Home Tags Posts tagged with "heart"
heart
Sonia Marra, a British tourist has died in a horrific helicopter crash when the aircraft she was flying in plummeted into New York’s East River seconds after take-off.
Three other British persons were fighting for their lives after the chopper spun out of control and plunged into the river.
The injured British passengers were Paul Nicholson, believed to be her stepfather, and his wife Harriet and Sonia Marra’s partner Helen Tamaki.
Sonia Marra had organized the doomed flight over Manhattan’s skyline to celebrate her 40th birthday with her parents, who now live in Portugal.
The Foreign Office said: “We can confirm that three British nationals were involved in the helicopter crash in New York City.
“One of them has died in the crash and the next of kin have been informed. We are providing consular assistance.”
The fourth passenger is thought to be Helen Tamaki, Sonia Marra’s partner, thought to be from New Zealand.
According to the New York Daily News website, Harriet Nicholson and Helen Tamaki are both in a critical condition at the city’s Bellevue Hospital, while Paul Nicholson is being treated at New York University Medical Center.
Five people were on board the Bell 206 Jet Ranger tourist helicopter – and two survivors could be seen clinging onto the craft as they were rescued.
Scuba divers, police and fire units have all been deployed in the area, where the water temperature is around 66F
Sonia Marra was celebrating her 40th birthday with her parents, reported ABC News.
The pilot of the helicopter is also believed to be a family friend.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg called Prime Minister David Cameron to tell him about the tragedy.
“We have a family who’ve come here to see the best of our city and to end up in a tragic accident like this just breaks our heart. Our thoughts and prayers are with them,” Mayor Michael Bloomberg said last night.
“From what we know so far, the pilot reported having trouble keeping aloft, tried to turn back, but crashed in the water just north of the landing pad,” he added.
Joe Galluzzo, who runs a fruit market in Glebe, Sydney, said Sonia Marra had worked there for the last three months.
He told the Sydney Morning Herald Sonia Marra’s friend had surprised her with plans to go to New York.
“That was her 40th birthday present from Helen. How said that is.
“She just had that kind of a personality… people just gravitated towards her. She was a really lovely person.”
“Four of them were outside the helicopter when rescuers got to them, one was trapped inside. We did get the body out.”
Sonia Marra was killed after the helicopter she had hired to celebrate her 40th birthday crashed into the East River in New York
One of the five people rescued was the veteran pilot, called Paul Dudley.
The pilot was treated at the scene. His helicopter was not equipped with floats and was upside down in the water as rescuers arrived.
Joy Garnett and her husband were on the dock waiting to take the East River ferry to Brooklyn when they heard the blades of a helicopter and saw it start to take off from the nearby helipad. She said she saw it do “a funny curlicue”.
Joy Garnett said: “I thought, <<Is that some daredevil move?>>. But it was obviously out of control. The body spun around at least two or three times, and then it went down.”
Joy Garnett said also the chopper had lifted about 25 feet off the ground before it dropped into the water without much of a splash.
The helicopter flipped over, and the blades were sticking up out of the river. She said people on the dock started throwing in life jackets and buoys. Two people came up out of the waves.
Joy Garnett added: “It didn’t make much noise. It was just a splash and sunk.”
Scuba divers, police and fire units were all deployed in the area, where local media reported the water temperature as around 66F.
At least seven boats were involved in the East River rescue effort and ladders were used to pull survivors out of the cold water.
Later Tuesday, crews were able to hoist the helicopter out of the river.
The Bell 206 tourist helicopter, which was not equipped with floats, was pulled from the East River hours after the crash
It had reportedly just taken off from the East 34th Street heliport in Manhattan when it hit the water.
“The water is not too cold, but even 60 degrees can be dangerous,” coast guard spokesman Erik Swanson told the New York Post.
The helicopter was registered N63Q, and was reportedly owned by Paul Dudley, 56, who is also the director of Linden Airport in New Jersey.
The helicopter was built in 1976 and formerly operated as a “news chopper”.
Paul Dudley, a married father-of-three and an experienced pilot who has flown helicopters for more than 20 years, remained at the scene while the other passengers were rescued.
Paul Dudley, who has been quoted on helicopter security in the past, had to land a Cessna 172 in a park in Brooklyn, New York, five years ago.
The chopper, a Bell 206 Jet Ranger, is one of the world’s most popular helicopter models and was first flown in January 1966.
In August 2009, a small plane collided with a helicopter over the Hudson River, west of Manhattan, killing nine people, including five Italian tourists.
A government safety panel found that an air traffic controller who was on a personal phone call had contributed to the accident.
The Federal Aviation Administration changed its rules for aircraft flying over New York City’s rivers after that collision.
Pilots must call out their positions on the radio and obey a 161mph speed limit. Before the changes, such radio calls were optional.
Earlier that year, an Airbus 320 airliner landed in the Hudson after hitting birds and losing both engines after taking off from LaGuardia Airport.
The flight, U.S. Airways Flight 1549, became known as the “Miracle on the Hudson” plane.
[youtube zfkh89ApCBo]
A person over 65, who takes aspirin daily, has twice the risk to develop an age-related vision loss (late stage macular degeneration) than a peer who almost never takes it, a recent study has shown.
Aspirin used daily could aggravate late stage macular degeneration and lead to vision loss.
No directly association between aspirin and vision loss could be proved by the study, but the scientists are worried the aspirin could aggravate the eye disease, as long as lots of seniors take this medicine.
The European study has been published in the journal Ophthalmology and included 4691 people over 65. The subjects were from Norway, Estonia, Britain, France, Greece, Italy and Spain.
Medical scientists, led by Dr. Paulus de Jong at the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience and Academic Medical Center, gathered health and lifestyle information.
Of the 839 daily aspirin users, around 36 (4%) had an advanced form of the disease, wet macular degeneration. Only 2% of persons who took aspirin less frequently had the same type of macular degeneration (aging macula disorder).
“For people who have age-related macular degeneration, it probably isn’t wise to recommend taking aspirin,” William Christen of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston told Reuters Health. He was not involved in this study.
Wet macular degeneration leads to vision loss in the center of the eye’s field of vision.
The wet form (neovascular or exudative macular degeneration) causes vision loss due to abnormal blood vessel growth. Scarring, bleeding, leaking from these blood vessels eventually cause rapid vision loss if left untreated
Aspirin (acetylsalicylic acid, ASA) use has already been known for causing or aggravating gastrointestinal bleeding, but in the same time it has appeared to protect against cataract and in 2004 a study has shown aspirin is associated with decreased rates of abnormal blood vessel growth in patients with macular degeneration. Thus, aspirin could decrease the risk of vision loss.
The dry form is less severe. Its cause is an atrophy of the retinal pigment, which causes visual impairment, vision loss in the central part of the eye.
Aspirin use was not linked to the dry form, nor to earlier stages of the disease, scientists said.
In other studies aspirin appeared to protect against cataract or neovascularization in macular degenaration, thus protecting against vision loss.
Wet and dry macular degeneration are the leading causes of vision loss in persons over age 60. These conditions affect millions of Americans.
The seniors often take aspirin to prevent or to slow the progression of cardiovascular diseases. It could be the cardiovascular diseases that are linked with macular degeneration, some medical scientists said. According to Dr. Paulus de Jong, the researchers found that aspirin users, regardless of their heart condition, are at a greater risk of vision loss.
Yet, the benefits of the drug outweigh the risks of vision loss for people with cardiovascular illnesses who take aspirin to prevent the condition from worsening.
People should be aware that aspirin might aggravate macular degeneration, but on the other hand “a healthy eye with full visual capacities is of no use in a dead body,” said Paulus de Jong.
Further larger studies that follow people over time and document their aspirin use and vision are required to established the association between aspirin and vision loss.
A football game between Los Angeles high school football rivals turned tragic when Angela Gettis, a cheerleader collapsed on the sideline and died.
Angela Gettis was briefly revived after passing out Friday at Fremont High School, according to LA Unified School District spokesman Tom Waldman.
The top student and member of the Reserve Officer Training Corp, Angela Gettis, who planned to go to college to study forensic sicence, was rushed to a hospital where she died about three hours later.
Cheerleader Angela Gettis, a student at Washington Prep High School, apparently suffered sudden cardiac arrest during a football game
Angela Gettis, a student at Washington Prep High School, apparently suffered sudden cardiac arrest, spokesman Tom Waldman said.
Washington Prep Principal Todd Ullah told KABC-TV that Angela Gettis was a good student and a leader on campus.
School district Superintendent John Deasy said Saturday that Angela Gettis was “a wonderful young lady” and added:
“It is a catastrophic loss for the school and for the community. My heart goes out to her family.”
Angela Kirkindoff, the student’s aunt said: “I just want people to remember the heart she had. She was very kind.”
A witness, Cameron Bonner, told City News Service the Washington Prep squad tied the game against Fremont in the fourth quarter when the cheerleader Angela Gettis collapsed.
Play was stopped as coaches and trainers ran to help the cheerleader Angela Gettis.
Cameron Bonner said: “They had just tied the game up, and the cheerleaders were pumped up.”
He added that Angela appeared “to just pass out”.
Bystanders performed CPR while waiting for paramedics to arrive.
Angela Gettis was briefly revived after passing out on the sideline, but she died in a nearby hospital
“All of her friends were in a circle crying,” Cameron Bonner said.
Crisis counsellors will be at Washington Prep on Monday to help students and faculty deal with the death, Superintendent Deasy said.
An autopsy has been scheduled to find the exact cause of Angela Gettis’ death.
Gene Simmons, KISS bassist, married his girlfriend, Shannon Tweed, on October 1 in an evening ceremony held on the Crystal Lawn at the historic Beverly Hills Hotel in Los Angeles.
The former Playboy Playmate wore an ivory Priscilla of Boston gown with a bouquet of ivory garden roses, while she was walking to the aisle.
“At the Gene Simmons-Shannon Tweed wedding – a dog just walked down the aisle ahead of the bride so its [sic] a good start,” Bill Maher wrote on Twitter.
Gene and Shannon wrote their vows and read them in front of 400 guests. Their children, Nick, 22, and Sophie Alexandra, 19, cheered along with Hugh Hefner, Bill Maher, Paul Stanley when their parents said “I do“. Sophie was the maid of honor and performed At Last by Etta James, the melody the couple chose for the first dance.
Gene Simmons and his family.
Shannon wore $2.5 million of diamonds, without the 24-carat engagement ring, TMZ has learned. Michael Raven handmade the jewelry (13 pieces for the bride and bridal party, earings, necklaces and a $420,000 bracelet).
Shannon Tweed, 54, was joyful before her wedding with Gene Simmons, 62.
“I sneaked down the hall of the hotel to Gene’s room in my sexy undies to live my last night as a single girl & knocked on the wrong door LOL. I’m going to get married today! To the man I love! Everyone said it would rain! It’s a perfect day for a white wedding!!” Shannon wrote before the wedding.
“Thanks one and all for the kind wishes. Wish I could celebrate tomorrow with all of you. But Saturday is for Shannon and the kids. Family!!!” Gene wrote
“Shera & I are going to the Gene Simmons-Shannon Tweed wedding this evening. Shannon was PMOY [Playmate of the Year] & my GF [girlfriend] in 1981. Shannon Tweed met KISS rock star Gene Simmons at a Midsummer Night’s Dream here at the Mansion. They’ve been together almost 30 years.” Hugh Hefner wrote.
“The Gene Simmons-Shannon Tweed wedding was a very romantic, family affair,” he wrote later.
“Truly one of the most beautiful cable television weddings I’ve ever seen.” (Bill Maher)
“That was the best wedding I’ve ever been to!! Thank you, Gene Simmons, Sophie Simmons & Nick Simmons!” Shannon wrote later.
Guests were asked to donate to the couple’s favorite charities instead of wedding gifts (the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, Kiva, a non-profit organization that seeks to alleviate poverty through micro-loans, the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation and the Pink Lotus Breast Center).
Gene Simmons proposed to Shannon several month ago, while they were on holiday in Belize. He previously said he would never marry and they were a happily unmarried couple.
“I come with so much baggage, but you’re the only friend I’ve got, you’re the only one I’ve ever loved, you’re the only one I love, and the only one I ever will love. I’ve never said those words to anybody, and I don’t ever wanna… It’s funny, they used to watch movies where they say I can’t live without you but for me it’s true,” he said then he got down on one knee and asked her to marry him.
"It's funny, they used to watch movies where they say I can't live without you but for me it's true," said Gene Simmons and got down on one knee.
Gene Simmons had claimed he had had slept with thousands of women. At that time Shannon had moved out and told People “You’re seeing this happy family, but in my heart, I am dying.“
That season of Family Jewels has documented their troubles and family therapy sessions. In June 2011, Shannon slammed Gene for his infidelities.
“I need some sort of commitment. Something has to give.” She told People.
Gene Simmons claimed he had slept with 4,600 women."I need some sort of commitment. Something has to give." Shannon told People.
In 2007 Gene Simmons and Shannon Tweed underwent face lift surgery together, a growing trend among the couples at that time.
Gene Simmons (Chaim Weitz), The Demon, Israeli-American rock bassist, became famous with Kiss, the hard rock band he co-founded in the early 1970s.
Gene formed the band with Paul Stanley, then Peter Criss and Ace Frehley joined them.
His legal name after arriving from Israel is Gene Klein, klein means small in German, in informal Hungarian it means kiss. He changed his name to Gene Simmons, after legendary rockabilly performer Jumpin’ Gene Simmons.
He has lived in Beverly Hills, California with his fiancée, actress Shannon Tweed for 28 years. Gene Simmons had live-in relationships with Cher and Diana Ross.
Gene Simmons, Shannon Tweed and their children, Nick and Sophie.
