Bonjour Planet Earth: October 2008

Friday, October 31, 2008

Pakistan: police stop wedding of 7 year-old-boy to 5 year-old-girl...

THE Muslim wedding of a seven-year-old boy and a five-year-old girl has been raided by police.

Cops arrested the Muslim cleric conducting the sick ceremony and the children’s parents in Pakistan’s largest city.

The cleric had not yet begun the ceremony of Mohammad Waseem, seven, and his bride Nishain Karachi, five – which was attended by 100 guests.

Pakistan law forbids marriage below the age of 18 – but some Muslim scholars say it is permissible if the bride and groom have reached puberty.

TV footage showed both children in traditional wedding clothes in the laps of policemen after the raid – the girl with tears running down her cheeks. More...

See also:

The world watches as the Congo bleeds...

DR Congo: all hell breaks loose... Where's the U.N.? Where's Bono? Where's the bailout?

The UN refugee agency says it has credible reports camps sheltering 50,000 refugees in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo have been destroyed.

Reports suggest the camps were forcibly emptied and looted before being burned.

Aid groups say they are struggling to reach an estimated 250,000 people in the region fleeing fierce fighting between government and rebel forces.

(...)

Food and water are terribly scarce, and aid agencies have all but stopped work.

The BBC's Orla Guerin witnessed scenes of chaos at a refugee camp in Kibati on the outskirts as Goma, as desperately hungry people stampeded.

Children were trampled underfoot and panicked aid staff were forced to beat back the heaving crowd. More +video...

See also:

Better protection for airline passengers against ticketing agents?

Airline passengers will no longer face hidden extras when booking flights online as new rules come into force.

They will benefit from new rules compelling carriers to quote fully inclusive ticket prices - including taxes and charges - on their websites and newspaper advertising.

The regulations have been introduced by the European Union amid complaints that some carriers have tried to lure passengers with low headline prices, before adding extras to the cost of the ticket during the booking process.

Now all unavoidable charges - from airport fees and local taxes - will be the first figure a passenger sees.

These changes follow a 15-country study carried out by the European Commission into what it regarded as misleading advertising and unfair practices on airline websites. More...

See also:

"Who killed our children?" asks Chinese director in Sichuan quake documentary...

A Chinese director hopes his documentary about the deaths of hundreds of children in the collapse of a shoddily built school during the Sichuan earthquake will provoke answers, but he doesn't expect any soon.

The devastating May tremor in southwest China killed 80,000 people. Many were children who had been napping or were at their desks in schools that crumbled while other buildings stood firm.

China vowed to punish those responsible after aggrieved parents blamed their children's deaths on substandard construction stemming from corruption and greed. No prosecutions have been reported yet and families have been pressured into dropping their complaints against local officials. More...

See also:

Clinton is helping Obama; why isn't Bush helping McCain?

Iraqis need clean water badly...

Millions of people in Iraq are at risk of disease because of inadequate health care, water and sanitation services, the international Red Cross warned Wednesday.

"Far too many Iraqis still have no choice but to drink dirty water and live in insalubrious conditions," said Juan-Pedro Schaerer, the head of delegation for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Iraq.

"This leads to more sick people seeking treatment in a health-care system already stretched to the limit," he said in a statement.

The ICRC noted that around 40 percent of Iraqis, mostly people living in suburbs and rural areas, are not connected to a water network, and must thus either buy water at a cost of around 50 US cents (40 euro cents) for 10 litres, or collect it from often polluted rivers or wells if they cannot afford it. More... Watch the video here...

See also:

Thursday, October 30, 2008

Israel's "modesty patrols" and the law...

The young woman exudes strength and independence. But she bears the sign of a head fracture and scars on her face. One night, a few months ago, men broke into her apartment through the front door. They beat her up and humiliated her, knocking her head against the floor. They threatened to tear gas her if she tried to interfere with their rummaging through her possessions. And they left her bleeding on the floor.

To whom could she go for help? Her family turned its back on her when she chose to divorce her ultra-Orthodox husband; her children were taken away from her; and the neighbors in her building cold shoulder her. Now it transpires that the authorities can't help either. The investigation that began with a great deal of media fuss, has ended in failure. That, of course, took place far from the public eye. More...

See also:

When Hollywood makes you feel guilty for not voting...

Sarkozy and his voodoo doll!! Hilarious!

There is never any respite with Nicolas Sarkozy. When France's president is not touring the world to save it, he's threatening to sue journalists or publishers for lèse majesté. Unlike any French president before him, he hasn't understood that universal suffrage has elevated him above all parties and trite bickering. In fact, Nicolas Sarkozy remains what he always was: a business lawyer. Little did he expect though, when he sued a publisher for commercialising a voodoo doll representing him, that a judge would rebuke his demand.

