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Sex ''still a taboo subject'' between parents and teen daughters

Fri, 09 Jan 2009 09:32:00 -0500

Despite a wide-scale popularity of technologies like emails and texts, sex still continues to be a taboo subject between parents and teenage daughters, according to a new poll.

Commissioned by the Girls Schools'' Association, the survey of more than 1,000 mothers and fathers has revealed that over a third parents found such talks difficult.

The poll also revealed that almost one in seven parents never talked to his/her daughters about puberty, with many said that they found it a hard subject to discuss.

However, it was also discovered that mothers found it easier to talk to daughters than they did with their own parents when they were young.

The survey was conducted to mark the launch of the Girls Schools'' Association’s new website, mydaughter.co.uk.

Jill Berry, head of Dame Alice Harpur School in Bedford and new president of the GSA, said that the advent of text messaging and email had brought many mothers and daughters closer together by making conversation less formal.

"There has been a huge shift in one generation. There is far more closeness and communication now than in the past. It suggests that parents have higher expectations of what they want in that relationship," the Telegraph quoted her as saying.

The GSA survey also found that a fifth of parents never talked to their daughter about smoking, while 39 per cent found it hard to discuss sex and relationships.

About 15 per cent of the parents surveyed reported avoiding conversations about puberty.

The paper said that about a third of parents reported spending between 11 and 30 minutes alone with their daughters on a typical weekday, but three per cent did not have any alone time.

More than a quarter spent more than two hours a day chatting with their daughters at the weekend.

The GSA''s new website aims at offering tips and advice from Britain''s leading girls'' school headmistresses on issues such as bullying, friendships, schoolwork and communication.

It will also provide suggestions on how to advise daughters about avoiding binge drinking, how to boost their self-esteem, approach conversations about sex and even what to do if children talk about plastic surgery.

The survey revealed that parents'' major worry was the quality of their daughter''s education, followed by the dangers of drink and drugs. (ANI)

Blame career women for untimely death of the sexy hourglass figure

Fri, 09 Jan 2009 09:31:00 -0500

The classic hourglass figure made famous by Sophia Loren and Marilyn Monroe is dying out, and the people responsible for it are the high-powered career women, say experts.

According to experts, working women are less likely to have the classic curvy shape of a tiny waist, wide hips and big boobs.

Ladies today are choosing to be more straight up and down, like actress Keira Knightley, 23, and singer Cheryl Cole, 25, with weight around the middle rather than the hips.

And it is hard work and stress levels that are putting an end to curvy girls like singer Beyoncé Knowles, 27, and model Lucy Pinder, 25, reports the Daily Star.

Researchers have found that women with a waist-to-hip ratio of 0.7 – where the waist circumference is 70 percent of the hips – or lower, have higher fertility rates and less chance of chronic disease.

According to Elizabeth Cashdan, women who work release more hormones that help them become physically stronger, so they can deal with the stress of high-powered jobs.

But as a result, women develop a figure more like Kate Moss, 34, and Madonna, 50, with fewer curves, small boobs and no hips.

Cashdan reached the conclusion after measuring waist-to-hip ratio in 37 countries.

She said: “Waist-to-hip ratio may be a useful signal to men… but whether men prefer it should depend on the degree to which they want their mates to be strong, tough, economically successful and politically competitive.”

She added: “And from a woman''s perspective, men''s preferences are not the only thing that matters. This is about trade-offs. The human body is a compromise.” (ANI)

Pak PM Gilani says ISI has given feedback, describes situation with India as fragile

Fri, 09 Jan 2009 09:31:00 -0500

Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said on Friday that the situation was ‘fragile’ on the border with India, and regretted the suspension of peace talks following the militant attacks in Mumbai in November.

Gilani said that Pakistan’s intelligence agency, Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI) has given India information about the Mumbai terror attacks, while denying media speculation of a rift between him and the president.

He told reporters that the ISI, ‘had given feedback and information sharing that has been passed on to India’ after studying that evidence. He gave no more information.

Media reports suggested President Asif Ali Zardari was not informed of the decision, intensifying earlier speculation of a split between the country’s top two leaders.

‘There is no misunderstanding,’ Gilani insisted to reporters Friday while denying reports that Zardari had expressed displeasure with the decision.

A spokesman for Zardari was quoted by the Dawn as saying on Thursday that the two were ‘on the same page’ and it was Gilani’s prerogative to fire the adviser, Mahmud Ali Durrani.

‘Our ISI has given their feedback,’ Gilani told reporters.

He did not elaborate but said Pakistan would cooperate if more information was required.

