Tanglin Mall Flood

Netizens took video clips of flooding in Tanglin Mall this morning as the flood water rushed in suddenly without warning and trapping shocked passer-bys who had to rush to higher grounds.
Basements 1 and 2 as well as the ground level were flooded as businesses grinded to a halt. Foreign workers were seen clearing the flood waters and debris in the afternoon.

As this is the first time Tanglin Mall is flooded in fifteen years, some netizens wondered if the raising of Orchard Road in the aftermath of the floods there last year may have diverted the flood water down to Tanglin Road which was the hardest hit area this time.

Barbados

Part two of Eadie’s Bajan blog: the chef eats and drinks his way around Barbados meeting some of the locals along the way.

Day three: “Got up” at 6.00am, still on UK time I think.  Went down and had a cheeky wee breakfast and a chat about the day ahead.  We were getting picked up for the Cool Running’s at 9.00am, so I had 30 minutes to apply about four varieties of sun lotion.  We were filming the videos out of sync so if I got sunburnt it would make things really difficult to edit. So I had Factor 50, SPF 10 (10hr protection) and a liberal spray of Factor 15.

Got on the bus to Cool Runnings. It was basically two catamarans side by side. The one we were on had Scottish bunting and a saltire flying proudly. Had to do a link to camera and dive in the sea, and as Julyan was the only one filming, I had to do it twice to get two different angles. It was hard enough holding enough my stomach in once.
After the second dive in, when I was swimming back up to the surface, my foot hit something. I thought the water was 20ft deep so it could not be any coral or anything like that. I looked down. I had hit a sea turtle.  Don’t worry animal lovers, it was going in the top corner.

On the boat I met and interviewed Andy Adam who was from Falkirk but moved out here 11 years ago and is now president of the Scottish Barbados Society. He gave us a load of info on Barbados and was a great guy. We had to film a few links, much to the bemusement of the other people. Me and Eddie (skipper of the boat) were dancing to James Brown and they got me doing a Titanic pose on the front of the boat.  Eddie and the rest of the crew were all good guys and we got some great scran on the boat.

Once we got back to the hotel we managed to secure an interview and performance with Eddi Reader. She was brilliant, really nice and her performance was brilliant. We ended up having dinner with Denise who was on her own, she was great banter and we had a good laugh.

After dinner we stayed for the hotel entertainment. It was a three piece drag act and for some reason I got a shout out at the start of their set. I reckon the lads set me up but they assured me it was not them. Half way through their 3rd song, one of them came over and kissed me on the cheek. After that I realised it was time for me to leg it. It was 9:50pm anyway and I was still not in the right time zone.

Day four: 7.30am, time for breakfast and we were away to get shots of the sugarcane fields and all the harvesting. Then oddly enough started filming with Daisy, a local cow. Next up was a visit to the Mount Gay rum distillery where we got a guided tour of Sherri and got to taste a selection of their rums. After several shots of tasting rum, I felt a little tipsy.

We then went to Bridgetown fish market where we bought six flying fish for the BBQ later. We got a wee cheeky lunch break so I went for another dip in the pool. Max set up the BBQ down at the jetty with the Waves hotel in the background. It was 34C and I had to go into the hotel kitchen to try and find all the garnish to go alongside the fish. Again we had to film the dish in its entirety twice.

After that we had a 10 min turnaround to get changed to head over to Jujus (remoter beach-side bar, that remote even Chris had to ask directions). Filmed a few generic links and then watched the sunset. It was our very own Café Del Mar moment.  We sat on the beach and took 10 minutes to reflect on how brilliant the trip had been so far, and how happy, helpful and outgoing the Bajan people were.  Took a few photos of the view: breathtaking.

Had our last dinner on the trip and we met Denise again, she reckoned we were not from The Hour and I was a Secret Millionaire. I should be so lucky!

Last Day: Early rise on the last day, got last minute confirmation that we could meet Prof. Henry Fraser but it had to be 8.00am at his house. He was a nice guy and had a wealth of knowledge. This helped get our point across about the Celtic connection to Barbados.

After that Chris took us to the Scottish district. It was absolutely stunning and Julyan managed to get loads of shots to use to edit in to all the videos throughout the week. Then we went to Bathsheba, which is right on the Atlantic Ocean, where the nearest mainland is East Africa.
Went up to Cherry Tree Hill to get a shot of the last working windmill, and got a view all over Scotland district. It reminded me of home, absolutely stunning.  We headed back to Bridgetown to finish off a piece and shoot the last shot of the trip.

That’s a Wrap! Filming on the four day shoot was over. It has been the best trip of my life in so many ways (work wise, educationally) and can’t wait to see what the edited finished work looks like. Tom and Julyan have been brilliant, they have both been good sounding boards, gave me loads of advice on my presenting skills. Can’t thank the two of them enough, especially for taking a punt on me and giving me this gig. It was hard going for the four days but the reality is that I’m one lucky guy to get the opportunity and really thankful to the pair of them.

Amazing Grace

Finally, after five months of surgery and rehabilitation in Denver, Prudence Mabhena can sit up straight in her wheelchair. And that's enough for the singer to belt out an amazing "Amazing Grace."
But when Mabhena, 24, returns home to Zimbabwe this summer, she will carry with her more than gratitude for the Children's Hospital surgical team. Mabhena, the subject of an Oscar-winning documentary called "Music by Prudence," leaves with a lasting attachment to Denver, borne out of the help of so many people who offered time and money for the sake of her health and happiness.
"It is so surprising to find someone who gives his or her love to a stranger who lives 20,000 miles away, on the other side of the world," said Mabhena, in the hotel suite in south Denver where she has lived, without charge, since she arrived. "I didn't believe I would get to a place where people have such full love and care."
Mabhena, who was crippled by a congenital disorder at birth, might have died without surgery. But a series of chance encounters — fostered by her growing popularity as a singer — led her to Denver, where Children's Hospital staffers donated their pricey time for her benefit. Where a restaurateur dedicated a balance of his life to her well-being. Where a hotel owner gave her a nice place to stay.
Where on Wednesday a benefit will be held in her honor, to raise money for the costly electric wheelchair she never had in Zimbabwe. Since the range of motion in her arms is minuscule, she has always depended upon people pushing her to get around.
Mabhena's Denver time has been uplifting, and sometimes even fun. But also rough, with difficult and painful surgeries.
She is accustomed to struggle.
Mabhena was born with arthrogryposis, a disorder that twisted her limbs and denied her the ability to walk. When she was young, her disfigured legs were amputated beneath the knees.
The condition convinced some in Zimbabwe
that she was a witch, or possessed by the devil. It also caused her parents to divorce when she was an infant. Her mother and father, she said, could not deal with the stress that her birth introduced to their lives.

