PORTLAND, Oregon (AP) — All Jeff Ellis could do was wait as he sat terrified 30,000 feet (9,000 meters) in the air staring at the wriggling scorpion that stung him on a flight to Alaska. He repeated to himself that a doctor said he'd be fine — probably. Ellis first had to wait 30 minutes to see whether he succumbed to anaphylactic shock. "In the movies, scorpions kill people," Ellis, 55, said Thursday. "I was just nervous, on edge, making sure that my heart was beating normal, that I wasn't sweating." Alaska Airlines spokeswoman Bobbie Egan said the scorpion probably crawled on board the plane during a stop in Austin, Texas.
tiffany pendants The plane then landed in Seattle, where Ellis boarded for a flight to Anchorage. About three hours into the flight, Ellis dozed off. Then, he felt something tickling his arm. "I felt it on my shirt-sleeve and brushed it off, I thought it was a little spider or something," Ellis said. "Then I felt it back on my elbow." He grabbed it with his napkin and his girlfriend, Suzanne Foster, called a flight attendant, who tossed the scorpion into a clear plastic bag.
The writhing arachnid terrified children seated nearby. "Their mother told the flight attendant, 'Get that thing out of my face,' " Ellis said. As Ellis monitored himself for signs of a fatal allergic reaction, emergency responders in Anchorage were told to get ready; the flight would be landing soon. But they had a problem, Ellis said: Scorpions aren't common in Alaska, and the EMTs didn't know what to do.
tiffany charms "They had to Google it," he said. News traveled quickly through the cabin, but Ellis said no one panicked. He was the first to get off the plane, he said, where he was met by a police officer. In the end, it turned out that the doctor on the flight was right. Ellis was OK, and all that's left of the incident is a mark on his arm. Egan said the airline has never had a poisonous creature on one of its flights before, but it wasn't the first time someone found a scorpion on a plane. During a Southwest Airlines flight in 2009, an Arizona man was stung while traveling from Phoenix to Indianapolis.
His 10-year-old son found the rest of the family of scorpions in the luggage compartment over their seats. Ellis thinks — based on photos he took of the eight-legged pest — that he was stung by a striped bark scorpion, which is common in Texas. He said he is happy with the flight crew's response, and said the airline has offered him 4,000 frequent-flier miles and two round-trip tickets. His return flight to Seattle, he said, was uneventful. tiffany cufflinks
A man grabbed French President Nicolas Sarkozy and yanked him off balance before being wrestled to the ground by bodyguards on Thursday, television pictures showed. The unidentified man seized Sarkozy by the jacket as he was greeting people gathered behind a barrier in the town of Brax, southwestern France, and tugged the president forward. Sarkozy staggered, straightened up and looked briefly ruffled but then went on glad-handing the public as the man was restrained by security staff. Pictures broadcast on television showed them wrestling the man to the ground. tiffany rings
Police said later that a man was in custody in nearby Agen. An official in Sarkozy's office said the presidency "does not wish to take action" against him. Asked about the possibility by the iTele channel, Sarkozy replied simply, "no, no problem, no problem." The man was named as Hermann Fuster, 32, employed as a caretaker and receptionist at the music and dance conservatory in Agen, who had no record of offending. The attack, though brief, was captured on film and the images were swiftly shown on French news channels.
tiffany outletAccording to a source close to the enquiry, he had wanted to challenge the president on France's intervention in Libya. Brax mayor Michel Bernines told AFP Sarkozy was shaking hands "when suddenly a person in the second or third row ... threw himself at (the president), grabbed him by the shoulder and seemed to be going to punch him." Bernines said the incident was "very quick, very sudden and unpredictable." Sarkozy has been involved in several altercations in public with hecklers and boisterous crowds, but it was the first time a member of the public had breached his security bubble to lay hands on him. The most notorious incident was in 2008 at the Paris agricultural show where Sarkozy thundered "Get lost, you damned idiot!" at a man who insulted him.
