Bonjour Planet Earth

Friday, December 16, 2011

Death and scandal dominate Google hit list in Switzerland...

Swiss internet users were fascinated mostly by death and wayward celebrities in 2011.

The search engine analysed millions of terms typed by Swiss surfers and published the most popular ones on Thursday.

The celebrity list was topped by Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former head of the International Monetary Fund whose chances of becoming the next French president were scuppered in May when he got embroiled in a sex scandal in New York.

Strauss-Kahn was followed by troubled British singer Amy Winehouse, who died in July aged 27, and Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, who died in October aged 56. Full story...

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How Google and Facebook manipulate and determine your searches...

Kevin Slavin: How algorithms shape our world...

French socialists finally dump Strauss-Kahn, feel betrayed and duped...

Beauty queen accuses South Korean officials of sexual abuse and sex bribes...

Six-pack hunks: more than Singapore can bare?

Shirtless men clad in red sweatpants have been lining up for days in Singapore's prime shopping district, part of an advertising gimmick revealing not just muscle but also a gradual unpeeling of the city state's puritanical ways.

The feverish reception given the "shirtless greeters" by the Singapore public, both in real life and online, where it has gone viral in social media, signals how the notoriously conservative city-state has been loosening up in recent years, experts said.

On a recent evening, women stood with the men for pictures, touching them on the chest or receiving a friendly embrace. One even jumped up on a greeter's back.

The men, from the United States, Europe and Asia, are on a mission to drum up excitement for fashion retailer Abercrombie & Fitch (A&F)'s flagship store in Singapore, which opened on Thursday, using a campaign also employed overseas. More + photos...

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America's first legal "prostidude" begins work at Nevada brothel!!!

Chinese man arrested for hiring strippers for son's wedding!!!

Bollywood He-Man and He-Woman!!!

Bystanders in China lift SUV that ran over a girl...

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Outcry in China over hit-and-run toddler left in street...

Chinese girl crushed by van, shocking passers-by indifference... (Graphic)

Bag-snatching thieves get whacked!!!

To save energy, Chilean men told not to wear ties...

Chile's government wants men in the South American country to take off their ties to help fight global warming, hoping the campaign will save on air conditioning as summer starts in the southern hemisphere.

"Let's all take our ties off this summer to save energy," Economy Minister Pablo Longueira says in television spots airing around the country.

In the commercial, he undoes the knot of his pink and white tie and whips it off with gusto, unbuttoning the top of his shirt and smiling. A tie-less energy minister and other senior government officials also appear in the TV spot. Full story...

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Pee in the shower, save the rain-forest!!!

No more suits and ties in Bangladesh in order to save electricity...

Indonesia's vanishing tigers, vanishing rain forests...

Stop eating meat to ‘save the planet’? Burger off!

Earth Hour, a despicable hoax...

I bought a rainforest...

Becoming vegetarian to save the environment? Think again...

The US Farce of the Drone...

The U.S. Lies about the top-secret U.S. Stealth Drone the Iranians have now put on world display completely intact is typical of the U.S. Big Lies about almost everything important to their Global Empire, obviously including the existence of that U.S. Global Empire. First they denied it in non-denial denials in case the Iranians did have it, then they said it crashed somewhere unknown to the U.S., then they said it must have drifted by malfunction into Iran, then when the Iranians showed the first pictures of it in-tact – not all crumpled up as it would be if it crashed from high altitude malfunction – the U.S. said it was not the right color or size, and finally when it was fully displayed they demanded its return on the presumption that they were not violating international law by spying in this way on Iran.

The whole U.S. Farce of the Drone exposes the U.S. once again as run by fools and total Liars routinely violating laws, treaties decency and every other human standard.

But this is merely a somewhat more ludicrous U.S. display of what it has really become. This is SOP for the U.S. Every time it slaughters women and children in Iraq, Somalia, Afghanistan, Pakistan and around the world the U.S does the same ludicrous display of denials, counter-charges and on and on. SOP. Full story...

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Thursday, December 15, 2011

French blockbuster star snubs Sarkozy...

French actor Omar Sy, co-star in the French blockbuster "Intouchables", has declined to meet President Nicolas Sarkozy for lunch. Officially, Sy was shooting a film on poor Parisian suburbs.

