STORY TO BE TOLD

Congrats, (from left) Elton John and David Furnish!

Elton John is proud new dad

Elton John and David Furnish got the best Christmas present ever. They are now proud parents of a baby boy born on Christmas Day.

The baby, named Zachary Jackson Levon Furnish-John and weighing 7 pounds, 15 ounces, was delivered in California, US, via surrogate, reported UsMagazine.com.

John, 63, and Furnish, 48, expressed their excitement of becoming dads for the first time through a joint statement: "We are overwhelmed with happiness and joy at this very special moment.

"Zachary is healthy and doing really well, and we are very proud and happy parents."

The pair met in 1993 and tied the knot 12 years later.
Source: E! Online

Published Dec 28 2010

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LeAnn Rimes is engaged

LeAnn Rimes and boyfriend Eddie Cibrian are now engaged.

The relationship between the couple became tabloid fodder due to their marital status when they were dating.

When they met on the set of Northern Lights, Rimes, 28, was still married to backup dancer Dean Sheremet, while Cibrian, 37, is a married man with two kids.

Rimes and Cibrian divorced their spouses later.

Cibrian, who acted in CSI: Miami and Third Watch, presented Rimes with a diamond ring and popped the question during the holidays.

Despite being tagged as a man-stealer, Rimes insisted that she never meant to hurt anyone in the relationship.

"It happens every day to so many people. And if I take away my album sales, my awards, and you have just another couple -you have two couples whose marriages didn’t work, who really stumbled upon each other and fell in love."

"And never ever was I thinking of hurting someone," she said.Source: Entertainment Weekly

Published Dec 28 2010

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Alanis Morissette's Christmas baby

Elton John and David Furnish are not the only ones that become proud parents on Christmas day.

Singer Alanis Morissette gave birth to a boy on the special day, her representative told People magazine.

"Alanis Morissette and Mario 'Souleye' Treadway welcomed a baby boy, Ever Imre Morissette-Treadway, on Dec. 25th. All are healthy and happy,” said the representative.

Morissette, 36, revealed that she was expecting her first child with her rapper husband Mario “Souleye” Treadway, 30.

The couple tied the knot at their Los Angeles home back in May.
Source: People

Published Dec 28 2010

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Labourer becomes dad at 94

A 94-year-old man in India has become the world's oldest father perhaps.

Ramajit Raghav, a farm labourer from northern India state Haryana, said that he had become a proud father of a son.

And the Haryana government's old-age pension records show that he is 94 years old.

Ramajit's wife Shakuntala is in her mid 50s.

Shakuntala gave birth to a baby boy about a month ago, Dr Mahender Kumar, senior medical officer at Kharkhoda Civil Hospital, said.

He said the child that delivered normally is in good health.

The couple termed their child’s birth as a "god's gift" and named him Karamjit.

Besides owning two cows, the couple has old age pension and daily wages as sources of their livelihood.

Raghav said he left his home in Begpur village at Uttar Pradesh some 40 years ago after a violent dispute in the family.

He first became a domestic helper and later worked at the current farm for the last 22 years.

Asked about the secret behind his long life, Ramajit said that he had been a wrestler in his youth and his daily diet comprised of three-kg of milk, half a kg almonds and half a kg of ghee.

Before this, Nanu Ram Jogi of a Rajasthan village had fathered his 22nd child at the age of 90 in 2007.
Source and photo: Times of India

Published Dec 28 2010

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Lazy nurse's error kills baby


Sleeping on the job: Louisa Swinburn is pictured with her eyes closed next to baby Samuel McIntosh.

A United Kingdom's nurse's error has killed a baby and a Facebook picture has got her sacked, according to the Daily Mail.


Grieving parents Sarah and Rob McIntosh

The nurse gave a baby a lethal dose of salt and uploaded a picture on her Facebook page showing her snoozing beside the baby's cot.

This was 11 days before her fatal error.

The baby was accidentally given a fatal dose of salt by the National Heath Service worker.

Four-month-old Samuel McIntosh suffered damage to his brain after Louisa and colleague Karen Thomas - both experienced nurses - gave him ten times the prescribed dose of sodium chloride in an infusion.

