world (13)

The uprising in Tunisia, which led to the ouster of president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali on January 14, has had a ripple effect across the Arab world:

EGYPT

- January 25 sees the start of unprecedented demonstrations against the regime of President Hosni Mubarak, who has been in power since 1981. The demonstrations are preceded by several people setting themselves on fire. At least 1,000 people are arrested in two days according to a security official.

Seven people have been killed — five demonstrators and two police officers — and dozens injured across the country since Tuesday.

ALGERIA

- Early in January five days of violent protests against high prices result in five people dead and more than 800 injured. The government orders a cut in basic food prices and pledges to continue subsidising wheat, milk and electricity. On January 22 riot police break up a banned pro-democracy rally, leaving around 20 injured. Two lethal self-immolations and seven attempted torching suicides have been reported in Algeria since January 14.

JORDAN

- Thousands of Jordanians take to the streets of Amman and other cities on January 14 to protest soaring commodity prices, unemployment and poverty, calling for the sacking of the government.

On January 16 more than 3,000 Jordanian trade unionists, Islamists and leftists hold a sit-in outside parliament to protest the government's economic policies. On the 21st more than 5,000 people rally after weekly prayers in Amman and other cities.

On Thursday the Islamist opposition calls for protests on Friday and warned it will continue campaigning to force political and economic reform in the kingdom...

SUDAN

- A 25-year-old Sudanese man himself who set himself on fire in a suburb of Khartoum dies from his injuries on Wednesday. Widespread economic and political discontent in north Sudan has led to sporadic protests in recent weeks.

OMAN

- Some 200 Omanis protest on January 17 against high prices and corruption, a rare phenomenon in the Arab Gulf monarchy.

MAURITANIA

- Mauritanian Yacoub Ould Dahoud sets himself on fire in an anti-government protest on January 17 because he is "unhappy with the political situation in the country and angry with the government."

YEMEN

- Yemeni police disperse hundreds of protesters chanting pro-Tunisia slogans at Sanaa University on January 18.

- On Thursday thousands of people stage a mass protest calling on President Ali Abdullah Saleh to quit after being in power since 1978.


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jpeg&STREAMOID=VQksv2BiONfoeQpXDrlGWC6SYeqqxXXqBcOgKOfTXxT_$3HYHuEL9WiBQ36$v88knW_PgxgftuECOcfJwS6Jtlp$r8Fy$6AAZ9zyPuHJ25T7a9GKDSxsGxtpmxP0VAUyHL6IDcZHtmM2t7xO$FHdJG95dFi6y2Uma3vSsvPpVyo-&width=444As hundreds of dead birds fall from the skies across the United States, about a hundred birds again fell off in Sweden shortly before midnight on Tuesday, just as millions of dead fish surfaced in a bay in Maryland, United States. Similar unexplained mass fish deaths occurred in Brazil and New Zealand.

The Baltimore Sun reports that an estimated 2 million fish were found dead in the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland, mostly adult spot with some juvenile croakers in the mix, as well. In New Zealand, hundreds of dead snapper fish washed up on Coromandel Peninsula beaches, many found with their eyes missing, The New Zealand Herald reports. However Maryland Department of the Environment spokesperson Dawn Stoltzfus says “cold-water stress” is believed to be the culprit..

 

PHOTO:Rescue chief, Christer Olofsson, poses with a dead bird in Falkoping. Photo: REUTERS

Residents in Falköping, southeast of Skövde, found 50 to 100 jackdaw birds on a street further echoing the unexplained incidents that commenced earlier in the week across the Atlantic in southern US. A Swedish county veterinarian, Robert ter Horst believes that the birds may have been literally scared to death by fireworks set off on Tuesday night.

“We have received information from local residents last night. Our main theory is that the birds were scared away because of the fireworks and landed on the road, but couldn’t fly away from the stress and were hit by a car,” he explained to a Swedish online news platform — The Local on Wednesday.

“We will continue to look at whether there are other theories, but then we have to do an autopsy on the birds. The birds just now are in a car on the way to a laboratory in Uppsala. We don’t know exactly what happened yet, but we will continue the investigation,” he added.images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRISwhS80vetzHIA7GRDfPCUiP6e_r3_5mS5j4jPPwNMCqgRJS6dA

alg_louisiana_birds.jpgMr Horst noted that he has also received some reports about pigeons, but the incident has happened too quickly to assume that it is related to the untimely demise of the jackdaws. The site where the birds were found has now been blocked for a veterinary inspection of the birds. Emergency services had cordoned off the area earlier on Wednesday. Across the Atlantic, an estimated 4,000 to 5,000 blackbirds crashed into homes, cars and each other in central Arkansas on New Year eve. Another 500 birds were killed and littered the highway in Louisiana. Diverse theories such as fireworks and power lines sparks have been propounded. It’s almost certainly a coincidence the events happened within days of each other, Louisiana’s state wildlife veterinarian Jim LaCour said on Tuesday.

“I haven’t found anything to link the two at this point.” Anders Wirdheim of the Swedish Ornithological Society (Sveriges ornitologiska förening, SOF) believes the nocturnal birds were likely frightened in the middle of the night, then flew around in the dark and collided with various objects. Bird deaths and fish kills at smaller numbers aren’t all that uncommon, though the size and proximity of some of the recent events have led people to allege their relation, though officials deny the frequency of these wildlife deaths as being anything other than coincidence.

 

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The gun that changed the world

In 1980s Afghanistan, a Tajik commander attended the funeral of a soldier who’d been killed in their war against the Soviet Union.

At one point, he picked up the dead man’s Kalashnikov rifle and presented it to his younger brother. With a ceremonial flair, he asked the man, “Do you want to be a mujahid?” The man took the gun and replied, “I am going to take my brother’s weapon. I am going to be with you.”

The importance of the weapon was more than simple ceremony. Later, when elements of the mujahideen evolved into al Qaeda, the first class taken by new recruits was a lesson on the Kalashnikov..

Mikhail T.Kalashnikov holds his world-famous AK-47 assault rifle
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Mikhail T.Kalashnikov holds his world-famous AK-47 assault rifle

The Kalashnikov, or AK-47, is the gun that assassinated Sadat, armed the PLO and allowed Idi Amin to become the devil of Uganda. A favorite of both Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden, the AK-47 and its offshoots are by far the most plentiful guns on Earth, with over 100 million in circulation — one for every 70 people on the planet.

In his fascinating book, “The Gun” (Simon & Schuster), Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist C.J. Chivers shows how the world was forever altered by the pursuit of automatic weapons and especially the invention of the Kalashnikov — an easy-to-use automatic rifle that allowed any one man to possess the firepower of an army.

