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Nichelle Nichols, Lt. Uhura on ‘Star Trek,’ has died at 89
Author of the article:Associated Press
Publishing date:Jul 31, 2022 • 10 hours ago • 1 minute read • 16 Comments

Nichelle Nichols, who gained fame as communications officer Lt. Uhura on the original Star Trek television series, has died at the age of 89.


Her son Kyle Johnson said Nichols died Saturday in Silver City, N.M.

“Last night, my mother, Nichelle Nichols, succumbed to natural causes and passed away. Her light however, like the ancient galaxies now being seen for the first time, will remain for us and future generations to enjoy, learn from, and draw inspiration,” Johnson wrote on her official Facebook page Sunday. “Hers was a life well lived and as such a model for us all.”

Her role in the 1966-69 series as Lt. Uhura earned Nichols a lifelong position of honour with the series’ rabid fans, known as Trekkers and Trekkies. It also earned her accolades for breaking stereotypes that had limited Black women to acting roles as servants and included an interracial onscreen kiss with co-star William Shatner that was unheard of at the time.


She often recalled how the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was a fan of the show and praised her role and personally encouraged her to stay with the series.

Like other original cast members, Nichols also appeared in six big-screen spinoffs starting in 1979 with Star Trek: The Motion Picture and frequented Star Trek fan conventions. She also served for many years as a NASA recruiter, helping bring minorities and women into the astronaut corps.

More recently, she had a recurring role on television’s Heroes, playing the great-aunt of a young boy with mystical powers.
from what ive heard the son forced her out of her house and took all of her assets and money. 💰 :(
 

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U.S. Republican lawmaker Jackie Walorski, two staffers die in car crash
Author of the article:Reuters
Reuters
Rami Ayyub
Publishing date:Aug 03, 2022 • 14 hours ago • 2 minute read • Join the conversation
According to the Elkhart County Sheriff’s Office, Rep. Jackie Walorski (R-IN) was killed in a car crash in Elkhart County, Indiana, Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2022.
According to the Elkhart County Sheriff’s Office, Rep. Jackie Walorski (R-IN) was killed in a car crash in Elkhart County, Indiana, Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2022. PHOTO BY ALEX WONG / FILES /Getty Images
WASHINGTON — U.S. Congresswoman Jackie Walorski and two members of her staff died on Wednesday when the vehicle they were travelling in collided head-on with a car that veered into their lane, police in Indiana and her office said.


Walorski, 58, a Republican who represented Indiana’s 2nd congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives, was mourned by President Joe Biden and her colleagues in Congress as an honorable public servant who strived to work across party lines to deliver for her constituents. The White House said it would fly flags at half-staff in her memory.

The congresswoman had been travelling down an Indiana road on Wednesday afternoon with her communications chief, Emma Thomson, 28, and one of her district directors, Zachery Potts, 27, the Elkhart County Sheriff’s Office said.

“A northbound passenger car traveled left of center and collided head on” with Walorski’s vehicle, killing all three occupants, the sheriff’s office said. The driver of the other car, 56-year-old Edith Schmucker, was pronounced dead at the scene, near the northern Indiana town of Nappanee, it added.


Confirming her death in a statement shared on Twitter by House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy, Walorski’s office said: “Dean Swihart, Jackie’s husband, was just informed by the Elkhart County Sheriff’s office that Jackie was killed in a car accident this afternoon.”

It added: “Please keep her family in your thoughts and prayers. We will have no further comment at this time.”

Walorski was a lifelong resident of Indiana, according to her official biography. She served on the House Ways and Means Committee and was the top Republican on the subcommittee on worker and family support.

Prior to her election in 2012 to the House, Walorski served three terms in the Indiana legislature, spent four years as a missionary in Romania along with her husband and worked as a television news reporter in South Bend, according to a biography posted on her congressional website.

President Joe Biden, a Democrat, said he and Walorski “may have represented different parties and disagreed on many issues, but she was respected by members of both parties for her work on the House Ways and Means Committee on which she served.”

Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic speaker of the House, said in a statement that Walorski “passionately brought the voices of her north Indiana constituents to the Congress, and she was admired by colleagues on both sides of the aisle for her personal kindness.”
 

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Funeral home where 31 corpses found has licence suspended
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Publishing date:Aug 04, 2022 • 1 day ago • 1 minute read • Join the conversation

JEFFERSONVILLE, Ind. — The license of a southern Indiana funeral home has been suspended after police found more than 30 unrefrigerated bodies there last month, including some that were badly decomposed, the state’s attorney general’s office announced on Thursday.


