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Running scared: US withdraws diplomats from Tunisia and Sudan


The Guardian
Sun, 16 Sep 2012 04:03 UTC
Image
© Zoubeir Souissi/Reuters
A policemen checks damage to vehicles inside the US embassy in Tunis after it was attacked by protesters on Saturday.
The US state department has ordered non-essential staff from its embassies in Sudan and Tunisia to leave with their families and warned its citizens against travelling to the two countries owing to concerns over rising anti-American violence.

"Given the security situation in Tunis and Khartoum, the state department has ordered the departure of all family members and non-emergency personnel from both posts, and issued parallel travel warnings to American citizens," said a spokeswoman, Victoria Nuland.

In Tunisia, the warning advised Americans that the international airport in Tunis was open and encouraged all US citizens to depart on commercial flights.

It said Americans who chose to remain in Tunisia should use extreme caution and avoid demonstrations. On Friday, protesters climbed the walls into the US embassy in Tunis, torching cars, attacking the entrance building and setting fire to a gym and a neighbouring American school.
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Book

Ex-Girlfriend Joyce Johnson on the "Very Odd" Jack Kerouac

Dalya Alberge
The Observer
Sat, 15 Sep 2012 00:00 UTC
Jack Kerouac
© John Cohen/Getty Images
On the Road author Jack Kerouac listens to himself on the radio in 1959.
The former girlfriend of the leading novelist of the beat generation Jack Kerouac has revealed details of their affair and his descent into bizarre behaviour on finding fame, in a new book to be published more than 40 years after his death.

Joyce Johnson, an accomplished author, also dispels the myth that Kerouac's writing was effortlessly spontaneous. Where he claimed his novel On the Road was written in a blast of energy during three weeks in 1951 she recalls that he spent years revising his work and carefully crafted each paragraph.

Her book is just part of a revival of the cult that surrounded Kerouac which has this year prompted three feature films and a documentary, as well as books and an exhibition at the British Library.
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Info

World's 'Ugliest Woman' Gives Courageous Interview


Carbonated TV
Fri, 14 Sep 2012 07:22 UTC
Velasquez
© YouTube
She has been bullied, ridiculed and stared at with mysterious looks since her childhood. And above all, she was dubbed 'world's ugliest woman' by insensitive cyber bullies when she was in high school. For Lizzie Velasquez life was never as simple as it was for others.

Born with a rare medical condition, Velasquez has no adipose tissue and cannot create muscle, store energy, or gain weight. She has zero percent fat in her body and weights only 60 pounds (22 kg). But despite all her physical complications her spirits and level of motivation has always been sky high.

After years of misery and self-doubt, Lizzie Velasquez from Austin, Texas says she can finally shrug off the hurtful comments about her looks as 'just words'.

When people in their comments on a 8-second-long YouTube video named as 'The World's Ugliest Woman' encouraged her to kill herself and called her a 'monster', she instead of paying heed to such insensitivity designed four goals for herself: to become a motivational speaker, to publish a book, to graduate college, and to build a family and a career for herself.

Lizzie is 23-years-old now, she has been a motivational speaker for seven years and has given various workshops on multiple topics like dealing with bullies, embracing uniqueness and overcoming obstacles. Her first book called Lizzie Beautiful came in 2010 and her second Be Beautiful, Be You arrived earlier this month. Above all, she is a senior majoring in Communications at Texas State University.
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Info

Car Sales Could Slump in 'Unlucky' 2013


Wheels
Mon, 10 Sep 2012 14:15 UTC
New Car
© Wheels
Triscadecaphobia (or triskaidekaphobia) is the fear of the number 13 as a harbinger of bad luck. And it's why new car sales will likely slump in the 2013 model-year.

Believers will want nothing to do with an "unlucky" 2013 car, and even non-believers might shun these autos fearing lower future resale values.

Rationally, we can dismiss such beliefs as nonsense, but the fact is that our society often accommodates this common superstition. For example, high-rises rarely, if ever, have a 13th floor - usually skipping from 12 to 14 in the numbering. Many developers also by-pass "13" when numbering homes in new communities.

In Ireland, known for its lucky charms (and inspiring a kids' cereal here by the same name), an auto industry group estimates 2013 car sales will plummet by one-third. To help counteract this, officials are being asked to change the car registration system to alter the year prefix to become "131" and "132" instead of the dreaded "13" alone.

So what's the solution for North America?

As a knee-jerk reaction, automakers might just jump ahead and call them "early" 2014 models. But then, that would bring us into the realm of tetraphobia where the number "4" is avoided because it's pronounced much like the word for "death" in Cantonese and other Asian languages. The number "14," as in the year 2014, is considered even more unlucky ("sure death") than "4" by itself.
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Wine

Czechs Ban Spirits After Bootleg Alcohol Poisoning


BBC
Sat, 15 Sep 2012 11:48 UTC
Czech ban
© Reuters
Stores began clearing shelves soon after the ban was announced
The Czech government has banned the sale of all spirits containing more than 20% alcohol following a spate of poisoning that has left 19 people dead.

The ban covers all outlets including restaurants and hotels.

The poisonings have been blamed on bootleg vodka and rum tainted with the industrial chemical methanol and sold cheaply at markets and outdoor kiosks.

Czech police have arrested 10 people and seized 5,000 litres of spirits, as well as counterfeit labels.

Health Minister Leos Heger said the unprecedented ban was effective immediately and applied nationwide.

"Operators of food and beverage businesses... are banned from offering for sale (and) selling... liquor containing alcohol of 20% and more," he announced on national television.

