Tomato battle paints streets of Spanish town red

Thousands of half-naked revellers pelted each other with tomatoes on Wednesday in the town of Bunol in eastern Spain, bathing the streets with red goo in the 70th annual “Tomatina” battle.

A string of trucks laden with 150 tonnes of tomatoes rolled through the town’s narrow streets, as teams on board distributed the load to surrounding crowds for people to throw at each other during the hour-long morning festivities.

The iconic fiesta, billed at “the world’s biggest food fight”, has become a major draw for foreigners, in particular from Britain, Japan, Australia and the United States.

Bunol city hall estimates that only one-fifth of the roughly 22,000 participants this year are from Spain.

Bunol mayor Rafael Perez said the event had become so succesful by allowing anyone participating to let off steam.

“There are countries where maybe people have a harder time expressing their feelings,” he told Spanish radio.

“The Japanese for example are very reserved, solemn, and transform themselves when they come here,” he added.

Organisers recommend participants squish the tomatoes before throwing them — “the hit will be less painful” — wear old clothes and use goggles to protect their eyes from the fruit’s acid.

Black women group alleges discrimination

A group of black women from a book club were kicked off a wine tour in California’s wine country at the weekend - sparking accusations of racism on the company’s part.

One of the women, Lisa Johnson told a local newspapers it was ‘humiliating’ when she and her friends were escorted off the Napa Valley Wine Train by a police officer.

A train company spokesperson said the women had been cautioned several times by the train manager after complaints from other customers that they were laughing and talking too loudly. But one passenger who witnessed the incident later claimed that it was clearly racially motivated.

The Napa Valley Wine Train offers a ‘three-hour journey through world famous vineyards: wine tours, wine tasting & great dining’.

The women — who all wore matching T-shirts with their book club’s slogan, ‘Sistahs on the Reading Edge’ — departed on the train on Saturday shortly before noon, one news report said. According to the report the women admitted that they were laughing and talking with one another as they enjoyed their wine.

At one point, a fellow passenger told the ladies — including an 83-year-old grandmother — ‘this isn’t a bar’, while a manager said they needed to quiet down.

Japanese liquor arrives at International Space Station

An unmanned cargo ship loaded with emergency supplies — including Japanese whisky — successfully docked at the International Space Station early on Tuesday, officials said.

But thirsty astronauts will have to keep their hands off the golden tipple — it’s a science experiment.

Drinks giant Suntory sent the booze to space so it could test how time in a zero-gravity environment affects its flavour.

Researchers for the company have said that storing the beverage in an environment with only slight temperature changes and limited liquid movement could lead to a mellower flavour.

The unusual cargo was placed inside the 5.5-ton vessel “Kounotori” (stork in Japanese), which blasted off from southern Japan last Wednesday attached to an H-IIB rocket.

It was also loaded with food, water, clothing and tools necessary for experiments in space.

Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui, 45, who is living at the ISS, used a robotic arm to grab the vessel before it was successfully berthed at the station.

The cargo ship will leave the ISS and re-enter the earth’s atmosphere in late September, according to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.

‘Retired’ Model Cara Delevingne Takes Her Pants Off for YSl

The other day the internet made a helluva deal about Cara Delevingne officially retiring from modeling to focus on her acting career. Modeling made her feel “hollow,” she said. It made her hate herself and her body, she said.

Days later, here’s the retired model clad in only a slick black blazer for YSL’s Rouge Pur Couture campaign, which, according to Delevingne’s Instagram, is “A colour so bold you’d feel naked without it” 

Finding the former model in major campaigns should come as little surprise; actresses often grace beauty and fashion campaigns as well as model-y editorials which run alongside v serious interviews about their latest roles and what designers they like and stuff. Actresses are almost always found on the cover of fashion magazines and, on occasion, an actress may even walk a runway or two.

So don’t get it twisted, Delevingne is still very much a retired model, despite appearing in a very model-esque pose for YSL.