In a news release, Attorney General Todd Rokita said Randy Ray Lankford of Lankford Funeral Home and Family Center in Jeffersonville agreed last week to surrender his and the facility’s licenses. The move came after Rokita’s office filed for filed for emergency license suspensions with the State Board of Funeral and Cemetery Service. On Thursday, the state board approved the suspensions.

“Grieving families must be able to trust that their loved ones’ remains will be respectfully and properly handled,” Rokita said in a statement. “Further, the unsanitary conditions at this funeral home posed a clear and immediate threat to public health and safety.”

The suspensions mark the latest chapter of a strange story that began July 1 when police in Jeffersonville, a suburb of Louisville, discovered 31 unrefrigerated corpses throughout the facility, including some that police said were “in the advanced stages of decomposition.” Officials said the cremated remains of 17 people were also found.

Days later, two families sued the funeral home in Clark Superior Court.

Rokita’s office said in the statement that its investigation is ongoing and requested that anyone with information call its Licensing Enforcement Section.
 

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Olivia Newton-John dies at 73
Author of the article:Reuters
Reuters
Publishing date:Aug 08, 2022 • 11 hours ago • 3 minute read • 21 Comments

Singer Olivia Newton-John, who soared to the top of the world’s pop music charts in the 1970s and 1980s with such tunes as “I Honestly Love You” and “Physical” and starred in the hit movie musical “Grease,” died on Monday at age 73 at her home in southern California.

The death of the British-born, Australian-raised performer was announced on her Instagram account, saying she “passed away peacefully” at her ranch home “surrounded by family and friends.”

Newton-John, a four-time Grammy winner, had disclosed several years ago that breast cancer had metastasized and spread to her back, forcing her to cancel performances. Twenty-five years earlier Newton-John had undergone a partial mastectomy and gone on to establish a cancer treatment-research facility in Australia.

The entertainer began performing as a child and became a global superstar after moving to the United States. She was blond, blue-eyed and brimming with wholesomeness when she had her first hit in 1971 with “If Not for You” – a Bob Dylan song that also had been recorded by George Harrison.

It would be followed in the next few years by “Let Me Be There,” which won her a Grammy for best female country vocal performance, “If You Love Me (Let Me Know)” and two No. 1 songs, “Have You Never Been Mellow” and “I Honestly Love You.” The latter song won Grammys for best female pop performance and record of the year.

Newton-John also beat out country stars Loretta Lynn and Dolly Parton to win the Country Music Association’s female singer of the year award in 1974. The unlikely success of an Australian in American country music bothered many Nashville purists.

Critics also did not always care for Newton-John’s work, often finding her frothy and overly commercial. The New York Times once described her voice as “nearly colorless.”

But the criticism did not hurt Newton-John’s sales as she crossed over from the country charts to pop and cemented her acclaim by co-starring with John Travolta in “Grease,” the 1978 film that would become one of the most popular musicals in Hollywood history.

Producer Allan Carr wanted Newton-John to play the female lead Sandy after being impressed by her at a dinner party, and Travolta also urged her to take the part. Newton-John was initially reluctant because of her negative experience in the awkwardly titled 1970 British film flop “Toomorrow” and worried about hurting her singing career. She also was concerned about doing an American accent, so the part was rewritten to make Sandy an Australian.

In the film, set in the 1950s, Newton-John’s prim Sandy has a summer fling with Danny, the “greaser” portrayed by Travolta, but the relationship falls apart because of their cultural differences. In the end they reconcile as their roles reverse, with Danny cleaning up his act and Sandy making a striking appearance in a tight black leather outfit.

The 1978 film wowed critics and audiences, and its soundtrack generated a string of hits, including the title song, Newton-John’s “Hopelessly Devoted to You,” “Summer Nights,” and her bouncy duet with Travolta, “You’re the One That I Want.”

“I’m grateful for ‘Grease,'” she told the Detroit News in 2016. “The movie and the songs are still so loved.”

Her next musical film, “Xanadu” in 1980, was a bust but did give Newton-John more hits in the title song and “Magic,” which reached No. 1.

In 1981 Newton-John scored her biggest hit single, “Physical.” The song’s accompanying video featured her in work-out clothes and a headband, which fueled a fashion trend. Its sex-infused lyrics (“there’s nothing left to talk about unless it’s horizontally, let’s get physical”) eroded her good-girl image and led some radio stations to ban it.

Newton-John’s career cooled off after “Physical” but in 2015 she had another No. 1 hit on the dance charts – “You Have to Believe,” a revamped version of “Magic” performed with her only child, Chloe Lattanzi.

She would make another movie with Travolta, “Two of a Kind” in 1983, and they recorded an album of Christmas songs in 2012.

