."
The white fungus ring around bats' noses is a symptom, but not necessarily the cause. For some unknown reason, the bats deplete their fat reserves and die months before they would normally emerge from hibernation.
New York and Vermont environmental officials are asking people not to enter caves or mines with bats until researchers figure out how the infection is spread. There is no evidence it is a threat to humans, but officials want to take every precaution to avoid it spreading from cave to cave.
Bats are considered particularly vulnerable when they hibernate, a time when they can hang together tightly by the thousands. Indiana bats, a federally endangered species, are considered particularly vulnerable, though the highest death count has been among little brown bats.
Researchers with Cornell University and the National Wildlife Health Center in Madison, Wis., are among those helping state environmental officials.
The bat die-off has some eerie similarities with "colony collapse disorder," the baffling affliction that began decimating honeybee colonies years ago. Scientists last fall said they suspected a virus previously unknown in the United States.
"I'm very concerned," Hicks said. "I can only hope that what we're seeing today will dissipate in the future."
Batman did shoot some of its dreck in Vermont this past summer.
Then they inadvertently caused the bad film shooting conditions in the Orient, where a daredevil (...) stuntman perished.
He lost his LIFE - to shoot a film about... Batman.
Then, of course, the actor chosen to portray the Joker of this film died, mysteriously enough...
Before all of this, I was inclined to believe the "Batman curse" to be not as severe as the infamous "Superman curse" (unbelievably enough too; but the facts were all there to see. Batman had caused careers to die; Adam West's, Michael Keaton's, Val Kilmer's... George Clooney escaped that because... well, because he has buddies! And everybody loves George - much more than Raymond.)
Superman - now there we had ignominious ends. George Reeve's. Christopher Reeves'. And probably Dean whatsisname's career - and the careers of every "Superboy" there ever was, too.
The Superman curse was clearly the worst of the two curses (and the "world's finest curses" they are surely not, but that is another story...)
At first that seemed VERY ODD - for, of the two, Batman sure is the creepiest. Standing back to back, Bats figures to be the faustian devil next to an angel - a wingless angel, but still.
Fact is, both are as bad as the other.
Batman is plain weird - while Superman is blasphemy, nothing less! Far from being just "a modern Samson" - DC artist Ty Templeton made it painfully clear when he called him "the hand of God made "real"..."
That makes it clear enough, indeed, that Supesy is heresy personnified!
And as "real" as a cartoony two-dimensional dude can be, truly Ty...
And so, it was not so odd, in that perspective, that Superman was more severely reprimanded by the forces of kismet - than the atrocious Bats.
Although...
Bats has contributed to making the "evil looking do-gooder" (as oxymoronic as it sounds) not just "cool" but the preferred type of "hero" nowadays - and that demands retribution too.
The haughty Christian Bale could have easily been the one "cursed" - instead of Heath Ledger who paid the price for his untimely association with this proliferation of battyness.
These actors are truly paying for other people's sins though; those for whom Batman properties are like unto bread and butter.
Maybe they won't do any more Batty films - one can hope.
I doubt they will stop.
Poor bat creatures -
they are the only ones truly innocent in all this. Their image has been used to convey bogus so-called "legends", elevate make-believe to near mythical status while it carries nothing but the wrongest basic message (at best, it encourages vigilantism - is that any good? Solo vigilantes and mobs never brought "justice" - only miscarriages of justice and INJUSTICES! You have to know what is RIGHT before you can go after anything else - and besides, our society does not allow for anyone to take justice into their own hands. Few could do anything worthwhile with it anyway. But enough with this digression.)
All that these poor bats ever wanted was one simple thing, in two parts: to feed and to live.
And now they're dying by the thousands.
While a silly film about a man who dresses in order to LOOK like them (but cannot fly like them - and is far better nourished than any one of them) is about to be released into theatres, with the special note that it is the last film ever to be done with a certain thespian... This sentimental value it has definitely is its only intrinsic worth - and it is a crying shame that the budget for this umpteenth waste of celluloid was many times more than that of so many organizations aiming at preserving the natural habitats of real creatures - such as those bats.
And now all that those at the helm of these organizations can do is look on - as the bat die-off goes on.
+++
The Bible Says that our greatest enemies shall be those from our own families.
Here is further evidence of that...
Couple accused of starving infant
SACRAMENTO,
Jan. 31 (UPI) --
A California couple are charged with neglect for allegedly allowing their infant child to nearly starve to death.
Monica Sue Mark, 38, and Abraham David Mark, 49, of Auburn, Calif., were arrested after doctors discovered their daughter had lost one-third of her birth weight by the time she was six weeks old, The Sacramento (Calif.) Bee said Wednesday.
Police said the child, who was near death when the discovery was made last month, was taken to Sutter Memorial Hospital in Sacramento. The infant is now near her birth weight of seven to eight pounds and is recovering, police said.
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Man who torched son sentenced to 25 years
SAN FRANCISCO,
Jan. 31 (UPI) --
A California appeals court says a man convicted of trying to burn his young son to death in 1983 was properly sentenced to a 25 years in prison.
The appellate court in San Francisco upheld a judge's decision last April that Charley Charles was not entitled to leniency for the attack on his 6-year-old son, the San Francisco Chronicle said Wednesday.
Charles was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison under the "three strikes" law for two recent weapons convictions.
Charles was sentenced to 13 years in prison but was released in 1990 after serving half his sentence. He was arrested in 2001 on weapons charges but sentenced as a second-strike defendant to just over seven years in prison.
The appellate court ruled that the 1983 convictions could be considered two strikes because they involved multiple acts and multiple victims, the newspaper said.
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There may have been no loss of life - those two times.
This "comment" addition however is dedicated to all those who did perish at the hands of a trusted one - such as the family of 5 whose home was set ablaze (killing all five children and the spouse) by, police suspect, the very head of the family, in Ohio.
Their funeral is set to take place in Laval, Quebec, Canada.
The funeral will be held in the St-Martin parish on February 2nd I do believe.
Six coffins.
Why did that man do it.
Why did he ever marry and begin to procreate in the first place...?
Well...
He begat five cherubims then
and surrendered to God a de facto saintly -for martyred- woman...
That is a better contribution than simply populating some more - with yet more "québécois pure laine" or "true americans" - and I do know what I am talking about.
My condolences to the uncles, aunts, cousins, friends and most of all grandparents of the five siblings Ferrari-Veillette.
+++
Do not get me wrong now.
May the murderer of the Ferrari-Veillette brood burn in hell - especially if it is indeed the "prime suspect" in the case...
A similar case - in the same area, with four victims that time - is pending too...
And, in that one, the father is clearly the culprit.
You can hazard a guess what I wish upon him as well...
Erratum:
the two cases both had four children as victims.
The Ferrari-Veillette tragedy had four children and their mother was the fifth victim, not a fifth child and then the mother.
All were still infants.
May they rest in peace.
+++
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