Italy quake destroys 250mn euros cheese

ROME: Sunday's quake in northeastern Italy destroyed more than 300,000 wheels of Parmesan and Grana Padano, a similar cheese, with an estimated value of more than 250 million euros, an industry official said.

"The earthquake was very strong and heavily damaged the structures of many warehouses as well as thousands of tonnes" of the two cheeses, said Stefano Berni, head of a consortium that protects the Grana Padano designation.

"It's a very heavy loss, but there have been no casualties, which is a great relief at this worrying time," he told the ANSA news agency.

An initial estimate of 250 million euros ($320 million) is "very conservative," Berni said, adding that he hoped no further tremors would "further aggravate the state of the already highly damaged and fragile structures."

A wheel of the cheese can weigh up to 40 kilogrammes (90 pounds). (AFP)

Italians snarl away a levy on cats, dogs

ROME: A proposal to levy a tax on cats and dogs that stunned Italy on Friday turned out to be all bark and no bite after a wave of popular anger saw it withdrawn on the same day it was made public.

Italy was abuzz for hours after local media reported that a parliamentary commission had proposed a tax on domestic "animals of affection" to raise revenue for debt-strapped cities and towns.

Protests were voiced by everyone from animal rights groups - who said it would prompt more people to abandon animals - to politicians who called it everything from "grotesque" to "surreal" to "idiotic" to "shameful".

There was so much reaction - all of it incredulous - that one Italian agency ran nearly 40 news items on the proposal in less than four hours.

The proposal was withdrawn by early Friday evening however, and it seemed everyone on the commission where it was discussed was denying its paternity.

"The only thing that's left to tax are wives and children," said parliamentarian Domenico Scilipoti.

Italy, like many other countries across the euro zone, is struggling to revive its economy and reduce its public debt, a predicament that has prompted the country's lawmakers to try to dream up new revenue-raising measures. (Reuters)

Japan: Fugitive penguin spotted alive

TOKYO: After Penguin Number 337 made a daring bid for freedom from a Tokyo aquarium and vanished into the waters of Tokyo Bay two months ago, many feared the worst for the adventurous feathered fugitive.

But the one-year-old Humboldt penguin has now popped up on video footage in a different part of the bay, frolicking in the water and apparently healthy.

The penguin, still too young to determine whether it is male or female and thus known only by a number, scaled a rock wall four meters (13 ft) high and squeezed through a barbed wire fence to escape its harborside aquarium in March.

"You can see it's got the same ring around its flipper and identical facial patterns," said Kazuhiro Sakamoto, deputy director of the Tokyo Sea Life Park, when shown footage of the tubby escapee taken by Japan's Coast Guard.

"It didn't look like it has gotten thinner over the past two months, or been without food. It doesn't seem to be any weaker. So it looks as if it's been living quite happily in the middle of Tokyo Bay."

Penguin 337 was filmed earlier this month near Tokyo's Rainbow Bridge.

In the days following the penguin's escape, the aquarium launched a city-wide appeal for tips on its whereabouts and sent keepers on daily penguin-hunts throughout the bay area.

They received hundreds of sighting reports, some from as far away as western Japan, but Sakamoto said most had probably mistaken cormorants for the flightless penguin. Only about 30 of the reports were thought genuine.

Tokyo Bay is a crowded and busy body of water bordering the densely-populated city, and the area around the aquarium consists of high-rise apartment buildings and concrete.

Many people had worried that the water was too dirty for the bird to stay healthy. More recently, reports of rising radiation levels in the bay have prompted concern.

"They say there's radiation in there, so I've got my fingers crossed that it can live in Tokyo Bay safely," said local resident Tateki Futagami.

The bird is probably gorging on small fish in the bay during daylight hours and returning to the shore at night to rest somewhere along the bay, keepers said.

The penguin, hatched in 2011, had shared life in a rocky outdoor enclosure at the aquarium with 135 other Humboldts and a number of other penguins prior to its escape. Sakamoto attributed its flight to a sense of adventure. (Reuters)

Shock-seekers grab new Aussie art dare

SYDNEY: Smelling excrement may not be everyone's idea of fun, but for those who like to push the boundaries, Australia's most controversial new museum may be just what they are looking for.

