No such thing my dear. I only attended one cos of a cousin oo la galay. I will bet you on dog's ears that Dahia doesnt even know let alone attend one. Bal adigoo Arab ah maxaad ka garan mingis?

You must have attended few parties Isseh. I attended few myself and the food was top..very tasty..But this was before aan wadaad noqday.

yes Aaliyah. Anyone has experience of being married to Arab man? Are they always posesive and masochists?

lool Is this like mingis? Acuudka. Allahuma najinaa

Welcome Nomadique to the party. It is a mixture of shaash saar and swimming party. Shaash saar is when the honeymoon ends (usually after days) and you join the wifehood. That is when you have a party. I think.

Aaliyah How are you habiibti? Long time no chat Inshallah you and your family are well. Now I have plenty of free time, I might go to the gym more often. Although I wanted to learn how to swim. I was invited to go with couple of friends to Sharm Al Sheikh and not sure wether muslim women could swim there? Dont worry about NGonge, he has his own little lingo that no one can understand. Why would Dahia and I and Val be attending shaash saar party only? We can boogie with the best of them. I can assure you.

January 2008 Suhaib Webb A citizen of the world, spiritually, mentally and literally: American convert-turned-imam Suhaib Webb is the new face of Islam. Coming from America’s Bible Belt to the halls of Al-Azhar, this young imam wants to combine the best of both worlds in Islam By Farzina Alam William Webb would never have had to hide in the men’s room at a convention, waiting for a gaggle of girls to lose interest. But Imam Suhaib Webb is a different story. Such is the Muslim community’s fascination with this American-born Azhari student that one day he had to do just that. “I’m married!” he says, almost at a loss for words. “This is a fitna [discord]” Webb is hard to miss, and his charisma and vision are even harder to ignore. Whether ambling through a bookstore in Old Cairo or sitting on the floor of Al-Azhar directing visitors, Webb is clearly at home. But few Azhari students are tall, blond, blue-eyed and reared on American hip-hop in a rough part of America’s heartland. More importantly, few students at Al-Azhar share Webb’s daunting mission. Part of the vanguard of a new generation of American Muslim leaders, he is trying to articulate an American Islam that reflects both its heritage of Eastern scholarship and the needs of its American believers. Easy? Not in the slightest. Born in the USA Now in his third year of study at Al-Azhar, Webb has a growing following among American and British Muslims. But he wasn’t always Imam Suhaib Webb. Once upon a time he was William Webb, born in 1972 to a Christian family in Oklahoma, where his grandfather was a preacher. “I had a lot of trouble accepting God as a human being or creation,” he recalls. “Even as a young child I would ask my mother questions. Suddenly, God is one of three instead of God just being God. So I became a little confused. How could the prophets before Jesus go to heaven if they couldn’t worship Jesus? If [the criteria for heaven was] worshipping and recognizing him as a deity and [as] the key to paradise?” At 14, Webb went through a spiritual crisis. By then he had become a gang member. “Although I came from a middle-class family, I went to a rough high school,” he says. Deeply entrenched in the 1980s hip-hop community, Webb worked as a DJ. “Hip-hop was more of a social movement than it is now. Now it’s all, ‘I got girls, I got some nice gold, nice car, I’ll kill you and I love my mamma.’ [back in the] ‘80s and ‘90s, there was more of a sociopolitical, almost Afro-centric feel, which was kind of laced with the teachings of Islam due to the Nation of Islam and Malcolm X.” Webb credits this as his first exposure to Islam. “There was always a feeling among the hip-hop community and among inner city African-Americans and the whites that mix with them that Muslims are correct, and Islam is the true religion. Malcolm went that way so it must’ve been right.” He got his first copy of the Qur’an at age 17. “I read the Qur’an for three years in the restroom because I was scared my mother would pulverize me if she saw the Qur’an in her house,” he says, his eyes growing wide. “It was a big deal!” Once in college, his life became further intertwined with gang violence, culminating with his involvement in a drive-by shooting. That, he says, was a wakeup call. At the height of his material success as an artist, “I was completely empty inside and spiritually dissatisfied. I felt impoverished on an internal level.” At age 20, when most freshmen in college were joining fraternities and spending the year drunk on dormitory lawns, Webb made the shahadah (the Muslim declaration of faith, recited at the moment of conversion). “You’re a Westerner, Brother!” The interview is interrupted several times as visitors wander through Ibn Tulun mosque doors. Imam Suhaib greets them all. When addressing me, he keeps his eyes on the floor. He knows the mosque quarters well: When a man approaches to ask where the fatwa office is, he gives directions without a pause. For him, converting to Islam wasn’t enough. In one year, Webb will finish his studies at Al-Azhar, adding a formal degree to his already formidable accumulation