Monday, September 21, 2009
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Mafia assassin gets life for 4 NYC murders
NEW YORK – An aging hit man once used as an enforcer by mob boss John Gotti has been sentenced to life in prison for four cold-blooded killings.
Charles Carneglia (kahr-NAY'-glee-uh) was sentenced Thursday in Brooklyn federal court.
Prosecutors portrayed him as a feared Gambino organized crime family soldier who was eager to please his superiors.
During a 1990 ambush in the World Trade Center parking lot, Carneglia pumped four bullets into a man who ignored Gotti's invitation to a social club.
Other victims included a security guard, gunned down during an armored car heist at Kennedy International Airport.
Charles Carneglia (kahr-NAY'-glee-uh) was sentenced Thursday in Brooklyn federal court.
Prosecutors portrayed him as a feared Gambino organized crime family soldier who was eager to please his superiors.
During a 1990 ambush in the World Trade Center parking lot, Carneglia pumped four bullets into a man who ignored Gotti's invitation to a social club.
Other victims included a security guard, gunned down during an armored car heist at Kennedy International Airport.
Lab tech charged with Yale grad student's murder
NEW HAVEN, Conn. – A Yale lab technician appeared in court and was charged with murder Thursday hours after his arrest in the killing of a graduate student whose body was found stuffed in the wall of the research building where they both worked.
Raymond Clark III, 24, kept his head bowed during the three-minute appearance in the suffocation death of Annie Le, also 24. He didn't enter a plea and said, "Yes, your honor," when asked whether he understood his rights. The judge then set bail at $3 million and sent him to a holding cell.
New Haven Police Chief James Lewis said Le's death was a case of workplace violence and elaborated little except to say reports that the two had a romantic relationship were untrue "to my knowledge."
"It is important to note that this is not about urban crime, university crime, domestic crime but an issue of workplace violence, which is becoming a growing concern around the country," Lewis said, adding he wasn't ruling out additional charges.
Clark appeared in court with two public defenders. One of the attorneys, Joseph Lopez, said they would be handling Clark's case, which had previously been handled by a different lawyer. Lopez said he was still reviewing the case and declined to comment.
Clark was arrested earlier Thursday at a Super 8 hotel in Cromwell, about 25 miles north of the Ivy League campus, where he got a room shortly after being released from police questioning in Le's death.
Le was found dead on Sunday, her body hidden in the basement wall of a building where she worked as a medical researcher, on the day she was to marry her college sweetheart, Columbia University graduate student Jonathan Widawsky. The Connecticut medical examiner said Wednesday that Le died of "traumatic asphyxiation."
Authorities released no details on how she died, but traumatic asphyxiation could be consistent with a choke hold or some other form of pressure-induced asphyxiation caused by a hand or an object, such as a pipe.
Clark was under constant surveillance after he was released, and police spent Wednesday night and Thursday morning staking out the Super 8 hotel where Clark was staying.
Shortly after 8 a.m. Thursday, police moved closer, shutting down the highway outside the hotel and blocking the road leading into the hotel as they made the arrest. Clark was wearing a white shirt with tan stripes and tan pants as police ushered him into the back of a dark sedan with tinted windows. The car then sped off toward the highway, and arrived at the New Haven police department about an hour later.
Richard Levin, the president of Yale, released a statement shortly after the arrest, saying Clark's employment history gave no indication he was capable of such a crime.
"This incident could have happened in any city, in any university, or in any workplace. It says more about the dark side of the human soul than it does about the extent of security measures," Levin said in a message sent to the Yale community.
The family of Le's finace, Jonathan Widawsky, issued a statment on Thursday, thanking people who were involved in preparations for "a wedding that was not to be."
Raymond Clark III, 24, kept his head bowed during the three-minute appearance in the suffocation death of Annie Le, also 24. He didn't enter a plea and said, "Yes, your honor," when asked whether he understood his rights. The judge then set bail at $3 million and sent him to a holding cell.
New Haven Police Chief James Lewis said Le's death was a case of workplace violence and elaborated little except to say reports that the two had a romantic relationship were untrue "to my knowledge."
"It is important to note that this is not about urban crime, university crime, domestic crime but an issue of workplace violence, which is becoming a growing concern around the country," Lewis said, adding he wasn't ruling out additional charges.
Clark appeared in court with two public defenders. One of the attorneys, Joseph Lopez, said they would be handling Clark's case, which had previously been handled by a different lawyer. Lopez said he was still reviewing the case and declined to comment.
Clark was arrested earlier Thursday at a Super 8 hotel in Cromwell, about 25 miles north of the Ivy League campus, where he got a room shortly after being released from police questioning in Le's death.
Le was found dead on Sunday, her body hidden in the basement wall of a building where she worked as a medical researcher, on the day she was to marry her college sweetheart, Columbia University graduate student Jonathan Widawsky. The Connecticut medical examiner said Wednesday that Le died of "traumatic asphyxiation."
Authorities released no details on how she died, but traumatic asphyxiation could be consistent with a choke hold or some other form of pressure-induced asphyxiation caused by a hand or an object, such as a pipe.
Clark was under constant surveillance after he was released, and police spent Wednesday night and Thursday morning staking out the Super 8 hotel where Clark was staying.
Shortly after 8 a.m. Thursday, police moved closer, shutting down the highway outside the hotel and blocking the road leading into the hotel as they made the arrest. Clark was wearing a white shirt with tan stripes and tan pants as police ushered him into the back of a dark sedan with tinted windows. The car then sped off toward the highway, and arrived at the New Haven police department about an hour later.
Richard Levin, the president of Yale, released a statement shortly after the arrest, saying Clark's employment history gave no indication he was capable of such a crime.
"This incident could have happened in any city, in any university, or in any workplace. It says more about the dark side of the human soul than it does about the extent of security measures," Levin said in a message sent to the Yale community.
The family of Le's finace, Jonathan Widawsky, issued a statment on Thursday, thanking people who were involved in preparations for "a wedding that was not to be."
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
bermuda
The Bermuda Mystery Remains Forever
One hypothesis says that the Bermuda Triangle is a time hole...
This article is about a place traditionally considered to be one the most horrible and mysterious places on the planet. This is a place where many ships and planes have disappeared forever. The majority of these accidents have occurred after the year 1945. Over one thousand people have been victims of this place over the last 26 years. However, there have never been a dead body or even a fragment found.
This description is a very typical when people start talking or writing about the Bermuda Triangle. The area between Florida, Cuba, and the Bermuda islands has been considered an anomalous, mysterious site for many years. Is it really that as horrible as depicted in movies and described in papers?
