Chevron paid Nigerian soldiers who guarded the company’s oil rigs after they allegedly attacked two villages in the African nation, according to company documents that have surfaced during a lawsuit against the energy firm. The invoice asks Chevron to pay 15Â 000 naira, about , to 23 soldiers who responded to ”attacks from Opia village against security agents”.
He will have the body of Arnold Schwarzenegger and the brain of Stephen Hawking. Step forward the Pentagon’s perfect Hollywood hero, possibly coming soon to a screen near you. The United States military is paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to send scientists on a screenwriting course, with the aim of producing movies and television shows that portray scientists in a flattering light.
Gilles Muller of Luxembourg defeated ninth-seeded Nicolas Massu of Chile 7-6 (2), 6-4 in the second round of the Legg Mason Classic on Wednesday. Muller, who lost to Lleyton Hewitt in last year’s championship final, will next face Arnaud Clement of France after he defeated Britain’s Richard Bloomfield 6-2, 4-6, 7-6 (7).
Media and entertainment giant Time Warner said on Wednesday it plunged into the red after setting aside -billion to cover shareholder lawsuits stemming from its 2001 merger with America Online. Time Warner posted a loss of -million in the second quarter to June, from a net profit of -million in the same period last year.
In life, Marlon Brando was an Oscar-winning actor and something of an eccentric. In death, he is about to become a published author. A pirate adventure story he co-wrote 30 years ago has been turned into a novel, and it is claimed the work offers insights into the Hollywood star’s tumultuous life.
After an inauspicious plop into the choppy waters off Alcatraz, Jake the pooch swam into the history books as the first canine to escape from the former prison island to San Francisco. The golden retriever and his human swimming buddy, Jeff Pokonosky, led a group of competitors that jumped from a boat in waters off the prison for a 2km swim to San Francisco on Saturday.
With a comeback title in his pocket and his back-nerve injury now under control, Andre Agassi is riding high as he moves deeper into his American hardcourt summer. The legend capped a return after two months off court hurt as he lifted a fourth title on Sunday at the  000 Mercedes-Benz trophy in Los Angeles, the 60th of his storied career.
The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) on Monday launched a new round of lawsuits in Hollywood’s ongoing battle against film piracy on the internet. The MPAA said it was acting on a court ruling that peer-to-peer swapping networks like Grokster and the software behind them can be held accountable for illegal online film distribution.
Andre Agassi returned to match fitness in emphatic fashion on Sunday as the veteran stormed past Gilles Muller 6-4, 7-5 to register his 60th career title at the 000 ATP Mercedes-Benz Cup. ”It feels amazing; this is why you work so hard. I’m taking it all in and feeling good,” Agassi said.
Coded Nazi messages intercepted by Britain could have exposed the scope of the Holocaust years before the liberation of the death camps, but Allied codebreakers failed to fully understand the information they had, according to United States government analysis of intelligence from the era.
Andre Agassi scored a crowd-pleasing win on Saturday, dominating Argentine Juan Ignacio Chela en route to a 6-4, 6-2 semifinal win at the 000 ATP Mercedes-Benz Cup. Agassi is now a win away from his 60th career title; on Sunday he faces the winner from Luxembourg’s Gilles Muller and second seed Dominik Hrbaty.
Three-time champion Andre Agassi outslugged unseeded Paradorn Srichaphan 6-2, 4-6, 6-4 on Friday to advance to the semifinals at the 000 ATP Mercedes-Benz Cup. ”I’m really happy with where my game is now,” Agassi said. ”Getting through with this match now, I’m believing in it.”
A United States astronomer said on Friday he has discovered a 10th planet in the outer reaches of the solar system that could force a redrawing the astronomical map. If confirmed, the discovery would be the first of a planet since Pluto was identified in 1930 and shatter the notion that nine planets circle the sun.
At least 14 people were rushed to hospital on Friday after two trains on a roller coaster at California’s Disneyland theme park collided, a government official with the nearby city of Anaheim said. In the crash, one car rear-ended another on the California Screamin’ ride at Disney’s California Adventure park.
Jimi Hendrix might have stayed in the army. He might have been sent to Vietnam. Instead, he pretended he was gay. And with that, he was discharged from the 101st Airborne in 1962, launching a musical career that would redefine the guitar, leave other rock heroes of the day speechless and culminate with his headlining performance of The Star-Spangled Banner at Woodstock in 1969.
