British-made Taliban fighters

This is really funny. Apparently, the RAF experts eavesdropped on radio traffic in Afghanistan — and heard Taliban fighters speaking in Brummie and Yorkshire accents.

Read the exclusive story by the sun here.

Mesmerized by a string quartet in Las Capuchinas

Yesterday was the last night for me in Antigua, Guatemala.

The media forum went very well. So did my two presentations in Citizen Journalism and Investigative Journalism.

The host – the elPeriodico publication – gave us an unforgettable farewell dinner at the amazing ruined chapel called Las Capuchinas.

The dinner was held at the vast courtyard of the chapel (photo).

We were also privileged to enjoy the performance of the immensely talented Paulo Avarado and his Guatemalan string quartet. Incredible musicians!

The night was utterly cold, the food truly delicious, the music enchanting, the place was really out of this world and the experience is inexplicable.

p/s: Am now at LA Airport (local time 2.38pm), waiting for my 12am flight back home.

More photos of Las Capuchinas here, photos of Antigua here.

When bandh ruled the day

Last Monday was a unique experience for any non-Tamil Nadu residents who were in Chennai (the wife and I were there-lah) for it was a day of bandh.

Bandh? What is a bandh, we wondered too.

Our friends said it was called by the DMK government to protest over the brouhaha over the bridge purportedly built by Lord Ram.

Anyway, the bandh was declared unconstitutional by the Indian Supreme Court on Sunday and the DML-led TN government said it would adhere to the court order and invoke a hunger strike instead.

Given this new development, many thought things would be normal in Chennai on Monday.

But when Monday came, it WAS a bandh day after all. Places of business were closed - not voluntarily in many places though, schools shut, public buses remained in their depots, cities deserted, etc.

Of course the state government said it adhered to the court ruling and that there was no bandh (read TN CM Kalaignar’s response here).

On the ground however, it was different. Chennai’s buzz was missing. No incessant sounding of horns on the roads. Shops, restaurants and stalls remained closed.

Even the impressive Mayajaal amusement park which houses an excellent cineplex outside the city centre remained locked until 6pm for a show which started at 6.10pm.

All feared reprisals from DMK cadres if they had opened for business. Some in TN were roughed up for choosing not to obey bandh!

So, what is a bandh then?

Well, according to a Kerala High Court ruling, a bandh is:

"...the concept of a bandh as one where people are expected not to attend to their work or to travel for any purpose nor to carry on their trades, with a threat held out, either express or implied that any attempt to go against the call for the bandh would result in danger to their person and property. The court further held that although there may not be an overt threat of violence in a call for bandh yet there is clearly "a menacing psychological fear" of serious consequences to the person who disobeys the call."

Here is an excerpt from an article written by a former Indian attorney general:

"The court vividly pointed out that when a bandh is called no locomotion is possible. No vehicle can be put on the road because public and private vehicles taken out are attacked and damaged, no student can go to school, no patient can go to his doctor, no one can reach the airport to travel abroad, no lawyer can attend court and thus judicial work is paralysed.

The court did recognise that political parties and organisers have a right to call for non-cooperation or for a general strike (hartal) as a form of protest.

It however rejected the argument that a bandh with its potential consequences was the only form of protest available to a political party.

In the court’s view, a call for a bandh effectively precludes citizens from exercising their fundamental rights and was therefore unconstitutional."

Read Soli J Sorabjee article here.

Saffron Revolution in Burma

More than 100,000 people joined monks-led marches in Rangoon since Monday in the largest anti-government demonstrations since a 1988 pro-democracy uprising was violently suppressed.

After two days of silently watching the events unfolding by the sides, the military junta flew into action today.

This is from the Times of London:

"Firing shots into the air, beating their shields with batons and shouting orders to disperse, the police chased some of the monks and about 200 of their supporters...

Some fell to the ground amid the chaos and at least one monk was seen struck with a baton. There were unconfirmed reports of others being beaten."

Read more of the report here

Something someone told me once comes to mind: That one must do something to spark a revolution. One cannot just sit and wait for it to happen.

Battle for a mythological bridge

What you see is a 30-mile chain of limestone shoals connecting India with Sri Lanka.

Hindu devouts and religious fundamentalists believe it is a bridge built - and named Ram Sethu -by Lord Hanuman to enable Lord Rama to cross over to Sri Lanka to rescue his wife Sita, who had been kidnapped by Ravana.