Gilani said he had sacked the adviser, Mahmud Ali Durrani, in the interests of the country and of governance and denied the affair had created a rift with President Zardari. (ANI)

After Kasab heat, its back to the K-issue, UN and fragile border situation for Gilani

Fri, 09 Jan 2009 09:30:00 -0500

After witnessing a lot of heat in the last two days over the Kasab issue, Pakistan it seems has has once again jumped back on its favourite subject to deflect international scrutiny from its predicament, ‘Kashmir’.

Opening the ‘Kashmir chapter’ once again, Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani said that the Kashmir issue should be resolved according to the UN resolution.

And in an obvious attempt to deflect international pressure, and world-wide discontentment over the terrorist activities being carried out by extremists in Kashmir, Gilani said that the global community must not relate the Kashmiri movement with terrorism.

Gilani however, admitted that the suspension of the Pak-India composite dialogue was regrettable.

He also urged the international community to help in decreasing the tension between India and Pakistan.

“Global community must play its due role to defuse the tension between Pakistan and India,” the News quoted Gilani, as saying.

Critising the military regimes in the country, he said that the three military rules since independence, had made the situation of the country volatile. (ANI)

Israel to continue Gaza operation, rejects UNSC ceasefire resolution

Fri, 09 Jan 2009 09:24:00 -0500

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said on Friday that the IDF operation in Gaza would continue despite the UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire.

“Israel has never agreed to an outside actor determining its right to defend its citizens,” Olmert said in a statement issued following the Security Cabinet discussion on the UNSC resolution.

“The IDF will continue to work to defend Israeli citizens and will carry out all the objectives it was given in the operation,” The Jerusalem Post quoted him, as saying.

Olmert said that the rocket fire from Gaza on Friday morning “only proves that the UN resolution is not practical and will not be honored by the murderous Palestinian organizations,” Olmert added.

Earlier on Friday, Olmert, Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni convened for a preliminary consultation on the UNSC Gaza truce resolution ahead of the Security Cabinet meeting scheduled for later in the day.

Livni also released a statement on Friday morning regarding the resolution in which she stressed Israel’s independence in defining its goals.

“Israel’s past, present and future actions are based solely on its considerations, the security of Israel’s residents and its right to self-defense,” she said.

Osama Hamdan, a Hamas envoy to Lebanon, also rejected the UNSC call for a ceasefire, telling the al-Arabiya satellite channel that the group “is not interested in it because it does not meet the demands of the movement.”

Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said the UN failed to consider the interests of the Palestinian people. (ANI)

Brit cops warn West End revellers to beware of ‘hugger muggers’

Fri, 09 Jan 2009 09:24:00 -0500

The British police have warned West End revellers to beware of the ‘hugger muggers’ that are targeting pedestrians.

The muggers or robbers, according to Scotland Yard, befriend their victims by chatting or asking them to join in a drunken dance, and then relieve them of their wallets or phones.

The police, who first became aware of the offence a few years ago, say the thieves are responsible for 60 per cent of muggings in Westminster, and usually work with certain accomplices.

“Basically it is strangers coming up to people and trying to befriend them and hugging them,” the Telegraph quoted detective Inspector Sean Oxley as saying.

“There are people who try and dance with you while another method is for someone to play football with you in the street with a can. They try anything to get close so they can grab a wallet or a phone,” he added.

The "hugger muggers" often pretend to be drunk themselves, and target people coming out of pubs and clubs in the early hours.

The police are also advising people to drink safely, be aware of unsolicited approaches, and report offences immediately. (ANI)

Obama-brand beer in storage for Inauguration Day celebrations

Fri, 09 Jan 2009 09:23:00 -0500

A beer named after President-elect Barack Obama, which Red Hook-based Six Point Craft Ales stopped selling after Election Day, has been tucked away by some barkeepers for Inauguration Day celebrations.

The ale, which became very popular with its touch of citrus, had made its debut in March during the Democratic primaries, and it sold out in just six days.

But Six Point brought it back Hop Obama from August through Election Day, donating part of the proceeds to Project Vote.

“It was our fastest-selling beer ever,” the New York Daily News quoted Six Point spokesman Jeff Gorlechen as saying.

The Van Dyke St. microbrewery sold 504 kegs of Hop Obama, which was served at 90 bars in New York and Boston.

“It was getting out of hand,” Gorlechen said.

“We couldn''t make it fast enough. We''re a small brewery and it was actually interfering with the production of our other beers,” he stated.

But there will be places in Manhattan, and hopefully Brooklyn where Hop Obama will be poured for Inauguration Day celebrations.

