Director Sydney Pollack passes away
Hollywood Producer-director Sydney Pollack passed away on Monday local time at his home in Los Angeles. He was 73 years old. The cause of death was cancer, said a representative of the family. Pollack’s illness came to public attention after he withdrew in August 2007 as the director an HBO television movie for unspecified health reasons.
Among Mr. Pollack’s survivors are daughters, Rachel & Rebecca & his wife, Claire Griswold, who was once among his acting students. The couple married in ….
Powerful storms killed 8 in Iowa & Minnesota
Severe powerful storms rumbled across the Iowa and Minnesota on Monday (IST), in which at least eight people killed & dozens of homes damaged.
Iowa Homeland Security administrator Dave Miller said that seven of the dead were killed by a tornado in northeast Iowa — five from Parkersburg, 80 miles northeast of Des Moines & two from nearby New Hartford. At least 50 injuries were reported.
A tornado also struck just to the east in the nearby town of Dunkerton & elsewhere ….
NASA Spacecraft landed near Mars’ north pole
A Nasa spacecraft has landed on planet “Mars” on Sunday to begin 90 days of digging in the permafrost to look for evidence of the building blocks of life. The Phoenix has landed on Mars — much to the relief of worried flight controllers 170 million miles away at Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Lab in California, who were helpless to do anything if Phoenix ran into trouble.
At 12.53 a.m., radio signals has confirmed the lander had safely reached it target on ….
Strong aftershock killed 6 in China
An aftershock at 6.4 magnitude on Sunday has killed six & injured nearly one thousand. Four people were confirmed dead & 20 others were seriously injured in Shaanxi Province. The aftershock at 6.4 magnitude on Richter scale gave rise to serious fears of quake-created lakes bursting and causing serious floods.
Sunday’s aftershock destroyed 71,000 houses. The scale of damage to property indicates that the number of casualties might go up sharply once detailed information is available. Meanwhile the water resources ministry ….
Hulk Hogan’s daughter involved in car accident
The Florida Highway Patrol is investigating a multiple car accident happens on the Bayside Bride in Tampa. Among those involved in the crash is former professional wrestler Hollywood Hulk Hogan. The Florida Highway Patrol said that 20 years old Brooke Bollea collided with another vehicle on the Bayside Bridge on Sunday, closing northbound lanes for hours. No one was injured in the crash.
Hulk ….
Fire in factory killed 30 in Iran
A pharmaceutical plant in Iran has caught fire in which 30 people killed & 38 injured. A private news agency had earlier said that 15 workers had died in the blaze today at the factory near the city of Arak, 290km south-west of the capital Tehran.
The fire had destroyed most of the factory. News agency said that the cause had not yet been determined.
6.7 Magnitude Earthquake struck Indonesia
An earthquake of magnitude 6.7 struck the eastern part of Indonesia on Saturday. There were no reports of any causalities & damage. The epicentre of this earthquake was in the Maluku province, 194 km northwest of Saumlaki regency.
The earthquake was 72 km beneath the ocean, which was quite deep for the area, so there was no potential of a tsunami.
One killed by tornado in N. Colorado
A tornado tore through several northern Colorado towns on Thursday, flipping over tractor-trailers, ripping roofs off buildings & killing at least one person. The Weld County coroner’s office confirmed one person was killed in the storm, which struck about 80 kilometers north of Denver. The office declined to provide details about how or where the person was killed.
Television footage showed homes & buildings with roofs missing & farm irrigation equipment crumpled. Windsor, a farm town of about 16,000, appeared the ….
4.3 magnitude earthquake struk Nepal
An earthquake of magnitude 4.3 struck Nepal on Thursday. There were no immediate reports of any causalities or damage. Earthquake hit the Himalayan nation today at 1 a.m.
The epicentre of this earthquake was in western Nepal’s Chiyandanda located in Baglung district.
Earthquakes are frequent and deadly along the fringes of the Tibetan Plateau, which was raised when India collided into Eurasia, starting some 50 million years ago..
US Senator M. Kennedy diagnosed with Malignant Brain Tumor
M. Kennedy Veteran US Senator Edward, who was hospitalised after suffering a seizure over the weekend, has been diagnosed with brain cancer on Tuesday. It iss not yet clear if he will undergo radiation treatment & chemotherapy to treat the tumor.
