In a country where there haven't been much good news in the last month or so, this is excellent!!
Quote:
The Springboks have been named the Laureus World Team of the Year in honour of their all-conquering performance at World Cup 2007, beating off the challenge of Australia's cricketers to scoop the prestigious award.
The Laureus World Sports Awards are widely recognised as the premier honours on the international sporting calendar, and the 2007 winners were announced on Monday at a gala ceremony attended by Russian president Vladimir Putin at St Petersburg's famous Mariinsky Theatre.
The rugby world champions had hope for a double celebration, but Bok wing Bryan Habana - who had been nominated as Sportsman of the Year - missed out to tennis ace Roger Federer, who claimed the top honours for the fourth consecutive time.
The Boks saw off stiff competition in the shape of Cricket World Cup winners Australia, the Ferrari Formula One Team and the Iraq Football Team, who won the Asian Cup with a side which included both Sunni and Shia Muslims.
The winners are voted by the Laureus World Sports Academy, the ultimate sports jury, made up of 43 of the greatest sportsmen and sportswomen of all time.
Former South Africa coach Jake White and Bulls lock Bakkies Botha were amongst those attending the awards in Russia.
"When you come somewhere like this you realise how far the Rugby World Cup has come," said White.
World Cup-winning fullback Percy Montgomery was full of praise for his teammates.
"This Award goes to all the players who can't be here [at the awards]," Montgomery said in St Petersburg on Monday.
"I'm sure they would all have liked to be here. It's also a tribute to all those who have played for South Africa since 2004 - this win took a lot of planning. We gelled at the right time and that was the key."
Habana, who was voted International Rugby Board (IRB) and South African Rugby Union (SARU) Player of the Year in 2007, also spoke about the honour of the team award - even though he lost out in the individual category.
"I was a youngster in 1995 when Joel Stransky kicked that drop goal [to win the World Cup]. To carry on my dream we have inspired the rest of a nation. Hopefully we can help to make a better South Africa for all," Habana said.
Laureus Academy member Morné du Plessis said: "The country is really proud of you. Comparisons in the team game are complicated and the game has changed. Both teams have written epic chapters in our rugby history and shown that sport can bring people together."
Coach Jake White inspired a major turnaround in the team's success after taking charge in 2004 and the Springboks went through the World Cup unbeaten. There were stars all over the field.
Percy Montgomery was the highest points scorer in the competition, but Bryan Habana was acknowledged as the player of the tournament as top try scorer. John Smit played a captain's role and Francois Steyn was hailed as the most prodigious young talent in world rugby. Os du Randt, who played in the 1995 World Cup winning side, retired after the tournament as the most capped forward in South African rugby history.
_________________ Toe ek jonk was, het ek al die antwoorde geken. Nou verstaan ek nie eens die vrae nie.
HAVANA (AP) - Ailing leader Fidel Castro resigned as Cuba's president early Tuesday after nearly a half-century in power, saying in a letter published in online official media that he would not accept a new term when the newly elected parliament meets on Sunday.
"I will not aspire nor accept—I repeat I will not aspire or accept—the post of President of the Council of State and Commander in Chief," read the letter signed by Castro and published quietly overnight without advance warning in the online edition of the Communist Party daily Granma.
The new National Assembly is meeting Sunday for first time since January elections to pick the governing Council of State, including the presidency Castro holds. There had been wide speculation about whether he would accept a nomination for re-election to that post or retire.
The 81-year-old Castro's overnight announcement effectively ends his rule of almost 50 years over Cuba, positioning his 76-year-old brother Raul for permanent succession to the presidency.
Lord. Is "resigned" the euphemism nowadays for "dead and decomposing for the past year"? _________________ "Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies." ---- Groucho Marx
Location: El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Angeles del Río de Porciúncula
Posted: Sat Feb 23, 2008 12:10 am Post subject:
<SIGH> I just don't understand this crazy, fucked up world we live in. Yesterday, an innocent bystander carrying his 2-year old daughter was gunned down on the street by gangbangers. Absolutely no respect for human life.
