News Cast Today

Sweet Smile Cute Dogs

2009-07-10T06:51:00.000-07:00

MAN...I'M GETTING SO FAT

I CAN HARDLY SCRATCH MY OWN BACK!!

THESE MORNING WALKS ARE KILLING ME!!!!

WHAT PART OF QUIET DIDN'T YOU UNDERSTAND?

OK, NOW DON'T MOVE FOR ABOUT A WEEK!

SORRY MOM, I'M NEW AT THIS!

I hate it when this happens!

I'M SO CUTE, THEY WONT CARE IF I SHRED THIS!!

I REALLY NEED TO GET GOING, BUT JUST CAN'T SEEM TO
GET MOTIVATED............

H ey..gimme my BALL back!!

I said, Go to sleep!!

Nice doggie...GOOD boy

A little power nap...

Sleeping in again

WHAT PETS DO WHEN WE'RE AT WORK

Brushing Time....

Intelligent CAT

Let me take a nap.....

Ooops, i'm stuck here...

Wots up buddy. Wwwaaaaazzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzbbbiiiii

Nothing is left for me.

Barber Cat, Wanna get a shave!!!!

Yeeeaiiiikssss

Hmmmmmm, I love mice..

FIght me..

HAVE YOU SMILED TODAY?????

Â

Â

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Help make someone else Smile .... forward
to a friend

HAVE YOU SMILED TODAYÂ Â ?????

Iraq bans visits to Saddam grave

2009-07-07T20:34:00.000-07:00

Local schools would often organise trips to visit the site

The Iraqi government has banned all organised visits to the grave of former leader Saddam Hussein.

Hussein, hanged in 2006 after being convicted for crimes against humanity, is buried in his home village.

Loyalists still regularly visit the site of the grave in Awja, where he is buried alongside his two sons.

The government took the decision after schools near his former stronghold arranged trips for their pupils to visit the site.

In a statement, the government said it had sent instructions to the education ministry and local authorities banning them from organising visits to the tomb of the former president.

The BBC's Gabriel Gatehouse, in Baghdad, says the tomb - near Saddam Hussein's former stronghold of Tikrit - remains a place of pilgrimage for his supporters.

Thousands have visited the site since his execution on 30 December 2006.

Source : BBC

The witch job that earns £50,000

2009-07-07T20:30:00.000-07:00

Wookey Hole is currently witchless

A Job Centre is advertising a "witch" vacancy with tourist site Wookey Hole, in Somerset, for £50,000 a year.

The witch, who has to live in the site's caves, is expected to teach witchcraft and magic.

Wookey Hole staff say the role is straightforward: live in the cave, be a witch and do the things witches do.

The advert for the post, placed in the local press as well as job centres, says applicants must be able to cackle and cannot be allergic to cats.

The job has come up after the previous witch retired from the role.

"We are witchless as the moment so need to get the role filled as soon as possible," said Daniel Medley from the tourist destination.

More ...

Source : BBC

Young slumdog moves into new home

2009-07-07T20:25:00.000-07:00

Young slumdog moves into new home

Azharuddin's mother says she is happy they have "a roof over our heads"

One of the child stars of the Oscar-winning film Slumdog Millionaire has moved from his Mumbai (Bombay) shanty dwelling into a new home in the city.

Azharuddin Ismail, who played the youngest version of the main character's brother Salim, will now live in an upmarket suburb nearby.

He said his new home was "really nice" but he would miss his old friends.

A trust set up by the film's producers bought the property after Azharuddin's

family was made to leave the slums.

The Jai Ho Trust, named after the film's sound track, says it is still looking for a new home to buy for co-star Rubina Ali.

'Roof over our heads'

Azharuddin, nine, and his family moved into the property in the Santa Cruz area of Mumbai after being given the keys on Friday.

Danny Boyle set up a trust which is supposed to look after the child stars

"I like it here, it is really nice," Azharuddin told Reuters news agency. "But I will miss my old friends back in Bandra. Maybe I will go and visit them once in a while."

His mother said: "We have lived on the road for so many years. I had never dreamed that we would have a roof over our heads."

Slumdog Millionaire won eight Oscars in February and has made more than $200m (£140m) in box office takings around the world.

Film director Danny Boyle has strongly denied charges of exploitation.

The Jai Ho Trust bought the property on Azharuddin's behalf and it will become his when he turns 18 and finishes his education.

