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It may be a little early to start this, but this is http://www.findagrave.com's annual list of notable people who have died during the current year(more info on each person at source link): Michael Jackson; musician, entertainer Patrick Swayze; actor, dancer Walter Cronkite; communist sympathizer (it doesn't say that on the site) Farrah Fawcett; actress Dom DeLuise; entertainer Edward Kennedy; US Senator and ... Paul Harvey; news commentator Beatrice Arthur; actress Ed McMahon; television personality Ricardo Montalban; actor Soupy Sales; comedian Karl Malden; actor David Carradine; actor Mary Travers; vocalist James Whitmore; actor Les Paul; musician Jim Owens; college football coach...

The global number of swine flu deaths has jumped by more than 1,000 in a week, latest figures from the World Health Organization (WHO) show. At least 7,826 people are now known to have died following infection with the H1N1 virus since it first emerged in Mexico in April. Europe saw an 85% increase in the week, with the total number of deaths rising from at least 350 to at least 650. However, in most cases the virus continues to produce mild symptoms. The overwhelming majority of patients usually recover, even without medical treatment, within a week. The biggest rise...

70 deaths on ward of shame: Patients neglected by lazy nurses in a filthy, blood-spattered casualty unit, says damning report By Daniel Martin Last updated at 9:39 AM on 27th November 2009 Dozens of patients died needlessly as a result of filthy conditions in an NHS hospital, a shocking report said last night. Appalling nursing care in Basildon University Hospital contributed to a mortality rate that was more than a third higher than the national average. At least 70 people may have died who should have been saved. It is the latest example of patients paying the ultimate price for...

WASHINGTON — Signaling he's decided on new troop levels for the Afghanistan war, President Barack Obama said Tuesday he intends to "finish the job" on his watch and destroy terrorist networks in the region. The president said he would reveal his decision on how many additional soldiers to deploy to Afghanistan after Thanksgiving. The White House is aiming for an announcement by Obama either Tuesday or Wednesday in a national address. Congressional hearings will quickly follow. Military officials and others have been expecting Obama to settle on a middle-ground option that would deploy an eventual 32,000 to 35,000 U.S. forces...

The World Health Organisation said on Thursday that checks on many of the 30 deaths recorded following mass pandemic flu vaccinations had so far ruled out a direct link to the vaccines.

To honor our brave men and women in the military, we list below the names of the fallen. This post identifies these wonderful souls by name, listing the heroes who sacrificed everything for you and I. This is the list author and Conservative American talk radio star Mark Levin spoke of and listed on his website. They gave their lives to protect and preserve our freedom. We thank them, we remember them and we honor them. Unlike other lists you may see, our list includes deaths from both the Iraq and Afghanistan wars as well as other military deaths (including...

ATLANTA – Federal health officials now say that 4,000 or more Americans likely have died from swine flu — about four times the estimate they've been using.

Where would we be without veterans? Did you ever think who would control the United States of America if it were not for the sacrifices made by our veterans? Did you ever wonder how many gave their lives so we might have the freedoms we take for granted? Did you ever think about what country we would belong to without the veterans? Could it be Great Britain, Mexico, Spain, France, Germany, Japan or any nation that would conquer us? When we read about any Memorial Day or Veterans Day, we should be thankful for the veterans. When we read the...

The number of children who have died from the swine flu has jumped sharply as the virus continues to spread widely around the United States, striking youngsters, teenagers, young adults and pregnant women unusually often, federal officials said Friday. The deaths of another 19 children and teenagers from the new H1N1 virus were reported in the past week around the country, including two in Maryland, pushing the total number of fatalities to 76 among those younger than age 18. It was the largest number of pediatric deaths reported in a single week since the pandemic began last spring. "These pediatric...

Russia's population has fallen by 6.6 million since 1993, despite the influx of millions of immigrants, a United Nations report said Monday, and by 2025 the country could lose a further 11 million people. ...Russia's mortality rate is among the highest in the developed world, with average life expectancy for males at barely 60 years.... A study published in June in The Lancet medical journal found that drinking has caused more than half of deaths among Russians aged 15 to 54 since the 1991 Soviet collapse.

Any experienced police officer or EMT will tell you that it is not unusual for drunks to survive vehicle accidents where many times the sober victims of the traumatic injuries caused from the same collision do not survive. Booze May Save Drunken Trauma Patients Trauma patients have better chance of survival if intoxicated, according to study By OLSEN EBRIGHT Updated 7:55 AM CDT, Fri, Oct 2, 2009 An intoxicated friend hands you his or her beer and says, "Watch this." A story like that usually ends with a trip to the ER. Obviously alcohol is to blame. But, according to...

