Elderly Chinese man deployed six homemade CANNONS to stop his home being demolished without his consent

Չինացի տղամարդ

 

An elderly man deployed six homemade cannons around his home to prevent it from being demolished.

Zhou Jianbang set the dummy weapons up after watching neighbours’ houses torn down allegedly without consent.

Mr Zhou insisted his cannons would not have caused any harm and civil police in Xingyang, Henan, central China, confirmed he had not broken any laws.

Each costing 100 yuan (around £10), Zhou deployed the cannons to protect his home when he became insecure, according to ECNS.

 

Չինացի տղամարդ, թնդանոթ

But a local official said they did not plan on demolishing the house and insisted this would not be done until an agreement had been reached.

The community is being relocated, and just 34 of 340 households are allowed to stay.

 Անկախ

Indonesia Warns Local Chief Who Blocked Airport

օդանավ

 

The Indonesian government has warned a district chief who forced an eastern airport to close temporarily after he failed to get a ticket on a booked flight.

Ngada District head Marianus Sae ordered dozens of city security officers to block the runway of Turarelo airport on Flores island on Saturday, forcing a Merpati Nusantara Airlines plane to fly back to Kupang, the capital of East Nusatenggara province.

The closure lasted more than two hours. Transport Ministry spokesman Bambang Ervan said Sae was denied a ticket from Kupang because the flight was fully booked.

He described the closure as unlawful and could harm the safety.

Home Affairs Minister Gamawan Fauzi deeply regretted the incident and issued a warning to the district chief.

 

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Tens of thousands of anti-government protesters march in Bangkok

Tens of thousands of anti-government protesters took to the streets of Thailand’s capital Sunday, some surrounding the home of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, whom they want to oust.

An estimated 90,000 protesters were marching in Bangkok, Lt. Gen. Paradon Patthanathabut, Thailand’s national security chief, told CNN. He said that number rose to 150,000 at the peak of the rally in the late afternoon.

He earlier said 10,000 had surrounded the premier’s home while she tours the northeast provinces. The demonstration there was later disbanded.

In a bid to cool tensions, Shinawatra dissolved the nation’s parliament earlier this month and called for new elections, to be held on February 2.

But the move has done little to appease anti-government protesters, who remained on the streets by the thousands.

The main opposition party, the Democrat Party, has said it will boycott the polls.

During the weeks of demonstrations, protesters have occupied various government offices. The rallies have been mostly peaceful, but there have also been deadly clashes between protesters and government supporters.

 

Here come the brides: Mass wedding in Nigeria sees 1,000 Muslim couples tie the knot

Նիգերիա,պսակադրություն, մահմեդական զույգ

 

More than 1,000 Muslim couples tied the knot at a mass wedding Thursday in Nigeria’s second city of Kano, part of a government programme aimed at promoting stable families.

The elaborate event at the city’s central mosque included 1,111 previously divorced women and an equal number of men, many of whom had also been married before.

The mass wedding programme was launched last year by the state government and sharia police, or Hisbah, who enforce Islamic law, in response to what officials have described as a divorce epidemic.

Hisbah chief Aminu Daurawa said the programme has arranged 4,461 marriages over the last 18 months.

Under the match-making programme, the state government pays the traditional bride price, provides brides with furniture and seed money to start a small business.

 

Indonesian Muslims Protest Christmas in Aceh

Ինդոնեզիա,մահմեդական, ցույց , Սուրբ ծննդյան տոնակատարություն

A group of Muslims has protested against Christmas and New Year celebrations in Indonesia’s conservative Aceh province.

About 70 protesters took part in the protest Friday at the governor’s office and at a hotel in the provincial capital, Banda Aceh.

The protest came days after an influential Islamic clerics’ organization, the Ulema Consultative Assembly, issued an edict prohibiting Muslims in the city from offering Christmas wishes or celebrating New Year’s Eve.

The protesters called on authorities to ban the celebrations, claiming they are prohibited by Islam.

Aceh at the northern tip of Sumatra is the only province in predominantly Muslim Indonesia that is allowed to implement a version of Islamic Sharia law.