of religious knowledge: He spent 10 years studying with a Senegalese scholar and memorized the Qur’an under his guidance. He has studied with well-known sheikhs in the US and United Kingdom, and traveled to Kuwait, Qatar, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Malaysia to learn more. Egypt has been the first place in which he has dropped anchor. The Muslim American Society sponsored Webb’s move to Egypt in an attempt to cultivate leaders among American Muslims and deal with a crisis facing modern Muslims in the West. In a country where about 85 percent of non-African-American mosques are led by foreign-born imams, scores of religious leaders are confronting a community they do not understand. “We felt that the youth were very confused when dealing with imams [sent from abroad], who are not really able to understand where the youth are coming from. They don’t even speak the language at times. At times, they even exhibited behavior that is reprehensible for us in the West, like in their understanding of women and their role in the community. [] We had a hard time swallowing that, so we felt we needed some local expression. “The quality of the [imam] is that he should have knowledge of the religion and knowledge of the place in which he articulates his views. There was a need for indigenous scholarship and articulation in America — so in order to do that, we had to sponsor people.” There are 8-9 million Muslims in America, but Webb counts only nine or 10 Americans at Azhar with him. “It’s scary because if you take all the students of [islamic] knowledge in Syria, Saudi, and Africa — probably only 100 [American] students are out there studying, with a mere handful going back.” But it isn’t merely the imams who are to blame for this gulf of misunderstanding, he says. “The problem is also the communities these imams from abroad land in. If those communities don’t engage that imam and don’t encourage him to branch out into society, then you have problems.” As a Western convert to Islam, Webb has found himself in an unusual position: smack in the middle of East and West. Coming to terms with the responsibility such a position holds isn’t always simple. “As Western Muslims, we have a complex when we deal with the tradition. [in the sense that] we are told that traditional Islam is the savior for everything in the West. But I don’t buy that Our job as Western Muslims is to synthesize and articulate a Western Islam. “There’s nothing wrong with that. The Malaysians articulate a Malaysian Islam. The Pakistanis love biryani; the Arabs hate spices and the Africans like a mix. We in the West, because of the society we live in, because of the way our society moves, we cannot just merely regurgitate sixth- or seventh-century texts and try to answer the crisis of humanity. Our job is to fuse both.” As a convert, knowing what aspects of East and West to adopt or reject is also a challenge. “I have to engage the tradition first, understand it, then what I learn from the teacher, I have to translate into my experience as a Westerner. And I shouldn’t be ashamed of that. “We have a lot of brothers and sisters who convert to Islam who experience crises in dealing with modernity. What brought sovereignty to women and urbanization is modernity, what brought management — we don’t have any management here — is modernity. “At the same time spiritually, I have issues with modernity. The absence of God, the absence of a creator. The outcome of modernity was basically Hitler and Mussolini, but we can take just the good. I felt that I didn’t want to lose my identity as a Westerner. I don’t want to start speaking like,” and he adopts a fake Indian accent for a moment, “‘Hello, my name is Suhaib from Oklahoma.’ I meet brothers who go through this crisis. I meet people who don’t want to dress like a Westerner — why not? You’re a Westerner, brother! The Prophet rarely asked people to change their dress or their names unless their names meant something really bad.” Webb believes converts in the West have not really come to grips with this fusion. “Our job as Western Muslims is to learn our religion well, to have an understanding and articulation that’s balanced within the confines of our environment, because we represent a reservoir of prophetic guidance to the West. And the West represents a reservoir of material guidance for us.” The trick, he believes, is knowing how to fuse the two. “All of us, whether you like it or not, here [in the East] we are representatives of the West; [over] there, we are representatives of the East. Although I’m definitely not Eastern: My hair is blond, my eyes are blue. But immediately people assume I have experience with the East because I’m Muslim.” While in Egypt, Webb is equipping himself for a return to the States, where he will try to bridge the gulf he believes Western Muslims experience. “I feel I have a long way to go. I’m still in the beginning. What I’m learning here is very theoretical, I learn a lot more when I go back to my environment and I can thematically relate what I study here here it is hard for me to contextualize.” Unwanted celebrity But, as Webb’s case shows, the respect a scholar earns in our world can be a double-edged sword. The ugly fact is that many scholars, especially white converts, cannot avoid the