Wednesday, November 30, 2011

French man ordered to pay wife 10,000 euros for lack of sex...

A court in France has ordered a man to pay 10,000 euros ($13,300) in damages to his long-frustrated ex-wife after he failed in his marriage "duties" by withholding sex from her for years.

In the May ruling, published on Tuesday in the Gazette du Palais judicial review, an appeals court in the southern city of Aix-en-Provence upheld an earlier decision to award the damages for "absence of sexual relations".

 The couple, who are both 51, married in 1986 and have two children. They divorced in January 2009 in the city of Nice. Full story...

Don't miss:
  1. Hell is a sexy place...
  2. Jealous wives in Italy launch petition against " too sexy " waitress!!!
  3. Naked therapy anyone?
  4. Ohh... You touch my tra-la-la: ding,ding, dong...
  5. Voting in Spain can give you an orgasm!!!
  6. Impotent husband in India allows father to rape wife to have a child!!!

Swiss Jetman Yves Rossy flies with jets!!!

Restaurants plan DNA-certified premium seafood...

Restaurants around the world will soon use new DNA technology to assure patrons they are being served the genuine fish fillet or caviar they ordered, rather than inferior substitutes, an expert in genetic identification says.

In October, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration officially approved so-called DNA bar coding – a standardised fingerprint that can identify a species like a supermarket scanner reads a bar code – to prevent the mislabelling of both locally produced and imported seafood in the United States.

Other national regulators around the world are also considering adopting DNA bar coding as a fast, reliable and cost-effective tool for identifying organic matter.

(...)

Mislabelling is widespread in the seafood industry and usually involves cheaper types of fish being sold as more expensive varieties. A pair of New York high school students using DNA bar coding of food stocked in their own kitchens found in a 2009 study that caviar labelled as sturgeon was actually Mississippi paddlefish.

In a published study a year earlier, another pair of students from the high school found that one-fourth of fish samples they had collected around New York were incorrectly labelled as higher-priced fish. Full story...

Don't miss:
  1. Dirty water and dangerous fish, the Mekong Delta's catfish...
  2. Do you like prawns? Then maybe you should read this...
  3. If you like chicken nuggets, don't watch this...
  4. What drugs was your Thanksgiving turkey on?
  5. Don't let the food "experts" and food nazis scare you...
  6. Organic vegetables ‘no better for health’ than conventionally grown ones...

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Cheeky monkeys strip-search Taiwanese student!!!

Taiwanese student Charmian Chen was caught short when a cheeky monkey delved into her cleavage looking for some corn which had fallen down her top - and now she is a star.

The 22-year-old was feeding the animals at the Sacred Monkey Forest Ubud, in Bali when the macaques struck.

Assisted by his partner in crime, the long-tailed primate went all out to get to the hidden food and despite Chen's best efforts to keep covered-up, she came a little unstuck.

And Charmian's friend, who was holidaying with the young model on the tropical Indonesian island at the time, managed to catch the embarrassing ordeal on camera. More + photos...

Don't miss:
  1. Student in Taiwan quits college because of harassment by monkeys!!
  2. Good thing these monkeys are not customs officers!!!
  3. How an orang-utan cools itself...
  4. Monkey checks out Indian reporter!!!
  5. Monkeys in India steal spectacles and blackmail owners for food!!! What???
  6. Monkey in Malaysia snatches baby from living room...
  7. Delhi deploys 'super monkey' security guards for Games!!! 
  8. After 30 years in a lab, chimpanzees discover liberty..

Malaysia passes ban on street protests...

Malaysia's lower house of parliament has approved a ban a on street protests after opposition legislators boycotted the vote and activists criticised the ban as repressive and a threat to freedom of public assembly.

The law is expected to be enforced after parliament's upper house, also dominated by the ruling National Front coalition, approves it as early as next month.

Najib Razak, the country's prime minister, has framed the bill as part of a campaign he launched in September to replace tough laws on security, speech and assembly in a bid to shore up support ahead of elections he is expected to call for next year.

He defended the act on Monday, saying it guarantees the right to peaceful assembly and said the law prohibits public marches to avoid disruptions to general society. Full story...

Don't miss:
  1. Sex, lies and Malaysian politics...
  2. Malaysia to scrap strict security laws... 
  3. Malaysian prime minister's wife Rosmah in scandals galore... 
  4. 170,000 Facebook users urge Malaysia PM Najib Razak to quit... 
  5. Malaysia's silent awakening...
  6. Why did the Queen wear yellow when Malaysian prime minister came calling?
  7. US concern at Malaysia crackdown on "Bersih" protests...
  8. Malaysia heavily criticized for human right violations...

Kagemu in Paris...

Father and brothers in India shoot teen dead for falling in love...

Police have arrested the father and two brothers of the 17-year-old girl who was found shot dead on November 24 in Masuri area of Ghaziabad. Police suspect it to be a case of honour killing and say the incident was allegedly planned and executed by the trio. They killed her after they came to know the girl was allegedly having an affair with a man and was planning to run away with him.

