OHNOES: If I had your phone number before, I don't anymore. My phone died. Email me your number! <3
Actor with small part in Harry Potter 6 stabbed, slain
LONDON (AP) -- A British teenage actor playing a minor role in the upcoming "Harry Potter" film was stabbed to death during a brawl in London on Saturday, police said. Labels: crime drama, harry potter, UK
Rob Knox, 18, was stabbed after he got caught up in a fight outside a bar in southwest London early Saturday, London's Metropolitan Police said in a statement.
Knox plays Ravenclaw student Marcus Belby in the upcoming film "Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince," the sixth installment of the popular series set for release in November.
Warner Bros., the studio that is producing the film, said it was shocked by the news.
Knox was one of five young men taken to various hospitals after the brawl, police said. Among them was a 21-year-old who has since been arrested on suspicion of murder.
The fight did not appear to be gang-related, police added, but it puts the number of violent teenage deaths in London at 14 so far this year.
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Really? Is this the right way to protest China? Really?
PARIS (AP) -- Police say the last section of the Olympic torch relay through Paris will not be run because of chaotic protests. Labels: China, controversial, France, government, international news, sports news, UK
Security officials snuffed out the torch and rushed it onto a bus at least five times because of the raucous protests against China's human rights record.
A police spokeswoman says a vehicle now will carry the torch for the entire last part of the route, to a sports stadium in the south of Paris. The French Olympic Committee says it hopes that runners still might be able to carry the torch at the very end.
A Paris police official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to media, says at least 28 people have been taken into custody at the protests.
Despite massive security, at least two activists got within almost an arm's length of the flame before they were grabbed by police. Officers tackled many protesters and carried off some of them. A protester threw water at the torch but failed to extinguish it and was also taken away.
At the start of the relay, a man identified as a Green Party activist was grabbed by security officers as he headed for 1997 400-meter world champion Stephane Diagana, the president of France's national athletics league, who was carrying the torch from the first floor of the Eiffel Tower. The man was tackled before he got close to Diagana.
The procession continued but, soon after, a crowd of activists waving Tibetan flags interrupted it for the first time by confronting the torchbearer on a road along the Seine River. The demonstrators did not appear to get close to the torch, but its flame was put out by security officers and brought on board a bus to continue along the route.
Less than an hour later, the flame was being carried out of a Paris traffic tunnel by an athlete in a wheelchair when the procession was halted by activists who booed and chanted "Tibet." Once again, the torch was temporarily extinguished and put on a bus despite protesters' apparent failure to get close.
Some 3,000 officers were deployed on motorcycles, in jogging gear and using inline roller skates. Still, police barely stopped the second rush at the torch, and the attempt to extinguish it with water. Other demonstrators scaled the Eiffel Tower and hung a banner depicting the Olympic rings as handcuffs.
The torch was extinguished for the third time when police interrupted the procession as a precaution because they spotted a crowd of demonstrators on a bridge they were approaching.
Police said they did not immediately have a count of the number of arrests. Mireille Ferri, a Green Party official, said she was held by police for two hours because she approached the Eiffel Tower area with a fire extinguisher. In various locations throughout the city, activists angry about China's human rights record and repression Tibet carried Tibetan flags and waved signs reading "the flame of shame."
Riot police squirted tear gas to break up a sit-in protest by about 300 pro-Tibet demonstrators who blocked the torch route.
France's former sports minister, Jean-Francois Lamour, said that though the torch had been put out, the Olympic flame itself still burned in the lantern where it is kept overnight and on airplane flights.
"The torch has been extinguished but the flame is still there," he told France Info radio.
Police had hoped to prevent the chaos that marred the relay in London a day earlier. There, police had repeatedly scuffled with activists angry about China's human rights record leading up to the Beijing Olympics Aug. 8-24. One protester tried to grab the torch; another tried to snuff out the flame with what appeared to be a fire extinguisher. Thirty-seven people were arrested.
In Paris, police had drawn up an elaborate plan to try to keep the torch in a safe "bubble." Torchbearers were encircled by several hundred officers, some in riot police vehicles and on motorcycles, others on skates or on foot. Boats patrolled the Seine River that slices through the French capital, and a helicopter flew overhead.
About 80 athletes had been slated to carry the torch over the 17.4-mile route that started at the Eiffel Tower, heading down the Champs-Elysees avenue toward City Hall, then crosses over the Seine before ending at the Charlety track and field stadium.
Across town, City Hall draped its building with a banner reading, "Paris defends human rights around the world."
