India’s first Playmate says she’s a pioneer
The first Indian woman to pose naked for Playboy magazine says she is proud to have pushed the envelope in a country where public nudity in any form remains largely a taboo. Small-time Bollywood actress Sherlyn Chopra, 28, will feature in a nude spread in the November issue of the raunchy magazine, though her fans [...]
Japan should fortify islets defence: Senior politician
TOKYO, Aug 18 (AFP)-Japan should strengthen its coast guard to defend disputed islands, the ruling party policy chief said Saturday, a day after Tokyo deported pro-Beijing activists who had sailed there. “Coast guard officials are doing their best, and so the government and the ruling parties will discuss how to strengthen our backup to them,” [...]
Nasa’s Curiosity rover prepares to zap Martian rocks
Nasa’s Curiosity rover is getting ready to zap its first Martian rock.A small stone lying just to the side of the vehicle at its landing site on the floor of Gale Crater has been selected as a test target for the ChemCam laser. The brief but powerful burst of light from this instrument will vaporise [...]
How the world took revenge on Germany
Hands up anybody who knows who conducted the largest ethnic cleansing on record, the forcible expulsions of some 15m people and deaths of at least 500,000. Stalin? Hitler? Mao? It was none of the above, but the victorious allies following the Second World War. This is one of the darkest episodes in modern history, yet [...]
Giving every dog its day
When Nelson arrived at the dog sanctuary deep in the Sri Lankan forest in April this year, there was little hope for his future. He was clinging to life after having been hit by a train, had one eye bulging out of its socket and was unable to walk or eat. He also had a [...]
Is this the world’s most dangerous marketplace?
This is a market where you have to keep your wits about you – because eight times a day a train comes crashing through. Just seconds before it is a bustling open-air marketplace like any other with stallholders and shoppers haggling over the price of the produce on sale. Maeklong Market is in Samut Songkhram, [...]
The car that can fold itself up to fit a parking space
City dwellers know the most difficult part of urban driving isn’t the mental minicab drivers or suicidal cyclists, but finding a space to park the car once you have safely arrived at your destination. But now a solution is at hand in the form of a revolutionary new car that can actually fold up to [...]
The floating future of the Maldives
For golfers who struggle to avoid the water hazards, it could be a challenging course.The Maldives has revealed plans for a radical £320m floating course, which players access by an undersea tunnel. The course is part of a massive plan to replace the sinking islands with a network of man made, floating islands. With an [...]
Elvis Presley’s ex-wife and daughter address emotional vigil at Graceland
Elvis Presley’s ex-wife Priscilla and their only daughter Lisa Marie shocked fans by turning up to a candlelit vigil at Graceland to mark the 35th anniversary of the singer’s death.The vigil began on Wednesday night after Priscilla Presley and her daughter made the unscheduled and impromptu appearance on a stage set up just inside the [...]
Inside the Hezbollah ‘theme park’
Lebanese militant group Hezbollah has built a multi-million pound theme park designed to indoctrinate its children about the glory of martyrdom against its enemy Israel.The mostly-outdoor museum features barbed wire, tanks, rockets, archive video footage and a lot of guns. Visitors are able to walk around replica war scenes that feature destroyed Israeli tanks – [...]
Can Paul Ryan help put ‘Mitt The Twit’ in the White House?
He catches catfish in his bare hands, hunts deer with a bow and turns them into homemade sausages, and boasts that his ruthless workout programme has left him with just 6 per cent body fat. Little wonder that, after the phrase ‘vice-president’, the most popular word added to Google searches for ‘Paul Ryan’ is ‘shirtless’. [...]
Julian Assange asylum: Ecuador is right to stand up to the US
Ecuador has now made its decision: to grant political asylum to Julian Assange. This comes in the wake of an incident that should dispel remaining doubts about the motives behind the UK/Swedish attempts to extradite WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. On Wednesday, the UK government made an unprecedented threat to invade Ecuador’s embassy if Assange is [...]
British threats in WikiLeaks case ‘stupid’ – expert
LONDON, AFP) – Britain is considering using an obscure law to extract Julian Assange from Ecuador’s embassy in London, but law experts say the possibility is slim — and one says London’s actions are “stupid”. Before it granted asylum to the WikiLeaks founder on Thursday, Ecuador made an angry rebuttal of what it saw as [...]
India’s American relations
NEW DELHI – With America’s presidential election looming, perhaps its most striking aspect from an Indian point of view is that no one in New Delhi is unduly concerned about the outcome. There is now a broad consensus in Indian policymaking circles that, whoever wins, India-United States relations are more or less on the right [...]
Ban in the Hot Seat over NAM in Iran
UNITED NATIONS, (IPS) – When Cuba chaired the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) back in 1979, Western nations dismissed the world’s largest single political coalition as lacking legitimacy since Havana was considered a close ally of the then-Soviet Union. Taking the cue from the West, even some of the mainstream news organisations, as a matter of editorial [...]