Newton-John, whose sister died of brain cancer, became an advocate after her first bout with breast cancer and she established the Olivia Newton-John Cancer Wellness and Research Centre in her hometown of Melbourne. She also marketed what was known as the Olivia Breast Self-Exam Kit.

Newton-John, whose grandfather was German-born Nobel laureate Max Born, a physicist, finished fourth in the 1974 Eurovision singing competition while representing the United Kingdom.

Her first marriage, to “Xanadu” actor Matt Lattanzi, ended in divorce in 1995 and in 2008 she married businessman John Easterling.
 

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Olivia Newton-John dies at 73
Author of the article:Reuters
Reuters
Publishing date:Aug 08, 2022 • 11 hours ago • 3 minute read • 21 Comments

Singer Olivia Newton-John, who soared to the top of the world’s pop music charts in the 1970s and 1980s with such tunes as “I Honestly Love You” and “Physical” and starred in the hit movie musical “Grease,” died on Monday at age 73 at her home in southern California.

The death of the British-born, Australian-raised performer was announced on her Instagram account, saying she “passed away peacefully” at her ranch home “surrounded by family and friends.”

Newton-John, a four-time Grammy winner, had disclosed several years ago that breast cancer had metastasized and spread to her back, forcing her to cancel performances. Twenty-five years earlier Newton-John had undergone a partial mastectomy and gone on to establish a cancer treatment-research facility in Australia.

The entertainer began performing as a child and became a global superstar after moving to the United States. She was blond, blue-eyed and brimming with wholesomeness when she had her first hit in 1971 with “If Not for You” – a Bob Dylan song that also had been recorded by George Harrison.

It would be followed in the next few years by “Let Me Be There,” which won her a Grammy for best female country vocal performance, “If You Love Me (Let Me Know)” and two No. 1 songs, “Have You Never Been Mellow” and “I Honestly Love You.” The latter song won Grammys for best female pop performance and record of the year.

Newton-John also beat out country stars Loretta Lynn and Dolly Parton to win the Country Music Association’s female singer of the year award in 1974. The unlikely success of an Australian in American country music bothered many Nashville purists.

Critics also did not always care for Newton-John’s work, often finding her frothy and overly commercial. The New York Times once described her voice as “nearly colorless.”

But the criticism did not hurt Newton-John’s sales as she crossed over from the country charts to pop and cemented her acclaim by co-starring with John Travolta in “Grease,” the 1978 film that would become one of the most popular musicals in Hollywood history.

Producer Allan Carr wanted Newton-John to play the female lead Sandy after being impressed by her at a dinner party, and Travolta also urged her to take the part. Newton-John was initially reluctant because of her negative experience in the awkwardly titled 1970 British film flop “Toomorrow” and worried about hurting her singing career. She also was concerned about doing an American accent, so the part was rewritten to make Sandy an Australian.

In the film, set in the 1950s, Newton-John’s prim Sandy has a summer fling with Danny, the “greaser” portrayed by Travolta, but the relationship falls apart because of their cultural differences. In the end they reconcile as their roles reverse, with Danny cleaning up his act and Sandy making a striking appearance in a tight black leather outfit.

The 1978 film wowed critics and audiences, and its soundtrack generated a string of hits, including the title song, Newton-John’s “Hopelessly Devoted to You,” “Summer Nights,” and her bouncy duet with Travolta, “You’re the One That I Want.”

“I’m grateful for ‘Grease,'” she told the Detroit News in 2016. “The movie and the songs are still so loved.”

Her next musical film, “Xanadu” in 1980, was a bust but did give Newton-John more hits in the title song and “Magic,” which reached No. 1.

In 1981 Newton-John scored her biggest hit single, “Physical.” The song’s accompanying video featured her in work-out clothes and a headband, which fueled a fashion trend. Its sex-infused lyrics (“there’s nothing left to talk about unless it’s horizontally, let’s get physical”) eroded her good-girl image and led some radio stations to ban it.

Newton-John’s career cooled off after “Physical” but in 2015 she had another No. 1 hit on the dance charts – “You Have to Believe,” a revamped version of “Magic” performed with her only child, Chloe Lattanzi.

She would make another movie with Travolta, “Two of a Kind” in 1983, and they recorded an album of Christmas songs in 2012.

Newton-John, whose sister died of brain cancer, became an advocate after her first bout with breast cancer and she established the Olivia Newton-John Cancer Wellness and Research Centre in her hometown of Melbourne. She also marketed what was known as the Olivia Breast Self-Exam Kit.

