A woman from Miami found her father’s dead body inside a home he was trying to renovate and which contained at least 60,000 bees.
Miami Police are not sure whether the father, who has not been named, fell from a ladder or died as a result of bee stings after he was found in the upstairs bedroom of the home.
The woman said her father was renovating the house – which had been in the family since 1924 – so that she could move in.
When he couldn’t be reached his daughter went to the home and found his body.
“We’re not sure if he fell, had a medical condition or if it was bee stings,” Miami Fire Rescue Lt. Ignatius Carroll told Local 10.com.
“But you can imagine how devastating this was for her to find him.”
A woman from Miami found her father's dead body inside a home he was trying to renovate and which contained at least 60,000 bees
Willie Sklaroff, who runs a bee eradication company, said at least 60,000 bees were living in the walls of the home and were disturbed during the renovation process.
Willie Sklaroff said: “He probably opened up the hole and was gonna fog it and what happened is that the bees probably came out, scared him and he fell off the chair.“
He said he will return at another time to remove all of the bees.
Willie Sklaroff said by the sounds and the number of holes in the wall there are probably more than 60,000 there.
Neighbours described the victim as a “really nice person and a kind soul”.
Luis Lopez, a Florida prisoner was released from jail after serving only three months of his year-long sentence for his second arrest for driving while intoxicated.
After questioning guards in disbelief,Luis Lopez was shuffled out of jail and into freedom, but it still didn’t seem right.
Luis Lopez, 37, called his lawyer when he got home, only to find out that his hesitations were for good reason.
Due to a mistake at the court office, the jail let Luis Lopez out too early.
“I was stunned,” he said.
Luis Lopez, a Florida prisoner was released from jail after serving only three months of his year-long sentence for his second arrest for driving while intoxicated
Luis Lopez had been told that instead of serving the year he was initially sentenced for his DUI, along with charges of driving on a suspended license and hitting two cars before fleeing the scene, he was released Friday and told that all he had left was a year of probation.
The sheriff’s office placed the blame on the courts, saying that jail must follow all court orders, and they simply did as told in this case.
Luis Lopez’s lawyer called him back to say that he needed to turn himself back into the Marion County, Florida jail to serve out the rest of his original sentence.
“It would have been better if they had just let him serve his time instead of releasing him and then taking him away from me again!” said Luis Lopez’ girlfriend who would only say her name was Jaimie.
Rather than plot a way to stay outside of the cell block, Luis Lopez immediately decided that he would do the right thing and go back to jail.
“It never should have happened. I just want to do what I have to do now, and get on with my life. That’s it,” Luis Lopez said.
After Steve Williams, Tiger Woods’ former caddie, made a racist comment at an awards dinner, he was condemned by the Professional Golfers Association and Tiger Woods’ management team, but not by his new boss, Adam Scott.
Steve Williams, 47, was given an award for the year’s best celebration – a reference to his tongue-in-cheek claim that his current employer Adam Scott’s victory at the Bridgestone Invitational in August was “the best win of my career” – despite being on the bag with Tiger Woods for 13 majors.
Asked what the celebration was all about, Steve Williams said: “It was my aim to shove it right up that black a**hole.”
Though Steve Williams issued an apology, people are now criticizing Adam Scott’s lack of criticism.
Adam Scott, who now retains Steve Williams, said that he disapproves of Williams' remark, but is trying to put the whole incident in the past
Adam Scott, who now retains Steve Williams, said that he disapproves of Williams’ remark, but is trying to put the whole incident in the past.
“I don’t think anyone condones racism in sport or anything,” Adam Scott said.
“I don’t see it being an issue moving forward.
“I think from my side of things and my teams, the matter has been put to bed. I’ve got nothing more to talk about it with anyone. So I’m moving on.
“I heard Steve issue an apology. What more should I do?
“Look, anything with Tiger involved is a story,” Adam Scott continued.
“I value Steve’s contribution to my game and to have him on the bag.”
Mark Steinberg, Tiger Woods’ agent at Excel Sports Management, was with the golfer when he heard the news.
He said: “It’s a regrettable comment, and there’s really nothing that Tiger can do or say. He’s just going to move on.”
Steve Williams’ comment was met with a mixture of laughter and shock at the ceremony, with some players turning to each other with eyes widened and jaws agape.
The body of a newborn baby boy who is believed to have been delivered alive and subsequently strangled was found in a trash can at a Salvation Army store bathroom in Streamwood, Chicago.
Police was called to the Salvation Army store after an employee found some blood on the bathroom floor and then the body, which was inside a plastic bag with its umbilical chord still attached.
The placenta was also discovered at the scene.
Police believes the plastic bag was used to strangle the baby boy – who was six pounds, 11 ounces and about 18 inches long.
The baby boy was pronounced dead on the scene, according to a release from Streamwood police.
Salvation Army store officials told police the woman appeared pregnant when she walked into the store on Friday morning and asked a manager to use an employee restroom.
The woman walked out an hour later, they said.
A sketch has been released of the mother who is said to be a Hispanic female between 15 and 25 years old
“The manager sent a worker to into the store to check on the status of the bathroom, discovered some blood on the floor and then subsequent to that we discovered – the worker discovered – a fetus in the wastepaper basket.
“It wasn’t premature or born with a light weight. It looked like it went through a nine-month gestation.
“The baby was delivered alive and strangled to its death.”
A sketch has been released of the mother who is said to be a Hispanic female between 15 and 25 years old. The woman is said to be between five feet and five feet, four inches tall with long dark hair.
She was last seen wearing a purple hooded sweatshirt and a lime green coat and may have been with another woman and a two-year-old child.
Deputy Chief James Keegan offered the reminder of Illinois’ Safe Haven law, which allows mothers to leave babies 30 days old or younger – no questions asked – at any police station, fire house or hospital.
Anyone with information can contact the Streamwood police investigations division at (630) 736-3700.
A confidential tip line also is available to anonymous callers at (630) 736-3719.
Tinglan Hong, the Chinese woman who gave birth to the first child of Hugh Grant, was portrayed by her her former boyfriend Robert Hodge.
Robert Hodge said that when Tinglan Hong, 31, arrived at his home at the end of October, the first thing he noticed was that her normally petite frame appeared to have gained weight.
It had been several months since they had last met but now Tinglan Hong was visiting Robert Hodge to discuss changing her silver Mercedes CLK car – a two-door coupe – for a bigger vehicle.
Imediately, her former boyfriend understood.
“I said to her, <<You’ve done it, haven’t you? You’ve had the baby>>.”
Tinglan Hong, known to all as Ting Ting, then confirmed what Robert Hodge had suspected for several months – that she had given birth to a child fathered by actor Hugh Grant.
The news last week that famously dedicated bachelor Hugh Grant, 51, had become a father for the first time came with a backhanded dismissal when his publicists described his time with Tinglan Hong as “a fleeting affair”.
For Robert Hodge, 55, a buyer for a specialist car company who spent 18 months dating Ting Ting before she met Hugh Grant, it brought mixed emotions.
It brought to mind the day in April 2010 when Ting Ting had told him, with barely concealed excitement, that she had begun playing golf with Hugh Grant after meeting him in an upmarket wine bar in Chelsea.
Far from their contact being “fleeting”, Robert Hodge says that over the months that followed, Tinglan Hong confessed that she and Hugh Grant had regularly been spending time together.
Although Ting Ting denied they were romantically involved, Robert Hodge suspected there was far more to their relationship.
As Tinglan Hong showed him pictures of their dark-haired daughter, he could be in no doubt. Robert Hodge listened as Ting Ting proudly told him that her little girl had been nicknamed Bamboo but that her Chinese name translated as “Happy Accident”.
Although reportedly “delighted” at becoming a father, Hugh Grant is said to have been absent during the child’s birth and spent just half an hour with his daughter before heading to Scotland to play golf.
Last week, Hugh Grant was pictured with a German burlesque dancer, said to be the latest object of his affections.
Tinglan Hong, the Chinese woman who gave birth to the first child of Hugh Grant, was portrayed by her her former boyfriend Robert Hodge
Robert Hodge, a divorced father-of-four from Wandsworth, South London, claims to have no hard feelings towards Hugh Grant. But the star’s behaviour towards Tinglan Hong, for whom he still cares deeply, has clearly irked him.
Robert Hodge says: “I don’t think he has been as considerate as he could have been, no. He has brought all this attention on her but doesn’t want to take responsibility for any of it.
“He has been able to turn up at her house in his Ferrari, bringing the paparazzi straight to her door, and then leave the country again.
“Meanwhile, it’s Ting Ting who has been left to deal with all of this. Now he’s apparently with this burlesque dancer.
“It’s all very well that his publicist has described his time with Ting Ting as a fleeting romance but it wasn’t fleeting.
“At one time, he told people she was a big part of his life – it’s not very fair that he has dismissed that. Even if he isn’t with her, he has had a hand in creating this situation.“
So far, little is known about the mother of Hugh Grant’s child other than that she was brought up in the town of Lishni in Zhejiang Province, Eastern China.
But Robert Hodge, who has been divorced for 11 years, is now able to offer an intriguing insight.
Robert Hodge first met Tinglan Hong in 2006 at the Dog and Fox pub in the centre of exclusive Wimbledon village in South-West London. Attracted by her vivacious and bubbly personality, he asked her to join his group and the pair became friends.
Tinglan Hong had just graduated from a hotel management degree at the University of Surrey in Guildford after arriving in the UK several years previously. Ting Ting told Robert Hodge she was running an internet-based import and export business from her tiny flat in New Malden, Surrey.
It took two years for their friendship to deepen into a romantic relationship.
Robert Hodge recalls: “It got to the stage we both wanted to be together. She was never moody, always a really nice person to be around. She doesn’t drink alcohol, but is always the life and soul of any gathering. She has huge character and likes spontaneity, to go with the flow.
“If you met her she’d be friendly and witty and would put people at ease. She picks up on a thread of conversation and will drop in a funny one-liner.
