IGIHE

Tag: InternationalNews

  • French Sex-toy Market Seduced by Green Appeal

    {{Sex sells, but French entrepreneurs are discovering that so does organic.}}

    Eager to please environmentally-conscious consumers, French manufacturers and retailers of sex toys and other adult products are going green, and reportedly finding the unexpected liaison is good business.

    It is the case of Divinextases, a brand specializing in organic erotic cosmetics that was launched two years ago. The company sells an array of products including edible perfumes, massage oils and even a post-spanking balm.

    The company claims on its website that all its products are made from 98% to 99.5% organic ingredients, are palm oil-free, and bottled and packaged in recycled glass and cardboard.

    Divinextases president Frederic Donnat told media that sales tripled to 450,000 euros once he refocused the brand around the eco-friendly spirit. The cosmetics pioneer has even secured a quality label from France’s national organic federation.

    Claude Laboratoires is another French business who has seen profits rise on the success of its “100% organic, 100% made in France” erotic supplements.

    It markets its so-called “Virile Virgil” pills as a completely natural alternative to erectile-dysfunction drug Viagra. The company’s line of sex-enhancing products includes tablets to naturally increase vaginal lubrication, promote anal sex and boost stamina.

    The company, which sells its products online and in its own Paris boutique, has said that it projects sales to increase by 300% next year.

    france24

  • Indian Submarine Explodes

    An Indian navy submarine with about 18 sailors on board has caught fire after an explosion and sank at a port in Mumbai.

    Navy spokesperson Narendra Vispute said on Wednesday that efforts were being made to ascertain the safety of the personnel feared to be trapped on board the diesel-powered submarine.

    “There are no reports of casualties at the moment,” he added.

    The cause of the explosion is being investigated, the navy spokesman said. Further details were not available.

    Fire started at midnight and went on till 5:30-6:00am local time, he said.

    The submarine was nearly submerged at its berth in the naval dockyard.

    Indian media reports say the 16-year-old Russian-made submarine, INS Sindhurakshak, had recently returned from Russia after undergoing an overhaul and upgrade.

    wirestory

  • Norway Prime Minister Works as Secret Taxi Driver

    {{Norwegian PM Jens Stoltenberg spent an afternoon working incognito as a taxi driver in Oslo, he has revealed.}}

    Mr Stoltenberg said he had wanted to hear from real Norwegian voters and that taxis were one of the few places where people shared their true views.

    He wore sunglasses and an Oslo taxi driver’s uniform for the shift in June, only revealing his identity once he was recognised by his passengers.

    His exchanges with his passengers were captured on a hidden camera.

    The footage – made in collaboration with an advertising company – has been posted on the Prime Minister’s Facebook page and made into a film which will be used as part of his campaign for re-election in September.

    “It is important for me to hear what people really think,” he told Norwegian media.

    “And if there is one place people really say what they think about most things, it’s in the taxi.”

    {{Driving errors}}

    Some of the passengers who appear in the film had been told to wait for the taxi – without being told who would be driving – while others were picked up randomly and from taxi ranks.

    Most of them appear to realise very quickly that there is something different about their driver, with one saying: “From this angle you really look like Stoltenberg.”

    Another says she was lucky to meet him as she “wanted to send a letter”.

    The conversation turns to politics in most cases.

    Mr Stoltenberg engages one passenger on education, saying: “The main point is to make sure good students have something to stretch for, and to give those who struggle extra help.”

    None of the passengers was charged for the ride.

    Mr Stoltenberg told the VG newspaper: “I’m pretty well known in Oslo, but I tend to sit in the back seat.”

    The Labour prime minister came in for criticism for his driving, at one point jolting the car abruptly when, he said, he mistakenly applied the brake pedal on the automatic car, thinking it was the clutch.

    He said he had not driven in eight years.

    Mr Stoltenberg is popular in Norway, but opinion polls suggest he is lagging behind the opposition ahead of the election.

    But asked by VG whether he would consider becoming a taxi driver full time if he lost the election, Mr Stoltenberg replied: “I think the country and the Norwegian taxi passengers are best served if I’m the prime minister and not a taxi driver.”

    -BBC

  • Pakistan’s new Cartoon Superheroine to go Global

    {{A TV distribution company in Europe is in touch with the producers of the Pakistani animation show for children “Burqa Avenger” to arrange its screening in 60 countries, including French-speaking nations, according to a press interview with the series’ creator.}}

    The plan to take this Urdu-language cartoon series on the global stage highlights the international appeal of Jiya, aka “Burqa Avenger”, a mild-mannered teacher at day who turns into a superhero at night to fight local gangsters who are trying to shut down the girls’ school where she works.

