Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Mid Day International News

Mid Day International News

President Obama's birth certificate continues to be a controversy

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Reverend Jesse Jackson has said the birther movement is an attack on the legitimacy of the nation's first African-American president, Barack Obama, which raises "ancient racial fears."

"Any discussion of his birthplace is a code word. It calls upon ancient racial fears," Politico quoted him, as saying.

Talking about Donald Trump, who had earlier demanded a copy of Obama's birth certificate after his own birth certificate was declared a fake by the New York's Department of Health, Jackson said: "Trump has trumpeted this cause. For him to go down this low is a bit surprising. He is now tapping into code-word fears that go far beyond a rational discourse."

Earlier, Oscar-winner actor De Niro had indirectly asked Trump to get facts first before making allegations.

"I won't mention names, but certain people in the news in the last couple weeks, just what are they doing? It's crazy. They're making statements about people that they don't even back up. Go get the facts before you start saying things about people," he said.

Trump, however, downplayed the demand saying De Niro is "not the brightest bulb on the planet," and therefore, should not comment on the birther issue, especially when it comes to President Obama.

"I like his acting, but in terms of when I watch him doing interviews and various other things, we're not dealing with Albert Einstein. He can say what he wants but the fact is that this guy President Barack Obama has not revealed his birth certificate, a lot of people agree with me," he added.

Muslim actress branded a 'western slut' after posing naked for Playboy

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The nude pictures of a Muslim actress in the German May 2011 issue of Playboy are stirring up outrage in the Muslim community.

Sila Sahin, a 25-year-old Turkish German living in Berlin, has been branded a 'whore' and a 'western slut' after appearing topless on the cover of the men's magazine.

Islamic fanatics have posted threatening Internet messages against her for 'shaming Muslim womanhood' and 'prostituting herself for money', reports the Sun.

"She needs to be very careful..." Another simply said: "She must pay," said a poster on the Jihad Watch website.

The Islamic Community of Germany has also called for a boycott of Sila.

Sila, raised in Germany by conservative Turkish parents, says she fears being 'spat at' and 'shamed'.

Her parents are said to have reacted with 'horror' at the 12-page coverage, and her mother has apparently cut off all contact.

Sila, star of German soap 'Good Times, Bad Times', claimed the shoot was a reaction to the 'slavery' of her youth.

"What I want to say with these photos is, 'Girls, we don't have to live according to the rules imposed upon us'," she said.


"For years I subordinated myself to various societal constraints. The Playboy photo shoot was a total act of liberation," she added.

World's eyes on William and Kate

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When it comes to pomp and pageantry, nobody does it quite like the Brits. The English capital gears up for the wedding of the century on April 29

LETTER FROM LONDON By Amit Roy


You play football, we play footsie: Prince William and Kate Middleton
meet players from a local youth football team during a visit to Witton
Country Park in Darwen, Lancashire, where the couple were undertaking
their last joint official engagement before the wedding

Who can forget the heart-rending spectacle of the princes William and Harry, then 15 and 11, walking, heads bowed but still dignified, behind their mother's coffin after she was killed in a car crash in a Paris tunnel on August 31, 1997? The boys were staying at Balmoral in Scotland with their father and the Queen and Prince Philip. It fell to Charles to creep into William's bedroom in the early hours of the morning and break the terrible news to his elder son. Together, they woke up Harry and told him what had happened. Whatever Diana's differences with Charles, which had led to their divorce in 1996, no one doubted she was a good mother who adored her sons.


I'M ALREADY HERE: Early bird John Loughrey, aged 56 from South London,
stakes his position in front of Westminster Abbey

Anger
Since as part of the divorce settlement, Diana had been stripped of her 'HRH' (Her Royal Highness) prefix, a groundswell of genuine anger swept the country after her death. A mountain of flowers piled up outside Kensington and Buckingham Palaces almost as gestures of defiance against the monarchy. Much of the mounting fury was directed against the Queen and Prince Philip who must have feared for the long-term future of the monarchy. Though this was against tradition, the Royal standard was lowered over Buckingham Palace. Men and women, who had never met Diana or perhaps even seen her, felt a sense of personal loss at her passing. Something changed, perhaps even broke in Britain, with Diana's death. In time, Charles married again, even though some still hold his second wife, the former Mrs. Camilla Parker-Bowles and now the Duchess of Cornwall, responsible in some way for the unravelling of Diana's marriage - Diana had made that devastating comment in a TV interview that, "there were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded".

