- Latest Popular Stories, Instablogs Community by G_elliott

Man gets genitals stuck in pipe, removed by operation

Elliott — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 07:20:50 +0000

Medics at Southampton General Hospital could not get the man’s penis out of the stainless steel pipe because the restricted blood flow had caused it to become aroused. So they called in Hampshire Fire and Rescue...

Pragmatism spurs Russia and Georgia toward smoother relations

Elliott — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 13:17:45 +0000

The invective between Kremlin leaders and Georgian President Mikhael Saakashvili continues to fly furiously, even though the gunfire from last year’s brief Russo-Georgian war has died down.

But amid growing rumors that diplomatic rapprochement may be in the air, experts say some practical necessities are dragging the two antagonists toward at least a partial settlement of their differences.

The signs include last week’s deal to reopen a single border post on the major Caucasus highway and a possible agreement to resume direct air links.

“The prevailing mood in Georgia is that relations with Russia should be improved, and the government should work more actively toward that end,” says Georgi Khutsishvili, director of the independent Center on Conflict and Negotiation in Tbilisi.

Horrifying moment as human traffickers sold a sex slave in broad daylight on Oxford Street

Elliott — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 12:08:19 +0000

Pimps sold a young woman as a sex slave in broad daylight on Britain’s busiest shopping street.

A brothel owner paid just £3,000 for the Lithuanian victim, a woman in her 20s, in the transaction on London’s Oxford Street.

Police surveillance footage shows an Albanian man handing over the cash to two of his countrymen outside Selfridges department store as shoppers pass by, unaware of what is happening.

Behind derailing Tony Blair’s bid for EU Presidency: Angela Merkel

Elliott — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 11:46:37 +0000

Tony Blair warned Gordon Brown a week ago that his campaign to become the first president of the European Council was doomed after a decisive intervention by the German chancellor Angela Merkel, according to senior Whitehall sources.

To the dismay of key ministers, who wanted Brown to push for Britain to take an economic portfolio in the European commission once Blair’s hopes were dashed, Brown insisted on maintaining his candidacy until moments before Thursday’s European summit.

The prime minister hailed the summit as a victory after Britain secured one of the two jobs created under the Lisbon treaty – the high representative for foreign policy taken by Britain’s current European commissioner, Lady Ashton.

Former British Corporal: Every Member Of My Unit Abused Iraqis

Elliott — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 10:31:23 +0000

A former soldier convicted in connection with the death of an Iraqi hotel worker has accused an officer of pretending to set a young detainee on fire and claimed that every member of his unit committed abuses against civilians during the war.

Donald Payne, a former corporal and the first member of the Armed Forces to be convicted of a war crime, told a public inquiry into the death of Baha Mousa, a hotel receptionist, that he covered-up prisoner abuses when interviewed in 2003-2004 because of “misguided loyalty”.

He claimed to have witnessed a former Lieutenant, Craig Rodgers, place a jerry can of petrol filled with water in front of an Iraqi boy and pour the liquid over him before lighting a match.

In North Korea, the military now issues economic orders

Elliott — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 12:27:42 +0000

North Korea’s military, whose nuclear program vexes the Obama administration, has grabbed nearly complete command of the nation’s state-run economy and staked out a lucrative new trade in mineral sales to China to make money for its...

When it comes to gender equality, Iceland is world's beacon

Elliott — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 12:32:28 +0000

The global recession has unseated its government and clobbered its economy — even McDonald’s is jumping ship — but when it comes to gender equality, Iceland is the world’s beacon. The tiny island nation tops the World Economic Forum’s 2009 Gender Gap Index, the group’s fourth annual assessment of global equality between the sexes. With more women elected to Parliament and advances in female economic and educational participation, Iceland leapfrogged its larger Nordic neighbors, edging Finland, Norway (last year’s No. 1) and Sweden to lead an all-Scandinavian top four — an honor determined by measuring the gap between female and male economic participation, educational attainment, political empowerment and quality of health in 134 countries.

Britain overtakes US as top financial centre

Elliott — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 09:06:30 +0000

The ranking, compiled by the World Economic Forum (WEF), places the UK at the top of a leader board of 55 of the world’s largest financially-focussed countries. The US, which had previously held the top spot, slipped to third, behind...

Gas mask bra traps Ig Nobel prize

Elliott — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 09:03:57 +0000

Designers of a bra that turns into gas masks and a team who found that named cows produce more milk were among the winners of the 2009 Ig Nobel prizes.

The aim of the awards is to honour achievements that “first make people laugh and then make them think”.

The peace prize went to a Swiss research team who determined whether it is better to be hit over the head with a full or empty bottle of beer.

The ceremony was organised by the magazine Annals of Improbable Research.

Swiss say no to troops against Somali pirates

Elliott — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 13:10:33 +0000

Switzerland will not join the European Union’s anti-piracy efforts, lawmakers decided Thursday amid concern that participating in the mission off Somalia could violate the Alpine nation’s long-standing neutrality.

The government — weakened by giving in to U.S. and European pressure on its banking secrecy rules and a dispute with Libya — had proposed joining the EU mission in hopes of boosting relations with its European neighbors.

Though lawmakers in the upper house, or Council of States, had approved the proposal, the National Council voted 102-81 Thursday against sending a 30-strong Swiss contingent to the EU naval operation under way in the Gulf of Aden.

“In the end it’s about being involved in combat operations, and this clearly contradicts neutrality,” said Martin Baltisser, spokesman for the nationalist Swiss People’s Party.

Lawmakers also noted during the pre-vote debate that landlocked Switzerland has no warships of its own.

The EU mission — called Operation Atalanta — has about 10 ships and several maritime patrol airplanes assigned to protecting cargo ships and aid shipments off the Somali coast. Britain, France, Germany, non-EU Norway and neutral Sweden are among the countries that have contributed some 2,000 military personnel, and shipless contingents are generally assigned to land-based tasks.