Turkish Red Crescent provides aid for needy Armenians

Needy people in the Kumkapı area of Istanbul, including poor unregistered Armenian immigrants, will receive donations of food and shoes to start the new year thanks to Türk Kızılay (Turkish Red Crescent).

The organization signed an agreement Wednesday with the Armenian patriarchate, which has been delivering aid to people in need for a decade, about making the deliveries.

“Some 1,000 food packages and 300 pairs of shoes, given to the patriarchate, have started to be distributed to the people in need,” Avedis Hilkat, a member of the Turkish Red Crescent’s board of directors for its Princes’ Islands branch, told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review on Thursday. Hilkat is also deputy head of the Princes’ Islands organization for the main opposition Republican People’s Party, or CHP.

“The patriarchate has long been distributing aid to the poor in the [Kumkapı] area, regardless of their ethnic or religious background, which is why I so much wanted to bring this joint project to life,” Hilkat said.

Distribution of the first aid boxes started Thursday, Hilkat said, adding that all the details on the project implementation, prepared in cooperation with the patriarchate, had already been handed to Turkish Red Crescent Chairman Tekin Küçükali.

“We first started distributing clean secondhand clothes to people in need,” Aram Ateşyan, the patriarchate’s vice chairman, said in the delivery ceremony, adding that they soon realized clothes were not enough and that poor people living in Kumkapı needed food donations as well, the Doğan news agency reported Thursday.

“We, however, faced problems with funding,” Ateşyan said, adding that the patriarchate had contacted the Turkish Red Crescent to ask for a charitable donation. “Kızılay donated 1,000 food packages within a very short period of time,” he said.

The Turkish Red Crescent will continue to distribute aid to people in need, not only by continuing its partnership with the Armenian patriarchate, but by extending the effort to work with the Greek patriarchate as well.

Unregistered Armenian immigrants

The patriarchate is very pleased to help people in need, regardless of their ethnic origin or religion, Hilkat told the Daily News. “Our possibilities [to provide aid] are much higher now,” he said.

Thousands of immigrants of Armenian origin live in Istanbul’s Kumkapı area. The total number of Armenians living in Turkey is 15,000, according to data provided by the Foreign Ministry. Other authorities in Turkey place this figure at more than 20,000.

Most Armenian immigrants have illegally entered Turkey due to their poor financial conditions; Hilkat said the majority live in very poor conditions in Turkey as well. He said some 3,000 immigrants have been receiving assistance funded by the patriarchate’s own sources.

“Now we will be able to provide more assistance, thanks to the Kızılay-patriarchate cooperation,” he said.

Obama 'recess appoints' Ricciardone as envoy to Ankar

U.S. President Barack Obama late Wednesday bypassed the Senate and installed Frank Ricciardone as the new ambassador to Ankara, using a rarely exercised mechanism called a “recess appointment” to end five months without representation in Turkey.

The Ankara post has been vacant since July when the previous envoy, James Jeffrey, left to take up his new job as ambassador to Baghdad.

Since then Ricciardone has been unable to win confirmation from the U.S. Senate. All senior administration officials, including ambassadors, need the approval of the Senate, the upper house of Congress, to assume their posts.

With Obama’s 11th-hour recess-appointment move, one of four naming new ambassadors, Ricciardone is now expected to take up his new post in the Turkish capital in early January.

“This is very good news for our relationship with the United States,” said one senior Turkish Foreign Ministry official.

To remain in effect, a recess appointment must be approved by the Senate by the end of the next session of Congress – at the end of 2011 – or the position becomes vacant again. In current practice, this means that a recess appointment must be approved by roughly the end of the next calendar year.

If Obama’s recess appointment had come in the first days of January 2011, before Congress begins its next session, Ricciardone would have served until the end of 2012.

Despite the recess appointment, Obama is expected to continue to seek formal Senate conformation in 2011 for the appointments of Ricciardone and other controversial ambassadors.

Overcoming vetoes

Obama initially nominated Ricciardone, a former U.S. ambassador to Egypt and the Philippines, for the post in Ankara on July 1. The diplomat won the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s backing July 22.

