Nothing To Do With Arbroath

Mmm, bacon

2009-07-05T10:26:00.000+01:00

Rejected koala

2009-07-05T10:24:00.000+01:00

At Wonderland Park in Victoria, Australia, a pair of twin koalas were born, but in the mother's pouch there is room only for one.

Christian cat plays Amazing Grace

2009-07-05T10:23:00.000+01:00

Duckling fluff

2009-07-05T10:21:00.001+01:00

Costa Rica is world's greenest, happiest country

2009-07-05T10:16:00.002+01:00

Costa Rica is the greenest and happiest country in the world, according to a new list that ranks nations by combining measures of their ecological footprint with the happiness of their citizens.

Britain is only halfway up the Happy Planet Index (HPI), calculated by the New Economics Foundation (NEF), in 74th place of 143 nations surveyed. The United States features in the 114th slot in the table. The top 10 is dominated by countries from Latin America, while African countries bulk out the bottom of the table.

The HPI measures how much of the Earth's resources nations use and how long and happy a life their citizens enjoy as a result. First calculated in 2006, the second edition adds data on almost all the world's countries and now covers 99% of the world's population.

NEF says the HPI is a much better way of looking the success of countries than through standard measures of economic growth. The HPI shows, for example, that fast-growing economies such as the US, China and India were all greener and happier 20 years ago than they are today.

"The HPI suggests that the path we have been following is, without exception, unable to deliver all three goals: high life satisfaction, high life expectancy and 'one-planet living'," says Saamah Abdallah, NEF researcher and the report's lead author. "Instead we need a new development model that delivers good lives that don't cost the Earth for all."

Costa Ricans top the list because they report the highest life satisfaction in the world, they live slightly longer than Americans, yet have an ecological footprint that is less than a quarter the size. The country only narrowly fails to achieve the goal of what NEF calls "one-planet living": consuming its fair share of the Earth's natural resources.

There's more information about why Costa Rica is the happiest place here.

Soul demanded as loan collateral

2009-07-05T10:11:00.002+01:00

Ready to give your soul for a loan in these difficult economic times? In Latvia, where the crisis has raged more than in the rest of the European Union, you can. Such a deal is being offered by the Kontora loan company, whose public face is Viktor Mirosiichenko, 34.

Clients have to sign a contract, with the words "Agreement" in bold letters at the top. The client agrees to the collateral, "that is, my immortal soul."

Mirosiichenko said his company would not employ debt collectors to get its money back if people refused to repay, and promised no physical violence. Signatories only have to give their first name and do not show any documents. "If they don't give it back, what can you do? They won't have a soul, that's all," he said in a basement office, with one desk, a computer and three chairs.

Wearing sunglasses, a black suit and a white shirt with the words "Kontora" (office) emblazoned on it, he reaches into his pocket and lays out a sheaf of notes on the table to show that the business is serious and not a joke.

Latvia has been the EU nation worst hit by economic crisis. Unemployment is soaring and banks have sharply reduced their lending, meaning that small companies offering easy loans in small amounts have become more popular.

Mirosiichenko said his company was basically trusting people to repay the small amounts they borrowed, which has so far been up to 250 lats ($500) for between 1 and 90 days at a hefty interest rate. He said about 200 people had taken out loans over the two months the business was in operation.

Samoa provokes fury by switching sides of the road

2009-07-05T10:06:00.001+01:00

The pace of life on the Pacific island of Samoa may be slow but mention the topic of transport and you are likely to get a quick and fiery response. The usually placid public is up in arms over government plans to force motorists to switch to driving on the left hand side of the road.

It will be the first time a country has attempted to switch sides in almost four decades and has presented the island with huge logistical problems. As well as staging the largest demonstrations in the nation's history, opponents have warned the change will be an unmitigated "disaster".

The country's drivers have used the right-hand side of the road for more than a century, like their close neighbours in American Samoa. However, unless they can convince the government into a complete back down, motorists will be forced on to the other side of the road at 6am on Sept 7.

The switch is the brainchild of Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi, the Samoan Prime Minister. He hopes that by changing sides, the country will be able to put an end to the importation of costly left-hand drive cars from the US and that the 250,000 Samoans who live in Australia and New Zealand will send over British-style right-hand drive cars to their extended families.

In an attempt to give Samoans practice at driving on the right, Sept 7 and 8 have been declared national holidays and a test track has been created next to the National Soccer Stadium.

However, the normally sedate public is up in arms over the change. Protesters have set up a pressure group – People Against Switching Sides (PASS) – which has since turned into a political party that aims to depose the prime minister at the next general election. PASS also unsuccessfully sued to block the switch, claiming driving on the left would infringe on the constitutional right to life. One of the prime arguments was that buses – including those for schoolchildren – will be picking up and dropping off in the middle of the road.

