Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Mid Day International News

Mid Day International News

French parents boycott 'useless' homework

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French parents and teachers are calling for a boycott of all homework in schools for a fortnight. They say homework is useless, tiring and increases inequalities between pupils.

"Teachers don't realise the pressure they are putting on children," said Jean-Jacques Hazan, president of the FCPE, the main organisation representing French parents.



The FCPE is calling for a fortnight without homework. This is a first in France and they hope to get parents and teachers to discuss better ways to help children learn.

Homework is banned in primary schools in France but many teachers still give their pupils exercises to do at home.

Parents say homework is tiring but also complain that it is not very useful. "If a child has failed to do an exercise in school, I don't see how he'd be able to do it at home. In fact, teachers are outsourcing their work to parents," said Hazan.

The FCPE and the teachers' organisation say homework also exacerbates inequalities between pupils because not all parents can help their children at home. Homework can also be a source of conflict in the home.

"Homework can lead to violent outbreaks, or tension, between parents and children, and the educational benefits are slim," said Christophe Paris, a member of the organisation Afev, which helps pupils do their homework in poor neighbourhoods.


Kate's doctor feels a squeeze

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Dr Pierre Dukan, dietician responsible for Kate's weight loss, faces ethics charge after saying thin kids should get higher marks

The Duchess of Cambridge's diet guru faces the axe for suggesting thin schoolkids should get higher marks.
The celebrity nutritionist was yesterday accused of breaching medical ethics for saying slimmer pupils should be awarded higher exam marks than their fatter friends.


Losing the pounds: Experts have branded Dr Dukan's (inset) method
of weight loss, which Kate used, as a 'health hazard' due to its low
vegetable intake. pic/afp

Dr Dukan said in January that pupils should be able to opt for an extra exam subject called 'ideal weight', which they could pass simply by being thin enough.

They would then earn extra marks in their Baccalaureate, the French equivalent of A-levels, which they take at the age of 17.

But the French College of Physicians yesterday lodged a complaint against Dr Dukan for 'remarks which could harm teenagers already struggling with obesity or anorexia'.

The French College of Physicians said Dr Dukan was in breach of article 13 of the medical ethics code, which states, "A doctor must be aware of the repercussions his views can have on the public."

However, Dr Dukan defended his plans to reward slimmer pupils with higher marks, after his scheme came under attack from the French media in January.

He said, "There is nothing unhealthy about educating youngsters about nutrition. My idea would change nothing for those who have no need to get thinner. But for those who do, it would only motivate them to lose weight."

Fans of Dr Dukan
The popularity of Dr Dukan's high-protein diet soared after Carole Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge's mother, revealed she had been following it. Other celebrity followers include Pippa Middleton, Jennifer Lopez, supermodel Gisele Bundchen and Katherine Jenkins.

Students turn faces into billboards to pay debt

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Business is booming for two graduates who decided to pay off their university debts by selling advertising space on their faces.

Ross Harper and Ed Moyse, both Oxford alumni, are selling ad spaces for hundreds of pounds a day and have raised more than �25,000 (Rs 20.2 lakh) since setting up business last October.


How enterprising: Ross Harper and Ed Moyse have collected Rs 20.2
lakh from their business since setting up in October last year. Pic/afp

The entrepreneurial 22-year-olds are now on what they call an 'entrepreneurial gap-year' with their clients sending them skydiving, skiing and on evenings to the opera.

And dozens of other debt-laden students who want to rent out their faces have contacted them, including volunteers from as far afield as Germany and the US.

Now Harper and Moyse, who only started their business, Buy My Face, on October 1 last year, are preparing for an international launch in the next two months.

Harper said the idea had come to them last summer as they took a break to eat a snack together while studying for their finals.

He said the pair, who met on their first day of university, had been scheming for three years on ways to pay off their debts after graduation.

The face painting idea came to them as it was a way to start a business with minimal upfront investment.

"It was kind of wacky with a lot of fun," Harper said. "When it started making money, just from a practical side of things you have to talk to an accountant and things like that, stuff we hadn't expected. Then we were suddenly making enough for it to be more of a career."

Anyone can buy the advertising space, from businesses to individuals or groups, on a day-to-day basis, through the pair's website, buymyface.co.uk.

The logo is then seen by everyone the friends pass as they go about their daily business.

The pair sold their first face ads to friends and family for just �1 a day, but as demand has increased, so has the daily price, which has now reached a phenomenal �400 (Rs 32,000).

Harper, who studied neuroscience, said, "It's our unconventional way of paying off our student debt. The graduate job market is incredibly hostile, and so we thought we'd try and bypass it altogether."

Moyse added, "It has exceeded expectations, but we always knew it had value and is novel and crazy."


Bieber in hot water over Twitter phone prank

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Texan couple threaten to sue the singer after his Twitter prank led to them receiving over 1,000 calls

Justin Bieber is being threatened with legal action by two victims of an online phone prank.

