Aberdeen And Gomorrah

Former Aberdeen council manager Tom McNeil, 52, is claiming at a tribunal hearing he lost his job after revealing two colleagues were involved sexually.

The then director of leisure, Brian Woodcock, and a female employee were heard having sex behind a partition screen and worse of all it was on a bank holiday weekend, that means they were getting paid double time. Lets hope they put the extra effort in.

Ms Fraser, who worked in Aberdeen City Council's sports and leisure department, said she was in the council's offices with Mr McNeil in 2004 performing dictation when they overheard the intercourse.

She said: "I heard them having sex. I could hear them moaning and groaning and her saying 'pump me daddy pump me' the screen was moving."

"There is no doubt in my mind who was behind that screen or what they were doing."

Ms Fraser, has since left employment with the council.

Mr McNeil told the tribunal that on another occasion he had caught the female employee engaged in a sex act with Mr Woodcock which is his real name and not his porn star name.

He said: "I came into his office and when he turned round and saw me he offered me a cup of tea and a slice of cake, it was a sponge with strawberry jam in the middle, I like cake."

The woman accused of being behind the screen , who cannot be named for legal reasons, said she was given the warning at the start of her career if she wanted to get on in the job she would have to sleep with people.

The manager that made the comment had glanced at Mr McNeil suggesting that he was who she would have to sleep with.

The woman said "she threw up in her mouth" even just thinking about it.

She also claimed that Mr McNeil was a bully and a sexual harasser and had touched her breast.

She said the married McNeil " would regularly comment on female staff members' body parts."

Mr McNeil claimed the woman was promoted to a senior position only based on an alleged sexual relationship with Brian Woodcock, a director at the council at the time.

However she denied that was the case. She said she had achieved her position on her own merit, "It takes a lot of practice and commitment to give the perfect blowjob, " she added.

The hearing continues.

The Chinese Yen For Ratwear

In Malaysia Chinese people are buying up red underwear with mouse motifs for good luck as they prepare to usher in the Year of the Rat .

The Chinese New Year begins Thursday and is the year's biggest and most popular festival for the Chinese, who account for a quarter of Malaysia's 27 million people.

Rat or mouse designs have appeared on all decorative items such as lanterns and even in undergarments in anticipation of the good fortune the animal will bring.

In 1665 the rat wasn't considered such good luck when they spread the plague in London killing
75000 to 100000 people, a fifth of London's population .

"Red panties are supposed to bring good luck to the wearer during Chinese New Year. The panties are also popular with foreigners, especially Japanese tourists who find the mouse designs cute," said Tham a trader at a night market.

Housewife Elaine Tan, 32, told the newspaper she bought several pairs for her toddler. "It's an annual tradition for me to buy red underwear for the New Year for good luck and with good luck you don't need healthcare," she said.

Old Knudsen who used to work as a pest exterminator said: " Its true I have a lucky pair of red silk Mickey Mouse boxer shorts and I always score when I wear them."

The year of the rat from the ancient Chinese calendar is said to have influenced the Buddhist practice of inserting a gerbil or other small rodent into your rectum for good luck .

Famous Buddhist actor Richard Gere collapsed from infection last year when one gerbil put up a fight going in and scratched him. He soon recovered from his injuries unlike the gerbil.

No Rats Please We're Scottish

Not into celebrating the Chinese year of the rat much is the National Trust for Scotland due to poor breeding seasons they would rather see the year of the Gannet.

The trawler which ran aground on St Kilda could threaten the rare sea birds on the World Heritage Site.

Force 11 gales have dispersed fuel from the vessel's tanks but the National Trust for Scotland fears it is any rats on board that could cause most damage.

The trust, which has owned the islands since 1957, said it would be a "huge problem" if rats got ashore a rat colonisation would destroy the archipelago's sea bird population.

St Kilda, which is currently completely rat-free, is home to one of the biggest populations of gannets in the world, one of the biggest colonies of puffins in the UK and about 90% of Europe's Leach's storm petrels.

All of those birds nest on the ground or in burrows and if one pregnant female rat got onto the archipelago her offspring would soon decimate next season's eggs and chicks.

Anti-rat contingency plans have been implemented, which involve laying traps at the points that are most at risk.

The Eyes Have It

While scientists at Copenhagen University were looking for the gene that caused red hair or 'gingivitis' as it is called in order to shut it off they discovered something else.

Everyone with blue eyes can be traced back 10,000 years to one single individual named Burt from the Black Sea region.

Feared by some and prized by others blue eyes have always been something of a genetic mystery. Until now.

A single mutation which arose as recently as 6-10,000 years ago was responsible for all the blue-eyed people alive on Earth today.

The team, have identified a single mutation in a gene called OCA2, which arose by chance somewhere around the northwest coasts of the Black Sea in one single individual, about 8,000 years ago.

The gene does not "make" blue in the iris; rather, it turns off the mechanism which produces brown melanin pigment. "Originally, we all had brown eyes," says Dr Hans Eiberg, who led the team.

Those from Europe and the Near-East have many characteristics that set them apart from the rest of the human race such as extreme good looks and intelligence.