Affectionate
Fast forward 14 years and that same William has grown up into a young man well over six-feet tall. He and Harry are close to their father and seem also to be on affectionate terms with Camilla. She was the one who offered advice to Diana when she was about to marry Charles. Now, Camilla has taken Kate Middleton under her wing but this time her efforts seem genuinely well intentioned. Recent history indicates few of the royals have been lucky in love, but so far as anyone can tell at this early stage, Kate and William seem well matched.
Over the past decade and a half, many of the old wounds have healed, so that the royal wedding offers an opportunity to modernise the monarchy and yet retain some of the magic of the old. Without the magic, it would be a doomed institution or as inconsequential as most of the royal families in Europe. Many of them are perfectly decent and hardworking but the world would be hard put to name many or any of them.


Desi whirl: Indians have been pouring into London, prior to the wedding.
'That's me, Mummy, in front of the main Buckingham Palace gates'

Pomp
To be sure, there are pockets in the population, which display either Republican sympathies or indifference but there is nothing like a royal wedding to give the British a sense of who they are. Economically, the country is passing through bad times and yet, when it comes to pomp and circumstance, the British are in a class of their own. Britain is no longer the global power it was nor does it pretend to be one but it realises that as April 29 approaches, the eyes of the world will be very much on London. One cannot help but feel that if the attention to detail that is being lavished on the wedding could be applied to getting the economy right, this country would not be in trouble.

Ceremonial
On Friday, the world will see Britain dressed up to look its best. It will be a thrilling experience to see William and Kate - sadly, she is being transformed into a less natural "Catherine" - emerge from Westminster Abbey and travel in the state landau accompanied by 150 cavalry riding in unison. As Indian president Pratibha Patil discovered when she was given a ceremonial welcome at Windsor during her state visit to the UK in 2009, no one does it quite like the Brits.


Aesthetics and calisthenics: Srichand Hinduja lives near Buckingham
Palace and can admire the flowers and do his early morning exercises
in front of the Palace

Blood
When Kate and William arrive at Buckingham Palace after their wedding, they will be welcomed in the forecourt by the Band of the Welsh Guards. Major Steve Barnwell, who will lead with his ceremonial mace, said, "We are the envy of the world for pomp and ceremony for state occasions. It's in our blood." One commentator said, "Two billion people around the world are expected to watch the wedding. Here in Britain, we shall also be watching ourselves, as we engage in a communal experience that has nothing to do with Whitehall or Town Hall, and everything to do what we are, how we got here and where we are going."

Gentility
The Queen is in good health and will celebrate the diamond jubilee of her reign next year but she is 85. Poor Charles, now 62, has remained an heir longer than anyone else and, barring the unforeseen, King William V will succeed him as monarch one day.


Regent Regalia: Bunting hangs along Regent Street, London, in
celebration of the forthcoming royal wedding

BACKGROUND
There has been some concern that Kate's background is not aristocratic enough. The British are even more obsessed about class than Indians about caste. "Kate Middleton does represent something new - but people are getting hung up on the wrong things," insists the historian David Starkey. "I don't think the fact that her great-grandparents were Durham miners, or her mother was an air hostess, are historically significant. People from such backgrounds have married into noble circles. Ever since the 19th century, public schools have been a gateway to gentility. The most positive thing of all is that William and Catherine are equals, which really is the new thing." As people file into Westminster Abbey on Friday morning, "I think it's important for people to remember that this wedding isn't just froth," observes Starkey. "It's much more interesting than that. Monarchy is about family, about succession, therefore marriage is absolutely essential. And love? Ah, well, that's not essential as we have seen. But it's nice when it happens, isn't it?"

Diana
Today, in the shy way that he sometimes looks and in his ability to touch people, people do detect something of Diana in William. She will be there with him, in the way Indians believe loving parents can keep a kindly eye on their children after they are gone. William, who gave Diana's engagement ring to Kate, does not talk about his mother in public anymore. But in one interview he did admit, "There is not a day that goes by that I don't think about her."

