World News joined 6

[whoblehwah]

Kurt and Kurtis? LOL!

[JohnCenaFan28]

Interesting read, thanks!

[OMEN]

Speight and fiancee Natasha Collins
Children's TV presenter Mark Speight is no longer being treated as a murder suspect over his fiancee's death.Natasha Collins was found dead in the bath at the couple's penthouse home in St John's Wood, north-west London last week.

Speight was arrested and bailed on suspicion of murder and supplying drugs.

A statement released by police into the "unexplained" death said a man in his 40s arrested at the scene had had his bail over suspicion of murder cancelled.

It added that he remained bailed to return in February regarding suspicion of supplying Class A drugs.

Speight insists he had nothing to do with the death of Collins.

An inquest has heard her death was "non-suspicious at this stage"
The short session was adjourned by coroner Dr Paul Knapman until February 20. Speight did not attend the hearing.

It was reported the actress had taken cocaine before her death.

But Speight's mother, Jacqueline, said she may have died after taking drugs prescribed for a medical condition.

The Metropolitan Police said a post-mortem examination was "inconclusive".

Further tests were necessary to determine the cause of the 31-year-old's death, Scotland Yard said.

Speight, originally from Wolverhampton, is best known for the BBC children's art show SMart, which has run for more than 10 years.

He shot to fame as the rubber-faced presenter of children's ITV Saturday morning show Scratchy & Co.

Collins starred alongside him on BBC children's show See It Saw It.

Sky

[OMEN]

Gerry and Kate McCann
The parents of Madeleine McCann have denied reports they are backing plans to make a movie about their daughter's disappearance.The couple's spokesman, Clarence Mitchell, confirmed he had met a major entertainment firm that wants to make a film about their story.

But Gerry McCann said on his website that he and his wife Kate had no intentions for a movie about Madeleine.

In his latest blog entry on findmadeleine.com, he wrote: "We can categorically deny that we are considering a movie about Madeleine's disappearance.

"This is simply untrue. We are approached by a huge number of media outlets regarding a myriad projects, only a tiny proportion of which we agree to.

"Each proposal is considered on whether it is likely to have a positive effect, either directly or indirectly, on the search for Madeleine."As stated by Clarence, there was a preliminary discussion between a production agency and a representative of Kate and I to discuss the possibility of a documentary about the issues we have faced since Madeleine was abducted.

"Clearly Europe is a long way behind the USA in terms of its response when a child goes missing."

Mr Mitchell and another McCann representative held a meeting with the IMG agency in London in December but the couple did not attend themselves.

Mr Mitchell said yesterday: "The media are making money out of the situation themselves and we feel it is only fair and right that some aspect of that should come to the fund to help find Madeleine.

"In this case we have had one meeting before Christmas. It was between myself, one other person and representatives from IMG."

It is believed that IMG, the firm behind the award-winning drama-documentary Touching The Void, made the initial approach.

Sky

[OMEN]

Clinton back after extraordinary night
Hillary Clinton has won the New Hampshire primary - resurrecting her bid for the White House.here was also a surprise comeback result in the Republican vote, with Americans left feeling that a proper race was now back on.

It had been too close to call between Clinton and Democrat rival Barack Obama, even with more than half of the results in.

With the results of 96% of precincts now in, Clinton has 39% of the vote compared to Obama with 36%, and John Edwards trailing third.

Obama conceded defeat, and congratulated Clinton on a "hard-fought win" before adding: "I am still fired up and ready to go."

The former first lady was joined on stage by her husband and daughter as she thanked supporters.

She said: "I come tonight with a very, very full heart, and I want especially to thank New Hampshire.

"Over the past week I listened to you and in the process I found my own voice."She added: "In the future we will build together - there will be no more invisible Americans."

Meanwhile, John McCain won the New Hampshire primary in the Republican race for the White House.

It was a remarkable comeback for the 71-year-old, who even eight years ago some considered too old to be a contender for the top job.

His supporters clapped and chanted "Mac is back! Mac is back!" as he gave his winning speech.

He said: "I hate to use the word 'kid' - but I think we showed the people of this country what a real comeback looks like.

"I'm grateful to the people of New Hampshire. I'm committed to keeping this country safe, and we're going to move on to Michigan and South Carolina and win the nomination."

McCain's victory over Mitt Romney - which so far stands at 37% to 32% - gives new life to his once struggling campaign.

John McCain thanks supporters
He is now in the middle of a wild scramble for the party's nomination after recently being written off when he was low on cash and axing campaign staff.

