"This contest will be a way to show there isn't just the beauty we see on television but also a more discreet charm," the priest, who lives near the southern city of Naples, told the Corriere della Sera.
]]>"This contest will be a way to show there isn't just the beauty we see on television but also a more discreet charm," the priest, who lives near the southern city of Naples, told the Corriere della Sera.
]]>http://articulate.vox.com/library/post/art-bourgeois-on-parade-on-and-off-canvas.html
]]>http://shinyhappypeople.vox.com/library/post/this-is-for-ed-the-curve-pics.html
]]>Hamdan, who was captured in Afghanistan in November 2001, was initially impassive when the verdict began to be read out. But the BBC's Kim Ghattas, at the trial, said he later appeared to break down in tears.
]]>The bloomers sold for almost 10 times their £500 guide priceA pair of bloomers that once belonged to Queen Victoria have been sold for £4,500 at an auction in Derby.The knickers have a 50in (127cm) waist and date from the 1890s, which indicates the monarch had a large girth as she approached her old age. It was thought the bloomers would fetch £500 but a Canadian buyer spent £4,500 on the pants which are monogrammed with VR for Victoria Regina. The knickers had been owned by a lady-in-waiting to the Queen. They had remained in the woman's Lincolnshire family until now. 'Very wide girth'Auctioneer Charles Hanson said: "These pants, considering their provenance and pedigree, are very exciting... we know that they are hers [Queen Victoria]." Mr Hanson said the bloomers were an interesting piece of social history that indicated Queen Victoria was "a very big lady of quite small stature with a very wide girth". The knickers are made from a fine cotton and are hand-made. A chemise with a 66-inch (167cm) bust, which also belonged to the UK's longest-reigning monarch, sold for £4,000 while her nightdress went for £5,500 at the auction. E-mail this to a friend Printable version Bookmark with:DeliciousDiggredditFacebookStumbleUponWhat are these?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/derbyshire/7533696.stm
]]>Ten days ahead of the opening of the Olympic Games in China, the human rights group Amnesty International has sharply criticised Beijing's human rights record since being awarded the Games in 2001. What action can the world take? Amnesty says when the Games had been given to China, the government promised better human rights and greater freedom for the media. But the report said that the opposite had happened, with human rights activists being jailed, journalists detained and more people sent to labour camps. There has been no reaction from Beijing. What do you think of the Amnesty charge? How should China respond? What can the international community do to help improve China's human rights record? Are you in China or having friends and family there who have been the victims of human rights violations? Read the full story
]]>The man spearheading the case, publisher Dimitris Lambrou, had claimed that international dominance of the word in its sexual context violated the human rights of the islanders - who call themselves Lesbians - and disgraces them around the world.
]]>The IOC is worried about Beijing's air pollutionThe main venue for Beijing's Olympic Games - the "Bird's Nest" stadium - is complete and fully operational, Chinese officials have said.The 91,000-seat stadium will host the Olympics' opening and closing ceremonies as well as athletics events. A network of steel girders gives the stadium its nest-like appearance. All 37 venues for the Games are now ready. The International Olympic Committee has praised Beijing's preparations, but said air quality was a concern. The Bird's Nest - or National Stadium - was designed by award-winning Swiss firm Herzog and de Meuron and Chinese architect Li Xinggang. The design beat dozens of other entries in a worldwide competition held in 2003. "The Bird's Nest is the last completed Olympic venue but the best," said project manager Tan Xiaochun. The project was completed at a cost of $500m (£250m). "You can imagine yourself to be an athlete, standing at the centre of the venue attracting thousands of eyes," said Li Xinggang. "You will be turned on by the audience's cheers, feeling at the centre of a stage. It will lead you to final success." Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play.
