Prince George christening very ‘intimate’ ceremony
London: Only a handful of royals and close family members have made it to the guest list for the christening of Britain’s newest Prince George later this month.
Prince William and Kate Middleton reportedly want a very “intimate family affair” for the ceremony for their first-born at the Chapel Royal in St James’s Palace here on October 23. “It will be an intimate and family affair.
We set those expectations right at the start. It has not been unusual at previous christenings for great-aunts and great-uncles not to be there,” a royal source told ‘The Times’. Several senior members of the royal family will not be attending, including William’s aunts – the Princess Royal and the Countess of Wessex.
There is also speculation that Prince George’s great-uncles, the Duke of York and the Earl of Wessex, may not be present at the christening of Britain’s third in line to the throne. Among those who will definitely attend the ceremony will be Queen Elizabeth II and husband Duke of Edinburgh – the child’s great grandmother and grandfather, Prince Charles and wife Camilla Duchess of Cornwall, Prince Harry and the Kate’s parents, Carole and Michael Middleton, and her siblings James and Pippa.
Prince Harry and James and Pippa Middleton are expected to be named as godparents. In sharp contrast, when Prince William was christened in 1982 more than 60 guests had gathered to mark the occasion. (PTI)
Japan macaque monkey attack victims to get money
Tokyo: Victims of an ill-tempered monkey that terrorised a town in western Japan are to be offered compensation, an official said on Thursday.
More than 1,000 professional hunters, firefighters and police officers were mobilised to snare the piqued primate after it set upon 18 people during a weeks-long rampage through Hyuga. The wild macaque was finally cornered in a vacant house on September 9 after 280 people had spent the day searching for it.
The monkey was put down shortly thereafter. The municipal assembly of Hyuga, in Miyazaki prefecture, unanimously approved a bill to offer USD 205 to each person the male monkey had attacked. Patrols were continuing around the streets in case of further danger, the official said.
“But we have not found any other monkeys threatening our people,” said Kenji Yoshida, a city official.
“The city has now returned to calm and normal.” Macaque monkeys are common in the wild throughout Japan, where the densely-wooded hill-sides provide a habitat. (AFP)
Now, ‘smart’ kettle that is controlled by cellphone app!
London: A WiFi-enabled kettle that can be controlled using a smartphone app and lets you boil water for tea from anywhere in the house has been developed.
The stainless steel 1.8 litre ikettle has been described as the ‘World’s first WiFi kettle’. It comes with a wireless-equipped base station and can be switched on from anywhere in the house with your smartphone.
Users can keep the kettle and smartphone on the same network and use the app to control the functions. The smartphone app wakes you up in the morning with a message that reads : Good Morning! Would you like me to pop the kettle on? The user can choose between ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ option.
If they hit the ‘yes’ button, the kettle will start boiling water for tea. Once boiled it will ask the user if they are ready or if they would prefer to keep it warm for a while. Also, at the end of a day’s hard work, the device welcomes the user home by asking if they would like to pop the kettle on.
Users can set up the ‘Wake up and Welcome home mode/Timer’ according to the timings that suit them.
Dubbed the “steaming servant” by the UK retailer Firebox.com, it also has a LED Backlit control panel, soft-touch rubber handle and functional filtered spout. The ikettle has four tailored and precise temperature settings. (PTI)
Dog saves
4-year-old in US from blood sugar crash
Washington: A dog saved the life of a 4-year-old in US by detecting a life-threatening drop in the boy’s blood sugar and alerting his mother, returning a favour to the family that had rescued the pooch from being put down.
The boy’s mother, Christi Smith, from Minnesota, had rescued the pit bull just hours before he was scheduled to be euthanized by a local animal shelter few days ago. Smith planned to foster the 10-month-old canine, called TaterTot, until she could find him a permanent home.
The pooch may be on its way to become part of the family now after he saved her son’s life last week by alerting Smith that the boy was not well in the middle of the night.
“He just seemed kind of weird. He wasn’t really coherent – deliriously tired,” Smith said. Although the dog had only been in her home for a few days, the canine quickly sensed something was wrong and began licking and jumping on the boy when he wouldn’t wake up.
“He kept on whining and barking and running between the two of us,” Smith told Fox 9 News. When she checked on her son she found that he was barely breathing. The boy was rushed to the emergency room where doctors found his blood sugar to be dangerously low. “If his blood sugar was that low, he may have been producing ketones. (PTI)
US judge tells man he’s still legally dead
Findlay: A man who disappeared decades ago is finding out there’s no easy way to come back from the dead.
Donald Miller Jr. went to court this week to ask a county judge to reverse a 1994 ruling that declared him legally dead after he had vanished from his home eight years earlier.
But the judge turned down his request, citing a three-year time limit for changing a death ruling. Hancock County Probate Court Judge Allan Davis called it a “strange, strange situation.”
“We’ve got the obvious here. A man sitting in the courtroom, he appears to be in good health,” said Davis, who told Miller the three-year limit was clear.
“I don’t know where that leaves you, but you’re still deceased as far as the law is concerned,” the judge said. Miller resurfaced about eight years ago and went to court so that he could get a driver’s license and reinstate his Social Security number.
His ex-wife had opposed the move, saying she doesn’t have the money to repay the Social Security benefits that were paid out to her and the couple’s two children after Miller was declared dead. Robin Miller said her former husband vanished because he owed big child support payments and that the overdue payments had totaled USD 26,000 by 1994. (AP)
Ancient tombs unearthed in north China
Shijiazhuang (China): Nearly 300 pieces of cultural relics have been unearthed from a cluster of ancient tombs in north China”s Hebei Province.
The Xinhua news agency quoted archaeologists, as saying on Friday that the tombs are located in Beidazhao Qiandong village of Nanhe County, 150 km south of the provincial capital of Shijiazhuang.
The tombs are believed to be from the middle and late West Han Dynasty (206 B.C.- 24 A.D.) and middle Tang Dynasty (618-907). Archaeologists have been excavating the area since may this year, and have covered a stretch of over 4,000 square meters.
In all, 73 tombs have been discovered, and a majority of them belonged to ordinary folk. Another ten tombs are still to be excavated. (ANI)