After seeing the Facebook photo, Sam's distraught mother Sarah blasted: "It's no wonder my son ended up in a coffin with someone like her looking after him. It shows she just doesn't care."

Shockingly, Queen's Medical Centre, where Swinburn was employed, knew about the picture the day before Sam's death, according to his parents.

The tragic baby's father Rob told the News of the World: 'It begs the question that if the hospital had pulled her off duty when they first discovered the photo, would our son still be alive?'

Swinburn was initially allowed back to work after a Nottingham University Hospital Trust investigation accepted her claim that it was an accident.

But she was later sacked after seeing evidence of the Facebook picture.

At the inquest the nurses insisted that they could not remember what had happened on the high dependency ward at the Nottingham hospital last year where the baby, born at 24 weeks, was being treated.

Neither apologised to the family for the blunder.

After the inquest, Mrs McIntosh found that Swinburn was posting messages on Facebook about what had happened, asking friends to ‘wish me luck’ in the inquiry.

The day she was allowed back to work after her first suspension, she posted: "(Louisa) Has had a fantastic day! Is goin 2 treat herself 2 bottle wine!"

The family confronted hospital officials, who admitted knowing of the posts. They said they had not told the family to avoid causing ‘distress’.

Swinburn and Thomas's future as nurses will be decided at a Nursing and Midwifery Council hearing next year.

Source: Daily Mail

Published Dec 28 2010

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Man murders wife in 'mercy killing'

An 83-year old man in Taiwan has admitted murdering his wife with a screwdriver in what he claims was a 'mercy killing'.

Wang Ching-hsi, a retired engineer, killed his wife Sun Yuan-ping, 80, who suffered from Parkinson's' disease, at their Taipei home Sunday.
Wang Ching-hsi gave his wife Sun Yuan-ping sleeping pills then used a hammer to knock the screwdriver in her skull


Wang Ching-hsi gave his wife Sun Yuan-ping sleeping pills then used a hammer to knock the screwdriver in her skull

"Why did I do this? It's all on my blog," Wang told journalists while being taken away by Taipei police, according to footage shown on local television.

Apparently, Wang gave her sleeping pills then used a hammer to knock the screwdriver in her skull.

He turned himself in to police, saying he performed euthanasia to end her suffering.

Wang said his two sons emigrated to the US, and that he had been caring for his wife who also had a broken leg in addition to Parkinson's disease.

Not wanting to face old age and illness, they discussed committing suicide together.

Wang had also written about this in his blog on several occasions.

"We have lived enough. We discussed it a decade ago. If she died before me, it would be her good luck."

"If necessary, I would punch a hole in her head with an electric saw," he wrote on Dec 5.

Wang has been charged with murder and prosecutors plan to perform a post-mortem to determine the cause of Sun Yuan-ping's death.

Euthanasia is still illegal in Taiwan, but the country June passed draft regulations in June, allowing family members to suspend medical efforts that prolong suffering without preventing eventual death.
Source: Agencies

Published Dec 28 2010

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Baby orangutan gets first-class cruise

A baby orangutan was given its own private four-bed cabin as it travelled from Santander, Spain to Portsmouth, England on a ferry.

The 11-month old animal, named Silvestre, had been rejected by his mother in a Spanish zoo and was taken to Dorset-based sanctuary Monkey World on a Brittany Ferries vessel, Portsmouth's The News reports.

It has been reported that Silvestre enjoyed his free ride - swinging from the ladders and bunks.

"He's a lovely little orangutan - he just melts your heart. Because he was so young and had been separated from his mother, he had to be near his keeper all the time he was travelling," said Brittany Ferries spokesperson, Chris Jones.

He added: "We couldn't obviously put him out on deck so he used a normal passenger cabin. He was treated just like a normal passenger. He was on board for 24 hours, so he had plenty of time to meet people. Everyone wants to meet him. It's the first time I know we've carried an orangutan."

Source: www.digitalspy.co.uk
Published Dec 28 2010

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Nagging is bad for health

It is a complaint heard in households across the country, usually muttered under the breath: "All this nagging will be the death of me."

Now, all those browbeaten husbands and wives have the proof to support their claims.

Research has shown a partner’s "excessive demands" can significantly increase a person’s risk of suffering angina - a painful condition that can be a precursor to heart attacks.