But on the last day before the Senate went to a summer recess in August, influential Republican Sen. Sam Brownback formally put a hold on Ricciardone’s nomination, saying: “I am not convinced Ambassador Ricciardone is the right ambassador for Turkey at this time – despite his extensive diplomatic experience.” Brownback’s move effectively prevented a Senate floor vote on Ricciardone.

The archaic and rarely used technique known as the recess appointment is a vestige of the 19th century that allows presidents to take certain actions unilaterally, on the presumption that calling the legislature into session could takes weeks, as it did in the era of horse-drawn carriages. The rule gives U.S. presidents the right to install nominees when the Senate is out of Washington. The new U.S. Senate will take office Jan. 3.

Also late Wednesday, Obama announced recess appointments for Matt Bryza to be U.S. ambassador to Azerbaijan, Robert Ford to be U.S. ambassador to Syria and Norm Eisen to be U.S. ambassador to the Czech Republic.

Bryza’s confirmation had been “vetoed” by pro-Armenian Democratic senators Barbara Boxer and Robert Menendez; Obama’s recess-appointment decision was protested by the largest and most influential U.S. Armenian group. A career diplomat, Bryza was opposed by some in the Armenian-American community because of comments he made in his previous position as deputy assistant secretary of state for European affairs while trying to negotiate an end to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

“Armenian-Americans are deeply troubled by President Obama’s decision today to circumvent the U.S. Senate and use a recess appointment to send a deeply flawed diplomat to represent America in Azerbaijan,” said Aram Hamparian, executive director of the Armenian National Committee of America.

“The president’s push to send Matt Bryza to Baku without Senate approval represents a disservice to American diplomacy that will, sadly, undermine our nation’s ability to advance our interests and values in the Caucasus region,” Hamparian said.

Ford will become the first U.S. ambassador in Damascus since 2005, when Washington recalled its former envoy.

The Obama administration had argued that returning an ambassador to Syria after a five-year absence would help persuade Damascus to change its policies regarding Israel, Lebanon and Iraq, as well as its willingness to support extremist groups.

Former President George W. Bush’s administration withdrew a full-time ambassador from Syria in 2005 following terrorism accusations and in protest of the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, killed in a Beirut truck bombing that his supporters blamed on Syria. Syria denied involvement.

The White House said in its recess-appointments statement that these “are posts that have been left vacant for an extended period of time.”

Ricciardone most recently served as deputy ambassador and charge d’affaires at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan. He began his career in Ankara and Adana in Turkey, where he served twice again, as political advisor to the U.S. and Turkish commanders of Operation Provide Comfort at İncirlik air base, and as deputy chief of mission and charge d’affaires. He led the transition to an organization of the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad in 2004, and the Department of State’s Task Force in response to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, on the United States. He served as former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright’s special representative for the Transition of Iraq from 1999-2001.

Denmark holds 'Muhammad cartoon plotters'

Five suspected Islamist militants have been arrested for planning a gun attack at the Copenhagen offices of a Danish newspaper that printed cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in 2005, police say.

The men intended to burst into the Jyllands-Posten office and kill as many people as possible, officials said.

Denmark's justice minister said the attack would have been "outrageous".

Police later evacuated a building where one of the men was held after finding what were thought to be explosives.

Four of the suspects were held in Denmark and the fifth was detained in Sweden.

Denmark's security agency Pet said the suspects included two Swedish residents with Tunisian backgrounds, one Lebanon-born Swede, and an Iraqi. The other was described only as Swedish.

Earlier this month, an Iraq-born Swedish Muslim blew himself up in Stockholm - apparently as he was preparing a suicide bombing.

Swedish police say the suspects held on Wednesday are not thought to be linked to the Stockholm bomber.

The publication of the cartoons in 2005, one of which depicted the Prophet Muhammad with a bomb-shaped turban, caused mass protests among Muslims across the world.

Muslims regard any visual representation of the Prophet as blasphemous.

Cartoons used 'efficiently'

The four held in Denmark were picked up in raids on flats in the Greve and Herlev suburbs of Copenhagen.

Police searches uncovered an automatic weapon, a silencer and live ammunition.

A property in Greve, where one of the suspects, an Iraqi asylum seeker, was arrested, was evacuated at about 2100 local time (2000 GMT) after police discovered a suspicious item they thought could be explosives.

