Grand National winning horse ‘Comply or Die’ dies, aged 17
Wednesday, May 11, 2016 Comply or Die, the racehorse who won the 2008 Grand National has died at the age of 17. His death was announced by his former trainer, David Pipe. He died over at the weekend in Gloucestershire, where he had been staying with jockey Timmy Murphy. He was cremated on Monday and his ashes will return to Murphy. Murphy was the jockey in the saddle when Comply or Die won the 2008 Grand National. Speaking to the Press Association, he spoke about the horse’s death. He said, “He was part of the furniture at home so it’s very sad. He gave me the greatest day of my career, obviously that can never be taken away. He paraded at Cheltenham and Aintree and was getting ready to do some dressage in the summer. I’m not actually sure how he died, to be honest, but it wasn’t nice to…
Iraqi based war video game pulled by publisher
Wednesday, April 29, 2009 The game publisher Konami stated today in a Japanese newspaper that they will not be releasing the game Six Days in Fallujah. The game is based on the Second Battle of Fallujah, a vicious battle between American and Iraqi forces. “After seeing the reaction to the video game in the United States and hearing opinions sent through phone calls and e-mail, we decided several days ago not to sell it,” Tokyo based Konami told the newspaper. “We had intended to convey the reality of the battles to players so that they could feel what it was like to be there.” The developer of the game, Atomic Games, received controversial feedback from families of dead soldiers stating the game’s concept as “exploitative and distasteful”, as paraphrased by the The Wall Street Journal. That paper also quoted a woman whose son had died in the Iraq war, who…
Documents reveal al-Qaeda wants war between U.S. and Iran, Iraq insurgency weakening
Friday, June 16, 2006 Documents found at the hideout of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi revealed al-Qaeda‘s desire to force a war between the U.S. and Iran. The document was translated by Iraqi National Security Adviser Mouwafak al-Rubaie, but the authenticity of the information could not be confirmed to be from al-Qaeda. The documents reveal that al-Zarqawi was planning to destroy the relationship between the Shi’ite Iraqis and the United States. The document also said the U.S. military was hurting the insurgency by seizure of weapons, disrupting their financial outlets, massive arrests, and training Iraqi security forces. The translated document said, “Generally speaking and despite the gloomy present situation, we find that the best solution in order to get out of this crisis is to involve the U.S. forces in waging a war against another country or any hostile groups.” Mowaffaq al-Rubaie said, “These documents have given us the edge over al-Qaeda…
12 injured after van carrying church group flips over on Buffalo, NY expressway
Monday, August 17, 2009 According to Buffalo Fire Department radio communications, at least 12 people were injured after a van carrying a church group flipped over on an expressway interchange in Buffalo, New York. Seven of the 12 people injured have been taken to a local hospital for treatment. At least two people were seriously injured. The church affiliation of the group is not yet known. The accident occurred on the on ramp to Buffalo’s Route 198 Westbound at around 6:30 p.m. (EDT). The van was traveling from Route 33 Westbound. According to the fire department, a preliminary investigation on scene shows the driver of the van may have been going too fast on the interchange’s turn, causing the van to flip over several times. At 7:00 p.m., according to New York Department of Transportation traffic cameras, police were still blocking all traffic from entering the 198 Westbound from route…
Enron executives Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling found guilty
Thursday, May 25, 2006 A jury in Houston found Former Enron Corp. CEOs Kenneth L. Lay and Jeffrey K. Skilling guilty of 6 kinds of white-collar crime on May 25. Lay was convicted of all ten counts against him, while Skilling was convicted of only nineteen of the charged twenty-eight counts. The variety of charges on which both men were convicted was astonishing; conspiracy, wire fraud, false statements to banks and auditors, and others. Both men now face many years in prison. Outside the courtroom, Skilling continued to proclaim his innocence. “Obviously, I’m disappointed, but that’s the way the system works,” Skilling said after the verdict. He is expected to appeal. Lay did not immediately speak to reporters outside the courtroom. The verdict was reached on the sixth day of deliberations after a four-month-long trial and brings to a close the first of the wave of accounting scandals earlier in…
UK mounts rescue operation for Spanish trawler in distress in North Atlantic storm
