At last, after a long drought of  nothingness, we have points to award! Well done to Julia, Wombat and Mark for guessing that Thailand’s King Bhumibol Adulyadej would pass away this year, 62 points each, but Martin gets 162 for having him as a Cert, which also gives us a new points leader! Shockingly, we all missed out on Hilda Ogden, perhaps like me you thought she’d died years ago!

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Gary Dubin, 57, American actor (The Partridge Family, The Aristocats, Diamonds Are Forever), bone cancer.
• Patricia Barry, 93, American actress (All My Children, The Guiding Light, Days of Our Lives).
• Robert Bateman, 80, American songwriter and record producer (“Please Mr. Postman“), heart attack.
• Bhumibol Adulyadej, 88, Thai monarch, King (since 1946), world’s longest-serving head of state.
• Jean Alexander, 90, English actress (Coronation Street, Last of the Summer Wine).

In Other News

The death of King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand means Queen Elizabeth II has become the world’s longest-reigning living monarch. The Queen became monarch at the age of 25 on the death of her father King George VI on 6 February 1952. Now 90, she has reigned for 64 years, eight months and ten days, or considerably more than two thirds of her life. Before his death on Wednesday at the age of 88, the Thai king had chalked up more than 70 years and four months on the throne. The Queen has a comfortable margin over the next longest-serving monarch, the Sultan of Brunei. Hassanal Bolkiah can boast 49 years and twelve days on the throne of the tiny, oil-rich Asian state, having ascended the throne on 4th October 1967. The wealthy Sultan is a car enthusiast, reportedly owning a private collection of up to 5,000 luxury sports cars. Qaboos bin Said al-Said has been Sultan of Oman since 1970, when he overthrew his father in a coup, giving him 46 years, 2 months on the throne so far. Prince Charles, incidentally, holds a world record of his own – as the longest-waiting heir apparent, surpassing his great-great-grandfather Edward VII who waited for more than 59 years for Queen Victoria to die. Her impressive stint is dwarfed, however, by the reign of Sobhuza II of Swaziland, whose period on the throne, from 1899 to 1982, overlapped with both the reign of Queen Victoria and the premiership of Margaret Thatcher. Having sired around 210 children by 70 wives in that time, he had more than 1,000 grandchildren at the time of his death.

Singer Janet Jackson has officially confirmed she is expecting her first child, at the age of 50. Speculation about her pregnancy surfaced in April when she postponed her ‘Unbreakable’ tour, saying she wanted to focus on planning a family with her husband, Wissam al-Mana. She was recently spotted in London shopping for baby essentials. A source close to the Jackson family said: “She is super excited about her pregnancy and is doing extremely well. She actually feels very good about everything.” Janet Jackson is far from the only famous face to give birth later in life. Oscar-winning Halle Berry had her second child at 47, three years ago, and John Travolta’s wife Kelly Preston gave birth to her third child at 48.

A giant panda believed to have been the oldest ever kept in captivity has died at the age of 38, officials say. The death of Jia Jia, whose age in human terms was more than 100 years, was announced by the Hong Kong theme park where she lived. Her condition had worsened rapidly in recent weeks and she had lost her appetite, according to local reports. She was put down by vets at Ocean Park, where she had lived since 1999. A Hong Kong government spokesman thanked the park for providing Jia Jia with care and support and added that it was “saddened” by the news. Born in 1978 in the wild in Sichuan, China, Jia Jia was given to Hong Kong in 1999 to mark the semi-autonomous city’s handover by Britain two years earlier. Pandas normally live to around 20 years of age in the wild, and 25 in captivity.

