Boy becomes drag queen of his village
London: A 12-year-old boy who slipped into his mum’s tight pink dress and donned a blonde wig and towering heels during a carnival has been crowned the drag queen of his village, a media report said Monday.
He clinched the “Naughty Nora” title against tough competition from local men by belting out camp versions of Michael Jackson’s Thriller and Dolly Parton hits.
Redvers Stokes, who is also a keen showjumper, began wearing his mother’s clothes when he was small. Now he attends village events in full drag costume and make-up, The Sun reported.
The tiny village of Sticker started its drag queen contest two years ago – because not enough girls among the population of around 1,000 were competing to be carnival queen, the newspaper said.
“I’ve always been open to new things. I might like dressing up in women’s clothes but I still like girls. It’s just a little hobby of mine,” Stokes said.
“His Naughty Nora routine is very convincing. I’ve never been concerned. Redvers just loves being the centre of attention. He has no plans to make it a career,” The Sun quoted his mum as saying. (IANS)
Dog savages teenager
London: A dog viciously attacked a British teenager, who suffered 28 bite wounds.
Sixteen-year-old Anthony Armstrong was walking the bull mastiff-pitbull cross. When he tried to stroke it, the dog attacked him.
The Sun said the dog locked its jaws on him, flung him around and tore open his flesh.
Scott Singleton, a friend, and his mother Eileen were injured as they stabbed the dog 30 times with a knife and beat it to death to stop it from tearing Anthony to pieces.
“It was like a lion. It jumped on him, trying to bite his face, got him to the floor and dragged him in its jaws. He was screaming for his life but it had hold of his neck,” Scott was quoted as saying.
“The dog savaged every part of him. You could see through his leg.” (IANS)
Angler hooks scuba diver instead of fish
London: An angler on a beach in Britain was thrilled when he hooked something that he thought was a monster of a catch. Little did he realise that he had actually landed a scuba diver!
John Goldfinch, 61, was fishing for mackerel. Suddenly he felt a hard tug on the end of his line and battled to reel it in. But what he had hooked was actually a scuba diver. The diver had been swimming nearly 50ft offshore and Goldfinch’s fishing hook was embedded right in the crotch of his wetsuit, Daily Express reported.
The stricken diver’s girlfriend surfaced, carefully removed the hook and handed it back to Goldfinch.
The diver couple, meanwhile, swam off to continue their dive at Budleigh Salterton, a small town on the south coast of Devon, England before the surprised angler could have a chance to apologise.
Goldfinch, from nearby port town Exmouth, was fishing from the beach with his friends.
He said: “My mates were falling around laughing. I said ‘sorry mate, I didn’t see you’ and he just said it was very murky down there.” (IANS)
British police spent 82 mn pounds for talking to migrants
London: Police in Britain spend an average 75,000 pounds (over $124,000) a day on translation services to communicate with migrant criminals, victims and witnesses, a media report Friday said.
The same amount of money could fund 3,542 extra officers on the beat, Daily Mail reported.
In the last three years, police spent 82 million pounds ($135 mn) on translators for migrants, the report stated.
The total cost was 82,403,168 pounds over the past three years and averages 1.5 million pounds per force, the Daily Express reported.
This is 60 percent rise in expenditure since 2004 when the European Union expanded to allow Poland and other eastern countries to join.
Most of the money was spent by the Metropolitan police service which forked out 29.3 million pounds since 2008 and next was West Midlands police which paid 6.6 million pounds.
While West Yorkshire and Thames Valley police each spent 3.3 million pounds.
At the same time when 16,000 police officers are taken off the front line to save costs, the figures have been met with anger.
Simon Reed, vice chairman of the Police Federation, said: “These costs are unreasonable and have a huge impact on forces. There have been pay freezes and job cuts because of a lack of money, but spending on translation is growing hugely. “It is something that has to be done, but it is unfair to expect police to bear all the costs.” (IANS)
Japanese swims 24 hours to safety
Kuala Lumpur: A Japanese dive instructor who was presumed lost at sea during a diving expedition, swam 24 hours non-stop to reach ashore, astonishing search and rescue personnel.
Sunburnt and tired, Hishashi Koze, 39, said he swam non-stop for close to 24 hours since Saturday afternoon and reached ashore on Sunday after he and two other divers lost contact with their boat having gone to check out a shipwreck at Tanjung Sipang in Malaysia.
A boatman had taken him and the two others to the site of the Japanese shipwreck.
Koze said after two successful dives, the three decided to dive for a third time. “The third dive lasted for about an hour. We surfaced and I saw the boat was quite far away,” Koze said.
The boat had drifted with the current, and the boatman panicked, having earlier lost sight of the trio’s air bubbles, which is a common safety indicator between divers and boatmen.
“I left the two to get the boat to pick us up. But when I could not see the boat nor the two divers, it was my responsibility to get rescue.
“I swam (backstroke) against the waves. I think it was like 30 km, through the afternoon, through the night, until this morning (yesterday) when I came ashore at about 10 am.
“I kept thinking I needed to survive,” he was quoted as saying by Star online today. Koze, who has 15 years of experience as a dive master, manages a dive shop for a resort in Malaysia. He said he knew he had to be calm and as light faded he swam “following the stars”.
“The direction of the current told me I was in the right direction. I also had a compass.” On whether he would dive again, the average-built Koze said: “Yes, maybe after a week or two.” (PTI)
Ambulance knocks down injured biker
London: A badly wounded man, who was awaiting medical help after having fallen from his motorbike, was fatally hit by an ambulance that was passing by to respond to another emergency call.
Michael Colley, 33, was knocked out after falling off his motorbike in the early hours. Two motorists who stopped to help dialled 999 after finding him unconscious but breathing.
Moments later an ambulance – taking another patient to hospital – approached and the motorists desperately tried to flag it down. But the emergency vehicle ran over Colley, who was pronounced dead at the scene, Daily Express reported.
“Tragically, the crew did not see the body in time. We are co-operating fully with the police inquiry,” said a spokesman for the Great Western Ambulance Service. (IANS)