US Navy ship sunk in World War II battle located

Washington, September 11 (ANI): A research mission has located and identified the final resting place of the YP-389, a US Navy patrol boat sunk approximately 20 miles off the coast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, by a German submarine during World War II.

Six sailors died in the attack on June 19, 1942. There were 18 survivors.

The wreck is located in about 300 feet of water in a region off North Carolina known as the “Graveyard of the Atlantic,” home to US and British naval vessels, merchant ships, and German U-boats sunk during the Battle of the Atlantic.

NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) and its expedition partners mapped and shot video of the wreck using high-resolution camera equipment, multibeam sonar and an advanced remotely operated vehicle deployed from the NOAA ship Nancy Foster.

Researchers were able to locate and positively identify the YP-389 by reexamining data from the Duke Marine Laboratory expedition that discovered the USS Monitor in 1973.

Today, the relatively intact remains of the YP-389 rest upright on the ship’s keel.

The wreck site is home to a variety of marine life. Much of the outer-hull plating has fallen away, leaving only the intact frames exposed.

“She rests now like a literal skeleton, a reminder of a time long ago when the nation was at war,” said Joseph Hoyt, Monitor National Marine Sanctuary archaeologist and principal investigator for the project.

Built originally as a fishing trawler, the YP-389 was converted into a coastal patrol craft and pressed into service after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

The ship was equipped with one 3-inch deck gun to protect the ship from enemy aircraft and surfaced submarines and two .30-caliber machine guns.

However, on the day of the attack by the German submarine U-701, the ship’s deck gun was inoperative, and the YP-389 could return fire only with its machine guns.

Weeks after the attack on the YP-389, the U-701 was sunk by Army aircraft in the same vicinity as the YP-389.

According to Rear Admiral Jay A. DeLoach, USN (Ret), director, Naval History and Heritage Command, “The US Navy considers the YP-389 discovery a grave site and, by law, it is to be left undisturbed.” (ANI)

Britain’s Got Talent star Jamie Pugh fears success

London, May 4 (ANI): Britain’s Got Talent star Jamie Pugh has in an interview revealed that just the thought of winning the TV contest leaves him quaking in his shoes.

Pugh, 38, who is a pizza deliveryman, panicked before his audition and wanted to walk out, but his loyal partner Donna Davies, 35, persuaded him to stay.

“I wanted to go home,” the Mirror quoted him as saying.

“I didn’t sleep for three days before and I’m now on 40 fags a day.

“This is going to sound really weird – I fear success but I don’t fear failure. I’ve failed at a lot of things and I fear success because I’m Jamie. I’ve got to appear on a TV show and I’m dreading it.

“I’m a wreck – I’m not a star,” he exclaimed.

More than 12 million viewers saw the South Wales valleys singer stun judge Simon Cowell and earn a standing ovation with a spellbinding version of Bring Him Home from Les Miserables.

“If you had asked me to sing any other song I wouldn’t be able to, because I don’t know many songs,” Jamie said.

“But Bring Him Home comes from my heart. It’s about what I might have lost through choices I’ve made.

“Believe me – if I’d not sung that song I would have gone to pieces,” he added. (ANI)

Robert Pattinson says fame has ruined his love life

Washington, Apr 25 (ANI): He has enjoyed a meteoric rise to fame, courtesy ‘Twilight’. However, Robert Pattinson insists that fame and fortune has left his romantic life dry.

Pattinson says the constant interest in his life has made him a “paranoid wreck”, reports Contactmusic.

He admits to Entertainment Tonight, “I’m always really worried about ruining their (girlfriends) lives.

“Especially with people that aren’t famous. It’s such a massive change. I’m kind of a paranoid wreck.

“It’s getting photographed. You have people who analyse your facial expressions to the tiniest degree.

“So you’re just trying to avoid getting photographed. You’re like, ‘Jesus, you can’t win.’” (ANI)

Lindsay ‘spending every night with different man’

New York, April 22 (ANI): Lindsay Lohan has been spending time with ‘a different man every night’ following her break-up with Samantha Ronson, according to a friend.