Famous prostitute's gravestone deemed too 'slutty'

2009-07-05T09:59:00.002+01:00

An artist’s design for the gravestone of Germany's most famous prostitute has been rejected by the cemetery authorities for being too "slutty." The 77-year-old artist Tomi Ungerer’s parting gift to his friend Domenica Niehoff was to be a gravestone featuring two ample pink marble boulders in homage to her famously top-heavy figure. But those responsible for the Garden of Women cemetery, resting place of Hamburg’s most famous women, turned his design down.

Ungerer, who declared his interest in designing her gravestone immediately after her death, reacted bitterly to the decision. “Domenica would have liked my design. She was not ashamed of herself,” he said.

Ungerer and Niehoff were friends for decades, and even shared a flat for a while in 1984. He published drawings of Niehoff and her colleagues in a book entitled “Guardian Angels of Hell” at the time.

But the cemetery officials are not alone in criticising Ungerer’s memorial. Photographer Günther Zint, another friend of Niehoff, said, “There was a bit of a debate among her friends whether Tomi needed to emphasise her breasts like that. They were after all a bane of her life.”

Niehoff, who gained fame for advocating the rights of sex workers in the 70s and 80s, died at age 63 in February 2009. Originally from Cologne, Niehoff lived through drugs, child prostitution and desperate attempts to get out of the sex trade. She grew up in an orphanage before slipping into prostitution, when she married a brothel owner, who committed suicide ten years later.

She worked as a prostitute in Munich and Hamburg and had her own brothel before she began to push for the legalisation of prostitution in Germany in the 1980s. She then became a social worker to help women to get off the street.

Man accused of drawing foot-long penis on TV screen

2009-07-05T09:56:00.002+01:00

A Cincinnati man is accused of drawing a large picture of the male anatomy on the screen of a pricey plasma television inside a Colerain Township Sears store.

Police responded to the store in the 9000 block of Colerain Avenue around 5:30 Thursday night after someone reported seeing surveillance video of a man drawing a one foot penis on a display television.

Twenty-year-old Jordan Puckett of Germantown is now facing one misdemeanor charge of criminal damaging.

The plasma TV was priced at $1599.99, police say, but is now unsellable because Puckett allegedly used a permanent marker for his illustration. A motive is not yet known.

US nuns on the run from Vatican inquiry

2009-07-05T09:50:00.002+01:00

American nuns could be said to have their habits in a twist in the face of two investigations by the Vatican into whether they have come to espouse lifestyles and views on the Church that may just be a tad too modern. Except that many don't wear habits any more. They wear regular clothes, even jeans.

Many nuns have stretched beyond the cloistered life to enter professions like teaching, the law and social work, and often eschew convents in favour of living alone. But, for the Vatican, it seems that American nuns may have strayed a bit too far from the traditional path. There was a warning shot in March when the US Conference of Catholic Bishops issued a decree telling Catholics that they should desist from practising Reiki, an ancient Japanese healing technique increasingly favoured by nuns involving the laying-on of hands, and very far from the traditional approach that Rome seems to prefer.

Pressure on the nuns, whose numbers in the US have dwindled in the last four decades from 180,000 to just 60,000, has grown however since the launch of a so-called Apostolic Visitation ordered by the Vatican. With interviews and questionnaires, this is a formal inquiry into the activities of women's religious institutions being conducted by Mother Mary Clare Millea, an American nun who lives in Rome.

In addition, a so-called doctrinal assessment has been ordered by the Vatican into the course being followed by an umbrella group of women's religious orders in the US, the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, which may not have been toeing the line on issues such as the primacy of the Vatican.

Some nuns may have angered the Vatican with their views on the ordination of women and letting priests marry. Cardinal Franc Rode, who is in charge of religious orders in Rome and who ordered the visitation, complained last year about nuns who "have opted for ways that take them outside" the Church.

Other nuns are also expressing disquiet about the new scrutiny from Rome. Sister Mary Traupman of Pittsburgh long ago left the convent but remains loyal to her faith as a lawyer. She still remembers the years of struggling with the long restrictive habits. "All this for the church," she said this week. "And now we're being investigated." Some nuns are refusing to cooperate. Sister Sandra Schneiders, who teaches theology at Berkeley, said that the Vatican authorities are out of touch. "Our vision of our lives and their vision of us as a workforce are just not on the same planet," she said. And in a leaked email to colleagues she said investigators should be treated as "uninvited guests".

