A pizzeria is vying for a spot in Guinness World Records for the world’s largest commercially available pizza. The , 150-slice pizza isn’t a one-time deal. In fact, the Big One is already available, though Mama Lena’s Pizza House has had few takers so far.
Anti-war artists, musicians and activists marked the third anniversary of the United States-led invasion of Iraq with a concert to benefit groups campaigning against the war. Musician Michael Stipe, actress Susan Sarandon and activist Cindy Sheehan were among the headliners at the ”Bring ‘Em Home Now!” concert.
Writer Bill Cardoso, who coined the term ”gonzo” to describe the frenetic participatory journalism practised by contemporary Hunter S Thompson, has died. He was 68. Born in Boston, Cardoso began his journalism career as a sports writer for the Medford Mercury in the 1950s.
Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf said she wants ex-president Charles Taylor handed over to a war crimes tribunal for prosecution for his role in Sierra Leone’s civil war, with the agreement of African leaders. Taylor was given asylum in Nigeria to help end the war and Johnson-Sirleaf said on Friday she and Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo had agreed to seek African leaders’ views before any handover.
The future of Manhattan’s Ground Zero was thrown into uncertainty on Thursday after negotiations between New York authorities and the tycoon who owns the lease of the site were acrimoniously abandoned. The governor of New York state, George Pataki, accused the developer Larry Silverstein of betraying the public’s trust.
Liberia’s new leader, the first woman elected president of an African country, on Wednesday urged American lawmakers to help her make Liberia ”America’s success story in Africa”. Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf compared Liberia’s devastation from two decades of warfare to that done by the December 2004 tsunami in Asia.
President George Bush’s place in history — standard-bearer or war-mongerer — is perhaps being decided at this moment in Iraq, three years after the United States-led invasion. Bush recognised the gravity of the current situation in Iraq by saying that Iraqis were at ”a moment of choosing.” But in the end they had turned away from ”the abyss” of civil war, he said.
It’s no easy task to promote a sport that even your national champion admits is about as fascinating as watching paint dry. "I don’t think it could be more boring if it tried. Think of a roomful of students sitting their exams and you’re getting close," Josh Foer said on Saturday, shortly before being crowned Memory Champion of the United States.
Knight Ridder, the second-largest newspaper company in the United States, agreed late on Sunday to a $4,5-billion cash and stock buyout by the McClatchy Company, <i>The New York Times</i> reported on Monday. Citing sources involved in the negotiations, the newspaper said the deal was expected to be announced on Monday.
Opera singer Anna Moffo, a soprano hailed for her glamorous looks as much as her singing, has died, the Metropolitan Opera said on Friday. She was 73, according to the Grove Dictionary of Music. Moffo made her debut as Cio-Cio-San in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly in a 1955 television production.
The Nasdaq electronic stock exchange confirmed on Friday it had made a bid for the London Stock Exchange (LSE), calling it an ”attractive offer” for shareholders. The news came hours after the LSE said it had rejected the unsolicited offer from the United States group as one that ”substantially undervalues” the company.
A record amount of spending in February pushed the United States government’s Budget deficit to the highest level to date for a single month, the Treasury Department reported on Friday. The government had a record monthly deficit of ,2-billion in February.
A seemingly drunken neurosurgeon was wrestled into custody by sheriff’s deputies while on his way to the operating room in a San Francisco-area hospital, officials said on Thursday. Frederico Castro-Moure (45) was also suspended from his post as head of neurosurgery at the Alameda County Medical Centre.
Columnist and humorist Art Buchwald says he’s having ”the best time of my life” after deciding to refuse dialysis treatment and stay in a hospice. ”So far things are going my way. I am known in the hospice as The Man Who Wouldn’t Die,” Buchwald (80) wrote in a column published in newspapers on Tuesday.
Cigarette sales hit a 55-year low in 2005 and have fallen by more than 21% since state attorneys general negotiated a landmark settlement with the industry eight years ago. The National Association of Attorneys General said on Wednesday that the 378-billion cigarettes sold in the United States last year marked the lowest number sold since 1951.
Internet search engine leader Google on Wednesday said it had offered up to -million to settle a lawsuit by advertisers who accuse it of overbilling them through ”click fraud”. Google Associate General Counsel Nicole Wong stressed that ”until the settlement is approved by the judge, it is not final”.