LOS ANGELES — Two gang shootings led to a police gun battle Thursday in which officers killed one gunman, wounded another and captured a suspect in a surging gang conflict, authorities said. A victim in the first gang shooting also died.
Two schools were locked down for hours and residents of the densely populated Glassell Park area were ordered to stay inside as heavily armed officers swarmed the neighborhood during the search.
The police gunbattle followed two gang shootings around midday: the first in which a man carrying a toddler was shot multiple times and a car-to-car shooting soon afterward, authorities said.
The first shooting victim died a few hours later, Officer Jason Lee said. The child he was carrying suffered bruises from being dropped but was not hit by gunfire. Police didn't say whether anyone was wounded in the second shooting.
Police Chief William Bratton said plainclothes officers went to a known location for the Avenues gang and found four suspects in both shootings.
Three suspects got out of the car and opened fire with three weapons, said Deputy Chief Sergio Diaz.
The officers fired back, killing one person armed with an AK-47 and wounding another, Bratton said.
"Fortunately our officers were the ones left standing after that shootout," said Bratton, whose SWAT team lost a veteran officer to a deranged gunman's bullet earlier this month.
The car's driver sped off and another suspect fled into the neighborhood.
Officers searched the area and captured a man believed to be the latter suspect as he fled from a house.
A KABC-TV news helicopter captured the scene as the man lay face down in an alley, put his hands behind his back and was immediately set upon by a police dog that violently pulled on one of his arms.
The two officers involved in the earlier gunbattle identified the man as being involved in that shooting, Diaz said.
The suspect, whose name was not released, was arrested for investigation of murder and shooting at police officers, Lee said.
Police said the violence involved the Avenues and Cypress gangs.
"For approximately the last month, two of the gangs in this area of the city ... gangs that have been here for generations, have been going at each other," Bratton said.
Los Angeles has had a significant reduction in gang violence in the last few years but the northeast area is among "hotspots" that emerge from time to time, Diaz said.
MIAMI - Power executives were still in the dark Wednesday about how a glitch at a substation triggered a blackout that cut power to millions across south Florida. The outage snarled traffic when traffic signals went dead, forced hospitals to scramble for generators and cut off air conditioners in the afternoon heat.
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The sporadic outages Tuesday spanned 300 miles of the peninsula but appeared to be concentrated in the southeast portion of the state. Communities along the southwest coast, in the Florida Keys and as far north as Daytona Beach reported interruptions.
Location: El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Angeles del Río de Porciúncula
Posted: Wed Mar 05, 2008 7:20 pm Post subject:
Another day in LA, and another senseless gang shooting. We need to round up these muthafuckas and make them disappear (I say that half-jokingly, but not really.)
Gunman flashes gang signs, shoots 6-year-old boy in head
Mar 5, 2008 at 7:25 AM PST
By Associated Press
LOS ANGELES (AP) - A 6-year-old boy riding in a car with his family was shot and wounded in the head by a suspected gang member Tuesday in a crime that is drawing condemnations from city officials dealing with back-to-back outbreaks of brazen gang violence.
The boy was hospitalized in critical condition, said Officer Ana Aguirre, a police spokeswoman.
The attack came during a 13-day span in which police engaged in a gunbattle with a carload of suspected gang members after a man was gunned down as he walked with a child, and eight people were wounded on a street and a high school football star was slain as he walked home in shootings authorities say also involved gang members.
The boy, who is black, was shot in Harbor Gateway, an area with a history of racially motivated attacks involving Latino gangs and black victims. Investigators believe the attack was gang-related but had no evidence it was racially motivated, Aguirre said.
The family of six was in a red sports utility vehicle around 12:30 p.m. when a man walked onto the road, flashed gang signs, and fired several shots at the car as it was moving, Aguirre said.
Police said the family did not live in the area, and were driving around looking for an address. The people in the car included a two other children, a man and two women, one of whom is pregnant.
