Tid Bits

Farukkhabad (UP), March 07: An FIR was lodged against three persons in the district for allegedly killing a dog, police said today.

Sangeeta, a resident of Badhpur area, lodged a complaint that her pet dog was shot dead by three persons of the colony yesterday, they said.

An FIR under under various sections of Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and IPC was lodged, they said.

The post-mortem report confirmed the dog died due to bullet injuries, police said, adding that efforts were being made to arrest the accused.

–Agencies

San Francisco, March 06: The Open Net Initiative (ONI) on Friday said Microsoft’s search engine Bing is more prudish than government censors when it comes to sex-related online queries.

A January test of a Bing version tailored for users in Arab countries showed that it filtered Arabic and English words for sexually explicit content along with queries related to gay, lesbian, bi-sexual or transgender material.

” A more targeted approach, either country-based or preferably, defined by the user, is more generally consistent with minimizing the impact on freedom of speech ”

Chicago, March 06: Love letters and telegrams revealing secret romance between former US President John F. Kennedy and a Swedish woman have fetched more than $115,000 in an auction here.

The Legendary Auction in Lansing, which had opened bidding at $25,000 last month for the collection of 11 hand-written letters and three telegrams sent by Kennedy to his Swedish girlfriend Gunilla von Post, has announced the closure of the sale at $115,537.50.

“We had estimated $40,000 to $50,000,” said Doug Allen, president of Legendary Auction. “We were very pleased to get six figures”.

London, March 04: Switzerland has probably become the first country in the world to sell extra small condoms for boys as young as 12 years, though the official age of consent in the land-locked nation is 16.

Called ‘Hotshot’, the condoms with a diameter of 4.5 cm as compared to a standard cap’s 5.2 cm have been produced after a Swiss government research revealed that 12 to 14-year-olds didn’t use sufficient protection when having sex.

Beijing, March 04: Husbands should pay their wives a salary each month for doing housework, said Zhang Xiaomei, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, cited by the Huaxi Metropolis Daily on Monday.

“People take it for granted that taking care of kids and doing housework are the responsibilities of women,” Zhang said. This kind of attitude makes some women sacrifice their own career development to serve the family without compensation, according to Zhang.

New delhi,March 04:SHIV Murat Dwivedi, alias Ichchadhari Sant Swami Bhimanand Ji Maharaj Chitrakoot Wale, probably thought the name ‘ Sai’ would be a perfect cover- up for sleaze.

The 39- year- old spiritual guru, who has been accused of running a sex racket in the city, was first arrested in 1997, for indulging in flesh trade under the garb of a massage parlour — Sai Massage Parlour — in south Delhi’s Lajpat Nagar.

After his arrest, Dwivedi turned wiser.

London, March 4 : Two Muslim women in Britain who refused to be screened by a full body airport scanner were subsequently stopped from boarding a flight to Pakistan, a spokesman for Manchester airport said Wednesday.

During the incident, which happened two weeks ago, the women cited religious and medical reasons respectively for their refusal to pass through the scanner, introduced at major British airports last month.

London, March 03: Want your marriage to last longer? Then choose a wife who is five years younger to you and from the same cultural background, suggest experts from the Geneva School of Business.

They claim this formula increases the chances of having a long and happy marriage by a fifth.

One couple that seems to fit the criteria is the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh. At 83, the Queen is four years and 10 months younger than the Duke and they share the same Royal background as Philip was a member of both the Greek and Danish royal families.

Warangal,March 03:VILLAGERS of Khila Shahpur of Raghunathpalle block in Warangal district recently took an interesting and innovative decision: that they would give up alcohol. The influence was not Mahatma Gandhi, but their support for the Telangana state.

This arose after they were told that the government was getting the maximum revenue from liquor and that the people of Telangana were contributing a lot of money to the state exchequer which was being used to develop the Andhra region. They decided that they could best pressure the government by denying them revenue.

Cairo, March 02: When her divorce finally came through after a painful four-year procedure, Mahasen Saber became the target of reproving looks and gossip in Egypt’s conservative society.

But she fought back, and in a bid to counter the prejudice attached to being no longer married, the young Egyptian mother decided to take to the high-tech airwaves on the Internet with the launch of “Radio Divorcees.”

” Our society burdens women with the greatest share of responsibility for divorce. The woman is wrong, the woman is bad — she’s the reason a marriage failed ”
Mahasen Saber

Lucknow,March 02:SHIV Murat Dwivedi alias Ichchadhari Bhimanand Maharaj, the alleged “ pimp guru” who was arrested from his ashram in south Delhi, had close ties with at least two Samajwadi Party ( SP) parliamentarians and many of its leaders.

Samajwadi MPs from Mirzapur and Banda, Bal Kumar Patel and R. K. Singh Patel were allegedly in charge of a three- day religious function organised by Dwivedi during Diwali last year at his village Chamrauha in Chitrakoot district.

Doha, March 02: Husain was forced into exile in 2006 after some fundamentalist outfits launched a virulent attack on him for his portrayal of Hindu deities in the nude. His paintings were vandalised and, worse, nearly 900 cases were filed against him.

With no sincere help coming from the government to protect him, he left for Dubai.

Lucknow,March 02: Shiv Murti Dwivedi, the self-styled godman arrested by Delhi Police on Friday, had spread the tentacles of his high-profile sex racket in Uttar Pradesh (UP), too.