And finally, a father has claimed his 25-year-old son was brutally murdered and eaten by inmates during a month-long riot at a Venezuelan prison. Juan Carlos Herrara told local media his son, Juan Carlos Herrera Jr, was stabbed, hanged, dismembered and then eaten at the Táchira Detention Center. Mr Herrara’s son was jailed in 2015 for robbery and had become caught up in the prison mutiny, which reportedly began on the 8th September when eight visitors and two guards were taken hostage over extreme overcrowding in the jail. According to reports, 350 men had been crammed into the  detention centre, which has a capacity of 120. Speaking to reporters on Monday, after a visit to the prison three days after the mutiny had subsided, Mr Herrara said: “One of those who was with him when he was murdered saw everything that happened. “My son and two others were taken by 40 people, stabbed, hanged to bleed, and then Dorancel butchered them to feed all detainees,” referring to the notorious Dorancel “people-eater” Vargas – jailed in 1999 for cannibalism. “The inmate with whom I spoke to told me that he was beaten with a hammer in order to force him to eat the remains of the two boys. “I beg you to give me at least one bone so we can bury him and relieve some of this pain.” An anonymous police source confirmed to the media that two inmates were missing following the riots.

On This Day

• 1793 – Marie Antoinette, widow of Louis XVI, is guillotined at the height of the French Revolution.
• 1834 – Much of the ancient structure of the Palace of Westminster in London burns to the ground.
• 1923 – The Walt Disney Company is founded by Walt Disney and his brother, Roy Disney.
• 1975 – Rahima Banu, a two-year-old girl from the village of Kuralia in Bangladesh, is the last known person to be infected with naturally occurring smallpox.
• 1984 – The Bill debuts on ITV, eventually becoming the longest-running police procedural in British television history.

Deaths

• 1793 – Marie Antoinette, Austrian wife of Louis XVI of France (b. 1755)
• 2001 – Etta Jones, American singer-songwriter (b. 1928)
• 2007 – Deborah Kerr, Scottish actress (b. 1921)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Tony Shalhoub (63), Scott Bakula (62), David Lee Roth (62), Joan Cusak (54), Jane Krakowski (48), Emily Deschanel (40), Daryl Hall (70), Stephen Moyer (47), Hugh Jackman (48), Paul Simon (75), Sacha Baron Cohen (45), Sammy Hagar (69), Roger Moore (89), Cliff Richard (76), Lori Petty (53), Steve Coogan (51), Ralph Loren (77), Dominic West (47), and Sarah Ferguson (57).

The Last Word

“Is it the Fourth?” – Thomas Jefferson, U.S. President, died. July 4th, 1826

Next week peeps!

Welcome all, another edition hits the press and again we  struggle to know who these celebrities are. In the case of one of our demises, this quote was rather apt. “Rod Temperton is proof that it is possible to be hugely talented and successful, whilst also completely avoiding the limelight”. Ah well, onwards and 6ft downwards…

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Rod Temperton, 66, English keyboardist (Heatwave) and songwriter (“Rock with You“, “Give Me the Night“, “Thriller“), cancer.
• Joan Marie Johnson, 72, American singer (The Dixie Cups), heart failure.
• Brock Yates, 82, American automotive journalist (Car and Driver) and screenwriter (Smokey and the Bandit II, The Cannonball Run), Alzheimer’s disease.
• Steve Byrd, 61, English guitarist (Gillan, Kim Wilde), heart attack.

In Other News

More than £40,000 has been raised in 24 hours to fund pioneering cancer treatment for former Emmerdale star Leah Bracknell. The award-winning actress has been diagnosed with terminal lung cancer and is in a race against time to raise £50,000. Her partner Jez Hughes launched an online appeal on Thursday to raise cash for cutting edge immunotherapy in Germany that they hope will give her a fighting chance to beat the disease. The 52-year-old actress, who played Zoe Tate in the ITV soap from 1989 to 2005, was diagnosed with the condition five weeks ago, as she prepared to return to the stage in a comedy show. In an emotional post about her condition, the mother-of-two – the first British soap character to come out as a lesbian – described how she had been enjoying life as a ‘fit and healthy’ yoga teacher when her world was ‘unexpectedly turned on its head’. Writing on her fundraising page, Leah vowed to fight the cancer with ‘a glass half full’, describing how her priority was ‘to defy expectation’.