By the time the AK appeared, of course, military men already were enamored with the machine gun. In the 1860s, North Carolina’s Dr. Richard Gatling invented “the first reasonably effective rapid-fire arm” in the Gatling gun, which weighed about a ton and was operated by a bulky hand crank.

The Gatling gun proved effective in battle, although many rejected it for its size, fearing that it would slow an army’s movement. (Before the Battle of Little Bighorn, Lt. Col. George Custer was offered Gatling guns but opted for single-shot rifles instead, likely leading to his massacre.)

The world got a taste of the Gatling’s power in 1879, when the British faced down 20,000 Zulus. Outnumbered four to one, the Brits started shooting, and Zulu lines “began to melt away.” The Zulu’s were conquered in a half-hour, with only 11 British casualties.

The next advance came via New Englander Hiram Maxim, who sought to design a weapon with a trigger instead of a hand crank. Realizing that the energy from a gun’s recoil could be used to power the crank’s tasks, he created the Maxim gun, which weighed less than 150 pounds and became the world’s first truly automatic weapon.

With the Maxim, the British showed how easy killing had become. In 1893’s Matabele War in South Africa, they killed 1,500 natives without suffering a single casualty. In another battle, four dozen policemen with four Maxims reportedly killed 3,000 Africans.


Despite — or sometimes because of — their clear success as killing machines, the global verdict on automatic weapons remained divided.

Theodore Roosevelt, who had been a colonel in the Spanish-American War, wrote of hearing a particular sound in battle.

“I leaped to my feet and called, ‘It’s the Gatlings, men! It’s our Gatlings!’ Immediately the men began to cheer lustily, for the sound was most inspiring.”

But the ease and brutality of murder inspired opposition as well. In 1898, 23-year-old British journalist Winston Churchill watched his countrymen kill somewhere between 10,000-20,000 Sudanese in one day — all before noon, in fact — while losing only 48 of their own men.

Mikhail T.Kalashnikov holds his world-famous AK-47 assault rifle
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Mikhail T.Kalashnikov holds his world-famous AK-47 assault rifle

Churchill wrote of seeing men “destroyed, not conquered, by machinery.”

“At such sights,” he wrote, “the triumph of victory faded on the mind, and a mournful feeling of disgust grew stronger.”

Certain governments were too entrenched in tradition to truly embrace the leap forward. The US was still enamored by the romance of the frontier rifleman, and through World War I, the British — despite their own experiences — made bayonet training the priority for new soldiers, even though they caused only 0.5% of casualties in that war.

With Germany issuing 16 machine guns to their infantry battalions while the British offered only two, the Brits’ hesitation would have devastating consequences.

In one 1916 battle, the British marched in formation, equipped with bayonets, against a German army with machine guns. In the first hour, 30,000 British soldiers were killed or wounded.

One German soldier later said that, “The English came walking, as though they were going to the theatre or on a parade ground. We felt they were mad.”

While rifles changed little during World War II, the Soviets held a secret contest among their designers during the conflict, challenging them to create a light, compact, reliable gun that was made from few parts and easy to assemble and use.

Sgt. Mikhail Kalashnikov led the team that ultimately created the weapon that bears his name, and which became a much-touted tool for Soviet propaganda. The exact details of the weapon’s creation, though, are impossible to discern, due to the secrecy and lies of Josef Stalin’s government. It was surely more of a socialist team effort — possibly assisted by captured German weapons and designers — than the Kremlin ever let on.

The Kalashnikov’s critical feature was that, unlike most automatic weapons, its parts were designed to be loose fitting, which drastically reduced instances of jamming. It also consisted of very few parts, making it so easy to use that Soviet schoolboys — who were trained in these matters — could dissemble and reassemble the guns in 30 seconds flat.


Reliability and ease of use combined with two other factors to make the AK-47 the world’s most popular gun: Stalin relied on manufacturing the weapon to boost the Soviet economy, which led to eventual overproduction; and Nikita Khrushchev’s use of it as political currency, as he regularly sent arms to smaller nations in order to curry favor.

In 1955, the Soviets included in the Warsaw Pact the condition that all Eastern Bloc nations use the guns supplied by the Soviets. Many of those nations then set up their own factories for the production and export of the weapons, laying the groundwork for global saturation.

Mikhail T.Kalashnikov holds his world-famous AK-47 assault rifle
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Mikhail T.Kalashnikov holds his world-famous AK-47 assault rifle

In September of that year, Khrushchev made a massive arms deal with Egypt that delivered the guns to the Middle East, and which soon lead to deals with Syria, Iran, and Iraq.

By the time of Vietnam, the US had failed to keep pace in the world of small arms development.

The American military — which dismissed the AK as being of “limited value” — had long been addicted to heavy ammunition, and larger ammo required larger guns. In the 1950s, they developed the 12-pound, 4-foot-long M-14, thereby committing themselves to a big weapon for their next war. But by that point, modern warfare relied more on rapid fire than precise fire. That required bullets to be smaller.

It wasn’t until the 1960s, when the AR-15 — later the M-16 — finally was rushed into production to address the new reality of war.

Chivers’ section on the subsequent development of the M-16 is enough to make any American’s blood boil. While today the world’s second-most prominent automatic weapon, the M-16 was far from combat ready when it was made standard issue for soldiers in Vietnam. It was shockingly susceptible to rust and, worse, jammed with alarming and deadly frequency.

Developed in a non-competitive environment — the AR-15 was chosen because it was the only automatic rifle available — the gun was tested with different ammo than it used in the field, and decisions about it were made by systems analysts who had no experience in weaponry or combat, and who failed to test it for possible rusting.

Politics also played an odd role in saddling our soldiers with the weapon. An arms dealer working with Colt’s Firearms Division, the AR-15’s manufacturer, arranged for the Air Force vice chief of staff, Gen. Curtis LeMay, to sample the gun at an outdoor party.

Three watermelons were set up as targets, and when struck, the first two “exploded in vivid red splashes,” leaving the general so impressed that he didn’t bother shooting the third, which was eaten instead. LeMay was promoted to chief in 1961, and in 1962 the Air Force bought 8,500 AR-15s from Colt.


In 1966, soldiers arriving overseas found their rifles “hard to clean, fussy and prone to untimely stoppages.” Inspectors from Colt later reported that the weapons were in such bad shape that they were “literally rotting in troops hands.”

By the summer of 1967, the Viet Cong were killing 800 US servicemen per month, with the majority of deaths coming from small-arms fire: the VC’s far-more-reliable AK-47s.

