Reverse Pregnant Guppy: The Four-Place DeltaWing Looks Insane

We won’t lie, the Reverse Pregnant Guppy sounds like a euphemism for something better left unexamined on these pages. But upon our first glimpse of this rendering a four-seat variant of the DeltaWing, we were reminded of a backward version of Aero Spacelines’ ungainly rocket-parts transport plane. See? It’s all very innocent.

While the racing variants of the DeltaWing (and the Nissan-built Hatfields to the Real McCoy, the ZEOD RC and BladeGlider), have a certain X-plane middle-finger salute vibe, this multi-passenger version just looks ungainly and ill-conceived. At least from an aesthetic standpoint.


But Don Panoz has never been a guy to fear a new idea, and he’s pushing the benefits of the design, selling it as a means to help automakers meet the looming 54.5-mpg CAFE requirement. The narrow front track helps the car slice through the air. The lightweight construction means smaller, more efficient engines are adequate for moving the thing around. DeltaWing Technologies claims that a DeltaWing with an 85-to-110-hp engine could hit 60 in around six seconds, touch 130 mph, and return 70 mpg.

1971 Plymouth Hemi Cuda Convertible

The early 1970s was a grand time for American muscle cars with plenty of iconic iron rolling off the Big Three’s assembly lines. But few cars have reached the level of rarity as the Plymouth Hemi ‘Cuda. Production numbers of these legendary street machines were rather low compared to other muscle cars of the era. In the case of this particular ‘Cuda and its combination of options, the number is one.

Yes, out of the total 16,159 Barracudas sold in 1971, only 11 were fitted with the sportiest ‘Cuda option powered by the 426 Hemi and ordered as convertibles. Of those 11 cars, only three came with the four-speed manual transmission. Over 40 years later, one — yes o-n-e — B5-coded “Bright Blue” ‘Cuda is the only numbers-matching, 426 Hemi-powered, four-speed, convertible in existence. Talk about rare.

Porn 'can be productive’: Scarlett

Though she recently starred in "Don Jon," a movie about a porn-obsessed man, Scarlett Johansson doesn't spend much time thinking about porn, reports New York Daily News.

"I'm sure I should have some very well-developed view on (porn's) effect on society, the ethics behind it and how it affects the kind of relationship between men and women, and how it objectifies women," Johansson told Marie Claire UK "But I don't really think about it."

"I think porn, like anything else, can be enjoyed," she continued. "It can be productive for both men and women."

But the 28-year-old actress has some boundaries. She would not, for example, be excited if she found out that her sweetie consumed as many skin flicks as Jon in "Don Jon."

"If I found out my boyfriend watched that much porn, I would be totally flabbergasted, for sure," she said.

She also opened up about her relationship with journalist Romain Dauriac. The two announced their engagement in September.

"It takes a lot of growth and searching to understand that it is the differences in relationship that enrich and strengthen the relationship, that help us evolve as people and partners," she said

Rihanna strips again

Rihanna stripped down to her skimpy black bra on Friday to twerk for the cameras to T-Pain's Up Down (Do This All Day) while backstage in New Orleans, reports Daily Mail.

It was the last stop on her gruelling eight-month-long Diamonds tour so the session could have been a much-deserved victory dance.

On Sunday the 25-year-old made jaws drop even more when she exited New York City's SL Lounge in a legless catsuit, over-the-knee boots and a bob haircut that's her most conservative 'do in years.

She took the new style up a notch on Monday as she left a New York City hotel in a black leather coat over a black turtleneck.

Rihanna had her short, shiny black hair down and looked smouldering in the all-black ensemble.

The singer added a pop of colour with bright red lipstick.

Money alert: Erudio Student Loans and the Ombudsman

Former students being aggressively chased for debts are being advised to turn to the Financial Ombudsman Service if they are unhappy with the way they've been treated.he Ombudsman said: "If you feel you've not been treated fairly by a debt collector, or that they are not taking your circumstances into account, get in touch – we are here to get things sorted."

Students from the 1990s are being targeted by Erudio Student Loans, which bought the debts from the Government last autumn. Those concerned have repayments deferred because their wages have stayed below an earnings threshold. Yet many have had money wrongly snatched from their accounts by Erudio, owned by Arrow Global.

