Middle Eastern prince pays $500,000 to meet Stewart for 15 mins.

News has just emerged that actor Kristen Stewart was apparently paid a gigantic sum of $500,000 in exchange for a 15-minute meeting with a Middle Eastern prince. TheTwilight star received the full amount in cash when she met the unidentified prince, along with his team of bodyguards, at Madison Square Garden in December 2012, theMirror reported.

The prince apparently had to shell out over $33,333 a minute, which is around $555 a second, to interact with Stewart.

Hindu scripture to be taught in Madhya Pradesh madrassahs: Report

BHOPAL: Bhagwad Gita, the teachings of Hindu scripture, will be made mandatory  in madrassahs of Madhya Pradesh, according to the state’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government, NDTV reported.

Teachings of the Gita will be included in the Urdu books of Class 1 and 2 according to the MP government’s August 1 order.

The Gita was included in ‘Special Hindi books for class 9 – 12 to ‘Special English books for classes 11 and 12 last month. The move has been introduced in phases since 2011, when protests ensued after the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government announced that Gita would be in the curriculum.

The BJP party’s latest decisions have been criticised as “saffronisation of education” to which Education Minister Archana Chitnis responded, “This should not be taken the wrong way – this is not saffronisation, teachings from Sikhism, Christianity and other religions are also taught in our schools.”

“We have picked up threads from the Gita to instill a sense of duty and responsibility, obedience, love for nature and environment in students,” added the minister, saying that religion was not a factor in the decision.

Britain needs 7million MORE immigrants over 50 years to 'meet the cost of caring for the elderly'

Britain will need millions more immigrants to cope with an ageing population, the official economic watchdog warned today.

The Office for Budget Responsibility said that opening the doors to an extra 140,000 every year for five decades would boost employment and bolster the public finances.

It also warned that pressure on the UK’s healthcare system caring for older people means an extra £19 billion of spending cuts or tax hikes will be needed.

Open door policy: Without high levels of migration to Britain, public debt will balloon to become larger than the entire economy, the Office for Budget Responsibility said

Urgent action is needed or the gains made by George Osborne’s spending cuts will be wiped out by increased spending on the elderly, the OBR said.

Health, pension and social care costs are already equivalent to 14 per cent of Britain’s economy but by 2062-63 it will rise to almost 20 per cent.

The OBR argues that allowing 140,000 immigrants of working age into Britain each year – totalling 7million over 50 years – would fill jobs and raise taxes for Treasury coffers.

‘Our sensitivity analysis shows that overall migration has a positive impact on the sustainability of the public finances over our 50 year horizon,’ the OBR said.

It said that if there is a steady flow of immigrants into Britain, government borrowing would rise to 99 per cent of GDP.

But if there is a bar on immigration, borrowing would hit 174 per cent.

‘These results are driven by the assumed age structure of net migration, which tends to be more concentrated in the working age group and hence reduces the dependency ratio throughout the projection period.’

Warning: Gains made by George Osborne's spending cuts could be wiped out by increased pressure on the public finances from Britain's ageing population

However, David Cameron has pledged to reduce net migration to the ‘tens of thousands’ and last year the number of immigrants fell by 89,000 to 153,00.

Without action to address the burden of an ageing population, the UK will be left with a £65 billion hole in its finances, according to the OBR.

In its annual fiscal sustainability report, it said: ‘It is clear that longer-term spending pressures, if unaddressed, would put the public finances on an unsustainable path.’

‘Public sector net debt would approach 100 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) and still be rising,’ it added.

The OBR said the move to a single-tier state pension had slightly eased the pressure on public sector debt, but added that spending on healthcare was the biggest spending pressure over the next 50 years.

The OBR said the cost of the state pension was predicted to rise from 5.8 per cent of GDP to 8.4 per cent of GDP as the population ages, even with the introduction of the new flat rate payment system and increase in retirement age to 67 taken into account.

Healthcare spending is expected to increase from 7 per cent of GDP to 8.8 per cent of GDP, while long-term social care costs are set to rise from 1.3 per cent of GDP to 2.4 per cent of GDP.

The OBR also warned that declining North Sea oil reserves will take its toll, with oil and gas revenues expected to plunge from 0.4 per cent of GDP now to almost negligible levels - at 0.03 per cent of GDP by 2040.

But action taken so far by the Government, including an extra year of spending cuts to 2017-18 and the single tier state pension, is helping to offset some of the pressures, the report added.

