Nadia Comaneci

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

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Drug-fueled gang wars shake Vancouver

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

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Forget the recession, live like a rock star in new hotel

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 crunch because we believe you should battle through it,” Fuller says, adding “If you get panicky and scary about things like this you’re no man at all.” Besides, he admits, three years ago when he started working on the concept of an ‘alluring haven of hedonism’ (as the hotel is described on its Web site), the credit crunch didn’t exist

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Nation o’ Drinkers: Scotland Takes on Alcohol Abuse

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

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