Empire’s sexiest men in 2009 Thursday, Nov 5 2009

1 Johnny Depp

Why is he right on top? Well, he's the one star who's got everything. Lean, sinewy body, attractive shoulders, a dashing smile isn't all. He's goofy, loopy, with a hint of androgyny. And his talents are numerous. And he makes no show about it ever. That's enough to have us hook, line and sinker.

2 Robert Pattinson

He came. We Saw. He conquered. We fell like nine pins when we laid eyes on him as the incredibly good-looking but doomed Cedric Diggory in Harry Potter & the Goblet of Fire. And with Twilight, we surrendered without a whimper.

3 Robert Downey Jr

This man has been waltzing in and out of hearts and transient minds thanks to rehab. But we're glad he's back with Iron Man. Now stay put, Downey Jr, and we'll show you the love of a life time!

4 Brad Pitt

The 'Bra' from Brangelina makes it into the top 5. Yes, we're still unhappy that he keeps a low profile. Why deny us of the visual pleasure, Pitt. Yes, Jolie is hot. But we like you too. And his most recent appearance in Inglorious Basterds is no salve. That handlebar moustache just doesn't fly. We'll wait for him to show up in all his glory. In the mean time, the reruns of the Oceans series will have to suffice. Sigh!

5 Christian Bale

The middle spot is taken up by the one star we feel safe ogling at from a distance. Why the distance? Well, he even made the character in American Psycho oddly attractive. Now that can't be good. We've got a feeling if we get any closer to this hunk, things could get fatal. It's bad enough we're breathless every time we lay eyes on him.

6 Hugh Jackman

He's hands down the nicest star in Hollywood. He's so nice we can't even get ourselves to grudge his wife. We bet no star has an easy time envying his numerous skills ranging from singing to dancing as he's just too darn endearing!

7 George Cloney

His half-smirk is to die for! He may have had a pot-bellied pig for pet, he may fancy waitresses, but he's still George Clooney, the most eligible bachelor in tinsel town. Give him a bat mobile or give him some chips for poker, he'll still have us sighing over his quizzical frown. Yes, we attempted verse. That's how much we adore him!

8 Alan Rickman

Professor Snape from the Harry Potter franchise certainly isn't the hottest man around. And that's what makes him so desirable! Take a hint, boys. Women don't always go for chiseled abs and muscular arms. Sarcasm and a great voice work great too!

9 James McAvoy

would've thought the carrot top in The Last King of Scotland would make Forest Whitaker's skills take a back seat. This scrawny actor is just so incredibly irresistible with those soulful blue eyes. He's got us so hooked that we'll even swallow his lame role in Wanted.

10 Gerard Butler

With little less than a metre of cloth, a sword and shield, this Scott stormed his way into our heart in the Spartan action flick 300. We

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Yankees Win 27th World Series Crown Thursday, Nov 5 2009

NEW YORK — Paint the town in pinstripes! Nearly a decade after their dynasty ended on a blooper in the desert, the New York Yankees are baseball’s best again.

Hideki Matsui tied a World Series record with six RBIs, Andy Pettitte won on short rest and New York beat the Philadelphia Phillies 7-3 in Game 6 on Wednesday night, finally seizing that elusive 27th title — the most in all of sports.It was the team’s first since winning three straight from 1998-2000.

Matsui, the Series MVP, powered a quick rout of old foe Pedro Martinez. And when Mariano Rivera got the final out, it was ecstasy in the Bronx for George Steinbrenner’s go-for-broke bunch.

What a way for Alex Rodriguez, Derek Jeter and crew to christen their $1.5 billion ballpark: One season, one championship.And to think it capped a season that started in turmoil — a steroids scandal involving A-Rod, followed by hip surgery that kept him out until May.”My teammates, coaches and the organization stood by me and now we stand here as world champions,” Rodriguez said. “We’re going to enjoy it, and we’re going to party!”

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Elusive ‘Granddad Bandit’ Has Hit 9 Banks in 7 States – True Crime Report Thursday, Nov 5 2009

A middle-aged man is matching wits with the American banking industry, and so far Middle-Aged Man is winning. His modus operandi is to calmly walk into a bank, present a teller with a demand for loot, then casually walk out. So far, he’s picked off nine banks, and shows no sign of stopping.The man now known as the “Granddad Bandit” has struck in at least seven states, the FBI believes. He began in Houston in April. Since then, he’s ran up an impressive ground game.

