Sunday, December 28, 2008
Thursday, December 18, 2008
David Letterman Gets Jen Aniston's 'Naked on GQ' Tie
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Jennifer Aniston presents David Letterman with the tie she wore on the cover of GQ Magazine.
David Letterman is now the proud owner of the most famous tie in the world.
Jennifer Aniston presented the late night host with the tie she wore on the January cover of GQ Magazine, telling the talk show it was "an early Christmas gift."
The GQ cover and inside photos of Jen Aniston naked with two guys, wearing only the tie, caused quite a commotion when it was released last week.
"I wasn't trying to make any statement," Aniston said Wednesday on "The late Show With David Letterman."
Aniston is making the rounds promoting her new movie, "Marley & Me," which co-stars Owen Wilson. The movie opens on Christmas day, opposite her ex-husband Brad Pitt's widely anticipated film, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button."
It looks like Aniston is doing everything she can to make sure "Marley" gives "Benjamin" a run for movie-goers' money.
Hefner 'impressed' by Aniston nude cover
Hugh Hefner has revealed that he was "much impressed" by Jennifer Aniston's nude GQ cover.
The Marley and Me star appears on the cover of the magazine's latest edition wearing just a red, white and blue necktie.
"This looks like a cover of Playboy," Hefner told Extra. "I'm very much impressed by Jennifer.
"Is it just me, or is Jennifer Aniston getting hotter? Never seen her in this light before."
Earlier this week Aniston defended her decision to pose for the racy photograph, saying: "I wasn't trying to make any statement."
Friday, November 28, 2008
2,700-year-old marijuana found in tomb
OTTAWA - Researchers say they have located the world's oldest stash of marijuana, in a tomb in a remote part of China.
The cache of cannabis is about 2,700 years old and was clearly "cultivated for psychoactive purposes," rather than as fibre for clothing or as food, says a research paper in the Journal of Experimental Botany.
The 789 grams of dried cannabis was buried alongside a light-haired, blue-eyed Caucasian man, likely a shaman of the Gushi culture, near Turpan in northwestern China.
The extremely dry conditions and alkaline soil acted as preservatives, allowing a team of scientists to carefully analyze the stash, which still looked green though it had lost its distinctive odour.
"To our knowledge, these investigations provide the oldest documentation of cannabis as a pharmacologically active agent," says the newly published paper, whose lead author was American neurologist Dr. Ethan B. Russo.
Remnants of cannabis have been found in ancient Egypt and other sites, and the substance has been referred to by authors such as the Greek historian Herodotus. But the tomb stash is the oldest so far that could be thoroughly tested for its properties.
The 18 researchers, most of them based in China, subjected the cannabis to a battery of tests, including carbon dating and genetic analysis. Scientists also tried to germinate 100 of the seeds found in the cache, without success.
The marijuana was found to have a relatively high content of THC, the main active ingredient in cannabis, but the sample was too old to determine a precise percentage.
Researchers also could not determine whether the cannabis was smoked or ingested, as there were no pipes or other clues in the tomb of the shaman, who was about 45 years old.
The large cache was contained in a leather basket and in a wooden bowl, and was likely meant to be used by the shaman in the afterlife.
"This materially is unequivocally cannabis, and no material has previously had this degree of analysis possible," Russo said in an interview from Missoula, Mont.
"It was common practice in burials to provide materials needed for the afterlife. No hemp or seeds were provided for fabric or food. Rather, cannabis as medicine or for visionary purposes was supplied."
The tomb also contained bridles, archery equipment and a harp, confirming the man's high social standing.
Russo is a full-time consultant with GW Pharmaceuticals, which makes Sativex, a cannabis-based medicine approved in Canada for pain linked to multiple sclerosis and cancer.
The company operates a cannabis-testing laboratory at a secret location in southern England to monitor crop quality for producing Sativex, and allowed Russo use of the facility for tests on 11 grams of the tomb cannabis.
Researchers needed about 10 months to cut red tape barring the transfer of the cannabis to England from China, Russo said.
The inter-disciplinary study was published this week by the British-based botany journal, which uses independent reviewers to ensure the accuracy and objectivity of all submitted papers.
The substance has been found in two of the 500 Gushi tombs excavated so far in northwestern China, indicating that cannabis was either restricted for use by a few individuals or was administered as a medicine to others through shamans, Russo said.
"It certainly does indicate that cannabis has been used by man for a variety of purposes for thousands of years."
Russo, who had a neurology practice for 20 years, has previously published studies examining the history of cannabis.
"I hope we can avoid some of the political liabilities of the issue," he said, referring to his latest paper.
The region of China where the tomb is located, Xinjiang, is considered an original source of many cannabis strains worldwide.
Monday, November 10, 2008
Ukrainian beauty Olga Kurylenko puts a new face on the role of Bond Girl
Smart, sexy and strong, Olga Kurylenko is a lot like her Quantum of Solace character
Ukrainian beauty Olga Kurylenko puts a new face on the role of Bond Girl, and what a face it is! Her Quantum of Solace character Camille is nobody’s plaything, not even OO7’s.
Whoever decided women should be called “the weaker sex” never met Olga Kurylenko.
The Ukrainian-born beauty is smart, outspoken and very determined — just the characteristics that also define the newest Bond Girl.
As Camille in Quantum of Solace, Kurylenko gets to play a different sort of femme fatale. She isn’t anybody’s plaything, and the biggest passion she shares with James Bond is their mutual lust for revenge. The secret agent meets his match.
“She’s not just hanging out with him. She doesn’t need Bond to exist,” says Kurylenko of her Quantum of Solace character. “She’s got her own story, her own agenda and her own life.”
That agenda is to avenge the killings of her family.