French actor Omar Sy is France’s hot ticket this winter and his comedy "Intouchables" is on course to become one of France’s most popular box office hits.

11 million people in France have seen the feel-good film, which follows the adventures of Philippe, a grumpy tetraplegic aristocrat who rediscovers life with Driss, a young black man from the Parisian banlieues. Full story...

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This girl refuses to shake hands with Sarkozy!!

Intouchables – not Sarkozy – provides the narrative France needs...

Palestinian negotiators 'avoided shaking Tony Blair's hand'

India snubs Sarah Palin in tit for tat action...

Israel: student detained for refusing to shake Shimon Peres' hand...

Strange rain: animals that have fallen from the sky...

An avalanche of apples that pelted road users in Coventry is just the latest in a series of bizarre examples of things falling from the sky.

Residents, officials and scientists were left baffled in June 2009 by an apparent downfall of dead tadpoles in central Japan's Ishikawa prefecture.

Clouds of the creatures appeared to have fallen from the sky in a series of episodes in a number of cities in the region.

One 55-year-old man who heard a strange sound in a car park in the city of Nanao found more than 100 dead tadpoles covering the windscreens of cars in a ten-square metre area. Full story...

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It's raining fish in Australia!!!

Why are dead birds falling from the sky in Western Australia?

Dead starlings fall from the sky in Somerset...

Santa and Sofia...

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Very sexy French scopitone video from the 60s!!! Wow!

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Woman,woman ...

Once upon a time, Brigitte Bardot and Jane Birkin...

Syrian troops 'ordered to shoot to kill'

More than 70 Syrian army commanders and officials have been named by former soldiers as having ordered attacks on unarmed protesters in that country, a US-based rights group says.

The report from Human Rights Watch names 74 commanders and military and intelligence officials as having allegedly "ordered, authorised, or condoned widespread killings, torture, and unlawful arrests" during the country's nine-month uprising against President Bashar al-Assad's government.

The group urged the United Nations Security Council to refer the situation in Syria to the International Criminal Court (ICC) and to impose sanctions against officials implicated in the report.

Those named should be investigated "for their command responsibility for crimes against humanity," the report said. Full story...

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Chinese fugitive evades police for 13 years – by becoming TV actor!!!

A Chinese fugitive who spent years hiding in plain sight as an actor on popular TV shows has been arrested over the assault of a police officer 13 years ago, state media have reported.

Police seized Ji Siguang as he was filming a costume drama, said officials in Qiqihar, northern Heilongjiang province. His best-known role was in the appropriately named hit spy drama Lurk, three years ago.

Ji, who acted under the name Zhang Guofeng, appeared in more than 30 shows but reportedly told police he had been too frightened to watch his performances because he was nervous he might be recognised.

The 39-year-old's capture in Jinhua, eastern Zhejiang province, appears to have been the result of a tipoff from anonymous informants rather than police scrutiny of primetime TV. Full story...

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Fugitive in Portugal caught after living in caves for 16 years...

Escaped prisoner caught ... sneaking back into jail!!!

Gullible Turks! Citizens fall victims to cops disguised as doctors...

Asian dude disguised as elderly Caucasian boards international flight!

Veiled bride in India turns out to be a boy!!!

The conman who posed as a doctor .. and a priest!!!

Thai activist jailed for 15 years for royal slur...

A court in Thailand sentenced a "Red Shirt" political activist to 15 years in prison for insulting the monarchy, the latest in a series of convictions under the kingdom's lese majeste laws.

Daranee Charnchoengsilapakul, a hardcore supporter of Thailand's ousted former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, was accused of defaming the royals during speeches at political rallies in 2008.

"The Criminal Court convicted her on three counts as she committed offences on three different occasions, and sentenced her to five years for each," her lawyer Prawais Prapannugool told AFP on Thursday.

"She said she will not appeal her sentence because she lost her faith in the judicial system and she is convinced that she will not receive a fair trial," he added. Full story...

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Police arrest Thai website editor...

Militants in Pakistan have destroyed 5000 schools in 5 years...

The ANP leader Senator Haji Muhammad Adeel Saturday said that education system has been destroyed by non other than our own Muslim brothers in Pakistan as militants destroyed over 5000 schools in five years period.

He expressed these views while laying the foundation stone of new building for University Degree College for Boys at University of Peshawar.