The victim's father, Mohammed Parvez, and two brothers - Javed and Imran (who go by single names), were arrested after the trio revealed they had murdered the girl and falsely implicated a neighbourhood family for dacoity and murder.

The father had shot two gunshots at her within a span of 25 minutes. The trio told the police that they had locked the girl in a room on the night of November 23 and woke her up around 2.30am. Full story...

Don't miss:
  1. Muslim father in Canada kills 3 "treacherous" daughters ...
  2. Honour killing madness in India's Punjab... 
  3. Crimes against women up by 18 percent in Pakistan...
  4. Rape, mutilation: Pakistan's tribal justice for women...
  5. Man in Pakistan kills 6 daughters for "honour..."
  6. Girl in India refuses to marry, father and brother burn her alive...
  7. Teen girl electrocuted by relatives in Pakistan honour killing...
  8. Father in Jordan kills widowed pregnant daughter for "honour"
  9. Indian girl climbs cell-phone tower and threatens to jump if forced into marriage...

50% Israeli conscripts refuse to serve...

Israeli military officials have announced that about 50 percent of the Israeli conscripts refuse to serve in the army, a report says.

The announcement was made during a visit by a group of Israeli Knesset (parliament) members to a conscription center, Israeli Channel 2 reported on Sunday.

The Israeli military speculates that the percentage of refusals in the army would reach 60 by the end of 2020.

This is not the first time that the Israeli military is facing refusals to serve in the army. Full story...

Don't miss:
  1. Is the window closing on Israel?
  2. Jewish teen violently arrested for supporting Palestinians...
  3. Israel behind killing of Iranian scientist, says German newspaper...
  4. Nuclear Israel revisited...
  5. Young Jews disrupt Netanyahu's speech...
  6. Shministim or Israeli Conscientious Objectors...
  7. Nuclear pots calling Iranian kettle black...

Apple iTunes flaw 'allowed government spying for 3 years'

An unpatched security flaw in Apple’s iTunes software allowed intelligence agencies and police to hack into users’ computers for more than three years, it’s claimed.

A British company called Gamma International marketed hacking software to governments that exploited the vulnerability via a bogus update to iTunes, Apple's media player, which is installed on more than 250 million machines worldwide.

The hacking software, FinFisher, is used to spy on intelligence targets’ computers. It is known to be used by British agencies and earlier this year records were discovered in abandoned offices of that showed it had been offered to Egypt’s feared secret police.

 Apple was informed about the relevant flaw in iTunes in 2008, according to Brian Krebs, a security writer, but did not patch the software until earlier this month, a delay of more than three years. Full story...

Don't miss:
  1. What everyone's too polite to say about Steve Jobs...
  2. Apple under pressure to explain iPhone, iPad location tracking...
  3. Facebook sued for tracking users' information...
  4. Microsoft 'intentionally designed software for phones to track customers...
  5. The NSA helped make Windows 7...
  6. "The world's first mobile phone ... in 1922!!!

Philippines overtakes India as hub of call centers...

Americans calling the customer service lines of their airlines, phone companies and banks are now more likely to speak to Mark in Manila than Bharat in Bangalore.

Over the last several years, a quiet revolution has been reshaping the call center business: the rise of the Philippines, a former United States colony that has a large population of young people who speak lightly accented English and, unlike many Indians, are steeped in American culture.

 More Filipinos — about 400,000 — than Indians now spend their nights talking to mostly American consumers, industry officials said, as companies like AT&T, JPMorgan Chase and Expedia have hired call centers here, or built their own. The jobs have come from the United States, Europe and, to some extent, India as outsourcers followed their clients to the Philippines. Full story...

Don't miss:
  1. Indian call centre workers 'depressed and hooked on drugs'
  2. Stressed-up Indians no longer lured by call centres jobs...
  3. Indian call centre dude takes revenge after being criticised!!!
  4. Indian call centre chaos! Hilarious!!
  5. Outsourced, outwitted and way out hilarious!!!
  6. Calling porn tech support!!!
  7. When India's poor hire out their wombs as surrogate mothers...

Monday, November 28, 2011

London woman arrested over racist rant on tram...



A woman has been arrested in connection with a foul-mouthed racist rant that was caught on camera on a busy tram.

The 34-year-old from New Addington in Croydon, south London, was held on suspicion of a racially aggravated public order offence after a video came to light on YouTube.

The two-minute clip showed a woman insulting passengers while holding a toddler on her lap in a full tram carriage on the Croydon to Wimbledon service in South London.

 It quickly spread via Twitter and YouTube, sparking outrage, as the woman in the video could be heard demanding foreign workers "go back to their own country". Full story...

Don't miss:
  1. Ikea boss in Germany sacked for 'pro-Nazi' Facebook posts...
  2. " Black players should just put up with racism and get on with the game."
  3. "My skin became dirty and dark like the Tamilians," says US Vice Consul...
  4. Racist South African mob beats Zimbabwean to death... (Graphic)
  5. Woman washing herself in New York subway train!!!

