Mid Day International News |
- Skydiver solves Rubik's cube during free fall from 5900 ft!
- Carla Bruni pleads for woman sentenced to stoning in Iran
- Australian Sex Party does well
- A traffic jam in China that is 100 km long!
- Security guard held taking snaps up women's skirts
- World's most 'erotic' and expensive bed
- Indian nabbed at Houston airport with jihadist material
- My boobs are real, says Elizabeth Hurley
- Plane with 14 crashes in Nepal, hope recedes for survivors
- Nearly 200 women gang-raped in rebel-held Congo town
- Plane crash in Nepal
- Mexico's Jimena Navarrete wins Miss Universe pageant
- John Lennon's toilet up for sale
- Pentagon denies role in rape charge against WikiLeaks founder
- Local strippers okay with mosque near Ground Zero
- Manila Hostage situation: High drama in high definition
- First drive-thru supermarket opens
- Hitler's 'black and jewish DNA'
| Skydiver solves Rubik's cube during free fall from 5900 ft! Posted: Falling from a height of 5,900 feet, a German skydiving student has been filmed solving the Rubik's cube in 31.5 seconds. 29-year-old Ludwig, after solving the classic puzzle, opened his parachute and landed on the ground. "Solving the cube in freefall has been done before - but I''m the first to do it in a rubber boat," the Sun quoted Ludwig of Dresden, Germany, as saying. Ludwig is now aiming to solve two cubes before opening his parachute.
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| Carla Bruni pleads for woman sentenced to stoning in Iran Posted: French First Lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy expressed her support for an Iranian woman sentenced to be stoned to death, in an open letter published on the internet. "My husband will plead for you, France will not give you up," the former model wrote in her letter on the website La regle du jeu of French writer Bernard-Henri Levy. "How can one be silent in the face of the sentence against you? Why spill your blood, why rob children of their mother? Only because you have lived and loved, because you are a woman, because you are Iranian? My whole me refuses to accept that," she wrote. Sarkozy followed numerous other celebrities and politicians, including former French president Valery Giscard d'Estaing, calling for clemency for Sakineh Mohammadi-Ashtiani, who was sentenced to death by stoning for adultery. The verdict against the 43-year-old had prompted worldwide protests by numerous governments and human rights organisations, prompting Tehran to delay the execution.
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| Australian Sex Party does well Posted: The Australian Sex Party (ASP), which favours sex education in schools, gay marriage and a censorship regime, has emerged as a key factor in the country's general election. The party outpolled several more prominent minor parties and came within about 10,000 votes of another small party, Family First for the Senate in Victoria, the Herald Sun reported on Tuesday. After Coalition, Labor and Greens, the ASP is now neck and neck with Family First for the fourth place in the national Senate vote - a result achieved without fielding candidates in the Australian Capital Territory or Tasmania. And in the Northern Territory, it secured more than five percent of the vote in one Senate position, qualifying for more than $3,700 in taxpayer funds. Once a party or candidate secures 4 percent of first preferences, they are paid $2.31 for every vote they receive. ASP candidate Fiona Patten said the support was encouraging and they would be back for the state election. Sex Party policies include R and X ratings for computer games, an end to internet filters, and a national sex education curriculum to prevent "the sexualisation of children". While the ASP gained 2.2 percent of the Senate first preferences in Victoria, the Democratic Labor Party (DLP) managed roughly the same. Despite this, the Victorian DLP has been vying for the last Senate spot. The ASP secured a total of 54,744 first preference votes in the Senate in Victoria, compared with One Nation's 8,804 and the Australian Democrats' 11,774.
