Mid Day International News |
- Defence school cadet charged for secretly filming woman colleague in shower
- US pastor who put up 'Obama Is Evil' posts at church slammed by locals
- Cartoonist's hands crushed for drawing anti-govt cartoons
- 108-year-old former prisoner dies
- Cooking show host's neighbours claim they can see her in the nude
- Yoga teacher on trial for inappropriate massages to 3 women
- London's taxis still the best in the world, says survey
- Women waste around 50 bn litres of water a year while shaving legs
- Teacher thrashes boy for leaving classroom
- Oz nude swimming sessions banned after pics of naked kids appear online
- US confident of India handling Hazare situation democratically
- Gaddafi's crush on 'darling black African woman 'Condoleezza Rice revealed
- Austrian accused of raping daughters for over 40 years
| Defence school cadet charged for secretly filming woman colleague in shower Posted: An international Australian Defence Force Academy cadet accused of filming a female colleague in a shower with a hidden mobile phone, has been ordered to surrender his passport and not to try and contact his alleged victim Obaid Fayyaz, 21, appeared in the ACT Magistrates Court on Friday charged with committing an act of indecency without consent. ACT police were called to the academy late on Thursday night after a female cadet, 21, allegedly discovered a hidden mobile phone in a vent above her shower. A mobile phone, laptop and USB memory stick were seized. Police arrested Mr Fayyaz and he was taken to the ACT watchhouse and charged. Mr Fayyaz's lawyer John Harris, SC, told the court his client had agreed to surrender his passport to police. A commonwealth prosecutor called for strict bail conditions to be imposed on the man, including that he not contact his alleged victim, nor assault, threaten or intimidate her.
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| US pastor who put up 'Obama Is Evil' posts at church slammed by locals Posted: The views of a pastor in Harlem, US, that President Barack Obama "Is Evil" have angered many locals Pastor James David Manning has put up 'Obama Is Evil' and 'He Used Black Vote to Uncle Tom For Wall St.' on the towering sign outside the ATLAH World Missionary Church on the bustling corner of Lenox Ave. and W. 123rd St, the New York Daily News reports. A church next to Manning's has distanced itself from the posts to make sure nobody thought their church had anything to do with ATLAH. 'This church is not affiliated with the church on the corner. We Support President Barack Obama,' a sign above the front door of Greater Bethel A.M.E. Church reads. The controversial sign at ATLAH, which Manning changes from time to time, has targeted Obama since he took office, and has become an attraction for pedestrians, as well as tourists passing by on double-decker buses, the paper said. 'It's not something that represents this community. It sends out a message that all of Harlem is not supporting Obama and that's not true. I don't think that's the case in Harlem,' someone who lives near the church and walks past the sign every day said. Disappointed over tourists' acts of taking photos of the sign, she said: 'I just don't like that it's so prevalent. He didn't have anything up about former President Bush. I would be very happy if it came down. This is actually nicer than what he had before.' As Manning posed for photos under the sign, he was confronted by a ticked-off resident, saying: 'You put that up there?' to which Manning responded, 'Yes, sir.' 'I'm ashamed of it!' the resident added.
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| Cartoonist's hands crushed for drawing anti-govt cartoons Posted: The hands of Ali Ferzat, Syria's best known political cartoonist, has been crushed to allegedly stop him from drawing cartoons against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government. He was reportedly picked up off the street in Damascus and dragged into a 4x4 by armed masked men on Thursday morning. They beat him as they drove to the airport road and said: "We will break your hands so that you'll stop drawing," Sky News reports. Then they broke both the bones in both of his hands. His beard was singed, a bag was put over his head before he was dumped by the roadside and told: "This is just a warning." Ferzat is currently in hospital. Although his relatives said that they can't identify of the assailants, they suspect they were government thugs responding to the cartoonist's public stance against the regime of President Assad, and the recent crackdown on anti-regime demonstrations. This week he had published an online cartoon showing the Syrian president with a suitcase hitching a ride with Libya's Colonel Gaddafi. Caricatures of the Syrian president are forbidden by law, and although Ferzat has drawn the president before, the latest one might have gone beyond the levels to which the Assad's loyalists could tolerate. His website, http://www.ali-ferzat.com/ is now inaccessible. Earlier this month, Ferzat has said that: "There are two things in this life that cannot be crushed... the will of God and the will of the people."