Quantum Of Solace opens Friday, which also happens to be Kurylenko’s 29th birthday. During a recent promotional stop, she talked about how hard she worked to get the role of Camille. And, no, she had no reservations about being a Bond Girl.
“If I didn’t want the job, I wouldn’t have gone through the casting process,” she says. “If I don’t want to do something, believe me, I’m not going to do it. I worked so hard to get this. A lot of people wanted the part.”
She was told she’d landed the role on Christmas Eve. “And when they told me I got the role, I was like, ‘Yes!’ ”
Kurylenko was raised by her mother and grandmother in Berdyansk, and they were quite poor. Hers is a true rags-to-riches story, although it certainly doesn’t involve intellectual poverty in any way. Kurylenko’s mother was a teacher and her grandmother a doctor, and the former model becomes animated when speaking about them.
“A teacher and a doctor — the two most important professions in the world,” she says. “They were educated and very intelligent, and that’s all good, but when you cannot eat ...” She shrugs. She explains that her grandmother is dead now, and pauses for a second to regain her composure.
Kurylenko was 13 when she and her mother took a trip to Moscow, where an agent who saw her step off the subway immediately approached her with modelling work. By age 17 she was living and working in Paris. At 18 she was a major success story, appearing on such magazine covers as Glamour, Elle and Marie Claire. She was also the face of various cosmetic and fashion lines.
Kurylenko studied acting while earning a living as a model. Her feature-film debut came in 2005 with L’Annulaire. She won roles in Paris, je t’aime, Le Serpent and Hitman (which was her first English-speaking role), and she has roles in Max Payne — in theatres now — and the upcoming Tyranny. Scripts come to her in French and English.
Since her appearance is so extraordinary, Kurylenko is more or less accustomed to being mistaken for just another pretty face. That doesn’t mean she likes it.
The actress, who speaks four languages, says she sometimes thinks intelligence might be wasted in this day and age.
“The world is quite superficial, all about looks and appearance, and nobody cares about what’s on the inside,” she laments.
Speaking of her own physical appearance, she says, with a touch of melancholy, “This is just an envelope. The people who are close to me know who I am. If others want to be negative, they will.”
Asked if she’s worried about the downside of the celebrity that is bound to come with a Bond Girl role, Kurylenko says, “I just want to keep working. Maybe it will be different when the movie is released, but for now I’m back in Paris and I don’t think anybody recognizes me.”
She drops her chin, letting her hair cover most of her face, to show how she can be incognito in a second.
“For now, it’s totally cool. Of course, if you dress up all covered in sparkles and big high heels and everything,” she says, laughing, “yes, you will attract attention!”
In the future, Kurylenko says she hopes to be offered deeper roles.
“Different movies are made for different reasons. Some are to show the truth, or to give a lesson, and to make people think and learn, and those are the movies I want to watch — and the ones I want to be in.”
But she doesn’t just read scripts, she says — she also reads a lot of biographies of famous people, “because their paths are always so interesting. I love those things.
“The one thing all these people seem to believe, and maybe it’s naive of me to believe it, is that if you put out positive energy, it all comes back to you. They make me dream that miracles really do happen.”
Kurylenko a new kind of Bond Girl
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Smart, sexy and strong, Olga Kurylenko is a lot like her Quantum of Solace character
Ukrainian beauty Olga Kurylenko puts a new face on the role of Bond Girl, and what a face it is! Her Quantum of Solace character Camille is nobody’s plaything, not even OO7’s.
Whoever decided women should be called “the weaker sex” never met Olga Kurylenko.
The Ukrainian-born beauty is smart, outspoken and very determined — just the characteristics that also define the newest Bond Girl.
“If I didn’t want the job, I wouldn’t have gone through the casting process,” she says. “If I don’t want to do something, believe me, I’m not going to do it. I worked so hard to get this. A lot of people wanted the part.”
She was told she’d landed the role on Christmas Eve. “And when they told me I got the role, I was like, ‘Yes!’ ”
Kurylenko was raised by her mother and grandmother in Berdyansk, and they were quite poor. Hers is a true rags-to-riches story, although it certainly doesn’t involve intellectual poverty in any way. Kurylenko’s mother was a teacher and her grandmother a doctor, and the former model becomes animated when speaking about them.
“A teacher and a doctor — the two most important professions in the world,” she says. “They were educated and very intelligent, and that’s all good, but when you cannot eat ...” She shrugs. She explains that her grandmother is dead now, and pauses for a second to regain her composure.
Kurylenko was 13 when she and her mother took a trip to Moscow, where an agent who saw her step off the subway immediately approached her with modelling work. By age 17 she was living and working in Paris. At 18 she was a major success story, appearing on such magazine covers as Glamour, Elle and Marie Claire. She was also the face of various cosmetic and fashion lines.
Kurylenko studied acting while earning a living as a model. Her feature-film debut came in 2005 with L’Annulaire. She won roles in Paris, je t’aime, Le Serpent and Hitman (which was her first English-speaking role), and she has roles in Max Payne — in theatres now — and the upcoming Tyranny. Scripts come to her in French and English.
Since her appearance is so extraordinary, Kurylenko is more or less accustomed to being mistaken for just another pretty face. That doesn’t mean she likes it.
The actress, who speaks four languages, says she sometimes thinks intelligence might be wasted in this day and age.
“The world is quite superficial, all about looks and appearance, and nobody cares about what’s on the inside,” she laments.
Speaking of her own physical appearance, she says, with a touch of melancholy, “This is just an envelope. The people who are close to me know who I am. If others want to be negative, they will.”
