Mid Day International News |
- Mobiles have 18 times more bacteria than toilet handle
- Woman charged with sending daughter to work in brothel
- Al Gore interrogated over sex assault claims
- Photographer shot dead as bride, groom pose with guns
- Plane with 152 passengers crashes near Islamabad
- MJ's 'love child' surfaces
- Iranian Prez goes after Octopus Paul
- Men charged for racially abusing Indian in Australia
- Eight human heads found near roadsides
- Pope goes sporty!
- Cargo plane crashes in Saudi Arabia, pilot hurt
| Mobiles have 18 times more bacteria than toilet handle Posted: The average mobile phone carries 18 times more potentially harmful germs than a flush handle in a men's toilet, tests have revealed. One of the phones in the test had such high levels of bacteria that it could have given its owner a serious stomach upset. The findings from a sample of dozens of phones by Which? magazine suggest 14.7 million of the 63 million mobiles in use in Britain today could be potential health hazards, reports the Daily Mail. Hygiene expert Jim Francis, who carried out the tests, said: "The levels of potentially harmful bacteria on one mobile were off the scale. That phone needs sterilising." The most unhygienic phone also had 39 times the safe level of enterobacteria, a group of bacteria that live in the lower intestines of humans and animals and include bugs such as salmonella. It boasted 170 times the acceptable level of faecal coliforms, which are associated with human waste. Other bacteria including food poisoning bugs e.coli and staphylococcus aureus were found on the phones but at safe levels. Which? researcher Ceri Stanaway said: "The bugs can end up on your hands which is a breeding ground and be passed back to your phone. They can be transferred back and forth and eventually you could catch something nasty. "What this shows is how easy it is to come into contact with bacteria. People see toilet flushes as being something dirty to touch but they have less bacteria than phones. "People need to be mindful of that by observing good hygiene themselves and among others who they pass the phone to when looking at photos, for example." Which? has previously found that some computer keyboards carry more harmful bacteria than a lavatory seat.
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| Woman charged with sending daughter to work in brothel Posted: A woman has been charged with sending her 16-year-old daughter to work as a prostitute at a brothel in this Australian city. The school-going teenager ended up providing services to over 18 clients in 13 hours. The teenager was taken by her mother to Liaisons Executive Retreat, a brothel in the eastern inner-city suburb of Edgecliff, the Wollongong District Court was told Tuesday. She allegedly provided services to more than 18 clients over period of 13 hours. Working under the name of "Layla", she charged up to $330 an hour. The teenager's father reported his former wife to the police, The Australian reported on Wednesday. Though the teenager was distressed by her first experience at the brothel, she had gone back there thrice as she did not want to "disappoint" her mother. She said she was initially "excited" and went along with the plan as her mother had always struggled with money. The woman has pleaded not guilty to the charge of child prostitution.
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| Al Gore interrogated over sex assault claims Posted: Former US Vice President Al Gore has been interrogated over allegations by a massage therapist that he sexually assaulted her in a Portland hotel in October 2006. According to KATU News, a law enforcement source revealed that detectives from Portland, Ore., reportedly interviewed Gore, 62, on July 22 in San Francisco, the New York Post reported. A statement issued by the police department on July 1 showed that detectives had attempted to meet with Molly Hagerty on three separate occasions in 2006 when she initially made the claims. But Hagerty's attorney cancelled the meetings, and withdrew the complaint in 2007, after which officials filed a "special report" on the claims. Then in 2009, Hagerty asked Portland detectives to take her statement, upon which the police reopened the sexual assault investigation on July 1 after the National Enquirer identified Hagerty ahead of the publication of an interview in which she called Gore "a pervert and a sexual predator." A spokesperson for Gore has denied the claims and said an investigation would only serve to benefit the former vice president.
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| Photographer shot dead as bride, groom pose with guns Posted: A wedding photographer in Italy was accidentally shot dead when he asked the bride and the groom to pose with guns as he wanted it "as props in the picture". Calogero Scimea, 45, was shot in the head when one of the guns went off. Valentina Anitra, 22, and her sweetheart Ignazio Licodia, 25, along with their parents were horrified by the turn of events and they immediately cancelled the wedding, Daily Express reported Wednesday. The incident took place as they were about to leave for the church in Altofonte, near Palermo, Sicily. "No one can believe it. Everybody is in a state of shock. It's such a tragic accident. The bride and groom are devastated," the town's deputy mayor, Angela Busellini, was quoted as saying. Palermo police spokesman Colonel Teo Luzi said: "From what we have been able to establish, the photographer asked the parents of the bride and groom if they had any guns to use as props in a picture." "One went off, hitting him in the head, killing him. He was only there as a favour for the wedding photographer who had originally been booked but had to pull out as he was ill. The bride and groom were distraught and the wedding was immediately cancelled," he added.