Newton-John, whose grandfather was German-born Nobel laureate Max Born, a physicist, finished fourth in the 1974 Eurovision singing competition while representing the United Kingdom.

Her first marriage, to “Xanadu” actor Matt Lattanzi, ended in divorce in 1995 and in 2008 she married businessman John Easterling.
 

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Bill Graham, ex-interim Liberal leader and post-9/11 foreign affairs minister, dies
Author of the article:Canadian Press
Canadian Press
Stephanie Taylor
Publishing date:Aug 08, 2022 • 6 hours ago • 4 minute read • Join the conversation

OTTAWA — Condolences from Canadian politicians past and present poured out Monday as they learned about the death of Bill Graham, who served as foreign affairs minister when the country decided against joining the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003.

“Mr. Graham will be remembered as a master negotiator and a skilled statesman who shared his love for Canada with the world,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in a statement Monday evening.

Former Liberal MP John English told The Canadian Press that Graham died Sunday, according to a member of his family who shared the news with him earlier Monday.

English said Graham had cancer and died peacefully after being in poor health for some time.

“He was a fun guy. I went out with him for drinks just three or four weeks ago. He wasn’t drinking. He enjoyed a good glass of wine but he couldn’t join us,” he recalled.

“He’s such a wonderful presence. So positive, so optimistic. He’s a person to be taken seriously, but he never took himself seriously. He was full of laughter. He laughed very easily.”

Graham, 83, was serving as chancellor of Trinity College at the University of Toronto. Both he and his wife, Catherine, were students there and married in the chapel. They had two children: Katy and Patrick.

Graham was first elected as a Liberal member of Parliament for the riding then known as Toronto Centre-Rosedale in 1993, after two unsuccessful runs.

Former colleagues eulogized Graham as a skilled MP, having spent time on the backbenches before entering cabinet, and someone who demonstrated a deep passion about helping those in his community.

George Smitherman, who represented the same downtown Toronto area for the Liberals provincially as Graham had federally, said Graham had a remarkable way of connecting with people, no matter their background.

Smitherman, who is gay, said he first arrived in what is now known as Toronto Centre as a kid finding comfort with his sexuality and at the time Graham and the local Liberals had embedded AIDS activism in their politics.

“That, to me, was one of the most defining attributes of the way political parties ought to operate,” Smitherman said.

“It was really a huge impact on me in my life.”

Longtime Liberal MP John McKay said Graham was a “complete politician.”

“A good constituency person, a good national person and a good international person. Not many people can say that,” said McKay, who represents the Toronto riding of Scarborough-Guildwood.

“He was (an) immensely smart, decent, classy man,” he added.

In January 2002, months after the 9/11 terrorist attacks shook the world, Graham was appointed to serve in cabinet as foreign affairs minister by then-prime minister Jean Chretien.

At that time, Canada had to decide whether to join the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and then navigate its relationship with its closest ally when it opted against doing so.

Graham was roundly praised for not only assisting in that decision, but his overall handling of the role at a turbulent time in international relations.

“He was an outstanding minister of foreign affairs and a skilled parliamentarian,” tweeted John Baird, who served as foreign affairs minister under former Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper.

After his time in foreign affairs, Graham was moved to the defence portfolio.

Eugene Lang was his chief of staff at the time and said Graham, who was well travelled before entering politics, was well liked by most everyone, including MPs of different political stripes and public servants.

“He treated everybody with a huge amount of respect. There was no arrogance in Bill.”

Lang said while Graham was only in the role of national defence minister for less than two years, he had many accomplishments, including securing a funding boostand also recommending the appointment of Rick Hillier as chief of defence staff.

Former Liberal prime minister Paul Martin released a statement after learning of Graham’s death, saying he “helped our government and the country navigate a challenging period of history as we deployed into Kandahar in southern Afghanistan.”

“His loss will be felt by all who knew or worked with him.”

After the Liberals lost government to the Conservatives in 2006 and Martin resigned, Graham stepped into the role of the party’s interim leader.

“The Liberal party owes him a huge debt of gratitude,” said McKay, who said he was an obvious choice for many.

Harper said Graham was the first official Opposition leader he faced after winning government.

“Bill was always a gentleman,” he tweeted.

“He always kept the best interests of the country in mind.”

Former Liberal cabinet minister Ralph Goodale, who was Opposition House leader when Graham was interim Liberal leader, called his former colleague “wise and thoughtful, especially in matters of foreign policy and defence.”

“In an era of deep polarization and extremist populism, Bill’s sense of moderation, propriety and balance is sorely missed. Our love and respect surround his family, friends and colleagues,” Goodale said in a statement.

