Woman Failed to Smuggle Tiger Cub

A live tiger cub was found drugged and hidden among stuffed-tiger toys in the luggage of a woman at Bangkok's airport, a wildlife smuggling watchdog group reported Thursday.

The Thai woman was trying to board a flight to Iran on Sunday when she had trouble checking in her oversized bag, the monitoring network TRAFFIC said in a statement.

Airport staff "suspected something amiss when they scanned the bag and X-ray images showed an item resembling a real cat," the group stated.

The woman, identified as Piyawan Palasarn, faces up to four years in prison and a 40,000 baht ($1,300) fine for two wildlife smuggling-related charges, police said.

She denied the luggage with the cub belonged to her and said another passenger had asked her to carry it for them, said Adisorn Noochdumrong, a Thai wildlife official.

The Battle of World’s Shortest Man Title ...

Junrey Balawing of Zamboanga del Norte, Philippines, who is just 22 inches high, is set to become the world's shortest man when he turns 18 in June.

According to the Sun, the 17-year-old, who is tinier than a one-year-old, will take the title by smashing five inches off the current record.

Balawing has not grown since his first birthday, struggles to walk and cannot stand up for long, but he beams with pride when talking about his likely world record.

"If I were the smallest man in the world, it would be very cool," the tabloid quoted Balawing, as saying.

The current titleholder is Nepal's Khagendra Thapa Magar, who is 26.4 inches tall.

A Guinness World Records spokesman confirmed that they would be considering Balawing's claim.

"We are looking to review the claim when Junrey Balawing turns 18, which is when candidates for this title can officially apply for the record," the spokesman.

Hatice Kocaman, 21, from Turkey, is the world's smallest woman, at just 28 inches tall. 

Man Jailed for Spreading Radiation Rumors Online

Police in China jailed a man for 10 days and fined him 500 yuan for spreading rumours online.

Authorities in Zhejiang province arrested a computer company worker, Chen, for spread rumours that a blast at a quake-damaged Japanese nuclear plant had contaminated waters near China s eastern Shandong province.

In the comments posted on March 15, Chen had urged people to spread the word about the radiation to family and friends, stockpile salt, and not consume products from the sea for a year.

China has not found any abnormal signs of radiation following the damage at the Japanese nuclear plant, but it is checking imports of Japanese food for contamination.

Chen told police he had come across the information on the Internet and "transmitted it to friends and family without thinking.

DOCUMENTARY: Discovery Channel - Bermuda Triangle Exposed (2011)

Info:

Discovery Channel - Bermuda Triangle Exposed (2011)

HDTV-Rip | AVI | 624x352 | 00:43:33 | 349MB

Language: English | No Sub

Genre: Documentary

It is called the Bermuda Triangle: the most deadly and unexplained marine graveyard on Earth. It spans from Bermuda to Miami to Puerto Rico, and from 28,000 feet below the surface of the sea to 28,000 feet into the sky. For decades it has held us spellbound as it defies explanation. Some 2,000 boats and 75 planes have disappeared without a trace. Bermuda Triangle Exposed will explore the Triangle in an entirely new way. We will voyage not only through its three dimensions of space, exploring what makes it unique, but through its history as well. As we peel back each layer of the Triangle s natural features, we'll connect individual experiences in the area to reveal the links that tie the mystery together.

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DOCUMENTARY: PBS Nature - Birds of the Gods (2011)

Info:

PBS Nature - Birds of the Gods (2011)

HDTV-Rip | AVI | 624x352 | 00:52:31 | 550MB

Language: English | No Sub

Genre: Documentary, Nature

On the island of New Guinea in the South Pacific lives the most striking and diverse group of birds on the planet. Birds of paradise defy imagination. Covered in spectacular plumage, each species within the Paradisaeidae family is distinct. Some birds are patterned with feathers of bright yellow and green, some have flashy iridescent plumes that catch the light, while others have tails that extend three times the length of their body. Bizarre courtship displays by the male birds show off their exquisite assets, as they dance, puff out, vibrate, hang upside down, stretch their wings, and even contort their bodies into completely different shapes in order to impress a nearby female.