A thousand victims over a quarter of a century is definitely way too many. However, this does not seem really scary if you compare it to other facts. The number of victims of car accidents in Russia on an area of the same size is 15 times larger over the same period of time. It is reasonable to compare Bermuda Triangle and road victims, since the area of the Bermuda Triangle is rather a busy traffic site. Needless to mention, that the triangle does not kill every ship or plane that travels there. So, where does this fame come from?
Everything started after WWII. The phenomenon of the psychological situation of the American nation of that time period is still waiting for its researchers. The United States of America possessed a very powerful army during 1945-1949. The USA had nuclear weapons at its disposal, so it seems that the Americans should have felt superior over the rest of the world. However, the feeling of superiority was suppressed by fear. The Americans felt that they were totally unprotected in from other more powerful forces: Martians, aliens, ghosts, and so on. In 1947, America was gripped with a fear of aliens after someone saw another UFO somewhere in the United States. This was the time that gave birth to unconventional science of ufology. However, the story started two years earlier, with the fear of the "omnivorous ocean."
December 5th, 1945 was a usual day for the American Air Force base in Florida, Fort Lauderdale. There were many experienced pilots serving there, so air crashes or other such incidents were rare. Lieutenant Charles Taylor was one of those pilots. A group of pilots was given a very easy task: to fly over to Chicken Shoal, which is to the north of Bimini Island. The weather was superb, so five Avenger bomber planes took off and flew eastwards. The fuel that the planes had in their tanks was enough for 5.5 hours of flying.
No one ever saw them again. Only God knows what happened to them. There were many versions and hypotheses proposed to explain the mystery. However, they were all a big understatement: the missing planes were not found. The details of this story were taken from the investigation and publication materials of the official chronicles of Florida.
The planes were returning around 3:30 p.m. Several minutes later, their command received a strange message: "We have a state of emergency. Most likely, we have lost our way. We do not see the ground. I repeat, we do not see the ground." A flight control officer asked them to report their whereabouts. The answer from the pilots to such an easy question was really surprising: "We can not do this. We do not know where we are at the moment." It seemed that it was not an experienced pilot talking, but a perplexed amateur. At 6:45 p.m., Charles Taylor transmitted very strange information: "We are above the Gulf of Mexico." A flight control officer decided that the pilots were either confused or went mad. The planes eventually disappeared.
Reporter and writer A. Ford wrote that Taylor's last words were as follows: "Do not follow me. They look like they came out of the Universe." If there was such a phrase said, most likely, it was reinterpreted. Back in those days, people were used to saying "they came from Mars," rather than "they came from the Universe."
More and more mysterious stories started appearing one after another after the accident with Avengers. A simple disappearance was not enough for people, and there was a strong need for rumors. Newspapers were doing their business very well. As a matter of fact, the truth of all the commotion actually made up only ten or fifteen percent. The worst thing about it is the fact that no one can explain any of those incidents. That mysterious "something" never left any eyewitnesses. However, there could be other witnesses found: audio tapes, radar records, and so on.
As far as the Avengers are concerned, there can be one conclusion made. The pilots had to deal with something unusual and strange. That meeting was the first of its kind for them. They knew or heard nothing about it before, which may explain the reason for their perplexity. They said that the ocean looked strange, and that the water was white. This can definitely frighten common people, but not experienced pilots. The pilots were searching for land in the west for some 1.5 hours. Then they started seeking land both in the west an in the east. They failed. The pilots made a mistake: they spent all their fuel searching for the land in the west. Most likely, they landed on the water and then sank. One of those Avengers was found in 1987 on the shelf bottom of the Gulf of Mexico. Nevertheless, it is still not clear how the planes moved 700 kilometers westwards without being noticed by anyone?
Other super-fast flights were registered as well. All those occasions have one common fact. They all happened in some strange white clouds or fog. An airliner that was approaching Miami once vanished from radar screens and then appeared again in ten minutes. However, all clocks on board the plane were ten minutes behind the actual time. There was not even a passenger who noticed anything weird about it.
It goes without saying that the hypothesis about a time hole above the Bermuda Triangle stirred up more rumors, and more horrific stories appeared as a result. American News magazine published an article that told the story of an American submarine. The submarine was travelling under the water at the depth of 70 meters (200 feet). The submariners suddenly heard a strange noise. Then they sensed a vibration that lasted for about a minute. Afterwards, it was noticed that all members of the crew added some years to their age. When the submarine surfaced, the satellite navigation system showed that the submarine was in the Indian Ocean, 300 miles off the eastern coast of Africa and about ten miles off the Bermudas. However, making any conclusions about this story is a premature thing to do. The US Navy never confirmed or rejected the information.
The friends of the Avenger pilots still do not know why lieutenant Taylor gave the command to land on the stormy sea if the planes could fly for two more hours looking for the land. Taylor gave the order, and all the pilots executed it. It is only possible to understand this act of suicide if there was no fuel in the tanks. Probably, the pilots were alive after their planes sank into the ocean. Most likely, they were swimming in the water wearing life vests. Nevertheless, the sea won the battle.
It is worth mentioning that a Marine Mariner boatplane searched for the Avengers and disappeared as well. The last thing that the pilot of the boatplane mentioned was something about a strong wind at the height of 1800 meters. The victims of this story make up 27 people.
The most surprising piece of news about the Avengers appeared later. The bomber planes were found in the Atlantic Ocean, only ten miles from their airbase. The pilots' relatives said that they were extremely sorry to discover this piece of information. It was horrible for them to realize that their men died just a couple of minutes from home. At first, there were four planes found, then a fifth one, marked as 28. This was Taylor's number.
The Russian and American Press Center helped to discover the details of the incredible finding. The Deep Sea vessel of the Scientific Search Project was searching for a Spanish galleon in 1991. The crew of the ship were making jokes about the mysteries of the Bermuda Triangle. Four Avenger planes were found on the bottom of the sea, at a depth of 250 meters. The fifth one was a mile away from the others. The archives mention only that one group of five planes disappeared in December of 1945, although the number of air crashes in the Atlantic Ocean, which happened to Avenger-type planes, totaled 139 accidents. A further examination of the planes proved that they landed on the water. However, there were no bodies found in the cockpits.
The story was not over. Another sensation arrived in the summer of 1995. Specialists from the Deep Sea vessel made a conclusion based on their research. The numbers on the planes found were FT-241, FT-87, FT-120, and FT-28. The numbers of the missing planes were: FT-3, FT-28 (Taylor), FT-36, FT-81, FT-117. Only one number matched. The mystery remains. Where did the Avengers go? Where did those planes come from?
An official government committee concluded the following in 1996. First, the planes on the bottom of the sea were not real; they were models. Second, they were placed there on purpose, for a bombing exercise.