A French judge decided that "this unauthorised representation of Nicolas Sarkozy's image does not degrade his human dignity and cannot be considered as a personal attack. Nor does it represent a violation of his rights over his image." Described by the judge as "une oeuvre de l'esprit", the voodoo doll "is in line with what is allowed under the freedom of speech and the rights to humour … Nobody can fail to see that this doll doesn't promote voodooism as practised in the West Indies. A judge doesn't have to appreciate of the good or bad taste of such concept."More...

See also:

Pakistan on the brink of bankruptcy...

President Asif Ali Zardari's government needs about £3 billion to avoid defaulting on outstanding debts. So far, a tour of friendly capitals by Shaukat Tareen, the country's senior finance official, has failed to raise this sum.

Although Mr Tareen has visited both America and China - Pakistan's two key allies - a bail-out on a sufficient scale has not yet been agreed. Moody's, the international ratings agency, has downgraded Pakistan's standing.

The country's allies, including Britain, will be joining a "friends of Pakistan" meeting in Abu Dhabi next month when more aid might be agreed. In the meantime, Mr Tareen is believed to be seeking immediate help from the IMF. More...

See also:

What happened to the bailout(taxpayer) money given to the banks?

According to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, the chief proponent of the big bank bailout, flooding the banks with taxpayers’ money was supposed to get them to start lending freely again. And that, in turn, was supposed to stabilize the markets and prevent the downturn from being worse than it otherwise would be.

It was not entirely clear from the start exactly how Mr. Paulson would ensure that things would go that way. Indeed, earlier this month, shortly after the bailout was enacted, The Times’s Mark Landler reported that Treasury officials also wanted to steer the bailout billions to banks that would use the money to buy up other banks.

Now, lo and behold, with $250 billion in bailout funds committed to dozens of large and regional banks, it turns out that many of the recipients of this investment from taxpayers are not all that interested in making loans. And it appears that Mr. Paulson is not so bothered by their reluctance. More...

See also:

There goes my hero...

As the DR of Congo crashes into chaos...

Congolese government forces are fleeing the eastern capital of Goma as Rwandan-backed rebels press towards the town, threatening a lethal confrontation with United Nations peacekeepers and the prospect of all out regional war.

Western aid workers in Goma, with a population of 600,000, described scenes of mayhem in the streets as columns of government tanks and military vehicles streamed out of the city and panicking civilians fled for cover, fearing an imminent rebel onslaught.

“There is absolute panic,” Karl Steinacker, an official with the UN refugee agency told The Times by telephone this afternoon. “As of ten minutes ago, the war has arrived in the streets. There are columns of army running away. They are basically abandoning the city.” More...

See also:

Spanish racists target Lewis Hamilton with voodoo-style attacks...

Lewis Hamilton has again been targeted by Spanish racists in the build-up to this weekend’s title-deciding Brazilian Grand Prix.

World governing body the FIA and Hamilton’s McLaren team have been quick to condemn a mindless "voodoo-style" website aimed at wrecking Hamilton’s championship dreams.

The 23-year-old goes into Sunday’s showdown needing only to finish in the top five at Interlagos to become the youngest champion in Formula One history.

But ahead of the race, racism is again threatening to overshadow the event as hundreds of abusive messages have been posted on a website in Spain.

The website carries the name "Pincha la Rueda de Hamilton", which translates as "Burst Hamilton’s Tyre".

Visitors to the site - 20,000 to date - are encouraged to drop imaginary nails, pins or porcupines on a mock-up of the Interlagos circuit. More...

See also:

Beatles become alive again in new video game...

SURVIVING members of The Beatles announced today that their songs will take on new lives in a videogame that lets people pretend to be the world-changing 1960s British rockers.

MTV Games is having the game developed by US studio Harmonix, the maker of the hot-selling Rock Band videogame in which players using mock instruments as controllers win by keeping in tune with music and on-screen note cues.

MTV Games didn't reveal details of the yet-to-be-completed Beatles game but says it will be "an unprecedented, experiential progression through" the band's music.

"The project is a fun idea which broadens the appeal of The Beatles and their music," Sir Paul McCartney said. "I like people having the opportunity to get to know the music from the inside out."

The game will mark the first time the iconic band's music is featured in a videogame. More...

See also:

America catches a cold and everyone else shivers...

The US economy slipped into the early stages of a recession, official figures showed, adding to growing fears of a global recession over the next year.

The figures, however, failed to deter another day of modest recoveries in stock markets and commodity prices around the world – many of which were buoyed by Wednesday's cut in interest rates by the US central bank, the Federal Reserve.

Economic growth in America fell by 0.3 per cent between June and September – after rising by 2.8 per cent during the previous three months.

Consumer spending, which makes up two-thirds of the US economy, shrank by 3.1 per cent, the first contraction since 1991.

