ISLAMABAD — A pair of bombings on Sunday killed at least 10 people, including a government official, and wounded scores more, Pakistani authorities said.
The first blast hit the home of a local official in the Kurram area of Pakistan’s semiautonomous tribal region, killing Sarfaraz Khan, his 13-year-old son and three of his young nephews, an official said. The Associated Press reported that Khan’s wife was also killed in the attack, but that could not be independently confirmed.
Some observers speculated that Khan’s killing was in retaliation for his cooperation with security forces targeting Islamist extremists in the region. Khan had been “vocal and helpful to the security agencies,” Syed Azfal, a political activist in Khan’s home town of Sadda, said in a telephone interview.
In a second attack, a suicide bomber in the capital of the Pakistani-controlled portion of Kashmir detonated his explosives outside a prayer hall packed with worshipers marking Ashura, a Shiite Muslim holiday. The bomb killed at least five people and injured more than 80, authorities said.
There was no claim of responsibility for either attack.
The violence, on the two-year anniversary of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto’s assassination, underscored the volatility now challenging the increasingly weak civilian government led by her husband, President Asif Ali Zardari. Zardari has faced calls to resign since the Supreme Court earlier this month struck down an amnesty that shielded him and other officials from corruption charges. Zardari is still protected by a clause in the constitution giving the president immunity from prosecution, but opponents say they plan to file court petitions contesting his eligibility for the office.
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On Sunday, Zardari lashed out at his opponents for the first time since the court decision, telling a crowd near Bhutto’s tomb in southern Pakistan that the demands for his resignation were rooted in “evil intentions” that pose a threat to the nation’s fragile democracy.
The military is battling Pakistani Taliban insurgents based in the rugged tribal region bordering Afghanistan, including Kurram. Militants have stepped up attacks nationwide since the army opened a major offensive in the tribal area of South Waziristan this fall. Many of the attacks have targeted security forces and installations.
10 killed in Pakistan bombings on anniversary of Bhutto assassination
WIMBLEDON, England – As American Andy Roddick plotted and perspired over the years to get back to the place and the round where he once belonged, the opponent he visualized across the net in the Wimbledon final was always Roger Federer of Switzerland.
“It’s the only thing I’ve known in a Wimbledon final,” Roddick said. “It’s expected that it’s Roger. Pretty much, if you want to win a Slam, it’s got to go through him.”
Roddick was surprisingly measured, even mellow Friday evening after experiencing the high of defeating Andy Murray of Scotland at the All England Club in the semifinals.
“You spend the better part of three hours stressing out, high drama and the whole deal,” Roddick said. “I think afterward you’re just kind of trying to maybe calm down a little bit.”
Calm down and come up with a good plan, which is what will presumably be required if Roddick is finally to beat Federer on a big occasion. Federer comes into today’s Wimbledon final with an 18-2 lead over Roddick.
“It’s clear that it helps me to have this record against him,” Federer said after his practice Saturday. “But if I don’t win, it’s not going to help me. So I have to remain concentrated and, above all, not underestimate him, because things can go quickly.”
Federer beat Roddick in the 2004 and 2005 Wimbledon finals.
Federer is seeking his 15th major title, which would snap a tie with American Pete Sampras for the most of all time.
Federer is seeking his sixth Wimbledon title and a victory in the final would vault him over Rafael Nadal of Spain for the No. 1 ranking in the world.
“Records are part of this great match right now,” Federer said, “so it’s obviously even more of an incentive to try really hard.”
well-worn form of Andy Roddick, a good bit of 1930s great Don Budge and his irreverent, long-deceased tennis coach have found their way to the regal grounds of Wimbledon.
Roddick’s thrill-ride swing to the men’s final, where he meets five-time champion and longtime nemesis Roger Federer today, has been a monumental surprise; not only to seasoned observers who assumed he had long ago played his best tennis, but to Roddick himself.
“To be honest, the last couple of years I didn’t know if I would ever get a chance to play for a Grand Slam title,” Roddick said after his semifinal dismantling of Britain’s great hope, Andy Murray. “Now I get to, and it’s a dream.”
As has been widely noted, this particular dream has been guided by a new coach: a hyperkinetic San Diegan and former tour journeyman named Larry Stefanki. Since the pair hooked up late last year, Roddick has streamlined his game and his attitude. The results have been steadily encouraging: the semifinals at the Australian Open, a personal-best fourth-round showing at the French Open, two close matches against Federer in lesser events. And now, out of nowhere, his third final at the All England Club.
Maybe, just maybe, it’ll be different this time. Under Stefanki, Roddick has slimmed by 10 to 15 pounds. As important has been the change in how he plays: He’s lighter and more balanced on his feet, he’s more erect and relaxed and he’s taking shorter, sharper swings. Instead of lunging, leaning and groping like a rag doll on a string, he has focused on the simple principal of moving aggressively forward.
None of this is a surprise to those who know about the lineage of Tom Stow, a little-known, one-of-a-kind tennis coach from Berkeley who died two decades ago.
