School That Teaches Afghan Girls To Speak For Themselves

School that teaches Afghan girls to speak for themselves (via AFP)

Dah Yaya is an Afghan village set in stony hills and steeped in traditions that limit women to second-class status in this desperately poor country ravaged by Taliban insurgency. But in a school set up by an Afghan-American woman named a 2012 top 10…

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Malala Yousafzai Vows Not To Be Silenced By Attack

Malala vows not to be silenced by attack (via AFP)

Pakistan teenager Malala Yousafzai told the United Nations on Friday that she would not be silenced by terrorist threats, in her first public speech since being shot by the Taliban. "They thought that the bullet would silence us, but they failed," Malala…

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• Girls throng to school in Swat as Malala Yousafzai addresses UN 
• Malala To Be Honored At UN Youth Assembly 

Let's Stand With Malala To End The Education Emergency!

The Taliban shot 15-year-old Malala in the head for her education activism. But she survived, helped win education for all girls in Pakistan, and will address the UN in 3 days asking leaders to agree to put every child on the planet in school, a shockingly achievable goal. Let's stand with her, and call for education for all... 

Book Tour: 'In Stone' By Louise D. Gornall [Book Trailer And Giveaway Included]

"Beau Bailey is suffering from a post-break-up meltdown when she happens across a knife in her local park and takes it home. Less than a week later, the new boy in school has her trapped in an alley; he’s sprouted horns and is going to kill Beau unless she hands over the knife. 

Until Eighteenth-century gargoyle, Jack, shows up to save her. 

Jack has woken from a century-long slumber to tell Beau that she’s unwittingly been drafted into a power struggle between two immortal races: Demons and Gargoyles. The knife is the only one in existence capable of killing immortals and they’ll tear the world apart to get it back. To draw the warring immortals away from her home, Beau goes with Jack in search of the mind-bending realm known as the Underworld, a place where they’ll hopefully be able to destroy the knife and prevent all hell from breaking loose. That is, provided they can outrun the demons chasing them."

Today's Book Tour is for 'In Stone', a YA paranormal romance novel written by Louise D. Gornall, and its hosting post is quite on the mega side as we have not only info about the book and its author, but also a Book Trailer and a quite lengthy excerpt as well as a Guest Post especially written for us by Louise D. Gornall.

Oh, and there is a Giveaway as well (open only to residents in the US, UK, Australia and Canada though)...

Enjoy!

Loup Dargent

5 Company Names That Translate With Bizarre Consequences

For global companies, naming their brand and products doesn’t come without its problems. With more than 150 languages spoken by at least a million people each, it’s a difficult task to make sure that the names chosen are not going to cause a problem when translated – the last thing you want is to offend your potential customers. However, inevitably some names slip through the net and it is not until after they have been launched that the problems with the name become clear.

Snowden: The Geek Turned Deep Throat

Snowden: The geek turned Deep Throat (via AFP)

Hunted as a US traitor and at the center of a diplomatic row, Edward Snowden got off to a less spectacular start in life: he is a self-confessed geek and high school dropout. Snowden, 30, came out of nowhere to trigger one of the biggest intelligence…

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Prince Charles Fears Rise of Anti-Semitism in Britain

Prince Charles fears rise of anti-Semitism in Britain (via AFP)

Prince Charles spoke out against the "apparent rise in anti-Semitism" in Britain and warned of "other poisonous and debilitating forms of intolerance" after a series of attacks on mosques. Charles was speaking at a London event celebrating Jonathan…

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Explosive Device Found Outside British Mosque

Yep, another attack on a mosque... and this time it was a bomb.

Of course, it didn't take long for some English Defence League Supporters to publicly rejoice about it on Facebook (will they ever learn?)... You can find their outrageous comments here, in this latest post from TellMaMaUK.org.

The following article from AFP is unfortunately several hours old, so I have added links to more recent ones as well. Feel free to check out those and some of the related ones at the end of this post!

Stay safe!

Loup Dargent

Update!
After we published this post, we got in touch on Twitter with @TellMamaUK  and asked if they would not mind giving us a statement and they kindly agreed to provide us one... here it is:

"After Woolwich, we were aware of the number of anti-Muslim incidents was steeply rising and that the spike was high. We were also aware that mosques were potential visible targets and our data was showing that. The explosive device outside the mosque is a turn for the worst and this is deeply worrying."

'Man Of Steel' - Do Fans' Expectations Scare Hollywood?

Man of Steel opened up this last weekend with mixed reviews from both critics and fanboys alike.  Though the majority of those mixed reviews leaned towards the movie being "good"  the real concern isn't a sequel, but if there will be a DC movie universe.  See Warner Bros. promised that if it did well a Justice League movie based in the universe that the Man of Steel created would be launched.  So you might forgive us super nerds if we're on the edge of our seats right now!

Justice League is the Avengers of the DC comic universe.  Where as the Avengers have all the Marvel comic greats like Iron Man, Thor, and Captain America, Justice League has Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman.  So just as every Marvel comic fan out there dreamed of seeing an Avengers movie hit the big screen, DC comic fans stand jealous due to the lack of big screen movie love of their favorite super hero team.

Even though Man of Steel opened to $125 million, even though the suits at Warner Bros. have already green lighted a direct sequel, there is no guarantee that a Justice League movie will reach the big screen.  Variety magazine had an interview with Warner Bros' Jeff Robinov in which he says, "stakes are high for 'Man of Steel.'  Other than Nolan's Batpics, Warners has not been able to effectively exploit the DC library."

Suspected Jewish Extremists Vandalise Arab Israeli Town

Ahmad Gharabli/AFP: An Arab Israeli man points to graffiti that reads in Hebrew "Arabs out" (left) and "assimliation" scrawled on the wall of a house in the Arab Israeli town of Abu Ghosh, west of Jerusalem on June 18, 2013...

Suspected Jewish extremists vandalise Arab Israeli town (via AFP)

Suspected Jewish extremists punctured the tyres of 28 cars and scrawled graffiti in an Arab Israeli town before dawn on Tuesday in the latest in a spate of apparent hate crimes, an AFP correspondent reported. On a wall near the vandalised cars in Abu Ghosh, west of Jerusalem, the perpetrators wrote…

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Celebrity Babies - How These Star Mums Welcomed Their Children Into The World

Preparing for a new baby is a fun and exciting time, and it can be great for any mum to be to have a chance to celebrate with her closest friends and family, where she can be spoiled a little before the responsibilities of motherhood take over her life! Of course, if anybody knows how to throw beautiful baby showers, it's those A-list stars!

With celebrity babies being big news, famous moms can have a lot of attention on them as they prepare to give birth. Here are some of the ways friends of the stars have helped them to relax and celebrate before welcoming their babies into the world:

Julian Assange: A Year In The Ecuador's London Embassy

Julian Assange: a year in the embassy (via AFP)

It is an odd sight: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is wearing a jacket and tie, but no shoes. Then again, if you have not stepped outside Ecuador's London embassy for a year, shoes are largely pointless. In an interview with AFP to mark this strange anniversary, the man behind the whistleblowing…

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