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Animal Lover Adopts 140 Stray Dogs in China

Li Zongwen, a former chef from Wuhan, has made online headlines after Chinese media discovered he has taken in 140 stray dogs from the outskirts of the city.

The 59-year-old man began adopting strays from the streets of Wuhan in 2009, and in just 2 years time he has taken-in an impressive 140 hungry dogs. He put a roof over their heads, but admits he couldn’t afford to feed all of them, without donations from other local animal lovers. Food and rent for Mr. Li and his big family of canines cost around 5,000 yuan ($760) which is way more than he could pay on his own.

Learner Driver Attack Examiner when he Refuse Bribe

A learner driver attacked his examiner after he refused to accept a cash bribe in exchange for letting her pass. Jin Su reportedly handed the examiner a red envelope which contained between £400 and £500 during her test and said: "This will be good for you – and for me."

When examiner Keith Ashcroft refused the bribe and declared the test over, Su attacked him in the street, and tried to insist that the test continue. When she was arrested she told police that the money had been for luck rather than a bribe. 

However, at Manchester Crown Court she pleaded guilty to offering a bribe and common assault. Su, who has failed her driving test five times, was sentenced to 50 hours unpaid work and will also pay Mr Ashcroft £100 compensation.

Judge David Stockdale QC told her: "You offered the money in expectation that he would in due course record that you passed. That is corruption of a serious kind. Driving examiners carry out important work for the safety of all road users, by ensuring that all those who drive are competent to do so."

'French Spiderman' set to Conquer Dubai Burj Khalifa

Alain Robert, 48, is set to climb the exterior of the Dubai Burj Khalifa skyscraper which stands 828-metres (2,717-feet) tall, as part of an "Education Without Borders" conference for which it is being used as a venue, organisers said.

The climber, whose nickname comes from wearing the outfit of the fictional superhero while scaling the tallest of the tall around the globe, usually works without a safety harness, relying on bare hands and sturdy footing.

In Dubai, however, he will resort to a rope and harness, organisers said.

"The problem in Dubai is the hot weather (of) up to 40 degrees (Celsius, 104 Fahrenheit)," he said back in January 2010 when he announced his ambition to step up to the challenge.

"My biggest fear is to waste my time on earth. For me, climbing is as important as eating and breathing. Climbing skyscrapers is my lifetime love and passion," he said.

Robert has climbed more than 100 of the world's tallest buildings, including the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Sears Tower in the US city of Chicago and the 88-storey Jin Mao Building in Shanghai, China.

A Malaysian court fined Robert after he scrambled up the Petronas Twin Towers, which also has 88 floors, in September 2009 with his bare hands in less than two hours.

Chinese Baby Born with Heart Outside Body

Doctors in China are battling to save a baby born with his heart growing on the outside of his body. Two-month-old Xin Xin has only a thin membrane covering his heart which can be clearly seen beating outside his stomach.

His parents brought him to Xin Qiao Hospital, in Chongqing, where surgeons are evaluating the best way to treat the baby and this most delicate and dangerous situation.

Doctor Zhang Yuping, vice director of hospital's paediatrics department, said: "It's a very rare case. His heart is so exposed that the slightest knock or contact could be fatal." In a similar case in India 2 years ago, a 10-day-old child born with an ectopic heart underwent a 4 hours operation conducted by 13 surgeons. 

The little boy's parents are migrant workers in Tengchong County, Yunnan Province, who rushed back home to seek medical help after their baby was born.

"We didn't believe it when doctors told us the black patch on our son's belly was his heart until we saw it beating," said the father, Luo Rongyun.

Surgeons have come up with a number of different ideas for how best to treat Xin Xin but each has been discarded over fears he might not survive.They now plan to wait until he is three months old when most of his organs will have developed more and he should be strong enough for surgery.

Luxurious Funeral Interrupt Xinhe Town in China

In Xinhe Town, Wenling City, Zhejiang province, a luxurious funeral procession of 9 Lincoln limos, a thousand-people band and a 16-gun salute stirred up the whole town. It was a funeral of a local entrepreneur’s mom held at the large sports field of New River Middle School.

The multi-million dollar funeral took place on March, 4th, 2011. Soon pictures of the luxurious funeral went viral online. People responded by questioning whether filial piety can be reflected through a lux funeral and what the incident would possibly teach those students studying at the school, where the funeral was held.