The US does not use the common definition of a recession as two quarters of negative GDP growth but relies upon a body called the National Bureau of Economic Research to rule on the extent of any downturn.

The deteriorating economic situation is having a profound effect on the Presidential race – with John McCain's dwindling popularity in states such as Michigan and Indiana blamed on his lacklustre response to the financial crisis. More...

See also:

Eunoia, the book that uses only one-vowel chapters! Wow!

Eunoia is the shortest word in English containing all five vowels - and it means "beautiful thinking". It is also the title of Canadian poet Christian Bok's book of fiction in which each chapter uses only one vowel.

Mr Bok believes his book proves that each vowel has its own personality, and demonstrates the flexibility of the English language. Below are extracts from each chapter. More...

See also:

You can vote however you like...

Indonesia passes anti-porn bill...

Indonesia's parliament has passed an anti-pornography law despite furious opposition to it.

Islamic parties said the law was needed to protect women and children against exploitation and to curb increasing immorality in Indonesian society.

The law would ban images, gestures or talk deemed to be pornographic.

Artists, women's groups and non-Muslim minorities said they could be victimised under the law and that traditional practices could be banned.

The law has prompted protests across Indonesia, but particularly on the predominantly Hindu island of Bali - a favourite destination for tourists. More...

See also:

Josef Fritzl: I bricked up my mother in a sealed room...

Incest dad Josef Fritzl has admitted he kept his own mother bricked up in a sealed room until she died to extract revenge for the years of abuse he claims he received at her hands.

He made the astonishing revelations in one of a series of meetings he had with a woman psychologist preparing an expert report in advance of his trial set to take place in February.

He told Adelheid Kastner that he had tried very hard to love his mother but as he grew older that love had turned to hatred and he had extracted revenge.

He said: 'She raised me unknown but I never had any love from her. She used to beat me, hit me until I was lying in a pool of blood on the floor. It left me feeling totally humiliated and weak.' More...

See also:

If voting is a civic duty, how about NOT voting?

Web giants to combat Internet censorship abroad?

Should U.S. businesses involved in Internet commerce do business in nations governed by oppressive regimes? This is a question that many libertarians—including some of us on TLF—have grappled with for some time.

Now Yahoo, Google, and Microsoft have signed on to a set of principles for conducting business in countries that disregard human rights. Today’s Wall Street Journal reports:

Under the new principles, which were crafted over two years, the technology titans promise to protect the personal information of their users wherever they do business and to “narrowly interpret and implement government demands that compromise privacy,” according to the code.

It’s welcome news for defenders of liberty that U.S. Web giants plan to play hardball with foreign governments who would use information gleaned from Internet firms to violate their citizens’ human rights. Several troubling reports have surfaced in the past few years about American companies abetting egregious actions by oppressive governments. More...

See also:

La presse US vote Obama ...

Depuis le début de la bataille John McCain-Barack Obama, de nombreux médias américains ont fait preuve d'un véritable engouement pour Barack Obama. A quelques jours de l'élection, le magazine Editor Publisher recense pas moins de 134 quotidiens ayant pris parti pour le candidat démocrate, contre 52 pour son rival républicain. Si certains soutiens étaient attendus - celui du New York Times, par exemple - d'autres sont plus surprenants. Ainsi, le Chicago Tribune n'avait jamais préféré un démocrate depuis sa création en 1847.

(...)

Barack Obama a également profité de ses talents d'orateur. Considéré par certains comme le meilleur dans cet exercice depuis John Kennedy, et parfois comparé à Martin Luther King, le candidat métis a su passionner les foules et ranimer l'espoir. Le progressiste Los Angeles Time a notamment marqué sa préférence "sans retenue" pour un homme qu'il juge "cultivé, éloquent, sobre et excitant, constant et mature". Un argument repris par le Britannique et néanmoins très respecté Financial Times, qui a officialisé lundi son soutien au sénateur de l'Illinois, "le meilleur orateur politique que le pays ait connu depuis des décennies". Le quotidien économique a également été séduit par une campagne "superbement menée". Suite...

Voir aussi:

Goldman Sachs ready to hand out £7bn salary and bonus package... after its £6bn bail-out!!!

Goldman Sachs is on course to pay its top City bankers multimillion-pound bonuses - despite asking the U.S. government for an emergency bail-out.

The struggling Wall Street bank has set aside £7billion for salaries and 2008 year-end bonuses, it emerged yesterday.

Each of the firm's 443 partners is on course to pocket an average Christmas bonus of more than £3million.

The size of the pay pool comfortably dwarfs the £6.1billion lifeline which the U.S. government is throwing to Goldman as part of its £430billion bail-out.

As Washington pours money into the bank, the cash will immediately be channelled to Goldman's already well-heeled employees.