Dubbed "the subversive adult Disneyland", the Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) is located in Tasmania and features around 400 works of art from Egyptian mummies to Young British Artists including Chris Ofili and Jenny Saville.

But the most talked-about piece is the Cloaca Professional, labeled the "poo-machine." It was built by Belgian artist Wim Delvoye to mimic the actions of the human digestive system.

A series of glass receptacles hang in a row with the machine being "fed" twice a day on one end. The food is ground up "naturally," the way it is in the human body, and the device produces feces on the clock at 2 pm at the other end.

The smell is so powerful that not many visitors can take it.

"It put me off because of the overwhelming assault on the senses," said Diane Malnic, a Sydney-based accountant.

Yet this was her second visit in five months, following a family holiday in Tasmania earlier in the year. This time, she flew without her husband and children just to have another look at the collection, interested in Delvoye's other pieces.

She took great care to avoid the "smelly" parts and still talked vividly about the "vomit room" which was part of an earlier exhibit no longer on display.

"I wouldn't go back to see them," she said, laughing.

The Cloaca is part of a series of at least five similar machines built by the artist, another of which will soon be exhibited at the Louvre. It is the most hated piece in the museum but also the most visited.

The museum, which opened in January 2011, is owned by eccentric and philanthropist David Walsh, who made his fortune as a professional gambler, and features one of the largest private art collections in the world with an estimated value of around A$100 million.

Its motto is to shock, offend, inform and entertain.

"It definitely challenges your interpretation of what art is," said Malnic.

Pieces include Chris Ofili's Holy Virgin Mary, which features elephant dung and porn-magazine cutouts of genitals. It caused controversy in 1996, with then-New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani reportedly describing Ofili's work as "sick".

Another much-talked-about piece is the Matrix by Jenny Saville, a full-frontal large painting of a naked transgender man with his modified genitals exposed.

"It's confronting," said Margarita Silva, a Melbourne-based dentist making during her third trip to the MONA.

Detractors argue that some of the pieces don't belong to a museum, which is also what Malnic initially thought. But upon reflection, she said the Cloaca machine opened her mind and argued that perhaps it was the future of art.

For Silva, her favorites were a soundproof room of 30 Madonna fans who were individually filmed singing a capella the artist's Immaculate Collection album. The other was a waterfall with droplets spelling out a series of words.

Keeping with the MONA's sensibility, none of its art work is grouped or chronological, leaving viewers to walk at random.

"Overall, it's a fantastic experience," said Silva. (Reuters)

US: Rattlesnake bites man in supermarket

SALMON, Idaho: When Mica Craig reached down to brush what he thought was a stick off some mulch in the garden section of a Washington state Walmart, it turned around and sank its fangs into his hand.

The Friday encounter with a rattlesnake sent Craig, 47, to the hospital, where he said he remained in excruciating pain and may lose feeling in two fingers. Wal-Mart Stores Inc has apologized.

"I reached down to grab the stick to move it out of the way, and the snake stretched out, turned around and got its fangs in my right hand," he said. "I slung it off and I did a tap dance on it until it was dead."

Craig was rushed to the hospital by fellow customer Maria Geffre, who told Reuters she saw him crumple to the ground after crying out that he had been bitten by a snake.

"He had punctures on his hand and there was the dead rattler he'd stomped on," Geffre said, describing the snake as at least a foot long with four buttons, or rattles.

Craig, a married father of two, said the mulch was for his marijuana plants, which he is licensed to grow for medical reasons. It was unclear whether the snake came from an adjacent field or arrived at the store along with garden supplies.

Craig said doctors who initially thought the snake had inflicted only a "dry bite" - or one that did not inject venom - treated him with six bags of anti-venom after his right hand swelled to the size of a melon.

A Walmart spokeswoman offered an apology to Craig and said the retailer was looking into how the incident could have happened at the store in Clarkston, in eastern Washington.

"At this point, it appears to be an isolated incident. We are working with a pest management team, which is conducting a sweep of the property to ensure there is no additional rattlesnake activity," Walmart spokeswoman Kayla Whaling said.