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| A traffic jam in China that is 100 km long! Posted: Does your blood boil when you get caught in a traffic snarl? If so, then do spare a thought for motorists in China who have been stuck for the past 10 days in a traffic jam that stretches a good 100 km on a highway. Trucks bound for the Chinese capital are barely moving on the Beijing-Tibet Expressway, formerly known as the Badaling Expressway, due to ongoing maintenance construction work. Traffic authorities are struggling to cope with congestion on the major national expressway on which traffic has slowed to a snail's pace, Global Times reported on Monday. The congestion is expected to last for almost a month, since the construction is due for completion September 13. Local residents are profiting due to the massive traffic jam by overcharging drivers for food. Since August 14, thousands of Beijing-bound trucks have choked the expressway. Now traffic stretches for over 100 km between Beijing and Huai'an in Heibei Province and Jining in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, China National Radio (CNR) reported. Minor traffic accidents and broken-down cars have aggravated the jam. "Insufficient traffic capacity on the National Expressway 110 caused by maintenance construction is the major cause of the congestion," a publicity officer with the Beijing Traffic Management Bureau told the Global Times. The National Expressway 110 is available to trucks with a carrying capacity of eight tonnes and more. The road had suffered serious damage due to the great volume of heavy trucks. This month there have been more trucks carrying excessive coal or fruit, but the Beijing section of the Beijing-Tibet Expressway is available only to trucks with a weight of less than four tonnes. Traffic congestion and road safety have become major concerns for Chinese motorists. Some kill time by playing cards, while some wait patiently. In the latest bout of congestion on the Huai'an section, a truck driver surnamed Huang, told the newspaper that he suffered "double blows". He said: "Instant noodles are sold at four times the original price while I wait in the congestion." "Not only the congestion annoys me, but also those vendors," he joked. Wang, driving from Hohhot to Tianjin in a coal truck, had been on the Huai'an section for three days and two nights. "We are advised to take detours, but I would rather stay here since I will travel more distance and increase my costs," said Wang. The Beijing-Tibet Expressway and the Highway 110 are two of the major routes leading to Beijing. The huge traffic jam has failed to dampen spirits with some people joking that "concerts should be held at each congested area every weekend, to alleviate drivers' homesickness". About 400 traffic police officers are on duty to maintain order and to prevent further accidents. Some critics attribute the worsening congestion to poor road planning and lack of proper implementation of regulations. "If there's no traffic jam in the city, that would be news," said Niu Fengrui, director of the Institute for Urban and Environmental Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. "Our government should pick up the pace of urban infrastructure construction and spend some of its budget," he said.
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| Security guard held taking snaps up women's skirts Posted: A security guard in Australia has been charged with taking more than 500 sneaky photos up the skirts of women at his workplaces. Kok Chuen Chong, 49, used a mobile phone secreted in a shopping bag to record video footage up women's dresses 507 times over a two-year period, Perth Now quoted police as saying Tuesday. Chong, who was employed by Wilson Security, allegedly committed the offences while working at shopping centres in Perth and its suburbs, as well as at Channel 10's Dianella studios between Oct 3, 2007 and Dec 17, 2009. Police moved in when a member of the public alerted officers to an incident at a shopping centre in Innalooon, a suburb, Dec 17 last year in which the accused allegedly tried to take inappropriate images of two students. Detectives have charged Chong with 507 counts of committing an indecent act. It is understood police have seized his mobile phone and computer as evidence. He will appear in a magistrate court in Perth Sept 3.
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| World's most 'erotic' and expensive bed Posted: The world's most expensive and erotic bed priced at 86,000 dollars (approximately Rs 40,35,549) is set to hit the stores in the UK. The bed, named 'Indecent Bed' by its American designers, features a personalized erotic image hand-stitched onto the headboard, according to a British departmental store. The image looks like a mosaic, but from a distance it shows couples in the throes of passion, or singletons at their most sexy, reports news.com.au. Top US photographers Sante D'Orazio, Guido Argentina or Warwick Saint (whose portfolio includes Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell, Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Pamela Anderson) have already used the erotic bed for their photo shoots with several celebrities.
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| Indian nabbed at Houston airport with jihadist material Posted: An Indian is being held on a 50,000-dollar bond in Houston, Texas, after being caught carrying jihadist literature at the George Bush Intercontinental Airport. According to the New York Post and FOXhouston.com, Vijay Kumar, 40, was arrested Friday after airport security officials searched his luggage when they noticed him behaving strangely? Kumar was sweating and fidgeting as he waited in the security screening line, prompting officers to search his luggage. A swab initially detected residue from a homemade explosive on Kumar's bag, but two subsequent tests came back negative, KPRC TV reported. Kumar, a resident of Mumbai, told investigators he was in Houston for an "Islamic seminar."