News of the firm's largesse will revive the anger over the 'rewards for failure' culture endemic in the world of high finance. More...

See also:

Against Me! and "Baby I'm An Anarchist"

Censure : un code de conduite pour les géants du Web???

Les multinationales de la technologie et d'Internet contre la censure ! L'affiche est belle puisqu'elle associe Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, à des organisations de défense des droits de l'homme comme Human Rights Watch et des universitaires. Elle mérite qu'on s'y arrête, même si une bonne dose de scepticisme reste de mise.

(...)

L'affaire Shi Tao avait suscité un tollé considérable aux Etats-Unis, y compris au Congrès américain devant laquelle le fondateur de Yahoo, Jerry Yang, avait dû s'expliquer. Le président de la Commission avait alors lancé aux dirigeants de Yahoo :

"Vous êtes sans doute des géants technologiques, mais vous êtes de pygmées sur le plan moral."

(...)

"Cette initiative est basée sur le fait qu'il n'existe pas un seul pays au monde -y compris les Etats-Unis- où les gouvernements ne font pas pression sur les sociétés de télécom ou Internet, afin de les amener à faire des choses qui violent leur droit à la protection de leurs données ou à leur liberté d'expression." Article complet...

Voir aussi:

Syria: outrage over US raids...

Souad Khousaim lay very still on her hospital bed and in a quiet voice wracked with pain told me she was one of the innocent victims of Sunday's raid by US special forces.

"I went outside to get my son and the Americans shot me," she says. "They were very close, five metres away. I was screaming, terrified."

Her husband was among the seven Syrian men who died, but hospital officials have not told her this yet.

The US military sent troops 8km (five miles) into Syria, to the village of Sukkiraya, to take action which they hope will help shut down al-Qaeda's secret pipeline into Iraq for men, weapons and money.

The mission was to capture or kill, Abu Ghadiya, an Iraqi-born al-Qaeda cell leader the US says has helped to bring thousands of jihadist fighters across the border. More...

See also:

China: after melamine milk, it's now melamine eggs...

Three more Chinese brands of chicken's eggs have been found to contain high levels of the chemical melamine.

Tests in Hong Kong first revealed dangerously high levels of the substance in eggs from a mainland supplier earlier this week.

Officials were reportedly aware of the contamination a month earlier.

The growing scandal follows the discovery of melamine in Chinese milk, which has killed four children, and triggered product recalls across Asia.

Like the milk scandal before it, the contamination of China's egg supply appears to be far more widespread than first realised.

And as before, it seems that local officials on the mainland attempted to cover up news of the contamination. More...

See also:

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Clever cat stealing peanuts!!!

Voici un chat bien malin!!!

Indian call centre dude takes revenge after being criticised!!!

Telephoning a bank's call centre can be a frustrating experience.

And after he was finally put through to a 'rude' and 'arrogant' operator, George Bates felt justified in making a complaint.

Taking part in a follow-up survey to monitor customer satisfaction, the 23-year-old made clear his opinion of the call centre employee - who took revenge by putting all of Mr Bates' finances on hold.

When he contacted the bank later that day, the self-employed carpenter was unable to access his account for 'security reasons'.

He then visited his local branch and was horrified to discover his identity had been swapped to that of a Ugandan divorcee ten years his senior.

Mr Bates also discovered his overdraft facility had been withdrawn and several direct debits had been cancelled - landing him with £60 in charges. More...

See also:

The slaves the world forgot. No, not the African slaves...

They came as slaves; vast human cargo transported on tall British ships bound for the Americas. They were shipped by the hundreds of thousands and included men, women, and even the youngest of children.

Whenever they rebelled or even disobeyed an order, they were punished in the harshest ways. Slave owners would hang their human property by their hands and set their hands or feet on fire as one form of punishment. They were burned alive and had their heads placed on pikes in the marketplace as a warning to other captives.

We don’t really need to go through all of the gory details, do we? After all, we know all too well the atrocities of the African slave trade. But, are we talking about African slavery?

King James II and Charles I led a continued effort to enslave the Irish. Britain’s famed Oliver Cromwell furthered this practice of dehumanizing one’s next door neighbor. More...

See also:

The world would vote overwhelmingly for Barack Obama...

Le monde voterait largement pour Barack Obama...

“Georgian soldiers were doped to kill civilians”

Many of the Georgian soldiers who took part in the attack on South Ossetia in August were drugged before going into combat, according to a Moscow-based human rights group.

On Monday in New York the Moscow Bureau for Human Rights (MBHR) presented a book of photos and testimonies from the war.

MBHR Director Aleksandr Brod said Ossetian witnesses reported many of the captured Georgians had numerous injection markings on their arms.

He suggested they “would not dare to burn women and children alive locked in churches or throw grenades into basements where people were hiding unless they were drugged.” More...

