The President of Belarus, dubbed the last dictator in Europe, Alyaksandr Lukashenka, admitted that he forged the election result during last presidential election.
An incredible confession from a dictator, isn’t it? Well, wait, it gets even more incredible.
Lukashenka told Russian newspaper Izvestia in an interview that he actually got 93 (yes, that’s ninety-three) per cent of the vote in 2006 presidential election, but he decided to decrease the percentage due to psychological reasons.
“I gave an order …

Taiwan provoked fury in China after it said it would allow the Dalai Lama to visit the island next week to comfort victims of typhoon Morakot, the Daily Telegraph reports.
Beijing said it “resolutely opposes” the decision to grant a visa to the Tibetan spiritual leader.
“The Dalai Lama is not a pure religious figure,” said a government spokesman in Beijing. “Under the pretext of religion, he has all along been engaged in separatist activities.”
The move is …

Russians have been named the worst tourists in the world, with voters claiming they are tracksuit-wearing, greedy, money-flashing oafs, who hide sunloungers in their hotel rooms, the Daily Mail reports.
German tourists, previously the subject of many jocular complaints about hogging sunloungers at the crack of dawn, were knocked into second place by the newly-rich Russians.
The “world’s worst holiday-maker” poll surveyed more than 1,000 British tourists who went on holiday abroad this summer.
According to the Britons …

Elderly people who drink light to moderate amounts of alcohol are less likely to develop dementia than teetotallers, an Australian study shows.
The study, led by Dr Kaarin Anstey of the Center for Mental Health Research at the Australian National University, analyzed the results of several researches that involved some 10,000 people globally, Reuters reports.
“We found that light to moderate drinkers were 28 percent less likely to develop Alzheimer’s than non-drinkers, 25 per cent less likely to …

Israel’s Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu was presented with the architectural blueprints for the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp on Thursday during a ceremony in Berlin, the Jerusalem Post reports.
Netanyahu thanked Kai Dickman, editor of the Bild newspaper, for presenting him with the plans. He called the plans, which were discovered last year in a Berlin home and subsequently acquired by the Berlin-based Axel Springer publishing and media corporation, which publishes Bild, a very important historical document.
“Armed barbarians …

French authorities have launched an official inquiry into reports of exploding iPhones as at least ten French consumers claiming to have fallen victim to the phenomenon, the Daily Telegraph reports.
An 80-year-old pensioner from the Paris suburbs was among the latest group to complain after his iPhone screen cracked up in his hands. A day after a supermarket watchman claimed he was hurt in the eye when his screen suddenly shattered.
Other cases involving Apple’s best-selling device …

I have read tons of books about the history of the 20th century. It’s the century of world wars, the century of brutal and murderous regimes, the century of the Cold War, the century of freedom fight, and the century of victories. It’s the century that interests me the most in the entire history.
It’s very unfortunate to tens of millions of people that the 20th century was the century of brutal and murderous regimes. Stalin’s …

The UK’s population passed 61 million after the largest annual increase for at least a generation, the Daily Telegraph reports.
The rise to more than 61.3 million people last year was due to a baby boom, driven partially by immigration.
For the first time in more than a decade, natural change – the difference between births and deaths – has overtaken net migration as the main influence behind population growth.
This was partly due to the highest fertility …

Three Arab youngsters were charged Thursday with the first-degree murder of 59-year-old Israeli Leonard “Arik” Karp on the Tel Baruch boardwalk some two weeks ago.
The indictment was filed with the Tel Aviv District Court against Jaljulia residents Jamil Adas (25), Abd el-Rahman (21) and a 17-year-old boy whose identity has yet to be revealed. The three were also charged with aggravated assault and battery, Ynet reports.
According to the indictment, one of the suspects asked Karp …

The Obama administration has agreed to Israel’s request to remove East Jerusalem from negotiations on the impending settlement freeze, Ha’aretz reports.
US envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell has recognized the fact that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu cannot announce a settlement freeze in East Jerusalem. The officials said the US will not endorse new construction there, but would not demand Jerusalem publicly announce a freeze.
Netanyahu presented a proposal on Wednesday for resolving the ongoing Israeli-American …

One million NHS patients have been the victims of appalling care in hospitals across Britain, the Daily Telegraph reports.
In the last six years, the Patients Association say hundreds of thousands have suffered from poor standards of nursing, often with neglectful, demeaning, painful and sometimes downright cruel treatment.
The charity have disclosed a horrifying catalogue of elderly people left in pain, in soiled bed clothes, denied adequate food and drink, and suffering from repeatedly cancelled operations, missed …

PC World is branded the worst place on the High Street to buy a computer – poor customer service saw the chain claim just 42 per cent in a satisfaction survey conducted by Which? Computing magazine, the Daily Mail reports.
Very few customers who visited the chain, which has more than 150 outlets across the country, would recommend it to someone else.
The chain is part of the Dixons DSG group, where its sister brand, Currys, did …

Three ministers visited Libya in the months leading up to the release of the Lockerbie bomber, Abdelbaset Ali Mohamed al-Megrahi, the Daily Telegraph reports.
A Cabinet minister also held talks with his Libyan counterpart in Geneva.
The disclosures will add to the pressure on Prime Minister Gordon Brown to explain exactly what trade or other deals have been negotiated with Libya. It is certain to lead to calls for an inquiry into the circumstances around the release.
Last …

Scientists have produced four baby monkeys who each have three biological parents, the Daily Mail reports.
They used an IVF procedure designed to stop the spread of incurable inherited diseases.
Scientists believe the breakthrough could lead to the first genetically engineered children within a few years.
The technique is intended to help women who carry genetic diseases. It involves transferring healthy DNA from the mother’s egg cell into an egg donated by another woman. Children conceived by the technique …

British actor Liam Neeson decided to become an American citizen, the Daily Telegraph reports.
Neeson said that the US reaction to his wife’s death earlier this year helped him decide. He said he was still a proud Irishman, but the warmth from well wishers the other side of the Atlantic prompted him to seek citizenship.
Neeson’s wife, actress Natasha Richardson, died in March following a skiing accident in Quebec, Canada.

Hundreds of holidaymakers were stuck in the Channel Tunnel for six hours in sweltering heat when their train broke down, the Daily Mail reports.
The lights went out, the air conditioning stopped and temperatures began to rise towards 30°C after the train’s power failed. Around 500 passengers, including dozens of families, were trapped.
Some began to panic, one diabetic woman fainted, some had asthma attacks and several children passed out.
A sealed metal carriage door had to be prised open …