Bonjour Planet Earth

Friday, November 07, 2014

'Irish alcoholism nature' reason for job rejection for Irish teacher in South Korea...

A teacher from the Republic of Ireland has been turned down for a job in South Korea due to the "alcoholism nature" of Irish people.

Katie Mulrennan, from County Kerry, had applied for a teaching job in Seoul.

She was told by an agency that their client did not hire Irish people due to their perceived drinking habits.

The 26-year-old told the BBC that she could not believe the email was real at first.

"Usually when you apply for a job and they don't want you, they don't send a reply," she said.

"Or they tell you they would prefer someone from North America, because some schools prefer the accent. Full story...

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A temple in India where the devotees offer alcohol to the deity!!!

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Thursday, November 06, 2014

Like Hong Kong, Singapore needs democracy...

Hong Kong's democracy movement has raised issues such as income inequality and an increasing cheerless economic outlook, especially for the younger generation. Not coincidentally, these are the same issues that are causing Singaporeans to despair over their future.

Despite the fact that, according to the Economic Intelligence Unit, Singapore lays claim to the dubious honor of being the most expensive city in the world, there is no minimum wage in Singapore. Is it any wonder then, that amongst comparable economies, the island-state has one of the highest levels of income inequality? Singapore has the highest proportion of millionaires in the world but nearly 5% of the workforce have an annual income of less than U.S. $5,000, according to a 2011 report by The Straits Times.

And it's not just the lower-income workers who are getting pounded. The middle-class squeeze is as prevalent as ever. Nearly 50% of Singaporeans subsist from paycheck to paycheck, saving less than 10% of their monthly incomes. An alarming 14% have no savings at all. If and when an economic whirlwind visits, many will be left unable to cope.

Working conditions have also deteriorated. For years, Singaporean workers have worked more hours than in most countries, and, perhaps unsurprisingly it has resulted in an extremely unhappy workforce. Full story...

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Britain's most relentless nudist keeps getting locked up...

The Naked Rambler has never hurt anyone, but he'll be in prison for longer than Oscar Pistorius. In fact, Stephen Gough has already served twice Pistorius' sentence, not for the crime of culpable homicide, but for neglecting to cover his dick up while wandering around in public. The 54-year-old has boomeranged in and out of jail since 2003, when he served four months for breach of the peace. Each time he's locked up for being naked, Stephen insists on leaving the prison naked. Which, on one occasion, saw him arrested and sent back inside almost immediately.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) decided on Tuesday that, in being continually convicted (he's spent about seven years in jail overall), Stephen has had neither his freedom of expression violated, nor his right to private and family life. They were, in other words, sentencing a nudist to theoretical life imprisonment. In non-theoretical real life, he's currently one month into two-and-a-half years for disobeying an ASBO that forbade him from - no surprises here - walking around naked.

In a Guardian interview from 2012, Stephen reveals himself to be rational and polite, capable of eloquently justifying his actions. I spoke to Neil Forsyth, who wrote the profile. "I can't see him backing down," he said, before explaining his frustration about the "conservative interpretation" of the offence - breach of the peace - that Stephen keeps getting locked up for. "There has to be a more humanistic approach," he sighed. "Who's the victim?" Full story...

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Germans and Poles fight over nudist beach!!!

The art of censoring nudes. Hilarious!

Switzerland and the naked ramblers!!!

"If you don't want to run into any naked people, stop right here!"

Suspected of witchcraft, Paraguayan woman tied to a pole, shot with arrows and burned alive...

An indigenous woman was burned alive in Paraguay after being accused of witchcraft, a local prosecutor confirmed Wednesday.

Prosecutor Fany Aguilera said that members of the Mbya Guarani ethnic group tied 45-year-old Adolfina Ocampos to a wooden pole and shot arrows at her before they burned her alive. Ocampos was sentenced to death last week by the community’s chief in Tahehyi, a village some 290 kilometres north of the capital, Asuncion. The date of the killing was unclear.

Aguilera has charged nine men in the village with first-degree murder, and they have already acknowledged killing the woman.

