Turkish mayor advises women to 'stay home' to avoid harassment...

Women complaining about sexual harassment on the streets of the eastern province of Muş should deal with the problem by simply staying at home, the province’s mayor has said.

“Do not walk around, sit in your homes,” 71-year-old Justice and Development Party, or AKP, Mayor Necmittin Dede recently told Muş representatives of the Women’s Center, or KAMER, when they told authorities that high employment in the city had resulted in men spilling out of the overcrowded teahouses in the area to verbally harass female passersby.

KAMER representatives said they had enjoyed success in cooperating with local police on women’s issues, but added that public institutions, such as the one led by the mayor, remained indifferent to their cause. More...

Don't miss:

1. Slutwalking and a woman's right to dress as she pleases...
2. Young women fight the 'Talibanisation' of rural Pakistan...
3. Republican lawmaker blames 11-year-old victim of alleged gang rape...
4. Turkish politicians quit over sex video scandal...
5. Some 250,000 children sexually abused in Turkey in past decade... 
6. 100 men in Turkey charged with child abuse and teen rape...
7. Child brides, honour killings and forced suicides in Turkey...
8. "Honour" killing in Turkey: 16-year-old girl buried alive for talking to boys...

Sepp Blatter clings to Fifa crown as corruption scandal boils over...

On Sunday night the 12 members of Fifa's ethics committee will deliver a verdict that could decide the future of football's governing body, amid growing calls for fundamental reform and fresh criticism from politicians and major sponsors.

As the 208 member nations gather in Zurich to choose Fifa's president for the next four years, there is growing pressure for the election to be suspended, given that both candidates, the incumbent Sepp Blatter and Mohamed bin Hammam, face serious corruption allegations.

The calls come as Jack Warner, Fifa's vice-president, who is also appearing before the ethics committee to deny bribery claims, predicts a "football tsunami" will hit the organisation in the next couple of days that will "shock" the world. More...

Don't miss:

1. FIFA, the FA, Blatter and Qatar's World Cup...
2. I'm not bribable, says Blatter...
3. Qatar 'bribed Africa over World Cup'
4. "World Cup votes can be bought with money and girls"
5. The World Cup and South Africa, the dark side... 

Smartphone makers bow to demands for more openness...

For many Android enthusiasts, “openness” is almost an 11th commandment. So when manufacturers began restricting full access to Android smartphones a couple years ago, many saw it as a cardinal sin.

Good news for you smartphone modders: Some manufacturers are beginning to see the light.

“Today, I’m confirming we will no longer be locking the bootloaders on our devices,” wrote HTC CEO Peter Chou in a Facebook post on Thursday evening. “There has been overwhelmingly [sic] customer feedback that people want access to open bootloaders on HTC phones.”

Essentially, the bootloader is like the backstage area where preparation for a show goes down. When you first turn on a phone, the bootloader is the program that loads the operating system software into a phone’s memory and then launches the OS. If your bootloader is unlocked, you can gain “root access” to your phone, which allows for full administrative privileges. That means more control over what’s on your device. More...

Don't miss:

1. We spend 12 hours a day staring at screens...
2. Canadians using smartphones for everything ... except talking!!!
3. Smartphones: The tracking and surveillance of millions of Americans...
4. Like the iPhone, Android phones record user-locations too...
5. Apple under pressure to explain iPhone, iPad location tracking... 

Is Storm a girl or a boy? Toronto parents and their "genderless" baby...

“So it’s a boy, right?” a neighbour calls out as Kathy Witterick walks by, her four month old baby, Storm, strapped to her chest in a carrier.

Each week the woman asks the same question about the baby with the squishy cheeks and feathery blond hair.

Witterick smiles, opens her arms wide, comments on the sunny spring day, and keeps walking.

She’s used to it. The neighbours know Witterick and her husband, David Stocker, are raising a genderless baby. But they don’t pretend to understand it. More...

Don't miss:

1. India's unwanted girls...
2. 8-years old and still ... breast-feeding?
3. Man in Ghana gives birth to baby girl! What???
4. Spanish man is pregnant ... with twins!!!
5. Swedish man wants to breast-feed his kids!!!
6. The parents that unschool their children... 
7. Couple lose custody of son called Adolf Hitler... 

Egypt reopens Gaza border crossing...

Egypt said that the Rafah border crossing would be opened permanently starting on Saturday from 9am to 9pm every day except Fridays and holidays.

Women, children and men over 40 are now allowed to cross freely. Men aged between 18 and 40 will still require a permit, and trade is prohibited.

 Among the first to cross the reopened border post were two ambulances ferrying patients from the hitherto-blockaded Gaza Strip for treatment in Egypt as well as a minibus carrying a dozen visitors. More...

Don't miss: 

1. Egypt accused of gassing Gaza tunnels... 
2. The tunnel diggers of Gaza...
3. Rafah Duty Free, the tunnels of Gaza...
4. Why is Egypt destroying food meant for Gaza?
5. I'm sick of 63 years of Israeli occupation...
6. Israel "eases" Gaza blockade so that Gazans can starve more slowly... 

£5,000 victory for Briton against easyJet for cancelled flight...

A disgruntled passenger who took easyJet to court is the first person in Britain to be awarded compensation from the airline in a landmark ruling.

