Archive - Sep 7, 2008

     X-Files TV and movie series creator Chris Carter has been admitted to hospital suffering from exhaustion.
     The 51-year-old writer, producer, and director was quietly admitted to a secret medical centre on Tuesday after being taken ill, it has emerged.
     "He is being treated for physical exhaustion and an acute sleeping disorder," a source close to Carter said.
     It is understood that Carter had over-worked himself on several different projects during the last two years to the point where he became completely exhausted.

     Hundreds of Irish labourers, many of whom died digging the Columbia Canal in South Carolina in the early 1800s, were honoured in an elaborate ceremony at the weekend.
     The Irishmen built a canal that today generates up to 10 million watts of power and supplies 35 million gallons of drinking water each day for South Carolina's Richland and Lexington counties.
     But their most important contribution to South Carolina came later, when they built St. Peter's Roman Catholic Church in Columbia.
     The church, which was originally built so the workers would have a place to be buried other than in the walls of the canal, helped expand Roman Catholicism in the state.

     US presidential hopeful Barack Obama has picked a pair of Washington heavyweights to be on a "dream team" to advice him on Ireland.
     The Illinois-based Democratic candidate's campaign staff have chosen ailing Senator Edward Kennedy and Congressman Richard Neal to serve on a newly-established advisory panel on Irish affairs.
     The panel has been quickly formed following a political drama sparked days ago when Obama suggested that he might scrap the position of a US Special envoy to Northern Ireland.
     Obama was lambasted by his Republican rival John McCain for questioning the necessity for the role.

     An ethics investigation into US Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin has been put on the fast track.
     The Alaska Legislature announced at the weekend that it will work to complete its probe into the state's governor's firing of her public-safety commissioner earlier than expected.
     It will now be completed weeks before the US election in November.
     State Senator Hollis French said seven witnesses told the Legislature's investigator they will not provide depositions and cancelled their meetings.

     Reclusive pop weirdo Michael Jackson snubbed his family at a top awards ceremony.
     The Jacksons were crowned music icons at the prestigious BMI Urban Awards dinner in Los Angeles but the fallen self-proclaimed King of Pop failed to turn up to be with his family.
     The Thriller singer was nowhere to be seen as his sister Janet Jackson presented her music-making brothers Tito, Jackie, Marlon and Randy with the lifetime achievement BMI Icon award following a musical tribute at the award show celebrating R&B and hip-hop's top hitmakers.

The disgraced FBI agent whose tip led to wanted Irish gang boss James 'Whitey' Bulger dramatically escape justice goes on trial for murder this week in a controversial case.
John Connolly was actually hundreds of miles away in 1982 when gambling executive John Callahan's bullet-riddled body was discovered in the boot of his Cadillac car at Miami's airport.
The admitted hitman has even testified that he has never met Connolly, the former agent at the heart of the FBI's sordid dealings with Bulger's Boston-based Winter Hill Gang.
Nevertheless, Connolly will stand trial on murder and conspiracy charges as if he had pulled the trigger himself because prosecutors say he secretly gave information that was crucial in setting up the murder.

     Actor Tommy Lee Jones is suing the makers of Oscar-winning movie No Country for Old Men for more than US$10 million that he claims he is owed for starring in the 2007 hit crime thriller.
     In his lawsuit against Hollywood studio Paramount Pictures, 61-year-old Jones claims he was promised "significant box-office bonuses" and other compensation depending on the success of the film, which went on to make more than US$160 million.
     Jones, who played Sheriff Ed Tom Bell in the movie, claims he was not paid promised bonuses and had expenses wrongly deducted.