Only stupid people might believe that official proclamation. The divers were laughing their heads off about that delirium from the government. The divers' reports described the numbers of the planes, and it was said there that the propellers of the planes were curved due to the crash landing. Nothing like that could have happened to modeled planes. Any kind of bombing exercise is out of the question as well. The planes were lying at the depth of 250 meters. This is like shooting at a target that is behind the Great Chinese Wall. As can be seen, the mystery of the Bermuda Triangle will remain forever.
One hypothesis says that the Bermuda Triangle is a time hole...
This article is about a place traditionally considered to be one the most horrible and mysterious places on the planet. This is a place where many ships and planes have disappeared forever. The majority of these accidents have occurred after the year 1945. Over one thousand people have been victims of this place over the last 26 years. However, there have never been a dead body or even a fragment found.
This description is a very typical when people start talking or writing about the Bermuda Triangle. The area between Florida, Cuba, and the Bermuda islands has been considered an anomalous, mysterious site for many years. Is it really that as horrible as depicted in movies and described in papers?
A thousand victims over a quarter of a century is definitely way too many. However, this does not seem really scary if you compare it to other facts. The number of victims of car accidents in Russia on an area of the same size is 15 times larger over the same period of time. It is reasonable to compare Bermuda Triangle and road victims, since the area of the Bermuda Triangle is rather a busy traffic site. Needless to mention, that the triangle does not kill every ship or plane that travels there. So, where does this fame come from?
Everything started after WWII. The phenomenon of the psychological situation of the American nation of that time period is still waiting for its researchers. The United States of America possessed a very powerful army during 1945-1949. The USA had nuclear weapons at its disposal, so it seems that the Americans should have felt superior over the rest of the world. However, the feeling of superiority was suppressed by fear. The Americans felt that they were totally unprotected in from other more powerful forces: Martians, aliens, ghosts, and so on. In 1947, America was gripped with a fear of aliens after someone saw another UFO somewhere in the United States. This was the time that gave birth to unconventional science of ufology. However, the story started two years earlier, with the fear of the "omnivorous ocean."
December 5th, 1945 was a usual day for the American Air Force base in Florida, Fort Lauderdale. There were many experienced pilots serving there, so air crashes or other such incidents were rare. Lieutenant Charles Taylor was one of those pilots. A group of pilots was given a very easy task: to fly over to Chicken Shoal, which is to the north of Bimini Island. The weather was superb, so five Avenger bomber planes took off and flew eastwards. The fuel that the planes had in their tanks was enough for 5.5 hours of flying.
No one ever saw them again. Only God knows what happened to them. There were many versions and hypotheses proposed to explain the mystery. However, they were all a big understatement: the missing planes were not found. The details of this story were taken from the investigation and publication materials of the official chronicles of Florida.
The planes were returning around 3:30 p.m. Several minutes later, their command received a strange message: "We have a state of emergency. Most likely, we have lost our way. We do not see the ground. I repeat, we do not see the ground." A flight control officer asked them to report their whereabouts. The answer from the pilots to such an easy question was really surprising: "We can not do this. We do not know where we are at the moment." It seemed that it was not an experienced pilot talking, but a perplexed amateur. At 6:45 p.m., Charles Taylor transmitted very strange information: "We are above the Gulf of Mexico." A flight control officer decided that the pilots were either confused or went mad. The planes eventually disappeared.
Reporter and writer A. Ford wrote that Taylor's last words were as follows: "Do not follow me. They look like they came out of the Universe." If there was such a phrase said, most likely, it was reinterpreted. Back in those days, people were used to saying "they came from Mars," rather than "they came from the Universe."
More and more mysterious stories started appearing one after another after the accident with Avengers. A simple disappearance was not enough for people, and there was a strong need for rumors. Newspapers were doing their business very well. As a matter of fact, the truth of all the commotion actually made up only ten or fifteen percent. The worst thing about it is the fact that no one can explain any of those incidents. That mysterious "something" never left any eyewitnesses. However, there could be other witnesses found: audio tapes, radar records, and so on.
As far as the Avengers are concerned, there can be one conclusion made. The pilots had to deal with something unusual and strange. That meeting was the first of its kind for them. They knew or heard nothing about it before, which may explain the reason for their perplexity. They said that the ocean looked strange, and that the water was white. This can definitely frighten common people, but not experienced pilots. The pilots were searching for land in the west for some 1.5 hours. Then they started seeking land both in the west an in the east. They failed. The pilots made a mistake: they spent all their fuel searching for the land in the west. Most likely, they landed on the water and then sank. One of those Avengers was found in 1987 on the shelf bottom of the Gulf of Mexico. Nevertheless, it is still not clear how the planes moved 700 kilometers westwards without being noticed by anyone?
Other super-fast flights were registered as well. All those occasions have one common fact. They all happened in some strange white clouds or fog. An airliner that was approaching Miami once vanished from radar screens and then appeared again in ten minutes. However, all clocks on board the plane were ten minutes behind the actual time. There was not even a passenger who noticed anything weird about it.
It goes without saying that the hypothesis about a time hole above the Bermuda Triangle stirred up more rumors, and more horrific stories appeared as a result. American News magazine published an article that told the story of an American submarine. The submarine was travelling under the water at the depth of 70 meters (200 feet). The submariners suddenly heard a strange noise. Then they sensed a vibration that lasted for about a minute. Afterwards, it was noticed that all members of the crew added some years to their age. When the submarine surfaced, the satellite navigation system showed that the submarine was in the Indian Ocean, 300 miles off the eastern coast of Africa and about ten miles off the Bermudas. However, making any conclusions about this story is a premature thing to do. The US Navy never confirmed or rejected the information.
The friends of the Avenger pilots still do not know why lieutenant Taylor gave the command to land on the stormy sea if the planes could fly for two more hours looking for the land. Taylor gave the order, and all the pilots executed it. It is only possible to understand this act of suicide if there was no fuel in the tanks. Probably, the pilots were alive after their planes sank into the ocean. Most likely, they were swimming in the water wearing life vests. Nevertheless, the sea won the battle.
It is worth mentioning that a Marine Mariner boatplane searched for the Avengers and disappeared as well. The last thing that the pilot of the boatplane mentioned was something about a strong wind at the height of 1800 meters. The victims of this story make up 27 people.
The most surprising piece of news about the Avengers appeared later. The bomber planes were found in the Atlantic Ocean, only ten miles from their airbase. The pilots' relatives said that they were extremely sorry to discover this piece of information. It was horrible for them to realize that their men died just a couple of minutes from home. At first, there were four planes found, then a fifth one, marked as 28. This was Taylor's number.
