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Monday, June 01, 2009
Bulls explode after power lines collapse
Seven bulls 'exploded' and caught fire after powerlines fell on a Dairy Flat farm, north of Auckland, New Zealand on Tuesday.
Dave Taylor, who leases the 60.7 hectare Wilks Rd farm, says he lost a $2000 friesian breeding bull and six other meat bulls of the same breed worth about $500 each. "I got a call from my dad, who was driving along the motorway, to say cows were exploding. I found seven dead and on fire in the paddock," he says.
Mr Taylor says he jumped the fence to see what was wrong because he didn’t know what had happened. But then he realised he was trapped in the paddock as the fences and gates were "fizzing and hissing" because the fallen lines were still live.
Mr Taylor says he was lucky because he and workmate Glen Johnson may have jumped the fence without touching the wire. Both were wearing rubber gumboots that would have provided some insulation from electric shock.
"Glen and I came down to the farm and jumped into the paddock when we saw other cattle coming towards the line and tried to scare them away," says Mr Taylor. Three bulls were electrocuted when the lines fell, and another four were killed when they walked into the live area.
A hedgehog was also killed.
Dave Taylor, who leases the 60.7 hectare Wilks Rd farm, says he lost a $2000 friesian breeding bull and six other meat bulls of the same breed worth about $500 each. "I got a call from my dad, who was driving along the motorway, to say cows were exploding. I found seven dead and on fire in the paddock," he says.
Mr Taylor says he jumped the fence to see what was wrong because he didn’t know what had happened. But then he realised he was trapped in the paddock as the fences and gates were "fizzing and hissing" because the fallen lines were still live.
Mr Taylor says he was lucky because he and workmate Glen Johnson may have jumped the fence without touching the wire. Both were wearing rubber gumboots that would have provided some insulation from electric shock.
"Glen and I came down to the farm and jumped into the paddock when we saw other cattle coming towards the line and tried to scare them away," says Mr Taylor. Three bulls were electrocuted when the lines fell, and another four were killed when they walked into the live area.
A hedgehog was also killed.
Man cuts off penis after family axe wedding plans
A 25-year-old Egyptian man cut off his own penis to spite his family after he was refused permission to marry a girl from a lower class family, police reported on Sunday.
After unsuccessfully petitioning his father for two years to marry the girl, the man heated up a knife and sliced off his reproductive organ, said a police official.
The young man came from a prominent family in the southern Egyptian province of Qena, one of Egypt's poorest and most conservative areas that is also home to the famed ancient Egyptian ruins of Luxor.
The man was rushed to the hospital but doctors were unable to reattach the severed member, the official added citing the police report filed after the incident.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak with the press, added that the man was still recovering in the hospital.
Traditionally, marriages in these conservative part of southern Egypt are between similar social classes and often within the same extended families - and are rarely for love.
After unsuccessfully petitioning his father for two years to marry the girl, the man heated up a knife and sliced off his reproductive organ, said a police official.
The young man came from a prominent family in the southern Egyptian province of Qena, one of Egypt's poorest and most conservative areas that is also home to the famed ancient Egyptian ruins of Luxor.
The man was rushed to the hospital but doctors were unable to reattach the severed member, the official added citing the police report filed after the incident.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak with the press, added that the man was still recovering in the hospital.
Traditionally, marriages in these conservative part of southern Egypt are between similar social classes and often within the same extended families - and are rarely for love.
Doctors give blind Iraqi girl new eyes
After flying 2,500 miles from Baghdad and pacing hospitals in London while his daughter underwent four operations in seven weeks, Hisham Kareem knew the moment he had been waiting for had finally arrived.
Kareem, 32, bent over three-year-old Shams in Moorfields eye hospital last Wednesday and gazed at her intently. Then he smiled proudly like a father seeing his newborn child for the first time.
“Oh God, oh God, my blind angel has eyes now,” he said.
Shams Kareem, who was blinded and disfigured by a bomb that killed her mother in November 2006, had just been fitted with prosthetic eyes in the culmination of a first round of treatment funded by people who donated £128,000 to give her a new chance in life.
