The lethal injection was adopted by Utah as the default execution method in 2004 however Ronnie Gardner was still able to choose the firing squad option because he was sentenced before the law changed. Lawyers for Gardner said, “He did it because he preferred it – not because he wanted the controversy surrounding the execution to draw attention to his case or embarrass the state.”

Although some decried the execution as barbaric, there were no protests outside only about two dozen members of Gardner’s family who held a vigil outside the prison as he was shot. Certified police officers, who volunteered for the execution remained anonymous, they stood about 25 feet from Gardner, behind a wall cut with a gun port. They were armed with a matched set of .30-caliber Winchester rifles, one of which was loaded with a blank so that no-one knows who fired the fatal shot.

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Gary Faulkner had arrived in Chitrali town of Bumburate on June 3 and stayed in a local hotel where he was assigned a police guard, which is customary for foreigners visiting remote parts of Pakistan, however he gave his guard the slip and checked out early to begin his hunt for Bin Laden. Officers who had been looking for him since he gave his guard the slip arrested Faulkner as he crept through a remote forest, when he was arrested he was found to be carrying a pistol as well as a 40-inch sword, night vision goggles and a book of Christian works and teachings.

When Faulkner was asked what he was doing in the area officers were shocked by his replay and thought that he was joking when he said he was there to kill Osama bin Laden, senior investigator with the Afghan police Mumtaz Ahmad Khan said, “when officers seized he pistol, the sword and night-vision equipment, our suspicion grew, he was roaming in the security zone in a suspicious manner. He had a dagger and night vision goggles with him. He is being investigated.”

The Pakistani Daily Dawn newspaper said “Faulkner acknowledged to police that he wanted to ‘decapitate Osama bin Laden, and told them he had visited Pakistan seven times, and this was his third trip to Chitral.”

According to Faulkner’s brother Scott, catching Bin Laden was his passion and he said, “Our military has not been able to track Osama down yet. It’s been 10 years, its easier as a civilian, dressed in the local dress, to infiltrate the inside, the local people, gain their confidence and get information and Intel that you couldn’t get as an American soldier, Navy SEAL, whoever you might be”

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Richard Butler said of the incident, “Everything went black. I was spun 180 degrees, thrown several feet back. My legs turned to jelly. My shoes were smoking and the bottom of my feet felt like they were on fire.” For a moment Butler thought it was only him who had been hit by the bolt of lightning, however his girlfriend Bethany who was just a few feet in front of him had taken the direct hit, “I crawled to her, rolled her over. They say she was gone automatically, but I tried CPR for probably 15 minutes,” Butler says.

Speaking about what had happened Butler said his girlfriend had no idea he was about to propose and as they set out for the three-mile hike the weather was fine. He said, ”the lightning came on quick, a matter of a minute. ‘Her final words, she turned and looked at me and said: “Baby, look, isn’t it so beautiful.”

Butler spoke about his girlfriend’s love of nature and how she saw beauty in everything around her, he said “I’ve tried to be mad at God, but I can’t do it. I feel like it is my obligation to her to be as happy as I can be and be as productive with the rest of my life as can be and do as much good as she would’ve done if she could have.”

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Stephen Hill was wanted by police in connection with murder and attempted murder charges that were filed against him on Friday by Eric Jover, who runs the Ultima DVD production house, Jover also offered $2,000 reward on the company’s website for information leading to the arrest of Hill.

It’s thought that during a social gathering at Ultima’s studios on Tuesday Hill attacked a colleague with a sword that was used as a film prop after a week earlier being told he was being fired and that he would have to move out of the production facility, where he had been living, authorities said. Hill then went on to attack to other colleagues others who rushed to their co-worker’s defence, one of whom Herbert Hin Wong, 30 was killed.

Authorities said Stephen Hill, whose professional name is Steve Driver then fled in a sports utility vehicle with the murder weapon, he was found on Saturday after he had barricaded himself in a house before fleeing to the hillside. According to court records Hill was convicted of second-degree assault and a handgun charge in March 1999 in Maryland.

Although this case has become a talking point across the internet and on many blogs and forums, with many critics blaming the woman for ignoring her own safety to follow directions blindly, Rosenberg’s lawyer Allen Young said the truth was different. The directions Ms Rosenberg downloaded to her phone in January gave directions from one end of Park City to the other however the Google Maps led her to a four-lane street without footpaths. According to the lawsuit filed by the California resident that route was “not reasonably safe for pedestrians.”

Ms Rosenberg states that she did believe she could reach a footpath on the other side of Deer Valley Drive, so she tried to cross the four-lane street however she did not reach the median because she was struck by a speeding car on a pitch-black night. Rosenberg received multiple bone fractures and she required six weeks of rehabilitation.

