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Syrian President's Sister 'Now in Dubai'
Today's Headlines
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Page 2: WoT Background
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Page 4: Opinion
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2 14:16 Admiral Allan Ackbar [5]
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Page 6: Politix
16 22:26 European Conservative [3]
1 12:45 Besoeker [5]
16 22:01 Silentbrick - Schlumberger Squishy Mud Division [6]
4 13:29 Ebbang Uluque6305 [3]
2 07:59 Besoeker [4]
-Lurid Crime Tales-
Flight Attendant Arrested after App Finds Lost iPad
[An Nahar] A U.S. airline passenger who lost his iPad on board used a special app to find it, in the home of one of the flight attendants, police said.

The attendant, identified as 43-year-old Horizon Air employee Wendy Ronelle Dye, was incarcerated
Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up!
late Friday, said Bill Kler, front man for the Oregon City Police Department near the western state of Oregon's most populous city Portland.

The passenger was a Nevada man who used the Find My iPad app to locate his tablet after it went missing on the plane, Kler told Agence La Belle France Presse.

Dye told police that travelers on the aircraft said they found the tablet on a seat and gave it to her, and she had planned to turn it over to the airline eventually and had not used it, Kler said.

But police found personal information of hers on it, including her husband's birthday, said the front man.
Posted by: Fred || 09/25/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:


-Short Attention Span Theater-
1/3 of world population 'now online'
[Bangla Daily Star] About one-third of the world's population now has access to the internet, but more needs to be done in order to achieve internet penetration targets as set out in the Millennium Development Goals, the International Telecommunications Union has said in a new report.

Currently, 20.5 percent of households in developing countries have access to the internet, which the ITU says puts them on target to achieve the 40 per cent target by 2015.

With 3.3 percent households having internet access, Bangladesh stands at 97th position in a chart ranking 127 countries evaluated in 2011.

The findings are part of a comprehensive report released by the ITU's Broadband Commission for Digital Development yesterday.

The "State of Broadband 2012" report evaluates the deployment of broadband services around the world and tracks progress towards achieving targets set by the commission regarding increasing the affordability and use of broadband.

More than 170 countries have been evaluated in the report.

The report ranked countries based on their rates of internet use. Iceland, at 95 per cent, boasts the world's highest internet usage rate, while Timor Leste has the lowest rate at 0.9 percent.

The United States ranks at 23 in the world in percentage of individuals online in 2011.

It said that by 2020, connected devices would outnumber connected individuals by a ratio of six devices to every person online. The report found that while household access was increasing at an acceptable rate, individual internet use was continuing to lag behind.
Posted by: Fred || 09/25/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:


British Skinny Dippers Fail to Outstrip World Record
[An Nahar] Hundreds of naked British swimmers plunged into the cold North Sea on Saturday but failed to set a world record for the biggest ever skinny dip, organisers said.

Around 200 people ran into the sea at sunrise at Druridge Bay in Northumberland, northeast England, where water temperatures were around 12 C (54 Fahrenheit).

Organiser Jacqueline Higginson, 34, said that while the charity event had raised thousands of pounds for the mental health group Mind, it had failed to reach the necessary number of participants.

Higginson said they "ran naked into the sea to raise money for Mind and to celebrate ourselves and our bodies.

"I did a skinny dip last year where we broke the world record, I don't think there was enough to do it today but there was enough of us for it to be a lot of fun," she said.

The record-setting event in Llangennith, Wales in June 2011 involved 413 people.
Posted by: Fred || 09/25/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  ...short of the record for mass naked swimming which was set last year at another National Trust property, Rhossili Bay in south Wales where 413 people stripped off... For those that may give a fig.
Posted by: JohnQC || 09/25/2012 7:28 Comments || Top||

#2  Record for Shrinkage™?
Posted by: Frank G || 09/25/2012 11:58 Comments || Top||

#3  ... For those that may give a fig.

Or a fig leaf, John? ;^)
Posted by: AlanC || 09/25/2012 12:46 Comments || Top||

#4  #2

"Have you been...swimming?"

