Iran’s cyber police have cracked down on the nation’s Instagram stars arresting eight people for promoting “un-Islamic” standards.
According to reports Iran’s dreaded morality police – the Basij – have targeted nearly 200 people whose snaps they deemed to be too revealing – they included 59 photographers and make-up artists, 58 models and 51 fashion salon managers and designers, according to a statement from the court.
Eight of whom have been hauled before interrogators to answer questions about their pictures, including Elham Arab, who was probed about her wedding photos.
In them, Arab appears hijab-free and in a white, sleeveless dress – relatively conservative by western standards.
She was allegedly charged with ‘promoting Western promiscuity’ and will be forced to publicly atone for the ‘crime’.
The arrests were announced by the court’s prosecutor Javad Babaei during a state television programme broadcast late on Sunday that focused on the “threats to morality and the foundation of family” posed by social media.
Mr Babaei claimed modelling agencies accounted for about 20 per cent of posts on Instagram from Iran and that they had been “making and spreading immoral and un-Islamic culture and promiscuity”.
Since the Islamic Revolution in 1979 women in Iran have been required to cover their hair while in public but those regulations have relaxed in recent years with many women choosing not to wear hijabs.
This is not the first time Iran has set about punishing those who it deems have been behaving immorally on the internet.
In 2014 seven young Iranians were arrested for creating a dancing video response to Pharrell’s Happy. They were sentenced to jail time – ranging from six months to one year – and 91 lashes each.
A woman who was driving a car which killed a one-year-old boy in Sydney’s west has been charged over his death.
The child was walking with his grandmother on Marion Street in Auburn last month when they were struck by the 60-year-old woman’s sedan.
According to police the child was treated at the scene by NSW Ambulance Paramedics and taken to Westmead Children’s Hospital where he later died.
On Tuesday afternoon the female driver was charged with dangerous driving occasioning death, negligent driving occasioning death and cause bodily harm by misconduct.
She is expected to appear at Burwood Local Court in July.
The woman was subsequently issued with a notice of suspension and her license was surrendered, police media report.
An Australian man holidaying in Bali has been killed after the motorcycle he was riding collided with a garbage truck, AAP reports.
According to Balinese police Andrew Newton, 42 was travelling from Kuta to Sanur in the early hours of Tuesday morning when the accident occurred.
The Melbourne firefighter died at the scene, Denpasar Traffic Police Chief Nyoman Nuryana told reporters.
According to AAP police have taken the driver of the other vehicle in for questioning and reported the incident to the Australian consulate.
“We couldn’t smell alcohol from the outside and so we can’t tell if he’s under the influence of alcohol,” Ida Bagus Putu Alit, the head of forensics at Sanglah Hospital said. “To make sure of that, autopsy is needed.”
The Herald Sun reported that Mr Newton was on holiday with other firefighters from Victoria.
United Firefighters Union national secretary, Peter Marshall, told the newspaper that Mr Newton was an experienced fireman and his death has shocked the small firefighting community.
“Station Officer Adrian Newton was a highly regarded officer with specialist rescue qualifications,” Mr Marshall told the Herald Sun.
“Firefighters are a tight-knit team, and his loss will impact on many who have known and worked with him. Our deepest condolences to his family.”
For a new Vogue original short film in celebration her June cover, Margot Robbie recreated the unnerving opening scene of the film American Psycho, in which lead character Patrick Bateman undergoes a meticulous morning beauty routine.
Her voice adorned with an America accent narrates over the clip as she waltzes towards her fridge in her spotless, five bedroom house.
“In the morning, if my face is a little puffy, I’ll hold two cold spoons dipped in Lapsang Souchong [a luxury tea] over my eyes,” the blonde bombshell says before commencing some flawless yoga on the balcony of her well-appointed pad.
Oh, and yes, she continues to hold the cold spoons over her eyes during the meditation.
Rather impressive if you ask us!
Watch the creepy clip in the video below! Post continues…
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After “working on her core” despite being “born with a six-pack”, the A-lister then steps into a pampering shower that includes a skincare routine beginning with a deep pore cleanser, and ending in a fossilized blue-green algae body scrub.
She also would like us to know that she no longer needs to wash her hair like us mere mortals.
“It basically cleans itself now.”
The finishing touches? A “proprietary glycolic and pearl mask”, and placenta toner, because, of course.
A familiar scene, Margot nailed the famous moment.
As the parody clip comes to end, the star begins peeling her mask off slowly in an identical fashion to the opening of American Psycho.
