Angels work their million dollar magic
All the women at the Victoria’s Secrets Fashion Show 2012 looked incredible, but it was Alessandra who was given the honour of donning the famed fashion show’s Fantasy Bra – worth a staggering $2.5 million. Re-designed every year, for the 2012 show the Fantasy Bra was covered in intricate flowers made out of a massive [...]
‘Read my lips, I will raise your taxes’-Obama to GOP
President Barack Obama has thrown down to gauntlet to Republican leaders, inviting them to the White House next week to discuss the so-called fiscal cliff but insisting any compromise will include higher taxes on the rich. A crisis is looming at the end of the year is agreement cannot be reached on how to avoid [...]
Three Shiite Muslims shot dead in Pakistan
QUETTA, Pakistan, Nov 10 (AFP) -Gunmen shot dead three Shiite Muslims and wounded three others on Saturday in a fresh sectarian attack in Pakistan’s troubled southwestern province of Baluchistan, police said. “Six persons from the Shiite Hazara community were passing from the Jinnah road in a taxicab when they were targeted by two gunmen waiting [...]
China leader indicates no major reform imminent
BEIJING (AFP) – China’s outgoing leader has acknowledged the ills that plague the Communist Party but insisted it can cure itself, indicating no radical surgery to either the economy or politics by his successor. In likely his final political testament given Thursday at China’s ongoing Communist Party Congress, outgoing President Hu Jintao delivered a stark [...]
CIA chief Petraeus in shock resignation over affair
WASHINGTON, Nov 10 (AFP) -Washington was in shock Saturday after the sudden resignation of CIA chief and ex-US commander in Iraq and Afghanistan, David Petraeus, handing another major challenge to President Barack Obama just three days after his re-election. Petraeus said he resigned over an extramarital affair, bringing an ignomious end to a highly praised [...]
New Anglican leader backs women bishops
LONDON, Nov 09 (AFP) – The new leader of the world’s Anglicans said Friday he backed women bishops and would examine his thinking on gay marriage, tackling issues that have divided the faithful across the world. Former oil executive Justin Welby was named as the next archbishop of Canterbury, the head of the Church of [...]
Pakistan marks “Malala Day”
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – The families of more than 3 million poor children in Pakistan will receive cash stipends if their children go to school, the government said as officials mark ed “Malala Day” yesterday in support of a schoolgirl shot by the Taliban. U.N. officials declared Malala Day one month after 15-year-old Malala Yousufzai and [...]
Thai royal barge procession at close of Buddhist Katina
BANGKOK (Reuters) – Golden barges shaped like swans and mythical sea creatures glided down the Chao Phraya river that winds through the Thai capital of Bangkok on Friday in a 700-year-old ceremony, with more than 2,000 rowers taking part. The Royal Barge Procession, held for the first time in five years and presided over by [...]
Pope to join celebs, presidents on Twitter
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Pope Benedict already has 1.2 billion “followers” in the standard sense of the word but he soon will have another type when he enters what for any 85 year old is the brave new world of Twitter. Vatican officials say the pontiff, who is known not to love computers and still [...]
Microsoft dumps its chat service for Skype
Microsoft is dropping its instant-messaging program and forcing most of its 100m users to switch to Skype. Experts had speculated that Windows Live Messenger made less sense after Microsoft bought Skype for $8.5 billion last year. ‘Skype and Messenger are coming together,’ Skype said in a post at its website. ‘By updating to Skype, Messenger [...]
The Racist States of America
A great deal of Americans were justifiably upset when Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney lost the election. But rather than using social media to express their frustration and disappointment in an elegant way, many Twitter users instead used the platform to post shockingly racist tweets, calling President Obama a ‘n*****’ and a ‘monkey.’ A map collected [...]
US Navy SEAL from Osama raid punished
Seven members of the secretive Navy SEAL Team 6, including one involved in the mission to get Osama bin Laden, have been punished for disclosing classified information, senior Navy officials said Thursday Four other SEALs are under investigation for similar alleged violations, one official said. They allegedly divulged classified information to the creator of the [...]
Indian Muslim princess who died for Britan
A beautiful Indian princess, she sacrificed her life for Britain as a wartime secret agent. With astonishing courage, Noor Inayat Khan evaded the Gestapo before being betrayed, tortured and, after refusing to reveal any information, executed at Dachau concentration camp. Her last word as the firing squad raised their weapons on September 13, 1944, was ‘liberté’. Yesterday, [...]
Civics clashes with religion at Indian shrines
(Reuters)- Mumbai’s Sufi shrine Haji Ali Dargah Trust has barred women from entering the sanctum that houses the tomb of the Sufi saint Pir Haji Ali Shah Bukhari. The reason: authorities said [2] that they saw a woman visit the tomb in inappropriate clothing. This might not be entirely surprising. The mosque and dargah – [...]
Allergies to spices are on the rise – and women are more at risk
Over the past few weeks we’ve had allergy warnings about cats, household damp and peanuts. Now scientists at the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology have added another to their list – spices. Spice allergy affects up to three per cent of us, but experts are warning it is under-diagnosed due to the lack [...]
Taking aspirin every other day ‘cuts cancer risk by more than 40%’
Taking aspirin every other day cuts the risk of certain cancers by more than 40 per cent, according a study. Harvard researchers have found that even a very low dose of the painkiller drastically reduces the odds of bowel and stomach cancers. Women who took one 100mg tablet every other day were 43 per cent less [...]
Diving into the Maldives for sharks, sand and serenity
Coming face-to-face with a shark when snorkelling is not perhaps something you’d find entirely desirable on your hols, but if you’re swimming in the Indian Ocean in an area only recently opened to tourists it can happen with surprising regularity. At least it did for me in my week in the Southern Maldives, swimming off [...]
It was the demographics, stupid
WASHINGTON (IPS) – Twenty years ago, Democratic pol James Carville immortalised the phrase “It’s the economy, stupid” in explaining how former Arkansas governor Bill Clinton would unseat President George H. W. Bush, who was riding high off his smashing military victory in the first Gulf War. Now, 20 years later, pros in both parties appear [...]
The special interests won again
November 08, 2012 “Information Clearing House” – The election that was supposed to be too close to call turned out not to be so close after all. In my opinion, Obama won for two reasons: (1) Obama is non-threatening and inclusive, whereas Romney exuded a “us vs. them” impression that many found threatening, and (2) [...]
Obamas in love: The most retweeted moment in history
Emotional intelligence … The popularity on Twitter of the Obamas’ victory embrace indicates his support among younger people The story of Barack Obama’s re-election is the story of how real people, real voters, have expressed a relationship with this man that defies the cynicism, bias and outright prejudice of the official media, who either wrote [...]
Japan’s increasing nationalist turn amidst tension with China
TOKYO – Japan has been in the news lately, owing to its dispute with China over six square kilometres of barren islets in the East China Sea that Japan calls the Senkakus and China calls the Diaoyu Islands. The rival claims date back to the late nineteenth century, but the recent flare-up, which led to [...]