The Russian and American Press Center helped to discover the details of the incredible finding. The Deep Sea vessel of the Scientific Search Project was searching for a Spanish galleon in 1991. The crew of the ship were making jokes about the mysteries of the Bermuda Triangle. Four Avenger planes were found on the bottom of the sea, at a depth of 250 meters. The fifth one was a mile away from the others. The archives mention only that one group of five planes disappeared in December of 1945, although the number of air crashes in the Atlantic Ocean, which happened to Avenger-type planes, totaled 139 accidents. A further examination of the planes proved that they landed on the water. However, there were no bodies found in the cockpits.
The story was not over. Another sensation arrived in the summer of 1995. Specialists from the Deep Sea vessel made a conclusion based on their research. The numbers on the planes found were FT-241, FT-87, FT-120, and FT-28. The numbers of the missing planes were: FT-3, FT-28 (Taylor), FT-36, FT-81, FT-117. Only one number matched. The mystery remains. Where did the Avengers go? Where did those planes come from?
An official government committee concluded the following in 1996. First, the planes on the bottom of the sea were not real; they were models. Second, they were placed there on purpose, for a bombing exercise.
Only stupid people might believe that official proclamation. The divers were laughing their heads off about that delirium from the government. The divers' reports described the numbers of the planes, and it was said there that the propellers of the planes were curved due to the crash landing. Nothing like that could have happened to modeled planes. Any kind of bombing exercise is out of the question as well. The planes were lying at the depth of 250 meters. This is like shooting at a target that is behind the Great Chinese Wall. As can be seen, the mystery of the Bermuda Triangle will remain forever.
bermuda
If you have ever traveled to the Caribbean from South Florida, be it by ship or plane, then you have ventured into the Bermuda Triangle. Are you scared yet?
Stretching from Bermuda to Miami to Puerto Rico, the Devil's Triangle, as it is also called, isn't recognized by any geographical organization. It's an imaginary zone where spooky stuff seems to occur. The fact is that an abundance of boats and planes have entered the triangle, never to be heard from again.
It was December 5, 1945. The war had ended and the world was once again at peace. Military personnel were back on training missions and this was precisely the case for the boys of Flight 19. The men from the Navy and the Marine Corps were to practice bombing submarines near the Bahamas.
After 2pm, the entire squadron of TBM Avengers left its base at Fort Lauderdale and soon began their diving runs. The single engine Avenger was a sturdy aircraft and had proven itself against Axis powers in previous years. The aviators believed themselves quite safe.
Lieutenant Robert F. Cox was an instructor pilot flying by the Florida coast. He was intending to join up with his squadron of students when just before 4pm, he heard about their disappearance. The boys were on the airwaves indicating that they were lost and that their compasses were malfunctioning. Attempts to redirect the planes to base failed and communication was lost after more than two hours. Flight 19 had disappeared forever.
At around 6pm, the Navy launched a number of aircrafts to locate the missing Avengers. Half an hour later, one of the PBM Mariners didn't report back. Another pilot maintained he had seen an explosion in mid-air and later a pool of oil on the sea surface. But the rescue plane was never found. It seemed that the Bermuda Triangle had claimed another victim. Twenty-seven men and six aircrafts were lost that day in an event the Navy still cannot explain.
What could be the secret of the Devil's Triangle? Giant octopi have been cited as being monsters that reach out and pull ships and aircrafts under the tide. Others believe the triangle is home to the lost civilization of Atlantis and crafts are being swiped through its magical power ray.
Yet, there's another theory that is widely popular. This one focuses on UFOs, which use a magnetic field to allow humans to travel to their dimension, a theory that was sponsored by Steven Spielberg's classic Close Encounters of the Third Kind, in which the lost Avengers reappeared and the pilots of Flight 19 returned.
More theories, and will the hype surrounding the Bermuda Triangle ever disappear? Find out...
It's always more intriguing to believe in myths and legends rather than the scientific data used to support theories. One such scientific theory states that the Bermuda Triangle, at the 80th meridian, is one of two spots on Earth where compass variation is unnecessary. At this agonic line, where actual north and magnetic north are aligned, sailors must compensate.
The region is also host to high magnetic activity, which could perhaps cause compasses to go wild. Meso-meteorological storms also share the blame. These weather systems are composed of thunderstorms, miniature cyclones and tornadoes, and they can appear without warning as they follow abnormal weather patterns.
Another explanation is that methane is often released from the planet's core, which diminishes the water's density and is said to cause a vessel to sink or capsize in an instant. This is what some believe happened to the USS Cyclops in March 1918. The ship was reported to have an eccentric captain at its helm, a man who would apparently pace along the quarterdeck in his underwear. It was this event that allegedly inspired Paul Gallico to write The Poseidon Adventure.
It is widely believed that most boats or crafts that disappeared suffered from human error. Even the men of Flight 19 could have made mistakes; had they known about the peculiar environment in this area, they probably could have saved themselves.
The fact is that the area covered by the Bermuda Triangle is one of the most frequented spots for pleasure boating in the world. Given the area's popularity, people want to know if they are in any danger should they choose to vacation there. Could you be the next victim? The term is likely searched as a precautionary measure.
And let's not discard the media frenzy over the matter. A week doesn't go by without one documentary or another popping up on cable somewhere, be it TLC, the Discovery Channel, or the History Channel.
The first media mention of the mystical phenomenon dates back to October 1952, when George X. Sand wrote a short article entitled "Sea Mystery at Our Back Door" in Fate magazine. Later, a string of articles appeared in the '60s that elaborated on the subject. It was Vincent Gaddis who first mapped the area and gave us its famous name in his article "The Deadly Bermuda Triangle," in the February 1964 issue of Argosy magazine.
Over the years, a dozen exploitative minor films have been released and as many books have been published. It seems that even if scientists have come up with reasonable explanations for the various disasters that have occurred, few people really want to accept them as fact. It's much more interesting to believe in unexplained incidents and speculate about them. And so the myth of the Bermuda Triangle is here to stay
Stretching from Bermuda to Miami to Puerto Rico, the Devil's Triangle, as it is also called, isn't recognized by any geographical organization. It's an imaginary zone where spooky stuff seems to occur. The fact is that an abundance of boats and planes have entered the triangle, never to be heard from again.
It was December 5, 1945. The war had ended and the world was once again at peace. Military personnel were back on training missions and this was precisely the case for the boys of Flight 19. The men from the Navy and the Marine Corps were to practice bombing submarines near the Bahamas.
After 2pm, the entire squadron of TBM Avengers left its base at Fort Lauderdale and soon began their diving runs. The single engine Avenger was a sturdy aircraft and had proven itself against Axis powers in previous years. The aviators believed themselves quite safe.
Lieutenant Robert F. Cox was an instructor pilot flying by the Florida coast. He was intending to join up with his squadron of students when just before 4pm, he heard about their disappearance. The boys were on the airwaves indicating that they were lost and that their compasses were malfunctioning. Attempts to redirect the planes to base failed and communication was lost after more than two hours. Flight 19 had disappeared forever.
