Fans of singers Chris Brown and Rihanna expressed dismay on Saturday at reports the couple had reunited just three weeks after Brown was alleged to have assaulted her. Celebrity magazines People and Us Weekly said that the R&B stars were spending time together at the Miami home of hip hop mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs -- and that Rihanna's father was supporting her decision. "I love my daughter with whatever road she takes. I'm behind her win or lose. I will be supportive. If that's the road she wants to choose, I'm behind her," Rihanna's dad Ronald Fenty told Us Weekly from his Barbados home.
Fans could scarcely believe the news that came a week after a picture, showing the 21-year-old "Umbrella" singer with bruises to her face and swollen lips, was leaked on the Internet (SEE RIHANNA ABUSE PICTURE HERE). "All the abusive men are celebrating," Highroller33138 wrote in a posting on the MTV.com website. "It sets a terrible example for women everywhere. Rihanna really disappointed me." "Stupid, really stupid. ... I hate women like this," wrote ladyofthelake in a posting on TVGuide.com.
On Friday People quoted an unidentified source saying the couple, who had been dating for about a year, were back together. "They care for each other. While Chris is reflective and saddened about what happened, he is really happy to be with the woman he loves," the source told People.
Representatives of Brown, 19, a clean-cut teen idol whose hits include "Run It!", declined comment on the reports. Rihanna's publicist did not return calls seeking comment. Los Angeles prosecutors have yet to decide whether to file charges against Brown after his arrest on February 8 on suspicion of making criminal threats against a woman.
The alleged assault on the eve of the Grammy Awards caused both stars to cancel their scheduled appearances. Brown issued a statement a week after the incident saying he was "sorry and saddened" and seeking counseling.
Grose is in firm crisis-control mode now as he tries to stem the public anger caused by the e-mail. The mayor has sent an apology for the e-mail to the Los Alamitos City Council and to Keyanus Price, a black businesswoman and community activist, who said she was appalled when she received the e-mail from the mayor saw the image and so took her concerns to The Orange County Register. The apology was also sent to Ms. Price's boss, who is an apparent valued member of the city's business community.
The mayor did not return two calls for comment from Raw Story on the source of the image in his e-mail.
"The mayor said he was unaware of the racial stereotype that African Americans like watermelons," reported The Orange County Register.
In his apology letter for the e-mail the mayor wrote, "I am deeply embarrassed... It was poor judgement on my part and was never intended to be offensive to Ms. Price, your company or anyone in the African American Community.... You can be assured that I will not allow this to happen again. I in no way was representing the City of Los Alamitos, or my role as a council member in sending this out and it went via my private business email. That doesn't justify the fact that it was sent, however, we gratefully appreciate the contributions that your company makes to our community and I wish to publicly apologize to anyone within the firm or organization that may have been offended."
Price told The Register she was "horrified" when she read the e-mail.
"What I'm concerned about is how can this person send an e-mail out like this and think it is OK?" Price said, adding, "He's putting the city into a bad place, and he is a liability."
“It dragged me across the boat,” Welch, 45, tells The Mirror. “I knew it was going to a big one. As soon as we saw it there was just silence. Everyone was in awe of this thing.”
Welch says it took a full 90 minutes to bring the nearly 800-pound stingray in. He and his team soon learned the giant stingray was actually a pregnant female. They released the massive creature back into the water.
It was certainly an uphill battle when 13 men struggled to capture a massive, giant Stingray in Thailand - but they succeeded!
The giant stingray was caught by not one man, not two - but 13 guys led by fisherman Ian Welch. They caught the creature and threw it into their boat.
But that's not where the story ends - in an interesting turn of events, the massive stingray was later discovered to be pregnant!
Landing this 771lb giant stingray was a true David and Goliath struggle for 154lb Ian Welch.But beaming with pride next to his catch, he clearly felt his 90-minute ordeal was worth it.
The 45-year-old had his runin on the Maeklong River in Thailand while helping to tag the endangered creatures.
A Turkish Airlines jet carrying 135 people crashed into a field on its approach to Schiphol Airport outside Amsterdam after a flight from Istanbul on Wednesday, killing nine people and injuring 50, airport authorities and Turkish officials said.
In Ankara, Suat Hayri Aka, a senior transportation official, told a news conference that 20 of the injured appeared to be in serious condition. Three of the dead were crew members, according to Turkish news reports.Television images showed the aircraft, a Boeing 737-800, lying fractured into three parts after it slammed into the ground while approaching the runway. The aircraft did not catch fire.
