From All Around The World...

It's once again time to review the winners of the annual Stella Awards.

The Stella's are named after 81 year old Stella Liebeck who spilled
coffee on herself and successfully sued McDonald 's. That case inspired
the ' Stella Awards' for the most frivolous successful lawsuits in the
United States

THIS YEAR'S AWARDS GO TO:

5th Place (Tied)
Kathleen Robertson of Austin, Texas was awarded $780,000 by a jury of her peers after breaking her ankle tripping over a toddler who was running inside a furniture store. The owners of the store were understandably surprised at the verdict, considering the misbehaving toddler was Ms. Robertson 's son.

5th Place (Tied)
19 year old Carl Truman of Los Angeles won $74,000 and medical expenses when his neighbor ran over his hand with a Honda Accord. Mr. Truman apparently did not notice there was someone at the wheel of the car when he was trying to steal the hubcaps.

5th Place (Tied)
Terrence Dickson of Bristol, Pennsylvania was leaving a house he had just finished robbing by way of the garage. He was not able to get the garage door to go up since the automatic door opener was malfunctioning. He could not re-enter the house because the door connecting the house and garage locked when he pulled it shut. The family was on vacation and Mr Dickson found himself locked in the garage for 8 days. He subsisted on a case of Pepsi he found and a large bag of dry dog food. He sued the homeowner's insurance claiming the situation caused him undue mental anguish. The Jury agreed to the tune of $500,000.

4th Place
Jerry Williams of Little Rock, Arkansas was awarded $14,500 and medical expenses after being bitten on the buttocks by his next door neighbor's Beagle dog. The Beagle was on a chain in its owner's fenced yard. The award was less than sought because the jury felt the dog might have been a little provoked at the time as Mr. Williams, who had climbed over the fence into the yard, was shooting it repeatedly with a pellet gun.

3rd Place
A Philadelphia restaurant was ordered to pay Amber Carson of Lancaster, Pennsylvania $113,500 after she slipped on a soft drink and broke her coccyx (tailbone). The beverage was on the floor because Ms. Carson had thrown it at her boyfriend 30 seconds earlier, during an argument.

2nd Place
Kara Walton of Claymont, Delaware sued the owner of a Night Club in neighboring city when she fell from the bathroom window to the floor and knocked out two of her front teeth. This occurred whilst Ms. Walton was trying to sneak in the window of the Ladies Room to avoid paying the $3.50 cover charge. She was awarded $12,000 and dental expenses.

1st Place!!!!!
This year's runaway winner was Mr. Merv Grazinski of Oklahoma City, Okla Mr. Grazinski purchased a brand new Winnebago Motor home. On his trip home from an OU football game, having driven onto the freeway, he set the cruise control at 70 mph and calmly left the driver's seat to go into the back and make himself a cup of coffee. Not surprisingly the RV left the freeway, crashed and overturned. Mr. Grazinski sued Winnebago for not advising him in the owner's manual that he could not actually do this. The jury awarded him $1,750,000 plus a new Winnebago Motor home.

The company actually changed their manuals on the basis of this suit just in case there were any other complete morons buying their recreational vehicles.

SAN ANTONIO — A group of atheists at the University of Texas at San Antonio is putting a novel twist on the toys-for-guns programs run by many urban police departments. But instead of toys, they are handing out porn in exchange for bibles.

“We consider the bible to be a very negative force in the history of the world”, student Ryan Walker said. Walker is part of a student group that calls itself the Atheist Agenda.

Club members this week posted fliers promoting what they call the “Smut for Smut” campaign then set up a table in the student union to collect religious materials and pass out adult magazines such as Black Label and Playboy.

The group is not officially sanctioned by the university and has raised the ire of several religious organizations on campus.

“In my opinion, there are no atheists. There are fools,” Pastor Rick Hawkins of UTSA’s Family Praise Center said. “So, that would be foolish propaganda. I don't know one believer that would take his Bible and turn it in for pornography.”

Hawkins obviously didn’t stop by the Atheist Agenda table, where several students had dropped off copies of the good book and walked away with skin mags.

Athiest Agenda isn’t the first student group to explore the idea of introducing porn to former bible toters. Members say they got the idea from students in Austin who ran a similar pro-porn drive.

Walker added that members thought it sounded like a creative way to exercise their freedom of speech.

Lately I've been busy downloading songs from internet. I downloaded many songs, classic, country, RnB, Rock etc. but the best of all the songs that I downloaded are the songs of George Strait (country). I've been listening to Mr. Strait for almost a year but I had only few songs but my recent collection of his songs is just great. Check out the list:

1. All My Ex's Live In Texas
2. Amarillo by Morning
3. Baby Blue
4. Baby's Gotten Good at Goodbye
5. Check Yes Or No
6. Cross My Heart
7. Fool Hearted Memory
8. I Can Still Make Cheyenne
9. I Get Carried Away
10. I Hate Everything
11. I Just Want To Dance With You
12. If you're thinking of a stranger
13. Let's Fall to Pieces Together
14. Living And Living Well
15. Love Without End, Amen
16. One Night At A Time
17. Run
18. She Let Herself Go
19. She'll Leave You With A Smile
20. So Much Like My Dad
21. Stars On The Water
22. The Chair
23. The Fireman
24. The Road Less Traveled
25. Today My World Slipped Away
26. True
27. We Really Shouldn't Be Doing This
28. When Did You Stop Loving Me
29. Write This Down
30. You'll Be There
31. You had me from hello
32. You look so good in love

Believe me all these songs are great. If any one wants these songs, leave me your email address and I will send'em to you :)

I've also been listening to Alan Jackson and Kenny Chesney. But man I don't know what's wrong with all these country music singers that their voice is almost the same. Well, I can't make a difference. What do you think am I right or is it just me???

