Residents of western Florida heaved a sigh of relief on Tuesday as Tropical Storm Alberto appeared increasingly unlikely to strengthen into this year’s first Atlantic hurricane. ”There is now only a slight possibility that Alberto will become a hurricane prior to landfall,” said a forecaster with the National Hurricane Centre.
From the hangman whose rope snaps to paramedics who can’t find a vein for a lethal injection, death penalty executions in the United States have sometimes been sorry affairs. To the end of the 19th century executions were largely carried out by hanging. When done properly the condemned falls and snaps his neck, dying instantly
Drinking coffee may shield the liver from the ravages of alcohol, according to a long-term study released on Monday. A study of more than 125 000 people found that the risk of developing alcoholic cirrhosis of the liver dropped with each cup of coffee they drank per day.
Billionaire basketball team owner Mark Cuban was a no-show, but the head of the United Nations Children’s Fund made it and pop star Prince rounded off the evening by throwing a guitar over his head. The occasion was the 10th annual Webby awards — the self-proclaimed Oscars of the internet — which drew a large and varied group of winners from across the cyberspace world.
Ingo Preminger, a literary agent, producer of the film MASH and brother of the late filmmaker Otto Preminger, has died. He was 95. Preminger began his career as an attorney in Vienna, Austria, but fled the Nazis with his family in 1938 and moved to New York.
British play The History Boys, Alan Bennett’s wise, witty and warmhearted dissection of education in his homeland, was named best play at the 2006 Tony Awards and received six Tonys in all — more than any other production. The other top winner on Sunday night was the fast-moving musical Jersey Boys.
United States officials warned on Monday the season’s first tropical storm could unleash ”life-threatening” rains as Cuban officials evacuated 25 000 people from Alberto’s path. About 400 people were evacuated in Havana where authorities are wary of storm damage to the old and often fragile housing stock in a densely populated city of more than two million.
”I think it’s sexy,” Donald Bradford says of the bushy growth that has adorned his upper lip for the past two months.Largely shunned since the 1980s, moustaches are enjoying something of a renaissance among young New Yorkers, following a comeback trail blazed by such hip role models as actor Nicolas Cage and the ultra-trendy fashion photographer Terry Richardson.
Tiger Woods admits he will be taking a step into the unknown at next week’s US Open as he returns to competition for the first time since the death of his father. Woods’s father Earl died on May 3 after a long battle with cancer and the American hasn’t played since the Masters in April.
Two United States astronomers have discovered huge quantities of carbon gas mixed with a cloud of dust surrounding a young, yellow star that could resemble our own solar system at its inception, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) said.
The United States Senate blocked on Wednesday a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, defeating a measure strongly backed by President George Bush and Christian conservatives. With a 49-48 vote, the measure fell well short of the two-thirds majority needed to move to a formal vote in the 100-member Senate.
Jazz pianist and composer Hilton Ruiz, who came to New Orleans to work on a Hurricane Katrina benefit recording, died early on Tuesday, his agent and manager said. He was 54. Ruiz had been comatose at a hospital since he fell early no May 19 in front of a French Quarter bar.
United States stocks dropped for the second straight session on Tuesday, with the
Dow Jones industrial average falling to its worst close since March 9. Global markets also sold off as inflation fears worsened. The Dow lost more than 110 points in midday trading before narrowing its loss later in the session.
Six years after barely losing the most contested presidential race in recent United States history, Al Gore has ridden a popular new film on global climate change to the centre of American politics. Former vice-president Gore denied again Sunday that he intended to contest the Democratic nomination for president in 2008 — which could pit him against his former boss’s wife, Senator Hillary Clinton.
A major wrestling match in the United States’ Congress over control of the internet features some strange alliances — rockers and evangelists vs phone companies and the Bells’ usually biggest adversary, cable TV companies. The most far-reaching telecommunications Bill in a decade has as its main purpose making it easier for phone companies to compete against cable companies in offering the equivalent of cable TV.
Vince Welnick, the Grateful Dead’s last keyboard player and a veteran of several other bands, including the Tubes and Missing Man Formation, has died at age 55, the Grateful Dead’s long-time publicist said. Welnick died on Friday, said Dennis McNally, who declined to release the cause.
