Thursday, December 29, 2011

Mid Day International News

Mid Day International News

New car seat can recognise driver's bottom-print

Posted:

Scientists have designed a car seat which can recognise the 'bottom-print' or the way people sit to identify the driver.

Scientists at the Tokyo's Advanced Institute of Industrial Technology have designed the chair which measures 360 pressure points to build a 3D profile of how a person sits.

The discovery could replace car keys and the researchers say it could even be used in offices instead of computer passwords. Scientists say that the system is 98 percent accurate.

It's a simple matter of fitting pressure sensors inside a normal car seat - so it could be in production cars as early as 2014, reports the Daily Mail.

The team says that the bottom-scan is actually less intrusive than other forms of biometric scans, such as the face recognition currently in use by Britain passport control.

Most biometric systems require users to stand still to be scanned - whereas sitting is a natural instinct.

Man kills himself after girl unfriends him on Facebook

Posted:

A 21-year-old Briton hanged himself after a girl removed him as a "friend" on social network Facebook.

Simon Foxley from Hyde, Gloucestershire, became interested in the girl after meeting her on the website. But when he told her of his romantic feelings, she "unfriended" him from her list, said the Daily Mail.

Foxley tried to contact the girl but her friends reportedly bombarded him with abusive messages and told him to leave her alone.

After reading a message that read "Go and die", Foxley hanged himself in the garden of his home, the daily said.

His body was found by his 56-year-old father and his 18-year-old brother.

His family said that being "unfriended" and bullied on Facebook affected him terribly.

Before killing himself, Foxley wrote a suicide note that said: "Thank you for everything that you have done for me. I hope you all make the most of your lives and cherish the people and the moments you share with them. I can't say sorry enough times for it to be the slightest bit good."

False alarm sends 1,500 Colombian cops on wild goose chase

Posted:

A Colombian television reporter found herself in hot water after contacting police about an abduction that never happened, media report said.

The incident began in the early hours of Wednesday, when Karen Gamba climbed into a Bogota taxi and began sending text messages to her friend, police Col. Diego Hernandez, alerting him to an "express kidnapping", in which the victim is driven around and forced to withdraw cash from ATMs.

Gamba's messages spurred police commanders to deploy 1,500 officers and enlist some 17,000 taxi drivers in a search for the ostensible victim.

The giant mobilization came to a halt when a highly intoxicated Gamba was found safe and sound at her home, Col. Hernandez told the media.

In the meantime, however, the unwitting cabbie who was driving Gamba was briefly detained.

Gamba denied having mounted a hoax, telling the media that she was only trying to inform police about a discrepancy between the taxi's registration number and the information on the driver's identification card, displayed inside the vehicle.

Brisbane father-son duo win $195,000 lottery on same day

Posted:

A Brisbane man won a first division lottery prize the same day as his father.

Both men won more than 195,000 dollars each after they both used family birthdays as numbers for their Saturday entry.

The Bayside man, who requested his name to be withheld, said that when he informed his fiancee she insisted he tell the rest of the family.

"It was only then that I remembered Dad plays Lotto with the same numbers as me, so he must have won division one as well," News.com.au quoted the man as saying.

"When I called Dad he had no idea he was a winner; it was amazing to be able to break the good news," the man revealed.

He said he knew exactly where he would be spending the money.

"We're getting married early next year, so I have a lot of expenses at the moment," he said.

"We hadn't planned to go on a honeymoon as we couldn't afford one, but all that's changed now," he added.

Michelle Obama sports lavish dresses on USD 4m Christmas break in Hawaii

Posted:

Although Michelle Obama has only been spotted on a couple of occasions since arriving in Hawaii, a sartorial analysis of her fashion choices has revealed that her outfits have been consistently high-end.

The 47-year-old, who has successfully managed to rile U.S. taxpayers with her lavish 4 million dollars family jaunt to Hawaii this Christmas, was spotted by the blog Naked DC in a seemingly simple sundress she chose for a church service at the Kaneohe Bay Marine Base on Christmas Day.

The white frock with red and yellow stripes was certainly pretty and occasion-appropriate, but certainly not cheap.