Chivers lays out numerous scenes in which trapped American soldiers faced enemy fire while trying to revive jammed weapons.

In one, a gunner with no counter fire to cover him is shot in the head. As the assistant gunner moves to take his place, he’s hit as well. Another company sees 40 rifles jam during one battle, leaving a quarter of them unable to return fire.

Mikhail T.Kalashnikov holds his world-famous AK-47 assault rifle
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Mikhail T.Kalashnikov holds his world-famous AK-47 assault rifle

Increasingly, as Marines faced enemy bullets, they needed to “thread together several sections of narrow metal pipe . . . and plunge the rod down the barrel” to dislodge trapped shell cases — the same movement, Chivers notes, that “Revolutionary War soldiers had to do to reload muskets nearly 200 years before.”

Marines began to develop cuts on their hands from using their M-16s as clubs.

The situation got so bad that healthy Marines would walk among the wounded, asking if their guns still worked so they could trade. Others bought black market M-14s from rear echelon and aviation units. One platoon commander, conceding to the M-16’s ineffectiveness, ordered his company to “fix bayonets” before advancing on the enemy.

Chivers quotes a soldier, in an interview with the Asbury Park Evening Press, saying, “You know what killed most of us? Our own rifle. Practically every one of our dead was found with his rifle tore down next to him where he had been trying to fix it.”

Meanwhile, the AK-47 continued to spread around the world, as Eastern Bloc countries, now with massive stockpiles, sold off some and simply lost track of many others. When Palestinian terrorists took the Israeli Olympic team hostage with AKs in 1972, the world got its first horrifying look at the automatic weapon’s next fans.

In the ensuing years, the Kalashnikov became the weapon of choice for Middle Eastern terrorists and African despots, with AK coming to mean “Africa Killer” as African nations increasingly found themselves embroiled in brutal, oppressive and nightmarish civil wars.

Chivers includes a blood-curdling section on Uganda’s Lord’s Resistance Army, which not only terrorized the nation through the arming of soldiers as young as 9 — who had no trouble mastering the simple-to-use AKs — but had these children intimidate villages by choosing citizens at random and slicing off their noses and lips as a warning to others.

In 2001, the UN did a study that found that small arms had been the main weapons in 46 of the 49 major conflicts in the 1990s, in which 4 million people were killed — 90% of them civilians.

Toward the end of the book, Chivers includes a horrifying seven-page scene detailing an assassination attempt in Iraq in 2002 that — at a time when more than 50 nations and countless terrorist groups rely on the weapon to further their causes — illustrates the Kalashnikov’s human cost from a victim’s point of view.

Chivers says that today, the AK has achieved a point of full saturation, with even the American military, understanding that their soldiers will have to face it in battle, training their people in its use.

As with nukes and land mines, the reduction of automatic rifles is hoped for, but ultimately futile. With some of the first AK-47s ever made still in service in Afghanistan, it’s a gun that has altered global politics for multiple generations.

There is only one factor, Chivers says, that will bring about the end of the AK: time. Perhaps a century from now, when enough rifles have been backed over by trucks, exploded in war zones, or simply erode with time, only then will the violent legacy of the Soviet Union’s most lasting accomplishment finally come to an end.

YOU SAY YOU WANT A REVOLUTION?

The proliferation of the cheap, dangerous AK-47 has contributed to Third World instability. Got four grand? You have a militia.

Troops: In the Congo, 4 million have been killed in ongoing wars between the army and local warlords. A regular government soldier makes only $10 a month, double that (with the promise of spoils) and you have a happy mercenary. Get a dozen. Initial cost: $240

Transportation: Your choice here will be a Toyota Hilux pickup truck, popular for being indestructible and big enough to carry all your men. (There was even a conflict named after them, the Toyota War between Libya and Chad). Doesn’t matter if it’s 20 years old, it will still run. Cost: $1,000

Weapons: Prices vary, with some (likely apocryphal) reports saying an AK can be bought for $30 in parts of Africa. But one reliable figure is that when US troops seized the hard drive of Taliban leader Mullah Omar, it showed that he planned on arming 2,000 fighters with AKs at a cost of $202 per. Cost: $2,424

Dress: A good scarf, bandana or keffiyeh protects soldiers from dust, obscures identities and generally instills fear. Cost: negligible.

Total: $3,664



Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/the_gun_that_changed_the_world_59zxZTe83AHZjMqZmdDnoK#ixzz17yrXrgdx


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'Grubby' world inside Hugh Hefner's empire 

 

 

The marriage proposal was apparently a rather romantic affair. On Christmas Eve, the couple watched a late-night movie together and then exchanged gifts: for him a framed photograph of their King Charles Spaniel, for her an engagement ring.

‘She burst into tears,’ he revealed on Twitter at the weekend. ‘This is the happiest Christmas in memory.’

‘The most memorable Christmas ever,’ she tweeted in agreement. ‘I love him.’
All of which might be rather more touching if the ­prospective groom was not Playboy tycoon Hugh Hefner who, at 84, is 60 years older than his fiancée, a platinum blonde model named Crystal Harris.

Match made in heaven?: Hugh Hefner has become engaged to Crystal Harris over Christmas - despite the 60 year age difference between the couple

Match made in heaven?: Hugh Hefner has become engaged to Crystal Harris over Christmas - despite the 60 year age difference between the couple

That Hefner should choose to share details of this intimate moment with the world quite so soon after his proposal is typical of this flamboyant self-publicist.

Crystal Harris shows off her engagement ring

Bling: Crystal Harris shows off her engagement ring

His image as a fast-living Lothario has done much to make a success of the Playboy brand, and news of his impending nuptials to a woman young enough to be his great-granddaughter will further promote the idea of him as a lovable old rascal who has plenty of life in him yet. .

This is certainly the image Hefner likes to project to the celebrities drawn to his lavishly debauched ­parties at the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles. The attractions there include a games house, with two guestrooms equipped with only a bed, a ceiling mirror and a phone.

Charlie Sheen, Leonardo DiCaprio and Colin Farrell are among the stars who have enjoyed romps at the Mansion, according to a kiss-and-tell ­memoir by Izabella St James, a former member of the ever-changing bevy of pneumatic blondes with whom Hefner shares his home. 

Stars just needed to ‘click their ­fingers’ to seduce women at these ­soirées, recalls St James.

These A-listers no doubt delight in their association with the legendary lover. But unfortunately for Hefner, some of his former ‘girlfriends’, as he calls them, have become disenchanted with life in his harem over the years.