ASHES TO DASHES

One of the charms of Test cricket is that a match scheduled to last five days allows for the possibility of a fightback, even if a team falls behind early on.

It was a charm, however, completely lacking from the 2015 Ashes, which ended with England winning the five-match series 3-2 despite Australia’s innings and 46-run win in the concluding Test at The Oval on Sunday.

This Ashes equalled in length the shortest five-Test series of modern times of 18 days that took place when England played the West Indies in 2000.

The fifth day wasn’t needed in any of the matches, with the nearest thing to a ‘close’ contest, England’s 169-run win in the series opener in Cardiff.

Prior to the series both sides spoke about their intention to play aggressive cricket.

It became such an ingrained mantra, it was almost as if the thought of playing out a maiden filled some batsmen with a sense of dread.

Australia rectified their approach at The Oval, where their opening boundary did not arrive until the 15th over of the match and they still piled up 481, but by then it was too late to save the Ashes.

“Full credit to England -- they won the key moments in this series, they outplayed us,” said Australia coach Darren Lehmann.

“We had four of the five top wicket-takers and three of the four top run-scorers, but we didn’t win the key moments,” the former Australia batsman added.

“It was an unbelievable series. “Arguably the most “unbelievable” aspect of all was Australia’s collapse to 60 all out in just 111 balls on the opening morning of the fourth Test at Trent Bridge, with England paceman Stuart Broad taking eight for 15.

Indian tribal communities trapped in Maoist crossfire

Growing up in a remote tribal hamlet, Rupa Hembrom used to be terrified of the wild boars that roamed nearby.

Now her biggest fear is the Maoist guerrillas who prowl the jungles of India's 'Red Corridor'.

The left-wing extremists have been fighting to overthrow the government for decades, but the conflict has taken on a new intensity since right-wing Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's election last year.

A rise in abductions of civilians and execution-style killings mean they are now regarded as India's number one security challenge, striking fear into security forces and locals alike.

Read: India's Maoist rebels kill four abducted policemen

While operating mainly underground, the Maoists often descend on villages to demand everything from protection money to livestock as well as enticing young men and women to join their ranks.

"Just looking at them makes me so scared. They have machine-guns and they look so powerful," said 24-year-old Hembrom as she narrated her encounters with heavily-armed Maoist patrols in Jharkhand state.

Hembrom's village of lush paddy fields and sparkling streams falls in the so-called 'Red Corridor' straddling swathes of central and eastern India.

Hembrom belongs to one of India's many indigenous tribes collectively known as Adivasis, who live in abject poverty ─ fertile recruiting ground for the Maoists, also known as Naxals, hiding out in surrounding areas.

Bad day for World Stock Markets

The mixed picture comes after a tumultuous day on Wall Street, where the Dow Jones industrial average ended down 3.6 percent after trimming much bigger losses. European markets were also hit badly. Analysts said it was unclear whether this was a sign the worst was over, or a reprieve in a longer-term bear market.

The declines in China were less severe. The Shanghai Composite Index was down 4.3 percent at 3,071.06 at midday Tuesday after falling 6.4 percent in the first minutes of trading. On Monday, it plummeted 8.5 percent.

In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 index was up 0.9 percent at 18,702.66 in afternoon trading after dropping 4.6 percent the previous session. Hong Kong's Hang Seng, which also lost 4.6 percent Monday, was up 1.6 percent at 21,595.74. Sydney's S&P ASX 200 advanced 1.4 percent to 5,073.20 and Seoul's Kospi was steady at 1,829.06 after shedding 3 percent the previous day.

The global sell-off was triggered by the sharp drop in Chinese stocks Monday, but experts said there was little change in economic fundamentals to justify such a massive global slide.

"There was no clear catalyst for the global stock meltdown. The lack of clarity makes it difficult to assess what is needed to stem the rout," said Bernard Aw of IG Markets in a report.