A little faith goes a long way when it comes to petrol prices....
Prayer services are being held at petrol stations in America a bid to get fuel prices to drop. Two prayer services will be held at St. Louis gas stations to thank God for lower fuel prices and to ask that they continue to drop.
Darrell Alexander, Midwest co-chair of the Pray at the Pump movement, says prayer gatherings will be held Monday afternoon and evening at a Mobil station west of downtown St. Louis.
Participants say they plan to buy gas, pray and then sing "We Shall Overcome" with a new verse, "We'll have lower gas prices."
An activist from the Washington D.C. area, Rocky Twyman, started the effort, saying if politicians couldn't lower gas prices, it was time to ask God to intervene.
The group thinks the prayer is helping, saying prices are starting to fall below $4 a gallon.
-- The Metro
A 'energy boosting' eel drink has gone on sale.The canned drink called "Unagi Nobori," or "Surging Eel," made by Japan Tobacco Inc., hit the nation's stores this month just ahead of Japan's annual eel-eating season, company spokesman Kazunori Hayashi said Monday. "It's mainly for men who are exhausted by the summer's heat," Hayashi said of the beverage, believed to be the first mass-produced eel drink in Japan.
Many Japanese believe eating eel boosts stamina in hot weather.
The fizzy, yellow-colored drink contains extracts from the head and bones of eel and five vitamins - A, B1, B2, D and E - contained in the fish.
The Japanese particularly like to eat eel on traditional eel days, which fall on July 24 and Aug. 5 this year.
Demand for eel is so high that Japan has been hit by scores of eel fraud cases, including a recent high-profile incident in which a government ministry publicly scolded two companies for mislabeling eel imported from China as being domestically grown.
The eel involved in recent scandals was prepared in a popular "kaba-yaki" style, in which it is broiled and covered with a sweet sauce.
The 140 yen (80p) drink costs about one-tenth as much as broiled eel, but has a similar flavour.
Eel extract is also used in cookies and pies made in Japan's biggest eel producing town, Hamamatsu.
-- The Metro
Personally, I love unagi but, drinking an unagi drink? Lets just say, I'm not so sure about it.
China named its Olympic women's gymnastics team Friday, and the inclusion of at least two athletes has further raised questions, widespread in the sport, about whether the host nation for the Beijing Games is using underage athletes.
Chinese officials responded immediately, providing copies of passports indicating that both gymnasts in question - He Kexin, a gold-medal favorite in the uneven parallel bars, and Jiang Yuyuan - are 16, the minimum age for Olympic eligibility.
Officials with the International Gymnastics Federation said that questions about He's age had been raised by Chinese news media, USA Gymnastics and fans of the sport, but that the Chinese authorities presented passport information to show that He is 16.
But online records listing Chinese gymnasts and their ages that were posted on official Web sites in China, along with ages given in the official Chinese news media, seem to contradict the passport information, indicating that He and Jiang may be as young as 14.
In Chinese newspaper profiles this year, He was listed as 14, too young for the Beijing Games.NYTimes found two online records of official registration lists of Chinese gymnasts that list He's birthday as Jan. 1, 1994, which would make her 14. A 2007 national registry of Chinese gymnasts - now blocked in China but viewable through Google cache - shows He's birthday as "1994.1.1."
Another registration list that is unblocked, dated Jan. 27, 2006, regarding an intercity competition in Chengdu, China, also lists He's birthday as Jan. 1, 1994. That date differs by two years from the birth date of Jan. 1, 1992, listed on He's passport, which was issued Feb. 14, 2008.
The other gymnast, Jiang, is listed on her passport - issued March 2, 2006 - as having been born on Nov. 1, 1991, which would make her 16.
--NYTimes
Picture : Carina Lau and Tony Leung in wedded blissWith ten minutes remaining to bid, and no reserve price, Emma quickly put in a bid of £2.50. After a nervous wait, she received an e-mail from China confirming she'd won the auction.
She said: "There were no other bids so I thought I had nothing to lose by typing in £2.50. I got an e-mail back from a man in Shanghai, who said he would make my dress for me, and asked for all my measurements."
Emma, from Melton Mowbray, was delighted when her dress arrived in a Parcel Force van six weeks later.
She said: "It was folded up nicely and neatly and it was an absolutely perfect fit. The postage and packing had cost £16.50 but I didn't mind paying that. People just couldn't believe it when I told them I'd bought it for £2.50."
Emma said: "We had a brilliant day. It shows you don't have to spend loads of money to have a great wedding."Leung's credits include "Infernal Affairs," which Martin Scorsese remade as "The Departed," and John Woo's recently released Chinese historical epic "Red Cliff." He was named best actor at the Cannes Film Festival in 2000 for his performance in "In the Mood for Love."
Lau, an actress, appeared in "Infernal Affairs II," "Center Stage" and director Wong's "Ashes of Time" and "2046."
I am a big fan of Tony Leung's works and wish them all the best.
The cause was metastasized pancreatic cancer, Carnegie Mellon University announced.
Professors are sometimes asked to give lectures on what wisdom they would impart if they knew it was their last chance. Soon after Dr. Pausch (pronounced powsh), a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon, accepted that challenge, he learned he had months to live.
He hesitated, then went ahead with the lecture, on Sept. 18, 2007. He said he intended to have fun and advised others to do the same. He spoke of the importance of childlike wonder.
