Britney, Michelle Obama have fun night at Indian eatery!
London: Britney Spears, Michelle Obama, Elton John and David Beckham all joined in for a night of fun at a popular Indian restaurant in Britain. It was a gathering of look-alikes.
The party was hosted at the Apne India restaurant in Burton-on-Trent, Staffordshire, around 175 km from London, the Daily Express reported.
The event was an annual outing for Britain’s top look-alikes.
Restaurant customers were surprised to see Britney “Michaela Weeks” Spears suddenly slap Simon “Andy Monk” Cowell.
“Everyone in the restaurant gasped until the ‘stars’ laughed and said they were look-alikes,” said one customer.
Many people filmed the party on their mobile phones, thinking they had a “celebrity scoop”, he said. (IANS)
Two brothers kill man over a newspaper
Beijing: Two brothers in China murdered their colleague who had not handed over a newspaper when asked.
The incident took place last month when Wang Haoqin was reading the newspaper in the rest area in his company’s Shenzhen complex.
His colleague Wang Guang asked for the newspaper, but Haoqin refused.
Guang then kicked Haoqin and an altercation took place, Shanghai Daily cited the Southern Metropolis Daily as reporting.
Two days later, Guang and his brother Wang Huai decided to take revenge.
Haoqin was playing billiards when the brothers asked him for some money. He refused and then the brothers stabbed him four times. Haoqin died. (IANS)
Gay men in Britain may now donate blood
London: Homosexual men across Britain will now be able to donate blood as government restrictions are likely to be lifted, a media report said Thursday.
A lifetime ban was put in place in the country in the 1980s as a response to the spread of HIV/AIDS, The Independent reported.
Now, politicians are expected to rethink the policy after studies recommended lifting the restrictions.
Experts from the Advisory Committee on the Safety of Blood, Tissues and Organs completed a review on the ban earlier this year.
The findings suggested that restrictions could be lifted for gay men, but for only those who have not had sex for a decade, the daily said.
A survey of homosexual men by gay parade organisers suggested 95 percent of them were willing to donate blood. (IANS)
Shark kills surfer at Australian beach
Melbourne: A man in his early 20s was killed Sunday in a horrifying shark attack at a popular surfing spot of Western Australia.
He was bodyboarding, a cut-down version of a surfboard, with five friends at a surfing spot known as The Farm, off Bunker Bay near Dunsborough, when he was attacked Sunday afternoon, Sydney Morning Herald reported.
The man was bitten in two by the shark, which had grabbed him from the waist down.
The unidentified species of shark bit a large part of the man’s lower body, said a police spokesman.
The beach, which is popular among surfers and fishermen, has been closed.
A cafe employee Deb Pickett said she called for police and an ambulance, adding helicopters were still searching the area for the shark.
The victim, who is yet to be named, was riding on a bodyboard – a cut-down version of a surfboard – when the attack occurred.
There have been 13 other fatal shark attacks around the continent since 2002, as per the Australian Shark Attack File, managed for over 30 years and aims to gather all known information on shark attacks in Australian waters. (IANS)
BBC women newsreaders have ‘too much botox’
London: Some women newsreaders in BBC have “too much botox”, as a result of which they keep smiling while presenting serious subjects, a Tory MP has said.
David Amess said he found it annoying that “one or two” of the presenters would be smiling when presenting a “very serious subject”, The Telegraph reported.
The MP also accused the BBC of “disproportionate” reporting of Israel, and paying executives “absolutely ludicrous” salaries.
“I don’t know whether we have brilliant presenters. I would just say that it annoys me when one or two female presenters, I don’t know whether they’ve had too much botox or something, when they are presenting the news and it’s a very serious subject, they are smiling, which I find slightly annoying,” Amess told the House of Commons.
He, however, did not name the newsreaders.
Culture Minister Ed Vaizey defended the BBC, saying: “The BBC is one of the finest broadcasters not just in this country but in the world. It sets a quality bar which is why we have such high quality television and radio in this country.” (IANS)
287,000 commit suicide in China each year
Beijing: Around 287,000 people commit suicide each year in China, official statistics show.
The suicides comprise 3.6 percent of the country’s annual deaths, according to the statistics from the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention.
Around 75 percent of the suicide cases occurred in rural areas, Xinhua reported.
About two million Chinese citizens attempt suicide each year, the report said.
A survey jointly conducted by the centre and Beijing-based Huilongguan Hospital ranked suicide as the fifth leading cause of death overall and the leading cause of death for people aged between 15 and 34.
Saturday – Sep 10 – is the Ninth World Suicide Prevention Day. The theme for 2011 is “Preventing Suicide in Multicultural Societies”. (IANS)
Teaching Chinese in Pak schools puzzling: Daily
Islamabad: A decision to teach Chinese in schools in a Pakistani province is a little puzzling, said a daily Thursday.
An editorial in the News International said that given the problems that exist within Pakistan’s education system, the recent decision to teach Chinese in Sindh’s secondary schools is a little puzzling.
“At one level the teaching of Chinese (presumably Mandarin) is something that is beginning to preoccupy educationists globally. The Chinese language is in the ascendant, particularly in our part of the world.”
“So learning Chinese makes sense…”
However, looking at it from a more practical perspective, the decision is quite “possibly perverse”, it said. China is Pakistan’s all-weather friend.
The editorial said “Chinese is among the more difficult languages to learn”.
“Fluency is almost never attained if Chinese is learned ‘at home’. It requires deep immersion for a minimum of 18 months, and the kind of dedication that might be expected of a top athlete.” (IANS)