The new double story building will be completed in twenty four months at an estimated cost of ninety five million rupees in which fifty million has been donated by Senator Haji Muhammad Adeel from his personal fund.

Senator Haji Muhammad Adeel while addressing the inaugural ceremony showed his concern over the literacy rate in Pakistan which he said is amongst the lowest in the world. The actual literacy rate in Pakistan is hovering around 30% while this rate is around 15% in the tribal areas and the female literacy rate in tribal areas is around 5%. This is because of the lowest allocation of budget for education in our country, he added. Full story...

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60 female students and teachers thrashed in Pakistan...

Militants destroy yet another girls’ school in Pakistan...

Diary of a Pakistani schoolgirl...

The Pakistani dude who got ...22 A levels!!!

Afghanistan: acid attack girls return to school!!! Wow!

Taliban threatened schools close in Pakistan...

Democracy is NOT freedom...

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English students turning to prostitution to fund studies...

Greater numbers of students in England are turning to prostitution to fund their education, the National Union of Students (NUS) claims.

The NUS also says students are turning to gambling and taking part in medical experiments to fund their studies.

It says increased living costs and fees, and cuts to the education maintenance allowance, play a part.

But the government says it offers students a "generous package" of financial support.

Speaking to BBC Radio 5 live's Breakfast programme, Estelle Hart, the NUS's national women's officer, said government cuts had put more pressure on students. Full story...

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India to get info on 'black money' in Swiss banks...

India's finance minister on Wednesday said New Delhi will receive information from Swiss authorities on Indian nationals who have stashed funds in secret bank accounts in the country.

Pranab Mukherjee in a debate in parliament on so-called "black money", however insisted his government would not disclose identities of those who have parked funds in various overseas banks.

"We started two years ago and ultimately it was ratified in October 2011," he said, referring to a memorandum of understanding inked the same month during a trip to Switzerland by Indian President Pratibha Patil.

The pact aims at tightening cooperation on financial issues by launching a regular dialogue between the two countries. Full story...

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The end of Swiss bank secrecy...

UBS refuses to reveal info about 52,000 US secret accounts...

Indian couples whose families disapprove turn to the Love Commandos...

They met on the bus to college in 2005. Soon he was cutting class all morning to ride the bus and make sure he had the chance to talk to her. Puja Bharti says she knew within moments of speaking to her now-husband, Veer, that it was love. And she knew that this love was going to be a big problem.

Veer and Puja are from different jati in the Hindu caste system. And although they have thoroughly modern Indian families who sent them to earn college degrees and urged them both into business, neither family would tolerate the idea that their children should have a “love marriage,” as it is known here.

Mr. Bharti’s father confronted him about the relationship in 2008, and when he refused to renounce Puja, beat him up and threw him out of the house. He moved in with friends in another city, found a job and started saving money in the hope of persuading her to elope. Her family, meanwhile, began a campaign of physical assault and emotional abuse that escalated until, one day in September, she overheard her brother saying the time had come to kill her, since she stubbornly refused to marry any boy the family chose for her. So Ms. Bharti ran away and used her last rupees in a payphone call to Mr. Bharti. And he in turn made a call to a number he’d read in the paper, and saved just in case. Full story...

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India: young couple hit with boulders and tortured to death...

10 family members in India sentenced to death for honour killing...

Teen girl electrocuted by relatives in Pakistan honour killing...

Tamil father in Toronto ran down teen daughter in attempted "honour" killing...

A vicious war against love is going on in India. Honour killing madness...

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Indonesian punks detained and shaved by police...

Police in Indonesia's most conservative province have stripped away body piercings and shaved off mohicans from 65 youths detained at a punk-rock concert because of their perceived threat to Islamic values.

The teens and young men were also stripped of dog-collar necklaces and chains and then thrown in pools of water for "spiritual" cleansing, the local police chief, Iskandar Hasan, said on Wednesday.

After replacing their "disgusting" clothes, he handed each a toothbrush and barked: "Use it."

It was the latest effort by authorities to promote strict moral values in Aceh, the only province in this secular but predominantly Muslim nation of 240 million people to have imposed Islamic laws. Full story...

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Indonesian film "Question mark" stirs religious controversy...

Indonesia'a Aceh bans tight trousers for women...