But Dr. Pausch did not omit things that would break just about anybody’s heart. He spoke of his love for his wife, Jai, and had a birthday cake for her wheeled on stage. He spoke of their three young children, saying he had made his decision to speak mostly to leave them a video memory — to put himself in a metaphorical bottle that they might someday discover on a beach.
As the video of his lecture spread across the Web and was translated into many languages, Dr. Pausch also became the co-author of a best-selling book and a deeply personal friend, wise, understanding and humorous, to many he never met.
Some of the millions who saw Dr. Pausch on YouTube and elsewhere wrote letters and e-mail to The Journal and many blogs. Some said he inspired them to quit feeling sorry for themselves, or to move on from divorces, or to pay more attention to their families. A woman said the video gave her the strength to escape an abusive relationship; others said they decided not to commit suicide because of it.
-- NYTimes
The Auckland University Students' Association is seeking Rice's arrest for her role in ''overseeing the illegal invasion and continued occupation'' of Iraq, Association President David Do said. The group is offering a $3,700 reward.
Rice is making her first trip to New Zealand after attending a Southeast Asian security forum in Singapore. She is scheduled to arrive from Australia late Friday and fly out early Sunday.
U.S. officials traveling with her said that they were aware of the threat but that it won't affect Rice's plans.
But police in Auckland, New Zealand's biggest city, warned that ''anyone who attempts to penetrate the police lines of security around the secretary will not be allowed to follow through with their plan.''
District Commander Superintendent Brett England said ''the consequences of such a security threat could be very serious indeed.''
On Saturday, Rice will hold talks with Prime Minister Helen Clark and Foreign Minister Winston Peters, meet with business leaders and attend an official dinner.
Rice is due to fly to Samoa early Sunday for meetings with South Pacific foreign ministers, seen by observers as an important event for the South Pacific region -- an area where the U.S. has pledged to strengthen its level of engagement.
-- Associated Press
A naked dining fad is proving popular in New York. About 50 diners - whose motto is "no hot soup" - meet regularly for meals where the dress code is literally non-existent.
Organiser John Ordover, who rents city restaurants for the monthly dinner parties, told the New York Post: "We're not out to shock or put on a public spectacle.
"We want only to do things that other people do in the way that we are most comfortable doing them. That, for us, is without clothes."
Diners are served by regular restaurant staff - forced by city laws to keep their clothes on.
"We've never had a restaurant say no to us, and the waiters think nothing of it," said Ordover, 46, who works as a web marketer when he has his clothes on.
"If you work in a restaurant in New York City, the chances are you've seen a lot more shocking things than a room full of naked diners," he added.
The au naturel look is also catching on at a New York stand-up comedy club and in some of the city's yoga classes.
"I had such a transformative experience on my own when I did yoga naked rather than clothed," said Naked Yoga NYC teacher Isis Phoenix. "I wanted to share that."
The classes have about 10 devotees who have to obey two rules - leave your clothes behind, and bring your own mat.
-- NYPost
Picture : From The Straits Times, 24th JulyAreas are being set aside in three public parks near some of the sporting venues, said Liu Shaowu, director for security for the Beijing Olympic organizing committee.
''We will invite demonstrators to hold their demonstrations in designated places,'' Liu told a news conference.
In a sign that Beijing is eager to minimize disruptions by demonstrations, the three protest areas are in outlying parks, not near the Olympic green where the largest number of sports venues are.
Liu reiterated that Chinese law requires all demonstrations be approved by police in advance, but when asked by reporters he declined to say whether that applied to the protest zones.
Special protest zones have been part of past Olympics, including the 2004 games in Athens.
But Beijing's decision marks the end of months of internal debate over whether allowing public protests might backfire, disrupting China's attempts to use the games to boost its image overseas and the government's popularity at home.
Protests abroad against China's restrictions on human rights and media freedoms and an uprising by Tibetans and alleged terrorist plots by Muslims in western China have prompted the government to ramp up security nationwide.
Visa sweeps against foreigners, efforts to encourage migrant workers to leave Beijing and police checkpoints in and around the city have touched off criticism that heavy-handed security may drain the fun from the Olympics.
Liu, the security official, said police were trying to strike a balance between the need for safety and the desire for festiveness. ''We are confident we can give the Beijing Olympics a good and joyous atmosphere,'' he said.
When it comes to security, Liu said the large numbers of people expected in Beijing during the games made it a ripe target for terrorist infiltration.
Though he declined to specify terrorist threats, police officials have said in recent months that they have foiled plans by Muslim separatists connected to the games.
-- Associated Press
Deputy Prime Minister and Home Affairs Minister Wong Kan Seng said their reasons for doing so vary, and these range from marriage to foreigners, to yearning for a different environment.
Most of them took up new citizenship in countries in Southeast Asia, the United States and Australia.
Mr Wong gave this update in reply to a written question from Non—Constituency MP Sylvia Lim.
She had asked how many Singapore citizens emigrated from Singapore in the last three years, the countries they emigrated to and their reasons for doing so.
Mr Wong said those who emigrate generally do not declare this to the Immigration & Checkpoints Authority when they leave.