See also:

FC Barcelona comes to the aid of a Moroccan teen jailed for insulting the king...

The father of an 18-year-old Moroccan student who was sentenced to 18 months in jail for insulting the country's king is seeking a royal pardon on his son's behalf.

Yassine Belassal began his prison sentence for "breach of due respect to the king" on Monday. He has the opportunity to appeal the sentence on Wednesday.

Belassal was asked by his teacher to write Morocco's motto, "God, country, king," on his classroom's blackboard in September.

Belassal substituted his allegiance to King Mohamed VI with "Barca," a reference to his favourite soccer team, Spanish squad FC Barcelona.

The switch of words angered his teacher and school director, who called the police and had the teenager arrested. He was later sentenced to 18 months in prison.

Morocco's media have heavily criticized Belassal's imprisonment.

The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information has also denounced the decision to sentence Belassal. More...

See also:

The fish that was operated for ... hernia!!!

Carla the fish has had a life-saving operation after developing a hernia.

The 10-inch-long angelfish was laid out on an operating table while a vet and two assistants carried out the unusual surgery.

After being anaesthatised the exotic fish had a tube placed in her mouth and water pumped through her body and out her gills to enable her to breathe.

Vet Sue Thornton repaired the stomach condition using a scalpel, a needle and forceps during the £500 operation.

After being stitched up and brought round the plucky fish was kept under close observation before she went on to make a full recovery. More...

See also:

La poupée vaudou de Nicolas Sarkozy reste en vente...

La poupée vaudou de Nicolas Sarkozy n'est finalement pas retirée de la vente. La justice a tranché aujourd’hui en faveur des Editions K&B qui commercialisent depuis le 9 octobre le Manuel Vaudou de Nicolas Sarkozy. Malgré la plainte déposée par le Président pour violation de son droit à l’image, la poupée vaudou restera en rayon.

La figurine satirique du Président reste en vente! Le tribunal de grande instance de Paris a rendu son verdict cette après-midi après la plainte déposée par Nicolas Sarkozy pour atteinte à son droit à l'image. La justice s'oppose ainsi au retrait du Manuel Vaudou.

Proposant un grand nombre de sortilèges magiques, une biographie, et une poupée que l’on peut piquer de 12 aiguilles pour les «empêcher de causer davantage de dommages», les poupées vaudou des deux candidats aux présidentielles de 2007 ont fait fureur. Suite...

Voir aussi:

If you don't like a book, don't read it; why get it banned so others can't read it?

John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men is on high school reading lists across the country. But the classic novel occasionally appears on another list as well — of books that some parents want pulled from shelves because of vulgar language, sexual content or some other reason.

Every year, public libraries and schools across the country collectively field hundreds of requests from parents, public officials and activists pressing for the removal of books they deem inappropriate. That includes literary classics, human sexuality manuals and, occasionally, even the dictionary, according to the American Library Association.

The American Library Association has logged more than 9,600 requests to remove books from library shelves, summer reading lists and school classrooms since 1990. The actual number is considerably higher, association officials say, because most challenges are handled quietly. More...

See also:

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights...

British woman loses challenge over assisted suicide...

A British woman who suffers from multiple sclerosis lost a legal challenge over whether her husband could be prosecuted if he helps her to commit suicide.

Wheelchair-bound Debbie Purdy, 45, launched the case earlier this month, asking the High Court in London to clarify the law on assisted suicide as her health is rapidly deteriorating.

But Lord Justice Scott Baker said overnight that the law was clear, and while he had sympathy for Ms Purdy only parliament could change the law.

"We cannot leave this case without expressing great sympathy for Ms Purdy, her husband and others in a similar position who wish to know in advance whether they will face prosecution," said Justice Baker. More...

See also:

Somalia: woman stoned to death for adultery. And the man she slept with?

A woman of 23 accused of adultery has been stoned to death by Somali Islamists.

She was placed in a hole up to her neck for the execution in front of hundreds of people in the port of Kismayu, which Islamist insurgents captured in August. When a relative and others surged forward, guards opened fire, killing a child.

Stones were hurled at her head, and she was brought out of the hole three times to see if she had died.

'A woman in green veil and black mask was brought in a car as we waited to watch the merciless act of stoning,' one local resident, Abdullahi Aden, told Reuters.

'We were told she submitted herself to be punished, yet we could see her screaming as she was forcefully bound, legs and hands. A relative of hers ran towards her, but the Islamists opened fire and killed a child.' More...

See also:

Le FC Barcelone demande la grâce royale pour un lycéen marocain...

