Thursday, August 26, 2010

Mid Day International News

Mid Day International News

Transsexual 'sacked for wearing dress to work'

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A transsexual care worker is set to sue her former bosses after they allegedly sacked her for turning up for work in a dress.

Rachel Millington, 24, of Lincoln, revealed she had made it a point to warn her employers before she made her first appearance as a woman.

She also advised them that she had changed her name from Andrew.

But Millington said they were unsupportive, and when she donned a frock for the first time things got even more fraught.

"I came to work as Rachel and from then on it got worse. One day they phoned me and said 'Don't bother coming in'," the Sun quoted her as saying.

She said the disabled people she worked with had no problem with her new identity.

She is now suing Housing and Support Solutions Ltd in Cleethorpes, Lincs, for unfair dismissal, sexual discrimination and loss of earnings.

The firm refused to comment on the case, which will be heard next month.

It's official! Marriage is bad for your sex life

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Marriage takes a toll on your sex life, reveals a survey, which found that one third of married people no longer fancy their partner as much as they did in the early days, with 43 per cent claiming their loved one has let themselves go.

Researchers found before walking down the aisle, couples can expect to have sex more than four times a week.

But after three years of life as man and wife most couples are lucky to have sex just once every seven days.

It also emerged six out of ten couples believe marriage has completely ruined the excitement of having sex.

Astonishingly, just under half of all married people say their relationship with their partner is more like friends than lovers.

Extra-marital dating service www.lovinglinks.co.uk conducted the poll of 3,000 married people.

"Unfortunately, while you can be deeply in love with someone and want to spend the rest of your life with them, it is also possible to want more from the relationship," the Daily Mail quoted a spokesman of the service as saying.

"A partner might be supportive, funny, intelligent, and kind, but if they don't inspire confidence in the bedroom, or don't meet expectations sexually life can be frustrating.

"And it is at times like this when eyes start to wander, and folk start to think about having a no-strings affair with someone else.

"After 14 years of providing a service where married people can look for sex elsewhere, we have good reason to believe many relationships are strengthened by a little out-of-marriage activity," added the spokesman.

The poll shows 59 per cent of couples believe their sex life has worsened since marriage because they no longer make an effort with each other any more.

And a third no longer fancy their partner as much as they did in the early days, with 43 per cent claiming their loved one has let themselves go.

Unfortunately, eight in ten couples are in a bit of a sexual rut - having sex at the same time, in the same place and in the same positions every time they sleep together.

In fact, 79 per cent of people are happier getting a good night''s sleep than making the effort to have spontaneous sex in the middle of the night.

But when it comes to having an affair, two thirds of those who have dabbled admit the sex was mind-blowing compared to the once-a-week missionary with their husband or wife.

And even a fifth of those who haven't yet played away from home would have a one-night stand if the opportunity presented itself or if their sex life with their partner doesn't improve.

The same percentage even said they would understand if their partner suddenly confessed to sleeping with someone else.

Unsurprisingly, a quarter of those polled admit to having had a one night stand to satisfy their craving for good sex.

And 14 per cent have even embarked on a hot blooded affair.

"Modern marriages are becoming a little more open where sex is concerned, and these days we are quicker to forgive if someone has a little one night stand," said the Loving Links spokesman.

"It is never nice to learn that our partners aren't satisfied in the bedroom department, but if sleeping with someone else spurs couples on to make more of an effort with each other that can only be a good thing," he added.

Two thirds of couples blame their hectic lifestyle for their terrible sex life, and 80 per cent are often too tired to bother once the day is over.

Seven in 10 people reckon they might be inclined make love more if their partner made more of an effort romantically.

300 kg Thai woman takes crane to hospital

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Bangkok city officials Thursday deployed a heavy-lift crane to move a woman weighing 300 kg down from her apartment, two storeys up, to get to hospital.

Amnuayporn Thongprapai, 40, agreed to the dramatic departure in order to receive treatment for sores that covered her legs, believed to be a symptom of diabetes, Thai television reported.

She had not budged from her Bangkok apartment for the past three years, the report said.

The Bangkok Metropolitan Authority officials had to widen the window to get her on to the platform bed of the crane, usually used for evacuating heavy objects from burning buildings and other heavy-lift emergencies.

Amnuayporn said she hoped her neighbours would help take care of her two young sons during her treatment at Bangkok Central Hospital.


Parking row costs couple their marriage

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A minor parking dispute outside a couple's home not only cost them their home, but also their marriage.

Michael and Elaine Smith's troubles began in June 2008 when they parked a car on land they owned behind their home. Their neighbours, however, said their access was being blocked.