probing lights of celebrity. Webb follows a long line of white convert sheikhs, such as Hamza Yusuf, Abdal-Hakim Murad (Tim Winter) and Nuh Hamim Keller, all of whom have been slated for unwelcome celebrity status. “Groupies,” as the followers who amass around such scholars at public events are sometimes called, are frequently criticized for blind, unconditional acceptance of their leaders’ words. In a world where Muslims are increasingly demonized, does a white man’s conversion provide a form of validation for the followers? “We have the habit in the West to transfer our constructs so if we like David Beckham, we replace David Beckham with so-and-so imam. Is there a subliminal factor in dealing with the white person, looking up to white people? I think so! I’ve seen our community react to an African-American becoming Muslim and saying, so what? But a white dude with blond hair who looks like Owen Wilson and everybody goes crazy. “It’s [not] just Caucasian imams. We have a tendency to react and always blame the white man. The whole whitey syndrome, that’s also a symptom of a construct that exists within us. But I’ve seen other ethnic groups being idolized as well and put on a pedestal, which is not befitting a human being.” Webb emphasizes the importance of not creating a utopian vision of imams. “People make mistakes, people are human beings. When they let us down, we grill them and destroy them, and this is another problem.” Part of the responsibility, Webb recognizes, lies with the imams themselves. His words reveal how much of this he incorporates into himself: His upbringing and his past are clearly still a large part of who he is today. “We have to be very down to earth, sit on the floor, eating koshary, saying, ‘What’s up, how the homies doin’, chill’ We don’t have to be walking around with a conglomerate of bodyguards, paratroopers and storm troopers, because that creates an image that the Prophet did not want us to have. “We have to be careful not to create that climate. When the Prophet went to Medina, people didn’t know who he was. He didn’t stick out; he was like an ordinary person. We have to be very cautious, not to translate the Catholic tendencies in the West to our religion, making imams and spiritual leaders above correction.” He shakes his head as he recalls ducking into the men’s room to escape a clutch of groupies. “I’m just Suhaib Webb. Who is Suhaib Webb? My wife can write a whole encyclopedia about my mistakes and my errors. I struggle to pray and wake up in the morning just like you. I struggle with my non-Muslim family members — I’m nothing when I go visit them. I’m William! ‘Yeh, I know this guy — I knew this guy when he used to pick his nose and play basketball.’ ” Some have called Webb the next Hamza Yusuf, but Webb shies away from that description. “We’re lowering him by comparing me to him. He has his own role and area to focus on. Me, I like to deal with people on more of a grassroots level. He is a very gifted person. I’m from Oklahoma; we barely speak English correctly.” But, for some, this imam is more than just William. UK government officials were recently quoted in The Guardian defining Webb as a “moderate leader” along with the likes of Hamza Yusuf and Amr Khaled. Government endorsement of this form has proven a tight squeeze for community leaders such as Webb. When Hamza Yusuf was appointed a Muslim representative and advisor to George Bush after 9/11, there was no end to the accusations of treachery he faced. Is it fair to assume that community leaders are sellouts simply because Western governments like what they have to say? Regarding the work he recently did for UK Muslim grassroots initiative The Radical Middle Way, which was backed by the UK government, Webb says, “There was a little bit of that slack working [] on the Radical Middle Way, but we have to move beyond that and be more mature and engage. They are our governments, and we live within the framework of these governmental systems. If we reject them, what have we accomplished?” This anti-establishment trend among Muslims, Webb notes, is alarming. He stresses that accepting the system and engaging in it doesn’t mean agreeing with everything it does. “Protesting is part of engagement!” And on being labeled moderate? “I was actually pleased to be mentioned in that light — honored.” Al-Azhar in America After earning his degree at Al-Azhar, Webb hopes to return to the States where he has planned, along with the Muslim American Society, to start a foreign version of Al-Azhar, “hopefully trying to get it recognized by Azhar itself, as an official Azhar in the West. We also want to start an official imams’ training course.” Above all, he wants to deal with Muslims in the West on a grassroots level. “Sometimes we’re so involved in global issues we forget the Joe, Paul, John and his lunchbox who goes to the steel mill and doesn’t know whether he should pray dhuhr and asr together because he is working all day.” In the meantime, this Azhari student has an afternoon of study and memorization ahead of him. Webb is just one of the thousands at Azhar, and the professors cut this American no slack. He is up for the challenge, because he knows that the work he has set for himself back at home will be harder than anything the sheikhs could throw at him. source