Doctors at the hospital in Boston, where he is taking treatment, said on Tuesday that the Massachusetts Senator who has been an enduring figure in the Democratic party politics, has a tumor in his left parietal lobe. Initial results from ….
Jessica Alba marries long-time boyfriend Cash Warren
Jessica Alba & her fiance Cash Warren quietly got married on Monday afternoon. They were married in the Beverly Hills courthouse’s ceremony room under an arch of green silk foliage & white flowers. They were casually dressed, with Alba wearing a long blue dress & her hair back in a ponytail.
Jessica & Cash arrived a courthouse in Beverly Hills around 11:30 AM and were married ….
Myanmar cyclone death toll nears 4,000
The death toll from a devastating cyclone that swept through Burma has risen to almost 4,000. Nearly 3,000 were unaccounted for in a single town. 2,879 more people are unaccounted for in a single town, Bogalay, in the country’s low-lying Irrawaddy River delta area where the storm wreaked the most havoc.
Foreign Minister Nyan Win has said that the death toll could reach 10,000. Tropical Cyclone Nargis hit Burma, ….
Blast in Pakistan injured five
At least five people injured when a blast took place in northwestern Pakistan on Tuesday. The explosion occurred when an army truck goes by at Kohat town in North West Frontier Province.
The blast was triggered by an improvised explosive device & four security personnel & a civilian suffered injuries. No group claimed responsibility for the blast.
28 killed in Bus accident in Mexico
At least 28 people have been killed several others injured on Monday after a bus plunged off a mountain highway in central Mexico.
Police has said that the bus careened from a mountain pass connecting Mexico City and Tampico, the main city in northeastern Tamaulipas state, tumbling some 200 meters into a ravine.
About 50 rescue members from the Federal Preventive Police, firemen & a helicopter went to help the ….
Jevic Transportation Closed
Jevic Transportation Inc., a closely held U.S. trucking company, is shutting down as the industry grapples with record-high diesel prices & slumping freight demand in a weakened U.S. economy.
The chief executive officer & president David H. Gorman said, “High fuel costs, economic downturn, increasing insurance costs & tightening credit markets. We greatly appreciate the loyalty of our many Jevic customers”.
George Takei will marry Brad Altman in California
George Takei has announced that he & his longtime partnet Brad Altman will marry this summer in California. This announcement, like that from talk show host Ellen DeGeneres, comes on the heels of the California Supreme Court ruling that same-sex marriage is now legal.
George Takei has written in his blog, “He is my love & I can’t imagine life without him. Now, we can have the dignity, as well as all the responsibilities, of marriage”.
Ban Ki-moon will visit cyclone-hit Myanmar on Wednesday
Ban Ki-moon the UN chief will travel to Myanmar on Wednesday to try to persuade the leaders of military regime to allow large-scale foreign aid & humanitarian workers to provide assistance to millions of victims of Cyclone Nargis which has killed over 100,000.
Ban’s three-day visit comes as the world body estimated that hundred of thousands of victims are at the high risk of starvation & disease with the government refusing to allow large scale foreign aid & rescue workers ….
Bomb Blast rocked Pakistan killed 13
At least 13 killed & 22 injured in a suicide bomb blast in a market near an army cantonment in Mardan town in northwestern Pakistan on Sunday. The blast occurred near a market of shops dealing in music & movies at 7 pm. The market is owned by the Punjab Regimental Centre & most of those killed & injured were shop owners & civilians.
Major general Athar ….
Man opened fire in Philippine town, 8 killed
A man has opened fire in a town of Philippine on Monday in which eight killed & six injured. The Laguna provincial police chief, Senior Superintendent Felipe Rojas said that the man went on a shooting spree in a town south of Manila Monday, strafing several houses and killing eight people and wounding six others.
He said that five of the dead were children aged 4-12 years who were sleeping inside their homes in Calamba town when an unidentified attacker opened ….
Senator Edward Kennedy hospitalised
Veteran US Democratic Senator Edward “Ted” Kennedy 76 years old has been taken to the hospital on Saturday after suffering a seizure. The symptoms were originally reported to be those of a stroke, but Kennedy spokeswoman Melissa Wagoner said in a statement that it was a seizure.
Kennedy, the liberal lion of the Democratic Party, was taken by helicopter Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.
Melissa Wagoner said in her statement, “It appears that Senator Kennedy experienced a seizure this morning. He is ….