]]>[Cross-posted] If you follow my ramblings, even when they don’t make sense, you know I had my knives out for the ANZ National Bank here in New Zealand for what I think is questionable practice. So it was interesting to meet a few people tonight who are employees of the bank, one of whom was very...
http://jackyan.vox.com/library/post/anz-bank-revelations-from-the-executive-level.html
]]>The Church of England's General Synod will debate the issue of women bishops on Saturday. Can the Church unite over this and other controversial issues?The Bishop of Manchester, the Rt Rev Nigel McCulloch, will lead a debate on Saturday on a report outlining the options open to the Church of England in proceeding with women bishops. Traditionalists want the legal right to opt out of the supervision of a woman bishop, and into the care of a male alternative. Last week conservative Anglicans agreed to create a global network to combat modern trends like the ordination of gay clergy.Are you an Anglican? How do you feel about the ordination of women bishops? Is the Communion heading for a split over controversial issues – such as the appointment of women bishops and gay vicars?
]]>A large number of Americans question what happened that dayIt wasn't only the Twin Towers that collapsed on September 11. A third World Trade Center tower that wasn't hit by the planes also fell. As a report into Tower 7 prepares to publish its findings, Mike Rudin considers how this conspiracy theory got to be so big.
]]>By James Ingham BBC News, Caracas Mr Chavez has clashed with the Catholic Church in the pastReligious leaders in Venezuela have criticised a recently formed church that openly backs President Hugo Chavez's socialist politics. The Reformed Catholic Church was set up by a group of Anglicans and Catholics who wanted to put more emphasis on helping the poor. But the ruling body of the Catholic Church says its members are criminals who are trying to divide the Church. The Church and the government have been in frequent conflict in Venezuela. Catholicism is practised widely in Venezuela, but the new group's open support for President Chavez's socialist policies is deepening those divisions. Feathers ruffled The Reformed Catholic Church was set up by a group of priests from a mixed background. It has a small following - several thousand people in the west the country. But despite its size, its philosophy has ruffled a few feathers. The Venezuelan Episcopal Conference, the ruling council of the Catholic Church, has described the founders as delinquents. Its vice president, Archbishop Roberto Luckert, has accused the new organisation of taking government money and mixing politics with religion. But Enrique Albornoz, who was appointed as the Reformed Church's first bishop last week, denies the allegations. "We support the work the government is doing for the poor," he told the BBC, "but we don't take any political line." The breakaway organisation is unusual in supporting Mr Chavez. The Catholic Church has often clashed with the president, accusing him in the past of taking Venezuela down a path to dictatorship. He in return has criticised the Church for being elitist and ignoring the country's poor. E-mail this to a friend Printable version Bookmark with:DeliciousDiggredditFacebookStumbleUponWhat are these?
]]>Royal Ascot is tightening up its dress code to raise standards and fake-tan lines are among the "style crimes" to come under scrutiny. Can bottled tan ever be sophisticated?
]]>Ladies and Gentlemen,I am Gopalan Nair. Today is May 31, 2008 at 10.40am Singapore time. I am at present in Singapore at Broadway Hotel, Room 708, 195 Serangoon Road, Singapore, 218067. The hotel telephone number is is 62924661. My local SingTel telephone number is 83764236.In my last blog post, I had narrated the shameful spectacle of Lee Kuan Yew and his Prime Minister son abusing the legal system for their political ends through their lawyer Davinder Singh and a compliant judge, both compliant and suppliant to Lee Kuan Yew's demands to abuse the law, Belinda Ang, to punish his political opponents Dr. Chee Soon Juan and Chee Siok Chin.I repeat the threat that Lee Kuan Yew had made on day two of the show trial during the last 3 days in the High Court. When asked by Dr. Chee whether he will sue those who write on the Internet defamations against him, I mean defamations in the Singaporean sense, his definitive unequivocal answer was that he will sue them. There is no doubt in the Singaporean sense, I have defamed him and his Prime Minister son, not only in my last blog post but in almost all my blog posts since my blog's inception in December 2006.My posts have attracted great popular interest throughout Singapore and has been repeatedly and widely re-posted throughout the island in other blogs and political forums. A wide section and spectrum of Singaporeans have read them and interest in them increases daily. And as Lee Kuan Yew has himself said with both bravado and gusto, a lie has to