A design by French-born, U.S.-based designer Sophie Theallet, who is a favourite with fashion insiders, it would have set the First Lady back almost 2,000 dollars when she bought it in 2009.

More recent creations by Theallet sell for even higher figures, a mark-up likely triggered by demand following the lawyer's endorsement of the label.

She deemed it necessary to change for her second photo op later that day, which was perhaps an opportunity to show off another pricey purchase.

Though the low-key event was just a meet-and-greet with service members and their families in a nearby mess hall, she chose to dress up in a Comme des Garcons skirt that might cost around 950 dollars.

Many consider her penchant for expensive fashion labels at odds with her position as an everywoman who identifies with the average woman.

"She claims to be a champion of the poor and a fellow bargain shopper, but yet, here she is, sporting a dress that no unemployed American can afford," the Daily mail quoted a comment on Naked DC as saying.

"For someone who says she understands the troubles of the American people, who claims to shop at Target, she certainly fails to show it," the comment added.

US will 'not tolerate' Iran blocking key oil route Strait of Hormuz

Posted:

The United States has warned that it would not tolerate any attempt by Iran to close the Strait of Hormuz, the world's most important oil shipping lane.

"The free flow of goods and services through the Strait of Hormuz is vital to regional and global prosperity," The Telegraph quoted a spokeswoman for the US Navy''s Bahrain-based Fifth Fleet, as saying.

"Anyone who threatens to disrupt freedom of navigation in an international strait is clearly outside the community of nations; any disruption will not be tolerated," the spokeswoman added.

The statement came in response to threats by Iran to shut the channel if the West continues imposing sanctions on the Islamic regime's oil industry.

Mohammed Reza Rahimi, Iran''s vice-president recently told state media that if sanctions are adopted against Iranian oil, not a drop of oil will pass through the Strait of Hormuz, adding, "Our enemies will only abandon their plots when we give them a strong lesson."

Admiral Habibollah Sayari, commander of the Iranian navy, said that closing the Strait, and effectively strangling the global oil supply, would "be easier than drinking a glass of water".

His comments came as the Iranian fleet continued a 10-day naval drill in international waters near the Strait involving ships, helicopters, submarines and hovercraft.

15 dead in Myanmar warehouse blast

Posted:

A huge explosion early Thursday at a warehouse on the outskirts of Yangon left at least 15 people dead, among them five women, officials said. The blast took place around 2.00 a.m. in Mingalartaungnyung, about five kilometres east of downtown Yangon.

A huge fire engulfed the warehouse after the blast. The cause of the explosion was not immediately known. A fire official said that at least 15 people have died and about 60 others injured.

According to Xinhua, more than 10 fire-engines were used to douse the fire. A local resident said the explosion was very loud.


Woman pardons mother who cut off her ears

Posted:

A Chinese woman has pardoned her mother who cut off her ears when she was asleep.

Chen sliced her daughter Xiao Jie's ears six years back in a fit of rage as then 14-year-old had stolen money from home and did not listen to her in Guangdong province.

On Oct 27, 2005, Chen severed the girl's ears while she was still in sleep and flushed the ears down the toilet. She then handed herself to the police.

Xiao, now a 20-year-old beautician, underwent a surgical reconstruction of artificial ears and has pardoned her mother that helped her get a reprieve from prison, reported Shanghai Daily citing Nanfang Daily.

Sexual assaults on the rise at US military academies

Posted:

Sexual assaults at American military academies increased sharply in the last academic year, says a new report from the department of defence.

Incidents of sexual assault rose by 60 percent during 2010-2011. A total of 65 reports involved cadets compared to a total of 41 reports in the previous year, CNN reported.

The defence department was, however, unable to cite definitive causes for the increase. As part of the study, site visits were conducted at the US Military Academy in New York, US Naval Academy in Annapolis and the US Air Force Academy in Colorado.

Policies, training and procedures at the academies were reviewed, and focus groups were held with cadets.

"We know that the military academies are similar to college campuses around the country in that sexual harassment and assault are challenges that all faculty, staff and students need to work to prevent," said Maj. Gen. Mary Kay Hertog, director of the Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office.

"However, when it does occur, we owe it to those who have been victimised, and to every cadet, to do everything possible to provide needed support and to hold those who commit sexual assault appropriately accountable," she said.