“She’s a little bit crazy and quite often does something weird – a funny facial expression or little mannerism.
“It was her innocence that made her a bit cheeky. We laughed a lot together.”
Robert Hodge first met Tinglan Hong in 2006 at the Dog and Fox pub in the centre of exclusive Wimbledon village in South-West London
A fan of the latest fashions, Tinglan Hong dressed in designer labels, favouring Louboutin heels and Gucci handbags.
Robert Hodge says it was not clear how she could afford such luxuries, but believes her family in China sent her a monthly allowance.
Although Tinglan Hong rarely talked about her family, she appeared to have a very close relationship with them and chatted to her mother regularly on the phone. Robert Hodge’s impression was that they were moderately well-off – describing them as “not wealthy, but not rice farmers”.
Tinglan Hong and Robert Hodge spent about five nights a week together enjoying London’s nightlife, going out to restaurants and bars and to adult puppet show Avenue Q.
One night in late 2008, Tinglan Hong went out with friends to Brinkley’s, a wine bar in Chelsea popular with well-heeled local celebrities including Elizabeth Hurley, Hugh Grant, cricketer Kevin Pietersen and Chelsea footballer Frank Lampard.
“The next day she showed me this photograph on her phone with Hugh Grant.
“We laughed about it and she’d bring it out to show people but I didn’t think any more about it.
“Generally, she wasn’t really interested in celebrity, she didn’t buy those magazines.”
Quieter evenings were spent in Robert Hodge’s flat with DVDs of Bond movies or the Bourne trilogy and Ting Ting was a fabulous cook.
“She would often spend two hours cooking really good, traditional Chinese food. Things you’d dip; noodles, meat and fish. We’d eat it together with chopsticks.
“She enjoyed looking after me, playing the housewife.”
Robert Hodge introduced Tinglan Hong to his friends and family. His four children, aged between 18 and 32, took to her immediately.
One Sunday Tinglan Hong met his elderly parents for lunch at their home in Fetcham, Surrey.
“She helped Mum in the kitchen, bringing plates and food through and helping clear up. She got on with everyone. She engaged in conversation and didn’t just sit quietly in the corner. My parents thought she was great. She treated them with enormous amounts of respect and was well-mannered.
“It was important to me that they liked her, and it helped me picture a future together.”
Tinglan Hong and Robert Hodge went to the Belgian Grand Prix together in September 2008 and, after spending Christmas with Robert’s mother and eldest daughter Candice, travelled to Chamonix in the French Alps for a skiing holiday over New Year.
They stayed in a chalet with five friends and Ting Ting, who had never skied before, had three mornings of lessons before also trying out a snowboard.
He said: “She would fall over and just giggle at herself.
“One night, while we were in a bar in the resort, she realized she was the only Chinese person. So she stood up on the bar itself and started waving her arms around and shouting, in a mock Chinese accent: <<Hawo everybody! I am Ting Ting from China!>>
“Everyone loved it and started applauding and shouting back. She’s certainly not shy about coming forward.”
Tinglan Hong and Robert Hodge relationship became more serious and Robert says Ting Ting talked about wanting to settle down. But he was not keen to move too fast after his marriage breakdown and says Ting Ting accepted that.
“She wanted a stable life with someone. But we didn’t talk about moving in together. I think she respected my situation, but she wanted children. We never spoke about it seriously, but it was clear.”
Oddly, Tinglan Hong never invited Robert Hodge into her flat, a rented, ground-floor bedsit on a busy road. It did not strike Robert Hodge as suspicious and he says he never asked to go inside.
But there was undoubtedly an element of secrecy in their relationship. Robert Hodge knew little of her family, and admits he has no idea what goods she was involved in importing. There is no record of Tinglan Hong business at Companies House and he does not know what her visa status is.
After graduating in 2006, Tinglan Hong was entitled to a two-year post-study work visa, which would have expired in 2008. Robert Hodge dismisses these things and says, again, that he simply did not ask the questions.
Tinglan Hong returned to China for a family visit in late 2009 and stayed for two months. During the trip, Ting Ting emailed Robert Hodge some racy modelling photographs she had taken at a studio as part of a “vanity shoot” – popular among young Chinese women.
He said: “It didn’t really fit in with her character. Yes, she’s gregarious but these were saucy.”
Once Tinglan Hong returned, in early 2010, things had changed.
“I’d try to make arrangements and she’d say, <<I can’t make it tonight>>. That was really strange. Something was wrong.”
After several weeks Tinglan Hong broke off the relationship, claiming she needed time to herself.
“I had very strong feelings for her but I had to respect what she wanted.”
Robert Hodge had no contact with Tinglan Hong until, one day, he bumped into one of her friends, a Taiwanese girl named Amy.
Robert Hodge said: “I asked her how Ting Ting was doing. She laughed, and said she had been hanging around with Hugh Grant.
“I was surprised. But I assumed she meant Ting Ting had seen him in Brinkley’s again.”
Robert Hodge got the chance to ask her directly when she agreed to meet him in April 2010 at the Thai Square bar on the banks of the Thames at Putney.
“I asked her how things were going and she said that she had started playing golf at the Wisley Club.
“That was strange. She’d never been into golf before.“
Robert Hodge knew that the Wisley Club, a private members golf club in Surrey, was hugely exclusive, with a reputed joining fee of £40,000 ($60,000) and an annual £4,000 ($6,000) membership charge.
“I asked her who she knew who had membership. She kept saying, <<Oh, just a friend>>.
“Eventually she told me it was Hugh Grant. She had been having lessons and would walk around the course with Hugh and watch him play.
“I asked her how on earth she knew him and she said – as I had suspected – they’d met in Brinkley’s again, a few weeks earlier. She didn’t give any indication they were romantically involved.“
Robert Hodge and Tinglan Hong spoke on the phone occasionally and she told him she was spending most weekends with Hugh Grant playing golf, but always denied a relationship.
During one telephone call in July 2010, Robert Hodge asked if she wanted to meet the following day.
“She said: <<Actually, I’m going round to Hugh’s to watch the World Cup Final>>. There was no doubt who she meant. I was pretty surprised. I left it at that.”
Robert Hodge and Tinglan Hong were not in regular contact again until April 2011 when he took a call from an excited friend who told him there were photographs in the newspapers of Ting Ting with Hugh Grant, amid speculation that she was pregnant.
“I looked up the pictures online and laughed. Of course it was Ting Ting. It was obvious to me that they were in a relationship.
“I called her up and asked her if she was pregnant.
“She just laughed and said, <<No, it’s just the papers making up stories>>. Again, she didn’t admit they were a couple.
“We arranged to meet in the bar of the May Fair Hotel soon afterwards. I was curious – I wanted to find out if she really was pregnant.
“She had definitely put on some weight, but she denied it. But when I asked if she was romantically involved with Hugh, she admitted it for the first time.
“She didn’t say they were a couple, I think she said they were seeing each other.”
Robert Hodge and Tinglan Hong were not in regular contact again until April 2011 when he took a call from an excited friend who told him there were photographs in the newspapers of Ting Ting with Hugh Grant, amid speculation that she was pregnant
In the middle of May, Tinglan Hong invited Robert Hodge to dinner.
“The really strange thing was that she asked me to come to Brinkley’s. We sat down at a table; her facing the door.
“She kept saying, <<Oh, I’ve put so much weight on>>. I teased her about being pregnant but she continued to deny it.
“During our second course, Hugh walked in. She said, <<Oh. It’s Hugh>>.
“I said, <<Well, this is a bit embarrassing, isn’t it?>>
“He came straight over but they didn’t embrace or even look like close friends. She introduced us and said, <<Hugh, this is Robert>>.
“She stood up and they chatted, very briefly, although I can’t remember what they said.
“He then turned and said something extremely strange to me. He nodded at my plate and said, <<What have you got there?>>
“I said, <<Oh, Dover sole>.. He made a face. He said: <<Fish. Very strange. A bit like smoking>>.
“It was so odd I didn’t know what to say. I joked, <<It’s not as dangerous is it?>>. He shrugged and said, <<I suppose not>.. Then he walked off.
“It was the strangest thing to say. Again, I said, <<That was a bit embarrassing>>.”
In retrospect, Robert Hodge wonders if he was set up in a bid to make Hugh Grant jealous. Tinglan Hong was by now five months pregnant and judging by their odd greeting it appears things between them had cooled.
What happened next makes it clear there was a rather bizarre game in play.
Robert Hodge recalls: “Hugh went off to another table to join some friends. One was a very good-looking young woman, with long dark hair, who was probably only 22 or 23. He seemed to flirt with her, putting a hand on her arm.
“Ting Ting was not happy. She said something like, <<Look at that. That’s his latest girlfriend>>.
“It was said jokingly, but now I’m sure she was bitter.”
The next time Robert Hodge heard from Tinglan Hong was last week, on October 27. She rang him and asked if he could help sell her car, and then brought it round that after-noon. Then, she confessed she had given birth to Hugh Grant’s child.
Robert Hodge says: “She said her parents had come over from China to look after the baby. She seemed happy, quite well, not at all tired or harassed. She also showed me some photos on her phone.
“Bamboo looked sweet, with dark hair. There were none of her with Hugh.
“I was happy for her. There were some mixed feelings, obviously, as I still care about her. Then she said, <<Pity we can’t get back together>>.
“I was surprised. I said, <<What about Hugh?>>
“She said he was <<very strange>>. She didn’t expand on that.
“She went on to say he was a good father. She said: <<Whenever he’s in the country, he comes to see Bamboo>>.
“I didn’t think that sounded like a good father. She also told me he wouldn’t put his name on the birth certificate until March.
“She didn’t say why, although I assume it’s to avoid anyone knowing he’s the father.
“She hasn’t mentioned paternity tests, so I don’t know if it’s something Hugh wanted.”
Tinglan Hong also said Liz Hurley had been to see Bamboo and that she was to be the child’s godmother.
Robert Hodge says Ting Ting will cope, though she might be feeling let down.