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| 108-year-old former prisoner dies Posted: Over two months after being released on grounds of ill-health at the age of 108, Brij Bihari Pandey, a murder convict, breathed his last in his ancestral village in Uttar Pradesh's Maharajganj district, officials said Friday Pandey died Thursday in Barhada village, some 250 km from Lucknow, at his ancestral home where he lived with his three sons, police inspector Ram Badai said. Pandey was freed from Gorakhpur district jail June 17 following special bail granted to him by the Allahabad High Court. Describing Pandey as the "oldest prisoner in the history of Indian prisons", Gorakhpur District Magistrate Hari Om had said: "The man was released following a bail order issued by the Allahabad High Court on grounds of ill-health due to old age." "We are waiting for some of our relatives. The last rites would be performed along the bank of Narayani river near the village," Pandey's grandson Munna Kumar told reporters According to police, Pandey was jailed in 2009 after being convicted along with 15 others for the murder of four people in Maharajganj over inheritance of a Hindu religious institution in 1987. Pandey spent less than a year in jail as an undertrial in 1988. The trial went on for more than two decades until 2009, when Pandey was convicted along with others to life imprisonment. His health was on a natural slide and went on deteriorating, following which police had moved an application for his release on grounds of infirmities and illness that was accepted by the court.
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| Cooking show host's neighbours claim they can see her in the nude Posted: Voluptuous television cook Nigella Lawson has come under controversy after her neighbours claimed that they can see her naked though the bathroom window of her multi-million pound London mansion The mansion in Chelsea, west London, which the chef shares with her 68- year-old husband Charles Saatchi, the arts patron, includes a stylish loggia with the luxurious bathroom beyond. But it appears that the couple have shunned fittings such as frosted glass or even a door, thus giving neighbours a "clear view into the room", and to unwittingly catch a glimpse of Lawson "au naturel". Her neighbours have since been claiming that they can see the 51-year-old visiting the bathroom and have seen her in a state of undress. "It isn't a case of deliberately looking in, but there is a view into the bathroom and anyone glancing in the direction of the loggia from nearby can glimpse what's going on," the Telegraph quoted an observer as telling the Daily Mail. But the 'How To Be A Domestic Goddess' author laughed off the embarrassing revelation, though she did promise to "investigate". "I had no idea we were overlooked. Obviously, I will investigate," she told the paper.
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| Yoga teacher on trial for inappropriate massages to 3 women Posted: An Indian-origin yoga teacher in Melbourne is accused of inappropriate massages on three women who sought him out for remedies for health complaints Virendra Kumar, 64, operator of the Kevalam Yoga and Meditation Centre in Balwyn, allegedly told a woman recovering from pregnancy pains that invasive massages would improve her health and well being, a jury has heard. Kumar is standing trial in the County Court on seven charges of rape and five of indecent assault, alleged to have taken place between August 2006 and August 2008. He had pleaded not guilty and his defence counsel said there were no rapes or assaults because each woman consented. Opening the Crown case, prosecutor Andrew McKenry said each woman separately complained of health problems, which Kumar told them could be remedied through massage. One woman testified recently that she began seeing Kumar in late 2006, believing that yoga would be an effective way to restore her body, having given birth about six months earlier. She said she had mastitis at the time and her groin was still sore from childbirth, so accepted Kumar''s word that massage, and in particular, internal vaginal massage, would help her. Cross-examined by defence counsel Amanda Fox, the woman - to whom all of the rape charges and two of the indecent assault charges relate - said she gave Kumar permission to digitally penetrate her and, as a result of his massage, the lumps in her breast disappeared and her vaginal pain lessened. She said she was surprised at how intimate the massage became but "reconciled it with myself because of the gravity of the situation. I was in pain for a long time." Fox earlier told the jury there were no rapes or indecent assaults, and the woman had consented to the internal massage. "No matter how you view her evidence, it is not rape and it is not indecent assault. Even on her version of events, which is disputed, these crimes of rape and indecent assault have not been committed," the Age quoted Fox as saying. The credibility, reliability and believability of all three women were in issue, she said.
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| London's taxis still the best in the world, says survey Posted: Their drivers may want to know a little more about your life than is really comfortable -- and they always seem to have just taken someone really famous for a ride -- but it seems London's taxis are still the best in the world. Hotels.com -- one of the world's leading providers of online accommodation bookings -- released its annual taxi report August 23 and the results show that despite being voted as the world's most expensive, London's cabs were also voted the best -- pulling in 28 percent of the votes to leave their rivals stalling in the shade.
Behind London came New York (nine percent of votes), and then the Asian cities of Hong Kong and Tokyo, which were tied with seven percent of the vote. London's cabbies' verbal mannerisms obviously don't leave their Korean customers smiling though, with 37 percent of respondents from that country saying they hated "chatty drivers," as did 30 percent of Germans. No matter, says Hotels.com's director of communications, Alison Couper. "Taxi drivers are often the first people a traveller will meet on entering a country and their experience can set the tone of their holiday. After four years at number one, London taxi drivers are clearly leading the way, providing travelers with a reliable and safe experience," she said in a statement announcing the results. Here in Hong Kong -- a city where the taxis are known to stalk pedestrians like sharks -- the locals polled voted their local cabs the best for safety, friendliness, cleanliness, quality of driving, knowledge of the area, value for money and availability. Some of the other findings saw New York's cabs winning "best availability" (32 percent of respondents), but also having the worst local knowledge (11 percent). Best value overall was to be found in Bangkok, according to the poll, with the city's taxis voted cheapest by 30 percent of those surveyed. However those cab drivers were also voted the worst in terms of quality of driving by almost a third of those in the survey. This year's taxi survey polled, via the web, around 5,000 travelers from 23 countries August 8-16 on a collection of cab-passenger experiences. Hotels.com also found that travelling by taxi remained the most popular mode of transport for those heading from airport to hotel, with 54 percent of the vote, in front of train (16 percent), bus (16 percent) and walking (two percent).