Her lawyer Mr Young said,” We think there’s enough fault to go around, but Google had some responsibility to direct people correctly or warn them, they created a trap with walking instructions that people rely on. She relied on it and thought she should cross the street.” He also states that Ms Rosenberg is seeking compensation for her medical bills as well as more for lost wages and punitive damages.

Spokesperson for Google, Elaine Filadelfo said “the company had not received a copy of the lawsuit and could not discuss it, but she disputed Mr Young’s assertion that Google Maps provides no warning that walking routes may be missing footpaths or pedestrian areas. Every software version for desktop computers and mobile devices has had that disclaimer since Google Maps was launched in 2008.”

The Park City police also stated that some segments of Deer Valley Drive have footpaths but not the stretch that Rosenberg reached. The street has a walking path on the side Ms Rosenberg failed to reach. Rosenberg’s lawyer said the walking path was “totally snowpacked” and of no use to pedestrians in January.

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It is believed by police that Nick was intoxicated at the time he fell at around 4am on Saturday, whilst attending a party, neighbours called police to report an emotionally disturbed person, however by the time they had arrived Blossom had fallen onto the second-floor balcony of an adjoining apartment building, landing head first on the spiked fence. One bystander, Tiffany Nagel, who was visiting her sister said, “We heard screaming, and we thought someone was trying to break in, medics brought him through our window. He looked like a little boy. He was screaming, and he stopped talking once they got him. He just went silent.”

Nicholas Blossom had attended the party with his band mate Corey Mullee, the pair are in the rock band Alaska Alaska and had arrived at the rooftop party on their bikes, according to police Blossom was sat alone on a window ledge at 4am screaming that he “hated everybody”.

Doctors have said that Blossom’s prognosis is good despite the severity of his injury, Blossoms mother Emily said, “He is out of surgery and making some jokes, the doctor tells us that he was very lucky.”

Picture courtesy of Chris Isherwood

Beaufort County Coroner Ed Allen said “Robert Gary Jones, 38, of Woodstock, apparently did not hear the troubled plane that struck him from behind on Hilton Head Island the plane had lost its propeller and the pilot’s vision was blocked by oil on the windshield.”
Mr Gray was in Hilton Head for work but was supposed to fly home on Wednesday for his daughter’s third birthday. He was often out of town for his job with pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline, where he had been a salesman since 1997. He was also married with two children.

Joheida Fister, who is Hilton Head fire and rescue spokeswoman, “said the identities of the pilot and a passenger on the Experimental Lancair IV-P plane were not released. They were not injured. The plane started leaking oil at about 13,000 feet and tried originally to make it to Hilton Head Airport, Fister said. The oil on the windshield blocked the pilot’s vision and he told authorities the propeller came off the plane. When he tried to land on the beach near the Hilton Head Marriott Resort and Spa, the plane hit the beachgoer and came to rest a little farther down the beach,” and “I would have to say it’s pretty unusual,”

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The pair met when Julie Turner, 23, discovered she had been adopted as a youngster, and began searching for her biological family. She found that her only living relative was her 73-year-old grandfather Charlie Peterson, and immediately contacted him. The couple exchanged letters, photographs and phone calls before arranging to meet at Peterson’s home in California, to catch up and discuss family history.
However, over the course of their time together, both parties began to develop a strong sexual attraction to one another.

Upon first meeting, Turner describes feeling a “surge of sexual excitement” when hugging her grandfather, and an urge to kiss him. The feelings of attraction continued, leading a confused Turner to research her situation on the internet. Here she uncovered information on GSA, or Genetic Sexual Attraction, where close relatives feel sexually attracted to one another when meeting for the first time as adults.

Online, Turner found many examples of people engaging in sexual relationships with long-lost relatives, and decided to make her Grandfather aware of her feelings. Though confessing to worries about the age gap and being related, Peterson admitted to his own feelings of attraction, and the couple had sex that evening.

Since then, Turner has moved in with her grandfather and found work in the local area. The pair claim to have sex at least four times a week (sometimes with the aid of Viagra) and Turner describes their sex life as “unbelievable”.

Most shockingly though, the couple began to try for a baby and Turner recently fell pregnant. While claiming to be “over the moon”, she admits that she is aware of the possibility of birth defects, and that if this is the case states that “I don’t know if we’ll keep it because it might not be fair on the baby”. Misplaced or otherwise, the pair remain optimistic, and Peterson claims that he has no regrets about getting Julie pregnant. Indeed, he describes himself as “the luckiest man in the world”.