Travis Taggart, director of the Center for North American Herpetology, said about half of documented rattlesnake bites, which are usually defensive when directed at humans, are "dry" but still cause severe pain. (Reuters)

UK girl saves 8 lives by organ donation

LONDON: A young British schoolgirl, who had died just at the age of 13 has saved eight people's lives by opting to donate her vital organs. Jemima Layzell, who died due to a brain haemorrhage, had always wished to donate organs and save precious lives.

Five children and three adults have received life-saving transplants and Jemima's eye tissue has helped restore the vision of two other needy people.

In addition, two adults aged 19 and 24 received her kidneys and a 40 year old man has now her pancreas.

"She has left a lasting legacy and example," Her photographer father Harvey and mother Sophy told The Sun. "She had spoken of her wish to be an organ donor when she died. It is so sad and we all miss her terribly," they said.

The little budding author Jemima had collapsed at home in Somerset, while preparing for the celebrations of her mother's birthday.

Jemima died in hospital four days later due to excessive bleeding in her brain, leaving behind many poems, songs, stories and also serious thoughts about her life and the world's problems and delights.

Her parents describe Jemima as a clever, funny, compassionate and creative girl who thought about and discussed death

Source: The News pk

Man claims 49 lizards were for lunch

MUNICH: A German man stopped at customs with 49 live exotic lizards in his bag claimed they were destined for the cooking pot and even offered to bite one's head off to prove it, officials said Wednesday.

Customs officials halted the 28-year-old at Munich airport on his way back from Oman and were staggered to find in his luggage a menagerie including 31 spiny-tailed lizards and 18 other reptiles, including geckos and wall lizards.

The man had gone through the green channel at customs, believing his cargo to be "foodstuffs" rather than live animals, he explained.

"The traveller even wanted to bite the head off one of the spiny-tailed lizards in front of the customs official," said Thomas Meister, a spokesman for German customs.

Fortunately for the lizard, the official declined the invitation, and the reptiles were impounded and therefore spared from the pan.

"The man will probably get a fine of at least 1,000 euros ($1,300)," the customs said in a statement.

"The animals are now being housed in the proper conditions and are in the rudest of health," officials added. (AFP)

Merrymaking monks shock South Koreans

SEOUL: Six leaders from South Korea's biggest Buddhist order have quit after secret video footage showed some supposedly serene monks raising hell, playing high-stakes poker, drinking and smoking.

The scandal erupted just days before Koreans observe a national holiday to celebrate the birth of Buddha, the holiest day of the religion's calendar.

The head of the Jogye order, which has some 10 million followers, or about a fifth of the population, made a public apology on Friday, vowing "self-repentance".

South Korean TV networks aired shots of monks playing poker, some smoking and drinking, after gathering at a luxury lakeside hotel in late April for a fellow monk's memorial service.

"The stakes for 13 hours of gambling were more than 1 billion won ($875,300)," Seongho, a senior monk who uses one name, told Reuters on Friday.

He said he had reported the incident to prosecutors.

Gambling outside of licensed casinos and horse racing tracks is illegal in South Korea and frowned upon by religious leaders.

"Basically, Buddhist rules say don't steal. Look at what they did, they abused money from Buddhists for gambling," Seongho said.

The behavior of the supposedly abstemious monks has led to Korean media speculation of a power split within the order.

Seongho said he had obtained a thumb drive that contains a video clip from a camera hidden in the hotel. He would not say who his source was because of recent threats made against him.

The wayward monks appear to have upset many in Korea.

"A group of monks who gamble, drink and smoke in a hotel room is tainted in the eyes of all people in the nation," civic group Buddhist Solidarity for Reform said in a statement.

The scandal also excited attention on Twitter, with some posts calling for reforms within the sect.

" ...it can be good news. Please, Jogye Order, cut out the rotten part before it gets worse and take this opportunity to be reborn," one Twitter post said. (Reuters)

Top 10 "ugly" buildings to visit

NEW YORK: A recent opinion piece in the New York Times resurrected the age-old debate about whether ugly buildings deserved preservation if deemed historically important. While the staff and travelers at online travel advisers Trippy.com (www.trippy.com) may be undecided on that issue, they can certainly tell you which buildings they'd put on the list for consideration. Here are their choices for the World's Top 10 Ugliest Buildings. Reuters has not endorsed this list:

1. J. Edgar Hoover Building (FBI HQ); Washington, D.C.

This is reason alone to avoid the 10 Most Wanted list. Situated in the center of the city, this dreary 1970s behemoth is almost unavoidable. Its days may be numbered as discussions about the department's relocation are rumored to be swirling around the capital city.

2. Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum; Cleveland, Ohio

Even the architect was unhappy with this one. Upon the building's completion, a displeased I.M. Pei admitted himself there's little harmony in these conflicting shapes.

3. Sharp Centre for Design; Toronto, Canada

Although some call it innovative, there are others who call it intolerable. While the building's black and white squares combined with pencil-like stilt supports make it look like a clubhouse for crossword puzzle enthusiasts, this building is actually part of the Ontario College of Art & Design.

4. Aoyama Technical College; Shibuya, Japan

Ever wondered what you get when you cross a Transformers figurine, an oil well, and a curling rock? Now you know. The school's site offers that the building "represents a new order...through the tolerance of chaos."

5. Geisel Library; University of California, San Diego, CA

This library is one of the best examples of Brutalist architecture ever built, and that's not a compliment. Named after Audrey and Theodor Geisel (better known as Dr. Seuss), we think it would have been a whole lot prettier had its benefactor also been its architect.

6. Chang Building ("The Elephant Tower"); Bangkok, Thailand

It's not that we think the design is that bad and we even like the intended humor. It's the half-hearted execution that turns this potentially fun idea from attraction to eyesore.

7. Epi Apartments; Seattle, Washington

We're all for occasional quirkiness, but in this case we're not sure how adding a bunch of almost intimidating, sharp-looking metal shapes onto an otherwise bland building enhances it. The building's website boldly refers to the structure as "The center of the center of the universe."

8. Trump Tower; New York City, New York

When it was completed in the early 80s it was considered the signature building of its time...and that's part of the problem. Downright dull on the outside, dizzyingly gaudy on the inside, this outdated building is generally only visited by tourists as it is almost universally avoided by actual New Yorkers.

9. The Pixel Building; Melbourne, Australia

Yes, the building is carbon neutral, but how many Olympic mascot pins had to die to make it? While we love that the building is self-sufficient (they even collect their own rain water on the roof), we just wish it were a tad more subtle. 10. Royal National Theatre; London, U.K.

Yes, Shakespeare wrote that "All the world's a stage..." but he might not have had he lived to see 1970s. While we love the idea of the theatre and the world-class productions mounted here, our feelings don't quite extend to the actual building. (Reuters)

Croc caught after eating nine dogs

SYDNEY: A 4.4-metre (14.5-feet) crocodile that had eaten up to nine pet dogs has been hauled out of a river in Australia's north, a report said on Friday.

The rogue croc was trapped at Daly River community, some 225 kilometres (139 miles) south of Darwin, where it was terrorising residents and animals, the Northern Territory News said.

Community police officer Mark Casey told the newspaper his office had nine reports of dogs being taken by a crocodile, believed to be the animal caught, in a month.

"Crocs are an ever-present danger but you don't see them," he said.

"They can sit for days on end on the other side of the river and watch you go fishing off the same log or rock -- that's how they hunt.

"Next thing you know, bang, the dog's gone."

As the saltwater crocodile drew ever closer to the settlement of 500 people, also snatching wallabies, a decision was made to catch it.

While the pet-eating beast was caught, Casey said there were two more big crocs and a small one still on the loose in the area.

Saltwater crocodiles, which can grow up to seven metres long and weigh more than a tonne, are a common feature of Australia's tropical north and kill an average of two people a year.

Caught crocs are usually relocated to wildlife parks. (AFP)

Canada penniless as it marks coin's end

OTTAWA: Canada's last penny was struck Friday at The Royal Canadian Mint's manufacturing facility and will become a museum piece as the one-cent coins are withdrawn from circulation.

"For over a hundred years, the penny played an important role in Canada's coinage system," said Finance Minister Jim Flaherty.

"Although the cost of producing the penny now outweighs its value to Canadian consumers and businesses, it has had a long history that is worthy of recognition."