tiffany earringsThe quote has become a popular catchphrase for summing up Sarkozy's abrupt style. Thursday's scuffle occurred as Sarkozy came out of a meeting in Brax with local mayors. His approval ratings are stuck at around 30 percent, amid high unemployment, 10 months ahead of presidential polls in which he is expected to seek re-election. In 2002 a gunman shot at, and missed, Sarkozy's predecessor Jacques Chirac before being wrestled to the ground and arrested. Chirac's assailant, linked to far-right groups, was jailed for 10 years. tiffany bracelet
tiffany mens necklaceA Melbourne man who dropped an 8kg concrete platypus on his gay housemate as he bashed him to death has been jailed. Aaron James Johnstone, 29, said he lost control after his housemate, Phillip Higgins, 46, made sexual advances towards him in September 2006. He told police he kicked and punched Mr Higgins before dropping the platypus statue on him. He also struck him with a chair. Advertisement: Story continues below Johnstone was sentenced to 18 years' jail with a minimum term of 14 years at the Victorian Supreme Court on Thursday.
cheap tiffany and coJudge Robert Osborn said both men were affected by alcohol on the night and Johnstone dropped the statue on his victim's head after he had already subjected him to a brutal bashing. "The dropping of an 8kg object onto the head of a totally defenceless man lying on the ground in a wounded state was an act of absolute brutality," he said. Thursday's sentence comes after a retrial where a jury found him guilty of murder. tiffany earrings
In March, the Victorian Court of Appeal ordered the retrial after it found errors in the directions given to the jury. Justice Osborn said Mr Higgins' injuries, which included six broken ribs and a battered face, were horrific. The court heard Johnstone moved into the rented flat of Mr Higgins and was his friend for some years. "Your attack was a savage betrayal of his trust and generosity," Justice Osborn said. The judge said he took into account that Johnstone was affected by alcohol at the time of the bashing, his conduct was followed by some degree of remorse and he was relatively co-operative with police. tiffany accessories
Justice Osborn said Mr Higgins, a disability pensioner, was described to the court as having a kindly and generous nature and his bloody and violent death had a deep impact on his family. "Phillip Higgins' family has lost a dearly loved member in circumstances which will leave them with a permanent sense of overwhelming hurt and loss," he said. ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — A man convicted of orchestrating a $3 billion fraud as chairman of one of America's largest private mortgage companies will be sentenced to prison. tiffany cufflinks
Federal prosecutors in northern Virginia are seeking a life sentence for Lee. B. Farkas, former chairman of Florida-based Taylor Bean & Whitaker. They call the case against him one of the most significant to arise from the nation's financial meltdown. A federal jury in Alexandria, Va., convicted Farkas in April of all 14 counts, including securities fraud and conspiracy. Farkas testified that he had done nothing wrong. tiffany charms
Farkas, of Ocala, Fla., is the last of seven employees and executives at Taylor Bean and Colonial Bank to be sentenced. Taylor Bean collapsed in 2009 when the scheme unraveled, putting 2,000 employees out of work. A 22-year-old man was shot in the abdomen during a failed robbery early Wednesday at a West Side CTA Blue Line station. The shooting happened about 12:45 a.m. at the Pulaski station at 530 S. Pulaski Rd., police News Affairs Officer Hector Alfaro said, citing preliminary information. A man, 22, was standing on the platform when the suspect approached him and demanded money, then started firing, police said.
