Musicians really ARE sexier: Scientists find that carrying a guitar increases your chance of getting a date by a third

m1 (1)Carrying a guitar can increase the chances of you getting a date by a third, according to a study by researchers from the University of South Brittany.

The study found that women were 31% more likely to give their number to a man carrying a guitar – double the amount of people who would give their number to the same man when he was empty-handed.

The study was led by Professor Nicolas Gueguen, a researcher in behavioural sciences at the University.

Gueguen hired a 20-year-old man to approach 300 women aged between 18 and 22 in a shopping centre in Brittany.

The man told each girl that they were ‘really pretty’ and asked for her phone number so they could arrange a date.

For the first 100 women he was holding a sports bag.

For the next 100 women he approached them holding a guitar case.

And for the final 100 women, the man asked them for their number without anything in his hands.

When the actor was carrying the guitar case, 31% of the women gave them his number.

When he was carrying nothing, 14% of the women gave them his number.

The biggest turn off for the women was when he was carrying the sports bag, which had a success rate of only 9%.

 

Elders’ elections of Yerevan. Involved as a suspect in electoral offences

ընտրություն In the framework of the criminal cases initiated in Police Division of Malatia adjunct to the government for attempting to vote instead of another person and voting instead of another person in the precincts N 08/23 and N 07/18 of the administrative district Malatia-Sebastia on Elders’ election day of Yerevan – May 5, 2013, D. Mkhitaryan and S. Serobyan were involved as a suspect.

A signature not leave was used as pretrial measures against them.

Necessary investigation and procedural activities are implemented to provide the completeness and comprehensiveness of the criminal cases. The preliminary investigation is in process.

 

WTO set to pick new leader, amid talks deadlock

4ԱՀԿ-ն կընտրի նոր ղեկավարիThe World Trade Organisation is close to choosing its next leader in a final round pitting Brazil against Mexico, with the winner facing the tough task of restoring the clout of global commerce’s rule-setting body.

Brazil’s WTO ambassador Roberto Azevedo and his rival Herminio Blanco, Mexico’s former trade minister, are expected to learn as early as Tuesday whether they have won a contest that is seen as too close to call.

All concerned are keenly aware that the successor to two-term director general Pascal Lamy from France must act fast to revive the WTO’s moribund global trade talks.

Both men have pitched a similar vision for a negotiating process which they say needs overhauling.

Blanco, meanwhile, said it was time to reboot the 159-nation WTO.

“The main challenge is the ‘W’ in ‘WTO’,” he told AFP, underlining that the logjam had pushed members into negotiating bilateral and regional deals.

“You have to transfer this energy back to Geneva,” where the WTO is based, to prove the point and reach of the organisation, he said.

Russian prisoner makes rare escape from Moscow jail

1Բանտարկյալը փախուստի է դիմել ռուսական բանտիցA Russian prisoner charged with double murder on Tuesday escaped from one of Moscow’s most impregnable jails by breaking a hole in his cell ceiling and climbing to freedom, the prison service said.

In a rare break-out, reportedly only the fourth in two decades from Moscow’s Matrosskaya Tishina prison, Oleg Topalov “escaped through a hole in the cell ceiling that he had made and made his way onto the roof,” prison service spokesman Sergei Tsygankov told the RIA Novosti news agency.

“From the roof he escaped over the main fence,” he added.

It was unclear how Topalov managed to break a hole in the ceiling since cells are searched for banned objects. The only object he could have used was a spoon, a source in law enforcement told the Interfax news agency.

In an unusual move, the federal prison service released pictures of Topalov, 33, a slim man with dark curly hair, asking the public to call with any information.

FIFA Task Force outlines anti-racism fight

130506230411-football-fifa-task-force-boateng-blatter-story-top(CNN) — FIFA’s anti-racism Task Force proposed the attendance of officials to specifically “identify potential acts of discrimination” at matches when the newly-created body first met on Monday.

Chaired by FIFA vice president Jeffrey Webb, who presides over the continental CONCACAF body, the Task Force also suggested the possibility of points deductions and/or relegation for “reoffenders or for serious incidents”.

The Task Force will present a draft resolution at the FIFA Congress in Mauritius at the end of the month whereupon member associations will vote on the measures.

“We have a special responsibility in the way we can impact football and society,” said Webb during his opening remarks in Zurich.

“One of the opportunities this task force has is its vast reach throughout FIFA’s 209 member associations, where we can implement the resolutions in every region and every country where football is played, bringing universality to the mechanisms that combat racism and discrimination.”

