AWC new’s

India’s legendary Lake Palace, a favourite hotel of the rich and famous and known as one of the most romantic retreats in the world, has lost its lake.

Guests at the five-star hotel, which is normally reachable only by boat, are instead being ferried to their luxury rooms by four-wheel-drive vehicles.

Set in the desert state of Rajasthan, the Udaipur Lake Palace has been visited by Madonna and Guy Ritchie, while Nicole Kidman was a guest in March. Sir Mick Jagger is also a frequent visitor and the palace was used as a setting for the James Bond film Octopussy.

But with India teetering on the brink of its worst drought in years and experts predicting a failure of the monsoon, the palace now protrudes out of cracked brown mud. Local children have been spotted playing cricket on a bumpy pitch that would normally be 10 feet under water.

Tourism, on which 40 per cent of Udaipur’s 2.5 million residents depend, has dried up as quickly as the lake.

According to the latest estimates of the India Meteorological Department, rainfall during this year’s monsoon has so far been 43 per cent below the long-term average.

The northern state of Himachal Pradesh, which rises to the foothills of the Himalayas, has received the lowest rainfall in 20 years.

“Instead of boats, four wheelers are running on the lake,” said Lakshyaraj Singh Mewar, whose family owns the hotel.

“Pichola Lake has dried up, partially due to less rains in the city last year and also due to regular withdrawal of water for drinking purposes.”

With the lakes drying up, business has been hit.

“It has a huge impact on tourism, especially the hotel industry. We have slashed prices but are still unable to increase tourist footfall,” he said.

“The situation is the same across the board. After the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack and recession, the drying up of lakes is weighing heavy on the industry.”

On July 18 2009 a huge horde of Zombies will walk on the streets of Frankfurt am Main for the 3rd time! Bigger, better and bloodier than ever before…

Photo Review:

A United States F-18 fighter jet has crashed into a residential neighbourhood in California, destroying a house, but there are no immediate reports of injuries, aviation and military officials said.

Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor said in a statement the pilot of the jet ejected as the plane made its approach to land at the Marine Corps Air Station in Miramar, near San Diego, shortly before midday on Monday (local time).

A Marine Corps spokesman meanwhile, has confirmed the plane was carrying two crew but their fate was not immediately known.

The cause of the crash is also unknown, Captain Carl Redding said.

There are no immediate reports of the pilot’s condition or possible injuries on the ground, but local television showed plumes of thick white smoke rising from the crash site in the suburb of University City.

The charred remains of a building were also clearly visible.

The San Diego Fire-Rescue Department said the crash destroyed one home and extensively damaged another before a blaze at the scene was extinguished.

One eyewitness told a local television reporter that the plane had spiraled out of control like a scene from 1986 movie Top Gun, the hit film about a US Navy fighter pilot played by Tom Cruise.

“It just spiraled right out of Top Gun. It came flying down. My mother screamed,” the man said, reporting that he had seen the plane’s pilot after he parachuted to earth at a nearby school playing field.

“He just looked like he was dazed like ‘Oh, my God, what happened over civilian air space?’,” he said.

Witnesses told local radio the pilot might have been heading the plane to crash in a big canyon nearby, thereby avoiding the school.

Gayle Newcomb, an assistant at University City High School near the crash site, said the plane “missed the school entirely” and all the students are safe.

UFO enthusiasts are pressing Barack Obama to release classified documents about sightings of alien spacecraft, encouraged by support from within the President-Elect’s own White House team.

Desperate to see the US emulate the British Government and disclose reported “contact” with UFOs, the enthusiasts have written to Mr Obama to ask that his administration comes clean about the contents of America’s “X-Files”.

They believe they have good prospects of success after public statements of support from both John Podesta, who is running Mr Obama’s White House transition team, and Bill Richardson, the Governor of New Mexico – a UFO sighting hotspot – who is expected to secure a cabinet post.

In the letter to Mr Obama, the Extraterrestrial Phenomenon Political Action Committee calls on the President-Elect to “end the six-decade truth embargo regarding an extraterrestrial presence engaging the human race“.

The group wants the incoming president to insist on a “full briefing from your military services and intelligence agencies regarding what they know” and to open congressional hearings “to take testimony from scores of government witnesses who have already come forward with extraordinary evidence and are prepared to testify under oath.”

