Picture of the day.- August 1rst

Twins born with different skin colors in Berlin

One is black and the other is white

Babies online

On July 11, a woman in Berlin gave birth to twins which are as unidentical as twins - or siblings for that matter - could get.
One boy has fair skin while the one has dark skin.

The mother is from Ghana and the daddy is German.
In 2006, two girls with different skin and hair color were born in Australia to a Jamaican-English mother and a German father.
In 2005, another set of fraternal twin girls with different skin tones was born in Britain.
Having twins of different skin tones is highly unusual.
Usually, most mixed-race individuals carry both dark and light-skinned genes in theirs gametes (eggs or sperms).
However, on rare occasions, some gametes may carry predominantly or totally genes for a certain type of skin/hair color only.
I imagine sitting at a playground where the other mothers will call me crazy when I tell them the boys are twins said the mom of the African-German babies Ryan and Leo.

Picture of the day.- August 5

Oil prices keep falling

Barrel under 120 US $

Finfacts/DR

In New York Monday, crude oil prices fell below  $120 a barrel for the first time in three months on US growth fears as data showed that real US consumer spending fell by 0.2% in June, as rising inflation offset the impact of $100bn in rebates for US taxpayers - including food and energy, prices rose 0.8% in June – more than the 0.6% increase in spending produced by the stimulus cheques.

Also on Monday, producer price inflation in the Eurozone rose at an annual rate of 8% in July - an all-time high.

The fall in crude oil prices in recent weeks is welcome news for policymakers of central banks of the US, Eurozone and UK who meet this week to review monetary policy.

Picture of the day.- August 6

A couple meets after 47 years apart

A German woman and a North-Corean man spearated and together again

Orlando Sentinel/Picture JoongAng Ilbo

A German woman has traveled to North Korea to be reunited with her husband after 47 years apart, a news report said Tuesday.
Renate Hong, 71, married Hong Ok Gun in 1960 when the North Korean man was a student in what was then East Germany. But their life together ended a year later when he and all other North Korean students were recalled to their communist homeland.

Renate Hong lost contact with her husband in 1963 but never remarried, raising their two sons alone and waiting for a chance to reunite with the man who she fell in love with at first sight.
She learned last year that her husband, now 74, was still alive in North Korea with a new family.
South Korea’s JoongAng Ilbo newspaper reported Tuesday that Renate and her two middle-aged sons were on a visit to North Korea after the government there approved their trip. They arrived July 25 in Pyongyang.

Today is the day when my dream is coming true, the paper quoted Renate Hong as saying before her departure. At last, I get to finalize the last chapter of my case.
The daily carried a picture of her and the two sons, 47 and 48, showing off their passports stamped with North Korean visas.

Picture  of the day.- August 7

Olympic torch comes back to Beijing

After its world trip

Shangai Daily /Picture AFP

The Olympic torch arrived in the host city of Beijing yesterday afternoon, ready for the final leg of its global relay before the Games open on Friday.

After a simple reception at the Beijing Capital International Airport, the flame, flown from Sichuan Province, was sent to an undisclosed location until this morning, when the relay begins from the Forbidden City.

A total of 841 torch bearers will join the three-day relay across the city of 17 million people, including some big names, ranging from China’s hero astronaut Yang Liwei, to basketball star Yao Ming.

The relay organizers said yesterday that the flame, on its first day, would travel 16.4 kilometers in just over four hours with 433 bearers.

Picture of the day.- August 8

In China, thousands of marriages and birthes today

The symbolic date of 08/08/2008 not only inspired the Olympic Games opening

China Daily/Picture AFP

More than 16,400 Beijing couples have applied to have their marriages registered on the auspicious date of Aug 8, 2008 (Friday), the municipal bureau of civil affairs said Tuesday.

On the same day last year, just 3,390 couples registered their nuptials, it said.
Of this year’s total, 12,400 couples made their reservations in person, with the rest applying online, Zhou Libiao, a press official with the bureau told China Daily.