Author plans plastic surgery to look like Shakespeare

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A high-profile Chinese author is planning to spend more than $150,000 (Rs 66 lakh) on plastic surgery to make himself look like William Shakespeare. Zhang Yiyi will undergo 10 surgeries over a 10-month period to sculpt his face into the splitting image of the British playwright, the Shanghai Daily reported.


Lookalike: Yiyi will undergo 10 surgeries over a 10-month period to
sculpt his face into the image of Shakespeare. pic/Getty Images

"Life is a process of striving to become a better person. I think the surgeries are worth the money," Zhang was quoted as saying. The surgeon set to perform the procedures said it would not be too difficult because Zhang already has a sculpted face with a sharp nose and deep eyes, similar to Shakespeare. The work would focus on his chin and eyes, the report said. Zhang's plan was dismissed as attention-seeking by many Chinese internet users. Zhang is a controversial figure who once compared himself to China's great sage, Confucius.


Act goes awry, human cannonball dies

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A human cannonball was killed in front of shocked kids yesterday when his safety net collapsed after he was fired into the air. The 23-year-old stuntman was catapulted 50 feet and crashed head first on to the ground. Witnesses told how they saw the cab of the truck tilt forward which sent the net tumbling down.


Death trap: Police believe the stunt man died because the safety net
failed to open causing him to land face down. Pic/Getty images

The daredevil lay motionless on his side with blood pouring from his mouth. Paramedics took him to hospital where he died later. The tragic performer had given a thumbs-up and waved to the 2,000-strong crowd as he climbed a ladder into the giant gun. Wearing a red and black jumpsuit and silver crash helmet, he paused at the top before sliding into the gun.

The crowd including hundreds of children chanted "5-4-3-2-1" and "Fire!" before a puff of white smoke exploded at the back of the cannon and he was launched into the air. After the stuntman fell from 40 feet to the ground, the shocked announcer said, "Whoa -- hang on, hang on. We need the St John Ambulance."

The victim, who has not yet been formally named, was called Matt the Manx Crank by the announcer minutes before the stunt went wrong. Last night, the tragedy at the Scott May's Daredevil Stunt Shows at the County Showground in Detling, Kent, was being investigated.

Rob Hutchinson (42), of Kent, was with his wife and two young children. He said, "The net was already up. He climbed out on top, climbed down into the tube, they gave this countdown then he came out of the tube. He turned over and then you can see the net is flat on the floor, not up in the air, and he is coming down head-first towards the ground. I saw him hit the floor and bounce. It was like a dummy being thrown."

Human cannonballs are fired into the air using either a hydraulic spring or by a jet of compressed air. A cloud of smoke is sent up to make it look like the cannon has fired. Scott May use a 7.5-tonne HGV truck to hold both the cannon and net in place. The netting is also held taut by supporting poles that let the stuntman land safely. The firm's website dubs itself the "greatest show on wheels" because of its fleet of monster trucks. Last night it announced all shows had been cancelled until further notice.

Did you know?
The current world record for the farthest human cannonball flight is by David Smith Jr on March 17 2011 in Milan.

First flight out
The first human cannonball, in 1877 at the Royal Aquarium in London, was a 14 year-old girl, Rossa Matilda Richter, with the stage name of Zazel. She was launched by a spring-style cannon invented by a Canadian.


Ninja warrior of British town

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Dressed head to toe in black, this ninja warrior stands ready to give hope to ordinary citizens on the mean streets of Royal Tunbridge Wells. The masked vigilante -- who looks remarkably like a man in judo pyjamas and a balaclava -- patrols the streets, righting wrongs and giving hope to the residents of the Kent town.

His feats include heroics such as returning lost cats to their owners and warning illegally parked drivers that they risk a parking fine. The anonymous 25-year-old is also on hand to help old ladies across the road in deeds described as 'odd' by grateful recipients of his aid.