“I think she’ll be quite sad at the moment. She was looking for stability and children and in a way she’s got it. But it doesn’t look like she has someone standing by her.
“She’ll brush it off and laugh about it. That’s what’s in her nature.
“And she’ll be a brilliant mum. She’s very caring. The pictures of her with her Louboutin shoes and Gucci bags don’t do her justice.
“Underneath it all she’s a very traditional Chinese girl. She’s homely – not a princess.”
Hugh Grant is not the first celebrity Tinglan Hong has dated. One of her first loves was a foreign football star ten years older than her, whom she met when she was still a university student in China.
Tinglan Hong had a romance with Colombian World Cup hero Adolfo Valencia when she was studying at Zhejiang University in the eastern city of Hangzhou and he was playing for the local team.
Friends say Tinglan Hong fell head over heels in love with the footballer – but the romance also appears to have been short-lived.
Adolfo Valencia, who in his glory days played in the 1994 and 1998 World Cup Finals and was once top scorer in a season with German giants Bayern Munich, had two stints with the Zhejiang Lucheng team in Hangzhou between 2002 and 2004. Then aged 34, he was one of the first big-money international players to sign for a Chinese team.
Fellow students interviewed by local newspaper journalist Chen Yuhao recalled how Tinglan Hong was seen out with Adolfo Valencia after meeting him at a nightclub.
Chen Yuhao said: “Tinglan liked to meet foreign men. She met Valencia at a nightclub and was besotted with him. They went out together for a while. She was more in love with him than he was with her and it didn’t last.”
Tinglan Hong studied in Hangzhou for four years from 1999, before moving to Britain in 2003.
Tinglan Hong’s mother, Liu Minchun, was manager of a large factory producing fountain pens and stationery and later general manager of the city’s Lishui International Hotel.
She was also a delegate to China’s parliament, the National People’s Congress.
As Amanda Knox pledged to return to a normal life after being cleared of the murder of British student Meredith Kercher, she has embarked on a romance with an old friend, classical guitar student James Terrano.
James Terrano’s brother William, 27, confirmed: “Yes, she’s dating my brother. They have known each other for years. We’ve all been friends since before Amanda went to Italy.”
On Friday, Amanda Knox and James Terrano emerged separately from the shabby apartment they share in Seattle’s rundown Chinatown area with Amanda saying: “I can’t tell you anything.”
While James Terrano said “I’m sorry” when asked if he was “serious” about Amanda Knox.
As Amanda Knox pledged to return to a normal life after being cleared of the murder of British student Meredith Kercher, she has embarked on a romance with an old friend, classical guitar student James Terrano
Amanda Knox’s new boyfriend is from a middle-class New York family.
James Terrano is studying classical music, specializing in guitar, at Seattle’s University of Washington. She had been reading languages there and is believed to be about to resume her studies.
Amanda Knox, 24, who was pictured kissing boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito within hours of the discovery of Meredith Kercher’s body in the home the two women shared in Perugia, Italy, appeared blissfully happy with James Terrano, 24.
James Terrano is studying classical music, specializing in guitar, at Seattle’s University of Washington
On Tuesday Amanda Knox and James Terrano shared Haagen Dazs ice cream and strolled arm- in-arm around Chinatown, buying groceries at an Asian market.
They spent every night last week together inside James Terrano’s modest rented flat in a nondescript brick building with a gaudy red flashing “Hong Kong” neon sign outside.
A witness said: “She likes the area as she can walk about unrecognized and blend into the crowd.”
Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito, 27, were initially sentenced to 26 and 25 years imprisonment respectively before their convictions were overturned.
Meanwhile, Raffaele Sollecito has spoken about his feelings for Amanda Knox.
“It’s all over between us. I still have a great affection towards her but nothing else. I wish her all the happiness in the world,” he said.
Kasey Landrum, an openly gay Lexington High School student, was given a three-day suspension for wearing make-up in class.
Kasey Landrum, 16, was censured by the Tennessee high school’s principal, Steve Lindsey, after being told he had violated the school’s dress code.
The student told WBBJ-TV:
“The principal walked into the school and immediately started yelling at me for it, and told me to get outside.”
Kasey Landrum, an openly gay Lexington High School student, was given a three-day suspension for wearing make-up in class
Kasey Landrum said he did exactly as the principal demanded without a reply but that another student who witnessed the incident and stuck up for Kasey was issued a one-day suspension for speaking out.
The next day Kasey Landrum was called into the office and given the in-school suspension for violating the dress code which states:
“When a student is attired in a manner, which is likely to cause disruption or interference with normal operation of the school, the administration will take the appropriate action.
“In matters of opinion, the judgment of the teachers and administrators will prevail.”
“I’m very upset about it because he can’t be who he wants to be.
“When I went to register him, about the make-up, he [principal Steve Lindsey] reminded us Kasey was not to be wearing any.”
Henderson County Superintendent Steve Wilkinson said he did not know what disruption the make-up would have caused but added that the principal had the authority to determine what is deemed a distraction.
However, Kasey Landrum said he had gone to school with three different colours in his hair before and teachers did not deem that a disruption.
Kasey Landrum also said that another “punk-rock” student who had been wearing make-up that same day was not reprimanded.
“He had it on all day, and I was like, <<If he can wear make-up, so can I>>,” Kasey Landrum told WBBJ-TV.
The 11th grader said he has suffered from depression in the past by not being able to express himself at school.
“I’m proud of myself for being as comfortable as I am, but sometimes I wish I was straight,” Kasey Landrum said.
“I’m proud of my son, gay or straight or whatever. I want him to feel the same way,” said his mother.
After the suspension caught the attention of The Tennessee Equality Project and LGBTQNation, Kasey Landrum’s suspension was reversed, and a new school policy allowing all students to wear make-up was put in place.
Superintendent Steve Wilkinson said: “I guess that the easiest thing to do would be to go to a standard policy but we have in the past given a little freedom to our children and their parents about what they choose the wear.”
Erica Mae Butts and Shanita Latrice Cunningham, a lesbian couple collapsed, wailed uncontrollably and hyper-ventilated in the Charleston courtroom after hearing they would serve life for killing a three-year-old girl.
Erica Mae Butts and Shanita Latrice Cunningham had to be picked off the floor by court officials and held in chairs as they were wheeled out of the room.
The two women, both 25 from Summerville, South Carolina, were told on Friday they will spend the rest of their lives in prison for beating Serenity Richardson to death in 2009 while the toddler was in their care.
Erica Mae Butts and Shanita Latrice Cunningham, a lesbian couple collapsed, wailed uncontrollably and hyper-ventilated in the Charleston courtroom after hearing they would serve life for killing a three-year-old girl
Serenity Richardson was visiting Erica Mae Butts, her godmother and her mother’s best friend, and Shanita Latrice Cunningham, who was Butts’s lover, for two weeks at their home in Summerville, South Carolina when the abuse took place.
“It is nearly impossible for words to accurately describe what these women did to that poor little girl,” said Elizabeth Gordon, assistant managing solicitor for Charleston County.
“They beat her repeatedly both with a belt and with plastic coat hangers. You can see the outlines of the strikes on this child’s body. There is not one area of this child’s body that was unharmed except for the soles of her feet.”
Erica Mae Butts
Erica Mae Butts admitted to Summerville police on Thursday that she whipped Serenity Richardson with a belt for urinating on the floor.
Serenity’s mother, Ieshia Richardson, a childhood friend of Erica Mae Butts, lives in Detroit.
“The explanation they gave (for the beatings) was that Serenity had a potty accident,” Elizabeth Gordon said.
“Their explanation is <<we didn’t know what we did would kill her>>.
“They knew what they did was wrong.”
Shanita Latrice Cunningham
At the time paramedics reached the toddler, she was already dead and had been placed on ice and exposed to bleach in desperate attempts to revive her.
Circuit Court Judge Deadra Richardson said nothing had ever affected her as strongly as the photos of the little girl’s battered body.
In August, Erica Mae Butts entered an Alford plea, meaning she maintains her innocence but acknowledges that taking her case to trial would likely result in a conviction. Shanita Latrice Cunningham pleaded guilty.
Erica Mae Butts had been in the hospital with Ieshia Richardson when she gave birth to Serenity, her only child. She had been the only person Erica Mae Butts confided in after she was raped at age 15.
“I was responsible for some things, but I would never kill her,” Erica Mae Butts said, according to the Post and Courier. Then, practically screaming through her sobs, she turned to Ieshia and said:
“I will always love you no matter what. I just want to tell you I’m so, so sorry.”
During the hearing, Shanita Latrice Cunningham’s attorney said her client was less culpable than Erica Mae Butts in little girl’s death.
Erica Mae Butts’ attorney instead portrayed Shanita Latrice Cunningham as the “controlling and aggressive” partner in an abusive relationship, while describing Butts as a “meek” woman, the Post and Courier reported.
Sentencing the killers, Judge Richardson said: “To ignore what must have been excruciating sounds that came from that child is more than disconcerting to this court.
“As such, the court finds it appropriate that each be sentenced to the state department of corrections for a period of life.”
Jerry Sandusky, the former Penn State University football coach was charged with multiple counts of sexual assault after allegedly abusing eight young boys that he worked with through a charity helping underprivileged children.
Two university administrators were also charged with perjury for failing to report information about Jerry Sandusky‘s sexually abuse.
Athletic director Tim Curley and the school’s vice president for finance and business Gary Schultz were charged Saturday with perjury and failure to report in an investigation into Jerry Sandusky‘s abuse of eight young men, state prosecutors said.
Jerry Sandusky, 67, was arrested Saturday and released on $100,000 bail, the attorney general’s office said.
Tim Curley, 57, and Gary Schultz, 62, both of Boalsburg, Pennsylvania, were expected to turn themselves in Monday in Harrisburg.
Gary Schultz’s position includes oversight of the university’s police department, hence his involvement with the case.
Jerry Sandusky, the former Penn State University football coach was charged with multiple counts of sexual assault after allegedly abusing eight young boy
Jerry Sandusky is a star in football circles as he is closely identified with the school’s reputation as a defensive powerhouse and a program that produced top-quality linebackers. He retired in 1999.
