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‘Eccentric’ Brit man dies in tunnel labyrinth he made from home rubbish

Fri, 09 Jan 2009 01:54:00 -0500

A 74-year-old Brit man was found dead inside the labyrinth of tunnels he had built from rubbish in his home.

Gordon Stewart is believed to have died of dehydration, after losing his way out of the mass of carrier bags, boxes, old furniture and other junk.

The cops discovered a confusing system of tunnel networking around the interior of the building with Stewart lying dead inside.

The smell was so unbearable that the police had to call in a specialist team - equipped with breathing apparatus.

Locals said that Stewart, who wore a ponytail, was often spotted riding his bike around the streets.

The neighbours became concerned after not seeing Stewart for several days, and raised the alarm.

"He was slightly eccentric, but very clever. He was just a collector,” the Telegraph quoted a neighbour as saying.

“He came home with a load of cardboard boxes and lived in his own world," the neighbour added.

They also revealed that Stewart had been accumulating rubbish for at least 10 years. (ANI)

Hubby demands $1.5m from ‘cheating’ wife living with his kidney

Fri, 09 Jan 2009 01:54:00 -0500

A Long Island doctor has sued his ‘cheating’ wife, living with his kidney, claiming 1.5 million dollars as the organ’s estimated value.

Richard Batista alleged that his wife, Dawnell, abandoned him to be with her physical therapist whom she met in 2003 while recovering from a knee injury.

The 49-year-old, who works as a vascular surgeon at Nassau University Medical Center, said that his better half had refused to let him meet their three kids, aged, 8, 11 and 14.

"I saved her life and then to be betrayed like this is unfathomable. It''s incomprehensible," the New York Post quoted him as saying.

"She engaged in an extramarital affair and refused to go to marital counseling and reconciliation.

"She slapped me with divorce papers in the operating room while I was trying to save another patient''s life,” he added.

Richard’s attorney Dominic Barbara revealed, “the main reason the doctor is doing this is because of how he''s been treated in this case.”

Richard is claiming the staggering amount as part of the distribution of assets in the divorce and also found an expert opinion to estimate the worth of the kidney.

Barbara said:” This has never been done before in the state of New York. In theory we are asking for the return of the kidney. Of course he wouldn''t really ask for that but the value of it." (ANI)

Obama focuses on negative stories about him

Fri, 09 Jan 2009 01:53:00 -0500

President-elect Barack Obama has said that he rarely reads favorable press coverage, and chooses instead to focus on negative stories.

“I think it’s important not to live in the bubble. You’ve got to be open to outside information, particularly criticism,” Obama told CNBC.

“I very rarely read good press,” the president-elect added.

“I often read bad press, not because I agree with it, but because I want to get a sense of are there areas where I’m falling short and I can do better?”

When pointed out that he has not received much negative press of late, Obama said: “Well, I’m sure it’s coming.”

“One thing I’m pretty clear about is that as president I’ve got to be looking out at the horizon,” Politico.com quoted him, as saying.

“I can’t be looking at today’s headlines, because if I do, then I’m probably not going to make decisions based on what’s best for the country,” Obama said.

“I’m going to be spending a lot of time worrying about day-to-day politics, and that’s something that I’ve been trying to block out,” he added. (ANI)

Cheney says he is warm, lovable

Fri, 09 Jan 2009 01:53:00 -0500

US Vice President Dick Cheney has said that his image has gotten a bad rap in the press, and added that he is in fact “a warm, lovable sort.”

Cheney conceded in an interview with CBS radio that he sometimes expresses himself “rather forcefully toward some of my compatriots, like Pat Leahy from Vermont”, but dismissed as a caricature the idea that he is a “Darth Vader-type personality.”

“I think all of that’s been pretty dramatically overdone,” Politico.com quoted the vice president, as saying. “I’m actually a warm, lovable sort,” he added.

Cheney also insisted that his influence within the Bush Administration was overstated throughout the past eight years.

“The notion that somehow I was pulling strings or making presidential-level decisions. I was not,” he said.

