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Before he even found a designer and a shipyard for the project, Staluppi went ahead and bought the engines for it: three MTU 16V 396 TB94 engines of 2,520 kW and 3,500 hp each and three Kamewa waterjets. In a move that was described then as unheard of, he had the propulsion system and wanted to build a boat around it; that approach remains highly unlikely to this day. After speaking with the team, including Heesen and Mulder, they cut off sections from the bottom of the hull, the boxes next to the waterjets, in a bid to make it...

Louis Jourdan, who crafted a Hollywood acting career in the footsteps of fellow dapper Frenchmen Maurice Chevalier and Charles Boyer and is best remembered for the musical “Gigi” and as the villain in James Bond pic “Octopussy,” has died at 93. According to his friend and biographer Olivier Minne, he died Saturday at his home in Beverly Hills.

Classical French Actor Louis Jourdan Has Died at 93 Louis Jourdan, a French actor famous for American film and television appearances in the Oscar-winning musical GIGI, MADAME BOVARY, CAN-CAN, and THE FIRST OLYMPICS: ATHENS, 1896, as well as Broadway appearances in shows such as ON A CLEAR DAY YOU CAN SEE FOREVER, has died. The Hollywood Walk of Fame winner was 93. Jourdan was ordered to make German propaganda films which he refused to do and fled to join his family in unoccupied France. There he started making movies again, ten films in two years. His father was arrested...

Louis Jourdan who crafted a Hollywood acting career in the footsteps of fellow dapper Frenchmen Maurice Chevalier and Charles Boyer and is best remembered for the musical “Gigi” and as the villain in James Bond pic “Octopussy,” has died at 93. According to his friend and biographer Olivier Minne, he died Saturday at his home in Beverly Hills. Jourdan offered a certain effortless charm that worked equally well in light heroic roles and more sinister ones. “He was the last French figure of the Hollywood golden age. And he worked with so many of the greatest actors and directors,” said...

Charges against 14 snared in insider-trading probe make for unusually entertaining reading. The insider-trading case outlined by federal prosecutors in New York Thursday has all the elements of a classic television crime drama: wiretaps, clandestine cash handoffs and people with nicknames like "the Greek" and "octopussy." Authorities say a trader known as "the octopussy" is at the center of the ring, which included other traders, a Moody's Investors Service analyst, and hedge fund managers, and two lawyers, one of whom was a young associate who allegedly passed along tips about private-equity deals being done by his big law firm's clients....

Posted by George James Malik April 19, 2008 08:29AM According to the Free Press's Helene St. James, the NHL has banned Al Sobotka's classic twirling of octopi at Joe Louis Arena: April 18, Detroit Free Press: Just a little tidbit from Joe Louis Arena: The NHL has decided octopus twirling doesn't fit in with league image, or something to that effect. The Wings have been told by the league that if Al Sobotka (or anyone else) twirls the octopus that's thrown onto the ice before playoff games, it'll cost the team $10,000. I know opposing general managers have complained of...

BOSTON —Sen. John Kerry is calling on Democrats to rally around his plan to pull U.S. combat troops out of Iraq by next July and redeploy some to Afghanistan. The Massachusetts Democrat gave a speech this morning at Boston’s Faneuil Hall. On the eve of Congressional mid-term elections, Kerry says Democrats must propose a new direction to defeat terrorism. He said Bush “pretends again and again” that Iraq is the central front on the war on terror, but Kerry said it isn’t and “never has been.” Kerry says the military commitment in Iraq weakens the United States’ ability to respond...

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