Henry Bellmon, the Oklahoma farmer who became the state’s first Republican governor and turned his party into a political contender, has died. He was 88. Rural upbringing shapes former governor Henry... 03/01/2009 BILLINGS — They’ve never taken the country out of Henry Louis Bellmon. Don Todd rolled the steering wheel clockwise as he guided the 2005 Dodge... Bellmon’s former chief of staff told The Associated Press the former Oklahoma governor and U.S. Senator has died after a long battle with Parkinson's disease. Andrew Tevington said Bellmon died shortly before 11 a.m. Tuesday. Bellmon, who sometimes displayed a political independence that...

LONDON – Recent targeted attacks that killed militants in Somalia, Indonesia and Pakistan have chipped away at al-Qaida's power base, sapping the terror network of key leaders and experienced operatives who train recruits and wage attacks. Intelligence officials said Friday that the military strikes have reduced al-Qaida's core leadership to only a handful of men and diminished its ability to train fighters. This, they said, has forced al-Qaida to turn to its global affiliates for survival. The killings of Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan in Somalia, Noordin Muhammed Top in Indonesia and Baitullah Mehsud in Pakistan — all in recent weeks...

August, and golden oldies. Serious thought is forbidden this month, which is why every middle-aged pop critic in America is still waxing on Woodstock and talking about how Janis changed the world and Arlo shut down the New York State Thruway, man. The vacuousness of August might explain why the White House thought it was the perfect month to go Kerouacing with Obamacare — ending up in Montana, no less. I wonder how it would play in Paris? After all, this is the month that marks what must surely be one of the most important anniversaries in the history of...

More than 390 people are believed to have been buried alive in the village worst affected by a massive mudslide caused by Typhoon Morakot. A National Fire Agency disaster relief centre spokesman told the BBC's Cindy Sui of the fears for Hsiaolin Village. This is the first time the government has released a firm estimate on the number of people they believe might have been killed. Thousands of people are still stranded by the worst by mudslides and floods. The typhoon struck Taiwan at the weekend, causing the worst flooding in 50 years, and leaving at least 116 people confirmed...

Swine flu toll up sharply in Latin America Wed Aug 5, 12:19 pm ET BUENOS AIRES (AFP) – Argentina reported on Wednesday a sharp spike in deaths from swine flu as cases jumped across Latin America and more countries worldwide coped with their first fatalities. Argentinian officials said deaths from the A(H1N1) virus had more than doubled to 337 from 165 two weeks ago, which would put the country second only to the United States with 353 dead. "We have confirmed 337 deaths by A(H1N1) flu," Argentina's deputy health minister Maximo Diosque said. "We have a similar number, of around...

H1N1: 94 official deaths, unofficial figures say 100 The National Health Ministry reported there are 94 H1N1 influenza deaths in Argentina. Meanwhile, Débora Ferrandini, the vice Health Minister of Santa Fe province announced that there are 30 lethal cases in the province which would lead to an unofficial figure of 100 deaths in the country. Santa Fe's Health Ministry confirmed another H1N1 influenza death in the province, where there already are 26 lethal cases, and adds up to 100 deaths in Argentina since the swine flu outbreak in May. The province's authorities reported yesterday another three deaths, most of the...

THURSDAY, July 16 (HealthDay News) -- Deaths and injuries on America's interstates have increased since the repeal of the federal 55-mile-per-hour speed limit in 1995, a new study finds, and some believe it's time to slow down again. Researchers tracking fatalities attributed 12,545 deaths and 36,582 injuries in fatal crashes to higher speed limits implemented during the 1995-2005 study period. "Our study clearly shows that policy can directly result in more deaths as well as reducing deaths on our country's roads," said lead researcher Lee S. Friedman of the division of environmental and occupational health sciences in the School of...

Comic Fred Travalena died last week.

NEW YORK — Health officials on Tuesday reported seven more deaths from swine flu, bringing the city's total to 23, the most in the nation. The Department of Health didn't identify the victims or say when they died in an update posted on its Web site. It said the victims were between the ages of 25 and 64 and most had been hospitalized late last month. The health department's last update was just four days ago, when it added one more death to make the total 16. That death involved a person in his or her 40s.