Even die-hard tennis fans may be wondering, Tom who? In the 1920s, Stow won a national doubles title at California. Then, for decades, he taught a distinct serve-and-volley style while coaching at Cal and then at the Berkeley Tennis Club and a few other tennis outposts in Northern California. It was Stow’s coaching that put a stamp on one of the sport’s all-time greats, Oakland-bred Budge, the first man to win all four Grand Slam event singles titles in one year, the Wimbledon champion in 1937 and 1938.
Budge’s best shot? Arguably, the backhand drive. It’s not a coincidence that one of Roddick’s most improved shots at this year’s Wimbledon has been his backhand, taut, tight and down the line.
Here’s how the lineage spreads. Stefanki played at Cal in the mid-1970s. Along with his brother Steve, who coached the U.S. Olympic team in 1984, Stefanki developed much of his tennis philosophy while working with Stow when Stow was in his 70s and nearing death. (Full disclosure: Steve was my tennis mentor when I was co-captain of the Cal tennis team in the late 1980s.)
To Larry and his brother, Tom Stow wasn’t just another tennis coach. He was a maestro: a crafty, chain-smoking, uncompromising sort, a man willing to buck every trend and see the game differently. He studied dance and tried to get them to move like Fred Astaire. He studied boxing, hoping to have them press forward with the steadiness of Joe Louis. Sometimes he’d force his students to spend their afternoons hitting balls while sitting in a chair, to teach the feel of being grounded. He’d focus session after session on two parts of the game often overlooked by other teachers — returns and serves — which Roddick has excelled at this Wimbledon. Stow almost never watched his charges play matches, not even Budge. He figured tennis’ true essence lies in finely tuned practice. The competition would take care of itself.
“I have learned something from every great player I’ve ever worked with,” Stefanki said in an e-mail the day after Roddick’s semifinal win, a reference to his past coaching of players such as John McEnroe, Yevgeny Kafelnikov and Fernando Gonzalez. “But the foundation of fundamentals and knowledge of the game is credited to Tom. His principles and understanding of footwork and absorbing speed is second to none. He was a true master in that regard . . . he understood this game played in a rectangular box better than anyone I have ever come across.”
And so it goes. The lineage moves one step forward. A player from the roaring 1920s becomes an exacting teacher. Without wide notice he spends decades doling out wisdom. That wisdom travels through an all-time great, then it evolves and adapts while remaining true and honest and relevant. Now we find it at Wimbledon.
“My only regret,” Stefanki wrote, “is that Tom is not around to see his techniques are still being passed on.”
There are limits. A startling upset can occur. Most likely though, by this afternoon these techniques will have been neutralized by the great magician from Switzerland.
But this much is certain: No matter what happens in the final, America’s long-suffering top tennis player has just had a marvelous tournament and a superb half of a season. His once foundering career is moving in the right direction — forward. For all of this, we now know, Andy Roddick owes a debt to Tom Stow.
Everyone reads too much into things at the beginning of a relationship. Even the dude who pretends he couldn’t be more casual. It’s natural — we’re trying to mind-read our dates, gauge intentions, figure out if our new flame would rather be doing her nails than listening to our college stories during a nice night out on the town. So you have to be careful with us guys — even though we pretend not to be so sensitive — and realize what signal you’re sending.
Here are five that say: I really really like you… for anyone else but me.
More on Dating from Glamour:
1. The Coffee Invite
“Let’s totally have coffee at 2:15 on Wednesday!” Coffee? On a weekday? At such a precise time? That’s when you meet your friend’s little sister who wants to ask you for career advice.
2. The Group Invite
“Me and a bunch of my friends are going to be at XX bar, why don’t you stop by?” When we hear that you’re bringing your friends along, we assume you don’t want to be alone with us.
3. The Inappropriate Attire
“I just came from the gym.” It’s no problem if you don’t dress like you’re on your way to accept the academy award for best actress, but if you’re wearing sweatpants, we’re assuming you don’t want us to think about you in any sensual way.
4. The Excuse Caused by Your Insecurity
“I’m soooooo tired.” This is the absolute worst. I’ve had women say that to me when they’ve actually been interested and later admit that they were just worried that they seemed boring and were making an excuse. But what we hear is: I’m laying the groundwork to go home as soon as possible.
5. The Outpouring About Your Ex
“I’m just getting out of a really intense relationship.” We don’t care if this is true, and we know that even people just emerging from coupledom can get involved with new people. But we don’t want to spend our first moments alone together hearing about how intense your old relationship was. Not the mental picture that makes us giddy.
The more than 1.6 million fans who registered for tickets to Michael Jackson’s memorial service will wait until Monday to learn if they received one of the 11,000 tickets for Tuesday’s ceremony.
The two-day registration period for the service at Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles ended Saturday. Another 6,500 tickets will be given away for the Nokia Theater overflow section next door.
Fans had to register for free at staplescenter.com between 10 a.m. Friday and 6 p.m. Saturday for the random drawing of 8,750 names. Each person selected will receive two tickets and will be notified by e-mail after 11 a.m. Sunday.
Before the drawing, officials at AEG, the owner and operator of the Staples Center, will “scrub” the entries to eliminate duplicates and any suspected of being made by automated systems or “go-bots,” said Jackson family spokesman Ken Sunshine in a statement.