When the wrong payments have been pointed out to the firm, Erudio has apologised and repaid the money, or the fed-up former students have reclaimed it under the direct debit scheme after confirming money was taken in error.

But if they don't get satisfaction they can turn to the Financial Ombudsman Service. Details at www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/

One in five loan ads fail watchdog scrutiny

One in five adverts from consumer credit firms, such as payday lenders, fail the City watchdog's marketing rulesThe Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said yesterday that 108 of 554 ads it examined last month fell short.

In some examples, consumers were encouraged to hit the "apply" button before they had a chance to look up important information about a loan – a tactic that breaks consumer credit rules.

The FCA slammed other ads that targeted young audiences – by, for example, distributing branded colouring-in sheets with pamphlets for high-cost, short-term loans.

Other rule-breaking actions included a claim that a product would help repair credit ratings, and another that said a product would clear a customer's debt, when it just substitutes one debt for another.

Clive Adamson, director of supervision at the FCA, said: "It is particularly important in this sector that advertisements for financial products enable customers to make informed decisions. We think that more can be done to ensure that advertisements are fair, clear and not misleading."

Of the rogue adverts, 38 were produced by payday lenders, many of which failed to give enough prominence to risk warnings. The FCA said that 75 firms have so far responded by amending or withdrawing their promotions..

World’s Most Expensive Golf Course

Dutch Docklands, a player in the world of floating technologies, (or making land where there was no land), has announced plans to build a $500 million floating golf course off the Maldives coast. While there are plenty of golf courses that claim to be “on” the water, this one would quite literally be atop the Indian Ocean.

The concept is a series of man-made islands with one or more holes on each, linked by transparent undersea tunnels. Golfers walk or ride through these submerged pathways, taking in the seafloor sights while pondering which iron to use next. And the clubhouse? You’ll have to take an elevator to the sea bottom to get to it. At half a billion dollars, it will be by far the most expensive golf course ever built.

More pictures below.

The floating golf mecca, which is scheduled to be open for play in 2013, will be run by industry leader Troon Golf, the gold standard of international high-end golf course and club management. The yet-to-be-named project is part of a larger government-approved development which will include 200 villas and about 45 private islands off the Maldives coast.

In historic terms, our understanding of golf excess first shifted in 1990, when the Las Vegas wunderkind Steve Wynn built mega-course Shadow Creek. To say no expense was spared in construction is a gross understatement. It is said Wynn gave architect Tom Fazio a blank check and a blank desert canvas. Serious earth moving on the 320-acre site boosted the elevation from less than six feet to more than 213 feet. Nearly 21,000 fully mature trees, mostly pines and cottonwoods, were transplanted. While no numbers were released, the best guess in the business is that Shadow Creek cost about $40 million to build, then the most expensive course in history. That’s about $70 million today or less than one-seventh of the proposed Maldives course cost.

These days the title of most expensive golf course on earth belongs to one of two New Jersey neighbors (private clubs do not have to release cost reports). The number $250 million has been tossed around for valuations of Liberty National, the pet project of Reebok founder Paul Fireman. The ultra-exclusive course is known for its granite walking bridges and $500,000 joining free. Nearby Bayonne Golf Club has merely been rumored to have cost in the $150 million-plus range, mainly due to a huge undersea dredging project required as part of the permitting. If the new Dutch Docklands project comes to fruition – even on budget – these bragging rights will have to move halfway around the world.

Source: Forbes & Yahoo News

Bunny born with two noses

A Connecticut pet shop worker found the nosey bunny in a delivery of 6-week-old dwarf rabbits that arrived at the Milford store last week. Both noses have two nostrils.

The owner of the Purr-Fect Pets shop says he’s never seen anything like it in 25 years in the business. He says the bunny eats, drinks and hops around like the rest of the litter.

Beardsley Zoo director Gregg Dancho says the deformity could be the result of too much inbreeding or the parents’ exposure to pesticides or poisons.

Store workers have begun a naming contest with Cyrano de Bergerac and Deuce among the contenders so far.

Men judge women in milliseconds

Men take a fraction of a second to decide if they are attracted to a woman or not – but they should not be called shallow because they are genetically programmed to do so, scientists say.

Men weigh up potential partners almost instantaneously based on their appearance because their “ancient” genetic preference for attractive mates leads them to, experts claim.