Asked if she’s worried about the downside of the celebrity that is bound to come with a Bond Girl role, Kurylenko says, “I just want to keep working. Maybe it will be different when the movie is released, but for now I’m back in Paris and I don’t think anybody recognizes me.”
She drops her chin, letting her hair cover most of her face, to show how she can be incognito in a second.
“For now, it’s totally cool. Of course, if you dress up all covered in sparkles and big high heels and everything,” she says, laughing, “yes, you will attract attention!”
In the future, Kurylenko says she hopes to be offered deeper roles.
“Different movies are made for different reasons. Some are to show the truth, or to give a lesson, and to make people think and learn, and those are the movies I want to watch — and the ones I want to be in.”
But she doesn’t just read scripts, she says — she also reads a lot of biographies of famous people, “because their paths are always so interesting. I love those things.
“The one thing all these people seem to believe, and maybe it’s naive of me to believe it, is that if you put out positive energy, it all comes back to you. They make me dream that miracles really do happen.”
Montreal Escorts
Smart, sexy and strong, Olga Kurylenko is a lot like her Quantum of Solace character
Ukrainian beauty Olga Kurylenko puts a new face on the role of Bond Girl, and what a face it is! Her Quantum of Solace character Camille is nobody’s plaything, not even OO7’s.
Whoever decided women should be called “the weaker sex” never met Olga Kurylenko.
The Ukrainian-born beauty is smart, outspoken and very determined — just the characteristics that also define the newest Bond Girl.
“If I didn’t want the job, I wouldn’t have gone through the casting process,” she says. “If I don’t want to do something, believe me, I’m not going to do it. I worked so hard to get this. A lot of people wanted the part.”
She was told she’d landed the role on Christmas Eve. “And when they told me I got the role, I was like, ‘Yes!’ ”
Kurylenko was raised by her mother and grandmother in Berdyansk, and they were quite poor. Hers is a true rags-to-riches story, although it certainly doesn’t involve intellectual poverty in any way. Kurylenko’s mother was a teacher and her grandmother a doctor, and the former model becomes animated when speaking about them.
“A teacher and a doctor — the two most important professions in the world,” she says. “They were educated and very intelligent, and that’s all good, but when you cannot eat ...” She shrugs. She explains that her grandmother is dead now, and pauses for a second to regain her composure.
Kurylenko was 13 when she and her mother took a trip to Moscow, where an agent who saw her step off the subway immediately approached her with modelling work. By age 17 she was living and working in Paris. At 18 she was a major success story, appearing on such magazine covers as Glamour, Elle and Marie Claire. She was also the face of various cosmetic and fashion lines.
Kurylenko studied acting while earning a living as a model. Her feature-film debut came in 2005 with L’Annulaire. She won roles in Paris, je t’aime, Le Serpent and Hitman (which was her first English-speaking role), and she has roles in Max Payne — in theatres now — and the upcoming Tyranny. Scripts come to her in French and English.
Since her appearance is so extraordinary, Kurylenko is more or less accustomed to being mistaken for just another pretty face. That doesn’t mean she likes it.
The actress, who speaks four languages, says she sometimes thinks intelligence might be wasted in this day and age.
“The world is quite superficial, all about looks and appearance, and nobody cares about what’s on the inside,” she laments.
Speaking of her own physical appearance, she says, with a touch of melancholy, “This is just an envelope. The people who are close to me know who I am. If others want to be negative, they will.”
Asked if she’s worried about the downside of the celebrity that is bound to come with a Bond Girl role, Kurylenko says, “I just want to keep working. Maybe it will be different when the movie is released, but for now I’m back in Paris and I don’t think anybody recognizes me.”
She drops her chin, letting her hair cover most of her face, to show how she can be incognito in a second.
“For now, it’s totally cool. Of course, if you dress up all covered in sparkles and big high heels and everything,” she says, laughing, “yes, you will attract attention!”
In the future, Kurylenko says she hopes to be offered deeper roles.
“Different movies are made for different reasons. Some are to show the truth, or to give a lesson, and to make people think and learn, and those are the movies I want to watch — and the ones I want to be in.”
But she doesn’t just read scripts, she says — she also reads a lot of biographies of famous people, “because their paths are always so interesting. I love those things.
“The one thing all these people seem to believe, and maybe it’s naive of me to believe it, is that if you put out positive energy, it all comes back to you. They make me dream that miracles really do happen.”
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Obama makes history with win over McCain
Overcoming their nation's torturous racial history, American voters overwhelmingly elected Barack Obama as the first black president of the United States, turning to the inspiring young senator as their best hope to revive a country weary from economic turmoil and war.
Obama tore up the U.S. political map as he defeated John McCain, the veteran Republican senator who had struggled in vain to distance himself from George W. Bush's unpopular presidency. Obama captured states once seen as Republican strongholds, including Florida, Indiana and Virginia, while defending all traditionally Democratic states.
The election of Obama, the son of black Kenyan man and a white Kansan woman, is a remarkable turning point for a nation that denied the vote to many African Americans just decades ago.
"If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible; who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time; who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer," Obama said at a victory rally before more than 100,000 supporters in Chicago's Grant Park.
After almost two years of campaigning on a theme of hope and change, Obama told the crowd, "Change has come to America."
His supporters cheered, screamed and waved flags, welcoming his election in a delirious victory celebration in his hometown. Many, including civil rights leader and two-time presidential candidate Jesse Jackson, had tears in their eyes.
In cities around the country, drivers honked horns through the night. In New York City's Harlem neighborhood, the roar of thousands of people gathered in a plaza near the legendary Apollo Theater could be heard blocks away.
In Washington, hundreds of residents spilled into the streets near the White House, carrying balloons, banging on drums and chanting "Bush is gone!" Along U Street, once known as America's Black Broadway for its thriving black-owned shops and theaters, men stood on car roofs, waving American flags and Obama posters.