The Office for Budget Responsibility's Robert Chote warned of 'huge uncertainties around the scale of the challenge' of dealing with the costs of more elderly people

Robert Chote, chairman of the OBR, said on presenting the report: ‘Since last year, the underlying deficit and debt path look less favourable.

‘But this and the costs of long-term care reform are likely to be offset by the Government's announcement of additional spending cuts in 2017-18 and savings from the single tier pension.

‘That said, there are huge uncertainties around the scale of the challenge and the UK is certainly not alone in confronting it.’

He added that the extra £19 billion needed to get borrowing back on track could be spread over the next 50 years rather than action taken in one go.

In a written statement, Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander said the OBR's report shows that without the steps taken over the past year, public borrowing would be around 50 per cent of GDP higher in 50 years' time.

He added that the report identifies the extra spending cuts as ‘one of the key factors in containing the growth of spending over the long-term, demonstrating the importance of the Government's programme of fiscal consolidation for the long-term health of the public finances’.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2366934/Britain-needs-7million-MORE-immigrants-50-years-meet-cost-ageing-population.html#ixzz2ZJybKKkd

Deported from Israel for being a Muslim who visited Pakistan

Destination: Israel

Purpose: To visit Jerusalem and everything within it which ‘drives men mad.’

I had spent months preparing for my trip to the country with the primary aim of visiting Jerusalem and seeing the great historical landmarks such as the Al Aqsa mosque and Wailing Wall. I had purchased clothes appropriate for the sweltering heat of the Middle East, booked my flight well in advance and converted almost all of my remaining savings to Israeli Shekels in an almost hyperactive state of eagerness. It was in this mood that I reached Ben Gurion airport on the morning of the 24th of June.

The early warning signs should have been clear at passport control when the woman there rifled through my passport, asked “You’ve been to Pakistan?” and quickly sifted me through to the interrogation room where  everyone incidentally was either Arab or Muslim. My fears of racial and religious discrimination, instead of being proven overblown and hyped up as I had hoped, were quickly justified.

The “guilty until proven innocent” ordeal began with a brief period of questioning about my personal details and motives in visiting and lasted for ten hours in which I was questioned four times. The perpetrator was a blond woman who seemed eager to prove right all the stereotypes I had ever held about Israelis. Indeed on this occasion, I would like to quote from “Naughty Nomad”, an infamous traveller whose advice I quite closely follow:

“The worst thing were the attitudes. Israeli women are forced into the army for two years and many come out the other end as little monsters…”

If you would be so kind as to type “Israelis are..” into Google, the first option on this list (unsurprisingly) is “Israelis are rude”.

The interrogators read all my WhatsApp and text messages in a blatant violation of privacy while they repeatedly insisted they knew I was up to something untoward and threatened me with severe consequences if I didn’t inform them of my hitherto unknown plan. Of course, these claims were made with no evidence whatsoever, and despite my calm exterior, left me incredibly flustered. As expected, exactly what I feared transpired and I was told that I would be denied entry to the state of Israel upon a “security risk”.

My luggage was put through an “explosion detection” machine and after an uncomfortably thorough body search, I was hounded into a van with two security guards. They drove me for five minutes into a gated, white building surrounded by huge fences that one would only accord to a jail or a police station. The doors in our cells were without knobs, the windows were double barred and the rooms incredibly humid and damp – a fact made worse by the presence of six individuals in mine. We all had to make do on small bunk beds covered by furry grey blankets. And thus, it was like this that we were left that night – hungry, thirsty and worried without any fresh water, without any food and unable to sleep a wink due to the heat.

The others in my cell included the British Pakistani and French Arab guys who had come in with me as well as a middle aged Ukrainian man, a Palestinian who had been refused entry despite being a citizen of the state of Israel and a 70-year-old Tajik guy who had been hoping to fulfil his dream of praying at Al-Aqsa mosque. It was this person that I felt for the most; when he wasn’t touching his head to the ground in prayer, he was anxiously walking around the room saying “Y’Allah Rehem” (Oh Allah, mercy).

If only our captors had a semblance of this quality in them – a fact which seemed rather unlikely given how well versed they were inIsraeli state propaganda and their hounding laughter when sometimes, fatigued by the heat and bored by inactivity, we banged against the door attempting to earn a precious five minutes of fresh air.

