Rosh Hashanah 2008

Rosh Hashanah 2008 is underway. Rosh Hashanah, which is considered along with Yom Kippur to be one of the most important Jewish holidays has begun. Rosh Hashanah is the beginning of the High Holy Days and marks the Jewish New Year 5769. For many Israelis, it is a time of repentance and prayer, leading up to the holiest day on the Jewish calendar, Yom Kippur or the Day of Atonement.

According to the Torah: "On the seventh month, on the first day of the month, there shall be a sacred assembly, a cessation from work, a day of commemoration proclaimed by the sound of the Shofar."

The seventh month referenced is based on the Jewish calendar. Here in the U.S., we use the Gregorian calendar, so you can understand how our New Year's day is quite different from Rosh Hashanah. Using the Jewish calendar, Rosh Hashanah occurs on the first day of Tishrei, or the seventh month of the year.

US actress Heather Locklear has been arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence of prescription medication in California, police say.

The former Dynasty star was pulled over in Santa Barbara following reports she was seen "driving erratically" when leaving a car park. Ms Locklear was taken to the police station where she was tested for alcohol and drugs. The 47-year-old actress was later released from custody. The California Highway Patrol officer noticed Ms Locklear's car was blocking a lane while parked on a highway in Montecito, a patrol spokesman said.

"In talking with her, [the officer] determines that she seems to be under the influence of something," he said. Earlier this year, Ms Locklear checked herself into a medical clinic to seek treatment for anxiety and depression.

Last year, she divorced Bon Jovi guitarist Richie Sambora after 11 years of marriage. They have a 10-year-old daughter together, Ava Elizabeth. The actress first rose to fame as Sammy Jo Dean Carrington in the 1980s soap Dynasty.

She subsequently appeared on Melrose Place and the sitcom Spin City, for which she was twice nominated for a Golden Globe.

Renowned Swiss birdman Yves Rossy has, after several weather-related setbacks, finally flown over the English Channel using his unique backpack jetplane. But hurtling at more than 125 mph the self-styled Fusionman soon became recognisable to the cheering crowd as he soared over the White Cliffs of Dover.

Less than 15 minutes after leaping from a plane 8,000 ft above Calais and cruising 22 miles across the English Channel, the Swiss adventurer parachuted to earth, securing his place in history.

Called Fusionman because he is half-man, half bird, he has become the first person to cross the English Channel using just a home made rocket powered wing strapped to his back. Yves Rossy, the 49-year-old airline pilot also known as Rocket Man, or more recently, Fusion Man, has become the first person to fly across the English Channel wearing jet-powered wings.

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE VIDEO

Rossy started his four miniature turbine engines, then dropped from a Pilatus chase plane over France just before 1 p.m. Friday, unfolded his fiberglass wings and blasted into the record books. "Everything was perfect," he told reporters on the ground in England. "I showed that it is possible to fly a little bit like a bird." Aided by a stiff tail wind, he crossed the iconic body of water in nine minutes, 32 seconds, about two minutes earlier than planned.

The abbreviated flight meant he had fuel left for some celebratory aerobatics over the crowd gathered to witness the feat. He then folded his wings and deployed his parachute before a somewhat ungraceful face plant on English soil. Rossy pioneered the strap-on wing concept three years ago and video of his flight over Switzerland has become a YouTube classic. Now, the enigmatic Swiss has his sights set on the western U.S. where he plans to fly over the Grand Canyon.

The flight was so smooth for the real-life rocketman he even had time to carry out a few loops over the British coastline before pulling the rip cord and parachuting to earth.

Rossy, 49, whose day job is an airline pilot, had to shelve his two previous attempts to enter the record books due to poor British weather but a blue autumn skies meant conditions were perfect.

Rossy landed near Dover in southern England after flying across the English Channel. He parachuted on to British soil near the South Foreland lighthouse.

Rossy, a former military pilot, traced the route of French aviation pioneer Louis Bleriot, who became the first person to fly across the Channel in a plane 99 years ago.

A pilot with Swiss International Air Lines - overcame significant challenges, not least the container ships passing through the Channel.

He had never flown for longer than 10 minutes and his wing weight and measurements were precise, with even the addition of a tiny camera possibly affecting how long he could stay in the air.

One day he hopes his invention will become common place and hopes to form a Red Arrow's style display team.