be nailed because otherwise through dissemination people who matter, Singapore citizens, will begin to take it seriously.Mr. Lee Kuan Yew, you have called Dr. Chee a liar, a cheat, a scoundrel, a criminal and various other abusive epithets. Let me tell Mr. Lee Kuan Yew that these words that you have uttered apply to you and your son, not to Dr. Chee Soon Juan.Not only in my mind but in the minds of countless Singaporeans, Lee Kuan Yew and his Prime Minister son are men so weak that the only way they can stay in power is through fear and intimidation of their citizens through the abuse of legal process and other shameful means.Mr. Lee Kuan Yew, look here. I am now within your jurisdiction and that of your corrupt police and your corrupt judiciary who will do anything you want of them, however criminal and illegal.What are you going to do about it?Gopalan NairBroadway HotelSingaporeMay 31, 2008
http://singaporedissident.blogspot.com/2008/05/lee-kuan-yew-if-bloggers-who-defame-me.html
]]>SINGAPORE: Police have arrested a former Singaporean for the offence of "threatening, abusing or insulting a public servant". In response to media queries, police confirmed that Gopalan Pallichadath Nair, who is now a US citizen, was arrested at Broadway Hotel along Serangoon Road on Saturday. A warrant of arrest without bail was granted by the courts for the arrest. Nair is alleged to have sent an email to the Attorney-General and the Solicitor-General which contained statements amounting to the offence of insulting a public servant. The statements were directed against Justice Belinda Ang, a Supreme Court judge. The statements were also posted on Nair's blog. Nair is presently in police custody. He will be charged in court on Monday. - CNA/de
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/351129/1/.html
]]>ANY lie that questioned the Government's integrity must be fought, said Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew yesterday. He would pursue even those who perpetrated such lies in cyberspace, if the authorities could pinpoint the culprit.
http://www.asiaone.com/Digital/News/Story/A1Story20080528-67336.html
]]>Ladies and Gentlemen,This is Gopalan Nair in Singapore today, May 29, 2008. I have been in Singapore since May 25, 2008, and staying now at Broadway Hotel, Room 708, 195 Serangoon Road, Singapore 218067. I am deliberately stating my identity and my present exact location for a definite purpose. On day 2 of the trial in Singapore, day before yesterday, in the Lee Kuan Yew and son verses Dr. Chee Soon Juan case, Lee senior had said in answer to a question by Dr. Chee, that if he, Lee Kuan Yew, knew the identity of bloggers in cyberspace who defamed him (defamation being used of course in the Singaporean sense), he will sue and bankrupt them. He had earlier sidestepped the question by saying, that he had difficulty suing critics of his in the Internet because their identities were not usually known. When pressed, he categorically and deliberately stated that he will sue if they made known their identities. Well, what you are going to read should be without question defamatory of Mr. Lee and his son, that is in the warped and hare brained Alice in Wonderland meaning of the word "defamation". It will be interesting to see if this Singapore strongman, Lee Kuan Yew and son, who strut around the small island of Singapore bullying everyone who so much as criticized, will sue me now for calling him nothing more than a small time street bully; since now, we have myself Gopalan Nair who has the temerity to identify himself and state his presence with full address in Singapore. Mr. Lee Kuan Yew, see here. I am now within the jurisdiction of your courts; I repeat, "the jurisdiction of your courts" because literally they are your courts, willing to commit any crime or injustice you will demand of them. During the last 3 days of the court hearing, up till yesterday, in the High Court, before your stooge of a judge, Belinda Ang in Court 4, you and your Prime Minister son conducted yourselves as expected, no better than cowards hiding behind the coat tails of your equally cowardly counsel doubling up as a PAP politician in court; who managed with the full co-operation of the said judge to ensure that you came to court merely for form, refusing to answer almost all questions that went directly to your integrity or rather the lack of it. After the end of the 3 days in court, it left no doubt in my mind that you and your son are indeed what international human rights organizations say you are, nothing more than tin pot tyrants who remain in power by abusing the courts to eliminate your political opponents. You are clearly corrupt, as is your government, because paying yourself $3.7 million is corruption pure and simple and in the end you have lost all credibility and moral authority to govern Singapore. The following transpired during the last 3 days in court. The judge Belinda Ang was throughout prostituting herself during the entire proceedings, by