Faulty French boob implants were 'identified a decade ago'

Posted:

The faulty breast implant scandal, which broke out two weeks ago, was actually first identified in May 2000 by US Food and Drug Administration, as disclosed on Tuesday.

After sending an inspector to the PIP plant in south-eastern France, the FDA wrote to the company's founder, Jean-Claude Mas, warning that the implants were "adulterated" and citing at least 11 deviations from good manufacturing practices, the Telegraph reported.

The letter was referred to PIP's saline implants, not the silicone implants that are at present the cause of concern, although both were manufactured at the same plant.

It is yet not established why the FDA warning failed to set off greater scrutiny of PIP's activities, or whether the US regulator shared its findings with the French authorities.

The French government is footing the bill for 30,000 women to have the Poly Implant Prothese (PIP) implants removed amid fears that they could rupture and leak a questionable type of silicone gel. In Britain, women have been recommended to visit their surgeon if they have any problem.

An international arrest warrant has been issued for Mas, who has not been tracked yet, but no charges have been filed so far.


Babysitter stabbed to death

Posted:

A 19-year-old woman in Britain was stabbed to death while looking after her young niece and nephew at a house, a media report said. Chatherine Wynter's body was discovered Tuesday in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire. She had been looking after her sister's two young children, aged three and four, who are safe.

Police are in the process of interviewing them and do not yet know how much they saw or heard of what happened to their aunt, who regularly babysat as a favour to her sister, The Telegraph reported Wednesday.

Two men from north London have been arrested on suspicion of murder and are being questioned. A post-mortem examination is being carried out to confirm how the woman died. Police, who were called to the property in Beech Drive at 8 a.m., are appealing for information about the murder. Detective Superintendent Mick Hanlon said: "Firstly, our thoughts are with the victim's family."

"As you can imagine, this is an extremely traumatic time and they are being supported by specialist family liaison officers," Telegraph quoted Hanlon as saying.

Chinese women forced to register for morning-after pill

Posted:

It's not easy for women in a Chinese province to have unprotected sex and then buy morning-after pills as the government has made it compulsory to register using "real names" before every purchase. In Fuzhou, capital of Fujian province, buyers of emergency contraception are now forced to register their names, phone numbers, and identity cards in any pharmacy, said Xinhua.

This rule has set off a firestorm of criticism on the internet. Web users said the registration, enforced by the local food and drug administration to battle "illegal abortion", was a blatant breach of privacy. People said it would have a massive impact on adolescent pregnancy, because young girls without identity cards would face difficulties in buying such pills to avoid unwanted pregnancy.

The Fuzhou Food and Drug Administration, which implemented the rule Dec 21, said it was intended to protect women from the harmful misuse of the pills."As several emergency contraceptive pills contain mifepristone, which can be used as an abortifacient, some private clinics have used them to abort girls because a boy was the preference," said administration head Wu Xingfa.

Emergency contraceptives containing mifepristone are regularly sold over the counter, and illegal practitioners have easy access to the pills. The real-name registration would help deter such practices, he said. The rule has been enforced in several cities like Xiamen and Sanming. Regarding privacy, Wu said protection of clients' personal information fell beyond the administration's authority.

Local drugstores also said they were not well-equipped for the job. "We drugstores just follow orders to collect information and submit them to police and health authorities for scrutiny. We don't have the resources to protect such data from leaking," said a drugstore owner.

'Fractured' man defends bikini-clad robber with crutches

Posted:

Two women have been sent to a Florida jail after they allegedly attempted to mug a man, who fought them off using his crutches. The women identified as 22-year-old Amber Lynn McKay and 21-year-old Veronica Anne Lane are now facing robbery charges.

William Joseph Knowles reportedly told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel that he fought out with his crutches that "came in handy" during the tussle. Knowles was using them because of a shin fracture he suffered in June.

He was apparently walking around 9:00am on Monday morning when two women approached him, one of whom was only wearing a bikini, according to a police affidavit. The women started talking to Knowles, 59, about his injury. One of the women then tried to restrain him while the other reached into his pants pocket to snatch his wallet.