A few days later, the couple got a legal letter demanding that they move the car. But they were advised by a solicitor not to do so.

Last year they received summons to attend Leeds County Court.

The Smiths, who did not have legal representation at the hearing, lost the case and were told to pay legal costs as well as 36,000 pounds in compensation.
The couple, who had been married for 36 years and have four children, were in a financial doldrum.

They then put up their two-bedroom house in Stanley, Wakefield, on the market. But it didn't sell and they were taken back to court.

The possession of the house was then handed to their neighbour's solicitor earlier this month.

"Our relationship fell apart. This has destroyed me and my entire family. Before this we had a solid, happy marriage but now we're not living together and barely speak," Daily Express quoted 55-year-old Elaine as saying.

Michael said: "The car was parked on our land but they said it was blocking their right of way. I said I would move it when I'd found somewhere else to put it. The next thing, they'd called in a solicitor. It seems surreal that all this has happened over something so trivial."


Lingerie model dies in sleep

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A 23-year-old lingerie model in Britain died in her sleep when her heart stopped beating.

Hayley Crook had no previous health problems. Hayley posed for Ann Summers underwear, The Sun reported Thursday.

"We went to bed around 10.30 p.m. and I woke up at around four or five in the morning," her childhood sweetheart Richard Tomlin told an inquest hearing.

"She was still asleep and I could hear her breathing. I went back to sleep and woke again at 7.30 a.m. when the alarm went off. She normally woke up before me. As I leant over to turn the alarm off, she was just lying on her back, still.

"Her eyes were open and she was just staring blankly."

The model was taken to North Hampshire Hospital, Basingstoke. She died June 17.

Coroner Andrew Bradley told the inquest: "There was nothing positively, detectably wrong with her. The electrical current in her heart just became interrupted and stopped."

There were no external marks on her and and her internal organs were healthy, a postmortem examination showed.

A pathologist said that the most likely cause of death was cardiac arrhythmia, which is known as sudden adult death syndrome.


Doctor kills self as lover weds in Pakistan

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A junior doctor in Britain committed suicide by taking an overdose of drugs after hearing about her Pakistani boyfriend's arranged marriage, a court was told.

Jennifer Suraweera, 26, took a fatal overdose three weeks after her Pakistani boyfriend and colleague, Jawad Usman, told her he was getting married in his home country.

She was found drowsy and unresponsive by her brother Raj at her flat, the Sheffield Coroner's Court heard.

A post mortem examination revealed Jennifer had taken a fatal dose of the beta-blocker Propanalol, Daily Mail reported Wednesday.

Her brother, Raj Suraweera, himself a trainee doctor, said his sister never mentioned the drug.

He told the inquest: "It was a big shock for me. She had been stressed and I think after Usman called from Pakistan she didn't want to tell anyone. She's not someone who showed any sign of weakness in the past, she was a very tough person. I didn't realise the extent of the time she was taking off work."

Lynne Sykes, of Worsbrough Medical Centre, said in the months before her death, Jennifer had been having difficulties in her job.

In December, she was found collapsed in her consulting room and rushed to hospital unconscious. She was revived but no cause was diagnosed. She was off work for three weeks and fell further behind with her workload.

"Then, after two days back, she had more time off, first due to snow, then a fall in her bathroom, then flu, then laryngitis and then gallstones," Sykes said.

"I was extremely dubious that the information being given was not right and that there was something she wasn't telling me. She didn't want to speak to me.

"I was under the impression something was troubling her. We discussed her collapse but she made no mention of Propanalol."

The court was told that Jennifer had not been prescribed the beta-blocker, but she could have written her own prescription to obtain it.

Assistant deputy coroner Donald Coutts Wood adjourned the hearing to investigate prescriptions and to ask Jennifer's mother - with whom she spent her last day - to attend court and give evidence.

He said: "The evidence I've got at the moment is the drug was not forced on her, so she must have taken it. She's medically trained and I can assume she knew what it was for. She's clearly taken it to excess voluntarily, but why?"



Wikileaks releases secret CIA document

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Whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks Wednesday published an internal report by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) into a perception that the US was exporting terrorism.

The three-page document, dated Feb 2, 2010, is called "What If Foreigners See the United States as an 'Exporter of Terrorism?'", the CNN reported.

Wikileaks set off a controversy recently when it posted some 90,000 documents related to the war in Afghanistan. It later said it has another 15,000 documents, which it plans to release soon. The Pentagon has asked WikiLeaks to return all documents belonging to it and delete any records of the same.

A senior US official, however, said the document released Wednesday does not divulge spectacular developments.