Early on, as she split time between parents' and grandparents' houses, she began singing. She remembers sitting outside her grandmother's house and playing in the dirt, pretending she was cooking and imitating her grandmother's singing voice. Then she sang in church. People told her she was good.
She hid her voice in school, though, until one day when she was 12 and thought she was alone in a corridor. A teacher heard her.
"Are you the one who was singing?" the teacher asked. Mabhena said she feared answering honestly, because students were supposed to be quiet in the hallways. "Something told me I was going to be in trouble. But something also told me to say yes."
Getting caught led her straight to the school choir, which engendered all of the rest: assembling a band, getting noticed, attracting a filmmaker, performing around the world, traveling to Hollywood to take part in the Oscar ceremonies. A trip to the Telluride Film Festival introduced her to a doctor who understood right away that she needed surgery, or she might not survive. He had friends at Children's Hospital. He asked if the hospital could help.
"We feel that we have a responsibility to children throughout the world, where it is a life-threatening condition and our expertise can make a difference," said Dr. Stephen Berman, a Children's Hospital pediatrician. "If she had been living in the United States, she would have had the surgeries much earlier that would have enabled her back to be straighter."
Dr. Mark Erickson, a top spine surgeon, performed the procedure earlier this year.

"Her way to interact with the world is to sit, because she can't walk. She can move her shoulders a bit. Not her elbows. Her hips don't move at all," Erickson said. "Our goal was to get her positioned so her pelvis is level, so her spine comes up as straight as possible. So she can be more up, rather than leaning over to the side all day long."
The scoliosis in her spine was at 100 degrees.
"Normally, it's zero," Erickson said. "Curves that big progress. What we see in kids that are untreated is that the curves get to a point where they have trouble sitting because it hurts too much. So they spend more time lying down. Now all Prudence has is sitting and lying down. Take away one, and that's a big deal."
The first surgery, on her spine, took five hours. Erickson placed rods and screws in her back to keep her spine straight. The hip operation, a few weeks later, took three hours. In that procedure, Erickson made it easier for Mabhena to sit on her hips. At some point earlier in her life, her hips had become dislocated.
An enduring mark
Mabhena's Colorado sojourn is one she'll never forget, she says. But to those who have met her, even briefly, the feeling is mutual.
"There's just something about her that is a glow, that after you spend time with her, kind of emanates, that touches you," Berman said. "She is a quite remarkable young woman. Everyone at Children's who has come into contact with her has left with something of Prudence's love of life."
Walter Isenberg, president and chief executive of Sage Hospitality in Denver, donated the suite in his hotel to Prudence because, among other things, he feels passionate about helping African kids in need.
"It's amazing that someone with her physical challenges would be so positive about life," he said. "And it's a lesson for all of us. We take all sorts of things for granted. We are spoiled."
Erickson said Mabhena had such an impact on his two sons that they wrote school reports about her.
"The best way I can describe Prudence is: How many people do you know who are one-namers?" he said. "She is a one-namer," like Prince or Madonna.
One Denverite in particular has been touched: Noel Cunningham, the Irishman who opened Strings restaurant in the late 1980s.
Ask Mabhena about Cunningham, and she laughs.
"He came with ideas," she said. "So many ideas. They were all great. Like making sure I enjoyed myself before the surgery. I had a limo ride. A helicopter ride. I go to Strings a lot."
And there, Cunningham flutters around her, urging her to eat more, cracking jokes, toiling to coax from Mabhena her disarming, spectacular, infectious smile, a grin so broad and bright it startles.
"When Prudence came here, I remember, after a 30-hour journey, these guys greeted me with a smile. If it was me getting off the plane, I'd be whining and grumpy," he said. "So I've done one of my Noel ego things. I said, 'By the time you leave here, you won't want to leave.' "
Among other things, Cunningham helped arrange for Metro Taxi to drive Prudence around — free of charge. In addition, Centura Home Health Care donated the services of a physical therapist nearly every day since her surgeries.
Despite all of his efforts, Cunningham hasn't quite succeeded; Mabhena cannot wait to return to her country, to the school for disabled kids where she lives and teaches music and art, to the people who, she says, have "been through a lot, but don't stop smiling."
Embracing the struggle
While Mabhena was growing up, the smiles came, but there were a lot of tears too. As she grew older, she felt jealousy toward cousins and others who merged from school into careers. Her parents wanted her to become a lawyer, "but I don't envy lawyers," she said. All of her dreams — like becoming a nurse — fizzled after she scrutinized them. She couldn't walk. She had little movement in general throughout her body. How could she work? How would she survive?
Now, as she writes her own music and spends time in recording studios and on stages, the question is: How much more can she thrive?
Despite all she has endured, Mabhena worries that life might become too easy. She struggles to remain humble.
"So many times when I went through pain, I thought it was God's way to tell me not to complain," she said. "I would meet people with more problems than me, and still I could complain and complain and complain."
Douglas Brown: 303-954-1395 ordjbrown@denverpost.com
Meet Prudence
What:Screening of the film "Music by Prudence," followed by the star of the film, Prudence Mabhena, singing, talking about her life and answering questions.
When:7 p.m. Wednesday
Where:Denver FilmCenter/Colfax, 2510 E. Colfax Ave. in the Lowenstein CulturePlex.