 

 Անկախ

Mugabe orders Victoria Falls to be renamed ‘the smoke that thunders’ to get rid of its colonial history

Մուգաբեն, Վիկտորյա ջրվեժ

President Robert Mugabe wants Victoria Falls to be renamed ‘the smoke that thunders’ to get rid of its colonial history.

The president of Zimbabwe believes Victoria Falls does not reflect its liberation heritage.

The waterfall, which is along the ZambeziRiver at the border of Zimbabwe and Zambia. is one of the Seven Wonders of the World.

Locals already refer to the landmark as Mosi Oa Tunya – which means ‘the smoke that thunders’.

The ruling party, Zanu PF, said the government would be instructed to get rid of all colonial names for towns and schools.

Վիկտորյա ջրվեժ

It was first discovered by Scottish explorer David Livingstone who named it after Queen Victoria.

President Mugabe’s party came to power in 1980 and changed names of some cities and towns such as Harare.

 Անկախ

India: Woman loses 10 babies to miscarriage in one night

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A woman in India has lost ten babies to miscarriage in one night.

Anju Kushwaha, 28, from the Satna district of the Madhya Pradesh province, suffered the miscarriage 12 weeks into her pregnancy.

She delivered nine babies late on Sunday night before she travelled 77 miles (125K) to the nearest hospital where she delivered the tenth infant.

Her husband Sanjay was carrying the nine wrapped in a piece of cloth when they arrived.

Dr SK Pathak, assistant superintendent of the hospital said: ‘She delivered nine of them midway. Obstetric and NICU team at our hospital helped her to deliver the tenth one in the operation theatre – all were born dead at almost 12 weeks.’

Doctors say Mrs Kushwaha experienced an extreme form of a condition known as multifetal pregnancy, which usually produces twins or even triplets.

However, it is also been confirmed that she underwent fertility treatment, which maybe have contributed to the unusually high number of foetuses

Senior gynaecologist, Dr Sumitra Yadav said: ‘It seems that that there was no regular follow-up of her pregnancy after IVF. At least three offspring could have been saved by reducing the pregnancy.’

The case marks the highest number of babies in a womb ever recorded in India, and the second highest in the world.

In 1971, a doctor in Rome claimed to have delivered 15 babies at once, however none of them survived.

 

Woman has 5in bamboo stick lodged in her face for EIGHT months- WITHOUT realising.

Fu-Jinfeng-2936283

A Chinese woman who couldn’t open her mouth to eat had a five-inch bamboo stick speared through her head for eight months without realising it.

The shock discovery was made by doctors after 61-year-old Fu Jinfeng was taken to hospital by her family.

Medics at the Xiang Ya Hospital in Changsha, Hunan Province, were amazed when they scanned the woman to reveal the huge object.

The incredible find came after her family grew concerned when she couldn’t open her mouth to eat and an eight-month-old wound hadn’t healed.

It is not known how the stick became embedded in the woman’s face back in April this year.

Doctors were able to remove it to allow the wound to mend.

Bamboo is a popular material in China, used extensively in almost every household for beds, chopsticks, chairs and even hats. It is also used as a building material, while bamboo shoots are eaten or used in medicine.

Fu-Jinfeng-2936276

Scientists: Mosquito Virus Spreads to Americas

մոծակ

Scientists say a viral disease first detected in Africa that is spread to people by infected mosquitoes is being locally transmitted in the Americas for the first time.

Government epidemiologists in St. Martin said Tuesday they’ve confirmed about a dozen cases of locally acquired chikungunya virus in the tiny French Caribbean dependency. The World Health Organization says there are more suspected cases. The illness usually does not lead to fatalities. But there is no vaccine for it, and it can cause a debilitating sickness with intense muscle and joint pain, fever, rash, fatigue and vomiting.

St. Martin Vice President Guillaume Arnell says “it started here so we have to contain it here.”

 

 Անկախ

Brazil Doctors Do Cesarean on Woman Not Pregnant

հղի կին

 

Officials in southeastern Brazil say doctors performed a cesarean section on a 37-year-old woman only to discover that she wasn’t pregnant.