A report by the UN Refugee Agency estimates that thousands of people worldwide are accused of being witches every year. The UN says they are often abused, cast out of their families and communities and sometimes killed. Full story...

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Thai student jailed for insulting king on Facebook...

A Thai court sentenced a university student to 2.5 years in prison on Tuesday for posting a message on Facebook that the court said insulted the country’s king.

A Criminal Court judge found 24-year-old Akkaradet Eiamsuwan guilty of violating Thailand’s lese majeste law, which punishes people who defame, insult or threaten the monarchy.

The ruling said Akkaradet used an alias to post the message on Facebook in March. He was arrested in Bangkok in June and has been in jail since then.

The court said it reduced an original sentence of five years’ imprisonment to 2.5 years because the defendant had confessed to the offence.

Thailand’s lese majeste law is the world’s harshest, providing for jail terms of three to 15 years. Full story...

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Japan beats Scotland to win world’s best whiskey title...

Few things are as Scottish as whiskey. But a leading whiskey critic may have just dealt a major blow to Scotland’s identity.

From the cover of “Whiskey Bible 2015,” whiskey connoisseur Jim Murray gazes over a snifter with a smile playing on his lips and a fedora shading one eye.

In his annual guide to more than 4,500 whiskeys released Monday, he ranked a Japanese single malt as No. 1.

Murray awarded “World Whiskey of the Year” to the Yamazaki Single Malt Sherry Cask 2013, giving it a score of 97.5 out of 100. He described it as a drink of “near incredible genius” with a taste “thick, dry, as rounded as a snooker ball.” In the book, Murray touts its “nose of exquisite boldness and finish of ‘light, teasing spice.’”

Aging the whiskey in sherry casks “provides a strong, rich character … and a delicate sweetness,” Keita Minari, Europe brand manager for Yamazaki’s parent company, told the Independent. The single malt sells for about $160 a bottle in the United States. Full story...

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Free drugs and liquor in Punjab elections!!!

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Wednesday, November 05, 2014

Monsanto caused 291,000 suicides in India...

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Zurich police quell protest over Fifa chief Blatter...

Helmeted police intervened to quell a demonstration over a talk given by Fifa President Sepp Blatter at the Federal Institute of Technology at Zurich (ETH) on Tuesday night.

Blatter, 78, who heads the world governing body for football, had come to give a speech entitled “Football as the school of life” on the campus of Switzerland’s top university.

But hecklers cried “shit Blatter” in German and threw coloured smoke bombs outside the auditorium where Blatter was speaking, 20 Minuten newspaper reported.

Police appeared to restore calm but then a group of 100 demonstrators got inside the building in a bid to disrupt Blatter’s talk, the newspaper said.

However, the group was unable to find the access to the auditorium allowing officers the time to block entry to the facility. Full story...

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You are the centre of the universe...

(...)

On the one hand, Watts says, nature is wiggly. Everything wiggles: the outline of the hills, the shape of the trees, the way the wind brushes the grass, the contour of the clouds, the track of streams—it all wiggles.

Human beings, on the other hand, find all this wiggliness too complicated. We want things to stop wiggling so we can measure them and map them. Keep still, we say; hold on. Let’s straighten things out; let’s get it ironed out; let’s get it squared away.

Wherever human beings have been around and done their thing, Watts observes, you find rectangles. We live in boxes; our streets are laid out in grid patterns. We think we understand things when we have translated them into straight lines and squares.

The problem, Watts says, is that we’re trying to translate something that is vastly complicated—the world of nature—into terms that are crude enough and simple enough that the human mind can comprehend them. In fact, human beings are just as wiggly as nature: our brains, for example, are an incredible mess of wiggles.

Yet by comparison with the world of nature, the human brain is relatively simple. The brain is a network of interconnected neurons; and each one of those neurons sends a simple signal: yes/no, on/off. But plants, birds, trees are all far more complicated than neurons; and there are billions upon billions of them. Full story...

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Fireman quits after 'having sex with 8 women on one night' while on duty...

Stephen Coward, who worked for the Clearwater, Florida Fire Department for 19 years, was forced to resign after an anonymous package containing the alleged footage was posted to officials.

