Sexy and Stupid

SEOUL: A former North Korean agent who confessed to bombing a passenger jet in 1987 met Wednesday with relatives of a Japanese woman abducted to the Communist North in an encounter that shed little new light on the fate of the missing woman but was expected to anger North Korea.

The meeting, sponsored by the Japanese and South Korean governments amid rising tensions with the North, was the first public appearance of Kim Hyon Hui, the former North Korean agent, in almost 20 years, and was intensely covered by both Japanese and South Korean media.

In Tokyo, the government of Prime Minister Taro Aso hoped that Kim might provide fresh information about the kidnapped Japanese woman, Yaeko Taguchi, that could be used to press the North Korean government on other abduction cases. In Seoul, the conservative government of President Lee Myung Bak was investigating charges that the liberal administration that preceded him had pressured Kim to deny that she was a North Korean spy.

On Wednesday, Kim, 47, delivered no surprises. She repeated what she had already said in recent interviews: that she had studied Japanese with Taguchi, who was 22 when she vanished in Tokyo in 1978, as part of her espionage training. She would not comment on the charges against the previous Seoul government.

Koichiro Iizuka, Taguchi's 32-year-old son, said after his meeting with Kim that he was convinced his mother was alive, despite Pyongyang's claim that she was killed in a car accident in 1986.

Kim tried to dispel years of speculation about her identity by stressing that she was indeed an agent who planted a bomb on the Boeing 707 plane that exploded near Myanmar in 1987, killing all 115 people on board. She and an accomplice, who later committed suicide, were arrested in Bahrain two days later.

"I am not a fake," she said. "It was an act of terror by North Korea."

But at a news conference in the southern city of Busan, where Kim met Taguchi's relatives, Kim did not refute the North Korean claim about Taguchi's death. She said she "heard" in 1987 that Taguchi had been "sent somewhere" and that she had "assumed" at the time that Taguchi was still alive.

In 2002, North Korea admitted to kidnapping Taguchi and 12 other Japanese to help train its spies. It allowed five of them to return to Japan that year but said the others had died — an assertion Tokyo has not accepted.

LOS ANGELES — If the "American Idol" judges have their way, it won't be curtains for Adam Lambert anytime soon. The 26-year-old theater actor from Los Angeles seamlessly impressed the panel _ and eclipsed his 12 co-finalists _ with an energized rendition of the tune "Black or White" during Tuesday's Michael Jackson-themed performance show.

"You've got the whole package going on," exclaimed following Lambert's performance.

Anoop Desai, from Chapel Hill, N.C., was the target of the judges' harshest criticism. said the 21-year-old college student's decision to perform "Beat It" was the "wrong choice" while declared it "horrible." Jorge Nunez, the 20-year-old college student from Carolina, Puerto Rico, was also targeted for a lackluster song pick.

In defense of his "Never Can Say Goodbye," Nunez said: "I was not going to sing 'Bad' by Michael Jackson."

"Well, you sorta did," Cowell retaliated.

The judges seemed satisfied with most of the evening's other performers, especially Lil Rounds and Danny Gokey, who danced around while belting out "Pretty Young Thing." Cowell dubbed Gokey's moves "hideous" but said that his vocals were "brilliant." Jackson said he continued to love Rounds, who kicked off the show with "The Way You Make Me Feel."

"You're engaging," Abdul told Allen, "and kinda adorable/sexy."

Voters for final performer Alexis Grace, the 21-year-old single mother from Memphis, Tenn., were directed to 1-866-IDOLS-36. The singing contest _ which has 13 finalists this season instead of the usual dozen _ used that line because 1-866-IDOLS-13 is owned by a phone sex operation which promises to connect listeners to a "nasty girl" for $3.99 a minute.

At the beginning of the episode, Cowell announced that two singers _ not just one _ would be dismissed from the popular Fox singing competition Wednesday. He also later teased that an alteration in the "Idol" structure involving the show's judges would be revealed Wednesday. Host Ryan Seacrest said it will change "the entire theme and concept of the show."

Viewers immediately began speculating online about the possible season-eight switch-up after Tuesday's performance show. The most popular theory: the bottom vote-getters must now "sing for their lives" and the show's judges will have the ability to save a contestant from being sent home.