Longtime head coach Joe Paterno, who has more victories than any coach in the history of Division I football, was not charged, authorities said.
When Joe Paterno first learned of one report of abuse he immediately reported it to Tim Curley, prosecutors said.
Jerry Sandusky, who worked with at-risk children through his Second Mile organization,was charged with seven counts of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse; eight counts of corruption of minors, eight counts of endangering the welfare of a child, seven counts of indecent assault and other offences.
Second Mile organization, which was founded by Jerry Sandusky in 1977 to help underprivileged children released a statement distancing themselves from their disgraced leader:
“Jerry Sandusky has had no involvement in The Second Mile’s children’s programs and services since he made us aware of the allegations against him in November 2008. In August 2010, Jerry announced he was formally retiring from The Second Mile to attend to family and personal matters.
“This clearly is a very difficult time for Jerry and his family, for all other involved parties, and for The Second Mile.”
A preliminary hearing for Jerry Sandusky is scheduled for Wednesday.
Attorney General Linda Kelly called Jerry Sandusky “a sexual predator who used his position within the university and community to repeatedly prey on young boys”.
The grand jury identified eight young men who were targets of sexual advances or assaults by Jerry Sandusky from 1994 to 2009, prosecutors said.
Though the nature of the charges is shocking no matter what, the surprise is more loaded by the fact it comes from within the corridors of Penn State, a school where the football program is known for its consistancy as much as its success.
Attorney General Linda Kelly said:
“It is also a case about high-ranking university officials who allegedly failed to report the sexual assault of a young boy after the information was brought to their attention, and later made false statements to a grand jury.”
Prosecutors said all of the young men first encountered Jerry Sandusky through Second Mile and not through the university.
A grand jury report, which recommended charges, said the first to come to light was a boy who met Jerry Sandusky when he was 11 or 12. The boy received expensive gifts and trips to sports events from Jerry Sandusky, and physical contact began during his overnight stays at Sandusky’s home, jurors said.
Jerry Sandusky was banned from the child’s school district in Clinton County in 2009, after his mother reported alleged sexual assault to his high school. That triggered the state investigation that culminated in charges Saturday.
Linda Kelly said that seven years before that, in 2002, a graduate assistant saw Jerry Sandusky sexually assault a naked boy, estimated to be about 10 years old, in the locker room of the Lasch Football Building on campus.
The grad student and his father reported what he saw to Joe Paterno, who immediately told Tim Curley, prosecutors said.
Tim Curley and Gary Schultz met with the graduate assistant about a week and a half later, Linda Kelly said.
Attorney General Linda Kelly said:
“Despite a powerful eyewitness statement about the sexual assault of a child, this incident was not reported to any law enforcement or child protective agency, as required by Pennsylvania law.
“Additionally, there is no indication that anyone from the university ever attempted to learn the identity of the child … or made any follow-up effort to obtain more information from the person who witnessed the attack.”
The jury said Tim Curley lied when he testified repeatedly that he was never told Jerry Sandusky had engaged in sexual misconduct with a child, Linda Kelly said, adding that portions of Gary Schultz’s testimony also were not deemed credible by the jury.
Penn State president Graham Spanier called the allegations against Jerry Sandusky “troubling” but said Tim Curley and Gary Schultz had his unconditional support and he predicted they will be exonerated.
“I have known and worked daily with Tim [Curley] and Gary [Schultz] for more than 16 years,” Graham Spanier said.
“I have complete confidence in how they handled the allegations about a former university employee.”
Jerry Sandusky, once considered a potential successor to Joe Paterno, drew up the defenses for the Nittany Lions’ national-title teams in 1982 and 1986.
Elizabeth Lightfoot, a 22-year-old hairdresser from Denton, Texas, was found dead in the driving seat of her torched car following a girls’ night out with other stylists.
Police believes Elizabeth Lightfoot was murdered, but are trying to determine exactly how as her body had been too burned to immediately tell.
Dallas firefighters discovered Elizabeth Lightfoot charred remains at around 2:30 a.m. on Friday morning after putting out a blaze engulfing the silver Sedan, which was parked nose-first in a small ravine beside a strip shopping centre in the north of the city.
Dallas Police Sergeant Warren Mitchell said:
“The fire at the scene made it impossible to determine the cause of death.”
“At this time, we’re waiting on answers from the medical examiner’s office.”
Elizabeth Lightfoot, a 22-year-old hairdresser from Denton, Texas, was found dead in the driving seat of her torched car following a girls' night out with other stylists
Elizabeth Lightfoot had recently started a job at Salon Republic in Addison, having worked at Salon D just three miles for the last two years.
Arden Keshishian, her boss at Salon D said she had been out to a restaurant on Thursday evening with some female colleagues from her former hairdressers the night of her death.
“They went to a restaurant down the street from here, which they normally do,” he told NBC 5 News.
“It wasn’t anything crazy – they left at 12, and everyone made it home but her.”
“It’s a shame, it’s a waste, a life cut so short,”Arden Keshishian told Fox News.
“She was very outgoing, very talented stylist, she was an angel. I just can’t believe somebody would do that.”
The group had been eating at Farmers Branch restaurant Yourway Burgers and left at around midnight.
Elizabeth Lightfoot, who studied at Toni and Guy Hairdressing Academy, was not seen again until her car was found burning in the 16000 block of Preston Road, less than a mile from Salon Republic.
Police are speaking to the manager of Yourway Burgers and her friends in a bid to retrace the steps she took that night and have analysed surveillance footage from the restaurant. There are no CCTV cameras at the scene of her death.
According to her Facebook page, Elizabeth Lightfoot has a boyfriend, Tuan "RudeBoy" Le
“It was nothing out of the ordinary from what I’ve found out,” Arden Keshishian told Fox News.
“Everything was just the same. I don’t know if she saw anybody there, we’re just puzzled.
“She wasn’t stupid, she wouldn’t have been uncareful.”
According to her Facebook page, Elizabeth Lightfoot has a boyfriend, Tuan “RudeBoy” Le, and pictures posted on the site show a fun-loving young woman with a flair for style.
“She had everything going for her,”Arden Keshishian told NBC 5 News.
“I don’t know why this happened. It’s horrible.
“It would be really hard to imagine some random person. I would look at people she knows, the people closest to her.”
Elizabeth Lightfoot’s mother, Barbara Lightfoot, issued this statement:
“Elizabeth was a kind, considerate and beautiful young woman who needs everyone’s help now. Everyone loved her.”
Barbara Lightfoot is urging anyone with information to call police.
A 5.6 magnitude earthquake struck Oklahoma at 10:53 p.m. local time Saturday (03:53 GMT), according to U.S. Geological Survey.
The seismic monitoring agency said the quake was centered about 44 mile east-northeast of Oklahoma City.
It had initially reported the temblor as a 5.2 magnitude quake.
The tremor was one of the biggest earthquake in Oklahoma history and caused significant damage.
Chimneys collapsed through roofs of homes in Lincoln County – 50 miles from Oklahoma City.
Damage to the Prague library included collapsed air conditioning ducts and a collapsed wall.
Several roadways have buckled, including Highway 62 and other county roads, according to KJRH radio.
A 5.6 magnitude earthquake struck Oklahoma at 10.53 pm local time Saturday, according to U.S. Geological Survey
The quake – the biggest of four that shook the centre of the state – rattled a college football stadium 50 miles away and sent shudders through buildings and homes in distant communities and cities.
Emergency authorities had no immediate reports of injuries but one county’s sheriff’s office said it was responding to numerous calls and checking for any damages.
It said the quake struck near the community of Sparks — in eastern Oklahoma between Oklahoma City and Tulsa.
The temblor shook the stadium at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater near the end of the school’s football game with Kansas State.
The quake was one of several to rattle the state Saturday, including a magnitude 4.7 earthquake that shook the same area early Saturday.
Michelann Ooten, a spokeswoman for the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management, said no injuries were reported to emergency management officials and that there had been no reports of injuries.
If the intensity of the Saturday night quake is confirmed, it would be the state’s strongest on record. USGS records show that a 5.5 magnitude earthquake struck El Reno, just west of Oklahoma City, in 1952 and, before Oklahoma became a state in 1907, a quake of similar magnitude 5.5 struck in northeastern Indian Territory in 1882.
The quake was felt as far away as Tennessee and Wisconsin, according to reports received by the USGS.
Saturday’s earlier temblor, which hit at 2:12 a.m., woke people and pets as it shook an area that stretched from Texas to Missouri. Its epicenter was 6 miles north of Prague in Lincoln County, in the rolling hills about 50 miles east of Oklahoma City.
A 3.4 magnitude aftershock was reported at 2:27 a.m. from the same location, as well as a 2.7 magnitude aftershock at 2:44 a.m.
Oklahoma Geological Survey researcher Austin Holland told Oklahoma City television station KOTV that the earthquake and aftershocks occurred on a known fault line.
American comedian Jimmy Kimmel urged parents to play a Halloween prank to their children, telling them they ate all candies overnight.
The results after hundreds of parents told their children they had stayed up late and devoured their stash of Halloween sweets were tantrums, tears and screams.
The footage, which shows children’s reaction to the Halloween prank, is becoming an internet sensation.
The results after hundreds of parents told their children they had stayed up late and devoured their stash of Halloween sweets were tantrums, tears and screams
Jimmy Kimmel, 43, called on viewers to give their children the bad news, record the results, and post the results online.
Although there were some cracking strops, one more mature boy told his parent: “Good for you, daddy’s probably going to have a belly ache.
“That’s why you shouldn’t eat so much candy.”
And another little girl bursts into tears and shouts: “Dad, you’re ugly!”
But Jimmy Kimmel told The Sun he didn’t realize the joke would lead to so many tears.
Jimmy Kimmel said: “I kind of thought kids would be mad – but almost all of them cried.”