Giles Instone’s flight to Geneva for a ski break with friends was cancelled because of a booking error by the airline, and he was forced to pay for another flight later that day.

He used European Union rules to argue that the airline broke the law by failing to inform him of the error two weeks in advance.

Mr Instone, from Tunbridge Wells, Kent, told how he went down the legal route after his attempts to contact the airline were met with a wall of silence. More...

Don't miss:

1. Ryanair dumps passengers on wrong island!!!
2. Fascinating Aida and Cheap flights...
3. Passenger in India flies to Singapore ... after 4 attempts and one week later!!! 
4. Foreign pilots and passengers dump Air India over safety concerns and service... 
5. Low cost airlines cost a little more!!! Hilarious...
6. Furious passengers confront Air India officials over flight delays... 

Charity is making Africa the 'spoilt child of the planet'

Lavish aid to Africa is turning the continent into a ‘spoilt child’, according to the head of a charity backed by Nelson Mandela.

Mike Kendrick, founder of the respected Mineseeker Foundation, warned that aid often increased the hardship faced by the world’s poorest people.

In a devastating verdict, he told the Daily Mail last night: ‘I sometimes use the analogy of a spoilt child. We have all seen rich parents give their child everything they need, without earning it.

‘Africa is a spoilt child of the planet. It is not their fault. It is ours.

‘It is completely pointless and totally detrimental to spend endless billions on projects that are well intentioned but badly thought out and poorly implemented. More...

Don't miss:

1. Charity does not solve problems - it just makes them worse... 
2. How the EU wastes billions on silly projects and fills the pockets of dictators...
3. " Mother Teresa did not serve the poor in Calcutta, she served the rich in the West."
4. Madonna taken for a ride by "mystical" Kabbalah centre...
5. Money sent to help the poor in India ends up in the pockets of corrupt officials...
6. Bono and hypocrisy on an epic scale...
7. Charity doesn't solve anything, says world's richest man... 
8. Pakistan has no money for flood victims but approves $11-million monument to Bhutto!!! 

France has a travel machine!!!

Don't miss:

1. How they welcome you back at Heathrow Airport...
2. Come to Iceland and be inspired! Wow!
3. Matt Harding is a global dancer!! Wonderful!
4. A "French" Hindu wedding in Chennai, India... 

Germans attack BP, Shell for over-charging for petrol...

Five big oil companies, including BP and Shell, are in trouble with the German regulator for over-charging drivers at petrol stations.

The German cartel regulator accused BP, ExxonMobil, Shell, ConocoPhillips and Total of running an "oligopoly" with a stranglehold on 65pc of the market.

The findings, which were vigorously denied by the oil companies, could not come at a more sensitive time for motorists and fuel retailers.

 Petrol has become a contentious issue for households across Europe as prices at the pump have risen in line with the soaring oil price above $120 per barrel. More...

Don't miss:

1. Shell bosses boast of kicking out more staff...
2. Rising oil prices? Shell makes US$8bn profit in just one quarter!!!
3. Iran blames West for 'artificially' raising oil prices
4. Cars to be powered by ... whiskey? 
5. Can alcohol replace petrol as fuel? If so, why don't we know about it?
6. Oil executives laugh all the way to the bank...
7. Gas price mistake;people flock to pump: owner happy that people were happy! 

IT student in Mumbai detained by cops and gets extorted for "porn" on his mobile. Welcome to India...

Piyush had not expected his vacation to end in such a nightmare. After a long journey from his home in Chhattisgarh, he got off at Dadar station only to be picked up by a group of railway policemen who snatched his phone and threatened to arrest him for allegedly having pornographic clips on it. They then extorted money out of him after intimidating him with handcuffs and belts inside a locked-up police chowky.

The IIT-Bombay third year student (20), who returned from a summer break on Wednesday afternoon, said, "I was stopped by two policemen. One of them asked me to open my bag and rummaged through my belongings while the other took my phone and started playing with the keypad."

 When they found nothing suspicious in the bag, they asked Piyush (name changed) to shut it. When he asked for his phone back, they took him to the chowky on the station platform. "I wondered what was wrong but they started talking roughly. They took me to a small room where another policeman was seated. He said they had found porn clips on my phone and I could go to jail for five years and be fined Rs 1 lakh," recalled Piyush. More...

Don't miss:

1. Cops in India tell mother to strip and have sex with her son!!!
2. Godless justice: police torture and brutality in Tamil Nadu, India...
3. Indian police 'threw pregnant mother from train for failing to pay bribe'
4. Cops in India have their hands full .. with bribes!!!
5. Cops in India let accident victim die on the road but whisk away VIPs involved... 

Pastor with "magic penis" burnt alive in South Africa...

A trial date is expected to be set on Thursday for 12 people arrested in connection with setting a pastor alight after accusing him of using a magic penis to sleep with women.

The nine men and three women, aged between 28 and 50 will appear in the Boschfontein periodical court in Mpumalanga on charges murder and arson.

The villagers, among them a community induna (headman), were arrested on February 24 after Albert Malwane, a pastor of the Izwi Zion Christian Church, was burnt to death a day before.

Mpumalanga police spokesperson Leonard Hlathi said that Malwane had been dragged from his one-roomed house in the Etitandini informal settlement near Jeppes Reef south of Malalane and taken to a hill, where he was set alight. More...