So the only available data which gives an indication of the number of emigrants from Singapore is the number of Singaporeans who have given up their citizenship and left Singapore."Feral Australian donkeys are usually given a wide berth but now their skins are to be used as an aphrodisiac for Chinese women.
A Hong Kong company that specialises in traditional medicines is trying to locate up to a million donkey skins every year. Usually it gets them from South America but now it's seeking the fertile skins of some of the 300,000 wild donkeys ranging the Northern Territory.
Sydney-based exporter John Fleming is applying to hunt feral donkeys in the Northern Territory to sell overseas.
"They want the skins, but not for leather. Apparently there is a certain extract in the skin they can use for traditional medicine," he said.
Chinese traditional healers use donkey skins to extract Ejiao, which is used to make Nu Bao, a traditional Chinese medicine that supposedly improves vitality, increases a woman's libido and help with period pain.
"They're after a lot of donkey skins. As much as they can get their hands on," Mr Fleming said.
"It seems there are a lot of feral donkeys out there and people are basically shooting them for sport."
-- The Metro
The Health Ministry will examine the feasibility of providing payments to unrelated donors to augment the supply of kidneys, Khaw Boon Wan said in Parliament, acknowledging that the suggestion has stirred controversy.
''We should not reject any idea just because it is radical or controversial,'' Khaw said. ''We may be able to find an acceptable way to allow a meaningful compensation for some living, unrelated kidney donors, without breaching ethical principles or hurting the sensitivities of others.''
Khaw said the ministry would review possible changes to current legislation to allow payments for donations from third parties such as those from the charity and religious sectors. Under the proposal, which would need to be approved by Parliament to become law, patients would also get help in finding donors.
''There are desperate patients out there wishing to live and desperately poor people willing to exchange a kidney for a hopefully improved life,'' he said.
Khaw also said the Health Ministry would push to amend existing laws on organ transplants to remove an age limit on deceased donors, currently set at 60 years, because ''the suitability of the organ depends on its condition rather than the age of the donor.''
The two initiatives should enable Singapore to carry out 70 percent of the kidney transplants needed every year -- up from 50 percent currently, the minister said.
The two initiatives should raise Singapore's sufficiency in kidney transplants from 50 percent to 70 percent, the minister said. He said about 1,000 new cases of kidney failure are diagnosed every year, with nearly 40 percent unable to survive the first year.
Khaw's comments follow the cases of two Indonesian men who were jailed and fined by a Singapore court earlier this month after being convicted of agreeing to sell their kidneys to two patients in the city-state.
Selling or buying organs or blood is illegal in Singapore and carries a penalty of up to 12 months' jail, or a fine of up to $7,405 or both.
--Associated Press
The hotly anticipated film, co-starring late actor
Going into the weekend, pundits had forecast an opening in the $100 million range, evidently underestimating the Batmania infecting movie fans across the world.
The Caped Crusader also generated $40 million from 20 foreign markets, highlighted by No. 1 bows in Ledger's native Australia ($13.1 million) and Mexico ($6.6 million), the
With a little help from another new release "Mamma Mia!" which opened at No. 2 with $27.6 million, "The Dark Knight" propelled overall North American ticket sales to a record $253 million, according to tracking firm Media By Numbers. The old mark of $218 million was set two years ago, the company said.
"The Dark Knight" stars Welsh actor Christian Bale as Batman, and was directed by English filmmaker
"Dark Knight" should hit that level by midweek, Warner Bros. said.
The new film reportedly cost about $180 million to make, thanks in part to the pioneering use of heavy Imax cameras to shoot 30 minutes of the 152-minute film for giant-screen theaters. The filmmakers also blew up bits of Chicago, which doubles for the fictional Gotham City.
-- Reuters
Picture from today's Sunday TimesUS police solved a mysterious death after discovering uncanny similarities to an episode of TV's CSI.
When Thomas Hickman was found dead in a remote part of New Mexico, with a gunshot wound to the back of his head and duct tape covering his mouth, it looked like an execution-style murder.
But then police found a bunch of balloons tangled in a nearby cactus with a gun tied to the ribbons, reports the Daily Telegraph.
Fans of CSI recalled a similar scenario from a 2003 episode of the series in which balloons were used to make a gun float away after a suicide and urged the police to take a look.
"We weren't aware of the CSI episode," said Lt. Rick Anglada, of New Mexico state police.
"But the lead investigator continually heard stories that there was an episode similar to that and about a month later he actually rented the episode and viewed it."
It led officers to suspect that Mr Hickman had committed suicide but tried to make it look like murder by letting the gun float away.
"However, it was very windy that night so we believe the wind kept the balloons down, dragging across the ground and they began popping and eventually the ribbons became tangled up in a cactus," added Lt Anglada.
There were other signals the 55-year-old has taken his own life. Police spotted no signs of struggle in the field where he was found and his car remained untouched.
At his home in Texas they found metal shavings in his garage where he had used a hack saw to remove the gun's trigger guard, presumably to make it lighter.
Police were able to verify he had bought the balloons and the gun and they found notes left for his family telling them what to do in case anything happened to him.
They also found a life insurance policy that would pay his wife around $400,000 dollars or double that if his death was accidental. Investigators this week officially ruled the death a suicide and closed the case.
-- Ananova.com
"The arrest followed several complaints made to police about a man molesting sheep on grassland off Botany Bay Lane, Chislehurst, in May and June.