If any body knows any other singers or songs in Country music, please tell me. Thanks!

"Well, Bill," said God, "I'm really confused on this one.

I'm not sure whether to send you to Heaven or Hell! After all, you helped society enormously by putting a computer in almost every home in the world, and yet you created that infernal Windows. I'm going to do something I've never done before. I'm going to let you decide where you want to go!"

Mr. Gates replied, "Well, thanks. What's the difference between the two?"

God said, "You can take a peek at both places briefly if it will help you decide. Shall we look at Hell first?"

"Sure!" said Bill.

"Let's go!"

Bill was amazed! He saw a clean, white sandy beach with clear waters. There were thousands of beautiful women running around, lying in the water, laughing and frolicking about. The sun was shining and the temperature was just perfect!!

Bill said, "This is great! If this is Hell, I can't wait to see Heaven!" To which God replied, "Let's go!" and off they went. Bill saw puffy white clouds in a beautiful blue sky with angels drifting about playing harps and singing. It was nice, but surely not as enticing as Hell. Mr. Gates thought for only a brief moment and rendered his decision. "God, I do believe I would like to go to Hell."

“As you desire," said God.

Two weeks later, God decided to check up on the late billionaire to see how things were going. He found Bill shackled to a wall, screaming among the hot flames in a dark cave. He was being burned and tortured by demons.

"How ya doing,' Bill?" asked God.

Bill responded with anguish and despair. "This is awful! This is not what I expected at all! What happened to the beach and the beautiful women playing in the water?"

"Oh, THAT!" said God. "That was the screen saver"

Wanna know about the reason of America's failur? Well, it ain't no hard to find the truth. Follow the steps below and you'll find out.

1. Go to www.google.com
2. Type in "Failure" without quotes
3. Now instead of hitting "Google Search" hit the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button
4. You got the reason of America's failure

Let's see when they kick google's ass for this. Tell other people about it too.

Thanks to my dearest friend Waqas Raja for emailing me this truth.

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Yvonne Ridley is the Sunday Express journalist who hit the headlines when she was arrested after being sent to cover the build-up to the Afghan war.

Two years ago Yvonne was detained on suspicion of spying after going in search of a scoop disguised in a traditional burka

But it ended in disaster when she was thrown into prison and held for ten days, while the government, Yvonne's family and work colleagues tried to secure her release.

Against the odds Yvonne was set free, but her time in the hands of the Taliban proved to be a life-changing experience.

Against The Odds

Yvonne Ridley says she was 'simply doing her job' when she was seized by the Taliban near the city of Jalalabad.

As Yvonne explains, "A camera which I had hidden in the folds of my burka slipped out right into the full view of a passing Taliban soldier."

"He went crazy - cameras were banned under the regime - and pulled me off the donkey and removed the camera."

For the first six days Yvonne was held in the intelligence headquarters in Jalalabad before being taken to Kabul prison.

Her cell was very basic and the experience was terrifying. Yvonne lay on her bed inside a dirty, claustrophobic prison cell with no running water.

"Every morning I woke up, I thought 'is this going to be my last day?'" she says.

Hostage to Fortune

Although Yvonne was never physically hurt in any way, the experience was mentally exhausting.

"Although they were very nice, I just thought 'these are the good guys, the bad cops are going to appear at any time now with electrodes and torture instruments, or I'm going to be taken outside and shot."

While being held captive she kept a secret diary using the inside of a box from a toothpaste tube and the inside of a soap wrapper.

Yvonne recorded her thoughts when she was in her cell.

"They tried to break me mentally by asking the same questions time and time again, day after day, sometimes until 9 o'clock at night," she recalls.

Muslim Convert

Whilst in prison Yvonne tried to secure her release by offering to read the Koran or Qur'an. It was the start of her conversion to Islam.

Yvonne took on the Muslim faith in August 2003. As a result she's given up drinking, tries to pray five times a day and visits a mosque every Friday.

So why has a feisty war correspondent been drawn to a faith which some in the west say oppresses women?

"I started reading the Koran and it was an absolutely breathtaking. It could have been written yesterday for today."

"It was crystal clear that women are equal in spirituality, worth and education," says Yvonne.

Yvonne was brought up as a Protestant in Stanley, sang in the church choir, and was the Sunday school teacher in her village.

Today she's exchanged her Church of England upbringing for Islam and a very different set of spiritual beliefs.

Changing Places

It's not just her faith that Yvonne has changed - she also has a new employer, the controversial Arab broadcaster Al Jazeera.

Yvonne works on their new English website, and she's hooked on the internet. "It's a really exciting 24/7 operation... if something breaks, we can put it straight onto the Internet," she says.

Yvonne believes Al Jazeera has given the Arab world a previously unheard independent voice.

Anti-War Campaigner

Yvonne's experiences in the Middle East have made her a vocal anti-war campaigner.

She started to think about the futility of war because, in her words, "These missiles can't differentiate between civilians and military targets, between a woman, a child and a soldier."

"If I can use any of my fifteen minutes of notoriety and celebrity for good, then I will," says Yvonne.

Yvonne has also changed as a person. "I think I've become more reflective and tolerant than I used to be," she concludes.

In just two years, Yvonne has been transformed from a war corespondent to a committed Muslim with a new lifestyle and a change of career.

It's been an amazing spiritual and physical journey for the North East-born journalist who finally has found her spiritual roots, thousands of miles from her country of birth.

From Durham to Dohar, it's been an amazing adventure and a fascinating spiritual rebirth.