"Serious worries from significant others seem to be important risk factors," said the report’s authors, from Copenhagen University in Denmark.

In a six-year study of 4,500 men and women aged 40 and 50, demands from a partner increased the risk almost fourfold, while stress from children and other loved-ones almost doubled the risk.

Commenting on the report, Cathy Ross, a nurse at the British Heart Foundation, said: "There is evidence stress may be linked to an increased risk of heart disease but the mechanism of how this happens is not clearly understood."

The study is in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.
Source: mirror.co.uk

Published Dec 27 2010

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Wife discovers husband is a woman

A wife in India has launched a fraud investigation after discovering her husband of six months is in fact a woman.

Minati Khatua from Orissa in India believed that her husband was a respectful man who told her that they could not consummate their marriage because he was observing a religious ritual.

The 27-year-old woman allegedly discovered the truth when she walked in on her spouse taking a bath, reported the Daily Telegraph.

According to the Daily Telegraph, she told the police, "I thought he was devout and respectful of me."

"But when I walked in to the bathroom there was no mistaking that my husband was 100 per cent a woman."

Police believe that the "groom," who has since disappeared, posed as a man to take advantage of the dowry.

The dowry reportedly included a car, gold ornaments and approximately US$411 (RM1272) in cash.
Source: Korea Herald/ANN

Published Dec 27 2010

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Workers at the mortuary noticed Maria das Dores da Conceicao breathing and stirring two days after her 'death'

'Dead woman' wakes up in coffin

Brazilian police are investigating the case of an elderly woman who was declared dead - only to wake up two days later inside a coffin in a funeral home.

The 88-year-old woman died two days after the incident and police in Minas Gerais state want to know if poor medical care and the misdiagnosis contributed to her death.

The O Globo newspaper, citing a press release from the Ipatinga mayor's office, says doctors thought Maria das Dores da Conceicao died Wednesday afternoon.

But she was rushed back to the intensive care unit of the same hospital - coffin and all - on Friday after workers at the mortuary noticed her breathing and stirring.

One of da Conceicao’s grandchildren Noeme Silva Amancio told Brazil’s G1 website that she saw her grandmother looking very much alive when she arrived back at the hospital in the hearse.

"She was breathing and moving about on one side of the coffin more than when she had been initially hospitalised," she said.

The city’s mayor said police would investigate why da Conceicao had been pronounced dead and had her death certificate signed.

Da Conceicao had been admitted to the hospital on Tuesday and had a medical history of hypertension, vascular disease and dementia due to Alzheimer’s disease.

The O Dia newspaper reported that she had part of her leg amputated in November.

Custodia Amancio, da Conceicao’s daughter said the family was happy to know her mother was alive but unhappy with the lack of respect due to her.

"We are still not sure if we will sue the municipality and hospital," she added.

Source: Agencies
Published Dec 27 2010

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Sarawakians can expect downpours in first quarter 2011
By YU JI
yuji@thestar.com.my

THIS has been one of the wettest years on record and the weather could get worse in the next three months.

The Malaysian Meteorological Department department’s Sarawak director Wong Teck Kiong yesterday said rainfall had increased between 20% and 30% in the last six months. He attributed the bad weather to the La Nina phenomenon, which occurs once every few years.

“La Nina is expected to peak between mid-January and mid-February. Rainfall could be up to 40% higher than normal during that period,” Wong told StarMetro.

Chinese New Year falls on Feb 3 next year. In the past decade, the festive season had coincided with several floods in low-lying areas of Kuching and Sibu.

Kuching, in particular, was flooded quite badly during Chinese New Year in 2003 and got worse the following year.

According to Wong, Sarawakians have been fairly lucky so far, because, although it has been wetter, the rains have typically fallen from the late afternoons until early mornings.

Had the same amount come within a shorter period of time, there might have already been floods, he said.

But Wong also said Sarawakians were not out of the woods yet. “You’ve got to remember our forecast tells us rainfall has not peaked yet.”

Every La Nina is proceeded by El Nino, which brings dry weather. This year, El Nino started weakening in May. For the duration of El Nino, state authorities had to shore up water levels with drastic measures like cloud seeding.

When La Nina arrived, suddenly about 30% more rain fell in June and July.