The last penny struck for Canadian circulation will be entrusted to the Currency Museum of the Bank of Canada in Ottawa, he said.

Flaherty announced in March the end of the penny, saying it would save the Treasury $11 million per year in manufacturing and distribution costs, as the government looks to trim its budget deficit.

Due to rising labor, metal and other manufacturing and distribution costs, each penny cost more than 1.6 cents to produce.

The penny will retain its value indefinitely and can continue to be used in payments, but as the coins are gradually removed from circulation, cash transactions will have to be rounded to the nearest five-cent increment.

Over the past five years, the Mint's plant in Winnipeg, Manitoba, produced 7,000 tonnes of pennies annually. (AFP)

Bomb-sniffing dogs going after pythons

ORLANDO: Some bomb-sniffing dogs trained to help fight terrorism are turning their olfactory attention toward a different scourge: Burmese pythons in Florida's Everglades National Park.

The dogs are members of "EcoDogs," a three-year-old collaboration at Alabama's Auburn University between the science departments and the school's Canine Detection Research Institute, which trains dogs to detect explosives.

"The dogs are really, really good," said Christina Romagosa, a biologist at Auburn.

She said in a test of python detection in south Florida, the dogs could cover a search area 2.5 times faster than a person.

"People can only see that the snake is there if they can see the snake. The dogs can smell the snake even if it's not visually apparent to us," she said.

Todd Steury, an Auburn conservation biologist and co-founder of the project, said many of the EcoDogs were found temperamentally unsuitable for indoor explosives work but thrive outdoors searching for ecological targets.

Steury estimated training a new dog to detect a scent takes six to 10 weeks. Training for each additional scent takes "about 10 minutes. You can do it by accident if you're not careful," he said, by inadvertently rewarding the dog for something you weren't looking for, which then becomes part of the dog's repertoire.

Two black Labrador retrievers from EcoDogs, Ivy and Jake, went on assignment in 2010 to demonstrate to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers their potential usefulness in battling the python problem in the 2,358-square-mile (6,100-sq-km) Everglades park.

UPSETTING BALANCE

Environmentalists fear the pythons are upsetting the native ecological balance of South Florida. The invasion is generally attributed to both irresponsible pet owners dumping their snakes and 1992's Hurricane Andrew, which destroyed an adjacent exotic snake warehouse.

In controlled experiments, the EcoDogs success rate in finding pythons at the park was 75-92 percent, Romagosa said. The dogs helped researchers trap 19 pythons, including a pregnant snake with 19 eggs, according to an EcoDog report.

Linda Friar, spokeswoman for the Everglades National Park, said the snakes are so thoroughly adapted to the Everglades, and the park is so wild and inaccessible that there is no expectation of eradicating them, even with the dogs' help. The best hope is to prevent the pythons from spreading and be prepared for future invasions of new exotics, she said.

Romagosa said analysis is underway to determine whether the dogs can play a role in a rapid response team and whether funding their role , in a cost-cutting era is possible.

"The dogs would be useful in a scenario where we might not be sure the python has moved on beyond a certain range. The dogs can give us an idea of whether the species is present or not," she said.

Meanwhile, Ivy retired and was adopted, Steury said. Jake switched to a new project assessing the deer population in Alabama, looking for fawns and deer antlers.

Other EcoDogs are rooting out a tree fungus damaging forests in the state, and locating various skunk, bear and other animal populations based on their scat, or droppings.

"Pretty much a dog can be trained to find anything," Romagosa said.

SMART DOGS NOT THE BEST HUNTERS

Three years of working with the dogs disproved a common misconception that a smart dog is best, added Steury.

"The worst dog is a really smart but kinda lazy dog. Because that dog is always trying to figure out how he can cheat. Once you reward him for cheating, he's done. He'll never work again. The best dogs are the ones that are kind of dumb but just work really hard. We can train those dogs to work all day long and they're the best detection dogs," Steury said.

And the dogs enjoy the work so much that ones like Kasey, who searches for weasel, bobcat and gray fox scat, eventually lose interest in the reward, he said.

