Constipated goldfish operated on, owner pays 300 pounds
London: A goldfish lover in the UK has shelled out some 300 pounds in vets’ fees when his pet became constipated and had to undergo a surgery. The owner took his ailing fish to Toll Barn Veterinary Centre in North Walsham in Norfolk where vets told him it was constipated and an operation would cost about 300 pounds. Vet Faye Bethell used anaesthetised water to knock out the goldfish before removing the blockages. “At the end of the day they’re all pets and everybody does have a commitment to their pet,” Bethell said. “[The goldfish] was constipated because he had a lump blocking his bottom, rather than because of his diet or any other reason,” she was quoted as saying by the BBC. The operation, which took almost an hour, was performed by Bethell, assisted by two veterinary nurses. “We’ve got one nurse who bubbles anaesthetic gas through a tube that goes in through its mouth and over its gills, and then we have a second nurse to monitor with a probe to check the heart rate,” Bethell said. “Obviously, we discussed all the options [with its owner] and he made the decision to go for surgery,” she said. (PTI)
US father calls police to supervise him disciplining daughter
Washington: In a bizarre incident, a father in the US state of Florida called police to watch him discipline his daughter as he did not want to get into trouble for spanking her too hard. The father said he wanted to discipline his daughter by paddling her, but did not want to break the law, so he called the Okeechobee County Sheriff’s Office to come supervise.
The man’s 12-year-old daughter got into a heated argument with her sister last week, and the father wanted to discipline his daughter, police said. A deputy came over to his house, supervised the discipline, and determined it was within legal bounds and that there was no crime, and left, authorities were quoted as saying by local WPBF-TV station. Although it may sound bizarre to some parents, the sheriff’s office has received several similar requests in the past. (PTI)
New Jersey to host international conference on Hindi in April
Washington: The International Hindi Conference with the theme of “Expanding World of Hindi: Possibilities and Challenges,” would be held in New Jersey in April, organisers have said.
To be attended by Hindi scholars from various parts of the world, in particular from the US and India between April 3-5, participants of the International Hindi Conference would discuss the current status of the teaching and learning of Hindi among other things.
The participants are also expected to discuss individual and organisational partnerships and leadership and field capacity building and infrastructure building skills and topics, such as material selection and development funding, professional development of teachers, and volunteer management, said Ashok Ojha, coordinator of the conference said in a statement.
“We will hold sessions on topics such as, ‘Hindi in higher education,’ ‘Expanding the use of Hindi in businesses and commerce,’ ‘Community support for Hindi,’ ‘Current status of the teaching and learning of Hindi’ etc,” he said. Ojha said the theme of the conference reflects the growing urgency for coordinated efforts by the language education (public and private), government and business communities to expand and develop the quality of the Hindi field inside and outside of India. (PTI)
Running, biking emerge as 2014’s hottest fitness trends
Washington: A new study has found that running and biking were 2014’s hottest fitness trends. Data from 47 million users of MyFitnessPal, a website and smartphone app that lets users track activities, calories and food intake, also showed that people were trying out new activities, like CrossFit and ballet-style barre classes, and were also increasingly doing shorter, high-intensity workouts that promised fitness in minutes rather than hours, Fox News reported. The researchers for the app, which released year-over-year trend data publicly for the very first time, analyzed the total number of minutes logged per activity and divided by the number of daily active users. Further, at the request of The Wall Street Journal, MyFitnessPal then listed the top 10 most-logged activities for January through November 2014 and compared the list with the same period from 2013. (ANI)
Unknown Egyptian queen’s tomb discovered
Cairo: A group of Czech archaeologists has unearthed the tomb of an unknown queen in Egypt, believed to have been the wife of Pharaoh Neferefre who ruled 4,500 years ago. The tomb was discovered in Abu Sir, an Old Kingdom necropolis southwest of Cairo where there are several pyramids dedicated to pharaohs of the Fifth Dynasty, including Neferefre, Al Jazeera reported Monday.