Mariah Yeater, who asked Justin Bieber for a paternity test, reportedly already made a claim against an ex-boyfriend last year, and was then arrested after slapping him.
Mariah Yeater, 20, who claims in court filings that Justin Bieber fathered her son Tristyn during a 30-second sex session in a bathroom backstage after one of his concerts, originally accused her ex-boyfriend, John Terranova, of being the father of the same child.
It has been claimed that Mariah Yeater told him he was the father last year, but he denied that he got her pregnant.
According to Frances Lippe who told TMZ that Mariah Yeater had been dating her grandson John Terranova in Las Vegas toward the end of high school.
Mariah Yeater, who asked Justin Bieber for a paternity test, reportedly already made a claim against ex-boyfriend last year, and was then arrested after slapping him
Mariah Yeater told John Terranova that he was the father and the pair got into a fight after he denied her allegations, according to TMZ.
She was then arrested and charged with battery because she had hit John Terranova in the face.
Court papers show Mariah Yeater was arrested on December 21, 2010 on suspicion of battery domestic violence, injury/destroying property of another and making threatening telephone calls.
The case was continued to December 2011 as of June 2011.
On June 16, Mariah Yeater’s lawyer asked for a continuance, noting she lived out of state and was “under doctor’s orders not to travel due to high-risk pregnancy”.
John Terranova’s family have said they haven’t heard from Mariah Yeater since.
Court papers show Mariah Yeater was arrested on December 21, 2010 on suspicion of battery domestic violence, injury or destroying property of another and making threatening telephone calls
Meanwhile Selena Gomez has denied that she has dumped Justin Bieber in light of the allegations he fathered Mariah Yeater’s four-month-old child.
Selena Gomez’ representative has confirmed to Us Weekly that rumours that the pair split are false.
Yesterday it was reported that Selena Gomez had called it quits with her boyfriend of eight months.
“Selena ended it abruptly. She broke the news to Justin just in the past 24 hour,” a source told website Radaronline.com.
It was also reported that Justin Bieber allegedly vowed to Selena Gomez that the accusations were categorically not true.
“Justin has insisted to Selena that the woman’s allegations are simply not true,” the source added.
The source also said that Justin Bieber’s representatives also reportedly tried to convince Selena Gomez to stand by her man.
“His camp is in damage control mode and attempting to convince her to stick around in the relationship for a few more weeks, because they fear it will be seen as an admission that something indeed took place between Justin and the woman who is alleging that he’s the father of her baby,” the source told Radaronline.com.
Selena Gomez’ denial of the split comes as Justin Bieber spoke out about the allegations today.
Justin Bieber went on The Today Show yesterday morning to insist that there is no truth in the fan’s claims.
“I’d just like to say basically that none of those allegations are true,” he said.
“I know that I’m gonna be a target – but I’m never gonna be a victim.
“I think that it’s just crazy because every night I’ve gone right from the stage to my car.
“It’s crazy that some people want to make up false allegations.
“But to set the record straight – none of this is true.”
Asked if he knew Mariah Yeater, Justin Bieber insisted: “Never met the woman.”
And when asked that such claims are “what comes along with last in the fast lane”, Justin Bieber said: “Exactly.”
Meanwhile it emerged that Mariah Yeater almost gave up the baby boy for adoption before instead going public with her Justin Bieber bombshell.
Mariah Yeater never told her family who the father of her unborn child was – and had planned to give him up for adoption.
But now instead, Mariah Yeater wants to force Justin Bieber to take a DNA test and pay up to $260,000 in monthly child support.
“She didn’t know if she was going to keep him,” said Samra Fae Stepper, a relative who looked after Mariah Yeater for several months during her pregnancy.
“We kept asking about the father, but I didn’t press it.”
Mariah Yeater’s stepfather, Anthony Simeonoff, only found out the news of the baby’s supposed dad this Thursday, after friends at his local club read the headlines.
The New York Post also reported that Mariah Yeater was busted in Las Vegas less than two months after getting pregnant.
Andy Rooney, CBS News “60 Minutes” star died Friday night at 92, only a month after delivering his 1,097th and final televised commentary.
CBS announced the death of Andy Rooney, who launched his long career during World War II as a correspondent for the Stars and Stripes military newspaper and continued to be a fixture on “60 Minutes” until he retired last month after 33 years.
On October 25, CBS said Andy Rooney was hospitalized after developing serious complications after minor surgery.
Andy Rooney had gone to the hospital for an undisclosed surgery, but major complications developed and he never recovered.
He talked on “60 Minutes” about what was in the news, and his opinions occasionally got him in trouble. But he was just as likely to discuss the old clothes in his closet, why air travel had become unpleasant and why banks needed to have important sounding names.
Andy Rooney, CBS News "60 Minutes" star died Friday night at 92, only a month after delivering his 1,097th and final televised commentary
Andy Rooney won one of his three Emmy Awards for a piece on whether there was a real Mrs. Smith who made Mrs. Smith’s Pies. As it turned out, there was no Mrs. Smith.
“I obviously have a knack for getting on paper what a lot of people have thought and didn’t realize they thought,” Andy Rooney once said.
“And they say, <<Hey, yeah!>> And they like that.”
Looking for something new to punctuate its weekly broadcast, “60 Minutes” aired its first Andy Rooney commentary on July 2, 1987. He complained about people who keep track of how many people die in car accidents on holiday weekends. In fact, he said, the Fourth of July is “one of the safest weekends of the year to be going someplace”.
In early 2009, as he was about to turn 90, Andy Rooney looked ahead to President Barack Obama’s upcoming inauguration with a look at past inaugurations. He told viewers that Calvin Coolidge’s 1925 swearing-in was the first to be broadcast on radio, adding, “That may have been the most interesting thing Coolidge ever did.“
For his final essay, Andy Rooney said that he’d live a life luckier than most.
“I wish I could do this forever. I can’t, though,” he said.
Andy Rooney said he probably hadn’t said anything on “60 Minutes” that most of his viewers didn’t already know or hadn’t thought.
“That’s what a writer does,” he said.
“A writer’s job is to tell the truth.”
Andy Rooney wrote for CBS stars such as Arthur Godfrey and Garry Moore during the 1950s and early 1960s, before settling into a partnership with newsman Harry Reasoner.
He left CBS in 1970 when it refused to air his angry essay about the Vietnam War. He went on TV for the first time, reading the essay on PBS and winning a Writers Guild of America award for it.
Andy Rooney returned to CBS three years later as a writer and producer of specials. Notable among them was the 1975 “Mr. Rooney Goes to Washington”, whose light-hearted but serious look at government won him a Peabody Award for excellence in broadcasting.
His words sometimes landed Andy Rooney in hot water. CBS suspended him for three months in 1990 for making racist remarks in an interview, which he denied.
Gay rights groups were mad, during the AIDS epidemic, when Andy Rooney mentioned homosexual unions in saying “many of the ills which kill us are self-induced”.
Indians protested when Andy Rooney suggested Native Americans who made money from casinos weren’t doing enough to help their own people.
Andy Rooney was one of television’s few voices to strongly oppose the war in Iraq after the George W. Bush administration launched it in 2002. After the fall of Baghdad in April 2003, he said he was chastened by its quick fall but didn’t regret his “60 Minutes” commentaries.
Andrew Aitken Rooney was born on Jan. 14, 1919, in Albany, N.Y., and worked as a copy boy on the Albany Knickerbocker News while in high school. College at Colgate University was cut short by World War II, when Rooney worked for the wartime newspaper Stars and Stripes.
With another former Stars and Stripes staffer, Oram C. Hutton, Andy Rooney wrote four books about the war. They included the 1947 book, “Their Conqueror’s Peace: A Report to the American Stockholders”, documenting offences against the Germans by occupying forces.
Andy Rooney and his wife, Marguerite, were married for 62 years before she died of heart failure in 2004. They had four children and lived in Rowayton, Connecticut. Daughter Emily Rooney is a former executive producer of ABC’s “World News Tonight”.
CBS News Chairman Jeff Fager paid tribute to Andy Rooney long career saying: “There’s nobody like Andy, and there never will be. He’ll hate hearing this, but he’s an American original.”
Before Andy Rooney delivered his final essay, Morley Safer – himself an 89-year-old journalist and a 60 Minutes staple since 1970 – interviewed him about his personal and professional life.
Andy Rooney admitted that he doesn’t sign autographs and rarely responds to fan mail, telling Morley Safer he didn’t “want to answer an idiot who would have the bad sense to write me a letter”.
Morley Safer described Andy Rooney as “America’s favourite grouch-in-chief”, saying he used his “loud whiny voice … speaking up for citizens fed up with everything”.
A pair of 1,500-year-old and 250 feet giant sequoias – whose branches are the size of normal trees – dramatically fell to the ground on September 30 in California.
Gerrit Panzner, a German tourist, watched the two 250 feet trees fall to the ground at the Trail of 100 Giants in Sierra Nevada, California and captured the amazing moments and the crushing sound on video.
The trees lay the length of a football pitch and their diameter of their torn roots and base was 20 feet.
“It can’t be possible,” Gerrit Panzner, who watched the tree fall, told Catholic Online.
“That tree has been there thousands of years and then you realise the tree is falling and you had to run.”
A pair of 1,500-year-old and 250 feet giant sequoias - whose branches are the size of normal trees - dramatically fell to the ground on September 30 in California
Gerrit Panzner heard loud “crinkling” noises before they eventually fell – but nobody was injured. The trees are believed to have fallen over because they could simply not support their weight anymore.
The trees fell on the Trail of 100 Giants in the Sierra Nevada, which is a route accessible to wheelchairs that allows visitors to view more than 100 huge sequoia trees.
At this moment, Forest Service officials are deciding what to do with two of the world’s largest trees, as many conservationists have suggested they should be left alone.
This would mean the trail would have to be rerouted around them, which could cause problems for wheelchair users who would not be able to use steep alternative paths, reported NBC News.
Fallen trees can also be a habitat for wildlife and release nutrients back into the soil, reported the Los Angeles Times. The trees became a national monument 11 years ago.