The messages previous “visitors” had enshrined on the walls, occasionally by famous persons such as Nobel Peace Prize winner Mairead Maguire, were interesting and indeed provided a source of inspiration as the day dragged along.

At around 4pm, I received a visit from a rather pleasant man from the British embassy who helpfully booked me an Easy Jet flight home early on the morning of the next day. In response to my demands that something be done about the violations of privacy and degrading treatment I had been subjected to, I was given a fairly standard explanation:

“We cannot disrespect Israeli sovereignty- it is their country and they can do as they wish.”

My next question left him dumbfounded and he quickly fell silent when I asked:

“Would you be saying the same thing if I was locked up in an Iranian facility?”

The amount of frustration I inwardly felt was immense and my sheer naivety that a British passport would exempt me from these kinds of experiences – particularly in a self-proclaimed democracy – was quickly shattered.

I was driven up on to the runway and straight on the steps of the plane before my flight. The agents escorting me refused to hand over my passport and I only managed to retrieve it from the captain after landing at Luton airport.

Israel today has become what one would call an anachronism. The very idea of a Jewish state where minorities are subjected to inferior treatment is an idea the roots of which lie in centuries past. This ethno-religious criteria used to denominate and rank citizens is hardly the hallmark of a liberal democracy. The Zionist state is the only developed country on the planet which undertakes the policy of ethnic cleansing and encroachment of foreign land with such arrogant gusto and in doing so has forever became an international pariah. With American support, the Israelis have continuously flouted UN security resolutions, became the only country in the Middle East to possess deployable nuclear weapons of mass destruction and slowly leeched into Palestinian territory with the intention of creating a greater Israel. What is more these policies and the sheer indifference of the Israeli political elite to the wretched fate of the Palestinians has now become the best recruiting tool for terrorists all over the globe.

At times during my brief stay, the calls of “hanzeer” (pigs) by the Arabs holed up with me in reference to the Jewish race almost resonated with me and yet, if a solution is to be found to this conflict, the rational amongst us must ensure that we don’t fall blindly into the same category of bigotry and hatred of which the Israelis are guilty.

Taken from http://blogs.tribune.com.pk/story/18070/deported-from-israel-for-being-a-muslim-who-visited-pakistan/

Legacy of Afghan conflict: 50 British soldiers committed suicide last year, report

LONDON: A total of 50 serving and veteran British soldiers committed suicide last year, more than were killed fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan, according to figures reported on Sunday.

The UK Ministry of Defence confirmed that seven serving soldiers killed themselves in 2012 and a further 14 died in suspected suicides, although inquests have not yet been held. BBC investigation found that at least 29 veterans also took their lives last year. There are no official figures.

A total of 40 British soldiers died in action in Afghanistan in the same period, while serving as part of a decade-long British deployment that reached 9,500 troops at its peak.

Relatives of those who killed themselves told the BBC the military should do more to tackle post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and treat it like a physical injury.

One soldier who committed suicide, Dan Collins, had twice survived being shot in Helmand, and had witnessed a close friend killed in front of him. He was diagnosed with PTSD and given treatment, but after 10 months the army said he had recovered. He was later released back home and on New Year’s Eve 2011, he hanged himself.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Defence said: “Every suicide is a tragedy and our thoughts remain with the families of all those who have sadly taken their own lives.”

“Mental health of our personnel and veterans is a top priority for the government.”

The majority of babies will be born out of wedlock by 2016

The majority of babies will be born out of wedlock by 2016 if current trends go unchecked, according to data published by the Office for National Statistics.

The proportion of children born in England and Wales to unmarried mothers rose to just under 350,000 last year, which is equivalent to 47.5 per cent of all recorded births.

Ten years earlier, the figure was just over 40 per cent, in 1998 25 per cent of children were born out of wedlock and in 1979 it was only 11 per cent of total deliveries.

The ONS’ latest round of figures also show that with 729,674 births mothers now have an average of two children each, the highest fertility rate since the 1970s.

According to reports, the upsurge in births – both in and out of marriage – has been caused by immigration and an increase in women choosing to have children later in life. 

Indeed, the number of women aged over 40 having children reached a record 29,994, a jump of 360 per cent from 2002, while the average age of mothers has risen to almost 30, compared to 27 in 1982.

Tim Loughton, the former Children's minister, told The Daily Telegraph the news demanded the government introduce tax breaks to incentivise marriage. 