Webb: Racism sanctions will send message

FARE: ‘Erratic’ Sepp Blatter should quit

Boateng: Racism in football must end

Alex Ferguson: ‘Racism still exists’

Hayatou: Good example key against racism

The creation of the Task Force was announced in March after a series of racial incidents affecting the sport.

In England, both Luiz Suarez and John Terry received bans for racial abuse in separate incidents that took place in 2011 but the story that made headlines around the world came when Milan’s Kevin-Prince Boateng led his team off in a friendly in protest at racism from supporters this January.

Boateng was swiftly invited by Blatter to FIFA headquarters and was one of the first names added to the makeup of the Task Force, but the Ghanaian did not attend Monday’s meeting due to playing commitments.

“K-P Boateng and Jozy Altidore didn’t make today’s FIFA meet,” tweeted Task Force member Osasu Obayiuwana, a football journalist and lawyer. “I hope they attend the next session. Views of active players are crucial.”

In their absence, the Task Force suggested that officials attend games to identify discriminatory acts “with the aim of easing the pressure on referees and facilitating the availability of evidence, which is not always easy to obtain”.

The second proposal is likely to be of more interest to fans, especially those who have long argued that points deductions are a more efficient punishment for clubs and national teams than paltry fines.

The Task Force suggested the application of sanctions in two stages, with the threat of “a warning, a fine or the playing of a match behind closed doors” for “a first or minor offence”.

For more serious incidents and those who reoffended, the Task Force spoke of “points deductions, expulsion from a competition, or relegation”.

The third proposal from the new body was for the “need to implement the existing sanctions in a harmonized way across all confederations, member associations and leagues”.

FIFA president Sepp Blatter, who courted controversy in 2011 when telling CNN that racism could be settled by a handshake after the match, announced his satisfaction with the inaugural meeting.

“Very happy with first Task Force Against Racism & Discrimination meeting,” he tweeted, before later adding “We want strong & consistent sanctions at all levels of football for any discriminatory act.”

A second Task Force meeting is planned for later in the year to discuss how to educate those in football in a manner which reduces discriminatory acts in the game.

 

911 call — ‘I’ve been kidnapped!’ — cops find 3 women missing for years

400h225-2(CNN) — Amanda Berry was last seen after finishing her shift at a Burger King in Cleveland in 2003. It was the eve of her 17th birthday.

Georgina “Gina” DeJesus disappeared nearly a year later, in April 2004. She was 14.

Michele Knight vanished in 2002, at age 19, according to the Cleveland Plain Dealer newspaper.

All three were found alive in a home in a Cleveland neighborhood Monday night, police announced in a development hailed as a miracle by their families.

“Help me, I am Amanda Berry,” Berry told police in a frantic 911 call from a neighbor’s house. “I’ve been kidnapped, and I’ve been missing for 10 years. And I’m here, I’m free now.”

 

Suspects’ uncle: I never want to see them

Neighbor: “I thought this girl was dead”

Police swiftly moved in on the house where the three of them said they had been and arrested a 52-year-old man, identified as a former school bus driver. Two others, identified as his brothers, ages 50 and 54, also have been arrested, Deputy Police Chief Ed Tomba told reporters late Monday. Police believe only the middle brother lived at the home, he said.

The men are being held in the city jail awaiting charges. An FBI team is collecting evidence in the house.

“This is a great, great outcome that we have them still with us,” Tomba said. “It’s just truly, truly amazing and it’s a blessing to the community and to the members of the police department and their families that they’re alive. I can’t tell you how happy we are.”

Those feelings were echoed at Cleveland’s Metro Health Medical Center where the three women and a fourth person were being treated.

“This isn’t the ending we usually hear to these stories, so we’re very happy,” said Dr. Gerald Maloney, an emergency room physician there. We’re very happy for them.”

The three women were in fair condition. Maloney would not identify the fourth person being seen at the hospital, but witnesses said Berry, who escaped from the house with the help of a neighbor, had a young child with her.

The escape

Neighbor Charles Ramsey was sitting down to a fast food meal when he heard screaming.

“I see this girl going nuts trying to get out of a house,” he told CNN affiliate WEWS. “I go on the porch and she says, ‘help me get out. I’ve been in here a long time.'”

Figuring it was a domestic dispute, Ramsey kicked in the bottom of the door and the woman came out with a little girl and said, “Call 911, My name is Amanda Berry,” according to Ramsey, who admitted he didn’t recognize the name or know she was missing.

Free from the house where they had been held captive, Berry pleaded for a phone.

“They were crazy, screaming, ‘Help, call police, please help.’ … They were desperate, crying, running,” said Angela Garcia, whose aunt provided the phone for them to call police.