“This year is one of the few years without the mid-year haze because of the very rainy weather,” said Wong, adding that extra rain should continue to fall during evenings, with more at coastal areas.

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400 spend frigid night on A train in NYC nightmare

NEW YORK (AP) - It took hours for Christopher Mullen to get off a plane from sunny Cancun and on to a half-empty subway car, his only way home. It would be another eight hours and more - a night spent huddled under a thin blanket on the frigid, grungy car - before he could get off the A train.

His feet soaked to the bone, with no food, water and hardly any heat, Mullen and 400 others lived through a New York nightmare on an elevated subway track, one of hundreds of stories of hardship caused by the crushing snowstorm that dropped more than 2 feet (60 centimetres) of snow on the Northeast.

By the time they got on the subway shortly before 1 a.m. Monday near Kennedy Airport, Mullen and his girlfriend were well into their ordeal battling the blizzard of December 2010.

Their flight landed two hours late. With snow whirling around the terminal, the airport train was down. There were no taxis. Wearing just a light spring jacket, Mullen stood in the snow and attempted to dig his car out from long-term parking. The only result: feet and legs that were soaking wet.

When the couple - their diving gear and luggage in tow - boarded the A train more than six hours after clearing Customs, it seemed that they were finally on their way. But the subway got only one stop before it was forced to stop by snow drifts piled on the outside tracks and thick layers of ice on the electrified third rail.

At first, it seemed the delay might be brief. A loudspeaker announcement said that a train up ahead was stuck on the track due to the weather and they were being held back. But the minutes stretched into hours.

The train was in the station, but in the dark of night with bus service down and car services shuttered, there was nowhere for passengers to go. Train operators kept the doors closed to keep out the cold, but the gusting winds rattled the windows and the chill of the storm seeped into the car, overpowering the faint stream of warm air coming from the subway car's feeble heaters. It wasn't quite cold enough for water in the car to freeze, but it felt nearly that bad.

The 400 on Mullen's train were unlucky, but they were not alone. The blizzard left thousands of travelers stranded, closing all three of the metropolitan area's airports and blocking most other means of transportation. Buses sputtered to a halt in snow drifts. Taxi drivers abandoned their cabs in the middle of New York's snow-clogged streets. At least one other subway train was stranded on the tracks.

"I just huddled with my girlfriend. We just tried to stay close. I was not dressed appropriately for the weather at all," Mullen said after the ordeal. "I didn't think I needed a heavy coat. I regretted my choice" to pack light.

Whenever cold air would hit his wet feet, he started to shiver, he said. "I was just concerned for staying warm. I was freezing." Tensions in the car began to rise. No one was aggressive, but people were speaking forcefully to the conductor. Some demanded that city transit authorities bus them out.

A mother with four children worried loudly that they had no water. Some worried about getting sick.

Men would walk onto the platforms connecting subway cars and urinate onto the tracks. Eventually, the train workers allowed passengers into the bathroom inside the train station. When it turned out that bathroom was heated, it caused a commotion.

"One woman came back and said, 'Oh my God, the bathroom is SO warm,"' Mullen said. She was very excited.

Twice, passengers called emergency operators and the Fire Department of New York responded. Passengers begged the emergency responders to take them away, but they were told they had to stay put, Mullen said.

At some point, it became morning. But the windows were too iced over to see the sun rise.

Finally, at around 9 a.m., the train began to move again.

Asked about the stranded passengers, Metropolitan Transportation Authority Chairman Jay Walder said, "We will of course take a look at that situation after the storm. I know it wasn't comfortable."

For Mullen, a 42-year-old art director for local cable news channel NY1, and his girlfriend, Melanie A. M. Hinds, it was another 3{ hours before they arrived at his apartment. With no trains running to his Park Slope, Brooklyn, stop, they took a different subway, then made a fruitless attempt to find a car service to take them home.

Finally, a generous couple drove them as close as they could get. It took them 20 minutes to drag their luggage and gear three blocks, through snow drifts that, at times, reached 3 feet (a metre) high.

Once he crossed the threshold, the first thing Mullen did was change into something dry.

From the plane to his front door, their 14-mile (22.5-kilometre) odyssey had taken them 18 hours.