Don't miss:

1. Mob in Nigeria attacks man for stealing ... genitals???
2. Has someone stolen your penis? Oh boy! Oh boy!
3. The Power of the Penis!!! Poor vagina...
4. Man in Ghana gives birth to baby girl! What???
5. Woman in Ghana turns into a ... snake??? 
6. Pastor arrested for "cleaning" the private parts of lady followers!!!  

Swiss banks UBS and Credit Suisse accused of investing in cluster bombs...

Switzerland’s two big banks, Credit Suisse and UBS, have rejected accusations that they continue to invest in cluster bomb manufacturing.

 According to a new report, 16 Swiss companies are among 166 leading financial institutions worldwide that are funding cluster bomb and parts manufacturing, despite the entry into force of an international treaty banning such munitions in 2010.

 Globally, financial institutions from 15 countries are channelling more than $39 billion (SFr34.2 billion) into eight bomb and part manufacturers, according to the “Worldwide investments in cluster munitions: a shared responsibility” 2011 report by the Cluster Munitions Coalition member organisations Pax Christi and Netwerk Vlaanderen.

Most are from five countries that have not yet signed or ratified the convention: China, Russia, Singapore, South Korea and the United States, plus Taiwan. But 38 are from states that have signed the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions, which bans the use, production, stockpiling and transfer of cluster munitions. More...

See the list here...

Don't miss: 

1. Cluster bombs, and the countries that refuse to ban them...
2. Cluster bombs: major powers refuse to ban them... 
3. Former Khmer Rouge child soldier clears land-mines with bare hands...
4. African giant rats to become bomb detectors...
5. School evacuated after pupil brings in 'WWI hand grenade' 

Not enough men in cities, so Australian women flocking to the country looking for love!!!

In the latest example of how difficult it has become for women in their late twenties and early thirties to find an eligible man in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, a dating agency has started sending busloads of single women out to country towns, where the ratio of men to women is far more favourable.

The weekend tours, named Thank Goodness He's A Country Boy, involve eight hours of intensive speed dating at a country pub, where lonely farmers are introduced to single city girls.

 Brie Petersen came up with the idea after visiting friends in the rural town of Mungindi in Queensland. During a night at the pub, the owner told her that he regularly received letters from single women in Brisbane and Sydney asking him to set them up with farmers. Similar pleas were being sent to the post office, he said. More...

Don't miss:

1. Australian police crack down on 'boozed-up idoits' and "drunken thugs"
2. Australian marries his ... dog!!!
3. 2000 women apply to meet 80-year-old Aussie millionaire looking for Korean wife!!!
4. India: You want my vote? Get me a bride!!! 
5. A guide for Japanese women on how to nab a foreign lover!!!
6. A Club Med boost for Singapore's low birth rates!!!
7. Taiwanese woman can't find a man, so she'll get married ... to herself!!! 

Zimbabwe police sergeant jailed for daring to use Robert Mugabe's loo!!!

When the call of nature comes, it cannot always be denied. Few have answered it in such an unfortunate fashion as Alois Mabhunu.

While on duty at a trade fair, the Zimbabwean police sergeant could not hold on and allegedly dashed to the nearest toilet – disastrously, it transpired, as it was reserved for President Robert Mugabe.

He was arrested and imprisoned on suspicion of invading the presidential privy.

The incident happened at the annual Zimbabwe International Trade Fair (ZITF) in the western city of Bulawayo, according to local radio station VOP. More...

Don't miss:

1. Teacher urinated in trash can during class!!!
2. Monkey pisses on Zambian president!!!
3. Man in Zimbabwe refused bail for "subversive" comments on Facebook ...
4. Why Grace Mugabe can be voted Africa's most revolutionary adulteress...
5. Women in Zimbabwe rape men and collect their sperm??? 

Spineless senators in Texas cave in to threats against anti-TSA bill...

On Tuesday, May 24, federal agents from the TSA visited the Texas legislature threatening to end air travel in Texas if the hugely favored anti-TSA bill, H.B. 1937, passed. The backlash from Texans and even members of the press stung Texas state Senators, but not enough to prevent the lawmakers from tucking tail and running. The support the measure lost as a result of federal bullying wasn’t regained in time to resurrect it for passage.

In an article published online yesterday by The New American, Alex Newman outlined an intimidating letter sent to Texas Senate leadership by U.S. District Attorney John Murphy warning the legislators to “kill the bill or else.”

The letter stated, among other things, “TSA would likely be required to cancel any flight or series of flights for which it could not ensure the safety of passengers and crew.” Such a statement seems to imply that the TSA is guaranteeing safety now. Further, it's difficult to believe that all air travel in and out of Texas would or even could be cancelled. Nevertheless, Lone Star Senators caved. More...

Don't miss:

1. What's wrong with you Americans, asks angry Joe...
2. Texas moves to make TSA pat-down a felony crime...
3. TSA: an army of perverts and criminals...
4. Most Americans don't trust the government...
5. U.S. politics - reality show sponsored by Wall Street' 

Alaa Wardi's acapella version of Fi Hagat...