D Day

Sixty-seven years ago, Walter Ehlers landed on a Normandy, France, beach leading a squad of 12 men on D-Day who had no battle experience and had spent their Army tours entertaining the troops.

Ehlers' squad scrambled up the beach under heavy fire, and all his men survived that historic turning point of June 6, 1944. Over 9,000 Allied soldiers died or were wounded. Ehlers' own brother, Roland, was among those killed on another part of the French coastline.

"We had a lot of troops that landed and a lot of them paid the supreme sacrifice," Ehlers, 90, told Reuters, as he sat in his home in Buena Park, California.

Monday marks the anniversary of the pivotal World War Two invasion when 160,000 Allied soldiers, mostly from the United States, Britain and Canada, landed in Normandy to begin the drive to break the German occupation of Europe.

Of the 16 million U.S. soldiers who served in World War II, only 1.7 million are still alive, leaving an aging population to tell their stories from D-Day and other campaigns.

"We got on the beach and they have all these people laying down on the beach that were killed, it was chaos," said Ehlers, who at the time had already fought in North Africa and Italy.

The Germans were firing down on American soldiers from trenches veiled by tall grass, and from several "pillbox" bunkers made of concrete. Mines littered the ground.

The 23 year-old Ehlers, a Kansas native who did not touch liquor or cigarettes, was the sergeant for a free-spirited squad with plenty of experience playing music, but none shooting at the enemy.

One was a banjo player, another was a violist and another played the ukulele, Ehlers said, and they all wanted to dig in at the shore instead of advancing up the beach.

But Ehlers said that was a sure-fire way to die, so they followed him up a path where, on either side, were the bodies of soldiers blown apart by mines. Ehlers and his men eventually got into the trenches with the Germans, where they captured four enemy soldiers and killed or scared off several others.

Then, Ehlers and his squad attacked a pillbox and captured it from behind using only rifles.

"You didn't dare run up in front of them because they'd mow you down, man," he said.

Ehlers had more battles ahead. He received the Medal of Honor for attacks he led on German positions a few days after the landing, making him one of only 3,454 recipients of the highest military decoration awarded by the U.S. government.

"I THOUGHT WE LOST"

For Harold Baumgarten, a 19 year-old Army private from New York, the invasion started badly and quickly got worse.

Baumgarten had avoided seasickness on the boat trip across the English Channel at the start of the battle because he only had some Cadbury chocolate instead of the big breakfasts other soldiers devoured, he recalled in a telephone interview from his home in Jacksonville Beach, Florida.

But soon seasickness was the least of his worries. A German machine gunner mowed down most of the men exiting Baumgarten's boat. There were 30 soldiers in the craft, and only two of them -- including Baumgarten -- survived.

Once on the sand, a shell exploded nearby and ripped off Baumgarten's cheek and left a hole in the roof of his mouth.

After being bandaged, he was rescuing another soldier when more shrapnel hit him in the head.

Maurice Sendak

Why are all the good children's books British? When I browse children's books here in the States it feels like a disproportionate number of them are by British authors (I don't notice this with adult fiction, but then I read less of that).

Well, the short answer is that they are not! If it feels like that now, that is just a fashion. British children's books are excellent but, so too are many published in the US. When I was a growing up and all through the 1970s and 1980s the US produced teen fiction which was the envy of the world, with authors such as Robert Cormier and Paul Zindel writing effortlessly and with deadly accuracy about the complexities of home and school. The US authors were even more distinctly way ahead in the slew of humorous novels about serious subjects including Betsy Byers's The Eighteenth Emergency and Florence Parry Heide's The Shrinking of Treehorn. And the US publishers and children's writers were also busy moving forwards; it was in the US that the major issues of racism in children's books were first tackled with novels such as Paula Fox's The Slave Dancer, Mildred D Taylor's Roll Of Thunder, Hear My Cry, Rosa Guy's The Friends and many, many more. In picture books too, the US produced classics which haven't readily crossed the Atlantic such as Margaret Wise Brown's Goodnight Moon as well as many which have and have lasted equally well here such as Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are. And then there is The Very Hungry Caterpillar and so on. The lists of US books showing success in both markets is endless and they come right up to date with books such as Jeff Kinney Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Dave Pilkey's Captain Underpants or Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson riding high. Both the UK and the US have long and strong traditions of publishing great books for children of all ages. And so does much else of the world but few British or American children get a chance to read anything that isn't originated in English. Why? Now there's a question.
• This article was amended on 3 June 2011. The original suggested that Spot was a US children's fiction series. Eric Hill's Spot is a British series.

Barbados

T&T netballers didn’t stay down for long as they bounced back from their one-goal (43-42) loss to Barbados on Friday night, to crush the visitors, 54-30, yesterday at the Eastern Regional Indoor Sports Arena in Tacarigua. It was the second encounter in a three-match series which started on Friday at the Southern Regional Indoor Sports Arena in Pleasantville, San Fernando and ends today at the Jean Pierre Complex in Mucurapo. The “Calypso Girls” coached by Australian Karen Worland did a far better job defensively compared to their previous match. Defenders Crystal-Ann George, Kielle Connelly and Alicia “Lizzie” Liverpool were rotated in the defense for T&T and they improved greatly from the night before. They were supported well by their shooters, who was led by goal-shooter Anastasia Wilson, who scored 22 goals from 28 attempts. She partnered with captain Janelle Barker, the goal-attack, in the first two periods, helping T&T a 26-13 halftime advantage after leading 13-9 at the end of the opening session.