The Scottish nurse who was treated for Ebola in 2014 is expected to spend a second day in a Glasgow hospital despite testing negative for the disease. Pauline Cafferkey,  40, was taken to the city’s Queen Elizabeth University Hospital under police escort on Thursday morning after becoming unwell. She is in a stable condition and medics say there is no danger to the public. This is the fourth time Ms Cafferkey has been in hospital since returning to the UK from Sierra Leone two years ago. On Thursday, NHS Greater Glasgow said: “Pauline Cafferkey was admitted to the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital this morning under the care of the Infectious Diseases Unit. “Due to Ms Cafferkey’s past medical history, appropriate precautionary measures were taken whilst further investigations were carried out. “We are pleased to report that tests for the Ebola virus are negative. She remains in a stable condition in the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital. We want to repeat our previous reassurance that there is no risk to the public.”

US reality TV star Kim Kardashian West was robbed at gunpoint at a luxury residence in Paris by at least two men dressed as police officers, her publicist and police say. A box containing jewellery worth up to €6m (£5.2m; $6.7m) was among items taken, a police spokesman said. The concierge led the gunmen to the residence where they tied Kardashian West up in the bathroom, police said. A spokeswoman for the star said she was “badly shaken but physically unharmed”. The mother-of-two – who became a household name thanks to the reality series Keeping up with the Kardashians – has now left France, flying out of a Paris airport aboard a private jet. A police source has told the BBC the attack was carried out by five men, wearing police-style jackets, who forced the building’s overnight security guard to show them where Kardashian West was staying. Once inside, one of the men put a gun to her head while they robbed her of jewellery including a ring worth €4m, then tied her up and locked her in a bathroom while they escaped.

The UKIP MEP involved in an altercation with Steven Woolfe has said he “categorically did not” throw a punch at his colleague. Mike Hookem acknowledged he and his colleague had a “scuffle” in the European Parliament but insisted that he did not hit him. “I am innocent,” he told the BBC. “I never threw a punch. I never assaulted him. I will stand my corner.” UKIP’s Steven Woolfe will be kept in hospital for a further 48 hours. Thursday’s incident is being investigated by UKIP and the European Parliament, where it has been announced the inquiry will be led by Conservative MEP Sajjad Karim. There have been varying descriptions of what happened during what UKIP called an “altercation” and Mr Hookem told BBC Radio Humberside only he and Mr Woolfe knew precisely what went on. Mr Woolfe, among the favourites to be the party’s next leader, collapsed after their exchange and was taken to hospital. The 49-year old had a precautionary scan which revealed there was no blood clot on his brain although he is to remain under observation for a further 48 hours in Strasbourg “as a precaution”.

On This Day

• 1582 – Because of the implementation of the Gregorian calendar, this day does not exist in this year in Italy, Poland, Portugal and Spain.
• 1967 – A day after being captured, Marxist revolutionary Ernesto “Che” Guevara is executed for attempting to incite a revolution in Bolivia.
• 2012 – Members of the Pakistani Taliban make a failed attempt to assassinate an outspoken schoolgirl, Malala Yousafzai.

Deaths

• 1974 – Oskar Schindler, Czech-German businessman (b. 1908)
• 1988 – Felix Wankel, German engineer, invented the Wankel engine (b. 1902)
• 1995 – Alec Douglas-Home, British cricketer and politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1903)
• 2006 – Paul Hunter, English snooker player (b. 1978)
• 2015 – Geoffrey Howe, Welsh lawyer and politician, Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1926)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Sting (65), Annie Leibovitz (67), Donna Karan (68), Chubby Checker (75), Roy Horn (72), Gwen Stefani (48), Neve Campbell (43), Sean William Scott (40), Clive Owen (52), Fred Couples (57), Lena Headey (43), Susan Sarandon (70), Armand Assante (67), Liev Schreiber (49), Alicia Silverstone (40), Christoph Waltz (60), Steve Miller (73), Karen Allen (65), Bob Geldof (65), Kate Winslet (41), Jesse Eisenberg (33), Guy Pierce (49), Britt Ekland (74), Simon Cowell (57), Toni Braxton (49), Thom York (48), Paul Hogan (77), Chevy Chase (73), Sigourney Weaver (67), Matt Damon (46), Brun Mars (31), Jesse Jackson (75) and Kristanna Loken (37).