Friends of the ‘Mean Girls’ star say that the actress has been “a complete and utter wreck” since Ronson broke it off with her two weeks ago, and is drowning her sorrows in a sea of men, reports the New York Post.

One friend said that some of the guys include ’90210′ star Kellan Lutz — who “has been out of town this week, but they are in constant contact” as well as British paparazzo Chris Jepson.

According to a source, on April 15, Lohan and Jepson were inseparable at a Hollywood Hills house party.

They even went into a bathroom together and didn’t come out for quite some time, the source added.

Friends are terrified that Lohan is in a ‘meltdown’ situation and has no career to fall back on. (ANI)

Treasure trove of artifacts recovered from Blackbeard’s 18th-century ship

Washington, April 1 (ANI): Archaeologists have recovered a treasure trove of artifacts from a recently recovered ship of the infamous 18th-century pirate Blackbeard.

According to a report in the National Geographic News, some of the newfound relics add to evidence that the ship belonged to the pirate.

“We feel pretty comfortable that that’s what this is,” said Marke Wilde-Ramsing, director of the Queen Anne’s Revenge project for the North Carolina Office of State Archaeology.

Underwater archaeologists from the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources have been excavating the wreck, which lies 22 feet (7 meters) underwater a few miles off Beaufort, North Carolina, since 1997.

Among the discovered artifacts is a brass navigational instrument known as a chart divider.

Navigational instruments were favorite targets of looting pirates, because the tools could easily be sold or traded, according to archaeologist David Moore of the North Carolina Maritime Museum, who is working on the wreck site.

On March 26, 2009, two fleurs-de-lis (iris flowers)-the royal symbol of France-were revealed on an apothecary weight from a shipwreck off the coast of North Carolina, archaeologists said in March 2009.

Originally stuck to other nested weights, but separated via an electrolysis process, the weight and a fleur-de-lis-shaped keg spigot found in the shipwreck are among the strongest evidence that the ship was originally French-a key to tying the ship to Blackbeard.

The pirate captured the French ship Le Concorde and renamed it Queen Anne’s Revenge in 1717.

Le Concorde’s surgeon, who was forced to serve briefly in Blackbeard’s crew, may have owned the weights, designed for pharmaceuticals.

According to experts, pirates could have also used the weights to measure gold dust. (ANI)

G-20 protestors plan to fool cops on April 1st

London, Apr 1 (ANI): On the sidelines of the G-20 summit meeting are the innovative protests and demonstrations that will attract just about as much attention as the photo opportunity of world leaders shaking hands. Protestors have every intention of being innovative and clever and fool the over 20,000 cops who will be on duty on April 1st and 2nd during the summit.

All leave has been cancelled in the Metropolitan police and extra officers are being drafted in from forces across the country to help the capital’s force during the entire week.

But anarchists, anti-globalisation, anti-war and environmental protest groups are forming alliances to storm buildings, seal off roads, set up impromptu climate camps and launch inflatable dinghies in an attempt to breach the summit security at the Excel centre in Docklands via the river Thames.

According to Financial News there are 10 groups planning to descend on the Square Minle and its neighbouring streets ANARCHISTS: This group is urging followers to meet in the Square Mile on April 1 and “take back what’s ours.” The plan is to storm banks, and what they say reclaim their money and “send the bankers packing.”

FINANCIAL FOOLS: This group is not clear where or when they will hold their protest march but they will gather at the financial district to protest “20 governments cannot decide on the future of the global financial system and economy.”

G-20 MELTDOWN: This group again has a grouse against rich nations having taken the world down with them. “Their tax-dodging, bonus-guzzling, pension-pinching, unregulated free market world’s in meltdown and those fools think we’re going to bail them out. They’ve gotta be joking!” The group is planning protests at Moorgate, Liverpool Street, London Bridge and Cannon Street.

FOSSIL FOOLS: This group will “Pull a prank that packs a punch.” on April 1st. So watch out for some pie throwing or to be contemporary some shoe hurling. Bankers beware because these guys have also asked supporters to “spank a bank” by shutting down cash machines with “out of order” stickers.

They will campaign against the use of fossil fuels over alternative energy sources.

