Around the World

Participants in their underwear break a world record for the most number of people, 57, to fit into an over-sized pair of underpants measuring 5 meters by 1.5 meters in the Canary Wharf district of London, Thursday, Nov. 17, 2011. Thursday marks Guinness World Records Day in which the organization estimates some 20,000 people around the world will attempt to break a wide range of records to showcase their country. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)

China gets another landmark

On the eve of the 90th anniversary of the ruling communist party, China opened the world's longest cross-sea bridge spanning 42 km. Standing on more than 50 pillars built over 4 years, the $1.5 billion Jiaouzhou Bay bridge links the eastern port city of Qingdao to Huangdao island.

World's longest natural gas pipeline was operationalised from the China-Kazakhstan border to Turkmenistan. The 8,700 km long pipeline is designed to provide stable gas supply for at least 30 years, powering the booming industrial zones in Shanghai, Guangzhou and Hong Kong.

Beijing to Shanghai will take under 5 hours on a high-speed bullet trains flagged off recently, zipping at 300 kph (capable of 350kph). China has world's longest high-speed rail network.

The Dubai Nobody Tells You About.
-by Kim Macedo

Dubai is the land of the biggest, tallest, longest, widest, richest, fanciest, fastest....everyingist...in the world.

They have the tallest residential towers in the world, the tallest restaurant in the world, the largest number of Malbaris in the world, the highest crane operator in the world.

If it does not grow in Dubai, they’ll make it artificially - artificial ski slopes, artificial islands, artificial oasis, coconut trees and lawns, artificial beaches, artificial economy.

Indians especially love it here because of the dirham-to-rupee value.

The Filipinos come here because they have no choice; there’s nothing back home, not even dogs - they’ve been eaten up.

The Egyptians come here because there is nothing to do in Egypt. No more pyramids to build either.

The Lebanese come here to buy cars, dress to kill, wear Peter Pan shoes 10 sizes bigger than their feet, put 1 kg of gel on their heads and give everyone balltalk. They'll buy a 1980’s Merc or BMW for 10k dirhams and drive the car like they’re sitting in the rear passenger seat, stretching their arms all the way to the steering wheel, giving you the piercing bald eagle look.

The Russian girls come here as hookers.

The Bangladeshis come here to build the tallest buildings in the world.

Now according to the government Dubai is tax free. Of course, that is true.

Only, there is a Pay and Park scheme with 5000 parking lots, and 500,000 cars in the city, so where the hell do you park? And you’re fined for wrong parking.

Toll has been introduced on many roads. You can avoid the toll tax by using alternative routes, but you’ll end up in a traffic jam because everyone is trying to avoid the toll tax.

If you have any government related work like medicals for visa or immigration, you have 2 options - Standard and Urgent Procedure. Standard takes 15 days and Urgent takes 2 days. The difference is 30 to 40-odd dirhams. Everyone goes for the urgent option and the Dubai government makes money, urgently.

If you switch jobs you get a work ban and to lift the ban you pay a huge penalty.

In Dubai, without a car you’re paralyzed (you don’t even get jobs if you don’t have a car). But you’ll get your license in attempts ranging from 2 to 20. Each time you fail you have paid fees for Driving Classes & Driving Tests, which are 1000-odd dirhams. Imagine the money RTA makes.

Most of the expats live alone with families back home. So they spend much on phone calls. And call charges from Dubai are high.

Another odd thing about Dubai - no matter where you go or who you meet, you take down phone numbers. Everybody has everybody’s number in Dubai. And everyone has a Visiting Card, whether you’re a bootlegger, a masseuse, a hooker, a car cleaner, a watchman or a pizza delivery boy. Everyone knocks around with lots of cards in his or her wallet and one card in the palm. So whenever you shake hands with anyone in Dubai and let go, you end up with a visiting card in your palm.

If you’re walking on the road and you ask someone the time, he’ll tell you “10:30”, give you his card and say, “I have new and second-hand watches”.

At a restaurant when you’re leaving they’ll say “Here’s my card, call us for home delivery.”

If you’re below your building, you’ll meet those Chinese chicks giving you their cards, saying, “Call us if you want DVDs”.

If you’re standing at a bus stop, a Malbari will pull over in his 1980 Toyota Corolla, give you his card and say, “If you want Pick-up & Drop Service, call me”.