Barker was then shifted to the goal-shooter position when Joelisa Cooper entered the match as the goal-attack. Cooper went on to add 16 from 22, putting the “Calypso Girls” 17 goals head entering the final period. The duo kept T&T outfront and when Jellene Richardson replaced Cooper in the final five minutes, the local unit stayed resilient and finished off the Barbadians. Shooting for the visitors were Laurel Brown (13/18), Nadia Blackman (9/11) Lydia Bishop (5/6) and Nakita Piggott (3/4). On Friday night, Barker topped the shooting for the eighth ranked team in the world with 17 goals from 19 attempts while Wilson produced 15 from 20. T&T trailing 14-12 and Wilson was replaced by Cooper, who missed only one attempt in her tally of 10. Play remained the same in the second period as the Bajans held on to the two-goal (24-22) lead at the half, thanks to Bishop and Piggott, who opened the shooting for the visitors.
Bishop was the most impressive shooter overall, netting 31 from 36 for the winner. Piggott despite not having much tries at goal was quite accurate, hitting six off seven. Brown also shot for the visiting side and she kept up the shooting for the 10th-ranked Barbadian team with similar scores as Piggott (6/7). Both teams are using the series as a warmup for the upcoming World Championship set for July 3-10 in Singapore. The local girls are expecting a huge turnout to cheer them on against Barbados in the decider today from 4 pm.
Results
Match 2
T&T 42 (Anastasia Wilson 22/28, Joelisa Cooper 16/22, Janelle Barker 15/17, Jellene Richardson 1/2) vs Barbados 43 (Lydia Bishop 5/6, Nakita Piggott 3/4, Laurel Brown 13/18, Nadia Blackman 9/11).
Match 1
T&T 42 (Anastasia Wilson 15/20, Joelisa Cooper 10/11, Janelle Barker 17/19) vs Barbados 43 (Lydia Bishop 31/36, Nakita Piggott 6/7, Laurel Brown 6/7).

Maurice Sendak

Young adult fiction gets its due, what with all the hub-bub about Katniss and the Hunger Games, and I hear there's a movie about vampires and werewolves? Twi-something or other? But can I get a what, what, from the kiddie lit fans this morning? FINALLY we got our due! And we've got Maurice Sendak, Richard Scarry, and the Google Doodle to thank. Egads, kids, we've got a lot of ground to cover.
Sendak -- he of Where the Wild Things Are fame -- is hot, hot, hot on Google because he's publishing a new book! In case you're more YA than kiddie lit fan, let me explain the importance for you. This is the FIRST book book written by the classic author since 1981.
Based on a skit he did for Sesame Street in the 70s, Bumble-Ardy will be hitting the shelves in the form of a half-million book first printing from Harper Collins Children's in the fall. It's a marker for us kiddie lit fans because of the nostalgia factor -- if you happen to remember the skit about the pig throwing himself a 9th birthday party, you can now share it with your kids. Stepping beyond that, Sendak happens to be one of those authors who challenges kids to really think. His books can scare kids, and he's not surprisingly landed on lists of most challenged books and most challenged authors.

I get it. It's "cool" to read young adult fiction these days. But Sendak epitomizes the author of children's literature that cultivates fans of the genre. Stepping beyond the idea that "anyone can write a children's book with some simple words and pretty pictures," he's the rare bird that can write both a story simplistic enough for children to grasp and complex enough to push them ahead. That's how I pick a kid's book these days, if it pushes my kid to learn without bogging her down in inanity. That's pretty dang cool, in my mind.
And then there's Richard Scarry. His 92nd birthday is being honored on Google today. He's the polar opposite of Sendak and then some. And yet, ask me, a kiddie lit obessive, for a short list of illustrators, and he's right up there. Because books aren't simply about the words, are they? At our age, yes. But at 3 or 4, the fantastical, busy, busy worlds of foxes on bikes and lions in houses engages them and forces them to question everything they know. Again, I'm calling it. COOL!
So you can have your Hunger Games, your Twilight. I'll keep my kiddie lit. Thanks to Maurice Sendak and co, there's always a new world to discover.

Ryan Giggs Natasha

Ryan Giggs Natasha

For nearly two decades there has been debate about whether Manchester United football star Ryan Giggs plays his best games at home or away. Now thanks to the NOTW News of the World UK tabloid all those debates have been resolved overnight. Here is the breaking news that Ryan Giggs has been servicing his brother’s wife Natasha on a regular basis for over eight yours.

Now this demonstrates how prolific a striker this football legend is it is alleged that he was the midfield playmaker that made deadly strikes on a his sister in law – the play went along these lines Giggs would hold the play in midfield then his brother would leave the family home at which time Ryan was only an arroused seven inches from the front door, then when the crack in the door opened Giggs slid in!

The emails are already filling our mail boxes asking how in eight years of striking no reports have been released on how many times the uprights and bar were hit by the striker on the way in? We cannot answers those stats at this time but we are aware that the all the lawns and hedges were kept neatly trimmed around the house so we assume that all tufts and bushes around the crack in the door were trimmed sufficiently to ensure a smooth slippery entry around the target!

At this point in time as this story is still developing we do not know yet whether Giggs had to maneuver around a shaved or hairy gateway into the crack making the feedback above inaccurate. But what we do know for sure is for the last eight years at least the scoring record points to Giggs as being one of the best home game strikers of all time. There is an awful lot of evidence to verify that all the strikes were made with a seven inch poke.

If we are wrong about the size and length statistics we feel confident that in the new week the UK tabloid The Sun will correct any facts we await with interest as we cannot ‘Imogen’ what will break next on this saucy sex gossip.

These latest revelations follow a spate of hot gossip about super injunctions that rolled forward at breakneck speed when a UK MP named Ryan Giggs as the man who took out the injunction to stop his name being released as the lover of ex Miss Wales ImogenThomas. This all goes a long way to Giggs being praised as one of the greatest midfield lotharios to ever lace on a pair of football boots!

Ryan Giggs confirmed as expert at poking Natasha Own Goals.