"These sorts of analytic products - clearly identified as coming from the agency's 'Red Cell' - are designed to simply provoke thought and present different points of view," said CIA spokesman George Little.

Another US intelligence official said: "It's always disturbing when classified information is inappropriately disclosed." However, the official added, "this is not a blockbuster paper".

The document is labeled "secret", the lowest level of classification, they said.

Julian Assange, Wikileaks' founder and editor, was charged with rape in Sweden recently, but the warrant was revoked a day later by the chief prosecutor.

Assange said the accusations are "clearly a smear campaign". "The only question is, who was involved?"

US Defence Secretary Robert Gates criticised the leak of documents saying it would have a significant negative impact on troops and allies, revealing techniques and procedures.

Assange later defended the leak, saying it can help shape the public's understanding of the war. The material was of no operational significance and that WikiLeaks tried to ensure the material did not put innocent people at risk, he said.

Rapper denies suicide over watch theft

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Hip-hop hitmaker Timbaland has been left stunned by reports that he was contemplating suicide after a valuable watch was stolen from his home in Malibu, Los Angeles.

I'm ok: Timbaland insists he is not suicidal. File pic

TMZ.com reported the LA sheriff's department had put out an all points bulletin (APB) just before 5 pm local time on Tuesday after the producer disappeared following the burglary.

Reports suggested that Timbaland was distraught after discovering a $2 million (Rs 94 crore) watch had been stolen from his timepiece collection.

Sheriff's spokesperson Steve Whitmore confirms a helicopter and squad cars were dispatched to hunt for Timbaland's Escalade, following a worried call to cops from a family friend.

Whitmore has since revealed Timbaland was not a threat to himself and there was no suicide attempt.

And the rapper has now gone public over the fuss, insisting he's still trying to understand how a drive to clear his head after the burglary became a suicide search.

Speaking on Ryan Seacrest's radio show from from the studio, Timbaland said he was putting the final touches on Keri Hilson's new album. "I'm in the studio," he said. "I don't know if a person committing suicide would be in the studio."

He added, "I don't know what happened. I don't know what they are talking about... The only thing I did was take a drive to figure out how I was gonna handle it (burglary)."

Police are investigating the theft of the watch.

Confusion
According to family members, the 39-year-old hip-hop superstar disappeared following the theft of his Rs 94 crore Jacob & Co. watch from his home. His wife and mother-in-law called in the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said he had left his Malibu home "upset, under a lot of stress" and they feared a "possible suicide attempt." An APB was issued and a helicopter and squad cars were mobilised

Sea levels to rise upto 70 cm by 2100

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Sea levels are likely to rise by 30 to 70 centimetres by 2100, even if the most aggressive geo-engineering schemes are undertaken to curb global warming and greenhouse emissions.

"Rising sea levels caused by global warming are likely to affect around 150 million people living in low-lying coastal areas, including some of the world's largest cities," warned Svetlana Jevrejeva of the National Oceanography Centre in Britain.

Geo-engineering is an artificial mode of counteracting increasing carbon dioxide levels in the air or screening out sunlight with orbiting mirrors, among others.

Scientists from Britain, Denmark and China have proposed ways of 'geo-engineering' the earth system to tackle global warming, reports the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Jevrejeva and her colleagues have modelled sea level over the 21st century under various geo-engineering schemes and carbon dioxide (CO2) emission scenarios, according to a statement of the National Oceanography Centre.

Their simulations show that injections of sulphur dioxide particles into the upper atmosphere, equivalent to a major volcanic eruption such as that of Mt Pinatubo every 18 months, would reduce temperature and delay sea-level rise by 40 to 80 years.

Maintaining such an aerosol cloak could keep sea level close to what it was in 1990.

However, use of sulphur dioxide injection would be costly and also risky because its effects on ecosystems and the climate system are poorly understood.

"We simply do not know how the Earth system would deal with such large-scale geo-engineering action," Jevrejeva said.

Large mirrors orbiting the Earth could deflect more of the Sun's energy back out to space, reducing temperatures and help control sea level, but the logistics and engineering challenges of such a scheme are daunting.

The researchers argue that perhaps the least risky and most desirable way of limiting sea-level rise is bioenergy with carbon storage (BECS).

Biofuel crops could be grown on a large-scale and CO2 released during their combustion or fermentation could be captured and the carbon stored as biochar in the soil or in geological storage sites.

BECS has some advantages over chemical capture of CO2 from the atmosphere, which requires an energy source, although both approaches could eventually reduce atmospheric CO2 levels to pre-industrial level, according to the new simulations.


Posted by Harshad at 7:22 AM

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