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Tblisi, Georgia (AHN) – Armenia and Georgia went offline for several hours last week after a 75-year-old woman scavenging for copper cut a fiber optic cable of Georgia’s Internet service provider (ISP), which also serves the other country.

Investigators learned that Aiyastan Shakaryan was digging for copper beside the railroad tracks in the village of Ksani and cut the cable of Georgian Railway Telecom with a shovel on March 28, according to the Georgian Interior Ministry.

The cable is part of a 380-mile fiber optic network of GRT that extends to Armenia and Azerbaijan. Armenia’s only three ISPs get Internet access through the network.

ArmenTel, FiberNet Communication and GNC-Alfa restored Internet service in Armenia by midnight the following day, 12 hours after being shut down. Georgia also went offline for five hours.

The old lady admitted she was trying to steal the cable and was charged with damaging property. But she was not detained for long in consideration of her age.

Officials at GRT were wondering how the old lady found the secured cable.

 

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Houston, Texas, United States (AHN) – A man trying to corral a loose bull on a ranch near Houston, Texas fell into a bayou and drowned.

According to local media reports, two men were chasing the bull along the Berry Creek near the town of Ahrens at about 11 p.m. Friday night. Both men fell into the water.

Several people from a nearby farm ran to the men’s aid and were able to pull one of them out, but the second man slipped back into the water and drowned.

His body was recovered by the Houston Police Department’s dive team several hours later, according to local media reports.

His identity has not been released.

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London, England, United Kingdom (AHN) – Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi lost a major ally Wednesday when his foreign minister, Mousa Kousa, resigned from his post and fled to the United Kingdom.

Kousa arrived aboard a chartered aircraft from Tunisia. He said upon arrival that he no longer wants to represent the strongman’s regime. His defection is expected to boost rebels’ morale and strengthens the global pressure on Gaddafi to step down from 40 years of rule.

Kousa, who arrived at Farnborough Airport, said he came to Britain on his own free will. Since Kousa is one of the most senior officials of the embattled Gaddafi dictatorship, the British Foreign Office which welcomed Kousa, said other Libyan officials must take the cue and also abandon Gaddafi.

Kousa crossed the Libyan border to Tunisia on the guise of heading a diplomatic mission. Unknown to Gaddafi, Kousa was in regular contact with British and U.S. officials the past few days. He headed Libya’s foreign intelligence for 15 years and was expelled from the U.K. in 1980.

While Gaddafi may have lost a key official, his military has regained the key oil port of Ras Lanuf and the nearby town of Bin Jawad from rebel forces. The anti-Gaddafi forces, because of their lack of arms compared to the dictator’s weapons, are also retreating from Brega while there is an ongoing battle for the rebel-held town of Misrata.

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New York, NY, United States (NewsBahn) – Democratic leaders are praising the life of Geraldine Ferraro, the first woman and Italian American to be nominated for vice president by a major American political party.

Ferraro, 75, died Saturday morning at Massachusetts General Hospital, where she was admitted Monday. She had battled multiple myeloma for 12 years.

“Geraldine will forever be remembered as a trailblazer who broke down barriers for women, and Americans of all backgrounds and walks of life,” President and Mrs. Obama said in a statement issued by the White House. “Sasha and Malia will grow up in a more equal America because of the life Geraldine Ferraro chose to live.”

Ferraro was selected by Democratic Sen. Walter Mondale for his running mate against President Ronald Reagan and his vice president, George H.W. Bush, in 1984. Reagan and Bush won in a landslide.

After unsuccessful campaigns for the Senate in 1992 and 1998, she was appointed by President Bill Clinton as ambassador to the United Nations Commission on Human rights, a position she held from 1993 to 1996. In 2008, she worked on the presidential campaign of Sen. Hillary Clinton.

In a joint statement, the Clintons said “”Gerry Ferraro was one of a kind — tough, brilliant, and never afraid to speak her mind or stand up for what she believed in — a New York icon and a true American original. She was a champion for women and children and for the idea that there should be no limits on what every American can achieve.”

