Deadly flash flooding hits northwestern Turkey
Friday, September 11, 2009 Heavy overnight rains flooded Istanbul, Turkey, stranding motorists and flooding arterial roads. The floods led to the death of at least 31 people and the cost of damage has been estimated as being in excess of $70 million in northwestern parts of the country. The flood devastated businesses, swept away cars and swamped houses, roads, and farming land. Fueled by the worst rain in 80 years, waters rose up to six feet (2 meters) high in the city’s ?kitelli district, cutting off the route to Istanbul’s main airport and the highway to Greece and Bulgaria on the European side of the sprawling city. “We are saddened by the loss of lives. There are still some people missing and we are searching for them,” said Mustafa Demir, the Turkish Procurement Minister, as quoted by the Associated Press news agency. Over 1000 people have been rescued by emergency…
Honda wins car, truck of the year, unveils Fit
Monday, January 9, 2006 Honda’s Civic and Ridgeline truck won the North American Car and Truck of the Year awards at the International Auto Show in Detroit. This is the first time a company has won both awards in the same year. The finalists were the Ridgeline, the Ford Explorer SUV and the Nissan Xterra. The awards are intended to recognize vehicles for their innovation, design, safety, handling, driver satisfaction, and value.File:Ford Explorer.jpg Honda also unveiled its latest model the Fit, a US version of the Honda Jazz sold in nonUS markets. The Fit comes with a 109 horsepower engine, antilock brakes, six air bags, fold flat seats, full iPod connectivity, 90.1 cubic feet of passenger and cargo space, and 33 mpg for the city 38 mpg for the highway. A sport package will also include Honda’s first steering wheel mounted paddle shifters. The car will go against another two…
Victoria Wyndham on Another World and another life
Thursday, December 13, 2007 Victoria Wyndham was one of the most seasoned and accomplished actresses in daytime soap opera television. She played Rachel Cory, the maven of Another World‘s fictional town, Bay City, from 1972 to 1999 when the show went off the air. Wyndham talks about how she was seen as the anchor of a show, and the political infighting to keep it on the air as NBC wanted to wrest control of the long-running soap from Procter & Gamble. Wyndham fought to keep it on the air, but eventually succumbed to the inevitable. She discusses life on the soap opera, and the seven years she spent wandering “in the woods” of Los Angeles seeking direction, now divorced from a character who had come to define her professional career. Happy, healthy and with a family she is proud of, Wyndham has found life after the death of Another World…
Moon water possibly originated from comets, data shows
Tuesday, January 11, 2011 Data from recent detailed analyses of samples collected on NASA Apollo moon missions, released Sunday, show that Lunar water may originate from comets that collided with the moon early in its geologic history. A team of astrophysicists led by James Greenwood of Wesleyan University in Connecticut analyzed samples collected on the Apollo 11, 12, 14, and 17 missions and found that the chemical properties of traces of lunar water in these samples differ from water typical of Earth. “The values of deuterium/hydrogen (D/H) that we measure in apatite in the Apollo rock samples”, Greenwood told Space.com, “is clearly distinguishable from water from the Earth, mitigating against this being some sort of contamination on Earth.” Greenwood and his team of researchers studied in particular the variations of hydrogen in the mineral apatite. The newfound data show that the chemical properties of water in the apatite samples resemble…
News briefs:June 10, 2010
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Two pilots dead in Richmond plane crash
Saturday, July 11, 2009 A plane, carrying blood donations, crashed in Richmond, British Columbia, Canada on Thursday night. The plane, a twin engine PA-31 Piper Navajo departed from Victoria, when it nosedived into a parking lot during its final approach to Vancouver International Airport shortly after 10:00 p.m. PDT (UTC-7). Witnesses report the plane flying unusually low prior to it crashing and bursting into flames by Bridgeport Road, behind a large Ikea store. “The plane engine sounded real low, it came almost straight down,” according to The Vancouver Sun who asked witness Darren Van Leeuwen. “The flames shot up 100 feet or more.” Both of the pilots on-board were killed, it not yet known if there were any other passengers. Royal Canadian Mounted Police Assistant Commissioner Peter German stated that it was very lucky that nobody on the ground was killed. The cause of the crash is under federal investigation.
Former Japanese prime minister Hashimoto indicated his retirement
Friday, August 12, 2005 On the 11th August, the former Prime Minister of Japan Riyutaro Hashimoto, age 68, formally indicated he would not run for the Okayama 4th constituency of the House of Representatives, the Lower House of Japan, due to defectiveness of his physical condition, possibly nominally. Since the current prime minister Junichiro Koizumi had resolved that House, an election will be held on September 11. The next day of that announcement, on the 12th, the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) executive committee showed they had no intention to recognize him as a candidate to proportional representative constituency. There might be no possibility for him to run for the coming election as the LDP candidate and his political career would inevitably end. On the July, 2004 it was reported that Hashimoto did not state the donation of 1 hundred million yen from a lobbist organisation in the annual political financial…
Firefighters rescue nearly a dozen animals in Buffalo, New York house fire
Friday, June 22, 2007 Buffalo, New York —A three alarm fire at a house owned by John and Evelyn Bencinich, two of the initiators of a lawsuit filed against the Elmwood Village Hotel proposal in Buffalo, required firefighters to rescue eight cats and two dogs in Buffalo, New York today. At about 8:30 (eastern time) firefighters were called to the home on 48 Granger Place to put out a fire that had started in the basement. It quickly spread to the first floor where the main bathroom was destroyed. The fire did not spread to the second floor or attic. Initial calls said that many animals were inside the house and firefighters quickly worked to rescue all the cats and dogs. At least one cat and one dog had to receive CPR and oxygen, but both are reported to be in stable condition. At least 3 cats are unaccounted for,…
Amélie Mauresmo wins Australian Open
Sunday, January 29, 2006 French tennis champion Amélie Mauresmo yesterday won her first Grand Slam title at the Australian Open in Melbourne. Mauresmo was winning 6-1 2-0 when her opponent, Belgian player Justine Henin-Hardenne, retired, citing a stomach complaint. After winning a rally in the second game of the second set, Henin-Hardenne approached the umpire and complained of feeling unwell. She then consulted her trainer before returning to the court. After losing two points, she approached the net and told Mauresmo she was too ill to continue, ending the game in 52 minutes. Henin-Hardenne apologized to her opponent, the tournament organisers and a disappointed crowd of 15,452 people. “I’m feeling very disappointed for sure to end the tournament this way. I am feeling very sick and couldn’t stay longer and continue,” she said. She later told a press conference that she believed anti-inflammatory medication she had been taking for a…
Pride in London 2013: in pictures
Monday, July 1, 2013 Yesterday, thousands of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, and their supporters and allies, paraded through central London and partied in the streets as part of Pride in London. With the Parliamentary debate around the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill continuing, the organisers decided that the theme for this year’s parade was to be “Love and Marriage”, with a number of the parade participants dressing as brides or grooms. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 Some attendees took drag to extravagant levels. Image: Tom Morris. Rainbow-coloured dresses worn by paraders as part of ‘Filipino LGBT UK’. Image: Tom Morris. Two men both wearing hats with the word ‘Groom’ on the front. Image: Tom Morris. Topless barmen and go-go boys. Image: Tom Morris. Three men dressed as masked nuns to protest Vatican anti-gay…