The 10 most expensive places in the world to live...

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Singapore family books $1 mln Virgin space flight...

New Zealand is the world's most peaceful country...

UK has worst quality of life in Europe...

North Koreans are eating grass, but Kim Jong-il titillates his palate...

Chinese buyer books US$200,000 whisky at Singapore duty free!!!

Trouble in paradise as Switzerland becomes victim of own financial success...

It's raining apples in Coventry...

The inclement conditions at this time of year normally cause a variety of traffic and logistical problems as motorists battle their way through wind, rain and snow.

But one freak of nature drivers do not normally have to contend with is flying fruit, as mystified residents did in Coventry on Monday night.

Bemused motorists were forced to take evasive action when an avalanche of apples descended from the sky just after the rush-hour.

(...)

'I know the area well and there are no apple trees around.' Yesterday, a 20-yard stretch of the road was strewn with crushed apples made mushy by the rain.

Many had smashed as though they had fallen from a great height.

Baffled resident Dave Meakins opened the front door yesterday morning to find a number of smashed apples in his front garden. Full story...

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It's raining fish in Australia!!!

Why are dead birds falling from the sky in Western Australia?

Dead starlings fall from the sky in Somerset...

US soldiers can now legally engage in sex with animals...

The Senate on Thursday evening voted 93-7 to approve a defense authorization bill that includes a provision which not only repeals the military law on sodomy, it also repeals the military ban on sex with animals–or bestiality.

On Nov. 15, the Senate Armed Services Committee had unanimously approved S. 1867, the National Defense Authorization Act, which includes a provision to repeal Article 125 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ).

Article 125 of the UCMJ makes it illegal to engage in both sodomy with humans and sex with animals.

It states: “(a) Any person subject to this chapter who engages in unnatural carnal copulation with another person of the same or opposite sex or with an animal is guilty of sodomy. Penetration, however slight, is sufficient to complete the offense. (b) Any person found guilty of sodomy shall be punished as a court-martial may direct.” Full story...

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Thanks, Smokey!

'Cleansed' Libyan town spills its terrible secrets...

"No, they can never come back… They have done us too much harm, terrible things. We cannot forgive them."

Najia Waks, a young woman from Libya's third largest city, Misrata, is talking about the people of Tawergha, a town about 50km (30 miles) to the south.

For three months between early March and the middle of May, the forces of Muammar Gaddafi laid siege to Misrata. These forces were partly based in Tawergha, and the people of the town are accused of being complicit in the attempt to put down the uprising in the city. They are also accused of crimes including murder, rape and sexual torture.

The fighters of Misrata eventually prevailed, breaking out of their battered city. Misratan brigades made up part of the force that overran the capital Tripoli in August. They also captured and killed Gaddafi and one of his sons in late October, and put the corpses on display in their city. Full story...

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Indian study proves that fluoride consumption causes brain, neurological damage...

Consuming sodium fluoride, a toxic chemical commonly added to US water supplies to allegedly help prevent tooth decay, definitively causes neurodegenerative damage in the brain, spinal cord, and sciatic nerve. These are the findings of a recent study published in the Journal of Medical and Allied Sciences, and ones that, by all scientific standards, put to rest the failed myth that fluoride consumption is in any way safe.

Conducted by K. Pratap Reddy of Osmania University in India, the study confirms that fluoride chemicals "cross the blood-brain barrier and alter the structure and function of neural tissue." Repeated exposure to fluoride chemicals in test rats was found to lower body weights; reduce the organic somatic index of their brains; and contaminate their hippocampus, neocortex, cerebellum, spinal cord, and sciatic nerve tissues with persistent fluoride chemicals.

The blood-brain barrier is the body's natural way of protecting the brain and central nervous system from damage by harmful toxins. In other words, it is meant to allow only nutrients and other beneficial metabolic products access to the brain, while filtering out all other materials. Full story...

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Flouride in drinking water caused tooth decay in Indian village...

Flouride in water linked to lower IQ in children...

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How they skate in Pakistan!!!

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Crazy bike stunt in Pakistan!!!

Kyrgyz prisoners on hunger strike over prostitute ban...

Inmates at several prisons in Kyrgyzstan have launched a hunger strike over new restrictions barring them from being visited by prostitutes, a state official said Tuesday.