According to research, a woman with an attractive face is taken by men to be fertile and able to continue the family line, appealing to the man’s survival instinct.

In contrast women take longer to decide their feelings for a man because they need to weigh up whether he will be a committed partner who will provide for them well – part of their survival programming.


Professor Mark van Vugt and Dr Johanna van Hooff, from the University of Amsterdam, and postgraduate student Helen Crawford, from the University of Kent, were behind the study which is to be published by the Oxford Journal Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience.

They tested men and women’s bias towards looks by conducting a series of tests on 20 women and 20 men, making them perform tasks while recording their brain activity.

While the subjects were doing the task they were shown a series of photographs of faces of the opposite sex, ranging from attractive to ugly.

Men were easily distracted when they saw a pretty face but women stuck to the task.

Prof van Vugt said: “Men definitely have the most wandering eye but it is because they have evolved to pay attention to cues of fertility and one of those cues is facial beauty – it’s not that men are shallow.

“But we found they do make snap judgments about women, much earlier than was previously thought. They make that decision on whether a woman would be a good mating partner in milliseconds.

“This is something very ancient and a way of helping men find the best mate to produce children.

“Women were not distracted by attractive male faces because women need more proof of whether a man is a good mate.

“Women make that decision on behaviour, whether a man is trustworthy and committed. They make their decision much later than men.”

Source: Daily Telegraph

Modern Day Chastity Belt – GPS Lingerie

Feminists around the world have reacted with horror to a new line of lingerie that comes equipped with a GPS tracking system.

The ‘find me if you can’ range of underwear has been described as a modern-day, high-tech chastity belt.

‘It is outrageous to think that men can buy this, programme it and give it to their partners and then monitor them,’ said Claudia Burghart, leader of a Berlin feminist group.

‘It is nothing more than a chastity belt for insecure men.’

Lingerie maker Lucia Lorio of Brazil says her design targets the ‘modern, techno-savvy woman’.

The lingerie combination set consists of lace bodice, bikini bottom and faux pearl collar, with the GPS device nestled in the see-through part of the bodice next to the waist.

‘This collection… is a wink to women and a challenge to men because, even if she gives him the password to her GPS, she can always turn it off,’ Lorio said.

‘It’s not a modern chastity belt. Some men think they can keep tabs on their girlfriends with it, but they’re wrong,’ she added.

Unconcerned with the controversy her collection has raised, Lorio is also dismissive of the global financial crisis and its adverse impact on luxury items sales.

The GPS lingerie sells from a cool £500, complete with a standard Global Positioning System, to £700 with a more advanced model.

‘Some women are now interested in buying it for protection,’ she said, programming it for partners themselves so they are safe on a night out alone.

‘In London, New York, Rio de Janiero – wherever there is danger, the underwear may prove to be a lifesaver,’ she added.

But feminists in her homeland have called her a modern-day slaver and urged women to boycott the GPS underwear.


Source: dailymail

World’s Oldest Twins

Twins Ena and Lily declared the oldest in the world after celebrating their 102nd birthday together

Two sisters celebrated their 102nd birthday today as officially the oldest twins in the world – and were determined to spend it together.

Ena Pugh and Lily Millward, who were born on 4 January 1910, have always shared their big day with each other.

Lily was yesterday laid up in hospital with a broken hip – nevertheless, she had one special visitor when her twin Ena called to wish her happy birthday.



Family life: Sisters Ena Pugh, right, and Lily Millward have celebrated their 102nd birthday today, making them the world’s oldest twins. They still talk on the phone every day



Lily, front left, and Ena, front right, pictured as toddlers before the beginning of the First World War

The pair were given 102nd birthday presents of copies of the Guinness World Records book by their family so they could see their own entry.

Lily’s proud daughter Dianne Powell, 65, told Wales News Service: ‘My mum’s recovering in hospital after she slipped and fell just before Christmas. But she’s in good spirits and enjoying the attention of being one of the world’s oldest twins.

‘Ena pops in to see her in hospital when she can – they are very close. And despite the terrible weather she made a special effort to get together on their birthday.’

Farmer’s daughters Ena and Lily were born before the outbreak of the First World War when Queen Victoria’s son Edward VII was king.