Ferraro “paved the way for a generation of female leaders and put the first cracks in America’s political glass ceiling,” they added. “For us, Gerry was above all a friend and companion. From the rough-and-tumble of political campaigns to the important work of international diplomacy, we were honored to have her by our side. She was a tireless voice for human rights and helped lead the American delegation to the landmark Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995. Through it all, she was a loyal friend, trusted confidante, and valued colleague.”

House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi said that Ferraro “not only made history when she was nominated for vice president, she inspired women across the country to reach their own greatness as they strengthened our country. Her service in the House is a source of pride to all of us in Congress.”

Commenting on Ferraro’s historic nomination in 1984, Pelosi added that “The drumbeat that Geraldine Ferraro began that day in July will continue for a long time to come. “

Addressing the Democratic National Convention that certified her nomination in 1984, Ferraro was prophetic when she said, “Change is in the air, just as surely as when John Kennedy beckoned America to a new frontier; when Sally Ride rocketed into space and when Rev. Jesse Jackson ran for the office of president of the United States.”

Ferraro is survived by her husband, John Zaccaro, three children and eight grandchildren.

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Miami, FL, United States (AHN) – The Florida Lottery broke a new record with 47 top prize winners Monday night in the Fantasy 5 game. It also marked the first time in the state’s history the game had five consecutive numbers picked in a row.

According to Lottery officials each of the 47 tickets matched the five numbers drawn on Monday. The winning numbers are 14-15-16-17-18.

Each of the winning tickets is worth $4,581.74.

Nine of the winning tickets were bought in Miami-Dade County, and six others were purchased in Broward.

Monday’s drawing also set a record as the most number of Fantasy 5 winners since 2001. That year the Fantasy 5 matrix was changed from 26 to 36 numbers thereby making it more difficult to win.

505 other tickets that were bough that had four matching numbers will receive $68.50. Another 9,439 tickets matching three numbers won $10 each, and 91,855 tickets won a Quick Pick for picking two numbers.

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Los Angeles, CA, United States (AHN Entertainment) – Step aside, Rachel Ray and Martha Stewart. Matthew McConaughey wants to be a cookbook author.

The actor says he and his girlfriend Camila Alves, who both have two children, Levi, two, and 14-month-old daughter Vida, have a swell time trying out new recipes at home and rarely go out to eat.

“We’ve got a whole bunch of things to fill up a cookbook right now,” the 41-year-old actor joked with Popeater.com.

McConaughey, who plays a slick Los Angeles criminal defense attorney in the film “The Lincoln Lawyer,” with Ryan Phillipe and Academy Award-winner Marisa Tomei, said he and his family have more fun in their kitchen than going out for meals.

“Cooking is one of the main things we do. One-and-a-half-hours to two-hours a day. We eat out like once every two months because we cook.

“It’s really great family time from six to eight. Glass of wine and we start mixing up sauces and trying new things. See what we can pull off and we swap, sometimes I’m the cook, sometimes Camila is the cook,” he said.

But when it gets a little too hot in the kitchen, the actor said he hops into his car for a little “me” time.

“When I’m driving, that’s my favorite place to think. Or not think.

“I like to put myself in a place where the answers sort of show up and my favorite place is behind a wheel, heading somewhere.”

“The Lincoln Lawyer” opens in theaters on Friday, March 18.

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London, England, United Kingdom (CNS) – A man is behind bars after trying to break into pop singer Madonna’s mansion in London.

Police say 29-year-old Grzegorz Matlok was wrestled to the ground by bodyguards on Saturday while still clutching to several of the singer’s possessions, according to Contactmusic.

Bodyguards at the home told police that the man was a stalker who gained entry to the lavish townhouse by smashing a side window.

At the time of the break-in, Madonna and her children were reportedly in her hometown of Bay City, Michigan attending the funeral of her grandmother.

A senior police source told The Sun newspaper:

“Something dreadful has happened here,” a senior police source told The Sun newspaper. “The security around the world’s most famous pop star should be impregnable.”

This isn’t the first time the singer has been terrorized by a stalker.

Last September, a man was charged with criminal mischief, graffiti and being in a possession of a homemade ice pick, after writing messages to Madonna on the pavement outside her Upper West Side apartment in New York City.

Robert Linhart, a retired fire fighter, carved: “Meet me please, tell me yes or no, and if it’s yes, my dream will come true. If it’s no, I will go.”

