Suzanne Tamim Slaying: Egyptian Tycoon Gets Death

The brutal killing of Lebanese diva Suzanne Tamim and the subsequent arrest of Egyptian property tycoon Hisham Talaat Moustafa on murder charges was very real, and shockwaves are already being felt in the corridors of power. Moustafa is a high-ranking government insider, a member of the ruling National Democratic party's "supreme policies council" and a personal friend of President Hosni Mubarak, whose regime has become notorious for its close links with rich businessmen.

Egypt was astonished yesterday by an ending far stranger than fiction when Hisham Talaat Moustafa, a property tycoon, high-level political insider and friend of the President, was sentenced to hang for the killing of his former pop-star lover.

The Government quickly imposed a judicial ban on media discussion of the case, but that collapsed within weeks when it emerged that such a figure — Hisham Talaat Moustafa — had been arrested in connection with the crime.

It brings to an end a year-long episode that refocused attention on the Egyptian Government’s relationship with big business, its attempts to muzzle the press and a rather more basic discussion on private morals.

The murder of Suzanne Tamim, a 30-year-old Lebanese singer, created a tabloid sensation when photographs of her lying dead with her throat slashed appeared across the Middle East after her killing last July.
They claimed that Moustafa paid $2 million to Mohsen el-Sukkari, a former Egyptian police officer who became a hotel security guard, to follow his former lover from Egypt to London and on to Dubai.

Dubai policed solved the murder when they found Sukkari’s footprint at the scene and traced it back to him through the shop where he bought the shoes. Moustafa was arrested in September and stripped of his parliamentary immunity to face trial alongside Sukkari. Evidence for the prosecution included recordings of conversations between the two conspirators, taped by Sukkari. In one, Moustafa suggested that Ms Tamim should be thrown from a balcony or run over by a car.

Also submitted was CCTV footage of Sukkari entering and leaving the Dubai apartment on the morning of the murder. The police officer who interrogated Sukkari testified that he confessed that Moustafa had asked for his lover’s severed head to be delivered before he paid up.

The scene in the courtroom turned chaotic yesterday when judges announced convictions for both men and sentenced them to death. Moustafa’s two daughters burst into tears and his wife fainted as other members of his entourage grappled with photographers who rushed to the cage where the two men were being held.

Abdel Sattar Tamim, the dead singer’s father, said that the family was satisfied with the verdict and had “full faith” that it would be upheld.

Source: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article6335993.ece

'Secret Life of the American Teen' explores teen pregnancy

Nearly every television season, a storybook stork delivers a plot twist in the form of a baby to a teen drama.

“The Secret Life of the American Teenager," created by Brenda Hampton of "7th Heaven," premiered last summer on ABC Family and introduced us to 15-year-old Amy Juergens, a scrawny, French horn-playing freshman at Grant High School who discovers she's pregnant -- though she's not even sure she actually had sex -- after a rendezvous with bad boy Ricky Underwood at band camp.

The show's first season averaged 3.5 million viewers -- trumping media darling " Gossip Girl." When it returns Monday, viewers can expect Amy's baby drama to intensify as she gets closer to her due date. Is the baby a boy or a girl? Will she give it up for adoption?

Sexual trysts and pregnancy twists are common occurrences in youth-oriented TV land. And a recent study by Rand Corp., which tracked more than 700 12- to 17-year-olds, found that about 25% of those who viewed the most sexual content on TV were involved in a pregnancy, compared with about 12% of those who watched the least.

Son of John Travolta died

John Travolta and Kelly Preston's 16-year-old son Jett died today.

According to TMZ, a spokesperson from Rand Memorial Hospital confirmed Jett died while the family was on vacation in the Bahamas.

Travolta's attorney Michael Ossi says Jett suffered a seizure at his family's vacation home at the Old Bahama Bay Hotel on Grand Bahama Island.

Attempts to revive him were unsuccessful and he died at the scene.

There were reports that Jett was autistic, but Travolta has denied it and said that Jett suffered from Kawasaki Syndrome, a condition which affects mostly boys under the age of 5.

The condition can lead to heart disease and heart attacks even in children.

Travolta and Preston are also parents to Ella, 8.

About Work at Home and Data Entry Jobs

Work at home data entry positions are available in various employment website. This is a great opportunity for stay-at-home moms and dads with little ones to watch out for. Anyone that wants to work at home can be a data entry operator. By being a work at home data entry operator, you can set your own timetable, work as much or as little as you wish, and be your own boss and control your own destiny. you just need little knowledge of internet surfing and typing in a proper way to secure your position as a work at home data entry worker.

