“I do not feel that it is necessary for us to implement such a technology while we are operating different methods and have different avenues that have worked so far,” Ahmed bin Thani, the Dubai police’s director of airport security, said.

“The use of such a device violates personal privacy and it raises a very sensitive issue for passengers, in addition to the fact that it does not comply to our national ethics,” he said.

Bin Thani said the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) does not require airports to implement the body scanning technology.

“The acquisition of such devices is based on the decision of every member state of the ICAO and is not a mandatory measure instructed by them,” he said.

According to Omar al Amri, the Dubai police’s deputy director of airport security, Dubai International Airport, which has more than 3, 200 operational security cameras in its three terminals, may introduce face-recognition technology to enhance safety.

Although, Dubai is a cosmopolitan city, visitors still have to respect Islamic tradition and local culture. Permission has to be given before anyone can photograph a local woman. Mostcover themselves with black colored Abaya and some even cover their lips and eyes.

Moslem Ladies Headwear

While Abu Dubai won’t let women be photographed at the airport, France has finally passed the bill that bans the wearing of the full Islamic veil in public. Anyone breaking the law stands to be heavily fined, though it has been reported that some wealthy men are prepared to pay the fines.

According to the French justice minister, Michèle Alliot-Marie, who drafted the bill, “The full Islamic veil challenges the values that we share and the very principles according to which we live together.”

Foreigners, notably wealthy tourists from Gulf states, would also be affected by the ban.

While women wearing a full face veil in public could be hit with a 150 euro fine, the bill stipulates a much harsher penalty for men found guilty of forcing their wives or daughters to cover their face: a one-year jail sentence and a 15,000 euro fine.

France has banned all religious symbols to be worn in public schools and government buildings, not just Islamic symbols.

The Spanish government moved to ban all religious symbols from public spaces, such as schools, hospitals, barracks and jails, as well as in all official ceremonies. The aim was to provide ‘religiously neutral public spaces’.

This number has increased once again with Rosa Otunbayeva being sworn in as president of the troubled republic of Kyrgyzstan.

Mrs Otunbayeva took power following violent street riots in April, which ousted President Kurmanbek Bakiyev.

Otunbayeva, made even more history, as the former foreign minister became the first female president of an ex-communist Central Asian country. Her inauguration came only days after a referendum on a new constitution, which created the region’s first parliamentary democracy.

Plus three ruling Queens and four female Govenor Generals, women dominate the world scene.

Yet, even on a local basis, women are in the forefront. If you were a resident of Sydney, Australia, you would be under all female authority.

• Queen Elizabeth as Head of State,
• Quentin Bryce as Govenor General,
• Prime Minister Julia Gillard,
• New South Wales Govenor Marie Bashir,
• Kristina Keneally as New South Wales Premier,
• Lord Mayor of Sydney is Clover More and
• Tanya Plibersek as Federal Representative.

Fun Run Sydney

No wonder Sydney hosts the Sussan Women’s Fun Run, where there the organizers anticipate around 5,000 entrants will join Australia’s premier women, to commemorate the 25^th anniversary of the event.

Sydney will also host the Australian Women’s Leadership Symposium, where hundreds of Australian women gather to explore contemporary leadership. In the two day program, women leaders from all sectors and industries will be exposed to state-of-the-art leadership thinking, delivered first-hand by Australia’s most inspirational leaders, trainers and academics.

At least one male speaker, Emanuel Perdis, Managing Director of Napoleon Perdis, will face the female gauntlet and be one of the guest speakers.

However, on one front Sydney has stood strong. The Anglican diocese has firmly refused to allow women to be ordained as priests. In this aspect, Sydney has set itself aside from all other Anglican Dioceses in Australia. Any woman priest moving from an outside area into the Sydney diocese, is ‘demoted’ to being known as merely a deacon.

This situation has become a source of bitterness and even a court action, as Sydney tried to influence other dioceses to follow their stand.

In an emergency budget statement, Chancellor George Osborne said the monarch had given her ‘full agreement’ to a one-year cap on her £7.9 million ($16.6 million) payment.

The Queen has not had a pay rise in 20 years and newspaper reports suggest her courtiers are lobbying the new government to raise her allowance, for performing public duties.

“Because of inflation, the annual payment is today worth only a quarter of what it was 20 years ago,” Osborne said. “This has required careful management.”

The Queen’s allowance is due for its 10-yearly review this year. The timing is unfortunate, given the poor state of the public finances and the fragile economic recovery.

The Daily Telegraph reported that the current payment was falling £7 million short of meeting the annual cost of performing the monarch’s public duties.

The Queen and her husband Prince Philip are the only royals to receive payment from the Civil List. The bulk of it goes towards paying staff, with the rest spent on things like stationery, laundry and official functions such as garden parties.

