Thursday, December 23, 2010

Mid Day International News

Mid Day International News

Brit boss gets freezing staff hypnotised into thinking they're warm

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A boss in Britain, who refuses to buy heaters to keep his freezing workers warm, has instead had them hypnotised into thinking that they are warm.

Martin Connellan bought coats for the lads in his cobblers' workshop where temperatures have plunged to -- 13 degree C, but with doors left constantly open to clear solvent fumes, the workers were still left shivering in the snow.

But after a five-minute session with hypnotist James Kerwin, the men were seen stripping down to shorts and T-shirts, and saying they were too hot.

"I definitely feel much hotter than I was. All my life I've had cold hands and that's even gone now. It's crazy how you can go from one extreme to the other like that," the Sun quoted worker Adam Hood, 27, as saying.

Connellan, a self-confessed Scrooge, who runs the workshop in Bromsgrove, Worcs, said hypnotising them was the last resort.

"It's all about mind over matter. It's a case of reprogramming people like you would a computer," hypnotist Kerwin of Studley, Warwicks, said.

"You can retrain people into thinking differently about how they feel. It seems to have done the trick," he explained.

Pamela Anderson cried during first Playboy shoot

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She has been a regular on men's magazine Playboy but blonde beauty Pamela Anderson says she cried and felt sick when she posed nude for the magazine first time.

Anderson was stunned when the adult publication asked her to bare all for them, the Contactmusic reported. "I was so confused. I told my mom about the offer and she said, 'Do it. I'd do it'. I was so shy I was sick. They got the cover in the first roll of film because I was in tears... And then, after a while shooting, I became so comfortable they had to stop before I walked out of the studio door nude," Anderson said.

The 43-year-old Hollywood star first appeared as Playboy cover girl in 1989 and was selected as their Playmate of the Month in 1990. Since then Anderson has appeared for a record 13th time on the magazine's 57-year publishing history, most recently for their January issue.

The former 'Baywatch' star also regret going under the knife to enhance her appearance and has vowed to age gracefully.

Hurley blames Indian media of running fictitious stories

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Elizabeth Hurley's split from Arun Nayar and her fledging romance with Australian cricketer Shane Warne might have first hit headlines in the UK but it is Indian media that has earned her wrath for making up stories about her.

Hurley recently took to twitter to announce her separation with Nayar after allegations in the British media that she cheated on her Indian husband with Australian cricketer Shane Warne. But the 45-year-old, who tweeted that she separated from Nayar "few months ago", is reportedly trying to save her marriage after realising that Warne was two-timing her with another woman, whom he flooded with racy messages.

Obviously, stories in India media that Nayar wants a quickie divorce with Hurley and has been spotted with a brunette has not gone down well with the actress. "The Indian press has to take top marks for fiction," a livid Hurley wrote on her twitter page. "Sorry to rain on your parade Gossip Press, but Arun's 'mystery brunette' is his brother's wife. Snigger (sic)," the former model said.

Earlier, miffed with speculation regarding her marital status post revelations, Hurley wrote: "Bored now of silly speculations: no one is divorcing anyone yet, no one is fighting over money and I have no plans to go to Australia. Enough!" Hurley, who has eight-year-old son Damion from a previous relationship, wed Nayar in an extravagant ceremony in India in 2007 and sold the pictures to magazines for millions.

The actress had also praised Nayar for being a great father to Damion days after announcing her split. "Painful, sad days. Arun & I separated for private reasons but FTR he has been a great father to our son Damian & will always be in his life.(sic)," Hurley had tweeted.

Hindu spiritual leader kidnapped; protests across Balochistan

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An octogenarian Hindu spiritual leader was kidnapped along with his companions in Pakistan's Balochistan province, sparking angry protests from the community members across the state.

Maharaja Luckmi Chand Garji, 82, was kidnapped with four companions Sajan Das, Ram Chand, Babo Lal and Venod Kumar late on Tuesday night on RCD Highway near Surab in Kalat district, the Daily Times newspaper reported. The kidnappers later released three of the men at a deserted spot. The whereabouts of Garji and Kumar, the son of a trader, are not known, the paper said.

The minority Hindu community organised protests in Khuzdar, Kalat, Naushki and provincial capital Quetta and blocked the National Highway and RCD Highway yesterday.

Addressing protesters at the Khuzdar Press Club, Hindu leaders said the government had failed to protect the life and property of the people, particularly the minorities. The Hindu Panchayat organised a protest outside the Quetta Press Club and demanded the recovery of the kidnapped spiritual leader. It also organised took out a rally from the Arya Samaj Mandir and marched through Jinnah Road, Masjid Road, Shahra-e-Iqbal and Manan Chowk in Quetta.

Balochistan Chief Minister Nawab Aslam Raisani has taken notice of the kidnapping and asked authorities to ensure the safe recovery of Garji. Sajan Das, one of the men released by the kidnappers, told reporters: "Five armed men in a vehicle were chasing us and intercepted us when they got an opportunity near Surab, about 100 kilometres from Kalat."

Garji and his companions were on their way to Khuzdar to attend a marriage, Sajan Das said. The kidnappers blindfolded and tied the hands of three men before freeing them near a mountain, he said.

Hindu community leaders said incidents of kidnapping had become a routine and it appeared as if highwaymen and kidnappers had been given a 'free hand'. They alleged that police and other law enforcement agencies were patronising kidnappers.