But before she manages to pull the last remnants of the glossy goo off her cheeks, she breaks into her trademark smile as the words ‘Australian Psycho’ flash across the screen, and just like that, the fun-loving, candid Margot we love is back!
Eagle eyed fans were also quick to notice a fake script entitled Harley Quinn v. Harley Davidson on her nightstand, which could perhaps be a nod to the fact that Warner Bros. released the news just days ago that a Harley Quin spin-off film based on Margot’s character as a psychotic villain in the Suicide Squad is in the works.
And if this crazy little clip is anything to go by, we’re in for a creepy treat!
All jokes aside, we sure wouldn’t mind peaking into this stars real beauty routine.
So when queen of the lips, Kylie Jenner, unveiled the secret ingredient to her youth (obviously apart from being a teen and millionaire), we jumped at the opportunity to learn more.
In the latest episode of Keeping up with the Kardashians, 18-year-old Kylie tells her mum, Kris Jenner, that she “just learned that you can eat the skin off of a kumquat.”
Check the funny moment in the player below. Post continues…
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For those of us who’ve not been acquainted with the citrus fruit, they are teeny-tiny small burst of flavour – and you don’t have to peel the skin!
“I love kumquats,” the teen gushed on her website.
“I grew up with kumquats and I’m obsessed with them. They’re really good. They’re kind of like little sour oranges, if you’ve never had them before.”
Kylie, though some may not be able tell, is loving the teeny tiny fruit.
We can all garner Kris’ thoughts on the unsuspecting member of the citrus family.
Apparently mum, Kris, has not indulged in the fruity delight, quickly deciding it was “so disgusting!” upon tasting it.
But before you decide to dash away from the fruit, King Kylie might just be on to something.
Unlike its small size, turns out the humble kumquat boasts a bucket load of health benefits!
You’re so little, yet you pack a punch!
Like your curvier and sweeter cousin, the orange, the kumquat also grows on trees.
Made up of a wide variety of essential oils that can help with common ailments like a sore throat, plus it is filled with fibre, potassium, calcium, Vitamin C, beneficial fats, and vitamin A.
100grams of the fruit have 71 calories.
They have the ability to improve the immune system, regulate your digestive system, reduce your chances of developing diabetes, lower your cholesterol levels, boost the health of your skin, teeth, eyes, and hair, strengthen your bones, and improve nerve health.
Watch this adorable kid totally get the benefits of the fruit, inspite of its jarring taste! Post continues…
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Not bad for a bite of sour fruit!
Nutritionists recommend aiming for a handful of the sour bursts – which we’ve estimated to be about 8 kumquats. Amazingly that tiny amount holds 10grams of fibre which will make your digestive system sing (for all the right reasons).
The reputable chef may want to make a yummy jam, preserve or even a cocktail – but we have no problem just eating it the way nature intended it… Just the way it is!
Kylie Jenner, we hate to say it but you just may be onto a winner!
Scientists have made serious warnings about the supposed health benefits of popular vitamins and supplements.
A report on Four Corners last night exposed the increased risk of life-threatening conditions after taking too much vitamin E, C and D, which could lead to prostate cancer and heart disease. It has also been found that fish oil and weight loss tablets can cause harm.
One weight-loss pill linked to liver failure is OxyElite Pro Super Thermo capsules, with the Therapeutic Goods Authority putting a warning out for Australians.
In March, ABC reported that since 2011, at least six Aussies have had to undergo three liver and three kidney transplants for taking the herbal supplement.
After taking half a bottle of OxyElite Pro Super Thermo capsules, U.S Navy chief petty officer Cynthia Novida’s eyes started to turn yellow as a result of her liver failure and she needed a liver transplant. She now has to take 19 pills to keep her condition under control.
Cynthia
According to the special investigation by the New York Times and the PBS Frontline, she and more than 100 others are taking legal action against the makers of OxyElite Pro, USP Labs.
OxyElite Pro
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) doesn’t conduct reviews into dietary supplements before going on the market, meaning that people can’t always assume everything in a supplement store is safe to use.
Dr Paul Offit, from The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia talked about the risks of vitamin E, saying: “If you take large quantities of Vitamin E as a supplement, you clearly and definitively increase your risk of prostate cancer.”
He also said that pills containing 1,000mg of Vitamin C equates to eight rockmelons, which goes “against what nature intends.”
High as well as low blood levels of Vitamin D have been found to have a higher risk of cardiovascular disease, as well as fish oil if the main ingredient is exposed to oxygen.
Trending video: Young woman becomes first Zumba instructor with Down syndrome
For some parents, discovering their child is homosexual is a crushing blow that destroys their relationship, but it can also open the way to self-awareness and even stronger family bonds.