Party time: Actor Charlie Sheen was photographed in a robe at the Playboy Mansion party in August 2010 along with two blonds and porn star Ron Jeremy

Party time: Actor Charlie Sheen was photographed in a robe at the Playboy Mansion party in August 2010 along with two blonds and porn star Ron Jeremy

One by one they have revealed what life was like behind the glittering façade of the Playboy Mansion. According to them, it disguises a grubby world where some girls feel they are no ­better than prostitutes, paid pocket money by an octogenarian obsessive who funds plastic ­surgery to turn them into his physical ideal, and yet must still take huge amounts of Viagra to manage sex with them.

The portrait of Hefner painted by Izabella St James is deeply unappealing. A pretty blonde law graduate, she was 26 when she met him in a Hollywood nightclub in 2002. Soon, he invited her to move in with him and seven other official ‘girlfriends’.

 

Hefner likes to have anywhere between three and 15 girlfriends at any one time. One of the group will be chosen to be Girlfriend No 1. She will share Hefner’s bedroom at all times, while the others are merely visitors. 

For Izabella, the Playboy Mansion was far from the glamorous pleasure palace she had imagined. ‘Each ­bedroom had mismatched, random pieces of furniture,’ she recalls in her autobiography Bunny Tales. ‘It was as if someone had gone to a charity shop and bought the basics for each room.

‘Although we all did our best to decorate our rooms and make them homely, the mattresses on our beds were ­disgusting — old, worn and stained. The sheets were past their best, too.

Kiss and tell: Izabella St James, a former member of the bevy of beauties, wrote a tell all book about her time in the Playboy mansion

Kiss and tell: Izabella St James, a former member of the bevy of beauties, wrote a tell all book about her time in the Playboy mansion

‘Eventually I persuaded Hef to pay for a new mattress and bed linen — but I had to turn in every single receipt before I was reimbursed.

‘Hef also eventually permitted us to have the rooms painted and recarpeted. But for some reason he insisted on creamy, white-coloured carpets. He liked the girlfriends’ rooms to look very girly, all white carpet and pink walls. 

‘It looked great at first, but with two dogs (most of the girlfriends had pets that lived in their rooms — I had two pugs), butlers delivering food, dirty shoes and occasional spillages, the carpet was grey and stained in a matter of months.’

She adds: ‘But then Hef was used to dirty carpets. The one in his bedroom had not been changed for years, and things became significantly worse when Holly Madison moved into his room with him as Girlfriend No. 1 soon after I moved in, bringing her two dogs.

‘They weren’t house-trained and would just do their business on the bedroom carpet. Late at night, or in the early hours of the morning — if any of us visited Hef’s bedroom — we’d almost always end up standing in dog mess. 

‘Everything in the Mansion felt old and stale, and Archie the house dog would regularly relieve himself on the hallway curtains, adding a powerful whiff of urine to the general scent of decay.’

Many girls, it seems, endured these living conditions for the chance of becoming a centrefold in Playboy ­magazine — an invaluable career boost for any glamour model.

Others admitted that they stayed only for the ­cosmetic surgery to which Hefner treated them as a birthday presents, keeping a running account with a Beverly Hills plastic surgeon.

Legendary lover: Hugh Hefner has a reputation for the high life, yet it seems many of his former 'girlfriends' have become disenchanted with life in the harem

Legendary lover: Hugh Hefner has a reputation for the high life, yet it seems many of his former 'girlfriends' have become disenchanted with life in the harem

But St James — with big university debts — was more interested in the weekly pocket money which Hefner paid all his girlfriends. ‘Every Friday morning we had to go to Hef’s room, wait while he picked up all the dog poo off the carpet — and then ask for our allowance: a thousand dollars counted out in crisp hundred-dollar bills from a safe in one of his bookcases,’ she says. 

‘We all hated this process. Hef would always use the occasion to bring up anything he wasn’t happy about in the relationship. Most of the complaints were about the lack of harmony among the girlfriends — or your lack of sexual participation in the “parties” he held in his bedroom.

‘If we’d been out of town for any reason and missed one of the official “going out” nights [When Hefner liked to parade his girls at nightclubs] he wouldn’t want to give us the allowance. He used it as a weapon.’

The allowance was also withdrawn if there was any infringement of the strict rules imposed by Hefner on all his girlfriends.

‘Little did I realise that by moving into the mansion I was losing all the freedom I associated with the Playboy lifestyle,’ says St James. 

‘Strictest of all was the curfew. Everyone had to be on the Mansion grounds by 9pm every night — unless we were out with Hef at a club or a function. People honestly did not believe us when we told them we had a curfew at the wild and crazy Playboy Mansion.’

Another young woman, model Kendra Wilkinson, now 25, met ­Hefner in 2004 when she was hired as a living statue at one of his ­parties, posing naked except for painted-on accessories. She moved into the Playboy Mansion soon afterwards and lived there until 2009.

She has since described how his staff noted every time one of the girls left or arrived back at the ­Mansion. Hefner would pore over the logs every morning, which, Wilkinson said, drove her ‘insane’.

‘It was way more strict than my parents had ever been,’ she says.

Freedom of a kind came on Wednesdays and Fridays, the official nights out, which were the prelude to the twice-weekly sex parties in Hefner’s bedroom.

The girls travelled with Hefner in a white limousine which had a ­leopard-skin interior, with Playboy bunny logos sewn onto the seats. As they left the mansion, they drank Dom Perignon champagne and downed Quaaludes, a prescription-only sedative drug popularised in the Seventies and now handed out by Hefner.

‘Quaaludes were supposed to give you a nice buzz,’ says Izabella St James. ‘Hef told me once that they were meant to put girls in the mood for sex.’

The thrill of being out after curfew was tempered by Hefner’s wearying habit of going out to the same few clubs, night after night. And his ever-present security guards ensured that no other men were allowed to pay the girls any attention.

At around midnight, according to St James, Hef would take his Viagra. ‘After that, he would constantly check his watch to make sure we left at the right time because if we didn’t, or the timing got messed up, he wouldn’t be able to perform later.

‘We had to line up like geese and follow each other out of the club.’

‘Little did I realise that by moving into the mansion I was losing all the freedom I associated with the Playboy lifestyle.'

As with so much else in their time with Hefner, the girls followed strict rules before entering his bedroom for the sex parties.One of those who witnessed these preparations was Jill Ann Spaulding, an aspiring model who wrote to ­Hefner in 2002 asking to be a Playboy centrefold. 

Though 20-year-old Spaulding had enclosed a naked photo of herself, she claims to have been unprepared for what happened when she was invited to stay at the Playboy ­Mansion for a few days, and was asked to one of these private parties.