Obama's victory marked the rise of a new generation in American leadership, after 16 years of presidents who came of age during the Vietnam War era. Obama. 47, was still a child when most U.S. troops came home.
It also amounted to Americans' final, symbolic rejection of Bush's presidency. Bush's popularity soared after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, then collapsed with his administration's bungled response to Hurricane Katrina four years later, the errors leading up to and during the Iraq war and the chaos in the financial system.
When he takes office Jan. 20 as the 44th U.S. president, Obama will inherit the Iraq war and another in Afghanistan, as well as the economic turmoil. It is perhaps the most trying environment for any new U.S. president since the Great Depression.
But he will do so with many allies in Congress as his Democratic Party expanded its majorities in both chambers.
Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the House of Representatives, said: "Tonight the American people have called for a new direction. They have called for change in America."
Obama scored a decisive win the in the electoral vote, the state-by-state tally that determines the winner. Needing 270 votes to claim the presidency, Obama had 349 to McCain's 147, with three states still too close to call. By comparison, Bush won the White House twice, and never tallied more than 286 electoral votes.
The largely symbolic popular vote was much closer: Obama had 51.7 percent to 47 percent with 84 percent of all precincts tallied.
Voter turnout, still being counted, was expected to shatter records. The race was the most riveting in memory, and certainly the longest and most expensive. Obama and McCain had been on the campaign train for almost two years.
McCain called his former rival to concede defeat _ and mark the end of his own 10-year quest for the White House.
"This is an historic election, and I recognize the special significance it has for African-Americans and the special pride that must be theirs tonight," McCain told disappointed supporters in Arizona. "These are difficult times for our country. And I pledge to him tonight to do all in my power to help him lead us through the many challenges we face."
Bush added his congratulations from the White House and promised a smooth transition. "What an awesome night for you," he told Obama shortly after the race was decided.
An Obama presidency offers the prospect of a new style and tone in American foreign policy.
Obama has said he will try to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq in 16 months and has called for a new opening to U.S. adversaries, such as Iran and Cuba. He has urged the closing of the Guantanamo Bay prison and favors cap-and-trade systems to reduce global warming.
Internationally, Obama is hugely popular _ a sharp contrast to Bush. Part of his appeal is his personal story that highlights American multiculturalism: Besides his Kenyan father, he has a half-sister who is the daughter of an Indonesian.
In his campaign, Obama mined a deep vein of national discontent, promising Americans hope and change throughout a nearly flawless 21-month campaign for the White House.
He first soared into the national spotlight with his electrifying speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, when he was making his first run for the Senate and polishing his message of unity in a country that was mired in partisan anger.
In a grueling primary battle, he managed to raise more money and out-maneuver the candidate once seen as the inevitable nominee, former first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton.
After Obama's victory Tuesday, Clinton called her former rival to promise her full support.
"In quiet, solitary acts of citizenship, American voters gave voice to their hopes and their values, voted for change, and refused to be invisible any longer," she said in a statement.
Throughout his campaign, Obama had to overcome relentless false rumors about his religion, his ethnicity and his patriotism. Some pointed to his middle name of Hussein to claim that Obama, a Christian, was Muslim _ which would disqualify him in the eyes of many Americans.
In his race against McCain, Obama was steady and focused, keeping attention on the economy _ voters' biggest concern _ and linking McCain to Bush.
McCain, 72, was a tough rival for Obama. He is widely admired for the 5 1/2 years he spent as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. His reputation as a maverick gave Republicans hopes of winning over independents and moderate Democrats.
But McCain had an uphill fight. He tried without success a series of tactics: depicting Obama as too inexperienced, highlighting his association with a 1960s-era radical and casting him as an advocate of high taxes and socialism.
McCain also tried to shake up the race by naming Alaska's young conservative governor, Sarah Palin, as his vice presidential running mate. The choice energized much of the Republican base, but her lack of experience and poor performance in interviews worried many voters.
Obama picked a seasoned Senate veteran, Joseph Biden of Delaware, as his running mate. Biden won a seventh Senate term on Tuesday, but will relinquish it for the vice presidency.
Monday, October 27, 2008
Sarah Palin
Born February 11, 1964 (1964-02-11) (age 44)
Sandpoint, Idaho, U.S.
Political party Republican
Spouse Todd Palin (since 1988)
Children Track, Bristol, Willow, Piper, Trig
Residence Wasilla, Alaska
Occupation Businessperson, Politician
Religion Non-denominational Christian
Sarah Louise Heath Palin (pronounced /ˈpeɪlɨn/; born February 11, 1964) is the governor of the U.S. state of Alaska and the Republican Party's vice-presidential nominee for the 2008 United States presidential election.
Palin was a member of the Wasilla, Alaska city council from 1992 to 1996 and mayor from 1996 to 2002. After an unsuccessful campaign for lieutenant governor of Alaska in 2002, she chaired the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission from 2003 to 2004. She was elected governor of Alaska in November 2006 by defeating the incumbent governor in the Republican primary and then defeating a former two-term Democratic governor in the general election. She is the first female governor of Alaska, and the youngest person elected to the position.
On August 29, 2008, presidential candidate John McCain announced he had chosen Palin as his running mate in the 2008 U.S. presidential election. Palin was formally nominated at the 2008 Republican National Convention in Saint Paul, Minnesota. She is the first woman to run on the Republican Party's presidential ticket and the first Alaskan nominee of either major party.