Continue reading the main story

Scandinavia 2010 Alerts

• 1 Jan: Somali man armed with axe breaks into house of Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard
• 8 July: Three arrested in Norway and Germany over bomb plot, apparently linked to Danish cartoons
• 10 Sep: Man held in Copenhagen, suspected of making letter bomb destined for Jyllands-Posten
• 11 Dec: Man blows himself up in Stockholm, apparently while preparing suicide attack

• What the cartoons portray

One resident of the building told the Politken newspaper a police officer had ordered her to evacuate immediately.

"He also said we should bring plenty of warm clothes, because this was going to take a long time," she added.

The newspaper said the area had been sealed off up to 100m away and that a bomb-clearing robot had been sent in.

Jakob Scharf, head of Pet, said the men had been planning to enter the building housing the Jyllands-Posten and "kill as many of the people present as possible".

He said an "imminent terror attack" had been foiled, and that the suspects belonged to a "militant Islamist group and they have links to international terrorist networks".

"Obviously the cartoons have been used very efficiently by militant Islamist groups worldwide in targeting Denmark specifically and trying explain why the violent extremism is necessary," he said.

Sweden's security chief Anders Danielsson said they had known for months that the group was planning an attack, but the authorities had to wait until they had enough evidence for a prosecution.

Justice Minister Lars Barfoed said the "outrageous" plot was "the most serious attempt at terror so far in Denmark".

Cartoonist under guard

As a result of the row over the cartoons, Saudi Arabia recalled its Copenhagen ambassador, Danish firms were forced to scale back operations in some parts of the world, and gunmen raided an EU office in Gaza to demand an apology.

But many in the West have defended the media's right to publish the caricatures, and several European newspapers have republished some of the drawings.

Kurt Westergaard, the cartoonist who drew the image of the turban bomb, has been honoured with awards by free-speech groups, but he now lives under police guard amid death threats from radical groups.

He was the subject of an attempted attack in January when a Somali man got into his home armed with a knife and an axe.

And police across Scandinavia have arrested several groups of people in raids linked to the cartoons.

Three men detained in Norway in July were suspected of planning attacks to avenge the cartoons.

In September, a Chechnya-born Belgian was arrested after a small explosion in Copenhagen, which police linked to the cartoons.

Harry Potter: Quidditch for Muggles

Quidditch, the game popularised in the Harry Potter books, is now being played by students around the world. So just how do you turn a magical sport into something that can be played in real life?

As a group of college students gather on a cold Sunday morning outside the White House for their weekly sports practice, it's hard not to smirk.

Watching adults run around the field with household brooms and mops between their legs, wearing makeshift wizards' capes, is quite a sight, after all. But in non-wizarding society (or the muggle world, for those of you in the know), one has to improvise.

"A Quidditch game might look crazy to somebody who's never seen it before," says Mariah Hegelson, treasurer of the George Washington University team, in Washington DC.

"But to an external observer watching a basketball game for the first time, that might look crazy too," she says, without a hint of irony.

For those who have managed to escape all things Harry Potter, Quidditch is the fictional sport popularised in JK Rowling's best-selling books.

Quidditch is to wizards what football is to humans. In the books, Harry Potter and his friends play the sport at school. There is also a professional league, and even a Quidditch world cup.

It was only to be expected that children brought up on the books - the first was published way back in 1997 - would want to play it in real life.

The first key step towards creating a muggle version of the game was taken by Xander Manshel, a student at Middlebury college in the US state of Vermont, in 2005. Along with his friend Alex Benepe, he rounded up a group of students prepared to give it a try, sticking as closely as possible to the game played by Harry Potter.

Gravity

This includes the broomsticks.

"We all wish we could fly, we just have to deal with the realities of gravity," says Mariah Hegelson.

"Our generation grew up reading it, so playing Quidditch has sort of been a dream. People hold the books dearly in their hearts, so are happy to make it real."

The rules of the human game are similar to those followed in the wizarding world.

There are seven players on each team, including:

• Three chasers, who score by throwing a ball known as the quaffle through one of three goals - hula hoops on sticks
• Two beaters, who throw balls known as bludgers at the opposing team, in an attempt to stop them scoring
• A keeper, who guards the goals
• A seeker, whose job is to catch the prized golden snitch - an action which ends the game

In the fictional game, the snitch is a small magical ball with wings. It is very small and very fast, and very hard to catch.