Upon hearing the news, local government and relevant departments soon took action to stop the funeral and disperse the masses. It was reported that a vice president of New River Middle School had been suspended for the matter.

New River Middle School is one of the key local secondary schools. 4 a.m. in the morning, the campus was already filled with crowds and funeral music. In the school’s playground, 9 Lincoln limos decorated with paper banners held in line, 16 mighty gun salutes were ready to fire, thousands of wreaths stood along the long black carpet with a huge portrait of the dead in the end, alongside with two huge LCD screens showing the dead’s life story. 

And that is not all, there is thousand-people band playing funeral music and hundreds of monks singing prayers, as well as big balloons with the word “libation” slowly swinging in the sky.

Myanmar Hit by 6.8-magnitude Earthquake

The northeastern part of Myanmar was hit with a magnitude 6.8 earthquake Thursday night. At least 75 people were killed in this strong earthquake.

The quake was felt in Bangkok, 480 miles to the south of the epicenter, where buildings reportedly swayed.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake was six miles deep and that it is possible that 600,000 people could feel shaking anywhere from strong to violent and that damage could be widespread.

Below are some exclusive photos related to this disaster:

Damage on roads in Tarle, a city 20 miles away from Tarchileik.

The Face of Japan Tsunami 2011 - part4

The raw power of the earthquake and tsunami that has shattered Japan has been captured in countless photographs from ordinary citizens. In what is likely the most photographed and filmed disaster in history, the overwhelming sense of loss and horror is shared with the world through sites such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Flickr.

Here is some of the most compelling footage and images - both professional and amateur - to give some sense of the unfathomable destruction.

Snow has blanketed the tsunami-ravaged streets of Ishinomaki, Japan.

All that remains of Nobiru, Japan, after being devastated by the tsunami.

The Face of Japan Tsunami 2011 - part3

The raw power of the earthquake and tsunami that has shattered Japan has been captured in countless photographs from ordinary citizens. In what is likely the most photographed and filmed disaster in history, the overwhelming sense of loss and horror is shared with the world through sites such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Flickr.

Here is some of the most compelling footage and images - both professional and amateur - to give some sense of the unfathomable destruction.

Location: Miyagi Prefecture

Location: Miyagi Prefecture

Olympics London 2012 Countdown Clock Stopped!

London Olympic organisers were left red-faced on Tuesday when a huge clock in Trafalgar Square marking the countdown to the 2012 Games stopped just hours after being unveiled at a glitzy ceremony.

The steel clock made by Omega in London's Trafalgar Square ground to a halt at 500 days, seven hours, six minutes and 56 seconds, then began counting the wrong way before a technician arrived to repair it, an AFP reporter said.

Omega said in a statement: "We are obviously very disappointed that the clock has suffered this technical issue. "The Omega London 2012 countdown clock was developed by our experts and fully tested ahead of the launch in Trafalgar Square. "We are currently looking into why this happened and expect to have the clock functioning as normal as soon as possible."

Four British Olympic champions -- rowers Pete Reed and Andy Hodge and sailors Iain Percy and Andrew Simpson -- unveiled the clock on Monday to mark the 500-day countdown to the opening ceremony.

It is 6.5 metres (21.5 feet) high, five metres (16 feet) long and weighs around four tonnes. It took 10 people two days to assemble.

A spokesman for the London 2012 organisers joked: "Whilst the clock has stopped, and Omega is trying to sort it out, it does not give us additional time to stage the Games."

Burglar Stuck and Dangling Over a Hot Oil Vent

Timothy Cipriani, a recently paroled burglar, was found hanging from an airduct in a pizza shop after attempting to burgle it.

Police discovered the grease-covered robber after hearing his screams for help in the early hours of the morning. He had become wedged in the ventilation duct after climbing into it to break into the Paesan's Pizza restaurant after it had closed. He was trapped where the vent opened over the fryer and he became extremely distraught, said Lieutenant Michael Brown from the police department in Rotterdam.

It took 30 minutes to get him out of the vent. 'He said he thought he was going to die. The fryer had been used all day so it may have been generating some heat' Mr Brown said. In his mugshot, burglar Cipriani, 46, of nearby Schenectady, was coated in grease and grime.