Early life and education
Palin was born in Sandpoint, Idaho, the third of four children of Sarah Heath (née Sheeran), a school secretary, and Charles R. Heath, a science teacher and track coach. She is of English, German, and Irish descent. The family moved to Alaska when she was an infant. As a child, she would sometimes go moose hunting with her father before school. The family regularly ran 5 km and 10 km races.
Palin attended Wasilla High School in Wasilla, located 44 miles (71 km) north of Anchorage. She was the head of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes chapter at the school and the point guard and captain of the school's girls' basketball team.
Palin attended several colleges and universities out of state, which was routine for Alaskans uncertain about their interests and attracted to warmer climates. In 1982, she enrolled at Hawaii Pacific College but left after her first semester. She transferred to North Idaho community college, where she spent two semesters as a general studies major. From there, she transferred to the University of Idaho for two semesters. During this time Palin won the Miss Wasilla Pageant, then finished third in the 1984 Miss Alaska pageant, at which she won a college scholarship and the "Miss Congeniality" award. Diane Osborne, Palin's hairdresser during the pageants, recalls her as "so soft-spoken, so unobtrusive, so agreeable as to seem void of the urgent quest for attention that Osborne had recognized in others." After the pageants Palin attended the Matanuska-Susitna community college in Alaska for one term. The next year she returned to the University of Idaho where she spent three semesters completing her Bachelor of Science degree in communications-journalism, graduating in 1987.
In 1988, she worked as a sports reporter for KTUU-TV and KTVA-TV in Anchorage, Alaska, and for the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman as a sports reporter. She also helped in her husband’s commercial fishing family business.
Personal life
"Levi Johnston" redirects here. For the football player, see Levi Johnson.
In 1988, Palin eloped with her childhood sweetheart Todd Palin because, according to her mother, Palin believed that her parents "couldn't afford a big white wedding." Todd Palin works for the London-based oil company BP as an oil-field production operator and owns a commercial fishing business. The Palins have an estimated combined net worth of over $1 million.
Palin family members at announcement of vice-presidential selection, 29 Aug 2008. From left to right: Todd, Piper, Willow, Bristol and Trig.Palin describes herself as a hockey mom. The Palins have five children: sons Track (b. 1989)[182] and Trig (b. 2008), and daughters Bristol (b. 1990), Willow (b. 1995), and Piper (b. 2001).[183] Track enlisted in the U.S. Army on September 11, 2007, and was subsequently assigned to an infantry brigade. He and his unit deployed to Iraq in September 2008, for 12 months. On September 1, 2008, Palin announced that Bristol was five months pregnant and that she intends to keep the baby and marry Levi Johnston, the father of the child. Palin's youngest child, Trig, was prenatally diagnosed with Down syndrome.
Palin was born into a Catholic family. Later her family joined the Wasilla Assembly of God, a Pentecostal church. Palin attended the Wasilla Assembly of God until 2002. Palin says she switched to Wasilla Bible Church because she preferred the children's ministries there. When in Juneau, she attends the Juneau Christian Center. Her current home church is the Wasilla Bible Church, an independent congregation. Palin described herself in an interview as a "Bible-believing Christian." After the Republican National Convention, a spokesperson for the McCain campaign told CNN that Palin "doesn't consider herself Pentecostal" and has "deep religious convictions."
Thursday, October 16, 2008
VITO RIZZUTO
Montreal — Nicolo Rizzuto, the 84-year-old patriarch of one of Canada's most infamous crime families, is free to walk out from jail only two years after his highly publicized arrest.
A Quebec judge this morning accepted the joint suggestion of Crown and defence lawyers in agreeing to a four-year jail sentence for Mr. Rizzuto. But his two years spent in jail since his 2006 arrest count as double, meaning he is now a free man.
Mr. Rizzuto and five other men, alleged leaders in the Montreal Mafia, pleaded guilty last month to a raft of charges resulting from a lengthy police investigation.
The father of Vito Rizzuto, the reputed to head the Montreal Mafia, the elder Rizzuto was described as being in poor health and, despite his reputation, for having a minor role in the criminal organization.
Nicolo Rizzuto will have to report to a probation officer, and remains on probation for three years.
Four other leader in the Montreal underworld were handed sentences today of up to 15 years. All will serve no more than 11 years, however, due to their time already spent behind bars.
A fifth man returns to court next month.
The other men are Rocco Sollecito, Paolo Renda, Francesco Arcadi, Francesco Del Balso and Lorenzo Giordano.
During a four-year investigation, the RCMP penetrated the heart of the criminal organization, installing hidden cameras inside their headquarters.
According to RCMP affidavits, hundreds of kilos of cocaine were imported through Montreal's Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport, where baggage handlers, food-services employee and even customs agents were on the gang's payroll.
The allegations are outlined among more than 1,000 criminal counts filed in November 2006 against 90 people the police identified as associates and underlings of Vito Rizzuto.
The four-year investigation by several police forces culminated in a 700-officer raid in November 2006 across Quebec, as well as Halifax and Toronto where more than 70 people were arrested and homes and bank accounts were seized. About $3-million was also seized as proceeds of crime.
At the time the RCMP said police struck at the heart of one of the top criminal syndicates in Canada.
Police say the criminal organization had succeeded in infiltrating Montreal's airport and co-opting a dozen airport employees as well as a federal customs agent.
Mitchell Janhevich couldn't believe what he was seeing. Inside a noisy hotspot called The Joy Club one evening in May, 2003, the Montreal beat cop spotted – amidst the frenzy of lights and sound – five men huddled together in a VIP section. He immediately recognized one of them as Vito Rizzuto, who seemed engaged in a sort of gangster get-together. When Rizzuto and his friends left the club and climbed into a Mercedes Benz, Janhevich followed them in his cruiser and eventually pulled them over.