Longtime Liberal cabinet minister Carolyn Bennett said she remembers Graham as someone who was comfortable around everyone and a generous listener in conversation.

“There’s no one else you’d rather have dinner with. And I think that’s what a lot of us feel,” she said Monday.

“He just was so special. It’s just really hard to believe he’s gone,” Bennett said, her voice breaking.
 

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Search launched as fears grow that man fell into Quebec manure pit
The Sûreté du Québec is joined by first responders and officials of the Quebec work health safety board.

Author of the article:La Presse Canadienne
La Presse Canadienne
Publishing date:Aug 09, 2022 • 22 hours ago • < 1 minute read • Join the conversation

The Sûreté du Québec has launched a search for a man believed to have fallen into a manure pit Monday afternoon in the town of Les Hauteurs, in the Bas-Saint-Laurent region.


The SQ were called in around 5 p.m. after fears grew that the man had fallen into the pit, which generates highly potent and potentially incapacitating fumes as its contents decompose.

Provincial police have been joined by local first responders and officials of the Quebec work health safety board as their search and investigation continue.

 

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Goderich mayor dies in boating accident
John Grace has been mayor of the Huron County town since 2018

Author of the article:Jane Sims, Kathleen Smith, Calvi Leon
Publishing date:Aug 10, 2022 • 14 hours ago • 2 minute read • Join the conversation

GODERICH – The mayor of Goderich has died in a boating accident near his family’s fishing resort in northwestern Ontario.


Sioux Lookout OPP confirmed that John Grace, 64, was killed on Lake St. Joseph, just south of Pickle Lake and north of Thunder Bay.

The Grace family has owned and operated Old Post Lodge on the lake since 1986.

Police said the boating incident happened Tuesday and that the provincial ministry of labour is investigating.

A photo of Old Post Lodge near Thunder Bay, taken from its website.
A photo of Old Post Lodge near Thunder Bay, taken from its website.
Police at the OPP Pickle Lake detachment, about 530 kilometres north of Thunder Bay, say a man was found dead when his boat capsized on Lake St. Joseph on Tuesday. He was reported missing “at about 11:30 a.m. central standard time,” Sgt. Juliane Porritt told The London Free Press.

He was the lone occupant, police said. His body was found about seven hours after he was reported missing.

Grace had been a fixture in Goderich municipal politics for decades. He was elected mayor of the Huron County town in 2018. There are reports that on Wednesday morning Huron County council held a moment of silence to honour Grace’s memory before their meeting.


Before becoming mayor, Grace was deputy mayor of the town from 2007 to 2014. He recently announced his intention to run for mayor again this fall.

Old Post Lodge sits on a Hudson’s Bay trading post, known as Osnaburgh House, founded in 1786. On the lodge’s website, Grace wrote how he and his wife built the resort with a commitment to respect “the historical and cultural significance of the property.”

He added: “This is a very special place and we like nothing more than sharing it with others.”

The Huron Chamber of Commerce paid tribute to the mayor on Wednesday following news of his death, with its chair, Jennifer Verdam-Woodward, saying he left an “indelible” mark.

Google Maps: Red icon denotes the location of Old Post Lodge, in northwestern Ontario, close to the Manitoba border.
Google Maps: Red icon denotes the location of Old Post Lodge, in northwestern Ontario, close to the Manitoba border.
“He loved this town, this community, where he grew up,” she said. “He worked tirelessly to make it a better place.”

Grace’s political colleagues were stunned by his death. “Everything is so tragic and so sudden,” Coun. Trevor Bazinet said.
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Beluga whale lost in French river euthanized during rescue
During the rescue operation, the dangerously thin animal began to have breathing difficulties

Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Publishing date:Aug 10, 2022 • 1 day ago • 2 minute read • Join the conversation
Veterinarians take care of a beluga whale that was stranded in the River Seine at Notre Dame de la-Garenne, northern France, on August 9, 2022.
Veterinarians take care of a beluga whale that was stranded in the River Seine at Notre Dame de la-Garenne, northern France, on August 9, 2022. PHOTO BY JEAN-FRANCOIS MONIER /AFP via Getty Images
PARIS — A beluga whale that became a French celebrity after a wrong turn took it up the Seine River had to be euthanized Wednesday after experiencing health complications during an urgent rescue operation, authorities said.


The sparkling white marine mammal appeared deep inside France last week, having accidentally veered off the normal ocean migration route that takes belugas to and from Arctic waters.

Fearing the malnourished creature would not survive in the Seine much longer, a wildlife conservation group and veterinarians planned to move the lost whale to a saltwater port in Normandy, from where they hoped to return it to the open sea.

