US: Plane’s pilot says passenger fell into ocean
Miami: A US pilot says a passenger fell out of his small plane into the ocean off Miami. Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen says the call came on Thursday afternoon.
The plane was flying at about 2,000 feet (609 metres) when the call came in, she said. Coast Guard and Miami-Dade Fire Rescue air and water units were searching an area southeast of Tamiami Executive Airport, where the plane safely landed.
It wasn’t immediately clear where the flight originated or how many people were on board. According to a recording on the website, the unidentified pilot calmly radioed “mayday, mayday, mayday,” and told an air traffic controller a door was ajar.
“I have a door ajar and a passenger that fell down. I’m six miles (9 kilometres) from Tamiami,” the pilot says. “You said you’ve got a passenger that fell out of your plane?” the air traffic controller responds.
“That’s correct, sir,” the pilot responded. “He opened the back door and he just fell out the plane.”
The website provides live air traffic-control broadcasts from control towers and radar facilities around the world.
Both the Coast Guard and fire rescue officials said it wasn’t immediately confirmed that the pilot’s emergency call was legitimate. The Miami-Dade Police Department sent detectives to the airport to further investigate, a spokeswoman said. (AP)
Hungarian capital bans homeless from public areas
Budapest: Budapest’s city council has banned the homeless from living in many public areas of the city, including playgrounds, train stations, cemeteries, and the Hungarian capital’s largest park.
The decision was made possible by a constitutional amendment adopted in March which allows municipalities to ban homeless from public places for security, health and other reasons.
A similar law had been earlier declared anti-constitutional by Hungary’s highest court.
The ordinance passed today allows the fining of homeless people living in the restricted areas. It was supported by councilors from the governing Fidesz party, its Christian Democrat allies and the far-right Jobbik party.
Two left-wing parties voted against. A protest by The City Is For All, an advocate group for the homeless, delayed the start of the city council session by several hours. (AP)
Prince Harry gears up for Antarctica trek
London: Britain’s Prince Harry has praised the courage of wounded servicemen and women who are gearing up for a race across Antarctica to the South Pole.
Harry will join a team of four injured British soldiers in the 320-kilometre Walking With the Wounded charity trek. Three days ahead of the team’s departure from Britain, Harry appeared in London’s Trafalgar Square today with members of the three teams — from Britain, the US and the Commonwealth — and spoke of the courage on display going into the challenge.
He said the men and women alongside him “have achieved so much just to get here.” The 29-year-old prince said the trek will prove that even after suffering traumatic events like losing limbs, “you can achieve pretty much anything.” (AP)
Japanese man runs on arms and legs to new record
Tokyo: A Japanese man who runs on his arms and legs broke his own Guinness world record for the 100-meter dash on Friday.
Kenichi Ito finished in 16.87 seconds, shaving more than half a second off his 2012 run of 17.47 seconds.
The 30-year-old Japanese has been training for a decade. He studies how primates move through books, videos and zoo visits, and even tries to move on all fours in his everyday life.
Ito hopes racing on four limbs will one day become an official track and field event. Carlos Martinez, an official adjudicator for Guinness World Records, was on hand to witness the attempt and announced afterward that Ito had set a record. (AP)
World’s oldest creature is a 507-year-old clam!
London: The world’s oldest creature – a mollusc that was accidentally killed by scientists while verifying its age – has turned out to be 100 years older than previously thought.
The mollusc, named Ming, was calculated to be 405-years-old when scientists accidentally killed it by opening its shell.
New calculations have now emerged that the original age of the quahog clam was actually 507-years-old when it died – a good 102 years older than estimated.
It means Ming, named after the Chinese dynasty, was born in 1499. Ming was found alive by climate change experts from Bangor University in north Wales on a trip dredging the seabeds of Iceland in 2006, ‘Daily Mirror’ reported.
After the discovery, scientists counted the rings on the inside shell to work out Ming’s age. “We got it wrong the first time and maybe we were a bit hasty publishing our findings back then. But we are absolutely certain that we’ve got the right age now,” said Ocean scientist Paul Butler from Bangor University.
“The nice thing about these shells is that they have distinct annual growth lines, so we can accurately date the shell material. “That’s just the same as what archaeologists do when they use tree rings in dead wood to work out the dates of old buildings,” Butler said.
The quahog only grows in summer when the water is warm and it feasts on plankton, each year growing a layer as thin as 0.1 millimetres. (PTI)
Japan condo ditches lawnmowers for grass goats
Tokyo: A Japanese condominium complex has decided to ditch noisy lawnmowers and their paid pushers for a more natural option, goats.
The suburban Tokyo complex has obtained four grass-munching animals to help beautify the walled property and chomp on weeds in those hard-to-reach areas.
A spokesman for the state-owned site’s developer claims the rental goats are cheap and don’t need much instruction while their poop pellets pose little risk to residents’ health.
“It’s more cost-effective and environmentally friendly than paying for lawn mowing,” he said. “And goats are better than humans at mowing grass on steep slopes.” Residents have embraced the idea. (AFP)
Woman gets $184,000 bill from man she refused to marry
London: An Australian woman who turned down a marriage proposal was stunned when her well-to-do suitor handed a bill of over 115,000 pounds ($184,000) for everything he claims to have spent on her.
Single mother Marie Lacombe, 42, from Melbourne, says she and 65-year-old Bruce Dusting were never romantically involved. But it seems he felt differently about their relationship, claiming she led him on to extract money from him to fund Zumba classes, shopping trips and even cosmetic surgery.
“This Marie has just destroyed every thought of humanity that I’ve had for other people,” a tearful Dusting said. (IANS)