Sculpture tribute to Heath Ledger embodies his style and love of chess

By Calvin Palmer

Australian actor Heath Ledger has been commemorated with a three-piece sculpture at a park where he played as a child.

Ledger’s family picked a site Point Heathcote Reserve in the City of Melville, part of Perth’s southern suburbs, for the polished concrete and marble sculpture by artist Ron Gomboc.

Two of the pieces incorporate chessboards in tribute to the late actor’s love of the game. The third piece features a yin and yang design that embodies his spiritual beliefs.

Gomboc, a long-time family friend, said yesterday that the sculpture was a fitting tribute to Ledger, who used to relish playing chess at parks around the world when he had down-time from filming.

Ledger’s mother Sally Bell said the family had chosen the site, which overlooks the Swan River, because because her son had cared about the environment and spent much of his youth in the Applecross area, walking with friends.

“He truly loved it there,” she said.

“As for the chess theme, not many people know that Heath was passionate about chess and was close to becoming a Grand Master.”

Father, Kim Ledger, said the sculpture was in keeping with Heath’s subtle and laidback style, and his friends and family now had a place to visit that was imbued with his presence.

“People who visit the site can remember him by using and enjoying the tables, as he would want them to,” he said.

Ledger’s family flew from Perth bound for Los Angeles yesterday to attend the Oscar ceremony and spend time with his daughter Matilda.

The Perth-born actor is widely tipped to take out the best supporting actor award for his portrayal of The Joker in The Dark Knight, the last film he completed before his death.

Ledger was working on The Imaginarium Of Dr Parnassus when he died, aged 28, on January 22 last year in his rented Manhattan loft apartment after consuming a deadly cocktail of prescription painkillers and sleeping pills. His death was declared an accidental overdose.

[Based on reports by The West Australian and Melbourne Herald Sun.]

Unrest on Guadeloupe claims its first victim

By Calvin Palmer

A union official was shot dead overnight in Guadeloupe when he drove up to  a roadblock in the island’s main city Pointe-a-Pitre.

Jacques Bino’s death is the first in a month-long strike and growing unrest over the rising cost of living in the Caribbean island.

After holding an emergency meeting on the deteriorating situation on the island, Interior Minister Michele Alliot-Marie announced that four squadrons of police reinforcements, 280 men, would fly to the island immediately.

“Acts of pillaging, atrocities and violence against other people … will not be tolerated,” she said.

A few days ago, 150 riot police were sent to the island.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy is due to meet with elected officials from Guadeloupe tomorrow to “address the anxiety, worries and also a certain form of despair from our compatriots.”

Bino’s car was hit three times by 12-gauge shotgun rounds. Two rounds hit the rear of the vehicle and the third was fired through a side passenger window and fatally wounded the activist in the chest.

“These were not stray rounds,” prosecutor Jean-Michel Pretre said, adding that he was looking into the possibility that, given their age, Bino and a passenger had been mistaken for plain-clothes police officers. Bino was in his 50s.

Rioters fired at police and emergency workers, preventing them from reaching the wounded Bino for several hours.  By the time they reached him he was dead.

Six members of the security forces were slightly injured during clashes with armed youths, police said.

The protests in Guadeloupe and neighboring Martinique are hurting scores of businesses, including restaurants, hotels and car rental agencies during the islands’ peak winter tourist season, Martinique Tourism Authority chairwoman Madeleine de Grandmaison said today.

“Tourism is fragile,” she said. “People are not only canceling this week, but also for all the months of February, March and April. We have a huge deficit of tourists ahead of us.”

At least 10,000 tourists have canceled vacations in Martinique and Guadeloupe, according to the National Travel Agencies organization.
Guadeloupe’s strike has persisted for almost a month. Martinique’s is in its third week.

A Paris-based association of tour operators that works with France’s government tourism department has designated Guadeloupe a “red zone,” meaning it is not endorsing it as a destination. The association began redirecting tourists to Martinique — until the strike arrived there.

Guadeloupe’s Tourism Committee said today the main airport reopened after closing briefly because of a lack of workers. But American Airlines canceled a night flight. Much of the violence on the island has occurred after dark.

[Based on results by the AFP news agency and the Associated Press.]

Intruders break in and ransack Kercher murder house

By Calvin Palmer

Intruders have broken into the house in Perugia, central Italy, where British exchange student Meredith Kercher was murdered.

Prosecutors say the break-in was discovered early today during an official inspection of the murder site, which has been sealed since the crime.

The intruders broke a window, ransacked the house and left four kitchen knives and some candles behind in various rooms but not in the bedroom where Kercher’s body was found in November 2007.

Kercher’s roommate, American student Amanda Knox, and Knox’s former boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, are on trial for the murder and sexual assault. They deny the charges.

The trial resumes a week on Friday.

Ivory Coast immigrant, Rudy Guede, was sentenced to 30 years in prison last October in a fast-track trial.

The prosecution alleges that all three were involved in the murder, which was the result of a “sex game” that ended in assault and death.