Witnesses reported a tall black man sexually assaulting sheep before running off, often leaving clothing at the scene.
Two joggers became suspicious when the man was spotted pulling up his trousers as he stood near a sheep that was lying on the ground.
A young stable girl who came face to face with the man during a similar incident also contacted detectives.
It is understood that the man was traced after forensic scientists identified DNA recovered from a pair of jogging bottoms found at the scene.
Two sheep were found dead in the field during the period of the attacks but it is not known if their deaths were linked.
Police are also investigating reports that the suspect also took photographs of the animals."
Good Lord, this man is sick!
People with voices deemed sexy and attractive tend to have greater body symmetry upon close inspection, suggesting that what we hear in a person can greatly affect what we see in them.
"The sound of a person's voice reveals a considerable amount of biological information," said Susan Hughes, an evolutionary psychologist from Albright College in Reading, Pa. "It can reflect the mate value of a person."
Hughes, whose new study is detailed in the June 2008 edition of the Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, cautions that an attractive voice does not necessarily indicate that this person has an attractive face.
A symmetric body is genetically sound, scientists say, and in evolutionary terms, in the wild, it can be an important factor when selecting a mate. But sometimes changes during prenatal development can slightly skew this balance. For instance, the length ratio between index and ring fingers, known as the digit ratio, is fixed by the first trimester, a time that corresponds with vocal cord and larynx development. If the hormone surge that affects vocal development also affects finger growth, there should be a connection between an individual's voice and digit ratio.
Hughes could not demonstrate a connection between voice attractiveness and digit ratio in her previous work, possibly due to vocal changes that occur during puberty. So in the new study, about 100 individuals listened to previously recorded voices and independently rated them on nine traits important during mate selection: approachability, dominance, healthiness, honesty, intelligence, likelihood to get dates, maturity, sexiness and warmth.
Study participants generally agreed on what made a voice attractive. But when Hughes used a spectrogram to analyze these voice ratings according to different acoustic properties such as pitch, intensity, jitter and shimmer, she could not find a common feature that made these voices seem attractive.
This indicates our perceptual system may be more advanced than expected.
"We can agree on what's an attractive voice yet I can't capture it with a computer," Hughes told LiveScience.
Investigating if a combination of these properties can define an attractive voice may shed light on a connection, she said.
-- livescience.com
Baby: no longer uselessWith global financial markets in turmoil parents looking in to firing their cleaners and using their babies as human mops.
Parents fed up of the take, take, take attitude of babies are turning them into human mops so they can learn a 'healthy work ethic' early by cleaning the floor as they crawl around.
The device is essentially a baby-grow with fluffy mop ends attached to clean up grime as a baby crawls around wooden or tiled floors.
In its sales pitch the advert reads: 'After the birth of a child there's always the temptation to say 'Yes, it's cute, but what can it do?'
'Until recently the answer was simply 'lie there and cry' but now babies can be put on the payroll, so to speak, almost as soon as they're born.
'Just dress your young one in Baby Mops and set him or her down on any hard wood or tile floor that needs cleaning.'
'You may at first need to get things started by calling to the infant from across the room, but pretty soon they'll be doing it by themselves.'
Hitting back at any possible criticism the advert adds: 'There's no child exploitation involved. The kid is doing what he does best anyway: crawling. But with Baby Mops he's also learning responsibility and a healthy work ethic.'
Japan is also the home of a roller cleaning device that can be strapped to a dog to clean the floor as it walks around.
The younger boy became violently ill with gastroenteritis and dehydration, vomited for hours and was forced to spend time in a hospital, the family's lawsuit said.
The suit also alleged that Mr Andrew, his wife and their children were victims of an employee scheme that targeted police officers.The arrest was likely to exacerbate the political divisions and tensions that have been running high since the opposition made unprecedented gains in the March general elections, eroding the ruling coalition's strength in Parliament.
Anwar has denied the sodomy accusation -- made in a police complaint by the young male aide last month -- as a political conspiracy by the government to snuff out his publicly announced campaign to seize power by September.
About a dozen policemen, some of them wearing balaclavas, cordoned off the road leading to Anwar's house and stopped his car, said his lawyer Sankara Nair. He said the policemen informed Anwar that they had orders to arrest him but gave no reason.
Anwar was bundled into a police car with dark tinted windows and driven to the police headquarters where a crowd of opposition lawmakers including his wife Azizah Ismail gathered outside. They were not allowed inside, and there was no trouble or violence.
Azizah said Anwar called on her cell phone after being arrested.
''I feel apprehensive because my husband ... is not that well. He has a bad back, he's had surgery. And (during our) the brief conversation he said they (police) were not gentle,'' she said.
It was not clear why Anwar was arrested a little before 1 p.m. since he had said he would present himself for interrogation before the Wednesday 2 p.m. deadline set by the police.
Azmin Ali, the vice president of Anwar's People's Justice Party, called the arrest ''outrageous and very uncivilized.''
''This is not a criminal case but a political case,'' he said.
The arrest was made as Anwar was returning home from the administrative capital of Putrajaya. He had told reporters there that he would go to the police headquarters at 2 p.m. and ''give my fullest cooperation'' to the police.
