Magic Statistics

A homosexual couple in Britain have posted photos of their children, borne by a surrogate mother, at a gay-dating website.

Millionaires Barrie Drewitt, 39, and Tony Barlow, 42, who fathered twins and a younger child using a surrogate mother in America, appear on the gaydar.co.uk site 'looking for fun' and friendship.

But among the pictures they have placed on their page are images of their children - six-year-old twins Saffron and Aspen, and three-year-old Orlando.

Elsewhere on the gaydar site there are graphic pornographic images of men who are looking for gay partners, or offering escort services for money.

Last night a child protection charity highlighted the dangers of placing photographs of children on such a site.

The two men said they placed the ad so they could “meet new friends”, but did not discuss posting pictures of their children.  Do they care more about their social lives than their kids’ safety?

Although he denies saying that Pakistan could bombed back to the Stone Age, US deputy secretary of defense Richard Armitage admits using strong language to encourage Pakistan to support the war on terror.  That such a threat had to be made in the first place raises some uncertainty as to which side Pakistan is really on.

As Christina Lamb, The Times of London foreign correspondent points out, it’s true that the ISI (Pakistan’s military intelligence) has co-operated in anti-terror operations and that Pakistani troops have taken losses in fighting near the Afghan border.

But, on the other hand . . .

Why do most would-be suicide bombers regard Pakistan as a finishing school? And while military planners in Washington focus on Tehran’s nuclear programme, remember where the Iranians acquired their uranium enrichment capability.

No country has done more for nuclear proliferation to rogue states than Pakistan through Abdul Qadeer Khan, the godfather of its own bomb. Khan was even using army planes to transport the parts.
. . .
It was the ISI’s idea in the mid-1980s to ship in young Arabs, including Mr Bin Laden, and train them to fight. When the Russians left, and the West overnight abandoned Afghanistan (and slashed aid to Pakistan), the ISI supported the creation of the Taliban.

Today, Pakistan has good reason to ignore, if not actively support, the terrorist training camps in its territory.  The camps supply insurgents to further the government’s primary foreign policy objective: annexing the portion of Kashmir currently held by India.

The West’s failure to recognise that Pakistan itself is a battleground helps explain the Taliban’s resurgence in Afghanistan.

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• UK detainee linked to terror group in Pakistan
• Where did he get all that money?

The heir to the British throne is so fastidious about his daily boiled egg that his staff routinely cook seven every morning for offering to his Royal Highness.  Prince Charles then tests them until he selects the one that is cooked just to his liking.

That jaw-dropping tidbit comes from a new book by BBC journalist, news reader, and notoriously confrontational interviewer Jeremy Paxman.

Paxman says in his book, On Royalty: "Because his staff were never quite sure whether the egg would be precisely to the satisfactory hardness, a series of eggs was cooked, and laid out in an ascending row of numbers.

"If the Prince felt that number five was too runny, he could knock the top off number six or seven."

Exactly what happens to the six rejected eggs, Paxman does not divulge.

The anecdote will reinforce the Prince's reputation as an out-of-touch eccentric with an almost impossibly rarefied lifestyle.

Got that right!

In a follow-up story, the Daily Mail reports that Mr Paxman is now in the Prince of Wales’s doghouse.

[L]ast night Clarence House denied the claims, saying the environmentally conscious Prince would never be so wasteful. A spokeswoman insisted: "Whether he has eggs for breakfast or not is not relevant. It is claimed that a friend has said this, but the story isn't true."

Paxman is the first to admit the story seems 'so preposterously extravagant as to be unbelievable'.

This is not the first time that stories have emerged of Charles’s egg eccentricity.  Nevertheless, his spokespeople deny everything.  Two former chefs insist the Prince has only one egg cooked at a time.

A spokeswoman for Viking, Mr Paxman’s publisher, says, "We stand by the claim in the book."

Previous related post: Jeremy Paxman interviews Jesus

The governing body of Formula One racing has levied a record fine of US$5 million against Turkish Grand Prix organizers for inviting the Turkish Cypriot leader to present the winner's prize at a recent race.

FIA's World Motor Sports Council levied the fine on the National Automobile Sporting Authority of Turkey and the MSO, organizers of the Aug. 27 race in Istanbul.
. . .
FIA acted against Turkey after Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat handed the winner's prize to Ferrari driver Felipe Massa on the podium. Talat was introduced as president of the breakaway Turkish Cypriot state - which only Turkey recognizes - in the north of the war-divided island.

The massive penalty, far above the previous record FIA-imposed fine of US$1 million, was imposed because the Turkish action jeopardises FIA’s political neutrality.  Turkey escaped having next year’s Istanbul race cancelled, however.

Cyprus has been divided into a Greek Cypriot south, representing the island's internationally recognized government, and a Turkish Cypriot north since a Turkish invasion in 1974 that followed a failed coup by supporters of a union with Greece.

Turkish officials admitted that they had broken FIA rules but did not offer an apology.

h/t: Bourque

Previous related posts:

• Europe denounces pillage of churches in northern Cyprus
• Christianity obliterated in northern Cyprus

h/t: [UK] Spectator