At around 6pm, the Navy launched a number of aircrafts to locate the missing Avengers. Half an hour later, one of the PBM Mariners didn't report back. Another pilot maintained he had seen an explosion in mid-air and later a pool of oil on the sea surface. But the rescue plane was never found. It seemed that the Bermuda Triangle had claimed another victim. Twenty-seven men and six aircrafts were lost that day in an event the Navy still cannot explain.
What could be the secret of the Devil's Triangle? Giant octopi have been cited as being monsters that reach out and pull ships and aircrafts under the tide. Others believe the triangle is home to the lost civilization of Atlantis and crafts are being swiped through its magical power ray.
Yet, there's another theory that is widely popular. This one focuses on UFOs, which use a magnetic field to allow humans to travel to their dimension, a theory that was sponsored by Steven Spielberg's classic Close Encounters of the Third Kind, in which the lost Avengers reappeared and the pilots of Flight 19 returned.
More theories, and will the hype surrounding the Bermuda Triangle ever disappear? Find out...
It's always more intriguing to believe in myths and legends rather than the scientific data used to support theories. One such scientific theory states that the Bermuda Triangle, at the 80th meridian, is one of two spots on Earth where compass variation is unnecessary. At this agonic line, where actual north and magnetic north are aligned, sailors must compensate.
The region is also host to high magnetic activity, which could perhaps cause compasses to go wild. Meso-meteorological storms also share the blame. These weather systems are composed of thunderstorms, miniature cyclones and tornadoes, and they can appear without warning as they follow abnormal weather patterns.
Another explanation is that methane is often released from the planet's core, which diminishes the water's density and is said to cause a vessel to sink or capsize in an instant. This is what some believe happened to the USS Cyclops in March 1918. The ship was reported to have an eccentric captain at its helm, a man who would apparently pace along the quarterdeck in his underwear. It was this event that allegedly inspired Paul Gallico to write The Poseidon Adventure.
It is widely believed that most boats or crafts that disappeared suffered from human error. Even the men of Flight 19 could have made mistakes; had they known about the peculiar environment in this area, they probably could have saved themselves.
The fact is that the area covered by the Bermuda Triangle is one of the most frequented spots for pleasure boating in the world. Given the area's popularity, people want to know if they are in any danger should they choose to vacation there. Could you be the next victim? The term is likely searched as a precautionary measure.
And let's not discard the media frenzy over the matter. A week doesn't go by without one documentary or another popping up on cable somewhere, be it TLC, the Discovery Channel, or the History Channel.
The first media mention of the mystical phenomenon dates back to October 1952, when George X. Sand wrote a short article entitled "Sea Mystery at Our Back Door" in Fate magazine. Later, a string of articles appeared in the '60s that elaborated on the subject. It was Vincent Gaddis who first mapped the area and gave us its famous name in his article "The Deadly Bermuda Triangle," in the February 1964 issue of Argosy magazine.
Over the years, a dozen exploitative minor films have been released and as many books have been published. It seems that even if scientists have come up with reasonable explanations for the various disasters that have occurred, few people really want to accept them as fact. It's much more interesting to believe in unexplained incidents and speculate about them. And so the myth of the Bermuda Triangle is here to stay
bermuda
The Bermuda Triangle, also known as the Devil's Triangle, is a region in the western part of the North Atlantic Ocean in which a number of aircraft and surface vessels are alleged to have mysteriously disappeared and cannot be explained as human error, piracy, equipment failure, or natural disasters. Popular culture has attributed some of these disappearances to the paranormal, a suspension of the laws of physics, or activity by extraterrestrial beings.[1]
A substantial body of documentation reveals, however, that a significant portion of the allegedly mysterious incidents have been inaccurately reported or embellished by later authors, and numerous official agencies have stated that the number and nature of disappearances in the region is similar to any other area of ocean
A substantial body of documentation reveals, however, that a significant portion of the allegedly mysterious incidents have been inaccurately reported or embellished by later authors, and numerous official agencies have stated that the number and nature of disappearances in the region is similar to any other area of ocean
The Triangle area
The area of the Triangle varies by author
The boundaries of the triangle cover the Straits of Florida, the Bahamas and the entire Caribbean island area and the Atlantic east to the Azores; others[who?] add to it the Gulf of Mexico. The more familiar triangular boundary in most written works has as its points somewhere on the Atlantic coast of Miami, San Juan, Puerto Rico; and the mid-Atlantic island of Bermuda, with most of the accidents concentrated along the southern boundary around the Bahamas and the Florida Straits.
The area is one of the most heavily-sailed shipping lanes in the world, with ships crossing through it daily for ports in the Americas, Europe, and the Caribbean Islands. Cruise ships are also plentiful, and pleasure craft regularly go back and forth between Florida and the islands. It is also a heavily flown route for commercial and private aircraft heading towards Florida, the Caribbean, and South America from points north.
The area of the Triangle varies by author
The boundaries of the triangle cover the Straits of Florida, the Bahamas and the entire Caribbean island area and the Atlantic east to the Azores; others[who?] add to it the Gulf of Mexico. The more familiar triangular boundary in most written works has as its points somewhere on the Atlantic coast of Miami, San Juan, Puerto Rico; and the mid-Atlantic island of Bermuda, with most of the accidents concentrated along the southern boundary around the Bahamas and the Florida Straits.
The area is one of the most heavily-sailed shipping lanes in the world, with ships crossing through it daily for ports in the Americas, Europe, and the Caribbean Islands. Cruise ships are also plentiful, and pleasure craft regularly go back and forth between Florida and the islands. It is also a heavily flown route for commercial and private aircraft heading towards Florida, the Caribbean, and South America from points north.
