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A Canadian teenager has been rescued after he got trapped on a floating piece of ice - with three polar bears. The 17-year-old had been on a hunting trip with his uncle when he became stuck on the ice pan, reports the Daily Telegraph. He shot one of the bears in self defense and was suffering from hypothermia when he was eventually rescued. It happened after a snowmobile the teen and his 67-year-old uncle were riding broke down on Southampton Island in the northern part of Hudson Bay. As they walked toward the tiny community of Coral Harbour - 11 miles away - to get help, they became separated. A large chunk of ice broke off, setting the teen adrift. While the teenager was lost in the wilderness he encountered three polar bears, an adult and two older cubs, on the same large ice pan. Ed Zebedee, director of the Government of Nunavut's protection services branch, said: "He did have to shoot the polar bear to protect himself. "There were two other bears on the ice pan but they stayed away from him so he didn't shoot at them at all." The uncle was picked up by searchers on snowmobiles and the teenager was spotted by a search plane later that day. It dropped him a container of chocolate bars. The following day, two search-and-rescue technicians parachuted to a larger ice floe a short distance away to mount their successful rescue attempt. Source
HOLLAND, Mich., Nov. 9 (UPI) -- Authorities in Michigan said a 79-year-old man suffered cuts, abrasions and burns when he attempted to destroy old fireworks in a backyard fire pit. Ottawa County sheriff's deputies responding to a report of a fire on a roof in the area said they spotted the man near a fire pit late Sunday morning and a huge explosion followed that left the man injured, WWMT-TV, Kalamazoo, Mich., reported Monday. The man told investigators he was trying to destroy fireworks in the pit. Deputies told the Holland (Mich.) Sentinel the Michigan Bomb Squad was called in dispose of the remaining fireworks. Source Have any interesting articles you'd like to share? Article Request Thread.
LONDON (Reuters) - London commuters listening out for the latest news about train services got a broadcast with a difference when the noise of a couple apparently having sex was blasted out over a station's loudspeaker system. Instead of the usual messages about delays, passengers at West Ham station in east London heard a couple's love-making antics being relayed over platform loudspeakers during the evening rush hour on Thursday. "The noises heard by passengers were not from within our station. We believe they were a result of some sort of interference with our public address system," a Transport for London spokesman said on Friday. "It certainly wasn't coming from our staff." He said the station's public address system worked on radio waves and somebody must have been broadcasting on the same wavelength. He said staff had turned off the loudspeakers as soon as they realised what was going on. "It was definitely a couple doing it there and then," passenger Laura O'Connor told the London Evening Standard newspaper. "He was grunting loudly and she sounded like she was having a great time. The driver must have heard it, too, as the doors stayed open longer than usual." Source
CHALFORD HILL, England, Nov. 9 (UPI) -- A British lobbying group has criticized a fire department for spending six hours on the rescue of a pet duck trapped in a pond's overflow pipe. Chris and Karen Hutchens said a five-man team of Gloucestershire firefighters arrived at their Chalford Hill, England, home just before 9:30 a.m. and dug a trench to free their duck, Brownie, from the pipe, The Sun reported Monday. "It was such a relief when a fire engine turned up and they started digging the hole. The pipe was about 4 feet underground but they kept going, they were wonderful and really went beyond the call of duty," Karen Hutchens said. However, a spokeswoman for lobbying group TaxPayers' Alliance criticized the firefighters' actions. "Whilst no one likes to see a duck suffering, animal rescue is not the central job of the fire service," she said. "In this case there were no emergency calls pending, but calls can crop up at the last minute which could be much more pressing than the rescue of a duck." A spokesman for the fire department said firefighters have humanitarian roles in their communities and were able to help in this case due to the lack of emergency calls. Source
WAXHAW, N.C., -- Parents and teachers at a North Carolina school are protesting a history lesson that involved African-American students pretending to be slaves. Teachers at Rea View Elementary in Waxhaw said they planned to write leaders at the Latta Plantation about a lesson during a Wednesday field trip that involved an African-American tour guide instructing black students to pretend to be slaves while their white classmates looked on, WSOC-TV, Charlotte, reported. Parents said the three students chosen by tour guide Ian Campbell wore bags used to gather cotton while mimicking cotton picking. "I am very enthusiastic about getting kids to think about how people did things in 1860, 1861 -- even before that period," said Campbell, who added he has been a historian for 15 years. "I was trying to be historically correct not politically correct." Kojo Nantambu, president of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg NAACP, criticized the lesson. "There is a lingering pain, a lingering bitterness, a lingering insecurity and a lingering sense of inhumanity since slavery," he said. "Because that's still there, you want to be more sensitive than politically correct or historically correct." Source
