Granny gets ankle tag for selling goldfish to child
A British grandmother has been fined and electronically tagged for selling a goldfish to a child, triggering criticism of over-zealous use of animal protection laws.
Pet shop owner Joan Higgins, 66, was fined 1,000 pounds ($1,650) and given a dusk-to-dawn curfew for selling an animal to a person under the age of 16.
Her 47-year-old son Mark, who was ordered to do community service, slammed the ruling as a farce.
The pair were prosecuted after the local council sent a 14-year-old boy to buy a goldfish in a sting operation following reports that their shop, Majors Pets, had sold a gerbil to a teenager with learning difficulties.
The shopkeepers sold the fish without asking his age or how the fish would be cared for, prosecutors said.
"I think it's a farce and legal lunacy and I told the council that," said Mark Higgins, cited by the Daily Telegraph, noting that his mother was also given an electronic tag.
"What gets me so cross is that they put my mum on a tag. She's nearly 70, for goodness sake. You would think they have better things to do with their time and money," he said.
Between the Sheets – Episode 4
Between the Sheets 04 - Listen Now!
Hosted by Kobayashi and RU486
Todays Letter is "D"
Opening and Ending song - Dirty by Patient Zero
US general declares war on junk food
The US commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, has banned American and NATO troops from eating fast food.
The General, who runs 13 kilometres every morning and eats just one meal a day, has ordered junk food outlets on all military bases to be closed.
Military leaders say the decision was made because Afghanistan is a war zone, not an amusement park.
The decision is not likely to be popular with those stationed on bases serviced by fast food outlets, but will free up supply lines for frontline soldiers in need of fresh food and running water.
"From the moment [General] McChrystal and I arrived in Afghanistan last summer, we began looking for ways to do things more efficiently across the battlefield," Sergeant-Major Michael Hall wrote in a military blog, quoted by the Times Online.
"This effort includes moving and reallocating resources to better accomplish our mission.
"Supplying non-essential luxuries to big bases like Bagram and Kandahar makes it harder to get essential items to combat outposts and forward operating bases, where troops who are in the fight each day need resupplying with ammunition, food and water."
Last year, General McChrystal banned alcohol at NATO's Kabul headquarters after complaining that too many staff were coming to work with a hangover.
US concern over Australian internet filter
The US government says it has concerns about Australia's plan to introduce a mandatory internet filter.
The Federal Government wants to force internet service providers to block offensive material, including child pornography and instructions for criminal activity, from overseas websites.
The Government is facing growing pressure from anti-censorship and internet groups to drop the idea.
Now the US government has added its voice to those expressing concern.
A spokesman for the US state department says its officials have raised the issue with Australian officials but would not comment on the nature of the concerns.
Federal Communications Minister Stephen Conroy says it would be inappropriate to talk about discussions with the US government.
Internet giant Google has also expressed concern about the Government's plan.
In a post published last December on Google Australia's official blog, the company said the plan raised concerns about censorship.
"At Google we are concerned by the Government's plans to introduce a mandatory filtering regime for Internet Service Providers (ISP) in Australia, the first of its kind amongst Western democracies," the post said.
"Our primary concern is that the scope of content to be filtered is too wide."
While Google accepted there must be some limits on internet content, it condemned the Government's filtering approach as heavy-handed.
"We have a bias in favour of people's right to free expression," the post said.
Lore’s Lectures – Episode 7
Lore's Lectures - Episode 7 from Lore Law on Vimeo.
In this episode Lore talks about Cat Dancing.
IHN Show-Episode 55
I Have Nothing Episode 55 - Listen Now!
This weeks episode we have Mephyt, Suave, Morpse, Alina, Cerys, Nox, and RU486.
Disclaimer- Morpse
Opening Song - Wake The Dead by Patient Zero
Electronic undies to help incontinence
The rollout of the world's first electronic underpants, able to send text messages if the wearer became incontinent, has been announced in Australia.
Designed for the elderly and infirm, the underpants will be used in aged care homes across New South Wales to monitor incontinence after successful trials in Victoria, the company Simavita said.
"Incontinence management is a key area in which innovative technologies can benefit aged care," chief executive Philippa Lewis said.
"We developed the system to provide greater comfort and dignity to the elderly while aiming to significantly lower costs for aged care facilities."