United States food aid is inefficient, wasteful and designed in most cases to benefit domestic constituencies more than needy people in developing countries, according to a new report released this week by the Minnesota-based Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy.
Top seed Andre Agassi continued his triumphant return from a two-month injury layoff in Los Angeles on Thursday, defeating fellow American Kevin Kim to book a quarterfinal date with Thailand’s Paradorn Srichaphan. ”This match was much more of a test because he was quicker to hurt me if I left any balls short,” Agassi said.
Bruce Aiken is an artist with only one subject. He paints the Grand Canyon over and over and has for more than 30 years. The sheer rock walls cut by the blue-green waters of the Colorado River are his lone muse, his love, his obsession. ”She’s the model. She runs my life,” he says.
Nasa pledged to press ahead with its troubled space shuttle programme on Thursday night after its decision to ground the ageing fleet over safety fears raised new questions about the agency’s future direction. Shuttle managers now admit they may never be able to solve the debris problem that doomed the Columbia shuttle two years ago.
The United States expressed concern on Thursday over China’s increasingly close ties with Zimbabwe at a time when the international community is trying to isolate the African state for gross human rights and other violations.
Peter Gotti, the brother of late New York mob boss John Gotti, was sentenced on Wednesday to 25 years in prison for plotting to murder the mafia turncoat who put his brother behind bars for life, Sammy ”The Bull” Gravano. The sentence followed Gotti’s conviction in December last year.
Five greying anti-war activists from a group dubbed the ”Raging Grannies” face possible jail time after demanding to be enlisted in the United States Army to fight in Iraq, one of them said on Wednesday. The women, aged between 57 and 92, were charged with criminal trespass after turning up at an armed forces recruiting centre.
British tycoon Richard Branson has formed a new aerospace company to build a fleet of commercial spaceships. The Spaceship Company will be jointly owned by Branson’s Virgin Group and Burt Rutan, whose SpaceShipOne won the -million ”X Prize” for sending a privately-designed craft into space twice in two weeks.
Nasa was facing fresh questions about the future of its shuttle programme on Wednesday night after it was forced to ground the fleet because the problem with falling debris that doomed Columbia two years ago had struck again during the launch of Discovery.
New York’s mayor, Michael Bloomberg, has apologised to a group of British tourists after armed police swarmed on to an open-top sightseeing bus, handcuffed them and forced them to kneel on Broadway. The police cordoned off the block for 90 minutes, ordered all 60 passengers off the bus, and searched their belongings and then their bodies.
The Dalai Lama is at the centre of an unholy row among scientists over his plans to deliver a lecture at a prominent neuroscience conference. His talk stems from a growing interest in how Buddhist meditation may affect the brain, but researchers who dismiss such studies as little more than mumbo-jumbo say they will boycott the Society for Neuroscience annual meeting if it goes ahead.
An independent panel headed by two former United States national security advisers on Wednesday said chaos in post-war Iraq was due in part to inadequate post-war planning. Planning for reconstruction should match the serious planning that goes into making war, said the panel headed by Samuel Berger and Brent Scowcroft.
Andre Agassi made a triumphant return to the court after a two-month injury layoff, routing French lucky loser Jean-Rene Lisnard 6-1, 6-0 in Los Angeles on Tuesday at a  000 ATP hard-court tournament. The 35-year-old American has not played a tour match since an opening-round loss at the French Open in May.
Steven Spielberg’s next film finally has a title: Munich. DreamWorks and Universal, which are co-financing the film, announced the name on Monday for the long-untitled thriller, which focuses on the aftermath of the killings of 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympics in Munich.
The United States trade union movement was poised for its greatest rift in almost 70 years on Monday as unions representing a third of the membership announced plans to set up a rival organisation. Four of the country’s largest unions said they would boycott the annual convention of the American Federation of Labour-Congress of Industrial Organisations in Chicago on Tuesday to form the Change to Win coalition.
Hollywood star and activist Jane Fonda is planning to take a bus tour across America to call for an end to United States military operations in Iraq in a move that has already drawn sharp reactions from both the pro- and anti-war camps. Fonda said her anti-war tour in March would use a bus that runs on vegetable oil.
The mammoth stage version of The Lord of the Rings, opening in Toronto next March, has found its Gandalf, Frodo, Gollum and more. Brent Carver, the Tony-winning star of Kiss of the Spider Woman, will portray the majestic wizard Gandalf, while Frodo, the ring-bearer, will be played by British actor James Loye.