Prince Charles is a descendant of ‘Count Dracula’!
London: Prince Charles has joined a campaign to save Transylvania’s forests because of his family connections to Count Dracula.
Vlad the Impaler, the 15th century nobleman better known by his patronym, Dracula, was a distant ancestor of Charles’ great grandmother Queen Mary, wife of George V.
Rapid economic growth in Romania has put the forests of the Carpathian Mountains under threat from development and logging purposes.
The Prince of Wales has said that the forests are some of the last untouched wilderness areas in Europe, and they are to be protected before they are lost, like the woodland that once covered Britain.
“The genealogy shows I am descended from Vlad the Impaler, so I do have a bit of a stake in the country,” the 62-year-old prince said.
Charles has recently bought a five-bedroom house in the village of Zalanpatak, which is said to have been founded by one of his Transylvanian ancestors. (ANI)
Donation for quake victims found in toilet
Tokyo: An anonymous donor left 40 million yen ($526,000) in a toilet in the administrative building of the northern Japanese city of Hachinohe, media reports said on Friday.
Written instructions said the money should be used to help victims of March’s earthquake and tsunami.
City officials said the anonymous donor had slipped in and out unnoticed.
This is not the first time that anonymous benefactors in Japan have chosen toilets to leave cash.
On Sep 29, an anonymous donor left 10 million yen ($131,000) to charity by dumping it in a public toilet.
The money was found with a letter saying it should be donated to the victims of the earthquake and tsunami.
In 2007, 400 blank envelopes containing 10,000-yen notes were found in the toilets of local council buildings across the country. Most of that money appears to have been handed in to the police.
The mysterious donor was never found. (IANS)
Queen wears an Angela Kelly outfit
Perth: Queen Elizabeth II wore a powder blue silk jacquard dress at CHOGM here. It was designed by Angela Kelly, a royal dresser.
The Queen Friday declared open the biennial Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM).
She wore the dress and coat with navy trim to the back.
Her hat had a navy blue brim, with the crown of the hat made of the same silk as on her coat.
She also wore a sapphire brooch which previously belonged to Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother. (IANS)
Teen-aged couple plunges into canal
London: A teenaged couple in Britain, who were in a relationship but belonged to different communties, died after falling into a canal Diwali night Wednesday. Police said it was “a tragic accident”.
The boy has been named, in the largely Bangladeshi area, as Fayz Uddin and the girl is understood to be Sara Rylance, the Daily Mail reported.
The couple — the boy 18, and the girl 17 — were found near Brasshouse Road of Smethwick town in West Midlands county, around 7.30 p.m. Wednesday after reports that they had fallen in a 20-foot deep canal lock.
According to local residents, the boy and the girl were seen at a gathering by the Birmingham Canal near Whitehouse Drive to celebrate Diwali, Hindus’ festival of lights, with fireworks and drinking, the report added.
It is believed that the boy and girl were enjoying the night’s celebrations and may have fallen into a high-sided lock which would have been full at the time.
The teenagers, who are from the Smethwick area, were taken to hospital but pronounced dead after attempts to resuscitate them failed.
Fayz’s parents didn’t know about Sara, and she and their son had kept their relationship secret because of cultural issues, said Fayz’s best friend Saif Ali Aamer.
Sara, a non-Muslim, had recently posted on Fayz’s Facebook wall: “I love you babyz.” (IANS)
Couple jailed for selling their kids
Beijing: An unmarried Chinese couple was handed down prison terms for selling their four children.
The couple in Jiangsu province was sentenced for selling their four children for over 70,000 yuan ($11,000), the Shanghai Daily reported. The man got a 10-year sentence.
Du Liang and Geng Jing began living together and they had their first daughter in March 2006. The baby did not cry and the couple thought she may have some disease. They sold her for 6,600 yuan.
The couple had three more children from June 2007 to May 2010 and they sold them to pay debts and do small business. (IANS)
Drunk woman leads cops on high speed chase
London: A topless and drunken woman led the police into a car chase at speeds of up to 128 mph on a highway before they were finally able to capture her.
Police had to use stingers to disable her tyres to force her to stop. The woman, Erin B. Holdsworth, 28, of Hiram, Ohio was found to be only donning a g-string, fishnet stockings and high heels as she was arrested.
She was charged with numerous charges related to drunk driving at Chardon Municipal Court, the Daily Mail reported Fox news as saying.
The charges against her are pending and she has to reappear in court on November 2. (ANI)