Forest officials have even suggested building a bridge over the trees or cutting them up for firewood, reported NBC News.
Officials are set to make a decision on what to do by next summer, but until then are inviting the public to help them decide.
“It’s very, very rare for a giant Sequoia tree to die standing up unless it’s in a very, very severe fire,” a district ranger told Catholic Online.
Zakkiah Galea, a two-year-old boy from New South Wales, Australia, was playing with his toy wheelbarrow when he was bowled over by a kangaroo which then pinned him down and tried to claw him to death.
The terrified parents ran at the animal and managed to chase it away – but not before it left the toddler with severe wounds to his face and body.
Nicole Galea, Zakkiah’s mother told how the aggressive kangaroo left her in fear that her son had received fatal injuries in the attack on the family’s ten-acre property at Port Macquarie, in northern New South Wales.
Nicole Galea, who is eight-months pregnant, said: “The kangaroo was on top of him. He was pinned to the ground while it clawed at his forearms.
“I screamed at the kangaroo to get off him but it wouldn’t – it just kept on attacking.”
Zakkiah Galea was playing with his toy wheelbarrow when he was bowled over by a kangaroo which then pinned him down and tried to claw him to death
It was only when Zakkiah’s father, Andrew Galea, rushed to help his wife fight off the kangaroo that the animal finally ran off into nearby bushland.
“It turned on Andrew first before hopping away,” Nicole Galea told Sydney’s Daily Telegraph.
“It was just awful to see Zakkiah. He had a bloody face and blood had soaked through his shirt.
“There was a deep puncture in his chest and a gash on the top of his leg. He had two large gouges from his mouth to his ear.”
Last night, Zakkiah Galea was recovering at home from his wounds that required 13 stitches.
Nicle Galea said: “He scared. He says he doesn’t want to be attacked by the <<tiger kangaroo>> again.”
Other people in the remote neighbourhood have been attacked by kangaroos, said Nicole Galea, and she suspected urban development was to blame – new houses forcing the animals into human environment.
Peter Clark from the National Parks and Wildlife Service said people should be aware that kangaroos are wild animals of substantial size and power and might react instinctively and attack if they are startled.
He suggested that people living close to kangaroos should fence off their properties and remove food, shelter and water opportunities.
Peter Clark also suggesting turning on water sprinklers to discourage the animals from gathering.
Steve Williams, Tiger Woods’ former caddie has apologized for causing outrage at annual Caddie Awards dinner in Shanghai when he made a racist remark about his former boss.
Steve Williams, a 47 year-old New Zealander, was given an award for the year’s best celebration – a reference to his tongue-in-cheek claim that his current employer Adam Scott’s victory at the Bridgestone Invitational in August was “the best win of my career” – despite being on the bag with Woods for 13 majors.
Asked what the celebration was all about, Steve Williams said: “It was my aim to shove it right up that black a**ehole.”
Steve Williams‘ comment was met with a mixture of laughter and shock at the ceremony, with some players turning to each other with eyes widened and jaws agape.
One caddie said: “Never have you been in a room and seen so many jaws drop at the same time. We knew he was an idiot but we didn’t know he was a racist idiot. I was standing next to a European Tour official who said, <<Thank God he is not on our tour>>.”
Steve Williams, Tiger Woods' former caddie has apologized for causing outrage at annual Caddie Awards dinner in Shanghai when he made a racist remark about his former boss
Approached early the next morning at breakfast, Steve Williams was stunned to learn that British tabloids had gone with the story.
“Why would they do that?” he said.
“The whole thing was meant to be fun.”
Steve Williams then posted a statement on his website saying: “I apologize for the comments I made last night at the annual Caddie Awards dinner in Shanghai.
“Players and caddies look forward to this evening all year and the spirit is always joking and fun. I now realize how my comments could be construed as racist.
“However, I assure you that was not my intent. I sincerely apologize to Tiger and anyone else I have offended.”
The 100 caddies, players and guests in attendance had accepted their invitations on the condition they did not disclose what happened at the ceremony, held after the second round of the WGC-HSBC Champions tournament.
Mark Steinberg, Tiger Woods’ agent at Excel Sports Management, was with the golfer when he heard the news.
Mark Steinberg said: “It’s a regrettable comment, and there’s really nothing that Tiger can do or say. He’s just going to move on.”
Steve Williams, who could now face a ban or even the sack, had been a regular caddie for Tiger Woods since 1999 and helped the American to 13 majors before being fired in July.
Steve Williams hit out at the manner of the split and a month later was in the news again after his new employer, Adam Scott, won the WGC Bridgestone Invitational at Akron, Ohio.
The caddie had told reporters: “It’s the most satisfying win I’ve ever had, there’s no two ways about it. It’s the greatest week of my life caddying and I sincerely mean that.”
Steve Williams later apologized for those comments, saying his emotions got the better of him.
He has disputed Tiger Woods’ version of how their partnership ended, and said he was short-shrifted by Woods despite his loyalty to the former No. 1 player during the sex scandal that derailed his career.
Adam Scott is today preparing for his third round of the HSBC Champions. He is going for his second World Golf Championship of the year.
Tiger Woods and Adam Scott are to be in the same group next week at the Australian Open, and there’s chance they also could face off at the Presidents Cup in Melbourne the week after.
But this was not the first time Steve Williams has run into trouble for his words.
In 2008, at a dinner banquet in New Zealand, Steve Williams made a disparaging remark about Phil Mickelson.
He said it was meant in fun, although he later apologized to Phil Mickelson.
Taylor Van Diest, a teenager from Armstrong, British Columbia in Canada, who died after being beaten unconscious on Halloween was dressed as a zombie and covered in fake blood the night of her killing.
Taylor Van Diest, 18, died in hospital on Monday.
The teenager had been found unconscious near some railway tracks after a search by police, friends and family.
Royal Canadian Mounted Police said on Friday there are still no suspects in the case.
Taylor Van Diest, a teenager from Armstrong, British Columbia in Canada, who died after being beaten unconscious on Halloween was dressed as a zombie and covered in fake blood the night of her killing
On Thursday police released a photo of Taylor Van Diest from Halloween night in the hope that it might produce some leads.
Taylor Van Diest was supposed to meet a friend to go trick-or-treating, Canada.com reports.
The teenager family contacted police after they got a call from someone who had found her cell phone.
The girl was then reported missing, with the family telling officers the last time they spoke with her was about 7.30pm.
RCMP spokesman Gordon Molendyk said that police have now assigned 40 officers to the case.
Taylor Van Diest was supposed to meet a friend to go trick-or-treating
Family said Taylor Van Diest left her home at 5:50 p.m. on Monday and headed to the railway tracks which are about 10 minutes away.
Gordon Molendyk said he did not know if she met someone there or was followed.
He added that there is a shortcut where the suspect could have been lurking.
Gordon Molendyk said police are now checking her phone for clues.
“We are pulling all available resources that we can put into this case.
“We want to solve this crime,” he said.
The spokesman added that police are waiting on an autopsy report before they can any information on how Taylor Van Diest was killed.
A filthy message dated 1902 and scrawled on a wooden pillar beside the front door has been uncovered during a £12 million ($18 million) restoration of Kensington Palace.
Staff at the Kensington Palace found the graffiti from 1902 in perfect condition several months ago.
Written neatly in pencil on a timber post supporting the ceiling beside the palace’s front door and boxed in by wooden panelling were the words: “Peter Jackson, The Champion f****r” dated 1/2/1902.
The timber which was rotten after 109 years has now been replaced with a steel joist – but the inscription has been preserved and kept in storage.
A filthy message dated 1902 and scrawled on a wooden pillar beside the front door has been uncovered during a £12 million ($18 million) restoration of Kensington Palace
Lee Prosser, Buildings Curator at the Historic Royal Palaces charity said a bottle of whisky was also found tucked in the panelling with a newspaper cutting pasted to the post that showed a group of old men sitting together.
Lee Prosser: “We found it a couple of months ago. It was covered with boarding and when we took it off, there it was.
“Unfortunately we know nothing about who he (Peter Jackson) was. My feeling is that he was a carpenter.
“There are many instances of graffiti at the palaces, including some similarly rude and rather graphic Tudor etchings at Hampton Court Palace, as well as numerous more poignant messages carved into the stone walls by prisoners at the Tower of London.
“You often get that with workmen – people like to write their names – we have often found other bits in the palace where people have written their name It’s not that unusual”.
Lee Prosser had at first assumed that the scrawl had been the handiwork of Peter Jackson himself but a further scrawl, which showed an arrow pointing to one of the men in the photograph in the newspaper with Peter Jackson’s name on it has led him to believe that it was penned by one of his workmates.
The curator said: “I was really surprised that people used words like that 100 years ago and then even went to write it down. We found it quite amusing.
“The prop had to be removed and replaced, but it has been put into storage – I was quite keen to save it.”
This is not the first time royalty has had to contend with a spot of bad language.
The late fashion designer Alexander McQueen was working as an apprentice in the Savile Row workshop of Gieves & Hawkes in London when bored one afternoon, he wrote “I am a c***” in the lining of a suit jacket destined for the Prince of Wales.
Other interesting finds during the palace refurbishment have included some pretty tin items which appear to come from Nottingham House – the first building on the site – and a swathe of late 18th century green verditer wallpaper with a decorated border, hidden behind an architrave.
Originally built in 1605 as a private country house, Kensington Palacewas purchased in 1689 by King William III and Queen Mary II, eager to escape Whitehall.
Kensington Palace has been home to some of the country’s most famous royals, including George II, Queen Victoria, Princess Margaret and Diana, Princess of Wales
The two-year restoration project that has been carried out by Historic Royal Palaces is now in its closing stages and will see the palace re-open in March to coincide with the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.
Kensington Palace has been home to some of the country’s most famous royals, including George II, Queen Victoria, Princess Margaret and Diana, Princess of Wales.
Many intimate items will be on display for the first time including jewellery, paintings, books and a uniform that belonged to Queen Victoria’s husband, Albert.