Winners will receive a unique code and instructions on how to pick up their tickets at an off-site distribution center on Monday. At the distribution center, they will receive the ticket and a wristband that will be placed on their wrists at that time.
Fans must have both the ticket and the wristband to enter Staples Center on Tuesday. Wristbands that have been ripped, taped or tampered with will be voided.
Sunshine said those steps are being taken to prevent ticket-scalping.
City officials are preparing for massive crowds. Assistant Police Chief Earl Paysinger says anywhere from a quarter-million to 700,000 people may try to reach the arena, even though a wide area around Staples Center will be sealed off to those without tickets.
City Councilwoman Jan Perry strongly urged people to stay home and watch the memorial on TV. The ceremony will not be shown on Staples’ giant outdoor TV screen and there will be no funeral procession through the city.
No details were given about the actual memorial events, which come as the nation’s second-largest city struggles with a $530 million budget deficit. Perry said the cost of police protection for “extraordinary” events like the memorial is built into the Police Department’s budget, but she still solicited help for “incremental costs.”
Last month, donations covered about $850,000 of the city’s $1 million cost for the Los Angeles Lakers’ NBA championship parade. Critics had blasted the idea of using city money when it is considering layoffs to close its budget gap.
HOUSTON – Five Houston children died Saturday after their sedan slid into a rain-swollen ditch when the driver lost control while trying to answer a cell phone, authorities said.
John Cannon, a Houston police spokesman, told several Houston television stations that the driver of the car was the father of four of the dead children, all 7 or younger. Cannon said the driver was taken for blood-alcohol testing.
The father was among two adults and a 10-year-old girl who escaped the fast-moving current that swept the car 100 feet from where it left the road and made the vehicle inaccessible to emergency workers for hours, Cannon said.
Houston television station KTRK reported that police said the dead children included 1- and 3-year-old girls and three boys, ages 4, 6 and 7.
Cannon said a passenger told police the driver’s cell phone rang, and the driver lost control when he tried to answer it.
Houston Fire Assistant Chief Omero Longoria said in the online edition of the Houston Chronicle that rescue workers found the car in 9 feet of water about 7:30 p.m. Saturday, 2 1/2 hours after the driver lost control.
The children’s deaths brought the weekend death toll to six from massive storms that swept across southeast Texas.
A 76-year-old Fayette County man died Friday after his car got stuck in a flooded underpass in Schulenburg, midway between Houston and San Antonio. Frank Floyd, 76, of Hallettsville, drowned after he and his wife became trapped after driving into a flooded railroad underpass on U.S. 77, said Schulenburg Police Chief Randy Mican.
“It filled up with water pretty quick and the water kept rising,” said Mican, who estimated the water depth reached 8 to 9 feet. “It’s not common to flood that much.”
Floyd’s wife, Mary, 72, managed to escape and was taken to a hospital. Her injuries were not believed life-threatening, the chief said.
By 5 p.m. Saturday, nearly 5 inches of rain had fallen at Houston’s Hobby Airport, a record for April 18.
The initial leg of an annual 150-mile charity bike ride involving more than 13,000 cyclists raising money for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society was washed out Saturday by the second consecutive day of heavy rain.
The 25th annual MS 150 had been scheduled for Houston to La Grange. It was scrapped after Friday’s torrential downpours flooded the Fayette County Fairgrounds, where tents were set up for overnight accommodations for participants. Saturday’s continuing rains made riding treacherous.
“The safety of our participants and volunteers is the first priority,” the Lone Star Chapter of the National MS Society said in a statement.
Organizers of one of the nation’s largest such events hoped clearing weather forecast for Sunday would allow for the second half of the ride from La Grange to Austin.
It was the wettest April 17 on record in College Station, where 2.94 inches of rain Friday broke a mark set 30 years ago when 1.68 inches fell. Houston also set a record for the most rain for the day, with the 1.9 inches topping the old mark of 1.85 in 1992.
At least 10 inches of rain fell Friday in Colorado County, about 70 miles west of Houston, closing some roads. Hail measuring 1.75 inches in diameter was reported Friday night in Laredo, along with some street flooding in Zapata County in the Rio Grande Valley.
More heavy rain fell Saturday, and nearly all of East Texas and portions of South Texas were under some kind of threatening weather advisory with tornado warnings and watches and flash flood warnings and watches in place.
U.S. 87 south of Cuero, about 80 miles southeast of San Antonio, was closed by a flash flood Saturday. A tornado was spotted in a rural area near Marquez, about 60 miles southeast of Waco. Firefighters reported a barn was toppled by high winds near Rosebud in Milam County, about 35 miles southeast of Waco.
In Robertson County, between College Station and Waco, authorities said a possible tornado during a thunderstorm Saturday morning downed trees and power lines and left some windows broken in Franklin, the county seat.
Taylor Alison Swift (born December 13, 1989) is an American country-pop singer-songwriter. In 2006, she released her debut single “Tim McGraw”, which peaked at number six on the Billboard country charts. Later in October 2006, she released her self-titled debut album, which produced five hit singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts and was certified 3× Multi-Platinum by the RIAA. The New York Times described Swift as “one of pop’s finest songwriters, country’s foremost pragmatist and more in touch with her inner life than most adults”.
