Who is Muhammad Cohen?

Here is a contender for the world's craziest name. It's Muhammad Cohen.

You may not be surprised to hear that film director Cohen was born Eliot. However, he changed his name following his marriage to an Indonesian Muslim woman in 2002. It was, he said to demonstrate the similarity of the Muslim and Jewish religions.

Cohen said he was welcomed by the Muslim community. When he decided to marry, the only worry of the officiating Imam was that he be circumcised. Cohen was able to re-assure him on that count.

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Flag day at the BBC

Is the BBC as objective and unbiased in its news coverage as it maintains? According to a source at the BBC, the Middle East Section of its online news service is run by two journalists - one with a Lebanese flag on his desk, the other with a Syrian flag adorning his workstation.

It is an interesting interpretation of "balanced".

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Palestinians' bad timing

The time is a- changing in the Gaza Strip, though not in the West Bank. Such is the level of feuding between the Hamas administration in Gaza and the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah that they cannot even agree on what time it should be.

Gaza Mean Time, or GMT, went back to Daylight Saving last Friday, whereas the Palestinian Authority put its clocks back on Sunday with the onset of Ramadan.

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Don’t get too pretty, girls

According to blogger Modesty Blasé writing in the Jerusalem Post, there is a new phenomenon among Jewish mothers. They are encouraging their daughters to be mediocre.

Says Blasé: "They shouldn't be too pretty, too smart or too competent for fear of scaring the boys away,"

So is the world being turned on its head, or has April Fool's Day come early?

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Lamarr’s ‘sex with Hitler’

Adolf Hitler may have based his career on Jew-hatred, but it did not stop him having sex with a Jewish girl - and not just any Jewish girl, but Hollywood film star Hedy Lamarr.

In a new book about the legendary actress, biographer Devra Hill claims that Lamarr fled Austria to embark on an acting career in Hollywood after she was forced to make love to Hitler by her first husband, Austrian munitions dealer Fritz Mandl.

Devra claims that Hitler was unable to resist Lamarr.

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Does AP have it in for Joe?

Either AP has got it in for former Democrat, now Independent, Joseph Lieberman, or the news agency needs to employ better proof-readers.

A recent AP story should have read: "Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman, the Democratic vice-presidential pick in 2000, who is now an independent..."

Except, somehow, an "r" was inserted in "pick" between the "p" and the "i".

Whoops!

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Where on earth is Israel?

Noticed anything strange about Google World?

A JC reader saw that there were a few crucial little details missing from the site which gives satellite maps of the world . Although almost the entire planet is covered by Google, there is one important exception - Israel.

Whereas other countries have all major cities highlighted, Israel has nothing but a dotted line to separate it from the Territories.

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We win gold for excuses

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Kosher wine crime rises

What is the most shoplifted item at the North Finchley branch of Waitrose? Well, amazingly, it is Palwin.
This information was divulged by the branch's manager to a customer attempting to find a bottle of the syrupy kiddush wine.

However, it is not middle-aged housewives feeling the credit crunch who are responsible for the Shabbat-wine crime wave, but rather the area's alcoholics, or "the dregs of society", as the manager poetically put it.

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New statesman loses plot

The New Statesman has invited readers to vote for their favourite ideas for in-depth investigations. The magazine has opened a comment thread on its website so that readers can suggest ideas.

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