The clip reportedly shows Coward having sex with a woman ins the bathroom of his room at the fire station.

At one point he allegedly held up his phone to the mirror and smiled for the camera.

As well as the video, the package contained 40 emails between Coward and another woman.

And a second person also claimed that Coward had once had sex with EIGHT women in one night while he was on duty.

Investigators said: "Lt Coward again stated there is no excuse for what he did and he is truly sorry and embarrassed for the city.

"There appears to be a need for greater oversight of the fire stations."

Coward admitted to sex with two women and resigned his post over the issue. Source...

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Saudi Arabia's religious police outlaw 'tempting eyes'

It's a safe bet that Sheikh Motlab al Nabet, spokesman of Saudi Arabia's religious police, isn't a fan of Cole Porter. "The lure of you" is precisely why Nabet announced yesterday that the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice will cover any women's eyes that are deemed "tempting." "The men of the committee will interfere to force women to cover their eyes, especially the tempting ones" he said. "[We] have the right to do so."

What are "tempting" eyes? One Saudi journalist mused on condition of anonymity that they are "uncovered eyes with a nice shape and makeup. Or even without makeup, if they are beautiful, the woman will be in trouble." The Orwellian-named committee did not provide a definition of tempting, but if they happen to rely on Merriam-Webster, then it means "having an appeal." What is an appeal? According to the dictionary, it is "arousing a sympathetic response." And what is sympathetic? "Showing empathy," according to Merriam-Webster.

So there you have it. To allow a women's eyes to capture the unfettered glory of the world, one must empathize with her very existence. But the religious police--massively funded by King Abdullah--cannot do this. "It's so stupid," the Saudi journalist tells me. "I don't know what to say. They havFulle to stop this. Many people will oppose this in the country. They won't be silent." Full story...

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Why Sweden should be wary of going cashless...

Our report on Sweden becoming a near-cashless society went viral last month. But former Sweden Police Chief and Interpol President Björn Eriksson says there are reasons to be cautious about the concept.

"Banks have long been lobbying to remove cash from our communities, and they have come a long way. Four out of five purchases in Sweden are now made electronically or by debit card.

But the issue is far too important to be left in the hands of the private sector.

The state needs to make sure that people still have the right to use cash.

Last week saw Sweden's banks release their accounts and yet again we heard about their big profit wins. Swedbank for example announced a record profit of nearly six billion kronor ($811 million). Full story...

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Israeli forces displayed ‘callous indifference’ in deadly attacks on family homes in Gaza...

Israeli forces have killed scores of Palestinian civilians in attacks targeting houses full of families which in some cases have amounted to war crimes, Amnesty International has disclosed in a new report on the latest Israeli operation in the Gaza Strip.

Families under the Rubble: Israeli attacks on inhabited homes details eight cases where residential family homes in Gaza were attacked by Israeli forces without warning during Operation Protective Edge in July and August 2014, causing the deaths of at least 104 civilians including 62 children. The report reveals a pattern of frequent Israeli attacks using large aerial bombs to level civilian homes, sometimes killing entire families.

“Israeli forces have brazenly flouted the laws of war by carrying out a series of attacks on civilian homes, displaying callous indifference to the carnage caused,” said Philip Luther, Director of the Middle East and North Africa Programme at Amnesty International.

“The report exposes a pattern of attacks on civilian homes by Israeli forces which have shown a shocking disregard for the lives of Palestinian civilians, who were given no warning and had no chance to flee.” Full story...

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Christian couple beaten to death for 'desecrating Quran'

An enraged mob beat a Christian couple to death and burnt their bodies in the brick kiln where they worked on Tuesday for allegedly desecrating a copy of the Holy Quran, police said.

The incident took place at the town of Kot Radha Kishan, some 60 kilometres southwest of Lahore, and is the latest example of mob violence against minorities accused of blasphemy.

“A mob attacked a Christian couple after accusing them of desecration of the Holy Quran and later burnt their bodies at a brick kiln where they worked,” local police station official Bin-Yameen told AFP.