A few of the finalists used their first time on the main "Idol" stage to showcase their musical abilities. Piano players Matt Giraud from Kalamazoo, Mich., and Scott MacIntyre from Scottsdale, Ariz., tickled the ivories on "Human Nature" and "Keep the Faith," respectively. Kris Allen from Conway, Ark., played his guitar during "Remember the Time."

WINNENDEN, Germany – A 17-year-old gunman dressed in black opened fire at his former high school in southwestern Germany on Wednesday then fled in a hijacked car, killing at least 15 people before police shot him to death, state officials said.The gunman entered the school in Winnenden and opened fire, shooting at random, police said. He killed nine students, three teachers and a passer-by outside the building, officials said."He went into the school with a weapon and carried out a bloodbath," said regional police chief Erwin Hetger. "I've never seen anything like this in my life."Triggering a land and air manhunt, he hijacked a car, freed the passengers and drove about 25 miles (40 kilometers) before police found him. When confronted, he killed two bystanders in a shootout with police before he was slain, Baden Wuerttemburg governor Guenther Oettinger said. Two officers were seriously injured, but there was no immediate information on other casualties.Four hours after the shootings began, police announced the teenager's death.It was the nation's worst shooting since another teenage gunman killed 16 people and himself in another high school in 2002.Concerned parents quickly swarmed the school, which was evacuated.

Police have have identified the gunman only as Tim K, who graduated last year from the school of about 1,000 students.The German government was "deeply shocked and incensed about the appalling killing spree," Ulrich Wilhelm, a spokesman for Chancellor Angela Merkel, said in Berlin..Steinhaeuser, who had been expelled for forging a doctor's note, was a gun club member licensed to own weapons. The attack led Germany to raise the age for owning recreational firearms from 18 to 21.In 2002, 19-year-old Robert Steinhaeuser shot and killed 12 teachers, a secretary, two students and a police officer before turning his gun on himself in the Gutenberg high school in Erfurt, in eastern Germany

Swiss con man Helg Sgarbi has been sentenced to six years in jail after admitting sleeping with and blackmailing a succession of rich women out of millions of pounds including BMW heiress Susanne Klatten.

The 44-year-old wined and dined a string of rich wives and widows, including Germany's wealthiest woman Mrs Klatten, winning their confidence and then asking for money.

If they refused, he threatened to blackmail them with secretly filmed footage of their encounters in hotel rooms around Europe.

His lawyer told a court in Munich that the long list of charges against his client "are, at their core, true."

Before the hearing began, a spokesman for the Munich prosecutors office said that Sgarbi faced a prison sentence of several years but that he could expect some leniency if he were to plead guilty.

"If he makes a confession, if he spares his victims from having to appear here in public, he will get a corresponding reduction ... in his sentence," Anton Winkler said.

Sgarbi's most high profile victim was BMW heiress Mrs Klatten, a married mother of three who he seduced and swindled out of £6.2 million.

His guilty plea may spare her the embarrassment of having to give evidence at the much-anticipated trial, which promised to become a sensation in Germany.

Sgarbi, who was nicknamed 'James Bond' by some of his conquests for his good looks and smooth-talking charm, is also accused of conning three other women out of £2.2 million.

Sgarbi, who told his wealthy conquests he was a "special Swiss representative in crisis zones" according to the charges against him, now faces the prospect of up to 10 years in prison.

Mrs Klatten is the daughter of BMW magnate Herbert Quandt and holds a 46-per cent stake in the company in conjunction with her mother and brother. She also owns a 88.3-per cent share of chemical company Altana.

At first the married mother-of-three spurned Sgarbi's advances but began an affair when the smooth-talking Sgarbi turned up unexpectedly in the south of France where she was on holiday the following month.

Later in August 2007 they met in a Holiday Inn hotel in Munich – where Klatten believed she would not run the risk of bumping into any acquaintances – for an "intimate" encounter that Sgarbi secretly filmed, according to the charges.

In September they met at the same hotel and this time Sgarbi allegedly said that he needed 10 million euros because he had injured a little girl in a car crash in Florida – asking Klatten to lend him a cool seven million euros.

Klatten swallowed his story, handing over the sum in the underground garage of the Holiday Inn in a cardboard box containing 14 plastic folders each with a thousand 500-euro banknotes.

Sgarbi then told the 46-year-old to leave her husband and put into a trust fund 290 million euros to fund their new life together.

