Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Mid Day International News

Mid Day International News

Woman to be jailed for biting off boyfriend's testicles

Posted:

A woman is facing jail after admitting to biting off her boyfriend's testicles during a drunken brawl.
Maria Topp, 44, from Wrekenton, Gateshead, pleaded guilty to grievous bodily harm at Newcastle Crown Court.

The mother-of-four bit Martin Douglas, her partner of five years, during a drunken brawl at his flat in February, reports ChronicleLive.

She was granted bail to be sentenced next month and Recorder Robin Mairs warned her: "All options are open and that will include locking you up."

Mr Douglas, 45, needed emergency surgery to reattach his genitals after Topp bit them off in the early-morning attack.

The badly-injured victim has since recovered in hospital following the incident.

Mr Douglas, who works as a DJ, called 999 himself after the alleged attack at his flat in Waterloo Street, Newcastle. Paramedics then called police and Topp was arrested.

Mr Douglas, whose arm was also injured, spent several days in Newcastle's Freeman Hospital, where he received treatment.

Topp cannot remember biting her partner, but can recall their fight, and the court accepted that violence had been used by both sides.

Prosecutor Gavin Doig said Topp originally claimed she ripped the testicles off with her HANDS.

"Her plea now is on the basis she did indeed cause that injury with her teeth," he said.
Topp denied grievous bodily harm with intent but admitted the lesser charge on the basis that there was violence used on both sides.


Toll in Turkey quake rises to 459

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The toll from Sunday's powerful earthquake in Turkey has risen to 459. At least 1,352 other people were injured, the Disaster and Emergency Administration said.

The earthquake led to the collapse of about 80 multi-storeyed buildings in Ercis, a town of 75,000 people close to the Iranian border.

A total of 3,346 search and rescue personnel have been dispatched to the quake-hit province of Van in southeastern Turkey, Xinhua reported.

A two-week-old baby was rescued from the rubble in Ercis district of Van province Tuesday, almost two days after the 7.2-magnitude earthquake, local newspaper Today's Zaman reported.

John Lennon's tooth up for auction

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A tooth said to have belonged to the late John Lennon is up for auction in England, with a reserve bidding price of just under $16,000 (Rs 8 lakh).

"We get a lot of people buying memorabilia as investments," said Karen Fairweather, the owner of Omega Auction house. "Or it could just be a fan that really, really wants a part of John Lennon."


file pic/getty images

The molar was reportedly given to Dorothy Dot Jarlett by Lennon when she worked for him as a housekeeper.

"She was very close with John, and one day while chatting in the kitchen, John gave my mother the tooth [he had been to the dentist to have it removed that day] and suggested giving it to my sister as a souvenir, as she was a huge Beatles fan. It has been in the family ever since," said Barry Jarlett, Dorothy's son.

Barry Jarlett said his mother, who is now 90-years-old, said it was the right time to pass it on rather than risk it being lost.

Fairweather said the tooth is too delicate to conduct a DNA test to match it to the former Beatle, but she has no doubt it is authentic.

"Because it's coming directly from Dot, we don't doubt the provenance of the item," she said.
The auction of the tooth will be on November 5 in England.


'Bunga Bunga is just dancing'

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Controversial Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi yesterday insisted he was a religious man and that his infamous bunga bunga parties were a figment of "porn obsessed judges".

Berlusconi (75), also said that bunga bunga was "nothing more than a dance" and added that "he had never taken part" in parties held at his house where prosecutors say dozens of women were recruited and were paid for sex.


Devout: Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi claims he is a religious man who
never took part in parties at his villa and that the allegations are nothing
but porn obsessed prosecutors who are out to get him. pic/afp

The politician is accused of having sex with an underage prostitute at one of the parties where women were also said to have dressed as nuns, before performing raunchy stripteases and pole dances -- allegedly rubbing crucifixes between their breasts.

However, media tycoon Berlusconi insisted the parties at his home in Arcore near Milan were nothing more than elegant dinners and he was a victim of left leaning prosecutors who were out to get him and oust him from power.

He said, "There was no sacrilegious behaviour at my house. This has all been invented by porn-obsessed prosecutors. It's all the work of the fevered imagination of prosecutors and journalists."