History
Origins
The earliest allegation of unusual disappearances in the Bermuda area appeared in a September 16, 1950 Associated Press article by E.V.W. Jones.[5] Two years later, Fate magazine published "Sea Mystery At Our Back Door",[6] a short article by George X. Sand covering the loss of several planes and ships, including the loss of Flight 19, a group of five U.S. Navy TBM Avenger bombers on a training mission. Sand's article was the first to lay out the now-familiar triangular area where the losses took place. Flight 19 alone would be covered in the April 1962 issue of American Legion Magazine.[7] It was claimed that the flight leader had been heard saying "We are entering white water, nothing seems right. We don't know where we are, the water is green, no white." It was also claimed that officials at the Navy board of inquiry stated that the planes "flew off to Mars." Sand's article was the first to suggest a supernatural element to the Flight 19 incident. In the February 1964 issue of Argosy, Vincent Gaddis's article "The Deadly Bermuda Triangle" argued that Flight 19 and other disappearances were part of a pattern of strange events in the region.[8] The next year, Gaddis explanded this article into a book, Invisible Horizons.[9]
Others would follow with their own works, elaborating on Gaddis's ideas: John Wallace Spencer (Limbo of the Lost, 1969, repr. 1973);[10] Charles Berlitz (The Bermuda Triangle, 1974);[11] Richard Winer (The Devil's Triangle, 1974),[12] and many others, all keeping to some of the same supernatural elements outlined by Eckert.[
Origins
The earliest allegation of unusual disappearances in the Bermuda area appeared in a September 16, 1950 Associated Press article by E.V.W. Jones.[5] Two years later, Fate magazine published "Sea Mystery At Our Back Door",[6] a short article by George X. Sand covering the loss of several planes and ships, including the loss of Flight 19, a group of five U.S. Navy TBM Avenger bombers on a training mission. Sand's article was the first to lay out the now-familiar triangular area where the losses took place. Flight 19 alone would be covered in the April 1962 issue of American Legion Magazine.[7] It was claimed that the flight leader had been heard saying "We are entering white water, nothing seems right. We don't know where we are, the water is green, no white." It was also claimed that officials at the Navy board of inquiry stated that the planes "flew off to Mars." Sand's article was the first to suggest a supernatural element to the Flight 19 incident. In the February 1964 issue of Argosy, Vincent Gaddis's article "The Deadly Bermuda Triangle" argued that Flight 19 and other disappearances were part of a pattern of strange events in the region.[8] The next year, Gaddis explanded this article into a book, Invisible Horizons.[9]
Others would follow with their own works, elaborating on Gaddis's ideas: John Wallace Spencer (Limbo of the Lost, 1969, repr. 1973);[10] Charles Berlitz (The Bermuda Triangle, 1974);[11] Richard Winer (The Devil's Triangle, 1974),[12] and many others, all keeping to some of the same supernatural elements outlined by Eckert.[
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Grizzly bear gets swim lessons in Montana pool
HELENA, Mont. – A 7-year-old learning how to swim is nothing new unless it's an 800-pound grizzly bear taking the plunge.
Brutus the bear slapped the water a few times then gingerly backed into the East Helena pool while onlookers gawked late last week.
Casey Anderson was teaching Brutus, who was born in captivity, how to swim and catch fish for a National Geographic special called "Expedition Kodiak," scheduled to run next year.
"I've had him since he was the size of a cupcake," Anderson said of Brutus, who served as best man, or bear, in Anderson's wedding.
Anderson grew up in the area and learned how to swim in the same pool where Brutus was getting his lesson.
Brutus, though, drew more of a crowd, and an electrified fence was put up around the pool to keep Brutus from wandering through town.
At the pool, Anderson used a fish on the end of a pole to help Brutus develop his fish-catching skills. Next up, Anderson plans to return with Brutus to the Montana Grizzly Encounter in Bozeman, where Brutus will learn to catch live fish.
Twelve-year-old Mauri Erickson walked over from her house to see the swimming lesson.
"I think it's really cool that there's a bear swimming in my favorite pool," said Erickson. "He's a lot bigger than I thought he would be."
Brutus the bear slapped the water a few times then gingerly backed into the East Helena pool while onlookers gawked late last week.
Casey Anderson was teaching Brutus, who was born in captivity, how to swim and catch fish for a National Geographic special called "Expedition Kodiak," scheduled to run next year.
"I've had him since he was the size of a cupcake," Anderson said of Brutus, who served as best man, or bear, in Anderson's wedding.
Anderson grew up in the area and learned how to swim in the same pool where Brutus was getting his lesson.
Brutus, though, drew more of a crowd, and an electrified fence was put up around the pool to keep Brutus from wandering through town.
At the pool, Anderson used a fish on the end of a pole to help Brutus develop his fish-catching skills. Next up, Anderson plans to return with Brutus to the Montana Grizzly Encounter in Bozeman, where Brutus will learn to catch live fish.
Twelve-year-old Mauri Erickson walked over from her house to see the swimming lesson.
"I think it's really cool that there's a bear swimming in my favorite pool," said Erickson. "He's a lot bigger than I thought he would be."
Bin Laden Costumes Now Available In Israel
Shops in Israel are now selling Osama bin Laden masks for the traditional costume holiday Purim. The holiday is when perceived enemies of the Jewish people are held up for ridicule
Mom leaves ND hospital with wrong newborn
WILLISTON, N.D. – A hospital in northwestern North Dakota is investigating how the mother of a newborn went home with the wrong baby.
Officials with the Mercy Medical Center in Williston say the mistake was discovered within an hour and the mother was quickly reunited with her own child.
Mercy Chief Financial Officer Kerry Monson would not release details about how the mix-up happened or what families were involved.
She said in a statement that hospital employees are disheartened by the incident. She says officials are reviewing policies and procedures and will take appropriate action.
Officials with the Mercy Medical Center in Williston say the mistake was discovered within an hour and the mother was quickly reunited with her own child.
Mercy Chief Financial Officer Kerry Monson would not release details about how the mix-up happened or what families were involved.
She said in a statement that hospital employees are disheartened by the incident. She says officials are reviewing policies and procedures and will take appropriate action.
Police: Well-dressed elderly man robs Calif. bank
LA JOLLA, Calif. – Authorities say a well-dressed elderly man carrying an oxygen tank has robbed a bank in the San Diego suburb of La Jolla.
San Diego police Sgt. Ray Battrick says the suspect on Saturday presented a note demanding money to a teller at the San Diego National Bank. He fled with an unknown amount of cash.
Battrick says it's unclear whether the suspect had a weapon.
The robber is described as a tall man in his 70s with white hair, a gray mustache and glasses. He was wearing a white beret, argyle sweater and brown sports jacket.
Battrick says the oxygen tank was in a black bag and connected to the man's nose with plastic tubing.
San Diego police Sgt. Ray Battrick says the suspect on Saturday presented a note demanding money to a teller at the San Diego National Bank. He fled with an unknown amount of cash.
Battrick says it's unclear whether the suspect had a weapon.
The robber is described as a tall man in his 70s with white hair, a gray mustache and glasses. He was wearing a white beret, argyle sweater and brown sports jacket.
Battrick says the oxygen tank was in a black bag and connected to the man's nose with plastic tubing.
Police: Well-dressed elderly man robs Calif. bank
LA JOLLA, Calif. – Authorities say a well-dressed elderly man carrying an oxygen tank has robbed a bank in the San Diego suburb of La Jolla.
San Diego police Sgt. Ray Battrick says the suspect on Saturday presented a note demanding money to a teller at the San Diego National Bank. He fled with an unknown amount of cash.