    Armed with mere books and pens, the ‘caped crusader’ takes on Baba Bandook, a misogynist Taliban-like villain, and Vadero Pajero, a corrupt politician trying to pocket NGO money meant to fund the local girls’ school.

    Jiya’s adventures touched a sensitive chord in Pakistan, where almost three quarters of young girls are not enrolled in primary school, according to UN and government statistics published last year.

    The issue of girls’ education in northwest Pakistan exploded across world headlines last October when Taliban gunmen shot Malala Yousafzai, a teenaged female activist for women’s rights and education.

    {{Batman & burka}}

    The flowing black burqa, the super-dress of choice for the Pakistani TV series ninja-like heroine, has also caught the world’s attention because the outfit is traditionally seen as an instrument of oppression of women, especially in the West.

    The show’s artistic director, Yousaf Ejaz, told AFP that his inspiration came from his childhood: “I was a big fan of Batman, and my grandmother, she had a burqa (…) So back in the childhood when she was away, we would steal her burqa and act like Batman, wearing that burqa: ‘I am Batman, look at me!’”

    Despite its overwhelmingly positive message, the show triggered a lively debate in Pakistan’s English language press about whether Jiya’s choice of disguise was a sign of empowerment or a means of promoting something used to oppress women.

    Slamming what she called a “ridiculous Burqa Avenger backlash”, Pakistani columnist Faiza S. Khan wrote that the show was not glorifying the burqa, but merely using it as part of a typical superhero creation myth.

    “When we ignore the character’s intentions behind willingly adopting a burka (as a disguise), it brings us back to good old-fashioned patriarchy, whereby a woman’s decisions are dwarfed by whatever message her clothing is putting out,” wrote Khan in the Daily Beast.

    Plans are afoot to translate the show into at least 18 different languages.

    Source: {France24 }

  • N. Korea Unveils ‘Secure, Homemade’ Smartphone

    {{North Korea, one of the most isolated and censored societies on the planet, has unveiled what it says is a domestically-produced smartphone.}}

    Industry analysts say the “Arirang”, built around Google’s Android OS, is likely manufactured in neighbouring China, however.

    The existence of the phone, named after a famous Korean folk song, came to light during a factory inspection by North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un at the weekend.

    During the tour, Kim was given a detailed briefing on the “performance, quality and packing of the Arirang hand phone,” Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.

    Some analysts suggest the “Arirang” is aimed at getting North Koreans to use an officially-approved phone that can be properly monitored.

    While Internet access is virtually non-existent in North Korea, which comes bottom of any media freedom survey, the country is not a complete IT desert.

    Cell phones were introduced in 2008 through a joint venture with the Egyptian telecom firm Orascom, which says there are now two million users in North Korea.

    A domestic Intranet was launched in 2002 and some state bodies have their own websites.

    It is a natural progression for an impoverished country desperate for investment, but in North Korea the economic imperative is always weighed against the potential for social disruption.

    Subscribers to the sole cell phone system provider, Koryolink, can call each other, but not outside the country.

    The Intranet is similarly cut off from the rest of the world, allowing its very limited number of users to exchange state-approved information and little more.

    Access to the full-blown Internet is for the super-elite only, meaning a few hundred people or maybe 1,000 at most.

    For all the regime’s efforts, the information barrier erected around North Korea has, in recent years, begun to lose some of its prophylactic power.

    Smuggled Chinese mobile phones allow people near the border to connect with Chinese servers and make international calls, while re-wired TVs allow access to outside broadcasting.

    The KCNA report on Kim’s factory visit noted that the young leader praised the “Arirang’s” developers for coming up with a product that “provides the best convenience to the users while strictly guaranteeing security”.

    agencies

  • Clown Wearing Obama Mask Banned

    {{The Missouri State Fair has permanently banned a rodeo clown whose imitation of US President Barack Obama has been widely criticised as disrespectful.}}

    In a statement on Monday, fair officials said that the rodeo clown has been barred from ever performing at the fair again.

    They are also reviewing whether to take any actions against the contractor responsible for Saturday’s rodeo.

    During the event, a clown wore a mask of the US president and asked the spectators if they wanted to see “Obama run down by a bull”. Many in the audience responded enthusiastically.

    The act was criticised by Democrats and Republicans alike after video and photos of the event were posted online.

    Some Democratic Missouri lawmakers suggested on Monday that there should be financial consequences for the fair.

    ‘Unconscionable stunt’

    The fair said in the statement announcing the rodeo clown’s lifetime ban that he had engaged in an “unconscionable stunt” that was “inappropriate and not in keeping with the Fair’s standards”.

