PHOTOS: UAE Residents Pose With Supercars and Lions, As They Boast About Lavish Lifestyle

Is it the hottest way to brag about your lavish lifestyle these days and wealthy?

Persian Gulf residents have taken their Instagram boasting to a new level.
Apparently posing with vicious big cats is the ultimate status symbol in the Persian Gulf although whether it is impressive or hugely stupid is up to you.
The flash lad has over 250,000 followers who are obviously big fans of his fancy cars and big cats.
While it is not clear what Albuqaish does for a living or how he affords his pets, it is certainly a life that most can only dream of.
Another user attempted to better Albuqaish by posting a photo of cheetah joining him and a pal on a speed boat.
Foolish: The lad may find it funny now but he may be on the end of a bad accident one day

Lavish: Itslavishbitch was more traditionally boastful, posing with bundles of cash
Jasmin Ali runs the Ras Al Khaimah Wildlife Park in the United Arab Emirates and adopts and cares for the big cats once they have been cast aside by their cruel owners.
Speaking to CNN he said: "If someone buys a very expensive animal, he is boasting that he has enough money to get anything he wants.

Rich: Two kids go for a spin on a speedboat with a cheetah up front
"If he has a tamed wild animal like a lion, he is trying to show off that he is brave. But that is not courage, this is animal rights abuse."
As well as being incredibly cruel to take the wild animals out of their natural environment - the ownership of the animals may very well be illegal.

In 2010 over 200 illegal animals were confiscated in the UAE including white lions, tigers, panthers and cheetahs.
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Oprah Winfrey Shuns Obama, Refuses White House Invitation

Oprah Winfrey has been notably distancing herself from President Obama and First Lady Michelle and apparently her latest slight came against Obamacare.
The media icon was asked to attend a meeting at the White House along with other celebrities to see how they could help create some positive publicity for the Affordable Care Act.
Rather than jumping on board like Alicia Keys and Jennifer Hudson, Oprah reportedly quickly said that she would not be attending the meeting.
'All of Oprah’s top people thought she would go, because when the president invites you to the White House, most people automatically say yes, but Oprah said she didn’t have the time or inclination to go. It wasn’t like she had to think it over. It was an immediate, flat-out, unequivocal no,' an Oprah advisor told journalist Ed Klein.
According to Klein, the slight is just the talk show host's latest way of getting back at the Obama administration for failing to live up to the alleged promises that they agreed to when Winfrey campaigned for Obama in 2008.
The talk show host used her sizable clout to help get the then-one-term Senator elected, and she thought that in return, she would be able to have special access to the administration.
This is a burnt bridge that will not be fixed anytime soon, Klein argues, which could come at more of a cost to the TV host than the President.
'Obama hasn’t budged, and neither has Oprah. She’s hurt and angry, and I seriously doubt that Oprah will ever make up with the Obamas. She knows how to hold a grudge,' a source close to Winfrey said.
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WEIRDNESS: 21 People Set On Fire For Guinness World Record

A group of Cleveland residents lit themselves on fire Saturday, setting a new world record while raising money for charity at the same time.

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Twenty-one people were lit on fire to break the Guinness World Record of the most people performing full-body burns.
The previous record was set in 2009 when 17 people were simultaneously set on fire.
"We take a lot of heat in Cleveland as the Burning River City," said John Gadd, CEO of Hotcards, a Cleveland-based printing company that sponsored the event.

"Yet, it became the catalyst for a lot of Cleveland pride, including environmental movements, breweries, and a whole lot of 'Hot in Cleveland' fame."
Participants wore multiple layers of special gel-soaked clothing to protect themselves from the flames in the event that took place along the banks of the Cuyahoga River in downtown Cleveland.
According to the Cleveland Plain Dealer, the group was on fire for 32 seconds.

A representative from Guinness World Records was on hand to certify the results.
"Oh, it was amazing, like the energy of the crowd was great," Beth Hayden, one of the participants said.
"It felt really, really good. It was really great to be here with new friends, old friends all on fire together."

Proceeds from the event go to the Cleveland Food Bank and Brick by Brick Organization,which is run by a Cleveland minister and burner, Mark Simone.
Participants included Gadd, stuntman Ted Batchelor, who was a part of the 2009 group, and Cleveland radio morning show host Archie Berwick.
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UN probes new alleged chemical weapons attacks in Syria

 

 

UN inspectors are investigating seven alleged chemical weapons attacks in Syria - three of which happened after the 21 August Damascus incident that led to threats of US military action.