Don't miss:

1. Acapella version of "Such great heights"
2. Paul Dateh's top 40 violin mashup! Wow!
3. Acapella one-man Michael Jackson medley! 
4. The Voca People... (no instruments involved...) 
5. Arif Lohar & Meesha Shafi : "Alif Allah chambay di booti" 

Aspartame 'linked to premature births and cancer'

An artificial sweetener used in Diet Coke is to undergo an urgent EU safety review.

Aspartame is ingested every day by millions of people around the world in more than 6,000 well-known brands of food, drink and medicine.

However, it has been the subject of a number of studies that appear to show harmful effects on human health.

One recent study linked diet drinks containing aspartame to premature births, while another suggested it could cause cancer.

To date, health watchdogs, including the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and the UK’s Food Standards Agency (FSA), have ruled out any link to ill-health. More...

Don't miss:

1. 'Neotame' (Aspartame) to be unlabelled in organic food...
2. Fluoride and Aspartame Make You Stupid?
3. Aspartame and brain cancer: is there a connection? 
4. Did Mediator "miracle drug" kill thousands of French men and women?
5. What ants do to aspartame...
6. Two dangerous ingredients in everday products threaten our health...

We spend 12 hours a day staring at screens...

The proliferation of computers, mobile phones and tablets such as iPads mean we spend up to 12 hours a day looking at screens, research suggests.

With time also spent watching television, people spend five hours more staring screens than they do sleeping, it found.

A survey revealed that 69 per cent of people who took part said that they regularly 'multi-screen' by using several pieces of technology at the same time, such as using their phone and laptop while watching television.

On average, those surveyed logged three hours per day watching TV, five hours in front of computers and just more than one hour looking at their phones. More...

Don't miss:

1. Canadians using smartphones for everything ... except talking!!!
2. If you're not online these days you're a second-class citizen...
3. Woman kills infant son for interrupting her online game... 
4. Study confirms that Fox News makes you stupid...
5. Keep children away from television, warns top psychologist...
6. Break the TV addiction before it's too late... 

Thailand arrests US citizen for "insulting the monarchy"

An American citizen of ethnic Thai descent has been arrested in Thailand for allegedly insulting the monarchy.

The US embassy in Bangkok has confirmed the arrest of an American citizen.

The 54-year-old man is reportedly accused of posting on his blog a link to a book about the royal family that is banned in Thailand.

Thailand's strict lese-majeste law prohibits any criticism of the monarchy. Offences are punishable by up to 15 years in prison.

Police investigators contacted by the BBC refused to give any details of the charges because, they said, of the sensitivity of the case. More...

Don't miss:

1. Another lese majeste case in Thailand: web designer jailed for 13 years... 
2. Thai webmaster on trial in free speech test case... 
3. Thai jailed for 10 years for "insulting" king...
4. Police arrest Thai website editor...
5. Thailand's Crown Prince promotes dog to air chief marshal and displays topless wife... 

Ailing Tamil superstar Rajnikanth heading to Singapore for treatment...

After spending weeks in a local hospital, South Indian superstar Rajinikanth is expected to be flown to Singapore on Friday night for further treatment, reported an Indian daily.

The popular 61-year-old actor has been undergoing treatment for gastroenteritis and pneumonia at Sri Ramachandra Hospital in Chennai.

Quoting close family sources, the Asian Age newspaper front-paged Friday that Rajinikanth was booked as "wheelchair passenger" on a Singapore Airlines flight, and would be travelling under his real name, Shivaji Rao.

 His wife Latha and daughter Aishwarya were expected to accompany the ailing actor, added the daily. More...

Don't miss:

1. Kollywood's SUPERSTAR Rajinikanth...
2. Epic fight scene from Tamil movie Endhiran! Awesome or hilarious? 
3. Kollywood, Rajni and Aishwarya Rai unleash "Enthiran..."
4. Tamil superstar Rajnikanth in hilarious commercial!!!
5. Don't mess around with Tamil superstar, Rajnikanth!!!
6. Japanese dude mimicking Rajnikanth!!! 

I love Apple but I won't tolerate it's tax cheating...

Don't miss:

1. Apple's Chinese workers at Foxconn treated 'inhumanely, like machines'
2. Apple being sued over iPad, iPhone tracking ...
3. How Google, Facebook, Microsoft avoid paying billions in taxes...
4. What will they tax next?
5. Obama’s tax windfall for the rich... 

Obama and Cameron: they'll talk about anything but the persecution of Christians...

It was the elephant in the room: the President of the United States and the Prime Minister of Britain talked of missiles and green house gases, Libya and Afghanistan, and how to barbecue a perfect burger. But they studiously avoided raising the plight of 250 million Christians who face persecution around the world. For two days the most important men in the free world had a chance to draw up a plan to help their co-religionists who face torture and death in Egypt, India, Pakistan, Sudan and China; they blew it.

Copts, Evangelicals, Catholics, Greek Orthodox: the persecutors are indiscriminate. Their means include arson, shooting, rape and pillaging; and their methods are often legitimate in their own country, as in Pakistan, where under its blasphemy law, any dissent from Islam is unlawful. The anti-Christians’ aim is to eradicate a religion they consider subversive, because it challenges the oppression of totalitarianism and extremist Islam. More...

Don't miss:

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

Canadians using smartphones for everything ... except talking!!!