being nothing more than an employee of Mr. Lee Kuan Yew and his son and carrying out their orders. There was murder, the rule of law being the repeated victim. The issue in the said court was the determination of the quantum of damages payable by the innocent victim, Dr. Chee Soon Juan who had earlier been found liable by this judge for defamation of character of Mr. Lee and son, where the law was once again abused through the contrivance of a process known as summary proceedings, thereby disallowing Dr. Chee to produce any witnesses or to cross-examine those of Mr. Lee because there were none. The said 3 day of hearing before the court was nothing more than a mockery of justice; a charade, a make believe that appeared right out of the pages of Alice in Wonderland with Belinda Ang playing the role of the Queen of Hearts before the trial of the Mouse who stole the Tarts very well indeed. It almost appeared that she was going to dispense with all testimony and come straight to the verdict of guilty so as not to waste her valuable time! It would be fair to say, in fact an understatement, that in effect she disallowed Dr. Chee any effective cross examination of either the father Lee Kuan Yew or the son, as Mr. Singh, their counsel was almost having a workout like in a gym; standing up to object, and sitting down after almost each and every question that Dr. Chee put to his father and son clients. In fact Singh was popping up and down almost without let up during the several hours of the hearing so much so, that someone suggested to me that it would have been a good idea if he remained standing throughout the case to facilitate his expected objections at each and every question of Dr. Chee. If Dr. Chee did manage to ask even one question, it was because he went ahead and asked it despite the objection of both Mr. Singh and the judge because if he did not, he would not have been able to ask any questions at all! Dr. Chee has asked Lee's son how much he was being paid, that is $3.7 million, 6 times what George Bush is paid! Question disallowed and the son shamefully just sits there, protected by his counsel Mr. Singh and the kangaroo judge. Chee asks whether it is just for him to corruptly steal this amount of taxpayer's money while the poor in the 1 room flats starve without any financial assistance! Question disallowed and the son shamefully just sits there, protected by his counsel Mr. Singh and the kangaroo judge. Chee asks why the GIC and HDB function under a shroud of secrecy without any transparency, when the moneys in them is taxpayers money? Question disallowed and the son shamefully just sits there, protected by his counsel Mr. Singh and the kangaroo judge. Chee asks whether he knew that those who read the Internet overwhelmingly hated him as a tyrant and a bully and the only ones singing praises in his name are the Singapore state owned and controlled media? Question disallowed and the son shamefully just sits there, protected by his counsel Mr. Singh and the kangaroo judge. Chee asks whether the international community looks at him no better than a despot and a father's son? Question disallowed and the son shamefully just sits there, protected by his counsel Mr. Singh and the kangaroo judge. Chee had asked this Lee Kuan Yew's son why he said in the 2006 elections that " if there were more opposition candidates at elections, he will have to "fix" them and bribe his voters to win elections"? Question disallowed and the son shamefully just sits there, protected by his counsel Mr. Singh and the kangaroo judge. There were many more questions put to him just as the above questions, all very relevant, which, had they been answered, would have shown that he had no integrity or reputation whatsoever, and since integrity and reputation are the issues in deciding quantum of damages, Lee Kuan Yew's son should have been awarded no damages at all; that is provided we have an independent judiciary, which we have not. Any honest spectator in the court's gallery would have come away with one opinion alone, that is, this man is Prime Minister only because he happens to be the son of his father. If he really wanted to show that he was in fact in control, he could have easily told his lawyer to stop being the Jack in the Box and stop popping up and down with his objections and let him handle the questions. At each question, he was looking meekly at his counsel to see whether he has to answer it. If I could put it in a simple way, he was nothing more than a helpless boy. The following refer to Lee Kuan Yew's testimony or rather the lack of it. Chee asked him whether he came to power through unfair means in 1959, as shown by declassified British Colonial Office documents in London? Question disallowed and the father shamefully just sits there, protected by his counsel Mr. Singh and the kangaroo judge. Chee asks about his throwing Lim Chin Siong, his political compatriot, in jail under the ISA in solitary confinement for several years in the 1960s