Ramsey also called 911, less than a minute later.

“She’s like, ‘This (expletive) kidnapped me and my daughter,'” he told 911.

DeJesus’s mother, Nancy, met with her at the hospital, cousin Sylvia Colon, told CNN’s “Piers Morgan Tonight.” She had never given up hope of finding her daughter alive.

Crowd cheers for Amanda Berry

Kidnapping suspect’s son ‘truly stunned’

Amanda Berry’s aunt didn’t give up hope

Ohio: Neighbor interview, then 911 call

“She has always said that she just could feel it, a link a mom can feel, but she always believed Gina was alive and well,” Colon said. “She always believed that. I just want to say what a phenomenal Mother’s Day gift she gets this Mother’s Day.”

Suspect’s identity

Read CNN story on three missing from 2009

Brian Cummins, a councilman who represents the area where the women were found, identified the suspect in whose home the women were found as Ariel Castro. His uncle, Julio Castro, told CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360” that his family had grown up in the same west Cleveland neighborhood and knew the DeJesus family.

Castro used to work as a bus driver for the Cleveland Metropolitan School District, according to district spokeswoman Roseann Canfora. She did not have specifics Monday night on how long he was employed, when he left or whether he was fired or left voluntarily.

Ramsey told reporters the suspect wasn’t known for anything exciting — “until today.”

“We see this dude every day. I’ve been here a year. I barbecued with this dude. We eat ribs and listen to salsa music,” Ramsey said.

And Garcia said neighbors “never saw nothing suspicious.”

“We never saw the girls there, and we were always outside,” she said. “We only saw the guy.”

Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson said there were “many unanswered questions regarding this case, and the investigation will be ongoing.” But he added, “I am thankful that these three young ladies are found and alive.”

Bangladesh riot death toll rises to 37 after Islamic hardilners demanding blasphemy law battled police

ba137 people were killed and hundreds more injured in Bangladesh today in fierce street fighting between police and Islamic hardliners demanding the death penalty for blasphemy.

Rioters chanting ‘God is greatest!’ torched shops and vehicles, blocked roads and fought bloody battles with police in the capital of Dhaka and its suburbs.

At least 70,000 activists ran amok in the capitals financial district overnight, forcing hundreds of workers to sleep in their offices as gunfire rattled through the night.

Dozens of demonstrators were arrested, while the leader of the protests was put on a plane to the country’s second city Chittagong and the deputy chief was detained in the capital.

Activists from the fundamentalist Hefajat-e-Islam group had marched along at least six roads, blocking transport between Dhaka and other cities.

Police have said about 200,000 people marched to central Dhaka, where tensions erupted as protesters – armed with rocks – clashed with security officials, who beat them back with batons.

It is believed rioting broke out after police tried to intercept protesters, many of whom had travelled from remote villages and had gathered in front of the country’s largest mosque.

The protests had been instigated by Allama Shah Ahmad Shafi, the leader of Hefajat-e-Islam who is said to be around 90 years old.

Hefajat-e-Islam is a newly created radical Islamist group that wants greater segregation of men and women, and a stricter Islamic education. It also want the restoration of pledges to Allah in the constitution.

The government in Bangladesh has rejected the groups’ demands, saying the Muslim-majority nation is governed by secular liberal laws.

Leaders have threatened to launch a campaign to oust the government unless their demands are met.

 

 

Customer suffers horrific burns after bartender pour flaming glass of absinthe into his mouth and sets his head on fire

f3A Russian man suffered severe burns after a barman set fire to his head while trying to pour a glass of flaming absinthe into his mouth.

Alexey Ponamarev, 28, had to be rushed to hospital with burns to his face after the incident in a bar in Novosibirsk, south-west Siberia, which was caught on camera by his girlfriend.

Doctors treated him for first- and second-degree burns and Mr Ponamarev is now reportedly preparing to sue the bar for half-a-million roubles (£10,300).

The footage his girlfriend Anfisa Kirillova took of the painful incident on Saturday has been handed to police.

Mr Ponamarev was taken by ambulance to a nearby burns clinic where he was treated for burns to his face and one ear, Russian site Life News reported.

The barman Albert Bykov, 34, said he had done the trick many times before without incident.

‘The situation is ambiguous,’ he said. ‘The customer asked me to pour burning absinthe. Usually we do it with sambuca, but the guest is always right so, warning him of the danger, I tried to do it.

He said Mr Ponamarev had messed up the stunt by covering his mouth.

The bar’s management said they hoped the situation could be resolved amicably.