Beforehand, all the girls were told to take a bath. ‘I got in, then another girl appeared from nowhere and jumped in with me,’ recalls Spaulding. ‘Then Hef stepped around the corner and took a photo of us naked in the bath together before disappearing. It was all very strange.

‘Another girl led me into Hef’s master bedroom. The only light was coming from two TVs on which adult films were showing. All the other girls were there, dressed like me in pink pyjamas. 

‘If you kept your pyjama bottoms on, that was a sign that you didn’t want to have contact that night.’ According to Spaulding there were 12 girls there on that first night, and only she and another girl declined the offer to have sex with Hefner, who did not use a condom.

Girls next door: Hefner poses with three models, including Holly Madison and Kendra Wilkinson outside his mansion in Los Angeles, California

Girls next door: Hefner poses with three models, including Holly Madison and Kendra Wilkinson outside his mansion in Los Angeles, California

‘There was no protection and no testing for sexually transmitted ­diseases,’ she says.

Izabella St James, it seems, was much more open about having a physical relationship with him.

‘I wanted to see if this experienced King of Sexdom knew anything the rest of us did not,’ she recalls. ‘But he just lay there like a dead fish.

‘We often wondered why he did it at all. He must know deep down that it is just a show. But he is trying to live out this fantasy he has been selling to people since 1954. He wants to live up to the Playboy image he created and the expectations people have of him.’

'Hef looked absolutely furious, and one of the girls hissed at me that I was disappointing him. I didn’t care. Hef’s face was like thunder but I was left alone.'

Although still hoping to make Playboy centrefold, Jill Ann Spaulding was determined to resist becoming intimate with Hefner and quickly discovered the consequences when she returned to his room for another of the sex parties, keeping her pyjama bottoms determinedly on. The other girls soon made it clear that she was expected to take them off.

‘I was terrified. They were all looking at me, including Hef from the bed — just staring straight at me. I said firmly that I couldn’t join in.

‘Hef looked absolutely furious, and one of the girls hissed at me that I was disappointing him. I didn’t care. Hef’s face was like thunder but I was left alone.’

Spaulding was quickly dismissed from the Playboy mansion and was later followed by Izabella St James, who left of her own accord.

Unsurprisingly both were soon replaced by a succession of blondes including, in January 2009, Crystal Harris. When she arrived, Hefner was seeing identical-twin glamour ­models Kristina and Karissa Shannon.

Since ending his relationship with the sisters, in January this year, he is said — in what must be one of the most suspect statements of the century — to have been monogamous. Unlikely as it seems, he is perhaps serious about making ­Harris his wife.

If so, she will be little envied by many of Hefner’s former girlfriends. For they know that, while life at the Playboy Mansion appears to offer all that an aspiring young celebrity might yearn for, she is committing herself to a life of squalid degradation in a cage which is far from gilded.



Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1342643/Hugh-Hefners-Playboy-mansion-like-squalid-prison-say-Playmates.html#ixzz19gIv6F5S
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Super Falcons beat Cameroun 5-1 to qualify for the finals of the ongoing Africa Women's Championships in South Africa.

The victory has also secured a place for Nigeria in next year's Women's World Cup billed to take place in Germany.

A hat trick from Perpetua Nkwocha and a brace from Ugochi Oparanozie secured victory for the Nigerian ladies who have remained unbeaten in this championships and are on course to win a record sixth African title.




The decade domination of Nigeria over Cameroon in women football widened on Thursday as high flying Super Falcons pummeled Indomitable Lionesses 5-1 in the semifinal of the 7th Africa Women's Championship (AWC) in South Africa.

The victory ensured that the five-time African champions booked their passage for next June Fifa Women’s World Cup in Germany and equally paved the way for the Nigerians to re-claim the title they lost to Equatorial Guinea two years ago on Sunday when the curtain will be drawn on the two-week biennial football fiesta....

In her reaction to the five-star performance of the Falcons, an excited Fifa women’s football committee member Alhaja Ayo Omidiran told SuperSport.com in a telephone chat that the Indomitable Lionesses’ kung fu game gave her a scare but hailed Falcons and the expertly handling of the game by the referee.

“Fantastic, very good result and despite the initial bravado of the Cameroonians, the Nigerians put them in their right place.

“I was initially afraid of the Cameroonians rough and physical play. In 2004 I took one of my players to the hospital with a broken jaw she sustained from a Cameroonian hard tackle, in fact, I did petition Caf over the incidence.

“Nigerian players are professionals and play clean football, so that was my fear whether they can withstand Cameroonians kung fu match, but thanks to the marvelous job done by the referee who put them in their proper place. I think this is the best officiated match in the championship.Perpetua-Nkwocha-101111-Celebrates-BPP-300.jpg

“So I am happy for Nigeria, happy for women football in Africa and Germany here we come. Special thanks to hat-trick specialist Perpetua Nkwocha, she should keep it up”

On the final encounter on Sunday, the former Nigeria Football Association (NFA) board member said the coast is clear for the Falcons to lift the AWC diadem on Sunday.

“There is nothing stopping Falcons from winning the trophy, I tell them go and get the cup. They have done 60% work picking the World Cup ticket, the next is the trophy to bring the work to 100%,” she enthused.

Nigeria’s goals came off the boots of Helen Ukaonu, Desire Oparanozie and former Caf women footballer of the year Perpetua Nkwocha who achieved a hat-trick, the second in the championship, the first was in the 5-0 mauling of Mali. She has notched up 10 goals less five to hit her personal target of 15 goals with a match to go.
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Inspired by Bollywood musicals and Brazilian soap operas, the Nigerian film industry is now the second largest in the world

Die-hard fans have known for some time that the Nigerian film industry is truly unique, but even they may be surprised to discover just how big – and lucrative – it has become..

A new festival, Nollywood Now, takes place in London from 6-12 October and is the first major event to celebrate the second largest film industry in the world. Its chief aim is to draw wider attention to the success and popularity the films enjoy across Europe, and particularly the UK.

Nollywood makes about 2,400 films per year, putting it ahead of the US, but behind India, according to a Unesco report last year. Nigerian film-makers tend to operate in a fast and furious manner; shoots rarely last longer than two weeks, cheap digital equipment is almost always used and the average budget is about $15,000 (£9,664). The finished products often bypass cinemas altogether and are instead sold directly to the “man on the street” for about $1.50 (£1). Most films shift between 25,000 and 50,000 copies globally – although a blockbuster can easily sell up to 200,000.