Paris Fashion Week Which have world class popularity. The scene was tamer. With its winter 2010 ready-to-wear display, the French label delivered a sober but well-tailored collection of suits and leather looks. Dutch duo Viktor & Rolf gave stiff a good name with their tromp l'oeil collection that solidified flowing Greek drapery. Stella McCartney played with opacity and transparency in a sexy, lingerie-inspired collection that also included cruelty-free alternatives to fur and leather. French label Leonard delivered kicky knit silk and wool dresses in the house's hallmark hothouse flower prints. The oversized orchids in royal purple and hot pink would have been right at home in Arora's fanciful tropical kingdom. PARIS (AP) - Peacocks strutted their stuff on Paris' catwalks Monday, as Italian Giambattista Valli sent out red-carpet ready looks covered with glimmering feathers, and wildly inventive Indian designer unleashed a fantastic menagerie that included a Swarovski crystal-encrusted version of the proud bird.

GIAMBATTISTA VALLI

Toward the middle of the show, you thought you'd seen some nice things at Valli: the tent-shaped coats that swung just so; the leather jacket with bouffant, fur-covered sleeves.But then came the peacock feathers. Thousands of them, covering coats, dresses and skirts, their cobalt eyes shimmering wildly as the photographers flashed.One strapless dress, in a metallic peacock print, had feathers fanning out from its neckline. A black turtleneck was paired with a flowing, ankle-length skirt made entirely of the feathers.Valli said he had taken his inspiration from the late, great French fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent."I was attracted to that decadence, with no boundaries, no rules, all that eclecticism," he told reporters backstage in Paris.Valli, a former designer at Emanuel Ungaro, launched his own label in 2005 and made a name for himself by dressing starlets like Mischa Barton and Victoria Beckham.There were plenty of red-carpet-ready pieces on display Monday—from a long, lean belted dress in a print that gleamed darkly like an oil spill or bouffant, high-water trousers in a rich aqua blue."It was amazing, I want it all," gushed celebrity stylist Rachel Zoe as she gave Valli a celebratory post-show squeeze.

MANISH ARORA

Picture "The Jungle Book" remade by "The Fly" director David Cronenberg and you can begin to envisage the bizarre menagerie of oversized beasts in hothouse hues that Arora unleashed onto his catwalk."The idea was to take everybody on a journey to my jungle, where I belong," Arora told Associated Press Television News, though the collection looked like less like a product of human ingenuity than something beamed down by stylish aliens or hatched in a petri dish.Peacocks glinting with Swarovski crystals emblazoned a tunic, a moose-head made from what appeared to be superimposed wooden planks emerged from the belly of a dress, while a nearly life-seized bird of prey—entirely covered in crystals—perched on the shoulder of another dress.The knobby fabric of a cocktail number mimicked a lizard's spiny skin, though the eyes that gleamed out from the bust of the garment were something entirely more menacing. Paris' ready-to-wear displays move into their seventh day on Tuesday, with shows by Chanel, Valentino.

This is happened in a Zoo. The loutish behaviour of a stone-throwing chimpanzee at a zoo near the Arctic circle has challenged scientists' beliefs about human beings.

Santino, a 31-year-old male at Furuvik zoo in Sweden, may be the first animal to exhibit an unambiguous ability to plan for the future, a behaviour many scientists argue is unique to humans. Forward planning takes considerable cognitive skills, because it requires an animal to envisage future events it will have to deal with.To catch the chimp in action, one zookeeper hid in a room overlooking the enclosure and observed the ape's behaviour before the zoo gates opened each morning. She saw Santino dragging stones from a protective moat that surrounded his island home, before placing them in piles. Further covert surveillance of the ape revealed he spent some time tapping areas of concrete floor with his fist. Occasionally, the animal would thump harder, releasing chunks of concrete that he broke into rough discs.

Santino would get agitated when the first groups of visitors arrived at his enclosure in the morning, and would start hurling stones at the spectators. When the zookeepers investigated, they found that, while the zoo was closed, Santino had been busy making piles of ammunition, and returned to them to resupply.