The gunman was described as a Hispanic in his late 20s, who was accompanied by another Hispanic male on a bicycle, police said.
Gang-related killings in Los Angeles declined sharply last year, down to 216 from 294 in 2006.
MIAMI - Power executives were still in the dark Wednesday about how a glitch at a substation triggered a blackout that cut power to millions across south Florida. The outage snarled traffic when traffic signals went dead, forced hospitals to scramble for generators and cut off air conditioners in the afternoon heat.
ADVERTISEMENT
The sporadic outages Tuesday spanned 300 miles of the peninsula but appeared to be concentrated in the southeast portion of the state. Communities along the southwest coast, in the Florida Keys and as far north as Daytona Beach reported interruptions.
Just read this! Actually, I haven't lived in Florida for eight years now. I went to college in Massachusetts and have now lived in the San Francisco Bay Area for another four. I still think my speech has Miami intonations though. Ex I say "sang-wich" not "sandwich". Not all Miami speakers do it, but it is prevalent among those who grew up in Spanish-speaking areas.
MIAMI - Power executives were still in the dark Wednesday about how a glitch at a substation triggered a blackout that cut power to millions across south Florida. The outage snarled traffic when traffic signals went dead, forced hospitals to scramble for generators and cut off air conditioners in the afternoon heat.
ADVERTISEMENT
The sporadic outages Tuesday spanned 300 miles of the peninsula but appeared to be concentrated in the southeast portion of the state. Communities along the southwest coast, in the Florida Keys and as far north as Daytona Beach reported interruptions.
Just read this! Actually, I haven't lived in Florida for eight years now. I went to college in Massachusetts and have now lived in the San Francisco Bay Area for another four. I still think my speech has Miami intonations though. Ex I say "sang-wich" not "sandwich". Not all Miami speakers do it, but it is prevalent among those who grew up in Spanish-speaking areas.
Location: El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Angeles del Río de Porciúncula
Posted: Mon Mar 10, 2008 11:45 pm Post subject:
Well, there was another gang shooting on Friday (and another one last night), and you're probably saying "What's new?", but this one literally hits close to home because it happened in my community of Echo Park (further down the hill though). I think we've all gone mad.
Quote:
Street shooting claims another child -- this time in Echo Park
By Anna Gorman and Richard Winton, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
March 8, 2008
Anthony E. Escobar was fatally gunned down Thursday night by suspected gang members after the 13-year-old crossed his Echo Park street to get lemons from a neighbor's tree.
When his adult cousin found his nearly lifeless body lying in the driveway, he had two lemons in his hands.
Four seeds from those lemons were safely secured by his cousin, Johnny Aguilar, on Friday as he vowed to grow another tree to commemorate the boy known as "Chucho," whose zeal for life was recalled by his family, coach and friends.
Anthony's slaying Thursday about 8 p.m in the 800 block of North Bonnie Brae Avenue near Sunset Boulevard is the fourth incident in the last two weeks in which a Los Angeles child has been killed or wounded by alleged gang members.
Investigators searching Friday for Anthony's killers were focusing on gang members from a rival territory who they believe drove into the area to find an unsuspecting target, police said.
Aguilar, 43, who lives next door to Anthony, said he had gone inside to make a sandwich while his cousin went to get lemons. Then he heard a few shots and darted outside but saw nothing. Anthony's mother, however, became anxious when she heard the shots.
Aguilar, who helped raise the boy, went back outside and found Anthony in the driveway beside a car. There was no sign of blood, but there were gunshot wounds to the back of Anthony's head and back, Aguilar said.
The boy had managed to stagger to the driveway but could not make it to the home where he lived with his mother, three sisters and a brother.
"It is devastating. He didn't deserve this," said Cynthia Magallón, 29, who coached Anthony at El Centro del Pueblo recreation center. She recalled his enjoyment of trips to the county fair, ball games and his love of boxing. "He had a big smile that just won everybody over."