Australians "stampede" towards Singapore...

As the number of Australians moving abroad surged to record highs in recent years, Singapore has emerged as their fastest-rising destination.

A so-called stampede from Australia saw more than 88,000 departures last year, nearly double the number a decade earlier. About half of those who left were Australian-born.

At the same time, the number of people moving to Australia dropped 9 percent to 127,458 in the past year, raising the ratio of departures to arrivals to a record level.

One of the most striking trends has been departures for Singapore, which overtook Hong Kong to become the fourth-biggest destination for Australians last year. Singapore was previously fifth. Full story...

Don't miss:
  1. Singapore: playground of the super-rich...
  2. Two Australian teens get a taste of Singapore parenting...
  3. Singapore to tighten screws on immigration...
  4. The country that most people would migrate to is ... Singapore!!!
  5. "Heartbroken" Singapore singer-songwriter Inch Chua calls it quits...

Syria: security forces have killed at least 256 children...

Syrian security forces have killed at least 256 children since the onset of protests against Bashar al-Assad, shooting dead a two-year-old girl to prevent her from "growing into a demonstrator", according to UN investigators.

The most authoritative inquiry into Syria's violence has uncovered "gross human rights violations" amounting to "crimes against humanity".

(...)

A male university student told the commission that he was "subjected to sexual violence in detention," adding: "If my father had been present and seen me, I would have had to commit suicide".

The two-year-old girl, perhaps the youngest victim of Syria's turmoil, was shot dead on Aug 13 by a military officer. His justification was that he "did not want her to grow into a demonstrator," says the report.

 In all, 256 children had been "killed by state forces as at 9 November". Some were deliberately denied medical treatment after being wounded. One 15-year-old boy was shot in the leg in the city of Homs on Aug 15 "while returning home from the mosque". His "neighbours tried to take him to hospital, but checkpoints by security forces blocked access". Full story...

Don't miss:
  1. 'Shoot him again to make sure he dies': Boy, 15, gunned down...
  2. The madness that is now Syria... (Graphic)
  3. The State continues to kill in Syria... (Graphic)
  4. Syria: another child tortured and killed by Assad regime... 
  5. Syrian soldiers shoot to "finish off" wounded man. 
  6. Syrian security forces throw dead bodies into river (Very graphic) 
  7. Massacre in Syria as tanks attack Hama...(graphic video) 
  8. This is what's happening in Syria (WARNING. Extremely graphic)   
  9. This used to be Syria...

Scarred and scared, Pakistani Hindus seek refuge in India...

A group of 146 Pakistani Hindus took refuge at capital's Majnu ka Tilla Sep 8 after crossing the Attari border Sep 4.

"I don't fear for my life but for my family. I decided to come here as there is no place for Hindus in Pakistan. Sexual assault, forced conversion, abduction and humiliation is all this country (Pakistan) has given us," Shobhamal told IANS.

Shobhamal's 18-year-old son died of cancer here earlier this month.

With their tourist visas expired some two months ago, these people from Bagidi community are reluctant to go back to Sindh where, they say, there is no security of their life and property.

Hindus form around seven percent of the total population of Sindh province. Full story...

Don't miss:
  1. Persecuted Hindus in Pakistan migrating in hordes...
  2. Forced conversion of Pakistani Hindus condemned...
  3. Four Hindu doctors murdered in Pakistan...
  4. Pakistan schools cast minorities in bad light...
  5. Hindus in Pakistan flee Taliban terror...
  6. Hindus kidnapped and forcibly converted in Pakistan?
  7. Ethnic cleansing of Hindus, Christians and Sikhs in Pakistan...
  8. 14-year-old Christian girl kidnapped in Punjab to be converted to Islam...

Friday, November 25, 2011

The world's first mobile phone ... in 1922!!!

Accused of theft, thief says ghost did it!!!

A defendant said that it was not just his crimes coming back to haunt him on Wednesday.

Former Mount Gilead police officer Joseph Hughes faced 21 charges against him, 10TV’s Glenn McEntyre reported.

Prosecution exhibits showed the laundry list of stolen goods investigators said they found inside Hughes’ Morrow County home, much of which belonged to the county.

One of the 12 air conditioners Hughes was accused of stealing was labled “auditor” in large, black letters, McEntyre reported.

 The shocking case took an even stranger turn when the former police officer explained why he was unaware of the stolen property in his basement. Full story...

Don't miss:
  1. Florida man blames cat for child porn downloads!!! WTF!
  2. Grandmother in Kent is being groped ... by a ghost!!!
  3. My wife was raped by an invisible man, claims husband in Sarawak...
  4. Saudi police search for girl kidnapped by a ... genie???
  5. I didn't kill my mum, says actor: I killed the demon in her...
  6. Prostitute in Zimbabwe turns into a donkey during sex!!!

Bicycles open up new horizons for girls in India...

