Rape charges dropped in Duke case

Rape charges dropped in Duke case

By AARON BEARD, Associated Press Writer

The district attorney dropped rape charges Friday against the three Duke University lacrosse players after the stripper who accused them changed her story again. But the men still face kidnapping and sex charges that could bring more than 30 years in prison.

A lawyer for one of the athletes bitterly demanded that District Attorney Mike Nifong drop the remaining counts, accusing him of offering shifting theories of the crime in an attempt to win the case at any cost.

“It’s now the shifting sands again, the shifting factual theory,” defense attorney Joseph Cheshire said. He added: “It is the ethical duty of a district attorney not to win a case, not to prosecute all cases, but to see that justice is done.” Read more

New flu pandemic could kill up to 81 million

By MARIA CHENG, AP Medical Writer

A flu virus as deadly as the one that caused the 1918 Spanish flu could kill as many as 81 million worldwide if it struck today, a new study estimates. By applying historical death rates to modern population data, the researchers calculated a death toll of 51 million to 81 million, with a median estimate of 62 million.

That’s surprisingly high, said lead researcher Chris Murray of Harvard University. He did the analysis, in part, because he thought prior claims of 50 million deaths were wildly inflated.

“We expected to end up with a number between 15 and 20 million,” Murray said. “It turns out we were wrong.”

The new work is published in Saturday’s issue of the journal The Lancet.

The 1918 flu outbreak killed at least 40 million people worldwide. But flu pandemics have varied widely in their severity. The most recent, in 1957 and 1968, were relatively mild, killing 2 million and 1 million people worldwide respectively. Read more

Barack Obama is not getting much support from African-Americans

US political darling Barack Obama has received enthusiastic support for a possible 2008 presidential bid — except from fellow African-Americans, a group many believed would be among his staunchest backers.

In contrast to the effusive reception Obama has received from white Americans, many US blacks so far have been cool, saying that while they may share skin color with Obama, they do not have a common culture or history. Read more

Donald Trump and Rosie O’Donnell escalate their feud

The Donald and Rosie escalate their feud

Things got even uglier Thursday in the bitter war of words between Donald Trump and Rosie O’Donnell. The Donald called the Los Angeles-based morning show “Good Day L.A.” to sound off on O’Donnell’s remarks about his near-firing of Miss USA Tara Conner.

“Maybe she wanted to put the crown back on Miss USA’s head,” the real-estate mogul said of the openly gay O’Donnell, who has four children with her partner, Kelli. “I think she’s very attracted to Miss USA so she probably wanted to put the crown on her head herself.” Read more

Top 15 Strangest Coincidences in History

It was written

# Mark Twain was born on the day of the appearance of Halley’s Comet in 1835, and died on the day of its next appearance in 1910. He himself predicted this in 1909, when he said: “I came in with Halley’s Comet in 1835. It is coming again next year, and I expect to go out with it.”

# Oregon’s Columbian newspaper announced the winning Pick 4 lottery numbers for June 28, 2000 in advance. The newspaper had intended to print the previous set of winning numbers but erroneously printed those for the state of Virginia, namely 6-8-5-5. In the next Oregon lottery, those same numbers were drawn. Read more

Circumcising adult men may reduce by half their risk of getting the AIDS virus

WASHINGTON (AP) — Circumcising adult men may reduce by half their risk of getting the AIDS virus through heterosexual intercourse, the U.S. government announced Wednesday, as it shut down two studies in Africa testing the link.
The National Institutes of Health closed the studies in Kenya and Uganda early, when safety monitors took a look at initial results this week and spotted the protection. The studies’ uncircumcised men are being offered the chance to undergo the procedure. Read more

Rapper Eminem divorces wife for second time

Rap megastar Eminem and his high school sweetheart divorced for a second time Tuesday, less than a year after they remarried.

Eminem and Kim Mathers agreed to divide property under terms of a private settlement and to share custody of their 10-year-old daughter, Hailie Jade Scott. They told a judge they understood the divorce was final.

The couple “conducted themselves with dignity and respect,” Circuit Judge Antonio P. Viviano said. “All in all, they are a very fine couple to deal with.”

Eminem, 34, declined to comment after the brief hearing as two men whisked him into a black Cadillac Escalade. Mathers, 31, did not speak to reporters.

Eminem and Mathers remarried Jan. 14. He filed for divorce April 5. They first married in 1999 in a secret ceremony in Missouri, and divorced in 2001.

Eminem, whose real name is Marshall Bruce Mathers III, has won nine Grammy Awards, including best rap album, for “The Slim Shady LP,” “The Marshall Mathers LP” and “The Eminem Show.” He won an Oscar for the song “Lose Yourself” from “8 Mile,” the semi-autobiographical 2002 film in which he starred.

Paris’ defense of Britney was hoax

Socialite Paris Hilton fell victim to a hoaxer who wrote a widely publicized Web posting in her name defending the “partying ethics” of her new friend, singer Britney Spears, Hilton’s spokesman said on Friday.

But spokesman Elliot Mintz said whoever wrote the entry this week on Hilton’s page on the popular social networking site MySpace.com “crafted a very nice piece and the sentiments that were expressed were extremely articulate.” Read more

Hormone fears rise with breast cancer news

This week’s news that a big drop in breast cancer cases might be due to millions of women going off menopause hormones may lead even more of them to abandon the pills.

But doctors worry that women with severe menopausal symptoms will overreact to the risks and deny themselves the benefits of hormones.

“There are some women who really require treatment. … I worry that they will be talked out of it,” said Dr. JoAnn Manson, a women’s health expert at Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. Read more

Filed Under: Health
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6 suspects detained in Sadr City (Iraq) raid

December 16, 2006 by info · Leave a Comment 

Iraqi and U.S. forces detained six suspects in a raid and an airstrike Saturday on the Shiite slum of Sadr City that left one fighter dead and another wounded, the U.S. military said.

The raid was aimed at capturing the leader of an illegally armed group of more than 100 people suspected in kidnappings, killings, illegal checkpoints, rocket attacks and bombings against security forces and civilians in northeastern Baghdad, according to a statement. Read more

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