Man Divorces Wife By Text Message

A Saudi man has divorced his wife by text message, a newspaper said on Thursday.

The man was in Iraq when he sent the SMS informing her she was no longer his spouse. He followed up with a telephone call to two of his relatives, the daily Arab News reported.

A court in the Red Sea city of Jeddah finalised the split — the first known divorce in Saudi Arabia by text message — after summoning the two relatives to check they had received word of the husband’s intention, the paper said.

Saudi Arabia practises a strict form of Islamic Sharia law, and clerics preside over Sharia courts as judges. Under the law a man can divorce his wife by saying “I divorce you” three times.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090409/od_uk_nm/oukoe_uk_saudi_divorce

 

Gordo the skateboarding parrot stolen

BALDWIN PARK, Calif. – A birdnapper snatched Gordo the skateboarding parrot. The 30-year-old green Guatemalan parrot, a popular attraction for a decade in the San Gabriel Valley community of Baldwin Park, was taken from his front porch cage Wednesday morning.

Owner Fred Mireles said his mother heard some commotion and spotted a man running away with Gordo. The 47-year-old childless man says he’s devastated, adding Gordo is like a kid to him.

Baldwin Park police Sgt. Darryl Kosaka said it could be difficult to recover the parrot, noting that animals are often stolen to become pets in other households or to be sold.

Mireles said the birdnapper is “up against a can of worms” because Gordo isn’t used to strangers and will start biting. - AP

http://www.gmanews.tv/story/154452/Gordo-the-skateboarding-parrot-stolen

 

World’s Tallest Man Meets World’s Smallest Man

The world’s tallest man has met one of the world’s smallest in China.

Bao Xishun, a 56 year-old herdsman from Inner Mongolia, is the world’s tallest man and measures 7′ 9″ tall.

Meanwhile, He Pingping is applying to be entered in the Guinness World Record as the world’s shortest adult, standing at a mere 2′ 4″.

According to the organiser of the meeting, it was He’s long-cherished dream to meet Bao.

In March, Bao married saleswoman Xia Shujian, who stands a rather average 5′ 6″, after a global search for a suitable bride.

They celebrated a traditional Mongolian wedding in the tomb of Kublai Khan on Thursday.

Bao was confirmed as the world’s tallest living man by Guinness World Records last year. He overtook the previous holder, Radhouane Charbib of Tunisia, by just 2 millimeters.

Guinness World Records says Bao was of normal height until 16 but then put on a spurt that doctors were unable to explain, reaching his full height in seven years.

But Bao is far shorter than Robert Pershing Wadlow, from Illinois in the U.S., who died in 1940 aged 22 and stood at a massive 8′ 11.1″.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,289298,00.html

 

South Korean woman fails driver’s test 775 times

A South Korean woman who has failed the driver’s exam 775 times is not about give up on her hope of buying a truck one day to go into her own business, whether other drivers want her on the road or not.

Cha Sa-soon, 68, has been trying since 2005 to pass the written portion of the test to get a licence, but she has so far failed to get the 60 percent required to clear it.

“I’ve looked up some guidebooks to get a driver’s licence, and they were saying it takes at most five years to get this,” Cha said in North Jeolla province, where farmers on tractors or cows can be just as common on country roads as motor vehicles.

“It’s already been four years, so I might pass the test next time. That’s what I hope for.”

Driving schools in South Korea offer courses to enable applicants to walk away with a licence in a week. Cha has not been fortunate enough to set foot in such a class, which tends to congregate more in busy metropolitan areas, but she remains unfazed, even after having spent more than 10 million won ($6,800) on test applications.

“I believe you can achieve your goal if you persistently pursue it,” she says. “So don’t give up your dream, like me. Be strong and do your best.”

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090221/od_uk_nm/oukoe_uk_korea_driver;_ylt=AkonElJB5XDg2UiV0GC7BQrZn414

photo from: http://www.daylife.com/photo/05f4efba7WaFu

 

Woman gives birth to octuplets in California

BELLFLOWER, California — A woman has given birth to eight babies in a hospital south of Los Angeles, marking the world’s second live-born set of octuplets.