In Bihar, one of India's poorest and most populous states, half of the women and a quarter of the men are illiterate, and about 90% of its 104 million inhabitants live in rural areas. Life here is particularly difficult for girls, and one of the greatest hindrances to their development is the simple journey to school. For many, the trip is long, expensive and dangerous.

But here, in rural Bihar, we recently saw that a two-wheeled solution to the problem has been found.

Three years ago the state's new chief minister Nitish Kumar adopted a "gender agenda" and set about redressing his state's endemic gender imbalances in an attempt to boost development in one of India's most backward states. His vision was to bring a sense of independence and purpose to his state's young women, and the flagship initiative of this agenda is the Mukhyamantri Balika Cycle Yojna, a project that gives schoolgirls 2,000 rupees (about £25) to purchase a bicycle. Full story...

Don't miss:
  1. Girls drop out of schools in India because of lack of toilets...
  2. "Ugly Indians" clean up Bangalore...
  3. The man who taught Indian villagers how to deal with money...
  4. 'Skype School' brings knowledge to remote Indian village...
  5. Meet the world's youngest headmaster, 16-year-old Babar Ali from India!
  6. For Zimbabwe's women, a bicycle can be a tool of liberation...

Egyptian-American journalist 'sexually assaulted and blindfolded' in Egypt's Interior Ministry...

A prize-winning Egyptian-American journalist claims she was beaten, blindfolded and sexually assaulted whilst being detained inside Cairo's Interior Ministry.

Mona Eltahawy, a former Reuters correspondent who writes columns for a number of newspapers around the world and makes regular television appearances as a commentator on Egyptian affairs, recounted her 12-hour ordeal through a series of posts on Twitter.

Eltahawy detailed how "five or six surrounded me, groped and prodded my breasts, grabbed my genital area and I lost count how many hands tried to get into my trousers". In a post soon after being arrested on Wednesday night, she wrote: "Beaten arrested in interior ministry."

 There have been numerous reports of journalists being arrested during the recent rioting, including an American film-maker and a Wall Street Journal photographer. Source...

Don't miss:
  1. Egypt bloggers and journalists face assault, abuse...
  2. Aliaa Magda Elmahdy: Egyptian activist causes outrage with nude photos...
  3. Egyptian women protestors forced to take virginity tests by army officers...
  4. Egyptian general admits 'virginity checks' conducted on protesters...
  5. CBS reporter Lara Logan in Cairo sex attack...

Thursday, November 24, 2011

Russian TV newsreader Tatyana Limanova sacked after raising middle finger to Obama...



A Russian TV newsreader has been fired after apparently raising her middle finger to Barack Obama live on air.

REN TV, a privately owned Russian channel, dismissed Tatyana Limanova after a video clip of her gesture went viral.

Limanova was reading a report on the Asian-Pacific Economic Co-operation (Apec) summit held in Hawaii earlier this month when she noted that Dmitry Medvedev, Russia's president, had taken up its rotating presidency.

"Before, this post was held by Barack Obama," she read, before looking up at the camera, lowering her eyes again and raising her middle finger. Full story...

Don't miss:
  1. Political analyst calls Obama " a dick"
  2. Putting a finger on Uranus???
  3. Stewart calls Obama "dude"
  4. Voters in India give the State the middle finger!!!
  5. Oregan man exercises free speech ... by giving cops the finger!!!
  6. In Spain, you can call your boss a son of a bitch!!!
  7. New Zealand TV host Paul Henry resigns over "dickshit" row... 

Egypt bloggers and journalists face assault, abuse...

The last tweets from Egyptian columnist and activist Mona Eltahawy in the early hours of November 24 paint a scene of escalating chaos.

First, shortly after midnight, Eltahawy, positioned across the street from the American University in Cairo - less than a five minute walk from Tahrir Square - described the confusion in the area [sic]:

Can't believe it. A cacaphony sirens, horns, flashing ambulance lights.

Then, shortly thereafter, she continued the narrative she'd been weaving via tweets on her Android phone:

Pitch black, only flashing ambulance lights and air thick with gas

But then, Eltahawy went silent for three hours or so. And then, a final tweet, via a phone that was not her own,

Beaten arrested in interior ministry

She sent out a tweet around eight hours later announcing that she had been freed and posting a photo her injured right hand, and almost immediately started issuing a rapid-fire, blistering series of tweets detailing being groped, blindfolded and being "subjected to the worse sexual assault ever". More + photos...

Don't miss:
  1. Egyptian activist causes outrage with nude photos...
  2. ‘Nothing has changed in Egypt’
  3. Egypt policemen to face trial after blogger death...
  4. Ahmad Harara, Egypt's tragic hero, blinded in his pursuit of freedom...
  5. Young Egyptian girl taunts Mubarak and the State...
  6. Violent clashes in Egypt. Arab Spring? What Arab Spring?
  7. Military rulers pull Egypt revolution back to square one...
  8. Arab Spring inevitably turns into Arab Winter...