Barkeeper guilty in deadly teenage drinking match

2009-07-05T09:46:00.001+01:00

A barman was jailed on Friday at Berlin's state court for serving at least 44 shots of tequila to a 16-year-old German boy during a faked drinking contest that killed the teenager.

The 28-year-old barman gave himself glasses of water, but served the teenager with alcohol during the drinking bout the pair had in February 2007. After about an hour the youngster fell into a coma and died five weeks later.

The bartender, who admitted his guilt, was sentenced to three years and five months in jail for causing grievous bodily harm with fatal consequences. Two other bar staff who were involved in tricking the dead teenager were convicted at an earlier trial of causing grievous bodily harm. They were sentenced to receive social training for 10 months, while a third bartender at that trial was acquitted.

The case triggered a national debate over teenage alcohol abuse and the danger of "flat-rate" binge-drinking parties where customers pay a one-off entry fee and are served unlimited strong spirits all night.

Pachyderms outdo humans in one-sided eating competition

2009-07-05T09:40:00.002+01:00

Three American "competitive eaters" have taken on three Asian elephants in a hot-dog-bun-eating competition in New York.

And they were genuinely surprised when they lost.

Juliet Lee, Gravy Brown and Eric "Badlands" Booker ate an impressive 143 buns in the allotted six minutes.

But circus jumbos Bunny, Susie and Minnie were not to be outdone, thrashing them more than three to one with a score of 505 buns at the inaugural Coney Island bun-eating contest.

George Shea, the chairman of Major League Eating seemed startled that the three-ton pachyderms beat his brave boys and girl. He said: "This was a great challenge for our species. I expected that the humans would beat them."

The elephants, who eat about 10 per cent of their body weight every day, up to 440lb (200kg), scooped up buns by the trunkful, leaving their nominal opponents eating little but their dust.

Award-winning female manager was born a man

2009-07-05T09:36:00.002+01:00

Of all those named in a new list of young female business leaders, Kate Craig-Wood has perhaps the most unusual success story. She was born male, and was able to afford a £50,000 sex change operation after developing a career in technology. Now the managing director of her own server hosting firm, Memset.com, the 32-year-old has been ranked one of Management Today's 35 Women Under 35.

But as well as championing the role of women in IT, Miss Craig-Wood also acts as a role model to other young transexuals. "We're not quite there yet in how to deal with transgendered people," she said. "I could have gone stealth, my surgery was good enough that people wouldn't have known, but I decided it was more important than my own bit of comfort to use my experience to help other people.

"Every couple of days now I get emails from people thanking me for being visible and showing the world we're not freaks. They say that it gives them hope and confidence that they can live a normal life."

Miss Craig-Wood, who lives in Guildford, Surrey, believes her unique position has played a hand in her success. "Having been one of the guys – or at least doing a good job of pretending I was – I have seen it from both sides. I can see if I'm being closed out of a conversation and can push my way back in, while other women don't, perhaps because of assertiveness or they don't recognise what's happening because they haven't been in that situation," she said.

She has also seen how men will assume that "if you're pretty then you're dim". "People do judge you based on your appearance," she said. "In the past few years, I have become progressively more attractive. My hips have developed more and I have this blonde hair and it has become more difficult to establish credibility with male colleagues who don't know me. They will often make the presumption that I don't know my maths or technology."

But despite her confidence in business and the decision to undergo surgery, she said that awards recognising her as a businesswoman are still particularly important to her. "Something like this is very affirming," he said. "It just shows me that they see my sexuality as something I have had to struggle with and totally recognised me as a woman because I am that – just a woman. What I had is a medical condition and can be treated."

Overweight people to be paid to lose weight in £ for lb scheme

2009-07-05T09:26:00.005+01:00

Obese residents in Basildon are to be paid to lose weight in the first Pound-for-Pound scheme in the UK.

Under the slogan, “We are looking for big losers”, the local health authority is inviting 100 volunteers to take part in a pilot scheme which will see them paid £1 in Asda shopping vouchers for every pound they lose in weight.

The project is the first of its kind in the country and follows a similar initiative in America. If successful it could be rolled out across the UK.

Sarah Stanton, 36, a care worker, of Sunnedon, Vange, is one of 16 who have already signed up for the scheme. The married mum-of-four, who weighs 14stone 7lbs, says she hopes the incentive will help her to shed about two-and-a-half stone.

She said: “I saw the poster and just thought, ‘Why not?’ “I have gone on a load of diets before and they have not worked, so I thought I’d give it a go. I’m not excessively overweight, but I am overweight and I just want to get fit and healthy.”

The scheme has been commissioned by NHS South West Essex in response to a growing obesity problem among adults. The Pound-for-Pound programme is part of the Get Out There scheme, which aims to introduce more than 50 activities across the district to encourage healthy eating and exercise.