"She finds a scat, you'll give her the ball, she plays with it for a really short time, then she's back to the search. She likes the search," Steury said. (Reuters)

News of woman expecting 9 babies a hoax

MEXICO CITY: According to health authorities reports that a woman in northern Mexico is pregnant with nine babies are a hoax.

Mexico's main broadcaster Televisa and top daily newspapers ran stories about a woman expecting nonuplets late on Thursday after she provided welfare officials with supposed evidence of the multiple pregnancy, including an ultrasound video, said a spokesman for the health ministry of Coahuila state.

Following the news, local health authorities offered assistance to the woman, who was identified as 32-year-old Karla Perez from Villa Arteaga, east of the state capital Saltillo.

Reports said Perez had conceived the babies after receiving fertility treatment, but tests carried out by doctors on Friday revealed she was not even pregnant. It was not clear why the mother of three had made the claims, the spokesman added. (Reuters)

Woman fired for donating kidney to boss

NEW YORK: A New York woman who donated a kidney so her ailing boss would move up the transplant waiting list says she was fired shortly after the operation, according to a complaint she filed with the New York State Division of Human Rights.

Deborah Stevens said her former employer, Atlantic Automotive Group, discriminated against her over disabilities brought about by complications from the surgery, and she plans to sue the company for lost earnings and damages.

The company, which runs car dealerships on Long Island, said Stevens's complaint is groundless.

"My gal is just a good-natured woman who's trying to save a life and as soon as she did it, everything changed," said Stevens' attorney Lenard Leeds.

"When she wanted to take time off, she was scolded, she was yelled at," he said. "Instead of being sympathetic, they were very hostile towards her."

Stevens, of Hicksville, New York, said she learned that Jacqueline Brucia, who worked at Atlantic Automotive, was in need of a kidney in November 2010. Stevens had worked there as well but at the time had temporarily moved to Florida.

Stevens said she told Brucia she would donate a kidney.

"Brucia declined, but told her, ‘You never know, I may have to take you up on that offer one day,'" the complaint said.

Stevens learned the company would rehire her following her return to New York and not long afterward, Brucia told her a potential donor had not been approved by the hospital and asked if she was still willing to donate.

Stevens now believes Brucia was "grooming (Stevens) to be her ‘back-up plan,'" the complaint said.

Stevens's kidney was not a good match for Brucia, but she agreed to donate it to a stranger in St. Louis, Missouri, setting up a transplant chain that enabled Brucia to receive a better-matched kidney from a donor in San Francisco.

Surgeons removed Stevens's left kidney in August, and she returned to work about a month later. The surgery left her with damaged nerves in her leg, digestive problems and mental health issues, her lawyer said.

At work, Brucia became "curt and dismissive," the complaint said. Stevens said she was berated for taking sick days and forced to relocate to a less desirable office after she complained to human resources about Brucia's behavior.

On April 11, the company fired her, citing performance reasons.

Stevens's lawyer said the complaint filed with the Division of Human Rights last week was a necessary step before a federal lawsuit is filed against Brucia and the company.

Telephone calls to Brucia's home were not answered on Tuesday.

Atlantic Automotive released a statement saying: "It is unfortunate that one employee has used her own generous act to make up a groundless claim.

"Atlantic Auto treated her appropriately and acted honorably and fairly, at every turn," it said. (Reuters)

6-yr-old copped for kicking principal

INDIANAPOLIS (Reuters) - Police in a small Indiana town hauled a six-year-old from his elementary school and charged him with battery and intimidation after he kicked and threatened a principal, police said on Wednesday.

The incident followed one earlier in April where police handcuffed a 6-year-old girl who was screaming and crying and had injured a principal and damaged property at an elementary school in Milledgeville, Georgia. She was not charged.

The Indiana student, who had been suspended from school recently for biting and hitting a staff member, was arrested April 18 at Hendricks Elementary School in Shelbyville, which is about 30 miles southeast of Indianapolis.

"This was not an isolated incident," Shelbyville Police Lieutenant Michael Turner said.

School officials called police, reporting that the student, who was not identified, had kicked Principal Patrick Lumbley and told him and Assistant Principal Jessica Poe that he was going to kill them, a Shelbyville police report said.