As Janhevich approached the Mercedes, a heated verbal exchange broke out between the passengers and the police officer. Soon, Rizzuto lost his temper, clambered from the car and stalked over to Janhevich. A tall man with hawkish features, Rizzuto confronted Janhevich and demanded: "Do you have any idea who I am?"
Rizzuto, one of Canada's most successful gangsters. "Teflon Don": Montreal mafia kingpin
Janhevich knew perfectly well who Vito Rizzuto is, although most Canadians would be hard-pressed to place the name. Which is surprising, given that Rizzuto is considered the "Teflon Don" of Canada, due to his success in evading conviction during the more than two decades he reigned over Montreal's underworld. In fact, Victor "Vito" Rizzuto is fairly unique in how he successfully merged old-world Sicilian Cosa Nostra sensibilities with modern-day management methods in creating and running his crime family.
Debonair, charming, with trademark swept-back iron hair, the 60 year-old Rizzuto has a healthy appetite for beautiful women, sports cars, mansions, golf and haute cuisine. He is one of the most successful gangsters this country has ever produced and, were it not for the fallibility of the dons of the American mafia, he would likely be a free man to this day.
Born into a prominant Sicilian mafia family
Rizzuto was bred to be a mafia prince. Born in 1946 in Cattolica Eraclea, a small village of 6,000 in the mountainous province of Agrigento in Sicily, Rizzuto is the oldest son of Nicolo "Nick" Rizzuto, a true "man of honour" – the stony-eyed hard cases who belong to the Sicilian Mafia.
When Vito was eight he and his family came to Canada, settling in Montreal, part of a wave of Sicilian mafioso who emigrated to this country in the 1950s and would shape the criminal underworld for decades to come. In those days, the New York-based Bonanno crime family considered Montreal part of its territory, largely because of the convenience of the city's port for offloading heroin shipments from Europe.
'Mafia Row' in Montreal - where the Rizzuto family home is located. Nick Rizzuto joined the Bonanno organization, running a tough crew of Sicilian gangsters and establishing himself as an up-and-comer in the Canadian mob. As he came of age, Vito followed in his father's footsteps. He became a Canadian citizen in 1966 and married Giovanna Cammelleri in a classic mob-style wedding ceremony attended by Montreal's gangster gentry. Two years later, the 22 year-old Rizzuto was arrested after he and his brother-in-law burned down a barbershop for insurance money – his only conviction ever. He was in jail for only a few months.
By the '70s, the Rizzutos and other Sicilians were at odds with the leadership of the Bonanno's Montreal organization, then headed by the volatile Calabrian, Paolo Violi. Finally, one night in 1978, the Rizzutos' problem was solved: Violi was shot in the back of the head as he sat down for a meal at a Montreal restaurant. His grisly slaying ushered in the Rizzuto era.
A mafia-style shooting in New York
Vito's true mafia baptism occurred in 1981 when a factional tug-of-war within the Bonnano family in New York led to the decision to murder three dissident captains. A request went out to Montreal for hit men, and Vito was dispatched as a shooter. On the night of May 5, 1981, the three mob captains showed up at a hangout in Brooklyn, where gunmen immediately jumped out of a closet and opened fire. The first person charging from the closet was Vito Rizzuto.
A photo taken of Rizutto by FBI agents. In Montreal, Vito embraced the day-to-day operations of the family. He moved into a palatial house on a street called "Mafia Row", due to the fact its occupants are mostly mobsters and their relatives. His house is 4,300 square metres, with his father living in a similar spread next door.
Vito established his presence in loan-sharking, gambling, drug smuggling, and money-laundering. He formed alliances with other Italian-based crime families, along with the Hell's Angels, Montreal's West End Gang and South American cartels.
The glamorous - and dangerous - world of a gangster
Vito's routine was to rise at eleven o'clock every morning and go to the Cosenza bar, a social club the family runs on Jarry St. East, about thirty kilometers from their home. He is an avid golfer and could often be found on the links around Montreal. He drove upscale cars, including Lincolns, Mercedes, Jaguars and Corvettes. He owns resort property in Mexico and always traveled with bodyguards outside of Montreal.
Yet police had little success curbing his operations. In the '80s, Rizzuto was arrested twice for importing hash, but got off both times when a witness changed his story and wiretaps used by police were deemed illegal.
Joe Pistone, an FBI plant in the Bonnano crime family, says violence is part of life for any mafia member. Vito Rizzuto's world is a violent one. In 1992, for example, Giuseppe Lopresti, a neighbor of Vito's in Mafia Row and one of his closest associates, was found in a vacant lot, murdered, his body wrapped in a canvas sheet. He had been shot in the head, apparently because he'd run afoul of the New York mob. In 1997, Hamilton mobster Johnny "Pops" Papalia and his right-hand man were murdered. Papalia's death allowed Rizzuto to extend his reach into Ontario.
New York mafia connection turns on Rizzuto
By the 1990s, Vito's organization was so powerful it was considered stronger than most of New York's five Cosa Nostra families. But, his fall from this pinnacle was due to the treachery of his American partners-in-crime in the Bonanno family. The FBI had waged a relentless war against the New York mafia and in 2001, they targeted the Bonanno family and its cunning boss, Joey Massino. Their efforts to break the family paid off when Massino's right-hand man, Salvatore Vitale, agreed to co-operate. Vitale fingered Rizzuto as among the shooters in the 1981 killing of the three dissident Bonanno captains. Consequently, on the early morning of January 20, 2004, Vito was arrested at his home in Montreal.
In August, 2006, after Rizzuto's many appeals were exhausted, the Montreal mobster was finally deported from his prison cell in Quebec to New York where he now awaits trial. His father Nick, meanwhile, is still alive and residing in Montreal, although who will oversee the Rizzuto organization remains uncertain.