Clothes to be shown include a pair of mourning stockings that are black on the legs and white at the feet, which Victoria wore after Albert died in 1861.
Visitors will walk across a new carpet in to which quotes from passionate love letters Albert wrote during the couple’s engagement have been woven.
A sound and light installation will re-create the atmosphere as it was in the Red Saloon on June 20 1837 when Victoria realised she was now Queen following the death of her uncle William IV.
Kensington Palace includes contributions from some of the most renowned architects of the past three centuries, including Sir Christopher Wren, Nicholas Hawksmoor, Sir John Vanbrugh, John Nash, Colin Campbell and William Kent.
During building work, the restoration team uncovered many traces of their predecessors attempts to maintain what started out as a Jacobean house.
The most alarming – perhaps aside from the graffiti discovered – was when the foundations for the new cafe, shop and sunken garden were dug up and a long buried spring bubbled up to the surface and turned the ground into quick sand.
Don’t forget to set your clocks back one hour before going to bed tonight because Daylight Saving Time ends Sunday at 2 a.m.
Daylight Saving Time (DST) Story
Benjamin Franklin was only kidding when he suggested 227 years ago that towns should employ church bells or cannon blasts to wake citizens at sunrise so they could take full advantage of sunlight.
More than two centuries later, daylight saving time is no longer just an amusing idea. Twice a year, we’re forced to adjust our sleep habits, synchronizing our biological and digital clocks to squeeze more sunlight into our waking hours.
Meanwhile, sleep researchers insist we should be cutting back on our waking hours if we really want to live long and prosper.
So here we are, caught somewhere between popping sleep aids and chugging Red Bull, not sure how to feel about our collective changing of the clocks.
Don't forget to set your clocks back one hour before going to bed tonight because Daylight Saving Time ends Sunday at 2 a.m.
David Prerau has devoted much of his life to chronicling the history and science of DST.
He served as a consultant to Congress in 2005 when it extended daylight saving time to save, and he also consulted on DST to the United Kingdom Parliament. David Prerau holds a PhD from M.I.T.
Although Benjamin Franklin certainly gets a historical nod for his amusing commentary about our waste of perfectly good sunlight, Prerau points to British early riser and golf fanatic William Willett as the godfather of daylight-saving time.
“He used to go for early morning horseback rides and wondered why nobody else was up enjoying this beautiful time of day,” David Prerau said.
William Willett detailed his time-wise idea in a pamphlet, “The Waste of Daylight,” and spent years lobbying Parliament in vain to adopt daylight-saving time – he died in 1915 before that would happen, David Prerau said.
Germany was right on time, however. Seeing merit in William Willett’s bright idea, Germans adopted it in 1916 to conserve energy and resources during World War I. That launched a daylight-saving domino effect in Europe.
Britain was finally shamed into adopting the policy three weeks after Germany.
Not to be left in the dark by our European counterparts, the U.S. officially adopted daylight-saving time during WW I, and again during World War II.
But it was not without controversy.
By the end of WW I, city dwellers learned to love daylight saving, David Prerau said. But country folk, still in tune with nature’s clock, became disgruntled once they realized they’d actually have to rise before the sun if they were to get their goods on outbound trains that, under daylight saving, left town an hour earlier.
“Rural people bombarded Congress with requests to repeal daylight saving time,” David Prerau said.
Among them, New Hampshire Governor John H. Bartlett, who in 1920 went right to the top, urging President Woodrow Wilson by telegram to inform senators and congressmen “that New Hampshire demanded prompt action to remedy the injustice being done the rural communities through changes in railroad schedules to conform to daylight saving hours.”
John H. Bartlett didn’t know Woodrow Wilson was a big fan of daylight saving.
When Congress voted to repeal daylight-saving legislation, Woodrow Wilson vetoed it. And when Congress voted a second time to repeal it, Woodrow Wilson vetoed again.
“It was an interesting time in history,” David Prerau said.
“Because then Congress voted to override Wilson’s veto – that’s how contentious it was. If you look back in history, not many things are passed by overriding a presidential veto.“
In his 2005 book, “Seize the Daylight,” David Prerau includes all kinds of historical anecdotes about the chaos that ensued over the random nature of daylight saving until federal legislation finally standardized it in 1966.
One of his favorites is the one about the bus ride that spanned 35 miles and seven time zones between Ohio and West Virginia.
“It became nationally famous as a sort of curiosity. People rode the bus just to change their watches seven times,” he said.
David Prerau believes the upside of daylight-saving time isn’t economic; it’s the lifestyle benefit. People have more time to mingle and recreate.
“People don’t like driving in the dark, and daylight savings reduces traffic accidents. Crime is reduced also, because of that extra hour of daylight,” he said.
“Savings in electrical energy are only about 1%,” said David Prerau. “Which may sound low, but if you think of it as something you get for free, it’s a good side benefit.”
The Energy Policy Act of 2005 went into effect as of 2007, extending Daylight Savings in the U.S. by three to four weeks in the spring and one week in the fall. Since then, more studies are in the works to see if increased use of air conditioning may actually negate whatever savings were originally calculated, David Prerau said.
“There’s going to be more studies, and if they end up being negative, Congress may want to reconsider,” he said.
“But I doubt it. There’s the other problem, of having to reprogram computers and clocks. It was a big deal for companies last March. And having gone through that once, people may be reluctant to change back,” David Prerau said.
At least 7 people were killed and 51 injured in a horrific 27 vehicles crash on the M5 motorway near Taunton, Somerset, UK.
The crash described by the emergency services as one of the worst they have ever seen.
There are fears the death toll could soar even higher as police said they believe bodies may still be trapped in vehicles which have been left “burnt and unrecognisable”.
The horrific crash on the northbound carriageway near Taunton, Somerset, involved 23 cars and vans and four lorries.
According to police, the vehicles were “immediately alight” following the crash as a huge fire engulfed the carriageway.
At least 7 people were killed and 51 injured in a horrific 27 vehicles crash on the M5 motorway near Taunton, Somerset, UK
Police confirmed that a fireworks display was going on nearby when the collision happened at 8:25 p.m. last night and said the road was wet and there was fog in the area at the time.
Television footage showed motorists trying to pry open vehicle doors in a bid to rescue those trapped. The motorway will remain closed until at least tomorrow as repairs are carried out.
The crash is the worst on British roads since 1991 when 10 people were killed and 25 injured in a huge pile-up on the M4 in Hungerford, Berkshire.
Transport Secretary Justine Greening expressed sympathy with the families of those affected by the tragedy and thanked rescue rescue workers and emergency staff who worked throughout the night to help the injured.
15 appliances raced to the scene and immediately closed off the motorway in both directions. It is expected to be shut for the next 24 hours while emergency workers recover bodies and clear the debris from the accident.
Firefighters used hydraulic equipment to pull injured from the wrecked vehicles. Some had “life changing”injuries.
According to eyewitnesses, the pile-up was triggered when an Iceland truck suddenly disappeared into a “black hole” of fog.
Andrea Day from Trafficlink said it was the worst accident she has seen in the 10 years she had been working for the traffic information provider.
“I have never come across an accident of this kind – not in terms of the volume of vehicles involved.”
Paul Slaven from Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service told the BBC:
“This is the worst road traffic collision anyone can remember… so many vehicles involved.”
Asked why the vehicle fires had been so fierce he said:
“I have not had a report of any toxic or chemical material being carried by any vehicles it is just a case of the number of vehicles involved and the type of vehicle.
“At least two of the vehicles on fire were articulated lorries and there would be a lot of fuel on them.”
Paul Slaven added that it was too early to speculate what had caused the pile-up, but said there had been a number of contributing factors which made road conditions dangerous.
“The weather was not particularly good at the time and it would have been particularly busy at the time because of the Bridgwater Carnival,” Paul Slaven said.
He said the police were in the process of setting up a dedicated telephone line for worried relatives of people who may have been in the area at the time of the incident.
Today the Highways Agency urged all motorists to avoid the area, with the northbound and southbound sections between junctions 25 and 24 closed off.
Dr. Colin Close, medical director for Taunton’s Musgrove Park Hospital where many of the injured are being treated, said the hospital had dealt with “nothing of this magnitude ever before”.
“The injuries of those brought in ranged from simple limb fractures to more complex chest and abdominal trauma,” he said.
One surgeon was flown in by helicopter from Exeter to help treat the casualties.
“They have been treated and none are in a critical condition. Everyone is stable.”
Kayvan Sabeghi is the second former U.S. Army veteran arrived in intensive care after he was beaten by police during clashes with Occupy Oakland protesters on Friday, the veteran’s group said.
Kayvan Sabeghi, 32, was arrested and hospitalized one week after another U.S. military veteran and Occupy Oakland protester, former Marine Scott Olsen, was badly injured in a confrontation with police that helped spark the latest round of unrest.
Iraq Veterans Against the War said Kayvan Sabeghi was detained during disturbances that erupted late on Wednesday in downtown Oakland and was charged with resisting arrest and remaining present at the place of a riot.
Oakland Police had arrested more than 100 demonstrators in clashes with protesters late on Wednesday and early on Thursday following a day of mostly peaceful rallies against economic inequality, corporate excesses and bailouts of major banks.
Kayvan Sabeghi is the second former U.S. Army veteran arrived in intensive care after he was beaten by police during clashes with Occupy Oakland protesters on Friday, the veteran's group said
It was reported that several bank branches were closed and the Port of Oakland was shut down for several hours by the demonstrations.
Brian Kelly, who co-owns a brew pub with Kayvan Sabeghi, said his business partner told him he was arrested and beaten by a group of policemen as he was leaving the protest to go home.
“He told me he was in the hospital with a lacerated spleen and that the cops had jumped him.
“They put him in jail, and he told them he was injured, and they denied him medical treatment for about 18 hours,” Brian Kelly said.
Kayvan Sabeghi had served as an Army Ranger in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Oakland Police Department did not immediately return calls seeking comment.
