Ledger turned down ‘Spider-Man’

October 12th, 2009 LONDON - Scientists in Italy have hailed a remote control 'spider pill' camera with moving legs as a new way to scan for diseases. Dr Enrico Grasso, a cancer specialist at the University Hospital Tor Vergata in Rome, believe the device could help detect diseases, including cancer of the stomach or colon, by transforming the invasive procedure of diagnosing serious conditions.

September 26th, 2009 A not so itsy-bitsy spider bugs the pope in PraguePRAGUE — President Barack Obama had his fly. Now Pope Benedict XVI has his spider.

July 7th, 2009 LONDON - Scientists have identified a species of spider that builds models of itself that it uses as decoys to distract predators, which may be the first example of an animal building a life-size replica of its own body. Many animals try to divert the attentions of predators by becoming masters of disguise.

May 14th, 2009 No buyer for book filled with 'Dr Pepper' recipesDALLAS — A tattered old ledger book from the Texas drugstore where Dr Pepper was invented has failed to sell at auction. Heritage Auction Galleries said Wednesday that the bidding for the book containing a recipe titled "D Peppers Pepsin Bitters" failed to meet the $25,000 minimum reserve.

May 2nd, 2009 LONDON - A team of scientists has determined that by adding the metal titanium, spider silk can be made super tough, in fact 10 times as hard to snap. The team included Seung-Mo Lee and Mato Knez at the Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics in Halle, Germany.

March 22nd, 2009 Virender Kashyap has lost all the 10 elections he has fought in his three-decade-long political career. So will the Bharatiya Janata Party's candidate from Shimla make it this time? He unsuccessfully contested the Shimla parliamentary seat six times and the Kasauli assembly constituency four times.

February 23rd, 2009 LOS ANGELES - Late Hollywood actor Heath Ledger was awarded a posthumous Oscar for best supporting role for his performance in 'The Dark Knight'. Ledger immortalised the character of the 'Clown' in the film based on the DC Comics 'Batman' series.

February 17th, 2009 LONDON - Late Australian actor Heath Ledger is sure to win a posthumous Academy Award for his role in 'The Dark Knight', predict bookies. According to bookmakers William Hill, the actor is 1-50 favourite to land the Best Supporting Oscar prize - the shortest odds ever, reports mirror.co.uk.

February 15th, 2009 LONDON - Oscars host Hugh Jackman is praying late Australian actor Heath Ledger walks away with a posthumous Academy Award because the honour would be 'fitting' to the star's memory. Ledger, who died from an accidental drug overdose in January 2008, achieved huge critical acclaim for his turn as The Joker in Batman movie 'The Dark Knight'.

January 17th, 2009 LONDON - Late Aussie actor Heath Ledger reportedly had a horrible time on the set of the Oscar winning movie 'Brokeback Mountain' as director Ang Lee treated him like an 'alienated prop', claims producer James Schamus. According to contactmusic.com, in a magazine tribute piece marking the first anniversary of the death, Schamus and British director Terry Gilliam both remembered how difficult it was for Ledger.

January 13th, 2009 SYDNEY - Sally Bell, mother of dead Australian actor Heath Ledger, has promised that his posthumous Golden Globe award would go to his daughter, Matilda. 'It will belong to her because she is part of him,' Bell told Who magazine in an interview published Wednesday.

January 11th, 2009 SYDNEY - Kim Ledger, father of dead Australian actor Heath Ledger, Monday described his son's posthumous Golden Globe award as 'bitter-sweet'. Ledger, who was 28 when he died of an accidental prescription drug overdose in New York a year ago, won the award for his role as the Joker in 'The Dark Knight'.

January 11th, 2009 LOS ANGELES - Heath Ledger won a Golden Globe award for best supporting actor Sunday for his role as The Joker in the Batman drama 'The Dark Knight'. The award came almost a year after the Australian actor died from an accidental drug overdose in New York last January.

January 1st, 2009 WASHINGTON - Researchers have unravelled an ancient missing link between today's spiders and their long-extinct ancestors, and that may help explain how spiders came to weave webs. The research by scientists at the University of Kansas (KU) and Virginia's Hampden-Sydney College focuses on fossil animals called Attercopus fimbriunguis.

January 1st, 2009 LONDON - Hollywood star Mel Gibson has paid tribute to late actor Heath Ledger as part of an end-of-year review in a US magazine. According to contactmusic.com, Gibson told the Entertainment Weekly that he saw a lot of his own characteristics in Ledger, who he first met when the tragic star auditioned to play his son in 2000 movie 'The Patriot'.