“Yesterday an incident of desecration of the Holy Quran took place in the area and today the mob first beat the couple and later set their bodies on fire at a brick kiln,” he added.

Another police official confirmed the incident. Full story...

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Tuesday, November 04, 2014

Indian man holds 'wedding' for monkey couple...

More than 200 villagers in northern India have attended an elaborate Hindu wedding ceremony for two monkeys.

The wedding was organised by the owner of the monkeys, who said the male was "like an adopted son" to him.

The ceremony took place on Monday evening in Bettiah district in Bihar state, with the "bride" dressed in an orange frock and the "groom" wearing a yellow T-shirt.

Monkeys are revered idols in Hindu mythology.

The 13-year-old male monkey named Ramu and his bride, a female monkey called Ramdulari, were taken in a procession on top of a flower-bedecked SUV, accompanied by music and dancing. Hundreds of villagers lined the route to greet the "couple". Full story...

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I’m terrified of my new TV...

I just bought a new TV. The old one had a good run, but after the volume got stuck on 63, I decided it was time to replace it. I am now the owner of a new “smart” TV, which promises to deliver streaming multimedia content, games, apps, social media and Internet browsing. Oh, and TV too.

The only problem is that I’m now afraid to use it. You would be too — if you read through the 46-page privacy policy.

The amount of data this thing collects is staggering. It logs where, when, how and for how long you use the TV. It sets tracking cookies and beacons designed to detect “when you have viewed particular content or a particular email message.” It records “the apps you use, the websites you visit, and how you interact with content.” It ignores “do-not-track” requests as a considered matter of policy.

It also has a built-in camera — with facial recognition. The purpose is to provide “gesture control” for the TV and enable you to log in to a personalized account using your face. On the upside, the images are saved on the TV instead of uploaded to a corporate server. On the downside, the Internet connection makes the whole TV vulnerable to hackers who have demonstrated the ability to take complete control of the machine. Full story...

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United States introduces tighter screening measures for travellers from Europe...

The United States government has abruptly introduced new security measures for travellers entering the country from Europe in a move designed to identify potential terrorists with Western passports.

Amid concern about the number of “foreign fighters” returning from Syria and Iraq, the US now asks all those visiting America from countries which do not require a visa to declare if they hold a second passport.

The measure will affect millions of travellers from Europe, Australia and other “friendly” nations who are not required to obtain a visa when visiting the US for short trips, including around 2.5 million British tourists a year.

As many as 2,000 Islamist militants are thought to have travelled from Britain, Australia and other western countries to Syria and Iraq in recent months to join up with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil).

America fears that their ability to enter the US without the need to obtain a visa makes them difficult to track. Full story...

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In Malaysia, ‘Allah’ is reserved for Muslims only...

As the students knelt in a circle at a Christian kindergarten near the shores of the South China Sea, a 6-year-old girl in pigtails read out a chapter from a children’s Bible: “Sepuluh hukum dari Allah” — God’s Ten Commandments.

Technically, she broke the law.

According to a series of government orders and rulings by Malaysia’s Islamic councils, the word for God in the Malay language — “Allah” — is reserved for Muslims. Malay-language Bibles are banned everywhere except inside churches. State regulations ban a list of words, including Allah, in any non-Muslim context.

Malaysia, with its collage of ethnic groups and religions, has a long history of tensions over issues ranging from dietary differences to the economic preferences enshrined in Malaysian law for the Malay Muslim majority.

But there is probably no dispute more fundamental and more emotionally charged than who owns the word God. Full story...

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Major sponsor Emirates ditches FIFA amid corruption claims and could be followed by Sony...

Emirates airline has become the first of Fifa’s major sponsors to end its relationship with world football’s governing body since corruption allegations engulfed the organisation in the summer.

As a Fifa taskforce met in Zurich to discuss the timing of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, likely to start in either January or November of that year, the airline said it would end its sponsorship at the end of 2014.

Another of Fifa’s six partners, Sony, is also understood to be reviewing its position as the four year World Cup cycle draws to a close at the end of 2014.