He was charged with burglary, criminal mischief and possession of burglary tools, and was bailed from Schenectady County Jail after paying £12,200 ($20,000).

Cipriani was on parole after being released from prison in January 2010. He has served five previous prison stints for burglary and attempted burglary dating back to 1992. According to Mr Brown, Cipriani caused considerable damage to the ventilation system during the break-in.

China Makes Fake Rice from Plastic?

A number of Chinese companies have been involved over the years in various scandals involving fake or tainted goods. Perhaps the most dangerous of all involve food, including the now famous 2008 milk scandal in which Chinese-made milk was found to contain the toxin melamine. The end result was 290,000 victims who fell ill and 11 suspected cases of death.

Now there are reports from Singapore media that China is mass producing fake rice, which can be potentially very dangerous.

According to the Korean-language “Weekly Hong Kong”, Singapore media claim that fake rice is being distributed in the Chinese town of Taiyuan, in Shaanxi province. This “rice” is a mix of potatoes, sweet potatoes, and plastic. It is formed by mixing the potatoes and sweet potatoes into the shape of rice grains, then adding industrial synthetic resins. Since the rice does not behave like normal rice, it stays hard even after it has been cooked. Such synthetic resins can also be very harmful if consumed.

A Chinese Restaurant Association official said that eating three bowls of this fake rice would be like eating one plastic bag. Due to the seriousness of the matter, he added that there would be an investigation of factories alleged to be producing the rice. Meanwhile, the low cost of the fake rice is allowing wholesalers to make large profits.

Giant Electric Shoe Car as Promotional Tool!

A footwear manufacturer in China has made an electric car out of a giant shoe.

It can carry two people up to 250 miles at speeds of up to 20mph on a single charge of the battery underneath the driver's seat. The leather 'bodywork' is made in the same way as a normal shoe but on a bigger scale, using the hide of five bulls.

A Kang Shoe company spokesman said it took six months to design and build the car at a cost of around £4,000. The company demonstrated its bizarre vehicle outside its headquarters in Wenzhou in eastern China's Zhejiang Province.

Workers queued up for the chance to drive the shoe car which is 10ft long and more than three feet high. Company president Wang Zhengtao says it is designed as a promotional tool and he plans to make 40 for stores around the country.

Malaysian Police Recover 700,000 Stolen Condoms

The police today said they had recovered more than 700,000 ultrathin condoms that went missing while being exported to Japan, and arrested six people over the incident.

Perak police chief Shukri Dahalan told AFP that 99.0% of the condoms stolen had been recovered and would be returned to manufacturers Sagami Rubber Industries.

The company said last month that about 726,000 polyurethane condoms, with a retail value of around $1.5 million, were loaded into a container at a factory in Malaysia, but the shipment was empty when it arrived in Tokyo.

“We arrested six persons including the lorry driver involved in the shipment, and following information from the suspects, we were able to locate 258 boxes filled with condoms at a house outside Kuala Lumpur and in a warehouse near Port Klang in Selangor,” he said. “The boxes appeared intact as they were being stored in different locations while the men were looking for buyers,” Shukri added.

“With the arrest of the men and the recovery of the condoms, the case is now closed.” He said four of the men have been released on police bail, while two are still being held on remand, with all six expected to face charges.

If found guilty, he said the six could face up to 10 years in jail, whipping and a fine. Freight forwarders say that goods being shipped out of Malaysia go missing routinely and that many cases are inside jobs.

Related post:  700,000 Japanese Condoms Disappear

DOCUMENTARY: Countdown to Catastrophe: Mega Quake Japan and Beyond

Info:

National Geographic - Countdown to Catastrophe: Mega Quake Japan and Beyond (2011) HDTV XviD 

HDTV-Rip | XviD AVI | MP3 | 624x352 | 45:45 | 350MB

Language: English | No Sub

Genre: Documentary, Disaster

Witness an 8. 9 Mega quake then watch as a 30 foot high tsunami Destroys many cites of Japan. Its only a matter of time before a devastating earthquake hits a major American city and wipes it off the map Scientists now believe that day could be sooner than we thought. And its not Los Angeles or San Francisco thats in danger. But Seattle, Washington, the crown jewel of a region called Cascadia in Americas Pacific Northwest. Scientists fear Cascadia could suffer a catastrophe of global proportions: a megathrust earthquake. It is the largest earthquake the planet can create.

