October 1969 file photo: Comedian Phyllis Diller poses for a portrait. Diller, the housewife turned humorist who aimed some of her sharpest barbs at herself, died Monday, Aug. 20, 2012, at age 95 in Los Angeles. (AP)
LOS ANGELES – Phyllis Diller, the housewife turned humorist who aimed some of her sharpest barbs at herself, punctuating her jokes with her trademark cackle, died Monday morning in her Los Angeles home at age 95.
"She died peacefully in her sleep and with a smile on her face," her longtime manager, Milton Suchin, told The Associated Press.
Diller, who suffered a near-fatal heart attack in 1999, was found by her son, Perry Diller. The cause of her death has not been released.
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Judge overturns SC man's death sentence
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A South Carolina judge has overturned a death sentence for a man convicted of killing his estranged wife while awaiting trial on charges he had raped and kidnapped her.
Prosecutors said Monday a judge had instead opted to sentence Louis Winkler to life in prison, citing errors made by his defense attorney at trial. State prison officials said Monday that Winkler was still on death row, and it wasn't immediately clear when he would be moved to a different cell.
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NBC’s Apprentice Winner Awarded Billion Dollar U.S. Dept. Of Health Contracts
Call it “The Midas Touch.” Dr. Randal Pinkett, season four winner of NBC’s The Apprentice and Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, BCT Partners, a national consulting firm delivering a full-range of program management, research and evaluation, technical assistance, and information technology services to the U.S. Government, has been awarded two contracts with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration (SAMHSA) and National Institutes of Health (NIH)..
How Nonprofits Spend Millions on Elections and Call it Public Welfare
Billionaire David Koch, chairman of the board
of the conservative Americans for Prosperity (AFP) advocacy group,
attends a 'Cut Spending Now' rally at AFP's 'Defending the American
Dream Summit' in Washington on November 5, 2011. (Nicholas
Kamm/AFP/Getty Images)
Matt Brooks describes the mission of the Republican Jewish Coalition as educating the Jewish community about critical domestic and foreign policy issues.
Pakistan disabled girl arrested for blasphemy
Christians argue they are often falsely accused of blasphemy
Pakistani police have arrested a mentally disabled 11-year-old girl after a mob accused her of desecrating pages of the Koran.
Officials said the girl could not properly answer police questions.
Her parents have been taken into protective custody following threats and other Christian families have fled.
It is thought that the girl has Down's syndrome.
Paul Bhatti, Pakistan's minister for National Harmony, told the BBC that the girl was known to have a mental disorder and that it seemed "unlikely she purposefully desecrated the Koran".
"From the reports I have seen, she was found carrying a waste bag which also had pages of the Koran," he said.
"This infuriated some local people and a large crowd gathered to demand action against her. The police were initially reluctant to arrest her, but they came under a lot of pressure from a very large crowd, who were threatening to burn down Christian homes."
Man Fights to Keep Wife's Body in Front Yard
James Davis faces off against Alabama health officials
(Newser)
–
James
Davis promised his wife he would bury her at home, and that's exactly
what he did. Only problem: A county judge in Alabama has ordered her
body moved from her grave site in Davis' front yard, the AP
reports. "Good Lord, they've raised pigs in their yard, there's horses
out the road here ... they've got other grave sites here all over the
place," says Davis, 73. "And there shouldn't have been a problem."In Greece, Graves Are Only for Rent
After that you have to watch while they dig up your relatives
A cemetery is seen in Mytilini, Lesbos, Greece in this file photo. (Getty Images)
(Newser) – If you’re looking forward to resting in peace someday, try not to kick it in Greece. The country is so drastically short on cemetery space that by law the dead may only rent graves, and then for a maximum of three years, reports Alex Mar of Slate, whose grandparents died there recently. After that, a family member must come watch as the body is exhumed and its bones collapsed into a container around the size of a shoebox.
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Phyllis Diller, Sassy Deliverer of Rapid-Fire Comedy, Dies at 95
Michael Blake/Associated Press
Phyllis Diller in 2003.
Phyllis Diller, whose sassy, screeching, rapid-fire stand-up comedy helped open the door for two generations of funny women, died on Monday at her home in Brentwood, Calif. She was 95.
Her agent, Fred Wostbrock, confirmed her death.
Ms. Diller, who became famous for telling jokes that mocked her odd looks, her aversion to housekeeping and a husband she called Fang, was far from the first woman to do stand-up comedy. But she was one of the most influential. There were precious few women before her, if any, who could dispense one-liners with such machine-gun precision or overpower an audience with such an outrageous personality.
One chestnut: “I once wore a peekaboo blouse. People would peek and then they’d boo.”
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