Sunday, November 18, 2007
Minke whale gets stranded deep in Brazilian rain forest
A 5.5m long minke whale has been spotted more than 1600km (994 miles) from the Atlantic Ocean, deep inside the Amazon rain forest.
The whale ran aground earlier this week but after being freed with the help of vets and biologists it disappeared shortly afterwards.
Local people had been splashing water on the whale's back and fin while it was exposed to the hot Amazon sun. The whale is said to weigh about 12 tons.
Experts say the animal could have been in the area for a couple of months.
With news video.
The whale ran aground earlier this week but after being freed with the help of vets and biologists it disappeared shortly afterwards.
Local people had been splashing water on the whale's back and fin while it was exposed to the hot Amazon sun. The whale is said to weigh about 12 tons.
Experts say the animal could have been in the area for a couple of months.
With news video.
Domino world record bid falls over
An attempt to set a new domino world record has fallen short.
Eighty-five builders from twelve European countries spent more than two months working towards the big day in Holland.
Organisers said a total of 3,671,465 dominoes were successfully felled during the two hour long showBritish singer Katie Melua started off the chain reaction - with a bridge over a revolving hammer proving the final stumbling block.
Organisers said a total of 3,671,465 dominoes were successfully felled during the two-hour-long show.
"When you work eight weeks, eight hours a day, five days a week, and only focus on dominos and then after that eight weeks, you have to conclude with that result, with this loss, of course it feels really hard," said organiser Robin Paul Weijers.
The world record was set at last year's 'Domino Day' when over 4.07 million of the tiles were knocked down.
There's another video here.
Eighty-five builders from twelve European countries spent more than two months working towards the big day in Holland.
Organisers said a total of 3,671,465 dominoes were successfully felled during the two hour long showBritish singer Katie Melua started off the chain reaction - with a bridge over a revolving hammer proving the final stumbling block.
Organisers said a total of 3,671,465 dominoes were successfully felled during the two-hour-long show.
"When you work eight weeks, eight hours a day, five days a week, and only focus on dominos and then after that eight weeks, you have to conclude with that result, with this loss, of course it feels really hard," said organiser Robin Paul Weijers.
The world record was set at last year's 'Domino Day' when over 4.07 million of the tiles were knocked down.
There's another video here.
Curries to India ... the latest Marks & Spencer line
There was shipping coal to Newcastle, then selling sand to the Arabs. The latest bizarre deal, which has been pulled off by Marks & Spencer, is sending curry to India.
It is selling its "Made in Britain" curry sauces and a canned curry in the M&S food hall in Delhi - one of 12 stores the British retailer has in India.
The company insists that its British curry will not offend Indian traditionalists, even though the Creamy Tikka marinade on sale in Delhi is made in Littleborough, Lancashire, and the canned mild chicken curry is from Chichester in Sussex.
An M&S spokesman said: "Our Indian ranges are developed by top Indian chefs. Many of the spices we use we have sourced from India, while our cooking process replicates the traditional stages of Indian cooking."
It is selling its "Made in Britain" curry sauces and a canned curry in the M&S food hall in Delhi - one of 12 stores the British retailer has in India.
The company insists that its British curry will not offend Indian traditionalists, even though the Creamy Tikka marinade on sale in Delhi is made in Littleborough, Lancashire, and the canned mild chicken curry is from Chichester in Sussex.
An M&S spokesman said: "Our Indian ranges are developed by top Indian chefs. Many of the spices we use we have sourced from India, while our cooking process replicates the traditional stages of Indian cooking."
Chinese pan for gold in the sewage
A town in southern China is proving that where there's muck, there's gold and silver.
In one of the most extreme signs of China's modern grasp of entrepreneurial possibilities, gold panners are striking deals with jewellery factories to buy the contents of their septic tanks.
The price of precious metals has soared to such record highs on the world's markets that sifting the tanks' contents for scrapings and offcuts has become a profitable business.
A reporter from a Chinese newspaper found a new breed of waste collectors touring the jewellery factories near Daluotang, a township near the city of Guangzhou. They told him that small processing factories had discovered gold and silver filings in the septic tanks that had either washed off workers' hands and faces or been ingested accidentally.
The collectors were paid to deliver the contents of septic tanks from factories and dormitory compounds. Processors would then sift, pan and finally recycle the tanks.
Contracts depended on the volume of effluent — one building sold the rights to its sewage for 140,000 yuan a year (about £9,000). A smaller tank fetched 40,000 yuan (£2,500).
In one of the most extreme signs of China's modern grasp of entrepreneurial possibilities, gold panners are striking deals with jewellery factories to buy the contents of their septic tanks.
The price of precious metals has soared to such record highs on the world's markets that sifting the tanks' contents for scrapings and offcuts has become a profitable business.
A reporter from a Chinese newspaper found a new breed of waste collectors touring the jewellery factories near Daluotang, a township near the city of Guangzhou. They told him that small processing factories had discovered gold and silver filings in the septic tanks that had either washed off workers' hands and faces or been ingested accidentally.
The collectors were paid to deliver the contents of septic tanks from factories and dormitory compounds. Processors would then sift, pan and finally recycle the tanks.
