May, 2010 | My Gripe An Thing

Baby wrapped in a python

29th May 2010 sandrea 0

CHILD welfare advocates have criticised a Sunshine Coast couple for wrapping their baby girl in a snake for a family photograph, labelling the stunt “absurd”. The photograph shows four-month-old Lily Cooper being cradled by a […] […]

Dennis Hopper, creator of hit ‘Easy Rider,’ dies

29th May 2010 sandrea 0

LOS ANGELES—Dennis Hopper, the high-flying Hollywood wild man whose memorable and erratic career included an early turn in “Rebel Without a Cause,” an improbable smash with “Easy Rider” and a classic character role in “Blue […] […]

Nun excommunicated for helping gravely ill mother get abortion

29th May 2010 sandrea 0

We finally have a case in which the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy is responding forcefully and speedily to allegations of wrongdoing. But the target isn’t a pedophile priest. Rather, it’s a nun who helped save […] […]

Hong Kong police confiscate Tiananmen statue, arrest 13 activists

29th May 2010 sandrea 0

HONG KONG—Hong Kong police on Saturday confiscated a statue mourning victims of China’s 1989 crackdown on protesters in Tiananmen Square and arrested 13 activists, a participant said, in what critics called an escalation in political […] […]

Legal battle erupts over Air France black box from Pearson crash

29th May 2010 sandrea 0

Court to decide if cockpit conversations on ill-fated Air France plane are private It has been five years since Air France flight 358 overshot a runway at Pearson International Airport and burst into flames. The […] […]

Obituary: Child star Gary Coleman faded to an adult wreck

29th May 2010 sandrea 0

Comic became famous in sitcom Diff’rent Strokes, wound up ‘4-foot, 8-inches, 86 pounds of nothing’ Gary Coleman, the diminutive, wisecracking child star of the sitcom Diff’rent Strokes, whose adult life collapsed into a tabloid calamity, […] […]

Tension grows in China between netizens and online censorship

29th May 2010 sandrea 0

SHANGHAI — When blogger Isaac Mao recently announced online an upcoming talk by a Beijing writer whose work is banned by the government, police showed up at his door at night to “convince” him to […] […]

An opportunity not to be missed

29th May 2010 sandrea 0

In the situation that has emerged in the nation over the past two weeks, the state of public emergency imposed on the island’s capital was inevitable. It was not possible that the nation could tolerate […] […]

Diana’s daring black dress goes on the block

29th May 2010 sandrea 0

LONDON—It was black and strapless, with a sassy sequined flounce at the bodice and a gloriously full, swishy skirt. The dress was, Lady Diana Spencer thought, so grown-up, just right for her first official engagement […] […]

Vatican abuse prosecutor warns hell for culprits

29th May 2010 sandrea 0

VATICAN CITY—The Vatican prosecutor of clerical sex abuse warned perpetrators on Saturday that they would suffer damnation in hell that would be worse than the death penalty. The Rev. Charles Scicluna, a Maltese priest who […] […]