Mid Day International News

18 people died in Italy while picking mushrooms
Man falls off chair, to sue government
US prez hails spirit of New Orleans
Paris's man gets boot
Oxford Dictionary no longer in print
Fans commemorate Jackson's birthday
Judge slapped with child porn charge

18 people died in Italy while picking mushrooms

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As many as 18 people died while picking mushrooms in Italy in little more than a week. The deaths took place after victims fell into crevasses and deep gorges.

A rich mushroom harvest in the Alpine valleys of northern Italy had led to people making a beeline for the woods and forests to look for succulent funghi.

Many, who were unfit and ill-equipped, ventured into remote areas without proper equipment.

Daily Telegraph Monday reported that those who died either fell into rocky crevasses and gorges or met with similar physical mishaps.

Marco Biasoni, a mountain rescuer, told Corriere della Sera: "Lots of people go to areas which are easy to access, but there are always a few people who want to search out remote bits of woodland which no one else knows."

Collecting wild mushrooms is a popular pastime in Italy.

Seven of the deaths were reported from the Lombardy region while other people were killed in Piedmont, on the border with France, and Trentino-Alto Adige, abutting Austria.

In the latest case, a woman died after she fell 40 metres down a steep rocky slope in a forest near the town of Sondrio.

Man falls off chair, to sue government

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A British civil servant who fell off his swivel chair and was badly disabled is suing his government department for 300,000 pounds.

Gian-Paul De Vito-Tracey, 39, will claim that he was left 80 percent disabled for life after he hit his head on a wall, The Sun reported Monday.

He held a senior position at the Department of Work and Pensions and, in 2008, he fell off the newly-issued swivel chair.

The media report said that his lawyers will argue in court that the accident had a "profound and permanent effect" and it left him at a severe disadvantage in the job market. The bump caused "downgrading of general intellectual functioning".

The claim is for pain, suffering and "loss of amenity".

Court papers state that the civil servant experienced "slowed speed of information processing, impaired executive function, severe verbal communication difficulty and mild to moderate word-finding difficulties".

Negligence and breach of equipment regulations is also alleged in the official's claim and a neuropsychologist has backed it up.

US prez hails spirit of New Orleans

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Pledged purpose with residents in continuing struggle to protect and rebuild the Gulf Coast

President Barack Obama arrived in still-struggling New Orleans yesterday to join residents marking five years since flood waters driven by Hurricane Katrina inundated the famous jazz capital.

In a speech at Xavier University, which like 80 per cent of the city was submerged by flood waters in 2005, Obama said, "My administration is going to stand with you and fight alongside you until the job is done."

You are not alone: US President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle
Obama greet the crowd at Xavier University, as they arrive to attend a
ceremony on the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans
yesterday. Obama arrived in still-struggling New Orleans to join residents
marking five years since flood waters driven by Hurricane Katrina
inundated the famous jazz capital. Pic/AFP

Reduced red tapism
Claiming that his administration had cut red tape and cleared the way for 170 projects, he added, "We are helping to make New Orleans a place that stands for what we can do in America, not just for what we can't do."

Rebuilding efforts
The federal government has spent or committed nearly $114 billion in recovery and relief efforts for Katrina and two following hurricanes that hit the Gulf Coast in 2005, including housing loans, grants and the cost of reconstructing levees to provide flood protection for 100 years.

The government effort has been joined and sometimes embarrassed by a massive volunteer and charitable effort that has led to hopes that the city can be better than it was before the hurricanes struck.

It has become a showcase for relatively cheap, environmentally friendly homes, as charities and non-profit groups have invested large amounts of time and energy in resurrecting a city valued across the nation for its music, cuisine and culture.

The poverty rate remains high, at 23 per cent, compared with 13 per cent nationally, and crime is well above national rates according to a report by the Brookings Institution in Washington.

Scott Cowen, president of Tulane University, said he was "more optimistic" about the city's future than he had ever been.

As memories of the destruction caused by Katrina fade, the more pressing concern for many is now the impact of the oil spill, which was the worst in US history, spewing barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico from a well 40 miles off the Louisiana coast.

Obama made a lunch stop before the afternoon speech, ordering a shrimp po'boy at the Parkway Bakery and Tavern, a 100-year-old restaurant, eating with his family.

Paris's man gets boot

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Cy Waits, boyfriend of Paris Hilton and driver of the car that was pulled over Friday night by police -- leading to Hilton's arrest for possession of cocaine has been fired from his job as a nightclub operator, it was reported yesterday.

Busted: Paris was arrested for ownership of a narcotic. File pic

Waits was charged with driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol after the arrest. Police stopped the car because they saw what they thought was marijuana smoke coming from it.

Hilton was brought to the security office of a nearby hotel, where police found the cocaine in her purse. She was arrested for one count of possession of cocaine. Hilton has denied that the purse belonged to her.

Waits, along with twin brother Jesse, had just been promoted to head of nightclub operations. He was fired shortly.

Oxford Dictionary no longer in print

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The next edition of Britain's venerable Oxford English Dictionary will not be printed due to the Internet's impact on declining book sales, its publisher says.

"The print dictionary market is just disappearing, it is falling away by tens of per cent a year," Nigel Portwood, the chief executive of Oxford University Press said.

Asked if he thought the third edition would be printed, he said, "I don't think so."

Portwood said the dictionary's third edition will probably appear only in electronic form.

It has been available online for more than 10 years to subscribers who pay an annual fee of about $372
(Rs 27,000).

Simon Winchester, author of The Meaning of Everything: The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary, said the switch towards online formats was prescient.

"Until six months ago I was clinging to the idea that printed books would likely last for ever. Since the arrival of the iPad I am now wholly convinced otherwise," Winchester said.

"The printed book is about to vanish at extraordinary speed. Books are about to vanish; reading is about to expand as a pastime; these are inescapable realities."

Fans commemorate Jackson's birthday

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Michael Jackson's 52nd birthday was celebrated by his fans outside his home in Gary. People gathered at Michael Jackson's birthday celebration included members of the Jackson family, fans of Michael Jackson, Michael's father, and Joe Jackson. Some local artists are also reported to have participated in Michael Jackson's birthday.

Montgomery, a lifelong resident of Gary, was told to bake the official birthday cake for the celebration of Michael Jackson's birthday. Montgomery said she was excited by the request.

Google has also commemorated Michael Jackson's birthday by putting a special logo, a Michael Jackson Google Doodle, on its homepage.

The previous year, Spike Lee intended a big and intriguing party to commemorate Jackson's birthday.
On the eve of Jackson's birthday, two of his children were given admission to one of the most prestigious private schools. Prince and Paris have reportedly joined The Buckley School in the San Fernando Valley. The 8-year-old Blanket is going to receive schooling at home, told Michael Jackson's mother.

Judge slapped with child porn charge

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A former Manhattan criminal court judge is being probed after child porn images were found in his office computer, a media report said.

Pictures of naked teenage girls have been found in the work computer of former judge James Gibbons, officials from multiple law-enforcement agencies told the New York Post.

"These appear to be from illegal sites, with illegal content," said an official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Computer forensic investigators, who were still looking at the files from the former judge's hard drive, are now trying to prove the girls depicted in the pictures were actually underage, they said.

"The girls definitely look underage," said another official, who also asked to not be identified. "If she looks 14, is she really 14? Or is she 17, and so it's not illegal?"

Gibbons, 47, resigned Aug 17.

Under New York law, it is illegal to possess pornographic images of a child under the age of 16.