"If people are prepared to make a public declaration to each other in front of their friends and family they are more likely to stay together,” he said. “Without marriage people drift in and out of relationships very easily."

"In families where parents break up children do less well at school, are more likely to suffer mental health problems and are more likely to have substance abuse problems. The government needs to send a very clear message that it supports marriage. That's why married tax breaks are so important."

The ONS explained that the change was due to a combination of socio-economic factors that encourage women to postpone childbirth. 

"These trends reflect the increasing numbers of women delaying childbearing to later ages," they said.

"This may be due to a number of factors such as increased participation in higher education, increased female participation in the labour force, the increasing importance of a career, the rising opportunity costs of childbearing, labour market uncertainty, housing factors and instability of partnership."

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/half-of-all-babies-born-out-of-wedlock-8703059.html

3-D drawings

Randy Travis in critical condition.

Country singer Randy Travis is in critical condition at a Texas hospital after being admitted Sunday. According to a press release from his publicist, the singer of such hits as Forever and Ever, Amen, On the Other Hand and Three Wooden Crosses is suffering complications of recently acquired viral cardiomyopathy.

Viral cardiomyopathy is a weakening of the heart muscles caused by a viral infection.

Travis, who pleaded guilty to a charge of driving while intoxicated in Texas earlier this year, was hospitalized in 2012 after a fight near a church in Plano, Texas.

Roswell UFO incident anniversary celebrated in interactive Google doodle

This photo, from the Air Force's 'The Roswell Report', shows one of test dummies in its insulation bag. Photograph: AP

Google's latest doodle celebrates the 66th anniversary of the so-calledRoswell incident - which generations of UFO enthusiasts and others believe involved an alien landing outside the New Mexico town.

Conspiracy theorists have claimed that US military had captured a crashed alien aircraft outside Roswell in July 1947, but authorities insisted that the incident merely involved the recovery of debris from a top secret surveillance balloon.

Much suspicion about the incident was originally ignited by a press release issued by a local US military base, which mentioned that the crash involved a flying disk.

Seeking to put conspiracies to rest in June 1997, the US Air Force released a 231-page report titled "Case Closed: Final Report on the Roswell Crash". It asserted that alien bodies witnesses reported seeing at the crash scene were actually life-sized anthropomorphic test dummies.

However, interest in the incident was stoked once again in 1995, when a London-based entrepreneur called Ray Santilli claimed that he possessed film footage showing an autopsy being peformed on one of the Roswell aliens. Santilli said in 2006 that the film was a reconstruction of what he insisted was real events.

The Google doodle errs on the side of humour, allowing users to control a small animated alien figure as it goes about a series of tasks on a Roswell-like landscape.

Ramadan 2013

It's official: Ramadan to begin in UAE, Saudi Arabia on Wednesday

Egypt, Jordan and Palestine also to start Ramadan on July 10

Ramadan moon has not been sighted in UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Palestine and Jordan and Wednesday, July 10, is the first day of the holy month of Ramadan.

The UAE's moon sighting committee has announced that tomorrow, Tuesday 9 July 2013, will be the 30th day of the month of Sha'aban and accordingly, Wednesday 10 July 2013 will be the first day of the holy month of Ramadan.

Sheikh Shawki Allam, Mufti of Committees for Legitimacy and Scientific Fatwa of Egypt, announced that Wednesday is the first day of Ramadan.

The Chief Justice said in Jordan on Monday via state television said Wednesday will be the first day of the month of Ramadan in the Kingdom.

Mufti of Palestine Sheikh Mohammed Hussein also declared that the holy month will begin on Wednesday as there's been no evidence of moon sighting.

Most of the astronomers had predicted that the holy month of Ramadan will begin on Wednesday.

The Sharjah Planetarium at the Department of Culture and Information announced that the Ramadan Crescent will form on July 8, 2013 at 11:14am and set at 19:08pm, five minutes before the sunset. The crescent will be seen on July 9 in the evening. So the first day of Ramadan will be July 10, astronomically, corresponding to Ramadan 01, 1434 H.

Bangkok Post has announced that the Muslim religious authority in Thailand has declared Wednesday as the first day of the holy month. Because Ramadan begins on Wednesday, the Eid al-Fitr celebration marking the end of the 30-day fasting period will be on Aug 9, it said.

Why Anthony Robbins Divorced His Former Wife Becky Robbins ?