CLIMATE CHANGE: Protesting under the banner of “because nature doesn’t do bailout,” Climate Camp plan to converge on the European Climate Exchange at Bishopsgate at 12:30 GMT on April 1. Will they get violent or play a prank is anybody’s guess.

BRISTOL DISSENT: Regional group Bristol Dissent has asked followers to crash the stock exchange on April 2 and, in their words, “eat capitalism for breakfast” and “disrupt the traders whose financial egomania perpetuates global injustice.”

STOP WAR COALITION: This group has teamed up with the British Muslim Initiative to hold a demonstration outside the US embassy on April 1st. .

CAMPAIGN FOR NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT: Their protest will also take place outside the American Embassy on April 1.

GOVERNMENT OF THE DEAD: This group will meet outside the Bank of England at midday on April 1 and pledge to create a better world from the “train wreck bequeathed to us by the decadent, decomposing corpse of capitalism.” By Smita Prakash (ANI)

Titanic museum to open in Southampton

London, Mar 31 (ANI): A new museum charting the story of the Titanic could be built in Britain ahead of the 100th anniversary of the ill-fated liner’s sinking.

The 28 million pound museum in Southampton, from where the liner set sail in 1912 on her maiden voyage, is set to feature a climb-aboard replica of the doomed ship, which hit an iceberg causing the loss of 1523 lives.

The plans received a boost after the Heritage Lottery Fund awarded almost 500,000 pounds in development funding – with the potential for a further 4.5 million pounds towards construction.

However, the council still requires a further 10 million pounds to fund the first phase of works and is currently in talks to raise the cash.

If successful, the city council’s Civic Centre will be converted with the main exhibition hall turned into a scene of the dockside in Southampton with the Titanic about to depart.

The story of the disaster and the finding of the wreck will be part of the exhibition.

Also, about 4,000 items from the ship are set to be displayed within galleries.

“This museum will be of international significance and could attract hundreds of thousands of visitors every year,” the Telegraph quoted Councillor John Hannides, as saying.

“Southampton was the home of the Titanic so it is only fitting that we tell our story.

“When the ship tragically sank 549 Southampton people lost their lives and hundreds of families in the city were directly affected. The impact was felt right across the world, but nowhere more so than in Southampton.

“We now need to do all we can to see how we can raise the funds to make this happen,” he added. (ANI)

Pete Doherty talks of head-butting Moss’ man

London, Mar 23 (ANI): Brit singer Pete Doherty has revealed that he would not mind head-butting Kate Moss’ man Jamie Hince and running off with her.

Doherty, 30, who is still madly in love with Moss, even reckons he would come to blows with Hince if they ever crossed paths, and being asked to stay away from a Lily Allen gig because of Moss, did not help matters much.

“I wanted to see Lily Allen play the other week,” the Sun quoted him as telling Q magazine.

“But her label EMI got in touch and said, ‘We don’t want you there because Kate Moss will be there and it will take attention away from Lily. Can you not go?’

“I was so insulted. I don’t know. I think I would have been courteous enough.

“Then I’d probably have head-butted her new boyfriend, put her over my shoulder and run off,” he stated.

The Babyshambles member does not hesitate to reveal his feelings for her either.

“Really and truly, I miss her. And I would like to speak to her. It’s so confusing for me still. What am I supposed to say?” he said.

“If I was to turn round now and say ‘right, my heart’s not been mended, and I still miss her and I’m still in love with her’, that’s gonna wreck my chances with some other bird who’s gonna read that and I might blow my chances with her!

“So, you gotta hedge your bets,” he added. (ANI)

Dungeon dad’s wife opens up about life post his arrest

London, Mar 16 (ANI): As dungeon dad Josef Fritzl is set to go under trial today, his wife Rosemarie has for the first time given insights into her life after her husband’s arrest.

The 73-year-old Austrian engineer held his daughter Elisabeth captive in a dungeon beneath his home, raped her for 24 long years, and fathered seven children with her.

Soon after Fritzl’s secret life beneath the cellar was disclosed, his shattered wife changed her name and moved to a new town to try to escape the shame and infamy brought on the family through her husband’s misdeeds.