Those campaigning for Fifa reform amid endless allegations of cronyism and corruption have long hoped pressure from sponsors would lead to change. It is understood replacements for Emirates and Sony have been lined up in the shape of Qatar Air, the national carrier of the country that will host the 2022 World Cup, and Samsung.

The Korean electronics giant could replace Sony if the Japanese company decides against renewing a deal that contributes to the £900m that pours into Fifa’s coffers from sponsors over each four year cycle. Full story...

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Brazil building internet cable to Portugal to avoid NSA surveillance...

The Brazilian government is breaking ties with American technology companies and is investing in building a cable to Portugal to escape the reach of the U.S. National Security Agency.

It's estimated that the investment will cost about $185 million. Brazil's government will build a 3,500-mile fiber-optic cable that will stretch across the Atlantic from Fortaleza to Portugal.

None of the investments will go to American vendors.

Since Edward Snowden leaked documents of NSA last year, many countries and local residents have dubbed the NSA as "spies."

In those documents was evidence that the NSA was accessing personal information of Brazilian citizens, including listening to phone calls of President Dilma Rousseff, its embassies and the state-owned oil company Petrobras, according to IBTimes. Full story...

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Mandatory Mandarin: Portuguese kids take compulsory Chinese class...

A town in northern Portugal has made Chinese obligatory for 8- and 9-year old school children, in order to boost the kids’ abilities for future competition in the thriving Chinese market.

Sao Joao da Madeira, with only 20,000 residents, is regarded as the country’s shoe capital, specializing in luxurious footwear.

The authorities there are sure that a good command of Mandarin will ensure a foothold for the Portuguese in China.

"Chinese is the key which will open the doors to the world's biggest market," Dilma Nantes, Sao Joao da Madeira's city councilor on education, said.

The children also seem to enjoy learning Chinese and dream of visiting China. Full story...

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Monday, November 03, 2014

Indian father tortures and kills man that raped his daughter...

Furious over the alleged rape of his 14-year-old daughter by a 45-year-old married man, the father called the man to his house on Friday night, treated him to dinner and then tortured him to death, police said. He then went to the police station, surrendered himself and gave police a detailed account on how he tortured and murdered the man.

The 36-year-old reportedly burned the man’s genitals using heated tongs and then strangled him to death. The incident was reported from Northeast Delhi’s Khajuri Khas area on Saturday.

Based on the man’s statement, police said the deceased, a medicine supplier, had allegedly raped the man’s minor daughter two months ago.

The father did not approach police fearing “a bad name for his daughter”. “The father called the medicine supplier over to his house saying he wanted to discuss some issue. He served him dinner.

After the meal, the father overpowered the man and tied him to a chair. He got heated tongs and burned the supplier’s genitals before strangling him to death. He came to the police station and surrendered himself,” an officer said.

The father reportedly gave police a detailed account of how he tortured the man to death. Full story...

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USA spent $136 billion on spying in two years...

The United States spent nearly $136 billion in the fiscal years of 2013 and 2014 on intelligence gathering, according to government figures.

According to figures released by the office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) (ODNI) and the Department of Defense, the United States Intelligence Community, a federation of 17 government spy agencies, gobbled up some $80 billion in 2011.

The figures show that the Central Intelligence Agency had consumed most of the money out of $68 billion approved by Congress in the fiscal year of 2014 that ended in September.

According to the data, Congress also handed over $68 billion to the intelligence agencies in fiscal year 2013.

Officials did not provide a breakdown of the intelligence budget or details about how the funding was used. Full story...

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Brazil is keeping its promise to avoid the U.S. internet...

Brazil was not bluffing last year, when it said that it wanted to disconnect from the United States-controlled internet due to the NSA's obscenely invasive surveillance tactics. The country is about to stretch a cable from the northern city of Fortaleza all the way to Portugal, and they've vowed not to use a single U.S. vendor to do it.

At first glance, Brazil's plan to disconnect from the U.S. internet just seemed silly. The country was not happy when news emerged that the NSA's tentacles stretched all the way down to Brazil. And the country was especially not happy when news emerged that the NSA had been spying on the Brazilian government's email for years. But really, what are you gonna do?