"I spun around and pinned one up against the wall, then the other girl tried to hit me and I swung at her with my crutch," Herald Sun quoted him as saying. "I hit them a couple times with my crutches," he added. He flagged down a police officer, who found the two women at a nearby hotel, according to the report.

Both were charged with robbery. Lane was ordered held on 7,500 dollar bond, while McKay was held without bond due to a probation violation.

'Tarzan's chimpanzee' Cheetah dies aged 80

Posted:

Had acted alongside Johnny Weissmuller, Maureen O'Sullivan in Tarzan films from 1932-34

A chimpanzee who apparently starred in Tarzan films in the 1930s has died at the age of 80, according to the sanctuary where he lived. The Suncoast Primate Sanctuary in Palm Harbor said he died on Saturday of kidney failure.


Gifted: Cheetah loved fingerpainting and watching football, and was
soothed by Christian music. Pic/GettyImages

He had acted alongside Johnny Weissmuller and Maureen O'Sullivan in Tarzan films from 1932-34, it claimed.
The animal loved fingerpainting and watching football, and was "soothed by Christian music".

Sanctuary spokeswoman Debbie Cobb said that Cheetah came to live at Palm Harbor from Johnny Weissmuller's estate in about 1960. Chimpanzees in zoos typically live 35 to 45 years, she said.

It is not clear what lay behind Cheetah's longevity, or what evidence there is for it.

A sanctuary volunteer said that fingerpainting was not Cheetah's only talent.

"When he didn't like somebody or something that was going on, he would pick up some poop and throw it at them," Ron Priest said. "He could get you at 30 feet with bars in between."

The Florida "Cheetah" is not the only chimpanzee who has been described as Tarzan's companion. A chimp known as "Cheeta" who lives in California was for a long time claimed to be the chimp in the films, but, following research for a biography, that claim has been withdrawn.

It is possible that several different animals were used while filming the Tarzan movies.


Strauss-Kahn's sex scandal being turned into film starring Gerard Depardieu

Posted:

The sex scandals surrounding the shamed former International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn has inspired an American film director to develop the story for the big screen. 'Bad Lieutenant' director Abel Ferrara is mulling a project that would bring the 62-year French politician's story to the big screen.
Backed by the production house Wild Bunch, the film could star popular French actor Gerard Depardieu as Strauss-Kahn, and Isabelle Adjani as his loyal wife, Anne Sinclair, The New York Daily News reports. "Today, the only reality is that they are writing something inspired by Strauss-Kahn that will focus on addiction and politicians.

It's more that than the Strauss-Kahn scandal itself," Vincent Maraval, head of Wild Bunch, told Deadline.com. "If it becomes a serious thing, I'm not even sure it will be the same film with Adjani and Depardieu," Maraval added.
Once a favorite to become the next French president, Strauss-Kahn was arrested on May 14 after being accused of sexually assaulting a New York hotel maid.
He also dodged another criminal trial in Paris after police determined that a journalist''s claim that Strauss-Kahn raped her during a 2003 interview was past the statute of limitations for prosecution.


Tears at tyrant's funeral

Posted:

North Korea staged a huge funeral in the capital for former leader Kim Jong-il, searching for signs of what to expect from the isolated nation that may be close to attaining nuclear weapons capacity

The world watched anxiously as North Korea yesterday staged a huge funeral in the capital for former leader Kim Jong-il, searching for signs of what to expect from the isolated nation that may be close to attaining nuclear weapons capacity.


Military personnel bow their heads in sorrow, as a limousine carries a
portrait of Kim Jong-Il during his funeral at Kumsusan Memorial Palace

Bleak pictures from state television showed a funeral cortege led by a limousine carrying a huge picture of the 69-year-old, who died on December 17, passing serried ranks of olive green-clad soldiers whose bare heads were bowed in homage in the main square of the snow-covered capital. A hearse carrying the coffin was led by a weeping Kim Jong-un, the son and heir, accompanied by Jang Song-thaek, his uncle and a key power broker in the transition, and Ri Yong-ho, the army chief of staff.

"Seeing this white snow fall has made me think of the general's efforts and this brings tears to my eyes," Seo Ju-rim, a red-cheeked, weeping female soldier, told North Korean television, referring to Kim.

