The best things in life? Friends, hugs and laughter...

Happiness is not all money in the bank, fast cars and designer clothes, but family, friends and the beauty of nature, a study has found.

A new survey has revealed the things which bring a smile to our faces are in fact life's simple pleasures - available to all, for free, every single day.

When people were asked what their most important pleasures were, 22 per cent of the 2,000 people quizzed picked laughing, swiftly followed by eating good food with great friends, in second place with 21 per cent.

A hug was in third place with 19 per cent.

The research suggests that despite the world's focus on materialistic possessions, people still find pleasure in pastimes which do not cost a penny. More...

Don't miss:

1. Laughter is no joking matter: it's serious business...
2. Can you watch this without laughing?
3. Feeling down and out? Don't swallow a pill; get a hug!!!
4. Okay folks! Let's go to a cuddle party...
5. Blondes on parade cheer up Latvia...
6. 80% of people in China lack real friends... 

A £400m property empire, three jets and a yacht... but my secret shame is I can't read.

I am sitting in the sumptuous West End office of businessman Andreas Panayiotou as he scans the front page of the Evening Standard and attempts to read it out loud. He begins normally, but by the second sentence he has become hesitant, using his forefinger to guide him. He delivers each word slowly and deliberately. In the third paragraph, he comes to a halt.

"What's that word?" he asks, pointing to "receipts". In the next sentence he is stymied again, this time by "exposé". Mr Panayiotou is a 45-year-old in his prime with every reason to be super-confident, but now his hands start writhing and he begins to sweat in his £3,000 Tom Ford suit.

The self-made British mogul, conservatively said to be worth £400million and ranked 200th on the Rich List, is about to describe his "secret shame" for the first time - he has never learned to read. He is prepared to talk about his "darkest secret" to help expose the scandal of illiteracy in London. "I am doing it because the Evening Standard's exposé has moved and shocked me. I am amazed to see the problem in our schools is still so bad. I'd hate any kid to go through what I have," he said. More...

Don't miss:

1. The anguish of being illiterate: one woman's story...
2. 25% of Arabs 'never' or 'hardly' read books...
3. Are we raising a generation of nincompoops?
4. The destruction of the Jaffna Tamil Library in Sri Lanka, a cultural genocide...
5. "Some teachers tell kids to stop reading a book because they'll get too far ahead ..." 

Israeli billionaires caught in Iran trade storm...

Ofer Brothers Group, one of Israel's most powerful corporations, is no stranger to scandal, but until now has largely emerged unscathed. But since allegations emerged that it traded with Iran it has been facing an unprecedented domestic backlash that could profoundly shake the Israeli establishment.

Israel's hawkish government, led by Benjamin Netanyahu, is the most vocal of Iran's critics, labelling its nuclear ambitions an existential threat to the Jewish state and calling repeatedly for tougher economic sanctions by the international community. But what it demands of others, it apparently fails to do itself, Israeli commentators say.

"Netanyahu, who endlessly preaches the need for firm action against Iran to prevent it from acquiring nuclear arms, is not lifting a finger to stop Israeli companies and individuals indirectly trading with Iran," wrote Yossi Melman in the left-leaning newspaper Haaretz. More...

Don't miss:

1. Iran blames Mossad for killing of nuclear scientist...
2. Let's attack Iran!
3. War with Iran would save economy! What???
4. US and Israel accused of attacking Iran with computer virus...
5. Israel, Iran, North Korea the least popular countries in the world...
6. A short history of Iran... 

Four dead in Korean internet suicide pact...

Two young men and two women were found dead in a car on Thursday in an apparent Internet-based group suicide, South Korean police said.

Police said the four, including a 25-year-old woman identified only as Park, left suicide notes in their bags in the car parked next to a river in Seongju, 210 kilometres southeast of Seoul.

They apparently inhaled toxic fumes after burning coal briquettes inside the vehicle, which had its windows sealed with plastic tape, police said.

Park’s mother in Seoul told investigators that her daughter was reported missing on May 30 after joining a suicide-related website, Yonhap news agency said. More...

Don't miss:

1. South Korean suicide actress forced into sex with 31 influential men...
2. Cyber bullying and internet lynchings in South Korea...
3. The internet users that encouraged suicide pact couple to kill themselves...
4. Fearing end of the world, Russian teen hangs herself...
5. Cricket fan in India hangs himself over Tendulkar's failure... 
6. Japanese man commits suicide "live" on the internet... 

100-year-old Brazilian goes to school to learn to read and write...

Isolina Campos has set out to prove it's never too late to learn to read and write.

Campos turned 100 on May 25, and decided to become an example to others by attending class in Londrina, a city in southern Brazil.

Although she started to learn to read and write in 1998, poor health forced her to quit school.

Now she's back to studying at night "so I don't stay at home with nothing to do," she told reporters. More...

Don't miss: 

1. 3-year-old Italian boy reads, gives medical advice!!!
2. 66-year-old in India fails board exam for 45th. time!!!
3. 86-year-old undergraduate in India sits for final exams!!! 
4. 93 years old, and still feeling horny!!! Hilarious! 
5. India: meet 8-year-old Aman Rehman, the world's youngest lecturer!!! 
6. 4-year-old child in India charged with murder!!!   

NutriSmart: Edible RFID tags in our food?

Don't miss:

1. Human embryos may be soon tagged with bar codes...
2. Secret human RFID implanting how and why (video)
3. Outcry in France over RFID baby tags...
4. By 2017, all of us will be micro-chipped cattle... 
5. Grow-your-own food group attracts 10,000 members in Ireland... 