Human snitch

Step forward Miles Millican, who - for this George Washington University training session - makes up for the fact that a real-life snitch does not have wings.

He is dressed in bright yellow, and his mission is to race around the field at high speed, the snitch dangling from his back.

"Not having magic, we use a ball in a sock," explains Miles. "I run around making sure it doesn't get caught, while seekers run around making sure it does."

Snaring the snitch is important. It not only wins your team 30 points (whittled down from 150 in the books), it also ends the game.

In the books, it is the Ministry of Magic which determines the rules. As there is no government agency that bears this responsibility in the muggle world, it is left to the International Quidditch Association (IQA). It has published a hefty rulebook for high schools and colleges, written by Alex Benepe, the IQA's president.

"Quidditch requires a lot of strategy. It's a cross between rugby, dodgeball, tag and basketball - but with brooms," he explains.

Since the inaugural game at Middlebury College in 2005, it has acquired a worldwide following.

The IQA has been contacted by players of the game as far afield as Japan, South Africa, Australia, Canada, Colombia and Finland.

Mr Benepe estimates it is played at more than 1,200 schools and colleges worldwide, with at least 200-300 active teams.

Quidditch's appeal is universal, he says.

Olympic goal

"Everybody plays it. We've had people from all walks of life, not just Harry Potter fans," he says.

"We get chess fanatics who've never played a sport before, alongside varsity soccer players."

One blogger has described Quidditch as a sport that threatens "to cause a rip in the very fabric of the nerd-jock continuum".

There have been calls for the game to be recognised by the NCAA - the National Collegiate Athletic Association - and given the same status as other college sports such as basketball and football.

But the IQA isn't itself pushing for such a change. For Alex Benepe, the essence of Quidditch is light-hearted.

"The brooms maintain the sport's tongue-in-cheek atmosphere," he says.

"At the end of the day, Quidditch is really a game and I think that a lot of NCAA sports people are very serious about their sport, and that's their life."

Nonetheless, he has big ambitions.

The IQA hosted the fourth Quidditch World Cup in New York in November 2010, with teams from across the United States, including Harvard and Yale, taking part.

But Mr Benepe is already looking beyond the World Cup - he wants to host a Quidditch exhibition match at the 2012 Olympics.

It might seem like a ridiculous idea, but given that he's managed to persuade thousands of students to run around on brooms for fun, he may not need magic for this ambition to become reality too.

A selection of your comments:

It looks a bit silly but it seems like a lot of fun and less dangerous than in the book. I remember noticing that in the book both boys and girls took it seriously and it seems like one of the few games that can be played by both sexes at the same time.

Karen, Sheffield, England

This game could be made much more exciting and "realistic" by motorising it. The snitch could be a radio-controlled car; even the electric ones are just as fast as the fictional item, while the fuel-powered ones are even faster.

George McKee, Texas

Brilliant, I love it. This is the first time I've heard of muggle Quidditch. We should all lobby Boris and Seb to see if we can get a Quidditch exhibition game staged at the Emirates or Stamford Bridge during the Olympics.

Euan Davies, London

It may look daft, but the same can be said for wearing a peg on your nose, tight fitting rubber on your head, and then swimming round in circles to music!

Nathan, Maidstone, England

Brilliant idea but if they are going to have a Quidditch World Cup then teams from UK universities need to be included. As it says in the book "Ireland are the Quidditch World Champions beating Romania."

Louise, Castlerock Northern Ireland

Radio controlled cars sadly don't work. They're fast enough but the person trying to catch it has an unfortunate tendency to step on it - or whack it with the broom. We also have signal problems over 30 yards or so.

Tony, Cardiff

I think this is a really good idea and will make people know more about the books and want to read them, which means more Harry Potter fans in the world and that would be good.

Abi Moore (aged 10), Birmingham, England

I suppose this will be the first game designed for astronauts - as soon as there is a space station big enough to contain a weightless Quidditch pitch.

Simon Morrison, Truro, UK

I could imagine substituting the broom for various xgame gear. Put chasers on skateboards, beaters in rollerblades, seekers on bikes. Keepers could be on pogo sticks or something. Make the the snitch using lazers. Any action a players make while touching the ground would not count: scoring, catching the snitch. Imagine beaters knocking down skaters with a heavy bludger- awesome! Remember: using Magic is not allowed!

