Bodies of victims of Air France flight 447 finally found in the wreckage at bottom of the Atlantic after two-year mystery
* Investigators release underwater images of wreckage
* Fresh hope the plane's 'black box' will be recovered

The bodies of some of the 228 victims of the worst air crash in Air France’s history have been found some two-and-a-half miles below the Atlantic Ocean.

Macabre images of the underwater tomb, which includes British and Irish victims, have been grabbed by submarines equipped with robot-controlled cameras.

As investigators released some of the images in Paris, they said they also showed the ‘vast majority’ of the Airbus A330-203 had also been discovered, including its engines.



This raises renewed hope that the black box flight recorders can be retrieved, so helping to explain why Flight AF 447 crashed en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris on June 1, 2009.

However, after being immersed under intense pressure and in sea water for almost two years, their data may be unreadable.

Confirming the discovery of ‘one large piece’ of the plane, France’s Transport Minister Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet said it contained 'identifiable bodies' .

Jean-Paul Troadec, director of the Bureau of Investigations and Analysis (BEAR) said: ‘The positive news is that the debris field is relatively concentrated. Thus, we hope to find the black boxes.’


And Air France-KLM’s chief executive Pierre-Henri Gourgeon added: ‘This is very good news because it brings with it the hope that at last we will get some information on what caused this accident, which to this day remains unexplained.’

The £8million search is being financed jointly by Air France and Airbus, who are both at the centre of a criminal enquiry into the disaster, and face manslaughter charges.

An initial search immediately after the crash found 50 bodies and hundreds of pieces of the plane, but went cold after that.

The latest search around the Atlantic’s mountainous seabed has been classed by BEAR as a ‘systematic exploration’ of an area of 3,900 sq miles, at depth of some 13,200 feet


Victims’ families are negotiating multi-million pounds compensation claims, and have been highly critical of the way the searches have been carried out to date.

But they will be relieved that more of the bodies have finally been found, and can be buried or cremated properly.

The plane went down in a high-altitude thunderstorm, with experts suggesting that its sensors, known as pitot tubes and made by French company Thales SA, may have iced over and sent false speed information to on-board computers.

In November, Air France issued a memo to investigators saying the carrier had counted 15 incidents in which the sensors had iced over on the same aircraft type in the 10 previous months before the crash.

The latest search boat, operated by the American Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, is unable to salvage the wreckage, but will continue to continue to take pictures using the same kind of equipment which was used explore the remains of the Titanic in 1985.

Salvage boats are currently heading for the area, and are expected to arrive by the end of this month.


Source:Dailymail

Coronation Street stars Brooke Vincent and Sacha Parkinson made history as the street's first female gay couple.

And the gorgeous pair, who have dressed up as Playboy bunnies in a racy new photoshoot, are now insisting that they'll leave the soap if producers break up the characters.

Brooke declares: 'If they split us up, I’d leave. It’s made too much impact for them to break it up.

'It’s gone past the line. Me and Sach think we should win Best Partnership at the Soap Awards.'

The gal pals dressed up in blush pink satin Playboy bunny outfits, complete with bow ties, bunny ears and cotton tails for a provocative photoshoot and interview for Heat magazine.

Lounging against an ornate bar, the girls, both 18, giggle and whisper in each other's ears as they work the cameras.

Sacha has hinted that perhaps their close bond off camera is even becoming something more, adding: 'We just come as a pair now. We tell each other we love each other all the time. I think we’re really starting to become our characters.'

The girls have also revealed their celebrity 'girl crushes'.

Both agree that What's My Name star Rihanna is their favourite. They add: 'And Nicki Minaj. Definitely. We just love Nicki’s attitude.'

The also actresses say they feel a responsibility to fans who can relate to their onscreen relationship.

Brooke, who has played Sophie Webster on the long-running soap since she was just 11, says: 'It’s mad when you realise how many people have come out because of the storyline.

'So many people have come up to us and said, “Thank you. Without this, I wouldn’t have been able to come out to my parents or have people accept me.”

'There’s a pressure to make it 100 per cent believable. Because we’re not gay ourselves, it could be like watching someone in a film trying to put on an Irish accent and getting it totally wrong.'

Sacha, also 18, adds: 'You don’t realise it at the beginning, but when you’ve been doing it for a while – and especially now because of Twitter – you get so many people saying things about it.'

In the soap, the pair play former best friends who have fallen head over heels in love.

Christian teenager Sophie was seen succumbing to her feelings for Sian in an episode screened in April.

Vincent said at the time: 'Sacha and I were friends long before Corrie and I'm so glad it's her. We've been to drama school together and known each other since we were six or seven.

'We've talked about it, we're so close so we'll be all right. I've just told her as long as she sticks to her own side when it comes to the kissing scenes things will be fine. But no tongues.

'It will also let other teenage girls know they are not the only ones going through it if they are experiencing something similar.

'Often there aren't as many lesbian characters on TV compared to gay ones so it's a really positive thing for the soap.








Source: Dailymail

Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated to the U.S. presidency 150 years ago. He is one of history’s most popular presidents

Lincoln’s birthplace

Lincoln’s birthplace

Mary Todd Lincoln

Mary Todd Lincoln

Lincoln’s career

Lincoln’s career

Lincoln’s politics

Lincoln’s politics

Lincoln’s inauguration

Lincoln’s inauguration

Lincoln’s beard

Lincoln’s beard

Lincoln’s generals

Lincoln’s generals

Lincoln’s speeches

Lincoln’s speeches

Lincoln’s assassination
John Wilkes Booth fatally shot Lincoln.