The student was yelling and screaming and lying on the floor of Poe's office when police arrived, the report said.

Poe led the student to a police car where an officer placed him in the back seat, buckled him in and drove him to the police department, the report said. He was not handcuffed.

Turner said he hoped the filing of juvenile charges would help get the child needed help.

"Putting him into the system can open up avenues perhaps the parents don't have," Turner said.INDIANAPOLIS | Wed Apr 25, 2012 3:22pm EDT

INDIANAPOLIS (Reuters) - Police in a small Indiana town hauled a six-year-old from his elementary school and charged him with battery and intimidation after he kicked and threatened a principal, police said on Wednesday.

The incident followed one earlier in April where police handcuffed a 6-year-old girl who was screaming and crying and had injured a principal and damaged property at an elementary school in Milledgeville, Georgia. She was not charged.

The Indiana student, who had been suspended from school recently for biting and hitting a staff member, was arrested April 18 at Hendricks Elementary School in Shelbyville, which is about 30 miles southeast of Indianapolis.

"This was not an isolated incident," Shelbyville Police Lieutenant Michael Turner said.

School officials called police, reporting that the student, who was not identified, had kicked Principal Patrick Lumbley and told him and Assistant Principal Jessica Poe that he was going to kill them, a Shelbyville police report said.

The student was yelling and screaming and lying on the floor of Poe's office when police arrived, the report said.

Poe led the student to a police car where an officer placed him in the back seat, buckled him in and drove him to the police department, the report said. He was not handcuffed.

Turner said he hoped the filing of juvenile charges would help get the child needed help.

"Putting him into the system can open up avenues perhaps the parents don't have," Turner said.

Russian eats pound of caviar in 90 sec

MOSCOW: A 49-year old Russian with a big spoon in hand swallowed a pound (500 grams) of caviar in about 90 seconds to win what was billed as the world's first eating contest featuring the pricey fish roe.

"In Texas, people organise hot dog and hamburger eating championships and contests," the swanky Apartment restaurant said in a press release for the event.

"In Moscow, people eat black caviar instead," it said.

The contestants were drawn from 12 winners of a lottery who were each handed a bowl of caviar lined up on a lacquered table while a man in black tie played lounge music on a white grand piano.

Muscovite Alexander Lavrov did not disclose his profession after swallowing about $5,000 worth of the stuff in a minute and 26 seconds and then raising his arms up to applause.

He was awarded 10,000 rubles ($340) and several more glass jars of the salty delicacy.

The Moscow River embankment house said it spent around two million rubles ($70,000) on the promotional event. (AFP)

British Library buys oldest book for £9m

LONDON: The St Cuthbert gospel, Europe's oldest intact book, will remain in Britain after a record-breaking fundraising campaign by the British Library, it said Tuesday.

Half of the £9 million ($14.2 million, 10.8 million euros) required to purchase the 7th Century copy of the Gospel of St John came from the The National Heritage Memorial Fund with charitable foundations, trusts and the public making up the rest.

It is the largest ever campaign mounted by the library and ensures the manuscript, which was buried with the early English Christian leader on Lindisfarne, off north east England, in about 698 AD, stays in the UK.

"To look at this small and intensely beautiful treasure from the Anglo-Saxon period is to see it exactly as those who created it in the 7th Century would have seen it," said Lynne Brindley, the library's chief executive.

"The exquisite binding, the pages, even the sewing structure survive intact, offering us a direct connection with our forebears 1300 years ago.

"This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to secure the gospel for the nation and we were both grateful and touched that so many people felt moved to support our campaign," she added.

The book was rediscovered in Durham Cathedral in 1104 when a Viking raid forced the coffin to be moved.

The gospel, which has been on loan to the library since 1979, was sold by the clergical Society of Jesus (British Province) to raise money for education and restoration work.

It will now be displayed equally at the library and in the north east of England. (AFP)

Mexicans return beached whale to sea

MEXICO CITY: Volunteers and Navy personnel returned a 12-tonne whale to the sea after it became stranded on a beach in the southwestern Mexican city of Oaxaca, officials said Saturday.

About 150 volunteers worked with over 40 Marines for 12 hours Friday on the Pacific Coast beach to keep the whale alive and maneuver it back into
the water.