Gene Simmons and Shannon Tweed and their children star on the reality television series Gene Simmons Family Jewels. The new season of the reality show premieres on October4 on the A&E network. The wedding will be aired on October 18.
“Everything from choosing the flowers and wedding dress to the bachelor and bachelorette parties will unfold in the new season,” read a statement.
Gene Simmons with the legendary band KISS become the Kings of the Night Time World on a cruise of the Carnival Destiny.
Gene Simmons with KISS: Kings of the Night Time World on a cruise of the Carnival Destiny from October 13 to October 17.
It starts on October 13 from Miami and returns on October 17. The Rock and Roll Party for four nights, includes two full concerts by KISS and performances by Skid Row, The Envy, Bad City and Craig Gass, party every day on Half Moon Cay and Nassau in the Bahamas.
Gene Simmons and Shannon Tweed wedding song (video)
[youtube BIFlPz8BpDk]
KISS: I was made for loving you (video)
[youtube kNGNLo8K6Fk]
Amanda Knox has written her memoirs during the four years she has languished in an Italian prison.
In her book, Amanda Knox is describing how she came to be convicted – unjustly, she insists – of brutally murdering her British flatmate, Meredith Kercher.
If Amanda Knox is absolved of one of the most grippingly macabre crimes of recent times, her story is expected to be turned into a multi-million-dollars Hollywood movie.
In the same time, a group of British film-makers led by award-winning director Michael Winterbottom are considering a rival film with Colin Firth, who owns a villa not far from the murder scene in Perugia, portraying a crusading reporter who proves Amanda Knox’s innocence.
At this moment, three American TV networks are already said to have offered a million dollars for the first interview with Amanda Knox should she walk free. Amanda Knox’ Seattle-based PR agent says he has piles of interview requests on his desk from around the world.
According to Italian media, one US TV network has hired a private jet to whisk Amanda Knox and her relatives back to the States if she’s cleared.
If Amanda Knox is absolved of one of the most grippingly macabre crimes of recent times, her story is expected to be turned into a multi-million-dollars Hollywood movie
In response, Meredith Kercher’s lawyer Francesco Maresca said ironically:
“We have heard about a plane waiting to take the Knoxes away, but poor Meredith’s family barely have enough money to come to Perugia for the verdict.”
Should Amanda Knox be depicted as the martyr in a miscarriage of justice movie, it would seal a quite extraordinary image transformation, given that she has been demonized as “Foxy Knoxy”, a dangerously narcissistic, sex-and-drugs obsessed wild-child.
For the past three months, Amanda Knox has put aside her diary and used the internet-less laptop she is permitted in her cell to tap out the most important words she will ever compose – her personal address to the court.
Under Italian law, the defendant is entitled to make a declaration – and they usually wait until the end so theirs is the last voice the judge and jurors hear before considering their verdict.
At her original trial, which ended in December 2009, Amanda Knox was jailed for 26 years, a year more than her well-heeled Italian boyfriend, Rafaelle Sollecito, 27, her supposed accomplice in what the prosecution portrayed as a gratuitous, cannabis-fuelled, sado-sexual slaughter.
Amanda Knox and Rafaelle Sollecito were alleged to have murdered Meredith Kercher, a Leeds University undergraduate studying in Perugia for a year on an exchange programme, in her bedroom with the help of a third man, Ivorian immigrant, small-time drug-dealer and petty-thief Rudy Guede. Rudy Guede he pleaded guilty and is serving just 16 years.
Amanda Knox has always denied being at the house that night, and when she rises to re-state her innocence on Monday she is expected to strike a more measured tone.
“Amanda has had four years to really reflect on who she is,” says her loyal friend Madison Paxton, who moved from America to Perugia a year ago so she can visit her regularly.
“Her character is really honed and she is more confident now than she ever was. It’s strangely beautiful.”
Yet as the Meredith Kercher’s lawyer reminded the court this week, Amanda Knox’s was not the only glittering future destroyed that grim night in November 2007.
The lawyer began by displaying a smiling photograph of the Surrey-born student, Meredith Kercher on a big projector screen. Then he replaced it with shockingly candid pictures, never previously displayed in open court, of Meredith lying, semi-naked and lifeless, the left side of her slender neck ripped by a gaping knife wound.
“Amanda has still never seen those photographs and to me that says a lot. I think she remains to this day shocked and ashamed of what she did. That is why she covered Meredith’s body with the duvet. Only a woman would have done that.”
Given that 21-year-old Meredith had attended a Halloween party in the guise of a vampire two days earlier and had then been subjected to a frenzied sexual assault at the rambling hillside cottage shared by Amanda Knox, he theorized that the attackers had enacted some twisted ritualistic fantasy.
But the prosecution case has been seriously undermined during the appeal – in effect a ten-month-long retrial before a new judge and jury.
The forensic evidence, in particular, is disgracefully flawed. Indeed, so many basic errors were made, both in gathering and testing the samples.
At the first trial, for example, the prosecution claimed traces of Meredith Kercher’s DNA were detected on the blade of a 30cm knife recovered from Rafaelle Sollecito’s flat, and thatAmanda Knox’s DNA was on the handle. She is said to have “trembled and shook” when police pulled it from the kitchen drawer.
The original judge refused to allow the test to be independently reviewed, but the second appointed two university experts to analyze it.
While they confirmed that Amanda Knox had touched the knife – as well she might have done when preparing meals at her boyfriend’s house – they said the sample attributed to Meredith Kercher was so tiny it could not even be re-tested, let alone relied upon as accurate.
Meredith Kercher’s family has reiterated their belief that the original trial verdict was fair. Four years after their sparkling, cherished daughter followed her heart to the Italian hills, they still don’t know why she met such a terrible end.
And whether or not Amanda Knox emerges a murderer or martyr after delivering her carefully-crafted speech on Monday, the case will remain the greatest tragedy of this sordid and deeply perplexing saga.
Giovanni Palumbo, the man accused of stalking country singer Shania Twain has pleaded guilty.
Giovanni Palumbo has been charged with three counts of failure to comply with a court order and criminal harassment.
Stalker had pleaded not guilty earlier this week but after listening to testimony Friday from Shania Twain, Palumbo’s lawyer told court that his client would plead guilty to both charges.
Lawyer Gary Barnes said that hearing Shania Twain’s heartfelt testimony, in which she said she felt compassion but was still scared of Giovanni Palumbo, stirred a revelation in him.
“He realized, <<My God, I have upset her>>”, lawyer Gary Barnes told reporters after court had adjourned for the day.
Giovanni Palumbo, a former Ottawa doctor, allegedly sent Shania Twain a series of letters, made unwanted visits to her family cottage in Ontario and even attended her grandmother’s funeral before being arrested at a Canadian awards ceremony this year.
Before he pleaded guilty Friday, lawyer Gary Barnes said during Shania Twain’s cross-examination that Palumbo simply didn’t realize that the singer wasn’t interested.
But Shania Twain, appearing via video link from an undisclosed location in Europe, didn’t see it that way.
“I’m torn emotionally because I have compassion for anybody who’s reaching out in need – fans often do that.
“I feel very sad … and awkward having to go through these very personal matters with Mr. Palumbo because it’s such an invasion of his privacy.”
Shania Twain testified via video link in June
However, Shania Twain said nothing she heard at the trial made her feel differently about Giovanni Palumbo.
“I still have the fear and anxiety of being contacted in the future by Mr. Palumbo. And I do want it to stop.”
Shania Twain was recounting the contents of numerous letters allegedly sent to her by Giovanni Palumbo when the former doctor leapt to his feet and addressed the court loudly.
“But I didn’t know you received any of them – you understand?” yelled Palumbo, alluding to why he persisted in corresponding with Shania Twain.
“It is very emotional for everybody,” Giovanni Palumbo said, addressing the judge.
“Please understand I have emotions, very strong emotions.”
However, lawyer Gary Barnes said his client realized how his actions affected Shania Twain.
“My client (thought), <<I have made her afraid of me, and it’s reasonable, her fears are reasonable.>>
“He’s devastated that she’s afraid. He never intended for her to fear at all – the absolute opposite. He loves her.”
Giovanni Palumbo has been ordered to undergo a psychiatric assessment at the Royal Ottawa Hospital.
Palumbo has another court date on October 18 when – depending on the outcome of the psychiatric evaluation – he could be sentenced.
In the last months, three anti-ageing pills have come on the market and claim to visibly reduce the signs of ageing within a matter of months.
Unlike many traditional beauty supplements – which are designed to boost the body’s natural levels of vitamins and minerals – these wrinkle-busting pills rely on a far more sophisticated technology known as “nutrigenomics”.
Their producers use the principles of genetic science to create nutritional supplements that can affect the way the body works.
Using a special designed cocktail of ingredients, these manufacturers say the new anti-ageing pills on the market are able to stimulate the genes responsible for producing vital youth hormones such as oestrogen. This can help plump ageing skin and make us look and feel younger.
The producers of the anti-ageing pills claim this approach means it’s now possible to “reset” the body’s hormonal clock, erasing wrinkles and raising energy levels.
Three different anti-ageing pills hit the market in the past few months
The new anti-ageing pills have been formulated specifically for women over 40, as this is the age when the most dramatic hormone changes occur. But, unlike hormone replacement therapy (HRT), the anti-ageing pills do not have to be prescribed and can be bought over the counter or online at an average cost of £1- 2 ($1.5 – 3) a day.
Dr. Daniel Sister, President of the International College for Anti-Ageing, Nutrition & Aesthetic Medicine, who is one of the experts behind this new generation of pills, says:
“As we age, the levels of certain hormones naturally decrease, resulting in skin that is dryer and less elastic, loss of energy, loss of libido and many other problems that we associate with ageing – including slower recovery time from injuries, brittle bones, less muscle mass, and thinning hair.
“But compounding that problem is the fact that age also makes the body less effective when it comes to extracting key nutrients from our diet. This means that the hormones the body does make are of a poorer quality.”
This is the reason an anti-ageing pill that claims to be able to improve the levels of these hormones and improving the quality of them at the same time really could be the youth drug that we’ve all been searching for.
However, some experts still remain skeptical. Endocrinologist Professor Jonathan Seckl, of Edinburgh University, says that while the new supplements are not likely to do any harm, “caution is necessary as the side-effects of more than the recommended doses of certain ingredients may not yet be fully understood.”
Prof. Jonathan Seckl also questioned whether these pills would have any positive effect on health, particularly in people who already eat a balanced diet, because the body usually gets all the nutrients it requires from food.
“These products might change your hormones, but might not,” he says.
“There needs to be proper scientific assessment.
“What is hard to quantify is the placebo effect – people are taking something and it is making them feel good, but what else has changed in their lifestyle?”
Strength Within
£35 for a month’s supply, www.dovespa.co.uk
Impressive clinical trial results presented last week at the Society for Investigative Dermatology conference in Atlanta, in the U.S. have already made this anti-ageing pill an instant sell-out.
According to the research carried out by Unilever, the company which produces the anti-wrinkle pill, tests on 480 women in the UK, France and Germany, showed that it was able to reduce crow’s feet around the eyes by up to 30% in 14 weeks.
Unilever claims that the anti-wrinkle tablet, designed to be taken three times a day, “kick-starts old skin cells into behaving like younger skin cells”.
While the key ingredients of the new anti-ageing pill are all ones that women might find in their fridge, here they are present in far higher concentrations than you might ordinarily encounter.
The new anti-wrinkle pill includes vitamin C and E, isoflavones from soya, lycopene from tomatoes and omega-3 from fish oils. All ingredients work by activating the genes to produce oestrogen and collagen – the protein that gives skin its strength and bounce. The result is a reduction in wrinkles and sun damage in the deep level of the skin.
Rvive Q10 Plus
£60.86 for a month’s supply, www.reviveq10plus.com
Revive Q10 Plus is a soluble powder taken once a day that contains the amino acid L-Arginine, which has been shown in scientific studies to improve blood flow to the heart and brain.
This anti-ageing pill can plump skin, thicken hair and smooth wrinkles.
But, more interestingly, recent research carried out in association with a cardiovascular specialist has suggested that the anti-ageing benefits of the supplement could extend beyond the merely superficial. A study, revealed at an anti-ageing conference in London last week, has showed how the amino acids found in Revive Q10 Plus affect cholesterol levels and type 2 diabetes – which are usually linked to obesity.
The study, which was carried out at University College Hospital, Galway, Ireland, has involved 8 patients with type 2 diabetes who were able to reduce their cholesterol-lowering medication while taking L-Arginine and Co-Enzyme Q10 – the key components of the supplement.
5 of these patients, all in their 50s, were also able to come off insulin – meaning their bodies had naturally been able to regulate their blood sugar levels. Vascular surgeon, Dr. Sherif Sultan, who led the research, believes that in the future the answers to both cosmetic anti-ageing and more serious health complaints will not be gene therapies or stem cell cures, but the sort of amino acids found within these new supplements.
Youth
£64 for a month’s supply, www.beautyworkswest.com
Dr. Daniel Sister has more than a few celebrities paying discreet visits to his West London clinic in a bid to maintain their looks.
The latest weapon in his anti-ageing arsenal is a twice-a-day supplement he modestly calls “Youth”.
Youth formula contains Arginine, Lysine and Glutamine – powerful amino acids which can help stimulate the body’s hormones.
A marine plant extract called superoxide dismutase – proven to repair cells and reduce the damage done by molecules known as free radicals, a major cause of wrinkles – is also included.
In the past year, Youth has been tested on 20 men and women over the age of 40 in the UK and all of them have reported positive effects on their skin, hair and energy levels after taking it for four weeks.
Some testers go further, insisting that the supplement has not only improved their flexibility and sleep patterns, but also their concentration and libido.
A Few Minutes with Andy Rooney ends its weekly appearances on CBS’ 60 Minutes.