Dubai has amusing-looking buildings. Some have holes in them, some have giant balls on them, some look like aeroplanes, some look like sail boats, and, all of them reach into space with your window right in front of the moon.

Everyone in Dubai goes to malls. Not necessarily to shop. To beat the heat, go to a mall; business meeting, go to a mall; getting bored, go to a mall; want to take a leak or dump, go to a mall; want to do lukhagiri (little in your pocket, little in your mind), go to a mall.

If you want to go for a picnic go to a mall.

(Courtesy:Rita Rao, UAE)

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Celebrities, Stars, Artists, Professionals, Businessmen and others - would you like to tell your story to the world & write a book - Biography/Autobiography?

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Pictures say it all, much more than words

Saddam Hussain's gold

Doesn't it look like gold?

Have you seen so much?

Inside the tanker

Checking the tanker

Rifle made of gold

His name inscribed on it

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After 255 kills and 10 years of duty, Kyle retired to save his marriage. Chris Kyle could kill from 2000 yards away. The Texas cowboy became America's most feared sniper. His book, American sniper, recounting his tour in Iraq was released recently.

The UK- based researchers have used 3D printer to create an electric powered unmanned air vehicle that can be put together in minutes without any clues or adhesives.

The investment firm headed by Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal said it signed a 4.6 billion Riyal ($1.2 billion) deal with the Saudi Binladen Group to build the world's tallest tower. Kingdom Holding Company said the more than 1000 meter high Kingdom Tower to be built north of Red sea city of Jeddah is part of the first phase of the Plant Kingdom City.

A motor cycle the length of a tennis court has been ridden into the record books by plumber Colin Furzi, 31. Measuring 22 meters (72ft) long, the converted 125 cc scooter took a month to build. It can carry up to 25 people. He assembled it in his mum's backyard in attempt to gain another Guinness World Record.

Measuring 70 feet long, 13 feet high and weighing 25 tonnes, it qualifies as the heaviest limousine and finds a place in the 2011 Guinness Book of Records called Midnight Rides, it can accomodate 40 people and has 3 lounges and a bar. Based in Southern California, travel plans are customised as per client's preferences. It comes with the crew of five.

A school boy is on course for £250,000 windfall after inventing a doorbell that fools burglar into believing somebody is home at an empty property. Smart bell, designed by Lawrence Hook,13, dials the home owner's mobile phone when pressed allowing them to talk to whomever is outside their front door.

Thomas Suker, a car sales consultant from Chicago, entered the record books by clocking over 10 million miles of air travel over 5,962 flights.

Sao Paulo: An elderly Brazilian man shot in the face escaped death when is dentures deflected a bullet headed for his brain. The bullet would have probably pierced Morae's brain if it hadn't first hit his dentures before lodging in his throat.

Compressed air from vehicle entered his body at 7 times atmospheric pressure after freak accident. A New Zealand truck driver in a freak accident that blew up his body like a balloon after he slipped and broke the valve of the compressed air tank connected to his vehicle's brake. The valve punctured the skin on his buttock as he fell, forcing air compressed at a rate of 100 pounds per square inch or almost 7 times atmospheric pressure through his body. 'I really did feel like Michelin Man', Steven McCormack, 48, of the North Island town of Optiki, told after being released from the intensive care unit of Whakatana Hospital.

Rare Zonkey was born in China Zoo, the result of a moment of passion between a female Zebra and Donkey who shared an enclosure at Xiamen Haicang Zoo. The Zonkey sported cute striped legs and pale lines down its brown body it weighed 30 kg and is nearly a meter tall.

Measuring just 59.93cm, Junrey Balawing, a Filipino, who tuned 18, was declared the world's shortest man taking over the title from a tiny Nepali.

A 65-year-old man in Sweden had been suffering from stomach pain for 25 years. He recently found out there was a toothprick lodged in his stomach all this time.

Jarrett broke his own record of the world's tallest sandcastle with 37-feet 10 inches structure. Ed Jarrett needed 1.6 million pounds of sand to built the almost 38 feet high structure.

A rare book by America's most famous bird artist John James Audubon, billed as the most expensive in the world is going under the hammer in December alongside a first addition of Shakespeare's plays.

A Dutch history student has unearthed the world's oldest share certificate, dating back to 1606 and issued by the sea trading firm Dutch East India Company. The certificate was made out to Pietes Harmensz, a resident of Dutch city Enkhuizen who served as an assistant to the city's mayors.

