Misc

Kolkata, July 01: State-run Coal India Ltd (CIL) has decided to offer employment to Madhu, the poverty-stricken fifth generation descendent of India’s last Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar.

Madhu, 33, is the daughter of Sultana Begum and the late Muhammad Bedar Bakht, the great grandson of Bahadur Shah Zafar.

“On behalf of Coal India Ltd, I feel pleasure in offering employment to Madhu. It will be a great tribute to the last Mughal emperor who played a key role during the first war of independence in 1857,” Coal India Chairman Partha Bhattacharyya said.

Paris, June 30: Complete with new gray hairs and two fake bodyguards, a wax version of President Barack Obama took a trip on Monday to the Eiffel Tower.

After visiting France’s most famous monument, the statue traveled to Paris’ Musee Grevin wax museum, where it will stand alongside the likenesses of Nicolas Sarkozy, Angela Merkel and Vladimir Putin.

Hong Kong, June 29: An increasing number of Hong Kong teenagers are selling sex to earn money for designer clothes, in a trend called “compensated dating”, a survey released on Sunday indicated.

One in 10 students questioned said they believed schoolgirls were involved in the practice and 6.6% said they knew fellow students who had done it.

87% of the 3,000 interviewees said they believed teenagers got involved in the practice to earn money to buy branded products. Police have arrested several men in recent months for allegedly working as pimps for schoolgirls as young as 13.

Indore, June 27: A woman gave birth to a healthy female infant this evening after labour pain made her fall unconscious on railway tracks here, Government Railway Police said.

Kala (24), a resident of this district’s Tarakhedi village, was en route to Indore to her husband Nanuram’s place. As she arrived late here, she began walking along the tracks in a hurry to catch her train at the station. After she swooned, some women in the vicinity came to the rescue and aided the delivery.

The mother and daughter were later conveyed to the district hospital.

–UNI–

Berlin, June 26: A Polish couple living in Germany fell out after tying the knot and decided to end their marriage on the same day.

“He said he never wanted to see her again and wanted an immediate annulment, and she said the same thing,” a spokesman for police in the northern city of Hanover said Thursday.

Right after the civil ceremony Wednesday, the 50-year-old man began rowing with his bride and tried to cut her hair with a kitchen knife, police said.

The 34-year-old woman called police, who issued the man with a restraining order, which he readily accepted, police said.

Berlin, June 26: A thief in Germany was arrested after he tried to sell a garden mower online to the man he had stolen it from, police said Wednesday.

“The owner went to inspect the goods and recognized the mower as his own,” said a spokesman for police in the southern town of Tuebingen. “Then he left and told police.”

Officers confronted the 46-year-old suspect, who confessed to stealing the mower from a shed in February. He later put it for sale on internet auction site eBay, the spokesman said.

–Agencies–

London, June 25: A PRETTY shop assistant who claims she was made to work in a store’s stockroom because of her prosthetic arm arrives at an employment tribunal yesterday.

Riam Dean, 22 – who was born with her left forearm missing – said she was hidden from customers at trendy Abercrombie & Fitch.

She said bosses let her wear a cardigan at first, but then told her it did not match the store’s “look policy”.

A manager allegedly told the law student she could return to the shop floor only if she removed the cardigan.

Riyadh, June 25: A group of Saudi woman launched a campaign aimed at bringing in female sales personnel at lingerie stores. Only men are allowed to sell underwear in almost all stores in this ultraconservative kingdom, making the experience of shopping for intimate apparel for most women embarrassing.

London, June 25: Cristiano Ronaldo is as famous for his wild escapades with women as he is for his football. So much so that, it’s difficult to keep track of the number of ladies the Portuguese footballer has dated so far.

Cristiano Ronaldo’s former girlfriend has suggested that the footballer may have bedded 80,000 girls since he dumped her.

His former girlfriend Nereida Gallardo has added another dimension to the debate by furiously suggesting that Ronaldo might have bedded 80,000 women since he dumped her.

Melbourne, June 25: Low-cost airline Tiger Airways is offering travellers flights to destinations around Australia that are cheaper than a carton of beer.

The airline launched the “Just Pay Taxes and Charges” sale as its latest discount scheme against rivals Qantas, Jetstar and Virgin Blue.

According to The Advertiser, flyers can pay as little as 25.51 dollars for one-way flights from Sydney to Melbourne, or 23.33 dollars for Gold Coast to Melbourne or 22.78 dollars for Adelaide to Perth, reports News.com.au.

Chicago, June 25: Hollywood superstar Johnny Depp shocked restaurant staff in Chicago by leaving a mammoth tip of $4,000. The 46-year-old actor was celebrating the red carpet screening of his new movie “Public Enemies” with a group of friends including his co-star Marion Cotillard and the film’s director Michael Mann at Gibsons Bar and Steakhouse when he left the exhorbitant gratuity for waiter Mohammed A. Sekhani, Chicago Sun Times reported.

Islamabad, June 23: Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari reportedly rang Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie, who also happens to be the UN’s Goodwill Ambassador for Refugees, on June 22 to thank her for financial aid.

According to reports, Jolie, 34, and her partner Brad Pitt, 45, had donated 1 million dollars to help displaced people in Pakistan.

A private TV channel said that the President called up Jolie to thank her for the contribution, and to also invite her for a visit to Pakistan, reports the Daily Times.

New Delhi, June 23: Hindi film actor and politician Sanjay Dutt has just got his parents’ names inked on his body. But going by the trend, he may need to catch up. Many Indians are getting portraits of loved ones instead of just names inked on their body.

“Portraits of your loved ones or deities are very much in this season. This is their way of showing how much they care for them,” says tattoo artist Lokesh Verma.

Beijing, June 23: You’d think after 104 years together, they’d be able to tell each other apart.

But even Cao Daqiao and identical sister Cao Xiaoqiao seem to be doing a double take after being named the world’s oldest twins.

The inseparable pair – still fit, active and the best of mates – have become local celebrities in their hometown of Zhucheng in the Shandong province of China.

The previous oldest twins were Japanese sisters Kin Narita and Gin Kanie, born in 1892. They died a year apart in 2000 and 2001.

–Agencies–

London, June 22: A rare picture of legendary physicist Albert Einstein was sold for 49,300 pounds.

The 1951 photo of the genius with his tongue out, taken at Princeton University in the US, was auctioned off Thursday on the website RRAuction.com, reported imbd.com.

The photo, which was taken at a party to mark the physicist’s 72nd birthday, was bought by a rare books and autographs dealer from Long Island, New York.

IANS

Mumbai, June 22: There was a time when copywriters were asked to eschew the comic element. One of the 10 rules was: “Don’t use humour. There’s nothing funny about separating a man from his money.”

That was in the 1960s and this guideline in particular was set by Richard Prentice Ettinger, founder of the world’s largest publisher Prentice-Hall (now a part of the Pearson Group, UK), for copywriters working for his company.

But today advertisers are increasingly replacing sex appeal with humour as the way to reach the consumer’s purse.

New Delhi, June 21:Repayment of car, housing and personal loans is leaving a hole in the take-home salary of an average employee in metro cities who is left with just about 40 per cent of his earnings, an Assocham survey said.

“Take-home salary of average employee in metros and large townships has gone down to 40 per cent from 70 per cent around 1999,” the survey of 5,000 employees said. Those feeling the maximum pinch of EMIs from the sectors include IT, Automobile, Hospitality, Civil Aviation, Manufacturing, Gems and Jewellery.