Never before in NBA history have coaches fallen this early in the season in such numbers. Now, Maurice Cheeks became the NBA’s fifth coaching casualty of the season. On Saturday, Cheeks was fired as head coach of the Philadelphia 76ers.
With the off-season acquisition of Elton Brand, the 2008-09 season was supposed to be a good one for the Sixers. Unfortunately, it hasn’t played out that way to date.
Despite leading the team in scoring, Brand has not yet lived up to expectations and the rest of the team also has struggled.
The …

The 30-bed Hau Sheng Hospital in Yuanlin, Taiwan is reportedly the world’s first…

I swear this kid is Russian!

ATLANTA —  A sole winner has taken the $207 million top prize from the latest drawing of the Mega Millions lottery.
The winning ticket was purchased in Piqua, Ohio.
In addition, 23 players — two in Michigan — won the second prize of $250,000. Another 113 players — six in Michigan — won the third prize of $10,000.
The winning numbers from Friday night’s drawing were: 10, 16, 19, 27 and 48. The Mega Ball number is 25.
The next Mega Millions drawing will be on Tuesday night with a jackpot of $12 million.
Mega …

President-elect Barack Obama has picked Shaun Donovan, to be the secretary of housing in his cabinet.
Donovan currently serves under Mayor Michael Bloomberg as a commissioner of Housing Preservation and Development in New York City.
Obama is tapping Donovan to help fight the impact of foreclosures in distressed cities.
In his weekly radio address, Obama said he would nominate Shaun Donovan to be Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), a department that has been accused of failing to get rid of racial discrimination in the nation’s housing and lending markets.
“With experience that …

Hugh Jackman will host the 81st annual Academy Awards ceremony from the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles on Feb. 22, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced Friday.
Its producers said they hoped to attain multiple goals with the casting of Mr. Jackman. First, there is a wish to put more movie in the yearly movie business extravaganza. Jon Stewart and Ellen DeGeneres, recent hosts, are both primarily known as television stars.
The Sexiest Man Alive responds in a statement, “Thirty years ago when I was in Sydney watching Johnny …

The parliament has backed up a law making Estonia the first country to allow  voting via cellphone.
We know that Estonians were allowed to cast their votes using the internet in last year’s parliamentary elections wherein 3.5% people voted online.
Although a number of other countries have experimented with Internet voting — Switzerland has used them in its numerous referendums for instance — Estonia was the first to allow it in a nationwide election.
Now, officials are taking democracy into the next level.
Lawmakers approved a measure Thursday allowing citizens to vote by mobile …

As of Friday, Dec. 12, 2008, at least 4,209 members of the U.S. military had died in the Iraq war since it began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
The number includes eight military civilians killed in action. At least 3,397 military personnel died as a result of hostile action, according to the military’s numbers.
The AP count is two fewer than the Defense Department’s tally, last updated Friday at 10 a.m. EST.
The British military has reported 176 deaths; Italy, 33; Ukraine, 18; Poland, 21; Bulgaria, 13; Spain, 11; …

In a matter of hours, the usual December night rain became the most terrible ice storm in a decade.
A powerful ice storm across the northeastern United States knocked down trees and wires from southern New York to Maine, causing power outages for hundreds of thousands of people.
The heavy mixture of rain and ice forced a government shut-down in Maine, and put Massachusetts and New Hampshire under a state of emergency.
As of Friday afternoon, the worst hit areas included Keene, Peterborough, Hillsboro, Milford, Nashua, Manchester, Derry, Epping, Portsmouth, and Rochester.
The National …

According to her publicist, Tara Reid has checked herself into rehab facility in California.
Jack Ketsoyan said Friday that the “American Pie” star went to the Promises Treatment Center in Malibu. He did not say what she was being treated for.

“We appreciate your respect to her and her family’s privacy at this time,” he said in a statement.
A friend told People that Reid entered the rehab facility on Tuesday: “Her friends and family are supportive of her decision. She checked in herself — it was her decision.”
Back in October, Tara told …

theChanner is a free application delivering the Internet TV on mobile devices. For the first time ever, theChanner opens its World TV finder in a private beta test.

theChanner is a free WorldTV search engine over Wi-fi or 3G phones. Its beta is ready for windows mobile phones (more versions are to come) and PC.