Tag Archives: history

England launch ‘transparent’ World Cup bid

English Football Association hierarchy promised a "transparent" World Cup bid on Monday when they launched the nation’s attempt to host the 2018 finals. FA chairman Lord Triesman was joined by David Beckham, Wayne Rooney and Prime Minister Gordon Brown at Wembley with officials anxious not to repeat the mistakes that cost England the 2006 tournament. Bid chief executive Andy Anson believes the failed 2006 bid was guilty of “arrogance and complacency” and while Triesman stopped short of repeating the accusation, he feels the FA must learn from their mistakes

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Norway’s Rybak wins Eurovision

A 23-year-old Norwegian violinist, Alexander Rybak, won the Eurovision song contest with an upbeat ballad that got the most votes in the history of one of the world’s most watched television shows. On Saturday night Rybak beat out contestants from 42 countries, with singers from Iceland and Azerbaijan taking distant second and third places. The boyish Rybak — who performed a self-composed tune, “Fairytale,” with some deft dance steps and a smile plastered on his face — won with 387 points, the most in the contest’s 53-year history, organizers said

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The Art and Heart of Blind Photographers

Blind photography: the very concept sounds like an oxymoron. But an intriguing and often striking exhibition of photographs in Riverside, California, argues that it emanates from the core of contemporary art. The show “Sight Unseen,” at the California Museum of Photography until Aug.

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Here Come the Fiats: Vrooom

The tiny Fiat 500 is one of the first cars Chrysler hopes to build in North America through its new alliance with Fiat. “It’s highly, highly likely that the Fiat 500 will be built in the NAFTA region,” said Chrysler vice chairman Tom LaSorda after the deal with Fiat was completed as part of the company’s structured bankruptcy.

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Scientists spot oldest ever object in universe

Edo Berger got an alert early last Thursday morning when a satellite detected a 10-second blast of energy known as a gamma ray burst coming from outer space. Telescopes around the world swiveled to focus on the explosion, soon picking up infrared radiation, which travels more slowly than gamma rays. Berger waited for the visible light which he expected to come next

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Dilemma for Obama and the Dems: Look Forward or Back?

Torture, the economic collapse, the controversial firing of eight U.S. federal prosecutors, Vice President Dick Cheney’s secret energy task force: there’s no shortage of reasons to be scrutinizing the Bush Administration these days, and Congress is on the case on most of them. But from the Obama Administration’s point of view, there are equally compelling reasons not to get distracted by public trials that do little to further the President’s ambitious agenda of health care reform, the re-regulation of Wall St.

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