An Indonesian lawmaker has resigned after being caught watching pornography in the same chamber where he helped pass tough anti-porn legislation. Arifinto of the Islamic Prosperous Justice Party was filmed by a journalist as he looked through explicit images during a session of parliament, the BBC reports. He said he…
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In the second of our series, Rob Steen, who illustrated Ricky Gervais’s zany Flanimals picture books, teaches you how to master monsters
Continue reading …Villa Erotica opens in St Andrä im Lungau after overcoming objections ranging from moral concerns to low ceilings Does prostitution count as “heavy physical work”? Will the presence of a brothel next to a through-road increase the accident rate? How many cubic metres of air are needed for two people to have sex safely? Not questions a judge has to consider every day, but these are the conundrums courts in Austria have been mulling over lately in a farcical battle over a planning application from a pimp. St Andrä im Lungau is a picturesque village nestled in a valley in a mountainous area of Salzburg. It boasts quaint houses, a lovely pub, a famous steam railway and now – after a bitter nine-year legal battle – a lemon yellow bordello called Villa Erotica. In 2002 a former wrestler, Norbert Sendlhofer, decided the 770 inhabitants of St Andrä needed not another pub but a place to buy sex. He put in a planning application to turn an old hunting lodge on the outskirts of the village into what locals quickly called a den of iniquity. The mayor was horrified and, backed by his outraged constituents, began a campaign to thwart Sendlhofer’s ambition, exhorting every law they could think of to stop the sex trade from coming to St Andrä. Commercial law, property law, criminal law, health and safety regulations – all were tried. Prostitution is legal in Austria, but they were determined to keep their village prostitute-free. For years, planning experts and officials trooped in and out of Villa Erotica, asking questions and taking measurements. The Austrian newspaper Der Standard reported that in July 2005 St Andrä authorities informed Sendlhofer that his application had been rejected on the advice of the local public health officer, who claimed there were “inadequate sanitary facilities” for “business transactions which specifically deal with the excretion of bodily fluids”. That wasn’t all: an operation like Villa Erotica could “impair the moral, religious and psychological” life of the village” said the rejection letter, according to Der Standard. Sendlhofer was undeterred. He installed new showers to meet hygiene requirements, and when the council criticised the quality of drinking water at Villa Erotica, he dug new wells. In 2007, increasingly desperate to find reasons to reject the application, one resourceful local hit upon the notion that prostitution could be classed as “physical labour” and as such was subject to special health and safety regulations. A medical expert wrote a report for the council, claiming “prostitution is heavy physical work which is carried out in all possible postures”. They reached the conclusion that the ceilings of Villa Erotica were too low for suitable work spaces for prostitution and there were too few cubic metres of air to give sex workers the “volume of air” needed to carry out their duties. The ploy worked – briefly. Alas for the burghers of St Andrä, a higher court in Salzburg last year quashed the verdict and Villa Erotica was given the green light. Ironically, it was the brothel’s red light which caused its next problem: apparently, you need special planning permission to install unusual external lighting. When the brothel finally opened for business recently, Sendlhofer had the last laugh. The fuss of the previous nine years resulted in enormous press interest, and he was able to goad his opponents by telling TV cameras there was “no better location in the whole of Austria” for Villa Erotica. Austria Europe Prostitution Helen Pidd guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …The autocratic leader of Belarus says he thinks a deadly subway blast in the capital was an attempt to destabilize his country. A 12th victim of the rush-hour explosion in Minsk has died. At least 126 others were injured, many of whom lost arms and legs. “We must find out…
Continue reading …All passengers escaped without injury after two planes collided on the ground at New York’s JFK airport Monday night. A wing of an Air France Airbus A380—the world’s biggest passenger yet—clipped the tail of a smaller Delta Connection plane while taxiing to the runway for takeoff, AP reports….