He's been robbing banks since April from Texas to Virginia

He last struck October 16, but is currently taking a break to watch the Weather Channel, because that’s what old guys do.Agents believe he hasn’t been caught because he draws so little attention to himself, bearing the appearance of a retiree cashing a pension check. He’s described as 6-foot to 6-foot-4, between 220-250 pounds, and possibly in his 50s or 60s.

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Ten corpses found at Cleveland home Wednesday, Nov 4 2009

CLEVELAND, Ohio (Reuters) - A convicted rapist was charged with multiple murders on Tuesday after police dug up 10 corpses at his home, which produced a stench of death in the depressed Cleveland neighborhood.Authorities searched the fetid property owned by Anthony Sowell with a backhoe, jackhammers, wall saws, and cadaver dogs. They planned to take the three-story house apart.

Cleveland police Lt. Thomas Stacho says four more bodies and a skull were found at the home, where the remains of six women were removed last week.

Four bodies were found in the back yard, while six others were discovered elsewhere on the property, including in the basement of the house. A skull wrapped in a paper bag in a bucket could be an eleventh victim.Five of the victims were black women who had been strangled, according to the coroner.

Sowell, 50, was arrested over the weekend for rape. The victim said he had invited her in for a drink then became enraged and choked her with an extension cord.When police entered Sowell’s house they found two decomposing bodies lying on a floor upstairs.A sausage store next door to Sowell’s home was blamed for the rank smell wafting through the neighborhood, but an attempt at repairs failed to stop the odor.

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CNN projects Republicans win governor races in Virginia, New Jersey Wednesday, Nov 4 2009

(CNN) — A Republican Party that struggled in the wake of recent Democratic landslides sprang back to life Tuesday with wins in hotly contested races for governor in Virginia and New Jersey, according to CNN projections.

Polls suggest that Bob McDonnell has a double-digit lead over Democratic candidate Creigh Deeds in the Virginia governor's race.

In Virginia, 55-year-old former state attorney general Bob McDonnell will be the first Republican to win the state’s highest office in twelve years, CNN projects. Republicans will win races for Virginia’s lieutenant governor and attorney general as well.In New Jersey, former federal prosecutor Chris Christie will oust first-term Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine, CNN projects. Christie will be the first Republican to win the top office in heavily Democratic New Jersey in 12 years.

Corzine will be the first New Jersey governor to lose a re-election bid since 1993, when then-Gov. Jim Florio, a Democrat, lost to GOP challenger Christie Todd Whitman.The two gubernatorial contests have been deemed by some analysts as the first major referendum on President Obama’s administration. Republicans leaders, demoralized after landslide defeats in 2006 and 2008, have been hoping to capitalize on wins in Virginia and New Jersey to help fuel a nationwide Republican resurgence

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Top Dems: Obama Won’t Get Health Care Bill in 2009 Wednesday, Nov 4 2009

Senior Congressional Democrats told ABC News today it is highly unlikely that a health care reform bill will be completed this year, just a week after President Barack Obama declared he was “absolutely confident” he’ll be able to sign one by then.

President Obama's holding the line at an even division in public views on health care reform, boosted by support for two key elements -- a personal mandate and a public option -- and aided by continued weakness in the opposition party.

“Getting this done by the by the end of the year is a no-go,” a senior Democratic leadership aide told ABC News. Two other key Congressional Democrats also told ABC News the same thing.This may come as an unwelcome surprise for the White House, where officials from the president on down have repeatedly said the health care bill would be signed into law by the end of the year.”I am absolutely confident that we are going to get health care done by the end of this year, and Nancy Pelosi is just as confident,” Obama said Oct. 27 at a fundraiser for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

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Baby Missing From Florida Home Tuesday, Nov 3 2009

Search teams looking for a missing 7-month-old girl scoured dense vines and marshes for a second day Monday.Authorities said Shannon Lea Dedrick was last seen when her parents went to bed about 3 a.m. Saturday.

They believe she disappeared from her home in this remote, makeshift community of dirt roads, tin-roof shacks and old mobile homes sometime before 8 a.m. Saturday. Her parents reported her missing around 11 a.m.We have searched every dumpster in the city limits of Chipley, we have turned over every garbage can,” Washington County Sheriff Bobby Haddock said late Monday.But Haddock said search teams were focused on the densely wooded area surrounding the enclave about 45 miles north of Panama City where the girl and her family live.