So, what exactly is it about the films that resonates so much with their audience? For all of their populist appeal, Nigerian films are very rooted in local concerns, according to Nollywood Now’s creative director, Phoenix Fry: “Many of the films have looked at how traditional beliefs co-exist with Islam and Christianity, Nigeria‘s main religions,” he says. “There are some superb sequences using quite simple video effects to transform aunties into demons, or show evil animal spirits being driven out from the possessed.”

This view is shared by Nigerian director and producer, Ade Adepegba, whose feature film Water Has No Enemy, explores corruption in his native country: “Nigerians are the largest group of Africans living in the UK, and the majority of them live in London,” he says. “Nigerian films still hold their strongest appeal to first generation immigrants who feel a deep attachment to their homeland. So, at the moment nostalgia is the main reason for the appeal of Nollywood.”
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6a00d8341c630a53ef01348720ac2b970c-pi

watch video here I wear my hair back & forth ! Willow Pinkett Smith !http://bit.ly/cgX3jQ

Watch out Rihanna, there’s a 9-year-old looking to steal your thunder.

And judging by the barrage of tweets and online buzz that followed after Willow Smith -- the youngest offspring of Will and Jada Pinkett Smith -- leaked her debut single, Rihanna and every other pop starlet should have Willow on their radar..

Titled “Whip My Hair,” the radio-, club- and recess-friendly track sounds like something that Rihanna, Keri Hilson or Ciara might have cooked up for their latest albums.

And don't let her age fool you; the song packs serious punch.

Already a red carpet veteran, the littlest Smith has made a splash with her eye-catching outfits and hair -- her asymmetric bob looks perfect to whip back and forth like a helicopter (as she instructs in the single).

No stranger to entertainment, Willow appears to have her sights set on music after racking up some acting credits. She costarred with her father in 2007's "I Am Legend" and later alongside Mom -- who also dabbled in music when she fronted her own metal band -- in the animated feature “Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa.”

Big brother Jaden had a big summer with the surprise success of “The Karate Kid,” in which he starred. Like Dad, he also added rapper to his resume after the Justin Bieber-assisted “Never Say Never,” from the film’s soundtrack, became a hit.

Rumors are swirling that Willow will be snatched up by Jay-Z's Roc Nation music label for her debut, and she already has a few famous fans in her corner.



Bieber video director Alfredo Flores tweeted, "WHAT!!??! Willow Smith just KILLED "Whip My Hair"... Rihanna, Keri, Ciara, Ashanti -- please be warned." Solange Knowles, meanwhile, raved, "Willow Smith make me wanna whip some haiiirrr in this house. Ummm kill em girl. Kill em!"

Give a listen to the track below and tell us what you think.


watch video here I wear my hair back & forth ! Willow Pinkett Smith !http://bit.ly/cgX3jQ

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African Leaders are Old men !

IBB,GEJ,BUHARI,RIBADU,SARAKI,
ATIKU,UTOMI,OKOTIE, who else?: Interesting analysis..lol..enjoy
WHY AFRICA IS 25 YEARS BEHIND THE DEVELOPED WORLD.....

AFRICAN LEADERS

Abdulai Wade 83year

Hosni Mubarak ( Egypt ) age 82
Robert Mugabe ( Zimbabwe ) age 86
Hifikepunye Pohamba ( Namibia ) age 74
Rupiah Banda ( Zambia age 73
Mwai Kibaki ( Kenya age 71
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf ( Liberia ) age 75
Colonel Gaddafi (Libya age 68
Jacob Zuma (South A age 68
Bingu Wa Mtalika age 76
____________
__________________
Average Age: 75.6 ~
Approximately 76 years
____________
__________________

THE FIRST WORLD
Barrack Obama (USA) age 48
David Cameron (UK) age 43
Dimitri Medvedev (Russia) age 45
Stephen Harper (Canada) age 51
Julia Gillard (Australia) age 49
Nicolas Sarkozy (France) age 55
Luis Zapatero (Spain) age 49
Jose Socrates (Portugal) age 53
Angela Merkel ( Germany ) age 56
Herman Van Rompuy ( Belgium ) age 62
____________
__________________.
Average Age: 51.1 ~
Approximately 51 years
____________
__________________

___________
__________________
DIFFERENCE: 25 years
____________
__________________


GUYS, HOW DO WE MOVE FORWARD WITH THIS OLD SQUAD...?
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Fans around the world honor Michael Jackson

A year after Michael Jackson's death caused a worldwide outpouring of shock, tears and tributes, the anniversary of his passing was being marked Friday on a quieter scale, as fans remembered their fallen King of Pop with vigils, prayer and, http://www.9jabook.com/group/michaeljacksonmemorialgroup

of course, music.....

Some radio stations woke up listeners to Jackson's music; on U.S. television, all the major networks devoted a portion of their morning news programs to Jackson and more coverage was expected during prime-time hours. Events were planned across the globe, from Tokyo to New York..

Jackson's burial place at Forest Lawn in Glendale. Calif., was expected to draw not only a throng of fans, but family as well.

Jackson died on June 25, 2009, at age 50 as he was preparing for a series of comeback concerts in London. Dr. Conrad Murray is charged with involuntary manslaughter in Jackson's death for administering the powerful anesthetic propofol to Jackson to help the pop star sleep.

Pictures of Jackson hung on a wall outside New York's Apollo Theater in Harlem, where Jackson and his brothers won amateur night in the late 1960s. A sidewalk plaque memorialized the singer alongside such other legends as James Brown and Smokey Robinson.

Since the Apollo helped launch the Jackson 5, it has had a strong connection to the late pop star. After Jackson's death, it became the de facto gathering place for New York fans. It was an emotional though more low-key scene on Friday morning, as Jackson's music blared from boomboxes and passing cars.

"We are really honored to have played a part in launching Michael's musical career and to serve as a gathering place for people to come and celebrate his lifetime of achievement," said Jonelle Procope, Apollo president and CEO.

Procope placed Jackson's black hat and sequin glove, both from the theater's collection, beside his plaque.

Elsewhere in Harlem, the AMC Magic Johnson Harlem 9 movie theater screened "This Is It," the documentary about Jackson's preparation for his London concerts, throughout the day. And the Rev. Al Sharpton was to lead a moment of silence in the afternoon.

In Gary, Ind., Jackson's hometown, there was to be a tribute at the family home; city officials said they expected Jackson's mother, Katherine Jackson, and his niece, Genevieve Jackson, to show up, along with thousands of others. Katherine Jackson also lent her support to a "Forever Michael" fan event in Beverly Hills, Calif., on Saturday.

But his brother Randy Jackson was hoping to make the official family commemoration at Forest Lawn on Friday morning.