The pair, who still live in their own houses near Brecon in the Welsh countryside, meet up for weekly shopping sessions and chat on the telephone virtually every night.

Great-grandmother Lily revealed the secret of their long life is ‘laughter and having a joke with each other.’

‘We used to work on the farm all day, but we would enjoy ourselves,’ she said. ‘It was a lot of fun and sociable. We’ve been very lucky and we have always had good health.’

Their family had no idea Ena and Lily were the oldest twins in the world until a pair in France claimed the record. But checks showed Ena and Lily were more than three years older.

Mrs Powell said: ‘They have been very close all their lives and they are still very close now.

‘Until my mum’s accident they would jump on a bus on their own every Friday so they can go shopping together and have a chat over a cup of tea.

‘And they ring each other almost every evening although they are both very hard of hearing – they can’t really always know what the other is saying but just enjoy talking to each other.’

Ena was born first, with Lily a few minutes later, on a chilly day in January 1910 in their family farm cottage in the tiny village of Garthbrengy, near Brecon in mid-Wales.

Their parents, Charles and Laura Thomas, had ten children – including twin brothers – but Ena and Lily are the only survivors.

Ena married railwayman Ivor who died more than 20 years ago. She still lives in her country cottage where she raised their three children – and now has ten grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

Lily lives in a smallholding and has been a widow for nearly 20 years after the death of husband Evan, a former timber merchant. She had two children, five grand-children and nine-great grandchildren.

Both of the twins shun some of the luxuries of modern life – neither has central heating in their home.

The sisters live just a dozen miles away from each other in the fresh air of the Welsh countryside – Ena at Erwood, near Builth Wells, and Lily still in her home village of Garthbrengy, near Brecon, but in a different house.

The pair believe the last time they were separated on their birthday was due to illness when they were both 79.

So they were determined to see each other for their big day yesterday. The sisters spent half an hour together at Lily’s bedside in Nevill Hall Hospital, Abergavenny, where they each had a slice of birthday cake.

Mrs Powell said: ‘They took great delight at seeing their picture in the Guinness Book of Records – they are both very proud of their title.’


Source: Daily Mail

Chinese husband sues wife for being ugly, wins $120,000

Northern Chinese resident Jian Feng divorced and sued his wife for $120,000 and won! The story goes that Mr. Feng was deeply in love with his beautiful wife until they had a baby girl.

Feng was horrified at how ugly the baby was and demanded to know who his wife had cheated on him with because the baby resembled neither of the parents

As it turns out, his wife didn’t cheat, but did gloss over the fact that she had spent $100,000 on intense plastic surgery to severely change how she looked before she met him. It’s the kind of thing that can slip your mind on the first date. After his wife revealed this to him, Feng took the only right-minded course of action and divorced and sued her, claiming that she got him to marry her under false pretences. The false pretence presumably being that she was good looking. Incredibly, the (presumably male) judge sympathised with Feng and he won $120,000 in the case.

He won the amount he requested, $120,000 while his now divorced wife had spent $100,000 on extensive plastic surgeries by apparently very gifted South Korean surgeons.

Source: Daily Mail

Two-headed turtle at San Antonio Zoo

A two-headed turtle has hatched at the San Antonio Zoo and officials have named her Thelma and Louise.

The female Texas cooter arrived June 18 and will go on display Thursday at the zoo’s Friedrich Aquarium.

Zoo spokeswoman Debbie Rios-Vanskike (van SKYKE’) said Wednesday that the two-headed turtle appears healthy and is able to swim and walk. She says experts at the zoo don’t foresee any health issues for Thelma and Louise, named for the female duo in the 1991 Oscar-winning road movie of the same name.

The San Antonio Zoo is no stranger to two-headed reptiles. The facility was home to a two-headed Texas rat snake named Janus from 1978 until the creature’s death to 1995.

Teacher Wears Same Outfit to Picture Day for 40 Years

After a good long career in education, Dale Irby has retired. And so have his groovy shirt and sweater vest.

In every school picture for the past 40 years, Dale wore the same 1970s-era polyester shirt and coffee-colored sweater.

And let me just say he aged a whole lot better than his clothes did.

It began as an accident — a product of his sparse wardrobe back in the day.