“There was never any question about who was in charge. It was George Bush. And that’s the way we operated. This whole notion that somehow I exceeded my authority here, was usurping his authority, is simply not true. It’s an urban legend, never happened,” Cheney said. (ANI)

Joe the Plumber will be reporting on Gaza conflict

Fri, 09 Jan 2009 01:53:00 -0500

Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher or Joe the Plumber, as he was known during the 2008 US presidential election campaign, has been given the task of reporting on the ongoing conflict in Gaza.

Wurzelbacher has been given the job of reporting on the fight going on between Israel and Hamas by conservative US website pjtv.com, and he says that he will let ‘Average Joes’ tell their side of the story.

“It’s tragic, I mean it really is,” News.com.au quoted him as telling Ohio television station WNWO.

“I don''t say that in any little way. It''s very tragic, but at the same time what are the Israeli people supposed to do?” he said.

Wurzelbacher also added that he is not concerned about heading into a warzone for 10 days.

“Being a Christian I''m pretty well protected by God I believe. That''s not saying he''s going to stop a mortar for me, but you gotta take the chance,” he stated.

“If given the opportunity to do some good however minute it may be, or could be something really good, you gotta take that chance. You have to do it,” he added. (ANI)

Californian woman raises troop morale and funds with ‘Pin-Ups for Vets’ calendar

Fri, 09 Jan 2009 01:52:00 -0500

A woman from California has found a novel way of raising the morale of troops, and also funds for U.S. military hospitals with her third annual “Pin-Ups For Vets” calendar.

Gina Elise, 26, herself poses for the calendars, wearing costumes that were popular among America''s fighting men in the 1940s, with profits from the sales providing assistance to the hospitals.

“About two years ago I started hearing stories of wounded soldiers that were coming back to under funded hospitals, so I just decided that I really wanted to do something to help out,” Fox News quoted her as saying.

“I‘ve always been a huge fan of the pin-up era, so I figured I can sort of combine my love for this era to not only use the money for the hospitals but also help boost morale with the calendars themselves,” she said.

The UCLA grad started spreading the word about the project in hopes of enlisting some help, and takes time to mail her orders in a care package, or delivers them herself if they are for those recovering in U.S. hospitals.

“I go there and I ask things like their name and their birthday and show them their birth month on the calendar. A lot of these veterans don’t get visitors, so to see their reaction when I show up is really rewarding,” she said.

Loreleye Winn, Director of Voluntary Resources at San Diego’s Veterans Administration Hospital, recalled one of Elise’s visits.

“She was dressed like a ''40s pin-up lady and she passed out some calendars to the patients and went around to their bedsides,” Winn said.

“They really enjoyed it and it just was a pleasure to have someone come in and visit,” she added. (ANI)

Ex-prostitutes accuse South Korea, US military of sex trade during 60’s-80’s

Fri, 09 Jan 2009 01:52:00 -0500

A group of former prostitutes in South Korea have accused some of their country’s former leaders of encouraging them to have sex with American soldiers who protected their country from North Korea, The New York Times has reported.

They have also accused past South Korean Governments, and the United States military, of taking a direct hand in the sex trade from the 1960s through the 1980s, working together to build a testing and treatment system to ensure that prostitutes were disease-free for American troops.

While the women have made no claims that they were coerced into prostitution by South Korean or American officials during those years, they accuse successive Korean Governments of hypocrisy in calling for reparations from Japan while refusing to take a hard look at South Korea’s own history.

“Our government was one big pimp for the US military,” one of the women, Kim Ae-ran, 58, said in a recent interview.

Scholars say the South Korean Government was motivated in part by fears that the American military would leave, and that it wanted to do whatever it could to prevent that.

But the women suggest that the government also viewed them as commodities to be used to shore up the country’s struggling economy in the decades after the Korean War, the paper reported.

They say the government not only sponsored classes for them in basic English and etiquette meant to help them sell themselves more effectively, but also sent bureaucrats to praise them for earning dollars when South Korea was desperate for foreign currency.

