Radio Marriage Pulls Plug

Husband and wife radio stars Polly Gillespie and Grant Kereama have announced their separation.
The duo, who host The Polly and Grant Show on The Hits, told stunned listeners the news on their show this morning.

Kereama: "For the last two weeks Polly and I have been living apart. We are separated."
Gillespie: "It isn't because we don't love each other, we are best friends, we love working together, we have wonderful children together. It's just life."
They say The Polly and Grant Show

will continue despite their separation.
Gillespie and Kereama spent more than 20 years at the helm of their ZM breakfast show before moving to The Hits last April.
The pair had been together for 30 years and have three children.

Stuck In Its Own Time Warp

North Korea is frequently accused of turning back the clock on human rights, economic development and diplomacy.
But last week, the pariah nation took things to a whole new level. It announced it would adopt a new time zone – called Pyongyang Time – to cast off the legacy of "wicked Japanese imperialists".
The new time zone takes effect from August 15 to mark the 70th anniversary of the country's independence from Japanese rule at the end of WWII.
Since Japan colonised the country in 1910, its clocks have been 9hrs ahead of Greenwich Mean Time, the same as Japan and South Korea. Pyongyong's new time zone (8hrs ahead of GMT) is a wind-back to its pre-colonial past.
[North Koreans already have their own calendar. Instead of counting from the birth of Christ, they count from the birth of founding leader, Kim Il Sung. Kim was born in 1912 - known in North Korea as Juche 1, making this year Juche 104.]
The new time will put Pyongyang half an hour behind Tokyo and Seoul. I'm a little surprised that the idea of trailing their South Koreans by 30mins hasn't annoyed the DPRK leadership a bit...or maybe they he hadn't thought it through that far!

The Clown Prince

The sabre-rattling ego-pumping national news agency states emphatically: "It is the firm faith and will of the DPRK's people to force the Japanese imperialists to pay for the monstrous crimes committed by them for a century, firmly defend the national sovereignty, and demonstrate for eternity the dignity and might of the great ... nation shining with the immortal august names of Kim Il Sung and leader Kim Jong Il."
And speaking of "living in their own little time warp", what do ya think of His Glorious Leadership's latest hair style...?!!
Ooooooooo YEAAAAAA!!!!!
Me wants one just the same!!!

This Is Nepalling!

Every August, the Deopokhari festival is held in Khokana, one of the oldest villages in the Kathmandu Valley, central Nepal.
This is part of a celebration of the culture of the Newari people, the indigenous people of the area, and features traditional dancing, music and food.
But also at this cultural event, a live goat is ripped apart by villagers...and this has been going on for 900yrs!

A 5-6mth.old goat is hurled into a pond close to a temple at the centre of the village, then nine young men jump into the pond and begin to tear at the goat with their hands and teeth. They bite, pull and strangle the goat until it's torn apart (often for as long as 40 minutes), and the man deemed to have eventually killed it gets to lead the year's procession.
Animal Welfare Network Nepal (AWNN) has been campaigning against the festival for years, and is rallying international support. World-renowned animals rights charity PETA has joined AWNN in highlighting the damage the festival does to Nepal's international reputation: "It demonstrates obliviousness to world opinion, disrespect for life and an almost uniquely savage and disgusting display of cruelty."
Shocked public from across Europe and Nepal have launched several online petitions, calling on the Nepali Congress Central Office to ban the practice. The largest has been signed by more than 53,000+.
No-one in Nepal can explain why this practice is carried out year after year since the C12th., except to say it's 'traditional'.

And this is not the only Nepalese festival to have drawn the attention of animal rights groups. A two-day religious festival held every five years in Nepal, sees the ritual massacre of 250,000 buffalo, birds and goats. Millions attend this ceremony for the Hindu goddess of power, which is held at her temple in Bariyarpur, near the Indian border.
Today, continuing a vicious practice in the face of generally-accepted norms simply for the sake of 'tradition' is ignorant, blind, self-centred and barbaric. Such acts have no place in the civilised world and should be banned immediately!