Music was everywhere when I grew up, not just on the stereo. My mother had a piano. My father played guitar and collected percussion instruments: drums, bongos… My parents both had a deep connection to music. I could see it brought them a kind of serenity. And they encouraged me to play. Painting, poetry, literature…
CHICAGO − They jeered Chicago Cubs chairman Tom Ricketts for refusing to spend money with the big boys in Los Angeles and New York this winter. They booed when Chicago Cubs president Jed Hoyer declined to say whether they had interest in signing free-agent third baseman Alex Bregman. They moaned when hearing that the Cubs’…
The water company United Utilities has conceded defeat in its legal battle to block public access to data on treated sewage it is discharging into Windermere in the Lake District. Company officials initially claimed that data from phosphorus monitors at a main sewage treatment works at the lake was not environmental information. The company also…
In the spring of 2004, I was working in sales in Melbourne. An IT guy was deployed from our Sydney headquarters to help set up the internet in our new office. Al had a laid-back vibe and played bass in a band and I immediately liked what I saw. I was in my late 20s…
A police volunteer has been found guilty of the rape and murder of a trainee doctor who was on duty in Kolkata, a crime that sparked protests across India amid concern about violence against women and girls. The outcry over the killing of the 31-year-old physician in August led to the trial being fast-tracked through…
Ten people have been hurt, two of them seriously, after a ski lift collapsed at a resort in north-east Spain, hurling dozens of passengers into the snow below. Although initial reports said 35 people had been injured on Saturday at the Pyrenean resort of Astún, in the Aragón region, the figures were later revised down….