Victoria Hill walked into an Idaho store, allegedly slipped one 24-ounce can of $1.50 Steel Reserve beer into her purse, and walked out … and now she faces up to 10 years in jail. Hill, 35, was taken into custody Thursday and charged with felony burglary because, officers say, she…
Continue reading …Michele Bachmann and Rick Perry are far more than just two hard-right Christian candidates angling for the GOP presidential nomination—both have ties to a scary, theocratic movement called Dominionism, writes Michelle Goldberg at the Daily Beast . While many have pooh-poohed those worrying about a Christian sect bent on world…
Continue reading …Wife was sunbathing on the shore when 30-year-old, named locally as Ian Redmond, was attacked A British man on his honeymoon has been killed by a shark in the Seychelles, less than a fortnight after a French tourist was also fatally bitten in the waters off the same island. The 30-year-old, named locally as Ian Redmond, was attacked on Tuesday while his wife was sunbathing on the shore, according to reports. The shark struck in the waters off Anse Lazio beach on the island of Praslin, the second largest in the Indian Ocean archipelago and a popular destination with honeymooning Britons. A tourist in a dinghy dragged him on board and brought him ashore and another holidaymaker then tried to save his life, according to a report in the Daily Mail. “We heard screaming and people started running down the beach towards the water,” an American tourist was quoted as saying. “Someone had seen a fin sticking out of the water, and then we saw a dinghy pulling a man from the water. “I saw the swimmer, who was missing a huge chunk of flesh from his left leg, so much so that I could see the bone of his thigh. He was sickeningly pale, but still had his flippers on both feet.” “At this point a woman ran over and started screaming. She said: ‘That’s my husband! We were just married.’ “Someone grabbed her and tried to keep her away. People all over the beach were just hugging whoever was close to them or trying to keep any children from witnessing what was going on.” Authorities in the Seychelles have asked for help from shark experts in South Africa to identify the animal while a temporary ban on swimming or entering the waters around parts of Praslin has been ordered. The Seychelles minister for home affairs and environment, Joel Morgan, also held an emergency meeting in the capital Victoria as the government moved to try to limit the potential damage to the tourism industry, the country’s main source of foreign exchange. The Seychelles’ profile was given a boost in the UK when the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge spent their honeymoon on North Island in May. Alain St Ange, the head of the Seychelles tourism board, told the Daily Telegraph: “It was a freak accident. We are closing the beaches pending the arrival of experts from South Africa.” Fatal shark attacks in the Seychelles are thought to be rare – prior to the death of the French tourist the last recorded fatal attack there was recorded in 1963 – according to local media reports. The Foreign Office said: “We can confirm the death of a British national in the Seychelles. We are providing consular assistance to the next of kin.” A French tourist who died while snorkelling on 1 August was named in the Seychelles media as Nicolas Francois Virolle, 36. Other tourists on the beach were said to have hauled his body from the sea but he died from a massive loss of blood. Seychelles Africa Ben Quinn guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Russell Armstrong, the soon-to-have-been ex-husband of Real Housewife of Beverly Hills ‘ Taylor Armstrong, was found dead last night. The fire department found Armstrong hanging in his Los Angeles bedroom in an apparent suicide, after he was initially discovered by a roommate, TMZ reports. The 47-year-old had been in the…
Continue reading …Authorities have recovered the Rembrandt drawing stolen Saturday from a California Ritz-Carlton, after getting a tip that it was in a local church, the Los Angeles Times reports. The Judgment , an 11-by-6 pen-and-ink artwork worth $250,000 or more, was being displayed on an easel and apparently wasn’t fastened down,…
Continue reading …A gay Malaysian pastor who plans to marry his American partner in New York pledged today to throw a wedding banquet in his Muslim-majority home country despite criticism by government politicians. Rev. Ouyang Wen Feng, an ordained minister who has mainly lived in the United States since 1998, says he…
Continue reading …Last year, Stanford’s Introduction to Artificial Intelligence class drew 177 students. This year, a free online course on artificial intelligence will boast 58,000—almost four times the size of the prestigious university’s entire student body. The course is one of three being offered by Stanford’s computer science department in…
Continue reading …Tired of being harassed and embarrassed by angry constituents—and, of course, always in need of cash—congressmen such as Paul Ryan, Ben Quayle, and Chip Cravaack are eschewing open town halls and instead are charging for access over this August recess, reports Politico . Questioning Ryan at an upcoming luncheon…
Continue reading …A 4-year-old letter by News of the World’s disgraced royal reporter—who went to jail and was fired for his admitted role in the phone hacking scandal—contends that senior figures at the newspaper and at News International knew phone hacking was widespread and sanctioned, reports the Guardian . The letter…
Continue reading …President Obama was greeted with some unexpected spice at the end of his town hall meeting in Iowa last night, when the founder of the Iowa Tea Party confronted him about Joe Biden’s alleged remark that Tea Party members acted like “terrorists” (the VP denies saying it ). Obama didn’t…
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