Work at home data entry personnel perform other tasks rather than just typing. They also may edit current or local information, proofread text for accuracy and targeted content, update various databases for clients. Some of the types of data entry jobs include medical records, business records, product information, court documents and attorney's legal briefs. Many work at home data entry operators charge their clients per hour, others choose to charge by the job. Either way, working at home brings benefits that working elsewhere does not.

More Info regarding such scopes on Internet, check out www.browsenet.info

Be aware of "Koobface" virus on Facebook and Myspace

Hey, I have this hilarious video of you dancing. Your face is so red. You should check it out.

If you've received a message like that through Facebook or MySpace, you may have been exposed to the "Koobface" virus. "Koobface" comes through an e-mail sent by one of your social networking site friends inviting you to scope out a video.

Once the URL is clicked, "Koobface" prompts you to update your Flash player before the video can be displayed. Therein lies the virus, cloaked in a "flash_player.exe" file. According to the Kaspersky Lab, an antivirus organization working closely with Facebook, "the worms transform victim machines into zombie computers to form botnets."

The McAfee Security Blog explains that when "Koobface" infects your computer, it prompts a downloaded service named Security Accounts Manager (SamSs) to load on start-up. SamSs then proxies all HTTP traffic, stealing results from popular search engines and hijacking them to lesser-known search sites.

A clear eye for fraud will help you avoid this mess. You can usually spot phony e-mails by their titles. Kaspersky found the following: Paris Hilton Tosses Dwarf On The Street; Examiners Caught Downloading Grades From The Internet; You must see it!!! LOL. My friend catched you on hidden cam; Is it really celebrity? Funny Moments. My own "Koobface" attack came in an e-mail entitled, lool, yoour blushingg afce is so funny! Checkk out. Obviously, Paris Hilton never threw dwarves, and in all likelihood, my 26-year-old friend knows how to spell more than two words. These are clear indicators you're being attacked.

Facebook has posted instructions about how to remove the "Koobface" virus: give your computer an antivirus scrub-down and change your Facebook password. Check out http://www.facebook.com/security

One of the biggest Jewelery theft in Paris

Armed robbers have pulled off one of the world's biggest jewelery thefts at a Paris shop, making off with diamonds and valuables worth $102m.

The four robbers, two of whom were disguised as women, stole nearly all the jewellery on display at Harry Winston jewellers on the Avenue Montaigne, just off the Champs-Elysees in the French capital. The robbery was well-planned, a source from the investigating team told AFP, the French news agency. The men knew the names of some of the shop's employees and the location of some hidden storage cases for jewels.

The robbers managed to elude a high-security surveillance system and burst into the boutique at 1630 GMT on Thursday, during the busy holiday shopping season. Brandishing weapons, they threatened some of the dozen employees and customers and herded them into a corner. Investigators said some of the employees had suffered blows.The haul, initially estimated at up to $79m, was revised early on Friday to $102m, making it France's biggest jewelery heist by far.

Is Mariah Carey Pregnant?

Ellen DeGeneres put Mariah Carey on the spot today regarding rumors that the songstress is expecting her first child with hubby Nick Cannon. When Mariah insisted that's not the case, Ellen pretended to let her off the hook, but then handed the Grammy winner a glass of champagne and suggested that they toast to her ... not being pregnant. Um, awkward!

The flustered singer hesitated, noting that bubbly is fattening. "This is peer pressure!" she exclaimed. As Carey pretended to sip her drink, Ellen declared, "You're pregnant."

"No, no, no," said Mariah. "We will let you know when we're going to have a family."

Then why refuse a drinky drink? "It's too early for me. I only drink after 3 p.m.!"

I love Ellen, and Mariah has opened up to her in the past, even saying that both she and Nick do want kids, but c'mon. I don't think anyone should be forced to announce their pregnancy before their ready. Of course, I still can't resist asking the question: do you think Mariah is preggers?

12 Surprising And Productive Brain Exercises

Dorothea Brande was an American writer and editor, well known for her books "Wake Up and Live" and "Becoming a Writer".

Here are Dorothea Brande's twelve mental exercises. Note: she wrote these in 1936, so you need to adapt of few of them.