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| My boobs are real, says Elizabeth Hurley Posted: Elizabeth Hurley has revealed that her boobs are real and not a result of plastic surgery. "I read that I've just had breast implants - happy to report [I'm] still au natural," People Magazine quoted her as tweeting. Hurley's pictures that showed her flaunting her curves while vacationing in Spain last week suggested that she might have gone under the knife. However, she rubbished the rumours, saying that her figure isn't the work of a doctor but rather choosing the right swimwear. "I do wear exceptionally well cut bikinis," she added.
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| Plane with 14 crashes in Nepal, hope recedes for survivors Posted: Hope receded for the 14 people aboard a private airline flight as its aircraft carrying tourists crashed near Kathmandu on Tuesday morning and incessant rain prevented rescue teams from reaching the site. Rescue helicopters readied by the Nepal Army and police waited hopelessly at the Tribhuvan International Airport, unable to take off for Shikharpur village where the 19-seater aircraft flown by domestic carrier Agni Air crashed around 7.45 am. Police spokesman Bigyan Raj Sharma said the flight, carrying 11 passengers and three crew members, was headed for Lukla in northern Nepal, considered the gateway to Mt Everest. However, bad weather due to a raging monsoon prevented the aircraft from landing at the airport named after Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay Sherpa, forcing it to head back towards Kathmandu. On the way to the capital, it crashed in Makwanpur district, close to Kathmandu valley. Preliminary reports said there were six foreigners among the 11 passengers. Only one of them had been identified as a 25-year-old Japanese called Ayeshi. The other male passenger identified so far was a Nepali from Sankhuwasabha district, Pemba Sherpa. The three-member crew included two pilots and an air hostess. Even a police rescue team headed towards the crash site by road from Hetauda, the main town in Makwanpur, was obstructed by raging rain, fog and mud slides. Sharma indicated the aircraft had scattered into pieces, indicating there was little hope of survivors. This is the second major air disaster suffered by Nepal in two years. In 2008, a domestic airline crashed in the Everest region, killing 24 people, including 12 German tourists, a Nepali minister and his wife and noted conservationists. The crash comes at a time Nepal is celebrating the entry of a Nepali airline to Bhutan, the first international airline to start flights to the Buddhist kingdom. It also clouds efforts to celebrate 2011 as tourism year targeted to bring in one million tourists.
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| Nearly 200 women gang-raped in rebel-held Congo town Posted: Nearly 200 women have been gang-raped in a northern Congo town by Rwandan Hutu FDLR insurgents and Mai Mai militia. The Scotsman quoted Stefania Trassari, a spokeswoman for the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs, as saying: "During the attack (the rebels) looted houses and raped several women in Luvungi and surrounding areas." "International Medical Corps reported that FDLR systematically raped the population during its four-day stay in Luvungi and surrounding areas. A total of 179 cases of sexual violence were reported," Trassari added. Humanitarian group the IMC said it was treating the victims. In a statement it said: "Nearly all reported rapes were described as having been perpetrated by two to six armed men, often taking place in front of the women's children and husbands." The UN has withdrawn 1,700 peacekeepers in recent months in response to calls from the Congo government to end the mission next year, but it still supports operations against several armed groups in the east. Roger Meece, the new head of the UN mission MONUSCO, said last week the rebels were still a huge threat to the population and the UN would keep trying to wipe them out.
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| Posted: A plane crashed in Nepal's Makwanpur district early Tuesday morning, a media report said. The Dornier plane was carrying 15 people including three crew members, Xinhua news agency reported. The exact cause of the accident is not known, but officials suspect bad weather could have led to the crash.
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| Mexico's Jimena Navarrete wins Miss Universe pageant Posted: Mexico's Jimena Navarrete on Tuesday won the Miss Universe beauty pageant held in Las Vegas. Miss Jamaica Yendi Philipps was the first runner-up. The top five also included Miss Australia Jesinta Campbell, Miss Ukraine Anna Poslavska and Miss Philippines Venus Raj. Navarrete received the Miss Universe crown from Stefania Fernandez, who won last year's pageant representing Venezuela. Eighty-three women were contesting for the title of Miss Universe.
