BEIJING, China (CNN) -- Thousands of people have been killed by Monday's powerful earthquake in just one affected region of central China, its government said, with the toll expected to keep rising as bodies are retrieved from schools, homes and factories.
The death toll quickly rose throughout the day. State-run news agency Xinhua said it had reached 8,533 in Sichuan Province by Monday night, and another 10,000 were believed to be injured.
It reported that authorities were yet to reach Wenchuan County -- which sits at the epicenter of the 7.9-magnitude earthquake with a population of about 112,000 -- because of damage to roads.
In Beichuan County, close to Wenchuan, the number of deaths was estimated at more than 3,000, with 80 percent of the buildings destroyed.
China's Seismological Bureau said the earthquake had affected more than half the country's provinces and municipalities.
Gotta give Michael props for this one. He somehow keeps managing to never have to say goodbye to the good land of fun he calls home.“Michael Jackson avoided foreclosure on his spectacular Neverland Ranch Sunday when a new bank took over the mortgage on the property. The 2,700-acre spread, complete with amusement park and menagerie, had been expected to be auctioned off this week after Jacko defaulted on payments.
But Colony Capital, a real estate investment firm, bought the $23.5 million mortgage and said it was negotiating a new payment plan. Jackson, 49, will likely sell the property, and soccer star David Beckham is one of the celebs reportedly thinking of buying it.
Reverend Al Sharpton has organized a city-wide "pray-in" schedule, in protest of the recent acquittal of three New York City police officers on all charges related to the shooting death of would-be groom Sean Bell.
In conjunction with the National Action Network, Sharpton assigned six locations in Manhattan and Brooklyn as places for protestors to gather today. Participants will be asked to get down on their knees in prayer, with hopes that the peaceful disruption will lead to a citywide slowdown, according to AllHipHop. The locations were strategically choosen for their proximity to busy traffic areas in New York City.One such location will be the NYPD headquarters in Manhattan, where Sharpton will be joined by Bell’s would-be bride, Nicole Paultre-Bell, and the other two men injured in the shooting, Joseph Guzman and Trent Benefield. The event is scheduled for 3 p.m.
Other protest leaders include National Action Network chairman Franklyn Richardson in Harlem, NAACP leader Hazel Dukes in Tribeca, and Reverend Herbert Daughtry in Brooklyn.
Sharpton reportedly has plans to continue these protests on a weekly basis, leading to a larger city shutdown later this Spring. The infamous civil rights figure has called for protests to be peaceful, but requests that demonstrators be prepared to go to jail.
“If you are not going to lock up the guilty in this town, then I guess you’ll have to lock up the innocent,” Sharpton said while announcing protest plans May 4.
"[T]he world must see that we're in a climate where the justice system in this state will lock up folks who'll be nonviolent and pray, but will not lock up police," he added.
Paultre-Bell, who has become somewhat of a media darling, confirmed her participation in the protest.
“Justice wasn’t done, so I’m still here,” she said. “On Wednesday, I will be there. We are going to do this peacefully.”
Protest meeting points are scheduled as follows:
125th Street and Third Avenue;
Park Avenue and 34th Street;
60th Street and Third Avenue;
One Police Plaza;
Varick and Houston streets; and
The House of the Lord Pentecostal Church, 415 Atlantic Ave.
CANBERRA, Australia (AP) -- Koalas are threatened by the rising level of carbon dioxide pollution in the atmosphere because it saps nutrients from the eucalyptus leaves they feed on, a researcher said Wednesday.
Ian Hume, emeritus professor of biology at Sydney University, said he and his researchers also found that the amount of toxicity in the leaves of eucalyptus saplings rose when the level of carbon dioxide within a greenhouse was increased.
The researchers found that carbon dioxide in eucalyptus leaves affects the balance of nutrients and "anti-nutrients" -- substances that are either toxic or interfere with the digestion of nutrients.An increase in carbon dioxide favors the trees' production of carbon-based anti-nutrients over nutrients, so leaves can become toxic to koalas, Hume said.
Hume estimated that current levels of global carbon dioxide emissions would result in a noticeable reduction in Australia's koala population in 50 years due to a lack of palatable leaves.
Hugh Tyndale-Biscoe, a marsupial physiologist, said koalas had already disappeared from parts of Australia but remained plentiful in others and were unlikely to be wiped out by climate change. They already have been displaced from the most nutritious trees on the most fertile land by the spread of farms and suburbs, he said.
[He better stop fuckin with them drugs before them teeth start fallin out!]Cash Money Records rap star Lil Wayne appeared in Arizona Superior Court to face numerous drug charges yesterday. The rapper, who was hit with multiple drug charges and a weapons offense in January, entered a not guilty plea in court. Lil Wayne [has] pled innocent to charges of possession of dangerous drugs, possession of a narcotic drug for sale, misconduct involving weapons and one count of possession of drug paraphernalia.Hopefully he'll straighten out before it's too late.
Lil Wayne was arrested on January 22, after DEA Agents stopped the rapper’s tour bus near a border checkpoint in southwestern Arizona, about 75 miles East of Yuma. A Border Patrol dog alerted officials to the presence of drugs and a subsequent search of the bus uncovered 41 grams of ecstasy, four ounces of marijuana, a little over an ounce of cocaine and a .40 caliber pistol, which is registered to Lil Wayne in Florida. Police also confiscated $22,000 dollars in cash and two other firearms. Lil Wayne was released on $10,000 cash bond. His next court date is May 19.
I spent the first 8 years of my life in Los Angeles going to elementary school with a number of Mexican kids. Cinco de Mayo was always a big deal and huge celebration. Read below to check out the history of the day. Embrace other cultures folks:)The 5th of May is not Mexican Independence Day, but it should be! And Cinco de Mayo is not an American holiday, but it should be. Mexico declared its independence from mother Spain on midnight, the 15th of September, 1810. And it took 11 years before the first Spanish soldiers were told and forced to leave Mexico.
So, why Cinco de Mayo? And why should Americans savor this day as well? Because 4,000 Mexican soldiers smashed the French and traitor Mexican army of 8,000 at Puebla, Mexico, 100 miles east of Mexico City on the morning of May 5, 1862.
