Valkyrie

The scene in 1992: a fitting at Calvin Klein, where Nadja Auermann, a 6-foot fashion Valkyrie, was trying on the nude-toned slip dress she was to model on the Klein runway. 

“She totally filled it out in this voluptuous way,” recalled Nian Fish, whose job as creative director of the KCD public-relations agency involved overseeing the proceedings. 

An instant later, a scrap of a girl emerged from behind the racks to shimmy into the same dress. “It was falling away from her body,” Fish said. “We put sandals on her, and the whole silhouette changed.” 

 The girl was Kate Moss, and her fragile air heralded the sea change that would do away with the excesses of the 1980s in favor of a stripped-down and louche approach to dress that would define the new decade.

White Rose

In LADY RAWHIDE #1, the masked heroine faces not only the corrupt forces of the government - bent on intimidating the populace through privation and cruelty, but also a new team of vigilantes known as the Sisters of the White Rose.  The Sisters, inspired by the legends of Zorro and Lady Rawhide, have taken up the struggle against tyranny.  While Lady Rawhide supports their goals, she cannot condone their bloody methods and finds herself facing off against her own devotees!

"Lady Rawhide is a thief, a bandit, a rogue," explains Eric Trautmann, writer of the five-part miniseries.  "But she exists in a time and place where, as a woman, society has strictly defined what her behaviour should be.  Her vigilante, Robin Hood-esque actions are subversive, and her overtly flamboyant costuming rejects those social conventions.  She's driven by a desire to control her environment on her terms… and society's encumbrances be damned."

Humid

Flamenco diva Soledad Barrio is the only woman onstage this time. Her company, Noche Flamenca, is halfway through its latest run at the Lucille Lortel Theatre, and hulking male figures surround her with their shadows.

The male singers are hoarse as if from breathing dust, the guitarists focused and alert, and the male dancers are tense, their heels striking the floor.

The atmosphere seems humid with their sweat and desperation. Clearly terrible things have happened: Lovers have been untrue; money has run out; people have been murdered. And worse can be expected. Flamenco thrives on such intimations of tragedy, expressing red streams of emotion.

Poles

The song may have been called "Party in the USA," but when Miley Cyrus recently treated her Teen Choice Awards audience to a pole dance atop an ice cream truck, dressed in extremely short shorts, black boots and a bra-revealing tank top, the general impression was that the party was taking place in a strip joint.

Mothers of little girls cringed: Who provided the pole? And since when do Miley's backup dancers gyrate like the Pussycat Dolls?

Then there is the August issue of Elle, which features America's favourite 16-year-old in a number of contrived poses. In one, she's in black stilettos, with an exposed midriff, striking a backbend-pelvic-thrust combo. On the cover, she's in a leather push-up bustier, her cleavage revealed.

The overall impression of the girl in these pictures is perhaps the opposite from what is intended: She projects not confident sexuality but confusion. Even when reclining on her back offering up her black thigh-high boots for inspection, Miley seems to be saying not "Take me!" but, "Do I really have to do this?"

Rae Bareli

Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi won a by-election by a huge margin on Thursday, and will return to parliament from the Rae Bareli constituency in Uttar Pradesh, TV stations said.

Gandhi sought re-election upon quitting in March after the opposition accused her of violating the constitution by being a lawmaker as well as head of the National Advisory Council.

Former

Former Countdown presenter Carol Vorderman has paid tribute to the thousands of men who gave their lives in wartime when she launched a new Royal Air Force supporters club.

The TV presenter visited Lincolnshire to lend her support to the Official Royal Air Force Memorial Flight Club.

Miss Vorderman, was accompanied at RAF Coningsby by her boyfriend Graham Duff, a former Red Arrows Squadron Leader. The new RAF club will give supporters greater insight into the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight, which includes the Spitfire, Hurricane and Dakota aircraft, and how it runs.

The Revolution of Maria da Fonte, or Revolution of the Minho, is the name given to a popular revolt in the spring of 1846 against the Cartista government of Portugal (presided over by António Bernardo da Costa Cabral, 1st Marquess of Tomar). The revolt resulted from social tensions remaining from the Liberal Wars, exacerbated by great popular discontent generated by new military recruitment laws, fiscal alterations and the prohibition on burials inside churches. It was begun in the area of Póvoa de Lanhoso (Minho) by a popular uprising that little by little extended to the whole north of Portugal. The instigator of the initial riots was a woman called Maria, native of the freguesia of Fontarcada, who would become known by the nickname of Maria da Fonte. As the initial phase of the insurrection had a strong female element, she ended up giving her name to the revolt. The uprising afterwards spread to the remainder of the country and provoked the replacement of the government of Costa Cabral by one presided over by Pedro de Sousa Holstein, 1st Duke of Palmela. When queen Maria II dismissed that government in a palace coup, known as the Emboscada (Ambush), on October 6 that year, and instead nominated marshal João Francisco de Saldanha Oliveira e Daun, 1st Duke of Saldanha to form a new one, the insurrection was reignited. The result was a civil war of 8 months, known as the Patuleia, that was only ended by the signing of the Convention of Gramido on 30 June 1847, after the intervention of foreign military forces from the Quadruple Alliance.

Newseum Honours Hamas

Hamas is the Palestinian Sunni Islamic or Islamist organisation, with an associated military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades,  located in the Palestinian territories.

Newseum Honors Hamas Terrorists Alongside Daniel Pearl | FrontPage Magazine

Statuesque

Campaigners are planning to erect the first public statue of Mary Queen of Scots in her homeland.

Supporters from the Marie Stuart Society want to place a £100,000 bronze statue outside Linlithgow Palace, in West 
Lothian, in her honour.

Margaret Lumsdaine, president of the society, said: “Although there are a few small statues in private places, we don’t know of any official public statues of Mary Queen of Scots.

“She is the mother of the United Kingdom, because her son James VI united the English and the Scottish crowns.

“Mary is in a line of iconic Scots and I think most Scots would like to see a statue in her memory. It will be educational to our children and add an interest to tourism.”

Tamworth

Only a year has passed since Tamworth fitness fanatic Kelly Davis nervously set foot on stage in her first bodybuilding competition Miss Galaxy Universe.

Fearing she would be criticised by her on-looking more experienced rivals, the 33-year-old conquered her fears finishing third in the Fitness models section and winning the Yummy Mummy section.

Read more: http://www.thisistamworth.co.uk/Female-bodybuilder-Kelly-Davis-ready-Miss-Galaxy/story-18881921-detail/story.html#ixzz2SGAKmcnz
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Hyatt

 President Barack Hussein Obama nominated long-time friend and ally, Penny Pritzker to become the nation’s secretary of commerce today. Ms. Pritzker is the heir to the Hyatt Hotel fortune and only the 3rd female in history to be nominated to this cabinet level position of female leadership.

If accepted, Pritzker will follow in the footsteps of interm Commerce Secretary Rebecca Blank. Blank was previously the Acting Secretary from July 2011 until October 2011.

“It’s a known fact that women have a better history of balancing budgets better than men,” quipped Tracey Trottenberg, founder of Amazing Women International. “The world is starving for Female Leadership. When we, as women, hold ourselves back, we hold everyone back. And there are so many ways we do this. Yet when we allow ourselves to shine, be powerful, joyful, strong and soft, everyone around us grows. The nomination of Pritzker is a good one, not just because she is a woman, but because she is a powerful, economically sound leader and emodies female leadership at the highest level.”