The Ninja has posted photographs and video of his crusade on a Facebook page and insists he is determined to bring justice to the streets. "Facebook seems to think I am not a real person but I can assure you that I am. The rumours are true. I am a ninja and I am patrolling Tunbridge Wells," he said.

"It is my aim to help people, I am inspired by Neighbourhood Watch, which people seem to have forgotten about. So I've created Ninja Watch."However, critics have pointed out that his campaign has similarities to a hoax in 2003 in which local residents claimed a caped crusader was fighting crime on the streets.

Sally Everson, who saw the Ninja help some ladies across a road said, "It was very odd, but the ladies were happy. Then I saw him stand outside a shop where some undesirables hang out and they moved on quite quickly."


Will Kate wear Queen's tiara?

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A gambler is set to win Rs 50 lakh if Middleton wears the Queen's wedding tiara when she marries Prince William on Friday

A gambler stands to win �72,000 (Rs 50 lakh) after betting that Kate Middleton will become the first 'commoner' to wear the Queen's diamond tiara on her wedding day. The bet that she will wear the George III Tiara was placed by a well-spoken middle-aged woman in Egham, Berkshire, yesterday. The Russian fringe tiara is part of the Crown Jewels and was made in 1919 for Queen Mary. It has since been worn by the Queen Mother, the Queen and Princess Anne at their weddings.


Passed down: The Queen Mother also loaned the diamond tiara to
Princess Anne for her wedding to Captain Mark Phillips in 1973

Middleton had previously been heavily tipped to wear flowers on her head as she marries on Friday -- but the large bet has strengthened suspicions that she will don the George III tiara. One bookmaker in Ascot yesterday refused to take the woman's �6,000 (Rs 4 lakh) bet, convinced that she had inside information. But she drove to a Ladbrokes in Egham where she was offered odds of 12-1. Her gamble, thought to be the largest on the Royal Wedding so far, has driven Ladbrokes to stop taking bets on what Middleton will wear on her head on Friday.

A spokesman for Ladbrokes said, "When someone walks in off the street and places a bet like that alarm bells start ringing. We have very strong suspicions that this is what she will be wearing on Friday." The George III tiara was made in 1830 as a necklace with diamonds belonging to King George III. It was inherited by Queen Mary, for whom it was turned into a tiara and in turn given to the Queen Mother. There was a minor drama when she snapped the tiara in Buckingham Palace, hours before her wedding.

But the court jeweller, under police guard, was able to repair it in time. She loaned it to the Queen as 'something borrowed' for her wedding to Prince Phillip in 1947. The Queen Mother loaned it again to Princess Anne for her 1973 marriage to Captain Mark Phillips. Queen Victoria first wore the George III diamonds on a visit to the Royal Opera in 1839.


'Minority women' gang raped in Bangladesh in 2001-02

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A judicial commission has concluded that over 200 Hindu women were raped following the 2001 parliamentary election, forcing many terrorized families to flee the country.

The acts were allegedly committed by cadres of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and its ally Jamaat-e-Islami who won the 2001 polls, the report said, citing the involvement of many top leaders and lawmakers of the alliance that is now in the opposition.

While the commission referred to the victims as "minority women", media reports of that period had identified them as Hindus.

With Begum Khaleda Zia as the prime minister, the BNP-Jamaat alliance ruled Bangladesh during 2001-06.

The violence went on for 15 months and "the barbarous act was intended to force them to leave the country. They were, in the eyes of the culprits, enemies as they voted for the Awami League", The Daily Star said Tuesday, quoting commission sources.

The commission submitted the report to Home Minister Sahara Khatun. It lists 3,625 incidents of major crimes, including killing, rape, arson and looting.

Media reports at that time had detailed the plight of hundreds of Hindu families crossing over to India, forcing the Indian government to express concern.

Bangladeshi poet Daud Hyder, who visited the camps in India where these families were lodged and wrote about it, was later charged with sedition and imprisoned.

The wave of violence was the subject of "Lajja" by novelist Taslima Nasreen, who angered the Islamists at home and was had to quit Bangladesh. She still remains exiled.

Many victims and their family members interviewed by the probe panel narrated harrowing experiences, but said they did not lodge police reports or undergo forensic tests for fear of inviting social stigma, the report says.

