MISS WORLD 2OO7

Miss World 2007

The Miss World Beauty Pageant held yesterday Dec 1st 2007 in Sanya China.

It was won by China's representative, Zhang Zilin.

Check out pictures from the pageant



1st runner up (Miss Angola...so beautiful), winner and 2nd runner up (Miss Mexico)


South Korea's Cho Eun-Ju received the best dress award during the Miss World beauty pageant. I'm not feeling that dress.


That's our Munachi Abii (6th girl)...looking gorgeous

From left, top five contestants Swedens Annie Oliv, Trinidad & Tobagos Valene Maharaj, Mexicos Carolina Moran Gordillo (2nd runner up), Chinas Zhang Zi Lin, and Angolas Micaela Reis (first runner up)

The full line-up of official judges at the Miss World 2007 Final was:
Julia Morley Chairman of Miss World Organisation and of the judging panel

Chairman Zhao Chairman of the Huayu Group

Li Xiao Bai Managing Director of New Silk Road

Maki Mandela Eldest daughter of Nelson Mandela

Elena Franchuk Founder of the Anti-Aids Foundation of Ukraine

Krish Naidoo Miss World Organisation Internatinal Ambassador

Duncan James International pop star

Annabel Croft Formerly one of the UK’s most successful female tennis stars

Neal Hamil Managing Director of the Elite Model Agency in New York

Ben De Lisi World famous Italian Fashion designer

Zhang Zilin of China is 2007 Miss World.

I think she's gorgeous and quite tall for an Asian woman.

Loverboy of America

Young Britain is cocaine capital of the world with more abuse than U.S. for first time
'Fashionable': Nearly one in 20 young Britons took cocaine last year
The proportion of young Britons who take cocaine is now the highest in the developed world, a report revealed recentlu.
For the first time, the percentage of 15 to 34-year-olds trying the drug has overtaken that in America.
Nearly one in 20 young Britons took cocaine last year, as it replaced cannabis, ecstasy and amphetamines as the most fashionable drug among the young.
For decades, Americans have been the chief users of the drug, which has been cheaply and easily available in cities there.
Until the last decade, cocaine was usually seen in Britain as the preserve of pop stars and City traders.
But low prices, an increasing supply and the unpopularity of other drugs has meant that Britain - together with Spain - now has the highest levels of cocaine consumption among the young here.
Figures showed that 4.9 per cent of men and women aged between 15 and 34 used the drug in Britain last year - around 800,000 young people.
In America, the percentage was slightly lower, at 4.8 per cent.

Lover boy of America...lol

Light to shrink computer clusters

Scientists at IBM have completed work that may make it possible to do away with the copper wires used to couple processing cores to each other.

The connector created by the team uses light to pass data between the computational cores that is faster and uses less power than copper wires.

The device is smaller than previously demonstrated connectors promising to shrink future computational clusters.

The IBM development, reported in the journal Optics Express, could replace the copper wires that connect cores with a device that converts electrical signals to pulses of light.

The device, called a silicon Mach-Zehnder electro-optic modulator, is many times smaller than previously produced convertors.

"What we have done is a significant step toward building a vastly smaller and more power-efficient way to connect those cores, in a way nobody has done before," said Dr Tze-chiang Chen, a spokesman for IBM's science and technology research division.

It could also boost the power of coupled computational cores because by using light, the speed at which data travels between the cores would be accelerated.

With light the researchers, led by Dr Will Green, can cut the amount of power needed to move data between processors and slash the amount of heat a large computational cluster produces.

The technology, which can transfer data up to a distance of a few centimetres, is about 100 times faster than wires and consumes one-tenth as much power, said Dr Green.

The lower power requirement should reduce operational costs for supercomputers.

Doing away with some of the cooling systems for computational clusters could shrink the systems further.

So far the team has only demonstrated the technology in a lab and it could be years before it makes its way into commercial chips.

Liberia police arrest ex-leader

Police detained him after he failed to appear in court to answer the charges.

Mr Bryant, who headed the country during a transitional phase after the end of the 14-year civil war in 2003, was charged in February.

He denies the charges. As he was being taken to the main prison, he said that he was being rewarded with detention for restoring peace and democracy.

Liberia's ex-President Gyude Bryant has been arrested over charges that he embezzled some $1m while in office.

President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf took office last year after winning elections on a pledge to fight graft.

Mr Bryant was originally charged after an audit by the West African regional body, Ecowas, uncovered evidence of corruption during his two years in office ending in 2006.

He had been free on bail.

"This is a very, very, very dark day for Liberia. This is the reward we get for restoring peace and democracy to our country," Mr Bryant, dressed in a white shirt and olive-coloured trousers, told reporters as he was led into the prison compound.

