Thursday, November 24, 2011

Mid Day International News

Mid Day International News

Man forced to stand on 7-hour flight due to 400-pound fellow traveller

Posted:

A passenger flying from Anchorage to Philadelphia was forced to stand for seven hours on a US Airway flight as a 400lb man sitting next to him made it impossible for him to get into his seat.

According to Arthur Berkowitz, the obese man spilled over into his personal space and he could not move because the plane was full so he was forced to stand up.

Berkowitz also said that his co-passenger was very sorry about what had happened.

"The first thing he said to me was: 'I want to apologise - I'm your worst nightmare'," the Daily Mail quoted Berkowitz as saying.

Berkowitz's ordeal in July presented a safety risk because he could not use his seatbelt for take-off and landing.

"I didn't fly from Alaska to Philadelphia on Flight 901, I stood.

"His size required both armrests to be raised up and allowed for his body to cover half of my seat," he said.

The flight from Anchorage to Philadelphia is one of the longest non-stop U.S. domestic flights and Berkowitz thought he had a spare seat at first but before the door closed the airline asked a late-boarding passenger weighing 400lbs to sit down next to him in the last empty seat.

US Airways has also said sorry for the incident, which it described as "regrettable", and it offered the passenger a 200 dollars voucher in compensation.

Worker lifts 230 kg with 'iron crotch'

Posted:

An ailing Taiwanese worker has reportedly regained his health by practising "iron crotch", in which men use their genitals to lift iron disks weighing hundreds of kilograms.

Yang You-sin has been doing heavy manual labour since he was young. Ten years ago, his limbs started to swell and become sore after work. He was not able to find any medicine that could relieve his pain.

He soon started practising the iron crotch, also known as 99 Power Qigong, after he learnt from its founder that it can improve his health. Yang said his condition improved considerably, the wantchinatimes.com reported.

He uses a cloth to tie several iron disks to his genitals to warm up. When he feels prepared, he steps onto two pedestals and crouches down to tie iron weights weighing 230 kg to his penis. He then stands up slowly, lifting the iron disks off the ground for 30 seconds.

Yang has become famous for his Qigong practice and has even been invited to Indonesia to perform it. Qigong is usually practised to improve breathing and movement.

Largest partial solar eclipse tomorrow, no show in India

Posted:

Astro enthusiasts in the country will miss an opportunity to watch the largest partial solar eclipse of the year as it will be visible only from the deep Southern Hemisphere.

A partial solar eclipse will take place tomorrow which will only be seen from southern South Africa, Antarctica, Tasmania and most of New Zealand, except for the far north of the North Island.

At the instant of greatest eclipse, the eclipse magnitude will be 0.905, making it the largest partial eclipse of the year.

At that time, the lunar shadow axis will pass just 330 km above Earth's surface near the coast of Antarctica.

This eclipse will be visible across Antarctica in its summer 24 hour day sunlight, and New Zealand near sunset with less than 20 per cent of the sun obscured, Science Popularisation Association of Communicators and Educators (SPACE) President C B Devgun said.

Parts of the western Antarctic Peninsula will also experience nearly 90 per cent obscuration of the Sun.

This will be the last of four partial solar eclipses in 2011, with the others occurring on January 4, 2011, June 1, 2011, and July 1, 2011.

The partial solar eclipse will begin at 9:53.3 IST and will end at 13:47 PM IST. Maximum eclipse is in a remote region of the Atlantic Ocean at 11:50 AM IST.

The total duration of the celestial phenomenon is about four hours. A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby totally or partially obscuring the image of the Sun for a viewer on Earth.

A partial solar eclipse occurs in the polar regions of the Earth when the center of the Moon's shadow misses the Earth.


Naked woman left dangling from balcony after tumbling during sex

Posted:

A naked British woman was left dangling, upside down, in the stairwell of a Spanish hotel block after she tumbled over a handrail while making love with her husband.

The 49-year-old, known only by her initials AMAM, plunged several feet into the void in the early Saturday. But she survived from smashing into the marble floor below as her right ankle was trapped between two bars as she fell, the Daily Mail reported.

She was left hanging inches from the ground - spared from sustaining a serious head injury - during the incident on the Spanish island resort of Tenerife.