There was uproar in May when the family's corrugated iron hut in the Gareeb Nagar area of Bandra was torn down for being illegal. Rubina Ali's suffered a similar fate but she has yet to be rehoused.

Source : BBC

Hummer to be sold to Chinese firm

2009-07-06T21:27:00.000-07:00

GM bought the Hummer brand in 1999

General Motors is to sell its Hummer brand to China's Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery for an undisclosed amount.

It is part of GM's plan to reinvent itself by concentrating on fewer brands following Monday's bankruptcy filing.

GM says it hopes the deal will save about 3,000 jobs in the US. Hummer will remain based in the US.

Tengzhong specialises in making equipment for the road, construction and energy industries.

It is based in China's Sichuan province.

Hummers were originally built as military off-road vehicles by a company called AM General.

GM bought the Hummer brand in 1999. Its sales have suffered as the gas-guzzling performance and military image have become less popular.

When it began the sale process a year ago, GM had hoped to make more than $500m (£302m), but analysts say that it is likely to have made about $100m from the sale.

Source : BBC

GM bankruptcy plan gains approval

2009-07-06T21:25:00.000-07:00

GM is to be relaunched in July

A US judge has approved a bankruptcy plan for car giant GM, which allows the firm to transfer its profitable assets to a new government-backed firm.

Judge Robert Gerbert gave the plan the go-ahead late on Sunday, saying the sale would prevent "the death of the patient on the operating table".

GM filed for bankruptcy protection on 1 June, saying it would be forced to liquidate if the plan was not approved.

The new streamlined General Motors will be 60% owned by the US government.

The bankruptcy plan had been opposed by several groups - including some of GM's bondholders, unions and consumer groups - who had argued that their needs were being ignored in favour of the interests of the carmaker and the government.

But Judge Gerbert argued that the 850 objections were not valid.

In a 96-page opinion, he said: "If GM liquidates, there will not only be nothing for stockholders - there will be nothing for unsecured creditors."

This would be a "disastrous result", he added.

Source : BBC

The Office Star Jenna Fischer Is Engaged!

2009-07-06T21:16:00.000-07:00

Jenna Fischer and Lee Kirk Photo by: Jeffrey Mayer / WireImage

While Pam Beesly may be headed down the aisle with Jim Halpert on NBC's The Office, her real-life alter ego is altar-bound, too – Jenna Fischer is engaged, PEOPLE confirms.

The actress, 35, got engaged to writer Lee Kirk, 37, on June 30 while both were vacationing in Europe.

Although they've been dating since January of last year, they stepped out publicly for the first time at the Emmy Awards in September 2008, when Fischer described Kirk to PEOPLE as "my super-cute boyfriend."

This is the first marriage for Kirk. Fischer was previously married to director James Gunn [they divorced in July 2007].

Source : http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20289690,00.html?xid=rss-topheadlines

Ronaldo welcomed by 80,000 fans

2009-07-06T21:10:00.000-07:00

Cristiano Ronaldo was presented to a near-capacity crowd at the Bernabeu after completing the formalities of his £80m world-record move to Real Madrid.

The former Manchester United winger, 24, passed a medical on Monday before greeting almost 80,000 Real fans.

In his first public address to his new supporters the Portuguese international said that his transfer had "made my childhood dream a reality".

"I never imagined that fans would have such a feeling for me," he said.

Source : BBC

First Photos of Jackson Memorial Service

2009-07-06T21:00:00.000-07:00

First Photos of Jackson Memorial Service

Tickets to Michael Jackson's memorial service have proved monumentally hard to come by, but if you weren't able to snag one, you can at least see the Staples Center getting ready for the big day. RadarOnline has published the first behind-the-scenes photos of preparations for Tuesday's event. Check some out below:

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First Look: Inside the Michael Jackson Memorial

RadarOnline.com

3 photos

The Staples Center is seen here being prepped for Tuesday's massive memorial service for Michael Jackson. See More Pics From Inside!

Source : AOL
Full Story : Click here

Stripeless White Tiger Is 1 in 100

2009-07-06T20:38:00.000-07:00

Stripeless White Tiger Is 1 in 100

(July 6) -- Fareeda is one cool cat. The white Bengal tiger cub was born without stripes.

Fareeda astonished her keepers when she was born on Christmas Day 2008 without traditional markings, but they knew stripes could still appear as she aged. Now, at over 6 months old, Fareeda isn't expected to develop them, the Daily Mail reported.

