The Malaysian Insider :: Features
The Malaysian Insider :: Features |
| UK website for cheating spouses sees surge post-Christmas Posted: 27 Dec 2012 05:38 AM PST
Since Christmas Day, more than 16,700 people in the UK have registered with the service, almost four times the site's usual sign-up rate, the company reported today. At least according to UndercoverLovers, in the immediate aftermath of Christmas, married people are likely to be unfaithful or seek a divorce than any other time of year. Spokeswoman for the company Emily Pope points to the economic hardships of the year putting greater strains on family life. "For many spouses adultery represents a fantasy escape route from the stresses of domestic reality," she says. In addition, because married couples are spending more time in close proximity over the festive season, problems within the marriage can be exacerbated. In addition, married people are also more likely to spot a cheating spouse during this time, Pope says. Her top five telltale signs of a cheating spouse: 1. A hidden gift item discovered before Christmas by the spouse, but which they then never received. 2. Christmas text messages or emails from a lover discovered by the husband/wife. 3. Being spotted in a local restaurant by a close friend of their husband/wife having a Christmas meal with their lover. 4. Wearing a Christmas gift item received from a lover. 5. A credit card statement arriving after Christmas showing charges for gift items that the spouse did not receive. According to a recent global survey by AshleyMadison.com — the largest dating site for married people looking to have affairs, with the tagline "Life is short. Have an affair" — a cheating husband likely is in his 40s, has been married for more than 10 years, and has two children over 10 years old. The typical cheating married woman is likely to be in her 30s, married for five years or less, and had a daughter under three years old. AshleyMadison.com recently expanded its service to Brazil, which has since attracted one million Brazilians, turning the country into one of its biggest markets. Created 10 years ago, the Canadian company is now present in 24 countries, with eight million members in the United States and six million in Canada. — AFP/Relaxnews |
| Poachers make 2012 a deadly year for Africa’s rhinos, elephants Posted: 27 Dec 2012 02:58 AM PST  As of mid-December, poachers had killed 633 rhinos in South Africa. — Reuters pic By mid-December, poachers had killed 633 rhinos in South Africa, according to environment ministry figures. That marks a new annual peak in the country that is home to most of the continent's rhinos, and a sharp rise from the record 448 poached last year and the mere handful of deaths recorded a decade ago. Elsewhere in Africa, the slaughter of elephants continued unabated, with mass killings reported in Cameroon and Democratic Republic of Congo. According to conservation group TRAFFIC, which monitors global trade in animals and plants, the amount of ivory seized will likely drop from 2011, when a record number of big hauls were made globally. But the trend remains grim. "It looks like 2012 is another bumper year for trade in illegal ivory though it is unlikely to top 2011," said Tom Milliken, who manages TRAFFIC's Elephant Trade Information System. In 2011, an estimated 40 tonnes of illegal ivory was seized worldwide, representing thousands of dead elephants. So far this year about 28 tonnes has reportedly been seized but the number is expected to climb as more data comes in. "The last four years since 2009 are four of our five highest volume years in illegal ivory trade," said Milliken. Demand for ivory as ornamental items is rising fast in Asia, in tandem with growing Chinese influence and investment in Africa, which has opened the door wider for illicit trade in elephants and other animals. Rhino horn has been used for centuries in Chinese medicine, where it was ground into powder to treat a range of maladies including rheumatism, gout and even possession by devils. War and organised crime Ivory smuggling has also been linked to conflict, and last week the United Nations Security Council called for an investigation into the alleged involvement in the trade of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) in Uganda. Led by warlord Joseph Kony, who is being hunted by an African Union and US-backed military force, the LRA is accused of terrorising the country's north for over 20 years through the abduction of children to use as fighters and sex slaves. "The illegal killings of large number of elephants for their ivory are increasingly involving organised crime and in some cases well armed rebel militias," the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) said in a statement this week.  Rangers look at an anti-poaching aircraft named Seeker at Kruger National Park, South Africa. — Reuters pic In the case of rhino horn, demand has also been growing in Vietnam, where a newly affluent class has been buying it to treat ailments ranging from hangovers to cancer. The claims have no basis in science but demand has pushed the price of the horn up to US$65,000 (RM198,000) a kilogramme on the streets of Hanoi, making it more expensive than gold. Most of the rhino killings take place in South Africa's Kruger National Park. Gangs armed with firearms and night-vision goggles enter from neighbouring Mozambique, from where observers say the horn is often smuggled out through the same routes used to bring illegal drugs from Southeast Asia into Africa. "Kruger is a national park the size of Israel and it is incredibly difficult to police," said Julian Rademeyer, author of 'Killing for Profit', a book published this year that examines the international rhino horn trade. "You have very advanced international syndicates run like business operations that are very good at getting horn out of here," he told Reuters. Rademeyer expects the number of rhino killings to rise even higher next year, pushing the population closer to a tipping point that leads to its decline. South Africa has deployed its military to patrol Kruger while its tax agency SARS and police have stepped up the fight. But it also lost ground in 2012 due to a two-month strike by National Park workers and corruption within the ranks of the park service that undermined its anti-poaching efforts. South Africa hosts virtually the entire population of white rhino — 18,800 head or 93 per cent — and about 40 per cent of Africa's much rarer black rhino. Africa's elephant population varies. Estimates for the numbers in Botswana are as high as 150,000 but in parts of central and west Africa the animal is highly endangered. "Central Africa has been bleeding ivory but for the last few years there has also been an upsurge in poaching in Kenya, Tanzania and Mozambique," said Milliken. Trade in rhino horn is strictly prohibited under CITES while that for ivory is mostly illegal. — Reuters |
LONDON, Dec 27 — A UK dating website for married people seeking extra-marital affairs called UndercoverLovers.com| You are subscribed to email updates from The Malaysian Insider :: Features To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
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