"Prisoners at seven prisons have refused to take their meals," said Joldochbek Bouzourmankoulov, spokesman for the country's prison sentencing agency.

He said the protest was tied to new limits on prisoner visits.

"Prisoners had the right for visits from their families and 'other' people," he said. "But under the label for 'others,' they were bringing prostitutes to the prison."

From now on, only relatives with identity cards showing their ties to inmates can visit. Source...

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Buddhist prisoner claims cat is his dead mother; wants visitation rights!!!

Prisoner sues over pornography ban!!!

"Goddesses" were really prostitutes in Phoenix Goddess Temple!!!

Chinese man arrested for hiring strippers for son's wedding!!!

Chinese police have arrested a man who hired two strippers to perform at his son's wedding after the performance was mobbed by villagers, a newspaper reported on Wednesday.

Zhang Cheng, from Xuzhou in eastern Jiangsu province, had originally wanted a band to play at the nuptials, but was then advised he could get performers whose show would have "special features," the Global Times said.

"After watching the show, Zhang decided it would be appropriate for his son's wedding and requested two strippers for the event," it added. "...Barely five minutes had passed before hundreds of villagers in the conservative community were swarming to the venue, trying to catch a glimpse."

Zhang was arrested the next day, the newspaper reported, though it did not say on what charge. Source...

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The US, Egypt and sadistic Arab states...

Tahrir Square, epicenter of the earthquake that ousted Egypt’s western-backed dictator, Husni Mubarak, is quiet – for the moment.

Banner-wavers, speakers, and scruffy youngsters mill about. But the by now world-famous square has a forlorn, leftover look, with more street people than revolutionaries. But violence still crackles like static electricity.

The government’s notoriously brutal, heavily armed security police and their armored vehicles are massed nearby. In the ancient Khan al-Khalili Bazaar, I saw vanloads of government thugs waiting to attack demonstrators. Our film team, was almost arrested when we began taking photos.

Demonstrators at Tahrir showed me canisters of expended tear gas that caused some deaths and many casualties. Whether they were the usual anti-riot CS gas, or the six times stronger, carcinogenic CR that can kill or blind, I could not tell. But all the canisters were marked, "Made in the USA" and everyone knew it. Full story...

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Inside Wukan: the Chinese village that fought back...

For the first time on record, the Chinese Communist party has lost all control, with the population of 20,000 in this southern fishing village now in open revolt.

The last of Wukan’s dozen party officials fled on Monday after thousands of people blocked armed police from retaking the village, standing firm against tear gas and water cannons.

Since then, the police have retreated to a roadblock, some three miles away, in order to prevent food and water from entering, and villagers from leaving. Wukan’s fishing fleet, its main source of income, has also been stopped from leaving harbour.

The plan appears to be to lay siege to Wukan and choke a rebellion which began three months ago when an angry mob, incensed at having the village’s land sold off, rampaged through the streets and overturned cars. Full story...

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Helpless in Chitapur: the poor vs bulldozers in India...

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Tamil actor Danush and " Why this kolaveri di?"

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4000 people are executed every year in China...

China executes around 4,000 people a year, the most in the world but half the number it did before ordering Supreme Court reviews of all death penalty cases in 2007, a U.S. human rights group said Tuesday.

Chinese officials revealed the decline in executions during a seminar with United Nations officials and international experts in the eastern city of Hangzhou earlier this month, the San Francisco-based Dui Hua foundation said in a statment.

The group said the Chinese officials refused to say how many people were put to death annually but revealed the number fell 50 percent after 2007. In 2006, state media and Dui Hua estimated there were 8,000 executions a year.

The government says it is trying to ensure the death penalty is used less often and for only the most serious criminal cases. Full story...

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Iran to execute more than 1000 people in 2011...

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Player badly beaten up as women’s football match turns to brawl...

A 17-year-old football player was beaten up during a football match in Paris on Saturday. Her coach has said he now plans to quit because of violence in the game.

A friendly match between two teams of girls turned brutal on Saturday, when a player - whose team won the game 6-3 - was beaten up.

Noor, 17 years old, has a 10-cm sore on her leg, a contusion on her shoulder and a paralysed hand after being assaulted at the end of the match.

She was playing for a girl’s team from Saint-Germain-en-Laye, west of Paris, against a team from the capital's posh 16th district and scored four goals during the match. Full story...

