Texas is preparing to execute the first black woman in the state since the American civil war — drawing protests from her supporters and opponents of the United States death penalty. Frances Newton (40) was convicted of murdering her husband and two children in 1987 for a 000 insurance payout.
Merck & Co might consider settling some lawsuits over its painkiller Vioxx, whose links to heart trouble have spawned thousands of lawsuits and a $253-million jury verdict, a spokesperson for the company’s legal team said on Friday. The company has previously said it would fight all personal-injury litigation over the drug’s harmful side effects.
John Bolton, Washington’s new ambassador to the United Nations, has called for wholesale changes to a draft document due to go before a UN summit next month aimed at reshaping the world body. Bolton has proposed 750 amendments to the draft and called for immediate talks on them.
Lance Armstrong has vehemently denied fresh doping allegations and attacked lapses in anti-doping protocol that allowed a French newspaper to gain access to his stored urine samples from the 1999 Tour de France. ”The unfortunate thing is that you’re dealing with something you could be faced with the rest of your life,” he said.
Hurricane Katrina pounded storm-wary Florida, killing at least three people, leaving about 1,5-million homes without power and collapsing a Miami highway overpass. Hours after the storm slammed ashore in densely populated southeastern Florida, its eye headed out to the Gulf of Mexico early on Friday, but howling winds and pounding rain still battered Miami.
Actor Brock Peters, best known for his heartbreaking performance as the black man falsely accused of rape in the American movie <i>To Kill a Mockingbird</i>, died on Tuesday at his home after battling pancreatic cancer. He was 78. Peters was diagnosed with the disease in January and had been receiving chemotherapy treatment.
The draw for the United States Open held as much drama for Roger Federer as most of his matches. He didn’t much care how it turned it out, who he played in the first round next Monday or who he might play in the rounds that follow. He was off in his own world on Wednesday, sleeping late, then practicing at the National Tennis Centre.
Lance Armstrong went on the offensive on Wednesday, saying it was ”preposterous” for the director of the Tour de France to suggest the seven-time champion ”fooled” race officials and the sporting world by doping. He also took to task the French newspaper that accused him.
A shrinking world got considerably smaller on Wednesday. Google, a company spawned in a garage of two university students in California just seven years ago, announced a new service that will allow you to telephone your mother in Australia free of charge, as long as she too is a Google user.
America’s north-eastern states are on the brink of a declaration of environmental independence with the introduction of mandatory controls on greenhouse gas emissions of the kind rejected by the Bush administration. Nine states are expected to announce a plan next month to freeze carbon dioxide emissions from big power stations by 2009
It should have been such a happy day. The wedding presents had been bought, a luxury yacht hired for the ceremony, and the guests — some from as far away as China — had all arrived. But then the bride and groom went and ruined it all by having everybody arrested.
The Bush administration on Tuesday put forward a plan to make the United States’s burgeoning fleet of pickup trucks, minivans and some sports utility vehicles go further on a gallon of gas in response to the soaring cost of petrol. But the plan, which would not be implemented until 2008, was condemned by environmental groups because the largest SUVs would not be affected.
Americans are sceptical about a L’Equipe report that 1999 urine samples of seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong have tested positive for erythropoeitin and are critical of the French newspaper’s story. ”Armstrong’s lie” blared the newspaper’s front-page headline.
Google really started talking on Wednesday. The internet search titan unleashed Google Talk, an instant messaging program designed to unify the factionalised world of online chat, according Georges Harik, director of ”Googlettes,” or new products, at the United States company.
<i>Spin</i> magazine has built a veritable rock-star Frankenstein, composed of Michael Stipe’s skull, Elvis Presley’s pelvis and Madonna’s bellybutton. Madonna’s navel tops the list of the 25 "most incredible" rock-star body parts in <i>Spin</i>’s September issue, now on newsstands.
Nasa is using the Hubble space telescope to hunt for desirable locations to build a human base on the moon. The agency is scouting a variety of sites on the lunar surface for large deposits of useful minerals that astronauts could turn into air and power to help humans live in space.
Computer wizards on Monday launched an online battle of the brains for cash and a chance at a career with United States internet search powerhouse Google, the company said. The qualification round of ”Code Jam 2005” commenced with geeks testing their programming prowess in a virtual tournament designed to uncover brilliant minds, said a Google official.