One torch bearer, two-time French judo gold medalist David Douillet, told RTL radio that he regretted the choice of China, "because it isn't up to snuff on freedom of expression, on total liberty, and of course, on Olympic values."
French President Nicolas Sarkozy has left open the possibility of boycotting the Olympic opening ceremony in Beijing depending on how the situation evolves in Tibet. Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said Monday that was still the case.
Activists have been protesting along the torch route since the flame embarked on its 85,000-mile journey from Ancient Olympia in Greece to Beijing.
The torch's round-the-world trip is the longest in Olympic history, and it is meant to shine a spotlight on China's economic and political power. Activists have seized upon it as a backdrop for their causes, angering Beijing.
Beijing organizers criticized London's protesters, saying their actions were a "disgusting" form of sabotage by Tibetan separatists.
"The act of defiance from this small group of people is not popular," said Sun Weide, a spokesman for the Beijing Olympic organizing committee. "It will definitely be criticized by people who love peace and adore the Olympic spirit. Their attempt is doomed to failure."
The torch relay also is expected to face demonstrations in San Francisco, New Delhi and possibly elsewhere on its 21-stop, six-continent tour before arriving in mainland China May 4.
(Ed note: I'm all for people having an opinion on Tibet and Human Rights in China. They should protest and protest loudly. But to continue to dog the Olympic Torch as it tours through the world is a pathetic display in and of itself. The fact that it turns violent is counter-productive at best and downright shameful and hypocritical at worst. The Olympics is about World Unity. There are much better ways for governments and their people to show disdain for China, like via trade policy. The most peculiar part of all this is, do they really think the Dahli Lama would approve of such actions. Of course not.)
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The attack on mature rated games grows dire in UK.
Video games will be forced to carry cigarette-style health warnings under proposals to protect children from unsuitable digital material. Labels: UK, video games, youth news
The report, commissioned by the Prime Minister in response to a growing moral panic about video games, will conclude that they can harm the development of children’s beliefs and value systems and desensitise them to violence. It will also recommend that retailers who sell video games to anyone under the age rating on the box should face a hefty fine or up to five years in prison, The Times has learnt.
The report, written by Tanya Byron, the clinical psychologist and television parenting guru, is also expected to address the dangers of children’s use of the internet.
“Parents are afraid to let their children out,” she said. “So they keep them at home, but allow them to take risks online.”
She will call for a massive campaign to educate parents, teachers and childcarers about how to ensure that children get maximum benefit from the digital world without being exposed to its dangers.
This will include a drive for greater awareness of inappropriate content such as pornography. Parents will be encouraged to monitor children’s online use and keep computers in living rooms rather than bedrooms. Dr Byron, a Times columnist who has two children aged 9 and 12, said that video and online games could have enormous benefits “in terms of learning and development”, but that there was too little awareness among parents about the associated risks they posed and how to manage those risks.
“You would not send your child to the pool without teaching them to swim, so why would you let them online without teaching them to manage the risks?” she said.
Dr Byron said that the current classification system for video games was confusing and not tough enough. At present only games showing sex or gross violence require an age rating from the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) and fewer than 2 per cent of titles carry an 18-certificate.
The alternative Pan-European Game Information system is considered to be ineffective because it uses symbols that are confusing and distributors effectively chose their own ratings by filling in a form about their product.
Dr Byron wants a single statutory classification system. Ratings would have to be displayed prominently on all packaging materials, like health warnings on cigarettes, as well as on shop display cases.
“We have to make child digital safety a priority. If you are under 18, you should not be able to buy an ‘18’ game and if you are under 12, you should not be able to buy a ‘12’ game,” she said. She also wants all games consoles to contain blocking mechanisms that would enable parents to prevent children playing unsuitable games on them.
(Ed note: There already are mechanisms on video games that can be used to prevent younglings from playing unsuitable games. There are already labels on all packaging and on displays. And while the ratings system is a bit screwy, of course the developers don't get to choose their own ratings. But jackoffs who don't actually understand the industry wouldn't know that would they?
How about this trade off though. The day they make it a crime to sell a game to a minor that is rated M for Mature should be the day that game companies stop the embargo on AO or Adult Only games.
Sounds fair, no?)
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Bishounen Prince Harry has been fighting in war on terror.
LONDON, Feb. 28 -- Prince Harry has been fighting on the front lines in Afghanistan for 10 weeks, his presence there kept secret until Thursday in a remarkable deal between the British military and news media. Labels: boys, international news, UK
British military officials confirmed that Harry, 23, third in line to the British throne, deployed to Afghanistan on Dec. 14 and has been fighting Taliban forces from a forward operating base in southern Helmand province.