Next week peeps!

Welcome my morbid minions, to a jam-packed edition full of nothing. No points to be shared, no stories to be told. The evil flying monkeys must be flown, as nothing seemed to have happened last week. So expect some big names falling by Wednesday, it has been ordained! I only wish Tony Curtis had died, again…

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Arnold Palmer, 87, American Hall of Fame professional golfer.
• Jean Shepard, 82, American honky tonk singer-songwriter (“A Dear John Letter“, “Slippin’ Away“), Parkinson’s disease.
• Herschell Gordon Lewis, 87, American film director (Blood Feast, Two Thousand Maniacs!).
• Karam Chand, 110, British supercentenarian, co-holder of the world’s longest marriage.
• Shimon Peres, 93, Polish-born Israeli statesman, President (2007–2014), Prime Minister (1977, 1984–1986, 1995–1996), Nobel Laureate (1994), stroke.
• Ann Emery, 86, British actress (Rentaghost, Billy Elliot, Julia Jekyll and Harriet Hyde).

In Other News

SpaceX founder Elon Musk announced his plan on Tuesday to launch manned missions to Mars by 2022. One small problem: you might die. Musk admitted that the chances of dying on the first trip – which will have about 100 passengers, with tickets likely to be $500,000 – were “quite high”. And even if that first mission is a success, the risk of fatality will remain a definite possibility for those who sign on to the second mission, and the third, and the fourth…  “There’s no way around it… Are you prepared to die? If that’s okay, you’re a candidate for going,” said Musk. Are you willing to go on a trip that could cost you your life? Hell Yes!

Researchers from Spain have found that a tendency to bump off members of the same species is particularly common among primates, and have estimated that around 2% of human deaths at the origin of our species were down to such lethal spats. “What it is saying, in the broadest terms, is that humans have evolved strategies for solving problems with violence,” said Mark Pagel, professor of evolutionary biology at the University of Reading, who was not involved in the research. Writing in the journal Nature, the team of researchers from four Spanish institutions sought to unpick the evolutionary contribution to lethal human violence by looking at how commonly a range of different mammals kill members of the same species. To do so, they examined the evolutionary family tree of mammals, looking at data from more than 1,020 species, as well as 600 human populations stretching as far back in time as the Stone Age, drawing on evidence from human remains found in archaeological excavations. The results revealed that for the ancestor of all mammals, around 1 in every 300 deaths was down to lethal violence between members of the same species. But, the authors note, for evolutionary ancestors of the primates and apes, the figures were higher.

If you take Benjamin Franklin at his word, death is coming. The good and the bad, the young and the old, the in-the-middle: as far as we know, none will live forever. The idea of an eventual death is something that was widely accepted as “true” long ago, but, like many things, it must be updated to suit the modern day. It’s time to accept that when death does come for us, it will be at the hand of our smartphone. And isn’t that comforting? It’s a fitting death: death by smartphone. What used to kill people? Horses, probably. Unlike what you might think, the way we will die by smartphone will not vary. At least not by much. Sure, there will be those who follow a smartphone game off of a cliff, or walk into traffic looking at a map, or lie down on the ground, close their eyes, and refuse to ever get up again because of Twitter. But the rest of us will die when our phones explode. Boom!

On This Day

• 1919 – U.S. President Woodrow Wilson suffers a massive stroke, leaving him partially paralyzed.
• 1925 – John Logie Baird performs the first test of a working television system.
• 1950 – Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz is first published.
• 1959 – The Twilight Zone premieres on CBS television.