In Japan, hundreds of fans met at Tokyo Tower to honor Jackson with a candlelight vigil, a gospel concert and more. Some got a chance to see a collection of his possessions, including costumes from his tours and even a 1967 Rolls-Royce Phantom that he used to drive around Los Angeles.

"I don't know what to say. Seeing all his things makes it all come back to me," said Yumiko Sasaki, a 48-year-old Tokyo officer worker who has been a Jackson fan since she was 12. "It makes me so sad to think that he is gone. He was wonderful."

About 50 guests paid $1,100 each to sleep overnight at the Tokyo landmark, where they had catered food, watched a gospel choir, looked at Jackson memorabilia and danced to Michael Jackson's music before observing a period of silence as the sun rose.

Fans started gathering at Forest Lawn on Thursday night. Five large wreaths of flowers and dozens of bouquets, drawings and photos of Jackson had been placed outside his private mausoleum.

Evdokia Sofianou, 46, and her 9-year-old daughter, Rebecca, traveled from Athens, Greece, to pay their respects.

"I came because I love Michael very much," Sofianou said Thursday night. "I came to grieve."

But not every memorial for Jackson was to be somber. In France, weekend celebration plans included a concert and tribute show, and clubs across the globe planned parties for the man who embodied dance music.

"They want to celebrate his life and music," DJ Jon Quick said of the expected partygoers at club Taj on Friday, where he would play Jackson tunes. "His albums are like timelines in your life. You can remember what you were doing ... when 'Thriller' came out."

AP Entertainment Writers Jake Coyle in New York and Anthony McCartney in Los Angeles, and Associated Press Writer Eric Talmadge in Tokyo contributed to this report.

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#1

re: America having the #1 healthcare in the world. I know from personal experience that this isn't anywhere close to being true, but for the past 35 days I was in London, Paris, Monaco, and Barcelona. Upon arriving in Barcelona, I became seriously ill. My o2 dropped to 84 and was running a fever of 104. Being unable to walk, my friends grabbed a wheelchair and took me to the ER of one "Clinica Barcelona." Complicating matters was my preexisting condition, cystic fibrosis. Needless to say, to say I was scared was an understatement.

As soon as my o2 and fever was registered, along with a cursory glance at my considerable lengthy doctor's note from home detailing my condition, meds, procedures, etc, I was immediately whisked to a private room where I was given quicker and more efficient care than I have received at my very own ER that I've been going to for 13 years.

They placed my port without incident, drew two blood gases, started me on oxygen and antibiotics, and escorted me to a pulmonary ward upstairs where I was placed in another private room. For 9 days I was a patient and by day three, I was already fretting about the looming medical bill. I was put on the exact medicines that I receive at home so I knew how expensive this could possibly me, and I only brought $20,000 worth of health insurance with me. Once my o2 eclipsed 92% without the aid of oxygen I was discharged and allowed to board my flight back home from Paris a few days later.

Before I left, though, I had to go to "facturaziation," or billing. Sitting there with my spanish speaking friend, we anxiously looked at each other hoping my life wouldn't be drowned in a sea of medical bills. The lady furiously typed away at the computer, shaked her head a few times, and finally wrote down a number. I looked away at first. Finally, I looked down:
.
Total cost for 9 days in a private room, overnight stay in ER, multiple procedures involving blood gases, sputum cultures, xrays and blood, and a litany of IV meds and other assorted antibiotics: $3,400.

I almost fell out of my chair and had to ask her to repeat herself. She started laughing, "what did you expect?" I told her at home in America, my hospital stays run upwards of $100k+ with home therapy costing over $35k a week.

She printed out the receipt and my jaw dropped. Drugs that cost over a $1,000 here were $20. IV meds that didn't work were not included in the bill. No procedures were included. The ER visit and stay was free. The most expensive aspect was the room, a paltry $319 a night.

I paid with my American Express, did a happy dance, and went back to France.

Yeah, we're #1! I'm still in shock. I'm bringing the bill to my doctors appointment today.
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World leaders mourn Yar’Adua


The remain Late President of Umoru Musa Yar'Adua was buried yesterday after Muslim Prayer in Katsina, Katsina State,Pix Shows: Remains of Late President Carried by military men Photo Gbemiga Olamikan

By Emeka Mamah & Abdulsalam Muhammad
KATSINA— WORLD leaders, notable Nigerians and the masses, yesterday, bid late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, a final farewell as he was interred in his family compound in Katsina, capital of Katsina State.

While world leaders like President Barak Obama of the United States, United Nations’ Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon, and President of the European Commission, Mr. Jose Manuel Barroso, UK Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, Russian President, Dmitry Medvedev, among others, paid glowing tributes to the memory of the departed president, several notable Nigerians personally attended the funeral..

Sympathizers

The roll call of notable Nigerians and foreigners who witnessed Yar’Adua’s burial include two former Heads of State, Generals Muhammadu Buhari and Ibrahim Babangida, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar III, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Dimeji Bankole, former Senate President, Anyim Pius Anyim, former Deputy Senate President, Alhaji Ibrahim Mantu, former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Ghali Na’Abbah, and former Lagos State Governor, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, the Minister of State for Defence, Alhaji Murtala Yar’Adua.

Others included the National Chairman of Action Congress, Chief Bisi Akande, National Chairman of the ruling Peoples’ Democratic Party, PDP, Prince Vincent Ogbulafor, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF, Yayale Ahmed, his predecessor in office, Ambassador Baba Gana Kingibe and the former Governors of Kaduna and Niger States, Senator Ahmed Mohammed Makarfi and Alhaji Abdulkadir Kure respectively.

Serving governors at the burial

Serving governors at the occasion included those of Kaduna, Rivers, Enugu, Anambra, Abia, Cross River, Kogi, Kwara, Edo, Ogun, Adamawa, Akwa Ibom and Osun states as well as Emirs from Katsina, Kaduna, Kebbi, Bauchi and some other northern states.

From right, Chief. Godswill Akpabio, Akwa Ibon State, Chief. Susan Gebrel, Alh. Namadi Sambo, Kaduna State, and other Governors at the interment, Photo Gbemiga Olamikan

Most of the visitors were received by Yar’Adua’s relations including Alhajis Wada and Manir Yar’Adua.
Social and economic activities came to a stand still, yesterday, in Katsina as people from all walks of life paid their last respects to the late President.

As early as 10.00 a.m., armed soldiers and policemen were positioned at strategic locations to ensure that trouble makers did not use the opportunity of the burial to disturb the peace.

The large crowd of eminent personalities waited from about 11.30 a.m under the scorching sun till about 3.05 p.m when the ambulance with the corpse of the late President arrived at the family compound at Yar’Adua Quarters.