Initially, police statements said Anthony had a gang symbol on his hand. But investigators later said the child was not a gang member but did have people in his circle who associate with an Echo Park gang.
His family insisted he was not involved in gangs. "I promised his mom I'd keep him out of gangs," Aguilar said.
Henry Escobar, 15, a friend who used to live near Anthony but moved away because of gang activity, said he assumed the worst when he heard about the shooting on TV late Thursday. "I had a bad feeling," he said. He recalled Anthony, who attended Virgil Middle School, as a great kid but one who had begun associating with gang members.
Anthony's slaying comes at a time when general crime continues to decline in the city, but homicides have risen 27% compared with this time last year.
Location: El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Angeles del Río de Porciúncula
Posted: Wed May 28, 2008 8:40 pm Post subject:
Quote:
God, guns and guts an easy sell
(Associated Press – Sunday, May 25, 2008)
Butler, Missouri - Salesmen at a Missouri car dealership are not just kicking in a free CD player or air conditioner: they are offering a free handgun with every purchase.
Until the end of the month, car buyers at Max Motors in Butler will have a choice - $250 towards either a gun purchase or fuel.
General manager Walter Moore said that so far most buyers had chosen the gun, adding that he suggests they opt for a semi-automatic model "because it holds more rounds".
Moore said he suspects his "free handgun" ad will draw protests in some places, but not in Butler, about 100km south of Kansas City.
Moore said: "Down here we all believe in God, guts and guns."
God, guns and guts an easy sell
(Associated Press – Sunday, May 25, 2008)
Butler, Missouri - Salesmen at a Missouri car dealership are not just kicking in a free CD player or air conditioner: they are offering a free handgun with every purchase.
Until the end of the month, car buyers at Max Motors in Butler will have a choice - $250 towards either a gun purchase or fuel.
General manager Walter Moore said that so far most buyers had chosen the gun, adding that he suggests they opt for a semi-automatic model "because it holds more rounds".
Moore said he suspects his "free handgun" ad will draw protests in some places, but not in Butler, about 100km south of Kansas City.
Moore said: "Down here we all believe in God, guts and guns."
Good grief. Not a town I'd like to visit... _________________ Toe ek jonk was, het ek al die antwoorde geken. Nou verstaan ek nie eens die vrae nie.
Well, there was another gang shooting on Friday (and another one last night), and you're probably saying "What's new?", but this one literally hits close to home because it happened in my community of Echo Park (further down the hill though). I think we've all gone mad.
Quote:
Street shooting claims another child -- this time in Echo Park
By Anna Gorman and Richard Winton, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
March 8, 2008
Anthony E. Escobar was fatally gunned down Thursday night by suspected gang members after the 13-year-old crossed his Echo Park street to get lemons from a neighbor's tree.
When his adult cousin found his nearly lifeless body lying in the driveway, he had two lemons in his hands.
Four seeds from those lemons were safely secured by his cousin, Johnny Aguilar, on Friday as he vowed to grow another tree to commemorate the boy known as "Chucho," whose zeal for life was recalled by his family, coach and friends.
Anthony's slaying Thursday about 8 p.m in the 800 block of North Bonnie Brae Avenue near Sunset Boulevard is the fourth incident in the last two weeks in which a Los Angeles child has been killed or wounded by alleged gang members.
Investigators searching Friday for Anthony's killers were focusing on gang members from a rival territory who they believe drove into the area to find an unsuspecting target, police said.
Aguilar, 43, who lives next door to Anthony, said he had gone inside to make a sandwich while his cousin went to get lemons. Then he heard a few shots and darted outside but saw nothing. Anthony's mother, however, became anxious when she heard the shots.
Aguilar, who helped raise the boy, went back outside and found Anthony in the driveway beside a car. There was no sign of blood, but there were gunshot wounds to the back of Anthony's head and back, Aguilar said.
The boy had managed to stagger to the driveway but could not make it to the home where he lived with his mother, three sisters and a brother.
