| Man shot in stomach chasing pub bandits | | Posted Thursday, November 09, 2006 11:10:09 AM by Blog57 Team | | A YOUNG man on a night out with friends was shot in the stomach in one of two armed robberies in Sydney overnight. Three men armed with a gun entered the Clovelly Hotel, which was closed for a private function, in Sydney's eastern suburbs at 11.30pm last night. They threatened staff and patrons before security staff intervened. Police said one of the men fired a shot which hit a wall before they fled empty-handed. "They made demands, menaced staff with a firearm, the security provided some resistance, and they ended up firing a shot and leaving the hotel empty-handed," NSW Police Inspector John O'Reilly said. A 25-year-old partygoer chased the men and was shot in the lower abdomen. "They were heading back towards their car and the one with the gun turned and fired a shot at him," Insp O'Reilly said.... | |
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| | | Never Empty Nest: Grandparents as parents is booming national trend | | Posted Tuesday, August 29, 2006 11:00:58 PM by Blog57 Team | | At 73 and recovering from a twice-ruptured stomach ulcer, Ruth Brewer of Monroe, Ga., says she worries daily about death and prays it won't happen to her anytime soon. At least not until her granddaughter graduates high school, goes off to college and begins a life of self-sufficiency.That day is still years away, but Brewer has a special reason for seeking divine assistance in the face of medical frailty. She is the only parent 10-year-old Nicole Cofield has ever known.Nicole's father died when she was 8 months old. Her brother, Joel, was 7 years old. Brewer said their mother was a drug addict with serious mental health problems and couldn't care for them.So Brewer took on the responsibility of raising her son's children by adopting them, guiding Joel to top honors in high school and a coveted scholarship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology this fall.... | |
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| | | Ads on an Empty Stomach | | Posted Friday, July 28, 2006 4:57:57 PM by Blog57 Team | | On Boston streets last week, the orange detour signs bloomed like daylilies, but they weren't the only baffling signage in town. Far above the steaming highways was a billboard blaring a mysterious one-word message: HUNGERECTOMY. Sounded painful, whatever it was. But a colleague soon clued me in: It was a Snickers ad, he explained, with the candy bar relabeled as a surgical cure for the munchies. But was it a bit, um, tasteless? "I suppose some appendectomy patients will chortle," he said, "but what about women who've had mastectomies?" Tasteful or not, the Snickers campaign has achieved advertising's first goal-to get noticed. Another goal, apparently, is to reinforce the candy-as-food message its parent company has long embraced, from the decades-old "A Mars a day helps you work, rest, and play" up to "Hungry? Grab a Snickers": Three of the new words I've seen-SUBSTANTIALICIOUS, SATISFECTELLENT, and the aforementioned hungerectomy-refer to satiation, though a fourth, NOUGATOCITY, doesn't (I think).... | |
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| | | Putin's Stomach Kiss Sparks Talk and Jokes | | Posted Friday, June 30, 2006 2:59:25 AM by Blog57 Team | | Kissing babies may be an old trick to impress voters, but President Vladimir Putin's decision to lift the shirt of a young boy and kiss his stomach in front of television cameras raised a few eyebrows and prompted many jokes Thursday. Putin was shown on Channel One state television Wednesday walking through a Kremlin courtyard filled with tourists after a meeting with military academy graduates. Seeing a fair-haired boy of about 5, he kneeled down and asked his name. The startled boy replied, "Nikita." Putin lifted the boy's shirt and kissed his stomach. He then stood up, patted Nikita on the head and walked away. Few Russian-language news organizations reported the incident. RIA-Novosti said only that Putin had stopped to talk to Russian, U.S. and French tourists. But Russian blogs and Internet message boards were awash in speculation as to what had prompted Putin's kiss.... | |
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