Cashed up on the catwalk: Gisele is highest-paid model
Gisele Bundchen has been revealed to be the world’s highest-paid model in a ranking by Forbes.Kate Moss, Miranda Kerr and Lara Stone also made the list with impressive fortunes, the Brazilian supermodel’s $45 million earnings puts her way ahead of her peers. Also making the top ten are Natalia Vodianova ($9.2 million), Adriana Lima [...]
Peaceful protests in Pakistan against anti-Islam film
ISLAMABAD (AFP)- Thousands of Islamist activists in Pakistan staged new demonstrations yesterday against a U.S.-made anti-Islam film, as the death toll from the previous day’s violent protests rose to 21. More than 5,000 protesters marched towards the parliament in Islamabad, including hundreds of women, chanting “We love our Holy Prophet” and “Punishment for those who humiliated [...]
Philippines close to peace deal in rebel south
MANILA/KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) – The Philippine government and Muslim rebels are closing in on a peace deal after nearly 15 years of violence-interrupted talks, a potential landmark success for President Benigno Aquino that could pave the way for more investment in the country’s impoverished but resource-rich south. Negotiators from both sides told Reuters that the [...]
Manmohan Singh wins praise for ‘straight talk’ on reforms
NEW DELHI (AFP) – Indian Premier Manmohan Singh won media praise Saturday for his “straight talk” to voters after he made a televised bid for public support for a slew of economic reforms that cost his government its majority. In a televised speech to the country late Friday, Singh said he acted in the national [...]
Turkey sentences 322 military officers to jail
TURKEY / SILIVRI (Reuters) -A Turkish court sentenced more than 300 military officers to jail on Friday for plotting to overthrow Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan almost a decade ago, ending a trial that underscored civilian dominance over the once all-powerful military. The court in Silivri, just west of Istanbul, handed prison terms to 322 serving [...]
Stephen King to publish follow-up to The Shining
Stephen King has revealed that the sequel to his 1977 classic horror story The Shining will be published on September 24 next year, 36 years after the original book was published. The long-awaited sequel, Doctor Sleep, follows the story of Danny Torrance, the young boy who survived the horrific events in the Overlook Hotel. The 64 [...]
Ringleader behind attack that killed US envoy
A former al-Qaeda terrorist released from Guantanamo Bay is believed to be the leader of the attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya, that killed four Americans, including the US Ambassador, it was revealed on Wednesday. Sufyan Ben Qumu, who was reportedly once Osama bin Laden’s driver, was let out of the US military [...]
It pays to fly economy
First class air travel offers plenty of perks but it seems that increased safety isn’t one of them. New research has revealed that economy passengers are more likely to survive a plane crash than those sitting in more expensive seats at the front of the plane. Scientists conducted an experiment in which they crashed a Boeing [...]
The real space race
Nasa astronaut Sunita Williams completed the first triathlon in space, running, biking and ‘swimming’ as, 250 miles below, athletes did the same at the Nautica Malibu Triathlon in Southern California. After ‘swimming’ half a mile, biking for 18 miles and then running for four miles, Williams made an off-world-record of one hour, 48 minutes and [...]
Can ‘Humble experiments’ at Nasa finally break the speed of light?
As we take steps into space, there is one thing that could always put a cap on our ambitions.Despite our desire to explore the stars, we are limited by travelling at less than light speed – and even if we managed to match that pace, we would still be listing our voyages from star to [...]
The unstoppable march of China?
Economists talk an awful lot of rubbish, and they probably talk more rubbish about the Far East than any other part of the world. In the late 1980s, every day brought new dire warnings from highly-trained and deeply knowledgable experts on how Japan was going to take over the world. Japanese expansion was unstoppable and [...]
Blowhard silencer, dead-fish brain science win spoof Nobel prizes
CHICAGO (Reuters) – Psychologists who discovered that leaning to the left makes the Eiffel Tower seem smaller, neuroscientists who found brain activity in a dead salmon, and designers of a device that can silence blowhards are among the winners of Ig Nobel prizes for the oddest and silliest real discoveries. The annual prizes are awarded [...]
Oprah and the good guys
Congregated behind closed doors of the grandiose Trustees Room at New York Public Library, this group of individuals made for the wealthiest gathering in the world. The twelve – Warren Buffett, Oprah Winfrey, Bill and Melinda Gates, Pete Petersen, Leon Black, Jon Bon Jovi, Marc Benioff, David Rubenstein, Steve Case, Laura Arrillaga-Andreessen and Marc Andreessen [...]
New generation of Arab leaders to address world body
UNITED NATIONS, (IPS) – When world leaders heading politically shaky authoritarian regimes lead their country’s delegations on overseas visits or attend international conferences, including the annual U.N. General Assembly sessions in September, there is always a lingering fear of either an insurrection or an attempted military coup back home. As far back as 1966, Ghana’s [...]
Libya mayhem reveals ‘uncontrolled chaos’ around the globe
“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step,” Lao Tzu, 604 B.C. The widely held belief that the “illuminati” globalists know exactly where they are going in their efforts to transform the world into a global village — through interventions under false pretexts, “controlled chaos,” and “colour revolutions” — has been called into [...]
Mitt and the moochers
WASHINGTON, DC – The Republican Party has some potentially winning themes for America’s presidential and congressional elections in November. Americans have long been sceptical of government, with a tradition of resistance to perceived government overreach that extends back to their country’s founding years. This tradition has bequeathed to today’s Americans a related rejection of public [...]