The pint-sized popstar attempted to show off his sense of humour on Twitter earlier this month (March 12) by posting a phone number missing a final digit and instructing his fans to give him a call.


Prankster: Justin Bieber posted a number on his Twitter account with
the last digit missing and asked his millions of fans to call him. File pic

As millions of Beliebers tried to guess the remaining number, two Texans claim they were plagued with phonecalls from teenage girls at all hours of the day.

The tweet was quickly deleted but the two say the stunt was "reckless" and that the harassment continued.
The lawyer acting for the pair -- an older woman named Dilcie and a man named Kent -- say her clients' patience "wears thin" after receiving over 1,000 phone calls and they want compensation for all the problems caused by the prank.

They also suggest Justin could make it up to the disgruntled duo with an apology, concert tickets, cash -- and an endorsement for Kent's upcoming online project.

Funny bone
Justin's is well known for his pranks and once appeared on a prank show Punk'd to convince Taylor Swift she has blown up a boat where a wedding was being hosted.

Last week, he tricked his fans with an announcement that he was joining a new band with Maroon 5's Adam Levin and pal Kenny Hamilton.

He said he was delaying the release of his new album, Believe, and added, "We're going to do a collaborative thing, us three, We're the Whirling Dervishes."

But another one of his gags landed him in hot water in September 2010.

He narrowly avoided arrest when he hit a US cop with a water balloon backstage at a concert in Carolyn.


Strauss-Kahn charged in prostitution probe

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Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the disgraced former head of the International Monetary Fund, has been arrested and charged with hiring prostitutes employed in an international prostitution ring, a spokeswoman for prosecutors in Lille, France said.

Authorities believe that the Frenchman participated in a series of illegal sex parties with call girls at restaurants and swinger clubs in Washington, Paris, Madrid Vienna and Ghent, Belgium.


More humiliation: Dominique Strauss-Kahn. File pic

His lawyer has admitted he took part in the orgies, but claims he didn't know they were prostitutes.

"He could easily not have known, because as you can imagine, at these kind of parties you're not always dressed," said his lawyer Henri Leclerc. He paid $134,000 bail and was released under the condition he does not communicate with others targeted in the probe.

Investigators are exploring the ring's ties to organised crime and the misuse of corporate funds.

French prosecutors believe that Strauss-Kahn's last sex party was in DC in May 2011, just before he was busted in New York for attacking a hotel maid. Though he maintained his innocence, the charges ruined his political future.


Medvedev Scoffs at Romney for 'Foe' Rant

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Russian President has rebuked US presidential hopeful for saying Russia is 'number one geopolitical foe' of US, asks him to stop using stereotypes

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev told Mitt Romney yesterday to use his head and stop reverting to Hollywood stereotypes after the US presidential hopeful branded Moscow as Washington's top foe.


Friends or foes? While US President Barack Obama and Russian
President Medvedev were sharing pleasantries at the nuclear summit in
Seoul, Mitt Romney called Russia its number one enemy. pic/afp

"I recommend that all US presidential candidates, including the candidate you mention (Romney), do at least two things," Medvedev said on the sidelines of a nuclear security conference in Seoul.

"That they use their head and consult their reason when they formulate their positions, and that they check the time -- it is now 2012, not the mid-1970s," said the outgoing Russian president.

Medvedev said Romney's quip "smelled of Hollywood" because it typecast Moscow as Washington's main enemy from the Cold War era just like in the popular spy movie thrillers of the time.

"As for ideological cliches, I always get nervous when one side or the other starts using phrases such as 'enemy number one' and so on," Medvedev said.

Romney had roundly criticised Obama on Monday for getting caught by an open mike making a controversial promise to Medvedev about missile defence.

Obama appeared to suggest at the Seoul meeting that he was ready to make a concession on the issue if he wins the November presidential election.

Romney said that "Russia is not a friendly character on the world stage" because it has old ties to the governments of Syria and Iran.

Russia "is without question our number one geopolitical foe," Romney said.

Following Romney's quip, some Russian politicians appeared be offended.

"The discussion of Russian relations in the course of the US election campaign only underscores our country's importance in the international arena," said the Duma security committee chief Irina Yarova.

Communist Party lawmakers meanwhile said Romney was only revealing an open secret about the true state of Russia-US affairs.

"We are still geopolitical foes and this only confirms this," said Communist MP Leonid Kalashnikov.

Obama's mike gaffe
US President Barack Obama was caught on camera on Monday boasting to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev that he would win reelection in November, giving the 'flexibility' to make a deal on ballistic missile defenses in Europe. The unusually frank exchange came as Obama and Medvedev huddled together on the eve of a global nuclear security summit in Seoul, South Korea, unaware their words were being picked up by microphones as reporters were led into the room. This is the third time Obama has landed himself in hot water after being picked up on a microphone that he didn't realise was still on.
Posted by Harshad at 7:45 AM

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