Cambodian women hit hard by wave of forced evictions...

(...)

Mai, aged 48, a mother from the province of Oddar Meanchey, in north-west Cambodia, was pregnant in 2009 when she watched her home go up in flames. “My house, possessions, clothes, all went up in smoke. Nothing was left,” she said.

Her house and 118 others in her village, Bos, were bulldozed and burned to the ground by 150 police, military, and others believed to be workers employed by a company that was granted a concession over a large swath of land, including Bos village, for a sugar plantation.

In October 2009, Mai was imprisoned for eight months for violating forestry laws when she travelled to the capital Phnom Penh to complain to the prime minister about the eviction. She was released in June 2010, but only after signing an agreement to relinquish the rights to her land. She now has little to provide for herself and her eight children.

“Women not only face impoverishment from forced eviction but threats and imprisonment when they try to resist, with no protection from the law,” explained Ms Guest. Full story...

Don't miss:
  1. 81-year-old Chinese grandmother 'dies in self-immolation'
  2. South China villagers riot over land dispute...
  3. Land grabs in Southern China trigger 3 days of riots...
  4. Chinese farmers protest land seizures... 
  5. Chinese farmer sets himself and father on fire over land seizure... 
  6. Farm evictions and farmer kidnappings continue across Zimbabwe...
  7. Helpless in Chitapur: the poor vs bulldozers in India...
  8. Police shoot and kill four farmers in Assam, India...
  9. Big Banana: in Cameroon, local people are "collateral damage" 

Indian agriculture minister gets slapped by angry protester...



Agriculture Minister of India Sharad Pawar was slapped Thursday by a Sikh youth protesting corruption and rising prices of essential goods.

The Sikh youth, identified as Harvinder Singh, slapped Pawar, also the chief of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), as he was leaving a literary award function at New Delhi Municipal Corporation convention.

A security man, accompanying the high-profile veteran politician from western Indian state of Maharashtra, hit the assaulter back with a laptop.

In retaliation, Harvinder brandished a sharp weapon at the minister but was overpowered by people present at the spot.

He was handed over to the police and was taken in for questioning. Full story...

Don't miss:
  1. Telangana MLA Harish Rao viciously beating up an officer on duty!
  2. Indian minister slaps his assistant!!! 
  3. How Indian politicians settle disputes!!!
  4. Security officer cleans Indian chief minister Mayawati's shoes!!!
  5. Get paid to slap your erring husband!
  6. IMF official attacked with eggs in Turkey! (Video)
  7. Shoes thrown at Bush on surprise visit to Iraq...

Ikea boss in Germany sacked for 'pro-Nazi' Facebook posts...

The German unit of Swedish furniture giant Ikea said Wednesday it had fired a manager with right-wing extremist "friends" on Facebook for expressing offensive opinions on the social networking site.

A spokeswoman for the German subsidiary told AFP that it had learned that the staff member had links on Facebook to members of the neo-Nazi National Democratic Party (NPD).

"Ikea received a tip that an employee in a managerial position in our store in Wallau (western Germany) expressed opinions and views on Facebook that are in no way compatible with our values," she added in an emailed message.

 "That is why we, after an extensive review, decided to take action in the case at hand and will no longer work with the staff member in question." Full story...

Don't miss:
  1. 'Pink Panther' murders see Nazi ghosts return to haunt Germany...
  2. The German state and the neo-Nazi killings...
  3. Was Germany blind to neo-nazi campaign of terror?
  4. Skinheads are out: neo-nazis in Germany now disguised as boy next door...
  5. The Russian Neo-Nazi movement...
  6. Focus on Islamists in Norway let non-Muslim extremists go under radar...
  7. Is a German 'Fourth Reich' emerging?
  8. More people driven out by racists in Northern Ireland...

Language to play key role in new Swiss immigration law...

Immigration permits for non-European Union citizens will be harder to get in Switzerland, but the country will also have to improve its efforts to integrate the newly arrived. Those are the two main goals of the proposed new Immigration and Integration Act presented on Wednesday by the Federal Council, in agreement with the cantons.

"Switzerland can and should do more," Justice Minister Simonetta Sommaruga told reporters on Wednesday in Bern.

According to the draft, spouses or children of Swiss or non-Swiss nationals who aspire to reside in the country will have to prove they speak German, French or Italian, or that they have enrolled in a language course to learn one of the languages. This will only apply to citizens coming from outside the European Union, including adult children, with the exception of people who are disabled or illiterate.

"Language plays an absolutely central role in integration," said Sommaruga. Full story...

Don't miss:
  1. The Tamils of Switzerland...
  2. "Fascist" goat in Switzerland kidnapped and painted black!!!
  3. 50% of Swiss say there are too many foreigners in Switzerland, but...
  4. Foreigners alarmed by Swiss expulsion vote...
  5. Swiss investigate death of Nigerian asylum seeker...
  6. Multiculturalism has utterly failed in Europe?

