Offbeat: Of junk food trouble and wrestling wives
Housewives looking to earn some extra cash in Mexico are donning masks and fancy costumes to step into wrestling ring.
Junk food junkie jolted
Chicken nugget fan, 17-year-old Stacey Irvine, has been warned that they are killing her because she hasn’t eaten anything else since the age of two.
Horrified doctors learned of the teenager’s chronic 15-year addiction after she collapsed and was rushed to hospital struggling to breathe.
Factory worker Stacey, who has never touched greens or fruit, was found to have anaemia and swollen veins in her tongue. Despite medics begging her to change her diet she still cannot get enough of chicken nuggets.
Stacey, of Castle Vale, Birmingham, said: “I am starting to realise this is really bad for me. McDonald’s chicken nuggets are my favourite. But I also like KFC and supermarket brands. My main meal is always chicken nuggets every day.”
Mum Evonne, 39, is battling to get her seen by a specialist.
She said: “I’m at my wit’s end. I’m praying she can be helped before it’s too late. It breaks my heart to see her eating those damned nuggets. She’s been told in no uncertain terms that she’ll die if she carries on like this. But she says she can’t eat anything else.”
The only variation in Stacey’s diet apart from fries is the occasional slice of toast for breakfast — and crisps.
She said: “I first tasted chicken nuggets when my mum took me to McDonald’s when I was two. I loved them so much they were all I would eat. I just couldn’t face even trying other foods. Mum gave up giving me anything else years ago.”
Exasperated Evonne, a beauty therapist, has two other children — Leo, five, and Ava, three. Both eat healthily.
She once tried starving Stacey to get her to eat more nutritious foods — but to no avail.
Meanwhile her daughter’s craving has sparked another headache — where to store all the free toys and novelties she has collected with her nugget meals. They currently fill four bin bags.
SOURCE: thesun.co.uk
Toddler trouble
A family could be evicted from their home after neighbours complained about the noise of their two-year-old daughter crying.
Nicola Baylis, 23, and her partner Tim Richold, 34, have been told they could be booted out of their rented flat unless their daughter Skye keeps quiet.
Neighbours have made dozens of complaints about the toddler - claiming her crying sounds like “a revving motorbike”.
The couple have now been issued with a notice seeking possession of their rented property in Lingmell Court, Warndon, Worcs. It states that unless Skye quietens down the family will be forced to leave next month.
Nicola said: “I can’t believe we’re going to be made homeless because of a toddler. Skye does have a very loud cry but her laugh is even louder. On the one hand I can understand what the neighbours are saying but they don’t have to live with it 24 hours a day.”
The family moved into their first-floor flat which they rent from Nexus Housing in December 2010.
But just weeks after moving in, Nicola was approached by housing chiefs after neighbours complained about Skye “crying”.
In November the couple were forced to sign an “acceptable behaviour contract” in a bid to control their daughter.
The family was also ordered to remove their pet dog from the premises after complaints about it barking.
A neighbour, who did not want to be named, said: “The family are nice enough but the little girl is so loud. Everyone living here appreciates the little girl is only two but we all have to live here as well and the noise is making people’s lives a misery.”
Nexus Housing have defended their warning to the family.
Senior Housing Officer Jennifer Soley said: “We have notified Miss Baylis that we are seeking possession of her property, because of noise and other nuisance. However, this is very much the first stage in the process and any decision to repossess the property would have to be made by a court.” SOURCE: thesun.co.uk
Monty brought me bark to life
Monty, a hound, saved his injured owner’s life by dashing half a mile to a pub to raise the alarm.
Maurice Holder, 73, had been taking Monty for a walk along a tidal river when the ground suddenly gave way and he plunged 40ft towards the water.
The pensioner was knocked unconscious and broke six ribs. He woke up to the sound of Monty barking at him.
Maurice said: “When I woke up the tide had come in up to my chest and I was bleeding from my head. Monty sat next to me.”
The grandad — who has owned Monty for 11 years — struggled up the bank of the River Camel, near Bodmin, Cornwall, before collapsing. Monty then dashed to the Borough Arms pub where he barked until he attracted the attention of a local and led him to the scene.
Maurice, a retired sales director from Newquay, was rushed to hospital and treated for head injuries, broken ribs and cuts and bruises. He was later told his accident could have proved fatal if Monty had not got help to him in time. He said: “Monty is the perfect pet. He isn’t the best behaved but he’s loyal — and that’s what matters.” SOURCE: thesun.co.uk
Small wonder
In Los Angeles a baby believed to be the third smallest birth-weight infant survived and left the hospital.
Melinda Star Guido was born in August last year, 16 weeks early, weighing only 9.5 ounces (270 grammes) and spent nearly five months in a neonatal intensive care unit.
She is the third smallest baby to survive, according to Global Birth Registry figures cited by LA County health officials.