ABC's "Dancing with the Stars" eliminated their first contestants on Tuesday as Jeffrey Ross and his partner Edyta Sliwinska were kicked off. This season the reality TV dance contest started off with 13 celebs, but Jeffrey Ross was the first to go last night.

The comedian says he's more "ha ha ha than cha cha cha."

Ross and his partner were also the low scorers on Monday's show. Ross had suffered a scratched cornea after his professional dance partner accidentally poked him during a rehearsal Monday.

Tonight, another celeb will be given the boot.

This season's contestants include chef Rocco DiSpirito, NFL star Warren Sapp, TV personalities Brooke Burke and Kim Kardashian and singers Lance Bass and Toni Braxton.

Ross and Sliwinska received a score of 14 out of 30 from the judges, which was the lowest of the night, for their cha cha cha routine.

Reality star Kim Kardshian and partner Mark Ballas joined Ross and Sliwinska as the only other dance couple that still remained on stage, but advanced to the competition's next performance round.

Brooke Burke dominated the competition for the second night in a row, scoring a 26 for a quickstep routine. Burke, the former host of E!'s "Wild On", and her partner, Derek Hough, also claimed the top score Monday. "Married With Children" actor Ted McGinley earned Monday's lowest score.

The remaining celebrities for "Dancing with the Stars" include chef Rocco DiSpirito; NFL star Warren Sapp; TV personalities Burke and Kardashian; singers Lance Bass and Toni Braxton; Olympians Misty May-Treanor and Maurice Greene; and actors McGinley, Cloris Leachman, Cody Linley and Susan Lucci.

Another contestant was to be eliminated Wednesday.

Richard Wright, a founding member of the U.K. rock group Pink Floyd, whose keyboard lines were an integral part of its psychedelic sound, died Monday. He was 65. Pink Floyd's spokesman Doug Wright, who is not related to the artist, said Wright died after a battle with cancer at his home in Britain. He says the band member's family did not want to give more details about his death.

While Richard Wright gets credit mostly for his work on the keyboard -- which he taught himself -- he also wrote songs and sang on Floyd classics such as ``Time'' and ``Echoes.''

Wright met Pink Floyd members Roger Waters and Nick Mason in college and joined their early band, Sigma 6. Along with the late Syd Barrett, the four formed Pink Floyd in 1965.

The group's jazz-infused rock and drug-laced multimedia "happenings" made them darlings of the London psychedelic scene, and their 1967 album, "The Piper at the Gates of Dawn," was a hit.

In the early days of Pink Floyd, Wright, along with Barrett, was seen as the group's dominant musical force. The London-born musician and son of a biochemist wrote songs and sang.

The band released a series of commercially and critically successful albums including 1973's "Dark Side of the Moon," which has sold more than 40 million copies. Wright wrote "The Great Gig In The Sky" and "Us And Them" for that album, and later worked on the group's epic compositions such as "Atom Heart Mother," ''Echoes" and "Shine On You Crazy Diamond."

But tensions grew between Waters, Wright and fellow band member David Gilmour. The tensions came to a head during the making of "The Wall" when Waters insisted Wright be fired. As a result, Wright was relegated to the status of session musician on the tour of "The Wall," and did not perform on Pink Floyd's 1983 album "The Final Cut."

Wright formed a new band Zee with Dave Harris, from the band Fashion, and released one album, "Identity," with Atlantic Records.

Waters left Pink Floyd in 1985 and Wright began recording with Mason and Gilmour again, releasing the albums "The Division Bell" and "A Momentary Lapse of Reason" as Pink Floyd. Wright also released the solo albums "Wet Dream" (1978) and "Broken China" (1996).

In July 2005, Wright, Waters, Mason and Gilmour reunited to perform at the "Live 8" charity concert in London — the first time in 25 years they had been onstage together.

Wright also worked on Gilmour's solo projects, most recently playing on the 2006 album "On An Island" and the accompanying world tour.

Here are four Pink Floyd songs featuring his work:

"Astronomy Domine": lead vocals sung by Richard Wright

"Us and Them": written by Wright

"The Great Gig in the Sky": written by Wright

"Fearless": from the album Meddle, believed to feature Wright's compositional skills

A TRIBUTE TO THE TRUE LEGEND

Astronomy Domine 2006

Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc today filed for bankruptcy protection, making it the largest casualty of the global credit crisis, and given its assets at the time of filing, Lehman surpassed WorldCom as the biggest U.S. Bankruptcy filing till date. The investment banker had close to $639 billion in assets at the time of filing, while WorldCom had about $107 billion when it did the same in 2002.