The company said its underpants have a disposable element, similar to a regular incontinence pad, and include a detachable transmitter that relays readings from the pad's sensor strip over a wireless network to a central computer.
Alerts are sent via text message or over the institution's paging system.
More than 90 per cent of Australians living in elderly care facilities are believed to suffer from incontinence - a problem that currently requires staff to carry out frequent manual checks throughout the day.
- AFP
Schoolboy detonates suicide bomb
A schoolboy carrying a rebel-made bomb died when it exploded before he reached its police station target, marking the rare use of a child in such attacks in Colombia's war.
Officials say the 12-year-old walked up to local police headquarters on Thursday in the southern town of El Charco, near the Ecuador border, carrying a package laden with explosives.
It detonated before he reached the station, local authorities said.
"A child bomb. Terrible. Repugnant," Antonio Navarro, governor of Narino province, told local television.
"We are really very sad but also very angry."
Colombia's top military commander Freddy Padilla blamed the incident on drug-running guerrillas who have been fighting he state since the 1960s in the name of socialism.
The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, has stepped up attacks in a show of force before May's presidential election.
Authorities blamed the FARC for a car bomb in Pacific port city Buenaventura on Wednesday that killed nine people.
The rebels along with their right-wing paramilitary foes are regularly denounced for breaking international humanitarian law by using children as combatants, but not as bombers.
"This is horrendous, even by Colombian standards," said Markus Schultz-Kraft, Bogota-based analyst for the International Crisis Group thinktank.
"We've seen the FARC send bombs in toward targets on mules, but I've never heard of a child being used like this in Colombia."
- Reuters
The Nameless Review Ep. 7 Part 3 2.0
Listen: here
Hosts: BSV and Morpse
Reviews: Final Fantasy 13 part 2, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Valkyria Chronicles, and Alice in Wonderland.
Ex-KGB agent buys UK’s The Independent papers
RUSSIAN tycoon Alexander Lebedev has bought Britain's struggling Independent and Independent on Sunday newspapers for a token sum, a year after acquiring another top British title cheaply.
Mr Lebedev, an ex-KGB agent, paid STG1 ($1.64) for the papers, while its current owners will pay £9.25 million ($15.1 million) in the next 10 months to his firm, Independent Print Limited, for taking on future liabilities.
The sale highlights the problems faced by many British newspapers who, like titles around the world, are struggling to attract advertising revenue and keep circulation high in the digital age.
The previous owners of the two titles, Dublin-based Independent News and Media (INM), announced the long-expected sale in a statement.
"I believe that the Lebedevs will be progressive and supportive owners of the Independent titles which have played such an important role in British public life for nearly 25 years,'' said INM's group chief executive, Gavin O'Reilly.
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Mr Lebedev bought London's Evening Standard newspaper for a nominal £1 in January last year in a deal which made him co-owner with his son, Evgeny. It became a free paper in October.
The wealthy Russian oligarch, who has interests in banking and aviation, already co-owns with ex-Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev a 49-per cent holding in the Novaya Gazeta newspaper, which has been critical of the Kremlin.
The Independent was launched in 1986 by three journalists as a counterweight to other broadsheet titles owned by global media tycoons.
In 2003, it became the first British broadsheet to change to a tabloid format, a move later copied by rival The Times.
But its circulation has dwindled and it has been forced to shed jobs and re-locate its offices - moving into the same building as the Evening Standard in west London.
The Independent's average circulation last month was 183,547, down from 205,964 for the same month in 2009, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABCs). This is the lowest of Britain's five daily broadsheets.
The Independent on Sunday's circulation last month was 155,661, down from 179,487 for the same month the previous year.
Following the sale, staff on the two linked papers will become employees of IPL but continue to operate from their current offices in Kensington, central London.
In results out Wednesday, INM reported 2009 operating profits of €177.2 million ($259 million), a slump of 39 per cent on the previous year. It completed a rights issue and restructuring in December.
The group publishes over 200 newspapers and magazines around the world including India's Dainik Jagran, the New Zealand Herald and the Irish Independent.
Mr O'Reilly described the sale as a "most satisfactory and positive outcome''.
"After our successful refinancing in late 2009, this transaction marks an important milestone in the repositioning of our group and will allow INM to focus solely on its market leading, cash generative assets in Ireland, Northern Ireland, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand,'' he said.