Feeding the homeless on Thanksgiving...

Three men in Cameroon sentenced to jail for gay sex...

Three men in Cameroon have been sentenced to five years in prison for homosexual acts, which are illegal in the central African nation.

Two of the accused were in court in the capital, Yaounde, but a third man was sentenced in absentia as he had jumped bail.

Police said the men were arrested for having oral sex in a car.

"It's a shocking and unacceptable decision," Cameroonian lawyer and gay rights defender Alice Nkom told AFP.

"It is not worthy of a country that speaks of human rights," she said.

The BBC's Randy Joe Sa'ah in Yaounde says homophobia is widespread in Cameroon, as in most African countries. Full story...

Don't miss:
  1. How homosexuals are treated in the Ivory Coast...
  2. Uganda gay rights activist beaten to death...
  3. Pastor in Uganda condemns poo poo licking gays!!!
  4. Bullied 13-year-old gay student in California commits suicide...
  5. ‘Corrective rape’ against homosexuals on the rise in Zimbabwe...
  6. Malawi gay couple sentenced to 14 years hard labour...
  7. Gay barman in Scotland attacked and set on fire...

World's worst football team, American Samoa, wins at last after 17 years!!!

THE WORST team in international football, American Samoa, has finally won a game at the 31st attempt and after 17 years of trying.

The team, joint bottom of the Fifa rankings in 204th place, overcame Pacific neighbours Tonga in a qualifier for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. And although the US island territory is unlikely to progress much further down the road to Rio, the win was heralded as a huge breakthrough.

American Samoa's footballers achieved notoriety in 2001 when they lost 31-0 to Australia, the heaviest defeat in international football history.

That was just one of the 30 matches they have lost since making their debut on the international scene in 1994. Their overall goal record read 12 for and 229 against before they went into this week’s match. Full story...

Don't miss:
  1. How to play soccer on a floating village...
  2. Soccer violence in Romania. WTF!
  3. Argentinian soccer referee dishes out 36 red cards in one game!!!
  4. Never, EVER wear a Manchester Utd. jersey in a Liverpool crowd!!!
  5. E.Guinea women footballers accused of being men!!!
  6. The story behind Togo's fake soccer team...

‘Nothing has changed in Egypt’

A dozen police officers surrounded the man as he was dragged across a rock-strewn street fringed by burning piles of rubbish just east of Tahrir Square, early on Sunday evening. The air was thick with tear gas. The officers’ truncheons repeatedly crunched into the back of the man’s head, leaving him bloodied and semi-conscious.

The sustained cracks of anti-riot guns reverberated through downtown Cairo as the army and police fired round after round at protesters demanding Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, head of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF), stand down.

Nearby, Tahrir Square was ablaze, smoke billowing into the evening sky. Hundreds of soldiers and police had stormed it, firing countless rounds of tear gas and rubber bullets, and quickly clearing the square, before burning down protesters’ tents and retreating.

The violence came on the back of a mass demonstration by the Muslim Brotherhood, Friday, in response to SCAF’s recent constitutional proposals. Full story...

Don't miss:
  1. Ahmad Harara, Egypt's tragic hero, blinded in his pursuit of freedom...
  2. Young Egyptian girl taunts Mubarak and the State...
  3. Violent clashes in Egypt. Arab Spring? What Arab Spring?
  4. Military rulers pull Egypt revolution back to square one...
  5. Arab Spring inevitably turns into Arab Winter...
  6. Egypt’s empty revolution... 
  7. Post-Mubarak Egypt is no better than pre-Mubarak Egypt...
  8. Egypt: after the revolution... 

Simon's cat tries to catnap...

US to install new king in Bahrain?

The US administration is reportedly planning to replace the Bahraini ruler, King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, over his failure to end months of protests in the country.

According to a report published by Islam Times, Washington has urged King Hamad to restore peace and stability to the country by end of 2011 even at the price of his resignation.

The report also says that Washington wants to replace King Hamad with a Sunni ruler upon agreement with Saudi Arabia.

It also said that the US has announced it will not tolerate Manama's delay in crushing nationwide anti-government protests. Full story...

Don't miss:
  1. Doctor in Bahrain kicked, sexually assaulted by police...
  2. 14-year-old boy in Bahrain shot and killed by police...
  3. Bahrain sentences doctors and nurses who treated protestors ... 
  4. 'Bahrain royal family tortures detainees'
  5. Bahrain state terror continues...
  6. Bahraini female doctors recount detention 'horror'
  7. Bahrain: torture in hospitals and attacks on innocent people...(Graphic)

UN report reveals torture, lynchings and abuse in post-Gaddafi Libya...

Thousands of people, including women and children, are being illegally detained by rebel militias in Libya, according to a report by the Secretary-General of the United Nations. Many of the prisoners are suffering torture and systematic mistreatment while being held in private jails outside the control of the country's new government.

The document, seen by The Independent, states that while political prisoners being held by the Gaddafi regime have been released, their places have been taken by up to 7,000 new “enemies of the state”, "disappeared" in a dysfunctional system, with no recourse to the law.