The Chapter 11 filing, however, did not include Lehman's broker-dealer operations and other units, such as asset management firm Neuberger Berman, and these will continue to operate, although Lehman is expected to liquidate them.

Lehman is among the biggest investment banks to collapse since 1990.

The Chapter 11 filing represented the end of a 158-year old company that survived world wars, the Asian financial crisis and the collapse of Long-Term Capital Management, though not the global credit crunch.

Financial institutions globally have recorded more than $500 billion of write-downs and credit losses as the U.S. subprime mortgage crisis has engulfed other markets.

Lehman had $600 billion of assets financed with just $30 billion of equity as of the end of August, which meant that a 5 percent decline in assets would wipe out the value of the company, which investors saw as a real risk thanks to the company's billions of dollars of mortgage securities.

The firm said that as of May 31, it owed about $110.5 billion on account of senior unsecured notes, about $12.6 billion on account of subordinated unsecured notes and about $5 billion on account of junior subordinated notes.

The company also disclosed that it owned stakes of 10 percent or more in a number of companies, including Imperial Sugar Co, Lpath Inc, Derma Services, Flagstone Reinsurance, GLG Partners, Ronco Corp, Pacific Energy Partners, Blount International, Pemstar Inc and Transmontaigne Inc.

The one time fourth-largest in the United States had expected to raise capital by selling off a stake in its investment unit, and use the amount as well as other funds to spin off some of its assets to shareholders.

But that plan did not satisfy investors, who pushed Lehman's share price to just a few dollars.

Lehman said the uncertainty, particularly among banks through which it clears securities trades, ultimately made it impossible for it to continue to operate.

The bankruptcy filing comes after plenty of heated negotiations among regulators and Wall Street firms about Lehman's fate. The U.S. government had refused to back Lehman's worst assets the way it did for Bear Stearns Cos Inc's sale to JPMorgan Chase.

Saina Nehwal on Sunday capped her dream run in the Chinese Taipei Open by clinching the title to become the first Indian woman shuttler with two Grand Prix crowns under her belt.

The second-seeded Indian, who won the Philippines Open Grand Prix in May 2006, beat unseeded Malaysian Li Ya Lydia Cheah 21-8, 21-19 in the final of the GP Gold event in Taipei.

Saina, who reached the Olympic quarter-finals a couple of weeks back in Beijing, played to a plan and attacked her opponent from the word go.

The tactics paid off well for the world number 14 who gave no chance to her Malaysian rival, a slow mover on the court, to bridge the gap in the first game.

The second game, though, saw a determined Cheah fight back but the Indian was up to the task and ran away with the match after some anxious moments.

"I guess this is perhaps my best performance so far. Of course my show in Beijing Olympics gave me a lot of confidence but I think I played here really well," Saina said.

Asked if she would rate Sunday's win higher than her 2006 Philippines Open triumph, Saina said, "Philippines Open was a four-star event and this is five-star and it's unbelievable that I won this title."

Looking ahead, Saina said she must keep the momentum going.

"Next I play in Japan and China Open, both of which are Super Series events and I have to continue the good work there," said the 21-year-old Hyderabadi girl.

An elated Badminton Association of India President VK Verma termed Saina's stunning victory a great achievement for Indian shuttlers.

"I congratulate Saina for her outstanding victory. Her career has been on the up now. She won the Philippines Open Grand Prix in 2006, then she reached the quarter-finals in the Olympics and now she has won a Grand Prix Gold event," he said.

"It was a formidable victory winning the final in straight sets and 21-8 in the first game was truly amazing."

Six current national players are among 14 Bangladeshi cricketers who will form a new team, named Dhaka Warriors, in this year's 'rebel' Indian Cricket League, media reports here said.

According to a report in 'Prothom Alo', former captain Habibul Bashar and retired spinner Mohammad Rafique are among the 14 cricketers who are slated to play in the unofficial league to be played in venues across India beginning on October 10.

"Players from the current squad -- Alok Kapali, Aftab Ahmed, Nizamuddin, Shariar Nafees, Farhad Reza, Dhiman Ghosh -- are likely to sign lucrative contracts," the newspaper reported.

These players were part of the team that were thrashed 0-3 in the three-match one-day series against Australia earlier this month.