News of Harry's deployment immediately became sensational news here and rekindled an emotional debate about whether the red-haired second son of Prince Charles and Princess Diana should be risking his life in war.
When the news was posted Thursday on the Drudge Report Web site, British newspapers and television stations instantly rolled out extensive special reports on the first British royal to see combat since the Falklands War more than 25 years ago.
Those reports included lengthy taped interviews with Harry just before his deployment in December and last week at his Afghan base. Photos and video showed Harry firing a machine gun, patrolling on foot in full combat gear in an Afghan village and washing his socks in a camp sink.
"All my wishes have come true," Harry told reporters in last week's camp interview, wearing a brown military T-shirt and camouflage pants and noting that he had not showered in four days.
"It's very nice to be sort of a normal person for once; I think it's about as normal as I'm going to get," said Harry, now addressed with his rank as Cornet Wales. "It's much better being here experiencing it rather than hearing all the stories of people coming back."
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A call to ban high-pitch emitting device that only kids hear.
LONDON (AP) - England's commissioner for children and a civil liberties group joined in on a campaign Tuesday to ban high-frequency devices intended to drive misbehaving children away from shops and other areas. Labels: bizzare news, loli, shota, UK, youth news
The so-called "Mosquito" device emits high-frequency noise which is audible - and annoying - to young ears, but generally not heard by people over 20.
"This device is a quick fix that does not tackle the root cause of the problem and it is indiscriminate," English Children's Commissioner Al Aynsley-Green said.
The campaigners claim that about 3,500 of the devices, made by a Welsh company, are in use.
Aynsley-Green said in an interview with British Broadcasting Corp. radio that the devices do not tackle the real problem, which is that children have no place to gather other than on the streets.
"I think it is a powerful symptom of what I call the malaise at the heart of our society," he said.
"I'm very concerned about what I see to be an emerging gap between the young and the old, the fears, the intolerance, even the hatred, of the older generation toward the young."
Shami Chakrabarti, director of the civil rights group Liberty, supported the campaign.
"Imagine the outcry if a device was introduced that caused blanket discomfort to people of one race or gender, rather than to our kids," Chakrabarti said. "The 'Mosquito' has no place in a country that values its children and seeks to instill them with dignity and respect."
The Mosquito's inventor, Howard Stapleton, has called for agreement about guidelines for using the devices.
"We tell shopkeepers to use it when they have a problem and I would be more than happy to introduce a contract which stipulates to shopkeepers how it can be used," Stapleton was quoted as telling the Western Mail newspaper.
"People talk about infringing human rights but what about the human rights of the shopkeeper who is seeing his business collapse because groups of unruly teenagers are driving away his customers?"
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Is that loli?
LONDON (Reuters) - A chain of retail stores in Britain has withdrawn the sale of beds named Lolita and designed for six-year-old girls after furious parents pointed out that the name was synonymous with sexually active pre-teens. Labels: bizzare news, loli, UK
Woolworths said staff who administer the web site selling the beds were not aware of the connection.
In "Lolita," a 1955 novel by Vladimir Nabokov, the narrator becomes sexually involved with his 12-year-old stepdaughter -- but Woolworths staff had not heard of the classic novel or two subsequent films based on it.
Hence they saw nothing wrong with advertising the Lolita Midsleeper Combi, a whitewashed wooden bed with pull-out desk and cupboard intended for girls aged about six until a concerned mother raised the alarm on a parenting website.
"What seems to have happened is the staff who run the website had never heard of Lolita, and to be honest no one else here had either," a spokesman told British newspapers.
"We had to look it up on (online encyclopedia) Wikipedia. But we certainly know who she is now."
Woolworths said the product had now been dropped.
"Now this has been brought to our attention, the product has been removed from sale with immediate effect," the chain said.
"We will be talking to the supplier with regard to how the branding came about."
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How about a good ol' fashioned story about Twincest?
A pair of twins who were adopted by separate families as babies got married without knowing they were brother and sister, a peer told the House of Lords. Labels: breeder news, UK
A court annulled the British couple's union after they discovered their true relationship, Lord Alton said.
The peer - who was told of the case by a High Court judge involved - said the twins felt an "inevitable attraction".
He said the case showed how important it was for children to be able to find out about their biological parents.
Details of the identities of the twins involved have been kept secret, but Lord Alton said the pair did not realise they were related until after their marriage.
The former Liberal Democrat MP raised the couple's case during a House of Lords debate on the Human Fertility and Embryology Bill in December.