He added, "My religious life is not just a church in my home at Arcore where my family has celebrated baptisms, marriages and funerals and the prayers of eight aunts who are nuns. My roots are strengthened by my Christian values that have been with me since I grew up with my family and attended a school run by Salesians and which I have passed on to my children."


2-week-old baby rescued from quake rubble

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An infant was pulled alive from the rubble of a collapsed building, 46 hours after Turkey earthquake struck

Rescuers plucked a two-week-old baby girl from the rubble Tuesday 48 hours after a devastating earthquake killed at least 366 people in Turkey, energising the desperate search effort.


Amazing survival story: Baby Azra -- 14 days old, naked and trapped
in a collapsed building for 47 hours -- is rushed to a waiting medical unit
in Ercis, Turkey. pic/afp

As the body bags piled up and the Red Crescent warned that hundreds or even thousands of people remained buried under the debris, the rescue of the infant named Azra sparked joy amid the otherwise grim task.

The rescue workers reached the baby after hours of frantic digging around her home in the worst-hit town of Ercis and were working to free the mother whose name was given as Semiha. The father was missing, rescuers said.

Emergency teams had earlier pulled a pregnant woman and her two children alive from the rubble in Ercis as they laboured through the night under search lights with the help of sniffer dogs.

"Hundreds, possibly thousands of people are still trapped under the rubble," said Jessica Sallabank, a spokeswoman for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC).

The IFRC said that 2,256 buildings were destroyed during the quake. An update from the prime minister's office put the death toll at 366, adding that more than 1,300 people had been injured.

Residents meanwhile spent a second night outside in freezing temperatures.

"I am still trembling.... As long as those aftershocks go on, we will stay in the street," Gulizar, a Kurdish woman in her 40s, said as she tried to keep warm in front of a makeshift fire.

"Our house was badly damaged. We will live like this maybe for one or two weeks," said Zuleyha, who was staying in her car with her husband and five-year-old son.


Libya buries Gaddafi in unmarked grave

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Bodies of Moammer Gaddafi, son Mutassim have been buried in the desert

Moammer Gaddafi, who for 40 years ruled Libya with fear and violence, was unceremoniously buried at dawn yesterday in an unmarked desert grave.

His inglorious end was witnessed by only two members of Libya's National Transitional Council, who have sworn never to reveal his secret resting place.



As the despot was buried with his son, Mutassim, reports claimed that his favourite son, Saif, was making a desperate bid for the Niger border.

Final Muslim prayers were said over the bodies by Khaled Tantoush, Gaddafi's personal cleric, who was arrested with him.

The rites were also attended by two of Gaddafi's cousins Mansour Dhao Ibrahim, once leader of the feared People's Guard, and Ahmed Ibrahim.

All were captured with Gaddafi after their convoy was attacked by Nato war planes as they tried to flee Sirte, Gaddafi's home town, just after it had fallen.

Abdel Majid Mlegta, an NTC spokesman, said, "The NTC officials were handed the body after the sheikh completed the early morning ceremony and are taking him somewhere very far away into the desert."

"Only two trusted people were assigned to this secret mission," he added. "These are not guards, but very trusted NTC people."

The funeral closed the book on Gaddafi's 42-year rule and the eight-month civil war to remove him, but did not silence international calls for an investigation into his brutal end.

But many ordinary Libyans do not appear to share western concern about the exact circumstances of Gaddafi's death or the propriety of leaving his body on public view, contrary to Muslim practices.

Gaddafi buried at secret location in Libya

Posted:

The body of former Libyan dictator Muammar al-Gaddafi was buried at an unknown location today, according to National Transitional Council (NTC) officials.

The interim government forces had earlier put the body on show in a cold store in Misurata while they argued over what to do with it, until its decay forced them on Monday to end the display.

Gaddafi's son Mutassim is also thought to have been buried in the same ceremony.

According to the Telegraph, the ceremony was attended by a few relatives and officials.

Gaddafi was captured alive on October 20 and died soon after under unclear circumstances.

The 69-year-old and his family have been on the run since the rebel forces toppled his regime on August 23.

His 41-year rule prior to the uprising had made him the fourth longest-ruling non-royal leader since 1900, as well as the longest-ruling Arab leader.

He has variously styled himself as 'the Brother Leader', 'Guide of the Revolution', and the 'King of Kings'
Posted by Harshad at 7:53 AM

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