According to court documents, he reportedly told officers: “I have a right to do this. I am not doing anything wrong. I keep running into Madonna. I saw her in 1992 and I’d actually like to meet her in person. I won’t stop until I actually meet Madonna.

“I’m going to go right back there and do it again.”

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Seattle, WA, United States (CNS) – With the success of his fifth studio album “P.A.R.C.E.,” Colombian singer Juanes is getting ready kick off his tour in Seattle. But the singer took a break from rehearsals to meet with eighth graders.

The 18-time Grammy-winner surprised students and teachers at Washington Middle School on Thursday.

“We spent a while at Washington Middle School in Seattle, singing “Suenos” and “Damelo” in eighth grade Spanish class!”, Juanes posted in Spanish on Twitter.

Soon after, the singer posted another tweet saying, “They were young children from all race, American, Asian, Latins, Hispanics, Hindus speaking Spanish! Singing in Spanish!”

The 38-year-old singer, whose real name is Juan Esteban Aristizabal Vasquez, will perform in Las Vegas, Denver, Albuquerque, Illinois, New York City and Miami, before wrapping up in Orlando, Fla. on Oct. 16.

Juanes was originally set to perform in Miami on April 15, but postponed his concert for a later date.

A Miami newspaper had suggested that the reason for the postponement was because the singer had received negative feedback about the selection of the date, which it falls on the 50th anniversary of the Bay of Pigs invasion.

Juanes later denied the claims.

The date is significant to South Florida’s Cuban community, which is when Cuban exiles launched an attempt to overthrow the island nation’s ruler, Fidel Castro, in 1961.

The effort led to the death of more than 100 exiles and more than 1,000 were imprisoned. Many of them were executed by the Cuban government.

In 2009, Juanes sparked furor among Miami’s exile community when the singer hosted a free concert in Havana called Peace Without Borders.

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Redstone Arsenal, AL, United States (AHN) – A NASA scientist has restarted the debate on the space origin of life on Earth with his discovery of fossilized bacteria in a meteorite. His work was published in the March issue of the Journal of Cosmology.

Richard B. Hoover of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center headquartered in Redstone Arsenal, Alabama said he found the fossilized bacteria in rare carbonaceous chondrite meteorites called Cl1. The fossilized bacteria may have come from Mars, the Saturn moon Enceladus and Jupiter’s moon Europa.

Rudy Schild, editor in chief of the Journal of Cosmology, has invited 5,000 scientists to review Hoover’s paper entitled “Fossils of Cyanobacteria in CI1 Carbonaceous Meteorites” for the purpose of arriving at a consensus if the fossilized microbes of Cl1 are really alien in nature.

A similar theory was advanced in 1996 by NASA’s chief astrobiologist David McKay when he published an article in “Science” saying that microscopic features resemble fossilized bacteria in the ALH 84001 meteorite sample.

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Los Angeles, CA, United States (CNS) – Christina Aguilera might be making headlines for her recent arrest, but she’s ready to make it all about “The Voice.” She’s signed on to be a coach for NBC’s upcoming new singing competition.

“The Voice,” which is following in the footsteps of “American Idol” in hiring successful, multi-platinum artists for its panel, sees Aguilera joining previously announced coaches Cee Lo Green and Adam Levine of Maroon 5.

“I am so excited to be part of such a wonderful project that celebrates music and the talent behind it,” Christina Aguilera said in a statement. “To be given the opportunity to help shape new artists’ careers and mentor them to see their dreams come to fruition is a task I welcome with open arms.

“I am so happy to be working with fellow Grammy Award winners Adam and Cee Lo as I feel there is so much we can all bring to ‘The Voice,’” she continued.

A total of four coaches will be a part of the “The Voice,” which will see them competing against each other as they bring in their own songwriters, producers and industry pals to help their teams of singers become the winner.

Famed television producer Mark Burnett says Christina was his first choice for a female coach. “When I decided to produce ‘The Voice,’ I immediately knew that my first choice for a female coach had to be Christina Aguilera,” Burnett said in a statement.

“Christina has a perfect voice and is an undeniable force in the music business,” Burnett continued. “She is the epitome of ‘The Voice.’”

“The Voice,” hosted by Carson Daly, premieres on April 26th at 9 pm on NBC.

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