Ngonge Dont worry, Dahia bariiskeeda iyo casiirkeeda wey soo qaadaneysaa. Dhib kale miyey kugu heysaa?

Pursuing happiness behind the veil EPA OTHER HALF: Saudi women hang out at a mall in Riyadh. Under the strict Saudi interpretation of Islam, women must be fully covered in public and are not allowed to drive or vote. Wives need their husbands’ permission to leave the country. To be the American wife of a Saudi is to forsake familiar freedoms — or enjoy them secretly — in exchange for a secure, family-centered life. By Jeffrey Fleishman, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer January 14, 2008 RIYADH, Saudi Arabia -- Teresa Malof knew she wasn't in Kentucky anymore when a cleric issued a fatwa against her secret Santa gift exchange. Malof proposed the idea at the King Fahad National Guard Hospital, where she has worked for more than a decade. It was supposed to be discreet, but rumors were whispered amid veils and hijabs that the lithe, blond nurse, raised on farmland at the edge of Appalachia, was planning to celebrate a Christian tradition in an Islamic kingdom that forbids the practicing of other religions. "Even though I'm a Muslim too, I like to celebrate the holidays and have gift exchanges," said Malof, a convert to Islam who is married to the son of a former Saudi ambassador. "But word got out and the religious people came with a fatwa [or edict] against the Santa party. My husband was having a heart attack. He was worried I'd be in a lot of trouble." For American women married to Saudi men, such is life in this exotic, repressive and often beguiling society where tribal customs and religious fervor rub against oil wealth and the tinted-glass skyscrapers that rise Oz-like in the blurry desert heat. This is not a land of the 1st Amendment and voting rights; it is a kingdom run by the strict interpretation of Wahhabi Islam, where abayas hang in foyers, servants linger like ghosts, minarets glow in green neon and, as a recent court case showed, a woman who is raped can also be sentenced to 200 lashes for un-Islamic behavior. "Haram, haram" (forbidden, forbidden). American wives know the phrase well. It is learned over years of peeking through veils at supermarkets or sitting in the back of SUVs while Filipinos behind the wheel glide through traffic. Their adopted Arab home is a traditionally close U.S. ally. But like much of the Islamic world, Saudi Arabia's relations with Washington have been strained since the rise of global jihad. Terrorist bombings, which have killed nearly 150 people here in recent years, have kept many American families in gated communities that have the aura of golf courses protected by small armies. Most non-Muslim women convert to Islam as a prerequisite for marrying a Saudi and living in the kingdom. Many American women, including those who converted before they arrived, have embraced the Koran; for others, the adoption of Islam is a pantomime act, the disguise of a second self to hold them over until they peel off their head scarves and travel to the U.S. for summer vacations. For both kinds of women, it is a life of sacrifices and measured victories: Women can't drive or vote in Saudi Arabia, but their children are largely safe from street crime and drugs; a wife can't leave the country without her husband's written permission, but tribal and religious codes instill a strong sense of family. Freedom lies behind courtyard walls, where private swimming pools glimmer and the eyes of the religious police, known as the mutaween, do not venture. Rock 'n' roll (haram) is played, smuggled whiskey (haram) is sipped, and Christianity (haram) sometimes is practiced. This sequestered, contradictory experience, a number of American wives noted, can turn an expat into an alcoholic or a born-again Christian, and sometimes both. "American women get together and we talk," said Lori Baker, a mother of two who met her Saudi husband at Ohio State University in 1982. "We ask one another, 'Where are you on your curve now? Have you hit bottom yet?' We all go through the highs and lows when it comes to moods and tolerance. . . . When I first got here, I felt naked without my head scarf. "Then after the terrorist bombings in 2003, I even covered my face. Foreigners were a target then. I became very comfortable with my face covered. I felt safe. Nobody knows me. They can't see me, and if you're covered, they respect you. Sometimes without a covered face it's like walking down Main Street wearing a bikini." Baker's husband holds three master's degrees, including one in architecture. Like many Saudi men of his generation, he left the kingdom to learn English and study in America. Baker converted to Islam in Ohio and moved with her husband to Saudi Arabia in 1992; both of her sons were born here. As the wife of a Saudi living off a busy Riyadh street, she said she's not completely embraced by Americans living in gated communities, but she also feels estranged within Saudi society. "My mother and father were just devastated at my conversion," said Baker, whose house was damaged in a 1995 bombing that targeted a U.S.-Saudi military office compound. "Neither family was receptive about our marriage. He was the oldest son, and after living for many years in America, it was time for him to come back. And the feeling was, 'If you have to bring her with you, go ahead.' . . . With Saudi women there's a politeness, an acceptance and a curiosity about American wives . . . but there's never long-lasting friendship." It is a strange place, she said, to live between two worlds, one of quilting clubs and cookouts, the other of prayers and isolation. "You have to do soul searching and really define who you are," she said. "My husband is the man of my dreams, and I decided to go wherever that took us." Sally Kennedy has a quick wit and miles of Texas charm. A former heart surgery nurse, she married the Saudi president of a consulting and engineering company and raised four children in the kingdom. She is fluent in Arabic, owns a restaurant and runs the Good Ship Lollipop, a party retail business that provides balloons, candy and children's rides to villas and palaces. "When I first arrived here in 1981, there were dogs and sheep walking around the streets and one TV channel," she said, sitting in a living room of floor-to-ceiling windows. "There were no fax