A team of 80 people assembled to try to save the animal’s life, and it was successfully moved Tuesday night from a river lock in Saint-Pierre-la-Garenne, west of Paris, into a refrigerated truck for the 160-kilometre journey to the port in Ouistreham.

Rescuers pull up a net after they rescued a beluga whale stranded in the River Seine to bring it into a truck to drive it towards Ouistreham (Calvados), at Notre Dame de la-Garenne, northern France, on August 10, 2022. (Photo by JEAN-FRANCOIS MONIER/AFP via Getty Images)
Rescuers pull up a net after they rescued a beluga whale stranded in the River Seine to bring it into a truck to drive it towards Ouistreham (Calvados), at Notre Dame de la-Garenne, northern France, on August 10, 2022. (Photo by JEAN-FRANCOIS MONIER/AFP via Getty Images)
But during the drive, the 4-metre-long (13-foot-long) whale started to breath with difficulty, according to Florence Ollivet Courtois, a French veterinarian who worked on the rescue operation.


“During the journey, the veterinarians confirmed a worsening of its state, notably in its respiratory activities, and at the same time noticed the animal was in pain, not breathing enough,” Courtois said.

“The suffering was obvious for the animal, so it was important to release its tension, and so we had to proceed to euthanize it,” she added.

Environmentalists had acknowledged the plan to move the beluga risked fatally stressing the mammal. But marine conservation group Sea Shepherd said that it couldn’t have survived much longer in the Seine’s fresh water.

The group and veterinarians noted the whale had responded to a cocktail of antibiotics and vitamins over the last few days, making them hopeful it would recover once it was back in a saltwater environment.



A necropsy is planned on the whale, which weighed about about 800 kilograms (1,764 pounds).

Rescuers had hoped to spare the whale the fate of an orca that strayed into the Seine and died in May. In 2006, a bottlenose whale — nicknamed “Willy” — swam up the Thames River as far as London and died during a its attempted rescue.

Another complicating factor during the beluga’s rescue attempt was the extreme heat gripping France. Authorities tried to keep it cool and wet with soaked towels and moved it at nightfall when temperatures are at their lowest.

The sad end to a saga that gripped France in recent days came after experts determined the whale “was too weakened to be put back into water,” Guillaume Lericolais, the sub-prefect of France’s Calvados region, said.

Rescuers tried to feed the whale fish without success since Friday. Sea Shepherd France said veterinary exams after the beluga’s removal from the river showed it has no digestive activity.
AFP_32GA9Y6-scaled[1].jpgAFP_32GA8JU-scaled-e1660131178583[1].jpg
 

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Norway puts down Freya the walrus that drew Oslo crowds
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Publishing date:Aug 14, 2022 • 9 hours ago • 1 minute read • Join the conversation
A picture taken on July 20, 2022, shows a young female walrus nicknamed Freya climbing on a boat in Frognerkilen, Oslo Fjord, Norway.
A picture taken on July 20, 2022, shows a young female walrus nicknamed Freya climbing on a boat in Frognerkilen, Oslo Fjord, Norway. PHOTO BY TROND REIDAR TEIGEN /AFP via Getty
BERLIN — Authorities in Norway have euthanized a walrus that had drawn crowds of spectators in the Oslo Fjord after concluding that it posed a risk to humans.


The 600-kilogram female walrus, known affectionately as Freya, became a popular attraction in Norway in recent weeks, despite warnings from officials that people should refrain from getting close and posing for pictures with the massive marine mammal. Freya liked to clamber on small boats, causing damage to them.

Walruses are protected and as recently as last month officials said they hoped Freya would leave of her own accord and that euthanasia would be a last resort.

Norway’s Directorate of Fisheries said Freya was put down early Sunday “based on an overall assessment of the continued threat to human safety.”

“Through on-site observations the past week, it was made clear that the public has disregarded the current recommendation to keep a clear distance to the walrus,” it said. “Therefore, the Directorate has concluded, the possibility for potential harm to people was high and animal welfare was not being maintained.”


The head of the directorate, Frank Bakke-Jensen, said other options — including moving the animal elsewhere — were considered. But authorities concluded it wasn’t a viable option.

“We have sympathies for the fact that the decision can cause a reaction from the public, but I am firm that this was the right call,” Bakke-Jensen said. “We have great regard for animal welfare, but human life and safety must take precedence.”