The deadline for Aug 8 registrations reservation was Tuesday closed, he said.

The majority of the reservations came from Beijing’s eight major districts: Chaoyang, Haidian, Dongcheng, Xicheng, Chongwen, Xuanwu, Fengtai and Shijingshan, Zhou said.

In anticipation of the huge demand, authorities in 18 districts and counties in the capital began taking registrations for the special day at the start of June, he said.
Once the applications have been processed, the couples simply have to call into the relevant office on Friday to collect their marriage certificates, he said.

Picture of the day.- August 11

DNA tests on two mummified fetuses

An investigation to determine family relations of Tutankhamun

By Salah Nasrawi : Associated Press Writer/ Picture Associated Press

Egyptian scientists are carrying out DNA tests on two mummified fetuses found in the tomb of King Tutankhamun to determine whether they are the young pharaoh’s offspring, the antiquities authority said Wednesday.

The two tiny female fetuses, between five to seven months in gestational age, were found in King Tut’s tomb in Luxor when it was discovered in 1922.
DNA samples from the fetuses will be compared to each other, along with those of the mummy of King Tutankhamun, the head of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, Zahi Hawass, said in a statement.

The testing is part of a wider program to check the DNA of hundreds of mummies to determine their identities and family relations.
Hawass said the program could help determine Tutankhamun’s family lineage, which has long been a source of mystery among Egyptologists.

The identity of Tut’s parents is not firmly known. Many experts believe he is the son of Akhenaten, the 18th Dynasty pharaoh who tried to introduce monotheism to ancient Egypt, and one of Akhenaten’s queens, Kiya.
But others have suggested he was the son of a lesser known pharaoh who followed Akhenaten.

Picture of the day.- August 12

Obesity and good health can go together

Fat people can be healthy too, US study shows

Reuters by Maggie Fox/ Foto AFP

It may be possible for at least half of overweight adults to be both fat and healthy, researchers have reported, with close to a third of obese men and women having normal blood pressure, cholesterol and other measures of heart health.

Being lean does not necessarily protect people, either. Close to a quarter of normal-weight US adults in one study had risk factors for heart disease or diabetes.

We really don’t know as much about obesity as we think we do, said Judith Wylie-Rosett of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, who oversaw the study.

A considerable proportion of overweight and obese US adults are metabolically healthy, whereas a considerable proportion of normal-weight adults express a clustering of cardiometabolic abnormalities, Professor Wylie-Rosett, Rachel Wildman and colleagues wrote in their report, published in the journal Archives of Internal Medicine.

Picture of the day.- August 13

Garden gnome makes a world Tour

It returns home after being stolen

BBC/Picture DPA

A snatched garden gnome has been returned to his owner with a photo album picturing him in 12 countries he had visited with his kidnapper.
Eve Stuart-Kelso said she was stunned to see her leprechaun Murphy standing outside her Gloucester home seven months after he disappeared.

He was also carrying a note putting his world tour down to itchy feet.
The album shows Murphy abseiling down a mountain, standing in a shark’s mouth and riding a motorbike.
Some of the pictures show a group of mysterious young men, who could be the ones responsible for the globetrotting stunt.

Also with Murphy were immigration stamps for all the shores he had been taken to visit - South Africa, Swaziland, Mozambique, New Zealand, Australia, Singapore, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, China, Hong Kong and Laos.
There’s more to life than watching daily commuter traffic and allowing passing cats to urinate on you, the letter said.

Picture  of the day.- August 14

Man almost loses penis humping Steel Bench

He called the police to help him

Weirdasianews

In Hong Kong, the police received a disturbing call from a man in trouble.
Xing, a 41 year-old man, was calling from LanTian park in the middle of the night. The lonely and disturbed man had apparently thought it would be fun to have sex with one of the steel sit-up benches around the park.

