Bogus policeman even fooled his wife: Conman who bought uniform on eBay gets away with deception for over three years By Stephen Wright Trickster: Stuart Howatson conned his wife and friends into believing he was a policeman, using a uniform such as this one bought on eBay A conman who posed as a Metropolitan police officer using kit bought from eBay was jailed yesterday for 20 months. Stuart Howatson’s deception was so successful that even his wife believed he worked at Scotland Yard. At their wedding three years ago, he reserved a place for former head of the Met Sir … Continue reading Bogus policeman – did he make his money by giving ‘on the spot fines?’

By Michael Bywater The answer, for men, would seem to be castration. Better than drink: it takes away both performance and desire. Plato, in The Republic, has Sophocles say that the end of sexual yearning is like escaping from a vicious tyrant, usually quoted as “being unchained from a lunatic”. Visions of the madman vary; I always picture him naked, wild-haired and bearded, a bit like Terry Jones in Monty Python, capering and scampering into the distance across a rain-swept Clapham Common. The writer Guy Kennaway, in his memoir Sunbathing Naked, writes: “The chain broke, and I was the madman.” … Continue reading What women don’t get about men

Men are from Mars, women are from Venus. No woman, no cry. A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle. The only thing that the genders agree on, it seems, is that the two of them have little in common. Here, we aim to promote understanding between the two halves of the human species, with two explanatory essays by a representative of each. Ladies first… By Esther Walker David Sandison I am going to tell you a secret. It is one all women – but only a handful of men – know. It is this: most men … Continue reading What men don’t get about women

Masculinity gene revealed Scientists decoding the human genome have discovered that just 78 genes separate men from women. But what are they? It’s the Y chromosome which makes men men, and now scientists have a better idea than ever before what makes it up. But to help them on their way, and in an effort to help everyone understand the differences between the sexes, here are the suggestions of BBC News Online readers about what those 78 genes might be. Everyone’s got their own ideas about it – even if it only involves relative abilities at reading maps and putting … Continue reading What are the 78 differences between women and men?

In the panic over Islamic extremism at UK universities, we must not forget that some student radicalism is natural and valuable Jonathan Birdwell guardian.co.uk With Yemen’s deputy prime minister announcing that Umar Farouk Abdulmuttallab, the alleged Detroit bomber, “joined al-Qaida in Britain” before landing in Yemen, attention turns again to the role that UK universities play in producing terrorists among the doctors, lawyers and engineers in their graduating classes. On cue, vice-chancellors across the UK have announced that they will convene a working group to determine how to prevent the extremism that underlies acts of terrorism. But a clumsy overreaction … Continue reading Protect healthy extremism to nurture independent awareness in future generations

From the hijab in Kuwait to the niqab in Egypt, the increasingly heated debate about women’s dress has become politicised Nesrine Malik guardian.co.uk It’s not only in secular Europe where societies are trying to grapple with the highly emotive question of Islamic dress. Following the victory of four women in Kuwait’s parliamentary elections, Islamists attempted to prevent two of them from taking their seats in the house for not wearing the hijab. After a legal battle, the country’s constitutional court ruled that the women in question were not obliged to wear the Islamic attire. Egypt has been at the centre … Continue reading What women wear should not be anyones business apart from women themselves

Suspected suicide bomber Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi is seen in this handout photo. The suicide bomber who killed seven CIA officers at a US base in Afghanistan last week was an al Qaeda double-agent from Jordan, NBC News reported. –Reuters Photo/Handout Two ex-Blackwater staff charged with Afghan murders ISLAMABAD: A Pakistan television station showed on Saturday what it said was the suicide bomber double agent who killed CIA agents in Afghanistan sitting with the Pakistani Taliban leader, and reported he shared US and Jordanian state secrets with militants. Private television station AAJ showed a video of the bomber, speaking in … Continue reading CIA bomber shown on TV with Anti Pakistan Mullah Hakimullah Mehsud