The deaths - which began to emerge earlier this month - have been described as the Czech Republic's worst case of fatal alcohol poisoning in 30 years.
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USA

One-Fifth of US Children are Living in Poverty


RT
Fri, 14 Sep 2012 00:00 UTC
Image
© Agence France-Presse/Getty Images/Spencer Platt
A just released analysis of recent census statistics reveal that more than one-in-five children in the United States lives in poverty.

Demographers have mulled through US Census Bureau figures from 2011 to discover that economic conditions in the US may be even worse than what experts had previously suggested. In addition to the continuously stagnant unemployment level, poverty among Americans remains at record levels.

"The take-away is that the number of people living in poverty continues to be appallingly high," Julie Zaebst, policy manager with the Greater Philadelphia Coalition Against Hunger, tells the Philly Inquirer. "This despite the economy being in recovery."

And as the poor continue to suffer, America's elite are in better standing than ever. While incomes for the country's bottom 40 percent of wage-earners remained relatively stable last year when compared with statistics from one year earlier, the top one percent of Americans saw their wages increase by around 6 percent, further widening the gap between the haves and have-nots.

According to the latest figures, the youth of the US are hit hardest. While adults make up a significant proportion of the population living below the poverty line, 21.9 percent of all children in the country - more than one in five - are poor. By comparison, only 8.7 percent of adults over the age of 65 live in similar standing.
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Handcuffs

9 arrested as anti-GMO activists block Monsanto site in California


RT
Fri, 14 Sep 2012 00:00 UTC
Image
© Reuters/Mario Anzuoni
Nine anti-GMO protesters were arrested for blocking the gates to a large Monsanto seed plant in Southern California. The action aimed to draw attention to a November ballot initiative that would require labels on genetically modified food.

­Around a dozen activists from the Occupy Monsanto movement, some wearing biohazard suits, arrived at the plant on Wednesday morning and chained themselves to vehicles they parked at the entrances to Oxnard's Seminis Vegetable Seeds.

The blockade prevented trucks from entering or leaving the facility for nearly six hours. Police arrested nine of the activist for trespassing, protest organizers said. The event was a preview of around sixty other events planned to take place next week in countries around the world, demonstrators said.
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Padlock

Pedophile US pastor sentenced to 330 years in prison


Press TV
Sat, 15 Sep 2012 02:32 UTC
Image

Sixty nine-year-old pedophile US pastor Oscar D. Perez (shown) is sentenced to a 330-year prison term for sexually assaulting five children between the ages of nine and 15.
A US Christian pastor has been sentenced to a 330-year prison term for sexually assaulting five children between the ages of nine and 15 at his Los Angeles home.

The 69-year-old priest, identified as Oscar D. Perez, was sentenced Friday in a California court for abusing the children at his apartment near Los Angeles between 2007 and 2011, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Perez, an Apostolic pastor and bishop at a Laguna Hills Episcopalian Church, befriended various families at the church, recruited children to help with church services and invited his victims to his apartment, according to prosecutors.

He was detained and initially charged with assaulting two of the victims in September 2011 after one of the children told his mother of the abuse. Ensuing probes by police investigators led them to three more victims.

According to the report, the Christian preacher was found guilty in July on 22 felony charges of lewd acts upon a child under 14 years of age, among other felony counts of vulgar behavior against multiple victims.
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Megaphone

Chinese protesters attack Japanese embassy in Beijing over island dispute


RT
Sat, 15 Sep 2012 00:00 UTC
Image
© Reuters / Jason Lee
A demonstrator throws an egg at the Japanese embassy during a protest in Beijing September 15, 2012
Thousands of protesters massed at the Japanese embassy in Beijing on Saturday, hurling rocks and bottles at the building and burning Japanese flags. The demonstrators demanded that Japan drop its claim to disputed islands in the South China Sea.

­The dispute worsened earlier this week when Japan announced plans to purchase the islands from their private owners. Japan will buy three of the uninhabited islands from a Japanese family it recognizes as the land's rightful owner, Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura said.

China does not recognize Japan's claim to the isles, known to the Japanese and Senkaku and as Diaoyu to the Chinese. Taiwan has also claimed ownership of the territory.

Image
© Reuters / Jason Lee
A protester uses a megaphone to shout slogans during a protest outside the Japanese embassy (in the background) in Beijing September 15, 2012
The sale is worth a reported 2.05 billion yen ($26 million US). The Japanese Coast Guard will maintain administrative control over the archipelago, which is located amid an important shipping lane and is believed to be sitting on deposits of valuable resources.

China responded to Japan's announcement by claiming that it will "never yield an inch" of the islands.

During the Saturday rally in Beijing, one of the protesters held up a sign with the provocative slogan, "For the respect of the motherland, we must go to war with Japan," Reuters reported.
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Arrow Down

First man on the moon Buried at Sea


United Press International
Fri, 14 Sep 2012 23:02 UTC
Washington, Sept. 14 -
Neil Armstrong Buried at Sea
© Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)
U.S. Navy personnel carry the cremated remains of Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong during a burial-at-sea service aboard the USS Philippine Sea in the Atlantic Ocean. Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon during the 1969 Apollo 11 mission, died Aug. 25
Neil Armstrong, Apollo 11 commander and the first man on the moon, was laid to rest in the Atlantic Ocean Friday in a burial at sea, NASA said.

The ceremony for Armstrong, who served in the Navy from 1949 to 1952, included a bugler and a rifle salute, after which his cremated remains were committed to the sea and an American flag was presented to his widow, Carol, the space agency reported.

The ceremony was conducted aboard the USS Philippine Sea.
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