Brazil made a bunch of bold promises, ranging in severity from forcing companies like Facebook and Google to move their servers inside Brazilian borders, to building a new all-Brazilian email system—which they've already done. But the first actionable opportunity the country was presented with is this transatlantic cable, which had been in the works since 2012 but is only just now seeing construction begin. And with news that the cable plan will not include American vendors, it looks like Brazil is serious; it's investing $185 million on the cable project alone. And not a penny of that sum will go to an American company. Full story...

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Australia man takes plane to pub!!!

An Australian man has been charged by police after driving a light plane down the street and parking it at a pub while he went inside for a beer.

Police in Newman, Western Australia said the 37-year-old man endangered the life, health and safety of residents.

The man had allegedly bought the wingless Beechcraft two-seater aircraft from a private residence and was taking it home when he stopped for a drink.

The engine had been left running making it a danger, police said.

Local residents were amused to see the sight of a plane parked outside a well-known local spot.

"On the way back through town... here's a plane parked outside the Purple Pub," Newman resident Beau Woolcock told ABC radio. Full story...

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Growing Islamic fundamentalism seen pushing Malays to quit Malaysia...

Malays could be next in line after the Chinese to leave the country, in a bid to escape the growing religious fundamentalism and authoritarianism that leaves little room for free thought and dissent, according to activists and observers.

While Malaysia bills itself as a moderate Muslim nation, recent developments have demonstrated an increasingly conservative and hard-line approach to Islam here that is intolerant of cultures and practices not sanctioned by religious groups and authorities.

Malaysians for Malaysia convener Azrul Mohd Khalib said the Friday sermons prepared by the religious authorities that paint non-Muslims as enemies of Islam, as well as the use of labels such as liberalism, pluralism and humanism to vilify fellow believers, have dismayed and scared Muslims.

“Thinking Muslims are being marginalised and persecuted,” Azrul told Malay Mail Online yesterday.

“It is creating a climate of fear, suspicion and prejudice. Because of that, Muslims who do not prescribe to that belief system do not see themselves as being welcomed or even tolerated in this country,” the social activist added. Full story...

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China: Tomb raiders arrested over 'ghost marriages'

Eleven people have been arrested in eastern China for allegedly stealing women's corpses for use in "ghost marriages", it's been reported.

They're accused of exhuming a woman's body from a village in Shandong province and selling it on the black market, the South China Morning Post reports. The "ghost marriage" ritual requires bachelors who have died to be buried next to a woman's body "so that he won't be alone in the afterlife", the website says. It's an increasingly rare practice in modern China, and now mainly happens in rural areas.

One of the accused was shown on Shandong's local state TV channel saying a corpse could be sold for between 16,000 and 20,000 yuan ($2,600-$3,300; £1,600-£2,000), and that bodies are only valuable if they have been recently buried. "A body buried for years is worthless," he says. The woman's body was later sold again to a bereaved family in neighbouring Hebei province for 38,000 yuan, the TV reports.

Stealing corpses is a criminal offence in China, punishable by up to three years in prison. In 2013, four men in northern Shanxi province were jailed for stealing 10 women's bodies and faking their medical records, in order to charge more for them on the black market. Source...

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Haaretz refuses to back down in storm over cartoon depicting Netanyahu as 9/11 hijacker...

Left-leaning Israeli daily Haaretz has refused to apologise for publishing a cartoon depicting Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a 9/11 hijacker, in a satire attacking the prime minister for damaging US/Israeli relations.

The cartoon shows Netanyahu in a plane labelled Israel heading toward a skyscraper, atop which the Stars and Stripes flies, in an allusion to the attacks on 11 September 2001 in which commercial airliners were flown into New York's Twin Towers.

In an editorial yeserday, the paper's editor-in-chief Aluf Benn defended the decision to publish, after critics claimed the cartoon was disrespectful to those killed in 9/11, and stoked anti-semitic conspiracy theories.

"Amos Biderman's editorial cartoon was a reaction to the current state of mistrust between Prime Minister Netanyahu and the Obama administration," he writes.

He said that the picture was a reaction to recent Israeli settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, and worsening US/Israeli relations, and writes "Biderman sought to warn against what he views as a grave threat to Israel, if its leadership continues to escalate its diplomatic confrontation with the United States." Full story...