I am great fan of Anthony Robbins. In his Awaken the Giant Within, he is all-praise for his former wife Becky. In 2002, while browsing net, I came to know that Anthony divorced Becky and married his girl friend Sage. I was shocked to hear it. How a person who teaches the world to forge relations can divorce his dream wife? In a fit of rage, I emailed one-liner question to Tony on October 11, 2002. The one-liner was: 

“What became of your first wife…Becky? You divorced her?”

Anthony Robbins, on October 21, 2002, replied me in detail. Here’s what he said:

“Dear Muhammad,

Thank you so much for your e-mail. First, I want to apologize for this belated reply. My intense seminar and travel schedule, along with my business and family responsibilities, have taken a big bite out of my time. However, I wanted to respond personally and acknowledge the time you took to think of me.

I’ve worked for years to create and present the most innovative, entertaining, and empowering materials possible. However, I know my technology is worthwhile when I receive notes
from people like you who are not only emotionally touched by my work, but more importantly, are taking action on what they’ve learned. To know that in some small way I’ve made a difference for at least one person and that I have helped them to begin to create the quality of life they truly deserve is what drives me most.

I appreciate your interest in my former marriage. The strategies I share with my audience to guide them on the path to more fulfilling relationships are based on my own personal experience and the knowledge I have gained from working with people from 80 different countries for more than a quarter of a century. Relationships are one of the single most important areas of our lives and one of the greatest opportunities for fulfillment or pain. The secret is making certain the person you select shares your values and vision. Some relationships cannot continue to be fulfilling because the two people have different visions for their lives or have learned to value different things.

While I offer many tools for enhancing relationships, I have never led my audience to believe that the path to a successful relationship would be to stay in a relationship where after deep, honest communication and soul searching both people discover that they do not share the same life vision. Any relationship can be made to work, but when people’s values and life directions are extremely different they must compromise. Continuous compromise means a compromised life for both parties. That is when difficult decisions need to be made.

Deciding to end my relationship with my former wife Becky was one of the hardest decisions I have ever made. I am extremely proud of our 14-year relationship. When I entered the marriage at the age of 24 I immediately embraced the responsibilities of being a father to a 17-year-old son, an 11-year-old daughter, and a 5-year-old son. I remained in that marriage until my children were grown and I realized that I did not share a life vision with my former wife. At that time I chose to take the necessary actions to pursue a life in which I could be more fulfilled. Sometime later I met Sage, my lovely wife, whom I met coincidentally through a business relationship, and married a year later. We have been together for a blissful two and a half years.

Again, thank you for taking the time to write, and your patience in receiving a reply. My desire and invitation to you now is that you continue to expand the quality of your life by committing to the philosophy of CANI-Constant and Never-ending Improvement. By doing so, I believe that you will create a life of lasting fulfillment for yourself and for those you care about.

I look forward to our paths crossing again soon. Live With Passion!

Warmest Regards,

Anthony J. Robbins
Chairman of the Board”

Women go to university to find a man to marry .

Boris Johnson risked being branded sexist after joking that women only go to university to find a husband.

The London Mayor was accused of being disrespectful for dismissing the motivations of half of the population for becoming graduates.

The comments were all the more embarrassing, coming during a panel debate with the Prime Minister of Malaysia.

Joke: London Mayor Boris Johnson was branded 'hopelessly out of touch' for his claim that women only go to university to find a husband

Despite being one of the most senior politicians in the country, Mr Johnson is known for cracking jokes while carefully avoiding giving offence.

But his habit of blurting out the first thing that comes into his head can sometimes backfire.

The latest gaffe came at the launch of the World Islamic Economic Forum, where he was appearing with Najib Razak, the Prime Minister of Malaysia.

The pair also visited the site of Battersea Power Station to mark the start of a major redevelopment, funded with £8billion from Malayaisa.

But during a discussion on women in education, Mr Johnson may have over-stepped the mark.

Remarking on the role of women in Islamic societies, Mr Razak said: 'Before coming here my officials have told me that the latest university intake in Malaysia, a Muslim country, 68 per cent will be women entering our universities.'

To laughter, and a few groans, Mr Johnson then added: 'They’ve got to find men to marry.'

The remark, which emerged online today, was quickly condemned by many on social networking sites.

The Everyday Sexism campaign said the comments were 'pathetically archaic, unacceptably sexist and hopelessly out of touch'.