A boom in smartphone sales is changing how Canadians interact with each other as these devices are increasingly used for anything but talking to people, according to a survey Thursday.

Three in 10 Canadians now own a Blackberry, iPhone or other smartphone (up 50% over last year) and they spend an astonishing 17.3 hours per week using their device, according to the Ipsos Reid online poll.

For the first time ever, however, the majority of smartphone usage, 54%, was for activities other than talking, the report said.

"For several years, smartphone growth was incremental at best, but in 2011, it's been exponential," said Steve Mossop of Ipsos Reid. More...

Don't miss:

1. Smartphones: The tracking and surveillance of millions of Americans...
2. So why did Microsoft buy Skype?
3. Skype School' brings knowledge to remote Indian village...
4. Gmail telephone option seduces internet users...
5. Install Viber and make free calls with your iPhone... 
6. Want to make money with your private data? Dump Facebook... 

London school bans high-fives, handshakes and hugging! What???

A school has banned pupils from giving each other high-fives, handshakes - and even hugs.

Governors imposed a 'no contact' rule which they say prevents fighting or bullying, reports The Sun.

Dayna Chong, 15, was thrown into detention for cuddling a female pal at The Quest Academy, in Croydon, South London.

 Her mother, Anita, 33, from New Addington, said the policy was "extreme" and "ludicrous". More...

Don't miss:

1. Australian school bans the word "Easter" to promote religious tolerance!!!
2. Village in India bans jeans for girls!!!
3. Feeling down and out? Don't swallow a pill; get a hug!!!
4. Free hugs or $2 Deluxe hugs? Hilarious...
5. Okay folks! Let's go to a cuddle party... 
6. "I'll give you the biggest hug in the world" teenager saves mother from suicide... 

Yes, we can but no, you Kahn't ...

Google's Street View starts mapping India...

Google launched its "Street View" project in India on Thursday aiming to collect panoramic images of the vast country ranging from its palaces to its slums.

The 360-degree photographic mapping service, which is already in operation in more than 25 countries, began gathering data in the southern city of Bangalore, a technology hub where many Internet firms are based.

Street View has proved hugely popular since its launch in the United States in 2007, but it has also run into trouble with several governments concerned about privacy.

"Street View is designed to comply with all local laws including those related to security and privacy in India," Google India chief Vinay Goel told reporters in Bangalore. More...

Don't miss:

1. Google threatens to shut down Street View in Switzerland over privacy... 
2. Google fined $140,000 for gathering and storing data through Street View cameras...
3. Japanese woman sues Google Street View for showing underwear!!!
4. Google Street View captures nude Taiwanese woman at her window???
5. Google Street View being investigated in 20 countries...

Malaysian cops brutally beat up Indian student and told him to die...

“The policemen kept beating me and called me ‘keling’. They also shouted at me, saying I should just die so that they can close the case.”

 A 20-year-old student was allegedly beaten up and verbally berated when he knocked into a policeman’s motorcycle at a roadblock in Rembau, Negri Sembilan, during the wee hours of the morning.

After the Monday incident, S Ganesan was also warned against lodging a complaint before he was put into an ambulance and sent to the Tuanku Jaafar Hospital.

 However, Ganesan summed up the courage to lodge a report with the Chembong police station on the same day. More + photos...

Don't miss:

1. Cops in Malaysia brutally beating up suspect...
2. Malaysian student accuses cops of beating him up...
3. Malaysia: ethnic Indian died of police beatings...
4. Rajeswari, or how the Malaysian govt. screwed up...
5. Amnesty condemns Malaysia's appalling treatment of immigrant workers... 

Foreign pilots and passengers dump Air India over safety concerns and poor service...

When Bob Haygooni paid a midflight visit to a cockpit at his new employer, Air India, he was shocked. The pilots, he said, had completely covered the windows with newspaper to keep out the sun.

But “this was a normal thing at Air India,” said Mr. Haygooni, a former United Airlines pilot who flew for the Indian airline for 16 months. In April 2010, however, he decided that the paycheck was not worth his concerns over what he considered the government’s haphazard approach to running its state-owned airline.

Interviews with more than a dozen experienced pilots hired in the last three years by Air India to work new international routes describe an airline with problems. But theirs are not the only complaints.

 Passengers have abandoned Air India in droves, shunning the airline because of its reputation for poor customer service and late flights. More...

Don't miss:

1. Indian airline had kids sitting on parents' laps...
2. Furious passengers confront Air India officials...
3. Air India "adjusts" extra passengers in toilets!!! 
4. She failed US test but became pilot in India because of daddy...
5. Fears grow over India's fake pilots...
6. Air India pilot panicked as planed nosedived...
7. Passenger in India flies to Singapore ... after 4 attempts and one week later!!! 

Singapore jails British author Alan Shadrake...

A British author of a book about the death penalty in Singapore, Alan Shadrake, has lost his appeal against a six-week jail sentence.

The 76-year old, convicted of insulting the judiciary, will undergo medical tests before beginning his sentence.

His book, Once A Jolly Hangman: Singapore Justice in the Dock, alleges a lack of impartiality in the implementation of Singapore's laws.

Singapore has a history of sensitivity to how it is portrayed.