Sri Lankan worker dies of police gunshot wounds...

Roshen Chanaka Ratnasekera, a 21-year-old employee from the Katunayake Free Trade Zone (FTZ), died on Wednesday from police gunshot wounds. More than 200 workers were injured when police attacked a FTZ protest on Monday using water cannon, tear gas and batons and live rounds.

Responsibility for Ratnasekera’s death falls squarely on the government, which deployed 2,000 police to suppress any protests. Workers demonstrating outside their factories against a new government pension scheme were violently attacked by police. News spread quickly, prompting a stop work throughout the entire Katunayake FTZ where about 40,000 workers are employed.

(...)

During the protest, Ratnasekera was hit in the leg by police bullets. According to relatives, he was kept for two hours at the police station without treatment even though he was bleeding profusely. He was later admitted the Ragama Teaching Hospital where he was put into the intensive care unit.

No information has been released as to the cause of death. A report by the Judicial Medical Officer has not been made public. Hospital director Dr. Roy Perera has declined to comment saying he has been ordered not to release any details to the media. Full story...

Don't miss:

1. Tamil policemen excluded from Sri Lanka parade...
2. Sri Lanka website editor Bennett Rupasinghe arrested...
3. Photos allege Sri Lanka massacre of Tamils...(Graphic)
4. Sri Lankan government evicts street hawkers and shanty dwellers...
5. Outrage in Sri Lanka over police brutality... 

Hindu couple in India harassed for adopting Muslim girl...

When Hyderabad was reeling from bomb blasts in 2007, Papalal who was working nearby found a little girl, then four-years-old, at the Gokul Chat Centre blast site. Papalal, a painter of Hindu Gods and Goddesses for temple walls, and his wife, Jayshree, figured out that the child was a Muslim and had been orphaned. They took her home where she lived with the couple. They had been childless for five years and they believed that her coming to their home as a firstborn brought them good luck and Jayshree soon became pregnant with their first biological child. She was their eldest child, they told everybody.

Once it became publicly known that a Muslim child was growing up in a Hindu family, Muslim groups asked the family to hand over the child to them. Papalal refused and asked how it could be a better option for the child to go to an orphanage. Muslim leaders intervened and relented, saying if the child is brought up as a Muslim, she can grow up in a Hindu family. More...

Don't miss:

1. Cops in India's Orissa arrest two young Christians to protect Hindu thief...
2. Muslim girl in India killed by father for love affair with Hindu...
3. Hindu youth in Bangalore attacked for befriending Muslim girl...
4. Hindu fanatics beating up "indecent" girls in India! WTF!
5. Mallika Sherawat's dress has caused "mental agony" to the people of Tamil Nadu!! 
6. Right-wing Hindu "moral police" in India attacks couples and blackens their faces! 

4-year-old child in India charged with murder!!!

A four-year-old boy, resident of a village located 60 km away from Bihar's capital Patna, has been accused of murder.

Alok Pandey, who is yet to join a primary school, has been charged by the police in Bhojpur district for assaulting and seriously injuring his neighbour, who died on his way to the hospital.

The case has been registered despite the fact that as per Section 82 of the Indian Penal Code, the police cannot file a criminal case against a child below the age of seven.

The boy belongs to Gyanpur Semariya village, which falls under the jurisdiction of the Barhara police. He has been named as one of the nine accused in the murder case. The other accused are his family members and the complaint was filed by their neighbour Romi Pandey.

Romi has alleged in her FIR that on May 11, a close relative of hers disconnected the electric connection of her house. When her husband Achyutanand Pandey went out to find out what was wrong, the accused, including the boy, assaulted him with lathis and iron rods, she said. More...

Don't miss:

1. India a dangerous place to live in...
2. 10-year-old accused of killing neo-nazi father...
3. Friends bring murdered teen's coffin to soccer match in Colombia...
4. 12-year-old girl in India kills 4-year-old to "please" diety...
5. Uganda: children at war... 

Spain furious at being blamed for E.coli outbreak...

Anger is growing in Spain over being blamed as the source of the E. coli outbreak that has killed 18 people and left hundreds more seriously ill.

Spanish PM Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said Spain would demand reparations for the economic losses suffered.

The outbreak - centred on Germany - is a new form of the E. coli bacterium, health researchers have said.

Seven people in the UK have the infection. They are all thought to have contracted it in Germany.

Spanish fruit and vegetable exporters estimate they are losing 200m euros ($290m; £177m) a week in sales every week after Germany said earlier in the outbreak that it probably originated with Spanish cucumbers. More...

Don't miss:

1. Cucumber fear spreads across Europe ...
2. Organic vegetables ‘no better for health’ than conventionally grown ones...
3. 40 million swine flu vaccine doses go to waste, $260 million go up in smoke...
4. Don't let the food "experts" and food nazis scare you...
5. The real story on why McDonald's Happy Meal hamburgers won't decompose... 

If you're curious about Windows 8, take a peek...

Don't miss:

1. Microsoft gives sneak preview of Windows 8... 
2. Windows 8 coming in 2012, says Ballmer...
3. Microsoft and the future of Skype...
4. Windows 7 users "very satisfied" but consumers still love XP...

Female writers are no match for me, says V.S. Naipaul...

VS Naipaul, no stranger to literary spats and rows, has done it again. This time, the winner of the Nobel prize for literature has lashed out at female authors, saying there is no woman writer whom he considers his equal – and singling out Jane Austen for particular criticism.