The White House insisted on Friday that Iran had to suspend sensitive nuclear fuel work as a ”non-negotiable” element of a deal hammered out by world powers to limit its atomic ambitions. As Tehran came under growing pressure to accept the proposals, White House spokesperson Tony Snow said European nations would make a detailed presentation over ”the next couple of days”.
The man already on death row for terrorising the Washington area in a 2002 sniper rampage was found guilty this week on six counts of murder in Maryland and sentenced to six life terms in prison on Thursday, United States media reported. The jury’s verdict came after a drama-filled trial.
South African left-hander Cassius Baloyi knocked out Mexican veteran Manuel Medina in the 11th round in Washington on Wednesday for the vacant International Boxing Federation junior lightweight crown. Baloyi appeared to be outboxed for much of the fight but then came alive in the 11th and dropped Medina three times to end it.
The United States, in a policy shift, is ready to join direct talks on Iran’s nuclear programme if Tehran suspends all uranium-enrichment activities, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Wednesday. These would be the first substantive talks with Iran since diplomatic relations were broken off 26 years ago.
Photographer Peter C Borsari, whose celebrity snapshots over three decades included candid moments of Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Elizabeth Taylor and Jack Nicholson, has died. He was 67. Borsari died on Monday due to complications from elective knee surgery, long-time friend Laura Luongo said.
Outgoing Treasury Secretary John Snow was seen as a loyal but uninspired cheerleader for a roaring United States economy that has been one of the few bright spots for US President George Bush in his second term. Snow’s impending departure has been one of Washington’s worst-kept secrets.
Imagine an invisibility cloak that works just like the one Harry Potter inherited from his father. Researchers in the United Kingdom and the United States think they know how to do that. They are laying out the blueprint and calling for help in developing the exotic materials needed to build a cloak.
Hollywood stars Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have a baby girl, United States media reported on Saturday. People magazine cited an official spokesperson for the actors as saying the child named Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt was born on May 27, at night, in Namibia
Not far from the site of the attacks on the World Trade Centre, Mark Bingham will be remembered for his grit and his heart, and the game he loved. The Bingham Cup, a rugby tournament open to gay teams, will be held this weekend. It pays tribute to Bingham, who was gay and believed to be one of the passengers who fought hijackers on the United flight.
The United States Senate on Friday confirmed air force General Michael Hayden as the new director of the Central Intelligence Agency, which has been in turmoil over intelligence failures leading up to the September 11 attacks and the 2003 Iraq invasion.
Former Enron chief executives Jeffrey Skilling and Kenneth Lay were found guilty on Thursday of fraud and conspiracy charges related to the spectacular 2001 meltdown of the energy giant. Skilling (52) was found guilty of 19 of 28 counts of fraud and conspiracy and faces a maximum penalty of 185 years in jail.
The White House on Wednesday vowed there would be no direct negotiations with Iran unless it suspends its uranium-enrichment programme. ”Iran has to take that fundamental step when it comes to enriching and reprocessing uranium,” White House spokesperson Tony Snow told reporters.
Jurors deliberated for a fifth day on Wednesday in the fraud trial of former Enron chief executives Jeffrey Skilling and Kenneth Lay, after a separate trial of Lay before a judge on banking charges concluded. The eight women and four men, who have already debated for about 24 hours over four days, have given no indication of their progress.
Folk singer Joan Baez and tree-sitter Julia ”Butterfly” Hill have taken up residence in a tree to raise awareness about a 5,7ha urban farm threatened with demolition. Hill lived in a redwood in Northern California for more than two years to prevent loggers from cutting it down.
Microsoft on Tuesday released new test versions of what company co-founder Bill Gates called its three most important products: Windows Vista for desktop computers, Windows for servers and the Office business software suite. The new beta products were unveiled at Microsoft’s annual Windows Hardware Engineering Conference.
China’s ambassador portrayed his country on Tuesday as a benign force in Africa that dispatches doctors and teachers to the continent, opens trade opportunities and steers clear of political interference. Zhao Wenzhong said China-Africa trade leaped from -billion in 2000 to -billion last year.