"Why yes, how did you know?"
Posted by: Shinter Javirong9154 || 09/25/2012 13:23 Comments || Top||


Croc Breaks Loose on Australian Flight
[An Nahar] An Australian baggage handler had a nasty surprise when he opened the cargo door of a Qantas passenger flight to find a crocodile roaming loose in the hold, the airline said Monday.

The reptile, reported to be a relatively small specimen, managed to escape its transport container during a flight from Brisbane to Melbourne last week, a Qantas spokesman told Agence France Presse.

"The animal was quickly and safely secured when the aircraft arrived in Melbourne," the spokesman added.

The crocodile was being transported as freight by cargo firm Australian Air Express. Qantas said it was investigating whether the animal had been in the right container and properly loaded.
Posted by: Fred || 09/25/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Coming to a theater near you: "Crocs On a Plane" starring Samuel Leroy Jackson (assuming he has time and is not too busy spewing hateful rhetoric about the Pubs).
Posted by: JohnQC || 09/25/2012 7:20 Comments || Top||

#2  Could have served peanuts and soda on a Delta flight and no one would have been the wiser.
Posted by: Besoeker || 09/25/2012 8:01 Comments || Top||

#3  "Relatively small specimen" > Yea-a-h right-t-t, dats what they a-l-l-l say about Killer Maneaters who don't like the peanuts served in Coach.

Or cute Koala Bears trying to be like North Koreans and invade Amerika.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 09/25/2012 22:16 Comments || Top||


Yodelling is Back in the Austrian Alps
[An Nahar] Go hiking in the Alps around Salzburg these days and you won't be surprised to hear a resounding "Hol-la ra-e ho-e he!"

Amid the green pastures and snowy peaks that famously inspired Julie Andrews to launch into song in "The Sound of Music," a new Yodel hiking trail -- the first in the world -- hopes to teach tourists and locals this unique art of singing.

"Hops ho-da re-e-ri," "ho-da ria drai dul-e-jo," "hul-jo-i diri diri": the lyrics have little meaning but the tunes, alternating constantly between head voice and chest voice -- a little like a Tarzan cry -- take some getting used to.

Dotted around the landscape at an altitude of 2,000 metres (6,560 feet), five trail stops now offer guidance with audio recordings, sheet music and props, including a gigantic cow bell, an echo wall and two cones acting as voice enhancers.

With mostly cows as an audience, budding yodellers need not fear embarrassment if they belt out a tune.

"I'm fascinated, really excited. It's great that this exists," Astrid Berchtaler, decked out in a typical Lederhose (leather breeches) and red-checkered blouse, told Agence La Belle France Presse on a recent hike along the trail.

"I always thought only a few talented people could yodel," said the nutrition expert, who travelled 200 kilometres (125 miles) to hike the trail and also joined a one-day yodel workshop here.

"It's liberating, it opens the soul. It's just really fun to sing really loudly and to yodel," she said.

The idea for the "Jodel Wanderweg," as the trail is known in German, came from Christian Eder, who runs a local hotel and learned to yodel just two years ago.

"I always find it easier to yodel, and let out these 'Juchiza!', these cries of joy, when I'm up on the mountain," he told AFP.

"Yodelling has a mythical status, perhaps because it's not so common, so people think it's difficult.

"But our slogan is actually that everyone can yodel."

"An expression of joy and harmony"

The trail, inaugurated in August and free of charge, is open to all and easily accessible via a cable car.

"It's a great idea," said Barbara Glaser, 31, a primary school teacher from nearby Mittersill. "The trail was made for young and old. It's not hard to walk it, you can just spend a beautiful afternoon here in gorgeous weather."

Originally, yodelling was used by shepherds to communicate from mountain to mountain.

Not just an Austrian tradition, it can be found all over the alpine region, from southern Germany to Switzerland
...home of the Helvetians, famous for cheese, watches, yodeling, and William Tell...
and northern Italia.