Iraq Veterans Against the War said in a statement that police struck Kayvan Sabeghi with nightsticks on his hands, shoulders, ribs and back, and that in addition to a lacerated spleen he suffered from internal bleeding.
Kayvan Sabeghi’s name was listed by the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office as among those arrested that night, and Highland General Hospital confirmed he was a patient in its intensive care unit.
According to Oakland officials, eight people, five civilians and three police officers, were injured in the late-night confrontations. But it was not immediately clear whether Kayvan Sabeghi was among those counted as hurt.
Police had remained largely out of sight during Wednesday’s protests until busloads of officers in riot gear moved in on demonstrators at about midnight, firing volleys of tear gas to disperse hundreds lingering near a downtown plaza used as a base camp for Occupy Oakland protesters.
Police also made a second charge with batons and tear gas about an hour later to drive protesters deeper into the square.
Oakland officials said police had acted in response to small pockets of “anarchists” who vandalized property, set fires, assaulted police officers and broke into a downtown building.
But Occupy Oakland protesters said that the streets were largely calm when police converged, although sporadic vandalism and unruliness had been reported during the day.
The call for a citywide strike that preceded the confrontations was triggered in part by outrage over Scott Olsen’s injuries during a separate confrontation with police last Tuesday that became a rallying cry for the anti-Wall Street protest movement nationwide.
Crystal Harris, a woman who had been raped in her violent marriage has been victimized all over again after being forced to pay her her abusive ex-husband spousal support.
Crystal Harris is a financial analyst who makes a six-figure salary and said she had been supporting her out-of-work husband Shawn Harris for years.
When Crystal Harris hauled him to court following a violent sex attack, she was shocked to learn what the divorce would cost her.
Shawn Harris was jailed and forced to register as a sex offender after he was convicted of spousal rape last year.
After his conviction was handed down, Shawn Harris requested spousal support – and it was granted.
Crystal Harris, who had been raped in her violent marriage, has been victimized all over again after being forced to pay her her abusive ex-husband spousal support
In cases such as this, the court will normally award $3,000 a month in spousal support, but lowered it to $1,000 amid the abuse claims.
“I call that the rape discount,”Crystal Harris told ABC News.
In addition, Crystal Harris was ordered to pay her ex-husband’s legal fees from the divorce case.
Crystal Harris told 10News.com: “It makes me feel victimized all over again that I should have to pay a dime to this man who has turned my life upside down.”
Throughout the trial, Shawn Harris claimed he was role-playing with his wife, an activity he said they often took part in, posing as Tarzan and Jane or a hooker and pimp.
Throughout the trial, Shawn Harris claimed he was role-playing with his wife
One of the key pieces of evidence used to convict him was a tape recorder that Crystal Harris had hidden in her underwear drawer on the night of the attack.
Crystal Harris told ABC News: “To this day I feel broken-hearted about the fact that this has all happened. I’m not happy about the way my life has turned out.”
Shylah Silbery, a three-year-old girl from Wellington, New Zealand, survived for two days on eating cheese and leftover lasagne after her mother died suddenly leaving her locked in her home.
The little girl hugged her favourite toy – a teddy bear named Possum – as she waited alone in the house near her mother’s body.
Shylah Silbery was rescued when her mother’s relatives alerted the authorities when they had not heard from her for two days.
Police who went to the property managed to coax the little girl to drag a coffee table to the door so she could climb up and unlock it.
Shylah Silbery told police: “Mummy won’t wake up.”
Lauren Silbery, 28, was found face down next to her bed. Her daughter had been able to drink milk and feed herself with whatever she could find in the fridge.
Shylah Silbery, a three-year-old girl from Wellington, New Zealand, survived for two days on eating cheese and leftover lasagne after her mother died suddenly leaving her locked in her home
Shylah Silbery spent several days in hospital recovering from dehydration and urine burns before attending her mother’s funeral.
Shylah’s uncle Peter Silbery, 24, said: “I can only imagine her in there for that long, trying to wake Mum up.
“She’s doing okay now. She’s still bubbly. When we lowered the coffin into the grave at the cemetery, though, she pointed at it and said, <<Mummy’s in there>>. It was pretty heartbreaking.”
Lauren Silbery, 28, was found face down next to her bed
Peter Silbery spoke every night to his sister, but he nad his mother grew so concerned after failing to reach her for two days they rang a friend who lived nearby.
The friend went to the house and saw the little girl inside but no sign of Lauren .
Lauren Silbery’s mother, Heather, said: “Lauren and I were very close – she would ring me every morning.
“One day I was in the garden and that afternoon at about four o’clock… her brother Peter and I said, <<Well, we haven’t heard from Lauren>>.
So we got a friend to go around there and [the grandchild] had come to the cat door, but Lauren hadn’t, so I dialled 111.”
Heather Silbery said she knew Lauren was dead the instant she heard that neighbours couldn’t contact her.
“Lauren wouldn’t have done anything silly. She loved Shylah so much and was a devoted mum. But I knew exactly what had happened. It’s a mother’s instinct.
“Her daughter was everything to her. She was the type of person who has a nice way of bringing people together.”
Officers saw the little girl inside the house and taught her how to open the door by getting her to stand on a coffee table.
Shylah Silbery’s grandmother said: “[She] is still a bit quiet, but she still smiles and she’s one of those kids that makes you laugh and you love to have her around.
“When we started cleaning and taking Lauren’s stuff out of the flat, she did say <<Mummy won’t wake up>> and when we went back in, she had shut her mother’s bedroom door.
“She goes all around the flat happy, but she would not go in that room.”
The death of Lauren Silbery at her house in the Upper Hutt area of Wellington is as yet unexplained.
Police and the family believe that she died of natural causes but an investigation on behalf of the coroner has now been started.
They said the fact Lauren Silbery was face down next to her bed was consistent with her having a heart attack or stroke and falling out of bed, but they said they need to wait for the results of an autopsy.
Shylah Silbery is now awaiting a Child, Youth and Family decision about whether she will be returned to her family.
The toddler was placed in CYF care after the discovery.
Yesterday, central regional director Karen Petrie said she hoped to place Shylah back with her family.
“This is an absolutely tragic event and our sympathy goes out to this family. Child, Youth and Family’s preference in these situations is to place children in the care of extended family members as long as this is in the best interests of the child, and circumstances permit.”
“Shylah Silbery was in regular contact with her family, and the agency was working with them to care for her immediate needs,” Karen Petrie said.
A London-bound Qantas A380 with 258 on board was forced to divert to Dubai after an engine problem occurred on Friday.
The incident happen one year since a mid-air engine blowout prompted the Australian airline to ground its entire fleet of Airbus superjumbos for nearly a month.
British writer and comedian Stephen Fry was on board flight 31 which landed safely on three engines and immediately began tweeting, turning the event into a social media hit but capping a nightmare week for Qantas.
“Bugger. Forced to land in Dubai. An engine has decided not to play,” Stephen Fry told his 3.3 million followers on Twitter.
“Not a great week for Qantas,” he added.
Qantas has just emerged from the grounding of its entire fleet over the weekend following a long-running labour dispute.
The weekend shutdown stranded almost 70,000 passengers, forcing the government and the nation’s labour tribunal to intervene and ban all further strikes at Qantas.
A London-bound Qantas A380 with 258 on board was forced to divert to Dubai after an engine problem occurred on Friday
Friday’s flight, with 258 people on board, had an “oil quantity defect” in one engine which was switched off according to standard procedure, a Qantas spokeswoman in Sydney said, adding Qantas engineers would investigate the problem.
Qantas said in a letter distributed to passengers and posted on Twitter by Fry that engineers would take a number of hours to conduct “mandatory inspections.”
The airline added it was rebooking the passengers on alternative carriers.
“Qantas… have said they shut down the engine to check oil and that there was no explosion,” an aviation industry source familiar with events said.
A second source with knowledge of events said Qantas identified the glitch about 90 minutes after take off.
“If it had been really serious they would have turned back and not flown on to Dubai,” the source said.
“Engine systems are so sophisticated now they can flag any discrepancy so airlines can act.”
A Qantas Airbus A380 aircraft suffered an engine explosion on November 4 last year shortly after leaving Singapore for Sydney. It returned to Singapore and landed safely.
“The two issues are completely unrelated. This is a one-off and we will look to get the aircraft back in the skies as soon as possible,” Qantas spokeswoman Olivia Wirth said on Friday.
Each Qantas A380 is powered by four Rolls Royce engines. The carrier has 10 A380s in service and is due to take delivery of two more by the year-end. It also has two more on order and deferred the delivery schedule for six others.
Stephen Fry later tweeted that he was on a flight to London with Emirates, which operates the world’s biggest fleet of A380s but powered by engines supplied by a joint venture between General Electric and Pratt & Whitney.
An analyst who wished not to be named said Stephen Fry’s Twitter feeds inflated the incident.
“This doesn’t seem like a big deal,” said the analyst.
“It seems like a precautionary measure. But the fact that it is Qantas again and on the same date as last year with Stephen Fry tweeting about it has made it a big deal.”
A Rolls Royce spokesman said the company was aware of the incident and was working closely with Qantas to provide appropriate support and technical assistance.
In last year’s engine blowout, a turbine disc disintegrated and sent supersonic shrapnel through the aircraft’s wing, severing systems and narrowly missing the cabin.
Investigations pinpointed a manufacturing fault in an oil pipe which could lead to oil leaks and ordered safety checks.
Rolls-Royce replaced or upgraded dozens of engines.
Rolls Royce engines power the A380 fleet of Qantas, Singapore Airlines, and Lufthansa and China Southern.
Airbus has sold 236 A380s. By the end of September this year it had delivered 57. The four-engined double-decker airplanes sell for $375 million (234 million pounds) each at list prices.
Qantas shares closed up 2.5% at A$1.62, in line with the broader market.
Shares in Rolls-Royce fell 1 percent to 709 pence, also in line. In Paris, shares in Airbus parent EADS lagged the rest of the market, falling 1.6% to 21.31 euros.