Gaffe: Mr Johnson made the remark during a debate with Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak (right), with whom he also visited Battersea Power Station to break ground on a new development with David Cameron

Labour's shadow equality minster Kate Green said: 'Boris Johnson may think his buffoonery allows him to get away with his outdated opinions but this isn't funny. 

'These comments are insulting to the women across the country and across the world who have gone to university, worked hard and used their talents to get on. He should apologise.'

In a statement Mr Johnson insisted it was 'ludicrous' to suggest he thought women went to university to find a husband.

He said: 'Some people seem to have misconstrued something I said at a press conference 5 days ago, about relative male underachievement in university entrance. 

'It is utterly ludicrous and infuriating to suggest that I think women go to University to find a husband. 

'I was merely pointing out something that I’ve said several times before - that with a graduate cohort 68 per cent female you intensify the phenomenon sociologists identify as assortative mating.'

Mr Johnson's biographer Sonia Purnell noted that Mr Johnson met his first wife, Tatler cover girl Allegra Mostyn-Owen, while at university in Oxford.

Last month Mr Johnson boasted that he had had more fun at university than David Cameron, who he dismissed as a ‘girly swot’ because he got a first class degree.

The London Mayor, who got a 2:1 degree in classics from Balliol College Oxford, lashed out after he was teased about the Prime Minister’s greater academic accomplishment.

Quizzed about Mr Cameron and his brother Jo Johnson - now head of Mr Cameron’s policy board - both of whom got firsts in Philosophy, Politics and Economics, the Mayor pointed out that he won a scholarship and they did not.

In an interview with the London Evening Standard, he then branded his rivals: ‘Girly swots who wasted their time at university.’

Mr Johnson and Mr Cameron have been rivals since they were at Eton College together and members of the exclusive Bullingdon Club dining society at Oxford.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2358248/Women-university-man-marry-Boris-Johnson-accused-sexism-joke-Malaysian-Prime-Minister.html#ixzz2YXHeyqGp

Manning was 'upset' at plight of Iraqis: Witness

FORT MEADE: The US soldier accused of espionage for leaking a trove of secret files to WikiLeaks was “upset” about the plight of Iraqi civilians during his tour in Baghdad, a witness told the court Monday.

The US Army private was dismayed over an incident in which 15 Iraqi civilians had been jailed – with US backing – for handing out pamphlets criticising the government, said Sergeant David Sadtler, who helped oversee Manning’s work as an intelligence analyst in Baghdad.

Manning “was concerned that this was happening,” said Sadtler, who was called as a witness for the defense.

“He was upset at the situation.”

Manning’s lawyers focused on the episode as they began to present the case for the defense, painting a picture of a conscientious young man bothered by injustice and eager to shed light on US foreign policy.

In an earlier statement to the court, Manning said the Iraqis who were arrested had no ties to militants and their pamphlets were only a “scholarly critique” of government corruption.

Sadtler said Manning was up on international events and that other troops in his unit would come to him “if they needed to know what was going on in the world.”

Manning, 25, has admitted to giving WikiLeaks more than 700,000 secret military intelligence files and diplomatic cables in the worst leak of classified information in American history.

He has pleaded guilty to lesser offenses that could carry a 20-year prison sentence.

But he is contesting 21 other charges, including the most serious count that he knew he was “aiding the enemy” by funneling the files to the website. That charge carries a maximum penalty of life in prison.

Manning’s lawyers earlier filed motions asking the military judge to dismiss several counts against him, including the most serious charge that he “aided” al Qaeda by spilling secrets.

The defense lawyers argued prosecutors lack evidence to back allegations he broke rules for using military computers, stole government “property,” disclosed email addresses and assisted the enemy when he gave classified files to the anti-secrecy website.

The defense opened the proceedings by playing a 39-minute video of a 2007 US helicopter attack in Baghdad that went viral in 2010 after Manning passed the footage to WikiLeaks, which released the clip under the title “Collateral Murder.”

The disturbing video, from a cockpit gunsight, shows two Apache helicopters firing at a group of Iraqi men whom the crew mistakenly believed were carrying weapons.

Two of those killed in the assault were Iraqis working for the Reuters news agency.

Manning has told the court the video troubled him, particularly jokes made by the air crew that showed what he called “seemingly delightful blood lust.”

The prosecution rested its case last week but suffered an embarrassing setback after acknowledging the military had lost the contract Manning signed laying out the terms of his access to classified information.