"It's an expression of joy, harmony and happiness," said Hermann Haertel, a folk musician and researcher who has been organising yodel workshops since the 1970s.

In recent years, he has seen a "boom" in yodelling. "Yodel workshops are usually sold out," he said.
Posted by: Fred || 09/25/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Can yodeling be done in any other language than Austrian?
Enquiring minds and all that.
Posted by: AlmostAnonymous5839 || 09/25/2012 8:41 Comments || Top||

#2  Australian ?
Posted by: Besoeker || 09/25/2012 9:08 Comments || Top||

#3  Afghani?

After all, they got mountains and shepherds, right? They can be just like Alpinians, right? They can yodel, right?
Posted by: AlanC || 09/25/2012 9:53 Comments || Top||

#4  They can yodel, right?
'Allahu Akhbar' does resemble a yodel.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 09/25/2012 11:02 Comments || Top||

#5  Recreation is un-islamic.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 09/25/2012 13:07 Comments || Top||

#6  Bloody hell. I was thinking about going there for the peace and quiet. I'm cancelling my plane tickets!!!
Posted by: Raider || 09/25/2012 14:10 Comments || Top||

#7  Bavarian of course.
Btw it was never gone.
But yodel workshops? Oh dear.
Posted by: European Conservative || 09/25/2012 14:25 Comments || Top||

#8  Listening from a shaded biergarten would be pleasant.
Posted by: Besoeker || 09/25/2012 14:57 Comments || Top||

#9  D *** NG IT, no " ... Swiss Miss Instant Cocoa, wid Marshmellows" twang!

SON AHZ ES DIZAPPOINT.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 09/25/2012 22:09 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Egyptian Copt charged with blasphemy referred to misdemeanours court
[Al Ahram] Prosecutor-General refers Egyptian activist Albert Saber to misdemeanors court where he will face charges of insulting religion after he posted anti-Islam film online
Posted by: Fred || 09/25/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


Britain
Nick Clegg's 'I'm sorry' video is genius, says wife
Posted by: tipper || 09/25/2012 17:05 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:


India-Pakistan
Two more polio cases detected in KP, Fata
[Dawn] The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa
... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central...
government devised a new strategy to focus on 'cluster of refusals' as two more polio
...Poliomyelitis is a disease caused by infection with the poliovirus. Between 1840 and the 1950s, polio was a worldwide epidemic. Since the development of polio vaccines the disease has been largely wiped out in the civilized world. However, since the vaccine is known to make Moslem pee-pees shrink and renders females sterile, bookish, and unsubmissive it is not widely used by the turban and automatic weapons set...
cases were detected in the province and Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) on Sunday.

Mohammad Asad, 48-month-old son of Mohammad Khalid, a resident of Mohallah Sultankhel in Thor Dand union council of district Karak was tested positive for polio. Likewise, Nisa Bibi, 18-month-old daughter of Siraj Khan, a resident of Mulyano Koroona in tehsil Loe Mamond of Bajaur Agency, aka Turban Central
...Smallest of the agencies in FATA. The Agency administration is located in Khar. Bajaur is inhabited almost exclusively by Tarkani Pashtuns, which are divided into multiple bickering subtribes. Its 52 km border border with Afghanistan's Kunar Province makes it of strategic importance to Pakistain's strategic depth...
also got poliomyelitis, according to National Institute of Health Islamabad.

To cope with the refusal cases, the government decided to reach to the people, who collectively refused administering of anti-polio drops to their children, officials said.

They said that only 0.4 per cent refusals out of the five million target children was not a problem but the health department was faced with 'cluster of refusals' owing to which several families in different union councils refused vaccination of children on regular basis.

The officials said that in the past government focused on addressing individual refusal cases. They said that government was also planning to effectively vaccinate 48 per cent of the malnourished children, who didn't respond to immunisation, in the province.

"If children with low immunity get vaccination during diarrhoea or dysentery, it remains ineffective," they said. The areas where drinking water was not clean also posed threats to effective immunisation, they added.