In an interview at the Royal Geographic Society on Tuesday about his career, Naipaul, who has been described as the "greatest living writer of English prose", was asked if he considered any woman writer his literary match. He replied: "I don't think so." Of Austen he said he "couldn't possibly share her sentimental ambitions, her sentimental sense of the world".

He felt that women writers were "quite different". He said: "I read a piece of writing and within a paragraph or two I know whether it is by a woman or not. I think [it is] unequal to me." More...

Don't miss:

1. Arundhati Roy: What have we done to democracy?
2. British author Alan Shadrake starts 8-week jail term in Singapore ...
3. Storm over white woman author's politically incorrect book ...
4. Female Saudi poet inflames and inspires ... and gets death threats.
5. Bahraini forces rape and kill poetess Ayat al-Ghermezi... 
6. Salman Rushdie talks about the 'stupid, archaic' British monarchy... 

False prophets and their profits. Should Harold Camping be prosecuted?

There ought to be a law. But there isn't.

So, religious hucksters like 89-year-old Harold Camping continue to operate monumental con-jobs that bring in multiple millions of dollars in donations from gullible people.

In case you missed the details: Camping's latest doomsday prediction stemmed from what he described as an intricate mathematical formulation taken directly from numbers in the bible. As he figured it, all good and righteous Christians would be taken up to heaven 722,500 days after Jesus' crucifixion — on May 21 at 5:59 pm. (He didn't bother to say which time zone would be hit first.) The rest of the world's population, his outlandish prophecy promised, would be left to suffer five months of cataclysmic earthquakes and other biblical tribulations, until the whole planet ceased to exist sometime on Oct. 21. More...

Don't miss:

1. Hey, what happened to The Rapture?
2. The victims of The Rapture that never was... 
3. Fearing end of the world, Russian teen hangs herself... 
4. No end of the world, so members want money back!!! 
5. All-female sect worships Vladimir Putin as Paul the Apostle!!! 
6. Doomsday man ‘raped five daughters to save bloodline'

Iranian acid attack victim Ameneh Bahrami explains why she wants her attacker to be blinded...

In 2004, Ameneh Bahrami was an independent and attractive 24-year-old engineering student, already working at a lab in Tehran.

"A lot of boys used to come to my house - even university teachers would come - and ask for my hand in marriage," she told the BBC World Service's Outlook programme.

"I was a very beautiful girl."

She had never met Majeed Movahidi when his mother called her family asking for her hand.

When she refused, Movahidi tracked her down at the university they both attended. They had a heated argument, though Bahrami still didn't know her pursuer's name. More...

Don't miss:

1. Eye for eye: Iranian woman set for revenge on acid attacker...
2. Acid attack victims in Bangladesh put on a brave face...
3. Pakistani women seek justice against acid throwers...
4. Filipino maid in Saudi Arabia attacked with acid and stabbed to death...
5. Saudi Arabia: judge asks hospital to paralyse man's spinal cord! What??? 

Chinese boy sells kidney to buy iPad 2...

A 17-year-old student in Anhui Province sold one of his kidneys for 20,000 yuan only to buy an iPad 2. Now, with his health getting worse, the boy is feeling regret but it is too late, the Global Times reported today.

"I wanted to buy an iPad 2 but could not afford it," said the boy surnamed Zheng in Huaishan City. "A broker contacted me on the Internet and said he could help me sell one kidney for 20,000 yuan."

On April 28 Zheng went to Chenzhou City in neighboring Hunan Province for the kidney removal surgery arranged by the broker. His parents knew nothing about it, Zheng said. He was paid 22,000 yuan after his right kidney was taken out at the Chenzhou No. 198 Hospital. More...

Don't miss:

1. Indian cricket fan willing to swap kidney for World Cup ticket!!!
2. Chinese in Malaysia send iPad 2 beyond the grave!!!
3. Singapore kids get free iPads... 
4. Desperate Americans buy kidneys from the poor in Peru ...
5. Apple's Chinese workers at Foxconn treated 'inhumanely, like machines' 

When Johnny comes marching home...

Don't miss:

1. Sam Richards: A radical experiment in empathy... 
2. The video the US military does not want you to see...
3. Remember me? Do you care? I'm from Iraq...
4. Iraq veteran makes powerful speech against war...
5. Who are the real terrorists?

Malaysian to tweet apology 100 times in Twitter defamation case...

A Malaysian social activist will apologise 100 times on Twitter in an unusual settlement with a magazine publisher in a defamation case.

The penalty has sparked debate among internet users about the pitfalls of social media in Malaysia, where authorities have warned people to be more cautious about what they write on blogs, Facebook and Twitter.

Fahmi Fadzil, an opposition politician's aide and respected commentator on social issues, claimed on Twitter in January that his pregnant friend had been poorly treated by her employers at a magazine run by BluInc Media.

Fahmi wrote an apology to BluInc on Twitter a few hours after making that allegation, but the company's lawyers later sent him a letter demanding unspecified financial damages for defamation and another apology in major newspapers, said Fahmi's lawyer, Syahredzan Johan. More...

Don't miss:

1. British court hands down first libel fine for tweet...
2. Tweets are not private, rules watchdog in landmark case...
3. Malaysians increasingly use social media to bypass censorship...
4. Ryan Giggs, private lives and injunctions...
5. Blogger in Pune gives doctors sleepless nights!!! 

Belgian child abuse victims sue Vatican...

Belgians who claim they were abused by priests in the Catholic Church are to take legal action against the Vatican.