Mangled flesh had been replaced by big brown eyes that restored some of the beauty shattered by the bomb. It was a big step towards making her look more like other children.
The change in her appearance will transform her prospects in Iraq, where, in common with many states in the Arab world, disability remains stigmatised and can mean no education, career or marriage.
Kareem, 32, bent over three-year-old Shams in Moorfields eye hospital last Wednesday and gazed at her intently. Then he smiled proudly like a father seeing his newborn child for the first time.
“Oh God, oh God, my blind angel has eyes now,” he said.
Shams Kareem, who was blinded and disfigured by a bomb that killed her mother in November 2006, had just been fitted with prosthetic eyes in the culmination of a first round of treatment funded by people who donated £128,000 to give her a new chance in life.
Mangled flesh had been replaced by big brown eyes that restored some of the beauty shattered by the bomb. It was a big step towards making her look more like other children.
The change in her appearance will transform her prospects in Iraq, where, in common with many states in the Arab world, disability remains stigmatised and can mean no education, career or marriage.
Outsourcing care for the elderly to India
Steve Herzfeld has just spent five years of his life caring for his elderly parents as they succumbed to Parkinson's and Alzheimer's, deteriorated and finally died. But the family's story is extraordinary and even uplifting. Faced with crippling medical costs, Herzfeld took his mother and father from their home in Florida to India and managed to give them such a high level of care in the oceanside city of Puducherry (formerly Pondicherry) that they appeared to regain some quality of life and even dignity.
He began caring for his parents full-time in 2004. His mother, Frances, then 87, was virtually unable to speak coherently, he says, as Parkinson's disease gradually reduced her to "someone who was as helpless as an infant and also, in many ways, as lovable".
His father, Ernest, then 91, despite still being able to converse in German, French, English, Italian and Swiss dialect, was also incapable of looking after himself, as he had lost his short-term memory to Alzheimer's. "Like Mom, his disease was progressive and, towards the end, he was mentally like a two or three-year-old child," Herzfeld says.
Initially, Herzfeld was able to care for his parents in their Florida home. But when his mother had a fall, he realised he needed far more help than he could give them. Putting them in the cheapest acceptable home available would have cost $6,000 (around £3,700) a month, and they did not have that kind of money. More than that, Herzfeld did not want to take this route: he had noticed a marked deterioration in his mother's contentment when she had to spend a few weeks in a home after the fall.
Looking at all possible options, he considered Mexico and India as affordable locations. A host of reasons - including knowing India well and having friends there - made him opt for Puducherry, where the climate is similar to that of Florida and there is a supply of English-speaking care professionals. But every step of the move had to be planned in detail. The airline agreed to take Frances and Ernest only because a doctor friend flew out with them and took responsibility for them door to door. Another friend organised a house for them and set up the electricity, cable TV, air conditioning, furniture and broadband.
Once staff had been found, he could give his parents a much higher standard of care than would have been possible in the US for his father's income of $2,000 (£1,200) a month. In India that paid for their rent, a team of carers - a cook, a valet for his father, nurses to be with his mother 12 hours a day, six days a week, a physiotherapist and a masseuse - and drugs (costing a fifth of US prices), and also allowed them to put some money away.
Full story here.
He began caring for his parents full-time in 2004. His mother, Frances, then 87, was virtually unable to speak coherently, he says, as Parkinson's disease gradually reduced her to "someone who was as helpless as an infant and also, in many ways, as lovable".
His father, Ernest, then 91, despite still being able to converse in German, French, English, Italian and Swiss dialect, was also incapable of looking after himself, as he had lost his short-term memory to Alzheimer's. "Like Mom, his disease was progressive and, towards the end, he was mentally like a two or three-year-old child," Herzfeld says.