Rizzuto handed probation, suspended sentence
A Quebec judge this morning accepted the joint suggestion of Crown and defence lawyers in agreeing to a four-year jail sentence for Mr. Rizzuto. But his two years spent in jail since his 2006 arrest count as double, meaning he is now a free man.
Mr. Rizzuto and five other men, alleged leaders in the Montreal Mafia, pleaded guilty last month to a raft of charges resulting from a lengthy police investigation.
The father of Vito Rizzuto, the reputed to head the Montreal Mafia, the elder Rizzuto was described as being in poor health and, despite his reputation, for having a minor role in the criminal organization.
Nicolo Rizzuto will have to report to a probation officer, and remains on probation for three years.
Four other leader in the Montreal underworld were handed sentences today of up to 15 years. All will serve no more than 11 years, however, due to their time already spent behind bars.
A fifth man returns to court next month.
The other men are Rocco Sollecito, Paolo Renda, Francesco Arcadi, Francesco Del Balso and Lorenzo Giordano.
During a four-year investigation, the RCMP penetrated the heart of the criminal organization, installing hidden cameras inside their headquarters.
According to RCMP affidavits, hundreds of kilos of cocaine were imported through Montreal's Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport, where baggage handlers, food-services employee and even customs agents were on the gang's payroll.
The allegations are outlined among more than 1,000 criminal counts filed in November 2006 against 90 people the police identified as associates and underlings of Vito Rizzuto.
The four-year investigation by several police forces culminated in a 700-officer raid in November 2006 across Quebec, as well as Halifax and Toronto where more than 70 people were arrested and homes and bank accounts were seized. About $3-million was also seized as proceeds of crime.
At the time the RCMP said police struck at the heart of one of the top criminal syndicates in Canada.
Police say the criminal organization had succeeded in infiltrating Montreal's airport and co-opting a dozen airport employees as well as a federal customs agent.
Mitchell Janhevich couldn't believe what he was seeing. Inside a noisy hotspot called The Joy Club one evening in May, 2003, the Montreal beat cop spotted – amidst the frenzy of lights and sound – five men huddled together in a VIP section. He immediately recognized one of them as Vito Rizzuto, who seemed engaged in a sort of gangster get-together. When Rizzuto and his friends left the club and climbed into a Mercedes Benz, Janhevich followed them in his cruiser and eventually pulled them over.
As Janhevich approached the Mercedes, a heated verbal exchange broke out between the passengers and the police officer. Soon, Rizzuto lost his temper, clambered from the car and stalked over to Janhevich. A tall man with hawkish features, Rizzuto confronted Janhevich and demanded: "Do you have any idea who I am?"
Rizzuto, one of Canada's most successful gangsters. "Teflon Don": Montreal mafia kingpin
Janhevich knew perfectly well who Vito Rizzuto is, although most Canadians would be hard-pressed to place the name. Which is surprising, given that Rizzuto is considered the "Teflon Don" of Canada, due to his success in evading conviction during the more than two decades he reigned over Montreal's underworld. In fact, Victor "Vito" Rizzuto is fairly unique in how he successfully merged old-world Sicilian Cosa Nostra sensibilities with modern-day management methods in creating and running his crime family.
Debonair, charming, with trademark swept-back iron hair, the 60 year-old Rizzuto has a healthy appetite for beautiful women, sports cars, mansions, golf and haute cuisine. He is one of the most successful gangsters this country has ever produced and, were it not for the fallibility of the dons of the American mafia, he would likely be a free man to this day.
Born into a prominant Sicilian mafia family
Rizzuto was bred to be a mafia prince. Born in 1946 in Cattolica Eraclea, a small village of 6,000 in the mountainous province of Agrigento in Sicily, Rizzuto is the oldest son of Nicolo "Nick" Rizzuto, a true "man of honour" – the stony-eyed hard cases who belong to the Sicilian Mafia.
When Vito was eight he and his family came to Canada, settling in Montreal, part of a wave of Sicilian mafioso who emigrated to this country in the 1950s and would shape the criminal underworld for decades to come. In those days, the New York-based Bonanno crime family considered Montreal part of its territory, largely because of the convenience of the city's port for offloading heroin shipments from Europe.
'Mafia Row' in Montreal - where the Rizzuto family home is located. Nick Rizzuto joined the Bonanno organization, running a tough crew of Sicilian gangsters and establishing himself as an up-and-comer in the Canadian mob. As he came of age, Vito followed in his father's footsteps. He became a Canadian citizen in 1966 and married Giovanna Cammelleri in a classic mob-style wedding ceremony attended by Montreal's gangster gentry. Two years later, the 22 year-old Rizzuto was arrested after he and his brother-in-law burned down a barbershop for insurance money – his only conviction ever. He was in jail for only a few months.
By the '70s, the Rizzutos and other Sicilians were at odds with the leadership of the Bonanno's Montreal organization, then headed by the volatile Calabrian, Paolo Violi. Finally, one night in 1978, the Rizzutos' problem was solved: Violi was shot in the back of the head as he sat down for a meal at a Montreal restaurant. His grisly slaying ushered in the Rizzuto era.
A mafia-style shooting in New York
Vito's true mafia baptism occurred in 1981 when a factional tug-of-war within the Bonnano family in New York led to the decision to murder three dissident captains. A request went out to Montreal for hit men, and Vito was dispatched as a shooter. On the night of May 5, 1981, the three mob captains showed up at a hangout in Brooklyn, where gunmen immediately jumped out of a closet and opened fire. The first person charging from the closet was Vito Rizzuto.