Despite her many historic palaces packed with priceless artworks and the pricelesss crown jewels, Britain’s third-longest serving monarch has a reputation for frugality. She is reported to turn off lights in empty rooms and asks chefs to reuse leftover food.

The Queen and her husband Prince Philip are the only royals to receive payment from the Civil List. The bulk of it goes towards paying staff, with the rest spent on things like stationery, laundry and official functions such as garden parties.

The first allowance was set in 1689 at £1.2 million, although that included money for the military.

The government also said the queen’s spending will now be scrutinized by the National Audit Office, the agency that pores over the accounts of government departments.

Though nine of the world’s fifty richest people are women, the Queen is not listed among them.

Top of the list of women is Alice Walton, 56, daughter of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton, worth roughly $20.7 billion. Liliane Bettencourt, of L’Oreal, comes second, with $20 billion.

Since the reign of King Goerge III, when a new monarch ascends the throne, they sign a lease to the government, handing control of the £7billion pound ($14.7 billion) portfolio over to the government. The Crown estate is managed by an independent body, on behalf of the government.

Should the new monarch chose not to do sign the lease, the monarch would regain control of the crown portfolio and would be removed from the civil list payments.

Juilia Gillard won a stunning leadership contest against Kevin Rudd, in an historic decision. Mr Rudd will go down in history as the first Prime Minister ever to be thrown out by his party within his first term of office. Mr Rudd’s defeat represents the most stunning political turnaround ever, for a leader who just a few months ago was rivaling Bob Hawke in popularity stakes.

Ms Gillard was confident when she entered the Caucus, flanked by the Treasurer, Mr Swan, her would-be deputy, that she had the numbers to defeat Mr Rudd. Senior factional members claimed Ms Gillard had at least 70 votes out of a possible 112.

Mr Rudd, who won power in 2007 with a popular Kevin 07 campaign, bowed to pressure from his colleagues and withdrew from the contest, assuring Ms Gillard’s ascension to the leadership.

Senators David Feeney and Don Farrell are not household names in Australia, yet they led the push that brought down a Prime Minister. Along with Victorian MP Bill Shorten, they initiated the move that ousted Mr Rudd.

Senator Farrell is a powerbroker who has long been feared in his native South Australia. A former long-time state secretary of the Shop Distributive and Allied Employees Association, he is a kingmaker in the Right faction. He formed an alliance with the Left faction in SA in the mid-1990s. Known as ”the Machine”, it set about crushing the remnants of the once-powerful Centre Left, including the then senator Chris Schacht.

Senator Farrell entered the Senate at the last election, as did Senator Feeney, a right-wing powerbroker from Melbourne. A controversial character, Senator Feeney was formerly the Victorian Labor state secretary.

Senator Feeney, along with Senator Farrell, were verbally abused by Mr Rudd last year when they met him to protest at the paring back of MPs’ entitlements.

Mp Bill Shorten entered Parliament at the last election. He and Mr Rudd did not get along and his relatively junior position as a parliamentary secretary was regarded as Mr Rudd snubbing him.

Associate Professor Haydon Manning of Flinders University says Australia can expect a remarkable time before the federal election now that Ms Gillard is Prime Minister. “Now we find a woman Prime Minister, a scholar from Unley High in Adelaide, with a momentous job to try and reverse this slippage in the polls and to tackle this powerful [Tony] Abbott who’s come on very strongly and surprisingly as Opposition Leader,” he said.

It is felt Mr Rudd’s ditching of the emissions trading scheme and a new 40% ‘super’ profits tax on the mining sector, saw Mr Rudd’s collapse in the Labour vote, but ultimately it was the men Kevin Rudd spurned, who brought him down.

It is also said that Julia Gillard, a proven parliamentary performer, knows how to get out of tough spots.

The guards said because her bra had metal underwires, which set off the metal detector, she could not enter the prison.

The attorney reminded guards of a detention center “memo” allowing female attorneys wearing an underwire bra to have entry into the prison. But the guards would not relent.

A few years ago, the Federal Public Defender’s Office, which represents inmates held at FDC, Miami, before trial, hammered out an arrangement with the prison, allowing female lawyers entry if guards determine – by using a wand – that their underwire bras are setting off the detector. Once it’s confirmed, the woman lawyer is free to enter.

Horstman then removed her bra in a bathroom. Dressed in a blouse and jacket, she was again denied entry. She was told she was in violation of the prison dress code, because she was not wearing a bra.

“Simply because I was a woman who wore a specific type of bra, my client was denied access to her attorney today,” said Horstman. “This is completely unacceptable.”