Lawyers for the group of more than 80 victims announced on Thursday that they were filing a class-action suit against the Holy See, the first such legal action in Europe.

They accuse the Church of harmful neglect for failing to take action when suspected cases of abuse were brought to its attention.

A lawyer for the group, Christine Mussche, told reporters: “There were instructions from the pope that said those things had to be kept secret and silent.” More...

Don't miss:

1. Denying the homosexual link in Church's child abuse cases...
2. Pope's pedophilia advisor arrested ... on suspicion of pedophilia!!!
3. Child abuse witnesses in Belgium get death threats?
4. Pope covered up paedophile priest who abused 200 deaf boys...
5. Pedophiles and popes: doing the Vatican shuffle...
6. The Pope's entire career has the stench of evil about it. 

78 percent of Pakistani children with polio were given polio vaccines...

In the last year, as Pakistan has lost favor with the US and UNICEF, polio virus has paralyzed increasing numbers of Pakistani youth, casting doubt on the good intentions of those who fight polio. To make matters worse, most of the new cases have occurred in children already vaccinated. Is the US attempting to fight Pakistan by tainting inoculation doses?

The medical data suggests that the vaccine has changed in its efficacy against the disease. Last year, there were 136 cases of infected youth, and 107 of these had been administered multiple polio vaccinations. These figures are the largest the Polio Global Eradication Initiative has seen since 2006, despite heavy treatment in the most affected areas, South Punjab and the Federally Administered Tribal Area (FATA).

Even the more peaceful provinces have suffered. As reported by the Pakistan Daily times, there were 10 cases of polio in Sindh province in the first four months of the year. The article morbidly notes each of the cases, citing the children's names and the number of vaccinations they had received before the onset of polio virus: "Mohammad Asif, aged 40 months with all his limbs affected... was administered oral anti polio vaccine (OPV) four times... The three and a half years old Ameera... had one of her arms and legs paralyzed... Ameera was first of the confirmed cases of polio during the current year." More...

Don't miss:

1. Polio vaccine in Nigeria creates more polio... 
2. In 2010, 128 children died after vaccines in India...
3. Narcolepsy cases rising in Sweden after swine flu vaccine ...
4. Vaccines are causing illness, disease and death...
5. The HPV vaccine. Ashley Ryburn tells her story. Terribly sad... 
6. Anti-vaccine people are guilty of murder? So claims Bill Gates... 

Suicides shed light on darker side of Dubai's glitz...

Three weeks ago, he arrived at Dubai's Burj Khalifa at 7 a.m., clocked in and headed to where he was working on the upper reaches of the 163-storey tower. About an hour later, the 38-year-old father of one flung himself off the Burj Khalifa's 147th floor, dying instantly when he hit the 108th floor.

"I spoke to him the night before and he seemed fine," said another Indian worker, a friend and former roommate who had known him for seven years. "I still can't believe he did this."

Kannan's leap off the Burj Khalifa was the 26th known suicide by an Indian worker in the country in 2011. Last year, 113 Indians committed suicide, roughly one every three days.

The deaths have focussed fresh attention to the plight of migrant workers in the United Arab Emirates where armies of overall-clad labourers swarm over construction sites, seldom noticed by those in the plush office blocks and shopping malls. More...

Don't miss:

1. One Indian expat commits suicide every three days in the UAE... 
2. Dubious Dubai and the quest to be real... 
3. The dark, dark, dark side of Dubai... 
4. The slave workers of Dubai...
5. Glittering Dubai's see-no-evil secret...
6. Dubai, where domestic workers are sexually abused... 

Bloody battles in Yemeni capital, Sanaa...

Gunbattles raged Wednesday on the streets of Yemen's capital, killing 39 people, witnesses said as a truce between security forces and tribesmen collapsed, residents fled and embassies bolted their doors.

A medic at Jumhuriya hospital said 37 people, most of them combatants, were killed in overnight clashes in Sanaa, while an AFP photographer said the bodies of two other tribesmen were taken to Al-Ulum hospital during the day.

Heavy fighting ensued on Wednesday, prompting Kuwait to withdraw its diplomatic staff from the city, one day after Italy closed its embassy on concerns of escalating violence following threats against European missions. More...

Don't miss:

1. Street battles in Yemeni capital leave 41 dead...
2. Yemeni army kills 20 protesters in Taiz...
3. Arabs turning their backs on America, thanks to Obama and his silence...
4. Hamza Ali al-Khateeb, 'Rebel', 13, shot, kneecapped and had genitals removed... 

Microsoft gives sneak preview of Windows 8...

Microsoft had given a sneak preview of the successor to Windows 7, a next-generation operating system designed to work on both personal computers and touchscreen tablets.

Steven Sinofsky, president of Microsoft's Windows Division, demonstrated some of the features of the operating system code-named "Windows 8" at the D9 technology conference in California hosted by All Things Digital.

"Laptops, slates, desktops - all can run one operating system," Sinofsky said.
Advertisement: Story continues below

"Things that people see work... on an iPad, I think we can do that and then bring with it all of the benefits that you have with Windows," he said. More...

Don't miss:

1. Windows 8 coming in 2012, says Ballmer...
2. Microsoft and the future of Skype...
3. Windows 7 users "very satisfied" but consumers still love XP...
4. Millions download latest Firefox browser...
5. I love Apple but I won't tolerate it's tax cheating...

Indian kids eat live fish to cure asthma...

Campaigners in India have demanded that children under 14 be banned from swallowing live fish in a traditional treatment for asthma administered at a festival every year in June.