Mr Shadrake was sentenced by the High Court last November and was fined S$20,000 ($16,150, £9,900).

"We affirm the sentence imposed by the judge," said Justice Andrew Phang of the three-member Court of Appeal panel. 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...

Cops in Mexico force woman to strip in exchange for freedom. WTF!

Fifteen police officers in Tijuana, Mexico, have been suspended after a video surfaced of the men forcing a female detainee to perform a striptease in exchange for her freedom.

El Mexicano newspaper released the five-minute clip of the unidentified detainee removing her clothes and performing an X-rated strip show for the uniformed officers at a local police station, reports the New York Daily News.

The grainy video shows the woman, whose face is blurred, posing on a table and flaunting some skin for the cops before getting naked from the waist up. The then gives one of the officers a lap dance, which turns into a full-on grope session.

The incident took place March 2, when the woman and a male companion were arrested for possession of stolen bankcards and checks. According to El Mexicano, the arresting officers offered to release them in exchange for the strip show. More...

Don't miss:

1. How American cops deal with a man in a wheelchair...
2. "Why did the police kill my Dad?"
3. Cops in Utah shoot and kill man in his parents' home...
4. Thai cops charged with gang-raping colleague...
5. 4 cops strip and assault woman in police cell... 

Plastic surgery boom as Asians seek 'western' look...

Lee Min kyong stretches on the ballet bar in the dance studio. The 12-year old is a little awkward and nervous in front of strangers, until the music begins.

Min-kyong moves to the classical tune, springing easily onto her toes, the very picture of childhood grace and poise. But when the music stops, she falls back into an awkward stance.

She lacks confidence, explains Min-kyong's mother, a problem she hopes will be solved when her pre-teen undergoes plastic surgery, to westernize her eyes.

"If I get the surgery, my eyes will look bigger," explains Min-kyong. Everyone, she says, points out her small eyes. It's why she doesn't think she's a pretty girl. A surgery which cuts a fold into her eyelid to create a double fold will widen her eyes. The effect will also be to give her a slightly more western look. More...

Don't miss:

1. Businesswoman receives £6 million payout for botched facelift... 
2. Labiaplasty, deforming the vagina... (Graphic)
3. Plastic surgery boom in Russia, but dangers ignored...
4. Skin-lightening phenomenon has reached dangerous proportions in Jamaica slums...
5. To make a good impression at university, Indian students go for plastic surgery!!!
6. I am black, but I wish I were white. Sad...
7. Why are so many black and Asian women desperate to be white?  

Why is America the 'no-vacation nation'?

Let's be blunt: If you like to take lots of vacation, the United States is not the place to work.

Besides a handful of national holidays, the typical American worker bee gets two or three precious weeks off out of a whole year to relax and see the world -- much less than what people in many other countries receive.

And even that amount of vacation often comes with strings attached.

Some U.S. companies don't like employees taking off more than one week at a time. Others expect them to be on call or check their e-mail even when they're lounging on the beach or taking a hike in the mountains. More...

Don't miss:

1. Which countries take the most vacation? 
2. Karoshi or overwork, Japan's silent killer...
3. The world's hardest working countries. Insane!!
4. Get up early and work harder, Germans tell Greeks!!!
5. The French love going on vacation, the Japanese not so much...  
6. Mexicans have the longest working days, Belgians the shortest... 
7. Want to get paid for doing virtually nothing? Become a civil servant ... in France!!! 

Why do women in India become prostitutes?

They can make more money and live better .

Poverty and limited education push females into labor markets at an early age, but the sheer desire for a better income and a better life pushes them into sex work, according to a path-breaking, pan-India survey of sex workers.

Only about 20 percent of the women surveyed were forced, sold, cheated or otherwise pushed into sex work according to the study, which was conducted in 2009 and only recently released. Nearly 80 percent of the 3,000 females surveyed in 14 states across the country entered sex work by themselves. The higher incomes and livelihoods they could access weighed significantly in that decision. The harsh fact is that for many women, working conditions are cruel or incomes are disastrously low in other labor markets, the survey categorically revealed.  More...

Don't miss:

1. The male prostitutes (MSM) of Chennai, India...
2. The prostitutes of Calcutta. Sad...
3. Devadasi, the temple slave prostitutes of India... 
4. A brothel in India; pretty sad, hardly enticing...
5. Indian girls and prostituition in Dubai... 
6. India census considers housewives no better than prostitutes...
7. Farmers in India selling their wives... 
8. Students in Berlin willing to prostitute themselves to pay for school... 

A genius, yes. But Alex Ferguson is also a lout...

The grumpy Glaswegian who has built a career on confrontation was at it again this week.

Facing journalists at a press conference in the build-up to Saturday’s Champions League final against Barcelona at Wembley, Sir Alex Ferguson took exception to a straightforward question from an Associated Press reporter who asked ‘how important’ Ryan Giggs — United hero and (we are now permitted to know) love rat — was for the game.

Turning to United’s press officer, the wonderfully named Karen Shotbolt, Ferguson muttered a comment sotto voce which was picked up by television microphones: ‘We’ll get him . . . ban him on Friday’ [from the pre-match press conference].

It was Ferguson all over, great football manager and small-town martinet; Arthur Scargill in a tracksuit. This is my world, and don’t forget it. The rest of youse just live in it, so be thankful. More...