A British dog underwent a surgery after x-rays revealed it had eaten 12 bras. Sick pup Molly was seized from her owners weighing half the weight of a Rottweiler and suffering a swollen stomach. When doctors carried out an x-ray they were stunned to discover the dog's belly was full of underwear, including a wiring from a comedy bra.

A French 'Spiderman' was arrested after he scaled a 57-stroey Sydney building, without ropes or a harness to raise awareness about climate change. Alain Robert,48,popularly known as Spiderman, climbed the 150-metre Lumiere twin-tower apartment with his bare hands in Sydney.

If you are connoisseur of fine whisky, here is an exciting new concoction you might be interested in - whisky made from urine of diabetic patients. Not surprisingly, the creator of London-based designer James Gilpin isn't planning to market the pee whisky commercially.

Bejing: A Chinese man is struggling to piece together thousands of rotted bank notes his father had buried. The cash, believed to be worth £20,000 was stashed in the family garden in Jiekeng by Ban Jing's during the 1980s. But he didn't tell anyone until he revealed his location to his son on his death bed.

A Saudi family has allegedly hammered 23 nails into a Sri Lankan maids body, a media report said. 'I had to work continously when I wanted to take rest due to tiredness, they inserted the nails as a punishment.' The 50-year-old has told a Sri Lankan news channel. The woman said he was overworked, beaten and threatened with death.

As if the Rubic's cube wasn't hard enough, Ludwig Fichte completed the puzzle while sky diving in a rubber dinghy.

Britain's biggest independent private health company has opened the countries plushest-ever hospital, which has 17 luxury room with designer ensuite bathroom, original artwork a surrounded sound Hi-Fi. There's even a chef who'll cook to order from lamb shanks to beluga caviar.

Surgeon have removed a giant tumor weighing 22 kg from a woman which has been growing inside her body for 18 months. The huge growth was taken out of the 54-year-old's womb during a four-hour operation at a hospital near Buenos Aires in Argentina.

Not only does the 50-year-old Londonor Brenda Allison, accounts Manager from Holloway, North London, say that metal item including coins, keys, even tinlids attached themselves to her, she also claims she in advertently sets off car alarms, blows light bulbs and interferes with TV signals. She claims she has the powerful personal magnetic field that makes metal object stick to her skin.

Sydney : An electric pole had a miraculous escape after being hit by a power search of 12,700-volts. The 35-year-old on identify man suffered 20 per cent burns and was shifted to a hospital in Brisbane.

A company based in Bristol has modified a beetle convertable car used human waste has fuel. The car gets powered by methane gas generated by the sewage treatment process. The bio bug can run for a year from the waste acquire from 70 house holds.

A couple, Paloma Werner, sailing in Table Bay, South Africa with partner Ralph got more than they had bargained for when they set out in their yacht to spot whales. A 33-ft monster weighing 40 tons lunged on to the deck, bringing the mast crashing down.

Swede sets new world record for running down the side of a building. Tony Berglund,47, is in talks with Guinness World records officials after clocking up a time of just 34.76 seconds over the 100-meter course in vasteraas, Sweden.

A Chinese man is said to apply for a new Guinness world record for his 22-year-old hen- the equivalent of 400 years in human age. Yang Shaofu, 77 of Sidazhuang village, Baoshan, Yunnan Province, said the hen was brought by his daughter-in-law in 1988 along with 4 other chickens.

Its never too late to fall in love - a couple in Britain age 97 and 87 are said to have scripted history by becoming the oldest to get married. According to Daily Express, Henry Kerr, who is just 3 years shy of his 100th birthday and his bride Valerie Berkowitz, are now UK's oldest newly weds, with a combined age of 184.

An Air France flight attendant has been arrested after she confessed to stealing jewellery and cash from hand luggage of passengers while they were sleeping. The 47-year-old stewardess refered to as Lucy R was arrested at Paris' Charles De Gaulle Airport after 6-months long investigation..

