Mid Day International News

Breakfast newsreader in nude photo scandal
'Flamingo Lady' forced to stand on one leg
Chinese protesters chop off, swallow finger tip
Man who died 4,000 years ago gets face and voice
Programmer 'eats his grandma alive'
Obama vows to fight India, China for new jobs
Girls love a man in red
Couple escapes unhurt as car falls into 150-metre cliff
40 US billionaires pledge to donate to charity

Breakfast newsreader in nude photo scandal

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New ITV breakfast newsreader at the center of a nude photo scandal.

Tasmin Khan, 30, who has signed up to read the headlines on new flagship morning show Daybreak, alongside hosts Adrian Chiles and Christine Bleakley, posed for sexy shots between 2003 and 2006.

In one of the pictures, Khan is seen showing off her charms while sporting only a colourful necklace, while in others she is seen in her underwear or lying in the nude.

Khan, whose real name is Farhana, had grown up in Hendon, North West London, with her Bengali family.

She went on to graduate from Oxford University with a degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics, and later landed her first job in telly with cable channel Zee TV.

She then joined the BBC's Asian Network and Channel Five before landing news reading roles on BBC Three and BBC News 24.

She will begin her role on Daybreak when the show launches next month in place of GMTV.

"Everyone involved with Daybreak was excited that Tasmin was joining the team," the Sun quoted a source as saying.

"But now the crew's eyes will be out on stalks the first time they see her stride on to the set. She's a stunning girl and the photos have certainly set tongues wagging," the source added.

'Flamingo Lady' forced to stand on one leg

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A Brit woman, dubbed the Flamingo Lady, suffers from a rare condition that forces her to stand on one leg.

Joanne Day, 36, a physiotherapist, from Weston-Under-Lizard, Shrops, has dystonia, a disorder with no known cure which causes muscle contractions to strike all over the body.

She has suffered agonising contortions since a roller-skating accident as a teen - with the latest cramping her left leg up to her chest.

"It's incredibly painful and I need morphine," the Mirror quoted her as saying.

"At first it was really upsetting. People would ask in the street why I was standing on one leg. They thought I was messing about.

"Being positive, though, is far more rewarding than spending all my time thinking this has ruined my life," she said.

The contortions started when her left shoulder was forced to her chin. They eased and then the flamingo stance set in. She is thought to be Britain's only sufferer.

She has had 60 operations but rules out more surgery as it could spread the spasms.

Chinese protesters chop off, swallow finger tip

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In a bizarre protest, four Chinese men in Beijing chopped off the tip of the little finger of their hand and swallowed it to protest their sacking from a power utility company.

Li Bo, Zhang Yongsheng, Huang Qunyue and Zhang Shen are former employees of the Ningyuan county electric power bureau in Hunan province's Yongzhou city.

The four men went to the Tsinghua University in Beijing at about 3.30 p.m. Sunday and placed their hands on books, Global Times reported.

Then, as hundreds of bystanders watched in horror, each one severed the tip of the little finger of their one hand.

As the blood squirted, they swallowed the severed tip.

They were forcibly expelled from the city Wednesday.

"I felt so calm doing that as we have been driven from pillar to post," Li was quoted as saying.

On July 9, they had filed a lawsuit against their employer, but the Hunan capital city court set it aside.

"We even received threats from local government officials who said 'We can have you ended for a mere 50,000 yuan ($7,382)'," Li alleged.

They said they were forced to take the step after exhausting all avenues.

Li claimed they were fired in December 2008 on fabricated charges of absenteeism.

Li said: "We decided on the step at home without telling our families, and bought the kitchen knives in Beijing."

Man who died 4,000 years ago gets face and voice

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The Bronze Age Gristhorpe Man, who died about 4,000 years ago, now has a face and voice, thanks to academics in Yorkshire.

Using state-of-the-art computer programme and forensic techniques, scientists have reconstructed the face of the Gristhorpe Man.

The skeleton of the Bronze Age man, thought to be a warrior chief, was discovered in Gristhorpe, near Filey, in 1834, and boiled in horse glue to preserve it.

It was displayed in the Scarborough Museum, now the Rotunda Museum, until 2006, and was later moved to the Division of Archaeological Sciences at Bradford University, where a series of tests and investigations were carried out on the remains.

Dr Alan Ogden used the results of the tests and his skills as a dentist and osteologist to build a facial reconstruction of the man, and modern software to animate the model and give him a voice.

"I hope that the visitor to the museum can visualise him as a living man, a senior figure in his society, used to being obeyed and probably even revered," the Press quoted him as saying.

The facial reconstruction and the remains of the Gristhorpe Man are back on display at The Rotunda Museum.

Programmer 'eats his grandma alive'

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A computer programmer has been arrested for allegedly eating his 60-year grandmother alive.

Sergei Zhmaryov (26) cut up the old woman with a shard of broken mirror and mutilated her face, said shocked police.