Le club de football catalan se propose ainsi comme médiateur dans cette affaire, pour tâcher de faire sortir le lycéen de prison. Rappel des faits : L'incident est arrivé dans la localité marocaine d'Aït Ourir, où le jeune Yassine, 18 ans, a écrit sur le tableau de son école « Dieu, la Patrie, le Barça ». Une transgression du « symbole » national, qui n'a pas été du goût du directeur de l'école. Ce dernier s'est empressé de le dénoncer à la gendarmerie.

Associations de droits de l'homme et société civile dénoncent l'abus et la disproportion du verdict. Le FC Barcelone, indirectement impliqué par le cas, « travaille sur l'affaire depuis quelques jours avec l'idée de réunir toute information possible pour intercéder en faveur de la libération du jeune homme marocain », rapporte El Mundo, suite à une déclaration de Juan Laporta, président du club de football catalan. Suite...

Voir aussi:

Cirque du Soleil - La Nouba acrobatics. Wow!

The top 10 internet-censoring countries. Shame on you...

When the World Wide Web was created in 1989 by Tim Berners-Lee (not to be confused with the Internet itself, which is the core network developed many years earlier), its main objective was to enable the free exchange of information via interlinked hypertext documents.

Almost 20 years later, that objective has been accomplished on most parts of the world, but not in all of them. Some countries are trying hard to keep an iron hand over the flow of information that takes place on the Web. Below you will find the most controversial ones.

(...)

Discovering that countries like Iran or Yemen are censoring the web is not a big surprise. Most forms of independent media are already restricted there, and their levels of human rights are among the lowest in the world.

But what if we told you that Australia, one of the richest countries in the world, is also trying to censor websites inside its borders? Now that is scary! Full story...

See also:

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Windows 7 borrows from OS X, avoids Vista...

When it comes to Windows 7, Microsoft hasn't just learned from the mistakes of Windows Vista. It has picked-up a thing or two from Apple's OS X, judging by first impressions.

The executive leading Windows 7 said Tuesday that Microsoft realized it shouldn't forge ahead on Windows 7 and deliver an operating system unsupported by partners' hardware or software.

Also, Microsoft has heard that Windows Vista was a resource hog. The company is scaling down the code base and tickling up performance to run on netbooks and existing PCs - so you need to buy a replacement machine.

Steven Sinofsky, senior vice president for the Windows and Windows Live Engineering Group, promised we'd start to see this with the first Windows 7 beta "early next year." More...

See also:

The Pitbull, the Cat and the Chicks!!! Cool!

Microsoft distribue une version test de Windows 7...

Les choses sérieuses commencent pour Windows 7. Le successeur de Vista a fait sa première sortie en public ce 28 octobre 2008, à l'occasion de la conférence PDC 2008 (Professional Developpers Conference), organisée par Microsoft à Los Angeles. L'éditeur en a fait une démonstration devant un parterre de développeurs et de journalistes.

Il a également annoncé que le futur Windows serait finalisé au plus tôt à la fin de l'année 2009 ou au début de 2010. Ceci étant, il a mis à disposition des participants de la PDC une « version pré-bêta technique » du système d'exploitation. La première bêta arrivera, elle, en début d'année prochaine et sera réservée aux développeurs.

Sur l'aspect graphique de Windows 7, on ne sait encore que peu de choses. La version de démonstration s'appuie pour l'essentiel sur l'interface de Vista. En revanche, Microsoft a été un peu plus disert sur les nouveautés du système. Ou du moins, sur les erreurs à ne pas reproduire, après le demi-échec de Vista. Suite...

Voir aussi:

Switzerland: teenage prostituition on the rise...

Teenage girls in Switzerland are increasingly turning to prostitution to be able to afford expensive designer goods, according to media reports.

The Swiss Child Protection Association has called for the age of consent in Switzerland to be raised from 16 to 18 in the case of prostitutes.

It warned that because the legal age for prostitution in neighbouring Germany was 21 and in France and Italy 18, Switzerland risked becoming a "paradise for tourists seeking teenage sex".

(...)

In what has become known as "label sex", more and more teenage girls in Switzerland are turning to part-time prostitution as a source of "pocket money" for designer dresses or expensive accessories.

Girls advertise online or visit upmarket clubs. One Zurich nightclub even organised a theme event – including 16-year-old guests. Full story...

See also:

Une Suissesse en Inde...

Frédérique est suisse, son mari Vinay indien. Ils se sont connus il y a un an et demi à New Delhi. Depuis quelques mois, le couple s'est installé en Inde. Pour en arriver là, ils ont dû affronter les galères administratives suisses, puis indiennes. Maintenant, leur nouvelle vie peut commencer.

Sur le bureau de Frédérique, un trousseau de clefs: on y voit accrochés un mini Taj Mahal et un ruban rouge à croix blanche. Ses deux vies, l'indienne et la suisse, qu'elle a réunies... sans y penser.