BABA Ramdev News

Yoga guru Baba Ramdev on Sunday said the incident of Saturday night was a black moment for him. Addressing the media after reaching Haridwar, Baba Ramdev said innocent people were addressed to such barbaric acts on Saturday at the Ramlila Maidan.
"I kept on telling the policemen not to torture innocent people. Families and small children were subjected to torture, were not spared, they were dragged and beaten up," Ramdev said.
"On the night of June 4, if we had not stopped our workers from getting agitated then thousands of people would have died. Such kind of cruelty was not even seen in emergency or Jallianwala Bagh," he said. He added, "I am not scared of death. But, I didn't want to die in such a barbaric act."
Baba Ramdev explained how he tried to get out of the pandal by wearing a salwar, kameez. "Tear gas were fired upon. People are still admitted to ICU. For a full 2 hours it was mayhem in the pandal, police was firing tear gas and bullets. I am not scared of death," he said.
He also said that the government kept pressurising him to end his fast. "We were assured that whatever we wanted would be done. We were told that an ordinance will be brought to nationalise black money. We were assured that information regarding corrupt leaders, traders etc will be put in public domain. Everything was agreed upon except for one issue. The issue which was not agreed upon was the issue of nationalising black money stashed in foreign banks. The government was pressurising me to end my fast," he said.
Baba Ramdev claimed that he was forced to give a letter of consent in the hotel. "Manmohan Singh, Sonia Gandhi and Pranab Mukherjee were consulted. I got this information that either I be arrested, put in encounter or taken to an unknown destination," he claimed.
He also claimed that the government wanted him to call off his Satyagraha on June 3. He said, "The government could not see such a large Satyagraha where crores participated across the country. We were forced to write a letter on June 3 that by June 6 we will call off our Satyagraha."

He also claimed that the last letter that was given to him by the government did not mention anything about black money.
He claimed that Kapil Sibal told him that if Anna Hazare shares the stage with him, they won't agree to any of his demands.
Attacking Sonia Gandhi, he also said, "Earlier I didn't used to pay attention to the fact that Sonia Gandhi wasn't born in this country. But, after Saturday night's incident, it shows that she does not have any place for the women and children of this nation."
Baba Ramdev also accused the UPA government of holding black money in foreign banks. He said, " Saturday night's act confirms that Rs 50 lakh crore belong to the Congress and its allies."
He also made it clear that he is not done with his fast and will continue with his agitation.
"I am not done with my fast, I will continue with the Satyagraha, the agitation can't be removed from the hearts of people. If anything happens to me, Sonia Gandhi and the Congress government will be responsible for it," Baba Ramdev said.
Baba Ramdev called AICC General Secretary Digijaya Singh's comments irresponsible and refused to comment further on that. He also claimed to have given details of every penny spent, to the government.
He said that his supporters will peacefully observe black day on Sunday evening and Money.
He asked the government an explanation on the reason behind Saturday night's act. When asked whether his talks will continue with the government, Baba Ramdev said he will update as per developments.
Responding to allegations of breaking the rules, Baba Ramdev said, "I did perform Yoga asanas at Ramlila Maidan and the whole world saw. Speaking against corruption comes under the ethics of Yoga."
Responding to allegations about him working for the RSS and BJP, Baba Ramdev said, "I am not a member of the BJP, never even campaigned for them."

Obedient Wives Club

A Malaysian group urging wives to avoid marital problems by fulfilling their husbands' sexual desires like prostitutes has angered politicians and women's rights groups, the New Straits Times reported on Sunday.
The Obedient Wives Club, which was set up by a group of Muslim women, said domestic violence, infidelity and prostitution stemmed from a lack of belief in God and a failure of women to satisfy their husbands.
The club's president, Rohaya Mohamed, said it was open to women of all religions and would conduct seminars on how to be a good wife as well as offer marriage counseling.
"A man married to a woman who is as good or better than a prostitute in bed has no reason to stray. Rather than allowing him to sin, a woman must do all she can to ensure his desires are met," Rohaya told the newspaper.
Females outnumber males in Malaysian higher education institutions, comprising 65 percent of the intake at public universities last year, according to government data.
But rights groups say women are still often victims of gender bias, and have protested what they considered the club's demeaning portrayal of women as a cause of social problems.
"Abusive men often use women's behavior as a sick justification, but in the end, their actions are their responsibility," said Ratna Osman, acting executive director at rights group Sisters-in-Islam.

"To hinge fidelity, domestic violence and the fulfillment of a husband's responsibilities purely on a wife's capacity to be obedient, stimulate sexual arousal ... is not only demeaning to wives, but to husbands as well," said Women, Family and Community Development Minister Shahrizat Jalil.

Ryan Giggs Sister In Law

Ryan Giggs has found himself hitting headlines once again, this time for an alleged extra-marital affair with his brother’s wife.
A Sunday tabloid has claimed that the Manchester United star embarked on an eight-year relationship with his 28-year-old sister-in-law Natasha.
Following his alleged affair with Big Brother star Imogen Thomas, who was gagged with a super-injunction, now more claims of betrayal have stunned his fans.
The News Of The World today claimed that the multi-millionaire footballer even spent the night with estate agent Natasha last month on April 9.
The tabloid also alleged that Giggs was seeing Natasha behind his wife Stacey’s back while she was pregnant.
The 37-year-old former BBC Sports Personality of the Year is said to have met his brother’s wife in a string of hotels, after first meeting Natasha when she was single in 2003.
A friend of Natasha told the newspaper: ‘I knew it was wrong. It’s the worst possible betrayal. I tried to end it but my relationship with Ryan was like an addiction. Anything he said, I did, I couldn’t say no.’
She continued that it was all on the footballer’s terms and he never told her he loved her.
‘Ryan was never romantic with me. It was all about sex’, the friend said.
Giggs is said to have met Natasha eight-years-ago in Manchester nightclub Sugar Lounge, when she was 20-years-old.
She had apparently recently split from the father of her first child and Giggs was engaged to his now wife Stacey.
Natasha’s friend revealed that he apparently bought her drinks and complimented her appearance before taking her number and allegedly asking her to meet him the following night.
The following night they went to the Living Room bar, where Natasha also met Ryan’s brother Rhodri.
The trio continued onto another club and then dined at a Chinese restaurant for a meal before all heading back to a friend’s house.
The source told the tabloid that this was where Natasha allegedly first slept with Ryan, but afterwards found out that the star had a pregnant girlfriend.
After confronting him about Stacey, Ryan allegedly asked Natasha if he could trust her and claims he didn’t mention his fiancée again.
But Giggs is claimed to have kept in touch with Natasha and regularly meet up with her to have sex.
But in May 2003, Natasha started dating his brother Rhodri and two months later Ryan apparently stopped contacting her.
They are said to have met up at a New Year party at his mother’s house though and Ryan apparently pretended to Stacey that he didn’t know Natasha.
After that they didn’t see each other for a year but Natasha’s friend claims Ryan contacted her once again to resume the alleged affair in the autumn of 2004.
Natasha’s friend said: ‘I then read that Stacey had kicked him out. And a friend told me that they thought Stacey had found a message on Ryan’s phone. I wondered if it was from me.’
Meanwhile, Rhodri proposed to Natasha in 2005 and Ryan was meant to be his best man.
Natasha fell pregnant to Rhodri later that year, but is claimed to have still slept with Ryan during a charity golf tournament in June 2006, according to the newspaper.

