Monday, November 29, 2010

Mid Day International News

Mid Day International News

Recession forces US lesbian resort to welcome men too!

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Key West's only lesbian-exclusive resort Pearl's Rainbow is going 'all welcome' for the first time over this Thanksgiving weekend because of economic hard times.

The resort was honored in October by Curve, the best-selling lesbian magazine, as the guesthouse that had the greatest impact on lesbian culture in the past 20 years.

Heather Carruthers, Pearl's Rainbow's lesbian owner, said it was a business decision based on tough economic realities and requests of some lesbian guests who would like to bring male family members or friends.

She said lesbians were being more accepted and felt more comfortable in the mainstream these days.

"They can hold hands wherever they want to. It's really the world we want to have. We don't necessarily want to be segregated," the Daily Mail quoted her as saying.

However, her 'all welcome' decision is not sitting well with all gay and lesbian businesses in the area.

Tinlin, who runs three of Key West's nine major all-men gay guesthouses, replied 'certainly not' when asked if he would be allowing women onto his premises.

"Our business is down because of the economy and BP oil spill, but it's very important for this destination to maintain its all-gay reputation," he said.

Key West, with a population of around 25,000, has a gay police chief, gay president of the Rotary Club, more than 400 members of its gay chamber of commerce and several elected gay officials - including Carruthers, a Monroe County commissioner.

Stephen Smith, sales manager for the Monroe County Tourist Development Council, said exclusively gay and lesbian resorts were under pressure because gay travellers had far more options than they did a decade ago.

"More and more hotel chains, car-rental companies and destinations are reaching out to the gay and lesbian market," he said.

"And why wouldn't they? It's a 1 billion dollars-a-year market," Smith added.

Smith said many gay visitors to Key West now chose to stay with a mainstream resort chain like the Westin, Marriott or Hyatt.

Aussie woman charged with raping another woman

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An Australian woman has been charged with raping another woman in the ladies toilet of Brisbane's Caxton Hotel.

Anne-Marie O'Loughlin, 25, is said to have kissed the other woman at the nightclub in the early hours of November 29 last year when she went alone to the bathroom, the Brisbane Times reported.

Opening the Crown case, prosecutor Chris Minnery told the jury the victim, who cannot be named and who was at the hotel with her partner and friends, returned the kiss in an effort to get away.

But O'Loughlin pushed her head into a wall and inside a toilet cubicle attempted to put her hand down her pants.

Minnery said O'Loughlin then scratched the woman's breast in the process of pulling her top and bra away before digitally raping her twice.

He said the alleged victim banged on the cubicle wall to get the attention of someone in a neighbouring stall, who announced she was getting security.

O'Loughlin left the toilet, but forgot her purse containing her identification in the cubicle, and was later detained outside the hotel.

She told police she had kissed the woman and that nothing else had happened between them, but she was charged after skin samples found under her fingernails matched the victim's DNA.

O'Loughlin pleaded not guilty to two counts of rape, deprivation of liberty and sexual assault at the Brisbane District Court.

Pakistani woman's nose cut-off by in-laws

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A Pakistani woman's nose was cut off and her head tonsured by her in-laws who then locked her up for three days because they suspected her of having an affair with a neighbour, police said.

The incident took place in Gujranwala in Punjab province.

Aasiya Bibi's brother-in-law Anwar, his wife Kalsoom and sons Waqas and Awais caught hold of her and cut off her nose and shaved off her head, alleging that she had an illicit relationship with a local man.

"Aasiya has been living with her in-laws for over seven years and her husband works in Multan, so he rarely manages to visit," Express Tribune quoted Aasiya's neighbour Nida as saying.

Nida said that Aasiya's in-laws were often cruel to her.

Police said that the family locked up Aasiya in a room where she lay for three days after the incident, till a police team released her after being tipped-off.

Aasiya told the police: "I had been beaten and they didn't give me proper food. They locked me up and I was still bleeding."

Police officials said that when they found Aasiya she was in a terrible state and was promptly taken to a hospital where her wounds were stitched up. Doctors said that she narrowly managed to avoid an infection.

"We were surprised that her open wounds hadn't got infected even thought they weren't treated for three days," medical superintendent Azam Skeikh was quoted as saying.

"She is currently receiving treatment but we expect her to make a full recovery," he added.

Aasiya's in-laws were unrepentant.

Her brother-in-law Anwar said: "She was having illicit relations with a neighbour. We caught her and this was her punishment. She deserved what happened to her...I should have killed her on the spot."

Indian student attacked in Australia

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In yet another attack on an Indian in Australia, a 31-year old cookery student was viciously stabbed in the stomach by two men after he finished work in a South Yarra bar early this month.

The student who did not want to be named underwent an emergency surgery and had a 26-stitches on his punctured bowel after the attack on November 5, AAP reported today.

He said the two men approached him in Lovers Walk South around 11:10 pm as he walked to a railway station. They asked him for money, and when he said he had none, he was punched and assaulted. "One punched me in the stomach, scolded me and said dirty words. I collected some courage and ran away."

"It wasn't until he reached South Yarra rail station that he realised he was bleeding and that he'd been stabbed. He hailed a taxi, which took him to The Alfred hospital where he was operated on immediately. The victim, who has been in Australia for two years, spent the next 10 days in hospital, and only then did he let his parents in India know what had happened.

Victoria police is now appealing for witnesses to the attack to come forward. "It was a very callous attack, and we want these two men off the streets," according to a senior police official Emma Frankcom. She said the attack did not appear to be racially motivated. "It appears to be a random attack," she said.