Initially, Herzfeld was able to care for his parents in their Florida home. But when his mother had a fall, he realised he needed far more help than he could give them. Putting them in the cheapest acceptable home available would have cost $6,000 (around £3,700) a month, and they did not have that kind of money. More than that, Herzfeld did not want to take this route: he had noticed a marked deterioration in his mother's contentment when she had to spend a few weeks in a home after the fall.
Looking at all possible options, he considered Mexico and India as affordable locations. A host of reasons - including knowing India well and having friends there - made him opt for Puducherry, where the climate is similar to that of Florida and there is a supply of English-speaking care professionals. But every step of the move had to be planned in detail. The airline agreed to take Frances and Ernest only because a doctor friend flew out with them and took responsibility for them door to door. Another friend organised a house for them and set up the electricity, cable TV, air conditioning, furniture and broadband.
Once staff had been found, he could give his parents a much higher standard of care than would have been possible in the US for his father's income of $2,000 (£1,200) a month. In India that paid for their rent, a team of carers - a cook, a valet for his father, nurses to be with his mother 12 hours a day, six days a week, a physiotherapist and a masseuse - and drugs (costing a fifth of US prices), and also allowed them to put some money away.
Full story here.
800 Britons on waiting list for Swiss suicide clinic
Record numbers of Britons who are suffering from terminal illnesses are queueing up for assisted suicide at the controversial Swiss clinic Dignitas.
Almost 800 have taken the first step to taking their lives by becoming members of Dignitas, and 34 men and women, who feel their suffering has become unbearable, are ready to travel to Zurich and take a lethal drug overdose.
The tenfold increase in the number of Britons who have joined Dignitas since 2002 will raise questions about the law that bans assisted suicide in Britain.
Dignitas figures show that 15 Britons took their lives there in 2003, 26 in 2006, eight in the first five months of 2008 and 23 in the past 12 months.
The disclosures will reopen the highly charged debate about euthanasia. This week, an influential group of peers, led by two former ministers in Tony Blair's cabinet, will seek to end what they see as the outdated and inhumane situation in which relatives or friends risk up to 14 years in prison if they travel with a loved one undertaking assisted dying overseas.
The 1961 Suicide Act criminalises anyone who aids, abets, counsels or procures someone else's suicide, and some relatives who have travelled have been questioned by police on their return. However, government law officers have already admitted that no one who goes abroad for that purpose is likely to face prosecution.
Almost 800 have taken the first step to taking their lives by becoming members of Dignitas, and 34 men and women, who feel their suffering has become unbearable, are ready to travel to Zurich and take a lethal drug overdose.
The tenfold increase in the number of Britons who have joined Dignitas since 2002 will raise questions about the law that bans assisted suicide in Britain.
Dignitas figures show that 15 Britons took their lives there in 2003, 26 in 2006, eight in the first five months of 2008 and 23 in the past 12 months.
The disclosures will reopen the highly charged debate about euthanasia. This week, an influential group of peers, led by two former ministers in Tony Blair's cabinet, will seek to end what they see as the outdated and inhumane situation in which relatives or friends risk up to 14 years in prison if they travel with a loved one undertaking assisted dying overseas.
The 1961 Suicide Act criminalises anyone who aids, abets, counsels or procures someone else's suicide, and some relatives who have travelled have been questioned by police on their return. However, government law officers have already admitted that no one who goes abroad for that purpose is likely to face prosecution.
Man marries during jury deliberations in trial
A Philadelphia man asked a judge to perform a wedding ceremony while the jury in the man's criminal trial was still deliberating the verdict. Timothy Zalut, 20, was on trial on assault charges this week in Bucks County Court. When it appeared that he might have to go to jail, Zalut decided to tie the knot with his fiancee, Hayley Dykstra.
Senior Judge C. Joseph Rehkamp, of Perry County, was presiding over the trial. He agreed to perform the ceremony in chambers while the jury was still out.
Dykstra said, "We wanted to get married, and we were worried that we wouldn't get the chance."
A plea bargain finally brought the trial to a halt and Rehkamp sentenced Zalut to five years of probation.
