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1980s voted as the ‘coolest’ decade in past 50 years

Sat, 06 Sep 2008 04:55:00 -0400

Britons have voted the 1980s – the era dominated by mullet haircuts and shoulder pads – as the coolest decade in the past 50 years.

The new survey by an online sweets firm ‘A Quarter Of...’ has revealed that a third of people were at their happiest in the 80s and thought that life was better and simpler at the time.

Live Aid concert in 1985 was what made the eighties so popular, followed by Queen and frontman Freddie Mercury, ITV satire Spitting Image and the Rubik’s Cube, reports the Daily Star.

The film Dirty Dancing, with Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey, the Pac Man game and TV show Saturday Superstore also made 80s the coolest decade.

The 1960s landed at the second spot with 20pct votes, helped by the World Cup and the Beatles, while the 90s followed at third place.

The top 10 things that made 80s the coolest decade are:

1. Live Aid

2. Rubik’s Cube

3. Pac-Man

4. Filofax

5. Dirty Dancing

6. The Goonies

7. Penny mix

8. Grange Hill

9. Dayglo

10. Spitting Image (ANI)

Muslim lawyer gets 600,000 pounds racial discrimination award over bin Laden remark

Sat, 06 Sep 2008 04:54:00 -0400

A British Muslim lawyer, who was suspended from work by the Crown Prosecution Service after joking she was treated like a friend of Osama bin Laden, has been awarded a record 600,000 pound payout for racial discrimination.

An employment tribunal found that there was “not a shred of evidence” to support the treatment of Halima Aziz by the CPS and ordered it to reinstate her and issue a full and unequivocal apology, The Telegraph reported.

Halima Aziz made the remark a fortnight after the September 11 attacks, and was suspended by the CPS following a complaint from the court. She was accused of inciting a riot, expressing anti-American sentiments and associating herself with Bin Laden.

She won a race and sex discrimination case against them in 2004 on grounds that if she had been a white man she would not have been treated that way.

The dispute continued for seven years - at a cost of more than a million pounds to the taxpayer - because the CPS had remained "in a state of denial" about the case, a new tribunal has ruled.

The controversy started in 2001 when a security guard at Bradford magistrates’ court made a comment about her being a security risk.

Aziz allegedly replied: “I''m a friend of Bin Laden''s.” As news of the remark spread, reports claimed that it had provoked clashes between white and Asian youths at the court building. (ANI)

Fire, not explosives caused collapse of WTC Building 7

Sat, 06 Sep 2008 04:53:00 -0400

Investigators have finally determined that fire caused Building 7 at the World Trade Center to collapse on September 11, 2001.

The fall of the 47-story World Trade Center''s Building 7 at 5:20 p.m. on Sept. 11, 2001, was primarily due to fires from the building itself, NIST announced Friday, following an extensive, three-year investigation. This was the first known instance of fire causing the total collapse of a tall building, the agency said.

Dr. Shyam Sunder with the National Institutes of Standards and Technology said it was primarily due to fire.

After a three year investigation, he discovered debris from Tower 1 started fires on at least 10 floors of Building 7.

They burned out of control for hours and caused what he termed a “fire induced progressive collapse.” The fires created a thermal expansion in building support beams which later buckled in the heat.

Water to the building was not available because of the situation involving the Twin Towers.

If water to the sprinklers hadn''t been cut off, Sunder said there''s a chance Building 7 would still be standing today.

The trapezoid-shaped Building 7 was connected to the World Trade Center plaza by an elevated walkway. The building was damaged and set afire by debris - including enormous broadcast antennae - from the collapse of the nearby North Tower.

“Video and photographic evidence combined with detailed computer simulations show that neither explosives nor fuel oil fires played a role in the collapse of WTC 7,” the Washington Times quoted Sunder, as saying.

The NIST investigation team also determined that other elements of the building’s construction - namely trusses, girders and cantilever overhangs - did not play a significant role in the collapse. (ANI)

Palin getting pre-campaign tips on foreign policy from national security experts

Sat, 06 Sep 2008 04:53:00 -0400

Senator Joseph I. Lieberman is among several national security experts helping brief Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin on foreign policy issues as she prepares to hit the campaign trail.

Palin will be going for a debate with her Democratic opponent Joseph R. Biden Jr. in less than a month, the Washington Post quoted officials from Sen. John McCain’s campaign, as saying.

Lieberman, who was the 2000 Democratic vice presidential nominee but is now an independent, has helped introduce Palin to officials of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the leading pro-Israel lobby.

In a meeting Tuesday, the day before she delivered her prime-time address at the Republican National Convention here, Palin assured the group of her strong support for Israel, of her desire to see the United States move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and of her opposition to Iran''s aspirations to become a nuclear power.

Campaign officials and McCain foreign policy advisers called Palin a quick study who has sound judgment that will serve her in good stead on national security issues.

But privately, some in the GOP foreign policy establishment voiced concern that McCain has turned to a relative neophyte on national security matters at a time when the United States is facing challenges ranging from wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to the nuclear activities of Iran and North Korea.

Campaign advisers and other surrogates sought to tamp down concerns about her experience.

“Sarah Palin will be part of a team. John McCain is clearly the person with the foreign policy experience and record of accomplishment in Washington that will be paired with her experience as a reformer, as a governor, as an executive,” former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney said.

The McCain campaign has tapped Stephen E. Biegun, the national security adviser to then-Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), to be Palin''s principal foreign policy adviser.

Campaign aides said Biegun, who is currently a vice president of Ford, is not serving as Palin''s tutor but is merely briefing her on details of key issues in a way that is similar to what other candidates are receiving. (ANI)

Sarah Palin hailed as ''Ronald Reagan in a dress'' by former Prez’s son

Sat, 06 Sep 2008 04:52:00 -0400

Former U.S. President Ronald Reagan’s son, Michael, says that watching Republican vice-presidential hopeful Sarah Palin made him feel like he was seeing his father.

Michael, a broadcaster and writer, insists that Palin made him feel “my dad reborn — only this time he’s a she”.

“I’ve been trying to convince my fellow conservatives that they have been wasting their time in a fruitless quest for a new Ronald Reagan. I insisted he was one of a kind. I was wrong!” British tabloid The Sun quoted him as saying.

Palin’s stirring speech at the Republican convention on Wednesday night was watched by 40million people across the US.

Michael described her speech as “electrifying”.

“Welcome back, Dad, even if you’re wearing a dress and bearing children this time around,” he said.

“This was Ronald Reagan at his best. She proved she was everything, and even more, than John McCain told us,” he added. (ANI)