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Rare Sightings

Kerry Hardy, Caters News / ZUMA Press

23 photos

Fareeda, an endangered white Bengal tiger, was born without stripes. The 6-month-old cub is one of only about 20 stripeless tigers in the world. The odds of her not having markings were 100 to 1. Flip through this gallery for a look at other sightings of some rare animals.

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The cub is thought to be one of fewer than 20 white Bengal tigers in the world today without stripes, and all the others live in captivity. Fareeda is part of a breeding program in Cape Town, South Africa, aimed to increase the endangered species and eventually return them to the wild.

Fareeda was part of a three-cub litter, but both of her siblings have stripes, as do her mother and father. The odds of Fareeda being born without stripes are 100 to 1, according to the Daily Mail.

"Most white Bengal tigers are bred in the U.S. from a single male captured in India in the 1950s, but Fareeda is the first to be born in Africa, which is very special," Cango Wildlife Ranch employee Odette Claassen said.

There are currently only a few hundred white Bengal tigers alive in captivity worldwide.

"It's clear that Fareeda is truly one of the rarest of her kind," said Claassen.

Source : AOL

Suspected Serial Killer Shot Dead

2009-07-06T20:32:00.000-07:00

Suspected Serial Killer Shot Dead

filed under: Crime News, National News Skip over this content

Law enforcement officials say a burglary suspect who was shot and killed by police in North Carolina was the wanted serial killer shown in a sketch on the right. Police had been searching for the killer responsible for the slayings of five people in a nearby South Carolina community since June 27.

Full Coverage >

Suspected Serial Killer Shot Dead

2009-07-06T20:31:00.001-07:00

Suspected Serial Killer Shot Dead

posted: 1 HOUR 17 MINUTES AGOcomments: 873

filed under: Crime News, National News

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Full Coverage >

Source : AOL

A town in fear as a Serial killer is hunted

2009-07-06T09:12:00.000-07:00

A town in fear as a killer is hunted

GAFFNEY, South Carolina (CNN) -- In this rural South Carolina town, a few summer schools began Monday, businesses opened following the July Fourth weekend, and the 13,000 residents sought to go about their business as usual.

Police say the murder scenes are linked and they are searching for a man in this sketch.

But the town -- and the rest of Cherokee County, total population about 50,000 -- is gripped with fear. Over the past nine days, a serial killer has left five people dead, police say.

The killer's latest victim was 15-year-old Abby Tyler, who was shot last week and died Saturday. Her father, Stephen Tyler, 48, was pronounced dead at the scene of the shooting in their family-run furniture and appliance store.

As residents mourned the Tylers over the weekend, they also had words of warning for the man terrorizing the community.

"If he comes to me, face to face, I'm ready, I'm loaded, and I'm aimed for him," said Sarah Banister, neighbor of one of the killer's victims.

"I'm afraid for my life," said Robby Banister, her husband. "It's going to be kind of like a dog fight. I'm telling you: I'm going to win."

In an interview Monday with CNN's "American Morning," Cherokee County Sheriff Bill Blanton said investigators have determined "through evidence" that the five killings are linked. Authorities are not giving details about the evidence.

"We don't have a current motive or connection between the murders," said Blanton. "With a community this small, it's very possible I knew all the victims and it's possible that all the victims knew each other. But we don't have any information right now that links the killer to [them]."

Police have released a sketch which they say is their best guess at the killer's appearance, based on witness reports. He is identified as a white male, approximately 6 feet 2 inches tall, with salt-and-pepper hair.

Authorities believe he may be driving a 1991 to 1994 Ford Explorer, possibly "goldish-tan or champagne" in color, said Blanton.

"We're focusing on anything that even looks like a Ford Explorer," said Blanton. Witnesses have said the killer appears to weigh about 250 pounds, "so we're saying probably 230 to 250," he said.

The killer was possibly wearing a ball cap, but his clothes at each scene have been different, Blanton added.

The first shooting occurred June 27, when peach farmer Kline W. Cash, 63, was killed. His wife found him dead in their home, the sheriff's office said.

Blanton said Cash's home may have been robbed.

Four days later, the bound and shot bodies of 83-year-old Hazel Linder and her 50-year-old daughter, Gena Linder Parker, were found in Linder's home, where she lived alone.

Blanton said authorities are still trying to determine if anything was taken from that home.

Leave has been canceled for all members of the police department and the sheriff's department, said their respective chiefs.

About 100 investigators from North and South Carolina are working the case, Blanton said.

