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Journalism of Courage
Diana8217;s car had brake defect
PARIS: The car that crashed killing Princess Diana and two other people had a brake defect, a Paris judge has been told, sources close to the investigation said. Chauffeur Olivier Lafaye told on Monday before investigating magistrate Herve Stephan that a warning light regularly flashed on the dashboard, indicating a brake problem. Lafaye, who worked for the rental firm that owned the Mercedes and regularly drove the car, said the company had warned drivers not to brake hard because there was a danger the vehicle could go out of control. The chauffeur told the investigation that Henri Paul, the man who drove the car on the night of the crash, had never driven it before and should not have been allowed to do so.
New device to detect N-blasts
WASHINGTON: US Government scientists have developed two devices that better detect nuclear bomb blasts in other countries by sniffing the atmosphere for traces of radioactive material, according to the Department of Energy.The devices will be placed around the globe and used to monitor adherence to the comprehensive nuclear tests ban treaty, the department said on Monday. Their development should encourage the US Senate to ratify the treaty because nuclear explosions will be more difficult to hide, the department added.
WASHINGTON: The number of US households made up of unmarried couples has risen eightfold since 1970, to nearly 4 million, the Census Bureau reports. Many of those couples 8211; 36 per cent 8211; have children under age 15 living with them, the report said. People are also getting married later in life. The median age for men at the time of their first marriage is 26.8, and 25 for women, the report said. That compared to 23.2 for men and 20.8 for women in 1970.
Gay taunts
SYDNEY: A cook who quit after being teased about his homosexuality has won a landmark unfair dismissal claim in an Australian court. Bill Italiano was called a poofter, a poo jabber and a faggot byhis female supervisor at Bethesda Hospital in Richmond, Victoria. She referred to him as quot;wilhelminaquot; despite his objections and locked him in a kitchen cupboard declaring thathe was quot;going back in the closetquot;. Bethesda Hospital was fined 3,100 for breaching prohibitions against terminating employment for reasons including age, sex, marital status or sexual preference. The court ruled that the frequent sexual harassment left Italiano no choice but to leave his job.
At last a quot;papaquot;KEY WEST: The bell finally tolled for Don Duncan, who won the quot;papaquot; Hemingway look-alike contest on his seventh straight try during a festival to honour the author. quot;I finally broke through,quot; said Duncan, whose eyes filled with tears as he accepted a bronze Hemingway bust. quot;It8217;s persistence. You learn how to dress and you meet more judges.quot; Duncan, 65, an advertising sales representative from Sarasota, defeated 80 other Ernest Hemingway look-alikes in Saturday night8217;s contest. Previous contest winnersjudged them on their gray beards, piercing eyes and ruddy complexions. Duncan changed his apparel strategy this year, trading a cream turtleneck sweater in for a khaki safari outfit.
Sense in whiskers
LONDON: Seals depend more on their whiskers than their eyes for survival. With the help of these sensory hairs, the seal can detect water movements and can even sense currents of less than a quarter of a millimetre a second. This is reported by Guido Dehnhardt and his team at the Zoological Department of Bonn University in the latest issue of the British Science Magazine Nature. The results of tests with a trained animal showed that the seal8217;s whiskers function on a similar principle to the fish8217;s swim bladder, although the structure is totally different. Both of these systems, according to the article, are specialised to detect obstacles, prey or enemies from a distance.