Deaths

• 1985 – Rock Hudson, American actor (b. 1925)
• 1998 – Gene Autry, American actor, singer, and guitarist (b. 1907)
• 2006 – Tamara Dobson, American actress (b. 1947)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Mark Hamill (65), Michael Madsen (58), Heather Locklear (55), Will Smith (48), Catherine Zeta-Jones (47), Olivia Newton John (68), Linda Hamilton (60), Jim Caviezel (48), Serena Williams (35), Wilford Brimley (82), Meat Loaf (69), Gwyneth Paltrow (44), Avril Lavigne (32), Naomi Watts (48), Bam Margera (37), Hillary Duff (29), Dita von Tesse (44), Jerry Lee Lewis (81), Ian McShane (74), Johnny Mathis (81), Monica Bellucci (52), Julie Andrews (81),  Zack Galifanakis (47) and Jimmy Carter (92).

The Last Word

“Don’t die like I did.” – George Best, the Northern Irish professional footballer who played as a winger for Manchester United and the Northern Ireland national team.

• Best died as a result of a lung infection and multiple organ failure caused by years of alcoholism.

Next week peeps!

Due to the lack of notable deaths this week, we have a bare bones edition of The Dead Pool. Who said everybody seemed to by dying this year??

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Charmian Carr, 73, American actress and singer (The Sound of Music), complications from dementia.
• Curtis Hanson, 71, American film director and screenwriter (L.A. Confidential, 8 Mile, Wonder Boys), Oscar winner (1998).
• Bill Nunn, 63, American actor (Do the Right Thing, Spider-Man, Sister Act), cancer.

In Other News 

We start this week with the sad news that Monty Python star Terry Jones has been diagnosed with a severe variant of dementia. The 74-year-old is suffering from primary progressive aphasia, which affects his ability to communicate. As a result, Jones “is no longer able to give interviews”, his spokesman said. The news was confirmed as Bafta Cymru announced the Welsh-born comedian is to be honoured with an outstanding contribution award. The National Aphasia Association describes primary progressive aphasia as a neurological syndrome in which language capabilities become slowly and progressively impaired. “It commonly begins as a subtle disorder of language, progressing to a nearly total inability to speak, in its most severe stage,” their website states. Jones, who is from Colwyn Bay in north Wales, was a member of the legendary comedy troupe with Terry Gilliam, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Michael Palin and the late Graham Chapman. He directed Monty Python’s Life of Brian and The Meaning of Life and co-directed Monty Python and the Holy Grail with Gilliam.

A lawyer for Michael Schumacher has told a court in Germany that the former Formula 1 world champion “cannot walk” following his skiing injury. Felix Damm was detailing the extent of Schumacher’s injuries in a lawsuit against German magazine, Bunte. The magazine had reported last Christmas that the seven-time world champion could walk again. But Mr Damm said that Schumacher, 47, “cannot walk” more than two and a half years after the accident. Bunte had quoted a source at the end of last year as saying that Schumacher could manage some steps with the help of therapists and could raise an arm. At the time, Schumacher’s agent, Sabine Kehm, released a statement denying the story, saying: “Unfortunately we are forced by a recent press report to clarify that the assertion that Michael could move again is not true. “Such speculation is irresponsible, because given the seriousness of his injuries, his privacy is very important. Unfortunately they also give false hopes to many involved people.” Schumacher suffered a head injury in a skiing accident in France in 2013. He was placed in a medically induced coma for six months before being transferred to his home in Switzerland to continue his treatment. Very little is known of the sports icon’s recovery as his family has strongly protected his privacy.

What do you do to someone who has already tried to commit suicide? Well, a military prison disciplinary board has seen fit to sentence US whistleblower Chelsea Manning to 14 days in solitary confinement. She will serve seven days, with another seven suspended, for charges relating to her attempt to kill herself in July. She ended a hunger strike last week, after the military agreed to provide her with gender dysphoria treatment. The army private, born as Bradley Manning, is serving a 35-year sentence for espionage. Last July, the former intelligence analyst attempted to take her own life, after what lawyers said was the Army’s refusal to provide appropriate health care. She was found guilty on Thursday by prison officials in Leavenworth, Kansas, of “conduct which threatens” for her suicide attempt. She also was convicted of having “prohibited property” – the book “Hacker, Hoaxer, Whistleblower, Spy” by Gabriella Coleman. Manning was sentenced to 35 years in prison in 2013, after being found guilty of espionage for her role in leaking diplomatic cables and battlefield reports to Wikileaks, the anti-secrecy group. The leak of more than 700,000 documents and videos was one of the largest breaches of classified material in American history.

