FirstPageNews

Bishop Thomas Weeks : The man who is news by beating his wife

2007-08-23T10:35:00.000-07:00

Well-Known televangelist Juanita Bynum has been brutally assaulted by her estranged husband, preacher bishop Thomas W. Weeks, according to police.

Juanita Bynum met with her estranged husband, the founder of Global Destiny Churches, at the Renaissance Concourse Hotel near the Atlanta Airport on Wednesday - where she planned to try and reconcile her relationship with her husband.

It was in the parking lot of the hotel that Bynum would realize Weeks wasn't capable of containing his anger. It was about 4 AM when Weeks was discovered assaulting her.

Submarine carrying cocaine worth $435 million

2007-08-23T10:31:00.000-07:00

US Customs and Border Protection said the semi-submersible vessel - which was only partially visible from the surface - was spotted by a surveillance plane 482 kilometres south-west of the Mexico-Guatemala border on Monday.

The plane then guided a US Navy ship to the scene as the four suspected drug smugglers scuttled the vessel along with the bulk of its cargo, believed to be around 5,000 kilograms of cocaine.

The suspects and 11 bales of cocaine weighing around 548 kilograms were eventually recovered from the scene.

Juanita Bynum got attacked by her husband

2007-08-23T10:02:00.000-07:00

Police said Juanita Bynum, a televangelist who has won a national following with sermons about women's empowerment, was assaulted by her preacher husband in the parking lot of an Atlanta hotel early Wednesday.

Bynum and her estranged husband, Thomas W. Weeks III, the founder of Global Destiny churches, met at Renaissance Concourse Hotel near Atlanta's airport to try to reconcile, police said.

About 4 a.m., they fought in the parking lot until a hotel bellman pulled Weeks off, Officer Ronald Campbell said.

"She was bruised up and battered," Campbell said. "She had purple bruising around her neck and upper torso."

No charges had been filed by Wednesday night against Weeks, who left the scene accordign to police.

What is the Dogbook Facebook ?

2007-08-22T17:49:00.000-07:00

Dogbook was developed by Alexandre Roche. It allows you to create a Facebook Profile for your dog. When you enter the application, you are taken to a window that looks just like Facebook profile entry window. You enter in your dog’s name, its breed and type, its favorite actitivites.

Lehman Brothers Holdings to close subsidiary BNC Mortgage

2007-08-22T17:43:00.000-07:00

PM Investment bank Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. (LEH) said Wednesday that it is closing its BNC Mortgage LLC subsidiary as a result of the turmoil in the U.S. subprime mortgage market.

BNC Mortgage LLC issues home loans to people who cannot document their income or have shaky credit histories. BNC Mortgage was a publicly traded company till 2000 when Lehman helped finance the buyout of BNC by its management for about $47 million. Lehman took an ownership stake and by 2004 bought out management's stake. Last year BNC Mortgage was the 40th-largest U.S. mortgage lender with $13.7 billion in volume, according to U.S. Banker.

The closure will affect about 1200 employees in 23 cities and cost the company $25 million in severance, real estate and technology costs, New York-based Lehman said. The company will also record a $27 million accounting charge for writing down goodwill.

BNC Mortgage said in its Web site that it will no longer accept new loan submissions and will be returning any loan files that have not already been approved.

Lehman, however, said that it will continue to issue home loans in the U.S. through its Aurora Loan Services LLC subsidiary.

Mike Flynt makes come back

2007-08-22T17:40:00.000-07:00

Mike Flynt is a 59 year old strength and conditioning coach at Nebraska, Oregon and Texas A&M. One of his regrets in life was being kicked off a college football team before his senior year. Mike decided to try out for the team (amazingly enough he was still eligible) and has now made the Division III team’s roster for Sul Ross State University. While many people warn him of his age and the dangers of playing football, Mike Flynt is in excellent condition for his age.

Ohio's governor has declared a state of emergency

2007-08-22T17:38:00.000-07:00

Ohio's governor has declared a state of emergency in nine counties as part of the state pushes through its worst flooding in nearly 100 years.

Authorities are shutting down schools and streets, and at least 500 people have been evacuated.

In Findlay, rescuers have set out to reach dozens of people trapped in flooded homes. With only a few rescue boats available, neighbors are ferrying through the town's streets in their own canoes to help those who are stranded.

The town's Blanchard river is close to seven feet over flood stage. It's the highest it has been since a 1913 flood. Forecasters say it could rise by another half foot or more.

Cayman Islands ready for the Dean

2007-08-20T07:35:00.000-07:00

The Cayman Islands readied for a brush with Hurricane Dean, which has already killed eight people, as Texas officials on Monday opened emergency centers and passed out sandbags in preparation for a possible encounter with the powerful storm.