An Italian man has opened up a museum exhibiting manhole covers across the world. Stefano Bottom believes the manhole to be under rated art form and subsequently opened The International Manhole Museum in Farrarra, Italy

A post card that a Japanese mailed from South East Asian battle front during World war II reached a recipient in Japan 64-years later, a university whose student helped deliver it said, Shizuo Nagano an 80-year-old retiree in Japan's South Western prefecture of Kochi, received the card. Nagano's fellow former soldier Nobuchika Yamashita mailed the card in 1943 from Burma, now called Myanmar, a year before Yamashita died at war at the age of 23.

A Hungarian dog has been reunited with his owners after being sucked into the sky still in his kennel by the wind from a huge storm. Lucky was eventually found 20 miles away after local radio reported an appeal for him to be traced.

Vienna: Swimmers in Austria are been asked to keep their mouth shut at public pools to save money. About 5,000 litres of water a day is thought to be swallowed by visitors to Vienna's 18 baths.

Wellington: A man in New Zealand was shot in the butt when his pet dog jumped on a loaded rifle. The incident took place in the Northland region when the dog accidentally stepped on the trigger of the .22 rifle and ended up firing at his 40-year-old owner.

A Lancastrian milkman has learned to speak Gujarati while dealing with his Asian customers who can't talk in English. Joh Jimmy Mather, 69, first delivered pints in 1960 and soon made friends with the immigrants from India and Bangladesh on his round.

A man has made stunning Guinness world record of driving across two rows of upright beer bottles for over 60 meters in Wenzhou. Lee Guiwen, an army driver from Beijing, steered along 1,798 bottles for 60.19 m in a time of 8 mins and 28 secs in eastern China's Zhejiang province

An experimental solar-powered plain landed safely after completing its first 24-hour test flight, proving that the aircraft can collect enough energy from the sun during the day to stay aloft all night. Pilot Andre Borschberg eased the Solar Impulse on to the runaway at Payerm airfield about 50 km southwest of the Swiss capital Bern at exactly 9 am on 8th June 2010.

A team of Dutch scientists are planning to make an island entirely from 44 million kilos of plastic waste. The proposal aims to clean the ocean while creating new land.

The skates ramp at the foot of Eiffel Tower on which Taig Kris set a world record for the longest jump with roller blades. He set a world freefall record of 12.5 metres (41 feet) in France.

Michael Jackson left $ 33m each for his 3 children in his will. However the late singer's kids-Prince,13, Paris,12 and Blanket, 8- will not be able to avail of the sum until they are 30.

China: Chained to a metal post the fear-stricken boy of 8 was being sold by his despicable dad in a modern version of slave auction.

Los Angeles: The strapless pink gown Marilyn Monroe wore while performing 'Diamonds are a girl's are best friend' will be up for grabs at an auction here next month.

US daredevil Jonathan Trappe crossed the channel in a chair slung under a cluster of 55 helium balloons, travelling around hundred km from England and landing in a field in France. Jonnathan airborne after taking of from Ashford in Kent and landed on a farmland in Moeres, France

Connecticut: Police said a naked man yelling that he was Jesus was the catalyst for 5-vehicle accident on Interstate 95 North in Darien. This mishap also injured three people and slowed traffic for nearly 6 hours.

They were born on same day, in the same hospital and their mothers even a shared the same room in the maternity ward. Now 24, Americans Amy Singley and Steven Smith are all set to do another thing together- tie the knot. They married on June 12.

A history teacher, Anri Suzuki, 24 with the doctorate in Sino-Japanese history, has offered to have sex with Chinese students at her college in Japan to apologise for her country's invasion of China in 1937 and was ashamed by what her countrymen had done.

London: A family dream suffered £300,000 of damage after a £4 paperweight, kept near the window , magnified the suns rays to cause a devastating blaze. Martin and Ruth Ball stood helplessly by as 20 fire fighters battled five hours to extinguish the ferocious fire.

SYdney: Restaurateur , fed up with the waste left by dinners , has ordered her customer to eat everything on their plates or pay a penalty and not return. On the contaray , Chef Yukako I Chikawa has introduced a thirty percent discount for dinner who eat all the food they have ordered at WAFU , thirty seats restaurant in Sydney.

Japan is to launch a space yacht propelled by solar particles that bounce of its kite-shaped sails, the country's space agency said. A rocket carrying the Ikaros - or Interplanetory Kite-craft Accelerated by Radiation of the Sun - will blast of from the Tanegashima Space Centre in Japan.

