This email has been circulating around since 1998.  This is a false claim that the song was created as code. 

Quotes from Scambusters:

According to historians, there is no evidence to suggest that The Twelve Days of Christmas was written as a covert catechism. Further, these symbols were all shared by both Catholics and Anglicans, so there would have been no point in hiding these symbols in a song, since these beliefs could have been taught openly without betraying someone as Catholic.

Not new but since Christmas is just round the corner, I am circulating again to all my dear friends ..

By Dan Bilefsky

Only a few years ago, the town of Dubi, in the Czech Republic, drew 1,000 sex tourists a day. The more than three dozen brothels in the town were winnowed down to four. (Kurt Vinion for the International Herald Tribune )

PRAGUE: On a recent night at Big Sister, which calls itself the world’s biggest Internet brothel, a middle-aged man selected a prostitute from an electronic menu on a flat-screen television, pressing his index finger against it to review the age, hair color, weight and languages spoken by the women on offer.

The rising stars of YouTube.
By Claudine Beaumont

YouTube rising star: SimonsCat is one of the most successful animation outfits on YouTube

BEIJING (Reuters) - China’s Internet search leader Baidu said on Friday it will overhaul operations after state media said it allowed unlicensed medical services to buy high search rankings to win more customers.

Nasdaq-listed Baidu was accused on a state television show this month of letting the unlicensed services pay for prominent positions on its pay-for-performance (P4P) search platform, netting them more “clicks” for expensive but useless treatments. The claims sparked widespread public criticism of the Chinese search giant and dragged down Baidu’s stock. And now Baidu’s chief executive officer, Robin Li, has promised action.

By Anne Harding

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Consumers who rely on the user-edited Web resource Wikipedia for information on medications are putting themselves at risk of potentially harmful drug interactions and adverse effects, new research shows.

Dr. Kevin A. Clauson of Nova Southeastern University in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida and his colleagues found few factual errors in their evaluation of Wikipedia entries on 80 drugs. But these entries were often missing important information, for example the fact that the anti-inflammatory drug Arthrotec (diclofenac and misoprostol) can cause pregnant women to miscarry, or that St. John’s wort can interfere with the action of the HIV drug Prezista (darunavir).

Guns N’ Roses’ frontman Axl Rose
©AFP/File - Bru Garcia

SHANGHAI (AFP) - China’s Internet censors appeared to be trying to block fans Monday from accessing websites related to Guns N’ Roses’ first album in 17 years, which is provocatively titled “Chinese Democracy”.

The album’s official site chinesedemocracy.com was inaccessible in communist China and Internet portal Baidu.com blocked music-related searches for “Chinese Democracy”.

However, Chinese Internet users were still able Monday morning to listen to the album’s 14 songs on MySpace.com, the band’s homepage remained accessible and bloggers were allowed to have their voices heard.