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Almost 20% of service jobs to go, including 560 frontline positions, over next five years in effort to save £53m London Ambulance Service has announced plans to cut 890 jobs over the next five years in an effort to save £53m. LAS said the reductions would include 560 frontline positions and most of the total losses would come from natural attrition. The reduction represents almost 20% of the service’s 5,000 staff and will fuel the controversy over the government’s health reforms. Union leaders attacked the move and one campaign group said it would mean “total carnage” for the capital’s ambulance service. The LAS chief executive, Peter Bradley, said: “Unfortunately we are not immune to the financial pressures facing the NHS. This means all areas of our business will face closer scrutiny as we look for ways to make savings while improving the care we give to patients. “But with nearly 80% of our budget spent on staff costs it would be impossible to make the savings required without removing posts.” LAS said it expected to reduce the number of frontline posts – those responsible for direct patient care – by 560, with a further 330 posts removed from management and support services. Compulsory redundancies would be avoided wherever possible, it said. “We are confident that the large majority of posts can be reduced by not filling vacancies. We have an average turnover rate of 7%,” Bradley said. “As part of our planned response we will be introducing a number of measures to control payroll costs, including tighter control of recruitment and reduced use of agency workers. “We are committed to managing these reductions so that the impact on staff is minimised and at the same time creating an improved and efficient service for patients.” NHS Health London Public sector cuts Health policy Public services policy Public finance Public sector careers guardian.co.uk
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Dr Freddy Patel tells inquest he was asked by police at the postmortem to rule out any assault or crush injuries A senior police officer asked a pathologist whether Ian Tomlinson’s injuries were consistent with a baton strike or a dog bite – four days before video footage emerged showing his encounter with police, the inquest into his death has been told. The pathologist who first examined Ian Tomlinson after he was knocked to the ground by an officer during the G20 protests said he was asked by police at the postmortem to rule out any assault or crush injuries. Dr Freddy Patel told an inquest that police told him that broken bottles and sticks were lying around Tomlinson’s body but there were no police officers “in the immediate vicinity” when he was found. Tomlinson, 47, collapsed and died shortly after being pushed to the ground by PC Simon Harwood. Asked by Alison Hewitt, counsel for the inquest into the newspaper vendor’s death, whether he “was requested by the police to rule out any assault or crush injuries as a result of public order?” Patel replied: “Yes. That’s right.” He was then asked: “Did you have this in mind when you conducted your postmortem examination?” He replied: “That’s correct, yes.” Patel, a consultant forensic pathologist, told the inquest that before the examination began, he had been given “new information” by the police officers involving the crime scene. “It was that he had collapsed outdoors on the pavement, but there was no police officers nearby in the immediate vicinity of the body. There were a lot of broken glass bottles and there were a lot of protesters were using sticks and there were a lot of sticks around the area where it was found.” Patel found Mr Tomlinson’s death was consistent with natural causes because he had coronary artery disease and could have died at any time. But another two pathologists, Dr Nat Cary and Dr Kenneth Shorrock, later carried out their own postmortem examinations and came to a different conclusion, the inquest jury has heard. Cary suggested Tomlinson could have been pushed so he fell with his right arm trapped under his body, hitting his liver and causing it to bleed internally. The inquest heard that four police officers, including Detective Superintendent Tony Crampton, the City of London officer leading the investigation into Tomlinson’s death, had attended the postmortem. During the examination, Crampton asked the pathologist whether his injuries could have been caused by a baton or a dog bite ‚ four days before a video emerged which showed what happened. Patel told the inquest that he had found several injuries on Tomlinson’s legs, including lacerations on his right leg and an elongated bruise on the outside of his left leg. Earlier, the inquest heard evidence from PC Simon Harwood, who struck Tomlinson with his baton on the left leg and pushed him to the ground shortly before he died. Hewitt, counsel to the inquest, asked Patel: “Do you recall Detective Superintendent Crampton asking you whether that injury could have been as a result of a baton strike? “Did you say to him at the time that you could not rule that out but you thought it was more likely to have been as a result of falling against something?” Patel replied: “If I remember correctly, what I said was that, as you say, I can’t rule it out, but it’s in keeping with contact with or from, against a linear object.” Crampton also asked whether puncture wounds on Tomlinson’s right leg might have been caused by a dog bite. Patel told the inquest: “I explained to him that they weren’t typical of a dog bite.” He told the inquest: “Because I was told there were lots of broken bottles there I said it could have been caused by a rugged sharp object.” The inquest heard from Patel that Tomlinson’s postmortem examination was originally scheduled as a “section 19″ or routine, but he had been told that it has been “upgraded” to a “section 20″. Patel said that he may have asked why police were present at the postmortem, which was on 3 April, 2009. “I may have queried why police were attending and I was informed by the coroner’s officer that they would like to rule out whether there was any assault or any crush injuries ‚ and there was a big crowd there – related to the protesters and public order.” Ian Tomlinson Dr Freddy Patel G20 Protest Police London Karen McVeigh guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has admitted paying $63,000 to the erotic dancer he’s charged with bedding when she was a minor. But he insists it wasn’t for sex. He merely wanted to help her equip her planned beauty salon with hair removal equipment, says the 74-year-old leader. “He’s…
Continue reading …The mounting trove of bones discovered on an isolated Long Island beach now have cops wondering if there could be more than one killer operating in the area. The body count is now up to ten , all women except for a single toddler . “Now the question is connectivity” among all…
Continue reading …The US-Pakistan alliance forged in the wake of the September 11 attacks appears to be on the verge of collapsing. Pakistan has demanded that US halt its drone attacks on suspected militants, and sharply reduce the number of CIA and Special Forces personnel in the country, reports the New York…
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