The International Monetary Fund on Wednesday said it would keep in place sanctions on Zimbabwe because of money still owed the bank, and urged Harare to urgently implment reforms to stablise its economy. In a statement the IMF board urged Harare ”to continue its efforts to resolve the remaining overdue financial obligations”.
An intensification of storms on the surface of the sun in coming years could disrupt satellites, communications and power grids on Earth and endanger astronauts, United States scientists are forecasting. A new 11-year solar cycle beginning in late 2007 or early 2008 will be between 30% and 50% stronger than the previous one.
Dana Reeve, who battled tirelessly alongside her late husband, Superman actor Christopher Reeve, to find treatments for paralysis victims, has died. She was 44. Reeve, a lifelong non-smoker, died in a New York hospital on Monday of lung cancer, said Kathy Lewis, president and CEO of the Christopher Reeve Foundation.
Gordon Parks, who captured the struggles and triumphs of black America as a photographer for Life magazine and then became Hollywood’s first major black director with The Learning Tree and the hit Shaft, has died, his family said. He was 93.
When the call is close, the pro tennis tours want to take another look. The ATP and WTA Tours have decided to use television replays starting with the Nasdaq-100 Open in Key Biscayne, Florida, in two weeks, officials said on Monday. This year’s United States Open will be the first Grand Slam event to review disputed calls on videotape.
Two men pleaded guilty to federal charges of secretly videotaping Michael Jackson more than two years ago as he flew to Santa Barbara, California, with his attorney to surrender in a child-molestation investigation. Jeffrey Borer and Arvel Jett Reeves admitted on Monday they installed two digital videorecorders to record ”a professional entertainer” and his lawyer.
A new computer model suggests that the next solar cycle will be more active than the previous one, potentially spawning magnetic storms that will be more severe and disruptive to communication systems. The next sunspot cycle will be between 30% to 50% more intense than the last one, scientists said on Monday.
Tiger Woods added to his impressive run of success as a frontrunner on Sunday as he parlayed his overnight lead into a one-stroke victory at the Ford Championship at Doral. The world’s number one golfer finished one shot in front of fellow American David Toms and unheralded Colombian Camilo Villegas in the ,5-million tournament.
Crash pulled off one of the biggest upsets in Academy Awards history, winning best picture on Sunday over the front-runner Brokeback Mountain. Crash, featuring a huge cast in crisscrossing story lines over a chaotic 36-hour period in Los Angeles, rode a late surge of praise that lifted it past the cowboy romance Brokeback Mountain.
A San Francisco man with a knack for numbers has come up with a formula to help United States wine lovers figure out when a vintage is a bargain. QPR Wines compares critic reviews and retail price data to reveal which bottles are steals and which are rip-offs, according to its founder, Neil Monnens.
Tension reached fever pitch as Hollywood began the final countdown to Sunday’s Oscars, with a posse of ”serious” films, led by Brokeback Mountain, set to overrun the big night. As workers frantically put the finishing touches on preparations for the 78th annual Academy Awards, which start with the legendary red carpet celebrity fashion show, the anxious nominees are crossing their fingers.
Appropriate for the coming spring blossoms in the United States, the government is adding a little colour to American wallets. A newly redesigned bill is going into circulation. The new , featuring shades of orange, yellow and red, will join colourised versions of the bill and the bill.
United States President George Bush on Tuesday extended by one year a series of sanctions against Zimbabwe officials, including President Robert Mugabe, deemed to be undermining democracy. The decision renews Bush’s executive orders of March 2003 and November 2005 freezing the assets of more than 100 people and 30 entities considered to be opposing reforms in Zimbabwe.
It is up for several honours at Sunday’s Academy Awards ceremony, but already Crash has taken first prize when it comes to most curse words in a movie nominated for a best picture Oscar, according to the movie watchdog group FamilyMediaGuide.com.
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Dennis Weaver, an actor with a Midwestern twang who played stiff-legged Chester the deputy on the classic TV western Gunsmoke and the cowboy cop hero in McCloud, has died. He was 81. Weaver died on Friday from complications of cancer at his home in Ridgway, in south-western Colorado.
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Various United States interest groups have joined forces to fight a proposed bulk e-mailing fee they claim strikes at the heart of online communication — a level playing field for rich and poor. The service would charge businesses and other bulk e-mailers a fee to route their e-mail directly to a user’s mailbox.