tiffany necklace white goldThe man was shot in the abdomen and left thigh, and is listed in “stable” condition early Wednesday at John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital of Cook County. The suspect, who did not manage to take any items from the man, fled on foot and is not in custody early Wednesday, police said. He is described as a tall, thin black man in his early 20s wearing a white T-shirt and blue jeans, police said. Officials temporarily closed the Pulaski station as police investigated, according to unconfirmed dispatch reports. A shuttle bus was transporting passengers around the affected area. A CTA spokesperson was not immediately available to comment. Harrison Area detectives are investigating. tiffany necklace silver
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Lt. Michael Lohman knew police had a serious problem when he arrived at the scene of deadly shootings on a New Orleans bridge after Hurricane Katrina. Officers had shot and killed two people and wounded four others, but no guns were found on any of the victims. Lohman, the ranking officer on the scene of the Danziger Bridge shootings, testified Tuesday that he didn't order officers to devise a cover story and wouldn't have objected if they had acknowledged wrongdoing. tiffany outlet
But instead of encouraging them to tell the truth, Lohman said he helped orchestrate a cover-up to make the shootings of unarmed residents on Sept. 4, 2005, appear justified. "The guys who were involved in this were co-workers, and some of them were friends of mine. I didn't want anybody to get into trouble," Lohman testified on the second day of a federal trial of five other current or former officers. tiffany cufflinks
Lohman retired last year and is one of five former officers who have pleaded guilty to participating in a cover-up. Now he is a key government witness in the case against Sgts. Robert Gisevius and Kenneth Bowen, Officer Anthony Villavaso, former officer Robert Faulcon and Sgt. Arthur Kaufman. Feeling remorseful, Lohman said he decided in December 2009 to cooperate with the Justice Department's probe of the shootings. "I feel pretty horrible about all of it, but most particularly about the people who were killed and wounded," he said. tiffany pendants
"They were people who didn't deserve what they got." Lohman said the gunfire had stopped by the time he arrived. He testified that Bowen told him residents had fired at officers before they returned fire on the east side of bridge, where 17-year-old James Brissette was shot and killed. Bowen also allegedly told Lohman that 40-year-old Ronald Madison, a mentally disabled man, was seen reaching into his waistband before he was shot on the west side of the bridge. No guns were recovered from Madison or Brissette, however. "They seemed to be unsure of what actually happened," Lohman recalled. tiffany charms
"There was too much uncertainty, and things didn't add up." Lohman said he told the officers to calm down, "get their story together" and come back to tell him what happened, although he didn't expect them to tell the truth. "Did you order them to make up a story?" prosecutor Bobbi Bernstein asked. "No," he responded. Lohman said he assigned Kaufman to investigate the shootings but knew the goal of the probe would be to justify the officers' actions, despite his misgivings. "I felt things had gone wrong on the bridge that day and inappropriate actions had been taken," Lohman said. Lohman said he and Kaufman discussed a plan to plant a gun. tiffany rings
He said Kaufman assured him the planted gun couldn't be traced back to police or a crime scene. Prosecutors say Kaufman took a gun from his garage and turned it into the evidence room, trying to pass it off as a gun found at the scene. Police didn't collect any shell casings or other evidence from the bridge, one of many gaps in the probe. "We can write it off on Katrina," Kaufman said, according to Lohman. Lohman said he wrote his own false report on the shootings after Kaufman submitted a "horrible report" that cleared police of wrongdoing without justifying their actions in a believable way. tiffany earrings
"It didn't make any sense," he said. The suspected cover-up was in danger of unraveling when the New Orleans district attorney's office opened a probe of the shootings. Seven officers were charged in state court with murder or attempted murder in December 2006, but a judge threw out all the charges in 2008. Federal authorities launched their own investigation afterward. Lohman said he wasn't surprised, adding, "The police reports were shoddy and there were too many holes in it. tiffany necklace
