Saturday, September 3, 2011

Mid Day International News

Mid Day International News

Thai FM plans foreign trip alphabetically

Posted:

Thailand's new foreign minister unveiled plans for his first overseas visits yesterday and said he had decided to arrange the tour schedule in alphabetical order.


Travelling by letters: Thailand's foreign minister Surapong
Tovichakchaikul. File pic

Surapong Tovichakchaikul, whose appointment last month attracted criticism in Thailand because of his lack of high level experience, said he will travel to Brunei first on September 11.

The regional tour will encompass the nine other countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) bloc.
"I will start with Brunei as it is first alphabetically, but Indonesia will come second because it's currently chairman of Asean," he told reporters.

The alphabetical order will then resume with a trip to Cambodia, on September 14, and then Laos. He said he would visit all other Asean nations -- Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore and Vietnam -- within September without giving exact dates for each country.

Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, who took power last month after an overwhelming win in the July 3 election, has not yet revealed her travel schedule.

Her fledgling government has already drawn fire over a recent visit to Japan by her brother, former leader Thaksin Shinawatra, who lives abroad to avoid a jail term for corruption.

Thailand's opposition says the country's new leadership illegally helped Thaksin obtain a visa for the trip.

Thaksin, who was ousted in a 2006 coup, addressed international media and visited areas devastated by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami during the tour, which was seen as an attempt to return to the world stage.


Four-year-old's fake breasts spark outrage

Posted:

The mother of a pint-sized pageant queen has sparked controversy by sending her four-year-old on stage sporting fake breasts and a padded rear-end -- something she says is "just normal."



Youngster Maddy Jackson (in pic) dressed in the shocking get-up when she was made-over to resemble Dolly Parton on a recent episode of reality show Toddlers and Tiaras.

Her mother Lindsay Jackson doesn't see anything wrong with the womanly outfit.

"To some people, it's over the top," she said on the show. "To us, it's just what happens. It's just normal."

Along with the enhancements, Maddy's pageant outfit includes a bleach-blonde wig and a hot pink gown that squeezes the toddler's silhouette into an hourglass.


Berlusconi vowed to leave 'shi**y Italy'

Posted:

Transcripts of recorded conversation reveal Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi saying the country 'sickened him'

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi vowed in July to leave Italy, which he described as a "shitty country" that "sickened" him, in a telephone conversation that was secretly recorded by police investigating claims he was being blackmailed about his sex life. At dawn on Thursday, police swooped on a flat near Via Veneto -- one of Rome's most expensive streets -- to arrest Giampaolo Tarantini, a central figure in a scandal that threatened to bring down Berlusconi two years ago.


Dejected: Bogged down by sex scandals and corruption charges, Italian
Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi promised to leave the country and his
woes behind by August end. File pic

Tarantini's wife, Angela Devenuto, was also taken into custody and a search launched for a third person.
The arrest warrant shows that the three are accused of extorting at least �440,000 (Rs 3.2 crore) "as well as other benefits of economic significance".

Berlusconi has admitted paying the couple, but said he did so voluntarily. Two years ago, Tarantini, a businessman from Bari in southern Italy, said he supplied 30 women for parties at the prime minister's Roman palazzo. He told police at least six women spent the night there.

According to the judicial arrest warrant issued on Thursday, a third person-- Valter Lavitola, the editor of a small newspaper -- maintained direct contact with Berlusconi and received the cash in monthly installments from the prime minister's personal secretary. It was in a phone conversation with Lavitola late on 13 July that Berlusconi was said by the judge to have erupted in anger.

"They can say about me that I screw. It's the only thing they can say about me. Is that clear?" the Guardian quoted the Prime Minister as saying to the man allegedly blackmailing him.

"They can put listening devices where they like. They can tap my telephone calls. I don't give a f**k. I ... In a few months, I'[m getting out to mind my own f***ing business, from somewhere else, and so I'm leaving this sh***y country of which I'm sickened," Berlusconi added.

Bunga Bunga
Approximately 30 girls were sent by Giampaolo Tarantini for the infamous sex parties


Posted by Harshad at 7:45 AM

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