A photo taken of Rizutto by FBI agents. In Montreal, Vito embraced the day-to-day operations of the family. He moved into a palatial house on a street called "Mafia Row", due to the fact its occupants are mostly mobsters and their relatives. His house is 4,300 square metres, with his father living in a similar spread next door.
Vito established his presence in loan-sharking, gambling, drug smuggling, and money-laundering. He formed alliances with other Italian-based crime families, along with the Hell's Angels, Montreal's West End Gang and South American cartels.
The glamorous - and dangerous - world of a gangster
Vito's routine was to rise at eleven o'clock every morning and go to the Cosenza bar, a social club the family runs on Jarry St. East, about thirty kilometers from their home. He is an avid golfer and could often be found on the links around Montreal. He drove upscale cars, including Lincolns, Mercedes, Jaguars and Corvettes. He owns resort property in Mexico and always traveled with bodyguards outside of Montreal.
Yet police had little success curbing his operations. In the '80s, Rizzuto was arrested twice for importing hash, but got off both times when a witness changed his story and wiretaps used by police were deemed illegal.
Joe Pistone, an FBI plant in the Bonnano crime family, says violence is part of life for any mafia member. Vito Rizzuto's world is a violent one. In 1992, for example, Giuseppe Lopresti, a neighbor of Vito's in Mafia Row and one of his closest associates, was found in a vacant lot, murdered, his body wrapped in a canvas sheet. He had been shot in the head, apparently because he'd run afoul of the New York mob. In 1997, Hamilton mobster Johnny "Pops" Papalia and his right-hand man were murdered. Papalia's death allowed Rizzuto to extend his reach into Ontario.
New York mafia connection turns on Rizzuto
By the 1990s, Vito's organization was so powerful it was considered stronger than most of New York's five Cosa Nostra families. But, his fall from this pinnacle was due to the treachery of his American partners-in-crime in the Bonanno family. The FBI had waged a relentless war against the New York mafia and in 2001, they targeted the Bonanno family and its cunning boss, Joey Massino. Their efforts to break the family paid off when Massino's right-hand man, Salvatore Vitale, agreed to co-operate. Vitale fingered Rizzuto as among the shooters in the 1981 killing of the three dissident Bonanno captains. Consequently, on the early morning of January 20, 2004, Vito was arrested at his home in Montreal.
In August, 2006, after Rizzuto's many appeals were exhausted, the Montreal mobster was finally deported from his prison cell in Quebec to New York where he now awaits trial. His father Nick, meanwhile, is still alive and residing in Montreal, although who will oversee the Rizzuto organization remains uncertain.
Rizzuto handed probation, suspended sentence
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Killer role for Kunis in 'Max Payne'
Max Payne - Based on a popular video game, this film stars Mark Wahlberg as a cop haunted by the tragic loss of his family. While investigating a series of murders, he befriends a young woman who is out to avenge her sister’s death. They discover similarities in their situations and together, they work to catch the people behind the killings. This action flick also stars Beau Bridges, Mila Kunis, Ludacris, Donal Logue, Chris O’Donnell and Kate Burton.
Mila Kunis ("That 70's Show") will star opposite Mark Wahlberg in 20th Century Fox's "Max Payne" reports Variety.
An adaptation of the Rockstar videogame, Wahlberg plays Payne, a cop haunted by the tragic loss of his family who finds himself in the thick of a conspiracy when he investigates a series of murders.
Kunis will play an assassin who teams up with Payne to avenge her sister's death. The John Moore-directed action project with Beau Thorne scripting is scheduled for release later this year.
Seven years since Max Payne brought bullet time into videogames on the back of its jaw-dropping effect on cinema audiences, the action goes back to the big screen in this belated adaptation. Mark Wahlberg has stepped up to star as the titular maverick cop on the hunt for those responsible for the brutal murder of his family, and a journey into the underworld.
The original third person shooter videogame had close allusions to film with cinematic story sequences and noir-style night and rain devouring every moment. However, the main appeal of Max Payne was the ability to shoot the bad guys in the same "bullet time" style seen in The Matrix while leaping between crates or through doorways – a simple gimmick which was stretched over two games. Controlling Max around mainly enclosed spaces, killing everything that moved with the ease of slow motion became famous for its novelty factor when bullet time was still creating a buzz and The Matrix sequels were being anticipated rather than lambasted. In bringing the game to screen, the filmmakers will need to work on giving us more than just this borrowed element to make an engrossing film - especially as it’s not clear if this novelty value is being exploited.
The last time Wahlberg was cast as a no-nonsense killer was in The Shooter, a run-of-the-mill revenge thriller. His chiselled features were wasted on a bland character and even blander story, but Max Payne has the advantage of its noir style to help develop the tortured soul’s bid to bring his family’s murderers to justice. Of course, being Max Payne there has to be copious amounts of violence but, done right, the dark undertones could be amplified by the gunfire rather than provide the padding.
Whether it achieves this aim could be reliant not on Wahlberg’s performance, but on those around him. The presence of Ludacris and Nelly Furtado, more famed for their music than acting ability, and Chris O’Donnell, normally associated with average studio fare than hits, gives the impression we could be in for a rough ride. Director John Moore’s CV is sketchy: his previous high profile movies such as The Omen, Flight of the Phoenix and Behind Enemy Lines were workmanlike and there’s no getting away from the fact Max Payne is hardly a gaming household name anymore. The film is billed to include enemies from beyond the natural world too, a fantasy element not normally used in classic noir or even more modern day fare such as Sin City.
Max Payne will not be aiming to shoot the bullseye of taste with the average movie fan: it’s most likely to fall into that limbo of gamers wanting to see how their hero has been presented on the big screen and those looking for a simple actioner. If it achieves any more, then it will be considered a huge success for all involved.
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