1. Spend an hour each day without saying anything except in answer to direct questions, in the midst of the usual group, without creating the impression that you're sulking or ill. Be as ordinary as possible. But do not volunteer remarks or try to draw out information.

2. Think for 30 minutes a day about one subject exclusively. Start with five minutes.

3. Write a letter without using the words I, me, mine, my.

4. Talk for 15 minutes a day without using I, me, my, mine.

5. Write a letter in a "successful" or placid tone. No misstatements, no lying. Look for aspects or activities that can be honestly reported that way.

6. Pause on the threshold of any crowded room and size it up.

7. Keep a new acquaintance talking about himself or herself without allowing him to become conscious of it. Turn back any courteous reciprocal questions in a way that your auditor doesn't feel rebuffed.

8. Talk exclusively about yourself and your interests without complaining, boasting, or boring your companions.

9. Cut "I mean" or "As a matter of fact" or any other verbal mannerism out of your conversation.

10. Plan two hours of a day and stick to the plan.

11. Set yourself twelve tasks at random: e.g., go twenty miles from home using ordinary conveyance; go 12 hours without food; go eat a meal in the unlikelist place you can find; say nothing all day except in answer to questions; stay up all night and work.

12. From time to time, give yourself a day when you answer "yes" to any reasonable request.

If you'd like to read a more lengthy explanation of the twelve disciplines, or about Brande's explanation for these exercises, go here and search for Chapter 11 - Twelve Disciplines.

What Happy People Don’t Do ...

Happy people spend a lot of time socializing, going to church and reading newspapers — but they don’t spend a lot of time watching television, a new study finds.

That’s what unhappy people do.

Although people who describe themselves as happy enjoy watching television, it turns out to be the single activity they engage in less often than unhappy people, said John Robinson, a professor of sociology at the University of Maryland and the author of the study, which appeared in the journal Social Indicators Research.

While most large studies on happiness have focused on the demographic characteristics of happy people — factors like age and marital status — Dr. Robinson and his colleagues tried to identify what activities happy people engage in. The study relied primarily on the responses of 45,000 Americans collected over 35 years by the University of Chicago’s General Social Survey, and on published “time diary” studies recording the daily activities of participants.

“We looked at 8 to 10 activities that happy people engage in, and for each one, the people who did the activities more — visiting others, going to church, all those things — were more happy,” Dr. Robinson said. “TV was the one activity that showed a negative relationship. Unhappy people did it more, and happy people did it less.”

But the researchers could not tell whether unhappy people watch more television or whether being glued to the set is what makes people unhappy. “I don’t know that turning off the TV will make you more happy,” Dr. Robinson said.

Still, he said, the data show that people who spend the most time watching television are least happy in the long run.

Since the major predictor of how much time is spent watching television is whether someone works or not, Dr. Robinson added, it’s possible that rising unemployment will lead to more TV time.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/20/health/research/20happy.html?em

Sexiest Woman In The World

E! entertainment television has just named supermodel Karolina Kurkova the sexiest woman in the world. Kurkova will play the role of Cover Girl in Paramount's upcoming "G.I. Joe."

The complete top 10 of E!'s Sexiest Women In The World is as follows -

1. Karolina Kurkova
2. Bar Rafaeli
3. Angelina Jolie
4. Gisele Bundchen
5. Scarlett Johansson
6. Adriana Lima
7. Heidi Klum
8. Penelope Cruz
9. Manuela Arcuri
10. Shakira

Source: http://omg.yahoo.com/news/karolina-kurkova-dubbed-sexiest-woman-in-the-world/15700?nc

Hollywood's Top-Earning Couples

"Naturally, powerful people tend to gravitate toward other powerful people," explains clinical psychologist and celebrity researcher Jim Houran, for reasons that range from proximity (stars hang around other stars) to familiarity (people are attracted, at least initially, to others like them) to clearer expectations (shared priorities make it easier for celebrities to relate). No matter how they get together, the results are good for the bottom line.

Take Will and Jada Pinkett Smith. They hauled in some $85 million over the past year, making them No. 2 on our list. Though Jada's resume continues to grow, Will's the family breadwinner. He raked in $80 million in the year ending June 2008, thanks to another set of top-performing blockbusters: "I Am Legend," "The Pursuit of Happyness," and this past summer's "Hancock." Together the flicks banked $1.2 billion at the worldwide box office, making him Hollywood's most bankable star.