When Narelle Phipps suspected her eight-year-old son Neil might be gay, she decided to ignore her fears. Ten years later, when Neil was 18, she confronted him, twice, after he attended Mardi Gras. His answer wasn’t what she wanted to hear.
Narelle Phipps knew quite early that her son Neil saw the world through a different prism.
“I first wondered if Neil might be gay when he was about eight,” says Narelle.
“He was our only son, but he seemed so very different to the other boys.”
“He loved rhythmic gymnastics and he’d dance around on the deck, twirling coloured ribbons in the air. His sister is five years older than he is, but he joined in her jazz ballet classes and loved it, but didn’t seem to notice that he was the only bloke. He was a gorgeous boy who made a wonderful contribution to the family because he was so lovely.”
For the next decade, Narelle did what she now describes as “a wonderful job of burying my head in the sand”.
“I just pushed that to the back of my mind and carried on,” she says. “I don’t know why. Perhaps I was hoping that it would all go away and I wouldn’t have to deal with it. But I was wrong.”
Coming to terms with the reality of a homosexual child is a difficult prospect for many parents. More than one million Australians – about one in 20 – define themselves as gay or lesbian, though many believe a truer rate could be as high as one person in 12.
While some have no trouble accepting their children for who they are, others struggle in an emotional conflict that sometimes tears families apart. Not only must parents overcome their own prejudices, they must also overcome an overwhelming assault from some of the most powerful feelings in the human spectrum – fear, grief and even disgust – many times fuelled by misunderstanding, misinformation and ignorance, and all of them destructive in their own way.
Yet, as these case studies show, it does not always have to end in bitterness and recrimination, nor in family breakdown.
When Neil was 18, Narelle and her husband Keith, an engineering consultant from western Sydney, came home from a weekend away.
“We came home to discover that Neil had gone to Mardi Gras, the annual gay and lesbian parade in Sydney, with some friends and that he had worn his sister’s silver spangly dress.
“I sat down with him at the dining room table and asked him if he was gay and he said, ‘No Mum, I’m not.’ Two weeks later, I asked him again and this time he said yes.
To my eternal regret, I handled it badly. I told him I was devastated. He needed me to understand, but some part of me wasn’t really listening. It was awful. I’m so sorry about that. I’d had 10 years to get ready for it, but I didn’t.”
Narelle and Keith left on a pre-planned holiday to New Zealand the next day.
“At the time I felt guilty about going,” she says. “I cried my way around New Zealand for two weeks.
However, I knew at the end of that time, that the most important thing was for us to stay together as a family. That was my top priority.
I thought back to when Neil was eight. I thought if he is gay, then I’ll handle it and it will be Keith who will fall apart. In fact, it was the other way around. He was a tower of strength and I was a mess.”
Keith discovered the support group Parents and Friends of Gays and Lesbians (PFLAG). He and Narelle attended their first meeting two weeks after they got back from NZ. “I thought to myself,
‘God, what on earth is this going to be like? They’ve all got gay children!’” says Narelle. “I was off on some terrible selfish tangent.
“But it was at the PFLAG meetings that I found an outlet. You listen to people and tell your own story and one day you see there’s a light at the end of the tunnel. For six months, those meetings were my fix. I needed the support and knowledge that these people were in a similar position.”
What Narelle didn’t expect was the rich vein of self-awareness that she would eventually uncover. “I started to think about me, about my reaction,” she says.
“I realised that, perhaps unconsciously, that I had brought up my children in different ways. I’d brought up my daughter to be an independent woman, but I’d raised Neil to be a good husband. That was my expectation. So I had to make this colossal shift in attitude; that his partner was going to be a bloke.”
Then she found an affirmation that she memorised. It was, “I come from a unique family that gives me unique opportunities.
It’s a family unlike any other family I know. “It resonated with such power,” says Narelle. “I would say it over and over.
Finally, I came to the certain knowledge that Neil couldn’t change who he was, and the only change that was possible was in me. It would have to come from inside me.”
Today, Narelle and Neil share a close bond. Keith died from a brain tumour three years ago. Neil is 32, and a university drama graduate and aspiring actor. He recently appeared in an episode of Packed To The Rafters as a gay mechanic.
“I think it’s important for people, for your children, to know that the most significant people in their lives accept them for who they really are. It’s a sad thing if a parent doesn’t love their children enough to accept them.”
Gillian Maury has three children, two of whom are gay. Although there were a lot of tears shed, she is now a counseller for a support group for parents of gay kids.