Local military commanders ordered marine environmental protection officers, underwater specialists and other Navy personnel "to help the whale return to the sea," the Navy said in a statement.

The marines used two patrol boats, a smaller boat and vehicles to move the whale off the beach and back into the ocean.

The nine-meter (30-foot) whale suffered injuries to its right flipper, apparently from lying on its side on the beach, the Navy statement said. (AFP)

Titanic crew's ghosts haunt Southampton

SOUTHAMPTON: Nowhere suffered as much from the sinking of the Titanic as Southampton and a century after the disaster the city wants to tell the forgotten story of its 549 residents who died.

A job aboard the mighty liner was a dream come true for the men of this port on England's south coast in 1912, offering three square meals a day and lodgings for the night at a time of severe hardship.

Three-quarters of Titanic's crew came from the city, many toiling as stokers in the ship's engine rooms or as stewards tending to the needs of passengers.

When Titanic set off from Southampton docks on her fateful maiden voyage to New York on April 10, 1912, the people of the city cheered it off full of pride.

The contrast could not have been greater five days later when the liner hit an iceberg and sank in the North Atlantic, plunging Southampton into mourning and leaving many of the victims' families in poverty.

"Southampton's Titanic story is very special because most of the crew came from Southampton and that story hasn't really been told anywhere else before," said Maria Newbery, curator of SeaCity, a new maritime museum that focuses on the liner's crew.

The first news of the sinking was posted in the window of a local newspaper just hours after the disaster, but no one believed it at first.

When the awful truth began to dawn, "a great hush descended," Charles Morgan, who was nine at the time, recalls in the city's archives.

Photographs at the time show anxious relatives gathering around the names of the dead posted outside the offices of the Titanic's owners, the White Star Line, where a small black plaque on the now-shabby building marks the spot.

Of 724 members of Titanic's crew with an address in Southampton, just 175 survived, according to figures given by the museum.

One survivor was Alexander Littlejohn, a first-class steward, who was ordered to row one of the lifeboats which were mostly filled with women and children.

His grandson Philip, who gives lectures about the disaster, told.

"He was just 40 but the shock of it turned his hair white within months.

"He never talked about the sinking, which I find is absolutely typical of Titanic survivors. He had mouths to feed so he went on to work on 30 voyages on Titanic's sister ship, the Olympic."

One of those less fortunate, Sidney Sedunary, a steward, had been carrying a pocket watch which stopped at 1:50am, about half a hour before the Titanic sank.

A few days later, his body was hauled from the water by a rescue ship and the watch, which now takes pride of place in the new museum, was found in his pocket.

The extent of the disaster is poignantly illustrated by a floor map in SeaCity, plastered with red spots to indicate the houses where a crew member was lost. The dots come thick and fast in the working-class areas near the docks.

"Lots of people working as stokers and in the boiler rooms were from Southampton and in the days before social security, if you lost the main breadwinner in the family, you were in trouble," curator Newbery explained.

The city pulled together to raise money for the bereaved families and in the months after the disaster, every concert and church fete was turned into a Titanic fundraiser.

As the centenary of the disaster approaches, Southampton is acting as a magnet for the descendants of those who perished. (AFP)

Greek cops available for 30 euros/hour

ATHENS: The cash-strapped Greek state is now looking to a new way of raising revenues -- renting out its policemen at an hourly rate of 30 euros, with patrol cars going for 10 euros more.

This will "pay for the cost of using police material and infrastructure, and allow to modernise them", the ministry of citizen protection which is in charge of the country's security services said in a statement Sunday.

Such police services used in "exceptional cases" such as in escorting the transportation of dangerous material or art works, were previously offered free of charge, said the ministry.

But now, hourly fees of 200 euros (260 dollars) will be charged for patrol boats and 1,500 euros for helicopters, according to Sunday newspaper Proto Thema, which revealed the internal reform.

The ministry said it would only accept such rentals if they do not affect the security forces' operational capacity.

Greece has a total public debt of over 350 billion euros, and was twice forced to obtain bailout funds from the European Union and International Monetary Fund to stave off bankruptcy. (AFP)