On This Day

• 1956 – TAT-1, the first submarine transatlantic telephone cable system, is inaugurated.
• 1983 – Maze Prison escape: Thirty-eight republican prisoners, armed with six handguns, hijack a prison meals lorry and smash their way out of the Maze prison. It is the largest prison escape since World War II and in British history.
• 1992 – NASA launches the Mars Observer, a $511 million probe to Mars, in the first U.S. mission to the planet in 17 years. Eleven months later, the probe would fail.

Deaths

• 1984 – Walter Pidgeon, Canadian-American actor (b. 1897)
• 1987 – Mary Astor, American actress (b. 1906)
• 2012 – Andy Williams, American singer (b. 1927)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Frankie Avalon (76), Jada Pinkett Smith (45), Lance Armstrong (45), Jeremy Irons (68), Twiggy (67), Jimmy Fallon (43), Sofia Loren (82), Kristen Johnson (49), Stephen King (69), Bill Murray (66), Ethan Coen (59), Faith Hill (49), Ricki Lake (48), Alphonso Ribeiro (45), Luke Wilson (45), Liam Gallagher (44), Nick Cave (59), Joan Jett (58), Andrea Bocelli (58), Scott Baio (56), Tom Felton (29), Julio Iglesias (73) and Bruce Springsteen (67).

The Last Word

“Is it not meningitis?”–  Louisa May Alcott, an American novelist and poet best known as the author of the novel Little Women.

• Alcott had been in ill health for many years and took a turn for the worse after she visited her father. She did not have meningitis. She may have died of mercury poisoning, the after-effect of an earlier treatment for typhoid fever.

Next week peeps!

Nil points to  dispense this week, but reading through the news we could have quite easily scored quite a lot, here’s hoping for next week!

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Alexis Arquette, 47, American actress (The Wedding Singer, Pulp Fiction, Lords of Dogtown).
• Domingos Montagner, 54, Brazilian actor, drowning.
• Edward Albee, 88, American playwright (Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, A Delicate Balance).
• Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, 95, Italian banker and politician, President (1999–2006) and Prime Minister (1993–1994).
• W. P. Kinsella, 81, Canadian writer (Shoeless Joe), assisted suicide.

In Other News

The veteran BBC foreign correspondent John Simpson has told how he nearly died earlier this month from a severe allergic reaction that caused kidney problems. The 72-year-old was rushed to Oxford’s John Radcliffe hospital on 8th September after experiencing what he described as a “rare and deadly allergic reaction”. Simpson had complained of feeling ill and a doctor who came to his house diagnosed him as suffering from food poisoning and dehydration and sent him to hospital, where his condition rapidly declined. Doctors found he had suffered an allergic reaction to medication, which caused kidney problems. “It was like a perfect storm. There was a whole chain of events that meant their was an overreaction on the kidney side which made him seriously ill,” his wife said. Simpson, who has reported from war zones around the world for more than four decades, described the episode as “terrifying” and thanked the staff in the ICU “who saved my life”.

Rolf Harris is reportedly being treated in hospital for  suspected blood poisoning. The Australian-born artist, 86, is serving a near six-year sentence at Stafford prison for historic sex abuse. Our source said, “Harris was treated like any other prisoner in the circumstances. He was escorted from Stafford by prison officers and has been monitored at all times. He is likely to return to jail shortly.” Blood poisoning, also known as sepsis, is triggered by an infection or injury and can be potentially life-threatening if left untreated. In November 2015, we reported that Harris, who is diabetic, had been taken to hospital and fallen ill after eating chocolate and sweets in prison.