“I don’t know where I’m heading now. My life has already been ruined enough. I don’t have any money. My pride is all I have left, that and my family. All I want is to keep my family,” the Sun quoted Rosemarie as saying.

The 69-year-old lady rarely leaves her flat, screens callers through an intercom and has her groceries delivered.

She added: “People have said so many things about me, but I can’t speak. I just want to be left alone.”

Rosemarie only found out about her husband’s alleged crimes after his arrest last April.

And she now struggles to live on a tiny pension in a rented first-floor flat in Linz.

Her sister Christine, 65, one of the few people she trusts, said: “She is an emotional and physical wreck. She rarely leaves her flat, unless it’s to go for a walk alone. If she hadn’t the children to think of I don’t think she’d go on.

She’ll never get over it, but I hope she finds a little peace.

She added: “Financially she’s struggling. Half her pension goes on her rent alone. She pays for everything herself. She changed her name last year and even had to pay for that. She doesn’t have anything to do with Josef anymore.” (ANI)

Malin Akerman’s filming turned to torture by latex costume

London, Feb 23 (ANI): Swedish actress Malin Akerman has revealed that while filming for her new moviem she was left feeling tortured because of the skin-tight latex costume she had to wear.

Akerman, 30, said that the bondage-style get-up was so uncomfortable that she felt like “a wreck” at the end of every scene, and her long hair getting stuck in the zipper did not help much.

The ex-model plays the part of crime-busting babe Silk Spectre II in the comic book sc-fi movie ‘Watchmen’, and she revealed that her skin would become so numb after she slipped into the costume that she ended up feeling “like an 80-year-old woman”.

“It was the complete, absolute opposite of comfortable,” the Daily Star quoted her as saying.

“It was already a painful challenge to do all the fight choreography in such a constricting outfit.

“But when my hair started getting snagged and pulled too because it got caught in the zips it was almost unbearable.

“I called my husband every night crying. In between my sobs I kept asking, ‘How did I ever think I could do this?’” she added.

The film will be released in the UK on March 6, and it is based on the dark, short-lived DC Comics series of the late 1980s. (ANI)

French battleship sunk in 1917 found on Mediterranean Sea floor

London, Feb 20 (ANI): In a survey for a gas pipeline between Algeria and Italy, a company has discovered a French battleship sunk in 1917, in remarkable condition on the floor of the Mediterranean Sea.

According to a report by BBC News, the ship, known as The Danton, with many of its gun turrets still intact, is sitting upright in over 1,000m of water.

It was found by the Fugro geosciences company during a survey for a gas pipeline between Algeria and Italy.

The Danton, which sank with 296 sailors still onboard, lies 35km southwest of the island of Sardinia.

The ship, named after the French revolutionary Georges Danton, was 19,000-tonne, and 150 m-long; and was carrying over 1,000 men when it was attacked by Germany’s U-64 submarine at 1317 on 18 March, 1917.

Naval historians record that the Danton’s Captain Delage stood on the bridge with his officers and made no attempt to leave the ship as it went down.

The ship dug out the sediment as it hit the seafloor. Despite tumbling through the water, many guns stayed in place.

“Its condition is extraordinary,” said Rob Hawkins, project director with Fugro GeoConsulting Limited.

“After it was hit by the torpedoes, the Danton clearly turned turtle and rotated several times. You can see where it dropped some infrastructure on the way down and then impacted on the seabed,” according to Hawkins.

“You can see where it slid along the seabed before coming to a rest,” he told BBC News.

A comparison with the original plans for the battleship – in particular, the position of its 240mm guns – confirms the wreck’s identity.

The final resting place is a few kilometers from where people have traditionally thought the ship met its end.

The wreck is just off the point where the southern pipeline meets Sardina.

“The French Admiralty did argue with us for a while that it should have been several nautical miles away, but we reminded them that modern GPS methods are more accurate than the sextants they used in those days,” said Hawkins.

Analysis of the Danton’s debris field suggests the battleship landed at the bed from the northwest.

As a consequence, a decision was taken to offset the 66cm-diameter pipeline by 300m to the southeast of the wreck location, thus avoiding any obvious structural items that had fallen clear of the vessel during its descent and forward of any sediment kicked up in the bed impact. (ANI)