Turkey lifts ban on hijab in schools
Ankara: Female students in Turkey are free to wear the Islamic veil, or the hijab, to class, the country’s Education Minister Nabi Avci has announced.
Avci’s announcement Tuesday came after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan decided on Monday to repeal a law stipulating that girls keep their heads uncovered in high school classes.
The move got a negative response from some teachers’ unions, which accused the government of trampling on Turkey’s secular values, while other unions applauded the decision.
The main opposition Republican People’s Party said the conservative AKP was trying to distract attention from the country’s economic woes and foreign-policy problems and said the new policy serves ideological rather than educational goals.
Last year, the AKP government authorised female state employees to wear the hijab to work. (IANS)
Dismembered Japanese girl, 6, found in plastic bags
Tokyo: The dismembered body of a six-year-old Japanese girl has been found in several plastic bags near her home, police said today. DNA tests confirmed the body parts were those of Mirei Ikuta, who went missing in the western Japan city of Kobe on September 11, local police said.
Media reports said officers were questioning a 47-year-old man who lives in the neighbourhood. Japan has one of the world’s lowest crime rates and violent crime is relatively rare. It is not uncommon for children as young as six to walk home alone from school, even in big cities. An intensive search was launched after Mirei failed to return home two weeks ago, but there were no leads until a number of foul-smelling plastic bags were uncovered in a bush just 100 metres (yards) from the girl’s house yesterday.
They contained the head, the upper torso with arms, and the legs, a police spokesman told, adding that some body parts had yet to be found. Clothes and sandals believed to belong to the girl were also found at the site, he added. (AFP)
China’s oldest Buddhist temple to receive relic from Thailand
Beijing: A ‘sarira’ discovered along Indo-Nepal border between 1896-98 and given to Thailand by the then British government in India will be presented to China by Thai Buddhist monks on Friday. More than hundred monks reached China on Monday to present ‘sarira’, a bead-shaped object said to be collected from the cremated ashes of Buddhist masters to country’s oldest Buddhist Temple in central China’s Henan Province.
The sarira was discovered by A British archaeologist on the Indo-Nepal border between 1896-98, and was said to belong to Sakyamuni (Lord Buddha), the report quoted a member of the Thai entourage adding India gave it to King Rama V of Thailand in 1898.
The sarira will be placed in a Thai-style garden at the 1,946-year-old Baima Temple in Luyong to celebrate the garden’s recent renovation, state run Xinhua news agency reported.
A grand ceremony to welcome the sarira is to be launched this Friday, when the gift shall be shown to visitors. The Temple, also known as White Horse Temple, was the first Buddhist temple in China and considered “the cradle of Chinese Buddhism” by most believers. A 7.2-meter-tall bronze Buddha statue in the hall of the Thai garden was also gifted by Thailand. The mural, covering 248 square meters, was created by a famous Thai artist to tell the life story of Sakyamuni. (PTI)
US woman undergoes surgery to add third breast
New York: A 21-year-old Florida woman has surgically implanted a third breast on her chest which, according to her, is to make herself less attractive to men because she’s sick of dating.
The doctor used a silicone implant and tissue from her abdomen and surgically added the third breast by grafting it between her natural breasts.
The girl, who calls herself Jasmine Tri-Devil, spent $20,000 to get the surgery done, Huffington Post reported.
“I don’t want to date anymore,” Tri-Devil was quoted as saying in a recent radio broadcast.
“It was really hard finding someone that would do it too because they are breaking the code of ethics. But I got a breast implant and a mini implant to make it look like there’s a nipple poking out,” she posted on her Facebook page.
Her parents, however, said they are not fond of their daughter’s move. (IANS)
Humayun’s letter to son Akbar to be auctioned in UK
London: A calligraphic document written by emperor Humayun to his son Akbar is among some of the rare treasures from Mughal, Safavid and Ottoman empires which will go under the hammer in London next month.
The international auction house Christie’s will mark Islamic Art Week between October 7 and 10 with 700 lots covering works of art from the Mughal, Safavid and Ottoman empires.
Among the Indian lots in the sale is the finely decorated calligraphic panel which, on further research by Christie’s specialist team, was found to be a formal letter from the second ruler of the Mughal dynasty (1508-1556) to his son and future Mughal king Akbar.
“The official note requests that his eight-year-old son, later emperor Akbar, ask the ladies of his father’s harem to be sent to him at his winter encampment. The document gives a rare insight into the private and domestic lives of these two major figures in India’s history. It is offered for sale from a Princely Collection with an estimate of 5,000-8,000 pounds,” Christie’s said in a statement here. (PTI)
London turns world’s most expensive city
London: London has overtaken Hong Kong as the world’s most expensive city to live and work in, as a new study has suggested it has turned nearly twice as pricey as Sydney and four times more expensive than Rio de Janeiro. India’s Mumbai was found to be at the bottom of the 12 most expensive cities report.
The combined typical cost of renting accommodation and leasing an office to work for a year in London had risen to almost 74,000 pounds per employee. That puts the British capital city well ahead of other global hubs such as New York, Paris and Tokyo, the Guardian Tuesday quoted estate agent Savills as saying.
Savills’ 12 Cities report is designed to help companies assess the costs of relocating employees. It measures the total cost per employee in US dollars of renting living and working space in some of the world’s global hubs.
The annual cost per employee in London was put at $120,568 (73,800 pounds), with Hong Kong close behind at $115,717. New York and Paris were in third and fourth place, at $107,782 and $105,550 respectively. Sydney came eighth at $63,630, Shanghai 10th at $43,171 and Rio 11th at $32,179. Mumbai was bottom of the table at $29,742 (about Rs.18,13,000).
London’s rise to first place in the rankings was blamed on the big increases in office rents, plus the pound’s strength against the dollar, prompting Savills to warn that it risks becoming less competitive as a result.
Whereas falling residential rents and a weakening currency contributed to Hong Kong, which had previously topped the ranking five years running, dropping to second place. (IANS)
Spears plans to send lingerie collection to Middleton
London:Singer Britney Spears plans to send her lingerie collection to the Duchess of Cambridge.
The 32-year-old singer shared her wish at the launch of an intimate lingerie range recently. Spears will be posting her collection to the Duchess, maiden name Kate Middleton, by Royal Mail, reports mirror.co.uk.
“I would love to see Kate in my underwear designs. That would be splendid. I’m going to send her one of every piece. So she’ll have plenty to choose from,” said the “Toxic” hitmaker.
“I’d love also to see Gwen Stefani modelling my collection. I think she’s very cool and sexy,” she added. (IANS)