Natasha and Rhodri’s son was born in August 2006, while Stacey gave birth to Ryan’s second child Zach two months later.
In June 2008, rumours of the fling had apparently been spreading around Manchester and Natasha is said to have been confronted by one of Ryan’s ex-girlfriends with the question whether it was true.
But as the alleged affair didn’t come out, Rhodri and Natasha finally wed in 2010, but with another pal Will Mellor stepping in as best man instead of Ryan.
The allegations come after Ryan Gigg’s alleged affair with former Miss Wales Imogen Thomas surfaced last month.
The pair are said to have had a six month fling, which Imogen is still prohibited from discussing due to a super-injunction gagging her.

Singapore Flood

Singapore Flood

Intense and heavy rain on Sunday morning resulted in flash floods in various parts of Singapore.

Callers to the MediaCorp hotline reported flooding in areas such as Cuscaden Road, Hillcrest Road, Eng Neo Avenue, Sennett Estate near Potong Pasir, MacPherson, Toa Payoh, and Balestier.

They also reported fallen trees caused by the downpour and gusty wind.

Parts of Orchard Road were also reported to be affected by flooding, especially along the stretch of Tanglin Mall.

Both Tanglin Mall and Forum Shopping Mall were affected with many stores having to close temporarily.

MediaCorp understands that water levels were about ankle-deep.

The ground level and basement of the malls were the hardest hit.

Some shoppers had problems getting to their cars, with most having to wait until they were given the green light to go to the carpark.

When MediaCorp visited the malls, store owners and employees there said that they had been cleaning up for more than two hours.

Earlier, two lanes along Bukit Timah Road and the slip road of the Kranji Expressway towards Woodlands were impassable to traffic.

National water agency PUB said various areas in the central and western parts of Singapore were hit by flooding. It advised the public to be careful on these roads.

Drivers were advised to avoid these roads.

In a statement at 12.15pm, PUB said the flash floods reported earlier along Bukit Timah Road (the stretch from Blackmore Road to Maplewood Road) and Dunearn Road (from Rifle Range Road to Yarwood Road) as well as at Orchard Road (Cuscaden Road - at the Tanglin/Tomlinson Road junction and Tanglin/Napir Road junction) had subsided.

These roads are now passable to traffic.

In Bukit Timah, the management committee of Tessarina condominium told MediaCorp that residents were alerted by a siren on Sunday morning when the Bukit Timah canal burst its banks.

Many drove their cars out of the basement to higher grounds.

The flood barrier at the condominium was also activated as a preventive measure.

The condominium was one of the places badly affected by previous floods.

Ramdev Arrested

Yoga guru Baba Ramdev was flown out of Delhi to Dehra Dun by a special plane after the police swooped down on his hunger strike at the Ramlila Maidan in a midnight operation.
Baba Ramdev, who was initially taken to an undisclosed destination from the protest site, was flown to Dehra Dun from Palam Airport this morning, officials said.
On his arrival at the Jolly Grant Airport near Dehra Dun, Baba Ramdev, who was alone, was received by Uttarakhand government officials, they said.
“He was alone when he landed. He was received by officials at the airport. He will now proceed to Haridwar where he has an ashram,” Dehra Dun Senior Superintendent of Police G. S. Martolia said.

While leaving the airport for his ashram, he refused to speak to media persons, saying that he will hold a press conference later.

Kapil Sibal

Human resource development minister Kapil Sibal claimed that yoga guru Baba Ramdev had on Friday promised to call off his fast by Saturday afternoon if his demands were met. Sibal displayed a letter given on behalf of Ramdev. As a follow-up to the letter, Sibal claimed that the government contacted
Ramdev on phone on Saturday afternoon as he had not called off the fast.
Sibal said the government was ready to make a law to make ill gotten money stashed away in foreign countries as national asset. For drafting the law, a committee will be appointed with a six month time frame.
"The readiness to form a committee means the government is committed to make the law," Sibal added.
However, Ramdev continued his fast at the Ramlila Ground, denied the government's version and described Sibal's claim as "betrayal". He declared that he will not end the fast till the government gives a written assurance on their demands.
As he asked the thousands of people gathered at the grounds as to "who will support me till their last breath if I am arrested", the supporters raised their hands in unison.

Sibal claimed that all the demands of Ramdev have been met by the government. The government has agreed to make a law declaring black money as a national asset and to award severe punishment to the offenders.
He said that Ramdev had "misapprehensions" about the government approach, which he wanted to clarify.
Sibal said the government had made public its acceptance of other demands of Ramdev, which included monitoring of people's travel to tax havens, and enactment of a public services delivery law.

HON

HON

The thought of election 2012 scares me. I can feel the temperature rising by the minute. It is unfortunately making me revise my long held views that our dear nation Ghana will never go through the unfortunate incidents that plagued Liberia, Sierra Leone, Cote d’Ivoire and some other African nations. In fact I am now so sure that there can be civil war in Ghana someday soon if we continue to thread this dangerous path.

My beef today is the report made by Hon. Inusah Fuseini on the floor of the Ghanaian Parliament on June 01, 2011. This had to do with his allegations that Hon. Kwabena Amankwa Asiamah, MP for Fanteakwa had made some disparaging remarks about the people of northern Ghana whilst contributing to a debate on the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA). SADA is a developmental agency instituted by the government of Ghana to improve the livelihood conditions within the Northern, Upper East, Upper West and some parts of the Volta and Brong- Ahafo regions of Ghana.

