ME and Ophelia

UKRAINE LEADER'S SOUP WAS POISONED
A team of Vienna doctors confirmed last night

Ukranian presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko, pictured here below, was poisoned by dioxins, causing terrible disfigurement to his face, a team of Vienna doctors confirmed last night.

How awful. He must be feeling dreadful. See how fit and healthy he looks in photo here below, taken four months ago.


© Getty Photo

The results of the Ukranian elections, in which he lost to rival candidate Yanukovych, were declared a fraud, and a new date set for a second vote.


© AP Photo/Anatoly Medzyk

Yushchenko pictured here looks fit and healthy on 2 August 2004, before his mystery illness. Read more at nature.com.
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BLACK WATCH ARRIVE BACK HOME FROM IRAQ
With a traditional welcome of bacon and eggs, and beer

Great news at Scotsman.com this morning: the Black Watch arrived home from Iraq yesterday morning.

Well done chaps. You've done Britain proud. I'm pleased Tony Blair proved the naysayers wrong. He kept his word, the Black Watch were back home in time for Christmas. like he promised.


© Getty Photo

Pictured above, the Black Watch soldiers return from duty accompanied by a piper, soon to be reunited with their families.

For six months, they have known nothing but the fog of war. The mist was still lingering on Salisbury Plain yesterday morning, but the men of the Black Watch were home.

It was the moment they had been waiting for. In the chill of the pre-dawn just after 6am, their plane touched down at RAF Lyneham. Back on UK soil at last, the 200 soldiers were treated to a traditional British welcome: bacon and eggs, and beer.
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FACT OF THE DAY
Courtesy Scotsman.com

Today in 1849 the French engineer Sir Marc Isambard Brunel, father of Isombard Kingdom Brunel, died. His most enduring work in Britain is the Thames tunnel, built between 1825 and 1843. Commenting in 1837 on a proposal to begin work on the north bank of the Thames as well as the south, The Scotsman wrote: "One great reason for opening the work at the north side is, that when the bed of the river gives way, the artificial bottom which it then becomes necessary to lay down, requires some days or weeks to consolidate, during which the men are idle, though they draw their wages. At such periods they will in future be employed in advancing the works on the north side.