There’s a fabled history of French rudeness from Napoleon, who called the English a “nation of shopkeepers,” to former President Nicolas Sarkozy, who infamously snarled at a voter: “Get lost, poor jerk.”

Now, bad manners and aggressive behavior top the list of causes of stress for the French, even higher than unemployment or the debt crisis, says pollster IPSOS. A total of 60 percent cited rudeness as their number one source of stress in a survey last year on social trends.

“We’re so rude,” admitted 34-year-old French teacher Stephane Gomez, as he comes out of a Paris metro station. “France lacks the civic sense that you find in Anglo-Saxon countries.”

“It’s so easy to be polite, but we don’t do it,” said 30-year-old Zahia Sebahi. “I never see someone give up their seat for an elderly person.”

But Paris’ public transport authority is leading the fight back in a summer-long publicity campaign against rudeness. Billboards depicting Frenchmen with animal heads have dominated metro stations; they target passengers who are rude to staff and push and shove. “If you shove five people getting onboard,” the posters say, “it won’t make us set off faster.” Bus ads read: “One bonjour doesn’t cost a penny, and it changes your day.”

Transport officials say they’ve tried to keep a light touch on a serious matter.“We used humor to not be moralistic,” said Isabelle Ockrent, RATP communications director. “But we’ve been alerted by our staff that there is a real problem.”

Public transport staff even held “rudeness forums” over three days in late June in 20 metro stations, in which they exchanged views on correct etiquette with passengers.  Among other things, people were asked what they thought the root causes were for pushing and shoving: Lack of time? Unhappiness? Many Parisians attribute the decreasing tolerance to rudeness to the fast pace of the Internet age, with iPods on the metro and mobile phone noise in public spaces.

“It might seem obvious, but when stressed for work, Parisians forget ‘hello’ or ‘thank you’ when asking for a ticket,” Ms. Ockrent said.

Local rudeness irritating even the French – Washington Times

If you thought Japans extreme fad culture would stop short of people injecting saline into their foreheads to make it look like they have bagels implanted under their skin, you were wrong. Being a “bagel head” is, indeed, currently in vogue in Tokyo.

The bizarre body modification procedure, which was highlighted in a Sept. 23 episode of “Taboo,” a show on the National Geographic Channel, involves injecting about 13.5 ounces 400 milliliters of saline into a persons forehead to form a huge welt, then pressing a thumb into the welt to create an indent. The process takes two hours, and the trendy swelling goes down in under a day.

I’d be worried that if people did this repeatedly you might actually, indeed, stretch the skin beyond its normal elasticity, and this could cause permanent laxity,” says Omar Ibrahimi, a dermatologist at the Connecticut Skin Institute and visiting assistant professor at Harvard Medical School.

In other words, bagel heads could become deflated-bagel heads: a fashion mishap in anybody’s book.

Is The Bagel Head Trend Dangerous? – Business Insider

Yum! Brands is shuttering all of its KFC franchises in Pakistan in the wake of anti-American protests there, after one of its KFC restaurants was attacked in Lebanon last week, the company said Friday.

“Our KFC restaurants in Pakistan are closing as a precautionary measure,” said Yum! Brands (YUM, Fortune 500) spokesman Christopher Fuller. “They will continually monitor the situation to decide when to re-open.”

KFC has more than 60 restaurants in 21 Pakistani cities, and has a significant presence throughout the Muslim world. A division of the company called KFC Arabia has franchises in 11 Middle Eastern cities.

On Sept. 14, protesters enraged by a crudely-made anti-Islam video produced in the U.S. attacked a KFC restaurant and two other American franchises — a Hardee’s and a Krispy Kreme (KKD) — in Tripoli, Lebanon.

KFC closes restaurants in Pakistan amid protests – Sep. 21, 2012.

Cho Won-hyuk stands in front of his bedroom mirror and spreads dollops of yellow-brown makeup over his forehead, nose, chin and cheeks until his skin is flawless. Then he goes to work with a black pencil, highlighting his eyebrows until they’re thicker, bolder.

“Having a clean, neat face makes you look sophisticated and creates an image that you can handle yourself well,” the 24-year-old college student said. “Your appearance matters, so when I wear makeup on special occasions, it makes me more confident.”

Cho’s meticulous efforts to paint the perfect face are not unusual in South Korea. This socially conservative, male-dominated country, with a mandatory two-year military conscription for men, has become the male makeup capital of the world.

South Korean men spent $495.5 million on skincare last year, accounting for nearly 21 percent of global sales, according to global market research firm Euromonitor International. That makes it the largest market for men’s skincare in the world, even though there are only about 19 million men in South Korea. Amorepacific, South Korea’s biggest cosmetics company, estimates the total sales of men’s cosmetics in South Korea this year will be more than $885 million.

The metamorphosis of South Korean men from macho to makeup over the last decade or so can be partly explained by fierce competition for jobs, advancement and romance in a society where, as a popular catchphrase puts it, “appearance is power.” Women also have a growing expectation that men will take the time and effort to pamper their skin.

For S. Korean men, makeup a foundation for success – DC Breaking Local News Weather Sports FOX 5 WTTG.

Social media websites are flush with death threats for Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, the newly unmasked 55-year-old filmmaker behind the anti-Islam film that is being blamed for nearly a week of violent unrest in the Middle East.

Nakoula was detained briefly over the weekend in California after federal officials questioned whether the production of the film violated the terms of his probation, which stemmed from a 2010 arrest for bank fraud. In response to security concerns, law enforcement kept him under heavy guard during his transport to a local police station.

