Monday, November 29, 2010
Actor Leslie Nielsen, who starred in the Airplane! died aged 84.
.He died on Sunday at a hospital near his home in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where he was being treated for pneumonia, his agent John S Kelly said.
The Canadian star enjoyed a film and television career spanning more than 60 years but is probably best remembered for playing the bumbling cop Lieutenant Frank Drebin in the Naked Gun franchise.
Nielsen went to Hollywood in the mid-1950s after performing in 150 live television dramas in New York.
With a craggily handsome face and blond hair, he seemed ideal for a movie leading man.
He quickly became known as a serious actor, although behind the camera he was a prankster.
That was an aspect of his personality never exploited, however, until Airplane! was released in 1980 and became a huge hit.
In The Naked Gun in 1988, a deadpan Nielsen delivered a string of one-liners like "nice beaver" as his girlfriend, played by Priscilla Presley, stood above him on a ladder clutching a stuffed animal.
His character also beat up the Ayatollah Khomeini and scrubbed the birthmark from Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev's head.
Nielsen went on to star in two sequels, The Naked Gun 2-1/2: The Smell Of Fear and The Naked Gun 33-1/3: The Final Insult.
But he also had a serious side, shown in Darrow, a one-man drama about the legendary "attorney for the damned" Clarence Darrow.
"I didn't want to go ahead and be pegged for doing only comedy, although comedy is burgeoning," he said in an interview in 1996.
"I'd like to see how far I can stretch and keep on doing 'dumb and stupid' (comedy) and drama and if possible be accepted at both.
"There's a line with an audience you can't always cross over. Sometimes, they only want to see you being funny."
Nielsen's wife Barbaree and friends were at his bedside when he died, his agent said.
Sunday, November 21, 2010
IMF issued the following statement today on Ireland:
Press Release No. 10/452
November 21, 2010
Mr. Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), issued the following statement today on Ireland:
"I welcome the response from the European Union and euro-area Member States to the Irish Government's request for financial assistance to safeguard financial stability.
"At the request of the Irish authorities, the IMF stands ready to join this effort, including through a multi-year loan. An IMF team, currently in Ireland for technical talks, will now begin to hold swift discussions on an economic program with the Irish authorities, the European Commission, and the European Central Bank."
Sent from my iPodFriday, November 19, 2010
Ryanair has criticised the project,
The new terminal has been built at a cost of over €600m, and has the capacity to cater for up to 15m passengers.
Ryanair has criticised the project, saying it is not needed.
Chief executive Michael O'Leary says the terminal was yet more evidence of the collapse in Irish tourism.
Mr O'Leary was dressed in a funeral suit and Ryanair staff carried a tricolour bedecked coffin from the airline's headquarters at Dublin airport to terminal two this morning bearing the words 'Irish TourismRIP'.
Sent from my iPodThursday, November 18, 2010
€10m awarded in sleep walking libel case
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Sent from my iPod