The report will come as uncomfortable reading for the Western governments, including Britain, which backed the campaign to oust Gaddafi. A UN resolution was secured in March in order to protect civilians from abuses by the regime, which was at the time mercilessly suppressing the uprising against the Gaddafi regime. Full story...

Don't miss:
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  5. Hillary Clinton jokes about Gaddafi's murder...

Adidas launches $1 trainers in India...

The sports shoe firm adidas is to sell its trainers for less than a pound a pair throughout rural India to capitalise on the country's soaring population.

The German sports giant believes the rise of India's 1.1 billion population, which is expected to surpass China as the world's largest in the next decade, is an opportunity to persuade aspirational Indian villagers to trade their plastic chappals or flip-flops for one of the world's most iconic brands.

The idea was inspired by Mohammad Yunus, the Nobel Prize-winning founder of the Grameen microfinance bank in Bangladesh, but the company now believes his plan to sell the world's cheapest trainers has more chance of success in India.

The $1 trainers will be the latest in a growing trend which increasingly sees the world's poor as a potentially lucrative market rather than a begging bowl for aid. Full story...

Don't miss:
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  2. Will a US$35 "tablet for the poor" bring computing power to the masses?
  3. The anti-iPad: India releases world's cheapest computer... 
  4. India hungry for everyday Internet access...
  5. Free laptops for schoolchilden in India's Tamil Nadu... 
  6. "Ugly Indians" clean up Bangalore...
  7. More mobile phones than toilets!!! India's sanitation crisis...

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Hell is a sexy place...

Catholics in the US quit the Church in droves...

Two million «flee» from Rome. Abuse-effect: a bleeding of faithful in the United States. 3% of U.S. Catholics left the Church because of the scandal of pedophile priests, according to a study conducted by Daniel M. Hungerman for the University of Notre Dame. And those who benefit the most from this crisis in American Catholicism is the Baptist denomination. Guido Mocellin, in the magazine of the Dehonian Fathers “Il Regno” warned of a «credibility crisis» in the U.S. Church. The fault is above all in the line of omissive conduct applied by the episcopate before the «zero tolerance» imposed by Benedict XVI. For years the American bishops have in fact tried to cover guilty priests by dealing with the compensation of victims outside the courtroom, instead of reporting all cases they became aware of to the legal authorities and instead of removing the accused from their pastoral duties. And it was late for the public admission made by the bishops of their previous failure or inadequacy in the face of sexual violence against minors committed by priests.

The feeling that «the Catholic Church was more concerned with defending its priests rather than its children; that the bishops preferred to spend billions of dollars in private compensation for damages rather than publicly acknowledging their responsibilities and those of the priests under their jurisdiction; which in essence so flagrantly betrayed the trust that under many aspects the Catholic ecclesiastical institution has earned in the country, placing the legal and financial aspects before the pastoral ones, all this is generating, particularly in the everyday "American Catholic", painful feelings: sadness, disgust, anger, frustration, confusion, embarrassment». Full story...

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  6. The Church's scandalous child absue cover-up...
  7. Time to remove church leaders who turned a blind eye to abuse...
  8. Abuse victims accuse Catholic church of using talks as smokescreen... 
  9. Catholic Church abuse hotline crashes after more than 4000 calls on first day!!!

Passenger forced to stand for a seven-hour airline flight...

At nearly seven hours, US Airways flight 901 is one of the longest domestic nonstop airline flights. And Arthur Berkowitz knows how long it takes to get from Anchorage to Philadelphia down to the minute. That’s because he says he had to stand for most of the flight when he returned to Philly last July.

Why would anyone stand for that long? Because he says a morbidly obese passenger seated next to him was spilling into his personal space, making it impossibly to sit in his assigned seat, and the flight was completely full.

“I didn’t fly from Alaska to Philadelphia on flight 901,” he says. “I stood.”

 Telling an airline passenger who can’t fit into a seat to stand is pretty unusual. But it happens. The question is, what should the airline do about it? Full story...

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  5. Air India "adjusts" extra passengers in cockpit and toilets!!! 
  6. Indian airline had kids sitting on parents' laps during flight!!! 
  7. Woman banned from flight because she was not wearing ... panties??? 
  8. Passenger ordered off US Airways flight as "security risk" for snapping photo...
  9. "Thanks Delta Airlines for using my baggage as a toilet..."

The pepper-spraying cop gets Photoshop justice...


Nature abhors a vacuum, it is said; and the internet abhors unexplained dissonance. When photographs emerged of police lieutenant John Pike pepper-spraying University of California Davis students, it wasn't just the violence in those images that captured the world's attention – it was the surreal juxtaposition of that violence with Pike's oddly casual body language and facial expression.