machines. We used to listen to the BBC on shortwave. There was no skyline. They opened a 'Pizza Riyadh,' and everyone thought that was a big deal. "It was much more liberal back then. Non-Saudi women could wear short abayas, but now they've grown long and closed. Things changed and I sensed a separation of cultures after the first Gulf War in 1991. Then you had 9/11 and terrorist bombings. Americans withdrew to their compounds, and you had Osama bin Laden, and many Saudis didn't want to be friendly with the infidel. Saudi society became more conservative." Kennedy navigates this sensitive landscape with humor and shrewd observation, a Dorothy Parker with a fading Dallas drawl. "My magician at the Good Ship Lollipop spent three weeks in jail for being a magician. They think that's black magic. He could have his head chopped off," she said, before easing into another vignette. "If you go to the south of France and sit on the terrace of the Carlton, you'll see your Saudi neighbors. But you can't compete with the rich people here. They're off the charts." Sometimes, amid the pleasantries and courtyard diplomacy, American wives tighten with flashes of anger and frustration. Kennedy manages the Good Ship Lollipop, for example, but she doesn't go into the store for fear of coming into contact with men other than her husband, which is haram and could result in an arrest by the religious police. Such patriarchal attitudes, she said, "are things you never get used to." One American wife, who asked not to be named, said the country's repression of women led her to counseling sessions with a psychiatrist. When she was contacted for an interview, she said she was worried that her husband would object; she struggled with the decision for an hour before finally agreeing. She was agitated during the meeting in a hotel lobby and said she felt lost between two cultures. "I told my husband I'm coming to this interview. I'm trying to be respectful, but I'm going to go. Is that haram?" she said, wearing a black abaya. "It's only women who have to be perfect here. A woman. A woman. A woman. They're always making an issue of it. It's a sick pastime. I feel like I'm being bullied. This is not Islam. Where in Islam does it say this? This is tribal." She paused and sipped a cappuccino. She grew up in Pittsburgh, the latchkey daughter of a working mother and a laid-off steelworker who abandoned his family and ended up homeless. She was 16 when she met a 27-year-old Saudi who was studying English at the University of Pittsburgh. He offered her stability and religion. They married two years later, first in a mosque and then before a justice of the peace. She said she hasn't spoken to her husband's family in six years. "I don't miss the U.S., though," she said. "I think most Americans are living in a bubble and they believe in whatever the media feeds them. They're so focused on their jobs and their lives that they don't put the international pieces of the puzzle together. America is too fast. When my son was 9 years old, he learned about oral sex while we were visiting the U.S. That's one of the things I like about here. The conservative society helps you in being a parent." Teresa Malof has the quiet grace of a diplomat. Tall, fair-skinned, she can't hide her American self even beneath an abaya. She and her first husband divorced and she moved to the kingdom in 1996, after seeing an ad for nurses in a magazine. She lived single for a while and then met her Saudi husband, Mazen, a USC grad and banking consultant, at a Japanese restaurant. The couple have two children. "I never really thought about cultural differences when I married Teresa," Mazen said. "I lived in America. I knew both cultures, so those differences did not come into the equation. We got married because we loved one another. Teresa is good at understanding where she is. She respects others' beliefs. Nothing has been forced on her. . . . I told her that any time she feels the need to visit the States, a plane ticket is always ready." He said he worried about his wife several years ago when Americans and other Westerners were targeted by militants in a number of bombings and shootings. "We took special precautions," Mazen said. "But things have gotten calmer and have become more normal." Malof said her husband's family has been very accepting. But it took her a while to adjust to the religious police and the brazen boys in their buffed cars. The police patrol stores and sidewalks looking to fine or arrest women deemed to be improperly veiled. And the boys and young men, living in a country where the only contact with women is arranged through families, are bored and seek titillation by leering and driving alongside cars carrying women, sometimes boxing them in on highways. "The religious police can spot a [partially veiled] blond head from a mile away. We'd run and hide from them in the shopping malls," she said. "Then there's the guys holding up signs in their cars, pressing them against the windshields and windows. 'Don't call 911, call this number.' Most of the time, these guys are harmless. They're just out cruising." She said it's been difficult being an American in the kingdom since the Iraq war. She's received fewer invitations from Saudis and has been startled at how the U.S. is reviled in much of the Muslim world. This political chill is sobering and reminds her of other things so different from the farm country where she was raised. The desert is harsh and men believe children should be raised by wives and hired help. The call to prayer can be lulling, but it's hard to make friends with the neighbors, and her children have few places to play outdoors. "It can be tough here," Malof said. "There was a time I was a very angry person. Once Mazen asked me, 'Why are you upset? When you're here, just expect the worst.' You can't change this society single-handedly. To live here you have to make peace with it. One day I committed, I'm never going back to the U.S. There is no Plan B. Sometimes it's easy to forget the problems I had in America too. A single, working mother with no maids. "Would I really be happy back in Cincinnati, joining the PTA? I don't think so after having lived an international life. I think the people back home think I'm married to a rich prince and I'm the trophy wife." jeffrey.fleishman@latimes.com source