Atlantic walruses normally live in the Arctic. It is unusual but not unheard of for them to travel into the North and Baltic Seas. Another walrus, nicknamed Wally, was seen last year on beaches and even a lifeboat dock in Wales and elsewhere.
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Anne Heche taken off life support after organ donor found
Heche, 53, had been legally dead since Friday, though still with a heartbeat

Author of the article:Reuters
Reuters
Publishing date:Aug 15, 2022 • 21 hours ago • 3 minute read • 5 Comments

LOS ANGELES — American actor Anne Heche was taken off life support on Sunday, nine days after suffering severe injuries in a fiery car crash, as a compatible person was found to receive her donated organs, a spokesperson said.


Heche, 53, had been legally dead since Friday, though still with a heartbeat, and was kept on life support to preserve her organs so they could be donated, her representatives said.

“Anne Heche has been peacefully taken off life support,” spokesperson Holly Baird said in a statement.

Heche’s Mini Cooper sped out of control, plowed into a house and burst into flames on Aug. 5, leading to an agonizing hospital stay with increasingly grave messages from her family and representatives.


On Friday, one of her two sons, 19-year-old Homer Laffoon, issued statement saying: “My by brother Atlas and I lost our Mom.”

Heche, who starred in the movies “Donnie Brasco,” “Wag The Dog” and “I Know What You Did Last Summer,” struggled for decades with the fallout from a troubled childhood and was part of a groundbreaking same-sex couple in the 1990s.

Winner of a Daytime Emmy Award in 1991 for her roles as identical twin sisters in the NBC soap opera “Another World,” Heche starred in the 1998 adventure comedy “Six Days Seven Nights” with Harrison Ford and played alongside Demi Moore and Cher in the HBO TV movie “If These Walls Could Talk.”

She became one half of Hollywood’s most famous same-sex couple at the time when she dated comedian and actress Ellen DeGeneres. Against the wishes of her studio, Heche came out publicly at the 1997 red carpet premiere for disaster movie “Volcano,” taking DeGeneres along as her date.

The pair were together for more than three years before Heche ended the relationship.



In an interview with Page Six entertainment website in October 2021, Heche said she was “blacklisted” by Hollywood because of her relationship with DeGeneres. “I didn’t do a studio picture for 10 years. I was fired from a $10 million picture deal and did not see the light of day in a studio picture.”

In 2001, she married Coleman Laffoon, a cameraman. After the couple divorced, Heche began a long-term relationship with actor James Tupper which ended in 2018.


Anne Celeste Heche was born in Aurora, Ohio on May 25, 1969, and was the youngest of five children. At age 13, she was shocked by her father’s death from AIDS and from the revelation that he had had secret gay relationships.

“He was in complete denial until the day he died,” Heche told CNN’s Larry King in 2001. She said in 1998 that his death taught her that the most important thing in life is to tell the truth.


Her brother, Nathan, died three months after their father in a car crash.

Heche said her father raped her as a child, causing her mental health struggles for decades after, including frequent fantasies that she was from another planet.

“I’m not crazy,” Heche told ABC News in 2001 on the release of her book “Call Me Crazy: A Memoir.”

“But it’s a crazy life. I was raised in a crazy family and it took 31 years to get the crazy out of me.”


Heche’s mother, Nancy, denied her daughter’s claim that she knew about the sexual abuse, calling it “lies and blasphemies” and her sister Abigail has said she believes the “memories regarding our father are untrue.” She said that Anne Heche had cast doubt herself on her own memories of that time.

Later in her career, Heche starred as a senior member of the Defense Intelligence Agency in the NBC TV series “The Brave” and appeared on competition show “Dancing With The Stars” in late 2020.
 

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Anne Heche's death ruled accidental after fiery car crash
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Publishing date:Aug 17, 2022 • 7 hours ago • 1 minute read • Join the conversation

LOS ANGELES — Actor Anne Heche died from inhalation injury and burns after her fiery car crash and the death was ruled an accident, according to coroner’s results released Wednesday.


Heche, 53, also had a fractured sternum caused by “blunt trauma,” according to information on the website of the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner.

A full autopsy report was still being completed, the coroner’s office said.

The Emmy-winning film and television actor was removed from life support Sunday at a burn centre. She was injured when her car jumped a curb and smashed into a West Los Angeles home on Aug. 5. The car and the home burst into flames. Only Heche was injured.

Heche suffered a “severe anoxic brain injury” caused by a lack of oxygen, according to a statement released last week on behalf of her family and friends.

She was declared brain-dead but was kept on life support until her organs could be donated.

Detectives looking into the crash had said narcotics were found in a blood sample taken from Heche. However, police ended their investigation after she was declared brain-dead.

The coroner’s office listed Aug. 11 as her date of death.