Hundreds of thousands of sufferers gather annually in Hyderabad in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh to gulp down small live fish and a special herb paste.

The Goud family, which says it received the medicine recipe from a Hindu saint in 1845, treats people from across India for free during a two-day period determined by astrologers and the onset of the monsoon.

The wriggling five-centimeter (two-inch) fish, which the family says clear the throat on their way down, will be dispensed this year on June 8 and 9. More...

Don't miss:

1. 2-year-old cured of brain cancer with medical marijuana?
2. "Miracle lake" in India attracting hordes of believers...
3. Fish-boy in China has scales instead of pores...
4. In India, they're throwing babies from the roof ... again!!!
5. Singapore restaurant charges $3,000 for fish sperm aphrodisiac soup!!!
6. Caterpillar fungus, India's answer to Viagra!
7. For Thanksgiving in Vietnam, they eat ... worms!!! 

Google accuses China of Gmail hacking...

Google is blaming computer hackers in China for a high-tech ruse that broke into the personal Gmail accounts of several hundred people, including senior US government officials, military personnel and political activists.

The breach marks the second time in 17 months that Google has publicly identified China as the home base for a scheme aimed at hijacking information stored on Google's vast network of computers.

This round of attacks is not believed to be tied to a more sophisticated assault originating from China in late 2009 and early last year.

 That intrusion went after some of Google's trade secrets and triggered a high-profile battle with China's Communist government over online censorship that has made it more difficult for the company to do business in the world's most populous country. More...

Don't miss:

1. WikiLeaks: The first global cyber war has begun...
2. China accused of hitting India with stuxnet internet worm...
3. Stuxnet, world's first 'cyber superweapon' attacks Chinese computers...
4. US and Israel accused of attacking Iran with computer virus...
5. Millions of email addresses stolen from Marks & Spencer... 

Little street boy in India talks about his life...

Don't miss:

1. Simple solutions to big problems: it's in your hands...
2. What do French school children have for lunch?
3. Chef in India feeds homeless and destitute...
4. How they play golf in the slums of Mumbai...
5. My name is Hana and I live in Nigeria... 

Are SWAT teams above the law? How the State terrorizes its citizens...

Those in the main part of the house are jolted awake by repeated shouting, loud banging and bell-ringing at the front door. “POLICE!” “WARRANT!”

Two small Vietnamese women in the front bedroom, barely a month in the country, frightened, confused, fearing for their lives, are thinking “robber” or “terrorist.” A young South American man, not understanding the words, thinking “emergency,” gets up and runs to open the front door.

“When I opened it, a policeman pushed me against the wall while he was handling a gun, he pointed (at) me and made me turn around and put my hands in my back,” the young man says.

Several officers, guns drawn, rush in. Other residents are collected and also handcuffed.

One resident attempts to explain that the two women in the front bedroom are not fluent in English. Ignoring what was said, or perhaps just not listening, several men force the locked door open. More...

Don't miss:

1. "Why did the police kill my Dad?"
2. Cops vs citizens in the United States... 
3. SWAT attacks home school mum for refusing to force medicate her child...
4. Cops shoot and kill dog in front of a child. WTF!
5. How American cops deal with a man in a wheelchair...
6. Cops stayed in car and refused to help as woman was being beaten up... 

India: atheism in the land of a thousand gods...

Lalit Mohan Chawla, a 19-year-old college student, was having doubts about God.

Every classroom had a picture of the late Sathya Sai Baba and every day the teacher forced him to meditate while imagining the guru's benevolent hand resting on his head — all this despite the troubling allegations of sexual misconduct in the guru's past.

The school yoga instructor talked about energy in a way that contradicted everything Lalit read in his science books.

"He said we had to use a [yoga] mat, to prevent our energy from flowing into the earth," Chawla said.

 "I felt that was completely stupid. But if you do not bring a mat, you will be spanked. I got spanked once. Not because I refused to bring my mat, because I forgot to bring my mat. I never refused to bring the mat, I never refused to meditate. I mean, who wants a spanking — that's all." Lesson learned. More...

Don't miss:

1. Satya Sai Baba, death of a spiritual rock star...
2. Swami Nithyananda implicated in serious video sex scandal...
3. Exposing India's fake god-men and gurus...
4. What is religion? Carlin has the answer... 
5. Atheists and Jews know more about religion than the believers!!!
6. Dave Allen's first contact with God...
7. Atheist in Maldives who rejected Islam "hangs himself..." 

Former French minister Jack Lang accused of 'orgy with little boys' in Morocco...

One of the closest supporters of scandal hit French politician Dominique Strauss-Kahn was today linked with 'an orgy with little boys' in Morocco.

Jack Lang, the former Socialist culture and education secretary, was fighting to save his reputation after Luc Ferry, another ex-minister, revealed the crime on TV.

Breaking a code of silence which traditionally allows such offences to be kept a secret, Mr Ferry said: 'All of us here probably all know who I'm talking about.'

Mr Ferry claimed the man's sex attack on the boys - which was said to have taken place in the tourist city of Marrakech and was uncovered by police who raided a 'palm grove' - was an open secret which had been discussed openly by a former Prime Minister. More...

Don't miss:

1. Sarkozy's minister in "foot massage" sexual assault accusation!  
2. Strauss Kahn: French Socialists toppled from moral perch... 
3. Strauss-Kahn: Spotlight on France's 'macho' culture... 
4. The Mitterrand dynasty, scandals and hypocrisy...
5. French culture minister Mitterrand in 'boy sex' scandal...
6. French politician Daniel Cohn-Bendit talks about sex and children ... 