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The Face of Japan Tsunami 2011 - part2

The raw power of the earthquake and tsunami that has shattered Japan has been captured in countless photographs from ordinary citizens. In what is likely the most photographed and filmed disaster in history, the overwhelming sense of loss and horror is shared with the world through sites such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Flickr.

Here is some of the most compelling footage and images - both professional and amateur - to give some sense of the unfathomable destruction.

A Japanese rescuer walks across an area devastated by the tsunami in Sendai.

Clock struck lies among the rubble in the city of Kesennuma, which is written with "40th Anniversary of Foundation".

Image from Japan's NHK television, white smoke, centre, billows from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex ~ and filmed from 30 kilometres away.

A young Japanese survivor of the earthquake and tsunami searches her family home for any belongings she can find in the levelled city of Minamisanriku, in northeastern Japan.

Japanese vehicles pass through the ruins of the levelled city of Minamisanriku, northeastern Japan.

Satellite images shows damage after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Japan.

A man rides a bicycle through the rubble in Kesennuma, Miyagi.

Members of a British search and rescue team walk through a smoldering industrial facility in Ofunato.
 

Rescuers search for survivors through rubble of destroyed buildings in Miyagi.

Rubble of destroyed buildings and vehicles are seen in Miyagi, Japan.

Houses are swept by water following a tsunami and earthquake in Natori City in northeastern Japan March 11, 2011.

The Face of Japan Tsunami 2011 - part1

The raw power of the earthquake and tsunami that has shattered Japan has been captured in countless photographs from ordinary citizens. In what is likely the most photographed and filmed disaster in history, the overwhelming sense of loss and horror is shared with the world through sites such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Flickr.

Here is some of the most compelling footage and images - both professional and amateur - to give some sense of the unfathomable destruction.

The tsunami swamps Miyako on Friday, March 11. The coastal city was one of the worst hit along Japan's east coast.

The earthquake destroyed infrastructure, including this now impassable road.

Photo taken by a volunteer for humanitarian organisation ShelterBox, shows just how devastating the tsunami was to towns caught in its path.

Rubble fills the landscape in Yamada, Iwate Prefecture, three days after northeastern coastal towns were devastated by an earthquake and tsunami.

This photo from the US Navy shows a damaged pipe in Hachinohe shooting water into the air amid frozen rubble.

A Japanese home swept out to the Pacific Ocean, days after a massive earthquake and the ensuing tsunami hit Japan's east coast.

Before & After of Japan Tsunami

The massive earthquake that struck Japan on Friday, March 2011 triggered a tsunami which inundated vast areas of the country's eastern seaboard. See how the affected areas looked before and after the tsunami hit, leaving a trail of devastation in its wake and causing thousands of deaths.

BEFORE: April 4, 2010, shows Yuriagi, near Muyagi, before the disaster

AFTER: March 12, 2011 shows Yuriagi, near Muyagi, after the disaster

BEFORE: April 4, 2010, shows Ishinomaki, Japan before the disaster

AFTER: March 12, 2011 shows Ishinomaki, Japan after the disaster

BEFORE: April 4, 2010, shows Natori, Japan before the disaster

AFTER: March 12, 2011 shows Natori, Japan after the disaster

Bank Robber Busted by Urine Sample

A Swedish bank robber forgot to cover his tracks and left three bottles of urine behind after hiding inside a bank vault in Copenhagen for three days. The 27-year-old man and his accomplice used the bottles to relieve themselves after sneaking into the vault on a Friday and remaining there until the bank opened again the following Monday.

While inside, the robbers emptied 140 safety deposit boxes of at least $500,000 in cash and jewellery. But Prosecutor Frederik Larsen said overnight they forgot to take the urine when they left "so we were able to get their DNA samples from the bottles."

The evidence helped prosecutors win a 21-month prison sentence for the Swede on Tuesday. His accomplice is still at large and the loot hasn't been recovered.