Odd News Posting

[Muramasa]

Rat meat in demand as inflation bites

Wed Aug 27, 3:36 PM ET

PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - The price of rat meat has quadrupled in Cambodia this year as inflation has put other meat beyond the reach of poor people, officials said on Wednesday.

With consumer price inflation at 37 percent according to the latest central bank estimate, demand has pushed a kilogram of rat meat up to around 5,000 riel ($1.28) from 1,200 riel last year.

Spicy field rat dishes with garlic thrown in have become particularly popular at a time when beef costs 20,000 riel a kg.

Officials said rats were fleeing to higher ground from flooded areas of the lower Mekong Delta, making it easier for villagers to catch them.

"Many children are happy making some money from selling the animals to the markets, but they keep some for their family," Ly Marong, an agriculture official, said by telephone from the Koh Thom district on the border with Vietnam.

"Not only are our poor eating it, but there is also demand from Vietnamese living on the border with us."

He estimated that Cambodia supplied more than a tonne of live rats a day to Vietnam.

Rats are also eaten widely in Thailand, while a state government in eastern India this month encouraged its people to eat rats in an effort to battle soaring food prices and save grain stocks.

($1 = 3,900 riel)

(Reporting by Ek Madra; Editing by Alan Raybould and Paul Tait)

[Muramasa]

India's "Hari Puttar" caught in Harry Potter spell

Wed Aug 27, 9:04 AM ET

MUMBAI, India (Reuters) - Hollywood's Warner Bros., which owns the rights to the Harry Potter movies, is suing an Indian production company whose new film is called "Hari Puttar: A Comedy of Terrors," the studio said on Wednesday.

The studio had started proceedings against the makers of "Hari Puttar" over similarities to the international film and literary phenomenon, said Warner Bros. spokeswoman Deborah Lincoln.

"We confirm that we have recently commenced proceedings against parties involved in the production and distribution of a movie entitled 'Hari Puttar'," Lincoln told Reuters in an e-mail.

"Warner Bros. values and protects intellectual property rights," she said.

The producers of "Hari Puttar" said they had registered the title more than two years ago and the film bore no resemblance to the "Harry Potter" franchise.

"All I can say is that the title is not at all similar to Harry Potter and nor is our story line," said Munish Purii, chief operating officer of the film's producers, Mirchi Movies.

Purii said the Delhi High Court began hearing the case on Monday.

"Hari Puttar", slated to open in cinemas on September 12, is the story of a young boy fighting two criminals who are trying to steal a secret formula devised by the boy's scientist father.

In October last year, an Indian court allowed a community group in the eastern state of West Bengal to create a replica of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, rejecting a petition from author J.K. Rowling for copyright breach.

Rowling, creator of the boy wizard Harry Potter and Warner Bros., which controls the rights to the series in India, had sought 2 million rupees (27,116 pounds) in compensation from the group, which had erected the structure for a Hindu festival.

Warner Bros. is a unit of Time Warner Inc.

(Reporting by Shilpa Jamkhandikar, Editing by Alistair Scrutton)

[Muramasa]

Remember your loved one - as a diamond

By Sam Cage Fri Aug 29, 12:52 PM ET

CHUR, Switzerland (Reuters) - Diamonds really are forever. Algordanza, a small company based in the mountainous southeast of Switzerland, uses the ashes of dead people to make diamonds as a permanent memento for their nearest and dearest.

And with prices starting at less than 5,000 euros ($7,488), the jewels are not solely the preserve of the jetset.

"Some people find it helpful to go to the cemetery and grieve, and they leave their grief in the cemetery," said Algordanza Chairman Veit Brimer. "There are some people who, for whatever reason, do not want to have this farewell.

"Astonishingly these are mainly Christian people. They say: 'Why should I say goodbye? I'll see my husband in 15 years in heaven anyway,'" Brimer said in his office overlooking the town of Chur and its surrounding steep mountains.

The technology for making artificial diamonds was first pioneered by General Electric in the 1950s, and mirrors nature by subjecting carbon to huge pressure and temperature.

Algordanza -- which means "remembrance" in the local language Romansch, spoken in some parts of the Swiss canton of Grisons -- is one of a handful of companies offering artificial diamonds that have sprung up as the technology has improved.

U.S.-based LifeGem and Britain's Phoenix Diamonds, for example, also offer diamonds made from hair, which contains more carbon than ashes meaning a gem can be created from the hair of a living person, or from someone who has been buried rather than cremated. LifeGem even offers diamonds made from dead pets.

"Some people find it is a great honor and remembrance," said Laura Simanton at the Gemological Institute of America (GIA). "The technology is certainly getting better."

MAN-MADE GEMS

Synthetic diamonds have become so common that GIA now grades their quality, so buyers can assess what they are getting compared with a natural diamond.

John Cordova, vice president of California-based engagement ring store Robbins Bros said synthetic diamonds are "in general a little less expensive" than natural ones, but it depends on each individual stone.

GIA engraves the word "synthetic" and its report number on all artificial diamonds it grades.

Algordanza's Brimer first saw a business opportunity in "remembrance" diamonds after meeting a Russian chemist, who explained how gems could be created in a laboratory.

Initially Brimer, who used to work in information technology, and his partner Rinaldo Willy thought their clientele would mainly be young, but they have been surprised that "actually our customers come from all walks of life."

Bobby Thurman -- of Nelson Funeral Service in Arkansas, which offers diamonds to both burial and cremation clients -- decided to have LifeGem make a diamond from combined samples of his own and his family's hair.

"My family will cherish this diamond for generations, and I expect other families will want to do the same," Thurman said.