The sodomy accusation recreated a drama surrounding a similar scandal he faced in 1998 when he was deputy prime minister and finance minister. Another sodomy accusation at the time led to his dismissal from the government and subsequent conviction and imprisonment. His downfall led to massive street protests by his supporters for weeks.
Malaysia's Supreme Court later overturned the conviction, but by then Anwar had served six years in jail on a related abuse of power charge. He was freed in 2004, when he revived his political career as an opposition leader.
''There is no basis for this whole fabrication and malicious attacks. It is just a repeat of the 1998 script. You can see the pattern,'' Anwar said in Putrajaya.
Anwar can be held in custody for up to 14 days, after which he must be charged. Sodomy is a non-bailable offense, punishable by up to 20 years in jail.
The sodomy accusation has hampered his campaign to topple the government, which suffered badly at the hands of his three-party People's Alliance in the March 8 general elections.
The ruling National Front coalition, which has traditionally enjoyed a two-thirds majority, now has only a 30-seat advantage over the opposition. Anwar's charisma and strategic skills were credited with boosting the opposition's strength in the 222-member Parliament from 19 to 82 seats.
-- Associated Press
Can the authorities comment on the transport mode of school children in Sweden? Does the government fund and manage school transport or are parents left to the vagaries of market forces when deciding which mode of transport?
On the one hand, the Government says children are our most precious asset and we need to move towards the Swedish model of better family welfare. On the other, those who implement policies are counting dollars and cents to see which policy makes economic sense - even over non-negotiable issues like children's safety and well being.
If we have to pay half a percentage point more income tax so children have better school transport with proper seat belts, so be it. But let us turn the school bus transport system inside out. It should be run by the Ministry of Education or schools themselves.
-- Nilesh Kantilal Sahita, Straits Times Forum
A Cambridgeshire widower has spent 15 years piecing back together thousands of fragments of romantic notes that he sent to his late wife.
Ted Howard, 82, wrote 98 letters to Mollie during seven years courting as he travelled Europe as a farm worker.
But Mrs Howard tore them into pieces and stuffed them in a cushion after she caught someone reading them in 1953, reports the BBC.
Mr Howard, of Ramsey, wrote the amorous letters on hotel writing paper as he travelled the UK, Ireland, France and Holland in the late 1940s and early 1950s.
But Mrs Howard, who died three years ago, tore each one into more than 20 pieces creating more than 2,000 fragments, some smaller than a thumbnail.
Mr Howard said: "I still miss Mollie terribly but having the memories helps me through. The letters brought back so many good times."
Mr Howard has now written a book based on the letters, which will be dedicated to his wife and called A Week At Stanton.
The retired farm worker and machinery demonstrator, said: "It was love at first sight. No two ways about it. I was at a village feast (fair) and this girl jumped off the carousel and came careering into me.
"It turned out to be Mollie. That was 19 July 1948."
Mollie was 18 at the time and Ted was 23. They married in 1955 and went on to have three children and six grandchildren.
--Ananova
To still be so in love after so many years is hard, hence I always find it so romantic when old couples walk down the street hand in hand.
Sleeping at an airport overnight, once almost a sport for the young and short of cash, has become a lot more common lately, affecting even older and professional travelers. And a big reason is that airlines are no longer as free with complimentary hotel vouchers as they once were.
"Belt tightening by airlines over the last 18 months, and more so this year," is how Randy Petersen, editor of the online magazine InsideFlyer and the frequent-flier Web site FlyerTalk.com, explains it.
"They have to look at everything they spend a penny on," Petersen said. And because flights are fuller, he added, "they're not just dealing with a few passengers."
Bob Harrell, founder of Harrell Associates, an airline consultant, agreed. "If they're charging for extra bags, food and water, then the flip side is the airlines are going to go out of their way to minimize expenses on one side, while maximizing on the other," he said.
An unscheduled overnight stay at a German airport inspired one business traveler, Frank Giotto, the president of Fiber Instrument Sales in Oriskany, New York, to create the Mini Motel, a one-person tent complete with air mattress, pillow, reading light, alarm clock and pillow (which he now sells for $39.95).
"People sleeping in chairs don't seem to bother them," he said. "We could be forcing the airports to come up with a solution to respond to the tremendous need."
And there is even a Web site, the Budget Traveller's Guide to Sleeping in Airports (www.sleepinginairports.com), which lists the best and worst airports to spend the night in.
--International Herald Tribune, 15 July
So, thats another addition to our Number Ones list!
A couple from New York is trying to sue the Bronx Zoo for $10 million after being stranded in a gondola for five hours, hanging above dangerous baboons.
The man and his pregnant fiancé's lawyer said they did not know whether they would survive the ordeal, the New York Post reported.
Dozens of people were stuck in the cable cars as it shut down on Wednesday and firefighters and police officers used a crane to rescue a family of three from gondola which swung about 100 feet (30 meters) in the air.
No injuries were reported but Damien Foster and Nandi Taylor who have filed a law suit said they suffered “psychological trauma” and the incident put her pregnancy at risk.
The Skyfari ride, which passes over the butterfly garden, the baboon habitat and part of the African plains exhibit where lions and gazelles roam, offers visitors a bird's-eye view of the celebrated zoo and its surroundings.
Each of its gondolas can hold up to four people.
-- The Metro
At least this doesn't sound as ludicrous as suing McDonalds because your son is overweight!