SAO PAULO — A Brazilian university has expelled a woman who was heckled by hundreds of fellow students for wearing a short, pink dress to class — publicly accusing her Sunday of immorality. The private Bandeirante University in Sao Bernardo do Campo, outside Sao Paulo, said 20-year-old Geisy Arruda disrespected "ethical principles, academic dignity and morality." Bandeirante University published newspaper advertisements Sunday accusing Arruda of attending class with "inadequate clothing" and having a provocative attitude that was "incompatible with the university environment." Arruda made headlines after the Oct. 22 incident, in which she had to be escorted away by police after wearing the mini-dress to class. She put on a professor's white coat and left amid a hail of insults and curses. In the ad, titled "Educational Responsibility," the college said it had warned Arruda to change her behavior and decided to expel her after talking to students, staff and Arruda herself. It accused her of posing for pictures and provoking other students. The university said it was also temporarily suspending some of the students who were seen heckling Arruda in a video of the incident that made the rounds on Youtube. It did not say how many were being suspended or how long they would be kept from attending classes. Brazil's national student union released a statement on Sunday saying it was against the university's decision to expel Arruda, and Brazil's top official for women's policy, Nilcea Freire, told the official Agencia Brasil news service that the decision showed "intolerance and discrimination." Although Brazil is known for its skimpy attire, especially in beach cities, most college students dress more modestly on campus — commonly in jeans and T-shirts. Some students had complained that Arruda seemed out of place in her revealing clothes, Brazilian media reported. Source
Beijing’s burgeoning art district has a new symbol for its growing influence in the global art world -a giant farting bull. Created by sculptor Chen Wenling, the 20-foot statue depicts, well, a big fiberglass bull that rams a devil figure with its horns while making whoopie so hard the devil crashes into a wall. Entitled ‘What You See Might Not Be Real’, Wenling’s flatuous virtuosity has been creating lots of hot air in the Chinese capital’s Joy Art gallery. Some say it’s a follow-on from his last exhibition, “God Is Materialism”, at the Asia Art Center. Let’s have a think about what the logic might be there. The economy is our God, the bull is the economy, and it’s, eh, gone to shit, right? Part of an exhibition entitled “Emergency Escape” (the bull really had to let one off, in other words), ‘WYSMNBR’ recalls the Chinese phrase “big fart”, ?? (fang pi). This literally translates as, umm, “big fart”, but also has a slang connotation of a big bluff or lie. So we guess the big lie we’re meant to see is that the Chinese economic bull can’t go on eating up natural resources without, well, letting off some toxic steam. Clever, huh? Although like every good piece of art, it’s open to more than one interpretation. Maybe the devil figure being pinned to the wall is the Western world’s economy, and the big farting bull of little China is really giving him a good gassing. Indeed, some say the devil personally represents Bernie Madoff, the former NASDAQ stock market boss that admitted multiple felonies earlier this year in what might be termed the biggest investment stinker of all time. Either way, you can assume neither Madoff nor the Chinese government are quaking in their intestines at the sight of this art project – maybe they consider it overblown? – but perhaps they could learn that to let a big one rip can sometimes really cause undesirable consequences. Source
A BRAZILIAN man reportedly killed in a car crash shocked his mourning family when he showed up alive at his funeral. Relatives of Ademir Jorge Goncalves, 59, had identified the bricklayer as the victim of a car crash in Parana state, in southern Brazil, AP reports. But Goncalves had not died. He had spent the night chatting with friends at a truck stop. Goncalves did not learn about his own funeral until the service had already started the following day. It is customary for funerals in Brazil to be held within 36 hours of a death. As soon as he realised the mistake, Goncalves rushed to the funeral to let his family know he was not dead. “The corpse was badly disfigured, but dressed in similar clothing,'' a police spokesman said, according to AP. “People are afraid to look for very long when they identify bodies, and I think that is what happened in this case.” Goncalves’ niece, Rosa Sampaio, told the O Globo newspaper that some family members were not sure the body was Goncalves. "My two uncles and I had doubts about the identification,'' she told O Globo. "But an aunt and four of his friends identified the body, so what were we to do? We went ahead with the funeral.'' Source
SEOUL, South Korea – A woman in South Korea who tried to pass the written exam for a driver's license with near-daily attempts since April 2005 has finally succeeded on her 950th time. The aspiring driver spent more than 5 million won ($4,200) in application fees, but until now had failed to score the minimum 60 out of a possible 100 points needed to get behind the wheel for a driving test. Cha Sa-soon, 68, finally passed the written exam with a score of 60 on Wednesday, said Choi Young-chul, a police official at the drivers' license agency in Jeonju, 130 miles (210 kilometers) south of Seoul. Police said Cha took the test hundreds of times, but had no specific total. Local media said she took the test 950 times. Now she must pass a driving test before getting her license, Choi said. Repeated calls to Cha seeking comment went unanswered. She told the Korea Times newspaper she needed the license for her vegetable-selling business. Source
One in 20 British schoolchildren thinks Adolf Hitler was a German football manager, according to a new survey. One in six youngsters believed Auschwitz was a theme park - and one in 12 thought the Blitz was a European clean-up operation following World War II. The embarrassing findings are contained in a poll for the veterans' charity Erskine, which asked 2,000 kids aged nine to 11 about the two world wars. One in four said they did not think about soldiers who died then, and 40% had no idea when Remembrance Day is. Erskine chief executive Major Jim Panton said: "Some answers to this poll have shocked us and show we have a part to play, not just in caring for veterans but in educating society. "Children are the future of the country. It is important we help them learn about our history." The Erskine charity, which provides nursing and medical care for veterans, will now take part in a national scheme to educate kids about the world wars. Source
