Niagara Falls Daredevil 'On Cloud Nine' After Wire Walk - People
Nik Wallenda
Geoff Robins/AFP/Getty
And although Nik Wallenda's 1,800-foot trip over the roaring waters of Horseshoe Falls, the largest of the three falls, secured him some serious bragging rights, the daredevil seemed more interested in the estimated 112,000 people who gathered to witness the spectacle (and the millions more who tuned in on TV).
"I hope what I do and what I just did inspires people around the world to reach for the skies," Wallenda, 33, told reporters after the walk, in which he wore a safety tether as per the request of ABC, which helped sponsor the stunt, according to the Associated Press.
He said he felt like he was "on cloud nine" after braving "wind coming from every which way" and blinding mist on his 30-minute walk from the U.S. into Canada.
"There was no way to focus on the movement of the cable," he said. "If I looked down at the cable, there was water moving everywhere. And if I looked up, there was heavy mist blowing in front of my face. So it was a very unique, a weird sensation."
So how did he overcome the forces of nature to complete the historical walk, which paid homage to his circus family, the Flying Wallendas, and his great-grandfather, the late Karl Wallenda (who died during a stunt in Puerto Rico)?
"A lot of praying," he said. "That's for sure."
Blanc pleased as France impress - Football
Published: 16 Jun 2012 - 06:47:25
France coach Laurent Blanc was delighted after his side ended their record-breaking winless run at major tournaments as their 2-0 victory over Ukraine took them top of Group D.
After missing a number of chances Jeremy Menez and Yohan Cabaye, with his first international goal, scored to leave the French requiring a point from their final match against already-eliminated Sweden to reach the quarter-finals. It also halted a run of eight matches at finals without a win, an unwanted record set in their opening draw against England.
"We'll enjoy this one. As the French know very well, it's been a long time since we won a game at a major tournament," said Blanc.
"We're very happy to have won. Six years in major competitions and to not win a game is a long time. I hope our next win isn't in six years. If it is, then I want be here to talk about it because I'll have been fired long before."
A severe thunderstorm five minutes into the match forced the players off the pitch for almost an hour before the game could be restarted. It did not appear to affect France, however, as they came back out and dominated throughout.
"When the game was suspended our fear was that we wouldn't get to play it. We really wanted to play; we'd prepared for it," Blanc added. "After our slow first 30 minutes against England this time the weather stopped us making a proper start to a game.
"The stadium staff responded well and everything went how it should. We were worried the condition of the pitch would make it difficult to play our game - and we had some plans in place in case it did - but we quickly saw that the pitch was in good condition."
Ukraine coach Oleg Blokhin felt a number of his players became complacent after their opening win had put them top of the group after the first round of matches. Now they have to beat England to progress to the knockout stage.
"As I said, the win against Sweden didn't mean anything, so if we thought we were through, we were wrong," he said.
"I think some players thought that and we'll have a serious conversation with them."
Related France News
Czech Republic V Poland : UEFA Euro 2012 Match Preview - Football
Published: 16 Jun 2012 - 15:00:32
Co-hosts Poland face must-win game
It is win or bust for co-hosts Poland as they take on the Czech Republic on Saturday knowing that any other result would see them exit the European Championship.
Poland may have played well in their opening two Group A matches but they failed to win either and currently sit third with just two points.
The Czech Republic have three points and failure to win would mean that the Poles could overtake neither the Czechs nor group leaders Russia, who have four points.
A goal and a man to the good and playing vibrant attacking football, Franciszek Smuda's team looked to be fulfilling the pre-tournament promise that a 2-2 friendly draw with Germany in September had started to foment.
It has been a bumpy ride so far for the hosts but Smuda is confident his side can get the result they need and continue in the competition.
"I'd like for the best to be yet to come, and I'd have nothing against it being in the match with the Czech Republic," he said.
Poland have some injury worries, though, with defender Damien Perquis and midfielders Eugen Polanski and Dariusz Dudka all doubts having suffered injuries against Russia on Tuesday.
An abdominal strain has made Dudka the most doubtful of the three while Perquis is recovering from a gashed shin and Polanski is suffering from a bruised knee.
"Our match with the Czechs is crucial, perhaps our most important in recent years," said midfielder Rafal Murawski.
"We have to win it, and we mean to win it. The Czechs are within our range."
While Poland have injury concerns and need to win, the Czechs are in almost exactly the same boat.
They could qualify with a draw but only if Greece don't beat Russia, otherwise they will be out.
It means they too need to win to be sure of progressing but they have concerns over two crucial players, captain Tomas Rosicky and goalkeeper Petr Cech.
Arsenal midfielder Rosicky is the bigger doubt after what he believes is a recurrence of a calf injury he suffered in the final Premier League game of the season forced him to miss the second half of their 2-1 win over Greece.
Chelsea goalkeeper Cech has a sore shoulder and is desperate to play to make up for his gaffe that allowed the Greeks a route back into a match in which the Czechs had established an early two-goal lead.
"The blunder looks comic, but such things happen in football," said Cech after dropping a cross that allowed Fanis Gekas to score.
"I believe this was enough. I won't make a silly mistake like this again."
Since the Czech Republic split from Slovakia to form an independent country, they have lost every time they have played away to Poland.
However, the last meeting between the sides was a Czech victory in Prague in a World Cup qualifier three years ago.
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Czech Republic V Poland - view commentary, squad, and statictics of the game live.
Related Czech Republic News
NFL's "Pacman" Jones to pay $11.6 million for Las Vegas shooting - Reuters
CLEVELAND |
CLEVELAND (Reuters) - A Nevada jury has ruled that Cincinnati Bengals defensive back Adam "Pacman" Jones must pay $11.6 million to three plaintiffs for his role in a 2007 shooting incident at a Las Vegas strip club.