“I never lost sight of the fact that we are a family”
Gillian Maury knew something had changed the moment she opened her door. Her daughter Veronique, an attractive 22-year-old law student, stood at the threshold, her long, dark hair gone, her head smooth and bald.
But what Gillian didn’t understand was just how dramatic a change it really was.
“I thought, ‘Well, that’s a rather extreme hairstyle,’ ” says Gillian, a mother of three, of her daughter’s symbolic act. “Veronique had been to a conference in Perth. She sat us down at the kitchen table and told us she was gay. I thought my world had fallen apart.”
Gillian, a school counsellor, and her husband, French-born chef Jean-Pierre, were stunned. “I was distraught, that’s the only way to describe it,” says Gillian, now in her late 50s. “Everything that I had hoped for in my future – weddings, grandchildren, this ideal picture, flashed in front of me and disappeared. I remember thinking, ‘Why has this happened to me? What did I do wrong?’
Then she said something I have always appreciated. She said, ‘Some people think this is a stage, but I can tell you that for me it’s not. It’s not a choice. It’s just the way I am.’ ”
Today, 14 years on, Gillian scoffs at her former perspective. “It was all about me, about what I wanted and not very much about my daughter or what she wanted,” says Gillian.
“I see that now, but I couldn’t see it at the time. I was too busy crying.” What Gillian experienced is common in such situations, and very real. Psychologists, she says, often refer to it as “grief for lost expectations”.
Gillian’s expectations were those of many mothers – that her daughter would marry, “in a white wedding with all the trimmings”, and one day provide her with grandchildren.
“I felt that evaporate in an instant,” she says.
Like the Phipps, Gillian and Jean-Pierre sought help from PFLAG . Although Gillian, particularly, had her doubts, she eventually found their support invaluable. “I was inconsolable, sobbing and sobbing,” she says.
“I was grieving for what I thought I’d lost. I still loved her, and my other children, but I discovered that in some ways that love was conditional on them doing what I expected of them. But I loved them all enough to find out more about what was happening, to her and to us.”
From Gillian’s viewpoint, PFLAG at first seemed a poor fit. “In the first meeting someone made a joke and everyone laughed,” she says. “I stormed out and burst into tears, thinking, ‘This is no laughing matter, what’s funny about this?’ Then a woman came out and put her arm around me. She said she had been through the same thing. What we learned was if you talk about it, you can find a way through it all. If you keep talking, then there is hope.”
Ron Nunan is an ex-Queensland police officer who was raised with staunch Roman Catholic beliefs. Ron and wife Dianne had to overcome their own prejudices to accept the fact that their youngest son is gay.
‘For my generation, being gay was the greatest taboo’
For Ron Nunan, the discovery that his youngest son, Mark, was gay was like “a hammer blow to the back of the head”.
“It was the very last thing I wanted to hear. I didn’t know what to say, I didn’t know where to turn,” says Ron, a former police officer whose attitudes sprang from a staunchly Roman Catholic religious upbringing and a lifetime’s accumulated prejudice against homosexuals.
“For my generation, being gay was the greatest taboo. When I was a copper, homosexuality was a criminal offence. The Church said gays were evil. And all of a sudden, there I was face to face with the fact that my son was one of those people.”
Ron and Dianne Nunan, in their early 60s, had four children – two boys and two girls. Mark was the youngest. At about 16, he had problems at school.
He became depressed and his grades dropped off. One night Ron asked him if there was something wrong. Mark’s reply shocked him.
“I was going through a bad time and was angry,” says Mark. “I blurted out that I thought I was gay. Dad told me it was just a stage and from then on he only referred to it as ‘my little problem’.”
Ron admits he didn’t handle it well, either. “I pushed it back under the carpet and hoped that it would all go away,” he says.
“I told him it was a stage he was going through and that it would work itself out.”
Mark confided in a family friend, who suggested he see a psychologist. During the next six months, Mark’s depression and grades improved and he seemed to be back on track. Yet the prospect that he may have a gay son gnawed at Ron like a canker.
“I was terribly homophobic,” Ron says. “Every day for the next 18 months I’d pray, ‘Don’t let him be gay.’ It was like a monster sitting in front of me. I used to say terrible things to him, things I’m ashamed of now. I used to tell homophobic jokes at the dinner table, awful things. I was trying to turn him around, to stop him being homosexual.”
“In my ignorance, I associated being homosexual with being a paedophile. I remember thinking, ‘How can I have a son who could be a paedophile?’ I know now that’s rubbish, but at the time I just didn’t want him to be gay.”