According to Nielsen SoundScan, Swift was the biggest selling artist of 2008 in America with combined sales of more than four million albums. Swift’s Fearless and her self-titled album finished 2008 at number three and number six respectively, with sales of 2.1 and 1.5 million.She was the first artist in the history of Nielsen SoundScan to have two different albums in the Top 10 on the year end album chart. Fearless has topped the Billboard 200 in ten different weeks. No album has spent more time at number one since 1999-2000. It also the first album by a female artist in country music history to log eight weeks at #1 on The Billboard 200. In mid-January 2009, Swift became the first country artist to top the 2 million mark in paid downloads with three different songs.As of the week ending February 8, 2009, Swift’s single “Love Story” became the country song with most paid downloads in history and has become the first country song to top the Mainstream Top 40 chart.
Early life
Swift was born in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania. She is the daughter of Scott and Andrea Swift. She has one younger brother, Austin.[10] Swift grew up on a Christmas tree farm outside of Reading, Pennsylvania, the daughter of a stock broker father and stay-at-home mother. When she was in fourth grade, Swift won a national poetry contest with a three-page long poem entitled “Monster In My Closet”.At the age of ten, Swift began to perform around her home town, singing at karaoke contests, festivals, and fairs, and also started writing songs. During one summer, Swift devoted herself to writing a 350-page (unpublished) novel.
Career
Early work
Swift’s singing influences include her grandmother and LeAnn Rimes.Although her grandmother was a professional opera singer,Taylor’s tastes always ran more toward country and she developed a love for Patsy Cline and Dolly Parton at an early age. She also credits the Dixie Chicks and Shania Twain for demonstrating how much impact can be made by “stretching boundaries”.
At age eleven, Swift made her first trip to Nashville hoping to obtain a record deal by distributing a demo tape of her singing with karaoke songs. She gave a copy to every label on Music Row. Swift faced rejection, not just from record labels, but also from her peers. After Swift returned to Pennsylvania, she was asked to sing at the U.S. Open tennis tournament; her rendition of the national anthem received a lot of attention.
Swift started writing songs and playing 12-string guitar when she was twelve. Swift began to regularly visit Nashville and wrote songs with local songwriters. By the time she was fourteen, her family decided to move to an outlying Nashville suburb.When Swift was fifteen, she rejected a development deal with RCA Records because the company refused to allow her to record her own songs.Swift then performed at Nashville’s songwriters’ venue, The Bluebird Café, catching the attention of Scott Borchetta who signed her to his newly-formed record label, Big Machine Records. She also became the youngest staff songwriter ever hired by the Sony/ATV Tree publishing house.
Music career
2006-2008: Debut album Taylor Swift
Taylor Swift performing at a café with a koa wood guitar
Swift’s first single, “Tim McGraw”, was released to radio in Summer of 2006 and on October 24, 2006, her self-titled album was released. Swift wrote or co-wrote all of the songs on the album, which debuted at number 19 on the Billboard 200 and sold just 39,000 copies during its first week. It later peaked at number one at Billboard Top Country Albums and number five at Billboard 200. It also spent eight consecutive weeks at the top of the Top Country Albums charts and remained at the top for 24 out of 91 weeks.The only other country artists this decade to achieve the number-one sales position for 20 weeks or more are The Dixie Chicks and Carrie Underwood. As of November 2008, Taylor Swift has sold over three million copies and 7.5 million single downloads.
Swift has surpassed the 179 million mark for music streams on MySpace. She is currently ranked in the Top 10 for the most MySpace visits for all genres of music, and is MySpace’s current top-ranking Country artist.Swift is the most searched musical artist on MySpace in 2008.
Regarding “Tim McGraw”, Swift said, “I wrote the song in my freshman year of high school. I was dating a guy who was about to go off to college. I knew we were going to break up so I started thinking of all the things that I knew would remind him of me. Surprisingly, the first thing that came to mind was that my favorite country artist is Tim McGraw.”Tim McGraw” peaked at #6 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts for the week of January 27, 2007. The song’s music video set a record by appearing for 30 consecutive weeks on GAC’s fan-voted weekly Top 20 music countdown show, and reached number one on CMT’s video charts. The video also won Swift an award for Breakthrough Video of the Year at the 2007 CMT Music Awards.Her pursuit of country music stardom was the subject of “GAC Short Cuts”, a part-documentary, part-music-video series airing since the summer of 2006 on the country music channel.
On May 15, 2007, Swift performed “Tim McGraw” at the Academy of Country Music Awards. She sang the song to Tim McGraw in the audience, and introduced herself for the first time to him. Swift has been an opening act for Tim McGraw and Faith Hill on their Soul2Soul 2007 tour. She has opened in the past for George Strait, Brad Paisley and Rascal Flatts as well.On August 21, 2007, Swift performed live on the season finale of America’s Got Talent.