"It is devastating. He didn't deserve this," said Cynthia Magallón, 29, who coached Anthony at El Centro del Pueblo recreation center. She recalled his enjoyment of trips to the county fair, ball games and his love of boxing. "He had a big smile that just won everybody over."
Initially, police statements said Anthony had a gang symbol on his hand. But investigators later said the child was not a gang member but did have people in his circle who associate with an Echo Park gang.
His family insisted he was not involved in gangs. "I promised his mom I'd keep him out of gangs," Aguilar said.
Henry Escobar, 15, a friend who used to live near Anthony but moved away because of gang activity, said he assumed the worst when he heard about the shooting on TV late Thursday. "I had a bad feeling," he said. He recalled Anthony, who attended Virgil Middle School, as a great kid but one who had begun associating with gang members.
Anthony's slaying comes at a time when general crime continues to decline in the city, but homicides have risen 27% compared with this time last year.
_________________ Toe ek jonk was, het ek al die antwoorde geken. Nou verstaan ek nie eens die vrae nie.
Last Update: 6/02 1:12 pm
Automatic car features are supposed to make life easier for motorists, but they may be leaving some people without the know-how to do things the old-fashioned way. That’s what happened to a driver in Utah County who became trapped inside her own car.
A woman called Orem police Friday afternoon needing help because her battery died and she was locked inside her car.
When police arrived, they found the woman sitting in the car, unable to get herself out. She couldn’t hear the officers instructions through the rolled-up windows so she motioned to them to call her on her cell phone, according to police.
Once officers were able to talk to the woman on the phone, they were able to tell her how to manually operate the slide lock mechanism on the inside door panel to open the door and free herself.
“I'm just glad she had a cell phone to call for help,” an officer said.
_________________ "Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies." ---- Groucho Marx
Bronislaw Geremek, a key anti-communist dissident and former Polish foreign minister, has been killed in a car crash, police have announced.
Mr Geremek, 76, died when the car he was in hit an oncoming vehicle in western Poland on Sunday afternoon.
He was one of the key advisers to Lech Walesa, the Solidarity union leader which helped topple communist rule.
Mr Geremek was foreign minister from 1997-2000 and European Parliament member since 2004.
Mr Geremek died when his Mercedes car collided with a van near the western town of Lubien, police spokeswoman Hanna Wachowiak said.
It was not immediately clear on whether he was driving at the time.
The former foreign minister - a historian by training - oversaw his country's accession to Nato.
Greg - he was a professor of history, an expert of medieval history of France. He was famous of his book about the dregs of society in medieval Paris. He was known and respected in scientific circles in France.
Location: El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Angeles del Río de Porciúncula
Posted: Wed Jul 16, 2008 12:54 am Post subject:
Quote:
Elderly women get life in L.A. insurance killings
By LINDA DEUTSCH, AP Special Correspondent 55 minutes ago
Two elderly women were sentenced to life in prison without parole Tuesday for murdering two indigent men to collect insurance policies taken out on their lives.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge David Wesley on Tuesday sentenced 77-year-old Helen Golay and 75-year-old Olga Rutterschmidt to two consecutive life terms each.
In April the women were convicted of a scheme in which they befriended homeless men, took out insurance policies on them and then killed them in murders staged to look like hit-and-run auto accidents. Prosecutors say the women collected $2.8 million before the scheme was uncovered.
The judge denounced the women, saying the men they killed needed only food, water and shelter and thought the women were going to help them.
"Instead, these unfortunate men were sacrificed on your altar of greed," Wesley said.
Both women were convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy to murder for financial gain in the 1999 death of Paul Vados, 73, and the 2005 death of Kenneth McDavid, 50.
Both men were run over by cars in dark alleys. Police linked the cases when a detective investigating one overheard a colleague describe a similar case.
Defense attorneys had conceded the women were involved in insurance fraud but denied they had formed a murder conspiracy. Golay's attorney, Roger Jon Diamond, said during the trial that the women's idea was to insure old, sick homeless people who would die more quickly.