Simone Carvalho is a spokeswoman for the Health Department of the coastal city of Cabo Frio. She said Tuesday the woman told doctors at the city’s Woman’s Hospital she was 41 weeks pregnant and in pain.

Carvalho said one reason doctors believed she was pregnant was because “she had the symptoms associated with pregnancy like an enlarged abdomen and nausea.”

Carvalho said “doctors could not hear the baby’s heartbeat and feeling its life was in danger ordered an emergency cesarean after which they discovered it was a false pregnancy.”

 

Անկախ

Miley Cyrus fan covers his body with 22 TATTOOS of the singer including portraits, song lyrics and quotes

Կարլ ՄքՔոյդ,Մայլի Սայրուս, դաջվածք

 

A Miley Cyrus fan has taken his obsession with the fan a little further than most by getting his body covered in tattoos of the pop singer.

After collecting photographs and watching interviews with her since 2009, Carl McCoid, 40, has had 22 portraits, lyrics and quotes from the star inked onto his arms, torso, hands, and leg.

Mr McCoid insists his obsession with the popstar did not contribute to the break up of his marriage in 2011 but told the Sun his wife thought his interest in the Hannah Montana star was ‘a bit weird’.

The 21-year-old singer has heard about Carl but said his fixation with her made her feel ‘creeped’.

Mr McCoid, who runs and ironing business in Bridlington, East Yorkshire, said: ‘I think I need to go and see someone about it.’

 

 

Անկախ

 

Australian judges overturn law allowing gay marriage and declare 27 weddings invalid

Ավստրալիա,նույնասեռականների ամուսնություններ, օրենք

 

Australia’s highest court has overturned a landmark law which had begun allowing the country’s first gay marriages.

The federal government challenged the validity of the Australian Capital Territory’s law that had allowed gay marriages in the nation’s capital and its surrounding area from last Saturday.

It means at least 27 weddings have been deemed invalid.

The federal government’s lawyer argued that having different marriage laws in various Australian states and territories would create confusion.

The High Court unanimously ruled that the ACT’s law could not operate concurrently with the federal Marriage Act, which was amended in 2004 to define marriage as between a man and a woman.

Gay marriage has legal recognition in 18 countries as well as 16 U.S. states plus the District of Columbia.

 

David Cameron and Danish PM brush off criticism of Mandela memorial selfie

Cameron, Thorning-Schmidt and Obama

David Cameron and the Danish prime minister, Helle Thorning-Schmidt, have brushed off criticism of their decision to pose for a “selfie” photograph at a memorial service for Nelson Mandela alongside the US president, Barack Obama.

The British prime minister said he was being polite when Thorning-Schmidt, the daughter-in-law of the former Labour leader Neil Kinnock, asked him to take part in the picture.

He told parliament on Wednesday: “In my defence I’d say that Nelson Mandela played an extraordinary role in his life and in his death in bringing people together.”

The photo went viral on Tuesday, prompting accusations from some of poor taste. Many noted that Michelle Obama looked on stony-faced during the rainy event in Soweto.

Thorning-Schmidt described her impromptu snap as “not inappropriate”.Speaking to the Danish media she said: “There were plenty of pictures that day. We’ve taken very many pictures of Obama, and I just think that it was kind of funny. It shows perhaps that when we meet from state and government, we too are just people who have fun together.”

She added: “There was obviously a sombreness but basically it was a festive event, which also celebrated a man who had lived for 95 years and achieved so much in his life. It was a big stadium, it was going on. There was singing and dancing, so there was a positive mood. And then we took a fun selfie.”

After the picture made headlines around the world, Cameron was challenged over his behaviour by Martin Horwood, a Liberal Democrat MP.

“Has the prime minister had the opportunity to discuss international mobile phone usage with any other European heads of government over the last day or so?” Horwood asked during the weekly prime minister’s question time in the House of Commons.

MPs laughed as Cameron replied: “You could say, in a roundabout way. Perhaps, in my defence, you should always remember that the television cameras are always on.