The second single from the Taylor Swift album, “Teardrops on My Guitar”, was released February 24, 2007. The song was inspired by a true event during her time in high school in which she liked a boy named “Drew Hardwick.” He only saw Swift as a friend and a go-to person for advice about his relationship with his girlfriend. She noted she heard “through the grapevine” that Drew is well aware the song was written about him. “Teardrops on My Guitar” originally made its peak positions in Summer 2007, peaking at #2 on the Billboard Country Chart and #33 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song was re-released to the Hot 100 and Pop 100 in late 2007 with a pop remix that brought “Teardrops on My Guitar” to #13 on the Hot 100 and #11 on the Pop 100.
In October 2007, Swift’s songwriting peers at the Nashville Songwriters Association International honored her with their Songwriter/Artist of the Year Award, making her the youngest artist ever to win the award.
On November 7, 2007, Swift won the 2007 CMA Horizon Award and also performed “Our Song,” the third single from her album, which would go on to become her first #1 song the week of December 22, 2007, where it leaped up from the #6 spot. This was the biggest jump to Number One since January 1998, when Tim McGraw’s “Just to See You Smile”, also jumped from #6 to #1.”Our Song” spent six weeks at #1 on the Country charts and also peaked at #16 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #24 on the Billboard Pop 100.
Swift also recorded a holiday album, Sounds of the Season: The Taylor Swift Holiday Collection, that was released October 16, 2007, exclusively available at Target stores. The album, which was not as successful as her self-titled debut, featured both holiday classics such as “Last Christmas” and original songs written by Swift.
Swift was nominated for a 2008 Grammy Award in the category of Best New Artist, but lost to Amy Winehouse. Swift’s successful single, “Picture to Burn” was the fourth single from her debut album. The song debuted early in 2008 and peaked at #3 on the Billboard Country Chart in the spring of 2008.
Taylor Swift performing at Yahoo HQ in 2007
Big Machine Records announced the release of “Should’ve Said No” on Monday, May 19. The song is the fifth and final single from Swift’s debut album. She performed it on 43rd Annual Academy of Country Music Awards.The performance started off with her dressed in a hooded sweatshirt and jeans, but soon after a short black halter dress was revealed. In the last minute of the song, she went backstage to perform the final verse under a cascading waterfall. Swift had wanted to do that performance on stage with the water and the change of clothes since she was ten years old.”Should’ve Said No” became her second Number One single for the chart dated August 23, 2008.
In Summer 2008, Swift released Beautiful Eyes, an EP sold exclusively at Wal-Mart. In its first week of release, the album sold 45,000 copies, debuting at #1 on Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart and #9 on the Billboard 200. With her self-titled debut album at #2 the same week, Swift became the first artist to hold the Top 2 positions of the Top Country Albums chart since LeAnn Rimes did so in 1997.
2008-present: Fearless
Swift’s latest studio album, Fearless, was released in the United States on November 11, 2008.[43] The album debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 Album Chart. Its sales of 592,304 was the highest debut of any country artists in 2008. This is also the largest opening U.S. sales week in 2008 by a female artist in all genres of music, and the fourth biggest overall behind Lil Wayne, AC/DC and Coldplay.[44] Its lead single “Love Story” became a hit on both the country and pop charts.
During the first week of release, more than 129,000 of Swift’s sales were sold digitally. This gives Swift the best online start for any country album in history.[45] It also makes Swift the fourth biggest week for a digital album since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking them in 2004.[46] Through its eighth week of release, Fearless has sold more than 244,000 paid downloads, making it the bestselling country album in digital history. In second place, it is Swift’s debut Taylor Swift with sales of 212,000 downloads as of January 17, 2009.
In its debut week, seven songs in total on Fearless were charted on Billboard Hot 100, tying Swift with Hannah Montana for the most by a female artist in a single week. With “White Horse” charted at #13, this gave Swift her sixth top 20 debut of 2008, a calendar year record for any artist in the history of the Billboard Hot 100. Of the 13 tracks on Fearless, 11 have already spent time on the Hot 100.
“Change”, a song from the album, was selected as part of a soundtrack supporting Team USA’s efforts in the 2008 Summer Olympics.[42] The song was also featured as part of the soundtrack of NBC’s broadcast package of the Olympics. She also released the lead single from the album, “Love Story”, on September 12, 2008. The song is accompanied by a music video that is based on Romeo and Juliet. The song has reached number 2 on iTunes Store Top Downloaded Songs and number four on the Billboard Hot 100. Fifteen weeks after being added to pop radio, “Love Story” also became the first country crossover recording to hit number one on the Nielsen BDS CHR/Top 40 chart in the 16-year-history of list, as well as number one on the Mediabase Top 40 Chart. The second single from Fearless, “White Horse”, was released on December 8, 2008. The music video for the song premiered on CMT on February 7, 2009.
Swift is Billboard’s Top Country Artist and Hot Country Songwriter of 2008; she is also country music’s best-selling artist of 2008.
Swift ranked seventh on Nielsen SoundScan Canada’s top-10 selling artists across all genres in 2008. Fearless and Taylor Swift took the #1 and #2 slots on 2008 Year-End Canadian Country Albums Chart.
Swift sang the Star-Spangled Banner at game three of the World Series in Philadelphia on October 25, 2008.
On January 10, 2009, Swift made her first musical guest appearance on Saturday Night Live, making her the youngest country singer to appear as a musical guest on the show in its 33-year run.Swift’s show achieved SNL’s highest adult 18-49 rating and overall viewer total since the November election (in 2008). It was tied for the #7 rating of that week among all broadcast and cable entertainment programs on all networks and outscored all its telecasts of last season in 18-49 and total viewers.