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| Women waste around 50 bn litres of water a year while shaving legs Posted: Women who shave their legs in the shower are now facing criticism from environmentalists. Research has shown that one in three women leave the shower running while they shave their legs, wasting around 50 billion litres of water a year, reports the Telegraph. Thames Water, which commissioned the study, said the amount wasted would be enough to supply the whole of London for 25 days. The research also found that one in four people leave the sink tap running while they brush their teeth, which accounts for around 120 billion litres of water wasted per year.
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| Teacher thrashes boy for leaving classroom Posted: A Class 12 student of a government-aided school in Uttar Pradesh's Balrampur district was hospitalised after being beaten by a teacher for leaving the classroom without his permission, police said Friday While a case has been registered against the teacher, who is absconding, the student, Shakeel Ahmad, is being treated at a hospital of head injuries where his condition is said to be out of danger. "After repeatedly beating Shakeel with a wooden stick, the teacher (Mohd. Shehnawaz) also assaulted him several times with a duster that left the 17-year-old's head bleeding," police inspector J.P. Tiwari said. The incident took place Thursday at Usmani Inter College in Atrauli area, some 300 km from Lucknow.
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| Oz nude swimming sessions banned after pics of naked kids appear online Posted: A group of Australian nudists, who join together every Saturday night to swim naked at a public pool, has been stopped from using the pool after pictures of naked children were published online Solar West Nude Leisure Group has pulled down a website that contained pictures of naked children at the public pool. And the group has been kicked out of the Maribyrnong Aquatic Centre pending an investigation by the local council. Maribyrnong council chief executive Vince Haining confirmed the move last night. "After confirmation that photographic material was posted on a website available to the public, the use of the pool for these activities has been discontinued pending an investigation," the Herald Sun quoted Haining as saying. A Solar West Nude Leisure Group spokesman said he would meet the council to press his case for continued use of the pool.
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| US confident of India handling Hazare situation democratically Posted: The United States has reiterated its "confidence and expectation" that India would be able to address the situation in the wake of Anna Hazare's campaign against corruption through its own democratic system.
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| Gaddafi's crush on 'darling black African woman 'Condoleezza Rice revealed Posted: Glossy pictures of America's former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice have been discovered by the rebels in Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's residence Gaddafi had earlier hinted at a serious admiration for Rice. In an interview with Al-Jazeera television in 2007, he had hinted that then-President George W. Bush's top diplomat had a considerable influence in the Arab world. "I support my darling black African woman, admire and am very proud of the way she leans back and gives orders to the Arab leaders. ... Leezza, Leezza, Leezza. ... I love her very much. I admire her, and I'm proud of her, because she's a black woman of African origin," the Daily Mail quoted Gaddafi, as saying at the time. In the following year, Gaddafi met Rice while the latter paid a historic visit to Libya, taking steps towards normalising relations after the United States went decades without an ambassador in Tripoli. During their meeting in Tripoli on September 5, 2008, Rice had said that the U.S. 'doesn't have any permanent enemies.' Gaddafi welcomed Rice in his home, one that President Ronald Reagan once ordered bombed in retaliation for Libya's attack on a German disco, for the traditional meal that ends the daylight fast during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Gaddafi remains untraceable, as the rebels enjoyed in Tripoli to celebrate their almost confirmed victory over the regime of the dictator.
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| Austrian accused of raping daughters for over 40 years Posted: Cops probe 80-yr-old for allegedly locking up, abusing his two mentally-disabled daughters since 1970 Austrian authorities said yesterday that they are investigating allegations that a man locked up his two mentally disabled daughters in a small room in their home and sexually abused them for over four decades. Police said that the 80-year-old repeatedly raped the women between 1970 and May 2011. The alleged victims are now 53 and 45 years old. A police official did not name either the suspect or the alleged victims. He did not identify himself on the telephone. Police confirmed they are investigating the case after a report in the Oberoesterreichische Nachrichten newspaper. The daily said the women escaped when the father was unable to get up after the older daughter pushed him over when he last tried to rape her. The police official said that the 80-year-old suspect is free, pending an investigation and possible charges because there is no danger of him fleeing. A state broadcaster said that the allegations were only recently revealed because the two alleged victims did not tell anyone about them for weeks after their escape. It said the suspect is now in a home for the elderly. Monster dad The accusations evoke the case of another Austrian, Josef Fritzl, who, it emerged in 2008, imprisoned his daughter in a windowless cellar for 24 years and repeatedly raped her, fathering her seven children. Fritzl was sentenced to life imprisonment two years ago for this and for responsibility in the death of one of the children.
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