Tid Bits

Moscow, July 10: Several flights have been delayed at New York’s Kennedy Airport when some 80 turtles blocked one of the runways, a media report said.

Officials believe the turtles were probably looking for their mating partners amid the spawning season, the New York Post reported.

Collisions between turtle and plane are quite rare, with only five such cases have been registered at the airport from 2000-2008.

“It’s not unprecedented, but it doesn’t happen a lot,” airport authority spokesman John Kelly told the newspaper Thursday.

Washington, July 09: Life isn’t easy for pets that keep a busy schedule. There are visits with former members of the household who have moved far away.

And sometimes pets have to meet up with their families when they go on vacation or attend an occasion away from home. Soon there will be a new airline in the US to meet the needs of these busy animals. Pet Airways will fly strictly pets – the only people on board will be the pilot and a flight attendant who will be dedicated exclusively to the comfort of the precious freight.

London, July 09: A rapid rise in unemployment can be linked with more heart attacks, suicides and homicides but a drop in the number of road deaths, according to a study published in the Lancet medical journal.

The study by the University of Oxford and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine shows that a 3 percent rise in unemployment is associated with a 2.7 percent rise in heart attacks among men aged between 30 and 44 years old, an increase of 2.4 percent in homicides and the same rise in suicides in people under the age of 64.

Washington, July 09: Burger King, which runs a global chain of hamburger fast food restaurants in more than 70 countries, has apologised for running an advertisement in Spain that offended the Hindus.

“We are apologising because it wasn’t our intent to offend anyone,” Denise T Wilson, spokesman of Burger King said.

The statement came after the Hindu community demanded the company to apologise for running an advertisement which its leaders said were offensive to their religion.

Singapore, July 07: A Singapore woman has to stand trial for allowing her husband to cane her 10-year-old son with 100 strokes as punishment for lying, media reports said Tuesday. The 39-year-old woman, who was not identified to protect the boy’s identity, could be fined up to 4,000 Singapore dollars (2,745 US dollars) or jailed for up to four years or both.

The court was expected to deliver its judgment later this month.

The husband, 39, hit his step-son with two tied rattan canes on his buttocks, arms and back, the online edition of Straits Times newspaper said.

London, July 07: Michael Jackson’s fans are flooding the Internet with messages after allegedly spotting the singer’s ghost at his Neverland Ranch in a live TV programme last week.

A shadow resembling the King of Pop’s figure was said to have been seen on a wall in the star’s former home during CNN”s ”Inside Neverland”.

The figure was later alleged to have walked across the corridor, rushing quickly from left to right before vanishing, reports British tabloid The Sun.

London, July 05: A British man murdered his estranged wife after she changed her marital status on social networking site Facebook to ‘single’, a media report said Sunday.

Edward Richardson, 41, stabbed Sarah Richardson, 26, to death at her parents’ home in Staffordshire May 12, 2008, BBC News reported.

Richardson, who tried to commit suicide after the attack, has been sentenced to life with a minimum of 17 years in prison.

New York, July 05: The Statue of Liberty’s crown, which has been closed since the September 11, 2001 attacks here, reopened to the public on Saturday as the United States celebrated Independence Day.

Each hour, 30 people will be able to climb up a spiral staircase that leads to the very top of the iconic statue, which has been closed to the public amid security concerns.
The first group of visitors to enter the crown were chosen by a special lottery.

London, July 05: A SUSSEX surgeon has helped a blind man see his wife for the first time after implanting a tooth into his eye.

Consultant ophthalmic surgeon Christopher Liu, based at the Sussex Eye Hospital in Brighton, fixed Martin Jones’ sight with the scifi style operation, meaning he could see wife for the very first time.

Patients travel from around the world for Mr Liu and his team’s pioneering surgery.

Mr Liu has performed about 60 of the procedures since 2001, but said Mr Jones was one of the most successful patients.

London, July 05: Ready to give your soul for a loan in these difficult economic times? In Latvia, where the crisis has raged more than in the rest of the European Union, you can.

Such a deal is being offered by the Kontora loan company, whose public face is Viktor Mirosiichenko, 34. Clients have to sign a contract, with the words “Agreement” in bold letters at the top. The client agrees to the collateral, “that is, my immortal soul.”

Wellington, July 05: New Zealand’s national airline has adopted a cheeky way to encourage passengers to watch its in-flight safety video: The cabin crew’s uniforms are nothing but body paint.

The “Bare Essentials of Safety,” screening in the cabins of planes flying Air New Zealand’s main domestic routes, has gone viral online. It had 1.2 million YouTube views by Friday, four days after it was launched.

In the video, three cabin staff and a pilot, all in full body paint applied to look like their uniforms, talk viewers through the aircraft’s safety procedures.

Jahangeerabad, July 04: We’re seriously not horsing around. In an Uttar Pradesh village, the groom sits and waits for his bride who, dressed in fine bridal wear and a pagri, comes riding on a white mare to marry her man.

In Jahangeerabad village of Rae Bareli district, some 80 km from state capital Lucknow, it’s the bride and not the groom who sits on a decorated white mare and heads towards the wedding venue.

Canberra, July 03: Scientists have confirmed for the first time that Australia was once home to a dinosaur that was big, fast and terrifying, and they’ve named it like something from an Arnold Schwarzenegger movie. Meet the Australovenator.

