The Other News
Other News - Links
Other News - Videos, Stories etc.
Giant lobster caught!
July 16, 2009 - Freeport , N.S., Canada
- news stories that escape the headlines!
Posted on July 26, 2009
By Rachel Mendleson, Macleans Magazine, July 20, 2009
Corruption is so endemic in Nepal that bribery is almost to be expected at Kathmandu's international airport. But now, in a bid to boost tourism, the country's anti-graft authority has come up with a clever way to deter staff from soliciting "tea money" from hapless travellers: pocketless pants. The bribe-proof trousers will be issued "as soon as possible," says Ishwori Prasad Paudyal, a spokesman for the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA). "We believe this will help curb the irregularities."
Shortly after an investigation by a CIAA observation team confirmed the allegations of bribery, says Paudyal, "we decided that airport officials should be given trousers with no pockets," so that would-be bribe-takers would have nowhere to hide their spoils.
But the move failed to impress critics, who say that curbing corruption in Nepal will take more than new uniforms. Long before a 10-year Maoist revolution forced an end to the monarchy in 2007, bribery was greasing the wheels of every institution, from schools to courts. As Rabindra Khanal, a political scientist at Kathmandu's Tribhuwan University, observed at the time, Nepal's corruption problem is "one of the greatest hindrances to the country's development effort."
Last year Nepal scored a dismal 2.5 out of 10 on Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index, ranking at 131 out of 180 countries. Still, the country's new prime minister, elected on May 23, appears determined to shore up Nepal's reputation. By 2011, Nepal is aiming to draw a million tourists a year, nearly double last year's record-setting number.
With that in mind, keeping bribes out of the airport - and the pants pockets of its employees - sounds like a fair place to start.
Other News - Links
Posted on July 24, 2009
- 53 year-old Siberian woman beats 200 kg bear barehanded . Will the real Russian Bear step forwards please?
- Russian biker expelled from club for giving topless babe sacrilegious ride . Now give me then the Good old American bikers.
- Five hospitalized in Siberia after eating barbequed dog . I'll eat a hotdog anytime .
- Tragedy on the Moscow River as boaters hit high-voltage line .Hook, Line, and Sink 'Em.
- Newborn Russian liger named after Michael Jackson . How did that song go again ? "Eye of the Tiger "
- Thief steals police alarm, gets busted after pressing it. Will someone show him a real I Pod please?
- 2 teens killed, 11 wounded as lightning strikes school-leaving party . Sounds to me as the Wrath of God.
- Sacking “a la russe”.Good thing the Russians don't use 1 cent pieces.
- Russian church sells miracle stickers . Makes me wonder who owns those nicorette stickers ?
- Russian beauty’s silicone breasts burst during transatlantic flight .Allways tought they should have airbags in those planes .
- Russian woman on trial for raping 10 men . Too much emancipation can't be good .
Other News - Links
Posted on July 23, 2009
- Russian village hit by navy salvo during training. That's no 21 gun salute
- Woman blasts off boyfriend’s penis with firecrackers. Now that's going out with a bang !
- How do you sneeze in a spacesuit? Very carefully . How did Newton say ? Action is equal to reaction .
- Hawks deliver go-away message to Canada Post. Maybe a late revenge for the Canadair F-86 Sabre Golden Hawk showteam .
- World's first camel-milk chocolates going global. How do you milk a Camel ?
- Woman attacks husband's member with power drill for excessive spending. Now that's a woman who believes in DIY .
- Man begs doctors to undo penis enlargement surgery. How does it go ? Size matters !
- World’s biggest Easter cake breaks Guinness record. How do you get this in an oven ?
- Jumbo flying squid terrify divers . What happened to good old jaws ?
- Jellyfish the size of dustbin lids wash up on Scottish beaches as climate change heats up sea.What'sgoing on in the seas thse days? Those great lakes look more and more atracting to me.
Other News - Links
Posted on July 21, 2009
- Dead shark left in Miami street after failed sale. We all know the story of the one who got away.
- Cop accused of pulling gun while waiting for food . Never come between a hungry man and his food !
