Boredom strikes! 01 (Jul 08 - Oct 09)

[winston]

Naked couple surprises diners in Singapore stroll

Reuters - Wednesday, January 28SINGAPORE, Jan 28 - A couple treated open air diners to a 15-minute naked parade in Singapore, triggering both embarrassment and applause for a scene almost unheard of in the conservative city-state.

Pub manager Terence Chia told the Straits Times newspaper he saw the couple taking off their clothes on Saturday night at a staircase in a block of flats in Holland Village, known for its popular nightspots.

"Then, clothes in hand, they coolly walked in their flip-flops towards the market," he said, adding when the couple did a U-turn a sea of spectators was ready and poised with cameras.

"There were more than 200 people and everyone was taking pictures," the newspaper on Wednesday quoted Chia as saying. "Even women were busy clicking and people were cheering, whistling and applauding like crazy."

Police said the couple, a Caucasian man and an ethnic Chinese woman in their 20s, had been arrested and released on bail. If convicted under Singapore law, they could face a fine of maximum fine of S$2000 , up to 3 months in jail, or both.

Protests are rare in Singapore and only made legal last year in a designated area called "Speakers' Corner", modelled on London's Hyde Park.

"They looked really comfortable walking down the street, which led to many curious stares," wrote blogger Leonard Tan. "Singapore is getting more and more exciting

[millionairemind]

Just TOL, if you are Hank Paulson, wouldn't you be so relieved that your time as the Treasury Secretary is OVER???

If you are Geithner, Y the hell would you want to take this job???

Geithner Sets Limits on Lobbying for Bailout Money

WASHINGTON — The new Treasury secretary, Timothy F. Geithner, announced on Tuesday that he would crack down on lobbying to influence the $700 billion financial bailout program by companies that are receiving billions in taxpayer money.

Mr. Geithner, who was confirmed on Monday, also said he would set new limits intended to prevent political interference with decisions about which companies received bailout money.

Among other steps, the Treasury department said it would make public a log of all contacts by public officials and bank officials regarding specific financial institutions.

The log will be posted on the department’s Web site and updated weekly, it said.

The announcement followed several recent news reports about attempts by corporate lobbyists and members of Congress to influence the bailout program, including decisions about which banks should receive taxpayer funds.

[kennynah]

cos ,....it pays to be the treasury sec....

[winston]

No money, no honey ...

High-risk riches for Mexico's "narco wives"By Catherine Bremer

CULIACAN, Mexico (Reuters) - Teenage girls in northwest Mexico are dazzled by the glamorous "narco wives" who laze in beauty salons, draped in designer gear, getting Swarovski crystals glued onto their fingernails.

Each year, dozens compete in beauty pageants in the sun-baked hills of Sinaloa state where their legendary good looks draw wealthy drug traffickers who will sometimes pluck one out and spirit her off to a mountain hide-out.

Career prospects are few for Sinaloan girls, and landing a prominent drug trafficker means entering a world of untold riches -- luxury mansions, SUVs, endless spa sessions and a closet full of the priciest labels on the planet.

The dangers of getting sucked into the gangland world have jumped, however, as an army crackdown by President Felipe Calderon has sparked new turf wars and hitmen ignore old codes against slaying their enemies' wives, girlfriends or children.

In a sobering reminder of the risks they run, the reigning "Miss Sinaloa" beauty queen was arrested last month with her smuggler boyfriend in a truck full of guns and cash.

Days earlier, a top drug boss's former lover was found dead in a car trunk with "Z"s -- the mark of a rival gang's hit squad -- cut into her breasts, belly and buttocks.

"It's dangerous to get involved with these people. The risk is there for any pretty girl," said model agency director Juan Manuel Alvarado in his office, crammed with trophies and photos in fake leopard-fur frames, in the state capital Culiacan.

Sinaloans say their striking looks come from tall indigenous ancestors who mixed with French, German and Greek settlers, and the state is rich with swashbuckling tales of drug lords whisking girls from villages, luring them to parties at ranches or even kidnapping them at gunpoint.

What is new is that more and more women are being murdered in a war that killed around 5,700 people nationwide last year.

"I never let them go to private events or ranches, or give their phone numbers. I don't let them out of my sight," said Alvarado, glancing protectively at three of his models.

Outside, the cartels' presence is obvious, from gleaming SUVs with tinted windows but no plates to the safe houses dotted about and the businesses like plastic surgery clinics and fancy boutiques that locals say are used to launder money.

NARCO CHIC

Most ostentatious are the domed mausoleums erected in cemeteries for drug war victims. Built with windows, air conditioning and an upstairs room for the family to sit and mourn, they are filled with giant portraits, party balloons, toys and models of the victim's favorite guns and cars.

The wealth that drug lords splash about, especially to help rural communities, and the power they exert earn them respect from old Sinaloans and from youths who think narco chic, like ostrich-leather boots, rhinestones and gold pendants of a local folk hero bandit, is the ultimate cool.

For Miss Sinaloa, or Laura Zuniga, a leggy 23-year-old with piercing dark eyes, eye-popping curves and long black hair, a pair of glittering Chanel earrings were visible as she posed forlornly in a gray cardigan for her police mugshot

With her husky voice and fair skin, another Sinaloa beauty, Zulema Yulia Hernandez, won the attentions of top drug lord Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman when they were in jail in the 1990s.

Once out, she lived a glamorous life working for his Sinaloa cartel, but it ended horribly in December when she was suffocated, shot and dumped in a car near Mexico City. The "Z"s sliced into her and smeared with black ink suggest her murder was an attack by the rival Gulf cartel's "Zetas" hitmen.

"It's more dangerous than before to be around these people because they are out of the control of their bosses," said a newspaper editor in Culiacan who asked not be quoted by name.