Witnesses said the plane’s engines broke off and landed some about 100 yards from the wrecked fuselage in a plowed field.
Michel Bezuijen, acting mayor of Haarlemmermeer, close to Schiphol, told a news conference: “At this moment there are nine victims to mourn and more than 50 injured.”
He said there was no immediate word on the cause of the accident.
In the confusion following the crash, reports varied over how far the site was from the runway. Initial reports said it was three miles from the airport, but later versions put it closer.
In a statement, the Amsterdam airport authorities said the plane, Turkish Airlines flight TK1951, which left Istanbul at 8:22 a.m. on Wednesday, made a crash landing along a highway near the airport with 128 passengers and 7 crew members on board.
Flights to and from the airport, halted because of the accident, were gradually being resumed, the airport said.
The crash took place in calm weather with a light drizzle. Unlike a deadly accident in Madrid last summer when a Spanair flight crashed while taking off, no fire broke out during Wednesday’s crash.
Tuncer Mutlucan, a passenger who survived the crash, told NTV, a private broadcaster in Turkey, “It was the back of the plane that hit the ground. We left the plane from the back. My colleague and I saw people stuck in between seats as we were trying to leave and we tried to help them.”
“ It all happened in something like ten seconds,” Mr. Mutlucan said
Candan Karlitekin, the chairman of Turkish Airlines, said most of the injured were seated at the back of the plane.
“There was nothing extraordinary about the weather conditions, vision capability was 4,500 meters. Around 500 meters away from the landing strip, the plane landed in a field. The plane was broken into three parts, as you all saw in pictures.”
Mr. Kotil said that the pilot, Hasan Tahsin Ari, was one of the airline’s most experienced pilots. The company was planning a flight from to Amsterdam from Istanbul for relatives of the crash victims.
Three minutes later an explanation came through on the satellite's launch blog: "According to Nasa commentator George Diller, the payload fairing [a clamshell cover protecting the satellite as it is blasted through the atmosphere] failed to separate from the vehicle during ascent."
The rocket and satellite failed to reach orbit and subsequently plummeted into the ocean.
"Certainly for the science community it's a huge disappointment," said John Brunschwyler, Taurus project manager for Orbital Sciences Corp, which built the rocket and satellite. "It's taken so long to get here."
The project took nine years to reach the launch pad.
"The loss of this instrument is a serious setback," added Professor John Burrows, a co-investigator for the satellite. "OCO planned to build on the first measurements by the European Sciamachy instrument on Envisat and is complementary to the recently launched Japanese mission, Gosat."
Nasa's director of Earth sciences, Michael Freilich, said: "Over the next several days, weeks and months, we're going to carefully evaluate how to move forward and advance the science, given our evaluation of the assets that are in orbit now, the assets of our international partners and the existence of flight spares in order to put together a program, as rapidly as possible, to pick up where OCO left off."
During the four-day jury trial, evidence showed that Aunan gave some of his prescribed methadone to Stodola, who wanted it for abdominal pain. At the time, Stodola was intoxicated. The two took a nap and upon awakening, Aunan discovered Stodola was nonresponsive.
Although Stodola's drunkenness was a factor in her death, Dr. Lindsay Thomas, a forensic pathologist, testified that the methadone was to blame.
Aunan remains jail pending sentencing on April 10.
METHADONE is a prescription drug used for Heroine addicts. It is said the drug gives the same "high" as heroine but is somehow safer. In my younger years I worked in a flop house for Vancouver Housing. During my time there, I became acquainted with METHADONE and its' additive qualities. Many drug addicts on the GOVERNMENT METHADONE PROGRAM often sell some of their METHADONE to pay for other drugs and then return to stealing to support their heroine addiction once their METHADONE is gone.
A simple DEFINITION OF METHADONE is METHADONE is a synthetic Heroine given to addicts in hopes of weening them off heroine.
One is called Sea Shadow. It's big, black and looks like a cross between a Stealth fighter and a Batmobile. It was made to escape detection on the open sea. The other is known as the Hughes (as in Howard Hughes) Mining Barge. It looks like a floating field house, with an arching roof and a door that is 76 feet wide and 72 feet high. Sea Shadow berths inside the barge, which keeps it safely hidden from spy satellites.
The barge, by the way, is the only fully submersible dry dock ever built, making it very handy — as it was 35 years ago — for trying to raise a sunken nuclear-armed Soviet submarine.