Attention

2009-07-04T10:46:00.001+01:00

Click for bigger.

Cat ambushes dog

2009-07-04T10:45:00.000+01:00

Ferrets aren't built for jumping

2009-07-04T10:43:00.003+01:00

Here's definitive proof.

Baby alligator chases remote-controlled boat

2009-07-04T10:40:00.001+01:00

Identical twins marry identical twins

2009-07-04T10:37:00.000+01:00

It was a case of double vision when a set of identical twin brothers married another pair of twin sisters in a military ceremony in Pechora, north Russia.

After the confusing service, the grooms's mother, Mrs Semyonova, said: "I can recognise my own sons, I think, because they are different. As for the girls, I'm getting confused."

She could be forgiven - Lilia and Liana Kobozevsa were inseperable in their matching white dresses while the only telling difference betwen military officers Alexei and Dimtry Semyonova was the shade of their dark suits.

After the military service, both couples said they almost did not have any problems recognising each other. Lilia said: "I will always recognize Alexei and Lilia will recognize Dmitry. There are moments sometimes, but I can always recognise Alexei from his back at least."

Woman attempts plastic surgery on own face

2009-07-04T10:33:00.001+01:00

An woman is recovering following corrective surgery after she attempted to perform plastic surgery on her own face. Her doctor said the tough economy and the easy availability of supplies online has caused an uptick in the potentially disfiguring practice.

The woman, who asked that her name not be used, is 54, a mother of three, with a career in the public eye. She said that after a visit to a plastic surgeon, she went online and bought a vial of liquid silicone for $10 then injected it into her lips and cheek four weeks ago. "Insane. I can't believe I did what I did," she said. "I thought I was going to be happy with the results, then the next day, my face became very inflamed, very red, swollen."

Plastic surgeon Dr. Steven Williams said the economy and the notion that plastic surgery is somehow foolproof has contributed to a recent rise in self-performed plastic surgeries. "We've noticed an uptick in people trying to do things like this at home," said Williams. "And having problems, and (then) having to come in and see us."

On Wednesday, the woman underwent surgery to try to correct the horrifying result. Williams says this corrective procedure is more complicated than you might think. Because he was not sure what was injected, the process requires more than just simply sucking out the bad silicone.

"It's not something you can just draw out," said Williams. "You actually have to go in surgically and cut it out. We don't know what this material is, and it is actively causing serious problems for her."

He said clearing all the material out may require several more surgeries. His patient said she hopes speaking out about her experience might make others consider the potential consequences before self-administering silicone or other substances.

With news video.

'Opium poppy seeds' haul turns out to be mung beans

2009-07-04T10:29:00.002+01:00

It was just the sort of good news the British military in Helmand needed. Soldiers engaged in Operation Panther's Claw, the huge assault against insurgent strongholds last week, had discovered a record-breaking haul of more than 1.3 tonnes of poppy seeds, destined to become part of the opium crop that generates $400m (£243m) a year for the Taliban.

Ministry of Defence officials more used to dealing with negative stories about the British operation in southern Afghanistan swung into action to extract the maximum benefit from this unexpected PR coup.

A press release hailed the success of the offensive, and armoured vehicles were hastily laid on to allow the media to visit the site where the seizure was made, an abandoned market and petrol station that was still coming under sustained enemy fire when the reporters arrived.

Major Rupert Whitelegge, the commander of the company in charge of the area, tugged at one of the enormously heavy white sacks. "They are definitely poppy seeds," he said emphatically.

Except they weren't. Analysis of a sample carried out by the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation in Kabul has revealed that the soldiers had captured nothing more than a giant pile of mung beans, a staple pulse eaten in curries across Afghanistan.

Embarrassed British officials have now admitted that their triumph has turned sour and have promised to return the legal crop to its rightful owner. Dr Samuel Kugbei, the chief FAO technical adviser in the Afghan capital, said: "We have been waiting all day to see these dangerous materials brought from Helmand and now we see that they are just mung beans!"

Positive thinking can make things worse

2009-07-04T10:26:00.001+01:00

Repeating positive statements such as "I am a lovable person" or "I will succeed" makes some people feel worse about themselves instead of raising their self-esteem, a study says.

"From at least as far back as Norman Vincent Peale's (1952) The Power of Positive Thinking, the media have advocated saying favourable things to oneself," said the study by Canadian psychologists, which was published in Psychological Science today. It cites a popular self-help magazine that advises its readers to: "Try chanting: I'm powerful, I'm strong, and nothing in this world can stop me," but says the practice doesn't work for everyone.