The beast was a 1,100 pound (500 kilogram) meat-eating predator with three slashing claws on each of its powerful forelimbs that stalked the Outback 98 million years ago, researchers said in a report published Friday.

Rajkot, July 03: An 18-year-old son of a police constable was nabbed by Gujarat Railway police for making a bomb hoax call in Rajkot.

The Special Operations Group of Western Railways, Vadodara division, played a key role in tracking down the teenager, who had got the police on their toes by making bomb hoax call.

Rahul Laiya, a first-year student of Bachelor of Ayurvedic Medicine and Surgery (BAMS) studying in SDA Medical College in Ranchi was at home in Jamnagar during the summer vacations.

Here, he came across a disposed sim card and planned to use it in making free calls.

Mumbai, July 03: Shweta Gupta knows exactly what kind of groom she wants: he should be educated, well settled and live in a good location — one that must be in India.

Indian brides and grooms from the Adivasi tribe take part in a mass marriage ceremony.

Love may be recession proof in India, but arranged marriages are not.

London, July 03: A GROUP of office staff have discovered they work better together when they are NAKED.

Workers at a design and marketing company onebestway in the UK stripped off at the encouragement of their boss, who thought the move would boost business.

The ailing company had seen six redundancies since the start of the credit crunch when business psychologist David Taylor was brought in to boost team spirit.

The event, dubbed Naked Friday, was deemed a huge success and is even credited with turning around the firm’s fortunes.

Washington, July 02: A 50-year-old man on board a US Airways jet en route to Los Angeles has been arrested after he stripped naked and ran around, forcing the plane to divert and land in Albuquerque, according to media reports Thursday.

Keith Anthony Wright, a resident of New York, was being held in federal detention in New Mexico pending his appearance in court on charges of interference with a flight, FBI spokesman Darrin Jones was quoted as saying by the Los Angeles Times.

Beijing, July 02: A husband and wife are getting some attention in Danjiangkou, Hubei Province, due to their names.

Both are named Wang Yang, the same two Chinese characters, and both were born on April 29, 1982.

The couple began to date in 2007 when they worked together at the same company.

The affectionate pair said they never quarrel because both feel they would curse themselves if they fought and called out each other’s name.

–Agencies–

Kolkata, July 01: State-run Coal India Ltd (CIL) has decided to offer employment to Madhu, the poverty-stricken fifth generation descendent of India’s last Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar.

Madhu, 33, is the daughter of Sultana Begum and the late Muhammad Bedar Bakht, the great grandson of Bahadur Shah Zafar.

“On behalf of Coal India Ltd, I feel pleasure in offering employment to Madhu. It will be a great tribute to the last Mughal emperor who played a key role during the first war of independence in 1857,” Coal India Chairman Partha Bhattacharyya said.

Paris, June 30: Complete with new gray hairs and two fake bodyguards, a wax version of President Barack Obama took a trip on Monday to the Eiffel Tower.

After visiting France’s most famous monument, the statue traveled to Paris’ Musee Grevin wax museum, where it will stand alongside the likenesses of Nicolas Sarkozy, Angela Merkel and Vladimir Putin.

Hong Kong, June 29: An increasing number of Hong Kong teenagers are selling sex to earn money for designer clothes, in a trend called “compensated dating”, a survey released on Sunday indicated.

One in 10 students questioned said they believed schoolgirls were involved in the practice and 6.6% said they knew fellow students who had done it.

87% of the 3,000 interviewees said they believed teenagers got involved in the practice to earn money to buy branded products. Police have arrested several men in recent months for allegedly working as pimps for schoolgirls as young as 13.

Indore, June 27: A woman gave birth to a healthy female infant this evening after labour pain made her fall unconscious on railway tracks here, Government Railway Police said.

Kala (24), a resident of this district’s Tarakhedi village, was en route to Indore to her husband Nanuram’s place. As she arrived late here, she began walking along the tracks in a hurry to catch her train at the station. After she swooned, some women in the vicinity came to the rescue and aided the delivery.

The mother and daughter were later conveyed to the district hospital.

–UNI–

Berlin, June 26: A Polish couple living in Germany fell out after tying the knot and decided to end their marriage on the same day.

“He said he never wanted to see her again and wanted an immediate annulment, and she said the same thing,” a spokesman for police in the northern city of Hanover said Thursday.

Right after the civil ceremony Wednesday, the 50-year-old man began rowing with his bride and tried to cut her hair with a kitchen knife, police said.

The 34-year-old woman called police, who issued the man with a restraining order, which he readily accepted, police said.

Berlin, June 26: A thief in Germany was arrested after he tried to sell a garden mower online to the man he had stolen it from, police said Wednesday.

“The owner went to inspect the goods and recognized the mower as his own,” said a spokesman for police in the southern town of Tuebingen. “Then he left and told police.”

Officers confronted the 46-year-old suspect, who confessed to stealing the mower from a shed in February. He later put it for sale on internet auction site eBay, the spokesman said.

–Agencies–

London, June 25: A PRETTY shop assistant who claims she was made to work in a store’s stockroom because of her prosthetic arm arrives at an employment tribunal yesterday.

Riam Dean, 22 – who was born with her left forearm missing – said she was hidden from customers at trendy Abercrombie & Fitch.

She said bosses let her wear a cardigan at first, but then told her it did not match the store’s “look policy”.

A manager allegedly told the law student she could return to the shop floor only if she removed the cardigan.