Sunday, November 02, 2014

India: An attack on love...

IN 1975, Sita Iyer was a 19-year-old college junior with a secret she was desperate to keep from her conservative, middle-class parents. Ms. Iyer, a Hindu, was in love with a Muslim. To avoid detection, she would meet her boyfriend, a dashing 23-year-old business student named Ayub Khan, in downtown Bombay, where she was sure no one would know her.

It was not quite 30 years after the Partition of India, a blood-soaked event that killed some one million people. India’s Muslims had been steadily ghettoized.

When the truth came out, Ms. Iyer’s parents were furious. “He will have four wives,” her father warned. “You will end up on the street.”

After she married Mr. Khan — and changed her given name to Salma — her family disowned her.

But looking back, she says, it was easier being an interreligious couple in the 1970s than it is in India today. At least she felt safe. Now, in contrast, the news is filled with report of assaults on mixed couples. Full story...

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In India's Kerala, the moral brigade goes on the rampage against women and lovers...

Saudi women's rights activist arrested for 'insulting Islam'

Saudi Arabia has arrested a prominent campaigner for women's rights for insulting Islam, activists said on Saturday, accusing authorities of trying to crush all dissent.

Suad al-Shamari, a co-founder of a liberal human rights group, is being held in prison, according to two activists who did not want to be named.

Shamari recently posted pictures on Twitter of a man kissing the hand of a long-bearded Islamic cleric.

She commented on his beard and said: "Notice the vanity and pride on his face when he finds a slave to kiss his hand."

In another tweet last month, she said she had been called "immoral and an infidel because I criticized their sheiks," referring to religious or tribal leaders.

She recently appealed to King Abdullah and the interior minister over the case of two women who, she alleged, were arrested by religious police for taking a taxi driven by a man. Full story...

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Saturday, November 01, 2014

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Police checking woman's phone for evidence of drug trafficking find instead videos of her having sex with a dog!!!

POLICE found more than they bargained for when checks of a woman’s phone for suspected drug trafficking unveiled a cache of dirty videos in which she allegedly had sex with a dog.

Jenna Louise Driscoll, 25, appeared in Brisbane Magistrates Court yesterday charged with trafficking, possession of a dangerous drug, two counts of possession of an item used in the commission of a crime, three counts of supplying and a further three counts of bestiality.

Defence lawyer Rachel Cavalli asked for her client to be granted bail, which was not opposed.

Police prosecutor Sergeant Scott Pearson asked for reporting conditions that required Driscoll to report to police once a week and reside at a unit at Enoggera in Brisbane’s northwest.

He said the drug trafficking involved Driscoll allegedly dealing cannabis to a group of friends. Full story...

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The Olympics: the biggest corporatist sports scam of all...

The 2022 Olympics (i.e., the Winter Games) is now down to only two applicant nations: China and Kazakhstan. This follows the withdrawal of Norway after the taxpayers of Norway balked on ponying up the cash necessary to make the Olympics a playground for the world’s richest cronies and politicians.

Theoretically, the Olympics are a private organization, but in practice, it is a corporatist organization run by plutocrats whose mission in life is apparently to squeeze as much tax revenue as possible out of the residents of the countries and cities that host the Olympics. This is done by demanding the usual brand-spanking new stadiums and facilities from the host cities that later become white elephants. But the IOC also demands countless perks for itself, such as only the finest food and drink, and special driving lanes on streets and highways. (See photos of the abandoned Olympics facilities in Athens.)

Faced with a bevy of such demands in a 7,000-page dossier from the IOC, Norway chose to withdrawal. The “diva-like demands for luxury treatment” for the IOC were outlined by the Norwegian media, including: Full story...

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‘This is apartheid!’ Israeli minister blasts bus segregation for Palestinians...

Requests for separate buses for Palestinians in Israel are “unacceptable” and resemble “apartheid,” the country’s Justice Minister said, adding that this kind of discrimination is banned by Israeli law.