Dean was expected to pass to the south of the Caymans, but the government said it posed a "significant threat" to the islands. Forecasters said the islands could receive up to 12 inches of rain.

Dangerous Dean is now heading towards Yucatan Peninsula

2007-08-20T07:32:00.000-07:00

Hurricane Dean slashed through southern Jamaica and is currently moving westward at 21 miles per hour, expecting to approach the east coast of the Yucatan Peninsula tonight. Dean is still a category 4 storm with its 150 mile winds, but is expected to strengthen into a category 5 over the next 24 hours, according to the National Weather Service in Brownsville.

Dean will sweep across the peninsula and make landfall again near Tuxpan, Veracruz, about 280 nautical miles south of Brownsville.

The man who played young frankenstein in 1974

2007-08-20T07:25:00.000-07:00

Cloris Leachman, was it who played Frau Blucher in Mel Brooks's 1974 comedy Young Frankenstein. The plot summary was as follows...

The grandson of Victor Frankenstein is a teaching surgeon who has spent his life living down the legend of his grandfather, even changing the pronunciation of his name. When the diary of his grandfather is brought to him, he takes a leave of absence to examine the family castle. Then things get a little silly. Due to a switch, he implants an abnormal brain in his creation which causes problems, but things really get out of hand when the young Frankenstein's bride to be shows up at the castle. The whole film is shot in Black and white to simulate the old monster movie feeling

Where was the first subway in the world located ?

2007-08-20T07:18:00.000-07:00

The oldest rapid transit system in the world is the London Underground, which opened in 1863. The two primary ways that subway tunnels are constructed are by cut and cover and tunnel boring. The world's most extensive urban rail systems are Tokyo's rail network and Osaka, Japan.

In the United Kingdom and some Commonwealth countries (such as Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, and Singapore), the term subway normally refers to a specially constructed underpass for pedestrians and/or cyclists beneath a road or railway, allowing them to reach the other side in safety.

The term is also used in the United States, specifically by the California Department of Transportation, for a road undercrossing which is depressed.

Underground pedestrian passageways are less common in North American cities than in European cities of comparable size. They are constructed when it is necessary for pedestrians to cross a railroad or a limited-access highway such as an interstate highway, and of course they appear at the exits from underground rapid transit systems, but one would be rarely built just to enable people to cross an ordinary city street. When they are built, the term "pedestrian underpass" is more likely to be used, since the word "subway" is usually used there to refer to rail-based rapid transit systems such as New York Subway.

Who is the creator of Carmen ?

2007-08-20T07:14:00.000-07:00

Carmen Sandiego is a fictional character featured in a long-running edutainment series of the same name. As a criminal mastermind and the elusive nemesis of the ACME Detective Agency, Sandiego is the principal villain of the series and head of ACME's rival organization V.I.L.E. Most of her crimes involve spectacular and often impossible cases of theft. Her full name, according to Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? Treasures of Knowledge, is Carmen Isabela Sandiego.

Carmen Sandiego is almost always portrayed with a red trench coat, a matching fedora and long brown hair, although her hair color was given to be "auburn" or "black" in some of the earliest games. Her fedora is often shown leaving her face in shadow and obscuring her eyes. When her eyes are visible, they are usually brown, although they were blue in Where on Earth is Carmen Sandiego? and in Carmen Sandiego Math Detective. In many appearances she also wears gray or black gloves.

In the original Brøderbund games and in all the TV shows, she wore a yellow or orange dress under her trench coat, with a matching stripe on her fedora, and red high-heeled shoes. She also seemed to have a flair for elegance, often wearing jewelry. However, in the games created under The Learning Company, her appearance was retooled so that she wore a grayish black catsuit under her trench coat, with the stripe on her fedora changed to match, and more practical footwear. Her "new" look is seen in the image above.

Aerogel : The 'miracle substance'

2007-08-19T10:56:00.000-07:00

Aerogel is a low-density solid-state material derived from gel in which the liquid component of the gel has been replaced with gas. The result is an extremely low density solid with several remarkable properties, most notably its effectiveness as an insulator. It is nicknamed frozen smoke, solid smoke or blue smoke due to its semi-transparent nature and the way light scatters in the material; however, it feels like expanded polystyrene (Styrofoam) to the touch.

Aerogel was first created by Steven Kistler in 1931, as a result of a bet with Charles Learned over who could replace the liquid inside a jam (jelly) jar with gas without causing shrinkage.

Aerogels are produced by extracting the liquid component of a gel through supercritical drying. This allows the liquid to be slowly drawn off without causing the solid matrix in the gel to collapse from capillary action, as would happen with conventional evaporation. The first aerogels were produced from silica gels. Kistler's later work involved aerogels based on alumina, chromia and tin oxide. Carbon aerogels were first developed in the early 1990s.