"I'm fascinated by the possibilities," Frank Lennon said one morning recently. Mr. Lennon runs — or ran — a maritime museum here in Providence. He was standing in a sleet storm on a wharf below a power plant, surveying the 297-foot muck-encrusted hulk of a Soviet submarine that he owns. His only exhibit, it was open to the public until April 2007, when a northeaster hit Providence and the sub sank.
Army and Navy divers refloated it this past summer with the aid of chains and air tanks. Mr. Lennon can't help but imagine how his sub might look alongside the two covert Cold War castoffs from the Navy. "They would be terrific for our exhibit," he said, watching the sleet come down.
But a gift ship from the Navy comes with lots of strings attached to the rigging. A naval museum, the Historic Naval Ships Association warns, is "a bloodthirsty, paperwork ridden, permit-infested, money-sucking hole..." Because the Navy won't pay for anything — neither rust scraping nor curating — to keep museums afloat, survival depends on big crowds. That's why many of the 48 ships it has given away over 60 years were vessels known for performing heroically in famous battles.
Museum entrepreneurs like Mr. Lennon who don't have much money can only fantasize about Sea Shadow and its barge. After all, a pair of mysterious vessels that performed their heroics out of the public eye can't have much claim to fame. Glen Clark, the Navy's civilian ship-disposal chief, has received just one serious call about the two vessels, and it didn't lead to a written application.
"The credit cards and the banks have certainly put in technology where things are not as easily taken as they once were - they're constantly evolving as technology progresses whereas Bell is not," said Leah May, officer manager at law firm Martin and Hillyer in Burlington, Ont. "They're just forcing victims to pay for it, and where's the consequence to them?"
Bell Canada's 38-page bill to May's firm was for more than $207,000 worth of calls to Sierra Leone. Bell offered to halve the amount. "That's just not good enough," May said. "We're screaming out loud that we've been victimized." Phone companies maintain customers must ensure their phone systems are protected from what Bell calls "experienced criminals." "Remember that you are responsible for paying for all calls originating from, and charged calls accepted at, your telephone, regardless of who made or accepted them," Bell vice-president Peter Kerr wrote to lawyer John Ford in Oakville, Ont., this month.
In Oakville, GPS Consulting Group and Insurance Agencies had its Bell-installed system hacked to the tune of $76,000 for calls to Austria - even after following advice to change voice-mail passwords. Bell initially said it would take $60,400 but eventually agreed to accept $7,100 after threatening to cut off the lines. That's still too much, said the firm's Gord Cowan. "It's anguish. It's cost us thousands and thousands of dollars of time fighting this," said Cowan, who wants the legislation changed. "These small companies, through a federally regulated company, are being brought to their knees. They'll put us out of business."
On Friday (February 20), Rihanna made her first public statement since her alleged altercation with Chris Brown.
"At the request of the authorities, Rihanna is not commenting about the incident involving Chris Brown," reads a statement from her representatives. "She wants to assure her fans that she remains strong, is doing well, and deeply appreciates the outpouring of support she has received during this difficult time."
The statement comes after a photo, apparently showing the singer shortly after the alleged altercation, was published by TMZ on Thursday night. The photo, evidently leaked by a source within the Los Angeles Police Department, prompted an internal investigation by the LAPD.
The timing of the leak is especially unfortunate, since Friday is Rihanna's 21st birthday.
Also on Friday, People.com and OK! magazine's Web site published a photo of the singer in a car in Los Angeles on Thursday night, reportedly on her way to an airport.
A week after the alleged incident, Brown released a statement, saying he was "sorry and saddened ... over what transpired" and was "seeking the counseling of my pastor, my mother and other loved ones, and I am committed, with God's help, to emerging a better person.
"Much of what has been speculated or reported on blogs and/or reported in the media is wrong," Brown's statement continued. "While I would like to be able to talk about this more, until the legal issues are resolved, this is all I can say."
Rihanna's father spoke with media outlets about the photo leak on Friday, calling it "sloppy work on [the LAPD's] part."
TMZ.com posted a photograph late Thursday (February 19) that it claims is of Rihanna shortly after her alleged February 8 altercation with Chris Brown.
The woman in the photograph is shown with her eyes closed, and visible contusions on her forehead, cheeks and mouth.
The Web site did not comment on how it obtained the photo or who took it, but the picture appears to be legit; the singer's well-known Roman-numeral shoulder tattoos (which reportedly mark the birthday of the singer's friend/ assistant Melissa Forde) are clearly visible. The photo seems to corroborate a story the site posted last week, which quoted an unnamed Los Angeles Police Department source as saying Rihanna suffered contusions on both sides of her face, with serious swelling and bruising, and a split lip and bloody nose.