Why no one checked on Shannon before 11 a.m. is anyone's guess

The sheriff’s office and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement would not identify the girl’s parents, saying only that the couple is talking to investigators. They also would not discuss why the girl wasn’t reported missing until so late in the morning Sunday.The sheriff said he is not concerned about the safety of anyone else in the community and authorities have identified a “person of interest,” in the infant’s disappearance.The child cannot walk or crawl, it did not leave the residence by itself,” he said.About 75 search and rescue workers from three counties have scoured a 1/2-mile radius.

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Pregnant mother, pregnant daughter battle H1N1 Tuesday, Nov 3 2009

Lancaster, California (CNN) — Nancy Brizendine’s slow-paced life in Californias Antelope Valley has become something of a slick race track.The first stunner, at 42 years old, in her 11th year of taking birth control pills, was that Brizendine and her live-in boyfriend and fishing buddy were expecting a baby.

I was shocked. I didn’t even think I could get pregnant, Brizendine said.But concern over having a baby in her 40s soon gave way to the joy of becoming a mother for the third time.Then, about 2½ weeks ago, came another sudden turn. Brizendine, a medical assistant, caught the H1N1 flu virus.

Nancy Brizendine, 42, and her daughter Kayla Yost, 22, are both pregnant and had H1N1.

I had a cough, sinus infection, infected ear, fever, and thats when I went into urgent care and tested positive, Brizendine recalled.There were times when I honestly could not get out of bed because I was so sick and achy.Brizendine began worrying about how the swine flu would affect her baby, due in January.

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Obama Warns Karzai to Focus on Tackling Corruption Tuesday, Nov 3 2009

WASHINGTON — President Obama on Monday admonished President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan that he must take on what American officials have said he avoided during his first term: the rampant corruption and drug trade that have fueled the resurgence of the Taliban.

President Hamid Karzai in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Monday, at a greeting ceremony for the United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon.

As Mr. Karzai was officially declared the winner of the much-disputed presidential election, Mr. Obama placed a congratulatory call in which he asked for a new chapter in the legitimacy of the Afghan government.

What he is seeking, Mr. Obama told reporters afterward, is a sense on the part of President Karzai that, after some difficult years in which there has been some drift, that in fact hes going to move boldly and forcefully forward and take advantage of the international community interest in his country to initiate reforms internally. That has to be one of our highest priorities.

President Obama spoke to reporters on Monday after his telephone conversation with President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan.

The corruption problem has surfaced repeatedly as Mr. Obama has been holding meetings to review his Afghanistan strategy, administration officials said.

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Ariz. Dad Ran Over “Westernized” Daughter Monday, Nov 2 2009

(AP) An Iraqi immigrant accused of running down his daughter in Arizona with his car because she was becoming “too Westernized” has been arrested in Georgia, authorities said Friday.Jim Joyner, a spokesman for the U.S. Marshals Service in Atlanta, said Faleh Almaleki was arrested Thursday when he arrived at Atlanta’s airport, sent from the United Kingdom after authorities denied him entrance.

Faleh Hassan Almaleki, an Iraqi immigrant, is accused of running down his daughter with his Jeep because she had become too "westernized."

Almaleki, 48, awaits extradition to Arizona and will face two counts of aggravated assault, according to Peoria police.He is accused of striking and then running over his 20-year-old daughter and a family friend with his Jeep on Oct. 20 as the women were walking across a Peoria parking lot.

Noor Almaleki remains hospitalized in serious condition after undergoing spinal surgery. The friend, Amal Khalaf, is in serious but stable condition, according to family members.Khalaf, 43, is the mother of Noor Almaleki’s boyfriend.

Police said the Almalekis moved to Peoria from Iraq in the mid-1990s.
Family members said Noor Almaleki had been living with her boyfriend and Khalaf, and Faleh Almaleki was upset that his daughter had become too “Westernized,” had failed to live by traditional Muslim values and had disrespected the family.

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Kosovo Honors Bill Clinton With Statue Monday, Nov 2 2009

Officials in Pristina, Kosovo, unveiled an 11-foot statue of former President Bill Clinton on Sunday. Many ethnic Albanians admire him for his role in stopping the Serbian crackdown on their bid for independence 10 years ago, "I never expected that anywhere, someone would make such a big statue of me," Clinton said.

PRISTINA, Kosovo (Nov. 1) – Thousands of ethnic Albanians braved low temperatures and a cold wind in Kosovo’s capital Pristina to welcome former President Bill Clinton on Sunday as he attended the unveiling of an 11-foot (3.5-meter) statue of himself on a key boulevard that also bears his name.

