Mexican woman becomes world's 'oldest person' - but lost her only proof 40 years ago

(Telegraph) - She was 27 when World War One erupted, 75 when John F. Kennedy was shot and nearly 100 when the Berlin Wall came down.

Now Leandra Becerra Lumbreras is celebrating her latest milestone – becoming the oldest person who has ever lived.

According to relatives and friends, the chocolate-loving Mexican marks her 127th birthday today.

But there will not be any visits from officials at the Guinness Book of Records – she lost her birth certificate while moving house 40 years ago.

Supposedly born on August 31, 1887 – the year Queen Victoria celebrated her Golden Jubilee – she has attributed her long life to eating well, snacking on chocolate, sleeping for days on end and never getting married, according to her family.

Burger King to buy Canada's Tim Hortons for $11.5 billion

#CanadianProblems

Aug 26 (Reuters) - Burger King Worldwide Inc (BKW.N) announced plans to buy Canadian coffee and doughnut chain Tim Hortons Inc (THI.TO) for C$12.64 billion ($11.53 billion) in a cash-and-stock deal that would create the world's third-largest fast-food restaurant group.

With roughly $23 billion in combined annual sales, more than 18,000 restaurants in 100 countries and two strong, independent brands, the new entity would have an extensive global footprint and significant growth potential, the companies said in a joint statement on Tuesday.

The companies had said on Sunday that they were in merger talks, and shares of both soared on Monday.

GB: Teenager dies 'after taking ice bucket challenge'

(Telegraph) - A teenager has died after joining in a variation of the latest internet craze, the ice bucket challenge.

Cameron Lancaster is believed to be the first victim of the trend, in which people film themselves having ice water poured over their heads for charity.

The 18-year-old was found dead after jumping into a disused quarry.

Mr Lancaster disappeared under the water at Prestonhill Quarry in Inverkeithing, Fife, on Sunday.

He is thought to have jumped feet first off a cliff into shallow water, in response to the internet mania that has swept around the world.

Too Soon? Netherlands Official Calls ISIS A "Zionist Plot"

ISIS has yet to respond..

BCF: The charge of “Islamophobia” is being used to silence people, so that any opposition will be neutralized before it can even start.

On Tuesday last week, Yasmina Haifi, an official at the National Coordinator for Security and Counterterrorism in the Netherlands, tweeted: “ISIS has nothing to do with Islam. It is a preconceived plan of Zionists who want to deliberately make Islam look bad.”

For the past ten years, Ms. Haifi has been a senior staff member at the human resources department of the Ministry of Security and Justice. For the past two years she has also worked as a project leader at two of the Ministry's subsidiaries, the National Coordinator for Security and Counterterrorism and the National Cyber Security Center.

The outcry from the general public that followed her remarks initially did little to make her take back her words. The next day, however, she deleted the tweet, saying: “Realise the political sensitivity in relation to my work. This was never my intention.” The same day, Haifi told national broadcast Radio 1 that she had no idea her comments would cause such an upheaval. “I assumed I was living in a democratic country,” she said. “Apparently freedom of speech in the Netherlands applies to particular groups and not to others”...

Texas Gov. Rick Perry Booked On Abuse-of-Power Charges

(WSJ) AUSTIN, Texas—Gov. Rick Perry was booked in a courthouse here Tuesday after being indicted last week on felony charges that he abused his authority when trying to force a Democratic district attorney from office.

Mr. Perry, a potential 2016 Republican presidential candidate, spoke to reporters outside the Blackwell-Thurman Criminal Justice Center before and after he went inside for booking, a process that typically includes fingerprinting and a mug shot.

"I'm here today because I believe in the rule of law," a smiling Mr. Perry said before going inside the courthouse. "I did the right thing. I'm going to enter this courthouse with my head held high."

A grand jury indicted Mr. Perry on Friday on two felony counts for allegedly improperly threatening to veto $7.5 million in funding for the Travis County Public Integrity Unit, which handles political-corruption investigations in Texas, if Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg didn't resign following an arrest for drunken driving.

Ms. Lehmberg declined to quit, and Mr. Perry carried out the veto in June of last year.

The longest-serving governor in Texas history, Mr. Perry faces felony counts of abuse of official capacity and coercion of a public servant. The first charge carries a maximum punishment of five to 99 years in prison, while the second could lead to two to 10 years behind bars.

Following the booking Tuesday, Mr. Perry called the prosecution a "chilling restraint on the right to free speech," and he vowed to prevail in the case. "This indictment is fundamentally a political act that seeks to achieve at the courthouse what could not be achieved at the ballot box." Read more Here

Ebola is a hoax: Mob Destroys Ebola Center In Liberia Two Days After It Opens

Via BCF:

"A mob descended on the center at around 5:30 p.m., chanting, “No Ebola in West Point! No Ebola in West Point!” They stormed the front gate and pushed into the holding center. They stole the few gloves someone had donated this morning, and the chlorine sprayers used to disinfect the bodies of those who die here, all the while hollering that Ebola is a hoax."

Nearly 1 in 4 US workers go without paid time off

(bostonglobe) - Every summer, coworkers around the country ask each other the same exhilarating question: “Where are you going on vacation?”

But many of them aren’t going anywhere — not because they don’t want to, but because they can’t.

Nearly a quarter of the American private-sector workforce, some 26 million workers, doesn’t get paid time off, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics — compared with less than one-fifth in the 1990s.The United States is the only advanced economy that doesn’t guarantee paid vacation and one of only 13 countries in the world not to do so, according to the World Policy Analysis Center at the University of California Los Angeles

In this regard, the United States falls in line with India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sierra Leone, and a handful of island nations that don’t require employers to offer workers paid time off. France, on the other hand, mandates 30 paid vacation days a year for all workers; Scandinavian countries offer 25. US citizens in Puerto Rico get three weeks off a year.

Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Greece, and Sweden even require employers to pay vacationing workers extra to help with expenses.

In the United States, low-wage earners disproportionately work without paid vacation. Only 49 percent of those in the bottom fourth of earners get p aid time off, compared with 90 percent among the top quarter of earners.