I listened to the Fanteakwa MP on Peace FM and to Hon. Fuseini's assertions on Joy FM. If Hon. Fuseini, a lawyer by profession, who obviously seems to have very little literary prowess over the Twi language, really believes what the Fanteakwa MP said on radio in Twi is exactly what he read in parliament in English today then either I do not understand both Twi and English or people like him are just too eager to hold on to political power even at the cost of destroying our nation.


At least I can say without any doubt that Hon. Amankwa Asiamah never said northerners are lazy in his submissions. I wonder why Hon. Fuseini did not add that the Fanteakwa MP as part of his submissions questioned why the offices of SADA is being located in Accra instead of Tamale or any of the major towns in the areas concerned. The conclusions I drew from the Fanteakwa MP’s contribution was that though affirmative action (SADA) is positive and necessary sometimes, evidence abound that it does not always yield the desired results. He alluded to the vast resources of northern Ghana and added that in the light of these resources, the erroneous impression held by many Ghanaians that northerners are poor cannot hold water. He thus called for a rejection of this impression. Also in addition was his claim that affirmative action tends to be discriminatory.

What were Hon. Fuseini’s motives? Has it got anything to do with the difficulties he and some of his colleagues are having with their constituents because of the illusory promises they are supposed to have made to the people of Dagbon subsequent to the callous and barbaric incidents that led to the demise of Ya-Na Yakubu Andani, the then Overlord of Dagbon, which have so far not materialized? Even if Hon. Fuseini’s assertions were to be true, was the floor of Parliament the most appropriate channel for redress? Could he not have filed a direct complaint to Madam Speaker, the Leadership or the Privileges Committee of the House? Or was the creation of this un-necessary drama that can tear our nation into shreds a part of a grand agenda?
The rate at which families and tribes are being set up against one another in Ghana by these politicians fully aided by very un-ethical media organizations calls for concern. I bet I will not be wrong to fully predict without any room for a margin of error that come next year when the electioneering campaign is fully at its apogee, the playing up of tribal differences and ethnocentrism will be the order of the day.

One would have wished that in 2011, when others are busily planning an onslaught on the Planet Mars, our elected elite will be doing something worthwhile, like finding some home grown and lasting solutions to minor challenges like malaria and cholera. But no, they will not do so. In addition they will not give us the space and peace to think to improve our lot. They will rather cause us to fight unnecessary battles for space, territory and recognition without any clear cut ideals and ideas. Ghana deserves better, much better than the gutter “dog eats dog” politics we are being served daily.

Fossil

In many technical papers describing fossil creatures, artists give readers a glimpse of prehistory through reconstructions of what those animals might have looked like in life. Not so with Pucadelphys andinus. In a paper published this week in Nature, artist S. Fernandez depicted a pair of the possum-like creatures at a critical point in their individual histories – just after death but before their soft tissues were stripped away to leave behind only fossilized bones.
The reason why Fernandez restored the small, fuzzy mammals right up to the point of death has everything to do with the way the creatures died. For the most part, the fossil record of small mammals consists of teeth and bits of jaw. Complete skeletons are exceptionally rare, and the few scraps of tiny mammal bones are often found in isolation. But Pucadelphys andinus, a marsupial that inhabited prehistoric Bolivia not long after the end-Cretaceous mass extinction 65 million years ago, was different. Thirty five individuals of this extinct mammal of different age groups were all found in close proximity, paleontologist Sandrine Ladevèze and colleagues report, and this collection of tiny bones may provide the oldest direct evidence of mammal social behavior yet known.
Tiupampa, Bolivia was very different during the time of Pucadelphys. Though the location was at roughly the same latitude then as it is now, Ladevèze and co-authors note, the sites at Tiupampa were actually lower in altitude and represent a lush tropical rainforest akin to the modern day Amazon. Dead animals are often rapidly recycled in these environments – bodies are often destroyed by insects, fungi, and bacteria before there is a chance of them being buried. How, then, did so many well-preservedPucadelphys fossils wind up in so small an area?

Instead of being busted apart into a mass of disarticulated bones and skeletal fragments, thePucadelphys individuals held together and were mixed among each other in two small sites about ten feet apart from each other. The mammals appear to have been rapidly killed and buried in a single event – perhaps when a local pond or lake flooded. (The discovery of an intact crocodile nest and the semi-complete, articulated skeletons of other small animals nearby reinforces the idea that the small-scale catastrophe rapidly buried animals in place.) Exactly what this aggregation means for the biology of these animals is another matter.
The hypothesis of Ladevèze and colleagues is that the two Pucadelphys sites represent a social group consisting of adult males, adult females, and sub-adults. They arrived at this conclusion by reviewing possible explanations for why these animals might be found together, especially since similar, modern-day marsupials such as possums and dasyurids are often solitary and territorial. While it is conceivable that the Pucadelphys came together to breed, the presence of immature animals conflicts with this hypothesis and no living possum species is known to come together in such numbers to mate. Nor does it seems likely that these animals were nesting together to share body heat and stay warm – the tropical habitat would have been plenty hot. The rapid burial of a large number of animals of different ages would seem to indicate that these animals were living in some sort social group when they died.
Frustratingly, this hypothesis is difficult to confirm. In their contribution to the book on assemblages of fossil animals – simply called Bonebeds – paleontologists Donald Brinkman, David Eberth, and Philip Currie wrote “[E]very bonebed provides an opportunity to glimpse some aspect of paleobiology.” Exactly what glimpses those aggregations offer depends on how the bonebed came together. A bonebed might represent a single catastrophic event or might have accumulated over time, and just because a group of animals is found in close association does not necessarily mean that they were a cohesive social group when they died. “[R]esearchers should also be critical of using the presence of the death assemblage itself as the primary evidence for normal or day-to-day aggregation paleobehavior,” Brinkman and colleagues cautioned, adding “Paleoenvironmental stresses such as floods, fire, drought, volcanic eruptions, and even disease often result in temporary and atypical aggregations and mass-death events among modern animals, and the same is likely to have occurred in the past.”
Mating season and nesting behavior can be ruled out as reasons for the Pucadelphys assemblage based upon inferences taken from living marsupials, but testing for environmental stresses that may have brought the animals together is difficult to accomplish. The thirty five animals were in close association when they perished – the way the fossil site was created testifies to that – but might their be alternative explanations for their closeness?  If flooding killed and buried these animals, for example, perhaps raised water levels swamped the local Pucadelphys burrows and forced them into one of the few remaining dry patches shortly before their deaths. Even if this alternative is false, the fact remains that it is extremely difficult to distinguish whether a bonebed indicates consistent social behavior or is the result of a single, unusual event. Discoveries of additional Pucadelphys sites elsewhere containing multiple individuals would throw support to the idea that these marsupials were gregarious, but, given the nature of fossil preservation, such localities may be difficult to find. Bonebeds, as spectacular are they can be, are often some of the most puzzling fossil mysteries.