The officials said that union council committees, which worked under direct supervision of the district coordination officer, would be tasked to talk to the families, who were opposing vaccination.
Posted by: Fred || 09/25/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1  Can polio exist without a human host? How long and where can it survive without such a host? Why couldn't it be eliminated from the gene pool, like smallpox (except for lab specimens?)
Posted by: Glenmore || 09/25/2012 13:13 Comments || Top||

#2  Good question, Glenmore. I have a clear recollection of a report from 30 or 40 years ago that polio was endemic in chimpanzees. But I have heard nothing since along those lones.
Posted by: Grunter || 09/25/2012 16:09 Comments || Top||

#3  lines...
Posted by: Grunter || 09/25/2012 16:10 Comments || Top||


Blasphemy accused Rimsha's case sent to juvenile court
[Dawn] A judge on Monday rejected the district administration's decision to hold the hearing on the 'Rimsha Masih case' in jail and ordered the police to submit a charge sheet in the special court in accordance with the juvenile laws.

Rimsha Masih spent three weeks on remand in an adult jail after she was placed in long-term storage
Into the paddy wagon wit' yez!
on August 16 for allegedly burning pages from the Holy Koran in a case that prompted worldwide condemnation.

Police on Saturday told the court the girl was not guilty and a holy man who allegedly framed her should face trial instead.

"We have received the medical report which says she is aged 14. The investigation report of her case must be submitted in a juvenile court," a judge said on Monday.

Rao Abdur Rahim, the lawyer for Rimsha's neighbour Hammad Malik, who originally accused her, objected to the medical report, but Abbas told him he should apply to the juvenile court when it takes up the case.

An official medical report has classified her as "uneducated" and aged 14, but with a mental age younger than her years. Others have said she is as young as 11 and suffers from Down's syndrome.

Earlier, Rimsha Masih had been awarded bail and flown to Qazi's guesthouse an undisclosed location with her family, over security concerns.

The bail was awarded after it was revealed that a prayer leader of the neighbourhood mosque, Khalid Jadoon had had placed two pages of the Holy Koran with the burnt papers in order to aggravate the situation.

The court has also passed the matter of animosity over the charge sheet between the investigating officer and the district attorney to the relevant court.
Posted by: Fred || 09/25/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1  Police on Saturday told the court the girl was not guilty and a cleric who allegedly framed her should face trial instead. Rimsha Masih was earlier taken from Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi to a close-by helipad, from where a helipad (actually, the helipad did not fly her) flew her off to an unknown location. Oh, oh, Rimshot is in deep trouble.
Posted by: JohnQC || 09/25/2012 7:36 Comments || Top||



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Two weeks of WOT
Tue 2012-09-25
  Syrian President's Sister 'Now in Dubai'
Mon 2012-09-24
  France: 2 Men Plot To Behead Editor Who Published Offensive Cartoons
Sun 2012-09-23
  Violent mobs rule Peshawar
Sat 2012-09-22
  Pakistani gov minister offers $100K reward for death of film maker
Fri 2012-09-21
  Pakistan film protests: 15 die in Karachi and Peshawar
Thu 2012-09-20
  Ex-Gitmo hard boy involved in consulate attack
Wed 2012-09-19
  Rally against sacrilege: Ten Lahore rioters injured in clash with police
Tue 2012-09-18
  U.S. military suspends joint patrols with Afghans
Mon 2012-09-17
  Libya arrests 50 after US envoy's killing
Sun 2012-09-16
  Yemeni official: DNA tests did not prove the killing of Al-Shihri
Sat 2012-09-15
  Al Qaeda in Yemen urges Muslims to kill U.S. diplomats over film
Fri 2012-09-14
  Pakistan orders anti-Islam video block on YouTube
Thu 2012-09-13
  Egyptian protesters, police continue to clash near U.S. Embassy
Wed 2012-09-12
  US Official Killed In Libya Prophet Protest
Tue 2012-09-11
  Somali election: Hassan Sheikh elected as president


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