Dr Rangasamy Ramanathan, neonatology chief at the LA County-USC Medical Centre, said he wasn’t initially sure if Melinda was going to survive beyond a few days. “This doesn’t happen every day. In my 30 years here, this is the first time it ever happened that we were able to discharge a baby who weighed less than 400 grammes, or 300 grammes,” he said.
“We have reached a milestone by being able to see Melinda go home”, he added. “We are hopeful to see many more milestones accomplished in Melinda’s development as we follow her care over the next six years.” (AFP)
No cell phones please, we’re North Korean
As part of the North Korea’s 100 days of mourning, cell phones have been banned within its borders.
There are reports from within the state that food supplies are again dwindling and that there has been an increase in the number of people attempting to cross the border into China. Many of those that do manage to cross the frontier eventually manage to reach South Korea, where an estimated 23,000 defectors have now settled.
The Workers’ Party has issued the stern warning in an effort to deter more from attempting the already perilous journey, in an effort to ensure the stability of the new regime of Kim Jong-un, who took over from his father.
People who are caught attempting to flee, as well as those detained in China and sent back over the border, usually end up in the North’s network of hard labour camps, human rights groups have reported, while repeat offenders can expect to be executed.
Source: telegraph.co.uk
We come in peace
Seven elderly retired Air Force officers called a news conference at the National Press Club in Washington to disclose that they witnessed UFOs rendering US nuclear missiles temporarily inoperable during the Cold War.
“Whoever are aboard these craft are sending a signal to both Washington and Moscow, among others, that we are playing with fire,” announced long-time UFO researcher Robert Hastings, who arranged the meeting. “The possession and threatened use of nuclear weapons potentially threatens the human race and the integrity of the planetary bargain”, he said.
Hastings didn’t serve in the military himself, but he worked with Robert Salas, a retired Air Force missile launch officer, to assemble a crew of former airmen whose stories shared a remarkable similarity. From 1963 to 1980, all were present at US nuclear missile sites when the flashing lights of alien spacecraft appeared before them or their colleagues. Some confessed that they didn’t see the ships themselves, but heard reliable accounts from trustworthy comrades.
In most cases, though, when the aliens approached, the missiles stopped being responsive to technicians’ controls.
“They could have done a lot more damage,” Salas said when asked how he knew the alien counter-missile efforts didn’t portend a more hostile purpose, like a forthcoming attack.
To conclude, Hastings said: “There will be a paradigm shift. Traditional institutions such as religions, governments, other social institutions may be threatened by what is coming. That is just the logical consequence of what is about to occur.”
SOURCE: wired.com
Holy trance
A Swedish church is attracting a younger congregation by staging services featuring techno music.
The services at Stockholm’s All Saints Church were the idea of vicar Olle Idestrom.
He sees them as a way of boosting dwindling congregations by attracting younger church-goers. Hymns have been replaced with especially written modern dance tunes to attract the younger crowd.
And they are proving highly popular with young Christians who are, quite literally, dancing in the aisles.
SOURCE: web.orange.co.uk
Wife wars
Housewives looking to earn some extra cash in Mexico are donning masks and fancy costumes to step into the wrestling ring.
Women from low income families are earning their living by smashing each other on a regular basis.
They are paid $10 to $200 per bout — good money in a country where the average annual wage is $6,000(Rs541,614).
SOURCE: web.orange.co.uk
Website helps spurned lovers sell gifts
A new website has been set up to help people dispose of unwanted gifts from relationships that have gone bad.
Annabel Acton, 28, from New York, created the website after her own romance fell apart days before Christmas, reports the Daily Telegraph.
Miss Acton had two tickets to London, as well as artwork and jewellery she did not want to wear anymore, so set up the website to sell it on.
“All this pathetic ‘Better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all’ was sappy. I wanted something spunky,” Miss Acton told the New York Post.
Items for sale include designer wedding dresses, wedding and engagement rings and even wedding packages from couples who didn’t make it to the altar.
Sellers list the ‘real world price’ and the bargain ‘break-up price’ and then blog about their reasons for selling the goods.
SOURCE: web.orange.co.uk
Nailed it!
The three and a half inch nail pulled from a Chicago man’s head turned doctors at Advocate Christ Medical Centre in Oak Lawn, Illinois, into heroes.
Dante Autullo thought he’d merely cut himself while building a shed. It wasn’t until he was taken to the hospital the next day that he realised that he’d accidentally shot himself in the skull with a nail gun, according to the Associated Press.
“When they brought in the picture, I said to the doctor ‘Is this a joke? Did you get that out of the doctors joke file?’” the 32-year-old recalled. The doctor said “No man, that’s in your head.’’
The X-ray revealed that the shot was just millimeters away from the section of the brain that controls the motor functions, according to Fox News.