The bench has numerous small holes in it, which Xing used to attempt to satisfy himself.
However, once he became aroused he found that he was stuck and could not get his penis out of the small hole.

He panicked and called the police to help him.
When police arrive they found Xian stuck face down where he had been stuck for some time.

When doctors arrived on the scene they tried to release some of the pressure by removing some of his blood, but the penis was so swollen that they ended up having to cut the entire bench free and take it, with Xian attached, to the hospital.

Picture of the day.- August 19

Septuplets born in Alexandria

A Egyptian woman gives birth to 7 babies

Associated Press

Ghazala Khamis, 27, is stable though she did require a blood transfusion during the caesarian section due to bleeding, said Emad Darwish, director of the El-Shatbi hospital where she gave birth.

The newborns, four boys and three girls, have been placed in incubators in four different hospitals since they were premature, he added.

This is a very rare pregnancy, something I have never witnessed over my past 33 years in this profession, Darwish said.
He added that he decided to carry out the ceasarian section at the end of the eighth month of pregnancy, due to the pressure of the womb on the mother’s kidneys.

The babies’ weights range from 3.2 pounds to 6.17 pounds.
Khamis, the wife of a farmer hailing from the northern province of Beheira, is already the mother of three girls.

She was admitted to the hospital two months earlier.

Picture of the day.- August 20

Usain Bolt : Two world marks

The Jamaican is an athleticism legend

Times online/ Picture Reuters: Gary Hershorn

Usain Bolt broke his second world record in four days and gave himself the best possible birthday present as he became the first man in 24 years to complete the Olympic blue riband double of the 100 and 200 metres.

It’s great, it is a dream come true, Bolt said.
 I knew the track was fast, but I didn’t know it was this fast. I am shocked. The 6ft 5in Jamaican was not even born when Carl Lewis was presented with the gold medals for winning both events at the Los Angeles Olympics of 1984.

Now Bolt, 22 tomorrow, has been elevated to the same level as the man who thrilled the world’s sports fans in the 1980s.
He romped home in 19.30sec in front of 91,000 roaring spectators at China’s National Stadium, knocking two hundredth’s of a second off Michael Johnson’s mark, set at the Atlanta Games of 1996.
I have been aspiring to the world record for so long, he said.

Bolt had already set a new world record of 9.69sec in winning the 100 metres at a canter on Saturday.

Picture of the day.- August 21

A four ears cat

Yoda surprises the world

Boing Boing/Photo Barcroft Media

Yoda is a Chicago cat with four ears.

Valerie and Ted Rock found him in a local pub being passed round by curious drinkers.

Yoda’s extra flaps are separate to the base of his skull, with one placed slightly behind the other. The vet had never seen anything like it before, explains Valerie.
He immediately went to the internet and found the four-eared cat in Germany…

We have spoken with other vets in our acquaintance, and they likewise had never encountered anything like this. Yet despite his unusual looks, Valerie is sure Yoda’s behaviour - and hearing - are quite normal.

Yoda’s hearing is normal as far as we know, says Valerie.
People do a double take when they see him or his picture.It is great fun showing him off.

Picture of the day.- August 22

Blind, drunk man was driving

A month’s suspended jail sentence and 500 euros fine for the man

The Australian

A blind journalist was given a month’s suspended jail sentence and fined 500 euros ( $848) by a French court today for driving while drunk and without a licence.
The owner of the car, who was also drunk as he sat next to the blind man when he drove the vehicle, was given the same sentence and had his license suspended for five months by the court in the northeastern town of Nancy.
The pair were arrested on a country road in the early hours of July 25 by police who spotted their car zig-zagging suspiciously and moving at a very low speed.
The police were astounded when the 29-year-old driver informed them that he was blind, and when they breathalysed him and his passenger, a 52-year-old photographer, they found the pair had drunk twice the permitted level of alcohol.
I really wanted to do it (drive the car), the blind man told the court. I expressed this wish. He (the owner of the car) agreed.
The owner said he saw a lot of happiness emanating from him as the blind journalist drove, adding that he had one hand on the handbrake and one hand on the steering wheel .
I was very concentrated on the road, he said.