"They were never told that they were twins," he told the Lords.
"They met later in life and felt an inevitable attraction, and the judge had to deal with the consequences of the marriage that they entered into and all the issues of their separation."
He told the BBC News website that their story raises the wider issue of the importance of strengthening the rights of children to know the identities of their biological parents.
"If you start trying to conceal someone's identity, sooner or later the truth will out," he said.
"And if you don't know you are biologically related to someone, you may become attracted to them and tragedies like this may occur."
Pam Hodgkins, chief executive officer of the charity Adults Affected by Adoption (NORCAP) said there had been previous cases of separated siblings being attracted to each other.
"We have a resistance, a very strong incest taboo where we are aware that someone is a biological relative," she said.
"But when we are unaware of that relationship, we are naturally drawn to people who are quite similar to ourselves.
"And of course there is unlikely to be anyone more similar to any individual than their sibling."
Mo O'Reilly, director of child placement for the British Association for Adoption and Fostering, said the situation was traumatic for the people involved, but incredibly rare.
"Thirty or 40 years ago it would have been more likely that twins be separated and, brought up without knowledge of each other," she said.
Today, however, adopted children grow up with a greater knowledge of their birth families - and organisations try to place brothers and sisters together.
If that were not possible, the siblings would still have some form of contact with each other.
"This sad case illustrates why, over the last 20-30 years, the shift to openness in adoption was so important," Ms O'Reilly added.
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I most certainly mind the bullocks!
LONDON — The Sex Pistols are reuniting for a concert to mark the 30th anniversary of their only album, "Never Mind the Bollocks." Labels: music news, UK
All four original members — John Lydon, Steve Jones, Paul Cook and Glen Matlock — will play a one-time concert at London's Brixton Academy on Nov. 8, the band announced Tuesday.
The punk pioneers, who once sang there was "No Future," split in 1978 but reformed in 1996 and played together again in 2003. Last year they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Led by sneering frontman Lydon — then known as Johnny Rotten — the Pistols shocked many Britons with raucous singles including "God Save the Queen," "Anarchy in the U.K." and "Pretty Vacant."
Released in 1977, "Never Mind the Bollocks" is now regarded as one of the most influential albums in rock history. It will be rereleased to mark the anniversary.
Bassist Sid Vicious, who replaced Matlock during the band's period of greatest notoriety and became a punk icon, died of a drug overdose in 1979.
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Apparently no one has ever seen B-movie horror films.
or
Is this furry?
Hybrid embryos containing both human and animal material could be created in British laboratories within months. Labels: animal news, bizzare news, health news, technology news, UK
The controversial research was given a green light yesterday by the UK's fertility regulator.
A shortage of human eggs led scientists to seek permission to make hybrid embryos from human skin cells and animal eggs such as those from cows, which are plentiful in slaughterhouses.
Two teams of scientists are poised to start making cow-human hybrids for research into incurable diseases, with at least one project expected to start by the end of the year.
Stem cell expert Dr Stephen Minger, who wants to use the embryos to study conditions such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and motor neurone disease, said the work could "revolutionise drug discovery".
But the decision by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority is likely to be subject to a High Court challenge, with opponents claiming the watchdog is not entitled to rule on the issue.
Josephine Quintavalle, of the campaign group Comment on Reproductive Ethics, said last night: "There is a sense from some people that scientists should never be stopped in their tracks.
"Reproduction with animals has been taboo since the beginning of recorded time and that taboo has remained with us for a reason.
"This is tampering at a very basic level."
Britain is one of the first Western countries to approve such research.
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Well they sold me!
Thanks to Steph for the following fantastic link to a line of Euro-Naked Skin Care products from Elave.
You've got nothing to hide!
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Transgendered rights still being fought for in the UK.
A transsexual is seeking thousands of pounds in damages after claiming he was forced out of his job as a truck driver when he starting dressing as a woman. Labels: court drama, trap, UK
Vikki-Marie Gaynor, 37, who was born a man, claims bosses started cancelling his shifts when he dropped his old name, Mike, and started wearing women's clothes, earrings and make-up to work.
The former soldier, who has been married twice and has a teenage daughter, was taunted by other drivers who made rude gestures towards him, it is alleged.
Now Mr Gaynor has launched a sexual discrimination claim against the haulage firm and the recruitment agency which employed him. He could receive a five-figure sum if the employment tribunal finds in his favour.
'I have been treated in an horrendous manner by my employers,' Mr Gaynor said last night.