- German prostitutes defend "flat rate" brothels . Makes you wonder where this crisis is going to end
- Man claims he found condom in French onion soup. Oh those French and "L'Amour "
- Foreclosed Ohio homeowner leaves cats, mess behind. That's " Gone with the Stench " for you .
- Naked girls plough fields in India for rain. Bollywoods version of "I'm ploughing in the rain "?
- A Lightning Bolt Hits Water, So Close You Can See Its Streamers. Now that' what i call great balls of fire .
- How were surviving the recession eating organic veggies having no sex. Help give me meat !
Other News - Links
Posted on July 20, 2009
- Swarming ants kill man who fell asleep under tree .Watch where you take a nap !
- Wanted: Women to eat chocolate for a year. Why can only women eat chocolates?
- NC sheriff's deputy uses Corvette to stop speeders. That guy has style!
- Missile hits Vladivostok apartment block during Russian naval display . God when will they learn to aim ?
- DIY ends in dismemberment in St. Petersburg . Ok we all know who's the "worst handyman " in Russia .
- Big $4.4M lotto winner jailed. How do they say it again ? A fool's luck ?.
By Julien Russell Brunet, Macleans Magazine, July 20, 2009
In a bid to fight back against Britain's exploding obesity crisis, a town in Essex is trying a novel approach: it's going to pay people to lose weight!
Starting in September, Basildon's Pound-for-Pound pilot project will reward each of its 100 volunteers with a £1 ($1.90) shopping voucher for every pound of weight they shed. Before-and-after photo sessions will document their progress, and the volunteers will get advice on how to best lose weight. At the end of the program, the participants return for a weigh-in, where they can cash in their weight loss for financial gain.
Similar programs have been used successfully in the U.S., but this project is the first of its kind in the U.K., where the adult obesity level is 24 per cent, the highest in Europe. Basildon in particular has an adult obesity rate of just under 26 per cent, the fifth-highest rate in Britain.
A 2008 study conducted by Kevin Volpp and his associates at the University of Pennsylvania suggests that the new plan may just work. It found that offering financial rewards is "highly effective in inducing initial weight loss." Study participants who stood to gain financially by losing weight (or lose financially by gaining weight) tended to lose 13 or 14 pounds, compared to four pounds for those with no incentive.
Still, the Pound-for-Pound program has drawn some criticism. John Cawley, an associate professor who studies health economics at Cornell University, worries that incentivising weight loss without regular follow-up could encourage unsustainable dieting. The challenge is to both attain initial weight loss and to maintain that loss over a longer period of time, he says. he adds that rewarding participants with food vouchers - even though they can only be used for healthy food - is "incongruous with the very idea of motivating people to lose weight."
The Pound-for-Pound program has 35 volunteers so far. If it's successful, it could be rolled out across the country.
*For more stories, jokes and pics from the U.K visit our link:
- It seems watching the movie" The Texas Chainsaw massacre" isn't such a bad idea, it might come in handy one day. US man uses chainsaw to fight off mountain lion attack
- If Brussels doesn't come to the beach ,then the beach has to come to Brussels.
- Gm plans to make 2 new car models in Brazil, sadly the jobs lost in the US will be lost forever. Maybe GM will get some money from Brazil and move to The Gulag Archipelago ?
- “An army marches on its stomach,” so said Napoleon Bonaparte , seems history repeats itself. US Defense SecretaryRobert Gates says famine is eroding North Korean military threat.
- Ok we have the "swineflu" now scientists have discovered Ebola in pigs, what has happened to those good old Guinea pigs?
- Turkey is following in the footsteps of his neighbours and imposes a smoke ban. No more "smoking like a Turk".
- Police in Colorado have confiscated 53 baby birds from a 15-year-old boy's bedroom. Where are the days that boys hid another kind of "bird " in their bedroom?
- A burglar returned to apologize, Times have changed good manners used to be rewarded.
- Dying man wins bet he would live! Even death is a gamble these days.
- First Comes Love, Then Comes Obesity? Hey I promised to love and honour there was no mention of food!