The Obama administration’s proposed mileage standards that will be announced today may kill more Americans at a faster rate than the Iraq War, his signature issue in the 2008 presidential campaign. Obama’s standards will require automakers to meet a 35 miles-per-gallon standard by 2016, four years earlier than the same standard imposed by the Energy Security and Independence Act of 2007. The only way for carmakers to meet these standard is to make smaller, lighter -- and deadlier cars. The National Academy of Sciences has linked mileage standards with about 2,000 deaths per year. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration...

Obama to cut slain officers program almost in half May 7, 2009 - 5:15pm By DEVLIN BARRETT Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - The Obama administration wants to cut almost in half a benefits program for the families of slain police and safety officers. The president's proposed budget calls for cutting the Public Safety Officers' Death Benefits Program from $110 million to $60 million. Justice Department budget documents say the reduction is being made because "claims are anticipated to decrease" because the number of officers killed in the line of duty has been decreasing. The proposal is being made just...

Of the total of 91,358 Iraqi civilian deaths from armed violence recorded for this period, we excluded 10,027 deaths from prolonged violence (e.g., the two sieges of Fallujah and prolonged episodes of violence during the invasion of March 20, 2003, through April 30, 2003), and 20,850 deaths recorded only in aggregate reports from morgues and hospitals, since these deaths were not reliably linked to specific events of a weapon's use.

Remember Dr. Gilbert Burnham and his outrageous (and baseless) claims that over a half a million Iraqis had died in the three year aftermath of the US invasion? Remember how no responsible journalist challenged him? Well, finally, the American Association for Public Opinion Research has thrown the BS flag, and Dr. Burnham stands with nary a factual fig leaf to cover his intellectual nakedness. Incredibly, this comes courtesy of the BBC. Like all Bush Derangement Syndrome manifestations, his fevered imaginings were a combination of liberalism, fantasy, and crap: Libfantacrap. And the press, a great consumer and purveyor of libfantacrap, spread...

Angry survivors blame council 'green' policy Andrea Petrie, Arthurs Creek February 11, 2009 Page 1 of 2 | Single Page View ANGRY residents last night accused local authorities of contributing to the bushfire toll by failing to let residents chop down trees and clear up bushland that posed a fire risk. During question time at a packed community meeting in Arthurs Creek on Melbourne's northern fringe, Warwick Spooner — whose mother Marilyn and brother Damien perished along with their home in the Strathewen blaze — criticised the Nillumbik council for the limitations it placed on residents wanting the council's help...

An academic whose estimates of civilian deaths during the Iraq war sparked controversy has been criticised for not fully co-operating with an inquiry. Gilbert Burnham said in the Lancet medical journal in 2006 that 650,000 civilians had died since 2003 - a figure far higher than other estimates.

<p>At least 195 people, including 18 foreigners, were killed after gunmen attacked 10 sites across India's financial capital starting Wednesday night.</p>

BEIJING: Parents who lost children in a particularly horrific school collapse during the May 12 earthquake in Sichuan Province scrapped their plan for a one-month mourning ceremony on Thursday after local officials warned them not to go through with it, two of the parents said. In telephone interviews, the two parents said the group's members were told not to contact one another and not to stay in the town of Juyuan, site of the collapse of a middle school that left hundreds of children crushed to death. Officials spoke to some parents on Wednesday night to persuade them to cancel...

Myanmar cyclone death toll soars past 22,000: state radio 48 minutes ago YANGON, Myanmar - The cyclone death toll soared above 22,000 on Tuesday and more than 41,000 others were missing as foreign countries mobilized to rush in aid after the country's deadliest storm on record, state radio reported. Up to 1 million people may be homeless after Cyclone Nargis hit the Southeast Asian nation, also known as Burma, early Saturday. Some villages have been almost totally eradicated and vast rice-growing areas are wiped out, the World Food Program said. Images from state television showed large trees and electricity poles...

CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) - A top Canadian official sought to calm an international uproar over hundreds of ducks killed at Canada's biggest oil sands plant by promising, at a U.S. oil industry event on Monday, that the incident will not go unpunished. The deaths of 500 ducks last week on a Syncrude Canada Ltd wastewater pond was unacceptable, Industry Minister Jim Prentice said during an acceptance speech after Canada was named "Country of the Year" by Energy Magazine. "We anticipate those responsible will face full scrutiny under Canadian law and, insofar as the government of Canada is concerned, there will...