With a combined age of 245 and multimillion-pound fortunes to match, the Rolling Stones could be forgiven for quietly hanging up their guitars. But instead the original bad boys of rock’n’roll kicked off their latest world tour in front of a sell-out crowd at Boston’s Fenway Park on Sunday with a concert so loud it had policemen patrolling outside with sound meters.
United States actor Barbara Bel Geddes, best known as Ewing family matriarch Miss Ellie in the legendary television soap opera <i>Dallas</i>, has died at the age of 82, funeral directors said on Wednesday. Oscar-nominated Bel Geddes became world famous through her role as the mother of Texas oil barons JR and Bobby Ewing.
FBI agents have thwarted an alleged plan by an Ohio couple to sell a 15-year-old girl in exchange for a packet of cocaine. Police say Pamela Tilley and Gregory Lowery drove about 110km from their home to hand the girl over to a drugs dealer in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where she was destined to become a child prostitute.
Black Americans get fewer operations, tests, medications and other life-saving treatments than white Americans and have less access to the best doctors, hospitals and health plans, according to three studies published on Thursday. However, the research also shows that the healthcare gap is closing on many simple, cheap medical treatments.
Nasa compromised safety in an attempt to meet unrealistic launch dates for the space shuttle Discovery, according to a report by some members of a taskforce appointed by the space agency to monitor safety. Poor leadership by smug managers who influenced important decisions were still present in the run-up to Discovery‘s flight, the report said.
Scientists have created the ultimate ribbon. A thousand times thinner than a human hair and a few centimetres wide, the carbon sheet is stronger than steel for its weight, and could open the door to everything from artificial muscles to a space elevator capable of sending astronauts and tourists into orbit.
The families of the victims of the serial killer known as BTK — bind, torture, kill — on Wednesday heard and saw in graphic detail the depravity of the crimes he committed over more than 30 years. Dennis Rader terrorised and taunted the residents of Wichita, Kansas, committing 10 murders and sending rambling messages and poems to news outlets and the police.
The British director Paul Greengrass is to direct a film based on the events of 9/11, the third film project by a major Hollywood studio to tackle the subject. With the fifth anniversary of 9/11 approaching, Hollywood and some television networks are putting aside the reticence they have shown in dealing with the events of 2001.
A black maid who was executed in 1945 for killing the white man she claimed had held her in slavery and threatened her life is to receive a pardon from the state of Georgia. Lena Baker, the only woman executed in Georgia’s electric chair, was sentenced to death by an all-white, all-male jury after a trial that lasted just one day.
A computer worm targeting corporate networks with the Windows 2000 operating system arrived less than a week after Microsoft warned of the security flaw. As experts predicted, the Windows hole proved a tempting target for rogue programmers, who quickly developed more effective variants on a worm that surfaced over the weekend.
Microsoft said on Tuesday it was probing a ”malicious worm” that appears to be targetting users of its Windows 2000 operating system. ”Microsoft is actively investigating new reports of a malicious worm identified as ‘Worm_Rbot.CEQ’,” the software giant said in a statement.
George Bush has never had a reputation as a bookworm, but for a man derided by his critics as an intellectual lightweight the United States president’s holiday reading list packs a punch. As well as brush cutting, mountain biking and fishing, the president will also be tucking into Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky during his five-week summer sojourn on his Texas ranch.
He has been ”spotted” all over the United States, in Canada, Europe, Mexico and Brazil, Paraguay, and most recently, in two coastal resort towns in Uruguay. Despite unconfirmed sightings in about 30 countries and on every continent but Antarctica, notorious Boston gangster James ”Whitey” Bulger remains elusive after more than a decade on the run.
A new Broadway musical about John Lennon has been panned by everyone — apart from his widow, Yoko Ono, who was closely involved in the production. ”I think he would be jumping up and down,” said Ono (72), ”I think he would have loved it.” But with virtual unanimity the critics disagreed.
A gay Mexican man with HIV/Aids has been granted asylum in the United States after a judge ruled he would be in danger of persecution in his home country. The appeals court in San Francisco overturned earlier rulings in a case that has been closely watched by human rights campaigners.