As the trial entered its sixth week at Fort Meade in Maryland, north of Washington, the first defense witness told the court Manning had been one of the most talented members of an intelligence analysis unit, excelling at “data mining.”

“He was our best analyst by far when it came to developing products,” said Chief Warrant Officer Joshua Ehresman, who oversaw intelligence work produced by Manning and other enlisted soldiers.

Unlike other troops who often needed assignments to be spelled out in detail, Manning was the “go-to guy” and “would come up with exactly what you were looking for,” he said.

Ehresman and two other witnesses said there were no rules in Manning’s unit barring soldiers from running an executable file or program off of a CD.

The testimony was meant to bolster the defense’s argument that Manning did not exceed his authorized access to government databases or violate computer regulations.

While prosecutors say Manning exposed informants to danger by leaking military intelligence reports, Captain Steven Lim, who supervised Manning’s section, said names of sources were not cited in the reports.

Intelligence sources in Iraq were “usually tracked by a number” with no name listed, Lim told the court.

The case has taken on added weight in the aftermath of another round of leaks from a former contractor for the National Security Agency.

Edward Snowden fled to Hong Kong and later to Moscow after handing over documents to the media revealing far-reaching US electronic surveillance of phone records and Internet traffic.

Corruption worsened in Arab countries since uprisings: Poll

DUBAI: Corruption has worsened in most Arab countries since their 2011 revolutions, even though anger with corrupt officials was a major reason for the uprisings, according to a public opinion poll released on Tuesday.

The survey by Transparency International, a global non-governmental body which studies bribery around the world, appears to dash hopes that the Arab Spring would produce cleaner government and business in the region.

The Arab public’s continued frustration with corruption may undermine governments’ efforts to restore political stability, while hindering economic growth and foreign investment.

Of four countries which experienced changes of government during the Arab Spring, a majority of respondents in three-Egypt, Tunisia and Yemen – feel the level of corruption has risen in the past two years, the survey showed.

In Egypt, 64 percent said corruption had worsened; in Tunisia, the proportion was 80 percent. The exception was Libya, where only 46 percent said the country had become more corrupt.

Within Egypt, 78 percent of respondents said the police were corrupt or extremely corrupt. The proportion was 65 percent for the judiciary and 45 percent for the military, one of the country’s most respected institutions which ousted Islamist President Mohamed Mursi last week sparking a wave of protests.

The survey also showed growing public disenchantment in many other Arab countries which did not experience revolutions but where the Arab Spring has increased political tensions.

In Lebanon, 84 percent said corruption had worsened in the past two years, in Morocco 56 percent and in Iraq, 60 percent. The ratio in Jordan was 39 percent, while 44 percent said the level of bribery had stayed the same.

Christoph Wilcke, Middle East and North Africa director for Transparency International, said the police, judiciary and political parties in Arab countries needed to be reformed in order to gain the trust of the public.

In the social and economic turmoil that has followed the Arab Spring, however, governments have had little time or energy to push such reforms.

“There is a contradiction between policy and rhetoric,”  said Wilcke.

For example, in an attempt to attract foreign investment the Egyptian government reconciled itself with some members of the former regime of Hosni Mubarak who had been convicted of corruption, he added.

The survey was based on interviews with about 1,000 people in each country between last September and March this year.

Halal Googling

A Muslim search engine that blocks forbidden content “according to Islamic law” was launched today, a press release stated.

‘Halalgoogling’ fetches results from leading search engines such as Google and Bing and has a built-in “advanced special filtering system that blocks Haram content according to the Law of Islam”, the press release said.

According to the report, a special and unique filter system excludes forbidden content from its search results such as “pornography, nudity, gay, lesbian, bisexual, gambling, anti-Islamic content”.

According to the report, a team of ‘internet experts’ all around the world had been working for years on the project. The need for such a search engine arose with 1.5 billion Muslims around the world worrying about the content provided over the internet to their children and even themselves.

The system is being updated continuously, and has been designed to respect Muslim culture, the report stated. The new search engine hopes to be the number one search engine in the Muslim community, it added.

Features

Halalgoogling comes up with the following system components for safe searching over the internet:

General category filtering: A filtering of overall search results amongst different categories.

Forbidden sites: A list of blacklisted websites that are not allowed to appear in the search results.

Link filtering: Removal of specific pages/links from within a website, blog or forum.