'When I first started I was a respected driver, I turned up for work on time and did my job very professionally. My bosses knew me as Mike and had no idea I was a transsexual.
'But almost as soon as I told them I was changing my name to Vikki-Marie and entering the transition stage of my gender reassignment things changed. I started getting hurtful comments and my shifts started being cancelled without warning.
'In the end I realised I could no longer go into work, it was too painful.
'It is not right that I should be forced out of my job simply because I want to live as a woman and wear the clothes I was born to wear.'
(more at the Daily Mail)
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I like sleep. Wait! Why am I posting this at 4:16 am then?
Bleary-eyed Tony Wright is tomorrow set to beat the world record for sleep deprivation - after staying awake for more than 11 days. Labels: bizzare news, international news, UK
The 43-year-old has gone without kip since 6am on May 14, and will break the existing record of 264 hours at 6.01am tomorrow.
Tony, a father-of-three, has held his entire record-waking attempt in the Studio Bar in Penzance, Cornwall.
Carefully monitored by six CCTV cameras and a live web cam, he has spent his time playing pool, listening to music, drinking tea and talking to his supporters.
If he is still awake at 6.01am he will have been awake for 264 hours 1 mins - breaking the existing world record set in 1964 by 17-year-old Randy Gardner.
But Tony, of Penzance, will try and stay up until 8am - setting a new record of 266 hours. He said: "I do feel very strange - everything around me has become more intense and after a while and colours seem brighter.
"My eyes have become very sensitive. I had to start wearing sunglasses after 70 hours because looking at a laptop was sending me into a trance.
"There were a couple of tricky moments where I could feel my body wanting to shut down and I had to act quickly to stimulate it.
"I've played so much pool that I actually hurt my back and my arm. My playing has definitely improved."
He added: "I've had to be careful of 'sleep ambushes' which happen when you're not on guard and get yourself into a comfortable position.
"Suddenly I would realise I was relaxing and the urge to sleep was dragging me down - I had to jump up, eat or drink something and occupy myself.
"It was tricky striking a balance between being active but not wearing myself out. My voice is very hoarse and I'm sure I look a right state."
Tony, a writer and researcher, launched his bizarre record attempt in order to study the effects of a lack of sleep has on the human brain.
He believes that each side of the brain requires a different amount of sleep and with preparation it is possible to stay awake and remain functional for long periods.
To prepare for his bid he ate a strict diet of raw vegetables, fruit, nuts and seeds and took regular exercise.
Although the Guinness Book of Records officially recognised Randy Gardner's record in 1964, the organisation has since withdrawn its backing of a sleep deprivation class because of the associated health risks.
But Tony plans to keep a full video record of the entire 11 days as proof he is a world beater. He said: "I might not make it into Guinness but I have set a world record and it is there to be beaten by anyone who wants to try.
"This is my life project and I'm very happy to prove you can stay awake for long periods of time without suffering adverse reactions.
"I am now looking forward to getting under a duvet."
Scientists say depriving the body of sleep for long periods can result in depression, dizziness, hallucinations, irritability, nausea and loss of memory.
Dr Robin Rodd, a lecturer in anthropology at the James Cook University in Australia, said Tony's record-breaking project was an "exciting new breakthrough" for sleep studies.
He said: "His sleep deprivation research project, which combines a long-term raw foods diet replicating that of early modern humans with the collection of data on cognition and physiological functioning, promises to yield exciting new breakthroughs in our understanding of the limits of human consciousness."
Randy Gardner stayed awake for 264 hours in San Diego, USA, as part of or a high school science project into sleep patterns.
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This just in: Pico and Chico shocking!
Here's a letter I got. Labels: anime, fan mail, shota, trap, UK, yaoi
I just found your site for the first time, it's amazing! However, I was a bit shocked by Pico/Chico. I live in the UK and wonder whether I could
actually be arrested for downloading that kind of thing? I know they're not
real, but I don't know how it works. Have you any idea?
My reply:
Thanks for visiting the site and for taking the time to write me.
The short answer to your question is: I'm not familiar with the UK law so
I do not know.
The long answer is comprised of only guesses:
1) If you're over the age of consent in your area -- and you should have
been if you went to the Yaoi page in the first place -- you should be fine considering...
2) The video is legal in Japan (it's home origin) and The United States and many
of the UK law structure is similar to the US.
Naturally, if you're concerned, you can always delete the file and it won't
ever be an issue. Unless you're doing other things that are suspicious or something.
Finally, I'm sorry that you were shocked by the video. I put proper warning yanno!
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