“Insallah [God willing], we will kill him,” one Facebook user, Shayan Khan, wrote from Karachi, Pakistan.

Some YouTube users envisioned particularly imaginative demises for Nakoula in the comments section of a video related to his detention.

“I wanna torture him with a shot [to] his knee cap, then blow his eyes with [a] knife, take a chain saw and cut his penis, then a hot rod would be given to his ass, then kill him until he is hanged till death,” funkyfolk1110 wrote. “Kill this bastard,” said another user.

On Twitter, a user named Yayan E. Putra posted, “Fuck Nakoula Basseley, i want to kill you!!!” The message starkly contrasted with Putra’s brief Twitter profile, which stated simply, “A smile is the little thing that can make life easier.”

“Someone please kill him,” agreed Nelson Davis, a retired market researcher living in New York, who earlier on Sunday invited his Twitter followers to “Choose your free Obama sticker!”

“If extremists have a problem with Egyptian-American convicted felon/filmmaker Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, kill him, not other innocent people,” reasoned another Twitter user.

Many called for censorship instead of violence. On the social petition website Change.org, nearly 5,000 users called on governments worldwide to ban the distribution of “Innocence of Muslims.”

Death threats, petitions swirl online after anti-Islam filmmakers identity is revealed | The Daily Caller

A Muslim cleric hosting an Egyptian television show recently outlined his version of Islamic instructions for wife-beating. In another show, a cleric claimed that the Muslim Brotherhood, now governing Egypt, one day will rule the world.

“If not through peace, there is nothing preventing war. We welcome war,” said the second cleric, who added that “one of the tenets of the Muslim Brotherhood, which they cannot renounce,” is the goal of global dominance by an Islamic caliphate.

The shows aired on Egypt’s Al Nas network, a hard-line Salafist Muslim outfit that for years has flown largely under the radar of international observers.

The network was thrust into the spotlight last week when it broadcast Arabic-dubbed movie clips from what it described as an English-language film insulting Islam’s Prophet Muhammad. Riots and protests erupted throughout the Middle East and other parts of the Muslim world.

Egypt’s Islamic TV talks with iron Salafist – Washington Times

The owner of an Indian clothing store said Wednesday that he would only change its name from “Hitler” if he was compensated for re-branding costs, amid a growing row over the new shop.

The outlet, which sells Western men’s wear, opened 10 days ago in Ahmedabad city in the western state of Gujarat with “Hitler” written in big letters over the front and with a Nazi swastika as the dot on the “i”.

Hitler attracts an unusual degree of respect in some parts of India, with his book “Mein Kampf” a popular title in bookshops and on street stalls.

Gujarat schoolbooks issued by the Hindu nationalist state government were criticised a few years ago for praising Hitler as someone who gave “dignity and prestige” to the German government.

‘Hitler’ clothing store stirs anger in India – Yahoo! News.

A former fifth-grade teacher implicated in a cheating scandal reportedly gave students the illegal assistance because she thought they were “dumb as hell.”

According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, math teacher Shayla Smith was accused of offering students the answers to a test they were taking at the time.

Schajuan Jones, who taught a fourth-grade class across the hall from Smith’s former room, overheard her talking to another teacher about the test.

“The words were, ‘I had to give your kids, or your students, the answers because they’re dumb as hell,’” Jones was quoted as saying about the interaction between Smith and the unidentified third teacher.

Smith’s case was part of a larger investigation that implicated approximately 180 public school teachers in the city, sparked by investigations performed by the newspaper.

School: Teacher Helps Students Cheat Because She Says They’re ‘Dumb As Hell’ « CBS Atlanta.

Human-rights activists are demanding the release of Nagla Wafa, an Egyptian wedding planner and designer sentenced to 500 lashes and five years in prison in Saudi Arabia following a business dispute with a princess.

Wafa ran afoul of a royal in the Saudi kingdom over the finances of a joint business venture, according to her family. She was reportedly accused of cashing a check from the princess but not following through on their deal to start a restaurant.

“As of May of 2012, Ms. Wafa has been subjected, on a weekly basis, to 50 floggings per week within the ‘Al-Malz’ Prison. She currently faces 200 more floggings … despite her suffering from distortions to her spine,” the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights said in an online statement.

Accusing Saudi Arabian authorities of unlawfully detaining the 39-year-old mother of teenage twins, the organization said the case was a “blatant violation” of human rights and filed a complaint with the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Nashwa Ismael, Wafa’s mother, who lives in Cairo, said her daughter wasn’t accused of fraud charges until about 20 months after she was arrested in 2009. Ismael said the family wasn’t able to find a Saudi Arabian lawyer to take Wafa’s case until June, when they first went public with the issue.

Egyptian designer runs afoul of Saudi princess, gets 500 lashes – latimes.com

Insurgents beheaded 17 civilians in a Taliban-controlled area of southern Afghanistan, apparently because they attended a dance party that flouted the extreme brand of Islam embraced by the militants, officials said Monday.

The killings, in a district where U.S. Marines have battled the Taliban for years, were a reminder of how much power the insurgent group still wields in the south — particularly as international forces draw down and hand areas over to Afghan forces.

The victims were part of a large group that had gathered late Sunday in Helmand province’s Musa Qala district for a celebration involving music and dancing, said district government chief Neyamatullah Khan. He said the Taliban slaughtered them to show their disapproval of the event.

All of the bodies were decapitated but it was not clear if they had been shot first, said provincial government spokesman Daoud Ahmadi.

17 Afghans beheaded in insurgent attack on party – Yahoo! News