Unborn baby has a Facebook profile!!!

About four months into her pregnancy, Ellie decided it was time to announce the big news.

Who do you tell first, or how do you tell somebody, and the Matt one morning said, hey lets make her a Facebook page and then everyone will know almost instantly

Unborn Marriah Greene sent out hundred's of Facebook requests says her mother Ellie, "Everybody is on Facebook, all of our friends are on Facebook, things fly through Facebook now."

And it didn't take long for people to accept the news.

"Within a day she had over a 100 friends," says Ellie. More + video...

Don't miss:

1. Bronx Zoo's missing cobra is now on Twitter!!!
2. Egyptian names his daughter ... Facebook!!!
3. A life on Facebook...
4. Singapore teacher criticizes students' essays on Facebook!!!
5. Chinese blogger banned from Facebook but Zuckerberg's dog has an account... 

Anti-Christian violence in Faisalabad, Pakistan: tombs desecrated, young woman gang-raped but cops do nothing...

Christian tombs were recently desecrated and a young Christian woman was gang-raped for an entire night. In both cases, police refused to file a First Information Report, allowing the culprits to escape justice. These are examples of the ordinary violence visited upon Pakistan’s Christian minority. Whether it involves Christian-owned land and property or individuals who are targeted because they are defenceless, victims will not find justice with the country’s legal system. Gradually, Pakistan’s ‘Islamisation’ slowly progresses, especially in the densely populated province of Punjab.

The Pakistan Christian Post reports that, in Chak Jhumra (Faisalabad), Muslim landowners destroyed and desecrated a Christian graveyard, using a tractor to plough over a number of tombs. Buried coffins were broken and the bones of the dead were brought to the surface. The local police refused to open an inquiry, whilst the landowners utter threats against local Christians to get them to stop legal proceedings. More...

Don't miss:

1. Obama and Cameron talk about everything except Christian persecution... 
2. Christian in Kirkuk (Iraq) abducted, tortured and beheaded...
3. Thousands of Ethiopian Christians in need after fleeing Muslim violence...
4. Cops in Pakistan rape and murder Christian man, threaten victim's father...
5. Christian woman sentenced to death in Pakistan for blasphemy...
6. More than 4,000 Christians victims of abuses and forced conversions in Orissa... 
7. Muslim Egyptian girl acid attacked for converting to Christianity... 

Syrian security forces accused of crimes against humanity...

Syrian security forces have been accused of systematic killings and torture by a leading human rights group that says the abuses constitute crimes against humanity.

A new report by Human Rights Watch (HRW) focuses on violations and abuses in the Daraa governorate in southern Syria, the centre of the "Arab spring" protests, which have spread across the country in the last two months.

Many of the incidents recorded by the New York-based watchdog – systematic killings, beatings, torture using electroshock devices, and detention of people seeking medical care – have gone largely unreported because of the information blockade imposed by the Syrian authorities. More...

Don't miss:

1. Hamza Ali al-Khateeb, 13, shot, and had genitals removed before being killed ...
2. This is what's happening in Syria (WARNING. Extremely graphic)
3. 8000 people missing or in detention in Syria...
4. 'In Syria we have been scared all our lives. Now at least we have hope, too"
5. Syria: Assad's regime of torture...
6. The State continues to kill in Syria... (Graphic) 
7. Syrian troops 'have killed more than 1,000 civilians in brutal crackdown   

How Swiss rescue dogs are trained to help in disaster zones...

Don't miss:

1. Two guys enter Japan's Fukushima nuclear reactor evacuation zone ...
2. "Signal dogs" in Switzerland as hearing aids for the deaf! Cool...
3. Doggy hotel in Switzerland... 

Street battles in Yemeni capital leave 41 dead...

Republican Guard shelling and pre-dawn street battles between government forces and rival tribal fighters killed at least 41 people in the capital today. There were growing signs of disarray in beleaguered President Ali Abdullah Saleh's military.

 Fighting raged until 5am, and witnesses said Presidential Guard units shelled the headquarters of an army brigade responsible for guarding sensitive government institutions. Army officers who have defected to the opposition say the government suspected the brigade commander was about to join forces with the movement to oust Saleh.

 Opposition army officers said the armored brigade commander, Brigadier-General Mohammed Khalil, was neutral and without political affiliation but had apparently angered Saleh. More...

Don't miss:

1. Hamza Ali al-Khateeb, 13, tortured and shot... 
2. Yemeni army kills 20 protesters in Taiz... 
3. Arabs turning their backs on America, thanks to Obama...
4. Yemen troops shoot 35 protesters dead... 
5. This is what's happening in Syria (WARNING. Extremely graphic)
6. Bahraini female doctors recount detention 'horror'

Hundreds of rare Saiga antelopes found dead in Kazakhstan...

Hundreds of endangered antelopes have been found dead in western Kazakhstan, dealing another blow to conservation efforts to save these long-nosed creatures, Kazakhstan Today
reports.

A total of 442 saigas – a distinctive creature with a long, humped nose that allows it to filter air during the dusty summer months and breathe warm air during the freezing winters – have been found dead, West Kazakhstan Region Governor Baktykozha Izmukhambetov told a cabinet meeting on May 31.

He said the deaths of 360 does and 82 calves may have been caused by an outbreak of pasteurellosis, a disease that attacks the lungs and which killed nearly 12,000 saigas in an epidemic last year. Scientists are also investigating whether “some sort of poisoning from the flora, which is to say from the grass, is taking place,” the governor added. More...