Many victims and their family members across the country contacted the commission when it was conducting the probe.

According to the panel, it would be "tough or, to some extent, impossible" to continue the probe into the rape allegations "as the victims themselves are unwilling to do the legal battle".

The probe panel found that most of the gang rapes occurred in the country's southern part - Bhola, Barisal, Agoiljhara and Gaurnadi.

The accused were acquitted for lack of witnesses. In some cases, police gave final reports while the names of the accused were dropped in over 500 cases out of the 3,625 major incidents.

With the passing of a decade, some of the accused utilised "good connection with ruling Awami League men", which forced the police to drop many cases, the media report said.

The panel has named several BNP and Jamaat leaders for their involvement in the post-poll violence.

Teachers ply student, 17, with alcohol before sexually assaulting him

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Two married teachers in Britain have been charged with engaging in illegal sex acts with a 17-year-old boy, who they groomed after plying him with alcohol.

Gay Davidson-Shepard, 59, a teacher at Mesa View Middle School in Huntington Beach, and Daniel Alma Shepard, 61, a retired Westminster High School biology teacher, allegedly performed sex acts on the boy on a weekly basis for several months, the Daily Mail reported.

The couple are accused of sexually assaulting the boy starting in April 2009 after they got into their hot tub naked, encouraging the teen to do the same.

They allegedly lured the boy to the house on the premise they would give him alcohol, which they did, while they watched movies and played board games.

Shepard is accused of asking the boy to email him nude photos of himself and of taking nude photographs of the victim and the illegal sex acts. He first befriended the boy when he was a student at Westminster High.

He has been charged with two felony counts of oral copulation of a minor, one felony count of sodomy with a person younger than 18, one felony count of possession and control of child pornography and one misdemeanour count of contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

Davidson-Shepard has been charged with three felony counts each of unlawful sexual intercourse, sodomy with a person younger than 18, oral copulation of a minor and one misdemeanour count of contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

They could face up to five years in jail if convicted.

According to prosecutors, Shepard continued to engage in illegal sex acts with the boy on a weekly basis after the night in the hot tub, until September 2009.

His wife is charged with doing the same until December 2009, when the boy turned 18.

The young man eventually told his mother about the sexual abuse last month and the pair was arrested.


3-year-old 'miracle' Brit girl overcomes 4 killer heart defects

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Three-year-old Taylor Rutherford has been hailed a miracle girl in Britain, after she made a startling recovery from a major heart operation never before attempted by surgeons.

The little girl was born with four life-threatening heart defects - three holes in her heart, back-to-front heart valves, deformed airways and only one lung

Doctors made the critical decision to press ahead with the complex eight-hour procedure in April last year.

Her parents Dave Rutherford and Carol-Anne Richardson, from North Tyneside, call her their ''miracle girl'', as one year on, she now shows no signs of her illnesses, reports the Daily Mail.

When she was born at Newcastle''s Royal Victoria Infirmary in 2007, Dave and Carol-Anne were told to enjoy what little time they would have with their first daughter.

Taylor''s killer defects were revealed in a routine 20-week scan, but her parents ignored doctors'' advice to consider a termination.

The youngster''s third life-threatening condition was diagnosed as pulmonary stenosis, a narrowing of the pulmonary valve to the pulmonary artery.

Punter bets on Kate 'borrowing Queen's diamond tiara' for royal nuptials

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It all began, when a middle-aged woman tried to lay a 6,000 pounds cash wager on the tiara mystery, at Ladbrokes in Ascot, Berks.

However, the manager at Ladbrokes objected since he was convinced that the lady had some inside information.

Not willing to give up, she then traveled to nearby Egham, where she obtained odds of 12-1.

It has emerged that if her bet comes off, she stands to make 72,000 pounds, which is the largest stake on the wedding so far.

"If the punt comes home, we''ll lose a fortune. This woman either has more money than sense, or she is very well informed," the Sun quoted a Ladbrokes spokesman, Alex Donohue as saying.

If the hunch turns out to be true, Middleton will become the first "commoner" to wear "something borrowed" at Westminster Abbey for her Friday nuptials.
Posted by Harshad at 7:41 AM

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