Dr. Karen Maples told KCAL-TV that the babies were born Monday at Kaiser Permanante hospital and were “doing quite well.”

The hospital says the mother, who asked not to be identified, gave birth to six girls and two boys weighing between 1.8 pounds (0.82 grams) and 3.4 pounds (1.54 kilograms).

Dr. Harold Henry told KCAL that “they were all screaming and kicking around very vigorously.”

The last set of live-born octuplets were born in Texas and turned 10 last month. - AP

http://www.gmanews.tv/story/146062/Woman-gives-birth-to-octuplets-in-California

 

6-year-old Romeo, 7-year-old Juliet elope

Two childhood sweethearts, aged six and seven, eloped from Hanover in northern Germany on New Year’s Eve, determined to tie the knot under the African sun, police said Monday.

The pair identified as Mika and Anna-Lena “are very much in love and decided to get married in Africa where it is warm, taking with them as a witness Anna-Lena’s little sister, aged five,” police spokesman Holger Jureczko said.

The idea for the romantic trip began when Mika told the two girls about his recent holiday in Italy, while their families celebrated New Year’s Eve together. “From this, the children began to make plans for the future,” Jureczko said.

As the first dawn of 2009 broke, the trio started to put these plans into action, packing all the essentials for the journey, including “sunglasses, swimming trunks, a lilo, summer clothes and provisions.”

While their parents slept, they left their house in the suburbs of Hanover, walked a kilometer up the road to a tram stop from where they took a tram for the central station.

Waiting for a train to the airport, they aroused the attention of a guard who contacted police.

Two officers managed to convince the young lovers that they would struggle to get to Africa without money or a plane ticket.

Their relieved parents picked them up from the station, the spokesman said, adding: “They can still put their plan into action at a later date.”

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2009-01/06/content_7369703.htm

 

the pink iguana

A Galapagos National Park picture, showing a pink iguana. A team of Ecuadoran and Italian researchers have discovered a unique species of pink land iguanas living on the Galapagos Islands.

http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/slideshow/photo//090106/photos_sc_afp/bed4a4fe5df9c8c73f95e08a0c4488b5/

 

Premium tuna fetches $100,000 in Tokyo auction

TOKYO — Two sushi bar owners paid more than $100,000 for a Japanese bluefin tuna at a Tokyo fish auction Monday, about ten times the average price and the highest in nearly a decade, market officials said.

The 282-pound (128-kilogram) premium tuna caught off the northern coast of Oma fetched 9.63 million yen ($104,700), the highest since 2001, when another Japanese bluefin tuna brought an all-time record of 20 million yen, market official Takashi Yoshida said.

Yoshida said the extravagant purchase — about $370 per pound ($817 per kilogram) — went to a Hong Kong sushi bar owner and his Japanese competitor who reached a peaceful settlement to share the big fish. The Hong Kong buyer also paid the highest price at last year’s new year event at Tokyo’s Tsukiji market, the world’s largest fish seller, which holds near-daily auctions.

Typical tuna prices at Tokyo fish markets are less than $25 per pound ($55 per kilogram). But bluefin tuna is considered by gourmets to be the best, and when sliced up into small pieces and served on rice it goes for very high prices in restaurants.

Premium fish — sometimes sliced up while the customers watch — also have advertising value, underscoring a restaurant’s quality, like a rare wine.

Thousands of tuna were auctioned at Monday’s festive new year sale, which often brings unusually high prices.

“It was the best tuna of the day, but the price shot up because of the shortage of domestic bluefin,” Yoshida said, citing rough weather at the end of December. Buyers vied for only three Oma bluefin tuna Monday, compared to 41 last year.

A similar size imported bluefin caught off the eastern United States sold for 1.42 million yen ($15,400) in Monday’s auction.