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Argentinian soccer referee dishes out 36 red cards in one game!!!

Saudi father drops dead after daughter is caught dating!

A Saudi father of 12 dropped dead just after he was told by the police that his teenage daughter had been caught dating a man.

The 60-year-old father had driven his daughter to the college and returned home, unaware that her boyfriend was waiting for her on the other side.

“When police summoned the father and told him they had caught his daughter with a man, he collapsed… he was rushed to the hospital but was already dead,” 'Sharq' newspaper said, adding that the man supported a family of 12 and had suffered from diabetes.

It did not mention where in Saudi Arabia the incident took place. Source...

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Pakistan: Karachi police free 'chained' students...

About 50 students have been freed from a religious school in Karachi, Pakistan - where some were being kept in chains, local officials say.

Reports suggest the male students, some as young as 12, were kept in what amounted to a torture chamber.

They were beaten, deprived of food and pressured to join the Taliban, the reports say.

At least two people helping run the madrassa have been arrested, but the head escaped, police said.

Pakistan's interior minister has ordered an inquiry into the incident. Full story...

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US threatens Swiss with return to visas...

Washington is putting pressure on Bern to allow it direct access to certain police records where fingerprints and DNA profiles are stored, according to a Swiss media report.

If Switzerland does not meet the American demands by June 2012, the US government will reintroduce a visa requirement for Swiss citizens travelling to the United States, reports the Tages Anzeiger newspaper.

This means that the 340,000 Swiss who travel annually to the US would have to visit the US Embassy in person to request a visa and pay a fee of 130 francs ($140). Full story...

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Europeans angry over USA entry fee...

More than 5000 people killed in Syrian unrest...

More than 5,000 people have died in the nine-month Syrian uprising, the UN's human rights chief has said.

Navi Pillay said she had told Security Council members of the dramatic increase in deaths during a briefing.

The death toll used by the UN in recent weeks had been around 4,000.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said she recommended that the council refer Syria to the International Criminal Court, the permanent war crimes tribunal, for investigation of possible crimes against humanity.

Ms Pillay said that at least 300 children are among the dead, and there are thousands of people in detention. Full story...

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Hollywood crew heckled in Gujarat for 'showing India in bad light'

It was high drama at Ahmedabad airport as rickshaw drivers stopped the shooting of Hollywood film 'American Gandhi' outside the domestic arrival terminal. Eyewitnesses at the airport said that if the film crew at Ahmedabad airport had not left the campus then the gathered crowd would have in all possibility damaged their expensive equipment.

"At around 12.15 pm, the crew members started setting up their equipment outside the terminal. As the director started briefing the actors about the scene, curious crowd had already started gathering around. But as soon as the cameras started rolling a few people from the crowd started shouting saying 'yeh galat kar rahe ho, band karo' and the reel life action turned real," said a private airline official.

The protest was led by Bharat Singh, who took rickshaw drivers in confidence, and asked the director to stop the shooting. Singh in his application to Sardarnagar police station has said that such film tarnishes the image of India. Sardarnagar police station officials said that they have accepted Singh's application and at the same time asked him to move court if he has any objections against the film's content. Full story...

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Arundhati Roy: I'd rather not be Anna...

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"Swine flu vaccine gave my son narcolepsy"

A mother claims the swine flu vaccine gave her young son a compulsive sleeping disorder that saw him napping for 19 hours at a time.

Caroline Hadfield said Josh became a ‘different boy’ when he developed narcolepsy weeks after having the jab last year.

The six-year-old often dropped off at school and also has a condition which makes his muscles collapse when he laughs.

Mrs Hadfield, from Frome in Somerset, said: ‘He slept more than he was awake. He would fall asleep in just a few seconds up to every five minutes.’ Full story...

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Monday, December 12, 2011

The Gift...

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The Laundromat...

Swiss govt prepares for collape of Euro?

The Swiss government is preparing for a collapse of the euro, according to Swiss Finance Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf. She told parliament that a work group was studying the imposition of capital controls and negative interest rates to protect Switzerland from the capital flight that a euro collapse would engender (Handelsblatt). A tidal wave of euros would drive up the Swiss franc, devastate Switzerland’s export economy, and devalue its vast wealth invested in other countries. Already in August, the Swiss National Bank instituted a currency peg and swore to defend it by acquiring “unlimited” amounts of euros, a risky strategy if the euro were to collapse (for the debacle leading up to the peg, read... Swiss Franc Wreaks Havoc In Switzerland).