Senior Judge C. Joseph Rehkamp, of Perry County, was presiding over the trial. He agreed to perform the ceremony in chambers while the jury was still out.
Dykstra said, "We wanted to get married, and we were worried that we wouldn't get the chance."
A plea bargain finally brought the trial to a halt and Rehkamp sentenced Zalut to five years of probation.
N.E. Asia's highest mountain bans peak stripper
A man who stripped on northeast Asia's highest peak has been banned from the mountain and sent to prosecutors for ruining the scenery, national park officials said on Saturday.
The 30-year-old man surnamed Lu will be kept off Jade Mountain in Taiwan for one to three years after a friend took photos of him naked on the 3,952-metre peak on Tuesday, officials said. Prosecutors may indict him, as well.
"I think he was just goofing around," said acting park police chief Chou Yen-hui. "He said it was just for fun. But Taiwanese are conservative, and Jade Mountain is our sacred peak."
Jagged and often snowy Jade Mountain, the centrepiece of Taiwan's largest national park, is a Taiwan symbol often used for official promotions and company advertisements. Climbers must apply for permits a month in advance to attempt the summit.
The 30-year-old man surnamed Lu will be kept off Jade Mountain in Taiwan for one to three years after a friend took photos of him naked on the 3,952-metre peak on Tuesday, officials said. Prosecutors may indict him, as well.
"I think he was just goofing around," said acting park police chief Chou Yen-hui. "He said it was just for fun. But Taiwanese are conservative, and Jade Mountain is our sacred peak."
Jagged and often snowy Jade Mountain, the centrepiece of Taiwan's largest national park, is a Taiwan symbol often used for official promotions and company advertisements. Climbers must apply for permits a month in advance to attempt the summit.
Wild donkeys overrun Cyprus villages
The donkeys of Cyprus are a particularly stubborn lot. Decades after machines replaced them as the backbone of the farming economy, the animals just refuse to bow out. Fiercely territorial wild herds have overrun a remote part of the island, trampling crops, scaring drivers and giving authorities a headache over what to do.
The invasion has pitted village communities against environmental activists. The donkeys also serve as an unlikely reminder of the violent recent history of Cyprus – split for the past 35 years into a Greek Cypriot south and a Turkish Cypriot north. Mehmet Demirci, mayor of Dipkarpaz, or Rizokarpaso in Greek, in the breakaway Turkish north, says donkeys outnumber villagers by two to one and should be forcibly sterilised, or even expelled to Turkey.
"The donkeys are a real problem. The authorities just don't care about us," Mr Demirci said. He added that the last straw was the death last summer of a local youth, who crashed his car trying to avoid a wandering herd.
Although estimates of the precise number of feral donkeys vary, Mr Demirci says there are now about 1,000, all officially protected by Turkish Cypriot authorities. The beasts are a peculiar remnant of war, abandoned in 1974 by Greek Cypriot farmers fleeing an invading Turkish army. The island has since been split along ethnic lines, despite repeated diplomatic efforts for its reunification.
Despite a lack of human care, the animals have multiplied and thrived in the sparsely populated Karpas peninsula, a largely unspoiled sliver of land sticking out of the Mediterranean island's north-eastern edge. Over the decades, they have been broadly adopted as a cuddly symbol of the island's agrarian past. "Donkeys have offered so much," says Maria Nicolaou, manager of a donkey sanctuary near the coastal resort of Limassol, in the island's internationally recognised Greek-Cypriot south. "They are beautiful animals and very smart."
But most Karpas residents just see the animals as a major pain. Mr Demirci says 1,000 donkeys are far too many for a 116 square mile (300 square kilometre) area. Locals say they gobble up wheat and barley crops, ravage fruit and vegetable gardens, trample down vines and wantonly amble across the peninsula's narrow roads.
The invasion has pitted village communities against environmental activists. The donkeys also serve as an unlikely reminder of the violent recent history of Cyprus – split for the past 35 years into a Greek Cypriot south and a Turkish Cypriot north. Mehmet Demirci, mayor of Dipkarpaz, or Rizokarpaso in Greek, in the breakaway Turkish north, says donkeys outnumber villagers by two to one and should be forcibly sterilised, or even expelled to Turkey.