The campaigners, who resent their common portrayal as nuts and conspiracy theorists, have high hopes of success due to their inside track with Mr Obama.

When he was the White House chief of staff under Bill Clinton, Mr Podesta led a project to declassify 800 million pages of intelligence documents. In a press conference, still available to watch on the YouTube website, Mr Podesta said: “It is time for the government to declassify records that are more than 25 years old and to provide scientists with data that will assist in determining the real nature of this phenomenon.“

Gov Richardson, a former presidential candidate and fellow UFO aficionado, has written a forward to a book on the so-called Roswell Incident in New Mexico, where campaigners believe an alien spacecraft crash landed near the town of Roswell in 1947 and that the corpses of humanoid aliens have been kept hidden under lock and key by the government.

He has called for full disclosure by the Pentagon of what really occurred and reiterated his belief that there had been a “cover-up” during a presidential debate last year.

The campaigners, who want the truth “out there”, believe that the British Government’s decision to declassify thousands of UFO sighting documents this year has made it untenable for the US to maintain its policy of non-disclosure.

Only last week a US Air Force pilot, Milton Torres, whose testimony was released from the British archives, appeared on US television explaining how he was ordered to shoot down a large UFO over the UK in 1957 and then silenced by military officials, who told him never to speak of the incident.

Stephen Bassett, Executive Director of the Extraterrestrial Phenomenon Political Action Committee, expects to have gathered 40,000 signatures via email and fax by Mr Obama’s inauguration day on Jan 20 in support of his calls for openness.

He told The Sunday Telegraph: “The truth embargo is now at the end of the line. The release of documents in Britain and France has put huge pressure on the US. It makes the government here look pretty stupid.

“I think we are seeing the Democrats moving towards disclosure. John Podesta has outed himself as an enthusiast. He thinks the American public can handle the truth. Bill Richardson thinks there was a cover-up.“

Mr Bassett also believes that military and intelligence officials have studied the technology of alien spacecraft, material that would help the US develop new energy resources, as Mr Obama wishes, that will lessen US dependency on Middle Eastern oil.

Brittany Snow hosted the 4th bi-annual YMI Jeanswear Fashion Show last night at Boulevard3 in LA. She looked absolutely adorable in a white scoop neck sleeveless blouse and perfectly fitted YMI jeans from their premium Royalty line along with a cute cropped leopard print jacket. She did and awesome job as the host as the the show and party were a blast and you could tell she was having so much fun checking out beauty products from Too Faced and chatting and dancing with friends. Brittany Snow is definitely the “It” girl of the moment.

Brittany Snow

The show was super energetic, sexy, and overall enertaining. Lots of denim as you’d expect! They covered all the trends: high-waist jeans, short-shorts, skinny, wide-leg … and perfectly paired washes to styles. You name it, YMI has it covered.

YMI is available at Nordstroms, Macys, Dillards, and specialty chain stores worldwide. If you have never tried YMI (I hadn’t before this event) I highly suggest trying a pair on. I was lucky enough to score a pair and I love them! They have a great fit and sexy style – I am definitely going to rock these.

Cool washes and pocket details

The high-waisted trend

Sexy short-shorts (I could never, but she’s rockin them!)

Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan Rexhep warned of the likelihood of launch attacks on the Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq, where Kurds allegedly attacking into Turkey.
According to Radio Liberty, speaking on Saturday in the city of Izmit before the mass rally, Erdogan said that Turkey would begin invasion “when deems appropriate” and it does not need anyone permission.
These statements followed the negotiations provalivshimisya Turkey and Iraq on the suppression of Kurdish raids.
Prior to the military command of Turkey stated that Ankara would take a final decision on military operations against Kurdish fighters in northern Iraq only after consultations with the United States.
Washington calls on Ankara to a diplomatic solution

Recent geological studies conducted in the territory of Northern Ireland (member of the United Kingdom) have shown that concentrated in the province of previously unknown gold deposits, transfers RIA Novosti. Traces of gold were found under a layer of fertile soil in the counties of Down, Tayron, Londonderry and Antrim, and in the east county Antrim also found traces of platinum. “There is every indication that gold can be distributed in a much broader than we originally thought,” said Director of Geological Research Society Garth Erls Northern Ireland. While repetition “gold fever”, such as those in Alaska or Australia, in Ulster are not likely to wait, a number of foreign companies are already engaged in the commercial further study of possible gold deposits.