JODO

Good morning! Im getting ready to go to our church picnic. I hope the sprinkles stop so we can have a nice day there.

Enjoy! Did you get my message last night?

I've always thought about going to Frankfurt or Munich for one of those Christmas markets. It always looks fun.

In Mercer Consultings annual Quality of Living Survey, Europe once again dominates the list of 215 countries around the world. The top three cities are, by rank, Vienna, Zurich (last years winner), and Geneva. Commonwealth nations fare pretty well, too, winning 9 of the top 30 spots -- even though London comes in only at 38. The U.S. also fares poorly, barely making it into the top 30 with Honolulu and San Francisco in the bottom two places. The top city in Asia is Singapore, at no. 26. No cities from Africa or South America are in the top 30. The bottom? Baghdad once again comes in at 215.

To find out which 30 global cities offer the best quality of life, read on.

The World's Best Places to Live 2009

No. 1: Vienna, Austria

Mercer score: 108.6*

2008 rank: 2

GDP: $325 billion (2008 est.)**

Population: 1,664,146 (total city); 8,210,281 (total country)

Life expectancy: 79.5

*The rankings are based on a point scoring index established by Mercer Consultings 2009 Quality of Living Survey, with Vienna scoring 108.6 and Baghdad scoring 14.4. Cities are compared with New York as the base city, with an index score of 100. The quality-of-living survey covers 215 cities and is conducted to help governments and major companies place employees on international assignments. The survey also identifies those cities with the highest personal safety ranking based on internal stability, crime, effectiveness of law enforcement, and relationships with other countries.

**The World Factbook.Gross domestic product is denominated in international dollars, which is based on Purchasing Power Parity.

No. 2: Zurich, Switzerland

Mercer score: 108

2008 rank: 1

GDP: 309.9 billion (2008 est.)

Population: 1,307,567 (total city); 7,604,467 (total country)

Life expectancy: 80.85

No. 3: Geneva, Switzerland

Mercer score: 107.9

2008 rank: 2

GDP: $309.9 billion (2008 est.)

Population: 438,177 (total city); 7,604,467 (total country)

Life expectancy: 80.85

Getty Images

No. 4 (tie): Vancouver, Canada

Mercer score: 107.4

2008 rank: 4

GDP: $1.3 trillion (2008 est.)

Population: 2,285,900 (total city); 33,487,208 (total country)

Life expectancy: 81.2

No. 4 (tie): Auckland, New Zealand

Mercer score: 107.4

2008 rank: 5

GDP: $116.6 billion (2008 est.)

Population: 1,303,068 (total city); 4,213,418 (total country)

Life expectancy: 80.3

No. 6: Dusseldorf, Germany

Mercer score: 107.2

2008 rank: 6

GDP: $2.86 trillion (2008 est.)

Population: 581,858 (total city); 82,329,758 (total country)

Life expectancy: 79.2

No. 7: Munich, Germany

Mercer score: 107

2008 rank: 7

GDP: $2.86 trillion (2008 est.)

Population: 1,300,000 (total city); 82,329,758 (total country)

Life expectancy: 79.2

Getty Images

No. 8: Frankfurt, Germany

Mercer score: 106.8

2008 rank: 7

GDP: $2.86 trillion (2008 est.)

Population: 662,000 (total city); 82,329,758 (total country)

Life expectancy: 79.2

No. 9: Bern, Switzerland

Mercer score: 106.5

2008 rank: 9

GDP: $309.9 billion (2008 est.)

Population: 962,983 (total city); 7,604,467 (total country)

Life expectancy: 80.85

No. 10: Sydney, Australia

Mercer score: 106.3

2008 rank: 10

GDP: $800.5 billion (2008 est.)

Population: 4,336,374 (total city); 21,262,641 (total country)

Life expectancy: 81.6

http://finance.yahoo.com/family-home/artic...es-to-Live-2009

What next? Killing chickens to stop Chicken Pox?

Do you think you can catch it if you eat Mexican food?????

Don't laugh, but I was supposed to meet a friend for Tex-Mex this week and she backed out because of the pig flu. I know that is not rational( I guess), but it is happening. I guess it's Italian for us!

They do not need to come here, I will go there!!!!

Israeli official: Swine flu name offensive

1 hr 5 mins ago

JERUSALEM – The outbreak of swine flu should be renamed "Mexican" influenza in deference to Muslim and Jewish sensitivities over pork, said an Israeli health official Monday.