Scientists, on the other hand believe, this shoals, called Adam’s Bridge, is a natural structure that joined Sri Lanka to the Asian continent during the last Ice Age.

The outcome on this debate - mythological bridge or not - would determine the future of the US$560 million Sethusamudram Ship Canal Project, which aims to create a navigable sea route around the Indian peninsula so ships can avoid going around Sri Lanka, thus saving time and money.

As I see it, this high political-cum-religious drama in India on this matter looks set to overrule present commercial needs in favour of preserving the golden period of the mythological period of Lord Rama's rule.

Sadly, the one to lose out looks set to be the Tamil Nadu state government, ruled by the atheist DMK party, who is against “paying heed to religious fundamentalist forces”.

And in a strange twist, the support of the Tamil Nadu government has been essential for any party wanting to form the central government in India. (Read more here and here)

Places NOT to visit

India has two. China too two. Russia as well has two. There are two ex-Russians. One is Peru and one in Zambia.

In all, these are the world's most polluted places, according to Time magazine.

The complete list is as follows:

1. Linfen, China
   
2. Tianjin, China
   
3. Sukinda, India
   
4. Vapi, India
   
5. La Oroya, Peru
   
6. Dzerzhinsk, Russia
   
7. Norilsk, Russia
   
8. Chernobyl, Ukraine
   
9. Sumgayit, Azerbaijan
   
10. Kabwe, Zambia
    

Read about these places here.

A noisy, majestic landing

Watch this video clip to see how close the landing plane is to the people enjoying the beach.

Superb. I can imagine the engine noise roaring and the almighty plane gliding down.

I have seen pictures of such close landings before but this is the first video clip I could lay my hands on.

The airport is Princess Juliana, located in the Netherland Antilles. Also known as the Dutch island of St Maarten.

According to what I gathered, the runway starts right at the fence, so the landing is a good one for heavy planes.

Apparently a lot of 747s and A340s land there and have to land immediately after the fence because of the distance it takes them to stop.

Enjoy this cool clip.


Insane 747-400 Landing - Watch the top videos of the week here

The place of the santri

In a typical Islamic boarding school anywhere in the world, students follow a regimented programme from dawn to dusk with tough rules.

But in Indonesia, pesantren students often defy stereotypes.

In Indonesia,

• Veiled girls had welcomed a western VIP with a rendition of rock anthem "Stairway to Heaven"
  
• There is a Harley Davidson-riding, turban-clad but leather-jacketed cleric Abdullah Gymnastiar
  
• And there are religious schools with computers and basketball courts

But still for every ‘liberal’ religious schools in Indonesia, there are still many unregistered pesantrens that continue to spread their rigid interpretation of Islamic teachings.

Sadly the Indonesian government cannot touch these pesantrens for political reasons.

Read more about the Indonesian religious schools in this reuters report.

note:

The term pesantren derives from the root word santri or student - pe-santri-an or the place of the santri (source wikipedia)

Being structurally deficient

This is not an elaborate movie setting. This is reality. This is the I-35W four-lane bridge in Minneapolis, Minnesota, which gave way during the rush hour on Wednesday evening.

According to the Associated Press the collapse of the 40-year-old bridge, which was being repaired at the time, sent cars and trucks plunging to the water.

Now accusations and counter-accusations are being made in the US if the bridge was structurally deficient.

Structurally deficient - nice word! I just hope our politicians don’t pick it up.

photo thanks to flickr/danibora. See more photos here.

There is a god for transsexuals too

I didn’t know how to react for a moment when I read an article in the Star this morning regarding a Hindu religious festival for transsexuals which took place over a five-day period in Pandamaran, Selangor.

According to the report some 400 people participated in the ceremony which ended yesterday.

Apparently the ceremony was dedicated to goddess Bahuchara Mataji, the Hindu presiding deity for transsexuals.

Wow! A goddess for transsexuals. I knew there were thousands of gods, goddesses and demigods in the Hindu mythology but one specifically for the transgender community, and with their own dedicated temple too? Phew!!

Anyways, I did some digging in the net and this is what I discovered, including a picture of her:

• Bahuchara Mataji is seated on a rooster which symbolises innocence. She teaches that killing of all animals and creatures is a sin and that there should be nonviolence.
  