Subhaanallah. I cant imagine what drives someone to commit suicide. Some are weaker than others and cant cope with constant problems life throws at them. I just read how Britney spears might embrace Islam. Yaab.

Ghanima, why didnt you tell me who you were? tut tut tut. I went to gym today (been paying for over 5yrs and went about 5 times). Bal maxaa igeeyey. Every bone is aching.

Salaam Good pictures Maashallah. Did you guys travel by car? Whenever I go on holiday, I always get lazy to take pics.

Salaam What is the reason behind the question? It is quite odd, dont you think? Besides who will air their sins in this fashion? Should we even say it?

Salaam I thought the door to itjihad closed long time ago?

British UFO 'sightings' investigated by a secret branch of the MoD are soon to be revealed and officials are braced for a torrent of inquiries Mark Townsend, defence correspondent Sunday January 6, 2008 Without warning, the orange UFO swooped toward them. The crew of the RAF Vulcan bomber banked hard and radioed they were being chased across the Atlantic by a large mysterious object. The incident was classified as a UFO sighting and the details were immediately locked away. Now, 30 years later, the extraordinary encounter is among thousands of previously secret cases contained in the government's 'X-Files' that officials are to release in their entirety The cases, many from a little-known defence intelligence branch tasked with investigating UFO claims, will be published by the Ministry of Defence to counter what officials say is 'the maze of rumour and frequently ill-informed speculation' surrounding Whitehall and its alleged involvement with Unidentifed Flying Objects. The public opening of the MoD archive will expose the once highly classified work of the intelligence branch DI55, whose mission was to investigate UFO reports and whose existence was denied by the government until recently. Reports into about 7,000 UFO sightings investigated by defence officials - every single claim lodged over the past 30 years - are included in the files, whose staged release will begin in spring. The decision to release Whitehall's full back-catalogue of UFO investigations was taken last month after the Directorate of Air Space Policy, the government agency responsible for filtering sensitive reports, gave its permission to publish the biggest single release of documents in MoD history. Now the government fears a repeat of the unprecedented demand and the website crash experienced by the French national space agency in March when it released its own UFO files. Government IT experts are believed to have drawn up contingency plans to avoid a repeat scenario when Britain's dossiers are finally made public. Among the first tranche of UK cases will be the official government files into the famous Rendlesham incident, dubbed 'Britain's Roswell' after the US incident when a flying saucer is said to have crash-landed in the New Mexico desert 60 years ago. On a foggy night in 1980 several witnesses reported a UFO apparently landing in Rendlesham Forest, Suffolk. Statements claimed the craft was covered in markings similar to Egyptian hieroglyphics and aliens emerged from it. Although a man later confessed to having staged the incident as a hoax, the files will clear up continuing speculation as to whether radiation was detected at the site after the event. Another case reported to the intelligence branch DI55 - Britain's version of the 'Men In Black' - chronicles a series of reports sent to RAF Scampton, Lincolnshire, by the crew of a Vulcan bomber on exercise over the Bay of Biscay early on 26 May 1977. According to documents seen by The Observer, five crewmen, including the captain, co-pilot and navigators, watched 'an object' approach their aircraft at 43,000ft above the Atlantic. The mysterious craft then appeared to turn and follow their precise course from a distance of four miles. Initially, the crew said the object resembled landing lights 'with a long pencil beam of light ahead' but as it turned towards them the lights suddenly went out leaving a diffuse orange glow with a bright fluorescent green spot in its bottom right-hand corner. Then, according to signals sent back to Scampton, the crew noted a mystery object 'leaving from the middle of the glow on a westerly track... climbing at very high speed at an angle of 45 degrees'. The Vulcan's navigator recorded interference on his radar screen from the direction of the UFO which continued for 45 minutes as the plane headed back to Britain. On return to the UK, the camera film from the aircraft's radar was examined by RAF intelligence. They found a 'strong response' from the direction of the sighting. The UFO was captured as 'an elongated shadow' of a 'large-sized' object travelling at a similar height to the Vulcan. An intelligence report sent to the MoD the same day says the crew 'were unable to offer a logical explanation for the sighting'. Although hailed as the complete disclosure of the UK's UFO files, questions are likely to remain over whether all available information will be made public. Despite the Vulcan sighting being investigated by DI55, no details remain in the file indicating what they found or what became of the radar film. The disclosures are more likely, claim some experts, to lend credence to the theory that such UFO incidents were, rather than alien visitations, military activities such as missile launches, testing of prototype aircraft and other activities during the Cold War. David Clarke, a lecturer in journalism at Sheffield Hallam University and author of Flying Saucerers: A Social History of UFOlogy, said: 'Something was definitely going on, but really these files show that the government did not know either. This release will be a source of disappointment or vindication for some, and embarrassment for others. 'Conspiracy theorists who believe that the various governments of the world are hiding secrets about the "reality" of aliens will see this as another whitewash effort by the MoD and will probably continue their self-sustaining "campaign for the truth", when the truth will in fact now be "out there".' UFO researcher Joe McGonagle said: 'There will always be a hard core who believe these files were prepared for release and that there is a secret department within the military who has a separate stash of files that have not been disclosed.' UFOs remain one of the most popular subjects for Freedom of Information requests and the release is certain to generate a massive response from the public when the files are placed in the National Archives. Clarke, who has lodged hundreds of FoI requests, recently discovered that the government was considering destroying the 24 files created by DI55 because they were contaminated by asbestos. Not only were the UFO records polluted, but a total of 63,000 files estimated at between six to 12 million pages - most of them classified as secret - were facing the same fate. Having admitted the existence of the problem to Clarke, the MoD opted to instigate a £3m project digitally to scan the files before they were destroyed. Scanning of the 24 contaminated UFO files owned by DI55 was completed last year, although it is understood that names of officials in the reports will be removed. Although the government remains reluctant to discuss its intelligence work on UFOs, it is known that DI55 has been hot on the trail of flying saucers since the Sixties. Experts admit that they work closely with the security services MI5, MI6 and GCHQ to collect and assess evidence of potential threats to Britain. The decision by the UK to open its files could lead to the US government following suit. A group of former pilots and government officials recently urged the Pentagon to reopen investigations into claims of UFO sightings. UFO claims 1980 Rendlesham Forest, Suffolk. US servicemen claim to have seen an alien craft and its landing site. 1984 Minsk, USSR. Aeroflot pilots say they are pursued by a glowing shape. 1989 Bonnybridge, Scotland. Fire crew report objects rushing towards them before veering away at the last moment. 1990 Brussels, Belgium. Two F-16 fighter pilots recount being engaged in 75-minute mid-air chase with a UFO. source