On Sunday, October 2, the veteran radio and television writer, Andy Rooney, is expected to make his last regular attendance, he discusses the decision on his 1,097th signature essay.
The 60 minutes‘ curmudgeon told TVNewser in June 2010 he wanted to work on the show until he “dropped dead“. “Until somebody tells me different, I’m not going to quit,” he said.
“There’s nobody like Andy and there never will be. He’ll hate hearing this, but he’s an American original.” He “will always have the ability to speak his mind on ’60 Minutes’ when the urge hits him,” said Jeff Fager, chairman CBS News and the executive producer of 60 Minutes.
Andy Rooney will discuss the decision of leaving "60 Minutes" on October 2 in his 1097th signature essay.
Andy Rooney, who turns 93 on January 14, 2012, started to work with CBS as a writer for Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts in 1949 and began to appear on the show (started in 1968) in 1978 with an essay about the reporting of automobile fatalities on the Independence Day weekend.
His end-of-show part, Three Minutes or So With Andy Rooney (later A Few Minutes with Andy Rooney), began as a summer replacement for the debate segment Point/Counterpoint featuring Shana Alexander and James Kilpatrick.
Andy Rooney began his career in journalism in 1942 writing for Stars and Stripes newspaper. He was one of six correspondents who flew on the first American bombing raid over Germany (1943) and one of the first American journalists to visit the Nazi concentration camps.
“I can’t deny that The War–we call World War II ‘The War,’ as though there had never been another–was the ultimate experience for anyone in it,” he wrote in his book My War.
His wife, Marguerite, died in 2004 of heart failure, after 62 years of marriage. He has four children, the twins Emily and Martha, a daughter Ellen, and a son, Brian.
At 60 Minutes longevity seems to be a habit. Mike Wallace, 93, worked full-time until 2006, then occasionally until 2008. Don Hewitt, the show creator and executive producer, was 81 when he retired in 2004. He died in 2009.
Andy Rooney has become known for his folksy, often curmudgeonly, TV essays on life, culture and news events.
He presents satire on everyday life (the cost of groceries, annoying relatives, faulty Christmas presents) essays on life, culture and news events, or politics.
His essays have been published in books, Common Nonsense (2002), Years of Minutes, (2003). He has won three Emmy Awards for his essays, and a Lifetime Achievement Emmy in 2003.
He has been target of parodies and impersonations (Frank Caliendo, Rich Little, Beavis), and served as subject for one of Saturday Night Live’s parodies on NBC network.
The Andy Rooney Television Collection – His Best Minutes (1993) and Andy Rooney On Almost Everything, Things That Bother Andy Rooney, and Andy Rooney’s Solutions (2006) include his commentaries and field reports.
The writer was criticized he does not want to adapt to the modern times and he is out of touch with contemporary culture (contemporary music). He said never had heard of Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga and Usher in 2009 and said young people probably did not listen to Ella Fitzgerald.
Criticized or praised, Andy Rooney, 92, remains a living legend. The walnut table was made by himself.
Found dull by some people, but in the same outstanding, interesting and funny by others, Andy Rooney remains a living legend and a respectable active old person.
He has always considered himself a writer who incidentally appears on television behind his famous walnut table, made by himself.
“The process by which each of us acquires a reputation isn’t independent of our character. It almost always depends more on the decisions we make than on chance occurrences,” he wrote in his book, Andy Rooney: 60 Years of Wisdom and Wit.
Andy Rooney on vacation: “Avoiding work is hard work”.
Andy Rooney on presents: ”In spite of the old sayings to the contrary, the best presents come in large packages.”
Andy Rooney on cats: ”I have never met a cat I liked.”
Andy Rooney on commerce: ”There are idiots who will buy anything as long as it costs enough.” “Money is a strange concept, right? What ever happened to the beads and shells?”
Andy Rooney on politics: “The best president of my lifetime? Rutherford B. Hayes.”
Andy Rooney on opinion: ”If you wonder what anyone thinks of you, consider what you think of them.” ”Not everyone has a right to his own opinion. If he doesn’t know the facts, his opinion doesn’t count.”
Andy Rooney on sports: “Darryl “Chocolate Thunder” Dawkins was the best player to ever grace a court.”
Andy Rooney on medical advances: “Pray you never live this long.”
Andy Rooney on Heaven: ”My idea of heaven would be to die and awaken in a place that has all my lost things.”
[youtube SgiZQkIWpv8]
[youtube g1PO7nyyLn0]
[youtube KGCg6EO-sr4]
[youtube bI8uvSUAu8M]
[youtube 4ef1gasbyiA]
The Michael Jackson’s death trial opened with an extraordinary moment this afternoon as the prosecutor started his opening remarks by displaying a photo of the singer’s dead body.
As Dr. Conrad Murray appeared before the jury charged with involuntary manslaughter over Michael Jackson’s death in 2009, deputy district attorney David Walgren displayed the picture that appeared to show tape or tubing over Jackson’s face.
Opposing fans of Michael Jackson and supporters of Dr. Conrad Murray gathered outside the courthouse in Los Angeles waving placards and banners as the whole Jackson family made their way into court for what has been billed as the trial of the century.
The shocking photo of Michael Jackson's dead body on a gurney on the opening day of the trial of Dr Conrad Murray
“Michael Jackson’s death was a homicide,” Los Angeles deputy district attorney David Walgren told the jury in opening statements.
“The evidence will show that Michael Jackson literally put his life in the hands of Conrad Murray… Michael Jackson trusted his life to the medical skills of Conrad Murray.
“The evidence will show that misplaced trust had far too high a price to pay… it cost Michael Jackson his life.”
[youtube ls2dUATmJfo]
Dr. Conrad Murray’s defense attorney Ed Chernoff told the jury that Michael Jackson caused his own death.
Dr. Conrad Murray wiped tears from his eyes as Ed Chernoff said that the evidence will show that the singer swallowed 8, 2 mg pills of Lorazepam and injected himself with a dose of propofol.
Ed Chernoff said that Michael Jackson, who was frustrated because he could not sleep and frustrated because his doctor refused to give him a drug that he wanted, “did an act that caused his own death”.
“He died so fast he did not even have time to close his eyes,” Ed Chernoff said.
He also told jurors their job is not to determine whether the physician is a good doctor or not.
The bed where Michael Jackson died in his home in California
Michael Jackson’s parents, his siblings Janet, La Toya, Tito, Randy and Jermaine are all at the courthouse in LA for the opening statements in the trial of the singer’s personal physician, who was the last person to see him alive.
District deputy attorney David Walgren insisted that the evidence will show that the “acts and omissions of Michael Jackson’s personal doctor Conrad Murray directly led to his premature death at the age of 50”.
Dr. Conrad Murray “repeatedly acted with gross negilience, repeatedly denied appropriate care to his patient Michael Jackson and that is was Dr Murray’s repeated incompetent and unskilled acts that led to Michael Jackson’s death on June 25 2009,” attorney Walgren said.
David Walgren played disturbing audio recorded on Dr. Conrad Murray’s iPhone of Michael Jackson apparently under the influence of propofol a month before his death.
On the recording, Michael Jackson sounded slurred and confused as he mumbled: “We have to be phenomenal… When people leave this show, when people leave my show, I want them to say, <<I’ve never seen nothing like this in my life. Go. Go.>>”
[youtube 7XJFoH2MwLY]
The prosecutor said the audio was evidence that Dr. Murray knew what was happening to Michael Jackson and should have discontinued ordering propofol.
He also attempted to paint a picture of the days leading up to the singer’s death.
“On June 19th Michael showed up for his rehearsal and he was not in good shape, he was not in good shape at all,” David Walgren said.
“He had chills, he was trembling… he was rambling.”
The court was shown pictures from inside Michael Jackson's home, here is the bathroom with his jacket on the floor
Kenny Ortega, Michael Jackson’s manager, who proposed This Is It tour, expressed concerns about Michael, but Dr. Conrad Murray allegedly told him and others that Jackson was “physically and emotionally fine”.
“Don’t let it be your concern, I am the doctor,” Dr. Conrad Murray allegedly said.
David Walgren also laid out the order of events from inside Michael Jackson’s house on the night that he died.
The prosecutor accused Dr. Conrad Murray of failing to call 911 as soon as he realized that there was something wrong with Michael Jackson.
An emergency call was not made until 12:20pm, at least 24 minutes after Dr. Murray is believed to have discovered Michael Jackson unconscious.
During a phone call at 11:51am with a cocktail waitress that Conrad Murray regarding as his girlfriend, the doctor became silent and the phone went dead, prosecutor said.
“This is likely the time Conrad Murray first noticed Michael Jackson’s lifeless body,” David Walgren said.
He claimed that phone records showed that Michael Jackson was left unattended for too long.
“It will be clear that Conrad Murray abandoned Michael when he needed help.”
“It was Conrad Murray’s gross negligence, it was Conrad Murray’s unskilled hands and his desire to obtain this lucrative contract of $150,000 a month that led Dr. Murray to not only abandon his patient, but to abandon all principles of medical care.”
Prosecutor Walgren also showed images of Michael Jackson’s bedroom to show how medical monitoring devices typically used when someone is under anesthesia were not there or appeared unused.
A blood pressure cuff was still in a box and an oxygen tank had no oxygen.
As the defense made their opening statements, Murray wiped away tears as lawyer Ed Chernoff described the doctor and Michael Jackson as “friends first”.
“Dr. Murray is no celebrity doctor. He is a cardiologist. He literally saves lives. That’s who he is.”
Ed Chernoff said that on the day he died, Michael Jackson had told Dr. Murray that he not slept for 10 hours and that if he did not sleep he would not be able to rehearse and would disappoint his fans.
Dr. Conrad Murray agreed to give him a 25 mg injection of propofol mixed with lidocaine.
Ed Chernoff claimed that Michael Jackson had become unable to sleep because he was being withdrawn from the painkiller Demerol, which he had been receiving from his dermatologist.
Demonstrators for and against Dr Conrad Murray
In his opening statement, prosecutor David Walgren told the jury that between 6 April, 2009, and the day of Michael Jackson’s death on June 25, Dr. Murray ordered enough propofol to give Jackson 1,937 milligrams a day.
Defense lawyers claimed Dr. Conrad Murray had been trying to wean Michael Jackson off propofol and gave him only a minimal dosage.
The lawyers claimed also that the King of Pop, desperate for sleep, swallowed an additional dose of the drug when his doctor was out of the room.
The defense’s theory is based on evidence that a trace amount of propofol was found in Michael Jackson’s stomach.
Medical witnesses may be asked to explain how it could have been found in his stomach, as ingesting it orally is almost unheard of.
Propofol is used to reduce anxiety and tension, and promotes relaxation and sleep or loss of consciousness. The drug provides loss of awareness for short diagnostic tests and surgical procedures, sleep at the beginning of surgery, and supplements other types of general anaesthetics. Long-term use of propofol can result in addiction. The steep dose-response curve of the drug makes potential misuse very dangerous without proper monitoring.
Side effects of propofol include: difficulty breathing, wheezing, fast heartbeat, palpitations, seizures, uncontrollable muscle spasm and swelling or extreme pain at the injection site.
At 12.12 pm Dr. Murray called Michael Jackson’s personal assistant Michael Williams and left a message saying: “Call me right away, please. Please call me right away. Thank you.”
When Williams immediately called Dr. Murray back he told him: “Get here right away Mr. Jackson had a bad reaction, he had a bad reaction”, according to prosecutors.
Dr. Murray had yet to call 911 at this point.
Michael Williams then called security guard Albert Alvarez to go and investigate and he said that when he entered Michael Jackson’s room, he was lying on the bed and Dr. Murray was administering CPR.
According to the prosecution, Conrad Murray then ordered the security guard to grab a bag while he started grabbing vials and a saline bag hanging from the IV stand to put inside the bag.
That bag was later found inside Michael Jackson’s home.
Michael Jackson supporters holding signs outside Los Angeles Superior Court
Prosecutors also say Murray ordered someone to clean up signs that Michael Jackson had been receiving a variety of medications, including propofol, and that he improperly monitored the singer’s vital signs, performed inadequate CPR and did not inform emergency medical personnel that he had given the musician propofol.
A recorded conversation that Dr. Conrad Murray had two days after Michael Jackson’s death was played where Murray can be heard saying that he gave his patient a small dose of propofol and then left him for 15 minutes to go to the bathroom.
“Then I came back to his bedside and was shocked because he wasn’t breathing,” the physician says in the audio recorded on June 27. Prosecutors allege that he was gone for a lot longer.
At 12.30 pm, paramedics arrived at Michael Jackson’s home and treated him for 42 minutes before transporting him to nearby Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center.
The ambulance arrived at hospital at 1.14 pm and a team of doctors tried for more than an hour to resuscitate the singer.
Michael Jackson was declared dead at 2.26 pm with members of his family by his side.
Millions of people around the world are expected to watch as the trial gives a glimpse into final days of Michael Jackson.
Crowds of people gathered at the Los Angeles Superior Court where there was a lottery drawn for seats for the opening statements.
Supporters of both Dr. Conrad Murray, 57, and Michael Jackson are outside the courthouse with signs including, “Fair trial for Dr Murray” and “Doctors are expected to heal not kill”.
The list of potential witnesses includes his eldest children Prince Michael and Paris, who have reportedly said that they want to take to the stand to testify.
Medical examiners have determined Michael Jackson’s death at the age of 50 on June 25 2009, at his rented Los Angeles mansion was due to an overdose of the powerful anaesthetic propofol and sedatives.
Prosecutors said Dr. Conrad Murray caused Michael Jackson’s death by giving him propofol as a sleep aid, and failing to monitor him properly.
Dr. Conrad Murray denies the charge of involuntary manslaughter but faces a prison sentence of up to four years if convicted.