Anwar's party, however, said it was not planning a protest.
Anwar's questioning later Monday was to coincide with an opposition demand for an emergency debate in Parliament on what it says is the public's lack of confidence in the government.
The police action against the opposition is likely to increase political tensions, already high amid Anwar's threat to bring down the government by mid-September even as he fights the sodomy allegation.
The debate is not the same as a no-confidence vote, but the speaker was still not expected to allow it. In the past, almost every opposition motion has been rejected on grounds of being non-urgent or not in the public interest.
Anwar, who is not a member of Parliament, was supposed to witness the session from the visitors' gallery before going to a police station for questioning.
But police obtained a court order barring Anwar as well as the public from coming within three miles of Parliament. Copies of the court order were pasted in public places. Members of Parliament were also told not to bring guests to witness the session.
The roadblocks, which also prevented journalists from entering with their vehicles, caused massive traffic jams in many parts of the city.
District police Chief Ahmad Sofian Mohamad Yassin said the measures were necessary because Anwar's supporters had not sought a police permit for a rally, as required by law.
''We have such laws that any public gathering must first have a police permit ... so we are going to disallow any gathering,'' he said, adding only ''those who have business'' in Parliament would be allowed to enter.
Anwar criticized the court order barring him and his supporters from Parliament as an ''abuse of the legal process.''
Tian Chua, information chief of Anwar's People's Justice Party, said the party had merely wanted supporters to come to Parliament for the debate.
''There is no protest planned. We want people to go into Parliament to listen to the debate,'' he said. ''I think it (the police lock down) is deliberately to create a situation to cause confusion.''
Anwar, who has become a thorn in the side of the government, suffered a setback when he was accused last month by a volunteer worker in his office of sodomizing him. Anwar has dismissed the allegation as a political conspiracy to thwart his political ascendancy.
The People's Justice Party and two other opposition parties together won an unprecedented 82 seats in the 222-member Parliament in March 8 elections. Anwar claims he can get more than 30 ruling party lawmakers to defect to form a new government.
Anwar did not contest the elections because a previous corruption conviction barred him from politics for five years. The ban expired in April.
-- Associated Press, 14 July
It may not work as Singapore has a very competitive educational environment relative to Sweden. Spending money on creches, giving fathers time off for each childbirth and other Swedish initiatives are not enough in Singapore. The reason our educational environment is so competitive is because parents know that without tertiary education, our kids will not have a good life.
The presence of cheap foreign labour has made low-skilled jobs unrewarding. This is not the case in Sweden. Garbage collectors, bricklayers and carpenters are relatively well paid in Sweden. Thus, even the less skilled in Sweden have a good life. Hence, the urgency on the part of Singapore parents to give their children a tertiary education.
Of course, importing foreign labour has boosted our growth rate. But the price we pay is that it depresses the wages of the lower-skilled workers. That is why Singapore has a high Gini Index compared with Sweden. The index measures the gap between the rich and the poor.
To boost our birth rate, child-rearing should be recognised as a career in itself. Ideally, we want the better-educated women to have more kids. Mothers who stay home tend to have more children than working mums.
I suggest that the Government pay mothers their last-drawn pay for a period of say 10 years after the second child is born, if she chooses to stay at home. If she has more children, the 10-year period restarts after the subsequent children are born. The higher her last drawn pay, the more she is paid.
Second, a portion of her children's future Central Provident Fund payments should be transferred to her after they start working for the rest of her life.
One reason people in the past had more children is that they saw their kids as a source of pension funds for their old age. It's time to restore the old relationship.
Tan Keng Soon - Straits Times Interactive
I think the main reason here is that life in Singapore is very stressful, who wants to bring up a child in a very stressful environment? Its either you make it or you don't. If you don't have a good tertiary education, you're doomed for life.
A cat was posted 450 miles by mistake after it crawled into a parcel box for a cat nap.
The cat's owner Gitti Rauch said her pet climbed into a box filled with presents for relatives. She did not notice the cat as she sealed up the package and sent it off.
After the two-day journey from Rottach-Egern in southern Germany to Dorsten in the north of the country the cat leapt out unharmed - and no worse for wear - when the parcel was opened.Mrs Rauch, 44, said: "Janosch usually goes off on his own for a few days and I wasn't worried when I hadn't seen him for a while - then I got a call telling me what had happened.
"I can understand though how he survived the journey without a scratch. He is a very special little cat. He likes to ride in cars, he likes boxes - and he never complains."
The Local - Germany
Woah! Poor kitty!
The once-mysterious blogger known as “Fake Steve Jobs” is turning off his iPhone for good.
Daniel Lyons, the former Forbes magazine journalist who wrote the blog The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs for the last two years, is moving on with his professional life and creative pursuits. In a final entry Wednesday entitled, “I’m sailing away,” the author, who is moving to Newsweek as a technology columnist this fall, said he was shutting down the popular parody of the life of the Apple chief executive and starting a new blog under his own name.
Mr. Lyons said that he had grown tired of his fictional creation, but mainly he was worried about making fun of a real person whose health has been a recent topic of speculation. (After a reporter for The New York Times asked about his lean appearance at a conference last month, Mr. Jobs said he was healthy.)
“I tried transitioning to other voices, like Jerry Yang’s, but it just didn’t work,” Mr. Lyons said, referring to the embattled Yahoo chief. “It seems clear that people reading the blog wanted to read Fake Steve or nothing.”