Deputy Health Minister Yakov Litzman said the reference to pigs is offensive to both religions and "we should call this Mexican flu and not swine flu," he told a news conference at a hospital in central Israel.

Both Judaism and Islam consider pigs unclean and forbid the eating of pork products.

Scientists are unsure where the new swine flu virus originally emerged, though it was identifed first in the United States. They say there is nothing about the virus that makes it "Mexican" and worry such a label would be stigmatizing.

Two Israelis who recently visited Mexico have been hospitalized with symptoms of the flu. Health authorities have not yet confirmed whether they actually have the virus.

The current strain of swine flu is thought to have originated in Mexico where more than 100 people have been killed by the disease so far.

Laboratories in the U.S. and Canada have confirmed that of the samples tested so far, the swine flu virus in Mexico and U.S. appear to be the same.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090427/ap_on_...5onLQ9I0H5vaA8F

I thought airlines were already doing this.

sure hope she don't fall in love with an american, the waiver for this event should be interesting reading.

true

This is ridiculous. These ships need to be armed and the clan leaders need to be carpet-bombed on land.

Aww precious! Congrats Nessa and Charles.

Do Americans even really have kids anymore? Out of all of my friends who are married, none have kids.

This was already posted when it happened. And he is being deported to a Romanian prison. Not what he wanted and way worse.

Really? He ie being deported? Because I cannot find any evidence of that after several minutes of googling.

I've seen pythons carrying whole cows up the side of a cliff.

He needs to be hung by the nads, then castrated with a very dull instrument.

And then sent back to Romania.

Rape victim who suffered so Romanian could be sent to 'cushy' British prison relives her ordeal

By Laura Topham

Last updated at 9:49 AM on 14th April 2009

/femail/article-1169759/Rape-victim-suffered-Romanian-sent-cushy-British-prison-relives-ordeal.html

Louise is glad her attacker is locked up but still suffers anxiety

Louise took three days to tell her boyfriend what had happened.

She desperately wanted his support, but thought he'd be disgusted by her. 'I worried he'd never be able to look at me the same way again,' she says quietly. 'I thought he'd think it was my fault.'

Shame stopped Louise telling her parents, too. So on the evening she was violently raped, robbed and half-strangled, this 21-year-old went home alone, cried, bathed and tried to shake off the lingering horror of the brutal attack.

It was the disgust she felt towards herself that convinced her how other people would react.

Thankfully, she couldn't have been more wrong. When they found out, her family and friends reacted with sympathy and support. Everyone was appalled by the hideous assault.

Everyone, that is, except for the perpetrator, Ali Majlat. He was absolutely delighted. Now he would get exactly what he wanted: a lengthy custodial sentence in a British prison.

For, in a twist that cannot fail to spark shock and outrage, Majlat, 35, had travelled all the way from his native Romania with that one goal in mind.

The inspiration for this staggering act of calculated brutality? His older brother, Dominic, who had written to him from HMP Wakefield, West Yorkshire, saying how much he was enjoying his stay.

Dominic had boasted of having not only his own TV, but a wealth of computer games, food, bed and free English lessons - a sad indictment of how our jails are viewed as cushy throughout the world.

More...

• Romanian who raped a woman so he could 'live in luxury' in a British jail gets his wish

For Ali, poverty-stricken and illiterate, such a place sounded glorious. He hatched a plan to commit a jail-worthy offence and hopped on a bus to Britain.

His choice of crime was easy - after all, it was a charge of rape and attempted murder that had bestowed on his brother a lifetime of free lodgings and luxury extras.

And the obvious location was Wakefield, from where Majlat assumed he would be taken to live with Dominic.

It would be like the orphanage they grew up in together, only with perks.

When Louise, a local care assistant, walked on to the southbound platform of Wakefield Kirkgate railway station one Sunday evening last October - to wait for a train home after seeing friends - she thought the man who was waiting there seemed a little strange.

'He looked a bit creepy - he was very dirty and holding two large yellow carrier bags.

'He was standing smoking by the timetable and started pointing at the sign and asking in broken English when the next train to London would be.'

Majlat wanted to join his brother in prison

As a depleted Sunday service was running, the next train was not for another hour, at 7.45pm.

Majlat had been dropped at the station by police after causing trouble outside HMP Wakefield, where he'd repeatedly turned up demanding to see Dominic.

'He started wittering about all sorts of stuff, most of which I couldn't understand. Then he asked for the time and I showed him my watch as he couldn't really speak English.

'I was feeling uncomfortable as the station is unmanned and it was deserted.'