UK Muslim hate group launches 'poster campaign' terming Christmas 'evil'

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Fanatics from a banned Islamic hate group have reportedly launched a nationwide 'poster campaign' in Britain describing Christmas as an "evil" festival that is responsible for rape, teenage pregnancies, abortion, promiscuity, crime and paedophilia.

According to the Daily Mail, Islam4UK group launched the campaign with an intention to convert Christians to Islam in the UK.

The placards, which have already appeared in parts of London, feature an apparently festive scene with an image of the Star of Bethlehem over a Christmas tree. They also include lines announcing the festive season as ''the evils of Christmas'' and also feature a message mocking the song the 12 Days of Christmas.

The bottom of the poster declares: "In Islam we are protected from all of these evils. We have marriage, family, honour, dignity, security, rights for man, woman and child."

Twenty-seven-year-old Abu Rumaysah, the campaign''s organiser who once called for Sharia Law in Britain, has said that Christmas is a lie and as Muslims it is "our duty to attack it."

Earlier this year, Former Home Secretary Alan Johnson had banned Islam4UK group making it a criminal offence to be a member, after it threatened to protest at Wootton Bassett, the town where Britain honours its war dead soldiers.

However the campaign was criticised by a number of Britons, including politicians.

Labour MP and anti racist campaigner Jim Fitzpatrick branded the posters ''extremely offensive'' and demanded that they should be immediately taken off.

Sister Christine Frost, founder of the East London Neighbours in Poplar charity, said she was extreme angry after seeing the posters.

"Someone is stirring hatred which leaves the road open to revenge attacks or petrol bombs through letter-boxes. I told the Mayor we are all scared. If we said such things about Muslims, we''d all be hanging from lamp-posts," she added.

Two police officers arrested in Bhutto murder case

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Pakistani authorities Wednesday arrested two senior police officers for alleged dereliction of duty over the 2007 assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, a prosecutor said.

Bhutto was assassinated in a gun and suicide attack Dec 27, 2007 after addressing an election rally in Rawalpindi.

A court in Rawalpindi this month issued warrants for the arrest of Saud Aziz, who was city police chief at the time of the killing, and Khurram Shahzad, another senior policeman for their "failure" to protect Bhutto, Dawn News reported.

Both police officers were accused of providing insufficient security to Bhutto and hosing down the crime scene before all the evidence was collected.

"Both of the police officers have been arrested. The court rejected their application for bail," special prosecutor Chaudhry Zulfiqar Ali told reporters.

Asked about the alleged refusal of post-mortem examination, Ali said: "The honourable judge rejected their application for bail and ordered their arrest because it was the state's obligation to carry out a post-mortem."

According to the prosecutor, the judge rejected as evidence an audio tape in which Bhutto's husband, now President Asif Ali Zardari, apparently asked for the post-mortem not to be carried out.

The court has been adjourned until Jan 7, Ali said.

In April, a UN panel accused the government of failing to provide Benazir with adequate protection and said investigations were hampered by intelligence agencies and other officials who impeded "an unfettered search for the truth".

At the time, the government of then military ruler Pervez Musharraf blamed the assassination on Pakistan's former Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud, who denied any involvement.

Mehsud was killed in a US drone attack in August 2009, one of the most high-profile casualties of the covert American campaign targeting Al Qaeda and its allies in Pakistan's tribal belt, the report said.

Bhutto, who served two terms as prime minister, returned from exile two months before she was assassinated, to participate in general election.

Zardari led the Pakistan Peoples Party to election victory in February 2008 and is now the head of state.

Haitian babies fly to France

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French families adopt 300 children from earthquake-hit country

More than 100 children from Haiti arrived in France yesterday to start new lives with their adoptive families an event some parents described as an early Christmas present.

Many children were bundled up in bright new winter coats, and some were wrapped in silvery reflective blankets to keep out the unaccustomed cold, as they arrived in Paris from their Caribbean homeland.

The French government had chartered a plane to bring adoptive families to Haiti to pick up 113 children from the country, which is still reeling from a January earthquake and now a deadly cholera epidemic.

Adoptive mother Isabelle Frapat, holding 15-month-old Mael in her arms, told reporters the experience was "pure happiness, and all that at Christmas time".

Adoptive father Barque Partube called the arrival "a very, very nice Christmas gift".

The flight to Paris brought the first group of over 300 children who are expected to start a new life in France. Another flight is expected tomorrow.

Sensitive subject

The French government had been under pressure from adoptive families to speed up the complex proceedings.
International adoption is a sensitive subject in Haiti.

After the earthquake, a group of US missionaries tried to take 33 children out of the country without proper documents, claiming they were orphans. They all had at least one living parent.

Haiti, the poorest country in the Americas, has been struggling to reconstruct buildings since the natural disaster struck almost 12 months ago.

2.3 lakh
Number of people who died in the earthquake in Haiti on January 12

Dj suspended

A DJ in New York has been suspended indefinitely over an on-air comment linking Haitian women to HIV.

"The reason I'm HIV negative is because I don't mess with Haitian girls," DJ Cipha Sounds said last week on
hip-hop station HOT 97.

The comment sparked outrage in New York's Haitian community, prompting activists and local leaders to call for his dismissal. Sounds later apologised for his "stupid tasteless joke".
Posted by Harshad at 7:14 AM

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