Contracts depended on the volume of effluent — one building sold the rights to its sewage for 140,000 yuan a year (about £9,000). A smaller tank fetched 40,000 yuan (£2,500).
Gang rape victim sentenced to 200 lashes and six months in jail
A Saudi woman has been sentenced to 200 lashes and six months in prison after she was the victim of a gang rape.
The sentence against the 19-year-old Shia woman from Qatif, in the Eastern Province of the country, was passed because she was in the car of a man who was not a relative at the time of the attack, which contravened strict Saudi laws on segregation.
A court had originally sentenced the woman to 90 lashes and the rapists to jail terms of between 10 months and five years but increased the punishment after an appeal, saying the woman had tried to use the media to influence them.
According to the Arab News newspaper, the woman was gang-raped 14 times.
Her offence was in meeting a former boyfriend, whom she had asked to return pictures he had of her because she was about to marry another man.
The couple was sitting in a car when a group of seven Sunni men kidnapped them and raped them both, lawyers in the case told Arab News. The former boyfriend was also sentenced to 90 lashes for being with her in private.
The sentence against the 19-year-old Shia woman from Qatif, in the Eastern Province of the country, was passed because she was in the car of a man who was not a relative at the time of the attack, which contravened strict Saudi laws on segregation.
A court had originally sentenced the woman to 90 lashes and the rapists to jail terms of between 10 months and five years but increased the punishment after an appeal, saying the woman had tried to use the media to influence them.
According to the Arab News newspaper, the woman was gang-raped 14 times.
Her offence was in meeting a former boyfriend, whom she had asked to return pictures he had of her because she was about to marry another man.
The couple was sitting in a car when a group of seven Sunni men kidnapped them and raped them both, lawyers in the case told Arab News. The former boyfriend was also sentenced to 90 lashes for being with her in private.
Bike sex case sparks legal debate - Another update
The case of a man convicted of simulating sex with his bicycle has sparked a debate about human rights and the privacy of an individual.
Internet message boards have been buzzing with comment about the case of Robert Stewart, 51, from Ayr.
One contributor asked: "Would they have done the same to a woman with a sex toy?"
This is not the first legal case involving someone simulating sex with an inanimate object.
In 1997 Robert Watt, 38, was fined £100 for trying to have sex with a shoe in an Edinburgh street.
In 2002 the same man was arrested for simulating sex with a traffic cone in front of a crowd of people.
Earlier this month, sentence was deferred on teenager Steven Marshall, from Galashiels, who admitted simulating sex on a pavement while drunk.
Internet message boards have been buzzing with comment about the case of Robert Stewart, 51, from Ayr.
One contributor asked: "Would they have done the same to a woman with a sex toy?"
This is not the first legal case involving someone simulating sex with an inanimate object.
In 1997 Robert Watt, 38, was fined £100 for trying to have sex with a shoe in an Edinburgh street.
In 2002 the same man was arrested for simulating sex with a traffic cone in front of a crowd of people.
Earlier this month, sentence was deferred on teenager Steven Marshall, from Galashiels, who admitted simulating sex on a pavement while drunk.
Cat-napping outcry after fur traders admit buying animals killed in Britain
The disappearance of hundreds of household cats has sparked calls for an official inquiry amid fears that they could have been killed, skinned and turned into blankets.
Concern has been fuelled by the existence of a legal Swiss trade in cat fur, which is reputed to be good for rheumatism. But cat blanket retailers have denounced allegations of widespread cat-napping across the border in France as absurd. They insist that they buy skins from wild felines killed in Switzerland and Britain.
Patricia Dolciani, head of the French Society for the Protection of Animals (SPA) in Thonon-les-Bains, in the Alps, has called on the gendar-merie to launch an investigation.
She says that her team has registered the disappearance of at least 550 cats in the region so far this year, more than double the number for the whole of 2006. “What really raised our suspicions was when people started ringing to say they had lost more than one cat. One person near Megève, for instance, lost three in a day.
“It’s quite possible to lose a cat, of course. They can get run over. But three in the same day in the same place in the same family is more suspicious.” The sense of panic gripping pet owners in the Alps was heightened when Marcelle Marchand, who has a refuge for wild cats, found one of her animals caught in a trap.
Sylviane Ghielmini, who sells cat blankets at her shop in Yvonand, in the Vaud district, told The Times: “I am totally mystified by these accusations. The cat fur trade is small and not very lucrative and I really can’t see why traffickers would want to get involved. I sell ten blankets a year and all to people in pain with rheumatism. When these allegations broke I phoned my wholesalers and they said they’d never heard of anyone trafficking cats between France and Switzerland.”
Concern has been fuelled by the existence of a legal Swiss trade in cat fur, which is reputed to be good for rheumatism. But cat blanket retailers have denounced allegations of widespread cat-napping across the border in France as absurd. They insist that they buy skins from wild felines killed in Switzerland and Britain.
Patricia Dolciani, head of the French Society for the Protection of Animals (SPA) in Thonon-les-Bains, in the Alps, has called on the gendar-merie to launch an investigation.