Conceding defeat, Romney congratulated him and announced: "I will strengthen America and I will stand up for the values we believe in."

Many believed Clinton needed to win in New Hampshire to keep her hopes of following her husband's footsteps into the White House alive.

But Sky's political analyst Jon-Christopher Bua believes she has a very tough opponent in Obama.

He says the power and persuasion of his speeches have been his strength with many comparing him to Martin Luther King.

He recalled one of his speeches in 2004 as "earth-shattering, and he's gone on from there - he's a great orator."

Bua said McCain's victory was a "huge morale boost", but questioned whether he would be able to keep up the momentum and energy over the next 10 months to November's election.

Sky

[JohnCenaFan28]

Nice read, thanks.

[OMEN]

Six US soldiers have been killed in a blast in an explosives-rigged house in Iraq's troubled Diyala province, the US military has said.

The blast occurred while troops were conducting operations, the military said, without giving further details.

Four other soldiers were reported injured in the blast.

US and Iraqi soldiers have launched a large offensive against al-Qaeda in Diyala and three other provinces north of Baghdad.

Earlier, the US military reported the death of another three soldiers who came under small arms fire during operations in Salahuddin province on Tuesday.

Salahuddin is also a target of the new US-Iraqi offensive.

BBC

[JohnCenaFan28]

That's terrible news...

[OMEN]

About 151,000 Iraqi civilians have been killed in the three years following the US-led invasion of their country, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

The new study, which said violent deaths could have ranged from 104,000 to 223,000 between March 2003 and June 2006, is the most comprehensive since the war started.

The study drew on an Iraqi health ministry survey of nearly 10,000 households – five times the number of those interviewed in a disputed 2006 John Hopkins University study that said more than 600,000 Iraqis had died over the period.

While well below that figure, the United Nations agency's estimate exceeds the widely-cited 80,000 to 87,000 death toll by the human rights group Iraq Body Count, which uses media reports and hospital and morgue records to calculate its tally.

"There are a lot of uncertainties in making such estimates," WHO statistician Mohamed Ali, who co-authored the study, told reporters on a conference call.

He said insecurity made parts of Baghdad and Anbar provinces unreachable for those conducting the survey, which included questions about other topics including pregnancy and disease.

Many families also fled their homes as a result of the violence, and some left the country, making it hard to give a precise assessment of the violence in Iraq. As a result, Ali said the margin of error for the toll was relatively high.

Still, he said the household survey's large scale gave the findings more weight than previous attempts to estimate the number of Iraqis killed in battles between and among military forces, insurgents and sectarian fighters.

The John Hopkins University report, published by the British medical journal Lancet, which was based on a smaller-scale Iraqi survey, drew criticism from the White House and elsewhere for appearing to exaggerate the Iraqi death rate.

Iraqi Health Minister Saleh al-Hasnawi described the latest WHO report as "very sound" and said the survey indicated "a massive death toll since the beginning of the conflict".

"I believe in these numbers," he told the conference call.

The White House said it had not seen the study, but mourned the deaths of Iraqi civilians.

"The unmistakable fact is that the vast majority of these deaths are caused by the willful, murderous intentions of extremists committed to taking innocent life," said White House spokesman Tony Fratto.

"It is also beyond dispute that more Iraqi citizens would be condemned to death and oppression if they were abandoned by America and our coalition partners."

The US Department of Defence said enormous precautions were taken to avoid civilian deaths and injuries.

More than half of the violent deaths documented in the WHO report occurred in Baghdad.

An average of 128 Iraqis suffered violent deaths every day in the first year following the invasion. The next year, an average of 115 were killed daily and 126 died from violence each day in the third year after the war started.

Estimates of Iraq's civilian deaths have been hampered by the lack of a well-functioning death registration system, the WHO said.

Some 3915 US and 174 British forces have died since the war began. Between 4900 and 6375 Iraqi military personnel are thought to have died, though no reliable official figures have been issued since new security forces were set up in late 2003.

Death tolls have fallen in recent months as the number of violent attacks in Iraq has declined.

Reuters

[OMEN]

A bus has plunged into a ravine in the mountainous southwestern Chinese province of Yunnan, killing 14 people.

The bus, with 20 people on board, veered off a highway in Maguan county on Wednesday afternoon. Six were injured.

"Fourteen people died at the scene. The injured have been rushed to a nearby hospital and are reportedly out of danger," Xinhua said.

China's roads are the deadliest in the world, with overtaking on blind mountain corners common. Road accidents kill about 100,000 people a year.

Reuters