Over 100 incidents of attacks on Indians, including racial, have come to light since May last year in Australia. 21-year-old student Nitin Garg, who was stabbed to death here, was the first victim of such assaults this year.

I own the sun, says Spaniard

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After billions of years the Sun finally has an owner a Spanish woman said she had registered the star at a local notary public as being her property.

Angeles Duran (49) said yesterday she took the step in September after reading about an American man who had registered himself as the owner of the moon and most planets in our solar system.

There is an international agreement which states that no country may claim ownership of a planet or star, but it says nothing about individuals, she added.

"There was no snag, I backed my claim legally, I am not stupid, I know the law. I did it but anyone else could have done it, it simply occurred to me first."


US referred to Iran Prez as 'Hitler', Sarkozy as 'naked emperor'

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White House condemns document release

Whistle-blowing website Wikileaks has released 250,000 secret messages sent by US embassies which give an insight into current American global concerns.

They include reports of some Arab leaders including Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah urging the US to attack Iran and end its nuclear weapons programme.

Other concerns include the security of Pakistani nuclear material that could be used to make an atomic weapon.

The widespread use of hacking by the Chinese government is also reported.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is referred to as "Hitler" while President Nicolas Sarkozy of France is called a "naked emperor" in the documents.

The documents also say that North Korean leader Kim Jong-il suffers from epilepsy, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddhafi's full-time nurse is a "hot blonde".

The German Chancellor is referred to as Angela 'Teflon' Merkel and Afghan President Hamid Karzai is "driven by paranoia", the documents claim.

US officials referred to Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin as an "Alpha Male," while President Dmitry Medvedev is "afraid, hesitant."

The leak came minutes after Wikileaks claimed that it was under cyber attack on Sunday ahead of the expected release of thousands of secret documents.

Despite the glitch, five international news outlets The New York Times, The Guardian in England, and newspapers and magazines in three other European nations which had obtained the documents ahead of time published details of the leaked documents on their websites.

US condemns

The US government has condemned the release of state department documents.

"President Obama supports responsible, accountable, and open government at home and around the world, but this reckless and dangerous action runs counter to that goal," a White House statement said.

"We condemn in the strongest terms the unauthorised disclosure of classified documents and sensitive national security information."

What it says

The leaked US embassy cables also reportedly include accounts of:

Iran attempting to adapt North Korean rockets for use as long-range missiles
US officials being instructed to spy on the UN's leadership
The very close relationship between Russian PM Vladimir Putin and his Italian counterpart Silvio Berlusconi
Alleged links between the Russian government and organised crime
Criticism of UK politicians including Prime Minister David Cameron

'Dad will be king'

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Prince William has quashed speculation that he could become the next King ahead of his father, the Prince of Wales

In an attempt to end the debate over the issue of succession, Prince William has signalled that there is "no question" about whether his father will be the next monarch, despite his surge in popularity following his engagement to Kate Middleton.

Royal aides insist that Prince William (28) has "no desire to climb the ladder of kingship" prematurely, following two recent polls by ICM and YouGov that found that most people believe he would make a better king than his father and think that Prince Charles (62) should stand aside for his son.

A senior royal aide said, "There is no question in Prince William's mind that the Prince of Wales will be the next monarch.

Prince William is aware of the speculation, but he is very thick-skinned. He knows his place in the Royal family and he considers himself to be very low down the food chain. He has no desire to climb the ladder of kingship before his time."

Royal sources also said that Prince William did not share his late mother's view that he is more suited to the role of king than the Prince of Wales.

In 1995, Diana, Princess of Wales gave a candid television interview to the BBC in which she said that the role of king would bring "enormous limitations" to Prince Charles, and that Prince William may be better suited to succeed the Queen as monarch.

A royal source said, "Prince William is enormously proud of his mother and all her achievements, but that is so far off what he thinks. He is very close to his father and incredibly supportive of him and his work as the Prince of Wales.

"Both of them will let nature take its course. There is no suggestion from anywhere within the institution that a generation will be skipped."

Prince William is known to be sensitive at being seen to encroach on his father's role as heir to the throne and rarely attends official engagements with his father to avoid the spotlight falling on him rather than Prince Charles.

Poll chooses son

But according to the YouGov poll, only 15 per cent of the public felt that Prince Charles would make a better king, while 56 per cent preferred Prince William.

Royal aides also confirmed that Prince William, who works as a search-and-rescue helicopter pilot at RAF Valley in Anglesey, North Wales, will not be stepping up his royal duties following his marriage to Miss Middleton next year, despite St James's Palace receiving huge demand.

A royal aide said, "The Prince is not yet a full-time member of the Royal family first and foremost he is an RAF officer and he will continue in his role at RAF Valley until at least 2013.

"After that time, he may wish to continue in some role in the military, or begin his training for kingship, which may involve attachments to various government departments to learn more about constitutional affairs."

Wills for WC

As a search and rescue pilot, Prince William is used to tough assignments, but tomorrow he flies into Zurich charged with the nearest thing to Mission Impossible: rescuing England's World Cup bid.

England's bid is considered third favourite, behind Russia and the joint bid from Spain and Portugal. Only the joint bid from Holland and Belgium is more of an outsider.

Prince William, president of the Football Association, will lead a charm offensive, at the Bar Au Lac hotel, where Fifa's 22-man executive committee will be staying.


Posted by Harshad at 7:06 AM

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