SOURCE: huffingtonpost.com
Published in The Express Tribune, January 28th, 2012.
Chicken nugget fan, 17-year-old Stacey Irvine, has been warned that they are killing her because she hasn’t eaten anything else since the age of two.
Horrified doctors learned of the teenager’s chronic 15-year addiction after she collapsed and was rushed to hospital struggling to breathe.
Factory worker Stacey, who has never touched greens or fruit, was found to have anaemia and swollen veins in her tongue. Despite medics begging her to change her diet she still cannot get enough of chicken nuggets.
Stacey, of Castle Vale, Birmingham, said: “I am starting to realise this is really bad for me. McDonald’s chicken nuggets are my favourite. But I also like KFC and supermarket brands. My main meal is always chicken nuggets every day.”
Mum Evonne, 39, is battling to get her seen by a specialist.
She said: “I’m at my wit’s end. I’m praying she can be helped before it’s too late. It breaks my heart to see her eating those damned nuggets. She’s been told in no uncertain terms that she’ll die if she carries on like this. But she says she can’t eat anything else.”
The only variation in Stacey’s diet apart from fries is the occasional slice of toast for breakfast — and crisps.
She said: “I first tasted chicken nuggets when my mum took me to McDonald’s when I was two. I loved them so much they were all I would eat. I just couldn’t face even trying other foods. Mum gave up giving me anything else years ago.”
Exasperated Evonne, a beauty therapist, has two other children — Leo, five, and Ava, three. Both eat healthily.
She once tried starving Stacey to get her to eat more nutritious foods — but to no avail.
Meanwhile her daughter’s craving has sparked another headache — where to store all the free toys and novelties she has collected with her nugget meals. They currently fill four bin bags.
SOURCE: thesun.co.uk
Toddler trouble
A family could be evicted from their home after neighbours complained about the noise of their two-year-old daughter crying.
Nicola Baylis, 23, and her partner Tim Richold, 34, have been told they could be booted out of their rented flat unless their daughter Skye keeps quiet.
Neighbours have made dozens of complaints about the toddler - claiming her crying sounds like “a revving motorbike”.
The couple have now been issued with a notice seeking possession of their rented property in Lingmell Court, Warndon, Worcs. It states that unless Skye quietens down the family will be forced to leave next month.
Nicola said: “I can’t believe we’re going to be made homeless because of a toddler. Skye does have a very loud cry but her laugh is even louder. On the one hand I can understand what the neighbours are saying but they don’t have to live with it 24 hours a day.”
The family moved into their first-floor flat which they rent from Nexus Housing in December 2010.
But just weeks after moving in, Nicola was approached by housing chiefs after neighbours complained about Skye “crying”.
In November the couple were forced to sign an “acceptable behaviour contract” in a bid to control their daughter.
The family was also ordered to remove their pet dog from the premises after complaints about it barking.
A neighbour, who did not want to be named, said: “The family are nice enough but the little girl is so loud. Everyone living here appreciates the little girl is only two but we all have to live here as well and the noise is making people’s lives a misery.”
Nexus Housing have defended their warning to the family.
Senior Housing Officer Jennifer Soley said: “We have notified Miss Baylis that we are seeking possession of her property, because of noise and other nuisance. However, this is very much the first stage in the process and any decision to repossess the property would have to be made by a court.” SOURCE: thesun.co.uk
Monty brought me bark to life
Monty, a hound, saved his injured owner’s life by dashing half a mile to a pub to raise the alarm.
Maurice Holder, 73, had been taking Monty for a walk along a tidal river when the ground suddenly gave way and he plunged 40ft towards the water.
The pensioner was knocked unconscious and broke six ribs. He woke up to the sound of Monty barking at him.
Maurice said: “When I woke up the tide had come in up to my chest and I was bleeding from my head. Monty sat next to me.”
The grandad — who has owned Monty for 11 years — struggled up the bank of the River Camel, near Bodmin, Cornwall, before collapsing. Monty then dashed to the Borough Arms pub where he barked until he attracted the attention of a local and led him to the scene.
Maurice, a retired sales director from Newquay, was rushed to hospital and treated for head injuries, broken ribs and cuts and bruises. He was later told his accident could have proved fatal if Monty had not got help to him in time. He said: “Monty is the perfect pet. He isn’t the best behaved but he’s loyal — and that’s what matters.” SOURCE: thesun.co.uk
Small wonder
In Los Angeles a baby believed to be the third smallest birth-weight infant survived and left the hospital.
Melinda Star Guido was born in August last year, 16 weeks early, weighing only 9.5 ounces (270 grammes) and spent nearly five months in a neonatal intensive care unit.
She is the third smallest baby to survive, according to Global Birth Registry figures cited by LA County health officials.