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| John Lennon's toilet up for sale Posted: Taking the craze for Beatles memorabilia to a new level, a lavatory from the home of the band's legendary frontman John Lennon is set to go under the hammer. The item is part of an auction of Fab Four memorabilia in their hometown of Liverpool and is expected to fetch up to USD 2000, reported Contactmusic. The porcelain toilet bowl was installed at Tittenhurst Park, Lennon's luxury mansion in Berkshire, England, where he lived until moving to New York with Yoko Ono in 1971. Other items in the auction include a copy of Lennon and Ono's Two Virgins album, expected to sell for USD 4,000, and a black-and-white photo of Sir Paul McCartney outside his home in Liverpool when he was aged 21.
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| Pentagon denies role in rape charge against WikiLeaks founder Posted: The Pentagon has termed as 'ridiculous' the notion that its officials were involved in recent rape allegations against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. Recently, Swedish authorities had issued an arrest warrant against Assange but revoked it soon after. Any thought that the Defence Department may be part of such a conspiracy (rape allegations against Assange) is 'absurd', Pentagon spokesperson Bryan Whitman said, adding, "No. That's ridiculous." WikiLeaks, a whistleblower website, had recently published thousands of classified Afghan war documents on its website, which the Pentagon says has harmed the lives of hundreds and thousands of its people. Earlier, Pentagon had asked WikiLeaks to return back all these documents as these are its properties. The Pentagon along with the Department of Justice is currently probing the incident. News reports had quoted Assange as charging that the allegations were part of a 'smear campaign' after his website posted tens of thousands of classified US military war records. WikiLeaks has an additional 15,000 documents it plans to post, he said. The spokesperson also demanded that WikiLeaks remove the posted documents, many of which contain the names of US troops and Afghan nationals who support them. "I think we've made our position very clear, that this stolen property should be returned immediately," Whitman said. "The information on the Web should be taken down. There should be no further posting of any information, and the department is not interested in any sort of minimisation or sanitation exercise," he said.
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| Local strippers okay with mosque near Ground Zero Posted: While a large number of Americans oppose the proposed Muslim community centre and mosque just two blocks away from Ground Zero, the site of the fallen WTC Twin Towers, employees of the strip clubs in the neighbourhood have no problem with it. "I don't know what the big deal is," said Cassandra, a stripper at New York Dolls, as reported by The Wall Street Journal. "It's freedom of religion, you know?" said Chris, a stripper at Pussycat Lounge, also close by, who lost eight firefighter friends on 9/11. But she doesn't have particularly strong feelings towards the mosque, The Journal reported. "The people who did it are not going to the mosque. It's all good. You have your synagogues and your churches. And you have a mosque." she said. The presence of strip clubs and gambling joints in the vicinity, which is a commercial hub in Manhattan, has also punctured holes into the assertion that the area around the World Trade Centre should be treated as 'hallowed ground' as suggested by former Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin and others. Meanwhile, Daisy Khan, co-developer of the Muslim centre along with her husband Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, described the opposition to the mosque as 'anti-Semitism.' "It's not even Islamophobia. It's beyond Islamophobia. It's hate of Muslims," she said on ABC's This Week. Both anti and pro mosque demonstrators took to the streets yesterday with the opponents having a larger crowd of around 500 people, blasting songs like Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the USA." Anti-mosque protestors also held placards with the words 'Sharia' written in blood red letters. The angst against the proposed Muslim community centre near Ground Zero has also led to demonstrations against mosques in other parts of the country. Polls suggest that the majority of Americans inside and out of New York, both Republican and Democrats, are against such a mosque coming up. Prominent Republicans like Sarah Palin, Rudy Giuliani, and Newt Gingrich have already spoken out against the mosque as have Democrats like Senate majority leader Harry Reid. However, Kuwaiti-born Imam Rauf, the developer of the $100 million Muslim community centre, which will include the mosque, insists that it is "a centre for all New Yorkers" and "its purpose is to interweave America's Muslim population into the mainstream society." Rauf, who is touring the Middle East right now as part of a State Department trip to promote goodwill, told a Bahrain based newspaper that the US constitution was more in tune with Islamic principles than some laws and policies of Muslim nations, the New York Post reported. "I see the (Declaration) of Independence as more compliant with the principles of Islam than what is available in many of the current Muslim countries," he said.