“I was so embarrassed when I got the school pictures back that second year and realized I had worn the very same thing as the first year,” said Dale, 63.

But his wife, Cathy, dared him to do it a third year. Then Dale thought five would be funny. “After five pictures,” he said, “it was like: ‘Why stop?’”

So he just never did, right on through this, his final year as every kid’s favorite physical education teacher at Prestonwood Elementary in the Richardson school district.

Dale and Cathy, 62, met in 1973 as first-year teachers at Titche Elementary in the Pleasant Grove area of Dallas. He remembers getting the announcement that school-picture day was coming and that teachers should “wear something nice.”

In his case, that was the patterned, pointy-collared shirt with matching wool vest he had just bought at Sanger-Harris in Big Town Mall. “I really didn’t have anything else,” said the man who got to wear coaching shorts almost every day of his career.

n the later years of his tradition, Dale carried the disco-era ensemble to school and put it on just long enough for the photo. Still, I congratulated him on being able to button up the shirt at all.

“Uh, yeah, if I suck it in a little,” he confessed.

The fashion world will probably survive the retirement of Dale’s shirt and sweater vest. But his departure is a real loss for education.

“He took his job so seriously in teaching good sportsmanship — both in athletics and in life,” Prestonwood principal Pam Aitken said. “He taught a lot of kids to be fair and respectful of others. That’s a great legacy to leave.”

Here’s a measure of the respect for Dale. The gym at Prestonwood now has a big sign over the door: “Irby Gymnasium.”

Not only did Dale retire this year but so did Cathy. The language arts teacher had most recently served as assistant principal at Lister Elementary in Garland. “We’re going to miss it,” she said. “We’re going to miss the kids — and the teachers. But not the red tape and the politics.”

“And not the alarm set at 4:50 a.m.,” added Dale. He helped augment teacher salaries by driving a school bus every morning for the last 36 years.

The Garland couple looks forward to traveling on their schedule, not by the school calendar. They already have a trip to New England planned in September. “Every teacher wants to go see the leaves in the fall,” Cathy said.

They also relish trying a new daily routine.

“We have promised ourselves we’re not going to eat lunch in 20 minutes,” Cathy said with a laugh.

As for the shirt and sweater vest, Dale figures they will spend a quiet retirement in the back of his closet.

“I don’t think the Smithsonian would want them,” he said.

Source: Dallas News

Iran link to social media spying on military leaders

Fake social media accounts have been used by Iranian hackers to spy on senior military and political staff worldwide, a report suggests.

The accounts aided a four-year campaign that aimed to befriend targets, said computer security firm iSight Partners.

Accounts were used to make it appear that bogus identities set up by the spies were real people.

iSight said it was the most elaborate net-based spying campaign using social media it had ever seen.
Stealth campaign

US Navy admirals, politicians, ambassadors and lobbyists, as well as senior government and military figures from the UK, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, were all targeted, said iSight.

"If it's been going on for so long, clearly they have had success," said Tiffany Jones, a spokeswoman for iSight, told Reuters.

In total, said the report, fake personas for 14 people were created and maintained on a variety of social media sites, including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, YouTube and Blogger. The bogus identities were for staff who supposedly worked for a fictitious news agency as well as defence workers, an accountant and a naval IT administrator.

Friends, relatives, workmates and acquaintances of targets were initially contacted via social media to establish ties that were later used to lend more credibility to requests to connect to the true targets of the campaign.

About 2,000 people were used to establish these lower-level ties, which were used to go after a smaller group of about 200 higher-profile individuals.
Alerted the FBI

Initially links free of malware were shared through the connections set up on social media. Later, links to sites seeded with malware were used to attempt to catch out victims and gain access to useful data.

"This campaign is not loud. It is low and slow," said Ms Jones. "They want to be stealth. They want to be under the radar."

Evidence gathered during the investigation pointed the finger squarely at Iran, iSight said in its report, but it did not know whether the campaign was state-sponsored or carried out by a third party.

iSight said it had contacted many of the people targeted by the campaign and had alerted the FBI and law enforcement agencies.

Facebook said it independently spotted the fake accounts as part of its regular site-wide sweeps for bogus users. LinkedIn said it was investigating but noted that none of the fake 14 accounts were currently active. Twitter did not comment.