"For years there were codes. The family was respected. But they're being broken. Last year we saw many more women die."

BOUQUETS, DECAPITATIONS

Nestled between the Pacific ocean and the western Sierra Madre mountains, Sinaloa's fertile plains teem with tomatoes and beans, and the hills where marijuana and poppies have thrived for decades spawned Mexico's first drug barons.

As U.S. demand for cocaine exploded in the 1980s, top trafficker Miguel Angel "The Godfather" Felix Gallardo molded cartel leaders like Guzman, who ran Sinaloan smuggling routes from his ranch in the hills and got into throwing lavish parties decked with pretty girls.

Then chills rippled through the state when the raven-haired wife, Guadalupe, of Guzman's ally Hector "El Guero" Palma, was seduced away and decapitated in 1989 by a Venezuelan on the payroll of a rival drug faction.

Her killer also pushed her two children off a bridge to their death and sent Guadalupe's head back in a box to Culiacan, where a morbid portrait of the three now adorns their tomb.

"They are revenge killings. They settle scores. One way to hurt a rival is to kill the woman he loves most," said Ricardo Ravelo, a veteran drug reporter at Mexico's hard-hitting news magazine Proceso.

Such high-profile murders did not deter 18-year-old beauty pageant winner Emma Coronel from marrying Guzman, who is three times her age, in a lavish secret ceremony in 2007, not long after he escaped from the prison where he and Hernandez were lovers.

Culiacan residents say they sometimes spot Coronel at the salons that do eyelash implants and decorate false nails with garish designs or photos of loved ones. Local reporters say her parents feel like they've won the lottery.

Yet Coronel is tracked by security wherever she goes, and while capos like Guzman are said to have many lovers, she may never be free to leave him or his clan.

"They fall for the idea that having a narco means a life of luxury," said Martin Meza, mayor of the town of Badiraguato where Guzman was born. "They give them the life of a queen. But afterward these women become untouchable."

Stories abound of men shot for flirting with a trafficker's girlfriend and schoolgirls terrified by the delivery of dangerously expensive bouquets to their classrooms.

"It's hard to say 'No' nicely so that they get the message without getting angry. It's very scary," Sinaloa beauty queen Rosa Maria Ojeda, who was pestered by a capo for months after she won a 2006 pageant, told the daily Reforma.

[winston]

It's Good to Know: Reading the Riot Act

Delinquent children, misbehaving students, errant employees... all may be "read the riot act." It's an idiomatic expression that we use when talking about forcefully warning or reprimanding someone.

Where did the expression come from? Turns out there really was a Riot Act - a British law enacted by Parliament in 1714 to discourage crowds from assembling and disturbing the peace. Per the law, a magistrate would read a short portion of the Act (something about the King demanding that protestors or rioters disperse immediately). If the crowd (defined by the Act as any group over 12) wasn't gone within an hour, those still assembled were charged with a felony, potentially punishable by death.

(Source: Schott's Original Miscellany)

[winston]

Indonesian 'sex cult' leader arrested

AFP - Friday, January 30JAKARTA (AFP) - - An Indonesian cult head accused of leading his followers in wild orgies and giving sermons in his underpants was arrested Thursday and faces charges of "lewd acts" and insulting religion, police said.

Agus Noro, the head of the Satria Piningit Weteng Buwono sect, turned himself in early in the morning after a three-day hunt, Jakarta police spokesman Zulkarnain told AFP.

Noro, who is called Agus Imam Solihin or "leader of the faithful" by followers, is alleged to have had sex with his disciples and instructed them to have group sex while he watched in the sect's mansion outside Jakarta.

"We're investigating him based on a report made by a female follower named Kartiningsih on January 26. She complained that Noro had asked her to massage him and touch his genitals," Zulkarnain said.

"She was also made to have sex with him, while her husband and followers watched," he added.

"Lewd acts" and insulting religion carry jail terms of up to nine years and seven years respectively, Zulkarnain said.

"If our investigations prove that he carried out lewd acts, we'll name him a suspect and hand him over to the court," Zulkarnain said.

"He has about 40 followers, all adults. At the beginning, Noro told them to pray and carry out religious recitations. After several months, he told them he was God and that they didn't have to do that any more," Zulkarnain said.

Noro gave religious sermons wearing only his underpants and told his disciples they would be taught "Kamasutra" sex techniques to use in the afterlife, former follower Eko was quoted as saying by news website Okezone.

"We just obeyed like we'd been hypnotised," Eko said.

Police described the sex guru, believed to be in his 40s, as looking "cool... just like youngsters nowadays," with dyed brown hair and fair skin, the website reported.

[kennynah]

wah dao....how can people be so gullible one ???

[millionairemind]

wah dao....how can people be so gullible one ???

90% of the people are weak minded and are looking for someone to lead them, unfortunately...

[winston]

23 nabbed in Bangkok sex party

A British man has been charged in Thailand for organizing so-called ''swinging'' parties during which couples swap sexual partners.

Christian Arthur Richards, 54, was arrested with six Thais and 16 foreigners, including US, French, Indian and Chinese citizens, at one of the parties in a Bangkok hotel.

Tourist police commander Colonel Archayon Kraithong said Richards advertised the orgies on his website, and then charged 3,000 baht (HK$663) for couples and singles to participate.

The 22 participants from Thailand, China, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, France, the United States and Australia were released after paying 1,000 baht fines.

Richards, married to a Thai, is alleged to have organized at least 100 parties in Bangkok and Pattaya over the last three years.

AGENCE FRANCAIS

[kennynah]

The 22 participants from Thailand, China, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, France, the United States and Australia were released after paying 1,000 baht fines.

it costs more to buy a bottle of singha beer !!! what a load of crap