As The World Turns
Abbas al-Sahan, one of Baghdad's premier plastic surgeons, said he averages about 20 cosmetic surgeries a week - 70 percent on women.
If history is any guide, a second, more destructive volcano could blow after this weekend's eruption, even threatening transatlantic flights
China State Media Step Up Rhetoric Against Google
Chinese state media launched a fresh volley of articles attacking the "politicization" of Google after media reports suggest the Internet giant may soon officially pull out of China.
And pull out they did. Yesterday Google had this to say:
"Today we stopped censoring our search services on Google.cn."
Earlier today, Google.cn (that's the China domain) began redirecting to Google.com.hk (that's the Hong Kong domain).
[E]arlier today we stopped censoring our search services—Google Search, Google News, and Google Images—on Google.cn. Users visiting Google.cn are now being redirected to Google.com.hk, where we are offering uncensored search in simplified Chinese, specifically designed for users in mainland China and delivered via our servers in Hong Kong. Users in Hong Kong will continue to receive their existing uncensored, traditional Chinese service, also from Google.com.hk. Due to the increased load on our Hong Kong servers and the complicated nature of these changes, users may see some slowdown in service or find some products temporarily inaccessible as we switch everything over.
Figuring out how to make good on our promise to stop censoring search on Google.cn has been hard. We want as many people in the world as possible to have access to our services, including users in mainland China, yet the Chinese government has been crystal clear throughout our discussions that self-censorship is a non-negotiable legal requirement. We believe this new approach of providing uncensored search in simplified Chinese from Google.com.hk is a sensible solution to the challenges we've faced—it's entirely legal and will meaningfully increase access to information for people in China. We very much hope that the Chinese government respects our decision, though we are well aware that it could at any time block access to our services. We will therefore be carefully monitoring access issues, and have created this new web page, which we will update regularly each day, so that everyone can see which Google services are available in China.
And here's the official Google meter that shows when and if China begins filtering the presently unfiltered Hong Kong edition of Googles' services.
Speaking of China: Sandstorms across China prompt health warnings
Massive sandstorms choke Chinese cities
Cars were covered in soot in minutes, even on islands 100 miles offshore.
Also:
Sarkozy's party routed at polls
(even in France they don't like wingnuts)
The center-left won every region except for Alsace with even the previous center-right Corsica changing to the left. What is interesting is that people are saying this has a lot to do with Sarkozy's failures during the economic crisis. Compared to the US, UK and many other countries the impact of the recession in France has been limited. Unemployment has moved up but it's hardly as noticeable as other countries
From: The Guardian:
The leader of France's reinvigorated Socialist party hailed an "unprecedented victory" for the left at the ballot box last night after voters dealt a crushing defeat to Nicolas Sarkozy's rightwing party in regional elections.
With almost all votes counted, official figures indicated that a leftwing alliance led by socialists and ecologists had won 54% of the nationwide ballot, leaving the president's beleaguered UMP party with just 35%.
Across mainland France, the left claimed victory in 21 of the 22 regions. The only chink of light for the UMP came in Alsace. Corsica, which in 2004 was retained by the UMP, fell to the left for the first time since 1984. A relative comeback by the far right Front National, which scored over 20% in two regions, added to the ruling party's woes.
Bangladeshi man beheaded to redden bricks
A Bangladeshi man was beheaded by labourers who burnt his head in a kiln in the belief this would redden their bricks, police said on Sunday.Four suspects were arrested for murdering the 26-year-old bricklayer in a remote town in northern Bangladesh on the instructions of the brick-field's owners, said Golam Sarwar Bhuiyan, a local police chief.
"They said the owners were unhappy as the brick-field was not producing reddish bricks despite enough heating. A fortune teller then suggested that the brick-field needed a human sacrifice," he said.
Police were searching for the owners and the fortune teller, he added. Red bricks are in huge demand in Bangladesh's countryside as the colour is seen as proof the bricks have been baked properly.
India embarrassed by ad that puts its capital in Pakistan
An advert for a new luxury train service has embarrassed India's rail ministry by placing the country's capital, New Delhi, inside Pakistan. Other gaffes made in announcing the inaugural run of the Maharajas' Express placed Kolkata, the Buddhist pilgrimage center of Gaya and the Bandhavgarh Tiger reserve in the Bay of Bengal.
The agency that designed the ad - promising to show passengers "an India like never before!" - amended a version approved by Eastern Railways on March 19, the rail company's spokesman, Samir Goswami, said.
"The agency decided to mark the train route more prominently in the final copy of the advertisement, given to newspapers, without informing us," Mr Goswami said.
The Maharajas' Express, aimed at wealthy tourists, is a joint venture between the rail ministry's Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation and the Indian arm of the international tour operator Cox and Kings.
From its starting point in Kolkata, the train calls on key pilgrimage sites and the Taj Mahal town of Agra before pulling into New Delhi at the end of a seven-night trip. The cost ranges from $1,400 a night for an ordinary suite to $2,500 a night for the presidential suite.
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