Don't miss:

1. What killed 300 sheep within an hour in Saudi Arabia? 
2. 10,000 cattle in Vietnam mysteriously die from cold weather...
3. 200 dead cows in Wisconsin...
4. Sheep being mutilated by aliens in UFO's, claim English farmers...
5. Millions of dead fish in the Philippines...
6. Hundreds of dead sparrows in New Zealand city...

Singapore and Switzerland have the highest concentration of millionaires...

(...)

The number of millionaire households globally increased to about 12.5 million, the Boston-based firm said in a study released today. Singapore millionaires rose by almost 33 percent after jumping about 40 percent a year earlier.

Singapore had the highest concentration of millionaires, accounting for 15.5 percent of the population, the study showed, followed by Switzerland with 9.9 percent, Qatar with 8.9 percent and Hong Kong with 8.7 percent.

Hong Kong had the 10th most millionaire households in the world, with 200,000, as well as 223 households worth more than $100 million.

The Chinese city saw 10,000 newly minted millionaire households last year. In 2005 it had 120,000 millionaires, BCG said. Full story...

Don't miss:

1. Switzerland has the highest average wealth per adult...
2. Want to be a millionaire? Just glue a gold coin to your doorstep!!!
3. Bill Gates and Warren Buffet hold banquet for China's super rich...
4. Crisis? What crisis? There's no crisis for the world's billionaires...
5. Rich Chinese buying up houses in Europe... 

Hamza Ali al-Khateeb, 'Rebel', 13, shot, kneecapped and had genitals removed before being killed by Syria's sadistic regime ...

Devotedly washed and sprinkled with rose petals, Hamza Ali al-Khateeb lies prepared for burial.

But the rituals of death cannot wipe away the horrific injuries that have mutilated his body almost beyond recognition.

Nor do they blot out that Hamza - riddled with bullets, kneecapped and with neck broken and penis hacked off - has the rounded cheeks and gentle face of a child.

At 13, he is one of the youngest known victims of Syria's ruthless crackdown on protesters who have tried to overthrow the government of President Bashar al-Assad.

The teenager's family were told not to speak of his terrible fate. But in a pitiful act of defiance, they posted the footage of his corpse online. More...

Watch the video (Graphic)

Don't miss:

1. This is what's happening in Syria (WARNING. Extremely graphic)
2. 8000 people missing or in detention in Syria...
3. 'In Syria we have been scared all our lives. Now at least we have hope, too"
4. Syria: Assad's regime of torture...
5. The State continues to kill in Syria... (Graphic) 
6. Syrian troops 'have killed more than 1,000 civilians in brutal crackdown   

Denying the homosexual link in Church's child abuse cases...

On May 18, researchers from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice released their long-awaited final report, “Causes and Context of Sexual Abuse of Minors by Catholic Priests in the United States, 1950-2010.”

The research team, led by Karen Terry, Ph.D., gathered an impressive amount of information from which they drew a number of conclusions, the most unsettling of which is the claim that homosexuality is unrelated to the abuse (particularly of adolescent males, the primary victims in the crisis).

Though 81 percent of the victims were post-pubescent males, researchers downplayed the homosexual connection by suggesting that this simply reflects the fact that offenders had greater access to boys. The report also proposes the possibility that, “Although the victims of priests were most often male, thus defining the acts as homosexual, the priest did not at any time recognize his identity as homosexual.” More...

Don't miss:

1. Pope's pedophilia advisor arrested ... on suspicion of pedophilia!!! 
2. Catholic bishop caught at airport with child porn...
3. US Jesuits to pay a whopping $166.1 million to sex abuse victims... 
4. "The Pope is surely the biggest sinner in the whole Catholic Church" 
5. Pedophiles and popes: doing the Vatican shuffle...
6. Pope covered up paedophile priest who abused 200 deaf boys... 

What killed 300 sheep within an hour in Saudi Arabia?

A Saudi farmer who went into his barn to take his 300 sheep on their daily pasturing was shocked when he found them all dead, a newspaper in the Gulf Kingdom said on Saturday.

The farm said he checked the sheep an hour earlier and they were all alive in their barn at his farm in the western town of Qunfudha.

The unnamed farmer had owned the sheep for years and they were his sole source of living for his family of 16.

“Inspectors at the ministry of agriculture said they had taken samples from the dead sheep to determine the cause of their death,” the Arabic language daily Sabq said. Source...

Don't miss:

1. 10,000 cattle in Vietnam mysteriously die from cold weather...
2. 200 dead cows in Wisconsin...
3. Sheep being mutilated by aliens in UFO's, claim English farmers...
4. Millions of dead fish in the Philippines...
5. Hundreds of dead sparrows in New Zealand city...

Rajnikanth is working in a Chennai sari store!!!

Don't miss:

1. Don't mess around with Tamil superstar, Rajnikanth!!!
2. Tamil superstar Rajnikanth in hilarious commercial!!!
3. Epic fight scene from Tamil movie Endhiran! Awesome or hilarious?
4. How they package playing cards in China!!!
5. Asian dude and his multiple skills... 

Cellphone radiation may cause cancer...

A World Health Organization panel has concluded that cellphones are “possibly carcinogenic,’’ putting the popular devices in the same category as certain dry cleaning chemicals and pesticides, as a potential threat to human health.

The finding, from the agency’s International Agency for Research on Cancer, adds to concerns among a small but growing group of experts about the health effects of low levels of radiation emitted by cellphones. The panel, which consisted of 31 scientists from 14 countries, was led by Dr. Jonathan M. Samet, a physician and epidemiologist at the University of Southern California and a member of President Obama’s National Cancer Advisory Board.

