Man sets himself on fire at Washington’s National Mall
Washington: A man has set himself on fire at the National Mall here, a day after a woman was shot dead by police outside the US Capitol nearby, after a high-speed car chase, witnesses and police officials said.
“It does appear that a man sustained self-inflicted burns,” Metropolitan Police Department spokesperson Gwendolyn Crump said.
The incident happened at the Mall, the country capital’s grassy esplanade, some six blocks away from the Capitol Hill, where yesterday, a woman motoroist led the authorities on almost two-mile chase, sparking a brief lockdown of the high-security complex.
The District of Columbia Fire Department spokesman Tim Wilson said the man has life-threatening injuries. “No indication on our end of what caused the fire, the only thing we can pretty much comment on is we were dispatched to the call and responded to it.
So how it started, don’t know,” Wilson was quoted as saying by The Washington Post.
The identity of the man was not immediately known. The police is yet to reveal his name. “I saw a man sitting in flames. He had already doused himself in gasoline, I believe,” Adam Stifel, an eyewitness, was quoted as saying by the CNN.
Five or six people used their shirts to pat out the fire, he said. (PTI)
98-yr-old groom weds 90-yr-old sweetheart 30 years on!
London: A loved-up couple, a 98-year-old man and his 90-year-old lover, have tied the knot after dating for 30 long years.
Jean Reed took widower Ted Parsons’ hand in marriage after the 98-year-old Second World War veteran proposed to her earlier this year, the Daily Express reported.
Parsons grew close to Reed after his wife of 50 years suddenly passed away in the 1980s.
The couple, who have been living together for the last 20 years, walked down the aisle arm-in-arm during a ceremony in front of family and friends.
Parsons said that he loves his new wife oldcouple.JPGvery much and it keeps growing with age. (ANI)
Now, pour a cuppa from Vladimir Putin face shaped teapot!
London: A new white teapot has been created which is engraved with the likeness of Russian president Vladimir Putin.
The new merchandise was developed by Mike Leavitt and is part of his collaboration with Charles Krafft, in which they create work featuring ‘controversial’ subjects, Metro.co.uk reported.
Krafft said that one viewer’s interpretation of this teapot was that it’s a reference to the alleged poisoning of former FSB and KGB officer Alexander Litvinenko via his tea cup.
The teapot, which is made of white porcelain, has dimensions of 8inches by 4 inches by 10 inches. (ANI)
Why Einstein was such a genius
Washington: The left and right hemispheres of Albert Einstein’s brain were unusually well connected and may have contributed to his brilliance, a new study has suggested.
Florida State University evolutionary anthropologist, Dean Falk, said that this study provides new information that helps make sense of what is known about the surface of Einstein’s brain.
Lead author Weiwei Men of East China Normal University’s Department of Physics developed a new technique to conduct the study, which is the first to detail Einstein’s corpus callosum, the brain’s largest bundle of fibers that connects the two cerebral hemispheres and facilitates interhemispheric communication.
Men’s technique measures and color-codes the varying thicknesses of subdivisions of the corpus callosum along its length, where nerves cross from one side of the brain to the other.
These thicknesses indicate the number of nerves that cross and therefore how “connected” the two sides of the brain are in particular regions, which facilitate different functions depending on where the fibers cross along the length.
In particular, this new technique permitted registration and comparison of Einstein’s measurements with those of two samples — one of 15 elderly men and one of 52 men Einstein’s age in 1905.
During his so-called “miracle year” at 26 years old, Einstein published four articles that contributed substantially to the foundation of modern physics and changed the world’s views about space, time, mass and energy.
The study has been published in the journal Brain. (ANI)
iPhone5C’s up for grabs at Best Buy for $50!
Washington: Electronics retail giant Best Buy is reportedly offering Apple’s latest low-cost iPhone5C for even a lower cost of 50 dollars, two weeks following its launch.
Best Buy will give customers a 50 dollar gift card that can be applied to the 99.99 dollar phone, cutting the price in half.
According to Fox News, the deal will run until October 7 and is applicable just for the low-cost iPhone5C model and not the standard 5S version.
Since the launch of the low-cost plastic version of Apple’s flagship smartphone, retailers have been offering further discounts on the phone. Walmart and Target started selling the 5C phone for 80 dollars, which is 20 dollars cheaper than the standard cost of the phone.
The iPhone5C has same internals as the previous iPhone5 but had a plastic, glossy colour-coated rear shell instead of the standard aluminum back. (ANI)
Princess Di’s photog ‘assassin’ ‘silenced’ in suicide mystery
London: Millionaire photographer James Andanson, who allegedly played a part in the “assassination” of Princess Diana, died in mysterious circumstances after he threatened to write an explosive book.
Millionaire photographer James Andanson, who reportedly was connected to the Secret Service, died mysteriously after he met author Fredieric Dard to discuss the book that could spill the beans over the conspiracy.
Andanson was found in a torched car with two bullet wounds in his head, but the authorities said that the ace photographer had committed suicide, the Daily Star reported.
Dard also died within a few weeks of him meeting Andanson.
Top investigative writer John Morgan and pals of Mohamed Al Fayed had urged police to reopen the probe into Andanson’s death in 2000.
According to witnesses, a white Fiat Uno had sped out of the tunnel seconds after the crash and Andanson drove a white Uno and had been trailing the couple around France in the final two weeks of his life.
Before his death he had claimed that he was the driver of a Fiat that had hit the back of Diana’s Mercedes. (ANI)
Morocco arrests teenagers for kissing on Facebook
Rabat (Morocco): Moroccan police have arrested a teenage boy and girl for posting a photo on Facebook of them kissing, with the incident provoking a slew of copycats, a rights organisation has said.
“It involves a teenage boy and his girlfriend. They were arrested on Thursday for violating public decency by posting a photo of them kissing” in the northeastern town of Nador, said Chakib al-Khayari, president of the Rif Association of Human Rights, on Friday.
The photograph was taken outside the high school where the two are students.
The young couple are being held in the juvenile detention centre in Nador, where a sit-in has begun to demand their release, Khayari said. (PTI)