Security officials have been struggling to assure travelers that full-body scans at airports are completely private and that records are destroyed immediately. Those claims were undermined this week with allegations that airport employees copied and distributed pictures of Indian film star Shahrukh Khan in his naked body scanner at Heathrow. Just last week, UK Transport Secretary Lord Adonis said “it is very important to stress that the images which are captured by body scanners are immediately deleted after the passenger has gone through the body scanner.”
Continue reading “The Myth of Adonis: Indian Star Claims Heathrow Staff Passed Around Copies of His Full-Body Scan Pictures”
Category: International
It appears that American citizens curious about why we went to war in Iraq may soon get some answers . . . from London. The British inquiry into the war is now heading into a more advanced stage after the testimony of Tony Blair. Notably, the English want to interview Bush officials. I discussed the topic on this segment of MSNBC Countdown.
Metropolitan Police Commander Ali Dizaei, 47, has long been a star in the London force. The highest ranking most senior Asian officer and former head of the Metropolitan Black Police Association, Dizaei’s career came to an end this week after being sentenced to four years in jail for assaulting and falsely arresting a man in a dispute over £600.
Continue reading “Top London Commander Jailed for Assaulting and Falsely Arresting Man”
Stephen Gough, 50, is presenting something of a dilemma for English police. Gough likes to go out in the buff and refuses to wear clothing. As a result, when he is released for walking around naked, he promptly strips and is promptly re-arrested. The result appears a vicious loop where Gough could spend the rest of his days in jail.
Continue reading “The Bare Necessities: English Man Faces Life In Jail Over Nudist Conduct”
Bill Clinton has had his share of criticism over receiving fees in shady deals (here) and raising tens of millions of dollars from foreign sources while Hillary Clinton serves as Secretary of State (here and here). He is now facing a stinging report from the Better Business Bureau, which has found that his foundation does not meet seven of its key criteria. Clinton is now spearheading fundraising for Haiti.
Continue reading “William J. Clinton Foundation Found in Violation of Better Business Bureau Standards”
There is an interesting story out of England where a teacher is suing the school system for failing to take action after he made various complaints over Muslim students who direct anti-Christian language toward him and praised the 9-11 hijackers. Nicholas Kafouris, 52, is suing his former school for racial discrimination. It appears that things may be a bit tougher since the days of Mark Thackeray in East London in “To Sir With Love.”
State-sanctioned child abuse continues in Saudi Arabia. This month, a 12-year-old girl is trying to secure a divorce from her 80-year-old husband in Saudi Arabia. Not only was the marriage consummated but the man is a family member on her father’s side. Both the girl and mother opposed the marriage.
Continue reading “Twelve-Year-Old Girl Seeks Divorce From Eighty-Year-Old Man in Saudi Arabia”
Police in the Philippines, Malaysia and other countries are trying to deal with a new rash of crime: Karaoke or “My Way” murders. People are being shot and stabbed over bad karaoke and Frank Sinatra’s “My Way” appears to be a common trigger for violence.
Continue reading “My Way Killings: Police Are Dealing With An Increase in Attacks Over Bad Karaoke”
This certainly puts our 33 inches of snow into better perspective. These men are enjoying the Russian version of cliff diving in Acapulco.
Continue reading “OK, Maybe Our Snow Is Not That Deep After All . . .”
A recent study raises an alarming concern over people blogging on other sites. Scientists at Department of Epidemiology and Public Health at University College London have found that people can die from boredom. The logical conclusion is that regularly blogging at this site is not simply a social but medical necessity.
Continue reading “Study: This Blog May Save Your Life”
After her husband former Prime Minister Tony Blair declared secularists to be an equal or greater danger than terrorists (here), his wife Cherie Booth is under fire for granting leniency to a man accused of criminal assault because he is religious. Her statement in court would suggest that, if the man were an atheist or agnostic, such leniency might not be appropriate.
Continue reading “The Good Faith Defense: Cherie Booth (Wife of Tony Blair) Under Fire For Sparing Man Due to the Fact That He is Religious”
For those of us who are Sir Ernest Shackleton groupies, this story is wonderful. Five crates of whisky and brandy belonging to Shackleton have been recovered from under the Antarctic ice after 100 years. Just for the record, as we wait to receive our estimated 30 inches of snow today, I am burying crates of my favorite wine under the house for the regulars of my blog to recover after my demise.
We have another Islamic honor killing, but this one adds a horrific element: burying the victim alive. Turkish police believe that the 16-year-old girl was buried alive in south-eastern Turkey in a town called Kahta.
Continue reading “Sixteen-Year-Old Turkish Girl Buried Alive in Honor Killing”
Saudi Arabia and Bangladesh seem to be vying for which country is the most repressive in the application of Islamic Sharia law. The Saudi courts have ordered a Filipino woman to be lashed 100 times after she was raped. The Bangladesh courts outdid their Saudi counterparts and ordered a girl lashed 101 times for being raped. At what point does the Obama Administration publicly denounce these countries for systemic human rights violations against women?
It appears that a Turkish company has perfected the invention of “liquid glass” in a breakthrough that will likely make it and its German patent holder fantastically wealthy. With the United States pouring billions into these wars (while cutting educational budgets) and countries like China spending equally on new research (here), we will increasingly be the consumers rather than the inventors of such new technology.