• She carries a sword on her top right, a text of scriptures on her top left. She shows the abhay hasta mudra on her bottom right (showering of blessings) and carries a trident on her bottom left.

And what’s her origin like? There are two versions.

• The first states that the goddess was once a princess who castrated her husband because he preferred going to forest and 'behaving as a woman' instead of coming to her bridal bed.


• The second says the man who attempted to molest Bahuchara cursed with impotency. He was forgiven only after he gave up his masculinity, dressed as a woman and worshipped the goddess.

Don’t ask me how these turned her into being the protector of transsexuals.

And one final bid of information - her dedicated temple is located in Shankhalpoor (Gujrat in India ). This holy place is today known as Bahucharaji.

So there we go. All that you wanted to know about the holy guardian of the transgenders.
Somehow I am still loss for words.

Which Third World could this be?

Food and drinking water shortages.
Panic buying.
The threat of looting.
No sleeping bags and flood parcels.
Misery to thousands of people.
Worst flooding in 60 years.

Is this is in a dictator-ruled Africa? Or some poverty-stricken Asian nation? Perhaps in a poor Latin American country?

Nope....it’s actually in the civilised England. (Read here and here)

A penchant for fake

Is this story for real? I smell rat, scam and fake in it. This is a story of a Japanese man who thinks plastic dolls are better than real girls.

He goes to the extend of ‘bathing them, powdering them so that their skin feels more human, dressing them in lingerie and then taking them to bed.’

And of course he has sex with them too - saying that he prefers these life-sized and anatomically correct plastic dolls to women.

Is this for real? The man is not named, but is said to be an engineer. He claims to have ‘a row of dolls lined up neatly on his sofa’, waiting just for him.

More worryingly, the report says that this man is a member of a secret group of Japanese men who have given up on women.

And a manufacturer is also quoted, saying that it makes 80 dolls a month in an eastern Tokyo factory to nine designs that sell for between $850 and $5,500 each. The more expensive models are made of silicon and have 35 movable joints.

Nearly all of the people who buy these dolls are single men and about 60 percent of them are over the age of 40, a company official said.

I have heard of these dolls but to read that men actually preferred living with the fakes truly sounds fake to me. It’s just like the cardboard-in-bun story from China.

Rain...

Sometimes, under the wiltering heat, you just wish you had rain to cool things down.

However there are times when you just don't want it to rain. Like this weekend. Constant downpour has just made it difficult for all to enjoy the break, especially when you have kids who want to go out and have a good time.

However luckily the rain in KL is not as bad as it is in the UK.

The picture shows torrential rain across the south of England, dampening the spirits of many.

I would't mind if it rains like this while I am at work!

Cleavage distracts bus driver

I found this Reuters story from Germany really funny.

There is this bus driver who couldn’t concentrate on driving because he was distracted by a sexy passenger.

So he gave her an ultimatum - get out of my sights or be prepared to be thrown out.

Or in his own words:

"Your cleavage is distracting me every time I look into my mirror and I can't concentrate on the traffic. If you don't sit somewhere else, I'm going to have to throw you off the bus."

So the 20-year-old young thing moved away and sat elsewhere but she is complaining over the humiliation.

The bus company, however, defended the driver.

So was he being cheeky? Or was he just being bluntly honest?

How to term this marriage?

She is 51, a grandmother who has married five times before this. She has three sons and five grandchildren.

He, on the other hand, is just 27, with another wife and two-year-old child.

She is a respected parish councillor from Chesire. He works as a scrap metal dealer in Jeddah.

They met while she was riding a horse near the Great Pyramid and got married last September.

Her name is Jane Felix-Browne, or by her Muslim name known as Zaina Mohamad.

He is Omar Ossama bin Laden, one of at least 17 children fathered by terror chief Osama bin Laden.

Now she hopes to get permission from the UK authorities to allow him to stay with her there.

And she has some ideals of using their position to help to heal the wounds caused by her father-in-law.

"All we want is peace in this world and I will do all I can to promote it." (Read here)

How do I see this? Pure bull shit! I agree she doesn’t look 51 but still after going through five failed marriages, I simple don’t see this one working out as well. Things in this marriage just don’t add up.

For her, it could be the sex and the publicity/fame garnered for being Osama’s daughter-in-law, and the money from book deals, newspapers/tv interviews and photo shoots. For him, she might just be the ticket to enter Britain, and then Europe.