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| Manila Hostage situation: High drama in high definition Posted: President says media coverage helped hostage-taker, as he monitored events on TV and radio President Benigno Noynoy Aquino III is seeking further refinements in the parameters of media coverage during crisis situations following the dramatic hostage crisis that ended in carnage yesterday. President Noynoy Aquino said he plans to meet with media organisations to forward his agenda after he lamented that full media coverage of the hostage crisis apparently gave the hostage-taker a "bird's eye view" of the situation and hampered government actions to resolve the problem.  Rescue attempt: Philippine policemen take position as they start their assault in a bid to free hostages from Hong Kong who remain on the hijacked tourist bus, yesterday which was seized earlier by an ex- policeman armed with a high-powered assault rifle in Manila. Pic/AFP President Noynoy Aquino, in a press conference early this morning at the Palace, explained that the government did not impose any news blackout during the 12-hour standoff since it violates the freedom of the press. But he later recognised the need for "a redefinition of the limitations" set for the media to allow the government to do its job during a crisis situation. "If we ordered the news blackout, you'd tell us that we were guilty of censoring you which is frowned upon by the Constitution. We cannot censor you for things you are bound to do. We did not vow transparency. But that actually points out to the possibility of further refining the rules after the Peninsula incident," the President said. "We will be talking to you. We'll come up with terms and conditions that will help each of us achieve our objectives," added the President, who has expressed condolences to the families of the eight tourists killed in the hostage crisis that unfolded live on television. Mendoza, who demanded his job back, was killed during a gunfight with police commandos that stormed the bus filled with Hong Kong tourists. He reportedly used his captives as human shields. "To a certain degree, he might have a bird's eye view of the entire situation which does not help the security forces in carrying out the mission," the President said. Mendoza was monitoring the events in the television and radio "all the time" with the "nonstop coverage of all media outlets," he added. He noted that the hostage-taker was distressed and "something pushed him to the edge." "Who were the people he was talking to? What were the limitations imposed on media? None," he said. "Everyone wants to get latest tidbit and each time he got a new piece of information that obviously factored into his equations and it didn't help our security forces. But at the same time you have to balance the need for people to know. There has to be limits as to what should be divulged to somebody," he added. The President earlier defended the actions of government forces, saying the police initially thought the hostage-taker would surrender but the situation later deteriorated. Aquino also disclosed that he has apologised to the government of Hong Kong.
Timeline
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| First drive-thru supermarket opens Posted: UK's first drive-through supermarket is being launched by Tesco this week. But drivers will not be steering their vehicles up and down the aisles. The service will be tested at a Tesco Extra store in Baldock, Hertfordshire. The drive-thru wants to allow customers to order their groceries online and pick them up at the supermarket without leaving their car. Staff will pack the shopping into the boot. The concept, which if successful could be rolled out across the country, is aimed at customers who want the convenience of online shopping but don't have time to wait at home for their groceries to be delivered. Laura Wade-Gery, chief executive, said, "This will be especially popular with busy mums who have the school run and children's activities to manage." "It also offers a solution to parents who want to avoid the challenge of shopping in a busy store with children in tow but can't afford the time to stay in for the shop to arrive at their door," she added. A flat �2 (Rs 145) charge will apply apply instead of the sliding scale of home delivery charges.
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| Hitler's 'black and jewish DNA' Posted: Researchers claim Adolf Hitler could have had black and Jewish ancestors -- the very same sub-human groups he earmarked for extermination during his 12-year reign. Tests on a DNA sample taken from one of his relatives show that the dictator could have had north African roots. A journalist working for a magazine in Brussels managed to get hold of a sample from Alexander Stuart-Houston, a grand-nephew of Hitler living in America, after picking up a serviette he had dropped. Reporter Jean-Paul Mulders used the services of historian Marc Vermeeren to find Hitler's Austrian cousin, a farmer called Norbert H, and 39 other distant relatives of the Fuehrer. Norbert H then gave Vermeeren and Mulders a sample of his saliva. Using both the Austrian sample and the serviette DNA, Mulders claims the link between the two men was "irrefutable", adding, "the Y-chromosome was identical." Mulders added, "One can postulate from this that Hitler was related to people whom he despised and tried to annihilate." The DNA was tested under stringent laboratory conditions.
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