Positive self-statements make people who are already down on themselves feel worse rather than better, according to the study conducted by psychologists Joanne Wood and John Lee of the University of Waterloo and Elaine Perunovic of the University of New Brunswick.

For the study, the psychologists asked people with low self-esteem and people with high self-esteem to repeat the phrase: "I am a lovable person," and then measured participants' moods and feelings about themselves. What they found is that individuals who started out with low self-esteem felt worse after repeating the positive self-statement. "I think that what happens is that when a low self-esteem person repeats positive thoughts, they probably have contradictory thoughts," Dr Wood said.

"So, if they're saying 'I'm a lovable person,' they might be thinking, 'Well, I'm not always lovable' or 'I'm not lovable in this way,' and these contradictory thoughts may overwhelm the positive thoughts," she said.

Although positive thinking does appear to be effective when it's part of a broader program of therapy, on its own it tends to have the reverse effect of what it is supposed to do, said Dr Wood, urging self-help books, magazines and TV shows to stop sending a message that just chanting a positive mantra will raise self-esteem. "It's frustrating to people when they try it and it doesn't work for them," she said.

Landslide derails India toy train

2009-07-04T10:23:00.002+01:00

The famous toy train service that ferries tourists in India's tea country in Darjeeling has been hit by a huge landslide in the hill region.

India's north-eastern frontier railway spokesman S Hajong said that the landslide on Tuesday destroyed about 20m of railway track.

The steam engines of the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway are a Unesco World Heritage site. Its antique steam engines are a great draw with tourists.

"The track is now partially hanging by the hillside. Unless it is restored, the toy train services cannot be resumed," Mr Hajong said. "And the restoration will take a while."

The coal-powered train of the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway is famed throughout the world. Tourism is just beginning to pick up again in Darjeeling after several months of violent agitation for a separate state staged by the region's predominantly Gorkha population.

The toy train journey in the eastern state starts from the plains town of New Jalpaiguri and goes to the hill town of Darjeeling via Ghoom. The 128-year-old Darjeeling Himalayan Railway was declared a World Heritage Site by Unesco in December 1999.

Find God, win a trip to Mecca (or Jerusalem, or Tibet)

2009-07-04T10:16:00.003+01:00

It sounds like the beginning of a joke: what do you get when you put a Muslim imam, a Greek Orthodox priest, a rabbi, a Buddhist monk and 10 atheists in the same room?

Viewers of Turkish television will soon get the punchline when a new gameshow begins that offers a prize arguably greater than that offered by Who Wants to be a Millionaire?

Contestants will ponder whether to believe or not to believe when they pit their godless convictions against the possibilities of a new relationship with the almighty on Penitents Compete (Tovbekarlar Yarisiyor in Turkish), to be broadcast by the Kanal T station. Four spiritual guides from the different religions will seek to convert at least one of the 10 atheists in each programme to their faith.

Those persuaded will be rewarded with a pilgrimage to the spiritual home of their newly chosen creed – Mecca for Muslims, Jerusalem for Christians and Jews, and Tibet for Buddhists.

The programme's makers say they want to promote religious belief while educating Turkey's overwhelmingly Muslim population about other faiths. "The project aims to turn disbelievers on to God," the station's deputy director, Ahmet Ozdemir said.

That mission is attested to in the programme's advertising slogans, which include "We give you the biggest prize ever: we represent the belief in God" and "You will find serenity in this competition". Only true non-believers need apply. An eight-strong commission of theologians will assess the atheist credentials of would-be contestants before deciding who should take part. Converts will be monitored to ensure their religious transformation is genuine and not simply a ruse to gain a free foreign trip. "They can't see this trip as a getaway, but as a religious experience," Ozdemir said.

Rude cuckold gesture costs Portuguese minister his job

2009-07-04T10:09:00.002+01:00

Manuel Pinho, Portugal's economy minister, has resigned after making a cuckold gesture to an opposition MP during a stormy debate in parliament.

Mr Pinho placed his index fingers on either side of his head, mimicking horns, as he taunted Bernandino Soares, the leader of the Communist group in the Portuguese parliament, who had challenged the government's plans for a mine.

Jose Socrates, the Portuguese prime minister who is preparing for a general election in September, said Mr Pinho's gesture was "inexcusable."

A man whose wife is adulterous has traditionally been referred to as "wearing the horns of a cuckold", a reference to the fact that the unfortunate man is the last to know of his wife's infidelity. In Portugal, the gesture is widely recognised to mean that a man's wife is having an affair.

Mr Pinho said he regretted his act during a tense state-of-the-nation debate, though he said he was responding to an insult from the lawmaker.