    The fair’s press release did not identify the clown.

    The rodeo’s announcer sought on Monday to distance himself from the clown’s actions.

    Announcer Mark Ficken said through an attorney that the clown was wearing a live microphone and had given the announcer no advance notice about his performance.

    Ficken is president of the Missouri Rodeo Cowboy Association.

    “He was as surprised as anyone with the appearance of an Obama-masked rodeo clown,” attorney Albert Watkins said of his client.

    Source: Agencies

  • Israel Approves More 900 Settler Homes

    {{Jerusalem’s municipality has approved 942 new illegal settlement units in the Occupied East Jerusalem, a local official said, on the eve of the scheduled resumption of talks with the Palestinians.}}

    The units are in addition to the 1,200 settlement homes approved by Israel on Sunday, in a move that has angered the Palestinians and drawn criticism from the international community.

    “The Jerusalem municipality has approved a construction plan for 942 homes in Gilo,” an existing illegal settlement in East Jerusalem, municipal councillor Yosef Pepe Alalu said.

    On Monday, US Secretary of State John Kerry said that the recent flap over illegal Israeli settlement announcements likely would not derail talks, which are scheduled to resume this week.

    Kerry, on a trip to Colombia, sought to neutralise the atmosphere in the Middle East, noting that the settlement plans were “to some degree expected,” and calling for both sides to resolve their major issues.

    “We have known that there was going to be a continuation of some building in certain places, and I think the Palestinians understand that,” the chief US diplomat said in Bogota.

    Palestinians denounced the settlement plan, which both Washington and the European Union said was illegal and detrimental to peace efforts.

    The Secretary of State urged Palestinians “not to react adversely” to Israel’s announcement of new illegal settlement buildings, stressing the need to return to the negotiating table.

    The last talks in 2010 broke down on the issue of illegal settlements, which are illegal under international law.

    {agencies}

  • Russia Says Syria Peace Talks Unlikely before October

    {{Russia wants a Syria peace conference to be held as soon as possible but it is unlikely to go ahead before October because there is a busy diplomatic schedule before then, a Russian diplomat said on Tuesday.}}

    Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov said more talks were expected at the end of August on preparing the so-called Geneva-2 conference, aimed at bringing Syrian rebels and President Bashar al-Assad’s government together.

    “It (the peace conference) is unlikely to happen in September because there are different events, including the ‘ministerial week’ at the U.N. General Assembly,” Gatilov told Interfax news agency.

    “We are for it happening as soon as possible, but we need to be realistic about circumstances which could effect the forum.”

    Russian and U.S. officials agreed last week that the long-delayed conference should take place as soon as possible, but offered no concrete plan to bring the warring sides to the table.

    Washington and Moscow, which has sold arms to the Syrian government and at times shielded Assad from condemnation and sanctions at the United Nations, said initially they would try to hold the conference by the end of May.

    But the date keeps slipping, partly because the rebels are split and cannot decide who should represent them.

    {reuters}

  • UN, SA Row Looms over Gaddafi Estate

    {{The United Nations has turned to fired ANC security chief Tito Maleka for help in tracking down the missing Gaddafi billions — a move expected to spark a diplomatic row between South Africa and the world body.}}

    According to the Sunday Independent, the move tacitly indicates that the UN has little confidence in the South African government’s assistance as the Department of International Relations played ignorant last week to the organisation’s request.

    The newspaper reports it has reliably established that the panel of experts advising the UN Security Council Libya Sanctions Committee has contacted Maleka requesting his help to find the loot, worth an estimated US$10 billion, hidden by Gaddafi in South Africa.

    The panel was set up by the UN to monitor assets frozen by the UN Security Council to starve Gaddafi of resources in the wake of the rebellion against him in early 2011.

  • Snowden’s father to visit him in Russia ‘soon

    {{Lon Snowden, father of US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden, has got a Russian visa and will visit his son “very soon”, his lawyer says.}}

    Mr Snowden told the US ABC network he wanted his son to return home provided the justice system is applied “correctly” in his case.

    He added that his son had “spoken the truth” and made great sacrifices.

    Edward Snowden has been granted asylum by Russia despite requests from the US that he be returned.

    Lon Snowden said “We have visas, we have a date, which we won’t disclose right now because of the frenzy,” Mr Fein said, referring to the planned visit to Moscow.

    Edward Snowden arrived in Moscow on 23 June from Hong Kong, after making revelations about a secret US data-gathering programme.

    He then spent more than five weeks in Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport’s transit zone. He left the airport last week after having been granted the necessary documents.

    {wirestory}