The problem was fixed by the weekend and is believed to have affected only .05 percent of the digital documents at a Google Docs service that provides text-handling programs as services on the Internet. "We've identified and fixed a bug where a very small percentage of users shared some of their documents inadvertently," Google Docs Product Manager Jennifer Mazzon wrote in a message at the firm's website on Saturday. "We're sorry for the trouble this has caused. We understand our users' concerns (in fact, we were affected by this bug ourselves) and we're treating this very seriously." The problem occurred in cases where people had chosen to collaborate on multiple documents and adjusted settings to allow access to others, according to Google. Collaborators were unintentionally given permission to access documents aside from the ones intended. Google has confirmed that a software bug exposed documents thought to be privately stored in the Internet giant's online Docs application service. It effects a lot of people who use google reader and other google services. "As part of the fix, we used an automated process to remove collaborators and viewers from the documents that we identified as having been affected," Mazzon said. "We then emailed the document owners to point them to their affected documents in case they need to re-share them." The slip comes as Google and other Internet firms entice people to rely on applications offered online as services "in the cloud" instead of buying software then installing and maintaining it on their own machines. While the trend toward cloud services is growing, some still worry about the privacy of data kept online and whether it is shrewd to rely on the Internet for access to information and applications.

Iranian-American journalist Roxana Saberi’s father is absolutely worried sick. He hasn’t heard from her since February 10, and thinks she’s languishing in prison.

Saberi, a U.S. citizen who’s been living in Iran for six years and working as a freelance journalist for National Public Radio, BBC, FOX News, and other media outlets, while also finishing her master’s degree, hasn’t been heard from since February 10. And her Iran-born father, Reza Saberi, says his daughter bought a bottle of wine on the black market back in January and that the seller may have called authorities. Alcohol’s strictly verboten in the Islamic nation.

"She said that she had bought a bottle of wine and the person that sold it had reported it and then they came and arrested her," he told NPR on Sunday. He thinks the wine purchase was just an excuse to arrest her.

Roxana told her father she would be released soon, but he hasn’t heard from her since. He now fears for her safety. The U.S. State Department is investigating. But a spokesman for Iran’s Foreign Ministry said her press credentials had been revoked in 2006.

"This reporter should not have been illegally seeking news and information from Iran," spokesman Hasan Qashqavi said. "Her accreditation was over in 2006, after Iranian authorities revoked her press card. Her activities since 2006 were completely illegal and unauthorized."

Another recent high-profile arrest was that of Iranian-American student Esha Momeni, who was detained in an Iranian jail late last year while working on her thesis on the country’s women’s rights movements. Iran said her files posed a threat to Iran’s national security. Four women with dual citizenship were arrested on similar charges last year. Stay safe, Roxana. Come home soon.

A statewide Amber Alert has been issued for a three-year-old girl taken from her Northern California home during a burglary this morning.
Police in Yreka are looking Francis Ann Collins. She is described as a white juvenile, 3'3" tall weighing 30 pounds. She has brown hair and brown eyes and was last seen wearing a tie-dyed t-shirt.
The suspect in the case is 22-year-old Kody Kaplon, He is described as 5'7" tall, weighing 140 pounds, with brown hair and hazel eyes. He has a tattoo of an iron cross the web of his left hand, a tattoo of a mud flap girl on right arm, and another tattoo on his left arm. A 1992 Green Pontiac Grand Am, license plate 3WKA651, with damage to the driver's side was seen at the time of the abduction.
Please call 911 if know the location of either the suspect or the girl.
This is Brought to you by Sohna Munda.

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama turned to Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius Monday to help him overhaul a health care system whose cost has risen four times as fast as people's wages in recent years.

Obama introduced Sebelius as his choice to be secretary of health and human services and Nancy-Ann DeParle, a health policy figure during the Clinton administration, to head the White House Office for Health Reform.

"There's no easy formula for fixing our health care system," Obama said. But he added: "I didn't come to Washington to take the easy route ... I came here to work for the American people. I came here to deliver the sweeping change the people demanded when they went to the polls in November."

Obama brought Sebelius and DeParle to East Room of the White House on Monday afternoon, just days before he holds a White House summit on health care. Lawmakers from both parties and representatives of major interest groups, from insurers to drug companies to consumers, will attend.

The president also said he would release $155 million in the $787 billion economic stimulus measure to support 126 new health centers to give people more access to primary and preventive health care services. He said he was mindful of the difficulty ahead as he takes steps toward universal health care coverage, expecting tough choices and likely trade-offs.

Said Sebelius: "The work won't be easy, but bringing about real change rarely is."