“But in my defence I would say that Nelson Mandela played an extraordinary role in his life and in his death in bringing people together. So of course when a member of the Kinnock family asked me for a photograph, I thought it was only polite to say yes.”

selfie-combo_mEarlier, the prime minister’s official spokesman declined to say Cameron regretted the behaviour or to accept the world leaders had been “larking around at a funeral”.

The photographer who took the picture of the three leaders posing for the selfie, Roberto Schmidt of the news agency AFP, said he felt the trio were “simply acting like human beings”.

Writing on the AFP correspondent blog, Schmidt said: “I took these photos totally spontaneously, without thinking about what impact they might have.

“At the time, I thought the world leaders were simply acting like human beings, like me and you. I doubt anyone could have remained totally stony-faced for the duration of the ceremony, while tens of thousands of people were celebrating in the stadium.

“For me, the behaviour of these leaders in snapping a selfie seems perfectly natural.”

Schmidt said it was wrong to suggest that Michelle Obama had been “rather peeved” at the group shot. “Photos can lie. In reality, just a few seconds earlier the first lady was herself joking with those around her, Cameron and Schmidt included. Her stern look was captured by chance.”

Reaction on social media in Denmark has been split between those who felt the mobile selfie was a gaffe, and others who pointed out that this was not actually a funeral and that the atmosphere in the World Cup stadium was decidedly upbeat.

 

The selfie, meanwhile, was a rare moment of glamour for Denmark’s PM amid domestic chaos. Earlier this week the justice minister resigned for allegedly lying to parliament. On Wednesday Denmark’s foreign secretary Villy Søvndal quit because of poor health.

 

 

Caught in the act: Burgling baboons break into apartment and trash the place

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A bunch of burgling baboons broke into a flat in Cape Town and wreaked absolute havoc in the process.

Around 10 chacma baboons scaled the building before one of the cheeky monkeys managed to prize a third-floor window open.

They set about trashing the place, before making off with food and even a giant teddy bear.

Around 500 of the animals are said to be terrorising the neighbourhood, trawling through bins and helping themselves to whatever they please.

The species are protected so residents can only fight back with paintball guns and pepper spray rather than stronger methods.

The luxury nail polish that contains 24-carat GOLD (but it only costs £18… and Lady Gaga’s a fan)

Boom Boom Pow - Deborah Lippmann

While not everything that glitters is gold, the sparkling new polish from celebrity manicurist Deborah Lippmann most certainly is.

Instead of metallic plastic, the festive sparkle in Boom Boom Pow, £18, was created by including shavings of real 24-carat gold.

And with famous fans that include Lady Gaga, Lena Dunham, Kelly Clarkson and Sarah Jessica Parker, the luxury lacquer has already secured the A-list seal of approval.

But Boom Boom Pow isn’t the only Lippmann polish to contain an unexpectedly expensive ingredient: also available are polishes that contain powdered diamonds and crushed pearls.

As a result, the brand has become a regular on the fashion circuit with Valentino, Bulgari and Burberry among those to enlist Lippmann for their shows.

The manicurist has also created bespoke looks for some of the biggest celebrity names in the business.

Among the A-list approved hues are Lara’s Theme, a bright orange-coral created with the help of model Lara Stone, and the glamorous deep-red Just Walk Away Renee, which was originally made for Renee Zellweger.

 

Turkey Joins UN Cultural Committee: Wolf in Charge of Guarding Sheep

ՄԱԿ-ի մշակութային հանձնաժողով

By Harut Sassounian

Publisher, The California Courier

 

Earlier this year, I wrote a column describing the Turkish government’s bullying tactics to reclaim antique objects from European and American museums. It is ironic that Turkey, one of the greatest looters and pilferers of other nations’ cultural heritage, would so aggressively demand the return of these antiquities.

 

Just in case its threats fail to work, Turkey embarked on a new course of action last month — bribery! Turkish Education Minister Nabi Avci announced on November 10: “Turkey has doubled its contribution to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) amid the financial crisis it faces with the United States and Israel not paying their membership fees.”

 

Minister Avci did not even attempt to hide the real reason for Turkey’s generosity. He disclosed that “significant progress has been made in Turkey’s candidacy for the UNESCO World Heritage Committee elections to be held on November 19.” Indeed, the Turkish Minister’s prediction came true when his country was elected to the 21-member World Heritage Committee for the next four years.