One of the myths surrounding Kim Jong-il was that he could control the weather and state media has reported unusually cold and wild weather accompanying his death.


His successor and third son, Kim Jong-un will run the unpredictable
North Asian country as it enters 2012

Video showed weeping civilians who swayed with grief and shouted "father, father" as black Lincoln and Mercedes limousines and army trucks streamed past the crowds. It was not clear whether the pictures were live or recorded.

"I wished it was a dream, how can this be true," sobbed one middle-aged woman named Kim. "How can anything like this ever happen in the world?"

Kim Jong-un will become the third member of the family to run the unpredictable North Asian country as it enters 2012, the year that was supposed to mark its self-proclaimed transformation into a "strong and prosperous" nation.

Larry Niksch, who has tracked North Korea for the nonpartisan US Congressional Research Service for 43 years, believes it could take as little as one to two years to have a working nuclear missile once the North produced enough highly enriched uranium for the warhead's core fuel.


Military personnel in tears during Kim Jong-Il's funeral.
Pics/AFP/NORTH KOREAN TV

The prospect of an untested leader, believed to be in his late 20s, having nuclear capacity has alarmed many.
"Yes, we are watching and will be analysing how any changes can be reflected in our policy," a South Korean government official said. He was not authorised to speak to the media, so could not be identified.

Birth of the nation
North Korea was established in 1948 and under its founding father, Kim Il-sung, went to war to try to conquer the South. It failed and in 1953 a dividing line that would become the world's most militarised frontier was drawn across the peninsula. The UN, in a country program for 2011-15, said North Korea's main challenge is to "restore the economy to the level attained before 1990".


Twitter account lands employee in court

Posted:

Noah Kravitz, who used to work with PhoneDog Media has been taken to court by his former employers. The reason being the twitter account, which Kravitz used to operate on the behalf of PhoneDog, hasn''t been returned to the company. He resigned from the company in October 2010 after working for four years there.

The Twitter account had some 17 thousand followers at the time Kravitz quit and since then it has reached 22 thousand, The Telegraph reports. The suit which was filed in July against Kravitz, but attracted media attention following an article about it in the New York Times said, while working for PhoneDog, Kravitz attracted 17,000 followers to his Twitter account@PhoneDog-Noah.

The suit also mentioned that Kravitz all of a sudden resigned in October 2010 and when PhoneDog requested him to surrender the Twitter account to which he refused and merely changed the Twitter username to @noahkravitz. The suit also said that Kravitz has now joined a rival company TechnoBuffalo and is using the account against his former employers. Kravitz told the New York Times that he had left PhoneDog on good terms with an agreement that he would ''tweet on their behalf from time to time''.

He also claimed that this was an act of vengeance from his former company since he had made a claim of 15 per cent of PhoneDog''s gross advertising revenue.

British woman sees face of Jesus in drying sock

Posted:

A British woman has claimed that she saw the face of Jesus in the creases of a drying sock.

Sarah Crane, 38, from Orpington, Kent, said she was stunned when she saw a bearded man staring back at her from the laundry line. Her boyfriend agreed the crumpled grey "holy sock" bore an uncanny likeness to the traditional image of Christ, and the couple took photographs to show their friends.

They even talked about creating a shrine to the sock but then the face was lost when they moved it. "I'd left the washing out to dry overnight - and it had probably been sitting there a bit too long when I noticed the face in the sock," the Telegraph quoted Crane as saying.

"I called my boyfriend over straight away, we could both clearly see the face of Jesus in the sock. There is a straight on face, and a side profile too, we couldn't believe it. "I immediately took some pictures to show our family and friends, they all thought it was hilarious. We think it's a bit of a sign but for what we don''t know.

"We thought it would be good to make a little shrine for it but unfortunately, when we moved it, the creases fell out a bit and the face isn't quite as clear now. "But you can still just about make out his face. Unfortunately, it's not quite good enough to donate to our local church, but our friends have all been round to see it," she revealed.

The sock is the latest in a series of everyday objects on which people have claimed to seen Jesus. Last year an ivy-covered telegraph pole in Lousiana was said to have looked like the crucified Christ, while his face was seen in a Hungarian field spotted on Google Earth.
Posted by Harshad at 7:26 AM

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)