The code forbids women entry who are wearing low-cut blouses, sweat pants and shirts, leotards, wrap around skirts, zippered dresses, button-down dresses, sundresses, or any type of garment that is see-through, clothing that is tight or sexually suggestive, or revealing. It also requires that women wear bras, but does not forbid underwire bras.

Both men and women are forbidden to wear any clothing similar to that issued to the staff or inmates, such as khaki, orange, green military fatigue, or plain white T-shirts.

The incident was brought to the attention of the Warden Linda McGrew, who conducted an inquiry. She said the same thing would not happen again.

This is not the first time guards at the downtown Miami inmate facility have taken exception to the undergarments of female attorneys coming in to see their clients. Former Miami federal prosecutor, Lilly Ann Sanchez, said she also had trouble getting into the FDC to see clients. “I had several instances where I was wearing an underwire bra and they wouldn’t let me in”.

Abby was put aboard the French fishing vessel, Ile De La Reunion, heading to the French archipelago Kerguelen Islands.

Transport Minister Anthony Albanese said Australia couldn’t send Abby and her backers a bill even if it wanted to. “That’s not the way the law works. The Australian taxpayer at the end of the day makes a contribution.”

He went on to say “We have to put this in context – if there was an Australian lost at sea we would want every effort to be made to save that person.” The search fell just outside of Australia’s search and rescue region.

Abby Johnson' boat Abandoned

A chartered Qantas plane was sent from Perth to search for Abby about 3700km off the coast of Western Australia. It located her 12m yacht, Wild Eyes, within four hours of being put in charge of the rescue. It’s been reported the Qantas charter cost $10,000 an hour.

Albanese said the episode proved Australia was a world leader in search and rescue. “We can be very proud of the efforts of the Australian Maritime Safety Authority. They have pulled off a remarkable rescue.”

The US ambassador called Albanese yesterday to thank the nation for its efforts.

Abbey says she will make another attempt to sail solo, nonstop, around the world, following three ‘crazy days’, after being lost in a storm in the turbulent Indian Ocean.

Abbey left Los Angeles on January 23^rd, in the hope of being the youngest to circumnavigate the globe solo and unassisted, attempting to beat Australian Jessica Watson.

In facing her growing number of critics Abbey said, “Storms are part of the deal when you set out to sail around the world. As for age, since when does age create gigantic waves and storms?”

Abbey’s father, a boat builder, said his daughter had thousands of miles of solo sailing experience, before she began her solo attempt. He said she simply ‘caught a bad wave’.

During the rescue operation the captain of the French fishing boat fell into the water and had to be rescued. It is not clear whether the French vessel will seek compensation.

Australian lone sailor, Jessica Watson, completed her unofficial solo circumnavigation of the globe on May 15^th, three days before her 17^th birthday. Unofficial, because Guinness World Record have now removed the ‘oldest and youngest’ categories of solo circumnavigation. Jesse Martin, from Melbourne, Australia, achieved the solo unassisted record in 1999, aged 18.

Psychologist John Watson developed what would become known as ‘classical conditioning’. This is where an ‘unconditional stimulus’ elicits a response. When this is paired with a conditional stimulus enough times, it obtains an automatic response.

Watson used his knowledge to make people feel good when they saw certain products. For example, a sexy women photographed with a beautiful car is designed to elicit a certain response in the heart of the viewer.

The advertising industry, is a prominent and very powerful industry, that frequently engages in deceptive subliminal advertising which most people are unaware of.

By bypassing the conscious mind using subliminal techniques, advertisers tap into the vulnerabilities surrounding the unconscious mind, manipulating and controlling in many ways.

1950's 60's adverts

Since the 1940’s subliminal advertising blossomed until now, when you can find subliminal messages in every major advertisement and magazine cover.

1950's 60's ads

Legislation against the advertisers has had no effect, in curbing the use of subliminals. In this Information Age, it seems people are not always in control of what they view.

1950's 60's adverts

Take a close look at these adverts of the 1950’s and 60’s and discover just how much of the content and subliminal messages would not be acceptable today.

1950's 60's ads

Before you get carried away in judgement of the 50’s and 60’s, take a look at what we find an acceptable way to stop a tennis match in the 2000’s.

Game Stopper

Nijma Ahem, 50, the young bride’s mother said that before her daughter lost consciousness, she told her mother what had taken place. Eham Assi had only been married for a few days to a 23 year-old man. Abed al-Hikmi is now in police custody.

In Yemen a quarter of all females marry before the age of 15, according to a 2009 report by the country’s Ministry of Social Affairs. Traditional families prefer young brides because they are seen as more obedient and are expected to have more children and easier to keep away from temptation. Child brides can be valued at hundreds of dollars.