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| Plane with 152 passengers crashes near Islamabad Posted: An aircraft carrying 152 people crashed amid heavy rain in the thickly wooded Margalla Hills bordering the Pakistani capital on Wednesday morning. Four bodies have been recovered from the crash site, an official said. The plane, flying from Karachi to Islamabad, suddenly lost contact with the airport here and crashed near the popular Damanekoh resort in the Margalla Hills. Parvez George, Civil Aviation Authority spokesperson, said the plane belonged to private carrier Air Blue and was carrying 146 passengers and six crew. "The plane was flying from Karachi to Islamabad and it lost contact with us at around 09.45 local time (0445 GMT)," DPA quoted George as saying. Geo News quoted a Capital Development Authority (CDA) official as saying that four bodies have been recovered from the site where the aircraft crashed early Wednesday. There were unconfirmed reports of eight survivors having been found. The private airlines that was flying from Turkey to Islamabad via Karachi, the south port city of Pakistan, suddenly lost contact with the control tower of Islamabad airport, TV channel ARY News reported. The flight had taken off from Karachi at 7.50 am. Some areas of the Margalla Hills are fitted with anti-aircraft guns and many Pakistani troop checkpoints are located on the wooded hills. Fire and thick smoke was clearly visible from the picnic spot of Damanekoh. Eyewitnesses saw the aircraft taking a very low flight. Rainfall in Islamabad and dense fog might have caused the incident, a source in the Rescue-1122 emergency services told Xinhua on phone. Rescue efforts were promptly launched as a helicopter circled overhead to take stock of the situation. Anxious relatives thronged the Benazir Bhutto International Airport to get information about their dear ones. A man cried inconsolably as he waited outside the airport to learn about the fate of the passengers. Many flights have been grounded due to bad weather in eastern city of Lahore.
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| Posted: A woman, who claims to be the late King of Pop Michael Jackson's illegitimate love child, has filed legal documents for a share of his estate, saying that her existence was being covered up. Mocienne Petit Jackson claims that back in 1975, 17-year-old Jackson secretly impregnated her mother Barbara, who happens to be singer Diana Ross' sister, TMZ.com reported. And that when she was 9-years-old, Katherine Jackson hatched a plan to "abduct" her and send her off to Belgium to protect the late singer's reputation. In documents she filed with L.A. County Superior Court she also claims that all seven of her abductors were later murdered. Mocienne, who currently lives in the Netherlands, decided to come forward with her story so she can formally claim a part of the inheritance. She is waiting for the judge to give the go-ahead on a DNA test, and claims that she was diagnosed with vitiligo. She also wants custody of MJ's kids so she can give them a "more normal life".
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| Iranian Prez goes after Octopus Paul Posted: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says Paul the Octopus, is a symbol of all that is wrong with the western world Germans want to eat him, Spaniards want to beatify him and bookmakers want to hire him. Wrong symbol Now Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has attacked Paul the 'Oracle octopus' as a symbol of all that is wrong with the West.  Octocuss: In a conference, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (inset) said that Ocotpus Paul is a symbol for the evil western world. File Pic The excitable Iranian dictator has temporarily shifted away from favourite targets Israel and America to condemn the eight-legged World Cup tipping sensation as a symbol of decadence and decay among his enemies. Beloved Paul is the beloved cephalopod of Oberhausen, Germany, who won the hearts of the Spanish -- and broke those of Germany -- by predicting their World Cup victory, having previously correctly predicted the winner of Germany's six lead-up games. Wrath But he has earned the wrath of Iranian president for spreading 'western propaganda and superstition.' Paul was mentioned by Ahmadinejad on various occasions during a speech in Tehran at the weekend. "Those who believe in this type of thing cannot be the leaders of the global nations that aspire, like Iran, to human perfection, basing themselves in the love of all sacred values," Ahmadinejad said. Paul the Octopus, who has retired from predicting the outcome of football matches, could not be reached for comment.