"The donkeys are a real problem. The authorities just don't care about us," Mr Demirci said. He added that the last straw was the death last summer of a local youth, who crashed his car trying to avoid a wandering herd.
Although estimates of the precise number of feral donkeys vary, Mr Demirci says there are now about 1,000, all officially protected by Turkish Cypriot authorities. The beasts are a peculiar remnant of war, abandoned in 1974 by Greek Cypriot farmers fleeing an invading Turkish army. The island has since been split along ethnic lines, despite repeated diplomatic efforts for its reunification.
Despite a lack of human care, the animals have multiplied and thrived in the sparsely populated Karpas peninsula, a largely unspoiled sliver of land sticking out of the Mediterranean island's north-eastern edge. Over the decades, they have been broadly adopted as a cuddly symbol of the island's agrarian past. "Donkeys have offered so much," says Maria Nicolaou, manager of a donkey sanctuary near the coastal resort of Limassol, in the island's internationally recognised Greek-Cypriot south. "They are beautiful animals and very smart."
But most Karpas residents just see the animals as a major pain. Mr Demirci says 1,000 donkeys are far too many for a 116 square mile (300 square kilometre) area. Locals say they gobble up wheat and barley crops, ravage fruit and vegetable gardens, trample down vines and wantonly amble across the peninsula's narrow roads.
Richard Dunwoody sets off to walk 1,000 miles in 1,000 hours
Former champion jockey Richard Dunwoody started a one thousand mile charity walk in Newmarket on Friday.
He will walk the same mile from the Bedford Lodge Hotel one thousand times in one thousand hours, finishing the last mile up the home straight of Newmarket racecourse just before the Darley July Cup on 10th July.
In 1809 Captain Robert Barclay Allardice was bet he couldn't walk the distance in a thousand hours. It meant he had to walk one mile in every consecutive hour 24 hours a day. He managed just over an hours sleep at any one time by walking back to back miles in different hours.
He completed the challenge later that year, losing three stone in the process with his challenge hailed as "one of the greatest human feats ever attempted."
200 years on, Dunwoody attempts that very same challenge.
He's doing it to raise money for Alzheimer's Society, Sparks, Racing Welfare and Spinal Research.
Website.
He will walk the same mile from the Bedford Lodge Hotel one thousand times in one thousand hours, finishing the last mile up the home straight of Newmarket racecourse just before the Darley July Cup on 10th July.
In 1809 Captain Robert Barclay Allardice was bet he couldn't walk the distance in a thousand hours. It meant he had to walk one mile in every consecutive hour 24 hours a day. He managed just over an hours sleep at any one time by walking back to back miles in different hours.
He completed the challenge later that year, losing three stone in the process with his challenge hailed as "one of the greatest human feats ever attempted."
200 years on, Dunwoody attempts that very same challenge.
He's doing it to raise money for Alzheimer's Society, Sparks, Racing Welfare and Spinal Research.
Website.
31 pianos to be plonked around London
In an experiment backed by Boris Johnson, the mayor of London, and by the national lottery, 31 pianos are to be placed around London to encourage people to gather for a singsong with strangers.
They will be placed at prominent sites such as the British Library, the Natural History Museum, the Bank of England and Tate Britain. Each will be decorated by an artist with an appropriate motif – the one outside the Bank will be painted with money, one on Carnaby Street will be adorned with bright 1960s-style swirls and one in Portobello Road market will feature fruit and veg.
A full-time tuner will tour the sites on a bicycle to maintain them. The organisers believe the scheme will encourage trust.
Although the pianos will be chained to bollards and railings, members of the public will be trusted not to vandalise the instruments or steal the laminated songbooks.
“Our projects are about increasing a sense of public spirit,” said Colette Hiller, director of the scheme, which is part of the Sing London festival. “We want people to treat the piano nicely, as they would a piano in their own home, to enjoy the songbooks with care and to cover the piano when it rains.”