The legislation to ban child brides has been stalled by opposition from religious leaders. A February 2009 law set the minimum age for marriage at 17, but was repealed and sent back to parliament’s constitutional committee for review, after some lawmakers called it un-Islamic. The government refuses to make any comment.

Assi — one of eight siblings — was forced into marriage after an agreement between her brother and her husband to marry each other’s sisters, in order to avoid having to pay expensive bride-prices. This is a common arrangement in Yemen, the poorest country in the Middle East.

According to the police the groom felt under pressure to prove his manhood, as he had been refused consummation of the marriage.

Al-Hikmi took his young bride to a nearby medical clinic, asking a doctor there to administer her tranquilizers so she would not resist his advances. The clinic refused. He then obtained performance enhancing pills, according to the police interrogation and that night completed the act while his bride screamed.

He had to carry his bride to the clinic the following day because she was unable to walk. Dr. Fathiya Haidar said Assi’s vaginal canal was ripped. Al-Hikmi was told to stay away from his bride for at least 10 days.

When a forensic report was obtained it revealed that Assi’s injuries were much greater, including extensive tearing around the vagina and rectum, suggesting that there might have been additional intercourse after the clinic visit.

Al-Hikmi told the girl’s mother that the young bride was possessed by spirits and said he would take her to a folk healer to cast them out. Hours later, Assi was dead.

The issue of Yemen’s child brides received widespread attention three years ago when an 8-year-old girl boldly went by herself to a courtroom and demanded a judge dissolve her marriage to a man in his 30s. She eventually won a divorce.

In September, a 12-year-old Yemeni child-bride died after struggling for three days in labor to give birth, a local human rights organization said.

The young faces appear covered with makeup, the hair and hair extensions poufed and shellacked. Some kids sport fake tans, false eyelashes, fake teeth (called ‘flippers,’ masking baby teeth), fake nails and often, fake smiles. In fact, it is becoming increasingly difficult to recognize what is for real, as these tiny highly-coached beauty queen show themselves off in extreme poses.

Many people feel unsettled when viewing the photos, shot by Los Angeles-based fashion photographer Susan Anderson and recently published in a book called ‘Hig Glitz: The Extravagant World of Child Beauty Pageants’.

Child Beauty Queens

Viewers are fully aware the photos are of very young girls, yet the eerie effect of all the cosmetics and correctives, tends to create the illusion of child-women far older than their actual age.

Several participants appear to be on the very edge of middle age in appearance. “Freaky,” said a man standing back to examine the photos at the Kopeikin Gallery, Los Angeles opening. “It’s not right.”

As early as 1997 a Ball State University educator, Marcia Summers, was saying, “Allowing six-year-olds to dress up in evening gowns and parade at beauty pageants is sending the wrong message”. Summers said, “Some parents push their youngsters to win in order to gain prestige.”

Children’s beauty pageants have been around since the 1920s. The concern is that putting adult pressures on children, dressed in sophisticated costumes with strict rehearsal schedules and screaming crowds, (mainly mothers), wrecks their childhood and can have long term psychological effects.

“Parents need to look at why they want their children to be in a contest,” Summer said. “Is it because of the need to stroke an ego or because they want what is best for their child.”

Children can range in age from 2 to 10 years old. There are frequent bouts of hysterical crying and outbursts. Everyone has only one goal-to win, though the question is being asked, ‘Whose dream, or fantasy, is being played out?”

According to psychologycorner website, some participants have been victims in murder cases, with many child beauty pageant sites acting as a pedagogical site.

“I wanted to take the daily act of dressing up – a routine everyone relates to – and make it a part of something bigger, something more consequential. The repetitive model of a 365 day project brings viewers back on a regular basis, which made it a great platform for fundraising,” says Matheiken.

Using handmade, or pre-owned accessories donated by readers, or purchased on eBay, Matheiken plans to reinvent the dress daily and post her efforts on her blog, The Uniform Project.

This is a walk down memory lane for Matheiken, as she and her peers, at a public school in India, never allowed their mandatory uniforms to stifle their creativity.

With over $40,000 collected so far, the Akanksha Foundation has raised sufficient funds to put 109 slum-living children in India into school for one year.

Designer and consultant, Eliza Starbuck, the mastermind behind the dress and close friend of Matheiken, plans to continue the fund raising by producing and releasing the dress for sale. The dress can be worn either back or front, or as an open tunic. It has deep hidden pockets, as Matheiken has an aversion to carrying purses.

Viewers get the opportunity to rate the outfits and those who donate accessories get mentioned in the blog. Matheiken also asks viewers and other designers and friends to collaborate with her on new ideas for any interesting and original ensembles.

The question remains however, just what will Matheiken wear the first day she is released from her one year vow and will other fashion conscious ladies take up the innovative challenge of stretching their fashion dollar further?