On February 8, 2009, she performed her song “Fifteen” with Miley Cyrus at the 51st Grammy Awards.
2009: Fearless Tour
In January 2009, Swift announced her first headlining tour. Swift will take her North American Fearless Tour 2009 to 52 cities in 38 states and provinces in the US and Canada over the span of 6 months. Opening acts include Kellie Pickler and Gloriana, a new group in country music. The tour will feature a theatrical presentation of graphics, sets and visual elements designed by Swift. Swift will play guitar as well as piano. Multiple costume changes and a fairy-tale castle are some of the elements of the three-act show.
The tour kicks off April 23 in Evansville, Indiana. On February 6, 2009, tickets went on sale for the May 22nd date at Los Angeles’ Staples Center and sold out in two minutes. Tickets for several dates went on sale in the following week and sold out quickly.
Endorsement
As of January 30, 2009, Swift and the L.e.i. Clothing Line made a deal to create a line based on Swift’s style of dressing. It will appear in Wal-Mart in the coming months. But Swift said she doesn’t want to be called a designer. Instead, she says she’ll inspire the clothing company’s dress line based on her own style. “I don’t look at it like I’m branching out as a designer… It’s not the Taylor Swift designer line.”
In 2009, Swift became the National Hockey League’s newest celebrity spokesperson. She appears in commercials for the Nashville Predators.
Personal life
Swift’s best friend has been Abigail Anderson, whom she has known since their ninth-grade year. During a discussion of Shakespeare in an English class they learned what they had in common. “We were the ones in the back of the class saying negative things about Romeo and Juliet because we were so bitter toward that emotion at the time,” said Anderson. “We just really connected … and ever since then we have been inseparable.” Swift is also close friends with Kellie Pickler, with whom she co-wrote Pickler’s second single “Best Days of Your Life” from her album Kellie Pickler.
In July 2008, Swift graduated from the Aaron Academy, a Christian school in Hendersonville, Tennessee which offers a home-schooling program.
Swift was named number fifty-seven on Maxim’s sexiest women of 2008.As of 2008, she has been a cover girl for Seventeen, CosmoGirl,and Teen Vogue.
Swift once dated singer Joe Jonas.She wrote the song “Forever & Always” about him, and the song appeared on her album, Fearless. It was the last song that she had recorded, and it was a last-minute addition to her album.
Charitable work
On September 21, 2007, Swift launched a campaign to protect children from online predators.She has teamed up with Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen to combat internet sex crimes. The year-long campaign, launched in partnership with the Tennessee Association of Chiefs of Police, will distribute Internet safety information and materials to parents and students across the state.
Swift is an endorser of Body By Milk, a campaign calling teenagers to drink low fat milk to maintain a healthy weight.
Swift has teamed up with Sound Matters to make listeners aware of listening “responsibly”.
Swift supports @15, a teen-led social change platform underwritten by Best Buy to give teens opportunities to direct the company’s philanthropy through the newly-created @15 Fund. Swift’s song, Fifteen, is featured in this campaign.
Discography
Main article: Taylor Swift discography
Albums
* 2006: Taylor Swift
* 2008: Fearless
EPs
* 2007: Sounds of the Season: The Taylor Swift Holiday Collection
* 2008: Beautiful Eyes
WASHINGTON – Savoring his first big victory in Congress, President Barack Obama on Saturday celebrated the newly passed $787 billion economic stimulus bill as a “major milestone on our road to recovery. “
Officials said he would sign the measure on Tuesday in Denver.
Speaking in his weekly radio and Internet address, Obama said, “I will sign this legislation into law shortly, and we’ll begin making the immediate investments necessary to put people back to work doing the work America needs done.”
At the same time, he cautioned, “This historic step won’t be the end of what we do to turn our economy around, but rather the beginning. The problems that led us into this crisis are deep and widespread, and our response must be equal to the task.”
The bill passed Congress on Friday on votes split mostly along party lines, allowing Democratic leaders to deliver on their promise of clearing the legislation by mid-February. The decision to sign it Tuesday in Denver, where Democrats held their national convention last summer, was disclosed by officials on condition of anonymity. They said they were not authorized to discuss the plans.
“It will take time, and it will take effort, but working together, we will turn this crisis into opportunity and emerge from our painful present into a brighter future,” the president said.
Obama “now has a bill to sign that will create millions of good-paying jobs and help families and businesses stay afloat financially,” said Sen. Max Baucus, a Montana Democrat who was a leading architect of the measure.
“It will shore up our schools and roads and bridges, and infuse cash into new sectors like green energy and technology that will sustain our economy for the long term,” he added in a statement.
Hours earlier, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell offered a different prediction for a bill he said was loaded with wasteful spending.
“A stimulus bill that was supposed to be timely, targeted and temporary is none of the above,” he said in remarks on the Senate floor. “And this means Congress is about to approve a stimulus that’s unlikely to have much stimulative effect.”
Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, in the GOP radio address Saturday, contended Democrats settled “on a random dollar amount in the neighborhood of $1 trillion and then set out to fill the bucket.”