Murray’s defense team is expected to argue that Michael Jackson was addicted to various painkillers and sedatives and gave himself the fatal dose of propofol, possibly by swallowing it.
The trial is expected to hear testimony from the paramedics who transported Michael Jackson to the hospital, medical experts, Jackson’s choreographer and Dr. Murray’s girlfriends.
Celebrity attorney Mark Geragos, who once represented Michael Jackson and has closely watched the criminal case against Dr. Conrad Murray, said that Jackson’s 13-year-old daughter Paris might also be called to testify, in what would likely be one of the most dramatic moments of the trial.
“She not only has things to say, but she can say it in a compelling way,” Mark Geragos said. Paris Jackson was at the house when the singer stopped breathing.
Michael Jackson’s children, Prince Michael, 14, and Paris, 13, have both reportedly told their grandmother Katherine of their desire to want to testify.
Prince Michael, Paris and Blanket were all included on a potential witness list passed out to the jurors in an attempt to ascertain their familiarity with the family.
Also listed were Michael Jackson’ siblings Janet, LaToya, Jermaine, Marlon, Rebbie, Tito and Randy as well as parents Katherine and Joe Jackson.
The Michael Jackson case is one of a small but growing number of U.S. criminal prosecutions of doctors for alleged malpractice.
The responses of the 12-person jury to written questionnaires made public last week shows that none of them reported having a negative experience with doctors.
At the time of his death, Michael Jackson was readying himself for 50 planned shows in London called “This Is It.”
[youtube 4fIUyucr2aI]
[youtube a9aD_mC_Cn0]
Amanda Knox, the convicted killer of Meredith Kercher, is actually a “loving young woman” rather like the cartoon character Jessica Rabbit, a defense lawyer claimed today.
Just a day after another lawyer told her appeal hearing in Italy that Amanda Knox was a “a lying, sex-loving she-devil”, lawyer Giulia Bongiorno said Amanda Knox, the American student found guilty of killing British roommate Meredith Kercher, was not a bad person.
The lawyer said Amanda Knox was not the “femme fatale” her accusers describe and compared her to Jessica Rabbit, saying she was faithful like the “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” character.
Amanda Knox, the convicted killer of Meredith Kercher, is actually a “loving young woman” rather like the cartoon character Jessica Rabbit, a defense lawyer claimed today
Amanda Knox was convicted of murdering Meredith Kercher, a fellow student in Perugia, and sentenced to 26 years in prison, while co-defendant Raffaele Sollecito was sentenced to 25 years.
Giulia Bongiorno, Raffaele Sollecito’s lawyer, paraphrased a famous line from the movie saying Amanda Knox “is not bad, she’s just drawn that way”.
Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito deny killing Meredith Kercher and the verdict in the appeals case is expected by next week.
Giulia Bongiorno, Raffaele Sollecito's lawyer, paraphrased a famous line from the movie saying Amanda Knox “is not bad, she's just drawn that way”
A female supporter of Amanda Knox has been questioned by police after she shouted “You are evil” at one of the main prosecutors in the appeal case of the American student.
Michelle Moore sought out prosecutor Giuliano Mignini during a break in proceedings in the case, which is nearing its conclusion and with tension beginning to rise significantly.
Witnesses said Michelle Moore marched over to the prosecutor during a break in the long running proceedings and shouted to him:
“You are evil, you have no conscience,” while others said she told him: “You have no heart.”
Giuliano Mignini asked paramilitary carabinieri police to identify the woman and she was asked to show her American passport and provide her details to officers before being taken away but she was not arrested.
Co-accused Raffaelle Sollecito also denies murdering Meredith Kercher
In the same day, a lawyer for bar owner Patrick Lumumba, wrongly identified by Amanda Knox as the killer had described her as a “diabolical, demonic, Satanic, she Devil”.
Michelle Moore, the wife of a former FBI agent called Steve Moore, who has been one of the most vociferous pro Amanda Knox campaigners in the court – was giving interviews dismissing the original Italian police investigation into the murder.
Today Michelle Moore was not in the court in Perugia as the case resumed with lawyers for Amanda Knox’s coaccused Raffaele Sollecito starting their summing up, but her husband said:
“She didn’t mean to show any disrespect to the court.”
Steve Moore then added that his wife had made the outburst because she was angry at graphic pictures of Meredith Kercher’s mutilated body during an earlier hearing.
British Meredith Kercher was a student in Perugia, Italy when she was killed on on November 1, 2007
Steve Moore said: “We have a daughter the same age and someone tried to strangle my wife when she was 20 so it was a reaction to all that, she was just shocked.
“She thought it was Mignini who had showed the photographs – she just got a bit emotional.”
But one witness who asked not to be named said: “That sounds a bit far fetched to me. She has been in court the last few days and would know who Mignini was and who Maresca was.
“It was a very strong attack on Mignini and he was left quite shocked. He only understood the word evil and had to get the rest translated for him and that’s when he asked the police to take the woman’s details.”
A file on the case will now be sent to prosecutors who will decide if there is enough evidence to proceed to a full charge of offending an official of the court which carries a maximum sentence of three years in prison.
Italian TV used the incident to highlight the growing tensions between the pro Amanda Knox camp but today they were not immediately available to comment on the incident.
Michelle Moore was also not in court and she did not update her Twitter page with the incident although last week she had written: “Amanda and Raffaele will soon be free. I am very happy about this injustice being made right. Yay. PS Pass it on.”
Michelle Moore Twitter description reads: “Loves God, loves people ! Seeks truth, and never ever gives up-ever never! :)”
Connie Culp was the first person to receive a face transplant in the U.S in 2008, after her top lip, nose, roof of her mouth, one eye and both cheeks were destroyed by then husband Tom Culp, who brutally shot her in the face after flying into a rage.
Now, Connie Culp, 48, from Ohio, has bravely decided to talk about the domestic abuse and terrible shooting she endured at the hands of the man she says she still loves.
Her decision to speak out comes as her 52 year-old husband was last week released from prison after serving just seven years for the horrific crime.
Connie Culp was the first person to receive a face transplant in the U.S in 2008, after her top lip, nose, roof of her mouth, one eye and both cheeks were destroyed by then husband Tom Culp, who brutally shot her in the face after flying into a rage
Describing the moment her life changed forever, Connie Culp said:
“I remember everything. That’s what the doctors can’t believe.
“I remember him lifting the gun, and what he said to me, and then firing.
“It’s an image that will never leave me, for the rest of my life. It’s the moment everything changed forever.”
As well as suffering horrific facial disfigurement, Connie Culp was also left almost totally blind in the 2004 attack at the bar in Hopedale, Ohio, which the couple owned and ran together.
The signs, she says, were there before Tom Culp attempted to take her life.
“He only hit me a couple of times ever. It was the bullying that was worse. “Maybe it was a warning for things to come, but I never imagined what eventually happened was even possible.”
But, despite everything her ex-husband has done, Connie Culp says she still loves him.
“I’ll probably always love him because he’s the father of my kids,” admitted Connie Culp, who has two children with Tom.
“But I can’t handle being around him.”
She recently returned to the bar for the first time in eight years since that awful night when Tom Culp snapped.
“He was jealous because everyone seemed to like me so much,” Connie Culp revealed.
“It wasn’t really men. I was popular with the girls who worked with us and most of the customers.
“I think it just used to make him jealous. And money was tight with the bar. We owned it together and it used to put a strain on us.
“Sometimes he used to break things in the house when he’d get mad. Sometimes my things, like a trophy I’d won in a karate tournament.
“And then that night something just snapped. We were at the bar and he was mad. Then he just got his shotgun and shot me.”
It’s important to Connie Culp to appear like she’s coping.
“It’s the way I keep going,” she said.
“I don’t want people to feel sorry for me. I want to be treated the same as I was my whole life, before the shooting.
“If I dwell on the past I’ll have no life to live.”
After shooting his wife, Tom Culp put the gun in his mouth and pulled the trigger causing severe injuries to himself. But, like Connie, he survived.
“It was all just a waste,” Connie Culp said.
“He’s never acknowledged what he did. He just blames it on everyone else.”
After the shooting in September 2004, Connie Culp spent months in hospital as surgeons repeatedly tried to fix the damage caused by the gun blast.
Connie Culp before the horrific attack in 2004
Connie Culp before face transplant in 2008
Connie Culp after face transplant in 2011
With her children Steven, 30, and Alicia, 28 at her side, Connie Culp battled on, always taking comfort in the miracle that she had survived.
Connie Culp even visited her husband in prison to comfort him. But despite her unshakable determination to forgive, the events had changed things forever.
“I knew then it was over,” she said.
“I haven’t shaken that badly since he shot me. I can drink four pots of coffee and not shake. But around him I couldn’t control it.”
Chillingly, Tom Culp even got angry with the mother of his children for telling the truth to the police about the shooting.
“Tom said: <<I wouldn’t have told on you>> and I said <<I wouldn’t have shot you>>,” Connie Culp said.
“He’s mad because I make jokes about it,” she added. “How do you think I’m going to get through this?”
Anxious about her husband potential release this month, Connie Culp finally made their divorce official in May and moved out of the home they shared in Bloomingdale, Ohio, in her bid to move on.
“He’ll probably move back into the old house,” Connie Culp said.
“His family still own it. He has a restraining order but nobody knows what he’ll do.
“We’ll just have to wait and see.”
As well as her husband, Connie Culp also had to endure children reacting to her damaged face with horror.
“Children would say I was a monster,” she said.
“They didn’t mean anything by it. They were just being kids, but it made me feel worried.
“I got through it by just trying to look at the brighter side of things. I was alive, and I had my children and grandchildren.”
After all she had been through, Connie Culp was eventually put on the face transplant waiting list in October 2008 at the highly prestigious Cleveland Clinic, Ohio.
Dr. Chad Gordon, one of eight surgeons involved in the procedure, said:
“The problems were that we needed a deceased woman from the local area, so that we could get the donor’s face to Connie.
“We needed someone from her age group and of the same blood type, and one who was registered as a donor.
‘In the U.S., not many people sign to be donors, so the odds of finding a match were always slim.”
But on December 10, 2008, just two months later, the team were shocked when they found a match.
A local woman – whose family Connie Culp has now met – had died from a heart attack. It was a chance of giving Connie what she had waited more than four years for.
Calling her to tell her to race to the clinic, Dr. Chad Gordon reminded Connie Culp the procedure could end her life.
“I already had one miracle by surviving the shooting,” Connie Culp said.
“So I thought someone up there might have another one for me.”
The medical team, led by top surgeon Dr. Maria Siemionow at the Cleveland Clinicbattled for over 20 hours to attach her new face.
Doctors hollowed out the damaged section of her face before replacing it with the donor’s which they harvested using a hand-drawn template and plastic model of Connie Culp’s face to guide them.
This entire bone segment – with the donor’s face attached – was raised in one large piece and included both cheek bones, a new upper jaw, a new palate, portions of both orbits, and some donor teeth.
While the transplant has improved things, Connie Culp knows her serious medical battle will last the rest of her life.
“Everyone assumes you’re better and forgets about it after the transplant. I hope to show the world that this isn’t the case for people like me.
“You still have to fight and live with the memories of why you needed one every day.”
A nurse visits Connie Culp three times a week to check her health and make sure her body isn’t rejecting her new face.
Each day Connie Culp also takes a cocktail of prescription drugs to help her body cope.
With a tiny amount of sight left in her left eye, she struggles to see and finds it hard to do most daily tasks alone.
But Connie Culp has a number of techno gadgets to get by.
“A talking pill box in my bedroom tells me when it’s time to take my medicine and dispenses the right doses,” she said.
“My talking alarm clock lets me know what the time is every hour, and a clothes scanner tells me what colours my outfits are, so I don’t mismatch.
“Otherwise I’d be going out with odd socks on.”
Connie Culp also walks with a cane, while her local shopkeepers help her to choose the right brands of food.
A document magnifier helps Connie Culp to see her old family photographs of happier times, and read letters and bills.
And after taking her medicine each day, Connie Culp carefully applies her makeup, staring at her reflection in her bathroom mirror.
“Now I can go out and hold my head up high. It’s improved my looks so much. It’s hard for me to see exactly what I look like because I can see only shapes really, with no definition.
“I know it’s not my face, but I feel thankful that I have one now.”
Connie Culp enjoys a new love of life, playing with 4 year-old grandson Maddox, and spending time with her children Steven and Alicia, who helps with work around the house.
The attack and face transplant has given Connie Culp a new love of life and she enjoys playing with her grandson Maddox, with help from daughter Alicia
Connie Culp regularly tries one of the exercises she needs to perform to keep her face adapting.
“I hold a toothbrush between for my lips for as long as I can but I can only do a few seconds.”
“It’s the little things that are my goals. I want to be able to drink a milkshake through a straw again. But I haven’t got enough strength.
“Smiling is also tough. I can do angry when Maddox is being naughty, but I want him to see me smile too. That’s another goal.
“They say it takes more muscles to frown than it does to smile, so I don’t know why so many people walk around frowning all the time. They should just smile because it’s less work.”
Connie Culp’s other goals have involved helping others. She attends conventions as an ambassador and promotes organ donation, which made her life bearable again.
“If my work can raise the number of donors and get transplant for others, then that would be a good thing.”
Connie Culp’s fighting spirit has earned her admiration from around the world.
“I was given a miracle when I survived the shooting,”she said. ” Then I got a second miracle when I survived the face transplant.”
“It’s still tough, but my life is so much better now.”
Dubbed “the biggest live music event in radio history,” iHeartRadio Music Festival has taken over Las Vegas this weekend.
The inaugural iHeartRadio festival, hosted by Ryan Seacrest and Elvis Duran, was held at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on September 23 and September 24.
Biggest pop radio stars took the stage at the iHeartRadio Music Festival.The festival started on Friday with the Black Eyed Peas.