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A touching birthday reunion

GEORGE TOWN: A seven-year-old girl, who is embroiled in a custody dispute, received a belated birthday gifts and snacks from her father and other paternal family members outside the High Court here.

It was a touching scene when the girl received her favourite snacks – chocolates and potato chips – from her father Tan Cheow Hong, 36, who is a marketing assistant manager.

Yesterday was the first time father and daughter had met each other since Nov 8 when the girl was taken away by her mother Fatimah Fong Abdullah @ Fong Mee Hui, 28, from a school in Butterworth in the presence of police and officials from the Islamic Affairs Department.

Tan allowed Fatimah, who embraced Islam on Aug 13, to take the child after she produced an ex-parte order from a Syariah Lower Court in Hulu Langat, Selangor.

The couple, who married on Feb 14, 2001, had separated in 2007. The girl had been under Tan’s care until Nov 8.

The girl, who turned seven on Nov 20, was initially shy and kept holding tightly to her mother’s hand when approached by her father yesterday.

It took her a while before she shed tears and gave her father a hug.

She also received many belated birthday gifts from her gran­d­mother, aunt and cousins.

The aunt also presented her with a schoolbag for coming out top in her class.

On Nov 24, Tan filed an originating summons for interim custody of the child.

He named Fatimah, who is in the process of filing for a divorce in the Syariah Court, as defendant.

The child was in the High Court yesterday to be interviewed by Justice Yaacob Md Sam who had decided to do so on Dec 20 after hearing submissions in the summons filed by Tan.

The judge had said he would first speak to the girl before deciding on interim custody. He fixed Jan 4 for the decision.

Yesterday, Justice Yaacob spent nearly one hour interviewing the girl in chambers.

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Ipoh gets nation’s first baby hatch in hospital
By SYLVIA LOOI
sylvia@thestar.com.my

IPOH: The country’s first baby hatch in a hospital has begun operation.

Located in KPJ Ipoh Specialist Hospital at Jalan Raja di-Hilir here, the hatch was launched by state senior executive councillor Datuk Hamidah Osman yesterday.

Hospital chief executive officer Nasirruddin Harun said the programme was part of its corporate social responsibility.

“The baby hatch is aimed at saving the lives of innocent newborns who are not wanted by their parents,” he said.

The hospital, said Nasirruddin, collaborated with the state Welfare Department.

“With this service, we hope to reduce the number of abandoned babies in Perak,” he added.

Explaining the hatch’s procedure, Nasirruddin said that when a baby is placed within, an alarm would be triggered.

“Our personnel will examine the baby and if he’s found to be healthy, we will hand him over to the Welfare Department,” he said.

“If the baby needs medical attention, our doctors will treat him first for free,” he said, adding that the identity of the person who placed the baby in the hatch would remain a secret.

Hospital medical director Datuk Dr Fadzli Cheah, who defended the move in having the hatch, admitted that it would not totally solve the problem of baby-dumping.

“We need a holistic approach, including educating people on teenage pregnancy,” he said.

Hamidah said the state would embark on a statewide campaign next year to educate people on pregnancy and about the hatch.

“We will go to schools and factories to distribute pamphlets about the need to place unwanted babies in a safe place,” she said, adding that having the hatch did not mean the state was encouraging premarital sex

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Dinner outing turns into ordeal for 10-year-old

MALACCA: A night out with her family turned into a painful experience for 10-year-old Chrisanta Geron Lee when her left foot got stuck in an escalator at a shopping mall here last night.

Firefighters struggled for about an hour before they could free her.

The incident occurred at about 8.40pm while Chrisanta was on a dinner outing at the shopping mall near Peringgit with her family. She was taking the escalator down to the ground floor when her foot got wedged in the space between the steps.

When she screamed in pain, her parents and passers-by tried to free her leg. Others quickly pushed the emergency stop button.

However, by the time the escalator stopped, her entire foot was already trapped in the escalator and the Fire and Rescue Department had to be called to release her.

She was later rushed to the Malacca Hospital for treatment, where she was reported to be in stable condition.

Meanwhile, several local journalists claimed they were manhandled by the mall’s security guards who tried to stop them from taking photographs of the victim at the scene.

Melaka Tengah OCPD ACP Salehhudin Abd Rahman confirmed that a police report was lodged by a journalist from a local Chinese daily.

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