Obama, who was spending the weekend in Chicago, planned to fly back to Washington on Monday. His schedule for the week ahead includes trips to Denver on Tuesday to talk about his economic agenda and a visit to Phoenix on Wednesday to present a plan to fight foreclosures.
In a struggle lasting several weeks, lawmakers in the two political parties both emphasized they wanted to pass legislation to revitalize the economy and ease frozen credit markets. But the plan that the administration and its allies eventually came up drew the support of only three Republicans in Congress – moderate Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine and Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania.
Their support was critical, though, in helping the bill squeak through the Senate on a vote of 60-38, precisely the number needed for passage. Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown cast the 60th vote in favor in a nearly deserted Senate, hours after the roll call began. He arrived after a flight aboard a government plane from Ohio, where he was mourning the death of his mother earlier in the week.
The House vote was 246-183.
The legislation, among the costliest ever considered in Congress, provides billions of dollars to aid victims of the recession through unemployment benefits, food stamps, medical care, job retraining and more. Tens of billions are ticketed for the states to offset cuts they might otherwise have to make in aid to schools and local governments, and there is more than $48 billion for transportation projects such as road and bridge construction, mass transit and high-speed rail.
Democrats said the bill’s tax cuts would help 95 percent of all Americans, much of the relief in the form of a break of $400 for individuals and $800 for couples. At the insistence of the White House, people who do not earn enough money to owe income taxes are eligible, an attempt to offset the payroll taxes they pay.
In a bow to political reality, lawmakers included $70 billion to shelter upper middle-class and wealthier taxpayers from an income tax increase that would otherwise hit them, a provision that the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said would do relatively little to create jobs.
Also included were funds for two of Obama’s initiatives, the expansion of computerized information technology in the health care industry and billions to create green jobs the administration says will begin reducing the country’s dependence on foreign oil.
Friday’s events capped an early period of accomplishment for the Democrats, who won control of the White House and expanded their majorities in Congress in last fall’s elections.
Since taking office on Jan. 20, the president has signed legislation extending government-financed health care to millions of lower-income children who lack it, a bill that President George W. Bush twice vetoed. Obama also has placed his signature on a measure making it easier for workers to sue their employers for alleged job discrimination, effectively overturning a ruling by the Supreme Court’s conservative majority.
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – Raising fresh questions about his appointment to Congress, Sen. Roland Burris admitted in a document released Saturday that former Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s brother asked him for campaign fundraising help before the governor named Burris as Illinois’ junior senator.
The disclosure reflects a major omission from Burris’ testimony in January when an Illinois House impeachment committee specifically asked if he had ever spoken to Robert Blagojevich or other aides to the now-deposed governor about the Senate seat vacated by Barack Obama.
State Rep. Jim Durkin, the impeachment committee’s ranking Republican, told The Associated Press that he and House Republican Leader Tom Cross will ask Sunday for an outside investigation into whether Burris perjured himself.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada also said he was reviewing the disclosure, the latest twist for Senate Democrats in Washington who only consented to seat Burris on the condition that there were no “pay to play” promises exchanged in the appointment.
Burris said he voluntarily gave the committee a Feb. 4 affidavit disclosing the contact with Robert Blagojevich because “there were several facts that I was not given the opportunity to make during my testimony to the impeachment committee.”
The affidavit, released by Burris’ office after it was first reported by the Chicago Sun-Times, said Robert Blagojevich called him three times – once in October and twice after the November election – to seek his fundraising assistance.
Robert Blagojevich’s attorney said his client believes one of the conversations was recorded by the FBI.
Burris, a Democrat like the former governor, said he told Robert Blagojevich he would not raise money because it would look like he was trying to win favor from the governor for his appointment. But he said he did ask the governor’s brother “what was going on with the selection of a successor” to Obama in the Senate and “he said he had heard my name mentioned in the discussions.”
It’s the second time Burris has changed his story. In an unsolicited affidavit to the impeachment committee on Jan. 6, Burris said he had only one limited conversation with the governor before accepting the Senate appointment.
Then, appearing before the committee Jan. 8, he said he told former Blagojevich aide-turned-lobbyist Lon Monk last summer that he was interested in the post.
The governor appointed Burris, a former state attorney general, to the Senate seat on Dec. 30, three weeks after federal agents arrested Blagojevich on a complaint alleging he had tried to trade the appointment for campaign cash or a high-paying job. The state House impeached Blagojevich and the state Senate removed him from office on Jan. 29.
Reid and Dick Durbin of Illinois, among other Senate Democrats, initially said they would not seat anyone appointed by Blagojevich but eventually relented after accepting Burris’ impeachment committee testimony under oath that there were no promises exchanged for his appointment.
A spokesman for Durbin said the senator was overseas and had not seen the affidavit or compared it to the testimony. The White House had no comment.
State House impeachment committee chairwoman Barbara Flynn Currie, a Democrat, said she saw the affidavit earlier this week but did not have time to share it with all committee members until now. She said she was planning committee action but that seeking an outside investigation was premature at this point.