“It’s intolerable, the claims that they [the settlers] need their own buses, because one [Palestinian] didn’t get up for a woman or an elderly person, and another wasn’t nice to them. This is apartheid!” Israeli Justice Minister Tzipi Livni said.

“That’s something I find unacceptable, and I’ll work against it,” she vowed. “This is discrimination that’s forbidden by Israeli law.”

Livni’s statements come after the country’s Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon decided that West Bank Arabs working in Israel should have their own segregated public buses when traveling to and from Israel via a single crossing. Full story...

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Scientology goes on the offensive in Switzerland...

The Church of Scientology is planning to build a temple in Basel as part of a worldwide expansion plan, according to a Swiss newspaper report.

The church's president in Basel, Patrick Schnidrig, confirmed to Der Sonntag that the organisation is planning to build a new church, although the final location will not be decided until the end of November.

However, the newspaper reported on Sunday that Schnidrig bought a plot of land in the Hegenheimer district in April, along with Zurich-based member Henry Renggli. The space comprises two adjacent office buildings on Burgfelderstrasse 211 and Kyasersberg 3 that currently house a petrol station, a workshop and an electrical substation.

The potential location lies close to the French border, a fact that has led some to speculate the organisation is seeking to attract new members from France, a country where the church has often been at odds with the authorities.

A new temple in Basel would form part of the sect’s worldwide growth plans. The Church of Scientology recently announced at a fund-raising event in the United States that it planned to build 70 new churches, including the one in Basel. Full story...

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Swiss shun religion for the supernatural...

While the number of religious people in Switzerland is on the decline, nearly two thirds of Swiss believe in the supernatural, according to a new survey.

The survey, carried out by Institut LINK on behalf of internet provider Swisscom, found that of the 1,253 people aged 15 to 74 who were interviewed, around two-thirds believed in the existence of “things that reason and science cannot explain.”

Some 24 percent believed in angels, 20 percent in miracles, 17 percent in telepathy, 14 percent in reincarnation and 13 percent in astrology.

Of those who said they believed in the supernatural, 16 percent of women and nine percent of men said they had had a supernatural experience themselves.

More than two-thirds of the women and half of the men surveyed said they believed that some people have supernatural powers. Full story...

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Woman sues Google after Street View image shows her exposed breast...

A woman has sued Google after it published an image of her with one of her breasts partially exposed on its map service Street View.

Maria Pia Grillo was awarded damages after a Canadian court found the company had invaded her privacy.

Google had blurred out her face, but Ms Grillo said she was identifiable by her car’s registration plate.

According to court documents she was shocked and embarrassed when she stumbled across the photograph while looking at an image of her house in Montreal in 2009.

The image showed her sitting at home with “part of her breast exposed”. She had been photographed leaning forward while she checked her phone. Full story...

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Swedish FM to Israel's Lieberman: I'd be happy to send you IKEA flat pack...

A somewhat unusual war of words took place Thursday, after the new Swedish government made good on a recent pledge to recognize the state of Palestine, a move to which Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman responded furiously.

"The Swedish government should understand that Middle East relations are more complex than a piece of self-assembled IKEA furniture, and the matter should be handled with responsibility and sensitivity," Lieberman said, as he announced that Israel would be pulling its ambassador from Stockholm.

But Swedish counterpart Margot Wallstrom was unmoved by Lieberman's analogy.

"I will be happy to send Israel FM Lieberman an IKEA flat pack to assemble," she said. "He'll see it requires a partner, cooperation and a good manual." Full story...

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Afghan first lady backs French veil ban...

Afghanistan’s cosmopolitan new first lady has backed France’s controversial ban on the niqab, comparing the full veil to “blinders” as she prepares to campaign for more respect for women in her conservative adopted homeland.

Rula Ghani shocked Afghan observers when she appeared with her husband during the presidential campaign, a rare example of a political wife sharing the spotlight.

Now the Lebanese-American of Christian heritage is set to carve out a role for herself as the patriarchal and deeply Muslim nation’s first high-profile first lady.

Ghani, who speaks five languages, reminisced about her time as a student at the prestigious Sciences Po university in Paris which she attended during the late 1960s. Full story...

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