Clinton is celebrated as a hero by Kosovo’s ethnic Albanian majority for launching NATO’s bombing campaign against Yugoslavia in 1999 that stopped the brutal Serb forces’ crackdown on independence-seeking ethnic Albanians.

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Up to 6 Bodies Found at Ohio Home Monday, Nov 2 2009

Convicted Rapist Arrested; Remains Found in Advanced State of Decomposition.

(AP) A convicted rapist who fled before police arrived to arrest him on new rape charges was arrested Saturday in his inner-city neighborhood, after police found as many as six bodies at his home.

Police spokesman Lt. Thomas Stacho said Anthony Sowell was walking down the street on the east side of Cleveland when authorities spotted him and took him into custody.

A Cuyahoga County coroner van leaves the home of Anthony Sowell (inset) on the east side of Cleveland, Oct. 30, 2009 carrying a victim discovered in the house. Police who went to a home looking for a rape suspect found decomposing bodies upstairs and what appeared to be a freshly dug grave in the basement. Police later arrested Sowell, a convicted rapist, and say as many as six bodies may be at his house. (AP/John Kuntz, Plain Dealer; CPD)

Sowell initially denied he was the man authorities were looking for but admitted his identity as officers began fingerprinting him, Stacho said. Charges against him are pending.

Officers found three bodies and believe they have discovered three more but are awaiting confirmation from the coroner, Stacho said.

The first two bodies were found Thursday night when police went to Sowell’s home to arrest him on charges of felonious assault and rape. Police say he had spent 15 years in prison for a 1989 rape.

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Military Plane, Helicopter Collide off SoCal Coast Friday, Oct 30 2009

The U.S. Coast Guard and Navy were searching early Friday for as many as nine people off the Southern California coast following a collision between a Coast Guard plane and a Marine Corps helicopter, officials said.

Coast Guard C-130

The crash was reported at 7:10 p.m. Thursday, about 50 miles off the San Diego County coast and 15 miles east of San Clemente Island, Coast Guard spokeswoman Petty Officer Allyson Conroy said.

The Navy's AH-1W Cobra

A pilot reported seeing a fireball near where the aircraft collided, Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor said, and the Coast Guard informed the FAA that debris from a C-130 had been spotted. Seven people were on board the plane, a C-130, and two people were aboard the helicopter, he said.

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Abc News, CBS News, Aol News

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Bay Bridge ready for Friday commute Friday, Oct 30 2009

(CNN) — Chances have increased slightly that the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge will reopen in time for the Friday morning commute, transportation officials said Thursday evening.

Repairs on the span, a major artery in and out of San Francisco, California, could wrap up by 10 p.m. PT Thursday, according to the state transportation department.On Tuesday, three days pieces of steel from the bridge fell onto its roadway, forcing its closure.

Crews working on the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge are replacing four steel rods.

Crews working on the bridge are replacing four steel rods, one of which failed and caused two rods to fall onto the bridge’s deck, California’s secretary of business, transportation and housing said at a news conference.Engineers also will make sure the rods are centered and will strengthen the welds to ensure stability, Dale Bonner added. Vibrations in the rods, affected by strong winds, caused the break.

The pieces that fell, which include a cross beam, came from a section that was repaired over Labor Day weekend, when crews worked almost round the clock to fix a crack.

The Bay Area Rapid Transit system has been flooded with passengers since the Bay Bridge was closed.

The 73-year-old bridge spans the San Francisco Bay and carries an average of 280,000 vehicles daily, according to the state transportation department.In the wake of the bridge’s closing, commuters flocked to the Bay Area’s rail system as an alternative.

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They make their mark in mug shot history Friday, Oct 30 2009

(CNN) — Police say guilt was written all over their faces.

Police received a call Friday night that two men with hooded sweatshirts and painted faces had tried to break into a man’s home in Carroll, Iowa.When police stopped a vehicle matching the caller’s description blocks away, they were stunned by the men’s disguises.

There were no ski masks or stockings pulled over their heads; instead, Matthew Allan McNelly, 23, and Joey Lee Miller, 20, streaked their faces with permanent black marker.Carroll Police Chief Cayler told CNN the strange disguises made it easier for his officers.

Matthew Allan McNelly, left, and Joey Lee Miller, 20, still had the permanent marker on their faces when they were booked

We’re very skilled investigators and the black faces gave them right away
Cayler said jokingly. I haves were kind of laughing at the time. I’ve never heard of coloring your face with a permanent marker.

Cayler said police believe one of the alleged burglars targeted the home because he suspected his girlfriend had a relationship with the man who lived there.

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