Monday Morning Spice

Stephen Hawking: “There Is No Heaven, It’s A Fairy Story” - A belief that heaven or an afterlife awaits us is a “fairy story” for people afraid of death, Stephen Hawking has said. In a dismissal that underlines his firm rejection of religious comforts, Britain’s most eminent scientist said there was nothing beyond the moment when the brain flickers for the final time. [guardian]

Porn Stash Discovered At Bin Laden Compound - A stash of pornography was found in the Pakistani compound of Osama bin Laden raided last week by Navy SEALs. The pornography taken from the compound, is said to have included modern, electronically recorded video and is described as fairly extensive. [foxnews]

IMF Head Accused Of Sexually Attacking Hotel Chambermaid - Mr Strauss-Kahn, 62, was arrested in the early hours of Sunday morning and charged with a “criminal sexual act”, attempted rape and unlawful imprisonment. The prominent French socialist, who was expected to challenge Nicolas Sarkozy’s presidency next year, allegedly assaulted a 32-year-old maid who had arrived to clean his £1,855-a-night suite at the luxury Sofitel near Times Square, at 1pm on Saturday. [telegraph]

Cathay Pacific Plane Makes Emergency Landing – A Cathay Pacific passenger plane made an emergency landing at Changi Airport on Monday after one of its engines caught fire. The A330 flight, which was enroute to Jakarta, had to turn back to Singapore after it experienced engine trouble shortly after takeoff at about 1am. [straits]

De Niro May Play Bernie Madoff In HBO Film - Yes please! Robert De Niro and producing partner Jane Rosenthal are producing the film, and the expectation is that De Niro will play Bernie Madoff, who for decades oversaw investment schemes that bilked billions out of clients. There’s certainly enough resemblance between the two men to make the casting seem like a no-brainer. [slashfilm]

Hague To Issue Arrest Warrant For Gaddafi - The international Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague is today expected to formally seek the arrest of Muammar Gaddafi for crimes linked to the brutal suppression of demonstrations against his 42-year rule. The court’s chief prosecutor  is expected to issue warrants against Colonel Gaddafi and at least two other leading members of the Libyan regime on charges related to killing unarmed protesters and displacing civilians. [independent]

Libya Offers Truce To UN As Revolt Enters Fourth Month - Gaddafi’s prime minister offered on Sunday a truce to the visiting UN special envoy to Libya, Abdul-Ilah al-Khatib, in return for an immediate NATO ceasefire, as an anti-regime revolt entered a fourth month. [afp]

Helen Zille Has Double The Twitter Followers Of Jacob Zuma - The ANC leader joined Twitter a week ago today and his following has steadily risen to about 14000. At the time of going to print, Zuma had updated his page only four times – even less than the five exclamation marks in those tweets. Helen Zille has over 31,000 followers on Twitter and has Tweeted 800 times. [timeslive]

Djokovic Wipes The Floor With Nadal, Again - Novak Djokovic is starting to realize what an impact he’s making on tennis with his recent domination of Rafael Nadal — and everyone else in the game, too. Djokovic beat the top-ranked Nadal 6-4, 6-4 in the Italian Open final Sunday to stretch his unbeaten start this year to 37 matches. [espn]

Australian Dies After ‘Planking’ On Balcony - Australian police say a man who plunged to his death from a seventh-floor balcony on Sunday was participating in the internet craze of “planking”. Planking involves someone lying flat on their stomach in unusual and sometimes dangerous situations, and posting photographs on social media websites. [bbc]

ANCYL Child Refers To Helen Zille As ‘The Madam’ – The African National Congress will win all municipalities in the country, ANC Youth League president Julius Malema said at the party’s final election rally at the FNB stadium in Johannesburg. on Sunday. ”We are going to take Cape Town from the madam” he said in reference to Helen Zille, who is the premier of the Western Cape. [mail&guardian]

Sony Begins Gradual Restoration Of Playstation Network – Certain functions of the online gaming service for PlayStation 3 and PSP will be up and running on May 14, Sony said in a press release. The services that will be revived first are Netflix and Hulu viewing, online multiplayer gameplay and friends list access among others. Notably absent from this list is the PlayStation Store digital content shop, which Sony says will be back up and running by May 31. [wired]

British Cruise Ship ‘Breaks Down’ - Tugs were sent to rescue the 59,000-ton cruise ship MSC Opera after a major failure left the ship powerless and adrift. Tim Schwabedissen, of the shipping website vesseltracker.com, said: “The MSC Opera with 2,000 people on board is being towed to Visby without power and very poor hygiene with the bathrooms inoperable after there was an explosion in an engine on May 13, 2011. Stunning. [skynews]

The World’s Most Expensive Whisky, At $6.2 Million – Luxury Beverage Company of the United Kingdom, the firm behind the world’s most luxurious non-alcoholic beverage Ruwa, has now unveiled Isabella’s Islay, the world’s most luxurious whisky. The Isabella Original retails for £3.8 million ($6.2 million), and flaunts over 8500 diamonds, almost 300 rubies and the equivalent of two bars of white gold all covering a fine English Crystal decanter and the Very Old Single Malt cask strength Islay whisky inside. [bornrich]

Ronaldo Reaches Record 38 Goals – Real’s second and third goals on Sunday were scored by Cristiano Ronaldo, his 37th and 38th in the league this season and 50th and 51st in all competitions. His league tally equals the record jointly held by former Real striker Hugo Sanchez (1989/90) and former Athletic Bilbao forward Telmo Zarraonandia, known as Zarra (1950/51), and he has one more match next weekend in which to set a new best. [timeslive]

Zimbabwe Threatens Foreign Banks - Zimbabwe’s central bank said it planned to take punitive measures against foreign-owned banks that resist demands to transfer majority shareholding to local blacks under a controversial empowerment policy. President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu-PF is pushing plans to force all foreign companies to cede controlling stakes to blacks. [news24]