Asked how residents can try to stay safe, Blanton said, "Generally it's the same information just a crime prevention officer would use. People need to check on their neighbors, especially family, loved ones that live alone or elderly that live together. Travel in at least groups of two or more. But I've noticed the community is concerned and have a right to be."

People in Cherokee County are operating "on regular schedules" and businesses are open, said Blanton. "But people are using caution. And that's what we're asking them to do. Just be cautious until we do catch this murderer."

A town in fear as a killer is hunted

Courtesy Source : CNN

Historic Bible pages put online

2009-07-06T02:51:00.000-07:00

Historic Bible pages put online

A fragment of the manuscript
There are new opportunities for scholars, experts say

About 800 pages of the earliest surviving Christian Bible have been recovered and put on the internet.

Visitors to the website www.codexsinaiticus.org can now see images of more than half the 1,600-year-old Codex Sinaiticus manuscript.

Fragments of the 4th Century document - written in Greek on parchment leaves - have been worked on by institutions in the UK, Germany, Egypt and Russia.

Experts say it is "a window into the development of early Christianity".

Preservation secrets

Historic Bible pages put online
Full Story Source : BBC

MG Rover in fraud investigation

2009-07-06T02:47:00.000-07:00

MG Rover in fraud investigation

The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) is to investigate the circumstances surrounding the demise of Birmingham-based carmaker MG Rover in 2005.

Business Secretary Lord Mandelson said in a statement that the SFO must see if there are "grounds for prosecution".

It follows a four-year inquiry into the collapse, which led to 6,000 job cuts.

The four executives in control of MG Rover at the time said there was "no suggestion of improper conduct", calling an investigation "ridiculous".

Lord Mandelson said: "There has been a comprehensive and thorough investigation into the events which led to the company failing, workers losing their jobs and creditors not getting paid. The SFO must now see if there are grounds for prosecution."

A spokesman for the MG Rover directors said: "The directors have at all times willingly accounted for their actions, which kept MG Rover alive for five years."

When the MG plant at Longbridge, Birmingham, closed the government announced a £150m support package for those losing their jobs and for the estimated 12,500 people affected in subsidiary firms.

Report delayed

The new investigation comes after the completion of a four-year inquiry under section 432 of the Companies Act by inspectors appointed by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.

Ramsay Smith, speaking for the Phoenix Group: 'There is no basis whatsoever for an investigation'

Part of that investigation was supposed to find out what had happened to the more than £400m left to Phoenix Ventures when it took over MG Rover from BMW in 2000.

The publication of the report by the business department's inspectors will now be delayed pending a decision on whether there will be criminal prosecutions.

But Professor David Bailey, director of Coventry University Business School, said he didn't want to see the report stalled any further.

"I'd like to see that [report] in the public domain because workers, suppliers and communities affected by this do deserve some answers."

He added that while it was right that the SFO was brought in if there was "inappropriate behaviour or the suspicion of it", he was surprised that it had taken four years.

Phoenix Four

MG Rover went into administration under insolvency procedures in April 2005, with debts of more than £1bn. Its assets were sold in 2006 to China's Nanjing Automobile, which revived the MG sports car brand.

A quartet of executives known as the Phoenix Four had taken control of the company in May 2000 after originally buying MG Rover for a nominal £10.

The business came with an interest-free loan of £427m from BMW, the previous owner.

There are likely to be questions raised about why the case has been referred to the SFO only after completion of the inspectors' inquiry
BBC business editor Robert Peston

Read more from Robert here

"John Towers, Nick Stephenson, Peter Beale and John Edwards are estimated to have taken out more than £40m in pay and pensions in the years before the business went down," said our correspondent.

The Commons public accounts committee criticised the government in 2006 for being too distant from Phoenix Ventures and not sufficiently prepared for its demise.

Professor Bailey said that the inspectors' inquiry that has yet to come out should be critical of the government and its industrial policy as well as the company.

'Heart of the matter'

A spokesman for the directors said that "time and again they asked for government help and didn't get it".

"Four years and £16m of taxpayers' money has been swallowed up on this [Department for Business] inquiry and the directors' major concern that it will fail to get to the heart of the matter, which is why the government withdrew its offer of a loan to the company at the eleventh hour, allowing 6,000 workers to lose their jobs," they said.

Their statement added: "Four years on, any suggestion of another further investigation is frankly ridiculous and smacks of kicking this issue into the long grass."