The Black Eyed Peas at iHeartRadio Music Festival
The band opened with laser lights, a cadre of jailbird-themed backup dancers, and one of their biggest hits, Boom Boom Pow. The audience (12,000 people) danced listening to Just Can’t Get Enough, Don’t Stop the Party,The Time (Dirty Bit), I Gotta Feeling.
With huge screens flanking the stage, and numerous confetti blasts iHeartRadio Music Festival enchanted and energized the public. Ryan Seacrest first appeared after the Black Eyed Peas left the stage. “This weekend all roads lead to Vegas,” he said and later announced Lady GaGa would appear on Saturday night with Sting, something that made the fans to go wild.
Kelly Clarkson, World Idol runner-up, launched with Walk Away, followed by Because of You, then new radio offering: Mr. Know It All, and in the end, My Life Would Suck Without You.
Bruno Mars took the stage with The Lazy Song, Grenade, Just the Way You Are. He paid a tribute to Amy Winehouse (as he did on the VMA 2011), singing his cover of Valerie, Amy’s photos appeared on the screens behind him and a brass quartet waved their horns in unison.
Bruno Mars at iHeartRadio Music Festival
Carrie Underwood, American Idol winner, sang Cowboy Casanova, Last Name, Before He Cheats, which made the attendees to stand up.
Karmin, YouTube sensation, did an inducing performance of Nicki Minaj’s Super Bass, then Jane’s Addiction came with Mountain Song, Been Caught Stealing, Irresistible Force.
Coldplay electrified the party-goers with the symphonic, opening of Viva la Vida, made the fans to cry with Fix You, and brought excitement for their latest single, Paradise. Chris Martin wins the award for Best Stage Collapse, fireworks dusted the stage as Martin rolled over backward and a psychedelic piano joined him at the end of Vida. Chris Martin urged the public to join him in a mournful chorus of Amy Winehouse’s Rehab.
Coldplay at iHeartRadio Music Festival
Alicia Keys performed Try Sleeping With a Broken Heart, No One, and Jay-Z appeared on stage. Everyone sang along to: “bright lights, big city!” J-Z doled out a stream of his hits: Big Pimpin’, 99 Problems, Dirt Off Your Shoulder, Izzo (H.O.V.A.), Empire State of Mind with Alicia Key. The rapper bounced across a stage outfitted with two drum sets and two guitarists and swung two gold chains hanging from his neck.
Jay-Z and Alicia Keys at iHeartRadio Music Festival
On the second day of the iHeartRadio Music Festival Steven Tyler (with special guest Jeff Beck), Nicki Minaj, Rascal Flatts, Jennifer Lopez, Sublime with Rome, David Guetta (with special guest Usher), Kenny Chesney, Nicole Scherzinger (special appearance) and the most waiting Lady Gaga (with special guest Sting) made the concert-goers to dance and sing frenetically.
The American Idol judge, Jennifer Lopez, wore a candy apple red frock, and performed Papi, Get Right and Lets Get Loud.
Jennifer Lopez at iHeartRadio Music Festival
Usher took the stage to support David Guetta and performed Without You (their new international dance anthem), some said it was an unusually calm rendition, but others found it amazing.
Lady GaGa‘s grimace of a nervous artist with something to prove was replaced with a playful stage presence, the public enjoyed her hits from Bad Romance to You and I, Poker Face, Edge of Glory, Just Dance/Love Game, Born This Way, Sheiße/Judas, Alejandro/Telephone&Paparazzi.
Lady Gaga hid her tears and dedicated Hair to Jamey Rodemeyer, 14, who apparently committed suicide because was bullied at school. She sang while his image appeared on the screen behind her.
“I know it’s a bit of a downer, but sometimes the right thing is more important than the music,” she said. Lady Gaga stopped and said “Bullying is for losers,” before ending and said to Jamey in Heaven: “Jamey, you’re not a freak.”
Sting (The Police) and Lady Gaga began with Stand by Me before Sting took his guitar and sang along with the piano-playing Gaga to a funky King of Pain. She closed the show in a thong for Born This Way.
Lady Gaga and Sting at iHeartRadio Music Festival
iHeartRadio Music Festival was the grand opening of iHeartRadio, Clear Channel’s free digital radio product combining more than 800 broadcast radio and digital-only stations from 150 cities.
iHeartRadio, Clear Channel’s revamped free personalized music website allows users to create custom radio stations and is meant to compete with the web’s most popular online music service (Pandora). The beta site launched September 8. BlackBerry, iPhone, iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPad, iPad 2, and iPod Touch, Android, webOS (Palm Pre/HP TouchPad), Windows Phone 7 are devices that support it.
At the iHeartRadio Music Festival more than 53% of ticket buyers live more than 1,000 miles away from the festival. Tickets sold out in 10 minutes.
iHeartRadio Music Festival was broadcasted to more than 10 million radio listeners across the country.
Lady GaGa plays Hair at iHeartRadio Music Festival (video)
[youtube LCjxE2XDjro]
The Black Eyed Peas opens at iHeartRadio Music Festival (video)
[youtube e-DiiaYV0GY]
Bruno Mars plays Valerie at iHeartRadio Music Festival (video)
[youtube n04Ss2LjtW0]
Lady GaGa and Sting play Stand by Me at iHeartRadio Music Festival (video)
[youtube dEHf0ll9bQg]
Lady GaGa plays You and I at iHeartRadio Music Festival (video)
[youtube Jykw_ylUhE8]
Lady GaGa plays Sheiße/Judas at iHeartRadio Music Festival (video)
[youtube q7x4qOzf-Go]
Lawrence Brewer’s over-the-top meal, who was executed on Wednesday night for the dragging death of James Byrd, meant the end of the death row intimates last meal requests.
Houston State Senator John Whitmire wrote to the executive director of the Texas Criminal Justice Division saying that he had long opposed the practice, and that “enough is enough.”
Senator Whitmire said the last meal request is an “extremely inappropriate privilege”, one which “the perpetrator did not provide to their victim.”
Before he was executed, the white supremacist Lawrence Brewer ordered an enormous meal containing 3,500 calories.
His last meal consisted of two chicken fried steaks, a triple bacon cheeseburger, a bowl of fried okra, a cheese omelette, barbeque, fajitas, pizza and peanut butter fudge with crushed peanuts.
Lawrence Russell Brewer arriving at court in a bulletproof vest in 1999
According to Houstonpress.com, executive director Brad Livingston agreed with Senator Whitmire.
“I believe Senator Whitmire’s concerns regarding the practice of allowing death row offenders to choose their last meal are valid.
“Effective immediately, no such accommodations will be made. They will receive the same meal served to other offenders on the unit.”
The 44 year-old Lawrence Brewer, was put to death by lethal injection for his part in the 1998 killing of James Byrd in Jasper, East Texas.
Lawrence Brewer was one of three men convicted of killing James Byrd after they offered him a lift along a remote country road.
James Byrd, 49, was beaten unconscious and urinated upon before being bound to the vehicle by his ankles with a heavy logging chain and driven for three miles.
James Byrd Jr died after being chained to the bumper of a pick-up truck by Lawrence Brewer and two other white supremacists
According to forensic evidence, James Byrd was alive for much of the ordeal but was killed when the vehicle hit a concrete drainage channel causing his head and arm to be ripped from his body.
John William King, 36, was also convicted of capital murder and sent to death row. His case remains under appeal. The third man, Shawn Berry, 36, received a life prison term.
After dumping his remains in an African-American cemetery his killers drove off to a barbeque.
Lawrence Brewer told KFDM in an interview that he participated in the assault on James Byrd but had “nothing to do with the killing as far as dragging him or driving the truck or anything”.
Brewer told also his execution would be a “good out” and he’s “glad it’s about to come to an end”.
Texas Department of Criminal Justice said Lawrence Brewer‘s family was allowed to see him one last time yesterday morning.
Lawrence Brewer was then taken from the Polunsky Unit in Livingston to an isolation cell in Huntsville where the sentence was carried out.
James Byrd’s death led to the “Federal October 22, 2009 Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr Hate Crimes Prevention Act”, commonly known as the “Matthew Shepard Act”.
US President Barack Obama signed the bill into law on October 28, 2009.
The brutal death put Jasper, a typical East Texas town with a Dairy Queen, Walmart and a handful of fast-food places some 60 miles from the nearest interstate highway, under a national spotlight.
“Everywhere you went, anywhere in the country, once people found out you were from Jasper, Texas, they wanted to ask you about it,” said Mike Lout, mayor and the Jasper radio station owner.
“Everybody first was shocked and appalled and not proud of it. They talked about it so much in the days past it, I think most people wanted to put it out of their minds.”
“It’s heartbreaking,” said Billy Rowles, who was sheriff at the time of James Byrd’s murder.
“A lot of effort and hard work and soul-searching went into trying to live down the stereotype. It’s so easy to get back into that mode.”
Lawrence Brewer’s huge last meal had echoes of that enjoyed by Robert Harris in 1992, who killed two teenage boys. Harris had a chicken bucket, two large pizzas, a Pepsi six-pack, jelly beans and Camel cigarettes.
The subject of last meals before execution has thrown up some interesting results over the last few decades, with James Smith being refused a request of dirt in 1990 and instead eating yoghurt.
Texas governor Rick Perry engaged in persuasive dispute with his rivals at Thursday night’s GOP presidential debate in Orlando. Social Security, immigration, border security and Perry’s 2007 executive order mandating that middle-school girls be vaccinated against the sexually transmitted HPV virus that can cause cervical cancer were the main topics. Texas governor Rick Perry struggled to reply to his critics in the latest debate between Republican contenders.
-
-
Gop Presidential debate
-
Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann said Perry supported the vaccine as a political favor to a pharmaceutical company, Merck, which donated to his campaigns.
For Rick Perry, the uninspired performance raises fears among Republicans that he would fail to dent Barack Obama in the high-profile presidential debates during the 2012 general election.
Mitt Romney, former Massachusetts governor and Rick Perry’s main rival, was polite and more fluent, especially as the debate wore on, although he avoided making detailed responses.
The Texas governor also saw his once immaculate conservative credentials come under fire when Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum pointed out a 2001 law signed by Perry that gave higher education tuition breaks to the children of illegal immigrants.
Perry hit back hard and questioned whether Santorum had even been to the border before. He hotly defended the policy, accusing critics of seeking to punish children for the sins of their parents.
“If you say that we should not educate children that have come into our state for no other reason than they’ve been brought here by no fault of their own, I don’t think you have a heart”
During the GOP presidential debate, he specifically mentioned his support for Arizona’s controversial immigration law:
“The fact of the matter is this: There is nobody on this stage who has spent more time working on border security than I have. For a decade, I’ve been the governor of a state with a 1,200-mile border with Mexico. We put $400 million of our taxpayer money into securing that border. We’ve got our Texas Ranger recon teams there now. I supported Arizona’s immigration law by joining in that lawsuit to defend it.”
Romney questioned Perry’s commitment to protecting Social Security in a state with nearly 4 million citizens who depend on the entitlement program.
Rick Perry rebuffed Romney’s accusation that he wants to eliminate Social Security at the federal level and let the entitlement program be managed by the states.
“It’s not the first time that Mitt has been wrong on some issues so far,” Perry said. “The bottom line is, we never said we would move that back to the states.”
Perry swore a “solemn oath” to protect the program and said states, as a cost-saving measure, should allow Social Security recipients to opt out of the program if they choose.
The GOP presidential debate also revealed an ugly side of the Republican party when a member of the US armed forces appeared on video to tell the candidates that he was gay and that he had been forced to lie about his identity when he was deployed to Iraq in 2010 because he didn’t want to lose his job. Then he asked if the candidates would “do anything to circumvent the progress that’s been made for gay and lesbian soldiers” now that the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy has been officially repealed.
[youtube h8pcJ6Hh4Y0]
When the video ended a handful of very loud boos erupted in the debate hall. Otherwise there was silence – not one cheer for an active duty soldier asking the candidates if they’d let him continue serving his country without lying. No other voter-submitted question all night elicited such a harsh response.
The question was addressed to Rick Santorum, who made things worse by not offering any words of appreciation for Hill’s service. Instead, he declared that “any type of sexual activity has absolutely no place in the military,” that gays and lesbians have been given “a special privilege” by the repeal of DADT, and that the basic function of the military has been undermined because of it. This response produced loud applause and cheers.
Rhonda Cook from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, JoAnn Merrigan of WSAV News in Savannah and Greg Bluestein of the Associated Press, who all have covered more than 20 executions between them in the past, were three of five reporters allowed to watch the controversial death of Troy Davis at Georgia State Prison last night.
Troy Davis, who murdered an off-duty police officer, was executed by lethal injection after a tense four-hour delay. Here is what the reporters witnessed:
Rhonda Cook, Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
Just after 10:30 Wednesday night two words stopped the conversation among reporters instantly.
“Y’all ready?” a correctional officer asked.
We were moments away from witnessing an execution. Media witnesses are as much a part of the execution process as the officers who escort the inmate to the death chamber or the officers who strap the condemned to a gurney.
Troy Davis was put to death in Jackson, Georgia, last night
Wednesday, we were there as unbiased witnesses, sitting on the back row. Our seats were behind those there on behalf of the condemned and those who prosecuted or arrested Troy Davis for the 1989 murder of Savannah police officer Mark Allen MacPhail. The dead officer’s son and namesake, Mark MacPhail Jr., and his brother, William MacPhail, were there for the family.
We spoke little from that moment on, the five reporters selected to witness the execution.
As the officer called our names, we lined up and left the room where we had waited for so long, oblivious to the last-ditch effort to spare Davis and the police presence and protests beyond the prison’s walls.
In the death chamber, we took our seats on the last of three pews.