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| Men charged for racially abusing Indian in Australia Posted: In a first such case in Victoria, three men have been charged with inciting racial hatred nearly six months after they physically assaulted an Indian student in this Australian city. Police have laid racial vilification charges against all the accused who racially and physically abused an Indian student on a bus heading towards Portsea on the Mornington Peninsula February 6. Two of the men have been charged with inciting racial hatred, intentionally causing serious injury, assault and offensive language, AAP reported on Wednesday. They have been ordered to appear at the Frankston Magistrates Court September 1. A third man is expected to be summoned on the same date. "Police are hoping the laying of charges in relation to a serious racial vilification incident will send a strong message to the community that this behaviour will not be tolerated," a statement from Victoria Police said. "This is the first time that charges of this nature have been put before the courts."
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| Eight human heads found near roadsides Posted: Eight human heads were found in four separate places near roadsides outside the northern Mexico City of Durango, the local prosecutor's office said. Police found the heads on Tuesday within the space of two and a half hours due to anonymous tip-offs, "but had not identified the victims, nor located the bodies," said a statement from the Durango state prosecutor's office. The victims were males thought to have been aged between 25 and 30, the statement said. The tip-offs said that two human heads had been dumped on each of three roads out of Durango city. Workers cleaning a traffic island found the remaining two on a road leading north to the industrial city of Gomez Palacio. The attorney general on Sunday accused officials at a prison in Gomez Palacio of releasing inmates to carry out drug-related killings. Those included three massacres which left 35 dead this year in neighbouring Torreon, in Coahuila state. Gruesome suspected drug killings have plagued Coahuila and Durango in recent months. Authorities blame the violence on fighting between the Sinaloa gang, headed by Mexico's most wanted man Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman, and the brutal Zetas gang of former elite soldiers. Some 25,000 people have died in spiralling suspected drug violence since December 2006, when President Felipe Calderon launched a military crackdown on organised crime.
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| Posted: Benedict XVI wears a special Pontiff baseball cap It is not the sort of get-up you'd expect the Pope to sport.
Matching The 83-year-old even colour-coordinated his new cap, perhaps mindful of the need for it to blend in with his white robe and white hair. Pope Benedict donned the trendy hat as he walked around his estate in Castel Gandolfo, south of Rome. The cap also served the more useful purpose of keeping the hot summer sun off the Pope's head. The move isn't the first time that the Vatican has broken with tradition this week. It emerged at the weekend that officials have decided not to fly the Pope home to Italy on British Airways at the end of his state visit to the UK this autumn. The decision is due, in part, to the threat of BA strikes. It has become customary for the Pope to return home from official visits on the flag carrier of the country he has toured. But Pope Benedict will instead fly from Rome to Britain and back on an Airbus A320 operated by Italian state airline Alitalia. One factor understood to have concerned Roman Catholic officials was the BA cabin crew strikes, which threaten to restart in September when the visit takes place. The Vatican is determined nothing should detract from the four-day trip, the first state visit by a Pope to Britain. He will meet the Queen in Scotland before visiting London and Birmingham. British Airways was asked earlier this year to provide a quote to charter a 747 jet to fly the Pope back to Rome. A BA source said it offered a quote at 'commercial rates', but heard no more from the Church. Airline officials assumed the Vatican had been given a cheaper quote by a rival. Vatican sources, however, claim Church officials in the UK tried to contact BA again to discuss the details but received no response.
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| Cargo plane crashes in Saudi Arabia, pilot hurt Posted: A Lufthansa cargo plane crashed Tuesday as it was attempting to land in the Saudi Arabian capital of Riyadh, authorities in the kingdom said. The pilot and co-pilot were taken to a military hospital, Saudi civil aviation authorities said, noting that they suffered only minor injuries. A spokesman for the Frankfurt-based German airline meanwhile confirmed that both crew members survived the crash and were receiving medical treatment. A spokesman for the Saudi General Authority of Civil Aviation told DPA that the pilot had radioed for help as he came in for landing at the King Khaled International Airport. "There is an ongoing investigation into the accident by specialists at the airport," Khaled Al-Khaibari said. He said emergency services reacted "immediately" to control the fire that had erupted on board plane before it touched the ground. Black smoke came from the plane as it started to descend over Riyadh before it crashed and broke in half, the al-Arabiya satellite channel reported. Photos posted on the website of the al-Riyadh newspaper appeared to indicate most of the damage was inflicted on the back of the plane. The MD-11 cargo plane, arriving from Frankfurt, was forced to land on an auxiliary runway at the airport as the main one was not available, Saudi authorities said.
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