By 9 a.m. the trams were crowded and along the roads to Aintree lumbered busses filled with girls nibbling chocolate bars, clerks in their Sunday suits, gentlemen with binoculars who made notes on the margins of their form charts. By 11 a.m. the bookmakers were on their platforms shouting odds soon to be changed: "Fifty to one against the field except Easter Hero!" All morning there were long lines of bettors at the windows of the new "tote" machines. ...

For two weeks in 1976, Nadia Comaneci was probably the most recognizable person on the planet. Just 14-years-old and standing less than five feet tall, the elfin Romanian was the undisputed star of that year's Games in Montreal after becoming the first gymnast in history to score a perfect 10. Comaneci finished up with three gold medals and -- just to prove that her initial effort had been no fluke -- seven perfect scores. Her initial performance on the uneven ...

When Canadian cocaine smuggler Charles Lai was being sentenced in a Seattle federal courtroom last month, the judge sending him to prison for 13 years offered a small item of good news. At least behind bars, Judge James Robart said, drug smuggler Lai would not become another fatality in Vancouver's gang wars. Authorities in Vancouver, just 30 miles from the border, are struggling to deal with the boom in the drug trade between the United States and Canada, along with ...

A killer bug is spreading like wildfire. Streets of one of the world's biggest cities are eerily empty. Bars and restaurants have been shuttered for days. The president goes on TV to tell workers to stay at home for their own safety. Those who venture outside are clad in surgical masks. Once healthy people are suddenly falling sick and dying from a new disease, H1N1 swine flu. The government swears the situation is under control. But down at ...

London's newest hotelier Mark Fuller is showing commendable bravado for someone about to open a luxury hotel during a global recession. "F*** the recession, let's get on with it," he says, while sitting on the roof terrace of the Sanctum Soho, a 30-room establishment dubbed the rock'n'roll hotel, as much for its "anything goes" service philosophy as the pedigree of its owners, which include the co-managers of heavy metal band Iron Maiden. "We do not recognize there is a credit ...

Denny's, one of the many casual dining chains whose sales are suffering in the recession, needs a few thousand customers like Cory McGrath. On Apr. 7 McGrath, 20, saw a television ad for a Denny's promotion that was taking place the next day. The deal: buy one of it famous $5.99 "Grand Slam"breakfasts, and get a free "Grand Slamwich," a tasty heart attack consisting of scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon, shaved ham, mayonnaise and American cheese on potato bread, for a pal . Sold. The following ...

There's little affection in a "Glasgow kiss." Typically preceded by some variation of the growled question "Whit ya [expletive] lookin' at?" the term refers to a vicious headbutt, as delivered all too often in the bars and on the streets of Scotland's largest city. Alcohol-fueled violence and binge-drinking are endemic across Britain, but the phenomenon is especially acute north of the border — and it's getting worse. That's why Scottish ministers this week announced radical plans to curb excess drinking. ...