The woman was finally saved after emergency service crews arrived following her husband's call.

The woman suffered a broken ankle, as the firemen saved her by forcing apart two of the railings to free her.

A police spokesman said: "Her good luck was that getting her leg caught stopped her from falling. Her bad luck was that she broke her ankle, was naked and couldn't get free."

"It isn't a police matter so she isn't on any charges but we warned her and her husband to think about safe sex in the future," he added.


Pilot father-son duo die during air race

Posted:

A man and his elder son crashed to their deaths while flying together in an air race, as the younger son heard them in their last moments while flying another plane in the same competition, the Daily Mail reported.

Michael Willis and son James, 43, from Stanmore, north-west London, were racing to the Isle of Wight when they collided with another aircraft and crashed to the ground, the Daily Mail reported.

The younger son heard heard his father shouting "Mayday, Mayday, Mayday" just moments before the 73-year-old and his elder son crashed to their deaths, an inquest heard.

A wing of their Mooney M20B plane was ripped off in the collision as planes clustered in the last mile of the race.

Jonathan Willis, 39, Michael's younger son, was another contestant and heard the chilling message come over the radio as the Mooney plummeted.

He told the inquest that he watched the crash scene and finished the race before circling desperately overhead looking for any clue to the fate of his father and brother.

Russian newsreader gives Obama the finger

Posted:

A top Russian female newsreader has caused a stir after appearing to offensively show US President Barack Obama her middle finger during a live newscast.

Online footage of the incident, which occurred earlier this month during an afternoon news bulletin on the privately held REN TV channel, is being avidly viewed in both Russia and the United States.


When the cameras kept Rolling: Tatyana Limanova would not be
punished despite her making an offensive gesture towards US president
Barack Obama. File pic

In the footage, Tatyana Limanova, an award-winning senior newsreader at the channel, can be seen briskly
reading out an item about how Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has just assumed the rotating chairmanship of the Asia Pacific Cooperation organisation.

She is then heard to say that the post "has (previously) been held by Barack Obama" before mechanically and unambiguously raising her left arm and showing the camera her raised middle finger in an offensive gesture.

The channel has declined to comment. But sources close to it have tried to defuse the row by claiming that the newsreader had believed she was off camera.

According to the same storyline, the rude gesture was intended for studio technicians who had been trying to put her off her stride.

Sources at REN TV said Limanova would not be punished for her slip-up.


Clooney tops Berlo trial list

Posted:

Actor George Clooney is among more than 200 witnesses accepted by a Milan court in the trial of former Premier Silvio Berlusconi for allegedly paying for sex with an underage prostitute.

Clooney has said he was approached by Berlusconi's team to give evidence about bunga bunga parties at Berlusconi's villas, but says he only visited the premier's residence once to seek aid for Darfur and declined an invitation to stay. Berlusconi's defence lawyer Niccolo Ghedini said that Clooney and soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo are on the defence list because an important prosecution witness cited them.

Clooney said he was willing to give evidence, but added: "I wasn't at the bunga bunga party."

"I went to speak about Darfur. ... It was a very interesting conversation to say the least, that became a very different kind of event than anyone ever thought."

The witness list also includes Karima el-Mahroug, the Moroccan teenager who is alleged to have had sex with Berlusconi.


Man jailed 20 years for Thai king insults

Posted:

A Thai court yesterday sentenced a man to 20 years in prison for sending text messages deemed insulting to the monarchy, his lawyer said, under the kingdom's strict lese-majeste laws.

Ampon Tangnoppakul (61) was found guilty of four counts of sending messages to the private secretary of then-prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva in May 2010, according to the criminal court in Bangkok.

"The court found him guilty and sentenced him to 20 years in jail," said his lawyer Anon Nampa adding that he had 30 days to lodge an appeal.

Ampon was arrested in August last year and pleaded not guilty to the charges during his trial. After his arrest, Thailand's Central Bureau of Investigation said the messages were "inappropriate and considered insulting to the monarchy and have upset the recipients," without revealing their content.

Under Thai law, anyone convicted of insulting the king, queen, heir or regent faces up to 15 years in prison on each count. Academics have noted a sharp increase in new royal insult cases.