“They urged us to sell as much as possible to the G.I.’s, praising us as ‘dollar-earning patriots,’ ” The NYT quoted Kim, as saying.

The United States military, the scholars say, became involved in attempts to regulate the trade in so-called camp towns surrounding the bases because of worries about sexually transmitted diseases.

In one of the most incendiary claims, some women say that the American military police and South Korean officials regularly raided clubs from the 1960s through the 1980s looking for women who were thought to be spreading the diseases.

They picked out the women using the number tags the women say the brothels forced them to wear so the soldiers could more easily identify their sex partners.

The South Korean Ministry of Gender Equality, which handles women’s issues, declined to comment on the former prostitutes’ accusations. So did the American military command in Seoul. (ANI)

China promises to investigate how alleged fake pills reached Britain

Fri, 09 Jan 2009 01:51:00 -0500

China’s drug watchdog has promised to investigate how alleged counterfeit pills, which were made in China, ended up being used by the British National Health Service (NHS).

“We will conduct relevant investigations and will surely punish companies or individuals who manufacture fake pharmaceuticals for export,” Yan Jiangying, spokeswoman with State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA), said on Wednesday.

“If we find any clues of illegal medicine production for export, we will track them down,” Xinhua quoted the spokeswoman, as saying.

Earlier, The Guardian newspaper reported on January 4, “counterfeiting gangs based in China” produced some eight million fake pills, which went to NHS patients last year.

Chinese police authorities recently traveled to London to discuss the growing problem, The Guardian said.

Yan reiterated China’s resolution to crackdown on importing or exporting fake medicines. She emphasized that the government adopted international principles and practices to regulate the issue.

According to Chinese laws, medicine exporters should acquire government-issued certificates to run their business. Exported pills should be accompanied by permission papers for sales in accordance with requirements of the World Health Organization (WHO).

The spokeswoman said foreign pharmaceutical traders should cooperate with certified Chinese partners to ensure qualified and safe medicines. (ANI)

‘Horrid’ Mumbai type terror strikes harming Kashmir cause: US

Fri, 09 Jan 2009 01:51:00 -0500

The United States has said that terror strikes in India, which are often termed by terror groups as a part of a ‘holy war’ or ‘Jihad’ to set Kashmir free from Indian clutches, are actually harming the cause of Kashmir.

Referring to the November.2008 Mumbai attacks, the US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Richard Boucher has said: “The horrible terrorists’ attacks like that of Mumbai is actually harming the cause of Kashmir.

Boucher said that the relationship between India and Pakistan was moving on a positive note, but the attack on the financial capital of India had made the situation grim.

“The question of India-Pakistan relations is one that... they have actually made great strides forward in the last couple of years. And obviously, the tensions created by the Mumbai incident made that more difficult right now,” the Nation quoted Boucher as saying.

He added that the present scenario provides an opportunity for both nations to fight the menace of terrorism together.

“I think there is an opportunity here to work together against the groups that are trying to disrupt India-Pakistan relations, against the groups that are actually harming the cause of Kashmir by carrying out these horrible terrorist actions,” he said.

Hoping that the rising tension between India and Pakistan will tone down, Boucher said: “Hopefully, coming out of that, the two sides will find themselves in a better position to co-operate.” (ANI)

Brits turning to nip ’n’ tuck to shed Christmas bulge

Fri, 09 Jan 2009 01:50:00 -0500

An increasing number of Brits are ditching diets and going under the knife to get rid of their Christmas bulge.

Plastic surgeons say that they have already seen a 40 percent rise this year.

Apart from liposuction or tummy tucks, gastric bands have also gained popularity.

Surgery firm Transform has recruited more staff to cope.

The company revealed that liposuction inquiries have increased 21 percent while gastric band calls rose from just 2 percent to 8 percent of all inquiries.

“Christmas can be a depressing time once the guilt sets in after a period of over-indulgence,” the Daily Star quoted Transform spokesman Shami Thomas, as saying.

“But for some starting yet another dieting programme or joining a gym is too much of a daunting process, or they don’t see immediate results,” Thomas added. (ANI)