Haram Keywords: A list of keywords that are not allowed to be searched.

Report button: Which allows users to identify and email Halalgoogling admin when haram content is found.

Only from Pakistan: Option to see page results from within the country exclusively.

Woman jailed for lying to police that taxi driver had sexually assaulted her in his cab.

Woman jailed for lying to police that taxi driver had sexually assaulted her in his cab after he proved his innocence with a smartphone app recording of their conversation

• Astria Berwick, 27, falsely accused Mohammed Asif of attacking her in taxi
• Said he sexually assaulted her and slashed her face with a knife
• Mr Asif had been recording journeys using app on his mobile phone
• The app was switched on because the CCTV in his cab was broken
• Berwick jailed for 16 months at Nottingham Crown Court
• Judge said 'wholly innocent' father-of-two was 'saved' by his phone

A woman who claimed a taxi driver sexually assaulted her at knifepoint in his cab has been jailed after he used a recording application on his smartphone to expose her lies.

Astria Berwick, 27, slashed herself in the face with a knife in an effort to convince police that she had been attacked and groped by Mohammed Asif.

The driver was arrested within three hours and taken to a police station in handcuffs.

'Outrageous behaviour': After travelling home from a night out in Mohammed Asif's taxi, Astria Berwick called police and falsely accused the father-of-two of sexually assaulting her in the cab

'Wholly innocent': Mr Asif, 34, was able to prove his innocence thanks to an app on his mobile phone which captured an audio recording of Berwick's cab journey

He was stripped and spent a day in a cell until officers  eventually listened to the recording and discovered  Berwick was lying.

Yesterday, as she started a 16-month jail term for perverting the course of justice, Mr Asif, 34, said that without the app he would now be the one in jail.

The father of two said: ‘Nothing like this has ever happened to me before, and I have never been involved with the police. Now I am terrified if I pick a single lady up.

 

‘I think her sentence was too short. She could have completely ruined my life. She should have got three or four years at the very least.’

Mr Asif used his Samsung Galaxy S2’s voice recorder  to tape Berwick’s 11-mile  journey from Nottingham  to her home in Bingham  after his base told him she appeared to be drunk  when making the 4.50pm booking in February. 

He said that while the journey went smoothly, apart from when  he had to pull over in a lay-by to allow her to vomit, Berwick argued about the £17 fare when he picked her up, which he believes may be why  she made the allegation against him. 

After the journey, she thanked him twice. He started out to return to base, but was stopped by police.

Officers told Mr Asif that Berwick claimed he pounced on her from behind when she vomited by the side of the road before cutting her with a knife.

The taxi driver, who lives in Carlton Hills, Nottingham, was arrested on suspicion of sexual assault.

He said: ‘They took everything from me, including  my clothes, and I was crying in the cell. I told them there was a recording on my phone – I was saying “please check it”.’

Lies: Mr Asif, who told how he broke down in a police cell after he was falsely accused of sexual assault, said Berwick's lies had torn his life apart

‘The woman only wanted  to pay £11 and had to go to  a cash machine to get more money. She wasn’t very happy.

‘I don’t record all my journeys, but the office told me she had been drinking and that I should ask for payment up front.

‘So I put my phone on the dashboard cradle and left it on. If I hadn’t, I would be in jail now, I am certain of that.

‘My son is 14 and my daughter is eight. They were crying when I came back and were asking why I had been arrested.

‘The police raided my house and searched my taxi looking for the knife which she says I used to cut her with.

‘She really has turned my life upside down.’

Berwick was jailed at Nottingham Crown Court after she admitted perverting the course of justice. Judge Michael Stokes QC said  she had pretended to be  the victim of sexual assault for ‘some unaccountable reason’.

He told her: ‘This was outrageous behaviour by the defendant against a wholly innocent man who was saved by the recording on his phone.

‘Had he not recorded the conversation which demonstrated that nothing untoward had occurred, he would probably still be in custody awaiting trial.’

On her Facebook page, Berwick says she is ‘honest as I don’t like lying (that’s probably my downfall, too honest)’ and ‘enjoys a good joke (sometimes at other people’s expense)’.

She lists her favourite quotations as ‘do unto others as they would do unto you’, and ‘what comes around goes around’.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2355655/Astria-Berwick-Woman-jailed-lying-police-taxi-driver-sexually-assaulted-cab.html#ixzz2YA6V8YIK