Don't miss:

1. Manchester Utd. English league champions for record 19th. time...
2. Manchester United most hated company in Britain!!!
3. Rooney-gate: Time to kick hypocrisy out of football...
4. Ryan Giggs, private lives and injunctions... 
5. 80 million reasons why football will never be the same again... 

Corporate sex parties are common, say German prostitutes...

Monique doesn't understand what all the fuss is about. The newspapers have been full of lurid accounts of how German insurer Hamburg Mannheimer treated its best salesmen to a sex party with prostitutes in Budapest four years ago. "So what?" she shrugs, treading out a cigarette. "If the insurance customers ended up footing the bill that would be the last straw. But please don't go on about the morals of it!"

 Monique, 32, is a Berlin-based prostitute and says she has been hired for similar corporate parties a number of times. The pattern is always the same. At first the gentlemen pretend to be surprised, laugh coyly, try to appear immune to the amorous intentions of the ladies, and apologetically point to their wedding rings. But after a few more drinks those rings tend to disappear in their jacket pockets. The shyness melts away -- and the party gets going.

"They could save themselves all the play-acting at the start," says Monique, a brisk businesswoman. After all, time is money. "In the end they can't keep their hands off you and can't get enough." The guys who insist they're happily married usually turn out to be the friskiest ones later on, she says. More...

Don't miss:

1. German insurer Munich Re held orgy for successful salesmen!!!
2. Students in Berlin willing to prostitute themselves to pay for school...
3. Luxury call girls hook rich clients in Zurich...
4. Under-age Indian girls flown to Dubai for sex feast... 
5. Sex business booming in Singapore...
6. From Zimbabwe and Kazakhstan to the Glamor in China... 

Pope's pedophilia advisor arrested ... on suspicion of pedophilia!!!

The latest sex-abuse case to rock the Catholic Church is unfolding in the archdiocese of an influential Italian Cardinal who has been working with Pope Benedict XVI on reforms to respond to prior scandals of pedophile priests.

Father Riccardo Seppia, a 51-year-old parish priest in the village of Sastri Ponente, near Genoa, was arrested last Friday, May 13, on pedophilia and drug charges. Investigators say that in tapped mobile-phone conversations, Seppia asked a Moroccan drug dealer to arrange sexual encounters with young and vulnerable boys. "I do not want 16-year-old boys but younger. Fourteen-year-olds are O.K. Look for needy boys who have family issues," he allegedly said. Genoa Archbishop Angelo Bagnasco, who is the head of the Italian Bishops Conference, had been working with Benedict to establish a tough new worldwide policy, released this week, on how bishops should handle accusations of priestly sex abuse. More...

Don't miss:

1. Catholic bishop caught at airport with child porn...
2. US Jesuits to pay a whopping $166.1 million to sex abuse victims... 
3. "The Pope is surely the biggest sinner in the whole Catholic Church" 
4. Guilty as hell, Portugal's high-society paedophile ring...
5. Pedophiles and popes: doing the Vatican shuffle...
6. Pope covered up paedophile priest who abused 200 deaf boys... 

Singapore Airlines to start long-haul budget carrier...

Singapore Airlines (SIA) has said it plans to start a budget carrier flying across longer distances.

The new airline will start operating within a year, using wide-body aircraft to ferry passengers.

Other details, such as its name, planned routes and ticket prices, have not been revealed.

The budget carrier is expected to compete with long-haul, cut-price Asian airlines operated by Australia's Qantas and Malaysia's AirAsia.

"As we have observed on short-haul routes within Asia, low-fare airlines help stimulate demand for travel," Goh Choon Phong, chief executive of SIA, said in a statement. More...

Don't miss:

1. Low cost airlines cost a little more!!! Hilarious...
2. Fascinating Aida and Cheap flights...
3. Singapore Airlines pilot refused heart attack passenger's plea to land'
4. Indian airline had kids sitting on parents' laps during flight!!!
5. Air India "adjusts" extra passengers in cockpit and toilets!!!
6. Hong Kong Airline crew learn kung - fu!!! 

A singing surgeon in Iran!!!

Don't miss: 

1. A street dentist in India!!! 
2. In Iran, they bathe lions in the street!!!
3. Plastic surgeon sues 3 women for negative comments about his work. 

Fearing end of the world, Russian teen hangs herself...

A 14-year-old girl from Russia's Volga Republic of Mari El hanged herself last Saturday (May 21) over fears that the world would end, investigators said Wednesday, RIA Novosti reported.

May 21 was the day that American preacher Harold Camping said Christians would be taken into heaven ahead of the apocalypse.

Investigator Alexander Kosharin said the girl's behaviour changed dramatically when she learned about Camping's predictions.

'Whales are trying to beach themselves and birds are dying - it is just the beginning of the end,' the girl wrote in a 'death diary'.

'We are not righteous people, only they will go to heaven, the others will stay here on Earth to go through terrible sufferings,' she wrote.

'I don't want to die like the others. That's why I'll die now,' the girl said in her last message.

Investigators are currently probing her ties with 'informal youth groups' or religious sects. Source...