The name of his wife had not been known before the find, Antiquities Minister Mamdouh al-Damaty said in a statement. He identified her as Khentakawess, saying that for the “first time we have discovered the name of this queen who had been unknown before the discovery of her tomb”. That would make her Khentakawess III, as two previous queens with the same name have already been identified. “This discovery will help us shed light on certain unknown aspects of the Fifth Dynasty, which along with the Fourth Dynasty, witnessed the construction of the first pyramids,” he added. Miroslav Barta, who heads the Czech Institute of Egyptology mission and made the discovery, said the tomb was found in Neferefre’s funeral complex. “This makes us believe that the queen was his wife,” Barta said. An official at the antiquities ministry said the tomb dated from the middle of the Fifth Dynasty (2994-2345 BC). Archaeologists also found around 30 utensils, 24 made of limestone and four of copper, the statement added. (IANS)
False fire alarms cost Swedes millions
Stockholm: Taxpayers and businesses are hit with a bill of about 3.8 million US dollars each year to pay for false fire alarms, or 96 percent, in Stockholm, media reported Sunday. Only four percent of automatic fire alarms triggered in Stockholm during 2013 required any actual fire-fighting action, Xinhua reported.
During 2013, just over 3,400 automatic fire alarms went off in Stockholm. Only 149 required fire-fighting action. The remaining false alarms meant fire brigades just had to turn back home again. Nationally, the figure is 34,879 automatic fire alarms,5.5 percent of which required action by firefighters. “Of course it can feel unnecessary, but we still go. We treat all alarms the same way,” Pelle Rytterlund, head of the rescue department of Stockholm fire defence area. Filipsson, spokesperson for Stockholm fire defence area, told the newspaper that false alarms have increased. Some of them are due to technical faults, whereas others are caused by smoke or heat from cooking or maintenance workers. The owner of the building is responsible for the cost of unnecessary alarms, with councils and businesses among those footing the bills. “It is a large problem financially because a lot of alarms are triggered unnecessarily, generating costs for our members. The low reliability of automatic alarms is unfortunate,” Per Geijer, security manager at the Swedish Trade Association, Said. But at the same time he conceded that automatic alarms have to stay as businesses want to capture the small percentage that are triggered by actual fires. (IANS)
China navy builds 22-metre high wall to avoid being spied on
Beijing: China has reportedly built a 22-metre high wall around its navy base in the northeastern Liaoning province to protect the installation from being spied on from nearby “European-style” buildings. Built at a cost of USD 1.61 million by the People’s Liberation Army Navy, the 800-meter-long, 22-meter-high wall was erected around the naval base in Dalian city to keep it safe from being spied on, state-run China News Service said today.
The wall was erected because a group of European-style villas situated nearby were too tall, it said. China’s military facilities including naval base and airports are threatened by violations of height restrictions by nearby buildings. More than ten military airports have been relocated or closed due to safety concerns, according to a statement by the General Staff Headquarters of the PLA. Set up in 1931, Hangzhou Jianqiao Airport is known as the “cradle of China’s air forces,” yet more than 20 high-rise buildings in the vicinity have exceeded height limits. Due to local governments’ poor balancing of economic development and national defense, high-rise buildings pose threats to military reserve zones in many areas, the report said. (PTI)
A revised law forbidding buildings and structures from violating clearance limits in reserve zones went into effect on August 1 last year. PTI KJV CPS ASK AKJ CPS 01041947
Brazilian man drives for two hours with 30cm knife in head Washington, Jan 4 (PTI) A 39-year-old Brazilian man who was stabbed in the head at a house party drove for over two hours to hospital with a 30cm knife sticking out of his head. The knife narrowly missed Juacelo Nunes’ left eye and passed through his mouth into the right side of his jaw. Bleeding profusely from multiple stab wounds, Nunes travelled 97km from the remote village of Agua Branca to the municipality of Teresina – both in northeastern Piaui state. Nunes also suffered two knife wounds to his throat, shoulder and chest when he was stabbed after an argument at the party, Sky News reported. “The knife passed through several nerves and veins, structures that can quickly kill a patient,” said Gilberto Albuquerque, the director of the hospital in Teresina. The knife was removed and given to police who are investigating the attack, the doctor told G1 news website. Albuquerque added that Nunes was recovering surprisingly well. PTI SAR AKJ SAR 01041734