Battrick says it's unclear whether the suspect had a weapon.
The robber is described as a tall man in his 70s with white hair, a gray mustache and glasses. He was wearing a white beret, argyle sweater and brown sports jacket.
Battrick says the oxygen tank was in a black bag and connected to the man's nose with plastic tubing.
San Diego police Sgt. Ray Battrick says the suspect on Saturday presented a note demanding money to a teller at the San Diego National Bank. He fled with an unknown amount of cash.
Battrick says it's unclear whether the suspect had a weapon.
The robber is described as a tall man in his 70s with white hair, a gray mustache and glasses. He was wearing a white beret, argyle sweater and brown sports jacket.
Battrick says the oxygen tank was in a black bag and connected to the man's nose with plastic tubing.
Zombie master Romero's film targets discrimination
VENICE (Reuters) – Zombie master George A. Romero had no particular conflict in mind when making "Survival of the Dead," the sixth installment in his long-running horror franchise, but rather discrimination in general.
More than 40 years after "Night of the Living Dead" launched Romero's career in 1968, the 69-year-old American is back to his independent movie making roots with a picture in competition at the Venice film festival.
The self-financed Survival of the Dead tells the story of a band of soldiers lured to an island that promises to be the one place on earth where they can escape from the living dead, who feed on human flesh and appear as if from nowhere.
But they become embroiled in a generations-old dispute between two families who have radically different ideas on how to contain the zombies.
Patrick O'Flynn wants to put a bullet through the head of every zombie he can find, while his arch rival, Shamus Muldoon, wants to keep the "dead" alive in the hope of finding a cure.
"I wasn't looking at Iraq and saying, well, lets make a movie about Iraq," Romero told reporters on Wednesday.
"It's much more about man's underlying inability to forget enmity, forget their enemies even long after they've forgotten what started the conflict in the first place.
"I think that part of the problem is that nobody looks at both sides of any issue, it's automatically: I'm on this side or I'm on that side."
RETURN TO INDEPENDENT ROOTS
According to production notes for the film, Survival of the Dead is the second movie in Romero's new cycle of independent pictures made outside the studio system.
"We've made a couple of studio films and it's just a very different process," Romero said.
"These last two films, it's really like going back to the very original films that I made where it was really private financing and real guerrilla-style film making."
Night of the Living Dead was reportedly made on a shoestring budget yet came to redefine the horror genre with its violence and satirical view of American society.
"I've had the flexibility in these films to do whatever I wanted to do. At least there's no policeman looking over your shoulder ... There's no committee. That's a wonderful freedom to be able to have."
Romero credited the zombie's lasting cultural impact more to video games, like the Resident Evil series, than to his movies. "It's really not the zombie films. I think ... it's much more video games that have kept them alive."
Variety's review on the movie from Venice was largely negative, saying it was "steeped in fan-pleasing gore but woefully thin on ideas, originality ... or directorial flair. This is easily the least frightening of all the Dead movies."
More than 40 years after "Night of the Living Dead" launched Romero's career in 1968, the 69-year-old American is back to his independent movie making roots with a picture in competition at the Venice film festival.
The self-financed Survival of the Dead tells the story of a band of soldiers lured to an island that promises to be the one place on earth where they can escape from the living dead, who feed on human flesh and appear as if from nowhere.
But they become embroiled in a generations-old dispute between two families who have radically different ideas on how to contain the zombies.
Patrick O'Flynn wants to put a bullet through the head of every zombie he can find, while his arch rival, Shamus Muldoon, wants to keep the "dead" alive in the hope of finding a cure.
"I wasn't looking at Iraq and saying, well, lets make a movie about Iraq," Romero told reporters on Wednesday.
"It's much more about man's underlying inability to forget enmity, forget their enemies even long after they've forgotten what started the conflict in the first place.
"I think that part of the problem is that nobody looks at both sides of any issue, it's automatically: I'm on this side or I'm on that side."
RETURN TO INDEPENDENT ROOTS
According to production notes for the film, Survival of the Dead is the second movie in Romero's new cycle of independent pictures made outside the studio system.
"We've made a couple of studio films and it's just a very different process," Romero said.
"These last two films, it's really like going back to the very original films that I made where it was really private financing and real guerrilla-style film making."
Night of the Living Dead was reportedly made on a shoestring budget yet came to redefine the horror genre with its violence and satirical view of American society.
"I've had the flexibility in these films to do whatever I wanted to do. At least there's no policeman looking over your shoulder ... There's no committee. That's a wonderful freedom to be able to have."
Romero credited the zombie's lasting cultural impact more to video games, like the Resident Evil series, than to his movies. "It's really not the zombie films. I think ... it's much more video games that have kept them alive."
Variety's review on the movie from Venice was largely negative, saying it was "steeped in fan-pleasing gore but woefully thin on ideas, originality ... or directorial flair. This is easily the least frightening of all the Dead movies."
Pigeon transfers data faster than South Africa's Telkom
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – A South African information technology company on Wednesday proved it was faster for them to transmit data with a carrier pigeon than to send it using Telkom , the country's leading internet service provider.
Internet speed and connectivity in Africa's largest economy are poor because of a bandwidth shortage. It is also expensive.
Local news agency SAPA reported the 11-month-old pigeon, Winston, took one hour and eight minutes to fly the 80 km (50 miles) from Unlimited IT's offices near Pietermaritzburg to the coastal city of Durban with a data card was strapped to his leg.
Including downloading, the transfer took two hours, six minutes and 57 seconds -- the time it took for only four percent of the data to be transferred using a Telkom line.
SAPA said Unlimited IT performed the stunt after becoming frustrated with slow internet transmission times.
The company has 11 call-centers around the country and regularly sends data to its other branches.
Telkom could not immediately be reached for comment.
Internet speed is expected to improve once a new 17,000 km underwater fiber optic cable linking southern and East Africa to other networks becomes operational before South Africa hosts the soccer World Cup next year.
Local service providers are currently negotiating deals for more bandwidth.
Internet speed and connectivity in Africa's largest economy are poor because of a bandwidth shortage. It is also expensive.
Local news agency SAPA reported the 11-month-old pigeon, Winston, took one hour and eight minutes to fly the 80 km (50 miles) from Unlimited IT's offices near Pietermaritzburg to the coastal city of Durban with a data card was strapped to his leg.
Including downloading, the transfer took two hours, six minutes and 57 seconds -- the time it took for only four percent of the data to be transferred using a Telkom line.
SAPA said Unlimited IT performed the stunt after becoming frustrated with slow internet transmission times.
The company has 11 call-centers around the country and regularly sends data to its other branches.
Telkom could not immediately be reached for comment.