" In August 2009, prosecutors served him with a subpoena to testify before a grand jury. He initially refused to cut a deal, but changed his mind after a meeting with prosecutors in December 2009. "At that point, I knew you had the truth," Lohman told Bernstein. Lohman faces a maximum of five years in prison when he is sentenced, a fact that defense attorneys seized on during his cross-examination. Steve London, Kaufman's lawyer, pointed out that Lohman was "looking at 25 to 30 years" before making his deal. London also questioned Lohman why he added Kaufman's name to a false report, asking if he intended to make it look as if Kaufman had written it. "I wasn't trying to make it look like Kaufman wrote that," Lohman said. tiffany bracelet
"We were working on it together. I didn't go off by myself and write this." Lohman said he went along with the cover-up because he did not want anyone to get into trouble, but London implied a different reason Kaufman's name was on the documents. "You actually hate Sgt. Kaufman, don't you?" London asked. "No," Lohman responded. "We had disagreements, but I would not say it was a hate relationship." Lohman is expected to return to the witness stand Wednesday to answer more questions from Berrnstein. tiffany men's necklace
CAIRO (AP) — Egyptian security forces firing tear gas clashed with around 5,000 rock-throwing protesters in central Cairo late Tuesday, leaving dozens injured in the latest unrest to rattle the country, witnesses and medical officials said. Clouds of tear gas and the wail of police sirens engulfed Tahrir Square as the security forces battled to regain control of the central plaza from the demonstrators, many of them family members of the more than 850 people killed during the revolution. pandora packages
The families are frustrated with what they perceive as the slow prosecution of security officers believed to be responsible for the deaths of some 850 protesters during the 18-day uprising that ousted Hosni Mubarak in February. As Tuesday's clashes moved into early Wednesday morning, rocks and shattered glass littered the streets around Tahrir, as protesters chanted: "Down with the military junta." The demonstrators used motorcycles to ferry the injured to safety. Pandora Bracelet Charms
The violence started outside the Interior Ministry after some protesters began throwing stones at the building, said Mohammed Ahmed, a 33-year-old eyewitness. Security forces responded with volleys of tear gas and blocked off the streets around the ministry. The violence then shifted to nearby Tahrir Square, which was the epicenter of Egypt's revolution. Lines of central security troops in riot gear sealed off the main streets leading into the square, while dozens of security vehicles were parked in side streets. Al Maataz Hassan, an engineer, accused the security forces of the same heavy-handed tactics as before Mubarak's fall. Pandora Beads Charms
"The security forces' violence is the same," he said. "They accuse the people of being thugs, then crackdown. It's the same mentality as before the revolution." Tuesday's clashes, the most serious between security forces and protesters since the revolution, are a sign of the tumultuous transitional period the country is going through as it struggles to shift from an authoritarian to democratic system. Pandora Charms Sale
That transition took a step forward earlier Tuesday with an Egyptian court's ordering the dissolution of more than 1,750 municipal councils, seen as one of the last vestiges of Hosni Mubarak's rule. The administrative court decision, announced by presiding judge Kamal el-Lamei, meets a major demand of the protest movement that drove Mubarak from the presidency in an 18-day uprising early this year. The local councils, with over 50,000 seats filled by elections widely viewed as rigged, were a backbone of support for Mubarak's ruling party. They became particularly important after 2005 constitutional amendments required presidential candidates to obtain support from a quota of local council officials, as well as from national parliament members. Pandora Charms for bracelets
Critics saw this as a stepping stone for Mubarak's son, Gamal, to succeed his father in office. The court decision can still be appealed, but popular opposition may make it difficult for Egypt's current military rulers to challenge it. Hamdi el-Fakharani, an engineer who filed the court case against the councils, said 97 percent of council members belonged to Mubarak's now-dissolved National Democratic Party. "They had already begun campaigning, using municipal services to influence people in favor of the party's comeback and saying the revolution has negatively impacted the economy," he said. Pandora Necklace
He said he was joined in the complaint by 10 independent council members who attested to council corruption. The dismissal of all council members will leave Egypt's municipalities under the control of unelected local executives and provincial officials, until new councils are elected. A major rally is planned next week to, among other things, show support for dissolving the local bodies' membership. Activists say the councils, criticized as corrupt and flush with government funds, could help the campaigns of supporters of the former regime in parliamentary elections, scheduled for September.