Police said they were investigating whether the break-in was the result of a “Satanic ritual” or a “message in code” relating to the killing.

Kercher’s throat was allegedly slit by a kitchen knife found at Sollecito’s flat, and Knox and Sollecito are accused of smashing a window to make it look as if Kercher was attacked by a burglar.
 
Francesco Maresca, the Italian lawyer for the Kercher family, said he was “astonished and appalled”.

“I hope the matter will be cleared up as soon as possible,” he said.

[Based on reports by The Times and Associated Press.]

Antarctic cruise passengers transfer to sister ship

By Calvin Palmer

All the passengers aboard the cruise ship that ran aground yesterday close to the Argentine research base at San Martin, Antarctica, have been safely transferred to another vessel.

The 65 passengers, including 21 Americans and 17 Britons, are safely aboard the Ocean Nova’s sister ship, Clipper Adventurer.

The Argentine navy said the operation was carried out using semi-rigid boats.

Tour company Quark Expeditions, of Norwalk, Connecticut, said the Ocean Nova was still aground and awaiting this evening’s high tide in an attempt to refloat the ship.

Continuing high winds thwarted last night’s attempt to refloat the 240-foot Danish-built vessel, was on the eighth day of a two-week expedition that embarked from from Ushuaia, Argentina’s southernmost city.

A preliminary inspection by divers from the Spanish naval vessel Hespérides has found no visible damage or leaks.

Quark Expeditions anticipates there will be no negative impact on the environment due to this incident, the company said.

Another inspection by divers will be conducted once Ocean Nova is afloat. After that inspection, the vessel will return to Ushuaia.

[Based on a report by the Brisbane Times.]

Crew and passengers rescued after helicopter ditches in North Sea

By Calvin Palmer

All 18 people aboard a helicopter that ditched into the North Sea this evening have been resuced from two life rafts, according to coastguards.

The Super Puma helicopter came down near an oil platform in the ETAP field, 125 miles east of Aberdeen, Scotland.

Three of the people aboard were rescued by a Bond company helicopter, the other 15 by a platform lifeboat.

Coast guard spokesman Fred Caygill said the passengers and crew managed to make it out of the helicopter on to two inflatable life rafts.

“We’re very pleased that all 18 have been rescued,” Caygill said, adding that there were no serious injuries.

A Sea King helicopter from RAF Lossiemouth and a Nimrod jet from RAF Kinloss were scrambled.

James Lyne of RAF Kinloss said all those on board would have been wearing immersion suits that would have protected them from the cold of the sea for some time.

NHS Grampian said A&E staff at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary were now on full alert and they were expecting 18 patients.

[Based on reports by BBC News and newsday.com.]

Man shoots himself in front of cross at Crystal Cathedral

By Calvin Palmer

A man shot and killed himself today in front a cross inside inside televangelist Robert H. Schuller’s Crystal Cathedral, in Southern California, as a nearby volunteer nearby told a group of visitors about the church’s suicide-prevention program.

Senior Pastor Juan Carlos Ortiz says a long-haired walked into the sanctuary of the building in Garden Grove at about 9:45 this morning, handed a note and his driver’s license to two ushers, walked to the cross and then shot himself in the head as he appeared to be praying.

The Orange County coroner’s office identified the man as Steve Smick, 48. Church spokesman Mike Nason said there was no record of Smick at the cathedral.

Betty Spicer, a volunteer usher at the famous sanctuary, said she greeted Smick when he entered. She said he handed her a folded note with two cards inside as the man told her: “You may want this.”

Spicer said he then walked to the foot of the cross. She and Yvette Manson, another volunteer, said they thought Smick was praying when they heard a pop.

A tourist, one in a group of several visitors from Canada, told Manson the man had shot himself.

“I didn’t realize it. I thought he was praying,” Spicer said.

Manson said she “had just finished telling them about our intervention hotline that we have — suicide prevention on the fifth floor — and all of a sudden I heard this pop, a loud pop, it almost sounded like a firecracker,” she said.

The man used a semiautomatic handgun, said police Lt. Dennis Ellsworth.

Spicer said one of Smick’s cards was a driver’s license, and that the note mentioned a pickup truck in the parking lot.

Cathedral spokesman John Charles said none of the Canadian tourists was injured.

[Based on reports by newsday.com, The Mercury News, and Associated Press.]

Chimpanzee’s owner denies she gave the animal Xanax

By Calvin Palmer

The owner of Travis, the 200-pound chimpanzee that mauled a Connecticut woman, disputes police reports that she gave the animal a drug to calm him down.

Sandra Herold said today the she “never, ever” gave the drug Xanax to her 14-year-old pet chimpanzee.

Travis, a former star of TV ads for Old Navy and Coca-Cola, attacked Herold’s friend, 55-year-old Charla Nash, when she came to visit on Monday.

The chimp badly mauled Nash and left her severely injured.

Stamford Police said Herold told them that earlier on Monday she gave Travis Xanax  in some tea to calm him down because he seemed agitated.