Radcliffe's parents initially turned down Potter role

Posted:

Daniel Radcliffe has revealed how his parents rejected the Harry Potter role because it would have meant him living for long periods in Hollywood.


Change of heart: Only after the deal was changed wherein Daniel
Radcliffe would shoot the movies in England, did his parents allow him
to sign the deal. File pic

The star said his parents Alan and Marcia initially turned down the offer to audition for the role of the boy wizard from JK Rowling's book. They were told if Radcliffe won the part he would have to make six films and they would all be shot in Los Angeles.

It was only after producers agreed to reduce the number of films and shoot them in England that his parents relented. Radcliffe has become a multi millionaire and one of the best known faces in the world.

Revealing how he almost lost out on the part, the actor said the director of the first film approached his parents after seeing him perform in a BBC series David Copperfield.

He said, "Chris Columbus had seen David Copperfield and said, 'I want to audition this boy.' They went to my parents, and, at the time, the deal was to sign on for -- I think -- six films, all to be done in LA, and my mum and dad simply said, 'That's too much disruption to his life. That's not gonna happen.'"

"I didn't know any of that had gone on. And then, maybe three, four months down the line, the deal had changed, and it was gonna be to shoot two films, and they'd both be done in England, and so they said, "Okay, we'll let him audition." Radcliffe said he hasn't enjoyed becoming a celebrity describing it as "vile" and "ghastly".

Did you know?
In 2009,Daniel Radcliffe was named as the richest young entertainers in the world earning a whopping �12.8 million (Rs 105 crore)


Drug dealing Brit family jailed

Posted:

13 members of the Whitney family, residing in Liverpool, were sentenced to 82 years in prison for running a 24-hour heroin and cocaine service

A family of drug dealers and their associates who peddled heroin and crack cocaine on the streets of Liverpool have been jailed for a total of 82 years. Thirteen people involved in running a 24-hour drugs cash and carry service have been jailed after a complex police operation.


Gran's Drug clan: (From above) Carol Whitney and Mary McCabe were
sentenced to 8 years, Wayne Hincks received 6 years whereas Neil
Brady, Michael O'Toole have to serve 4 and 5 years and Paul Whitney
was given nine years behind bars

Police put the family under surveillance and deployed undercover officers before eventually swooping on the Whitney family clan and their cohorts. As the net closed on the drug dealers, officers found an SA80 assault rifle which had been stolen from army barracks on Salisbury Plain in 2005 and around 1,200 rounds of ammunition as well as a large quantity of Class A substances.

Undercover officers from Merseyside police posed as addicts to make 'test purchases'to gain the necessary evidence as undercover officers filmed the footage. The Whitneys used unregistered, pre-paid mobile telephones and deployed untraceable vehicles to rendezvous with addicts, often in a telephone kiosk on a street corner.

One undercover officer, known as Ray, obtained a mobile number from a female addict which soon became known as the 'Whitney line'. Ringleader Paul Whitney, his accomplices Michael O'Toole and Matthew Mayor, together with other family members Leslie Whitney and now estranged wife Carol Whitney were prominent players in the conspiracy that plagued the streets Liverpool Crown Court heard.

In a desperate attempt to escape police, clan member Matthew Mayor hurled one kilo packets of cocaine out the window of his Mercedes S320 as he was chased down by surveillance teams in December last year.

The packets split as they hit the road -- showering the carriageway with �47,000 (Rs 3.83 crore) worth of drugs. After weaving in and out of rush-hour traffic and crossing the central reservation he was eventually cornered and arrested.

Mother Emma Mackenzie, tried to hide cocaine wraps in the nappy bag of her young child, as she passed the toddler to her own mum, Mary McCabe, during a police raid on her home in Anfield.

When police arrested grandmother Carol Whitney, who was the matriarch and banker, officers found more than 500 wraps of heroin hanging from a bush in her garden. Judge John Roberts, sitting at Liverpool Crown Court, jailed them all for their role in the conspiracy.

Rs 3.83 cr
Worth of drugs that Matthew Mayor hurled out his speeding car in an attempt to escape the cops

Rs 1 crore
Amount Carol Whitney, the matriarch had in her account despite being on benefits


Posted by Harshad at 8:13 AM

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