Internet speed is expected to improve once a new 17,000 km underwater fiber optic cable linking southern and East Africa to other networks becomes operational before South Africa hosts the soccer World Cup next year.
Local service providers are currently negotiating deals for more bandwidth.
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Que shiraz, shiraz!
SYDNEY (Reuters) – An Australian wine that was once considered a non-collectable item has sold at a record price, surpassing the country's most acclaimed vintage as wine lovers target rare bottles from the last century.
At the annual Penfolds Wine Auction this weekend, the Penfolds 1957 Shiraz St. Henri was hammered off for A$8,110 ($6,991) a bottle, the highest price ever paid for a St. Henri.
Bottles of 1955, 1959 and 1971 St. Henri also beat the records for the same vintages of the famous Penfolds Grange, widely recognized as Australia's most coveted and expensive wine.
"The result is extraordinary, probably ten times what they expected to bring, we don't see that very often," Stewart Langton of Langton's wine auction house told Reuters.
"I don't think any wine is intrinsically worth A$8,000 a bottle and basically people who spend that on a bottle aren't going to drink that wine, they put it away, it's a trophy," said Winsor Dobbin of "Food and Wine" magazine.
While Penfolds Grange was seen as a collectable wine, St. Henri was usually drunk, making older bottles of it quite rare.
St. Henri's first commercial vintage was 1957 and it gained a new lease of life in the 1990s as wine connoisseurs started to appreciate its distinctive style.
"People are focusing on those hard to find rare bottles that occasionally come up, so we are seeing price rises across the board from the wines from the 50s and early 60s," Langton said.
Penfolds, one of Australia's oldest wineries with an extensive product range, was founded in 1844 by British physician Christopher Rawson Penfold. The winery is now part of the beverage giant Foster's Group.
(Editing by Miral Fahmy)
At the annual Penfolds Wine Auction this weekend, the Penfolds 1957 Shiraz St. Henri was hammered off for A$8,110 ($6,991) a bottle, the highest price ever paid for a St. Henri.
Bottles of 1955, 1959 and 1971 St. Henri also beat the records for the same vintages of the famous Penfolds Grange, widely recognized as Australia's most coveted and expensive wine.
"The result is extraordinary, probably ten times what they expected to bring, we don't see that very often," Stewart Langton of Langton's wine auction house told Reuters.
"I don't think any wine is intrinsically worth A$8,000 a bottle and basically people who spend that on a bottle aren't going to drink that wine, they put it away, it's a trophy," said Winsor Dobbin of "Food and Wine" magazine.
While Penfolds Grange was seen as a collectable wine, St. Henri was usually drunk, making older bottles of it quite rare.
St. Henri's first commercial vintage was 1957 and it gained a new lease of life in the 1990s as wine connoisseurs started to appreciate its distinctive style.
"People are focusing on those hard to find rare bottles that occasionally come up, so we are seeing price rises across the board from the wines from the 50s and early 60s," Langton said.
Penfolds, one of Australia's oldest wineries with an extensive product range, was founded in 1844 by British physician Christopher Rawson Penfold. The winery is now part of the beverage giant Foster's Group.
(Editing by Miral Fahmy)
Smokers can hit the cafes again
ZAGREB (Reuters) – The Croatian government moved on Thursday to loosen a controversial public smoking ban enforced only four months ago, after cafe owners complained it was crippling business.
According to a new proposal, due in parliament later this month, smoking in cafes will be allowed in special spaces that must be larger than 10 square meters (12 sq yards) but must not cover more than 20 percent of the overall premises.
The cafes unable to meet those conditions will be able to cater for smokers if they secure a proper ventilation system, a change likely to be welcomed by the country's more than one million smokers, or almost 25 percent of the population.
The smoking ban remains in force for restaurants, hospitals, schools and airports.
Cafe and restaurant owners launched a petition in June, at the start of the summer tourist season, demanding changes to the law, enforced in May, which they said was hurting business already weakened by a recession.
Health Minister Darko Milinovic told a cabinet session the changes were jointly drafted by the guild of cafe and restaurant owners and the tourism ministry.
"We are not changing the law under pressure and we remain committed to preserving the health of Croat citizens," Milinovic said. Health officials say more than 13,000 people die of smoking in Croatia every year.
During the last four months, Croatia has been the only Balkan country where smoking indoors has been effectively outlawed. With the latest changes, the smoking regime will be almost as liberal as in the rest of the region.
Croatia has been severely hit by the global crisis and its economy is expected to shrink around five percent this year, for the first time in a decade.
(Reporting by Igor Ilic, editing by Paul Casciato)
According to a new proposal, due in parliament later this month, smoking in cafes will be allowed in special spaces that must be larger than 10 square meters (12 sq yards) but must not cover more than 20 percent of the overall premises.
The cafes unable to meet those conditions will be able to cater for smokers if they secure a proper ventilation system, a change likely to be welcomed by the country's more than one million smokers, or almost 25 percent of the population.
The smoking ban remains in force for restaurants, hospitals, schools and airports.
Cafe and restaurant owners launched a petition in June, at the start of the summer tourist season, demanding changes to the law, enforced in May, which they said was hurting business already weakened by a recession.
Health Minister Darko Milinovic told a cabinet session the changes were jointly drafted by the guild of cafe and restaurant owners and the tourism ministry.
"We are not changing the law under pressure and we remain committed to preserving the health of Croat citizens," Milinovic said. Health officials say more than 13,000 people die of smoking in Croatia every year.
During the last four months, Croatia has been the only Balkan country where smoking indoors has been effectively outlawed. With the latest changes, the smoking regime will be almost as liberal as in the rest of the region.
Croatia has been severely hit by the global crisis and its economy is expected to shrink around five percent this year, for the first time in a decade.
(Reporting by Igor Ilic, editing by Paul Casciato)
New mom leaves N.D. hospital with the wrong baby
WILLISTON, N.D. – A hospital in northwestern North Dakota is investigating how the mother of a newborn went home with the wrong baby.
Officials with the Mercy Medical Center in Williston say the mistake was discovered within an hour and the mother was quickly reunited with her own child.
Mercy Chief Financial Officer Kerry Monson would not release details about how the mix-up happened or what families were involved.
She said in a statement that hospital employees are disheartened by the incident. She says officials are reviewing policies and procedures and will take appropriate action.
___
Information from: Williston Herald, http://www.willistonherald.com
Officials with the Mercy Medical Center in Williston say the mistake was discovered within an hour and the mother was quickly reunited with her own child.
Mercy Chief Financial Officer Kerry Monson would not release details about how the mix-up happened or what families were involved.
She said in a statement that hospital employees are disheartened by the incident. She says officials are reviewing policies and procedures and will take appropriate action.
___
Information from: Williston Herald, http://www.willistonherald.com
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