Jay-Z and his new bride, Beyonce Knowles, collectively raked in $162 million between June 1, 2007 and June 1, 2008. The jaw-dropping sum garners them bragging rights atop our first annual ranking of Hollywood's Top-Earning Couples, a list that also includes A-list pairings Keith Urban and Nicole Kidman, David and Victoria Beckham, Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, and Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner, among others.

Windows Live Spaces getting into the Social Networking

Microsoft is trying to create an experience with its Windows Live site akin to Facebook and MySpace: creating a social network that they call “Your Life. Your Stuff. All Together with Windows Live.” They also call it “Keeping your life in sync.”

Prior to this, Windows Live has seemingly been a pasted-together site with Live search and other different services like email and the like. I wouldn't be surprised to see Microsoft give it a shot, but it'd have to be planned out to the tee.

Stuff is still being rolled out; it’s not all there yet. But you can find out a lot more about what’s coming out, as well as beta versions of the new applications, at www.windowslive.com/Home

Google Earth 3D recreation of ancient Rome

Google earth added the 3d recreation of the ancient rome very recently.

It is supposed to let you wander through the streets of the city, in virtual reality authenticated and developed by academics from the University of Virginia. Just as there were whole generations brought up to imagine a luscious Rome through the eyes of Alma-Tadema (full of scantily clad women and rose-petals), so there will now be millions who envisage the ancient city as a version of a well known game named Sim City – slightly threatening, over-clean, depopulated and under-coloured.

Check out Google Earth 3D recreation of ancient Rome at http://earth.google.com/rome/

Interview with BBC: Angelina Jolie is Ready to Be a Grandma!

Hollywood star Angelina Jolie recently had an interview with the BBC and said, “I don’t plan to keep acting very long. I’m ready to do a few things now and fade away and get ready to be a grandma one day. I’m not so worried that I want to keep this pace up and try to be something and be a celebrity.”

Speaking of her family, she continued, “I like being home a lot. First and foremost, I have a lot of children, and I need to make sure they’re growing right and they’ve got us there for them.”

But don’t worry - she won’t be completely going away! She added, “I don’t think I’ll ever say I’m never, ever gonna work because maybe there’s that interesting project where I feel creative.”

Check out her interview with the BBC at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7725278.stm

Google Voice Recognition Search Coming First to iPhone

Google is going to release software that will let users enter search terms on a smartphone by just saying them aloud. What is slightly controversial about this upcoming application is that it's for the Apple iPhone, not the T-Mobile G1, which runs Google's own Android OS.

Google Voice Recognition ApplicationThis new service will be part of an update to the free Google Mobile App for the iPhone, according to the New York Times. It will allow users to ask questions, such as "Where's the nearest Starbucks?" and see the search results on their smartphone's screen.

The new version of this application was supposed to be posted on the iPhone App Store this weekend, but has not yet appeared.

Ottawa university professor in court following arrest in fatal 1980 Paris bombing

Hassan Diab, a 54-year-old who has taught sociology and anthropology at both Carleton University and the University of Ottawa, was arrested by the RCMP at his home on Thursday.

A publication ban was ordered yesterday at the beginning of an extradition hearing for an Ottawa university professor arrested in connection with a fatal bombing at a Paris synagogue in 1980.

The ban, along with a separate court order sealing evidence in the case against Hassan Diab, 55, means the public is unlikely to learn what led to Diab's sudden arrest this week until after his extradition hearing ends.

But Diab's lawyer, who concurred with the ban, took time before the hearing to reiterate claims his client is a victim of mistaken identity and was not even in France when the explosion killed three French men and an Israeli woman.

Diab is said to hold Lebanese and Canadian passports and to have lived in the U.S. for several years before moving to Canada. He teaches part-time at the University of Ottawa and Carleton University and was arrested at his home in Gatineau, Que., near Ottawa.

The 1980 bombing took place at 24 Rue Copernic, the street address of the Paris Synagogue.

Read more on http://provincialblog.net/?p=1546

Online Microsoft Store launched

Microsoft has launched their first online store - Microsoft Store. Users can now buy directly from the store, straight from the source! The Microsoft Store offers the largest selection of Microsoft software, devices and hardware in one place

It is currently available to US, UK, Germany and Korea. Japan, France, Spain and the Netherlands are in the pipeline and more countries will be added throughout the year.

see the store at http://store.microsoft.com/home.aspx

Photos of 4 alien planets outside our solar system

Earth seems to have its first fuzzy photos of alien planets outside our solar system, images captured by two teams of astronomers.

