Where in the world is this facility?

Receptionists with no medical training were left to to assess patients arriving at the hospital's accident and emergency department, the report found.

Julie Bailey, whose 86-year-old mother Bella died in the hospital in November 2007, said she and other family members slept in a chair at her bedside for eight weeks because they were so concerned about poor care.

"What we saw in those eight weeks will haunt us for the rest of our lives," said the 47-year-old. "We saw patients drinking out of flower vases they were so thirsty.

"There were patients wandering around the hospital and patients fighting. It was continuous through the night. Patients were screaming out in pain because you just could not get pain relief."

America-hating Britons hating America

Walter Reed Middle School

SITTING behind McCain, I didn't see the screen behind him, but apparently quite a few people were puzzling over the plush-looking building projected on the screen. Wonder no more: it was Walter Reed Middle School, presumably chosen by a confused RNC staffer who was looking for a picture of Walter Reed Medical Centre.

Just so long as they don't mistakenly try to take out Ireland's nuclear programme.

Is everyone everywhere brain-dead?

If Churchill came back today he would never stop throwing up...

Gandhi 'is myth', Churchill 'made up'
4 Feb 2008, 1830 hrs IST,PTI

LONDON: Mahatma Gandhi never existed while Britain's wartime Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill was a fictional character. Don't fret. This is only what most Britons think about the great leaders.

According to a survey carried out in Britain, many believe that Mahatma Gandhi and Churchill are just mythical figures like Florence Nightingale, popularly known as the 'Lady with the Lamp'.

In fact, almost a quarter of the population have the popular notion that Churchill, "the greatest Briton of all time", was made up.

Moreover, despite his celebrated military reputation, 47 per cent of respondents feel the 12th-century English King Richard the Lionheart is fictional, according to the survey of 3,000 British teens.

In contrast, a number of fictitious characters like Sherlock Holmes, King Arthur and Eleanor Rigby were given real life status.

While almost 65 per cent of respondents believe that mythical figure King Arthur existed and led a round table of knights at Camelot, 58 per cent of teens think that Holmes really lived at 221B Baker Street.

Fifty-one per cent of respondents believed that Robin Hood lived in Sherwood Forest, robbing the rich to give to the poor, while 47 per cent believed Eleanor Rigby was a real person rather than a creation of The Beatles.

The poll also revealed that nearly three quarters of those surveyed did not read history books while and 61 per cent admitted that they changed channels rather than watching historical programmes on television.

"While there's no excuse for demoting real historical figures such as Churchill, the elevation of mythical figures to real life showed the impact good films could have in shaping the public consciousness.

"Stories like Robin Hood are so inspiring that it's not surprising people like to believe these characters truly existed," the British media quoted Paul Moreton, the Head of UKTV Gold channel, which commissioned the poll, as saying.

Coalition of the dwindling

Breaking news: Prime Minister Gordon Brown says Britain will cut its troops in Iraq to 2,500 starting in spring.

Copying the British (cont)

Celebrity spoof show set for US

Channel 4 comedy Star Stories, which lampoons the lives of celebrities, is being redeveloped for US television.
A pilot of the show is being made by cable channel VH1, which is set to follow the UK programme's format.
A new set of actors is currently being cast for the show, while its name is also likely to be changed.
The recent series of the comedy has satirised Hollywood star Tom Cruise, pop group Take That and also poked fun at X Factor judge Simon Cowell.
The show stars a small group of actors who play a number of famous faces during each half-hour episode, which reconstructs their celebrity lives.
In other episodes, the lives of Madonna and Guy Richie were told in the style of one of the film director's movies, while the Simon Cowell outing was entitled "Simon Cowell: My Honesty, My Genius".
The company behind the UK show - which was nominated for best new comedy at last year's British Comedy Awards - will produce the US pilot episode.
The comedy, now in its second series, has also subjected Victoria and David Beckham, George Michael, Jennifer Aniston and Catherine Zeta Jones to its satirical treatment.

Guess who this is supposed to be...