For Mr. Jobs’s online doppelgänger, the lights are dimming on a creation that once captivated the technology world. Publishing pseudonymously until an article in The Times revealed his identity last summer, Mr. Lyons wrote with insight and hyperbole about Mr. Jobs’s tyrannical moodiness at Apple and the fictional antics of other high-profile technology figures, including Microsoft’s Steven A. Ballmer and Oracle’s Larry Ellison.
An industrywide guessing game as to the identity of “Fake Steve” ensued, with the real Mr. Jobs and Microsoft’s Bill Gates weighing in.
Mr. Lyons translated the appeal of his blog into a novel, “Options: The Secret Life of Steve Jobs, a Parody,” published in October by Da Capo Press, and he is writing a screenplay based on the book for Hollywood production house, Media Rights Capital. Unlike the book, Mr. Lyons said, the screenplay will feature a generic chief executive.
-- NYTimes
Magazine readers also voted Singita Sabi Sand, at the Kruger National Park, South Africa, as the world's top hotel while Singapore Airlines grabbed the best airline award again.
It was the first time that Bangkok, the vibrant capital of Thailand, and the Galapagos Islands in Ecuador topped their respective categories, said Nancy Novogrod, editor-in-chief of Travel + Leisure.
Last year, Bangkok was ranked number 3 and the Galapagos number 8. The 2007 winners of best city and best island -- Florence an Bali -- fell to number 5 and number 2 respectively.
"We're delighted to welcome so many new winners this year," she said in a statement. "Nature, and adventure, were clearly a draw in the selections."
Last year's number one hotel, the Oberoi Udaivilas in India, fell to number 4 this year. Singita Sabi Sands was voted the number two hotel in 2007.
The results were complied from votes by magazine subscribers in an Internet poll which went live between January and March. Travel + Leisure will honour winners on July 24 in New York City.
The complete "World's Best Awards" is available on www.travelandleisure.com. Following are some highlights:
Best hotel - Singita Sabi Sand, South Africa
Best island - Galapagos, Ecuador
Best cruise line (large ships) - Crystal Cruises
Best cruise line (small ships) - Silversea Cruises
Best international airline - Singapore Airlines
Best domestic airline - Virgin America
Best tour operator - Micato Safaris
Best car-rental agency - Hertz
Best hotel for $250 or less - Domaine des Hauts de Loire, France
-- Reuters
Anwar and his wifeA teenager was stunned to find that a baby bat had been curled up inside her bra for five hours - as she was wearing it.
Hotel receptionist Abbie Hawkins thought her mobile phone was ringing when she felt vibrations, reports the Daily Telegraph.
But she later discovered the tiny creature tucked away in the padded pocket of her underwear.
As staff and colleagues crowded around, Miss Hawkins, 19, produced the frightened bat, which her manager later released outside.
She said: "Once I realised it was a bat I was shocked, but then I felt quite sorry for it really. It looked very snug in there and I thought how mean I was for disturbing it."
Miss Hawkins, who works at the Holiday Inn Norwich North, added: "When I was driving to work I felt a slight vibration but I thought it was just my mobile phone in my jacket pocket."
It was not until her lunch break when she felt a strange movement inside her bra, which had been hanging on her washing line the previous night.
"I plucked up the courage to investigate and I pulled out a little baby bat. I just lost my breath when I saw it and I did not know what it was at first," she said.
Jaime Eastham, of the Bat Conservation Trust, said they had never heard of a bat being found in a bra before. But she said the animals roost anywhere that appears dark and safe.
-- The Daily Telegraph
If I was in her situation, I would have been so freaked out that I'd strip right there and then. Yucks! A bat in your bra! Can you picture that?!
The Land Transport Authority has said the higher charges, mostly double the old rates, are meant to manage traffic flow.
Our reporter Imelda Saad travelled with 30—year—old sales executive Tan Chee Kheong on the first day of the higher ERP charges.
In just half an hour, they passed not one, not two, but five gantries.
And that’s not counting the S$7.50 Tan already paid to get into the CBD for work in the morning and to meet our reporter in the afternoon.
Tan is resigned to the fact that he now has to fork out about S$300 to S$400 a month in ERP charges. He has no choice, as his work requires him to travel in and out of the CBD.
Tan said the ERP charges are literally eating into his salary despite his company increasing his transport allowance by S$150 a month.
Motorists Channel NewsAsia spoke with also questioned the rationale for imposing higher ERP charges within the CBD during the day.
"I just don’t understand why they have to increase the charges during the noon time when the traffic is not really that high," said a motorist.
True enough, as our reporter found out, it was a relatively smooth journey going from the CBD to Orchard Road and back.
A cabbie, who did not want to be seen on camera, said the higher rates will further deter taxies from going into the CBD area.
Some motorists said a better way to manage traffic flow is to improve road infrastructure and limit vehicle population growth.
Meanwhile, along the Singapore River area, five new gantries were also activated on Monday, charging evening ERP rates. The LTA said this is to reduce cross—traffic flow from one side of the city to the other.
For motorists, the latest rate revisions and the addition of new gantries will not be the end of ERP woes.
In November, more ERP gantries will be operational along expressways and arterial roads.
