Halle Berry Gives Daughter Tongue-Twisting Name!

The 41-year-old actress gave birth on Sunday morning at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.

Halle Berry plans to name her daughter Nahla Ariela Aubry - "We didn't have a name picked out until just before we left the hospital," Halle told Access Hollywood's Nancy O'Dell, "For us it was hard to name the most important person in our life until we met her.

"The 41-year-old actress gave birth on Sunday morning at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, and is now at home with the Nahla, who was born at 7 pounds & 4 ounces.

Halle is “doing great,” her rep said Sunday, and according to Access Hollywood, Halle had a long natural birth.It is the first child for Halle and her boyfriend, Canadian model Gabriel Aubry.Over the years, Halle has made no secret about her desire for a family.

“Not that there’s not more to accomplish, but I think I arrived at a point in life that I realized I needed more to get me up in the morning. More than going to a new movie set. Or as much fun as getting the star was yesterday, I need something even more profound than that and that’s family. And that’s children,” Halle said some time ago.

"I need that like the air to breathe these days and I’m ready. I’m at a point where I’m really, really ready.”

Soource : http://www.torontodailynews.com/

Vicki Van Meter, Record Setting Pilot, Dies from Self-Inflicted Gunshot Wound

Vicki Van Meter rose to fame in the mid 1990s for her accomplishments as a young pilot but on Saturday her life came to an end after a self inflicted gunshot wound inside her Meadville, Pennsylvania home. Van Meter was 26.

In 1993 Van Meter piloted a single-engine Cessna 172 from Augusta, Maine to San Diego, California at the age of 11 and less than a year later she crossed the Atlantic when she took off from Augusta and flew to Glasgow, Scotland at the age of 12.

While Van Meter had little trouble flying her battle with depression seemed to be a different story. She had earned a criminal justice degree from Edinboro University in Pennsylvania and later went on to serve two years in the Peace Corps. Most recently she had expressed a desire to attend graduate school to study psychology.

Funeral arrangements for Van Meter have not been finalized.

Source : http://www.transworldnews.com/

Mummified Dinosaur Found in North Dakota

Meticulous work is under way in the basement of North Dakota's state museum to free a dinosaur from a 65-million-year-old rock tomb.

Unlike almost every other dinosaur fossil ever found, the Edmontosaurus named Dakota is covered by fossilized skin that is hard as iron.Researchers say it's among just a few mummified dinosaurs in the world. They believe this one must have been buried quickly and in just the right environment for the skin to be preserved.

Dakota was unearthed on a ranch in the Badlands in 1999.Workers are using tiny brushes and chisels to pick at the big greenish-black rock that is encasing the duckbilled dinosaur.

It was moved to the museum last month and is now surrounded by precariously perched desk lamps and a machine to suck up dust.A paleontologist says it will take a year, maybe more, to uncover it.




Source: www.wlos.com

One Lucky Ticketholder just Netted $276,300,000

According to the Powerball Web site and the Associated Press, one West Virginia ticket matched all six numbers drawn Saturday night.

The details on who the winner is of the $276,300,000 grand prize and where the ticket was purchased weren't available Sunday morning from the Powerball Web site or the Associated Press.

The winning numbers Saturday were:


6-22-42-43-47


POWERBALL: 16


POWERPLAY: 2


The prize goes to an estimated $15 million for Wednesday.

Tickets that match the first five numbers, but miss the Powerball, win $200,000 each, and there were twelve of those.

They were sold in: Arizona, Colorado, Kentucky(2), Louisiana, Minnesota, North Carolina(2), Pennsylvania(3) and Wisconsin.

Crane Collapses in NYC - Kills 4 Construction Workers

March 15 (Bloomberg) -- Four construction workers died when a multi-story crane collapsed on Manhattan's East Side this afternoon, demolishing one building and damaging three others, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said.

At least 10 people were injured, the mayor said, and police and firefighters were searching for eight missing people.

The 43-story apartment building under construction at 303 East 51st St. had been about half built. The crane was scheduled to be extended today for work on the upper stories, Bloomberg said at a press conference from the site.

``We are still looking for other victims potentially trapped in the rubble,'' Bloomberg said.

He said several people were critically injured, and that nearby buildings had been evacuated.

``This is going to be a painstaking hand operation as we try to remove the rubble and make sure we don't cause further collapse or injure anyone,'' Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta said during the press conference.

A shelter run by the American Red Cross has been set up at the High School for Arts and Design near Second Avenue for residents forced to evacuate their buildings, Bloomberg said.

``It looked like a bombed-out area,'' said Scott Stringer, Manhattan Borough president, in a telephone interview from the scene.

Rescue Operation

Scoppetta said rescue workers were able to get a man out of the four-story townhouse that was destroyed, and had received reports a woman had been in the building. He said they had not managed to make contact with her yet.

``The focus is a rescue operation, it will continue all night if necessary,'' Scoppetta said.

The crane is owned by New York Crane and manufactured by Favelle Favco Bhd., said Robert LiMandri, first deputy commissioner at the New York Department of Buildings, at the press conference. James Cannelli is the developer of the site.

The New York Department of Buildings Web site indicates the construction site has had 13 violations since January 2006, a ``normal'' number for such a site, LiMandri said. The site had received a stop work order today on an issue unrelated to the crane.

``It is police all over, and fire departments and ambulances,'' said Youssef Semlali, an employee at the Zarela Restaurant on Second Avenue, which is across the street from the incident. He said the building completely destroyed by the crane's collapse contained a bar named Fubar.

Fubar owner John PlaGreco told the Associated Press that he worried that one of his employees was dead in the accident. ``The crane crashed the whole building,'' he told the wire service.

Source : http://www.bloomberg.com

Tornado Rips Through Atlanta

The Ides of March came just two hours early in Atlanta, when a tornado thrashed the city’s commercial district Friday night, literally shaking the rafters in the packed Georgia Dome during a basketball game. No one is known dead, but property damage is real in the heart of downtown.

The cost of clean-up and rebuilding comes at a time of financial uncertainty for the Atlanta city and Georgia state governments. The city relies heavily on tourists in many of the areas that were hit by the storm, including CNN. Grady Memorial Hospital, already under great financial stress, was also damaged. At least 27 people have been treated for injuries, mostly from flying debris.

The eerily timed high winds struck on what was already a darkening Friday for American and world financial markets, which show signs of fraying at the edges. A major US securities company is apparently broke, and is being propped up by the government with dollars that are dropping rapidly in value.
The Internet News Agency and the Southern Political Report on Monday will present a full analysis of the potential financial, economic and political repercussions of the Atlanta Twister of ’08.

Source: http://www.southernpoliticalreport.com/