She was working on a series of pictures of marginalised Americans, work that was to win her a World Press Photo award. Shooting commercial portraits of quirky fluffballs did not exactly fit her professional profile, let alone sinking half her life-savings into the scheme. She herself felt as though her personality was splitting in two, between the proud pet-owner and the hard-nosed photo-journalist – a split that frequently surfaced in her conversation.”I feel Mr Winkle and I were always meant to be together,” she began at one point, pet-owner style, before the photojournalist interrupted. “Oh God, that’s such a damned cliché.” Then the pet-owner again: “He found a mummy, I found a muse And he does love posing. It’s as if it’s his mission.”Soon after the website became a hit, a spoof rival set up a game inviting participants to “assassinate Mr Winkle” Again, she had a conflicted reaction On the one hand, she was appalled. On the other, the seasoned journalist in her knew this was a sure sign that Mr Winkle had made it. She still gets occasional threats – e-mails saying “your dog will die some day!” – and she never lets her treasure out of her sight, for fear of abduction, or worse.Regan insists she does not exploit Mr Winkle.

She has said no to Disney, and intends to do so again if fast-food companies come calling. She forced Mattel to change the design of its cuddly toy several times, sending its designers to Japan to find the perfect fur and making numerous modifications. The toy will be slightly larger than Mr Winkle, for reasons of marketing and price maximisation. (He will retail at $30 in the US).What happened, I wondered, when Mr Winkle came face to face with his stuffed counterpart for the first time? Regan tensed slightly as she answered: “He circled the doll, licked it, and then tried to move in on it. Several times.”Mr Winkle humping his likeness? That can’t be good for publicity “All I could think,” Regan said, “was, ‘My God he’s lonely.

He’s so lonely.’” And this, as they say in the movies, is only the beginning.. The space station Mir blazed to earth into the South Pacific today, ending its 15-year space voyage with spectacular trails across the sky. The space station Mir blazed to earth into the South Pacific today, ending its 15-year space voyage with spectacular trails across the sky.
There was no report of any land area being hit after it disintegrated and fell to earth just before 6am GMT.”The Mir has finished its triumphant flight,” a Mission Control announcer said. Blazing wreckage was seen from Fiji hurtling across the sky.David Templeman, executive director of Emergency Management Australia, said: “Splashdown has occurred in that area where it was predicted. We don’t have any report of any other damage at this stage.”Russian space officials were sombre at the end of a space era, but exuberant over what they characterized as a flawless achievement.”It has been an exemplary operation, and our experts have not made a mistake in any single step, not in a millimeter. The world has become convinced that Russia knows not only how to build spacecraft but how to control them and how to forecast their flight. Russia will remain a great space power,” said Yuri Koptev, the head of the Russian Aerospace agency.The spacecraft’s descent began after its eight engines thrusted according to commands issued by Mir’s onboard computer at 00.31 GMT, when Mir was just below the Equator over the Indian Ocean.A second impulse successfully took place an hour and a half later as Mir crossed over East Africa.

Both thrusts, known as burns, were aimed at slowing Mir’s speed and bringing it into its final pre-crash orbit.The final burst plunged the station into the atmosphere over the Pacific and into the waters between Australia and Chile, a zone that centers roughly around 40 degrees south latitude and 160 degrees west longitude, slightly different than previously indicated. That put the center of the Mir sinking about 1,500 kilometers (930 miles) northwest of the planned site.. Palestinian leaders asked Yasser Arafat yesterday to reopen the local office of an Arab satellite TV station, which was shut down after broadcasting an unflattering image of the Palestinian leader. Palestinian leaders asked Yasser Arafat yesterday to reopen the local office of an Arab satellite TV station, which was shut down after broadcasting an unflattering image of the Palestinian leader.
Mr Arafat has frequently moved against the media to squash dissent, but overzealous security chiefs were blamed for the closure of Al-Jazeera, which is based in Qatar but has an office in Ramallah.Critics said the closure of the office was a heavy-handed mistake, silencing an office that has helped rally Arab support for the Palestinian cause with its intensive coverage of the Palestinian uprising against Israel in the past six months.”In addition to freedom of speech issues, there is the practical issue of this [closure] backfiring,” said the Palestinian legislator Hanan Ashrawi.