And when the Kallang—Paya Lebar Expressway is fully operational, new gantries will also be put up there, adding to the 60 or so already operational islandwideHowever for many motorists, the new rates — which started on July 7 — could not have come at a worse time, given that fuel prices have also risen in tandem."
-- ChannelNewsAsia
A bride is suing a designer after her £2,000 wedding dress came apart on her big day, leaving her bum on display at the altar.
The 30-year-old woman, who cannot be named due to Italian privacy laws, claims her big day was ruined by the poor stitching, reports the Daily Telegraph.
According to the writ the bride was left in tears and the priest was left not knowing where to look. The Carry On style incident happened at Chiavari on the Italian Riviera.
Details of the writ emerged after an initial hearing at the civil court, in nearby Genoa, chaired by judge Pasqual Grasso.
The woman is claiming damages of £20,000 from the designer, who was not named but is based at Rapallo, twenty miles from Chiavari.
Her lawyer Alberto Figone said: "This was supposed to be the biggest day of my client's life but it turned out to be the worst, her wedding was ruined.
"She was left extremely embarrassed because the stitching of her dress came apart at the altar, slid down and revealed her bottom to the whole congregation.
"The priest concluded the ceremony and the couple were married but of course she was not able to take any proper photographs of the ceremony because she was semi naked.
"As a result, she has decided to sue the shop in Rapallo that made the dress for moral damages as well as financial damages, and the request is 23,000 Euro."
The incident happened in 2006 but has only just come to court. The couple have since separated.
--ananova.com
Doesn't it sound like something out of the "Wild Weddings" show? hahaha
So how do you avoid a relationship where you end up saying, “The man who I was living with, I just didn’t know who he was” — as Brinkley did in court when talking about her husband’s $3,000-a-month Internet porn and swinger site habit? (Not to mention the 18-year-old mistress/assistant.)
Father Pat Connor, a 79-year-old Catholic priest born in Australia and based in Bordentown, N.J., has spent his celibate life — including nine years as a missionary in India — mulling connubial bliss. His decades of marriage counseling led him to distill some “mostly common sense” advice about how to dodge mates who would maul your happiness.
“Hollywood says you can be deeply in love with someone and then your marriage will work,” the twinkly eyed, white-haired priest says. “But you can be deeply in love with someone to whom you cannot be successfully married.”
For 40 years, he has been giving a lecture — “Whom Not to Marry” — to high school seniors, mostly girls because they’re more interested.
“It’s important to do it before they fall seriously in love, because then it will be too late,” he explains. “Infatuation trumps judgment.”
I asked him to summarize his talk:
“Never marry a man who has no friends,” he starts. “This usually means that he will be incapable of the intimacy that marriage demands. I am always amazed at the number of men I have counseled who have no friends. Since, as the Hebrew Scriptures say, ‘Iron shapes iron and friend shapes friend,’ what are his friends like? What do your friends and family members think of him? Sometimes, your friends can’t render an impartial judgment because they are envious that you are beating them in the race to the altar. Envy beclouds judgment.
“Does he use money responsibly? Is he stingy? Most marriages that founder do so because of money — she’s thrifty, he’s on his 10th credit card.
“Steer clear of someone whose life you can run, who never makes demands counter to yours. It’s good to have a doormat in the home, but not if it’s your husband.
“Is he overly attached to his mother and her mythical apron strings? When he wants to make a decision, say, about where you should go on your honeymoon, he doesn’t consult you, he consults his mother. (I’ve known cases where the mother accompanies the couple on their honeymoon!)
“Does he have a sense of humor? That covers a multitude of sins. My mother was once asked how she managed to live harmoniously with three men — my father, brother and me. Her answer, delivered with awesome arrogance, was: ‘You simply operate on the assumption that no man matures after the age of 11.’ My father fell about laughing.
“A therapist friend insists that ‘more marriages are killed by silence than by violence.’ The strong, silent type can be charming but ultimately destructive. That world-class misogynist, Paul of Tarsus, got it right when he said, ‘In all your dealings with one another, speak the truth to one another in love that you may grow up.’
“Don’t marry a problem character thinking you will change him. He’s a heavy drinker, or some other kind of addict, but if he marries a good woman, he’ll settle down. People are the same after marriage as before, only more so.
“Take a good, unsentimental look at his family — you’ll learn a lot about him and his attitude towards women. Kay made a monstrous mistake marrying Michael Corleone! Is there a history of divorce in the family? An atmosphere of racism, sexism or prejudice in his home? Are his goals and deepest beliefs worthy and similar to yours? I remember counseling a pious Catholic woman that it might not be prudent to marry a pious Muslim, whose attitude about women was very different. Love trumped prudence; the annulment process was instigated by her six months later.
“Imagine a religious fundamentalist married to an agnostic. One would have to pray that the fundamentalist doesn’t open the Bible and hit the page in which Abraham is willing to obey God and slit his son’s throat.
“Finally: Does he possess those character traits that add up to a good human being — the willingness to forgive, praise, be courteous? Or is he inclined to be a fibber, to fits of rage, to be a control freak, to be envious of you, to be secretive?
“After I regale a group with this talk, the despairing cry goes up: ‘But you’ve eliminated everyone!’ Life is unfair.”
-- NYTimes, 6th July
Yes, life is unfair! *weepeth*