US Democratic party presidential candidate Hillary Clinton kept her pneumonia diagnosis from most of her staff, according to reports, choosing to tell only family and close aides. Mrs Clinton was reportedly concerned that news of the illness would be exploited by her opponents. She was diagnosed on Friday and advised to rest, but continued campaigning. Her team was forced to go public with the diagnosis on Sunday when she left a 9/11 memorial early, appearing weak. Speaking to CNN late on Monday, Mrs Clinton said she was feeling “so much better”. She also told the broadcaster that she had not disclosed her pneumonia diagnosis, saying: “I just didn’t think it was going to be that big a deal.” The US presidential candidate said she had ignored a doctor’s “wise” advice to rest for five days. She said she hoped to be back on the trail in “the next couple of days”. The Democratic nominee acknowledged she had lost her balance during Sunday morning’s health scare, but said she did not faint. “I felt dizzy and I did lose my balance for a minute, but once I got in (the van), once I could sit down, once I could cool off, once I had some water, I immediately started feeling better,” she said.

Former Israeli President Shimon Peres is in intensive care after suffering a serious stroke, medical officials say. Doctors at the Sheba Medical Centre near Tel Aviv, where he is being treated, said Mr Peres, 93, was “in a critical condition but stable”. Mr Peres’ son-in-law and personal physician said there was “no imminent threat to his life”, adding that he had a “pretty good chance of survival”. Dr Rafi Valden said Mr Peres was responsive – he had squeezed his hand. There was “certain optimism” after doctors “lessened the dose of sedation”, he said, adding the former president was being sedated and ventilated again to let his brain recover. “We were happy to see that he was reactive, he was responsive,” Dr Valden told journalists. Doctors had earlier said the stroke had caused “lots of bleeding”. In January, he underwent successful minor surgery at the same hospital after suffering a small heart attack.

And finally, imagine if Ken Barlow aka William Roache managed to drown on the set of Coronation Street. Well, this is what has happened in Brazil! Brazilian soap opera star Domingos Montagner drowned in a river where the crew had been recording scenes for the country’s most popular soap opera. Montagner played the leading role in Velho Chico, a soap opera named after the Sao Francisco river where he died. The 54-year-old had gone for a swim with an actress after a day of shooting in the north-eastern state of Sergipe. She said he had been dragged away by the river’s strong currents. The actress, Camila Pitanga, cried for help but local people failed to act initially as they believed the drowning was a scene in the soap opera. Authorities said there was little that anyone could have done. In the soap opera, Montagner played a farmer who often fought off local gunmen. In one of those clashes, he was shot multiple times and appeared to drown in the same Sao Francisco river, but reappeared weeks later, alas we doubt he will make a return this time as four hours after the incident, rescue teams found Montagner’s body trapped in rocks at a depth of 18 metres (59 feet) and some 300 metres (984ft) from where he was last seen. His body will be taken by plane to Sao Paulo, where his funeral will be held on Saturday.

On This Day

• 1793 – The first cornerstone of the Capitol building is laid by George Washington.
• 1809 – The Royal Opera House in London opens.
• 1870 – Old Faithful Geyser is observed and named by Henry D. Washburn during the Washburn–Langford–Doane Expedition to Yellowstone.
• 1906 – A typhoon with tsunami kills an estimated 10,000 people in Hong Kong.
• 1974 – Hurricane Fifi strikes Honduras with 110 mph winds, killing 5,000 people.
• 1977 – Voyager I takes first photograph of the Earth and the Moon together.

Deaths

• 1949 – Frank Morgan, American actor, The Wizard of Oz (b. 1890)
• 1970 – Jimi Hendrix, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (b. 1942)
• 2004 – Russ Meyer, American director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1922)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Brian De Palma (76), Virginia Madsen (55), Moby (51), Harry Connick Jr (49), Ian Holm (85), Linda Gray (76), Ben Folds (50), Stella McCartney (45), Sam Neill (69), Tommy Lee Jones (70), Oliver Stone (70), Prince Harry (32), David Copperfield (60), Mickey Rourke (64), Cassandra Peterson (65) and Baz Luhrmann (54).

The Last Word

“I’m not afraid of death. I’m going home”. – Patrick Swayze

Next week peeps!