The affidavit discloses for the first time that Burris believes he likely told former Blagojevich advisers Doug Scofield and John Wyma of his interest in the post at a fundraiser in June and later asked about it when he spoke to Blagojevich chief of staff John Harris, who was arrested with Blagojevich on Dec. 9.
Scofield, Wyma and Harris were among the Blagojevich associates Burris was asked about in his Jan. 8 testimony by Durkin.
In response, Burris said he had spoken only to Monk.
“This wasn’t a couple of questions that I can understand someone may forget, it goes way beyond that,” Durkin said Saturday. “To say that he wasn’t given the opportunity to explain himself is a load of B.S.”
Durkin said he doesn’t trust majority Democrats in the General Assembly to conduct a fair investigation into whether Burris perjured himself. But he said he doesn’t know yet who should conduct the inquiry.
A log of Harris’ calls released to the AP by the governor’s office indicates Burris called Harris four times in November – the last time on Nov. 26, when the log indicates the two spoke. Burris’ affidavit says he had called Harris to recommend his nephew for a state job and during the conversation asked about the Senate seat.
A spokeswoman for Burris said he would not make himself available for interviews Saturday.
Robert Blagojevich’s lawyer, Michael Ettinger, said his client contacted Burris in October to ask him to host a fundraiser for his brother because Burris had contributed in the past, but Burris said he didn’t want to commit before the election. Ettinger said the subject of the Senate seat wasn’t raised.
Ettinger said Robert Blagojevich remembers only one other conversation in November from the governor’s campaign office, which the FBI had wiretapped at the time. He said his client confirmed Burris’ account that he declined the fundraiser because of the potential conflict.
But he also told Ettinger no one on his brother’s staff had ever mentioned Burris as being interested in the seat.
A publicist for the former governor released a statement saying Blagojevich “acted ethically and honestly and believes Sen. Burris did too.”
In explaining his incomplete testimony, Burris said in the affidavit he recalled mentioning Monk “but was then asked another question and did not mention anyone else.”
His lawyer, Timothy Wright III, said in a cover letter Burris answered “truthfully and to the best of his recollection,” but that the “fluid nature” of the questioning and a review of the transcript showed Burris that he “was unable to fully respond to several matters.”
CLARENCE, N.Y. – A commuter plane that smashed into a house apparently plunged flat to the ground rather than nose-diving, ending up pointed away from the airport it was trying to reach, investigators said Saturday.
Investigators did not offer an explanation as to why the plane was pointed away from the Buffalo airport, but it does raise the possibility the pilot was fighting an icy airplane: Air safety guidelines says a pilot can try a 180-degree turn to rid a plane of ice.
Other possible explanations are that the aircraft was spinning or flipped upon impact.
Flight data showed the plane’s safety systems warned the pilot that the aircraft was perilously close to losing lift and plummeting from the sky. The ensuing crash killed 49 people on the plane and one in the house.
Continental Connection Flight 3407 was cleared to land on a runway pointing to the southwest, but it crashed with its nose pointed northeast, said Steve Chealander, a National Transportation Safety Board member.
The Newark, N.J.-to-Buffalo flight didn’t nose-dive into the house, as initially reported by some witnesses, Chealander said.
It will take as many as four days to remove human remains from the site, which he called an “excavation.”
“Keep in mind, there’s an airplane that fell on top of a house, and they’re now intermingled,” he said.
The plane – on its descent to Buffalo Niagara International Airport in a light snow and mist – plunged suddenly about six miles shy of the runway and exploded.
A “stick shaker” and “stick pusher” mechanism had activated to warn Capt. Marvin Renslow that the plane was about to lose aerodynamic lift, a condition called a stall. When the “stick pusher” engaged, it would have pointed the nose of the plane toward the ground to try to increase lift.
Crash investigators picked through incinerated wreckage Saturday, gathering evidence to determine what brought down the plane. Icing on the aircraft is suspected to have played a role, but officials have stopped short of calling that the cause.
Chealander said indicator lights showed that deicing equipment on the tail, wings and propeller appeared to be working and that investigators who examined both engines said it appears they were working normally at the time of the crash.
Experts were analyzing data from the black boxes, including statements by crew members about a buildup of ice on the wings and windshield of the plane, Chealander said.
If ice is a problem in flight, guidelines from the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association Air Safety Foundation say pilots can take a number of steps, including changing speed, pulling the nose up or down, or trying a 180-degree turn.
On Friday, U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., said Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood had told him he believes the aircraft made a 180-degree turn at 5,000 feet.
But there could be other explanations for why the plane was facing the wrong way.
Chealander said the NTSB would use data on the black boxes to determine whether the plane was in a flat spin before it crashed. Flight data indicated “severe” pitching and rolling before impact, so the violent nature of the crash also could have turned the aircraft around.
Other aircraft in the area Thursday night told air traffic controllers they also experienced icing around the time that the plane went down.
Icing is one of several elements being examined by investigators, Chealander said, adding that a full report will probably take a year.
DNA and dental records will be used to identify the bodies, he said.
One aspect of the investigation will focus on the crew, how they were trained and whether they had enough time to rest between flights. Other investigators focused on the weather, the mechanics of the plane and whether the engine, wings and various mechanics of the plane operated as they were designed to.
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