CCTV

Sixteen months after a mother of three was last seen alive a man has been convicted of her murder thanks to a trail caught on professional cctv recorders.

The fatal lasts moments of Mary McLaren's life were played out to the jury at the High Court in Edinburgh which convicted Patrick Rae.

Surveillance camera systems inside Fat Sams nightclub in Dundee recorded Rae's interaction with Mary McLaren. Images from 25 February 2010 clearly showed Rae paying a lot of attention to Mary and her sister. Then as the pair exited the club, CCTV also caught them leaving, proving that the 41-year-old had been with Mary in the hours before her death.

By studying images captured on professional cctv recorders of nearby streets police saw the couple up until about 0247 GMT at the Ladywell roundabout in Dundee. Then two weeks after her disappearance, Mrs McLaren's body was discovered in undergrowth near the roundabout in Dundee city centre.

Boys Names

American Legion Post 852 of Temecula recently announced the selection of four local high school juniors to attend Boys State national program.
David Mora and Ryan Sebastian were selected from Great Oak High School.
Ryan Talamantes from Murrieta Valley and James Jesperson from Vista Murrieta were also selected.
There were over 30 junior boys in the three high schools who expressed interest in the program.
Legionnaires conducted individual interviews seeking the candidates who would gain the greatest benefit from the program and use the experience gained during their senior year of high school.
The Temecula post sponsors this program for junior boys in high schools every year.
Boys State is a national American Legion program which enables high school junior boys to attend a one week legislative learning session in their respective state’s capital.

In California, over 800 boys from throughout the state, all sponsored by American Legion posts, attend the session held in Sacramento.
The boys are lodged in the dormitories of Sacramento State University for a full week during June.
During the week, they are immersed in the workings of the legislative processes of local, state and federal governments with hands-on participation.
The week concludes with a visit to the state capitol and an audience with the sitting state governor.

Annie Le

A Yale research technician was sentenced to 44 years in prison Friday for strangling graduate student Annie Le just days before her 2009 wedding.
Raymond Clark III, 26, who worked as an animal research assistant at the same lab where 24-year-old Le was studying treatments for chronic diseases, had pleaded guilty in March to strangling her after attempting to sexually assault her.
Le, a doctoral pharmacology student and native of Placerville, Calif., was reported missing five days before her wedding toColumbia University graduate studentJonathan Widawsky.
Her body was found stuffed inside a wall of the research lab on the day she would have been married.
Her family recounted the shock of planning a funeral instead of a wedding in an emotional pre-sentencing hearing that even brought Clark's fiance to tears.
"She told me many times how happy she was to start her family," said her mother,Vivian Van Le.

"I will never see her walking down the aisle. I will never hold my grandchildren. I will never see Annie's dreams come true."
"I only see my Annie in my dreams," she said.
Le's brother, Chris Le, testified that since his sister's murder, he has struggled with depression.
"I was in school, now I'm not," Le said. "I never had a DUI, now I do. I never found solace in experimenting with drugs, I did in my darkest moments. I never had to see a psychologist, but I do that now."
Another relative, Ryan Nguyen, told how his younger brother Sean, who was supposed to be the ring bearer at Le's wedding, played with a teddy bear Le had intended to give him on the flight out of New Haven days after her death.
Before handing down his sentence, Judge Roland Fasano told Clark that he'd destroyed the lives of two families and taken the life of a promising young woman.
Clark apologized for killing Le and stuffing her dead body in the wall of the research lab.
"Annie was and will always be a wonderful person, by far a better person that I will never be in my life," Clark said.
"I'm sorry I lied. I'm sorry I ruined lives and I'm sorry for taking Annie Le's life," he said.
Authorities testified that Clark left a bloody crime scene and that he had scrubbed the lab's floors and tried to hide a box of cleaning wipes in an attempt to clean up after himself.
Investigators also recovered Clark's semen at the scene and his DNA on a pen found under Le's body.

CCTV

A BURGLAR who has plagued Aylesbury has been sentenced to four years behind bars for a string of crimes.

Anthony Wilson, aged 19, of Buckingham Road, pleaded guilty to burglary after he was identified on CCTV selling stolen goods.
Wilson admitted breaking into houses in Fleet Street, Hereford Way and Meadowcroft during April and May.
Having broken in he then stole a number of items including a games console, a laptop and a selection of DVDs.
Police officers were able to identify Wilson through forensic evidence and using CCTV footage which showed Wilson attempting to sell the stolen property.
He was sent to prison for four years at Aylesbury Crown Court on May 24.

Neighbourhood inspector Omar Abu-Rish said “This is an example of some great investigative work by our local investigation department.
“The lengthy sentence passed by the crown court reflects the gravity of entering a person’s home while committing crime, this has been a distressing experience for the residents concerned.”
“Overall we have had a 32 per cent reduction in house burglaries so far this year.
“This is on top of our strong reductions last year so our message is still the same – Aylesbury Vale is still one of the safest areas to live and work in the region and we will continue to bring to justice those who commit crime in our town.”