"The players will soon submit a letter to the Bangladesh Cricket Board seeking permission to play in the ICL," the report added.

The newspaper also claimed that current captain Mohammad Ashraful was approached to lead the team but he turned down the offer.

Galveston Island has already begun to feel the brute force of Hurricane Ike’s advances, and the center of the storm is still hundreds of miles from land. Hurricane Ike is over 12 hours away from Galveston, but roads are already being flooded. There's also damage to docks and boardwalks.

Officials have ordered residents to evacuate the entire island of Galveston before Hurricane Ike makes landfall later this week. Residents in parts of Texas were today told to evacuate their homes or face "certain death" from flooding caused by the oncoming hurricane Ike.

"Harris County Judge Ed Emmett called for mandatory evacuations of low-lying areas starting at noon today," the paper says, adding: "Emmett asked all other Harris County residents to prepare to shelter in place, saying residents whose homes could be inundated by storm surges needed time and room to get to safety."

The latest advisory from the National Hurricane Center says Ike "continues to grow in size but has not strengthened yet." It's described as a Category 2 storm that is likely to turn into a major hurricane before it hits the coastline.

Low-lying areas of this city, including some neighborhoods, have already begun flooding this morning as some now-panicked residents hurried out of of the path of Hurricane Ike.

High surf from the beach topped the seawall along Seawall Boulevard, flinging ocean debris — including water bottles and pieces of rotten wood — onto the street. Some adventurers brought digital cameras, snapping family photographs before leaving town.

World soccer's governing body FIFA has thrown Ethiopia out of the World Cup following a long-running row over the leadership of the country's football federation with immediate effect. The decision was taken by the Bureau of the Organising Committee for the Fifa World Cup.

FIFA announced on Friday that Ethiopia had been removed from the World Cup's qualifying competition by the tournament's organising committee after refusing to honour an agreement reached with FIFA in February.

Before Friday's decision, Ethiopia had been third in their four-team qualifying group behind Rwanda and Morocco and ahead of Mauritania.

FIFA said the group table would now be amended with all the matches played by Ethiopia wiped from the standings.

Ethiopia were suspended from international competition in July after failing to reinstate the federation leaders officially recognised by FIFA.

The suspension led to the cancellation of the country's scheduled World Cup qualifier against Morocco five days ago.

Survivors mourned at New York's Ground Zero on Thursday as John McCain and Barack Obama suspended their rancorous White House campaign to commemorate the seventh anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

A moment of silence began ceremonies at the side of the giant pit where the World Trade Centre towers once stood, followed by the reading of almost 3,000 victims' names.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said September 11, 2001, when al-Qaida-hijacked airliners demolished the Twin Towers and also crashed into the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania, was the day the United States "broke."

The anniversary, he said, was about "New Yorkers, Americans and global citizens remembering the innocent people from 95 nations and territories that lost their lives that day."

McCain and Obama, due to visit Ground Zero, after the official ceremonies, declared a truce and suspended advertising.

"There will be no speeches," Democrat Obama's spokeswoman Linda Douglass said. "This is going to be a moment when politics are set aside."

Victims' relatives, some choking on tears, read out names of the dead. A string quartet, alternating with a classical guitar and flute, played mournfully in the background as the litany unfolded.

Survivors, who wore white ribbons pinned to their chests, often broke off to add brief tributes. One fought to control himself as he condemned the "cowardly men" who killed his loved one.

A woman managed a smile as she called to her deceased husband Chuck, saying: "Until we meet again may God hold you in the palm of his hands."

At the Pentagon, thousands joined President George W. Bush and US Defense Secretary Robert Gates to dedicate the first September 11 memorial.

A Marine Corps bugler played taps from the roof where fire-fighters had unfurled an American flag while the building burned after the attack.

The sombre patriotism provided a rare moment of unity in a country less than two months from the end of an increasingly divisive presidential race.

But Obama set the tone, saying Wednesday that 9/11 showed "that here in America, we all have a stake in each other; I am my brother's keeper, I am my sister's keeper; and we rise and fall as one nation."

Because of continued delays in erecting the World Trade Centre's replacement and a Ground Zero memorial, the memory of the attacks remains literally an open wound.

Just this week, the first steel beams for a planned Freedom Tower were put in place at what is still a huge hole surrounded by cranes.

"I'd like to hear them say they're going to get more involved regarding... the need to protect our cities from all types of chemical and biological and radiological attacks," she said.