His power-sharing government took over after Charles Taylor stepped down, with rebel forces on the outskirts of the capital, Monrovia.

Mr Taylor is now facing war crimes charges.

Two charged in fatal Winnipeg house fire

Police in Winnipeg have arrested two people in connection with a fatal blaze that killed a 14-year-old boy.

Riel Mitchell, 27, and a 16-year-old were arrested and charged with the second degree murder of Nathan Starr, who died in a house fire early Tuesday morning. He was just one of 11 people inside.

The other ten managed to escape, but Starr was trapped on the third floor. He was rushed to hospital but later died.

Many more of the residents inside could have been hurt, if it wasn't for the quick action of two police officers who just happened to be driving by when the fire started.

They say that they witnessed two people toss something on to the front porch and race off. Const. Thane Chartrand and Const. Lindsay Cancilla chased after the suspects but quickly abandoned the pursuit. Instead, they rushed to the house, trying to save trapped residents after flames went quickly out of control.

Inside they saw people who had to "literally crawl under the flames just to get to the back of the house where a side door was," Chartrand told CTV Winnipeg.

"And then you could hear other people saying, 'Oh, my God, there's a fire! There's a fire!'"

The side door was shut, however. So the officers directed those inside to the back of the house. They tried to smash open a window, but it was too high up.

Then one of the residents broke through another window and the officers helped them out, one by one.

"All these kids started coming out ... women, and this guy, and this old lady. You wondered when it was going to stop," Chartrand said.

Police say they don't believe anyone inside the house was targeted, and they haven't released details of a possible motive.

Gunman kills self, eight others at Omaha mall

A man with a rifle went on a shooting rampage at a mall in Omaha, Nebraska, killing eight people before turning the weapon on himself.

Five others were injured, and two of them are in critical condition following the shooting Wednesday aternoon.

A witness told CNN that he was in the Westroads Mall when he heard people screaming and running towards exits.

Shawn Vidlak said he and his family were in the mall when he saw a rushing crowd heading towards them. People were frantic and yelling out warnings.

They were screaming to "grab your families. Get out of there. Someone's shooting," Vidlak said.

He said he then heard a series of four or five popping sounds. Vidlak quickly grabbed his wife, picked up his four-year-old daughter, and ran outside.

But not everyone got out. Some hid in clothing racks and dressing rooms when they heard the shots.

Witnesses described hearing round after round of gun shots. There are reports that at least 30 to 40 shots were fired.

By the time police arrived they weren't sure how many shooters they were dealing with. They surrounded the mall, and once they were set up, shoppers and employees had to come out with their hands raised in the air.

Later they said they believed there was only one shooter. He is believed to be 20-year-old Robert Hawkins of Bellevue, Neb.

A woman who lived in the same house as Hawkins told the Associated Press that he had lived with a friend's family after being kicked out of his own family's home last year.

He was recently fired from his job at a nearby fast food restaurant and had broken up with his girlfriend.

It's believed that Hawkins died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

The gunman is believed to have been found on the third floor of the shopping complex. There are reports that he shot himself.

U.S. President George Bush was in Omaha delivering a speech Wednesday, but had left the city before the shootings began.

Vidlak said he would never have expected to have been caught up in such a situation.

"I'm sure any town wouldn't expect it. But this brings it more home that it could happen anywhere," he said.

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Five Nigerians On Terrorist Charges

Nigerian authorities have charged five suspected Islamic militants with a plot to attack government buildings.

Three of the men spent two years in an Algerian training camp run by a group with al-Qaeda links, prosecutors said.

The men were arrested in northern Nigeria earlier this month by members of the country's security services. They have not yet entered a plea.

Nigeria has arrested several suspected Islamic militants in the past, but no convictions have ever been brought.

Nor has there ever been any substantive evidence produced of any terrorist operation planned in Nigeria, says the BBC's Alex Last in the country.

Three of the accused men had undergone training in Algeria between 2005 and August 2007, with a group known at the time as the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), prosecutors said.

The GSPC renamed itself al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb in January 2007, after reportedly receiving authorisation from Osama Bin Laden to brand itself as an al-Qaeda affiliate.

No international targets

The men were in possession of a rifle, live ammunition, seven sticks of dynamite, a bag of fertiliser and other explosives when they were arrested, authorities said.

The arrests followed reports received by officials at the US embassy in Nigeria that Islamic militants were planning to attack US government buildings in the country.

The BBC's Alex Last says that Britain and the US have long been concerned that al-Qaeda-style groups could be set up in Nigeria.

The accused men have not been charged with preparing an attack against international targets in the country, however.