Sexy actress, the kiss and unpaid boob job

This is an interesting item if you are a hindi movie fan. More so if you like sex-bomb Bipasha Basu.

News are leaking that she was caught in a compromising position with Manchester United’s Cristiano Ronaldo at a function in Lisbon over the weekend.

In fact a photo of her smooching the footballer has been widely published in India since then.

The actress is said to be in an intimate relationship with a fellow Indian actor. (click here to see her with her partner)

Of course she denies any hanky-panky with Cristiano, stating that the photo was "taken at an opportune moment and taken out of context". (read more here, including the photo and a video)

And then comes the second controversy. Apparently this sexy actress had undergone a boob job some years ago (to increase three inches of her assets) and now her doctor is claiming that she has not paid him for the silicon job.

This sultry actress is known for showing more than ample cleavage in reel, perhaps that was what that attracted Cristiano in the first place, and to think that she got that out of a con job! (read about her unpaid implant surgery here)

I am sure all these will do no harm to her acting career in Bollywood. Maybe Hollywood beckons now?

A black jumbo jet going for cheap

A Boeing 747 jumbo is just worth Rs1,600 (RM160)? But cycle is valued Rs91,000 (RM9,100)?

Wow! If that’s the case, I too would like to have this jumbo jet, said to be black in colour.

However in reality, these are just some of the goof ups committed by the Tamil Nadu police in their records, as discovered in the 2006 annual report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India.

There are more such rather interesting cock-ups as reported here in this article.

But I leave you with something any police force would be proud of - there were 115 FIRs filed even before crimes were committed in Tamil Nadu!

For clarification, the Boeing was said to have been lost in Madurai.

EU’s sex-rated video promo

European Union has put up a 44-second video online to promote films made in Europe.

However the video clip has attracted unwanted attention from various quarters including the media and European MPs for its raunchiness.

The Sun from London calls the video clip sex-rated, and accused the EU of using porn to promote European films.

The promo-video - titled Let’s Come Together - features a host of couples in sex scenes cut together from films made in Europe.

As I blog this, the clip has been seen more than 283,000 times.

Watch the video clip below and judge it for yourself:

Presidential candidate’s holy vision

Pratibha Patil is the ruling Congress-led government’s choice to be the next Indian president.

She will be replacing the popular bachelor APJ Abdul Kalam, whose term ends as India's 12th president on July 24. Man-of-science Abdul Kalam has sought to improve education, rural communities and scientific developments during his presidency.

Many Indians whom I know speak very highly of Kalam’s ground-breaking speech when he was first elected as president as it chartered the path for India’s future.

Pratibha, 72, is a politician and had already garnered enough controversies as she tries to be the constitutional head of the largest democracy in the world.

Consider these:

Just as soon as her nomination was made known, she opened her mouth to come under fire from the Indian Muslim community and historians for uttering that purdah/veil was a Mughal invaders invention and was not needed in secular India.

This was soon followed by two allegations of abuse of power by the former governor of Rajasthan - protecting a murderer (who happens to be her brother) and the sugar factory scandal. In the latter, Pratibha is alleged to owe money to a bank.

And most damaging of all is her revelation that she heard voices of a dead holy man who told her about her destiny.

The presidential election is on July 19 and we await for further revelations. In the meantime, the woman herself dismisses all charges made against her. Read about it here and here.

Sex for food in Zimbabwe

The situation in Zimbabwe is truly sad. The people there are suffering due to the economic mismanagement of President Robert Mugabe.

It has been speculated that inflation now stands at a whopping 15,000 percent. That means everything - from salaries to goods - come in millions!

The Times of London says people in Zimbabwe are trying to survive with less than 1 British Pound per week (that’s RM7 per week).

The daily also mentioned in its report dated July 1 on how teachers were being forced to turn into prostitution to buy food.

Here is an excerpt:

"Instead of standing in front of her class in Kwekwe teaching history and geography, Sithole takes the bus 146 miles north to Harare. There, she sits at the bar in clubs such as Chez Ntemba, Chez Mambo and the Stars Studio at Rainbow Towers hotel, waiting for a proposition.

At 32, Sithole is pretty and refined, though there is a far-away sadness in her eyes and clients complain that there is not enough of her bottom ("What do you expect on one meal a day?" she asks).

On a pulsating Friday night at the Stars Studio, there is no shortage of takers..."

Read more of the report here.