Microsoft's ex-CEO Steve Ballmer 'wins Clippers bid'

Microsoft's former CEO Steve Ballmer has reached a deal to buy the Los Angeles Clippers basketball team for $2bn (£1.2bn), reports say.

A source familiar with the negotiations told the BBC the bid was accepted, without giving further details.

Clippers owner Donald Sterling was banned from the sport for life after he was recorded making racist remarks.

The National Basketball Association (NBA) later agreed to begin the process of selling the team.

A forced sale of the LA Clippers would require the approval of three-quarters of the 30 team owners in the NBA

The bid was reportedly accepted by Mr Sterling's wife, Shelly.

Mr Ballmer is believed to have outbid two rival groups for the team, one of which was led by media mogul David Geffen and included talk show host Oprah Winfrey.

Mr Ballmer retired from Microsoft in February, but he still owns shares in the company.

A forced sale of the LA Clippers would require the approval of three-quarters of the 30 team owners in the NBA.

But Mr Sterling could still oppose the sale in the courts, according to sports lawyers.

Light bedrooms 'link to obesity' By James Gallagher

Sleeping in a room with too much light has been linked to an increased risk of piling on the pounds, a study shows.

A team at the Institute of Cancer Research in London found women had larger waistlines if their bedroom was "light enough to see across" at night.

However, they caution there is not enough evidence to advise people to buy thicker curtains or turn off lights.

The study of 113,000 women was published in the American Journal of Epidemiology.

The women were asked to rate the amount of light in their bedrooms at night as:
Light enough to read
Light enough to see across the room, but not read
Light enough to see your hand in front of you, but not across the room
Too dark to see your hand or you wear a mask

Their answers were compared to several measures of obesity. Body Mass Index, waist-to-hip ratio and waist circumference were all higher in women with lighter rooms.

Prof Anthony Swerdlow, from the Institute of Cancer Research, told the BBC: "In this very large group of people there is an association between reported light exposure at night and overweight and obesity.

"But there is not sufficient evidence to know if making your room darker would make any difference to your weight.

"There might be other explanations for the association, but the findings are intriguing enough to warrant further scientific investigation."
Body Clock

One possible explanation is that the light is disrupting the body clock, which stems from our evolutionary past when we were active when it was light in the day and resting when it was dark at night.

Light alters mood, physical strength and even the way we process food in a 24-hour cycle.

Artificial light is known to disrupt the body clock by delaying the production of the sleep hormone melatonin.
Continue reading the main story


Prof Derk-Jan Dijk, from the Surrey Sleep Centre, said there would be no harm in trying to make bedrooms darker.

He told the BBC: "People in general are not aware of the light present in their bedroom, I think people should assess their bedroom and see how easy it would be to make it darker."

Street lights, some alarm clocks and standby lights on electrical equipment such as televisions could light a room, he said.

"Overall this study points to the importance of darkness," he concluded.
Cancer

The study was funded by Breakthrough Breast Cancer and the findings emerged from a long-term study to understand the risk factors for breast cancer. Obesity is known to increase the odds of the disease.

Dr Matthew Lam, from the charity, commented: "It's too early to suggest that sleeping in the dark will help prevent obesity, a known risk factor for breast cancer, but the association is certainly interesting.

"Whilst we are learning more and more each day about the environmental, genetic and lifestyle factors that affect breast cancer risk, it is not yet possible to predict who will get breast cancer, and for women who have been diagnosed with the disease, we can't yet say what caused it."

India gang rapes: Outrage over police 'discrimination'

There is outrage over police inaction in a village in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh where two teenage girls were gang raped and hanged from a tree.

The father of one victim said he was ridiculed by policemen when he sought help in finding his missing daughter.

He said when the policemen found out he was from a lower caste, they "refused to look for my girl".

At least three men, including one policeman, have been arrested in connection with the incident.

The victims' families have complained that police had refused to help find the missing girls, aged 14 and 16.

India has numerous castes and divisions among them run deep. Violence is often used by upper castes to assert power and instil fear in lower castes.

Police said two men had been arrested for the gang rape and murder of the two girls, who were cousins from a low caste.

A constable was also detained for conspiring with the suspects and for dereliction of duty, authorities said, adding they were looking for one more suspect and one constable.