She says that her team has registered the disappearance of at least 550 cats in the region so far this year, more than double the number for the whole of 2006. “What really raised our suspicions was when people started ringing to say they had lost more than one cat. One person near Megève, for instance, lost three in a day.
“It’s quite possible to lose a cat, of course. They can get run over. But three in the same day in the same place in the same family is more suspicious.” The sense of panic gripping pet owners in the Alps was heightened when Marcelle Marchand, who has a refuge for wild cats, found one of her animals caught in a trap.
Sylviane Ghielmini, who sells cat blankets at her shop in Yvonand, in the Vaud district, told The Times: “I am totally mystified by these accusations. The cat fur trade is small and not very lucrative and I really can’t see why traffickers would want to get involved. I sell ten blankets a year and all to people in pain with rheumatism. When these allegations broke I phoned my wholesalers and they said they’d never heard of anyone trafficking cats between France and Switzerland.”
Collapsed man's car targeted by meter maid
A parking attendant sprang into action when a man collapsed outside Altrincham General Hospital - by trying to slap a ticket on the victim's car.
The diligent warden came upon the scene after the man, who is diabetic, had keeled over in a car outside the hospital entrance.
Nurses ran out to help the man after his driver had dashed into the hospital to ask for assistance, and an ambulance was called.
But the intrepid meter maid spotted that the driver had pulled up in an ambulance bay - and was not about to show any leeway.
Undeterred by the frantic activity going on around her, the parking attendant repeatedly tried to issue a parking ticket.
She ignored protests and explanations as she pressed on - and even continued to issue a ticket after the ambulance arrived and the paramedics took over the care of the patient.
The diligent warden came upon the scene after the man, who is diabetic, had keeled over in a car outside the hospital entrance.
Nurses ran out to help the man after his driver had dashed into the hospital to ask for assistance, and an ambulance was called.
But the intrepid meter maid spotted that the driver had pulled up in an ambulance bay - and was not about to show any leeway.
Undeterred by the frantic activity going on around her, the parking attendant repeatedly tried to issue a parking ticket.
She ignored protests and explanations as she pressed on - and even continued to issue a ticket after the ambulance arrived and the paramedics took over the care of the patient.
New Zealand bars British man's 'fat' wife
A British man who moved to New Zealand has been told by officials that his wife is too fat to join him.
Richie Trezise, 35, a rugby-playing Welshman, lost weight to gain entry to New Zealand after being rejected for being overweight and a potential burden on the health care system.
His wife, Rowan, is now on a strict diet. However, she has been battling for months to shed the pounds so they can be reunited and live Down Under.
Mr Trezise moved to New Zealand in September after shedding two inches from his waist on a crash diet. His employer-backed skills visa was initially rejected by immigration officials when they discovered that his body mass index, or BMI, was 42, making him morbidly obese.
BMI measures a person's weight in relation to their height. Anything over 25 is regarded as overweight, and 30 or above is obese.
But his wife Rowan, who planned to emigrate with him, has failed to overcome the obesity test.
Richie Trezise, 35, a rugby-playing Welshman, lost weight to gain entry to New Zealand after being rejected for being overweight and a potential burden on the health care system.
His wife, Rowan, is now on a strict diet. However, she has been battling for months to shed the pounds so they can be reunited and live Down Under.
Mr Trezise moved to New Zealand in September after shedding two inches from his waist on a crash diet. His employer-backed skills visa was initially rejected by immigration officials when they discovered that his body mass index, or BMI, was 42, making him morbidly obese.
BMI measures a person's weight in relation to their height. Anything over 25 is regarded as overweight, and 30 or above is obese.
But his wife Rowan, who planned to emigrate with him, has failed to overcome the obesity test.
Takeaway curry is delivered straight through front door
A Couple told how a driver delivering their curry smashed his car through their front door. John and Hayley Potts were in their lounge in Alvaston, Derby, waiting for their takeaway to arrive when they heard a loud bang.
They looked in the hallway and found the front end of the delivery driver's car inside.
It had careered out of control after hitting a wall outside a house on the opposite side of the street. It then knocked over the street sign before crashing through the Potts' wooden fence and into their house.
The takeaway, ordered from Spice Grill Indian restaurant, in Osmaston Road, Allenton, was still on the back seat of the car.
While recovery vehicles arrived to tow away the damaged car, a second delivery driver from the restaurant arrived on the scene to give the couple a new meal.
Mrs Potts said: "The man who turned up with the second delivery seemed oblivious to what had happened. He was looking at the door."
They looked in the hallway and found the front end of the delivery driver's car inside.
It had careered out of control after hitting a wall outside a house on the opposite side of the street. It then knocked over the street sign before crashing through the Potts' wooden fence and into their house.
The takeaway, ordered from Spice Grill Indian restaurant, in Osmaston Road, Allenton, was still on the back seat of the car.
While recovery vehicles arrived to tow away the damaged car, a second delivery driver from the restaurant arrived on the scene to give the couple a new meal.
Mrs Potts said: "The man who turned up with the second delivery seemed oblivious to what had happened. He was looking at the door."
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