Don't miss:

1. Hey, what happened to The Rapture?
2. The victims of The Rapture that never was... 
3. No end of the world, so members want money back!!! 
4. All-female sect worships Vladimir Putin as Paul the Apostle!!! 
5. Doomsday man ‘raped five daughters to save bloodline'
6. Fearing LHC end of the world, Aussie teens filmed sex act!!!
7. LHC: fearing end of the world, girl in India commits suicide...
8. Last doomsday cult members abandon cave...

Bahraini students in Britain lose scholarships, stranded with uncertain future...

I started my PhD in language and communications at a British university last September. I was on a full scholarship from the University of Bahrain where I have been on the staff since 2004 and planned to stay here for at least four years.

We rented our flat in Manama, my husband gave up his job there, and we brought over our two daughters and enrolled them in school. Then the uprising and the crackdown started. I got a phone call from the university one day and was told that my scholarship had been withdrawn. I asked to know the reason why but they refused to tell me.

 They just said I had to come back within a week and then I would find out. Of course this was not practical, my children were in school, I couldn’t simply return. And that was it. I haven’t heard any more form the university, apart from a letter confirming what I was told over the phone. More...

Don't miss:

1. Bahrain regime accused of harassing UK-based students...
2. How Bahrain is oppressing its Shia majority...
3. Bahraini forces rape and kill poetess Ayat al-Ghermezi...
4. Cameron blasted for welcoming 'torturer' of Bahrain to No. 10...
5. Why the US, European and al-Jazeera silence on Bahrain's murderers?
6. Libyan students in the US told by embassy to attend pro-Ghaddafi rallies or else... 

Asians 42 times more likely to be held under terror law...

People from ethnic minorities are up to 42 times more likely than white people to be the target of a counter-terrorism power which allows the stopping and searching of the innocent yet grants them fewer rights than suspected criminals, official figures seen by the Guardian show.

The power is contained in schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000, which allows police to stop people at ports and airports for up to nine hours without the need for reasonable suspicion that they are involved in any crime.

The figures have led to accusations that police have resorted to "ethnic profiling", which they deny.

British Muslims have given written statements to the Guardian alleging that the police and the security service MI5 are abusing the power by holding people and pressing them into becoming spies. More...

Don't miss:

1. Sam Richards: A radical experiment in empathy (What if Iraq happened to you?) 
2. A non-Muslim white girl puts on a hijab and walks into a mall...
3. Who are the real terrorists? 
4. How Muslims are treated in America...
5. Middle Eastern passenger on flight questioned for too many trips to the toilet!!!
6. Learning the truth about terrorism...

LeeKuanYew-istan Forever! Singapore as a role model for the world...

It is impossible to write a political obituary of someone who not only hasn't yet passed away, but whose influence will assuredly live on long after he passes from the scene. This is especially the case with Lee Kuan Yew: founding father, prime minister, and until this week, "minister mentor" of the world's most admired city-state, Singapore.

Lee is finally stepping down from the cabinet position he created for himself, as is his successor Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong, who also served as a senior minister. Their departure, combined with the swearing-in of a raft of younger cabinet ministers after Lee's People's Action Party (PAP) took a severe blow in parliamentary elections this month, lowers the average age of the cabinet to a sprightly 53. But Lee, now 87, retains a seat in Parliament, not to mention the ear of his son, Lee Hsien Loong, the current prime minister.

Samuel Huntington famously praised Lee -- who has officially or unofficially ruled Singapore for more than 50 years -- as one of the most successful statesmen of the 20th century, but his influence could be even greater in the 21st. Singapore's 20th-century legacy is that of being one of the few truly successful post-colonial nations. While Arab states crumble and the rest of surrounding Indochina struggles in the second world, Singapore skyrocketed From Third World to First, to borrow the title of one volume of Lee's lengthy but instructive memoirs. More...

Don't miss:

1. Singapore to review million-dollar ministers' salaries...
2. Is Singapore ready for change?
3. An ‘Orchid Evolution’ sweeping through Singapore?
4. Behind every successful Singapore soldier, there's a maid!!!
5. Singapore leaders play down Lee Kuan Yew's comments about Muslims... 
6. Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew was "a big frog in a small pond", says Mahathir...
7. The country that most people would migrate to is ... Singapore!!! 

'Whip them if they take the wheel': Saudi men launch Facebook campaign against women drivers...

A Facebook campaign has been launched urging Saudi men to whip women who drive with their cord from their headdress.

The online page urges men to attack women in response to a burgeoning protest movement against the law banning them from driving in the ultra-conservative nation.

They were angered after Saudi woman Manal al-Sharif was jailed for defying the ban and are claiming they need to drive to ensure their own safety if their chaperone was to fall ill.

The page, titled 'The Iqal Campaign: June 17 for preventing women from driving,' refers to the Arabic name for the cord used to hold on the traditional headdress worn by many men in the Gulf, advocating the cord be used to hit women who dare to drive. More...

Don't miss:

1. Saudi woman arrested for daring to drive...
2. Saudi women and abusive fathers... 
3. Female Saudi doctor appeals to court for right to choose a husband... 
4. Six orphan girls in Saudi Arabia flogged for "acts of mischief"
5. Young, educated and dissatisfied in the Middle East...
6. 60% of Saudi men financially exploit their wives: study...
7. Saudi divorces three wives in exchange for car from fourth wife!!!