Warden Carl Humphrey began the process by reading the execution order signed by Chatham County Judge Penny Haas Freesmann. “The court having sentenced defendant Troy Anthony Davis on the third day of September, 1991, to be executed….”
Then he asked Davis if he has any final words.
Yes, the condemned man said and he raised his head so he could look at Mark MacPhail Jr., who was an infant when his father was murdered, and William MacPhail, the dead officer’s brother.
“I’m sorry for your loss,” Davis said.
Mark MacPhail, who was leaning forward, and his uncle did not move. They stared at the man who killed their loved one.
“I did not personally kill your son, father and brother,” Davis said. “I am innocent.”
He asked his family and friends to continue to search for the truth.
And to the prison officials he said: “May God have mercy on your souls. May God bless your souls.”
He then lowered his head. He turned down an offer for a prayer.
Within minutes, Troy Anthony Davis slipped out of consciousness and in 14 minutes he was dead.
A three-drug cocktail ended his life. First pentobarbital put Davis in a drug-induced coma. The paralytic pancuronium bromide was second. Potassium chloride stopped Davis’ heart.
“The court ordered execution of Troy Anthony Davis was carried out in accordance with the laws of the state of Georgia,” the warden announced.
Curtains in the death chamber were closed and we were quickly ushered out.
Waiting for us at the media staging area was a line of correctional officers, deputy sheriffs and state troopers blocking protesters from crossing Georgia Highway 36 onto prison property and hoards of local, national and international reporters waiting for the reporters who witnessed the execution to describe what happened.
He went peacefully, one of the reporters said
Greg Bluestein, Associated Press:
It didn’t take long to notice Troy Davis’ execution was different from the others I’ve covered. As I drove up to the prison, I could see the crowds of protesters and a group of at least 50 reporters.
I’ve covered about 10 executions in Georgia. None of them are easy. This was by far the most unusual.
There were four reporters besides me there to witness the execution.
We ended up waiting for more than four hours in a sombre prison break room. We made small talk and speculated about whether the U.S. Supreme Court could intervene. At times, it was silent.
Around 10:30 p.m., a guard walked in and said: “You ready?”
Execution chamber at Georgia State Prison in Jackson, where Troy Davis was sedated, strapped to a gurney and given a lethal injection
We were led into a white van and, after passing through several security checkpoints, we were delivered to the squat white building on the edge of the prison that serves as the death chamber. We watched the slain officer’s son, Mark MacPhail Jr., enter the building. Behind him, Jason Ewart, the condemned man’s attorney, walked in. A county coroner’s van rolled up.
By the time we were inside, officials had already strapped Davis to the gurney. There was a glass window with a curtain separating Davis from the witnesses, who sat in three rows of seats. There were about 20 of us.
Davis searched for Ewart, who nodded slightly when they locked eyes. MacPhail Jr., sitting in the front row, focused on Davis.
When it was time to deliver his last words, Davis’ seized the moment, speaking quickly and confidently.
He told the MacPhail family he was not responsible for the death. “I am innocent. The incident that happened that night is not my fault,” he said.
Davis urged his supporters to “continue to fight the fight.” And just before the lethal drugs coursed through his veins, he offered a message to his executioners: “God have mercy on your souls.”
Davis blinked his eyes rapidly. He squeezed them tight. The curtain closed.
JoAnn Merrigan, WSAV News:
Prison officials arrived to take me to the prison at 5:45pm. I arrived at the State Prison in Jackson, Georgia at 5:50pm.
At 6:02, I was taken into a waiting room where I stayed for around four hours with no knowledge of what was going on. Every so often, someone would come in and say the execution had been delayed.
Around 9:00pm, I went to the bathroom and heard some people talking.
Around 10:20pm, an official came and brought me out into a hallway where I was told to stop. Three men, including the warden, were walking around. Attorney General Sam Olens was also there. He walked quickly one way, then the other. Then the prison official said it was time to go around 10:25pm.
I got into a car with three attorneys from the Attorney General’s office, and rode along with a caravan of cars to a building. The drive took around two minutes, and we arrived at 10:27pm.
I walked into the room and sat in the front row, about a dozen people were also in the room. The room had a window showing the execution chamber.
Two men came in, the warden and another man.
Then five guards escorted in Troy Davis and laid him down on the gurney. He appeared calm at this time.
The five guards began methodically strapping in Davis. They started with each foot first, then each knee, then each arm.
A fifth strap was laid across Davis’s shoulders.
At this point, Davis picked up his head to look around the room. I was about four to five feet from the window.
Two women then came in with heart monitoring equipment and strapped it to his chest. No one in the room spoke.
The two women then put a syringe into each arm, the left first then the right. Long tubes connected the needles through two holes in the cement wall. I understand that tubes were connected to two intravenous drips containing the chemicals.
At this point, Davis raised his head for a second time to look at the room beyond the window.
Two guards then placed surgical tape around Davis’s fingertips, strapping them to the gurney.
The bed was then raised to an upright angle, facing the crowd. I could see him clearly, being only four to five feet from the window.
I then moved to the back of the room. At this point, the family of Officer Mark MacPhail, including Billy MacPhail the brother, and Mark MacPhail Jr, the son, entered the room and sat in the front row.
There were also other witnesses, totalling eight people, who also sat in the front row.
Defence attorneys Jason Ewart and Thomas Ruffin came in and sat in the second row with others.
At this point, other media witnesses were brought in and they sat in the back row with me. A total of around 30 people were in the room.
About 15 minutes had passed since I first entered the room.
A microphone was turned on and the warden said, ‘We are here for the execution of Troy Anthony Davis with all witnesses present.’ He also asked that the witnesses remain silent. He then asked Davis if he had anything he wanted to say. Davis replied: “Yes.”
Davis said: “I want to address the members of the MacPhail family. Despite the situation we are all in, you think I’ve killed your father, your brother, your husband, I’m not the person, I’m innocent, what happened was not my fault, I did not have a gun that night, I did not shoot your family member. I’m so sorry for your loss, I really am. I hope you will finally see the truth and others will, too. To my family and supporters, thank you for your prayers and continue to pray. For those about to take my life, I forgive you. God bless you all.”
The warden then read the death warrant. Davis looked out at the crowd, and though he seemed calm, it did appear he was somewhat scared.
The room was very quiet when the injections began.
First, Davis received an injection of pentobarbital, a sedative. Second, he received an injection of pancuronium bromide, a muscle relaxer. Lastly, he was injected with potassium chloride to induce cardiac arrest.
After a short amount of time, Davis yawned then closed his eyes.
The room was quiet and all I heard was my pencil moving over paper.
A woman then came in and checked his eyes, then there was a ‘beep.’ Mark MacPhail Jr was leaning towards the window.
The microphone was turned on again, and two doctors entered the room wearing long white coats.
One doctor checked his pulse and placed a stethoscope on his chest. Then the second doctor performed the same procedure. At the end, the second doctor looked at the first and nodded his head.
The warden then said: “At 11:08 September 21st, the court ordered execution of Troy Davis was carried out in accordance with the laws of Georgia.”
I was escorted out of the room and saw a black Butts County coroner’s van of outside the building.
About 30 to 35 minutes had passed by the time I entered the room, until the time Davis was pronounced.
A report of Alzheimer’s disease International (ADI) published in 2009, said there were 35.6 million people were with dementia and Alzheimer’s and it was expected that the number would increase to 65.7 million by 2030.
Alzheimer’s is a type of dementia that is a collective name for progressive degenerative brain syndromes. They affect memory, thinking, behavior, intellect, personality and emotion. Symptoms may include loss of memory, difficulty in finding the right words or understanding what people are saying, difficulty in performing previously routine tasks, personality and mood change. In the last stage of Alzheimer’s a person is totally dependent of care-givers and might have swallowing difficulties, is very thin and dies of infections or other diseases.
Although age, family history, and genes play a major role in determining Alzheimer’s risk, there are several ways to prevent Alzheimer’s or slower its progression.
Sleep. Getting enough sleep helps to consolidate memory, and an afternoon nap might lock-in long-term memoires faster. Sleep deprivation could stimulate the production of amyloid plaques and cause the progression of Alzheimer’s disease. Lack of sleep also affects hormones’ balance and metabolism, leading to diabetes, weight gain, and making a person to look older. Sleeping less than eight hours a night also increases risk of heart attack, stroke, and depression and weakens immune system, so one gets cold much easier.
Getting enough sleep is a way to lower Alzheimer’s risk.
Music. The capacity for music tends to be affected by Alzheimer’s disease differently than other brain functions. “It appears that words to a song get encoded in a different place in the brain than the words we use in speech, and it appears that people with Alzheimer’s actually preserve the music, and the words that go to music, long after much of the rest of the brain is not functioning well,” said Elaine Bearer, professor of neuroscience at the University of New Mexico. Also listening to relaxing melodies, singing or playing an instrument keep the brain in a good shape.
Intellectual activities. People who keep their brains active may be at less risk of developing Alzheimer’s. Reading, engaging in a hobby such as playing bridge or chess, or doing crosswords and word puzzles may help to reduce risk.
Wine. A glass of wine a day appears to reduce the risk of cognitive decline that occurs with normal aging as well as Alzheimer’s. A study found that those who had a drink a day through the years had about a 25% lower risk of developing Alzheimer’s in old age compared with those who didn’t drink at all. Heavier drinking increased the risk of cognitive decline more than non-drinking. A glass of wine could also prevent heart and vascular illness and help you to relax and sleep better. However, if you have Alzheimer’s, a liver condition, or other diseases that get worsen by alcohol, you should avoid it.
Stop smoking. Smokers have a 72% greater risk of developing Alzheimer’s found the researchers from the University of California, San Francisco after excluding studies sponsored by the tobacco industry. Industry-funded studies found that smokers had a lower risk. Besides lowering lung cancer’s risk, quitting smoking also can help you to sleep better, thinking more clear, being relaxed. Stopping smoking improves your complexion, reduces your wrinkles, and lowers heart attack and stroke’s risks.
Control blood sugar. A Japanese study showed that diabetes could raise Alzheimer’s risk up to three times. Those with higher than normal blood sugar levels, or prediabetes, also have a higher risk. High blood sugar levels (hyperglycemia) could be reverse through eight hours a night sleep, weight loss, daily walks, and a reduction in sweets and other processed foods.
Control cholesterol levels. High cholesterol levels are associated with changes in the brain that are hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease. A study that examined the brains on autopsy found that participants who had high total cholesterol levels (over 224 mg/dL) in mid- to late life were seven times more likely than those with low cholesterol (under 173 mg/dL) to have the beta-amyloid plaques in their brain when they died a decade or two later. Eating low-fat or fat-free dairy products and limiting your intake of red meat can help lower cholesterol levels. The onion and garlic consumed daily are great helpers in prevention of atherosclerosis, by reducing cholesterol level. Also the goal can be reached through weight loss and daily exercise.
Weight loss. Losing weight can also prevent the Alzheimer’s since a study showed that obesity duration increased type 2 diabetes risk, and other study said the diabetes could raise the risk of Alzheimer’s.
Exercise. A daily walk is good for the brain, and getting yourself sweaty several times a week is even better. Studies have shown that aerobic exercise (brisk walking, biking, swimming, or dancing) can reduce the risk of dementia and slow the progression of Alzheimer’s.
Alzheimer’s disease is the most common type of dementia in old age. After the age of 65, at every five years, the number of people with Alzheimer’s doubles.
Alzheimer’s is common in people over 65, but can affects younger people too.
US Against Alzheimer’s said one in eight 65-year-old already has the disease, which has no effective treatment, and is ultimately fatal.
Although Alzheimer’s appears in people over 65, like legendary crooner Glenn Campbell (75), early-onset dementia can be found in younger persons, like basketball coach Pat Summitt (59).
The Colorado-grown cantaloupes death toll has risen to eight in an outbreak of Listeria, officials said Wednesday.
The CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) said that a person in Maryland died from eating the tainted produce. Four other deaths have been reported in New Mexico and two in Colorado, and one person has died in Oklahoma.
According to the CDC, 55 people in 14 states have now been confirmed as sickened from eating the cantaloupes.
At the beginning of this week, the CDC reported 4 deaths and 35 illnesses in 10 states due to Listeria infection.
The death count due to Listeria infection is the highest in a known food outbreak since tainted peanuts were linked to nine deaths almost three years ago and could go even higher.
The Colorado-grown cantaloupes death toll has risen to eight in an outbreak of Listeria
CDC said illnesses in several other states potentially connected to Listeria outbreak were under investigation, the Associated Press reports.
Listeria infections have been reported in California, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming.
Colorado has the most illnesses with 14 sickened, followed by New Mexico with 10, Texas with nine and Oklahoma with eight.
Listeria outbreak has been traced to cantaloupes from Jensen Farms in Holly, Colorado, which recalled the tainted produce last week.
The FDA (Food and Drug Administration) said Monday that it had found Listeria in samples of Jensen Farms’ cantaloupes taken from a Denver-area store and on samples taken from equipment and cantaloupes at the farm’s packing facility.
The FDA tests confirmed that the samples matched strains of the disease found in those sickened.
According to Jensen Farms, the recalled Rocky Ford-brand cantaloupes were shipped from July 29 through September 10 to Illinois, Wyoming, Tennessee, Utah, Texas, Colorado, Minnesota, Kansas, New Mexico, North Carolina, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Arizona, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania.
But the FDA said it is possible the company distributed to other states as well.
The recalled cantaloupe may be labelled “Colorado Grown,” “Distributed by Frontera Produce,” “Jensenfarms.com” or “Sweet Rocky Fords.”
But not all of the recalled cantaloupes are labelled with a sticker, the FDA said.
In a statement, Jensen Farms said:
“We are deeply saddened to learn that cantaloupes grown on our farm have been linked to the current listeria outbreak. Our hearts go out to those individuals and their families who have been affected by this terrible situation.”