 

The Turkish Foreign Ministry immediately announced that as a member of that Committee, “Turkey intends to share, at the international scale, the experience and knowledge it has accumulated in managing and protecting its own 11 world heritage areas representing different layers of Anatolian civilization, including Neolithic, Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, Seljuk and Ottoman periods.”

 

Electing Turkey to a body that is supposed to preserve cultural assets is akin to putting a wolf in charge of guarding sheep. Turkey should not be eligible to serve on the UNESCO committee or on any other UN agency because of its long record as a major violator of human rights and the hegemonic threat it presents to the peace and security of neighboring states.

 

Not surprisingly, the Foreign Ministry’s announcement made no mention of the numerous Armenian religious and cultural monuments in present-day Turkey. Only in recent years, with the intent of easing the way for its European Union candidacy as well as generating income from foreign tourists, the Turkish government has renovated a handful of Armenian and Greek churches, after decades of neglect and systematic desecration and destruction.

 

Now that Turkey has undeservedly become a member of the World Heritage Committee, Armenia’s UNESCO representative has the opportunity during each meeting for the next four years to point out the irony Turkey faces — tasked with preserving cultural monuments, while remaining one of the biggest confiscators of other nations’ cultural heritage.

 

Murat Suslu, Turkey’s director-general of cultural heritage and museums, told the New York Times with a straight face: “We only want back what is rightfully ours…. If you come to my house and you steal precious objects from me, do I not have the right to get them back?” Mr. Suslu, who insisted that thievery and looting are wrong no matter when they occurred, must be reminded that Turkey can make such claims only after returning to Alevis, Arabs, Armenians, Assyrians, Cypriots, Greeks, and Kurds, what is rightfully theirs!

 

Just as ironic was the statement made by Ertugrul Gunay, Turkey’s Culture Minister, to the Economist magazine: “I wholeheartedly believe that each and every antiquity in any part of the world should eventually go back to its homeland. Even if these objects are made of stone, just as people have souls, so do animals, plants and monuments. Taking a monument away destabilizes the world and is disrespectful to history.”

 

Instead of falsely presenting their country as a looting victim, Turkish officials should acknowledge that they are in possession of numerous antiquities confiscated by their Ottoman predecessors while occupying over a dozen neighboring countries. For example, the sarcophagus of Alexander the Great, discovered near Sidon, Lebanon in 1887, was shipped to Istanbul’s ArchaeologyMuseum under orders from Sultan Abdul Hamid II, where it is still kept as one of its most prized possessions. It’s now up to Lebanon to demand the return of this precious cultural treasure from Turkey! Also, Saudi Arabia has the right to reclaim a plethora of sacred Islamic relics removed from Mecca by the Ottoman authorities in the 19th century.

 

Turkey’s membership in UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee provides a unique opportunity for Armenians and other dispossessed nations to draw the world’s attention to the Turkish government’s illegal confiscation of their cultural heritage and demand their immediate return.

Անկախ

Australian man in agony with a killer belly condition after he caught mystery bug from a can of beer he dropped in a river

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A sip from a can of beer he’d dropped in a river was all it took for this grandfather to catch a mystery bug that made his stomach balloon.

John Macdonald, 60, was on the Brisbane River, in Queensland, Australia, was on a fishing trip in March last year when the ‘tinny’ slipped out of his hand and into the water.

Without thinking Mr Macdonald picked it up up and carried on drinking from it.

Just a few hours later he was violently ill and has since had to endure countless hospital visits and operations to try and rid of the large mass growing from his stomach.

Mr Macdonald was operated on at his local Caboolture hospital after antibiotics prescribed to him failed. Despite the drugs he was given more surgery.

He was transferred to the Royal Brisbane Hospital for a third operation which initially was thought to be a success.

Instead he went into more shock when he woke up with an even larger and more grotesque hernia-like mass on his stomach.

On May 8 this year, John was once again admitted for surgery at the RBH to remove the mass, an operation he thought would be his last – but now the condition has returned again.