Vancouver Organizing Committee (VANOC) said it had been making and stockpiling snow near Cypress before the weather turned, and the task now was now to move it to the competition area. “There’s a lot of snow on the mountain, it’s just not in the place we want it. It’s not going to be easy, but we’ll get it done.” said VANOC’s chief executive John Furlong.

The resort of Whistler a popular ski holiday destination has not suffered from the same problem as Cypress Mountain, the venue for Nordic and alpine skiing has plenty of snow. The completion organisers have said that their main priority is to make sure that the completion areas have enough snow and are not worrying that the surrounding area is not covered with snow.

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Mia who was charged and pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter was given 3 years probation and 100 hours community service. Mia told the court “I just want to say that I am sincerely sorry about this situation. I wish I could take it back,” and that she was sorry for squashing the father of her children.

Mikal’s family told of their pain and suffering Mia’s actions have caused their family “I just want to let you know how much you have hurt us by taking Mikal away from us,” said Sharon Phillips, the victim’s step-mother. The family had hoped she would serve jail time for her crime however were upset at at the fact she will not and the victim sister stated  “So basically you can say that I can go sit on somebody and get probation?” and “I feel there wasn’t no justice.”

Mia Landingham faced a maximum of five years behind bars however her attorney said “was a long history of domestic abuse in the relationship” and he asked Judge Carolyn Friedland for leniency and pointed out she has no prior criminal record.

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As part of an article for U.S. magazine Men’s Journal the movie star and his publicist Alan Nierob invited Up In The Air author Walter Kirn to join them for a game of cards, before the first hand was dealt Gibson insisted on smearing the goo all over his arms.

Gibson informed Kirn the substance, which is called Selegiline, actually helps to clean “the neurotransmitters,” however Gibson’s publicist does not believe the ointment works because “Gibson’s a ‘loser’ whose losses have helped put the publicist’s kids through college”.

Selegiline is an ointment that is normally used to treat Parkinson’s disease and also to alleviate depression.

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The craft created by Burt Rutan a famed aviation designer is built form lightweight carbon composite materials and is powered by a hybrid rocket motor. The SpaceShip Two will be carried up to 50,000 by the White Knight and then will travel 65 miles by its own rockets above the Earth’s surface. The flight will last approximately two hours and passengers will also experience six minutes of weightlessness during this time. The SpaceShip Two is able to hold six passengers and two crew, already 300 people have reportedly signed up at a cost of about £121,000.

Sir Richard Branson has said, “It’s incredible to think only 450 people have ever been into space; that’s including all the Russians, all the Chinese and all the Americans put together,” and “We should be able to enable with our new commercial spaceship company, Virgin Galactic, to take maybe 1,000 people and make them into ‘astronauts’ in the 12 months once we start.”

Although there will be competitors Sir Richard Branson is confident that they will be first to hit the market dependant on any problems that may arise in testing, which means flights into space will be more of the norm over the next decade, although far more expensive than cheap flights around the world.

Picture Courtesy of IrishFireside

The £800million cruise ship is the world’s largest passenger vessel that is 40 per cent bigger than any other cruise ship afloat, (think taller than London’s Canary Wharf or the Chrysler Building in New York) putting it in a league of its own, it is most technologically advanced cruise ship in the world capable of holding 5,400 guests in some 2,700 cabins. The Oasis of the Seas is built to a new design concept that sees the ship split up into different 7 neighborhoods spanning 16 decks including, Boardwalk which is dedicated to family fun and nostalgia, Central Park that combines nautical and nature and Royal Promenade at the heart of the ship.

Next year will also see its sister ship the Allure of the Seas coming into commission that will also be built to the same size and same high standards.

Picture courtesy of Ereine

Both men managed to open the door and attempted to jump out in between a gap. Fuchs friend successfully got across to safety however, on his attempt the drummers clothes became caught and subsequently yanked him back and caused him to fall to his death, shortly after 12.30am.

Friends had raced to the scene upon calls from the drummer exclaiming he and his friend were trapped and found Fuchs in the elevator shaft. Paramedics were called and he was taken to Bellevue Hospital where he was pronounced dead at 3.30 am.

Fuchs had just recently returned from touring with Maserati a psychedelic group, he had also in the past drummed for punk bands LCD Soundsystem Juan MacLean & !!!. This is not the first time !!! have lost a drummer in 2005 Mikel Gius met a tragic end after he was knocked of his bike.

Neighbours of the man said that they failed to call police because the body “looked like a Halloween dummy”. Austin Raishbrook, who was at the apartment in the Marina del Rey district of LA when authorities were called stated, “The body was in plain view of the entire apartment complex and they all didn’t do anything. It’s very strange. It did look unreal, to be honest”.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department has interviewed all the neighbours and are treating the death as a suicide.