Heche first came to prominence on the NBC soap opera “Another World” in the late 1980s before becoming one of the hottest stars in Hollywood in the late 1990s. She was a constant on magazine covers and in big-budget films opposite actors including Johnny Depp and Harrison Ford.
 

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Bill Paxton's family settles lawsuit with hospital over death
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Andrew Dalton
Publishing date:Aug 19, 2022 • 12 hours ago • 2 minute read • Join the conversation

The family of the late actor Bill Paxton has agreed to settle a wrongful death lawsuit against a Los Angeles hospital and the surgeon who performed his heart surgery shortly before he died in 2017, according to a court filing Friday.


The suit, filed against Cedars-Sinai Medical Center more than four years ago, had been scheduled to go to trial next month. But attorneys for Paxton’s wife of 30 years, Louise, and their two children, James and Lydia, filed a notice in Los Angeles Superior Court that they had agreed to settle the case.

“The matter has been resolved to the mutual satisfaction of the parties,” plaintiffs’ lawyers Bruce Broillet and Steve Heimberg said in a statement.

The terms are confidential, the attorneys said. Emails seeking comment from the defendants were not immediately returned. The agreement must still be approved by a judge.

Paxton, who starred in films including “Apollo 12,” “Titanic” and “Aliens” and in television series including “Big Love,” died on Feb. 11, 2017.


The cause was a stroke that came 11 days after surgery to replace a heart valve and repair aorta damage, according to his death certificate.

The lawsuit, filed a year later, alleged that the surgeon, Dr. Ali Khoynezhad, used a “high risk and unconventional surgical approach” that was unnecessary and that he lacked the experience to perform, and that he downplayed the procedure’s risks.

The misguided treatment caused Paxton to suffer excessive bleeding, cardiogenic shock and a compromised coronary artery, the suit alleged, and said that Cedars-Sinai knew that Khoynezhad, tended to “engage in maverick surgeries and show suboptimal judgment.”

The defendants said in court documents that Paxton and his family knew and understood the risks involved in the procedure, and voluntarily went on with the surgery. The defendants’ said there was no negligence that led to his death.

The four-year legal battle was marked by frequent attempts by the Paxton family to extract more discovery evidence from the hospital, and frequent court hearings over the issue.

Paxton, who was born and raised in Fort Worth, Texas, was among the industry’s busiest actors from the early 1980s until his death, amassing nearly 100 credits, including “Twister” and “Weird Science.” He was starring in the CBS drama series “Training Day” when he died.
 

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Anne Heche laid to rest at historic Hollywood cemetery
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Andrew Dalton
Publishing date:Aug 23, 2022 • 4 hours ago • 2 minute read • Join the conversation

LOS ANGELES — Actor Anne Heche has been laid to rest at a storied Los Angeles cemetery alongside many Hollywood luminaries, her family said Tuesday.


Heche was cremated and her ashes were placed in a mausoleum at Hollywood Forever Cemetery nearly two weeks after she was declared dead at a hospital from injuries suffered in a fiery car crash.


In a statement to The Associated Press, Heche’s son Homer Laffoon said he and her other son Atlas Tupper “are convinced our Mom would love the site we have chosen for her; it’s beautiful, serene and she will be among her Hollywood peers.”

The cemetery has in recent years become a cultural hub for film screenings, musical performances and festivals.

Laffoon went to see the band My Morning Jacket there after his mother’s death, with tickets bought before she died. He loved the vibrancy of the location, and took it as a sign that her grave should be there.


“Hollywood Forever is a living place,” Laffoon’s statement said.

A small private memorial will be held once Heche’s headstone is etched.

“She was our Mom, but the kindness and the outpouring of the past few days reminded us that she also belongs to her fans, to the entertainment community, and now, to the ages,” the statement said.

Founded in 1899 and located near the Paramount Pictures lot, the cemetery is home to the graves and tombs of actors including Judy Garland and Douglas Fairbanks, and of musicians including Chris Cornell and Johnny Ramone.



Heche’s spot in the mausoleum in the cemetery’s Garden of Legends is near that of Mickey Rooney, and faces a lake where Burt Reynolds’ remains were recently relocated.


Heche, 53, was among the biggest film stars of the late 1990s, starring opposite actors including Johnny Depp and Harrison Ford, and had worked consistently in movies and television for more than three decades. But personal turmoil, which she described in a memoir and interviews, often followed her.

On Aug. 5, her car jumped a curb and smashed into a West Los Angeles home. Both the car and the home burst into flames. She was declared brain dead on Aug. 11, and was kept alive on life support for three more days so her organs could be donated.

Her death was ruled an accident, and the cause were inhalation injuries and burns, according to the Los Angeles County coroner.