Cops said the alleged attack by Zhmaryov " known to neighbours as a religious fanatic " was a ritualistic killing.

"All this time she was conscious and tried to escape, screaming," the Sun quoted one police source as saying.

To stop the cries for help the grandson then allegedly sliced off her tongue " and ate that as well.

Eventually his grandmother Lydia " who lovingly raised him as a child after his parents split " died from her devastating wounds.

Police in Simferopol, Ukraine, had to pump gas into the flat to subdue and then arrest the alleged killer.

When he was arrested Zhmaryov was dressed only in his underpants, holding a cross and chanting prayers.

Police believe he may have been conducting a perverted 'funeral service' for his grandmother.

Local police chief Olga Kondrashova in Simferopol said: "We can only confirm that a 26-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of murder.

"I can add that this murder was committed with particular cruelty. We cannot disclose further details in the interests of the investigation."

Zhmaryov was admitted to smoking cannabis before his frenzied attack.

He is expected to face murder charges and could be jailed for up to 20 years.

Obama vows to fight India, China for new jobs

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US President Barack Obama has vowed to give tough competition to India and China for millions of potential jobs in the American clean energy industry, once again raising the bugaboo of outsourcing.

"For generations, manufacturing was the ticket to a better life for the American worker," he said at a meeting here Wednesday of the AFL-CIO Executive Council, America's union movement.

"But as the world became smaller, outsourcing, an easier way to increase profits, a lot of those jobs shifted to low-wage nations."

Millions of Americans were swept up in the disaster wrought by the Wall Street bubble burst, Obama said. "But I'm here to tell you, we are not giving up and we are not giving in. We are going to keep fighting for an economy that works for everybody, not just for a privileged few."

As part of the economic plan put in place by his administration to battle recession, the president said, "We're jumpstarting a new American clean energy industry - an industry with the potential to generate perhaps millions of jobs building wind turbines and solar panels, and manufacturing the batteries for the cars of the future, building nuclear plants, developing clean coal technology."

"There are other countries that are fighting for those jobs, in China and India and in Germany and other parts of Europe," Obama said. "But the United States doesn't play for second place.

"As long as I'm President, I'm going to keep fighting night and day to make sure that we win those jobs, that those are jobs that are created right here in the United States of America.

"So the message I want to deliver to our competitors-and to those in Washington who've tried to block our progress at every step of the way-is that we are going to rebuild this economy stronger than before, and at the heart of it are going to be three powerful words: Made in America. Made in America," he said amid applause.

That's why the US was finally enforcing its trade laws, he said. "That's why we're fighting for tax breaks for companies that invest here in the United States as opposed to companies that are investing overseas or that keep their profits offshore."

Girls love a man in red

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Men who have long tried to woo women with chocolates, flowers and witty chat-up lines, now have an easier way to impress women - just wear red.

Scientists feel that the colour red apparently makes men more sexually desirable, attractive and powerful to women, reports express.co.uk.

Researchers asked women from Britain, the US, China and Germany to rate photos of "moderately attractive" men in different coloured tops - with red making all the difference.

"Our findings suggest the link between red and sex also applies to men. Red is associated with fertility, power and passion in the animal kingdom, with humans seemingly feeling the same way," said Andrew Elliot, of Rochester University, New York, who headed this study.

"This suggests women's thoughts and feelings towards men are, at least in part, primitive. A man who wears red may feel dominant which influences his self-confidence and behaviour and may impress women," said Elliot.

Couple escapes unhurt as car falls into 150-metre cliff

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A German couple had a miraculous escape with only minor injuries after their car swerved off the road and plummeted 150 metres down a cliff in Australia's Victoria state.

The two tourists were travelling along the Northern Grampians Road at Zumsteins, when the 30-year-old woman driver lost control and the car tipped over the cliff at about 3 pm on Wednesday, the Herald Sun reported.

"The car rolled down the cliff going end over end, finishing up near the base of the cliff," a police spokesman said.

The man, 34, managed to get out of the car, but the woman was trapped inside. She was later rescued by the emergency crew and was taken to a hospital.

40 US billionaires pledge to donate to charity

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Forty billionaires and their families in the US have pledged to donate more than half of their fortune to charity.

The donators include Microsoft founder Bill Gates, businessman Warren Buffett, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, pharmaceutical tycoon Patrick Soon-Shiong, Oracle founder Larry Ellison and Hollywood director George Lucas, Xinhua reported.

The list also includes David Rockefeller, from the Rockefeller family, and Barron Hilton, son of Hilton Hotels founder Conrad Hilton.

The families all participated on Wednesday in the 'Giving Pledge', a donation drive launched by Buffett and Gates. The idea was to invite the wealthiest individuals and families in the US to give the majority of their wealth for philanthropic causes and to charitable organisations during their lifetime or even after their death.

"The pledge is a moral commitment to give, not a legal contract," a statement from the Giving Pledge said.

Buffett said the drive has "just started, but already we've had a terrific response".