The Metropolitan Opera

2007-08-19T10:52:00.001-07:00

The Metropolitan Opera Association of New York City, founded in April 1880, is a major presenter of all types of opera including Grand Opera. The Metropolitan is America's largest classical music organization, and annually presents some 240 opera performances. The home of the company, the Metropolitan Opera House is one of the premier opera stages in the world. The Met is one of the twelve resident organizations at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.

Events at Metropolitan Opera

Hurricane Dean heads for Jamaica (Radar loop)

2007-08-19T10:46:00.000-07:00

Hurricane Dean is closing in on Jamaica and at last look (just at the start of Sunday 8/19/2007) the radar and satelite images , Dean’s eye appears to be headed just south of the island. The storm bands are huge though and the storm bands will more than cover all of Jamaica as it passes on Sunday.

Using Jamaica radar and the Jamaica map, experts predict that hurricane dean will hit Jamaica at 155mph (249kph) winds and bring up to 20 inches (50cms) of rain.

To protect the people of Jamaica, over 1000 shelters have been set up across Jamaica in preparing for the bad weather that hurricane dean will bring.

Andre the Giant tribute videos

2007-08-19T10:37:00.000-07:00

André the Giant was the stage name of Andre Rene Roussimoff, (May 19, 1946 – January 27, 1993) a French professional wrestler and actor. He was at least 2.09 metres (6 ft 10 in) tall and believed by many to have been over 2.13 metres (7 ft) at his tallest. His great size was a result of excessive growth hormone, a condition known as acromegaly, and led to him being dubbed "The Eighth Wonder of the World".

Remembering Claudio Arrau

2007-08-19T10:23:00.000-07:00

Claudio Arrau Leon (February 6, 1903 – June 9, 1991) was a Chilean pianist of world fame for his deep interpretations of a huge, vast repertoire spanning from the baroque to 20th-century composers. He is widely considered one of the greatest pianists of the 20th century.

Awards and recognitions

Gold Medal, The Royal Philharmonic Society. 1990
Doctor, The Juilliard School. 1989
Honorary Member, The Royal Philharmonic Society. 1988
National Prize of Art of Chile. 1983

Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur of France

First Honorary Member, The Robert Schumann Society
Beethoven Medal of New York
Ordre des Arts et des Lettres of France
Hans von Bülow Medal of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. 1978
Großes Bundesverdienstkreuz of the Federal Republic of Germany. 1970
Homage from the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. Kurt Westphal, on behalf of the orchestra, called him "heir to the throne of Gieseking and Busoni". 1968
Doctor of Music, University of Chile. 1959
Doctor Honoris Causa, University of Concepción (Spanish). 1959
Gold Medal of the City of Concepción
Doctor Honoris Causa, University of Chile. 1949
Gold Medal of the Chilean Government. 1944
Winner of the Grand Prix of the Concours International des Pianistes. The jury was composed by Arthur Rubinstein, Joseph Pembaur, Ernest Schelling, Alfred Cortot and José Vianna da Motta. Cortot exclaimed: "Cela c'est un pianiste. C'est merveilleux". Geneva, 1927
Honour Prize of the Stern Conservatory (German), becoming Professor. 1925
Liszt Prize in 1919 (after 45 years without a first place winner), and again in 1920
Schulhoff Prize. Berlin, 1918
End of studies at the Stern Conservatory, receiving an "Exceptional Diploma". Berlin, 1917
Grant of the Stern Conservatory. Berlin, 1916
First Prize in the Rudolph Ibach Competition (he was the only participating boy). Berlin, 1915
Gustav Holländer Medal for young artists. Berlin, 1915
Grant of the Chilean Congress for musical studies in Berlin. 1911

James Bay - As seen from the space

2007-08-18T07:54:00.000-07:00

James Bay is a large body of water on the southern end of Hudson Bay in Canada. Both bodies of water extend from the Arctic Ocean. James Bay borders the provinces of Quebec and Ontario; islands within the bay are currently part of Nunavut, but the islands have been ceded to Quebec and Ontario in a soon-to-be-signed agreement. The James Bay watershed is the site of several major hydroelectric projects, and is also a destination for river-based recreation. Several communities are located near or alongside James Bay, including a number of Aboriginal communities such as the Kashechewan First Nation and nine communities affiliated with the Crees of northern Quebec.

Shawn Klush : The number one Elvis tribute artist

2007-08-18T07:45:00.000-07:00

Shawn Klush has been selected as the number one Elvis tribute artist, in Memphis at Graceland.
Watch him perform....