Avant d'arriver là, cette Genevoise d'origine belge a vadrouillé pendant dix ans dans des pays peu fréquentés: en Afghanistan, au Rwanda, en Erythrée, au Sri Lanka... Des missions allant de quelques mois à un an et demi comme déléguée du CICR. Mais cette fois-ci, c'est différent: elle s'installe. Suite...

Voir aussi:

Next Tuesday, Nov. the 4th., don't vote, says Lew Rockwell...

The critical problem we face today is the same one all mankind has faced: the state, those monopolists who claim the right to break the laws that they make and enforce. How to restrain them is the critical problem of all sound political thinking. Making matters worse, this gang now has a monopoly on the money and the ability to print it, and they are abusing that power at our expense.

How does voting change the situation? Neither of the candidates for president wants to do anything about the problem. On the contrary, they want to make it worse. This is for a reason. The state owns the “democratic process” as surely as it owns the Departments of Labor and Defense and uses it in ways that benefit the state and no one else.

On the other hand, we do have the freedom not to vote. No one has yet drafted us into the voting booth. I suggest that we exercise this right not to participate. It is one of the few rights we have left. Nonparticipation sends a message that we no longer believe in the racket they have cooked up for us, and we want no part of it. More...

See also:

Want to be attractive? Try wearing red...

Women who don a little red dress before going out with a man may find their date more attentive and generous, according to scientists.

The University of Rochester study, published in a psychology journal, supports other evidence linking the colour to attractiveness.

Men said they would spend more money on a woman pictured in red, compared with the same woman wearing a blue shirt.

Experts say that red signals ovulation or attractiveness in other species. More...

See also:

Sex Olympics to be held in Australia!!!

Queensland Australia (18th &19th August 2009), we are now seeking sexual athletes from all over the world to join the festivities. Medals are waiting to be claimed in various sexual disciplines. In the course of competition, we shall conclusively find out who are the best fuckers in the world! More...

See also:

Press freedom around the world: why is Iceland first and Eritrea last?

It is not economic prosperity but peace that guarantees press freedom. That is the main lesson to be drawn from the world press freedom index that Reporters Without Borders compiles every year and from the 2008 edition, released today. Another conclusion from the index - in which the bottom three rungs are again occupied by the “infernal trio” of Turkmenistan (171st), North Korea (172nd) and Eritrea (173rd) - is that the international community’s conduct towards authoritarian regimes such as Cuba (169th) and China (167th) is not effective enough to yield results.

“The post-9/11 world is now clearly drawn,” Reporters Without Borders said. “Destabilised and on the defensive, the leading democracies are gradually eroding the space for freedoms. The economically most powerful dictatorships arrogantly proclaim their authoritarianism, exploiting the international community’s divisions and the ravages of the wars carried out in the name of the fight against terrorism. Religious and political taboos are taking greater hold by the year in countries that used to be advancing down the road of freedom.” More + country index...

See also:

Chinese paper accuses U.S. of plundering world's wealth and calls for a new financial order...

The United States has plundered global wealth by exploiting the dollar's dominance, and the world urgently needs other currencies to take its place, a leading Chinese state newspaper said on Friday.

The front-page commentary in the overseas edition of the People's Daily said that Asian and European countries should banish the U.S. dollar from their direct trade relations for a start, relying only on their own currencies.

A meeting between Asian and European leaders, starting on Friday in Beijing, presented the perfect opportunity to begin building a new international financial order, the newspaper said.

The People's Daily is the official newspaper of China's ruling Communist Party. The Chinese-language overseas edition is a small circulation offshoot of the main paper.

Its pronouncements do not necessarily directly voice leadership views. But the commentary, as well as recent comments, amount to a growing chorus of Chinese disdain for Washington's economic policies and global financial dominance in the wake of the credit crisis. More...

See also:

Monday, October 27, 2008

Palestine soccer team plays at home before ecstatic fans...

Normally, a friendly soccer match between teams ranked 112th and 180th in the world wouldn't be much occasion for excitement.

But Sunday's face-off between the Jordanian and Palestinian national teams was far more than a soccer match. It was the first time the Palestinian side had played in the West Bank -- in effect its first actual home game after years of playing as the home team in Jordan and other neighboring Arab countries.

For the players and fans who packed into a newly built stadium, the match was a passionate display of nationalism and a welcome relief from the daily rigors of four decades of occupation.

"We're representing a nation. We're representing a flag," Palestinian coach Izzat Hamza said. "We have to defend our flag."

The outcome of the match (a 1-1 tie) seemed secondary to the mere fact that it was taking place -- and where. The stadium, which isn't finished, stands within 200 yards of a massive concrete barrier built by Israel. More...

See also:

Syria hits out at 'terrorist' US...

