Joan Quigley, the astrologer who helped determine President Ronald Reagan’s schedule and claimed to have convinced him to soften his stance towards the Soviet Union, has died.
Ms Quigley, 87, died at her San Francisco home after an unspecified illness, the San Francisco Chronicle, quot-ing her sister Ruth, said.
Nancy Reagan began consulting Ms Quigley after the 1981 assassination attempt on her husband because she wanted to keep him from getting shot again, Mrs Reagan wrote in her 1989 autobiography My Turn.
Entertainer Merv Griffin had told her that Ms Quigley had predicted that the day the president was shot was going to be a dangerous one for him.
Ms Quigley would go on to advise Mrs Reagan on dates for presidential trips and news conferences. (PA)
Princess sentenced for cockfighting
A princess fifth in line for the Romanian throne and her husband who admitted running a cockfighting ring in rural Oregon have both sentenced to probation and ordered to forfeit $200,000 (€158,000) from the sale of the property, federal prosecutors said. Irina Walker and her husband John pleaded guilty in July to one count of running an illegal gambling operation with at a barn-like structure on their ranch in Irrigon, near the Washington state border, where they held cockfighting “derbies.” (Reuters)
Campaign to buy car for lookalike
Jim Tully’s hours-long walks to and from work in the Pocono Mountains, where he has been repeatedly stopped by police in a case of mistaken identity in the manhunt for a Pennsylvania cop killer, may be coming to an end. News of the factory worker’s run-ins with authorities searching for fugitive Eric Frein, wanted in the September 12 shooting death of one state trooper and wounding of another, has sparked a crowdfunding campaign to buy him a car. (Reuters)
Florida man shoots 180-kg bear
A Florida man shot and killed a 180-kg black bear after it broke into his house two nights in a row to get to a bag of dog food, a state wildlife officer said yesterday. “I felt in danger enough that since it wouldn’t leave I had to shoot it,” said Victor Peters of Lady Lake of the incident in a video interview posted online by the Orlando Sentinel. (Reuters)
‘Posh flower pot’ sold for €711,000
A “posh flower pot” that had been used as a goal post and then valued at £10,000 (€12,700) on The Antiques Roadshow has sold for more than half a million pounds.
Its owner Terry Nurrish and the specialist Eric Knowles who valued it more than 20 years ago have been brought back together in an episode of the BBC show to be aired tonight – without the valuable ornament.
Host Fiona Bruce explains to viewers that the jardiniere, which she says is “essentially a posh flower pot”, had been in Mr Nurrish’s family since 1946.
He was on the programme in 1991 when Mr Knowles told him he thought he could get £10,000 for it. (PA)