Mark finished high school and moved on to university. Early in his first year, Ron and Dianne confronted him. “Mum was crying when they came in and we all sat down,” says Mark. “Mum asked me if I was gay and I said, ‘Yes, I am.’ ”
“I wanted to take him to the doctor,” recalls Dianne. “He just looked at me and said, ‘That’s pointless, Mum.’
Ron sat down with Mark and asked him what he says may be the most important question he has ever asked anyone. The importance was not in the question but in Mark’s response.
“I said, ‘How could you possibly choose this lifestyle?’ ” recalls Ron.
“He said, ‘Dad, you’d have to be mad to choose the lifestyle of a gay. It’s not an easy life. You’d have to be crazy. But it’s not a matter of choice – it’s who I am.’
“Those words made me stop and think … it was the first crack of light at the door, the idea that it wasn’t a choice. A lot of religious groups say that homosexuals are evil, but I looked at Mark and I knew he didn’t have an evil bone in his body. I never lost sight of the fact that he was my son and that I loved him.”
For Mark, it was a relief.
“I had a sense that a massive weight had lifted off my shoulders, but that was tempered by the fact that I could see that weight had transferred itself to my parents.”
Mark gave them a telephone number for an organisation called Parents and Friends of Gays and Lesbians (PFLAG), run by parent activist Shelley Argent.
“Shelley saved our lives,” says Ron. “The first time I spoke with her, I cried like a baby. I was a real mess. I said, ‘I can’t deal with this; I’m an ex-copper. She said, ‘That doesn’t matter. My son’s gay and he’s still a copper.’”
Two weeks later, they attended their first PFLAG meeting with other parents who had been through similar experiences. It was a revelation. For Ron, the openness he encountered punched through his fears. “The thing that struck me most was the idea that you can’t change it – that it’s as impossible for Mark to be heterosexual as it would for me to be homosexual, and there’s not much chance of that happening.”
Today, Mark is 27 and a graduate in journalism and arts, though he is carving out a career as a singer and songwriter based in Melbourne. He says his parents are his greatest supporters.
“We’re great friends,” says Mark, who wrote a song dedicated to Ron and Dianne about their ability to accept him for who he is, one he still performs today.
“I am so proud of how far they have come. We have a much more open, adult relationship now. I don’t know what I’d do without them.”
Five steps to understanding
PFLAG’s Shelley Argent has this advice for parents who think their child is gay.
1 Educate yourself about homosexuality and seek support for yourself and your son or daughter.
2 Give yourself time to overcome your fears and anxieties.
3 As a parent, you have done nothing wrong and neither has your son or daughter. Homosexuality is a natural sexual orientation.
4 Be mindful that depression and suicidal ideas can be an issue for the person coming out.
5 The greatest gift you can give your son or daughter is acceptance and understanding.
For more info, go to PFLAG to find a group near you.
A version of this article was first published in the January 2011 issue of The Australian Women’s Weekly. Photography by Pip Blackwood
A man has revealed the terrifying moment he and his wife realised their daughter’s “imaginary friend” was actually the “ghost” of a child who had died in their house.
The father Eric, said he was not perturbed when his three-year-old daughter Rebecca started babbling about a boy called Jonathon.
“She always talked about her friend Jonathon,” the man wrote on Reddit. “We had no idea who he was; she didn’t go to school yet.
“She still had this obsession with her closet and often said Jonathon was hiding in there. She would take us to the closet, say that Jonathon is in here; we would open the door and was greeted by her clothes and toys.
“The story didn’t alarm us; we assumed she had a little imaginary friend and what child didn’t? We thought it was cute.”
When Eric’s wife became pregnant again, they decided to move to a bigger home, selling their bungalow to young couple with no kids.
Four months after his family moved out, Eric got a call from the new owners. While renovating, they had found a long-forgotten and barely visible trapdoor in the back of Rebecca’s old closet.
The trapdoor led to a void that contained a box that chilled Eric to the core.
“I asked him what was in the box. ‘Just some old baby photos and some baby clothes’ he expressed.
Ghost hunters are set to investigate the spooky happenings inside a mortuary-turned-nightclub after a little girl was caught on camera running through the building.
The American music venue, The Chapel, has long been suspected to be haunted however this new footage has confirmed what many have believed for so long.
CCTV footage shows a janitor closing up and turning off the lights before a young girl is seen running up to the door and then fleeing.
A cleaner has previously claimed to have seen the ghost and refuses to go back there, The Mirror reports.
The Chapel was once a funeral home and the room the ghost was filmed in used to be the embalming room.