A former bodyguard of Osama Bin Laden has reportedly revealed that the Al-Qaida leader sought and wanted to use nuclear weapons. He also said that he was 'proud to have worked as a guard for a great personality. Nassar al-Bahri further revealed that he was instructed to kill Laden if that was the only way to avoid his capture.

A sheet from the flight plan of the first moon landing signed by astronaut Neil Armstrong and inscribed with the words 'one small step for a man - one giant leap for mankind' sold for $152,000 at an auction.

An Indonesian man cut off his own penis and threw it into a well after his girlfriend decided to marry someone else. The 19-year-old man arrived in hospital in critical condition from blood loss but medical personnel managed to save his life. The sliced-off penis has not been found.

The appearance of huge spiral of light over Norway in December has left experts stunned and bewildered as to its origins. Thousands of awe-struck Norwegians bombarded the Meteorological Institute with questions about the incredible light which could be seen in the pre-dawn sky for hundreds of miles. Experts believe the space spectacle which has been dubbed 'Star-Gate' is an entirely new astral phenomenon, though the world's top scientists and the military have admitted the are baffled. Theories about the light been a misfired Russian missile, meteor fire ball, never-before-seem type of Nothern life 'Black Hole' and even alien activity where all proposed. Witnesses across Norway who first glimpsed the space show at 8.45 am all described seeing a spinning 'Catherine wheel-style' spiral of white light, centered around a bright moon-light-star. A blue 'streaming tail' appeared to anchor the spiral to earth, before the light exploded into a rotating ring of white fire. The spiral spectacle, which lasted for 2 minutes was seen by vast number of people of the Scandinavian country's all most 5 million population with sightings as far North as Finnmark to Trondelag in the South. Totto Eriksen, from Tromso, in Northen Norway was the one of the thousands who bombarded Norwegian newspapers with sightings after nearly crashing his car on spotting the spiral overhead. "I was driving my daughter to school when this light spun and exploded in the sky," the Sun quoted him as saying.

Norway's most celebrated astronomer, Knut Jorgen Roed Odegaard, said he had never seen anything like spiral before. "The spiral suggest the object came of course and balanced and entered the spiral movement. Leaking rocket fuel could account the blue light. But I know the military have denied this explanation. So we could be looking at an entirely new natural phenomenon" added Dr Tandberg. Meanwhile Nick Pope, former UFO analyst for the Ministry of Defence, added that the Norwegian sighting was a real mystery. " This is completely different from any image of the Northen lights that I have ever seen. Its ironic that something like this should happen the very week after the MoD terminated its UFO project. It just goes to show how wrong that decision was," he added. (ANI)

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Today celebrity knickknacks command a fortune. And even cast-offs rake in healthy returns.

In 1979, Sid Luft, third husband of the late Judy Garland, held an auction of filmstar's personal possessions. A pair of Garland's false eyelashes was sold to a fan for $125.

In Dallas, Texas, a two page letter written more than 100 years ago by artist Vincent van Gogh sold for $500,000 in February 1996. A collector bought it as a Valentine's Day present.

Rosebud, the child's sled which played an enigmatic part in the 1941 Orson Welles' film Citizen Kane, was purchased by director Steven Spielberg for $55,000.

At a 1994 auction at Sotheby's. U2's Bono paid nearly $56,000 for the Hitler-like suit worn by Charlie Chaplin in the 1940 film The Great Dictator.

Joan Crawford's only Oscar, won for her performance in the 1945 film Mildred Pierce, was sold to a private collector at a private collector at a New York auction in 1993. The Oscar sold for $68,500, many times over Christie's $8,000-$12,000 pre-sale estimate.

A batch of 40 letters written by Greta Garbo to a Swedish friend were sold at auction in 1993 for $32,650.

The bullwhip used by Harrison Ford in the Indiana Jones films brought in $24,300 at an auction.

The marriage certificate of Marilyn Monroe and Arthur Miller fetched $13,700 at an auction.

At a 1994 auction of Barbra Streisand's discarded household goods, her used toaster was purchased by a fan for $90.

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Dear world, I am leaving you because I am bored. I feel I have lived long enough. I am leaving you with your worries in this sweet cesspool --good luck...........British actor George Sanders, April 25, 1972.

To Harald, may God forgive you and forgive me too but I prefer to take my life away and our baby's before I bring him up with shame or kill him, Lupe..........Actress Lupe Velez, December 13, 1944.

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