| Danger alert as 3 fridges dumped in middle of M8
FLY-TIPPERS carried three large fridges across two lanes of the M8, heaved them over a protection barrier and then dumped them on the central reservation. A squad from road firm Amey spotted the fridges, which were covered in graffiti, at the Charing Cross interchange in Glasgow. Suggestions because of their positioning that the fridges were actually a bizarre urban art installation cut no ice with the workers who were travelling back to their Tannochside depot at around 3am. They alerted duty engineer Stewart Croly, whose team removed them. The fridges were on a sharp bend where traffic travels at 50mph and workers had to close a carriageway to enable staff to safely remove the fridges. .
As Iraqis Vie for Kirkuk’s Oil, Kurds Become Pawns
On the outskirts of a city adjoining some of Iraq's most lucrative oil reserves, a rivulet of urine flows past the entrance to the barren playing field. There are no spectators, only 2,200 Kurdish squatters who have converted the dugouts, stands and parking lot into a refugee city of cinder-block hovels covered in Kurdish political graffiti, some for President Jalal Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan. These homeless Kurds are here not for soccer but for politics. They are reluctant players in a future referendum to decide whether oil-rich Tamim Province in the north and its capital, Kirkuk, will become part of the semiautonomous Kurdish regional government or remain under administration by Baghdad. Under the Iraqi Constitution the referendum is due before Dec.
Museum and Arts Gallery boss in court
DIRECTOR for the National Museum and Art Gallery Simon Poraituk appeared in a Port Moresby court yesterday.
He was charged with alleged misappropriation of K21,000 belonging to the National Museum and Art Gallery.
Poraituk, from Tole village in Wabag, Enga province, was charged on Nov 26 by Port Moresby police after the Board of the National Museum and Art Gallery (NMAG) laid the complaint.
Police prosecutor James Wafihuamba presented the case against Poraituk to senior magistrate Danny Wakikura who read the six counts to Poraituk.
Poraituk's appearance yesterday was the first of two after he was charged with two counts of uttering under Section 463 of the Criminal Code Act, two counts of false pretences, S404 and two counts of misappropriation, S383 of the same Act, on Nov 26.
HOCKEY’S HISTORIC HIGHLITES
Fighting is down in the NHL! According to those who have tabulated this kind of statistic, in the mid-nineteen eighties there was an average of one pugilistic outbreak per game. Mainly, as a result of the “3rd-man-in" rule, that average has dropped drastically to .60 per match. For some, like this writer, that is good news. While there are still those who contend that enforcers are essential to protect non-violent stars, so they may ply their trade in peace—and, who also claim attendance will dwindle if there are no fisticuffs—the game is improved by the removal of these time-wasting brawls. Belligerent purists continue to hackney the old appeal that “nobody ever gets seriously hurt in a spirited bout on the ice!" Perhaps they should get a second opinion from former Ranger's rearguard Dale Rolfe, who was a victim of Dave Shultz' bullying in the mid-nineteen seventies.
Passings: Kurt Waldheim
HOLLYWOOD, Calif. -- Kurt Waldheim, the once "dapper diplomat" and former United Nations Secretary General reminding one of Henry Kissinger-styled poise and star power, died June 14 at age 88. In earlier days the tall and elegantly-dressed Austrian invariably kissed the hands of the ladies. Well-known for his charm and discretion, respected at the time by both the U.S. and the Soviet Union for his reserve and quiet diplomacy, Waldheim assumed the UN leadership post in January, 1972. It was in that capacity, as the symbolic head of the nations of the world, that the former Nazi officer would sign on as we started engraving "greetings" in space capsules destined to leave the bounds of the solar system - just in case anyone out there is listening. The space mission officially ended more than a decade ago, but the Pioneer 10 capsule is still coasting; it transports a gold plaque, attached to the antenna support struts in a way that would shield it from solar dust, bearing a goodwill message and a map locating the Earth in the solar system.
Men and women: Figuring each other out
They've discovered the surprising news that men actually talk more than women, according to a meta-analysis published in November and reported in The Globe and Mail. "On the average, men are slightly more talkative than women," Campbell Leaper, a psychology professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz, told reporter Rebecca Dube. .
Professor Rafael Robb Pleads Guilty to Voluntary Manslaughter in the ...
In January, walking his dog before his arrest, the professor told me he was an innocent man. Looked me right in the eye and said, "No I did not. I did not kill her." Today, Rafael Robb told a judge something else. He admitted to bashing his wife Ellen repeatedly in the head and face with a chin-up bar, then staging a break-in and hiding the evidence so he could blame the whole thing on a burglar. Robb took the stand in the Montgomery County Courthouse in Norristown, Pa. this morning after striking a deal with the DA. He admits to killing his wife in a fit of rage and faces voluntary manslaughter instead of first degree murder, avoiding a long trial and a possible life sentence. Instead, he'll likely get in the range of 5 to 10 years, and could wind up serving even less.
|