While the LAPD did not officially confirm that the woman in the photo is Rihanna, a statement issued by the department early Friday (February 20) says, "The photograph appeared on an entertainment website. The photograph has the appearance of one taken during an official Domestic Violence investigation."
The statement notes that "the unauthorized release of a domestic-violence photograph immediately generated an internal investigation. ... The Los Angeles Police Department takes seriously its duty to maintain the confidentiality of victims of domestic violence. A violation of this type is considered serious misconduct, with penalties up to and including termination."
Neither Rihanna nor Chris Brown have made a public appearance since Brown turned himself in to the LAPD on and was charged with making criminal threats. Police officers had originally responded to a 911 call in the early hours of Sunday, February 8, after Brown and an unidentified woman had an altercation inside a vehicle in the Hancock Park neighborhood of Los Angeles. The following day, several news outlets identified the woman as Rihanna.
A week after the incident, Brown released a statement, saying he was "sorry and saddened ... over what transpired" and was "seeking the counseling of my pastor, my mother and other loved ones, and I am committed, with God's help, to emerging a better person. "Much of what has been speculated or reported on blogs and/or reported in the media is wrong," Brown's statement continued. "While I would like to be able to talk about this more, until the legal issues are resolved, this is all I can say."
The Rev Al Sharpton led protests against the cartoon, which shows a policeman saying “They’ll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill” as he stood over the body of the dead chimp. President Obama was the architect of much of the fiscal stimulus package and some readers concluded that the Commander-in-Chief was the butt of a racially charged joke.
The New York Post has rejected that suggestion but finally bowed to pressure last night and issued an apology. “It was meant to mock an ineptly written federal stimulus bill. Period,” the editorial read. “But it has been taken as something else - as a depiction of President Obama, as a thinly veiled expression of racism. This most certainly was not its intent; to those who were offended by the image, we apologise.”
The nature of the apology did not quell all of the criticism of the newspaper though. It continued: “However, there are some in the media and in public life who have had differences with the Post in the past - and they see the incident as an opportunity for payback. To them, no apology is due.
“Sometimes a cartoon is just a cartoon - even as the opportunists seek to make it something else.”
Mr Sharpton criticised what he called the paper’s “conditional statement” of regret. “Though we think it is the right thing for them to apologise to those they offended, they seem to want to blame the offence on those (who) raised the issue, rather than take responsibility for what they did,” he said.
The civil rights veteran said the groups protesting against the cartoon would go ahead with a previously scheduled rally outside the Post today.
With no help forthcoming from Sweden's government, Saab has filed for bankruptcy protection. The goal is to split from its parent company, General Motors. GM says its exploring all options.
General Motors' subsidiary has filed for reorganization, a step taken to stave off bankruptcy protection.
General Motors' Swedish subsidiary, Saab, confirmed on Friday that it has filed for reorganization, a step to avoid bankruptcy protection, as the company seeks to pay down pending debt and return to profitability.
"I can confirm that Saab has filed for reorganization. It is not a bankruptcy situation. The aim is to have Saab as a freestanding entity," a spokesman for the firm told Forbes.
SAAB is seeking funds from both public and private sources but will operate as usual with government funding during the reorganization process.
Under Swedish law, when a company files for reorganization, it means that it is looking for ways to raise capital to pay off debt. One of the solutions a company might consider is seeking a buyer to could acquire an equity stake.
The legal process will be headed by an independent administrator appointed by court as the company seeks funds from both private and public sources, TradeTheNews.com reported. Saab will operate as usual, with the central government providing assistance during the process, which will be executed over a 90-day period.
The Swedish government has categorically denied the possibility of buying equity in its struggling carmakers. "The Swedish state and taxpayers in Sweden will not own car factories," Industry Minister Maud Olofsson said on Wednesday. "Sometimes you get the feeling that [GM] is a small, small company, but it is the world's biggest automaker, so we have a right to make demands."
Saab builds fewer than 1 million vehicles per year, in contrast to Renault or Volkswagen, whose capacity ranges between 2 million and 3 million cars per year.
Of course, there are others pointing out the possibility this cartoon was simply stating any monkey could have written the bill or even that we all are monkey's. After all, do all humans not evolve from apes?
Darwinian theories aside, this NEW YORK POST COMIC STRIP is sure to raise some more hackles as the day progresses. So what do you think, is this recent SEAN DELONAS / NEW YORK POST CARTOON a step back in race relations or is it just a simple misunderstanding?
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NEW YORK POST MONKEY CARTOON - Are we all not monkey's