Meanwhile, 27 heads of state convened in Brussels for another European Union summit to find that elusive solution to the debt crisis. It began with dinner at around 8 pm and will continue on Friday. Goal: changes in the EU treaty that would impose Germany’s new religion of budgetary discipline on all 27 member states. Violators would be hit with automatic sanctions. The European Court of Justice would have final control over national budgets. (Ironically, Germany was one of the first EU members to violate the existing 3% deficit limit and was the primary reason existing sanctions have never been applied). Short-term measures to keep contagion at bay are also on the agenda. Full story...

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Child sex abuse scandal rocks Orthodox Jewish community...

An Orthodox Jewish community has had to face up to claims of child sex abuse after 83 men and two women were arrested.

An initiative was set up to encourage victims to come forward despite pressure from the close-knit religious society to hush up the crimes.

Some 117 male and female victims have approached authorities in Brooklyn, New York since 2006. There were 89 accusers under the age of 17.

According to the New York Post, one suspect Andrew Goodman, 27, worked with Jewish charities involving vulnerable young people and the disabled.

He was charged with sexually abusing two Orthodox boys at his home in the Flatbush neighbourhood last September. Full story...

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Why are football coaches just like Catholic Bishops?

Eight Mennonite sect members in Bolivia jailed for raping 100 women...

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Imam in Toronto mosque charged with sexual assault...

Shoe thrown at Iranian president Ahmadinejad...

A shoe was recently hurled at Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad while he was in the city of Urmia, an Iranian Web site has reported.

The incident in the Iranian city was an apparent imitation of a similar attack on former U.S. president George Bush in Iraq last year.

Urmia News, the Iranian site, reported that Ahmadinejad was in a car en route to an election rally when the shoe was thrown. Ahmadinejad was traveling to a local stadium where he was meant to deliver a speech ahead of upcoming presidential elections.

According to the report, a hat was also thrown at the Iranian president before his convoy sped away from the scene. Full story...

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Most Europeans disenchanted with the Euro...

The deal signed by the eurozone countries still faces huge hurdles, because of simmering tensions between the member states – and growing disenchantment within their own borders.

A startling poll last night showed that only a third of French people believed that their country should stay in the euro indefinitely.

The situation in Germany was scarcely better with support for staying in the single currency long-term standing at just 41 per cent.

The figures were revealed in a ComRes survey for CNN last night. It shows how the leaders pressing for closer integration are dangerously out of touch with their own people.

The poll was conducted across seven eurozone countries. It also found that only 38 per cent in Greece and 37 per cent in Ireland and Portugal wanted to remain in the euro. Full story...

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Femen topless activists protest against " fucking oligarchs..."

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Italian cat becomes a fat cat after inheriting 10 million euros...

A black cat in Italy has lived up to its reputation for good luck after inheriting 10 million euros (£8.5 million) from his adoptive owner, a widowed heiress.

Four-year-old Tommaso, who was saved from a hardscrabble existence on the mean streets of Rome, Italy, as a kitten, is now the proud owner of cash, shares and a property empire which includes flats and houses in Rome and Milan and land in Calabria.

Tommaso went from flea-bitten alley cat to "pussy galore" after being rescued by a lonely old lady, named only as Maria Assunta, who was married to a property tycoon but widowed at an early age. The couple had no children.

She became besotted with her pet but as her health began to fail, feared for his future. Full story...

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Anti-Facebook film becomes internet hit. . . on Facebook!!!

IT’S CALLED You Need To Get Off Facebook and has become the latest internet sensation - with most people watching it on Facebook.

A YouTube film made by a Scottish teacher living in South Korea about the perils of using social networking site Facebook has racked up almost 2.5 million hits online – the same number as Madonna’s most recent single, Revolver.

The six-minute film, which features cards with messages, such as “You don’t have 852 friends” and “one or more of these ‘friends’ are looking at your photographs right now”... “and judging you”, was made by 24-year-old Ross Gardiner, from Ballachulish, who says he became frustrated with the grip the social networking site was exercising over young people. Full story...

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