When Majlat's mood darkened, Louise stopped answering his questions.

'He asked me to go for coffee with him, then to have sex for money and offered to pay £10, then £30. I ignored him and moved away along the platform.'

Feeling frightened, Louise took out her mobile to call a friend, but the battery was dead. She couldn't leave the platform as the only exit was a subway where she feared she would be followed and attacked.

Looking across at the opposite platform, she spotted a pay phone, but access was again through the underpass.

'I sat down on a bench at the other end of the platform and tried to calm down, telling myself that people often think others are going to attack them or seem odd and nothing bad actually happens. But suddenly he was standing at my side, silent and motionless.'

For a few minutes, neither of them spoke. Then, when Louise looked down the tracks, willing a train to arrive, he punched her hard in the side of the face.

'I fell to the floor from the force and he started kicking me in the head and shouting at me. I was screaming back - I was terrified and didn't know what on earth was happening. But after a few minutes, he stopped and walked away.'

Her heart racing, Louise slowly got up as she tried to work out what to do.

'I kept shouting: "If you don't go I'll call the police." But he couldn't understand. I had no choice but to run for the subway.'

Majlat chased after her, reaching her before she'd descended the slope into the tunnel and grappled her to the floor.

'He quickly caught up as I have bad knees and can't run fast. He started hitting me, kicking and punching until he got me down on the ground.

'I fought back as hard as I could, but he was stronger than me and soon had me on the floor.

'I was screaming at him to get off me and he was shouting back: "You English should love me."

Then he kept repeating "You're going to die" as he knelt on my stomach and squeezed my neck so hard I couldn't breathe. He was strangling me and I knew that if his grip got any tighter, I would die.'

Congrats

If both gov't's are sure that he was the Nazi guard, then he should definitely be held accountable regardless of his age.

WJXT-TVupdated 10:15 p.m. CT, Thurs.,

April 9, 2009

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -The search is on for a team of crooks who robbed an Arlington couple at gunpoint for their takeout Popeye's chicken.

According to police, a young mother was leaving her shift after closing the Popeye's restaurant in Arlington on Atlantic Boulevard when she noticed she was being followed home.

Authorities said four men drove by several times in a burgundy Pontiac sedan yelling, "give us the chicken," at the woman and her boyfriend.

The couple ignored the men and continued walking back to their house, thinking the group was gone. However, the men in the car then started driving slowly toward the couple and turned off their headlights.

Police said one of the passengers got out of the car with a shotgun and yelled, "You know what time it is. Give it up." They said the man ordered the victim to put down the chicken, saying if she didn't she would be shot.

According to a police report, the gunman pointed the barrel of the gun at the victim and that's when her boyfriend pleaded and begged, telling the man the woman is two months pregnant.

Police said after the victims were on the ground, the crooks also stole the victim's purse. As the gunman was walking away, the victims told police they could hear the other people in the car yelling to "blast him."

The victims said the woman had just gotten paid at work and was going to spend her earnings on her 5-year-old daughter, whose birthday is on Saturday.

People in the area told Channel 4 they aren't shocked at all by the crime.

"It is very ridiculous. It's nothing new. Crime has grown so much in Jacksonville, it's unreal," said Brandy Thomas.

Police said another armed robbery took place at about the same time and only a mile away from the chicken robbery. It's unclear whether the robberies are connected.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30118436/

I love both Camembert and Brie.

Russian 'hired hit man to kill daughter over miniskirt', police say

An Azeri immigrant in Russia's northern city of Saint Petersburg has been charged with hiring hit men to kill his 21-year-old daughter for wearing a miniskirt, police said on Monday.

Last Updated: 3:21PM BST 13 Apr 2009

The man's arrest follows the detention last week of two other citizens of Azerbaijan, a majority Muslim state in the Caucasus, who confessed to murdering the girl, a university medical student.

"They admitted to being paid 100,000 rubles (£2,000) by the girl's father. They said he wanted to punish his daughter for flouting national traditions and wearing a mini-skirt," a police source told AFP.

The girl was abducted on the street in Russia's second city on March 8, taken to the outskirts of Saint Petersburg and then shot twice in the head, the source said.Russia has experienced a revival of conservative religious tradition ince the fall of the Soviet Union, both within its Russian Orthodox and large Muslim communities.

The Saint Petersburg mosque - the largest and northernmost in Europe when it was built in 1913 - now counts mostly migrants from ex-Soviet Azerbaijan among its worshippers.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/...police-say.html