and whether this was a sign of a man with a reputation and integrity? Question disallowed and the father shamefully just sits there, protected by his counsel Mr. Singh and the kangaroo judge. Chee asks about the Operation Cold Store in the 1960s where he jails political opponents because he fears he might be overthrown? Question disallowed and the father shamefully just sits there, protected by his counsel Mr. Singh and the kangaroo judge. Chee asks about Chia Thye Poh, Zaid Zakaharia and Lim Hock Siew, his political opponents whom he imprisons without cause for many many years? Question disallowed and the father shamefully just sits there, protected by his counsel Mr. Singh and the kangaroo judge. Chee asks whether the only people who have a good opinion of him are his state owned and controlled Singapore press, whereas everyone else in Singapore as well as the entire list of respectable foreign organizations and countries including the entire European Union consider him as a thug and small time street bully? Question disallowed and the father shamefully just sits there, protected by his counsel Mr. Singh and the kangaroo judge. Other than the dubious Transparency International Kula Lumpur Chapter (not to be confused with Transparency International of Berlin Germany) he was asked whether anyone else considered him in high regard other than the local press which he controls? His answer was that PERC and a Swiss organization, both of whom cater for businessmen thought highly of him. But when asked whether highly respected Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Lawyers Without Borders, Reporters without Borders, ILRW and several other international bodies considered him a crook; he had nothing to say, because as usual the Jack Rabbit Davinder Singh stood up once again to object and the judge obediently sustained the objection. Then Lee Kuan Yew went on to insult Dr. Chee with impunity, that he is a liar, a cheat a charlatan, a criminal and what not. Of course the judge permitted these insults, since after all Lee Kuan Yew and his son owned the courts and the judge as well. These court proceeding were nothing more than a sham, a charade and a mockery of justice. It was very clear that both father and son had no integrity or credibility whatsoever. They were ruling Singapore through fear and those who are able to leave the country leave it in droves, only to be replaced by Mandarin speaking immigrants from the Peoples Republic of China who speak no English at all. If there was one result of these proceedings it was this. Dr. Chee' impeccable reputation was vindicated. He came out of these proceedings truly as the statesman that he is, and he demolished these two petty thugs Lee and his son, perhaps not in this Singapore kangaroo court, but truly in the court of truth and conscience. And in fact despite the objection of Mr. Singh and Belinda Ang, Dr. Chee Soon Juan did manage to say to both father and son, that regardless of what the court decides, in the court of natural justice, in the court of truth and in the court of moral conscience, they had that day lost all moral authority to govern Singapore. I believe, not only me, but every single person who walked away from that courthouse yesterday came away with that same judgment. As the Lees know, I am a lawyer practicing in Fremont California and a member of the California Bar. My question to Lee Kuan Yew and his son is this. Are you going to stand by your threat and sue me for defamation as well? I am presently physically within your jurisdiction and the jurisdiction of your kangaroo courts. Are you going to going to send your process server to me with your writ of summons? Or are you, as expected, all talk and no action, when you meet those not afraid of you, just as how a petty street thug would behave? Gopalan Nair
]]>Li Ning, president of the Beijing Etiquette Institute, told the Beijing News that the cheer was in line with general international principles for cheering, while at the same time possessing characteristics of Chinese culture.
]]>The perfect voice would have elements of Dame Judi DenchResearchers say they have worked out a mathematical formula to find the perfect human voice. The study, commissioned by Post Office Telecoms, asked people to rate 50 voices then analysed the results. It found the best female voice to be a mixture of Mariella Frostrup, Dame Judi Dench and Honor Blackman. Alan Rickman and Jeremy Irons did best for the men. The research was conducted by linguist Andrew Linn, of Sheffield University and sound engineer Shannon Harris. Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play.
]]>If you are carrying a knife, you will be arrested and you are likely to be prosecuted Met Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair He added: "We know that many young people carry a knife because they are fearful and these adverts tell powerful stories about the dangers of going down that path.
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