The group didn’t conduct any new research but reviewed numerous existing studies that focused on the health effects of radio frequency magnetic fields, which are emitted by cellphones. During a news conference, Dr. Samet said the panel’s decision to classify cellphones as “possibly carcinogenic” was based largely on epidemiological data showing an increased risk among heavy cellphone users of a rare type of brain tumor called a glioma. More...

Don't miss:

1. Is your cell phone's radiation level safe? 
2. Cell phones are dangerous and we're deliberately being kept ignorant about it...
3. Cellphone radiation changes brain activity...
4. Transmission towers in Malaysia causing headaches, nausea...
5. Cell phone tower near California school causing cancer?
6. Are phone masts causing cancer? 
7. Mobile phones killing off world's bee population... 

Angry mob in India burns rapist to death...

In an act of mob justice, a youth was burnt alive by angry villagers right in the presence of cops after he allegedly raped a girl.

The girl, who initially resisted the attempts of the accused, is battling for her life after the youth hit her with a hammer on her head. This macabre incident took place in Raghunathapally in Zaffargadh mandal of Warangal district on Tuesday.

 Seething with rage, hundreds of women and other villagers poured kerosene on the accused, Jilla Babu, and set him on fire in front of the girl's residence. With more than 60 per cent burns, Babu, 24, died on the spot. When the cops were whisking him away to the police station, the enraged women obstructed the vehicle. Ignoring the cops' pleas to leave the accused alone, they dragged him out of the vehicle and set him on fire. The deceased was a daily wager in nearby Perumandlagudem village in Wardhannapet mandal. He is survived by wife and three daughters. His wife claimed that he had been mentally unstable for the last couple of months. More...

Don't miss:

1. Bangladesh woman takes man's penis to police station as evidence of rape...
2. India: woman beheads would-be rapist...
3. Teen in India dies trying to save sister from molesters...
4. Dalit girl in India has ear, nose chopped off for resisting rape. WTF!
5. Cops refuse to take action, so mother in India snares daughter's rapist...
6. Man in India "punished" with 5 kicks ... for raping under-age girl!!! WTF! 

Who killed Pakistani journalist Saleem Shahzad?

Investigative journalist Saleem Shahzad was found dead near the Head Rasul area in Mandi Bahauddin, nearly 130 kilometres from Islamabad, after going missing from Islamabad over the weekend.

Police sources said Shahzad’s post-mortem report showed multiple injuries throughout his body. “Liver failure and ruptured lungs could have caused his death,” said an official, confirming there were as many as 15 visible wounds on his body. His ribs were also broken.

The wounds suggested Shahzad was subjected to severe torture which might have caused his death, said a police official who had seen the post-mortem report.

A relative of Shahzad, accompanied by capital police team, confirmed his identity and arrangements were being made to exhume and transport his body back to Islamabad till the filing of this report. More...

Don't miss:

1. Nicolas Sarkozy threatened to "smash the face" of magazine editor...
2. International condemnation after journalist arrested in Sri Lanka...
3. Foreign journalists attacked as violence erupts in Egypt...
4. Chinese journalist left 'brain-dead' after beating...
5. Thugs in Russia brutally beating up journalist Oleg Kashin... 

British author Alan Shadrake starts 8-week jail term in Singapore ...

A 76-year-old British writer who published a book denouncing judicial hangings in Singapore started a prison term today for contempt.

Alan Shadrake, who wrote about the use of hanging to execute drug traffickers and murderers in the city-state, turned himself in at the High Court.

On Friday he lost his appeal against a six-week sentence, the toughest ever imposed in Singapore for contempt.

Shadrake could not afford to pay a Sg$20,000 ($15,175) fine on top of the prison term, resulting in another two weeks in jail, taking the term to eight weeks in total. He could be released earlier for good behaviour.  More...

Don't miss:

1. Singapore regretting overplaying Alan Shadrake and his hangman book? 
2. British author Alan Shadrake says charges against him are "bloody nonsense"
3. Singapore transformed Alan Shadrake from an obscure writer into a celebrity...
4. Singapore defends death penalty in first rights report to UN...
5. Amnesty condemns Alan Shadrake's conviction in Singapore... 
6. Yong's story: young Malaysian drug offender fights for life in Singapore... 

Africans not welcome in Bangalore pubs...

Pubs and bars in Bangalore are denying entry to nationals from Cameroon, Nigeria, Ghana, Tanzania and other African countries citing security reasons, as the common belief is that all ebony-skinned people are 'drug peddlers', 'scamsters' and 'trouble makers'.

Bangalore has a sizeable student populat ion from the African continent - 20-somethings from countries as diverse as Cameroon and Nigeria, Ghana and Tanzania. However, at most of the city's hep clubs, all dark-skinned people are strangely 'Nigerians' and to be avoided, though they don't say it out aloud.

At most of these bars and pubs, blacks are generally frowned upon. In most cases, a group of black males, unaccompanied by women gets responses varying from a polite - "sorry, prior reservation needed" to the outright rude - "please leave". More...

Don't miss:

1. Racism in India, where even Indians are...
2. Africans victims of racial insults in India...
3. Australian athletes "treated like cattle" before ceremony... 
4. NZ TV host Paul Henry resigns over "dickshit" row...
5. Games: Africans accuse organisers of racism...
6. Indians attacked in Australia? And the Russians and foreigners attacked in Goa?