A failed jump by one of the world’s finest riders and a spate of deaths have unnerved the equestrian community....Top competitors and coaches argue that the sport’s growing popularity has attracted inexperienced riders who take too many risks, and amateur riders complain that courses are being designed beyond their skill level in order to challenge elite riders. There is also frustration that the governing bodies for eventing have not mandated the safety improvements they identified after another cluster of deaths nine years ago. A target of criticism is the former husband of England’s Princess Anne, Mark Phillips, who is coach...

Are you tired of the skewed accounts of what is going on in Iraq. Here is a copy of the letter I sent to the 'Iraq Body Count' web site which asks them a few questions that they will never be able to answer. Enjoy. ---------------------------------------------------- Letter to the people at 'Iraq Body Count' http://www.iraqbodycount.org/ Dear People, I stumbled upon your website regarding the Iraq Body Count and was rather amazed at the claims made: aprox 82,000 - 89, 000 civilian deaths. The reason I have doubts about such a fantastic number is because all of our military actions in...

March 3, 2008 China reports 32% rise in food-poisoning deaths BEIJING - CHINA saw a rise of almost a third in food-poisoning deaths last year even as the total number of incidents dropped, the Health Ministry said on Monday, underscoring the food safety challenge China still faces. China has been waging battle to improve product quality after a series of scandals at home and abroad involving substandard toys, fake medicines and food, as well as tainted pet feed. A total of 258 people died from food poisoning last year, up a little under 32 per cent on 2006, the ministry-published...

Death and Damage From Tornadoes Published: 2/6/08, 9:26 AM EDT (AP) - State-by-state look at deaths and damage caused by a string of tornadoes that tore across the South: ALABAMA: At least four people killed in northern Alabama. An apparent tornado damaged eight homes in Walker County, and a pregnant woman suffered a broken arm when a trailer home was tossed by the winds, according to the county's emergency management director. ___ ARKANSAS: At least 13 people killed, including parents and their 11-year-old daughter in Atkins, about 60 miles northwest of Little Rock. Their home took a "direct hit" from...

ST. LOUIS - Substandard care at a southern Illinois Veterans Affairs hospital may have contributed to 19 deaths over the past two years, a VA official said Monday as he apologized to affected families and pledged reform. The hospital in Marion, Ill., initially drew scrutiny over deaths connected to a single surgeon, but two federal reports found fault with five other doctors. The hospital undertook many surgeries that its staffing or lack of proper surgical expertise made it ill-equipped to handle, and hospital administrators were too slow to respond once problems surfaced, said Dr. Michael Kussman, U.S. veterans affairs undersecretary...

About 151,000 Iraqis died from violence in the three years after the United States invaded, concludes the best effort yet to count deaths... ...based on door-to-door surveys of nearly 10,000 households. Experts called it the largest and most scientific study of the Iraqi death toll since the war began. Its bottom line is far lower than the 600,000 deaths reported in an earlier study... ...It closely mirrors the tally Iraq's health minister gave in late 2006... ...The study authors say they are 95 percent certain that the true number is between 104,000 and 223,000...

Mother charged in 4 D.C. girls' deathsBy SARAH KARUSH Associated Press Writer District of Columbia police and medical examiner's office personnel remove the second body from a house where the bodies of four dead youths, estimated to be between 5 and 18 years of age, were found in varying states of decomposition in southeast Washington on Wednesday Jan. 9, 2008. WASHINGTON --A mother found in her home with the decomposing bodies of four girls was charged Thursday with murder after reportedly telling investigators that the children were possessed by demons and died in their sleep. Banita Jacks, 33, was charged...

January 8 - Yvonne De Carlo, actress (Lily on the "Munsters"), age 84 January 10 - Carlo Ponti, producer ("Doctor Zhivago") and husband of Sophia Loren, age 94 January 14 - Darlene Conley, actress (Sally Spectra on "Bold and the Beautiful") age 72 January 16 - Ron Carey, actor (Ofc. Carl Levitt on "Barney Miller") age 71 January 17 - Art Buchwald, columnist for the Washington Post, age 81 January 19 - Denny Doherty, singer in the original Mamas and the Papas, age 66 January 20 - Sen. George Smathers, former U.S. Senator and confidant to several Presidents, age 93...

Flu deaths run in the family 08 January 2008 NewScientist.com news service Everyone gets the flu - but it seems some people are more likely to die from it than others. Lisa Albright and colleagues at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City looked at death certificates and family records going back 100 years. Nearly 5000 people were said to have died of flu, 2000 of them in the 1918 pandemic. Albright's team found that blood relatives of flu victims were more likely to die than non-relatives - even during different flu outbreaks - and the risk was greater...