Stopping it would be too cruel. But as i said before, some are more deserving than others. sharmarke If you can afford the relatives to live in luxury, one wouldnt have problem with that. But I would object to those who can barely afford to improve on their living conditions in the UK, send money to those who tend to live life of luxury back home.

Lets talk about the real issue here. I think this would be a source of money for those living in Shabelle and Jubba river. I mean 13k for a mere bag? How many alligator wrestlers died for this kinda money?

I wonder how many websites would i get for cheating men? I will bet not the same number as women cheating.

Shamarke & Ngonge When i am (was in my case) busting my deriere to work or mothers depriving **** money from her kids, only for those back home to live large, that is just abuse. I feel strongly about this cos i witnessed it. We all like to live in luxuriy but when as a mother, you are the cook, cleaner, mother, wife and nanny all by yourself in the UK, of course you will be bitter and stingy.

CG Are you vegetarian?

That aint the case Ngonge. But I doubt you would welcome the idea of employing a housecook, housekeeper and a nanny from your hard-earned cash.

Extravagant: The alligator handbag that will set you back a whopping £13,000 - but to some that's small change The women who can't wait to pay £13,000 for an alligator skin handbag By LIZ JONES Let me tell you about the latest fashion must-have. It is made from either matte or glossy "exotic" skins, meaning deeply cruel and unsustainable python or alligator. It comes in cherry red, metallic blue and a deep, lustrous gold. It is quite slouchy, and, at almost a foot long, is fashioned in the shape of a crescent. Tucked inside, amid a pure silk lining, is a discreet gold plate, upon which your initials will be engraved. The bag's rivets and fastenings are made from handfinished vintage gold. When you take delivery of this new, fiercely-fought-over accessory, it will be in its own limited-edition quilted leather box, a bit like a coffin. The name of this bag? The Burberry Warrior, studded as it is with pseudo Roman coins. The price tag of this ridiculous item? £13,000. Burberry is an "exclusive" brand (meaning the shop assistants are snooty, the prices sky-high) that likes to celebrate its British heritage. It did indeed invent the trench coat, which became vital for keeping soldiers in the trenches warm and dry, but like most "luxury" brands it now manufactures most of it's garments and accessories in the Far East. There are other Burberry bags on offer this season (including the Beaton, the Bloomsbury and the Manor; I told you they like to harp on about their heritage) but it is the Warrior that is causing so much excitement. The bag (for that is what it is; something in which to stash your bus pass and your lippy - although this one also has pockets for your iPhone and iPod) was first launched at an 'exclusive' (goodness, how that word has been demeaned. Every time I use it just exchange it in your head for "moronic" instead) series of soirees in stores in London, Las Vegas, Beverly Hills, Milan, Rome, Madrid, Kuwait and Moscow; you note they didn't launch it in Chelmsford, or Kabul. The giddy height of the top end of the Burberry price range has enabled the brand to increase the average price point of its handbags by more than 25 per cent. Sod the economic downturn, the troubles in Kenya and Pakistan, and global warming, there were enough over-Botoxed, impossibly spherical-breasted women lining up to buy the latest in a long list of obscenely expensive handbags that the Warrior promptly sold out (the oxymoronic £100,000 Chanel Forever, anyone? Or how about the £23,484 Louis Vuitton Tribute?) While I can understand that the wives of Russian oligarchs or Las Vegas gangsters might hanker after a gold piece of arm candy, I am intrigued to find out who on earth in London has felt compelled to put her name down on the Warrior waiting list. Proof, surely, that no matter how sensible we think we are, we are all in awe of the ******, tiny women who populate our red carpets, women who are nonetheless too bright to carry anything other than a freebie. Jenny goes on: "I know most people will think it's only millionaires buying these bags, but there are a lot of single, professional women like me who work hard for their money, and feel this is the ultimate luxury treat. "I don't have children to spend money on, so this is my way of pampering myself." It is funny, isn't it, how the notion of "pampering" yourself and being hardworking and independent have become so intricately linked with the notion of spending money on something that is gaudy and that we don't really need. It is almost as if we are trying to buy love, or happiness. A similar story is told by 28-year-old Xenia Xenophontos, a senior PR manager, who has a flat in Central London which she shares with more than 55 designer handbags, all