Roanoke Woman Wins $250,000 In Mega Millions

2007-08-18T07:37:00.000-07:00

It was a long weekend for Wanda Williams of Roanoke after she discovered she had a winning Mega Millions ticket. She had to wait from Saturday morning, when she checked the winning numbers, until Virginia Lottery offices opened on Monday morning. All the while, she had a ticket worth $250,000 in her possession.

“I chewed my nails. I walked the floor,” she told Virginia Lottery officials when she claimed her prize first thing that Monday morning.

Ms. Williams won Mega Millions’ second largest prize in the August 10, 2007, drawing. Her ticket matched the first five winning numbers and only missed the Mega Ball number.

Her husband purchased the winning ticket at Sky Mart, located at 3902 Melrose Avenue in Roanoke. On the morning following the drawing, he woke her and told her the good news.

“He was picking me up and carrying me around the house,” she said. She didn’t believe him until she had a chance to look at the winning numbers herself. Then she exclaimed, “I can’t believe it. We did win!”

Ms. Williams said the winnings will help purchase a new home for retirement.

All profits from the Virginia Lottery go to K-12 public school education in the Commonwealth. In fiscal year 2006 the Lottery turned over more than $454 million for Virginia’s public schools, representing about 10 percent of state funding for public education in Virginia.

Movie : Harold and Kumar 2 Go to Amsterdam

2007-08-18T07:31:00.000-07:00

The first teaser trailer of the movie Harold and Kumar 2 has just arrived. The plot outline is that they're running from authorities who suspect them of being terrorists after they try to sneak a bong on board their flight to Amsterdam.

Elsa Pataky : Biography

2007-08-18T07:25:00.000-07:00

Elsa Pataky is a Spanish actress. She was born in Madrid, Spain, and is fluent in Spanish, French, English and Romanian. Pataky attended the Universidad de San Pablo and studied journalism. During this time, Pataky also enrolled in acting classes. She was also a member of the Madrid theatre company, Teatro Cámara de Ángel Guitiérrez. Eventually, she left school when she was cast in the television series Al Salir de Clase. With the success of Al Salir de Clase, Pataky received her first film offer, El Arte de Morir. Some of her subsequent films were co-productions with the UK and France, which introduced her to working in English and French.

Acting Carrier
With the success of Al Salir de Clase, Pataky received her first film offer, El Arte de Morir. Some of her subsequent films were co-productions with the UK and France, which introduced her to working in English and French.

Pataky has appeared in over ten Spanish films and most recently crossed over into the French market with her co-starring role in the 2004 box office hit, Iznogoud. She also appeared in a supporting role in the David Ellis-directed film Snakes on a Plane (2006), alongside Samuel L. Jackson. She is currently receiving good reviews for her work in the Spanish film Ninette, helmed by Oscar winner José Luis Garci.

Clay Buchholz is about to start today

2007-08-17T12:00:00.000-07:00

Clay Buchholz is slated to start Game 1 today against the LA Angels as the Red Sox Number One pitching prospect makes his first ever Major League Baseball start. This is an exciting day for Red Sox fans as we haven't had this much buzz around a Sox pitching prospect since Jonathan Papelbon came up, and lets just say he's working out just fine. Buchholz has pitched 30.1 innings thus far for our triple A Pawtucket Red Sox (after starting the season in double A) and he's sporting a 3.26 ERA. In his 30.1 innings this year he's struck out a total of 48 batters and walked only 8 which is truly impressive.

Read about Clay Buchholz

'Jimmy Justice' is watching you madam

2007-08-17T11:45:00.000-07:00

One man from Brooklyn has made it his crusade to scold New York City workers who he catches parking illegally. He goes by the name 'Jimmy Justice' and he's armed with a camera.

In this video, he observes a traffic enforcement agent make an illegal u-turn.Then she covers her badge so she cannot be identified.

Kestrel : The hunter bird

2007-08-17T11:31:00.000-07:00

The name kestrel is given to several different members of the falcon genus, Falco. Kestrels are most easily distinguished by their typical hunting behaviour which is to hover at a height of around 10–20 m over open country and swoop down on prey, usually small mammals, lizards or large insects. Other falcons are more adapted to active hunting on the wing. In addition, kestrels are notable for usually having much brown in their plumage. Kestrels require a slight headwind in order to hover, hence a local name of windhover for Common Kestrel.

Plumage often - but unusually for falcons - differs between male and female, and (as is usual with monogamous raptors) the female is slightly larger than the male. This allows a pair to fill different feeding niches over their home range. Kestrels are bold and have adapted well to human encroachment, nesting in buildings and hunting by major roads.

Kestrels do not build their own nests, but use nests built by other species.