The pianos will be available to play from June 23 for three weeks.
Website.
They will be placed at prominent sites such as the British Library, the Natural History Museum, the Bank of England and Tate Britain. Each will be decorated by an artist with an appropriate motif – the one outside the Bank will be painted with money, one on Carnaby Street will be adorned with bright 1960s-style swirls and one in Portobello Road market will feature fruit and veg.
A full-time tuner will tour the sites on a bicycle to maintain them. The organisers believe the scheme will encourage trust.
Although the pianos will be chained to bollards and railings, members of the public will be trusted not to vandalise the instruments or steal the laminated songbooks.
“Our projects are about increasing a sense of public spirit,” said Colette Hiller, director of the scheme, which is part of the Sing London festival. “We want people to treat the piano nicely, as they would a piano in their own home, to enjoy the songbooks with care and to cover the piano when it rains.”
The pianos will be available to play from June 23 for three weeks.
Website.
Pygmy marmosets born in the Lake District
Two new baby pygmy marmosets are stealing the limelight at Lakes Aquarium at Lakeside near Newby Bridge in the Lake District.
Each baby only weighs around half an ounce. This is amazingly already one sixth of the weight of their parents.
The babies are currently tiny bundles of fluffy fur, but developing faster than older siblings, Marmite and Marmalade, suggesting mum and dad have learned a few things about parenting since having their first litter.
Visitors can watch proud mother and father, now 5.5 and 3.5 years old respectively, carrying their little treasures around on their backs. Dad then hands the babies over to Mum for suckling, which is when visitors really see them well and gasps of surprise arise.
Each baby only weighs around half an ounce. This is amazingly already one sixth of the weight of their parents.
The babies are currently tiny bundles of fluffy fur, but developing faster than older siblings, Marmite and Marmalade, suggesting mum and dad have learned a few things about parenting since having their first litter.
Visitors can watch proud mother and father, now 5.5 and 3.5 years old respectively, carrying their little treasures around on their backs. Dad then hands the babies over to Mum for suckling, which is when visitors really see them well and gasps of surprise arise.
Mother deemed too stupid to care for her daughter
A mother has had her three-year-old daughter taken away from her by social services after authorities deemed her too stupid to look after the child.
Rachel Pullen, 24, claims the authorities 'kidnapped' the youngster and put her into foster care when she was just six months old. Now a family court has ruled her daughter should be placed with adoptive parents within the next three months before all contact is severed. Miss Pullen is fighting the decision in the European Court of Human rights.
Officials claim Miss Pullen, a single mother, from Nottingham, lacks the intelligence to cope with the complex medical needs of the child, who was born prematurely.
The child, named only as Baby K, is currently with foster parents even though a psychiatrist said Miss Pullen "good literacy and numeracy and her intellectual abilities appear to be within the normal range."
"It has been going on for three years now. She has been kidnapped," said Miss Pullen, "All I want to do is care for my daughter and she wants her mummy back. She keeps asking why she can't come home to live with me when I visit her."
Nottingham City Council said its priority was the future welfare of the child.
Rachel Pullen, 24, claims the authorities 'kidnapped' the youngster and put her into foster care when she was just six months old. Now a family court has ruled her daughter should be placed with adoptive parents within the next three months before all contact is severed. Miss Pullen is fighting the decision in the European Court of Human rights.
Officials claim Miss Pullen, a single mother, from Nottingham, lacks the intelligence to cope with the complex medical needs of the child, who was born prematurely.
The child, named only as Baby K, is currently with foster parents even though a psychiatrist said Miss Pullen "good literacy and numeracy and her intellectual abilities appear to be within the normal range."
"It has been going on for three years now. She has been kidnapped," said Miss Pullen, "All I want to do is care for my daughter and she wants her mummy back. She keeps asking why she can't come home to live with me when I visit her."
Nottingham City Council said its priority was the future welfare of the child.
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