Not only are Europeans far more likely to have blue eyes (95 per cent in some Scandinavian countries), they also have a far greater range of skin tones and hair colour than any other ethnic grouping.

One theory is that Europe's cold weather and dark skies played a part. Fair skin is better at making Vitamin D and the 8 % of the world's population have blue eyes weak sunlight found in northern latitudes may have been a factor for adapting.

Another suggestion is that the strange skin, eye and hair colours seen in Europe are down to ancient interbreeding with the Neanderthals, who died out about 25,000 years ago.

It has been found that many people in the rural regions of the south of France, Italy, Spain and Greece still have traces of Neanderthal DNA which has been put down to substantial interbreeding between them and Homo sapiens but blue eyes is not a common factor.

The Gallic shrug which is a gesture that has a number of meanings such as, It's not my fault; I don't know; I doubt it can be done and I don't really agree is an indicator of excessive Neanderthal DNA .

Sex selection seems to come into play when there is a lot of competition for mates of one sex or the other. The theory is that in Europe, where men had to spend weeks at a time out on the hunt, males were in very short supply.

In such societies, women who had fair hair stood a better chance of standing out and attracting the attention of the few men that would have been available for mating. Leading to the expression about blondes having more fun.

Blue eyed people have a higher tolerance to pain than brown eyed people but with fair skin and blue eyes being a mutation it is thought that eventually there will be a universal out-breeding with the more common brown skin and brown eyes being dominant so enjoy the difference while you can.

Dr Eiberg has not given up on his goal and has made it his mission in life to rid the world of gingers.

Biscuits Galore

Thousands of packets of McVitie's chocolate biscuits have washed up on the Lancashire shore from the Riverdance, a stricken ferry which ran aground off north shore near Blackpool.

Twenty-three people were flown to safety after the ferry was hit by a freak wave which caused it to list on Thursday night.

Helicopters from the RAF, Royal Navy and Irish Coastguard battled mountainous seas and 60mph (96km/h) winds to rescue those on board.

Some of the ferry's cargo of 50 lorries broke chains holding them down and as the load shifted the vessel began to list at 60 degrees in conditions described as the roughest for a decade.

.
Hugh Shaw, of the Maritime Salvage Agency, said: "People are raiding the beaches for biscuits and whatever else they can find the dark chocolate seems to be more popular than the milk chocolate."

Hitler Banned From Rio Carnival

A judge blocked the Viradouro samba school in Rio de Janeiro, from displaying their float in next weeks samba parade after months of preparations.

The theme of the parade was "It Gives You Goose Bumps."

The Viradouro group decided that a pile of naked, emaciated baby corpses with a dancing Hitler on top representing the Holocaust gave them Goose Bumps.

Their original idea was to represent a duet between Celine Dion and David Hasselhoff but even the thought of it made members nauseous.

The Jewish Federation of Rio de Janeiro were outraged, federation spokesman Jose Roitberg said:
"It's inadmissible that they could have a parade float depicting dead Jews and a live Hitler on top of them."

The designer of the float, Paulo Barros, wept as workers tore it apart and said the group meant no disrespect by depicting holocaust victims lying dead and rotting with Hitler dancing on them.

"This an extremely serious work, and people think we're mocking," he said, tears streaming from his eyes with a dumb clueless look on his face, "its just a Holocaust."

"We're going to speak now of the right to freedom even insensitive morons have the right to free speech, have you never read Old Knudsen?"

Rio de Janeiro state Judge Juliana Kalichszteim called the float a "clear trivialization of barbaric events."

"I thinks it's in terribly bad taste," said sociologist and carnival scholar Roberto DaMatta. But it makes sense considering the festival's sacrilegious origins, he added.

"The only problem is we're not in the Middle Ages anymore."

The Roman Catholic Church, which doesn't want depictions of the Virgin Mary or Christ have made carnival groups change floats before.

In 2004, the Grande Rio group had to alter a float depicting Adam and Eve having sex and another featuring sexy scenes from Hinduism's Kama Sutra after the Catholic Church sued over the parade advocating condom use as the Catholic Church supports the spread of aids and STD's among the 15000 or so half naked drunken people.

.

Brazil was the only South American country to join the fight in Europe against the Nazis.

Next year the Viradouro group plan to avoid controversy with a float depicting Mohammed and suicide bombers holding limbs of children. Paulo Barros added, "who could possibly be offended by that?"

Church Intruder Caught Holding The Goods

Police in New Jersey arrested Thomas G. Findler a civilian State Police employee for sneaking into a church to look at pornography on a nun's computer. Authorities said Findler had been sneaking into the church in the night over the last three weeks to look at pornography.

A church custodian found Findler, who worships at the church, on the nun's computer looking at the salacious images and chased him out, right into a police officer who happened to be next door at the donut shop.

Police charged him with burglary and theft. They are currently examining DNA evidence that was left all over the scene.

Sister Bridget a nun at the church said: " Why would he be on my computer looking for smut ? everyone knows you go to the priest's computer for the really good porn."