The jury that convicted the women in April saw a secretly recorded videotape of the defendants in a lockup after their arrests. Rutterschmidt berated Golay, saying her actions in taking out 23 insurance policies raised a red flag when the men died.
"It's your fault," Rutterschmidt told Golay. "You can't have that many insurances. ... You were greedy. That's the problem."
he [Bronisław Geremek] was a professor of history, an expert of medieval history of France. He was famous of his book about the dregs of society in medieval Paris. He was known and respected in scientific circles in France.
Oui, j'ai appris la nouvelle et la consternation est générale en France. Geremek was known & heard in France, especially within intellectual & political circles. I'll miss his calm voice and the serenity of his thought. Not to mention his wonderful French et sa grande élégance morale. He did a lot for Polish studies in France, among other things. L'Europe a perdu un esprit lumineux et courageux, et la Pologne un des ses plus illustres enfants.
Dry cleaners lost your pants? Sue them for USD 54 million......then run out of the courtroom crying. Maybe this guy needs the money to pay for his therapist.
Location: El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Angeles del Río de Porciúncula
Posted: Fri Aug 01, 2008 5:09 pm Post subject:
Llatai wrote:
Dry cleaners lost your pants? Sue them for USD 54 million......then run out of the courtroom crying. Maybe this guy needs the money to pay for his therapist.
Yes this was big news when the case went to trial. The plaintiff has since been removed from his administrative law post for demonstrating lack of "judicial temperament." Karma's a bitch!
Erroneous CNN footage angers Serbs
Some of the footage that the CNN news channel used in its Wednesday report on protests in Belgrade over the arrest of war leader Radovan Karadzic was not actually from the Serbian capital.
The dramatic shots of burning barricades and water cannons used against protesters were taken during unrelated riots in another European capital - Hungary’s Budapest.
The mistake angered some Serb activists who said the channel made the event look more violent then it really was.
CNN officials so far have not commented on the controversy.
I think this is much more common than anyone realizes Liz, not just at CNN. I don't know if jouralism is dead or just deathly ill, but i suspect the idea of jouralistic objectivity is going the way of the dodo. Could be becuase I just saw a documentary about Fox News being subject to the directives of Rupert Murdoch and his executive minions and it raised by ire. Fox is a right wing leaning network here in the US and Murdoch owns so many media outlets that he's in a position at least to greatly influence opinion on issues - what's debatable is the extent to which he does. According to the documentary, the Muse of objectivity might as well be comatose, at least on his side of the fence. I don't know where to get a straight story anymore frankly. CNN might have made an error or might have apologized because they got caught with their pants down and will take the learning experience to heart by being more discreet when erring on the side of influence over straight reporting. Maybe they should be required to listen to subliminal recordings of Joe Friday saying "just the facts ma'am" as they listen to soothing music and the sound of lapping ocean waves on a beach for 15 minutes daily during their lunch hour.
Location: El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Angeles del Río de Porciúncula
Posted: Wed Sep 10, 2008 7:48 pm Post subject:
Llatai wrote:
I think this is much more common than anyone realizes Liz, not just at CNN. I don't know if jouralism is dead or just deathly ill, but i suspect the idea of jouralistic objectivity is going the way of the dodo.
I'll say! Everybody seems to be looking for the most salacious, most exploitative piece of news to outdo their rivals that journalistic integrity has gone out the window. Especially in this day and age when print media is losing a large number of subscribers to internet outlets. What especially yanks my chain is when these internet tabloid gossips print these stories that you just know are complete fabrications, and then these stories get picked up and printed by other "news" outlets, and soon then they end up on the evening news reported as fact! These supposedly reputable news programs don't seem to do any research to try and uncover the truth, they just report what they read on some trashy website!
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Lord. Is "resigned" the euphemism nowadays for "dead and decomposing for the past year"?
Not a town I'd like to visit... 
