THE wreckage of a Yemeni Airbus jet that crashed in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Comoros has been spotted, a Comoros Government official says.”A small plane flew over the scene and the pilot spotted debris and the craft,” the Government’s secretary-general, Nourdine Bourhane, said.Yemen’s civil aviation authorities said some bodies had also been spotted at the site of the plane crash.
Monthly Archives: June 2009
A FEW years ago, puffing security guards would have chased him out of the building.Now those same guards are in place to protect his work from the curious public.How Britain’s most notorious graffiti artist came to be given the run of his hometown museum is a telling tale of our times.Banksy’s career is clear proof of it. His transformation from a kid with a spray can, who ran the trains and dodged the law, into a rich artist whose work is collected by Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie could not have happened before.The exhibition is called Banksy Versus Bristol Museum; Banksy’s work has been deliberately comingled with this neglected jumble so you are never sure where he’ll pop up next.
TWO Australian women on a bus tour of Hollywood stars’ houses have told of the chaotic scenes as they accidentally witnessed the King of Pop’s final exit.Helen Battaglia of Alfred Cove and her friend, Sally Wilson of Melbourne, were on a Starlight bus tour when their driver decided to show them Michael Jackson’s mansion.”We turned into where Michael Jackson’s been staying and as we came round the corner we saw a fire truck.”"The driver said ‘Oh there’s a fire truck here, there’s a bit happening’.”Ms Wilson said the bus pulled up in front of the gates of the mansion while photographers milled around the entrance.
A VICTORIAN woman holidaying in Bali has become one of Indonesia’s first swine flu patients, prompting concerns that Australian tourists may spread the virus.Bobbie Masoner, 22, a British artist from Melbourne, tested positive for swine flu on Wednesday and remains in a Balinese hospital.Indonesian Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari said she was “very worried” Australians travelling to the holiday destination would circulate the virus. “We have to be more vigilant about Australian tourists so there won’t be more cases of H1N1 from Australia,” she said.
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MICHAEL Jackson’s death was not unexpected due to the prescription medications he was taking, a lawyer for his family says.Jackson died of a cardiac arrest at 3pm local time (about 8am AEST) after medical staff tried to revive him for an hour.Attorney and Jackson family spokesman Brian Oxman said Jackson was taking prescription drugs as he battled to get into shape for his gruelling comeback tour due to start in London next month.Mr Oxman told CNN that he had harboured concerns about Jackson’s use of drugs, saying members of the star’s entourage were “enablers” and compared his case to the drug overdose death of Playboy centrefold Anna-Nicole Smith.
FIVE French tourists have been welcomed to New York with an experience straight out of the movies after being taken on a terrifying “ride from hell”.The tourists had arrived at John F. Kennedy International Airport when they were reportedly lured into an unlicensed van allegedly by Ian McFarland, 57.The driver of the van, Khaalis Preacher, 27, then sped off with the tourists inside after plainclothes police recognised Mr McFarland and tried to grab the van’s keys.
IT’S a campaign meant to show there’s more to Australia than just “soaps, sport and sun” – but just what, it seems, the organisers weren’t too sure.So bleary-eyed Londoners woke to a re-creation of Bondi Beach on the banks of the Thames yesterday, complete with lifesavers and sunbathers.Whether anyone would dare to take the plunge, however, wasn’t clear, The Daily Telegraph reports.State governments and the Federal Government’s Austrade yesterday began their expensive campaign to convince Britain to invest more in Australia and rediscover its industries, technology and tourism.So 80 tonnes of sand was trucked in from Kent, in England’s southeast, to bring “a little bit of Down Under” to the British Isles.
A FUTURISTIC tent that glows in the dark and has internet connection has been unveiled at the Glastonbury music festival.Created by telecom company Orange, the Solar Concept Tent harnesses the power from the sun to provide heating, lighting, communications, and recharging.It has its very own 3G WiFi connection and instead of plugging portable device such as mobiles and iPods, people can drop them into a pouch inside the tent to charge it.Orange says the 3G connectivity enables the “Glo-cation” feature, which allows users to identify their personal Solar Concept Tent by sending a SMS. When sent, the message triggers a “distinctive glow” from inside the tent.
PASSENGERS have revealed their horror at being told to sit at the back of a plane to balance it out.Terrified by the request, 71 tourists refused to board the Thomas Cook flight from Majorca, in the Mediterranean, to Newcastle, UK.According to the airline, a jammed hold door meant that bags could only be loaded at one end, making the plane nose-heavy and necessitating the balancing request.Adding to travellers’ concern, in-coming passengers reportedly warned them not to board the plane as it was “the worst flight they had ever had”.
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FROM July 1 passengers travelling with Air Canada will be allowed to take dogs and cats on board as hand luggage.For a fee of $63 for domestic flights or $126 for international, passengers can book a space under their seats for their pet, reports the UK’s Daily Telegraph.Owners must stow pets in leakproof carriers weighing no more than 10kg. A maximum of four pets will be carried per flight.The service will be available on Air Canada flights as well and its regional airline Jazz.The announcement comes a month before the launch of Pet Airways, an airline that will fly cats or dogs between five US cities.