Astronomers say they have parted the curtains of space to take the first pictures of planets beyond our solar system. The first team, led by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, used the Hubble Space Telescope to take a picture of a giant planet orbiting the star Fomalhaut 25 light-years away. "It's almost science fiction," said Berkeley astronomer Eugene Chiang. "I didn't think this day would occur until years from now." Paul Kalas, the lead astronomer for the Berkeley team, said he "nearly had a heart attack" when he found the new planet, tentatively named Fomalhaut b. "It's a profound and overwhelming experience to lay eyes on a planet never before seen."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081114/ap_on_sc/sci_new_planets_14;_ylt=ArDcklZr413YqZv2H1F0gAVsaMYA

Google Chases Skype With New Gmail Video Chat

Google has just added audio and video chat to Gmail, which is assumed to bring competition for video chat service providers like Skype. The new chat tools essentially offer most of the features of Skype, or Apple’s iChat, within the standard Gmail interface.

They have already launched SMS and soon Google’s e-mail client will be a one stop shop for almost every form of communication you can think of: e-mail, chat, video chat, audio chat, and SMS.

Once the plugin is install, using the new features is very simple, just hover over any name in your Gmail chat list and select “Start video chat” or “Start voice chat.” There’s a full screen view and you can also choose to pop out the chat into a new window.

The plugin (which you can grab from the download page) presents a significant downside though — it means that even if you install the plugin, you’ll have to wait for your friends and contacts to do likewise before you can video chat. Although it’s not a huge barrier to getting video chat in Gmail, given the Google’s chat network isn’t most people’s first choice, it may be a little while before the video options become ubiquitous among your contacts.

Read more from http://www.webmonkey.com/blog/Google_Chases_Skype_With_New_Gmail_Video_Chat

Microsoft to sign deal with Sun : no more interest in Yahoo

Microsoft Corp said on Monday that it reached a Web search deal with Sun Microsystems Inc, the latest partnership struck by Microsoft aimed at chipping away at the dominance of Google Inc.

As part of this agreement, users of Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser who download Sun's Java technology platform will be given the option to also download the MSN Toolbar from where users can directly access the company's search engine.

Earlier this year, Microsoft also reached an agreement with Hewlett-Packard Co, the world's largest personal computer maker, to place a toolbar on new PCs in the United States and Canada starting in January.

"This deal will expose Live Search to millions more Internet users and drive increased volume for our search advertisers," said Yusuf Mehdi, senior vice president of the Online Audience Business at Microsoft, in a statement.

Striking distribution deals are one part of Microsoft's strategy to close the gap on market leader Google. Microsoft said competition for these types of deals is intense and that the company had to outbid several rivals for the Sun deal.

Sun said the Java platform sits on more than 800 million personal computers around the world, or on 91 percent of Internet-connected PCs worldwide. The Java Runtime Environment is downloaded tens of millions times every month, Sun said.

Google's U.S. Web search market share reached 63 percent in August versus a 19.6 percent for Yahoo Inc and 8.3 percent for Microsoft, according to comScore.

(Reporting by Daisuke Wakabayashi; Editing by Gary Hill)
Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSTRE4A94US20081110

Earlier in this week: No interest in buying Yahoo: Microsoft CEO

Yahoo Inc. shares dived nearly 13 percent after the chief executive of Microsoft Corp. said Friday the software giant is not interested in renewing its bid for the struggling Internet company.

Microsoft's Steve Ballmer told a business lunch in Sydney that he had moved on after Yahoo rejected its takeover bid in the spring. He did suggest a partnership in the search engine market is possible.

"We made an offer, we made another offer, and it was clear that Yahoo didn't want to sell the business to us and we moved on," Ballmer said. "We are not interested in going back and re-looking at an acquisition. I don't know why they would be either, frankly. They turned us down at $33 a share."

Yahoo shares fell $1.76 to close Friday at $12.20. Microsoft shares gained 3 percent to $21.50.

Yahoo's co-founder and chief executive, Jerry Yang, said Wednesday that Microsoft should make another bid for his company, which runs the world's No. 2 search engine. His appeal came after top search engine Google Inc. backed out of an Internet advertising partnership with Yahoo to avoid a challenge from the U.S. Justice Department, which said it would sue to block the deal on antitrust grounds.