The Toyota bus ambulance with number plate K 721 A30 which belonged to the General Hospital, Mani, was led into the family house by another bus carrying most of the governors in the country.

Yar’Adua buried at Danmarna cemetery

The late Umar Yar’Adua was laid to rest at 4.45 p.m., at the Danmarna Cemetery after the funeral prayers led by the Chief Imam of Katsina, Alhaji Mohammed Lawal, at the Katsina Township stadium, a few metres away from the Yar’Adua quarters in the metropolis.

Cross Section of Emirs Lead by Emir of Sokoto, Alh Abubakar Saa'ada at Prayer Ground, Photo Gbemiga Olamikan

It took the family about two hours to produce the corpse at the stadium for the funeral prayers because, as a Muslim, they wanted to “clean him for the final journey.”

An unruly crowd caused commotion at the stadium when they protested security agencies refusal to grant them access. The security agents formed a ring around Governors Sullivan Chime, Enugu; Adams Oshiohmole, Edo; Chibuike Amaechi, Rivers; Chief Theophilus Orji, Abia; Senator Liyel Imoke, Cross River; and Chief Akpabio, Akwa Ibom, to enable them depart unhurt.

There was water tight security around the Yar’Adua quarters several hours before the arrival of the corpse from Abuja via the Katsina Airport, as major roads and streets in the area were cordoned off by a combined team of military men, police, Road Safety officials, Civil Defence Corps and members of the National Youth Service Corps.

The Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Paul Dike led top military officers to the funeral.

Vehicular movement was restricted as vehicles were diverted from about two and a half kilometres to the Yar’Adua quarters, while only dignitaries visiting the family house on condolence were allowed to drive into the area.

Former President Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida arrived the family house at about 12.10 in a black Mercedes Benz S550 with number plate DU 314 ABJ and was received by members of the Yar’Adua family. Babangida who emerged a few minutes later from the building, however, declined comments when approached by reporters, insisting that he had earlier spoken to reporters at the Airport.

Governor of Niger State, Dr. Muazu Babangida Aliyu, who arrived the family house at 12.29 p.m., left for the airport in a bus with number plate KTHA 66 belonging the Katsina State House of Assembly while Kaduna State Governor, Mohammed Namadi Sambo arrived the family house at about 12.55 pm with his predecessor in office, Senator Ahmed Mohammed Makarfi and were received by Yar’Adua’s younger brothers.

Minister of State for Defence, Murtala Yar’Adua who attended to some visitors left at 1.05 p.m in a convoy of cars belong to the Katsina State government, while former Senate President, Anyim Pius Anyim, his Deputy, Ibrahim Mantu, former Imo State Governor, Achike Udenwa and FCT Minister, Bala Mohammed, arrived in a bus with number plate KT 27 A 44 belonging to the Umaru Yar’Adua University, Katsina.

Speaking with newsmen at the Katsina airport earlier, the former Lagos State Governor, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu described the death of Yar’Adua as a rude shock to the country, pointing out that Yar’Adua will be remembered for his policy of trying to uphold the rule of law during his tenure.

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The students, who invented a solar-powered electric car automated module, represented Nigeria at the exhibition which was attended by young scientists from 120 countries between March 23 and March 27.

The Vice-President, Nigeria Society for the Promotion of Science and Technology, Dr Yusuf Sara, disclosed on Monday in Bauchi that the students won a trophy at the exhibition.

Sara, while presenting the trophy to Alhaji Abdullahi Kashuri, the acting chairman of the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB), said the students had, in 2009, won similar international scientific innovation competition in Germany.

Sara described the performance as "noble," adding that such competition would enhance the quality of education and encourage the growth of science and technology research and development in the country.

He said the association, in collaboration with private firms, would showcase its talents to enable other students to benefit from the experience.

Sara urged SUBEB and the Bauchi State government to provide scholarship to students to enable them to further their education.

Kashuri commended the students for promoting Nigeria among the science and technology developing countries, adding that the board would ensure improved funding of schools to ensure sustainable development of science and technology in the state.

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China overtakes Germany as world top exporter

Germany's multi-year reign as the world's No 1 exporter is officially over, with the crown formally passing to rising China after new figures showed that German exports slid by nearly a fifth in 2009, the biggest decline in 60 years.

Tuesday's German government figures only confirmed an open secret: China's runaway growth and resilience amid the financial crisis put its exports ahead of Germany, which suffered a severe recession before returning to growth in last year's second quarter.

Last month, China's customs reported that total 2009 exports were more than $1.2 trillion, well ahead of the 803.2 billion euro ($1.1 trillion) that Germany reported Tuesday.

For Germany, the figure was a drop of 18.4 percent from 2008, although exports returned to year-on-year growth in December.

"The crisis has accelerated the shift in power in world trade toward the emerging countries," said Anton Boerner, the head of Germany's BGA exporters' association.

However, "the fact that we are passing on the title of world export champion to China doesn't cause us any worries," he added. "The growth of the Chinese economy will also secure our growth and jobs in Germany for long years."

Boerner noted that in December demand for German products from all parts of the world was up on the year.

Declining imports indicate that "large parts of the economy are still in neutral," Boerner said. "Everything must be done to encourage and stabilize the upturn in exports."

Germany took over the top spot in terms of exports in 2003, surpassing the US.

China's newfound status is mostly symbolic but highlights its growing presence as an industrial power, major buyer of oil, iron ore and other commodities and, increasingly, as an investor and key voice in managing the global economy.

Its ability to unseat longtime export leader Germany reflected the ability of agile, low-cost Chinese manufacturers to keep selling abroad even as other exporters have been hammered by a slump in global demand.

The change is the second time in three years Germany has been overtaken by China.

In 2007, China surpassed Germany to become the world's third-largest economy, just behind No. 2 Japan and the United States, which holds the top spot.

China's growth also benefits other companies and countries, particularly those in Germany, because of its voracious demand for raw materials, consumer goods and more.

Germany's leading luxury car makers, Mercedes-Benz, BMW AG and Audi AG, all have reported that their sales in China more than doubled on the year last month, helping them to improve their global performance.

Germany, and Europe, is also noted for quality and craftsmanship.

Nick Reilly, the new chief executive of General Motors Co's German-based European unit, Opel, said Tuesday he believes that "manufacturing must have and will have a bright future in Europe."

"Yes, wage rates are higher here than in other countries, but productivity, production excellence, logistics costs, quality and the work force's outstanding skill base largely offset that cost disadvantage," said Reilly, who was previously the US automaker's Shanghai-based executive vice president of international operations.

He pointed to "Opel's German engineering" as an asset to GM.

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