Photoshop out the students from that picture with your mind. Forget about Pike's uniform, let's say he's just wearing street clothes. Now, instead of a policeman spraying a less-lethal chemical weapon down the throats of peacefully seated 20-year-olds, you might be able to interpret this tableau as a figure sauntering through a garden, spraying weeds. Or maybe he's your paunchy, moustached uncle, nonchalantly dousing bugs in the basement with insecticide.

(...)

An investigation, to be led by former NY and LA police chief Bill Bratton, into whether there was police misconduct may take a while to reach a conclusion, but Photoshop justice has been delivered to Pike. And the expressions keep multiplying. Full story...

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  3. US schools photoshopping class potraits...
  4. Microsoft photoshops black dude as white guy in Polish commercial!!!
  5. How Iran "photoshops" live soccer matches on TV!!!
  6. World's media tricked by fake bin Laden photo...
  7. They can't find bin Laden, but they have unmasked the cigar guy!!!

George Bush and Tony Blair found guilty of war crimes in Malaysia tribunal...

Former US president George Bush and his former counterpart Tony Blair were found guilty of war crimes by the The Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal which held a four day hearing in the Malaysia.

The five panel tribunal unanimously decided that Bush and Blair committed genocide and crimes against peace and humanity when they invaded Iraq in 2003 in blatant violation of international law.

The judges ruled that war against Iraq by both the former heads of states was a flagrant abuse of law, act of aggression which amounted to a mass murder of the Iraqi people. More + video...

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  5. Tony Blair almost arrested in Malaysia for war crimes... 
  6. With war crimes heat on, Sri Lanka's Rajapaksa goes lobbying to China...
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Ahmad Harara, Egypt's tragic hero, blinded in his pursuit of freedom...

Ahmad Harara, the latest symbol of the struggle for freedom in Egypt, has lost the sight in both his eyes, first in the fight against Hosni Mubarak, and now against the military.

Ahmad Harara, twice blinded in the struggle to bring freedom to Egypt, was back in Tahrir Square on Wednesday, a fresh bandage over what had been his last good eye.

A crowd of well-wishers surrounded him anxious to see the people's latest hero, even if he could not see them.

Hundreds have been killed in Egypt this year, fighting against unforgiving regimes bent on maintaining their hold on power whatever the cost. But Mr Harara has paid a higher price than most from those who have survived.

 In late January, during the bloodiest phase of the uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak, he was shot in one eye by a shotgun pellet fired by the security forces near Tahrir Square. Full story...

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This is how a tennis victory should be celebrated!!!

Meet the man illiterate at 96, author at 98...

The story isn't that Jim Henry is 98; the story is that he was illiterate until he was 96.

"I couldn’t read, I couldn’t write," Henry said.

Now, Henry is an author. His book: "In a Fisherman's Language."

The lifelong lobsterman kept his secret until he moved to a senior home in Connecticut.

“As time went on and he lived here, he started talking about how he couldn’t read, he couldn’t write. And he opened up more to the residents, so that’s when it all came out and he took the initiative and wanted to learn to read and write. [He] started reading — initiated everything at 96. By 97, [he] was doing more and more, and then wrote the full-blown book at 98,” said Kellie Kulick, director of the senior home where Henry lives. Full story...

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  4. The anguish of being illiterate: one woman's story...
  5. Japan: 86-year old Buddhist nun writes a cell-phone novel!!! Wow!
  6. A £400m property empire, three jets and a yacht... but my secret shame is I can't read.

Chinese tycoon sentenced to death in $800 million real estate funding scam...

A real estate tycoon in Lishui, Zhejiang Province, has received a death sentence for illegally raising 5.5 billion yuan ($800 million) from the public, reported the Procuratorial Daily on Monday.

Ji Wenhua, the president and legal representative of Lishui Yintai Real Estate Investment Company, was found guilty of fraudulent fund raising and embezzlement.

Five other shareholders and senior managers from the Lishui Yintai group received death sentences with reprieves and imprisonment.

Lishui Yintai Real Estate Investment Company Group was founded in 2002. It has several subsidiaries and branches in Zhejiang, Jiangxi and Hunan provinces. Full story...

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  5. Chinese official begs on his knees to prevent protests!! 
  6. 6-year-old girl in China aspires to be a "corrupt official!!!" 
  7. In China there are jails to prevent citizens from complaining... 
  8. China doesn't mess around with corruption. Two officials executed... 

Britain's elderly in social care suffering abuse, neglect and cruelty...

Britain’s elderly in council-funded care are being left hungry and unwashed, according to a report.

Published by the Equality and Human Rights Commission, the inquiry highlights not only cases of neglect by carers, but a disregard for people’s privacy, acts of cruelty and in some cases actual physical abuse.

Set up to investigate home care among the UK’s elderly population, the document said there was a “systematic failure” in the older people’s social care, which in many cases breached human rights.

Based on the testimony of 1,200 elderly recipients of home care, the commission reported that the cumulative impact of neglect can be “profoundly depressing and stressful” and can lead to “tears, frustration, expressions of a desire to die and feelings of being stripped of self-worth and dignity”. Full story...

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