Sebelius, who must be confirmed by the Senate, and DeParle will fill roles that the president wanted former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle to hold as he tries to shepherd his health overhaul agenda through Congress.

Daschle would have worn two hats: health secretary and head of a White House health reform office. But Daschle withdrew his nomination after disclosing he had tax problems. That left the new administration scrambling to find a substitute secretary.

WASHINGTON — With his short dreadlocks and crisp new suit, Shea Pierre, 16 and an aspiring pianist from outside New Orleans, looked nervous as he walked into the White House last week. Inside, the East Room had been transformed into a concert hall with colored lighting and a seat for Mr. Pierre right behind the president of the United States.

For the next 60 minutes, Mr. Pierre and 150 music lovers — industry executives, students and educators along with cabinet members and senators — rocked to the sounds of a star-studded Stevie Wonder tribute, featuring Mr. Wonder himself, who belted out “Signed, Sealed, Delivered,” the Obama campaign theme song.

The televised concert was part of an effort by President Obama and his wife, Michelle, to throw open the doors of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Students, teachers, chefs, community leaders, labor organizers, mayors, governors, sports celebrities, musical icons — all have been guests of the Obamas since they moved in six weeks ago.

The burst of entertaining is giving the new White House a far livelier feel than during the twilight of the Bush administration, when more people were demonstrating outside than boogieing inside. But Mr. Obama’s open-door policy is not just fun and frivolity; it is an exercise in presidential image-making to advance his political agenda, while also carefully nurturing an identity for a first family that embodies racial history, youth and a stylistic shift in leadership.

“I think they get it, when it comes to understanding the importance of the White House, that there are no boundaries in utilizing the people’s house to enhance projects that are important to you,” said Sig Rogich, a Republican media consultant who advised Ronald Reagan. “I think it’s smart.”

When the nation’s mayors held their annual conference in Washington, Mr. Obama — aware of their critical role in spending stimulus money — invited them all in, a break with President George W. Bush’s practice of having a few in at a time. “I appreciated that,” said Mayor Pat McCrory of Charlotte, N.C., a Republican, who described Mr. Bush’s interactions with mayors as “fairly tense.”

Americas Watchdog & its Homeowners Consumer Center have been leading a national investigation, and a state by state investigation into what could be extremely toxic Chinese drywall in new homes, built after 2001, in Florida. Virginia, California, Arizona, Nevada, Louisiana, New Jersey Texas and all other U.S. States. According to the Homeowners Consumer Center, "the potentially toxic Chinese drywall was extensively used in new U.S. home construction between 2004 & 2007. We want to talk to every homeowner, who knows they have it, and or, owners who suspect they have it, so that we can help them & try to protect them at the same time." The indicators of potentially toxic Chinese drywall are a rotten egg/sulfur smell, repeated AC coil failures, electrical wiring corrosion & even silver jewelry turning black.
Americas Watchdog has been leading the national and the state by state investigations of potentially toxic Chinese drywall since the beginning of the year. The Homeowners Consumer Center has discovered that the Chinese drywall was initially brought into the US in 2001. At its peak, the Chinese dry wall was used in new subdivisions, condo projects and town homes in every state, with the heaviest concentrations being in Florida, California, Arizona, Nevada, Louisiana, Texas, Virginia, Georgia, Colorado, the Carolina's & the Pacific Northwest. Aside from making a home, or condominium a potential tear down, the building material is so toxic, that last week the group learned exposure to the Chinese drywall could produce emphysema in Children. "If you are a Florida or Virginia homeowner, who knows they have the drywall product in your home, or if you are in another state & your new home built between 2001 & 2007 has always had a rotten egg or sulfur smell, and or, you have gone through numerous AC coils, or suffered upper respiratory issues since move in.
xtremely Important Consumer Note To All Florida & Virginia Homeowners Who Have The Chinese Drywall Product In Their Home: "Do not agree to simply have a homebuilder replace your drywall. If you have the most toxic Chinese drywall, the house, or condominium will have to be completely torn down. Do not sign a phony homebuilder re-drywall agreement, without first talking to us or our legal teams. In many, to most cases a re-drywall may not correct the problem, because the toxic's are already spread throughout your home." For more information homeowners with the Chinese drywall product
According to My View Its a very positive Impact that one should know about its basic rules and rights from the nation he lives.