Dr. Emil Coccaro, chief of psychiatry at the University of Chicago Medical Center says the anti-anxiety drug can lead to aggression in people who are unstable to begin with.

“Xanax could have made him worse,” if human studies are any indication, Coccaro said.

[Based on a report by the Associated Press.]

Evidence found with Caylee’s body matches items at her home

By Calvin Palmer

Evidence found in the wooded area where a Florida girl’s body was discovered matches items from the house where she lived.

The State Attorney’s office in Orlando today released documents that show the same type of laundry bag, duct tape and plastic bag found when the body of two-year-old Caylee Anthony was discovered were also found in the home where Caylee lived.

Caylee’s remains were found in December by a meter reader in the area of S. Chickasaw Trail and Suburban Drive, less than a quarter of a mile from the Anthonys’ home on Hopespring Drive in Orlando.

Casey Anthony, 22, has been charged with her daughter’s murder. She claims Caylee was kidnapped by a baby sitter and has pleaded not guilty.

Caylee disappeared from her home last June but a month passed before authorities were notified of her disappearance.

The documents released today also showed Casey Anthony hyperventilated and asked for medication after she learned Caylee’s body had been discovered.

[Based on a report by the Associated Press.]

Stanford’s whereabouts unknown as depositors start a run on his banks

By Calvin Palmer

U.S. regulators do not know the whereabouts of Texan billionaire R. Allen Stanford.

Yesterday, the Securities and Exchange Commission filed charges against him alleging a “massive and ongoing” $8 billion investment fraud.

“We don’t know where he is, quite frankly,” said Rose Romero, director of the SEC’s Fort Worth office, which filed the charges against Stanford and his companies.

A lot of people would like to know his whereabouts and not just financial regulators.

Hundreds of depositors of the Bank of Antigua lined up to withdraw their funds.  The bank is owned by Stanford but is not part of the alleged fraud.

At one branch in the capital of Antigua, St John’s, about 600 people lined up outside.  A similar-sized crowd was seen at another branch near the airport.

The scene was repeated in Panama where bank regulators stepped in to take control of the Stanford Bank Panama – also not involved in the fraud allegations – after customers began a run on the bank.

Lengthy lines also formed outside the Stanford Bank Venezuela in Caracas, which issued a statement in an attempt to calm clients, saying that it had asked a bank regulator to join its board and stressing that its assets were not linked to the Stanford International Bank in Antigua that is at the heart of the fraud inquiry.

Venezuela’s superintendent of banks, Edgar Hernandez, said Venezuelans hold about $2.5 billion in Stanford Bank on the island of Antigua, which is being investigated by U.S. authorities on fraud allegations.

Many Venezuelans made investments in dollars in the bank in Antigua. But he said those investments are outside the purview of Venezuelan law.

Hernandez also sought to reassure investors today about Stanford Bank in Venezuela, saying an inspection in the fourth quarter of 2008 found no problems and that the bank appears “healthy”.

The Eastern Caribbean Central Bank pleaded with Bank of Antigua customers to remain calm, saying in a statement that although many depositors had started to withdraw funds, “causing some anxiety”, the bank had sufficient reserves.

“However, if individuals persist in rushing to the bank in a panic, they will precipitate the very situation that we are all trying to avoid,” the central bank warned.

Antigua’s Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer said yesterday that the charges against Sir Allen could have “catastrophic” consequences for the nation, but he also urged people not to panic.

The Stanford group is the largest private employer in Antigua and Barbuda, covering financial, media and sporting franchises.

[Based on reports by Bloomberg.com, The Times, BBC News and the Houston Chronicle.]

Mystery of ‘Baker Street’ singer ends

By Calvin Palmer

Gerry Rafferty, the Scottish singer who wrote the iconic hit Baker Street, is alive and well in Italy despite rumors that he had gone missing.

The Paisley-born singer is writing music in his Tuscany home where he has been living for the past six months.

Rafferty’s first success came with his band Stealers Wheel, which had a hit in 1972 with Stuck in the Middle with You.  The song became popular again when it was used on the soundtrack of Quentin Tarantino’s 1992 film Reservoir Dogs.

It was reported earlier this week that friends thought Rafferty had gone missing after he discharged himself in August 2008 from St Thomas’s Hospital in London where he was receiving treatment for liver failure.
 
Rafferty’s Stealers Wheel band mate Tony Williams had contacted police about the singer. He and Rafferty’s family had not heard from the singer in over six months.

His office said in a statement today: “Contrary to what some sections of the media are suggesting, Gerry is extremely well and has been living in Tuscany for the past six months. In his house there, which is situated just north of Florence, he continues to compose and record new songs and music.

“He would like to send a personal thank you to all of his fans who have expressed their concern for his wellbeing and he hopes to release a new album of his most recent work in the summer of this year.”

Hearing of the statement, Williams said: “I’m delighted he’s fine.” 

Rafferty still earns thousands in royalties from his most famous track Baker Street, released as a single in 1978 from his solo album City to City. The song still features on soft rock music stations around the world.
 
[Based on reports by The Guardian and BBC News.]