One of the labels from the recalled cantaloupe of Jensen Farms
Jensen Farms said it has hired an independent food safety expert to help determine the cause of the problem and how to address it.
According to health officials, the number of illnesses and deaths could continue to grow because the incubation period for Listeria can be up to a month.
Unlike many pathogens, Listeria bacteria can grow at room and refrigerator temperatures.
The FDA and CDC recommend anyone who may have one of the contaminated cantaloupes throw it out immediately.
About 800 cases of Listeria are found in the United States each year, according to CDC, and there usually are three or four outbreaks.
Most of outbreaks are traced to deli meat and soft cheeses, where Listeria is most common.
Produce has rarely been the culprit, but federal investigators say they have seen more produce-related listeria illnesses in the past two years.
It was found in sprouts in 2009 and celery in 2010.
While most healthy adults can consume Listeria with no ill effects, it can kill the elderly and those with compromised immune systems.
Listeria is also dangerous to pregnant women because it easily passes through to the fetus.
In the current Listeria outbreak, the median age of those sickened is 78, according to the CDC.
Symptoms of Listeria infection include fever and muscle aches, often with other gastrointestinal symptoms.
Troy Davis was convicted of the August 19, 1989, murder of Georgia police officer Mark MacPhail, who was working as a security guard at a Burger King when he intervened in an argument between several men in a nearby parking lot.
Mark MacPhail was shot in the heart and face without having drawn his gun.
One of the men, Sylvester Coles, went to police and implicated Troy Davis in the killing, and he was arrested four days later.
During Troy Davis’ 1991 trial, many witnesses testified they had seen him shooting MacPhail. Two other witnesses testified that Troy Davis had confessed the murder to them.
Troy Davis was convicted of the August 19, 1989, murder of Georgia police officer Mark MacPhail
The murder weapon was never found, and no physical evidence linked Troy Davis to the crime.
Throughout his trial and subsequent appeals, Troy Davis has maintained his innocence but was sentenced to death in August 1991.
Seven of nine witnesses to the murder changed or recanted their testimony in recent years. Several stated they had felt pressure by police to implicate Troy Davis.
New witnesses implicated Sylvester Coles in the crime.
Many appeals in state and federal courts followed, Troy Davis and his lawyers arguing that the racial composition of the jury and poor advocacy from his lawyers had affected his right to a fair trial.
In an August 2010 decision, the conviction was upheld, with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia declaring that the new evidence cast only ‘minimal doubt on his conviction’. Subsequent appeals, including to the Supreme Court, were rejected.
Police officer Mark MacPhail was shot dead in Savannah, Georgia, in August 1989
In July 2007, September 2008, and October 2008, Troy Davis execution dates were scheduled but stayed shortly before the events took place.
Troy Davis is set to be executed by lethal injection on September 21, 2011, at 7:00 pm, as he has lost a bid for clemency launched by his defense lawyers.
In the last day of his life, he declined to order a special last meal. Troy Davis will be served what’s on the menu at the Georgia state prison in Jackson before his execution – grilled cheeseburger, oven-browned potatoes, baked beans, coleslaw, cookies and a grape beverage.
Biopharmaceutical company Oxigene has presented data that showed Zybrestat (fosbretabulin) helped improve the one-year survival rate of patients with larger anaplastic thyroid cancer tumors.
The presentation was made on September 14 at the 35th Meeting of the European Thyroid Association, in Krakow, Poland. The presenter was Dr. Rossella Elisei, endocrinologist, University of Pisa, Italy.
Combrestatin, from which Zybrestat derived, is present in the bark of Eastern Cape South African bushwillow tree.
A comparison was made between the results of the company’s aggregate data from five independent prospective Phase 1 and Phase 2 trials using Zybrestat to treat patients with anaplastic thyroid cancer (ATC), including the FACT trial, and data from the 50-year experience in treating ATC patients at the Mayo Clinic from 1949 to 1999, published by Dr. Bryan McIver. FACT trial is a large single, randomized, controlled, multi-center clinical trial, and the Mayo studies comprise a large retrospective review of the treatment outcomes in ATC.
There were three key findings from the retrospective analysis.
13 patients or 9.7% of all 134 ATC patients treated at the Mayo Clinic survived one year or more.
19 patients or 23% of all 84 ATC patients treated with Zybrestat either alone or in combination with chemotherapy survived more than one year. The longest survival is 13+ years in a patient with a complete response.
The 9% rate of patients in the control arm of the FACT study surviving one year is almost identical to the observed 9% in the larger Mayo cohort.
Direct comparisons between the FACT trial and the Mayo Group have to be interpreted with the caveat that there were changes in standard-of-care treatment over the past 50 years, as well as differences in staging, sample size, and time-to-death.
“The 24% of patients treated with Zybrestat in the FACT study surviving one year or longer remains striking in its significance. Patients treated with Zybrestat essentially had a one-in-four chance of being alive after one year compared to only a one-in-10 chance in the control group, which corresponds to the survival outcome in the Mayo Clinic treated group.” Said Dr. Peter J. Langecker, Oxigene’s CEO.
Oxigene earlier this month saw shares slump after it said funding for a planned Phase 3 study of the drug candidate wasn’t feasible. Langecker said the company believes focusing its clinical resources on its most promising early-stage clinical development opportunities and reducing operating costs will allow it to conserve available resources.
Previously referred to as combretastatin A4 phosphate/CA4P, Zybrestat (fosbretabulin) has been granted orphan drug status by the FDA and the European Medicines Agency for the treatment of anaplastic thyroid cancer.
Zybrestat is being evaluated in a Phase 2 study of patients with non-squamous non-small cell lung cancer and other clinical trials, including a recently completed Phase 2 study of Zybrestat plus chemotherapy in patients with ATC. Oxigene believes that Zybrestat is poised to become an important product in a novel class of small-molecule drug candidates called vascular disrupting agents (VDA). Through interaction with vascular endothelial cell cytoskeletal proteins, Zybrestat selectively targets and collapses tumor vasculature, thereby depriving the tumor of oxygen and causing death of tumor cells. In clinical trials in solid tumors, Zybrestat has demonstrated potent and selective activity against tumor vasculature, as well as clinical activity against anaplastic thyroid cancer, ovarian cancer and various other solid tumors.
Zybrestat collapses tumor vasculature and interrupts its blood flow, leading to the death of cancer cells.
The concept of interrupting tumors’ blood supply was first described in the early 1970s and led to the development of a new class of anti-cancer drugs called angiogenesis inhibitors.
Zybrestat is the first VDA to be tested in combination with a tumor-angiogenesis-inhibiting drug Avastin (bevacizumab) in humans.
The thyroid is an endocrine gland and its hormones help control heart rate, blood pressure, body temperature, and weight. Four main types of thyroid cancer are papillary, follicular, medullary, and anaplastic thyroid cancer.
Thyroid's hormones help control heart rate, blood pressure, body temperature, and weight. Zybrestat could help increase survival of anaplastic thyroid carcinoma patients.
Anaplastic thyroid cancer is a very aggressive primary thyroid malignancy. ATC represents less than 2% of all thyroid cancers, but causes up to 40% of deaths from thyroid cancer. Median life expectancy is about three months for newly diagnosed patients. The overall 5-year survival rate of ATC has been given as 7% or 14%.
National Cancer Institute estimates 48,020 new cases and 1,740 deaths from thyroid cancer in the U. S. in 2011.
Fosbretabulin (Zybrestat), bortezomib (Velcade) and TNF-Related Apoptosis Induced Ligand (TRAIL), are being trialed in clinical labs and human clinical studies.
Marc Anthony seemed to crack under the emotion when he ended up weeping live on stage in Miami and cried when his fans sang him happy birthday.
Marc Anthony, who turned 43 on September 16, soon composed himself, and gave a trademark blisteringly passionate performance for his fans.
Marc Anthony in tears on stage of Miami
The latino singer performed mostly in Spanish, but still managed to keep the enthusiastic audience on their feet all night.
At one point Marc Anthony again hinted at his recent heartache after the breakup of his marriage, he introduced his suffering in love song Until I Met You, Hasta Que Te Conoci, and called it “complicated”.
Visibly touched, Marc Anthony has thanked the crowd for “all your love and support, especially this year; it means a lot to me.”
Later in the evening, his teenage daughter Ariana presented him with a three-tier, black and white birthday cake, while the crowd serenaded him once again.
Marc Anthony said: “Who in the world could say they’re spending their birthday like this? I’m a very lucky man.”
But Marc Anthony did not stop there, as around midnight he went to a private birthday party at Club 50 inside Miami’s Viceroy Hotel with around 150 close friends.
Marc Anthony and daughter Ariana at his birthday party
When Marc Anthony was asked what he wished for as he was blowing out the candles, he cryptically replied that he “already had his wish.”
However, Marc turned out to be a bit of a party lightweight as after telling chums he was issuing an “executive order to stay, drink as much as you can and party all night,” he slunk off to get some rest before the rest of his weekend concerts.
But before he left Marc Anthony added: “I feel like I am home, thanks for showing up. It’s mind-boggling.”
[youtube wPBPOLUxUeI]
Kweku Adoboli is the suspected rogue trader who was arrested in London at early hours today on suspicion of losing $2 billion of UBS, the major investment Swiss bank group.
Ghanaian Kweku Adoboli, 31, was detained on suspicion of committing fraud while working at Swiss bank UBS, after police raided his home at 3.30am.
After the raid UBS shares fell by 8%, as the bank warned that the unauthorized trading could tip the firm into a third-quarter loss.
Kweku Adoboli, the rogue trader arrested in London for $2 bn UBS losses (Facebook image)
UBS CEO, Oswald Gruebel sent a memo to UBS staff yesterday that the rogue deals had been discovered within the past 24 hours.
Gruebel told staff:
“We regret to inform you that yesterday we uncovered a case of unauthorised trading by a trader in the Investment Bank. We have reported it to the markets in line with regulatory disclosure obligations.
“The matter is still being investigated, but we currently estimate the loss on the trades to be around 2 billion US dollars.”
Oswald Gruebel vowed to “establish exactly what has happened” and underscored that “no client positions were affected”.
The UBS CEO urged staff to remain focused on their clients as the investigation continues.
“We want to reassure you that we, together with the rest of the management, are working closely with the Investment Bank’s management and risk and controlling to get to the bottom of the matter as quickly as possible, and will spare no effort to establish exactly what has happened. We will keep you updated on the progress of our investigation.”
Trader Kweku Adoboli worked at the UBS’ headquarters in the very heart of London’s finance district.
UBS has around 65,000 employees worldwide, but it said the bank has recently reduced its staff by 3,500 as part of a bid to save $2.3 billion by the end of 2013.
The cuts came as it said pre-tax profits dropped 23% on the previous quarter to $2 billion at the end of June.
As well as the economic downturn, UBS said regulatory changes such as the Basel rules, which require the bank to hold more capital, were behind the need for the cost reductions.
Despite being one of the biggest wealth managers in the world, UBS has a chequered recent history.
In 2008, UBS was rescued by the Swiss state following huge losses on toxic assets held by its investment bank.
The bank then became embroiled in a serious tax evasion dispute with US authorities and was forced to hand over 300 client names and pay a $780 million fine. There was then a second case in which bank agreed to hand over data on 4,450 American clients.
A restructuring then saw UBS launch a multi-million dollars advertising campaign which used the slogan ‘we will not rest’.
UBS Investment Bank’s offices in Stamford, Connecticut boasts the largest trading floor in the world – it is the size of two American football pitches, and sees more than $1 trillion in assets traded every day.
The risk of diabetes type 2 is higher for persons who are living long time with overweight or obesity, said researchers from University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and St Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Memphis, Tennessee.
Long term obesity lead to higher risk of diabetes
The medical scientists made a survey of 8157 adolescents and young adults (aged 14 to 21 years in 1979) from 1981 until 2006. The patients had self-reported measures of height, weight, and diabetes status (type unspecified). The scientists conducted logistic regression models to predict presumed type 2 diabetes (after excluding presumed type 1 diabetes).
Joyce M. Lee, Achamyeleh Gebremariam, Sandeep Vijan, James G. Gurney discovered that the degree and duration of excess weight, or obesity was a better predictor of diabetes risk than a single measurement of excess weight.
“Our study finds that the relationship between weight and type 2 diabetes is similar to the relationship between smoking and the risk of lung cancer. The amount of excess weight that you carry and the number of years for which you carry it dramatically increase your risk of diabetes,” said Joyce Lee, pediatric endocrinologist.
Children are becoming overweight or obese earlier, they are carrying extra weight for longer periods. “When you add the findings from this study, rates of diabetes in the United States may rise even higher than previously predicted,” Dr Lee said.
The researchers, who published their findings in September issue of Pediatric Adolescent Medicine, said people with a BMI of 35 for 10 years would be considered to have 100 years of excess BMI. White men aged 40 years with 200 excess BMI-years had 2.94 times higher odds of developing diabetes compared with men of the same age and race with 100 excess BMI-years. For a given level of excess BMI-years, younger compared with older and Hispanic and black compared with white had higher risk of developing diabetes. Yet the study is limited by use of self-reported data without specification of diabetes type.
Diabetes type 2 is a metabolic disorder with high blood glucose, insulin resistance and relative insulin deficiency. Long-term complications from high blood sugar: heart attacks, strokes, amputation, diabetic retinopathy, kidney failure, loss of hearing, eyesight, cognitive ability. Diabetes, often found in persons with obesity, is manageable through exercise and diet, later oral medication (pills) might be necessary, or even insulin.