Little is known about the latest three alleged attacks, which the Syrian government asked the UN to investigate.
The 21 August attack left hundreds dead; the resulting outcry led Syria to offer up its chemical weapons arsenal.
The UN will vote later on a plan of action to eliminate the stockpile.
Its resolution is expected to incorporate the text of an agreement by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which is due to be approved by the OPCW's 41-nation executive council in The Hague in the next few hours.
The OPCW will be responsible for dealing with Syria's chemical weapons, and has said it will send in its own team of inspectors next Tuesday.
US President Barack Obama said agreement on the issue by UN Security Council members was a "potentially huge victory for the international community".

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Analysis

Jonathan Marcus BBC diplomatic correspondent

The UN team investigating the seven alleged chemical attacks is entirely separate from the more comprehensive effort to rid Syria of chemical weapons agreed at the UN Security Council in New York.
This is a renewal of work by the team that was already in Syria last month that was diverted for the urgent investigation of the attacks in the Damascus suburbs on 21 August.
It has returned to investigate alleged attacks at seven separate incidents. Strikingly three of them are alleged to have taken place after the 21 August. These incidents, according to the UN "warrant further investigation".
The investigation of these three allegations comes at the request of Syria's ambassador to the UN who claims these were the work of rebel forces.
Russia has frequently charged that elements of the Syrian opposition have used chemical weapons - though so far no evidence has been found.
The UN itself investigated the 21 August attacks and its evidence points strongly to the use of Sarin-filled rockets by the Syrian regime.

Meanwhile violence goes on in Syria. Activists said a car bomb killed at least 20 people near a mosque in Rankus, a town north of Damascus, just after Friday prayers.

Militants accused In a statement, the UN said its current inspection team in Syria is investigating seven allegations of chemical weapons use this year.
The team, led by Ake Sellstrom, arrived in Syria for its second visit on 25 September and hopes to finish its work by Monday 30 September, the statement said.
It is working on a "comprehensive report" into the allegations that it hopes to have finished by late October.
The UN listed the alleged attacks, which all took place this year, as Khan al-Assal on 19 March; Sheikh Maqsoud on 13 April; Saraqeb on 29 April; Ghouta on 21 August; Bahhariya on 22 August; Jobar on 24 August and Ashrafieh Sahnaya on 25 August.
Syria has pushed for the investigation of the three post-21 August incidents.
Its envoy to the United Nations, Bashar Jaafari, accused "militants" of using chemical gas against the army in Bahhariya, Jobar and Ashrafieh Sahnaya.
It was the Ghouta incident of 21 August that sparked international outrage and the threat of military action from the US and its allies.
Since then, Russia - an ally of Syria - has secured an agreement from Damascus to give up its chemical weapons.

Earlier this month, the US and Russia asked the world's chemical weapons watchdog, the OPCW, to decide how to ensure the "complete elimination of all chemical weapons material and equipment" in Syria by the first half of 2014.

Continue reading the main story

Syria's chemical weapons

• Syria believed to possess more than 1,000 tonnes of chemical agents and pre-cursor chemicals, including blister agent, sulphur mustard, and sarin nerve agent; also thought to have produced most potent nerve agent, VX
• US believes Syria's arsenal can be "delivered by aircraft, ballistic missile, and artillery rockets"
• Syria acceded to Chemical Weapons Convention on 14 September; it signed Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention in 1972 but never ratified

• Syria's chemical weapons stockpile
• How to destroy Syria's chemical arsenal
• Syria chemical attack: What we know

The OPCW's text calls for inspections to begin by Tuesday. An advance team will probably arrive on Monday.

The OPCW sets out a deadline that will see the destruction of production and mixing/filling equipment by 1 November 2013 and the complete destruction of all chemical weapons material and equipment in the first half of next year.
Syria is instructed to provide "immediate and unfettered" access to the OPCW's inspectors. If it does not, a meeting of the executive council will be called within 24 hours.
The text also authorises the OPCW to inspect "any other site identified by a State Party as having been involved in the Syrian chemical weapons programme, unless deemed unwarranted by the director general".
This is unchartered waters for the OPCW, which is a small organisation that has never undertaken a job of this size or complexity, the BBC's World Affairs correspondent Paul Adams says. It will need a lot of help and is expected to ask for urgent funding and additional personnel, he adds.
If the text is approved by the OPCW's executive council, it will form part of the UN Security Council resolution, which sets out to govern the whole process.
The resolution includes a warning to all the warring parties in Syria that evidence of non-compliance will trigger measures under Chapter Seven of the UN Charter, which could, but does not necessarily, include force, our correspondent notes.

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Syria conflict

Features and analysis

• Rebel rifts deepen

  Lina Sinjab on widening rifts between rebel groups
  

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• Arms destruction

• UN report analysis

• Profile: Isis

• 'No sectarianism'

• Back from brink

• Surprise success?

• Rebel rifts

• Daunting task

• Russian coup?

• Key questions

• What we know

• Damascus diaries

• Rebels' frustration

• Putin's plea to Americans

• Viewpoints on Russia plan

• What our readers say