Mr Macdonald is now making a worldwide appeal to anyone who can cure his mystery illness, the large mass had returned but he said he was told by doctors that there was nothing they could do for at least 12 months.

He said: ‘They operated and I was left with a flat stomach.

‘But not long after when you can see what you had for supper you know something is wrong, that was the day I knew I was in strife. I’m told we have to start the whole process again.

‘Clearly the Brisbane River is far more polluted than people think – it was a split second decision on my part – a stupid one – and I have to live with this for the rest of my life.

‘I want to tell my story to the world in the hope that someone somewhere might answer my prayers and finally get me well – I’m a good bloke and I want to be around for my kids and my little grandchild so if there’s a bloody good doc out there that can help, then give me a holler.’

 

China bans shark fin dishes at official banquets

Չինաստան, շնաձկան լողակներ,ճաշատեսակներ

 

China has banned dishes containing delicacies like shark fin and and bird’s nest from official banquets as part of a government crackdown on official extravagance.

Chinese authorities published new regulations that “explicitly ruled out dishes containing shark fins, bird nests and wild animal products in official reception dinners,” the official Xinhua news agency reported on Sunday.

 

Չինաստան, շնաձկան լողակներ,ճաշատեսակներ

Xinhua also said that cigarettes and up-market liquors are not allowed to be served at official dinners and officials below provincial level should not stay in hotel suites on business trips.

The new rules aim to “regulate the use of public funding on receptions,” Xinhua added.

President Xi Jinping has made tackling official corruption a priority since taking power earlier this year.

Some hotels in Hong Kong and China have also removed shark’s fin soup from their menus and airlines like, Cathay Pacific, have banned the product from cargo holds.

Up to 73 million sharks are estimated to be killed each year, according to a 2006 academic study quoted on the website of campaign group Hong Kong Shark Foundation.

 

The models in masks: Shocking images show women forced to don medical garb for fashion event in smog-hit city of Nanjing

Չինաստան,նորաձևության շոու,մոդելներ,բժշկական դիմակներ

 

Elegant in their long white dresses and spectacular gold jewellery, accessorised with medical masks, the women sashayed down the catwalk to applause from watching fashionistas.

Thanks to sky high levels of air pollution In Nanjing, the capital of the smog-hit Jiangsu province, the masks were insisted upon by officials concerned about the impact of doing an outdoor show on models’ health.
Չինաստան,նորաձևության շոու,մոդելներ,բժշկական դիմակներ

Air pollution is becoming an increasingly serious issue in the world’s most populous country, with scores of coal-burning power stations pushing emissions to a level that is 40 times higher than the safe limit recommended by the World Health Organisation.
In Nanjing, and capital Beijing, conditions worsen in winter thanks to additional demand for power and have been exacerbated by the country’s rapid urbanisation.

And it’s not just fashion shows that are affected by the poisonous clouds: so thick is the lingering smog, flights into and across China are regularly disrupted.

The current outbreak of smog is affecting the Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui and Henan provinces, although the capital has also been badly hit.

Other cities to face smog-related problems during the outbreak, which has lasted for more than a week, include Shanghai and Hangzhou.

But it is Nanjing that is enduring the worst of the smog, with officials putting the city on red alert according to Chinese news agency, Xinhua.

 

Bob Dylan Stratocaster sets auction record, sells for nearly $1 million

Chinese film director Zhang YimouA guitar once owned by music legend Bob Dylan sold for $965,000 Friday at Christie’s, setting a new world auction record for any guitar, according to a statement from the auction house.

The 1964 Fender Stratocaster was purchased by an unidentified bidder, said a Christie’s spokesperson.

Along with the guitar and original case, newly discovered song lyrics by Dylan were also auctioned, according to Christie’s. The items were left behind on a private plane months after the 1965 performance. In 2011, the daughter of the plane’s pilot submitted the items to the PBS show “History Detectives” for authentication, according to the statement from Christie’s.

The selling price of the guitar almost doubled the estimated range of $300,000 to $500,000, according to Christie’s.

Previously, Eric Clapton’s Fender “Blackie” held the record for a guitar sold at an auction, going for $959,500 in 2004, Christie’s spokeswoman told CNN.