Dr Rangasamy Ramanathan, neonatology chief at the LA County-USC Medical Centre, said he wasn’t initially sure if Melinda was going to survive beyond a few days. “This doesn’t happen every day. In my 30 years here, this is the first time it ever happened that we were able to discharge a baby who weighed less than 400 grammes, or 300 grammes,” he said.
“We have reached a milestone by being able to see Melinda go home”, he added. “We are hopeful to see many more milestones accomplished in Melinda’s development as we follow her care over the next six years.” (AFP)
No cell phones please, we’re North Korean
As part of the North Korea’s 100 days of mourning, cell phones have been banned within its borders.
There are reports from within the state that food supplies are again dwindling and that there has been an increase in the number of people attempting to cross the border into China. Many of those that do manage to cross the frontier eventually manage to reach South Korea, where an estimated 23,000 defectors have now settled.
The Workers’ Party has issued the stern warning in an effort to deter more from attempting the already perilous journey, in an effort to ensure the stability of the new regime of Kim Jong-un, who took over from his father.
People who are caught attempting to flee, as well as those detained in China and sent back over the border, usually end up in the North’s network of hard labour camps, human rights groups have reported, while repeat offenders can expect to be executed.
Source: telegraph.co.uk
We come in peace
Seven elderly retired Air Force officers called a news conference at the National Press Club in Washington to disclose that they witnessed UFOs rendering US nuclear missiles temporarily inoperable during the Cold War.
“Whoever are aboard these craft are sending a signal to both Washington and Moscow, among others, that we are playing with fire,” announced long-time UFO researcher Robert Hastings, who arranged the meeting. “The possession and threatened use of nuclear weapons potentially threatens the human race and the integrity of the planetary bargain”, he said.
Hastings didn’t serve in the military himself, but he worked with Robert Salas, a retired Air Force missile launch officer, to assemble a crew of former airmen whose stories shared a remarkable similarity. From 1963 to 1980, all were present at US nuclear missile sites when the flashing lights of alien spacecraft appeared before them or their colleagues. Some confessed that they didn’t see the ships themselves, but heard reliable accounts from trustworthy comrades.
In most cases, though, when the aliens approached, the missiles stopped being responsive to technicians’ controls.
“They could have done a lot more damage,” Salas said when asked how he knew the alien counter-missile efforts didn’t portend a more hostile purpose, like a forthcoming attack.
To conclude, Hastings said: “There will be a paradigm shift. Traditional institutions such as religions, governments, other social institutions may be threatened by what is coming. That is just the logical consequence of what is about to occur.”
SOURCE: wired.com
Holy trance
A Swedish church is attracting a younger congregation by staging services featuring techno music.
The services at Stockholm’s All Saints Church were the idea of vicar Olle Idestrom.
He sees them as a way of boosting dwindling congregations by attracting younger church-goers. Hymns have been replaced with especially written modern dance tunes to attract the younger crowd.
And they are proving highly popular with young Christians who are, quite literally, dancing in the aisles.
SOURCE: web.orange.co.uk
Wife wars
Housewives looking to earn some extra cash in Mexico are donning masks and fancy costumes to step into the wrestling ring.
Women from low income families are earning their living by smashing each other on a regular basis.
They are paid $10 to $200 per bout — good money in a country where the average annual wage is $6,000(Rs541,614).
SOURCE: web.orange.co.uk
Website helps spurned lovers sell gifts
A new website has been set up to help people dispose of unwanted gifts from relationships that have gone bad.
Annabel Acton, 28, from New York, created the website after her own romance fell apart days before Christmas, reports the Daily Telegraph.
Miss Acton had two tickets to London, as well as artwork and jewellery she did not want to wear anymore, so set up the website to sell it on.
“All this pathetic ‘Better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all’ was sappy. I wanted something spunky,” Miss Acton told the New York Post.
Items for sale include designer wedding dresses, wedding and engagement rings and even wedding packages from couples who didn’t make it to the altar.
Sellers list the ‘real world price’ and the bargain ‘break-up price’ and then blog about their reasons for selling the goods.
SOURCE: web.orange.co.uk
Nailed it!
The three and a half inch nail pulled from a Chicago man’s head turned doctors at Advocate Christ Medical Centre in Oak Lawn, Illinois, into heroes.
Dante Autullo thought he’d merely cut himself while building a shed. It wasn’t until he was taken to the hospital the next day that he realised that he’d accidentally shot himself in the skull with a nail gun, according to the Associated Press.
“When they brought in the picture, I said to the doctor ‘Is this a joke? Did you get that out of the doctors joke file?’” the 32-year-old recalled. The doctor said “No man, that’s in your head.’’
The X-ray revealed that the shot was just millimeters away from the section of the brain that controls the motor functions, according to Fox News.
SOURCE: huffingtonpost.com
Published in The Express Tribune, January 28th, 2012.