"This is, of course, an important decision. If we are having parliamentary elections, these municipal councils were set to play a big role," said Hafez Abu Saada, a human rights lawyer who monitored and criticized the councils' 2008 elections. ___ Associated Press writer Sarah El Deeb contributed to this report. Pandora Necklace Silver
Handbag maker Mulberry reveals surging profits LONDON (AFP) – British luxury handbag maker Mulberry said Thursday that annual profits more than quadrupled, as the group celebrated its 40th anniversary with stunning sales growth and eyed more global expansion. cheap tiffany and co
Pre-tax earnings rocketed by a staggering 358 percent to ?￡23.3 million ($37.6 million, 26.6 million euros) in the 12 months to the end of March, Mulberry said in a results statement. Sales jumped 69 percent to ￡121.6 million pounds in its 2010-11 financial year, as international revenues leapt 145 percent.
The London-listed firm, which has 86 stores and concessions around the world, has also doubled its production of women's handbags to meet demand. "Mulberry has increased sales by 69 percent year-on-year and delivered a step change in profitability," said Godfrey Davis, group chairman and chief executive, in the earnings release. cheap tiffany and co jewelry
"Strong demand in all markets has continued into the new financial year and the outlook for the Mulberry brand is positive. "While we remain cautious about the global economic environment, we are focused on accelerating our international expansion." Over the past year, Mulberry opened nine new stores around the world, at locations in Beijing, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Korea, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, the Netherlands and Sydney. And Mulberry, which was founded in 1971, has also opened up a new flagship store on New Bond Street in central London.
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In morning London deals, the group's share price rallied 8.3 percent to 1,445.80 pence. The standard version of Mulberry's top-selling Alexa handbag, named after British television presenter Alexa Chung, retails for ￡785 in Britain. tiffany necklace
AA seeks Ocean Dr trade-off The New Zealand Automobile Association's Otago district council is again calling for a compromise on John Wilson Ocean Dr, before a crucial meeting today that could decide the road's future use. tiffany necklace silver
Councillors at today's Dunedin City Council meeting will vote on whether to send the issue back to the council's community development committee, as suggested by Cr Bill Acklin, to study new options for the road's future use. A "yes" vote would keep the debate alive, while a "no" vote would mean councillors were sticking by an earlier decision to keep the road permanently closed to vehicles. tiffany men's necklace
However, NZAA Otago district council chairman Jack Crawford on Saturday issued a statement calling for a "suitable compromise" to be considered, allowing motorists and other users to share the road. That was based on results of a survey sent to about 7000 association members in Dunedin last week, of which 1586 were returned, he said. tiffany necklace
The results showed 66.9% did not believe the road should be permanently closed to vehicles, while 30.3% supported the vehicle ban. However, results from other survey questions also showed members would be "happy to accept compromise", perhaps by allowing vehicles from 9am to 5pm each day. That would give "the self-propelled community free rein the rest of the time", including evenings during daylight savings, he said. tiffany charms
Continuing the vehicle ban would mean "very few" people would use the road when the weather was poor, he argued. "These results come as no surprise to me. AA membership these days is pretty representative of the adult community at large. "It seems to me that with a little bit of thought, access to the drive can be organised in a manner that would suit most visitors to the area. tiffany necklace white gold
" It was the second time the association had surveyed its members about John Wilson Ocean Dr, after similar consultation before last year's public hearing, where it argued for shared use of the road. Arguments at the hearing had included those for and against vehicle access, a vehicle ban or shared use of the road. The panel eventually recommended upgrading the road for shared use, with a walking and cycling pathway and other facilities to cater for motorists, cyclists, pedestrians and other users. tiffany pendants
Councillors initially backed a proposal to spend $487,519 on the upgrade, but last month voted to remove the funding from the 2011-12 draft annual plan, which would also be confirmed at today's meeting.