Teams of Delhi Police have swooped down on Kanpur and Chitrakoot to probe Dwivedi’s local contacts. Initial investigations have startled the top brass of UP Police, as it emerges that many top politicians, including some from the ruling BSP, and bureaucrats have links with the impostor baba.

Melbourne, March 01: Australia’s landmark Sydney Opera house was not the same today as more than 5000 naked Sydneysiders gathered on its steps to be the subjects of an art installation.

People disrobed for Spencer Tunick’s work called The Base, which is part of Sydney’s Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Festival, according to ABC report.

Tunick is famous for shooting images of people massed together sharing one common element – nakedness.

Those taking part included rugby league players, doctors, teachers and a woman pregnant with twins who will be
induced later today.

Norfolk, March 01: After it turned up in his rockery he moved it around his garden as an ornament for nine years, before eventually settling on a place for it in the greenhouse.

But the rock nagged away at his curiosity until eventually he gave in and sent it to experts at his local museum to be identified.

Their reply left him staggered — his lump of stone turned out to be a dinosaur fossil from 135million years ago.

Mumbai, February 28 :FORMER President APJ Abdul Kalam is India’s “ most trusted” person, followed by industrialist Ratan Tata and former police officer Kiran Bedi.

An online survey to identity the 100 most trusted Indians — conducted for Reader’s Digest by market research group The Digital Edge — has thrown up quite a few surprises. The survey, which will be published in the latest issue of the magazine, had sought responses on celebrities from different fields.

Mumbai, February 27: As PlayStation 3’s latest offering raises eyebrows in the Middle East, the release of Quantic Dream’s Heavy Rain has started a debate among gamers, parents and censors over a long forgotten proposal by the Censor Board to screen video games coming to India.

The game, which released in the US yesterday and Europe today, contains a sex scene and has already been banned in the UAE. It has an 18+PEGI rating from the European rating standards.

Don’t look now: Heavy Rain, which contains a sex scene, has been banned in the UAE

Luknow,February 26 :With an eye on election in three muslim dominated states where congress party has been relegated to zero position because of Babri-masjid issue the regenerated congress party under the leadership of royal scion rahul gandhi wants to rule and woo the innocent muslims of uttar pradesh bihar and west bengal who by themselves account for more than 50% of indias muslim population.

New Delhi: Is the mounting burden of responsibilities driving men to the end of their tether? Numbers suggest so.

In India, one married man commits suicide every nine minutes. Of the total 1,25,017 cases of suicide in 2008, married men alone accounted for 57,639. While the number of women taking the extreme step did not lag far behind, men appeared more vulnerable to mounting social and economic pressures. In the case of women, the trigger was more emotional and personal.

Washington, February 25: Dick Cheney went home from the hospital Wednesday, three days after suffering his fifth heart attack. The 69-year-old former vice president “will resume his normal schedule soon,” a spokesman says.

Former Vice President Dick Cheney speaks at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference on Feb. 18, 2010, before his latest heart attack.

Nothing so remarkable about that these days. And that’s the point.

New York, February 25: You may not differentiate between Arabs as an ethnic group and Islam as a religion. You start punching in the words “why do Arabs…” And here you will be baffled, amused or horrified at what happens next.

The ‘Google Suggest’ feature, a labor saving device designed to predict queries will automatically suggest completing your query with ‘why do Arabs stink?’ or ‘why do Arabs have big noses?’

The suggestions are not programmed by Google but rather are based on an algorithm that takes the frequency of Google queries into account.

New Delhi, February 24: The Delhi government Wednesday decided to drastically enhance the security deposit for cutting down a tree while carrying out developmental work — up from the present Rs.1,000 to Rs.28,000.

“The Cabinet has decided to raise the security amount from the existing rate of Rs.1,000 to Rs.28,000 for each tree to be removed under the Delhi Preservation of Trees Act, 1994,” Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit said.

She said that this amount will have a refundable and non-refundable component of Rs.14,000 each for ensuring compensatory plantation in the city.

London, February 23: Their trumpeting is loud enough to rattle every snake in the jungle.

But it seems elephants have a secret quiet side too – at least to us humans.

Scientists are trying to decode a series of deep growl calls, much of which are inaudible to our ears.
elephant

The newest baby elephant at the San Diego Zoo’s Wild Animal Park earlier this month. He is part of the African elephant herd whose language is being decoded by researchers

Elephants are perfectly attuned to the low frequency jungle rumbles – and to the messages of love and lust they contain.

New Delhi, February 23: South Asian nations including India would not be able to eradicate poverty and ensure minimum education for all by 2015, according to a new poverty index to be released next week in Delhi.

The Basic Capabilities Index (BCI) 2009 has found that South Asia will get 80 points on the index by 2015, 10 points higher than the present value of 70. India has got 68 points in the index, an increase of a meagre four points since 2004.

Kolkata, February 22: A woman in the northern outskirts of Kolkata has given birth to four premature babies – two males and two females – in a rare case which happens in one among five lakh pregnant women.

The mother and the babies are doing fine, say attending doctors.

“All the babies are doing fine though they are premature. The expected delivery date was April 24. But on Feb 20 the patient, Mithu Saha, was admitted and we had to carry out the delivery,” said Dipankar Das, an attending doctor.