They also said the government had refused more than 30 requests under the Freedom of Information Act which would have revealed correspondence and documents.

They said these would have "shed some light on the government's role in the affair".

MG Rover in fraud investigation

Source : BBC

Honour given to 'UK astronauts'

2009-07-06T02:43:00.000-07:00

Honour given to 'UK astronauts'

The five UK-born individuals who have flown in space are being honoured with a commemorative pin.

The British Interplanetary Society is making the award to recognise the astronauts' achievements but also to further the case for human spaceflight.

It is extremely hard for UK citizens to get into orbit because the government does not fund manned space activity.

The first recipients of the pin - Helen Sharman and Richard Garriott - had private funds backing their missions.

The other three - Michael Foale, Nicholas Patrick and Piers Sellers - all became US citizens to fly with the American space agency (Nasa).

Mr Garriott and Dr Sharman were given their pins in a ceremony at the BIS headquarters in London.

"The government has to understand that the costs of human spaceflight are far outweighed by the benefits - the benefits of inspiration and of exploration," said Nick Spall, a BIS fellow and co-ordinator of the UK Human Spaceflight Campaign.

Honour given to 'UK astronauts'

Source : BBC

Scores killed in China protests

2009-07-06T01:12:00.000-07:00

Scores killed in China protests

Violence in China's restive western region of Xinjiang has left at least 140 people dead and more than 800 people injured, state media say.

Several hundred people have also been arrested after the violence erupted in the city of Urumqi on Sunday.

Xinhua news agency said police restored order after demonstrators attacked passers-by and set fire to vehicles.

The protest was reportedly prompted by a deadly fight between Uighurs and Han Chinese in southern China last month.

The BBC's Chris Hogg in Shanghai says that if the numbers of dead are to be believed - and state media say they may rise - this looks like the bloodiest suppression of protest in China since Tiananmen Square 20 years ago.

Scores killed in China protests

Full Story & Source : http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8135203.stm

Oops: Teacher Accidentally Gave Self-Made Sex Tape

2009-07-06T00:23:00.000-07:00

Oops: Teacher Accidentally Gave Self-Made Sex Tape to 5th Graders

ELK GROVE, Calif - A class of fifth graders in California got a shocking crash course on the birds and the bees courtesy of their teacher and an x-rated home video she accidently included in a DVD of classroom memories.

The error was not caught until after the DVDs were distributed to the students and their families. Parents tell CBS 13 Sacramento that the woman is a good teacher that made an honest but embarrassing mistake.

Full Story : http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/07/02/crimesider/entry5129869.shtml

Courtesy Source : http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/crimesider/main504083.shtml?keyword=Sex+Tape

Oops: Teacher Accidentally Gave Self-Made Sex Tape to 5th Graders

Ex-D.C. Mayor Barry Charged With Stalking

2009-07-06T00:20:00.000-07:00

Police say former Washington Mayor Marion Barry has been arrested and charged with stalking a woman.

The United States Park Police said Barry, a current D.C. Council member, was arrested Saturday in Washington after a woman flagged down an officer and complained Barry was stalking her. Barry was charged with misdemeanor stalking and released.

Barry's spokeswoman, Natalie Williams, said Sunday that the accusation was "baseless."

She says Barry plans to fight the charge and said the accuser is a 40-year-old woman Barry had helped financially.

Barry served four terms as mayor. In his third, he was videotaped in 1990 in a hotel room smoking crack cocaine in an FBI sting. He served six months in prison and in 1994 regained the mayor's office.

Courtesy Source : http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/07/05/national/main5134896.shtml

Cleavage Surprise For Cops

2009-07-06T00:14:00.000-07:00

Video Courtesy Of CBS Affiliate WKBN CBS

Warren, Ohio (CBS) It was a squirrely situation.

Wayne Mackey, a Warren, Ohio police detective, has seen a lot during his years on the force, but nothing prepared him for what happened a few weeks ago, when he was interviewing a witness on a recent murder case.

At one point in the interview, the woman, wearing a skimpy tank top, leaned over and out of her bosom crept a baby squirrel that was nestled in the woman's cleavage. The woman, seemingly unphased, gently put the small creature back inside her shirt and continued talking to the detective.

The shocked detective said that he was at a loss for words. "The squirrel seemed quite happy," Mackey said.

It is not clear if the squirrel is the woman's pet or even why she decided to bring with her for the interview.

The two are not expected to be called to testify during the trial.