Disease Likely Cause of Utah Bird Deaths Published: 1/4/08, 6:05 PM EDT SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - About 1,500 dead birds that have washed up on the southern shore of the Great Salt Lake may have been killed by avian cholera, an expert said. Dead grebes, ducks and gulls were being sent to the U.S. Geological Survey National Wildlife Health Center in Madison, Wis., for examination. "If I was a betting man, I would bet it was cholera," Tom Aldrich, a migratory-bird expert at the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, said Wednesday. Avian cholera doesn't affect humans, but people shouldn't...

SF Woman Warned Zoo 10 Years Ago Tiger Wall Not High Enough POSTED: 11:56 am PST December 28, 2007 SAN FRANCISCO -- A San Francisco woman has said she warned the city zoo more than 10 years ago that the safety walls at the tiger grotto weren't high enough. She said she was afraid for her safety and that of her 3-year-old 10 years ago. "This whole image came back to me in my brain and I was sick to my stomach actually," said Marian Roth-Cramer. She says she saw a tiger, housed in the same grotto as Tatiana, the...

- Civilian deaths Iraq caused by war-related violence have dropped for a third straight month, according to November data compiled by Iraq's Interior Ministry. Last month, 538 Iraqi civilians were killed in the violence across the country, including 131 bodies recovered by Iraqi security forces in Baghdad, according to the ministry's figures. It is the lowest monthly civilian death toll since sectarian tensions heightened across Iraq, after the February 2006 bombing of the Askariya mosque in Samarra. The figure compares with 758 Iraqi civilians killed in October and 844 in September, according to the ministry. Prior to the last three...

More than 90,000 patients die and almost one million are harmed each year because of hospital blunders, research suggests. Errors during surgery, misdiagnosis, falls, infections and complications are all to blame for the problems that contribute to the death and injury tolls in England each year. Prof Trevor Sheldon, the author of the study published in the British Medical Journal, said a stay in hospital was as "risky as bungee jumping". He examined medical notes from one hospital over six months and said the results were representative of what is happening across the country. In 15 per cent of cases...

HONG KONG - Ships belching toxic fumes from diesel fuel contribute to the deaths of tens of thousands of people in Europe, Asia and the United States each year, claims a U.S. report released this week. As many as 60,000 people living in coastal communities along major shipping routes died from lung and heart complaints as a result of high sulfate emissions from ships in 2002, according to the study released Wednesday by the American Chemical Society. With international maritime trade on the rise and little regulation of ship emissions, that death toll could rise to as many as 82,000...

Tucson police are searching for a suspect in a drive-by shooting early Saturday morning that left one man dead and another seriously injured. At about 2 a.m. three soldiers stationed at Fort Huachuca in Sierra Vista were leaving Tucson hip-hop club Envy, 6211 E. Speedway, following an argument with the suspect, Jurel Dionne Roberson, 21. As the three soldiers were driving west bound on Speedway, Roberson pursued them in a borrowed car, pulled up along side the victims and fired several shots into their car.

Coalition-caused deaths. Coalition forces, principally US as well as some UK, were identified to have killed at least 536 Iraqi civilians in year four (excluding a major incident in Najaf in January which is still under investigation by IBC). This compares with 370 in year three.

LANCASTER, Calif. — A blinding sandstorm caught dozens of vehicles in a highway pileup Tuesday in the high desert north of Los Angeles, killing at least two people and injuring 16, authorities said.

Mr. Meangenes stopped by for coffee, and we got to talking about illegal immigration - which we both hate -and going over some of the statistics bandied about.

Suppose 245,000 americans had died in terrorist attacks since Sept. 11, 2001. The United States would be beside itself, utterly gripped by a sense of national emergency. Political leaders would speak of nothing else, the United States military would stand at maximum readiness, and the White House would vow not to rest until the danger to Americans had been utterly eradicated. Yet 245,000 Americans have died because of one specific threat since 9/11, and no one seems to care. While the tragedy of 3,000 lives lost on 9/11 has justified two wars, in which thousands of U.S. soldiers made the...

There is a saying in the broadcast media, “If it bleeds, it leads.” That supposedly explains the ghoulish nature of TV news especially. But the wall-to-wall, anchors on the scene, coverage of the Minneapolis bridge collapse, belies that theory. Five people are known dead, eight are missing. If all the missing are dead, that means 13 people have died in Minnesota. Let’s make some quick comparisons. The Iraq War in five years is 310 times that total. But the number of Americans killed by illegal aliens here in the US, is even more than that. That is a relatively small...