SSarles, Pennsylvania, US

I really hope they DO host a Quidditch Exhibition at 2012 Olympics. Sounds like a good laugh to watch as well as to play.

Genevieve Faulkner, Hornchuch, Essex

There will be somebody in the world who will read this and work out how to create a working radio-controlled flying snitch, with enough range to cover the pitch. One day this could be mainstream. And as J K Rowling is British, the Quidditch world cup should ideally include British teams.

Jo Lee, Morley, England

They should *definitely* consider getting a remote-controlled flying snitch; with those really fast-flying helicopters and planes around, they could certainly make a small and light golden-coloured object that's robust enough not to break when being grabbed and that can fly around fast enough to be chased! There could then be a neutral person off the pitch controlling it at a height reachable by the seekers. Would be far more realistic and more fun!

Harry Peto, London

Olympic Quidditch! Yes please! As a great-grandmother (but not a Harry Potter fan) I think a (slightly ridiculous) game played purely for the fun of it would be the best possible representation of the spirit of the Olympics. Long live Muggle Quidditch!!!

Jenny, Bolton

The University of Nottingham has a thriving Qudditich Society. When I first saw it being played, it looked ridiculous, but from hearing the enthusiasm of my friends talk about it, it should definitely become a bona fide sport!

Fiona, Nottingham

Remote control snitches really aren't as much fun. If you've ever witnessed a game, you'd understand why the human snitch is a necessity. The snitch is something that needs character that any amount of remote control object just can't establish. And they're not limited the bounds of the field. Just like in the movies the snitch isn't bound by the towers. It makes it a little more challenging to give the snitch reign of a larger area so they can run around and hide (albeit not IN buildings).

Blake, Okemos, Michigan, USA

I think you muggles should leave it to the real wizards! It would be like playing polo on rocking horses! Or racing F1 in cardboard boxes!

Chris, Ballycastle, Northern Ireland

The problem with any radio controlled flying device is that we do not fly. Also, the radio controlled planes are way too fast to catch. The benefit of a human snitch, if you watch them in action, is the entertainment value as you see the snitch body slam a seeker then throw the seeker to the ground.

Andrew, NY, USA

I must say "Whack Bat" from the film The Fantastic Mr. Fox would be much more exciting! Agreed?

Matthias Merges, Chicago, United States

I can't help but wonder at the injury potential of a) running with a broom between your legs, and b) accidentally spearing that broom handle at people you are trying to fight for posession of the ball.

Julie, Leicester

Having invented the game it is essential that we Brits play so that we can disastrously lose on most occasions.

Landlord arrested in Jo Yeates murder inquiry

The 65-year-old landlord of the Bristol flat where landscape architect Jo Yeates lived has been arrested on suspicion of her murder.

Police said the man, understood to be retired teacher Chris Jefferies, was arrested at the flat in Canynge Road above the one rented by Miss Yeates.

Her body was discovered on Christmas Day, eight days after she disappeared. The 25-year-old had been strangled.

Mr Jefferies formerly taught English at the public school, Clifton College.

Miss Yeates was last seen alive on 17 December, when she was seen on CCTV visiting an off licence and two supermarkets near her home.

Her boyfriend, Greg Reardon, with whom she lived, reported her missing two days later when he returned home from visiting family in Sheffield.

Community 'worried'

Miss Yeates' body was found in Longwood Lane, in Failand near Bristol, by a couple walking their dogs.

Mr Jefferies, who lived above the Victorian basement property he rented to Miss Yeates, is being detained for questioning at a police station within the Avon and Somerset force area.

Forensic examiners have said there was no sign of a forced entry or a struggle at the property

Police have removed two cars from the street where Miss Yeates lived - a silver Chrysler which was parked on the road and a grey Volvo S40 which was parked in a driveway.

Resident Tony Buss, 51, confirmed the Chrysler belongs to Mr Jefferies.

Mr Buss said: "Today's news is a shock and surprise."

He said the community had been worried about a killer on the loose.

Another neighbour, a 26-year-old man who did not want to be named, said: "It's all been pretty scary, especially for my girlfriend as I'm away most of the week so it's been pretty scary for her to be home alone.

"We chose the area of Clifton to live in because we thought it was safe."