Wednesday, January 12, 2005 This afternoon the RAF launched an operation to rescue nineteen sailors from a Spanish trawler in difficulties in a North Atlantic storm. Radio contact with the FV Cibeles was lost yesterday evening at 2030 UTC when the crew reported to the ship’s owners that they were in trouble. Last night, UK Coastguard picked up a satellite emergency beacon signal as winds reached speeds of over 70 mph. This morning a RAF Nimrod maritime patrol aircraft located the ship adrift 180 miles off the Scottish Western Isles. A nearby tanker, the Aegean Spirit, diverted with the intention of taking the trawler in tow and arrived at 1500 UTC. However, the tanker was unable to take the trawler on tow, and with no other vessels capable of towing the ship nearby, the Coastguard Rescue Seeking helicopter “Mike Uniform” was launched from Stornoway to extract the crew. The tanker…
Surgeons reattach boy’s three severed limbs
Tuesday, March 29, 2005A team of Australian surgeons yesterday reattached both hands and one foot to 10-year-old Perth boy, Terry Vo, after a brick wall which collapsed during a game of basketball fell on him, severing the limbs. The wall gave way while Terry performed a slam-dunk, during a game at a friend’s birthday party. The boy was today awake and smiling, still in some pain but in good spirits and expected to make a full recovery, according to plastic surgeon, Mr Robert Love. “What we have is parts that are very much alive so the reattached limbs are certainly pink, well perfused and are indeed moving,” Mr Love told reporters today. “The fact that he is moving his fingers, and of course when he wakes up he will move both fingers and toes, is not a surprise,” Mr Love had said yesterday. “The question is more the sensory return…
Minneapolis I-35W bridge spans Mississippi River
Monday, July 7, 2008 The United States bridge that collapsed almost a year ago, spanning the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, Minnesota, is close to being reconstructed. The final sections of the northbound lanes of the new Interstate 35W St. Anthony Falls Bridge in Minneapolis, Minnesota were put in place on July 5. The final segment was raised with a barge-mounted crane from the Mississippi River below. A temporary bridge now connects the two segments. The remaining seven-foot gap will be closed in several days with concrete which is poured in place. The segments for the southbound lanes will now be raised and connected. The segments were cast in a work area which was on the 35W roadbed and were then moved to Bohemian Flats, near the University of Minnesota West Bank campus. A crane places each segment on a barge for delivery upstream to the bridge site. The bridge may…
CAFTA faces tough vote in U.S. House
Wednesday, July 27, 2005 President Bush is lobbying the U.S. House of Representatives to pass the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), which is scheduled for a vote Wednesday night. The U.S. Senate passed the treaty in June. Similar to the existing North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) among the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, CAFTA would create a free trade zone putting an end to most trade barriers between the United States and six additional countries, including Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua, and the Dominican Republic. The free trade agreement faces stiff opposition among Democrats. Many Republicans who represent agricultural Corn Belt or industrial Rust Belt and southern textile states in Congress also have stated opposition to the bill. But with a Republican majority in the House large enough to ensure passage of CAFTA, party leaders are trying to shore up enough votes to ensure CAFTA’s passage. This…
On bereavement and acceptance: Yale study of grief process
Thursday, February 22, 2007 Denial. Anger. Bargaining. Depression. Acceptance. Originally formulated in 1973 by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, these five stages are well-known to many as the “Five Stages of Grief“. However, despite their familiarity, the five-stage theory had remained untested empirically, until Paul K. Maciejewski, Ph.D., assistant professor of psychiatry at the Yale University School of Medicine and the Yale Bereavement Study completed several years of research, findings for which were published in the February 21 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). According to Dr. Kübler-Ross’s theory, denial is the first and most defining indicator of grief. The Yale Bereavement Study’s findings, in contrast, show acceptance to be the most common indicator, and yearning the strongest negative indicator. The authors explain, “Disbelief decreased from an initial high at one month postloss, yearning peaked at four months postloss, anger peaked at five months postloss, and depression peaked at…