pristine in their little cloth bags, their authentication certificates tucked neatly in the pockets, and all kept at exactly the right temperature. She, too, is unashamed to say she has put her name down for a Warrior. "When I produce mine everyone will notice, and it will bring me a lot of kudos. "I buy bags both as an investment and because they are so beautiful. "I love them so much I even research the history of handbags. "My friends tease me, and I am well known in stores like Selfridges, where I place orders for the latest musthave bags. "I just love looking at them and touching them." The one thing the women I spoke to have in common when asked why on earth they are so desperate for something so frivolous, is the mantra that they work really hard, and deserve to be rewarded. The tragedy is that it is not just the wives of Russian oligarchs who are buying into this nonsense, but ordinary women like you and me. It has become relatively easy to produce almost carbon copies of, say, a Miu Miu chiffon cocktail dress, and many women have, quite sensibly, opted to spend less money on just one key designer item, and to instead buy armfuls of clothes that are, more and more these days, going to be fashionable for just one short season. The second was the rise of the "chav", a decidedly downmarket woman (or man) who bought into a high-end label (remember Danniella Westbrook and her Burberry check life?) and devalued the label's exclusivity. And so, to keep their very high-spending, core clientele happy, the big designer houses decided they had to produce something intricate and expensive and impossible to rip off. This meant they increased the price of, first, shoes, which now begin at around the £400 mark, and then they decided to pour all their creativity and snootiness into the handbag. While expensive bags have been around since the Thirties (at Gucci, Hermes, Dior and Chanel) these bags were not meant to be remotely fashionable or disposable: they were investment pieces that were kept for life, and then handed down to the next generation. The cult of the big money bag had its seeds in the early Nineties, when Miuccia Prada revitalised a tired luggage brand with a very desirable nylon satchel, and took off in 1997, when the Italian label Fendi came up with the baguette (swiftly followed by its smaller cousin, the croissant), with its myriad permutations of colour and fabric. I remember being in Milan in the spring of that year and being puzzled by all the Japanese women queuing outside the store for the new delivery. But soon, I, too, was infected by the disease. Today, take a front seat alongside any catwalk and you are assaulted by the sight of models, who have surely only ever lifted something as heavy as a cigarette, staggering along the catwalk, weighed down by totes as large as hippos. At the ankles of all the fashion editors are piles of big, shiny, £1,000-plus bags; you would think you were in the departure lounge of Heathrow rather than there to do a job. None of the fashion editors has paid for these bags, of course. That would be silly. When I was the editor of Marie Claire, I once received 22 designer handbags at Christmas; the lower down the masthead your name appeared in the magazine, the smaller the bag you were given. We should remember, too, that the models who emerge from backstage with a tote slung over their skinny shoulders have never had to put a hand in their pocket; they are sensible, and invest all they earn in real estate. So don't feel sorry for those of us who work in the business, having to fork out so much cash in order to look good. And please don't worry about the women who have already bought the aforementioned Warrior; they can probably afford to splash out more money on a bag than most of us can on a car. No. These women and how they spend their (husbands') cash don't concern me. What does concern me is the drip, drip, drip effect of these monster bags. Selfridges reports that the average price of designer bags is now £850, a rise of 55per cent since 2005. Women, more and more of us (we now own between four and 14 handbags each and are prepared to spend up to £380 per bag) think it is obligatory to spend a month's salary on a bag we perhaps don't even really like that much. Of course, the profligate spending habits of Carrie Bradshaw in Sex And The City didn't help. Soon, every lowsalaried PR girl or shop assistant bought into the idea that to live far beyond her. Source

Ngogne The feisty fence-sitter and the coy contributer

Dahia It is a question that stumped us all my dear. Only a castrated man would ever understand the "the act of making love,should be reserved for the woman or man that you love" statement.

Horta weli ma la weydiiyey nimanka xaasaska badan qaba, how fun is it to have 2 or 3 women on the go? I would be suprised if there is a happy home in those households. CL lol@southern brain. Why insult the brains? Calling upstairs brain is understement.