My Photo The Blue Mystery
Some Interesting headlines / stories
LISBON (Reuters) - The head of the Portuguese agency responsible for enforcing a new ban on smoking in public was seen lighting up at a New Year party, breaking the law on the first day it came into effect....... then from TOKYO this Story .......................
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese prisoners dislike their unstylish pajamas, feel their cells are too small and want better meals, a government survey has found.
In a survey of inmates who left prison in the year to March, almost 70 percent of respondents who shared cells with others said they had too little space, while 44 percent of those in solitary confinement said their cells were too small, the justice ministry said in a report issued Wednesday.
Over half said their meals were bad and having supper at 5 p.m. was too early, while almost 75 percent wished for more bread with their meals rather than rice or noodles.
The former inmates also found their vertically striped grayish pajamas to be unfashionable. Close to half said the colors were bad, and 44 percent said the design was ugly.
About 81,300 of Japan's 127 million people were in prison as of December 31 last year, according to government data.
A United Nations committee said earlier this year that Japanese prisons were overcrowded and lacked adequate medical care.
Makoto Teranaka, secretary general of Amnesty International Japan, said the prisons are overcrowded because sentences have grown longer in recent years.
"Because prisons are a closed society, there are great human rights violations going on," he said. "It's necessary to take drastic measures based on human rights to change the conditions in prisons."
(Reporting by Yoko Kubota; Editing by Mike MillerPrison inmates dislike unstylish pajamas /
And one more , We cannot leave out the small mammals ... A far from cracking surprise - a dead mouse
WELLINGTON (Reuters) - A New Zealand woman who pulled apart a Christmas cracker got more than the party hat and joke she had expected, finding a dead mouse.
Betty Lawrence, a grandmother from the South Island city of Invercargill, made the discovery sitting down to Christmas dinner with 20 relatives, The Southland Times newspaper reported.
"I had said to my granddaughter 'what's the smell' and we couldn't work it out until we pulled the cracker," Lawrence told the newspaper, after finding a dead and partially decomposed mouse.
The discovery curbed her enthusiasm for the Christmas meal.
"It ruined my appetite for the rest of the day," Lawrence said.
Christmas crackers usually contain colored hats, small toys and jokes.
(Reporting by Adrian Bathgate; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)