The beer became so popular that barkeepers, who still have a keg or two left with them, decided to use it for the bigger occasion, Obama’s inauguration. (ANI)

Oz mayor ‘gets the s..ts’ after whole town down with diarrhoea reports!

Fri, 09 Jan 2009 09:23:00 -0500

The mayor of Bluff is upset with the claims that almost all the people in the central Queensland town have contracted diarrhoea by drinking contaminated water.

Central Highlands mayor Peter Maguire hit out at the claims of resident Tim Cummings that "the water is so crook, just about everyone gets gastric sooner or later.”

Maguire said that he’s “got the s..ts” with reports.

“The whole town doesn’t have diarrhoea,” the Courier Mail quoted Maguire as saying.

“The story is that everyone in the town has got diarrhoea but that’s not true and it (the report) has given me the s..ts,” he added.

Maguire said the town had endured problems with its drinking water with runoff from a coalmine increasing salinity and a mechanical breakdown at the Blackwater Water Treatment Plant, leading to partially treated water entering the drinking supply on December 15.

Cumming had claimed that almost everyone in town had contracted diarrhoea from drinking water contaminated by the Ensham mine.

Maguire said he could definitely taste the salt in the water after an earlier release of water from the coal mine but he did not believe it had caused a diarrhoea outbreak.

“We’ve just had a lot of rain that has flushed out all that dirty water,” he said.

Residents of Blackwater and Bluff had been advised to boil their drinking water after the December 15 breakdown at the water treatment plant.

A note on the council’s website advised residents that the situation has now been resolved. (ANI)

Gaza conflict could spark violent Islamic backlash in Britain

Fri, 09 Jan 2009 09:23:00 -0500

Muslim advisers have warned British PM Gordon Brown that the Gaza conflict could spark a violent Islamic backlash in Britain.

According to a report in The Sun, the alert came hours after dozens of police officials battled to separate hundreds of demonstrators outside the Israeli Embassy in London.

One cop was hurt and nine men were arrested in Wednesday night’s clashes between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli factions in Kensington.

“For the last 11 days, we have policed a number of demonstrations in central London by those who wanted to express their views about the ongoing conflict. We are now preparing for further protests,” said Commander Bob Broadhurst, responsible for public order policing by the Met.

“I am mindful of the deeply passionate response that this conflict causes in people,” he added.

In lieu of the demonstrations that are going on in England since the Gaza conflict started, 14 British Muslim advisers warned Gordon Brown that anger in their UK communities had reached “acute levels of intensity”.

They said that Israel’s attacks on Gaza had “revived extremist groups and empowered their message of violence”.

In a letter to the PM, they called for pressure to be put on the US to change its approach to the crisis.

Maajid Nawaz, of counter-extremism think-tank the Quilliam Foundation, said moderate groups needed to be able to explain the Government’s stance to British Muslims.

This would help them counter the view put by hate-mongers that it was not doing enough or did not care about Palestinian deaths.

Meanwhile, Jewish communities in Britain have reported a significant rise in anti-Semitic attacks since Israel launched its offensive on December 27.

These include two serious assaults on Jews, an arson attack on a synagogue in Brondesbury Park, North West London, and death threats to rabbis in Manchester. (ANI)

Most and least stressful jobs revealed

Fri, 09 Jan 2009 09:22:00 -0500

Police officers, fire-fighters and family or general practice physician have been ranked among occupations with the highest levels of work-life conflict while taxi drivers, insurance adjusters and bank tellers are among those with the least, a new study has revealed.

The study found that the people who have to interact a lot with others in their jobs, they experience a lot of stress when trying to juggle work and family.

“High levels of interaction at work may lead to increased fatigue and depletion of personal resources needed to fulfill family role obligations,” Globeandmail.com quoted the study author Erich Dierdorff, assistant professor of management at DePaul University, as saying.

For the study, researchers examined people in 126 occupations and found that police officers, fire-fighters and family or general practice physicians were ranked among occupations with the highest levels of work-life conflict while taxi drivers, insurance adjusters and bank tellers are among those with the least.

The findings remained consistent “even after controlling for other factors known to create conflict, including demographics, schedule flexibility, time pressure, workload and support offered by co-workers.”

Dierdorff found that social interaction is one stress factor, but another is whether a person faces increased responsibility for the work quality, health and safety of co-workers.

He suggested that employers use the study''s results to tailor new employee training and support services “to address work-life stress generated by the nature of work roles.”

The study appears in the Journal of Applied Psychology. (ANI)