Plastic Surgery Kills

4 Dec 2010 - The death of an aspiring Chinese pop singer during plastic surgery has cast an ugly light on an obsession with beauty that sees millions go under the knife in China each year. Wang Bei, 24, a former contestant on China's answer to American Idol, died on 15 November during "facial bone-grinding surgery" in Wuhan. That Wang even felt she needed to improve her looks has underlined the extent to which cosmetic surgery has taken hold. Her beauty had already made her a popular contestant on the smash TV hit "Super Girl". An "anaesthetic accident" occurred during Wang's procedure at Zhong Ao Cosmetic Surgery Hospital. Wang's jaw suddenly started bleeding during the procedure blocking her windpipe and causing her to suffocate. Surging demand for cosmetic surgery has led to untrained doctors carrying out operations, Zhang Hua-bin, a professor of plastic surgery at Guangdong Medical College said.

Missing

2010 - You normally think this is a scenario of a Hollywood block-buster, but miracles happen in real life too. Three teens who have been missing in the South Pacific for 50 days - and were already eulogised in a memorial service have been found alive by a fishing boat. The boys, two 15 year old and a 14 year old, disappeared while attempting to row between two islands in the New Zealand territory of Tokelau early last month and were given up for dead after an extensive search involving the country's air force. their craft had drifted 1,300 km to a desolate part of Fiji, when the crew of a tuna fishing boat saw them frantically waving for help. The boys were dehydrated, sunburned and thin, but otherwise fine.

Bird's Highway

2 Dec 2010 - Bird migration is big in Israel. Per square kilometer, the country has one of the highest levels of bird traffic in the world. Every autumn, more than 500 million birds cross the Israeli air space, heading south for warmer weather in Africa. One person commented: "Politically Israel is a disaster, but for bird watching it is heaven." However, so many birds in a small airspace cause a major hazard for pilots, notably for the country's substantial air force. Tough pilots have fought many wars, but often their closest encounter with death was when a bird flew into their engine and they had to make an emergency landing or use the eject seat. An average migrating bird bird weighs about 6 kilos but at top speed it has the impact of an item of around 40 tonnes. The Israeli air force has responded with state of the art radar system, that can pick up migrating birds. Bird watchers can also call a hotline to warn for flocks of birds.

World AIDS Day

1 Dec 2010 - Today is World AIDS Day. In the last year a good friend was told he was HIV+, so I am thinking of him - and millions of others - today. Although HIV is no longer a dead sentence, it is still an uphill battle for many, in particular in the developing world. For example, read this testimony from a 27-year old Kenyan woman, which I picked from the MSF website. "There is a very bad thing for AIDS widows. When the husband has died, the relatives take everything from you and just leave it like that, because they know that you are going to die. They took everything from me. I had many things, but they took it away. If you go to my house now, you don't find anything that belonged to my husband. I even had no mat or mattress to sleep on. You remain just like that without anybody caring for you. I am not the only one, it happens to many."

Sit Ups

30 Nov 2010 - A group of male passengers traveling in a female-only carriages on New Delhi's new metro system were ordered to do sit-ups on the platform by furious women, according to reports. At least one carriage per rain is reserved  for women in the Indian capital, where female rsidents and tourists have complained about sexual harassment on public transport for decades. The metro has become severely congested with the lines expanding into the suburbs over the last year and most carriages packed to capacity. The Times of India said on Saturday that police led a crackdown at a station in Gurgaon on the outskirts of Delhi, after sets of complainst - and women passengers joined the action

Computer Crash

29 Nov 2010 - We seldom realize that in a 10 - 15 years time frame we have become almost completely dependent on the computer, so its mayhem and chaos when the computer fail. A freak computer glitch at Australia's biggest bank froze cash machines and left millions of people struggling to access their money. National Australia Bank said a corrupted file wiped out a huge number of transactions , including salary payments and transfers, and crashed some ATMs, angering many customers who were facing a weekend without money. Telford dais that the rogue file knocked out transactions on Wednesday, and the work to fix the problem hit Thursday and Friday. As the electrionic system buckled, some ATMs had crashed, but the bank did not reveal how many. "we are very apologetic", said a spokesperson for the bank.

Workaholic No More

28 Nov 2010 - "Workaholic" may no longer be the most appropriate label for Japanese businessmen. A survey has shown that Japanese men spend less time at work than they once did amid an economic downturn and use their leisure time surfing the internet at home rather than going for a drink with the mates. Japanese men now work eight hours and 39 minutes a day on average, around one hour less than they did in 2000. The survey covered 400 male corporate employees in their 20s to 50s. In their private time workers spend a record seven hours and 59 minutes a week on the internetor catching up with e-mail, the survey showed. The previous survey in 2000 showed they spent seven hours and 52 minutes watching TV - then the top leisure time activity. Drinking coffee at coffee shops or bars now took up just two hours and 25 minutes a week, down from a high of seven hours and 52 minutes in 1990.

Marina's Magic

28 Nov 2010 - Not many people know Datin Paduka Marina Mahathir, but the diughter of the former Malaysian Prime Minister is an national celebrity in her home country. She was recently awarded the United Nations Person of the Year in Malaysia Award for all the good work she has done for women's rights, and the battle against HIV/AIDS. Marina served as president of the Malaysian AIDS Council (MAC), an umbrella of about 40 non-governmental organizations working on HIV/AIDS in the country, from 1993 to 2005. Currently, she is a board member of Sisters in Islam, an advocacy group which champions justice and equality for Muslim women. Ms. Marina was not available to pick up the price herself, but said "It is gratifying to be rocognised. However, there are many people doing a lot of good work in Malaysia. I always believe that when you win an award it is not because you worked alone. I had the support of all the people in MAC and SIS."