Lincoln’s assassination

Emanuel

Former White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel was elected mayor of Chicago, easily overwhelming five rivals to take the helm of the third-largest US city as it prepares to chart a new course without the retiring Richard M. Daley.

With 98% of precincts reporting, Emanuel had trounced all his opponents in Tuesday's election with 55% of the vote - a margin that allowed him to avoid an April runoff. He needed more than 50 percent to win outright. (AP)
Read More: Ynetnews

The Fox TV show Glee has placed a casting call for a "Sarah Palin type character" for a role on the hit show.
Are they ready to now mock the Tea Party?
The character is named Tammy Jean, and described as a "middle-aged recent Tea Party candidate and home schooler — a Sarah Palin type."
However, show creator Ryan Murphy says he is not bringing Tammy Jean / Sarah Palin on the show to mock and make fun of, but to be inclusive.
“We’ve taken a couple jabs at the right wing this year,” Murphy told TV Guide last June.
“So what I want to do with this character is have someone who Christian kids and parents can recognize and say, ‘Oh, look — I’m represented there, too!’ If we’re trying to form a world of inclusiveness, we’ve got to include that point of view as well.”
“Pat me on the back,” Ryan Murphy says, “after two seasons, we’re not going to be bigots anymore!”

Read More: Nationalledger

Frank Spisak

Ohio has executed cross-dressing Nazi-sympathizer Frank Spisak, who shot three people to death nearly 30 years ago on the campus of Cleveland State University in a shooting rampage that targeted African Americans.
Spisak, 59, was pronounced dead Thursday at 10:34 a.m. following a lethal injection of sodium thiopental at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville, about 80 miles outside of Columbus.
He set the Ohio record for the longest time on death row before his execution, at more than 27 years.
Spisak's racially motivated shooting spree took place from February 1982 to August 1982, reports CBS affiliate WOIO. He was found guilty of murder after attempting to start a race war in Cleveland by searching out and shooting African Americans while on what he called "hunting missions."

The U.S. Supreme Court rejected Spisak's final appeal Wednesday afternoon, turning down his request to delay his execution while he argued the constitutionality of Ohio's death penalty law.

Spisak is responsible for the deaths of 57-year-old Rev. Horace Rickerson, 50-year-old Timothy Sheehan and 17-year-old Brian Worford. Sheehan was Spisak's only white victim, reports WOIO.
His attorneys claimed he was bi-polar and was too mentally ill to die.
During his 1983 trial, Spisak grew a Hitler-style mustache, carried a copy of Hitler's book "Mein Kampf" and gave the Nazi salute to the jury.
WOIO obtained a statement released by the Sheehan family after Spisak's execution.
"Today we chose to celebrate the life of husband and father, Timothy Sheehan, not the death of Frank Spisak," the statement read. "We are grateful that the justice system has worked, and appreciate those in the criminal justice system whose diligent efforts have helped bring this matter to a final resolution."
Spisak reportedly blamed the 1982 shootings on his hatred of homosexuals, African Americans, Jews and on his mental illness, which was supposedly related to confusion about his own sexual identity.
Read More: Cbsnews

MANAMA, Bahrain – Troops and tanks locked down the capital of this tiny Gulf kingdom after riot police swinging clubs and firing tear gas smashed into demonstrators, many of them sleeping, in a pre-dawn assault Thursday that uprooted their protest camp demanding political change. Medical officials said four people were killed.

Hours after the attack on Manama's main Pearl Square, the military announced a ban on gatherings, saying on state TV that it had "key parts" of the capital under its control.

After several days of holding back, the island nation's Sunni rulers unleashed a heavy crackdown, trying to stamp out the first anti-government upheaval to reach the Arab states of the Gulf since the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt. In the surprise assault, police tore down protesters' tents, beating men and women inside and blasting some with shotgun sprays of birdshot.

It was a sign of how deeply the Sunni monarchy — and other Arab regimes in the Gulf — fear the repercussions of a prolonged wave of protests, led by members of the country's Shiite majority but also joined by growing numbers of discontented Sunnis.

Tiny Bahrain is a pillar of Washington's military framework in the region. It hosts the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet, which is a critical counterbalance to Iran. Bahrain's rulers and their Arab allies depict any sign of unrest among their Shiite populations as a move by neighboring Shiite-majority Iran to expand its clout in the region.

But the assault may only further enrage protesters, who before the attack had called for large rallies Friday. In the wake of the bloodshed, angry demonstrators chanted "the regime must go" and burned pictures of King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa outside the emergency ward at Salmaniyah hospital, the main state medical facility.

"We are even angrier now. They think they can clamp down on us, but they have made us angrier," Makki Abu Taki, whose son was killed in the assault, shouted in the hospital morgue. "We will take to the streets in larger numbers and honor our martyrs. The time for Al Khalifa has ended."

The Obama administration expressed alarm over the violent crackdown. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called Bahrain's foreign minister to register Washington's "deep concern" and urge restraint. Similar criticism came from Britain and the European Union.
Read More: Yahoo

Last night, the L.A. rap crew Odd Future made their television debut on "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon", and pretty much proved in an instant why people can't shut up about them. With the Roots backing them up, Tyler, the Creator and Hodgy Beats delivered an absolutely insane performance of "Sandwitches" (from their MellowHype project's BlackenedWhite album) that we could happily write 2,000 words about-- if we wanted to ruin the surprise. Watch it here:http://pitchfork.com/news/41608-watch-odd-futures-insane-fallon-performance/