"[When I went to register a complaint to the police station about my missing daughter] the first thing I was asked was my caste. When they found out that I came from a low caste, they shooed me away and refused to look for the girls," the father of one of the victims told the BBC.

He said instead of helping him, the police "helped the accused as both were of the same caste".

Though both the victim and the accused belonged to a caste grouping 'Other Backward Classes', the victims were placed lower in the caste hierarchy.


Senior police official Atul Saxena said there would be a "thorough investigation" into the allegations of caste discrimination by the police.

People in Katra Shahadatganj, a village of 10,000 people in Badaun district where the incident took place, say caste "plays an important role in social affairs" in the community.

Rape cases that have shocked India
23 January 2014: Thirteen men held in West Bengal in connection with the gang rape of a woman, allegedly on orders of village elders who objected to her relationship with a man
4 April 2014: A court sentences three men to hang for raping a 23-year-old photojournalist in Mumbai last year
15 January 2014: A Danish woman is allegedly gang raped after losing her way near her hotel in Delhi
17 September 2013 : Five youths held in Assam for allegedly gang-raping a 10-year-old girl
4 June 2013: A 30-year-old American woman gang-raped in Himachal Pradesh
30 April 2013: A five-year-old girl dies two weeks after being raped in Madhya Pradesh
16 December 2012: Student gang raped on Delhi bus, sparking nationwide protests and outrage


A neighbour of one of the victim said the police "discriminated" against people from the lower castes in the village.

"Even though the police has suspended some constables, the ones who replace them would not be any better, they would discriminate too," he said.

"People from our caste are poor and illiterate and do not get employed in positions of power and influence."

Mr Saxena denied that caste biases played any part in "influencing police behaviour" in the state.

"The police follows its rule book and considers all criminals equal before the law. There might be one or two cases like this one and we will make sure that the culprit doesn't go scot-free," he said.

Google sets up 'right to be forgotten' form after EU ruling

Google has launched a service to allow Europeans to ask for personal data to be removed from online search results.

The move comes after a landmark European court ruling earlier this month, which gave people the "right to be forgotten".

Links to "irrelevant" and outdated data should be erased on request, it said.

Google said it will assess each request and balance "privacy rights of the individual with the public's right to know and distribute information".

"When evaluating your request, we will look at whether the results include outdated information about you, as well as whether there's a public interest in the information," Google says on the form which applicants must fill in.

Google said it would look at information about "financial scams, professional malpractice, criminal convictions, or public conduct of government officials" while deciding on the request.

Earlier this month, the BBC had learnt that more than half of requests sent to Google from UK individuals involved convicted criminals.

This included a man convicted of possessing child abuse images who had also requested links to pages about his conviction to be wiped.
'Fraudulent requests'
Continue reading the main story
“
Start Quote

As we regulate the internet, I think we're not going to see the kind of innovation we've seen”
Larry Page
Google

On 13 May, the European Court of Justice ruled that links to "irrelevant" and outdated data on search engines should be erased on request.

The case was brought by a Spanish man who complained that an auction notice of his repossessed home, which appeared on Google's search results, infringed his privacy.

On Friday, Google said that EU citizens who want their private details removed from the search engine will be able to do so by filling out an online form.

However, they will need to provide links to the material they want removed, their country of origin, and a reason for their request.

Individuals will also have to attach a valid photo identity.

"Google often receives fraudulent removal requests from people impersonating others, trying to harm competitors, or improperly seeking to suppress legal information," the firm said.

"To prevent this kind of abuse, we need to verify identity."
Less innovation?

However, in an interview given to the Financial Times, Google boss Larry Page said that although the firm would comply with the ruling, it could damage innovation.

He also said the regulation would give cheer to repressive regimes.

Mr Page said he regretted not being "more involved in a real debate" about privacy in Europe, and that the company would now try to "be more European".

But, he warned, "as we regulate the internet, I think we're not going to see the kind of innovation we've seen".

Mr Page added that the ruling would encourage "other governments that aren't as forward and progressive as Europe to do bad things".

Romanian Gypsy Village

Welcome to the Buzescu village, located not far from Bucharest, Romania.

Gypsies have built here a true tasteless mini-Beverly Hills. As you’re driving down the main street you don’t know on which side to look first. Words are useless, let’s let the pictures talk.