The Clark County jury on Friday awarded Thomas Urbanski $9.6 million in compensatory damages for a gunshot injury that left him paralyzed from the waist down, according to online court records. Urbanski was the manager of the Minxx club.
Aaron Cudwort, a bouncer at the club, was awarded $1 million in compensatory damages and $600,000 in punitive damages for injury in the shooting.
Urbanski's wife, Kathleen, was awarded $750,000 for loss of consortium.
The awards stem from an altercation in February 2007 when Jones, who was with the NFL's Tennessee Titans at the time, was in Las Vegas during the National Basketball Association's All-Star weekend.
According to police reports, the incident occurred after Jones "made it rain" by throwing money into the air. Minutes later, a brawl ensued outside the club and Arvin Kenti Edwards, an associate of Jones, began shooting into a group of people.
Edwards entered an Alford plea to the charge of attempted murder and was sentenced to two to five years in prison. In an Alford plea, the defendant does not admit to the charge, but admits it likely could be proven.
Jones was suspended from playing in the NFL by Commissioner Roger Goodell in 2007 and in 2008 for violations of the league's personal conduct policy.
Jones was arrested in July 2011 after being kicked out of a Cincinnati bar. He was charged with disorderly conduct while intoxicated and resisting arrest for pulling away from police officers as they tried to handcuff him.
He was sentenced to one year of probation and 50 hours of community service and ordered to pay a $250 fine plus court costs, according to court records.
Cudwort's attorney Richard Shonfeld said in a telephone interview on Saturday that he was glad that the jury held Jones accountable.
He said he expected the NFL player to be able to pay the settlement.
"After all of this time, Aaron has some finality to what happened to him," Shonfeld said.
The Bengals signed Jones for the 2012 season after he played only eight games last season because of injuries.
The NFL has asked Jones to be part of a panel discussion at the rookie symposium in Ohio this month to talk about his off-the-field mistakes at a football player.
(Reporting by Ian Simpson; Editing by Jackie Frank)
Suu Kyi receives Nobel Peace Prize 21 years late - Reuters
OSLO |
OSLO (Reuters) - Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi finally received her 1991 Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo on Saturday after spending 15 years under house arrest, and said her country's full transformation to democracy was still far off.
"What the Nobel Peace Prize did was to draw me once again into the world of other human beings outside the isolated area in which I lived, to restore a sense of reality to me," Suu Kyi said as the packed crowd, led by Norway's King Harald and Queen Sonja, rose in a standing ovation at the ornate Oslo City Hall.
Suu Kyi, 66, the Oxford University-educated daughter of General Aung San, Myanmar's assassinated independence hero, said much remained to be resolved in her country.
"Hostilities have not ceased in the far north; to the west, communal violence resulting in arson and murder were taking place just several days before I started out the journey that has brought me here today," said Suu Kyi, on her first visit to Europe in nearly a quarter of a century.
"There still remain (political) prisoners in Burma. It is to be feared that because the best known detainees have been released, the remainder, the unknown ones, will be forgotten," she said, wearing a purple traditional Burmese dress and looking strong and healthy after falling ill on Thursday.
Still, Suu Kyi - elected to parliament in April - said she was confident President Thein Sein wanted to put the country on a new path.
"I don't think we should fear reversal," she told public broadcaster NRK. "(But) I don't think we should take it for granted there is no reversal."
Suspending rather than lifting sanctions was also the right move to keep pressure on the government, she said a day after arriving from Switzerland to a jubilant, dancing and chanting crowd, which showered her with flowers.
"If these reforms prove to be a façade, then the rewards will be taken away."
INSTRUMENTAL
Suu Kyi, who spent a total of 15 years under house arrest between 1989 and her release in late 2010, never left Myanmar even during brief periods of freedom after 1989, afraid the military would not let back in.
Her sons Kim and Alexander accepted the Nobel prize on her behalf in 1991, with her husband Michael Aris also attending the ceremony. A year later Suu Kyi said she would use the $1.3 million prize money to establish a health and education trust for Burmese people.
She was unable to be with Aris, an Oxford academic, when he was diagnosed with prostate cancer and died in Britain in 1999.
On Saturday, Kim and Anthony Aris, her late husband's identical twin brother, attended the ceremony.
Suu Kyi thanked Norway, a nation of just 5 million people, for its support and the instrumental role it played in Myanmar's transformation.
In 1990, the Bergen-based Rafto Foundation awarded its annual prize to Suu Kyi, after a Norwegian aid worker in South-East Asia highlighted her work.
The award provided lasting publicity for her non-violent struggle against Myanmar's military junta, putting her in the international spotlight and setting the stage a year later for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Norway has also provided a home to the Democratic Voice of Burma, an opposition television and radio outlet, which broadcasts uncensored news into Myanmar.
Suu Kyi acknowledged that recent violence between Rakhine Buddhists and stateless Muslim Rohingyas in the northwestern Rakhine region was a test of Myanmar's transformation but she blamed lawlessness for the escalation.
The violence, which displaced 30,000 people and killed 50 by government accounts, flared last month with a rampage of rock-hurling, arson and machete attacks, after the gang rape and murder of a Buddhist woman that was blamed on Muslims.
"The very first time a crime was committed... they should have taken action in accordance with the rule of law," Suu Kyi told the BBC.
"If they had been able to do that, and to satisfy all parties involved that justice was done ... I do not think these disturbances would have grown to such proportions."
Tensions stem from an entrenched, long-standing distrust of around 800,000 Muslim Rohingyas, who are recognized by neither Myanmar nor neighboring Bangladesh, and are largely considered illegal immigrants.
Suu Kyi is also due to visit Ireland, Britain and France.
(Editing by Sophie Hares and Ralph Gowling)
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