Chris Jefferies reportedly told police he saw three people leaving the flats

Referring to Mr Jefferies, he said: "We see him all the time on the road."

Miss Yeates' keys, mobile phone, purse and coat had been left behind at her flat and forensic examiners have said there was no sign of a forced entry or a struggle at the property.

Mr Jefferies, 65, reportedly told police he saw three people, one of whom he believed was the landscape architect, leaving the Victorian block of flats.

The retired public school teacher said he spotted the trio shortly after 2100 GMT on 17 December, not long after Miss Yeates arrived home alone, as he parked his car in the street.

Mr Jefferies is understood to have reported the sighting to police, who have confirmed they are examining the evidence.

But speaking outside his home on Wednesday, Mr Jefferies denied he had told police he saw Miss Yeates leaving with two unidentified people.

Miss Yeates is known to have left the Ram pub, on Park Street, at about 2000 GMT on the night she disappeared.

The BBC's Louise Hubball has been watching events outside Jo Yeates' home, where two cars have been removed from the property.

Police have issued CCTV images of her then visiting a Waitrose store on The Triangle, a Bargain Booze shop, and a Tesco Express near her flat.

She bought a pizza at the Tesco store but while the receipt was found at her flat, no trace has been found of the food or its wrapper.

A police spokesman said: "Detectives investigating Joanna's murder are continuing to carry out forensic examinations, and are also continuing to appeal for anyone with any information that can help the inquiry to call the Operation Braid incident room."

Miss Yeates' parents, David and Teresa, who live in Hampshire, had appealed for help in finding their daughter and spoke of their relief when her body was found.

Crimestoppers has offered a £10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of her killer.

Kodachrome last remaining film roll developed in Kansas

The final roll of Kodachrome film, a widely-lauded quality colour film, is to be developed in Kansas on Thursday.

Kodak announced it was discontinuing the iconic film in 2009, after competition from digital cameras caused a large sales decline.

Kodachrome is difficult to process, requiring expert handlers, and Dwayne's Photo in Kansas is the sole remaining developer.

The last film to be developed was shot by the owner, Dwayne Steinle.

Kodachrome film is renowned for its exceptional rendering of colour, vivid images and archival longevity. For many years, it was the preferred brand for print media.

Created in 1935, it was the first commercial film to successfully shoot in colour.

Kodachrome was also used for motion pictures.

Dwayne's Photo has been inundated with requests for developing, many from photographers who had been hoarding the coveted film for years.

One customer picked up 1,580 rolls of film used solely to shoot railroad engines. The nearly 50,000 slides cost $15,798 (£10,200) to develop.

BBC photo editor Phil Coomes has been documenting his own final days with Kodachrome, as well as collecting reader photographs on his BBC blog.

Afghan Girl

One of Kodachrome's most famous admirers is National Geographic's Steve McCurry, the photojournalist who captured the world's attention with a haunting 1984 cover photograph of Sharbat Gula, an Afghan refugee girl with stunning green eyes.

Ms Gula, whose identity remained unknown for many years, did not see the image until a documentary film crew located her in 2003.

Although Mr Steinle developed his own Kodachrome roll last, Kodak gave the final roll it produced to Mr McCurry.

With just 36 frames to use, he travelled to India to photograph a tribe on the verge of extinction.

Mr McCurry also shot images of New York, Kansas and actor Robert DeNiro in a journey filmed as a documentary by National Geographic.

He hand-delivered the last roll to Dwayne's Photo earlier this year.

"I wasn't going to take any chances," he told the New York Times.

The National Geographic film is likely to air in spring 2011.

US pool player Wade Crane dies in car accident age 66

US professional pool player Wade Crane has died after a one-car accident in Tennessee, USA. He was 66 years old. Crane's Volkswagen crossed three lanes of traffic into the concrete retaining wall, then bounced back across five more lanes of traffic into another retaining wall.

It is believed that Crane suffered from an undiagnosed medical condition. News of the crash was broken by The Knoxville News Sentinel.

Crane was a former world champion of both 9-ball and 8-ball pool. A self-taught player, for 21 years he was the only person in pool history to shoot a perfect score in the finals of a major tournament.

Fellow pool players including Nick Varner, Johnny Archer, and Shannon Daulton paid tribute to Crane.