What is obesity in adults and in children? Overweight and Obesity Definition
Obesity in adults is evaluated through BMI, its duration correlates with diabetes type 2 risk
Overweight and obesity designate the weight values over what is accepted to be healthy for a given height. These terms also name ranges of weight that increase the risks of health problems. For adults, overweight and obesity are determined by calculating body mass index (BMI). BMI is calculated using weight and height. This index is used because, for most people, it correlates with their amount of body fat. A BMI over 25 is considered overweight, and a BMI over 30 is considered obese. BMI ranges for children and teens take into account normal differences in body fat between boys and girls and differences in body fat at various ages.
How many people have obesity?
According to CDC 33.8% of U.S. adults are obese and around 17% (or 12.5 million) of children and adolescents are obese.
In 2010, all states had a prevalence of obesity over 20%, 36 states had a prevalence of 25% or more; 12 of these states (Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and West Virginia) had a prevalence of 30% or more.
Weight loss is a remedy to lots of obesity related health problems.
Jacqueline Kennedy’s voice on the tapes released yesterday is breathy and girlish, often using childishly simple vocabulary, but the sentiments expressed are withering.
Recorded in 1964 and released yesterday by her daughter Caroline, Jacqueline Kennedy’s intimate recollections were confided to historian and former White House aide Arthur M. Schlesinger. ABC News airs the eight-hour tapes in series starting with September 13.
The transcripts of the released tapes are published in a book form – “Jacqueline Kennedy: Historic Conversations on Life With John. F. Kennedy”, which is launched today, September 14.
Jacqueline Kennedy talked about her disgust towards Martin Luther King
Jacqueline Kennedy was speaking just months after her husband President John F. Kennedy was gunned down in Dallas in November 1963. The former First Lady aim was to provide insider material for historians on the condition that the tapes would not be released for half a century. Her daughter, Caroline Kennedy has brought that release forward to commemorate the 50th anniversary of her father’s election as president.
The former First Lady talked about her disgust towards Martin Luther King after claimed he tried to arrange a sex party while in Washington for a march.
Jacqueline Kennedy’s relationship with Dr. Martin Luther King became strained as a result of wire taps arranged by FBI director J. Edgar Hoover.
This information had been passed to her by brother-in-law Bobby Kennedy, who as attorney-general authorized the bugging.
“He told me of a tape the FBI had of Martin Luther King when he was here for the freedom march. And he said this with no bitterness or anything, how he was calling up all these girls and arranging for a party of men and women, I mean, sort of an orgy in the hotel, and everything.”
Jacqueline Kennedy says Bobby also told her that Martin Luther King made derogatory comments about Kennedy’s funeral, apparently at the expense of the Archbishop of Boston, who gave the eulogy.
“He made fun of Cardinal Cushing and said that he was drunk at it,” Jacqueline Kennedy says.
“And things about they almost dropped the coffin and – well, I mean Martin Luther King is really a tricky person.”
This is not the first time that Martin Luther King, a Baptist minister and father-of-four with his wife Cor¬etta, has been accused of leading a rampant extra-marital sex life.
It has long been known that J Edgar Hoover, the FBI chief who ran the bureau as his personal fiefdom, detested him. An FBI memo called King “the most dangerous and effective Negro leader in the country”, and Hoover kept him under constant surveillance to try to prove he was a crypto-communist.
Hoover failed to do so but the wire tapping did provide salacious details of Martin Luther King’s sex life which former FBI chief set about using to discredit him. The tapes and transcripts were passed to JFK’s successor as president Lyndon B. Johnson who told one assistant:
“God dammit, if only you could hear what that hypocritical preacher does sexually.”
According to another assistant, the transcripts were as graphic as “an erotic book” and the tapes captured the noise of bedsprings.
There is an obvious irony about Jacqueline Kennedy’s remarks given what is well known about JFK’s infidelities.
But her daughter Caroline is anxious to put the tapes in the context of her mourning and Hoover’s determination to discredit Martin Luther King.
“Obviously J Edgar Hoover had passed on something that Martin Luther King said about my father’s funeral to uncle Bobby and to mummy. And obviously she was upset about that,” Caroline Kennedy told ABC News this weekend.
“It shows you the poisonous activities of J Edgar Hoover and the idea that this is going on at the highest levels of government is really twisted. If you asked her what she thought of Martin Luther King overall – I mean she admired him tremendously.”
Jacqueline Kennedy also shares her thoughts on the tapes about Charles de Gaulle whom the Kennedys met during a state visit to France in 1961. The occasion led John F. Kennedy to joke that he was “the man who accompanied Jacqueline Kennedy to Paris”.
Jacqueline Kennedy and JFK during the official visit in France
Charles de Gaulle claimed after JFK’s death that Jackie Kennedy was “bound to end up on the yacht of an arms dealer”. For that, she brands the French president “spiteful” as well as an “egomaniac”.
Jacqueline Kennedy also tells she met Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi when the latter visited Washington in 1961 and a year later in New Delhi. The former First Lady des¬cribes Indira Ghandi as “a real prune – bitter, kind of pushy, horrible woman”.
Jackie Kennedy freely shares her husband’s derogatory attitude to Lyndon B. Johnson, his vice-president, whom he had only selected as a running mate to remove him from his powerful post in the Senate where his “enormous ego” would have led him to block Kennedy’s law-making agenda.
“Everyone was even amazed that he accepted,” she says.
JFK’s fear was that Lyndon Johnson would succeed him as president after his second term ended in 1968.
“Bobby told me this later and I know Jack said it to me sometimes. He said, <<Oh God, can you ever imagine what would happen to the country if Lyndon was president?>>. He didn’t like that idea that Lyndon would go on and be president because he was worried for the country.”
Jackie also refers to Johnson’s wife Lady Bird as a “trained hunting dog” because she followed her husband around, making notes of his conversations.
“She had every name and phone number – it was a funny kind of way of operating.”
Again Caroline Kennedy insists these were not her mother’s true feelings.
“It’s funny because she was really fond of Lyndon Johnson and really loved Lady Bird and always stayed in touch with her and they would visit.
“The description of Lyndon Johnson here is more of his capabilities as a president, more negative than she certainly felt about him as a person. I think she really appreciated the efforts that he made for her, when she was leaving the White House, and towards me and [my brother] John and she found him really amusing and warm hearted. And I think that it’s interesting because she’s able to separate those human qualities from some of his shortcomings as president.
“I also think that there’s stuff going on – again, this is a moment in time – between him and uncle Bobby. That is probably colouring her opinion here.”
Despite the former First Lady reported extra- marital relationships with married Bobby Kennedy and the unhappiness of her later marriage to tycoon Aristotle Onassis, the public image of Jacqueline Kennedy has always been that of the grieving widow who watched the handsome husband who became America’s youngest president gunned down alongside her.
The 9/11 commemoration ceremony began exactly as it did on that fateful date 10 years ago.
Where the Twin Towers of World Trade Centre stood until 9:59 a.m. and 10:28 a.m. respectively on 11 September 2001, two giant waterfall pools features now cascaded following their official opening.
World Trade Centre memorial ceremony, September 11, 2011
The sound of water falling 30 ft to the reflective pools below echoed around the glass cladding of the replacement towers rising around Ground Zero, creating the illusion of hundreds of people chattering.
Each one coming there brought with them the memory of a father, wife, son – some in physical form like the woman who carried aloft a series of photographs of a man cut into shapes that spelled: “I love daddy”. Others wore T-shirts with printed photos of their loved ones, or held up placards showing a husband at his college graduation, a daughter smiling broadly, with the words: “Never forgotten”.
2,977 is the number of those who died in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania (not including the 19 hijackers). Almost half of those who died had children under 18.
It took 4 1/2 hours to read out in alphabetical order the names of the victims. Those with a surname starting with “A” alone took almost 10 minutes – all 108 of them.
9 /11 commemoration 2011: many relatives struggled to keep their composure, voices cracking, as they read out the name of their own loved-one
Many relatives struggled to keep their composure, voices cracking, as they read out the name of their own loved-one. Strangely, one of the calmest speakers was also one of the youngest: a 10-year-old boy took the stage and said, without a glitch: ” I wish I’d known you better, but I was nine months old when you died. Everybody says you were a great guy. I love you Dad.”
Gordon Aamoth was the first of the 2,977 to be proclaimed. His friends called him “Gordy”. He was a keen athlete and captain of his high-school football team, and on the day before he died, aged 32, he clinched the largest deal of his career as an investment banker. He came to the World Trade Centre that morning to announce his success.
9/11 commemoration ceremony 2011: a minute of silence was held at 8:46 a.m. to mark the instant the first plane went into the North Tower
The very last name was Igor Zukelman. He arrived in New York in 1992 from his native Ukraine and built a new life for himself in a financial company. Igor used to boast to friends that from his 97th floor office in the Twin Towers you could see the whole of New York City, and he became an US citizen just months before he died, aged 29. He left behind a son, then aged three.
For the first time, Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush were united at Ground Zero – Bush having declined an earlier invitation to appear here after the killing of Osama Bin Laden.
Barack Obama read from Psalm 46 – “God is our refuge and strength” – after a minute’s silence was held at 8:46 a.m. to mark the instant the first plane went into the North Tower. The president was standing just in front of the spot where the tower used to stretch far up into the sky.
9/11 commemoration ceremony 2011: President Barack Obama read from Psalm 46 - God is our refuge and strength
In his oration, George W. Bush turned to Abraham Lincoln for inspiration, reading a letter his predecessor sent to a mother of five sons who died in the Civil War. “I feel how weak and fruitless must be any words of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming,” Lincoln wrote.
Both George W. Bush and Barack Obama spoke from behind bullet-proof glass screens. That was a sharp reminder that the wound to America’s sense of security that was inflicted 10 years ago has yet to heal.
Away from Ground Zero, smaller gatherings marked aspects of the 9/11 tragedy in their own personal ways. Further uptown, at a fire station on 48th Street, firefighters and bereaved families remembered the firefighters of Engine 54, Ladder 4. Every member who reported for duty that day died, 15 in all.
Among those at the ceremony yesterday was retired fire chief Joe Nardone, commander on 9/11. He said it was a day for remembering “broken hearts and unspeakable horrors”.
In a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where president Barack Obama travelled from Ground Zero to lay a wreath, thousands of people marked a moment of silence at 10:03 a.m., the moment United flight 93 flew into the ground after 40 passengers and crew lost their battle to seize control of the plane from the hijackers.
Sorrow filled the speeches in Shanksville but also celebration, at times marked with jingoism, for the “extraordinary heroism” of the 40 passengers and crew who prevented the hijackers going on to attack the Capitol in Washington.
Jason Cassidy, a metalworker, came from Baltimore because he felt it was important to honour the dead. But he was frustrated at the tone of some of the speeches, which he felt cast the resistance of the passengers and crew to the hijackers as a justification for a wider war.
“We don’t forget that day because we’re still living it. It’s not just history, it’s now. Out of that day, a lot of people have died. Thousands more Americans. Thousands in Iraq and Afghanistan,” he said.
“There are not enough people asking the question whether our response to what happened here has made it more not less likely we’ll be attacked again.”
[youtube JigJQQCI9CI]
Egypt has declared state of alert after three people die and more than a thousand were injured as crowds attacked the Israeli embassy in Cairo.
Israel has evacuated its ambassador in Egypt after crowds stormed the embassy in Cairo, plunging Egypt’s ruling army deeper into its worst diplomatic crisis since the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak.
Egypt has declared state of alert after three people die and more than a thousand were injured as crowds attacked the Israeli embassy in Cairo
Egyptian PM Essam Sharaf is holding a crisis cabinet meeting and a state of alert has been declared as protesters remain on the streets following the violence on Friday, burning tyres and chanting slogans against the governing military council.
According to an Egyptian official, at least three people died and more than 1,000 were injured during street clashes with police and army troops after an angry mob attacked the Israeli embassy building.
Hamid Abaza, deputy health minister said that one of the three fatalities in the violence late on Friday was a man who died of a heart attack.
Hamid Abaza told AP on Saturday he doesn’t know the cause of the other two deaths. He said 1,093 people were injured in the clashes.
The attackers pelted the police and the military with rocks, prompting the troops to fire tear gas and shoot into the air. Only 38 of the injured remained in hospital.
Earlier, the protesters tore down a security wall outside the Israeli mission and stormed the embassy’s offices.
Police fired shots in the air and teargas to disperse the crowd.
About 500 protesters were remained near the embassy on Saturday early in the morning. But police gradually pushed them back and secured the area.
According to an Israeli official, the rampage marked a further deterioration of diplomatic ties between Israel and Egypt since the fall of Hosni Mubarak.
Israel’s ambassador, Yitzhak Levanon, his family and most of the staff and their dependents, around 80 people were evacuated out of the country by military aircraft overnight, the official added. Only the deputy ambassador remains in Egypt.
“That the government of Egypt ultimately acted to rescue our people is noteworthy and we are thankful,” the Israeli official said.
“But what happened is a blow to the peaceful relations, and of course, a grave violation of accepted diplomatic behaviour between sovereign states.”
The rampage was the second major eruption of violence at the embassy since five Egyptian border guards were killed last month during an Israeli operation against gunmen. That incident prompted Egypt briefly to threaten to withdraw its envoy.
“This action shows the state of anger and frustration the young Egyptian revolutionaries feel against Israel especially after the recent Israeli attacks on the Egyptian borders that led to the killing of Egyptian soldiers,” said Nabil Abdel Fattah, Egyptian political analyst.
Israel is already embroiled in a diplomatic feud with Turkey, formerly one of its closest allies, over Israel’s armed assault on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla in which nine people were killed.
Hamdeen Sabahy, the Egyptian presidential candidate called for the army to take a “serious stance matching the public anger” towards Israel but said violence sullied the image of Egypt’s uprising.
In August, a man climbed up a flagpole on the Israeli embassy and took down the flag, replacing it with the Egyptian flag.
[youtube plH9s_fyMMQ]
Prev1...678...9Next 
Page 7 of 9