Due to growing concerns over the impact of commercial fishing on the bluefin variety’s survival, members of international tuna conservation organizations, including Japan, have agreed to cut their bluefin catch quota for 2009 by 20 percent to 22,000 tons. - AP

http://www.gmanews.tv/story/142642/Premium-tuna-fetches-100000-in-Tokyo-auction

 

Podgiest pets compete in slimming contest

LONDON (Reuters) – Eight of Britain’s fattest pets are to embark on a 100-day diet and fitness regime in a bid to crowned this year’s pet fit club champion.

The seven dogs and one cat, who are all more than 30 percent overweight and weigh a combined total of 191 kg (30 stones), were picked by veterinary charity PDSA who are running the slimming contest.

The animals, who need to lose a total of 74 kg to reach their ideal weight, will be put on specially tailored diet and exercise programmes.

The pet who achieves the biggest percentage weight loss and best follows their new regime will be crowned champion, winning their owner a pet-friendly holiday.

PDSA statistics show around 30 percent of dogs are overweight or obese, amounting to around 1.95 million fat dogs.

“Alongside their daily portions of pet food, owners often show their affection by giving unhealthy human treats such as cheese, buttered toast and biscuits. They don’t realise they are actually killing their pets with kindness,” said Sean Wensley, a veterinary surgeon at PDSA.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20081117/od_uk_nm/oukoe_uk_britain_fatpets;_ylt=AlyCg.fLM6U2ShG4MejzlkDtiBIF

 

115-year-old woman dies as world’s oldest person

SHELBYVILLE, Ind. – Edna Parker, who became the world’s oldest person more than a year ago, has died at age 115.

UCLA gerontologist Dr. Stephen Coles said Parker’s great-nephew notified him that Parker died Wednesday at a nursing home in Shelbyville. She was 115 years, 220 days old, said Robert Young, a senior consultant for gerontology for Guinness World Records.

Parker was born April 20, 1893, in central Indiana’s Morgan County and had been recognized by Guinness World Records as the world’s oldest person since the 2007 death in Japan of Yone Minagawa, who was four months her senior.

Coles maintains a list of the world’s oldest people and said Parker was the 14th oldest validated supercentenarian in history. Maria de Jesus of Portugal, who was born Sept. 10, 1893, is now the world’s oldest living person, according to the Gerontology Research Group.

Parker had been a widow since her husband, Earl Parker, died in 1939 of a heart attack. She lived alone in their farmhouse until age 100, when she moved into a son’s home and later to the Shelbyville nursing home.

Although she never drank alcohol or tried tobacco and led an active life, Parker didn’t offer tips for living a long life. Her only advice to those who gathered to celebrate when she became the oldest person was “more education.”

Parker outlived her two sons, Clifford and Earl Jr. She also had five grandchildren, 13 great-grandchildren and 13 great-great-grandchildren.

Don Parker, 60, said his grandmother had a small frame and a mild temperament. She walked a lot and kept busy even after moving into the nursing home, he said.

“She kept active,” he said Thursday. “We used to go up there, and she would be pushing other patients in their wheelchairs.”

Gov. Mitch Daniels celebrated with Parker on her 114th birthday.

“It was a delight to know Edna, who must have been a remarkable lady at any age,” Daniels said.

Parker taught in a two-room school in Shelby County for several years after graduating from Franklin College in 1911. She wed her childhood sweetheart and neighbor in 1913.

But as was the tradition of that era, her teaching career ended with her marriage. Parker traded the schoolhouse for life as a farmer’s wife, preparing meals for as many as a dozen men who worked on her husband’s farm.

Parker noted with pride last year that she and her husband were one of the first owners of an automobile in their rural area.

Coincidentally, Parker lived in the same nursing home as 7-foot-7 Sandy Allen, whom Guinness recognized as the world’s tallest woman until her death in August. - AP

http://www.gmanews.tv/story/136636/115-year-old-woman-dies-as-worlds-oldest-person