- Great white 'ate electronic anti-shark device'. Maybe the shark mistakenly thought he heard the dinner bell?
- Not dead yet, Chilean man wakes up at his own wake. No he's no relative of Lazarus!
- In Latvia you can pledge your soul as loan collateral. Talk about the devil!
- Virgin Mary spotted in Irish tree! Wood you believe in Leprechauns?
Other News - Links
Posted on July 18, 2009
- Arctic Mystery: Identifying the Great Blob of Alaska.Sounds to me as an invasion of the Icesnatchers.
- Los Angeles County alone has at least 400 pot dispensaries and delivery services.The customers are saying " I'll Be Back " .
- Oscar Mayer Wienermobile crashes into Wis. home.Probably the driver tried to avoid a dog ?
- Police seek man with fetish for exercise balls. To Ball or Not to Ball that's the question .
- ND thief leaves note, advises car owner to lock up ! Good advice never comes to late .
- NH man charged 23 quadrillion dollars for smokes. That's a good reason to quit smoking!
- Police: Man reluctantly robs Utah snow cone stand. The pizza hut was probably closed?
- Berlin "sex academy" offers tips for visitors."Women coming in tend to have fewer inhibitions while the men tend to be a bit more embarrassed."Now I know what they meant with "summer classes "
- Man tries to fix airbed, blows up apartment . Somehow a waterbed seems safer to me
- Drunk badger disrupts traffic . I wonder how they got him to blow ?
- Want to make 80K a year? Try casting a spell . Can't get that song out of my head " I'll put a spell on you " must be the spell .
- Woman sitting on toilet accidentally shot in leg . Good thing she was sitting at the time.
- French paper goes global, risks ridicule with translation. Now that's real entrepreneurship Parlez vous French ?.
Three prisoners, including one of Belgium's most dangerous criminals, have staged an audacious escape, breaking out in broad daylight aboard a hijacked helicopter.
July 24, 2009 - Telegraph.co.uk
Two accomplices rented a helicopter, took the pilot hostage, and forced him to land in the courtyard of the jail, located in the northern city of Bruges, a justice ministry spokesperson told Belga news agency.
The escaped convicts and the accomplice were dropped off near a major road and the helicopter was abandoned at Aalter, on the outskirts of Bruges.
The criminals then seized a vehicle from a nearby petrol station, later switching cars and taking a female driver hostage before dropping her off at Melle in Flanders, according to the police.
One of the accomplices stayed behind in the prison yard, possibly because of limited space aboard the helicopter, the spokesman said.
He will be charged with hostage taking. .
The three escapees - bank robber Ashraf Sekkaki, Mohammed Johry and Abdel Had Kahjary Mulloul - are all repeat offenders, prosecutors in Bruges told Belga.
Sekkaki, 26, has been described as one of Belgium's most dangerous criminals, and was jailed for 10 years for a slew of crimes.
He had escaped from a prison in the northern city of Turnhout in September 2003 and spent five months on the run before being captured by police.
*For more stories, jokes and pics from Belgium visit our link:
U.K. town pays cash for lost pounds!
Nepal's graft solution: no more pockets!
Belgian criminals escape from prison in helicopter!
Gevangenis Brugge (Prison of Brugge)
Other News - Links
- Fla. cops catch man running with cash register, Creditcards are sooo much more convieniant .
- Michigan brothers raise pair of behemoth bovines, That's not weird if you translate the farmers last name : multicolored cow .
- Old Ohio church becomes gym with religious themes .The Church full of new ideas sigh
.
- Clerk gives robber a knuckle sandwich and a zap. Is this considered as a "Healthy " Meal ?
- NJ cops use pepper spray on aggressive groundhog. Correct me if i'm wrong aren't they smaller than bears ?
- Sculpture at Fla. shopping plaza turns heads. Better to turn your head than to bump in to it .
- Saucy sausage ads condemned. Where would you like to stick it?
- Principal fired for jumping on students in cafe. The things principals do for their students!
Posted on July 17, 2009
Click here to add text.