IN THE PUB FOREVER

Algordanza does 40 percent of its business in Japan, its largest market, where cremation is more common because land is so scarce.

Many clients from Europe travel to Chur to accompany the deceased on their final journey and meet the people who will turn the ashes into a diamond.

Often the gem is mounted in jewelry, which the bereaved then wear to maintain close contact with their loved one. But some customers have different plans.

One widow, Brimer said, carried around her husband's diamond in her handbag. Others have them mounted on the deceased's table in the local pub.

Brimer says remembrance diamonds do not appeal to everyone, and is astonished at Algordanza's success -- it does not give sales figures, but said the first quarter of 2008 -- the latest details publicly available -- was its most successful three-month period yet.

In its first year, 2004, the company sold one diamond. These days it is creating about 60 a month, which Brimer attributes to word-of-mouth recommendations and media coverage, as Algordanza does not advertise.

Each one takes between three weeks and three months to create, said chemist Nesimi Oner in one of Algordanza's laboratories.

Because only 2 percent of a corpse's ashes are carbon, which then has to be purified, the largest size diamond offered by Algordanza is 1 carat, which costs 13,328 euros.

"The chemistry is easy," Oner said. "The interesting thing for me is how you can produce larger diamonds."

(Editing by Sara Ledwith)

[Muramasa]

Dutch say Pisa no longer Europe's most leaning tower

Thu Aug 28, 9:50 AM ET

BEDUM, Netherlands (Reuters) - The Tower of Pisa is being challenged by a lesser-known 12th-century building in the northern Dutch town of Bedum as Europe's most steeply leaning tower.

Retired geometrician Jacob van Dijk said measurements this week on Bedum's 36-metre church tower of Walfridus revealed it is now leaning more than its Italian rival, which lost part of its tilt following restoration works.

At a height of 55.86 meters, Pisa's tower leans about 4 metres, while Bedum's tower leans 2.61 metres on its height of 35.7 metres. If both towers were the same height, Bedum would have a greater tilt of 6 cm, Van Dijk argues.

"In Italy they're happy with the result, but here in Bedum we are much more happy, because the tower of Pisa is now leaning less than the tower of Bedum," said Van Dijk.

(Reporting by Aaron Gray-Block and Svebor Kranjc, Editing by Dina Kyriakidou)

[Muramasa]

"Grease to Greece" racers cross Europe on cooking oil

By Daniel Flynn Wed Aug 27, 3:05 PM ET

ATHENS (Reuters) - Fuelled only by used cooking fat, eight teams completed a 2,500-mile car rally from London to Athens on Wednesday in a bid to promote awareness of cheap and environmentally-friendly bio-fuels.

The "Grease to Greece" race, the brainchild of 34-year-old Londoner Andy Pag, took the teams on a 10-day mission across Europe in which they begged oil to fuel their cars from restaurants, motorway cafes and fast-food joints along the way.

"There is no reason why Joe Public cannot do this, save themselves a bit of money and help the environment because they are not using fossil fuels," Pag said.

The race ended on Wednesday with a ceremony at the British Embassy in Athens where Ambassador Simon Gass presented a Golden Lard award to the team which had earned the most "Grease Marks" for collecting fuel.

Unlike expensive conventional rallies such as the Paris-Dakar, Pag paid only 500 British pounds for his second-hand Peugeot 405 and spent nothing on fuel since leaving London -- saving the equivalent of what he paid for the car.

An experienced eco-traveller, Pag drove to the desert town of Timbuktu in Mali last year using a truck powered by waste chocolate. His next scheme is a round-the-world trip next year using aviation fuel made from recycled plastic bags.

Racers received a warm welcome from most restauranteurs.

"Whenever people have had oil they have been really, really willing to give it. It's a waste product for them so we are taking away their rubbish," Pag told Reuters.

The competitors in the race included a policeman, several engineers, farmers, a film editor, and an accountant.

Farmers Coleen and Mario Chadwick drove to Athens in their unconverted Range Rover, using used cooking oil sieved through kitchen equipment. They plan to keep driving on cooking oil from their local primary school once they return to England.

Pag's red Peugeot was converted to run on cooking oil using an kit produced by Britain's Regenatec.

"Demand for this technology is rocketing," said Adrian Hensen, whose company sells bio-fuel equipment. "With petrol prices so high, lots of people are looking for ways to reduce their fuel bills and this is a fantastic way to do it."

(Additional reporting by Deborah Kyvrikosaios)

[Saint]

JUBA, Sudan (Reuters) - South Sudan's president shut down a police investigation Wednesday that saw scores of young women arrested for "disturbing the peace" by wearing tight trousers.
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The women were arrested over the past week by police who said they suspected them of belonging to youth gangs known for drinking, fighting and public nudity.

But government officials, including the south's gender minister, said they were angry at the way the women had been targeted and treated after arrest.

President Salva Kiir had ordered a "serious investigation" into the police crackdown, said a government minister.

Kiir also ordered the immediate release of any woman arrested under the operation in the south's capital Juba, and said there were questions over its legality, Southern Minister for Presidential Affairs Luka Biong added in a statement.

Police arrested more than 35 women Sunday night alone, angering bystanders by the way they pushed them into two trucks.

The deputy police commissioner of Juba County, Raiman Lege, said they were disturbing the peace by wearing trousers that were too tight. The group was freed Monday without charge after appearing in court.

Sudan's semi-autonomous south generally has a much more relaxed approach to women's dress than the country's Muslim north, with which it fought a two-decade war that was ended by a 2005 peace deal.

[CazeZer]

I am so glad that in this thread I gather some information that I really need.,




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California Criminal Defense Attorney