Picture of the day.- August 25

Felix Diaz wins gold medal in boxing

It dedicates it to family and DR

Dominican Today/ Picture Beijing 2008

Another page has been written in Dominican Republic’s sports history, when Felix Diaz won the gold medal in boxing Saturday in the 64 kg category.

Diaz convincingly beat the Thailander Manus Boonjumnong 12 to 4 to get the gold, in the bout that began at 8:10 a.m. today Dominican Republic time.

He becomes only the second Dominican –together with Felix Sanchez- to win the top award in the Olympic Games, and only the second medal in boxing.

Sanchez won in the 400 meter hurdles in Athens; Gabriel Mercedes won the silver in taekwondo in Beijing and the boxer Pedro Nolasco won a bronze in Los Angeles in 1984.

Picture of the day.- August 26

Man banned from girlfriend’s home after noisy sexual relations

Decison took after neighbors compains

AP/Picture Zigonet

A British man has been banned from visiting his girlfriend’s home after neighbors complained about noisy sex, a local government official said Thursday.

Adam Hinton, 32, was barred from getting within 100 meters (110 yards) of his 29-year-old girlfriend Kerry Norris’ apartment by a British court Wednesday, Brighton and Hove City Council spokesman Mike Taggart said.
Residents of Norris’s publicly-owned home had been complaining since 2006 about thumping music, banging headboards, and screamed obscenities, Taggart said. He added that a young child had been traumatized.

There was a 6-year-old child who was subjected to the sort of obscenities you wouldn’t want a 6-year-old to hear, Taggart said, adding that Norris also sunbathed naked in her yard in full view of passers-by.

She is a classic nightmare neighbor, he said. There’s a salacious, smutty side to this case. But it’s not about sex, it’s about allowing your neighbors to have a normal decent life without being disturbed.

Picture of the day.- August 27

Tomatina in Spain Today

A tradition of Buñol, Spain

Typically Spanish

Nearly 120,000 kilos of tomatoes were squashed during the fighting this year in the town.

Some 40,000 people took part in the famous Fiesta de la Tomatina in the Valencia town of Buñol today.

Some of the revellers who were determined to take part in the largest tomato fight on the planet had travelled from countries as distant as Japan and Australia.

It took less than an hour for the 115,000 kilos of tomato to turn into a river of red in the fiesta which is held each year in honour of San Luis Bertrán, the local Patron Saint.

Picture of the day.- August 28

Cat grows wings

After the four ears cat, the winged cat

Ananova

Granny Feng’s tom cat has sprouted two hairy 4ins long wings, reports the Huashang News.

At first, they were just two bumps, but they started to grow quickly, and after a month there were two wings, she said.

Feng, of Xianyang city, Shaanxi province, says the wings, which contain bones, make her pet look like a cat angel.

Her explanation is that the cat sprouted the wings after being sexually harassed.

A month ago, many female cats in heat came to harass him, and then the wings started to grow, she said.

However, experts say the phenomenon is more likely down to a gene mutation, and say it shouldn’t prevent the cat living a normal life.

Picture of the day.- August 29

McCain choses a woman as his VP

Sarah Palin is the candidate’s number 2

Andrew Malcolm for LA Times/ Picture AFP

The Republican Party’s presumptive presidential nominee, Sen. John McCain, has pulled a fast one on his Democratic opponents, who spent much of the last 19 months arguing over whether they’d be the party to have a female on their 2008 presidential ticket.

The rumor is true.
As The Ticket reported just before dawn this morning, McCain confirmed that his vice presidential running mate is Sarah Palin, the first female governor of Alaska and the first woman on a national GOP ticket.

And hear this: The 44-year-old Palin, a former city councilwoman, Alaskan mayor, star high school basketball player and beauty queen, is a Republican political maverick.