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http://www.geelongadvertiser.com.au/article/2009/10/27/115805_news.html

PARALYMPIAN champion Alex Harris was killed by an interstate train at Lara this morning.
Mr Harris was struck at the Canterbury Rd crossing about 8am by a Pacific National Freight train and died at the scene.

The Geelong Advertiser had been following Alex's journey as he prepared to undergo delicate deep brain stimulation surgery in a bid to again compete for Australia.


The 34-year-old had recently graduated Western Heights College in 1993 when the car he was travelling in was struck by another at Bellbrae.

The accident claimed the life of his friend and fellow school captain Sharon Kirchner, injured others and left him at life's brink with severe head trauma.

He was due to have electrodes implanted in the damaged areas of his brain next Wednesday with the hopes it would calm his uncontrollable movements.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,26275521-12335,00.html.

A PROMISING young Canadian musician has been attacked and killed by coyotes while on a tour promoting her new album.

Taylor Mitchell, 19, was considered a rising star of the folk music scene, having just earned a Canadian Folk Music Awards nomination.

She was hiking alone on the Syline Trail in Cape Breton Highlands National Park when a pair of coyotes attacked her.

Tourists rushed to her aid when they heard her screams and found Mitchell bleeding heavily from mulitple wounds "all over her body", according to The Canadian Press.

"She was losing a considerable amount of blood from her wounds," paramedic Paul Maynard told TCP.

One of the animals was later shot by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, but the other got away.

Park officials said it was highly unusual for coyotes to be involved in such an aggressive attack.

Mitchell was due to play at a concert after her hike and was on her first tour of the Candaian east coast.

http://www.thenewsstar.com/article/20091029/UPDATES01/91029033

Integrity and honesty were the two words used to describe former Gov. Dave Treen, who died Thursday at the age of 81, by northern Louisiana politicians and friends.



Treen's son, David C. Treen Jr., said Treen died early Thursday of complications from a respiratory illness at East Jefferson General Hospital in a New Orleans suburb. Funeral arrangements were not complete. Treen had been in the hospital about two days, his son said.

"It's not a lot of us around who served with him, but I can tell you he was a good man and one of my heroes," said state Sen. Francis Thompson, D-Delhi, who served as one of Treen's floorleaders in the House.

Thompson said that when Edwin Edwards beat Treen in his re-election bid in 1983, "I was chastised by Gov. Edwards for being loyal to Gov. Treen. He was a man who truly cared about all of Louisiana's residents and showed it through his actions. He cared for the least of us."

Treen, who was the state's first Republican governor since Reconstruction, only lasted the one term, said Rep. Kay Kellogg Katz, R-Monroe, because he was a reform governor. "Reform governors are traditionally one-termers," she said, "but he continued to work hard for the Republican Party."

Katz said Treen's "stellar reputation" followed him after leaving office and will be his legacy. "He stayed active and influential in the Republican Party right up to the end," she said.

Thompson and state Rep. Frank Hoffmann, R-West Monroe, remembered Treen and three other former governors coming to Baton Rouge during the last session to talk with Gov. Bobby Jindal about higher education funding, arguing against any cuts.

"Obviously, he was governor before I became involved in politics, but I can say he set a good standard for the Republicans who followed him," Hoffmann said.

The Bishop Nick Farone of Bastrop, who heads up the New Beginnings Christian Youth Center, had been friends with Treen since 1994 and met through Treen's aunt, Minta B. Spier, who was a longtime educator in Morehouse Parish.

"She was a supporter of what I was doing in my ministry, and she introduced us. He was on my board of directors and raised thousands of dollars for the ministry," Farone said. "We've touched over 2,400 kids since opening in 1993."

Farone said that Treen had asked him several times to sing "How Great Thou Art" at his funeral, "and I'm going to do that for him." One of Treen's daughters, Cynthia, called Farone on Thursday morning to let him know of her father's death.

"He always told me that he didn't like the word politician," Farone said. "He preferred to be called a public servant, and that's what he was."

As a teenager, state Sen. Mike Walsworth, R-West Monroe, worked on Treen's 1971 campaign for governor against Edwin Edwards, "and I've been a Republican ever since." Walsworth's father was a Democrat and had worked for former U.S. Sen. Bennett Johnston, who had run against Edwards in the Democratic primary.

"Honest and kind best describes (Treen)," Walsworth said. "He'll always have a special place in the hearts of Louisiana's Republicans because he was our first one since Reconstruction."

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-11/02/content_12370537.htm

BEIJING, Nov.2 -- Mainland pop singer Chen Lin is dead after apparently leaping to her death from an apartment building in Beijing, on the same day as her former husband's birthday.

Lin, who remarried three months ago, jumped from the ninth floor of a residential building in the Olympic Garden community in Chaoyang district early Saturday, the Beijing News reported Sunday. Lin was 39.

Media reports said the apartment belonged to a female friend and that singer was neatly dressed and wore a mask. She also had neck wound covered with a bandage, Sina.com reported.

A friend of Chen's, who asked to be referred to as only Mr. Huang, told METRO that he knew about Chen's death but did not wish to comment.

Shen Yongge, Chen's former husband, owned a record company and helped his ex-wife release three albums that defined the peak of her career in 2000. Shen and Chen were a popular celebrity couple until divorcing in 2007.

Zhang Chaofeng, Chen's second husband, is a music producer and the couple married in July. The pair performed together in a Beijing bar when Chen released her latest EP in August.

Zhang was in Hubei when the tragedy happened, but has now returned to Beijing, according to the Beijing News.

Chen did not leave a message and the reason of her death is under official investigation, Sina.com reported.

It was reported that some of Chen's friends said the singer was traumatized about the failure of her first marriage.

Chen moved to Beijing from Chongqing in the early 90s. She released a total of seven albums, and her debut titled I Never Know Your Heartthrob (Ni De Rou Qing Wo Yong Yuan Bu Dong) sold over one million copies, according to sina.com.

Chen followed up her success by being appointed the first "Green Ambassador" by China Environmental Protection Foundation and was the first pop singer to hold a concert in front of the Potala Palace, on the Tibetan Plateau in 2000. However, she has spent little time in public since 2007.

In her most recent blog posting, dated July 22, Chen wrote about a trip to Hubei and Yunnan provinces, but gave no indication that she was in a low mood.

Comments on the post increased from 30 to more than 1,300 yesterday.

Luo Bing, who wrote I Never Know Your Heartthrob recalled Chen's devotion to music and said he was very sad. "She was a very attentive singer," Luo told Sina.com

Chen's death follows the suicide of Jun Zi, another young singer, who hanged herself at home in Beijing in 2000.

A year earlier, 28-year-old Xie Jin, a singer famous for a Beijing Opera-themed pop song, Shuo Chang Lian Pu, jumped from her apartment in Tianjin on Valentine's Day.