Syria's foreign minister has accused the US of an act of "criminal and terrorist aggression" over what it says was a helicopter raid on its territory.

Walid Muallem said Sunday's attack saw four US aircraft travel eight miles inside Syrian airspace from Iraq and kill eight unarmed civilians on a farm.

He said those who died were a father and his three children, a farm guard and his wife, and a fisherman.

The US has not confirmed or denied the alleged raid.

However, a unnamed US official was quoted by the AFP news agency as saying that its forces had mounted a "successful" raid against foreign fighters threatening US forces in Iraq.

The US has previously accused Syria of allowing militants into Iraq, but Mr Muallem insisted his country was trying to tighten border controls. More...

See also:

Oh boy! That's one awesome paw job!!!

Skinhead plot to kill Obama?

The Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms said Monday that it broke up a plot to assassinate Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and shoot or decapitate 102 black people in a Tennessee murder spree.

In court records unsealed Monday, agents said they disrupted plans to rob a gun store and target an unnamed but predominantly African-American high school by two neo-Nazi skinheads.

Jim Cavanaugh, special agent in charge of the Nashville field office for the ATF, said the two men planned to shoot 88 black people and decapitate another 14.

The numbers 88 and 14 are symbolic in the white supremacist community.

The men also sought to go on a national killing spree, with Obama as its final target, Cavanaugh told The Associated Press.

"They said that would be their last, final act -- that they would attempt to kill Sen. Obama," Cavanaugh said. "They didn't believe they would be able to do it, but that they would get killed trying."

Source

See also:

Celebrating Diwali away from India...

The nearest thing she could compare it to, aesthetically, was Christmas because of its theme of darkness being dispersed by light.

It’s called Diwali, but if you’re not a Hindu or of Indian descent, it probably won’t mean a thing to you, unless you live in Sharon, in which case by now you might even know its music.

That’s what Sunita Sanan, this year’s president of the Indian American Association of Sharon, was hoping to encourage in overseeing Saturday night’s 26th annual celebration of this holiday that will be officially celebrated in her homeland tomorrow.

“All of India will look like Christmas over here,” she said. “Businessmen will close their accounts to begin a new year, and diyas (small lamps) will be shining everywhere.”

They call it the festival of lights. More...

See also:

Here's one marriage that looks promising!!!

Voici un mariage qui commence bien!!!

Are phone masts causing cancer?

RESIDENTS of a West Dublin housing estate, which lies next to a phone mast, are calling on the HSE to conduct a full health assessment in the area after an apparently large number of cancer diagnoses.

Neighbours in St Ronan's Gardens, Neilstown, and leaders of Mast Action Clondalkin (MAC) are continuing to voice their concerns about the mobile phone mast which stands in their local garda station.

"We did a survey of 150 houses and 38 people in those houses had cancer," says Gino Kelly, a member of MAC. "It's a very preliminary study but we went around and asked questions."

"Now we're asking the HSE to do a proper health study. The amount of people here with cancer cannot be normal."

Earlier this month, the group expressed their outrage to the Herald when it was discovered that An Garda Siochana failed to investigate the link between the mast and the fact that nine officers in the area have suffered brain cancer.

Residents are now calling for an investigation by the health authorities into the matter. More...

See also:

Manuel Uribe,l'ex-plus gros homme de la planète s'est marié...

Le Mexicain Manuel Uribe, considéré en 2007 par le livre Guiness des records comme l'homme le plus gros de la planète, s'est marié civilement dimanche à Monterrey. La cérémonie s'est déroulée en présence de seulement deux médias qui avaient payé pour détenir l'exclusivité de l'événement.

Les portes du Club des Lions, établissement luxueux de cette ville du nord-est du Mexique, s'étaient refermées à 17h45 locales sur Manuel, sa fiancée Claudia et les équipes de la télévision américaine Discovery Channel, détentrice des droits exclusifs des images, et de la revue mexicaine TV Notas, qui a acheté le droit d'assister à la cérémonie.

Les invités avaient eu le droit d'entrer eux aussi, mais après une fouille soigneuse, pour vérifier que personne n'était porteur de caméra, appareil photo ou téléphone portable, a indiqué le porte-parole officiel d'un des témoins. Le mariage a été annoncé à l'issue de la cérémonie aux autres médias tenus à l'extérieur.

"Je n'ai jamais imaginé dans ma vie que j'allais avoir un mariage pareil", avait déclaré auparavant Manuel Uribe, qui a multiplié les interviews ces derniers jours en vue de ce qu'il appelait lui-même des "noces de poids".

Souffrant d'une "obésité morbide" depuis 1992, cet homme de 43 ans, qui a longtemps été au bord du suicide, a pesé jusqu'à 590 kilos, avant d'en perdre 230 grâce à un régime draconien.

Source

Voir des images ici...

Voir aussi: