DOUBLE arm transplant father says new hands are hairier than body

Jeff Kepner, an American father who had a double arm transplant, has spoken of his joy at the operation's success but says that he has been left with hands hairier than his body.

Double hand transplant patient Jeff Kepner works with therapist Kim Zeske-Maguire during his daily therapy session in Pittsburgh Photo: AP

The former pastry chef lost his hands more than a decade ago due to a bacterial infection, but is now looking forward to returning home to his family in Augusta, Georgia.

Kepner became the first American to undergo a double hand transplant in May, since when he has been recuperating at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

Yesterday he revealed how he was coping with his new limbs, explaining that he still lacks sensation but is learning to grip and pick up small items.

"I'm not the kind of person to say 'Ooh, those aren't mine'," he told the Daily Mirror.

"From the beginning I thought, 'These look pretty darn good'. The donor was hairier than I am but I feel like they've always been on my arms. I'm tickled with the results of that."

He added: "I'm waiting for that finger and thumb pinch. It's going to take a year to get that back."

It took a team of 10 surgeons to attach the hands and forearms to Kepner's amputed arms, which stopped just after the elbow.

Pictured: The baby pygmy hippo who's barely bigger than a lettuce leaf

By Daily Mail Reporter

Last updated at 9:05 AM on 01st October 2009

Hippos kill more humans than any other animal - but this little fellow doesn't look like he could do too much harm.

A newborn baby pygmy from Rotterdam's Blijdorp Zoo, he's dwarfed by lettuce leaves as he has a nibble with his mum.

Much tamer and shyer than their aggressive cousins, pygmy hippos are now critically endangered, with less than 3000 remaining in the wild.

A newly born pygmy hippopotamus has a nibble with its mother in Rotterdam's Blijdorp Zoo

They're indigenous to the tropical forests of West Africa, and their primary threat is the loss of their forest habitat due to the timber industry. They're also hunted extensively for their meat.

The aptly named pygmy grows to just over 3ft tall - just one fifth of the size of the common hippopotamus - and is the only other species of hippo in the world.

Reclusive and nocturnal, the mammals are semi-aquatic and need to live near water to keep their skin moisturised and their body cool.

They sometimes even mate and give birth in water, and they secrete oils known as 'blood-sweat' to keep their hide waterproof.

Pygmy hippos are plant-eating mammals, feeding on ferns, broad-leaved plants, grasses and fruits they find in the forest.

The deadliest mammal in Africa: The common hippo can weigh up to 4500 kg

Suicidal woman allowed to die after taking overdose because doctors feared saving her life would have been 'assault'

By Andrew Levy

Last updated at 9:41 AM on 01st October 2009

A young woman with a history of mental illness was allowed to die after swallowing antifreeze because she had written a letter declaring she did not want to be saved.

Hospital staff feared they could be accused of assault if they tried to treat her.

Kerrie Wooltorton arrived fully conscious in accident and emergency clutching a letter in which she said she did not want to be saved and was '100 per cent aware of the consequences'.

Smiling through despair: Kerrie Wooltorton, pictured with her godson George Miller, swallowed anti-freeze and wrote a letter declaring she did not want to be saved by hospital staff

A consultant sought legal advice before deciding not to intervene and Miss Wooltorton, 26, died the following day.

She had handed staff an 'advanced decision' or living will document, which can be drawn up stating what care patients want if they become incapable of expressing this themselves.

The documents, which are legally binding under the Mental Capacity Act, are commonly made by those with terminal illnesses or the elderly who do not want to be resuscitated.

But anti-euthanasia organisations were horrified at Miss Wooltorton's case and questioned whether she had been mentally capable of declining treatment.

An inquest heard the former charity shop worker had an untreatable personality disorder. She had previously been sectioned and had tried to kill herself nine times in a year.

Doctors have the right to ignore the terms of an advanced decision if someone has been treated under the Mental Health Act.

But those at the hospital insisted they felt Miss Wooltorton had been capable of making her decision.

Care Not Killing Alliance spokesman Dr Peter Saunders said: 'A mentally competent patient has the right to refuse treatment but you have to ask whether someone who attempts suicide nine times in a year is really of sound mind.

'Just imagine if the reaction to everyone being wheeled into A&E after attempting suicide was "Oh, they obviously want to die. Let them go".'

Miss Wooltorton was understood to be estranged from her parents but a friend said her father was deeply upset at her death and blamed hospital staff for not saving her.

Norfolk & Norwich University Hospital NHS Trust where Ms Wooltorton was allowed to die

She is understood to have had a rare gynaecological condition, uterus didelphys, which meant she had difficulty conceiving and subsequently became depressed.

An inquest, which began last year but was adjourned to gather more evidence, heard how Miss Wooltorton arrived at Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital on September 18, 2007, after calling an ambulance.

Consultant renal physician Dr Alexander Heaton told the inquest in Norwich that the hospital's medical director and legal adviser informed him Miss Wooltorton clearly had the mental capacity to decide about her treatment.

He added: 'She was in no state to resist me and I could have forced treatment on her but I don't think it was the right thing to do. I feel it would have been assault.'

Consultant psychiatrist Bernardo Garcia, who saw Miss Wooltorton in the months before her death, said he believed she was capable of drawing up an advanced decision letter.

Miss Wooltorton, who lived alone in a flat in Norwich, had attempted suicide by drinking antifreeze nine times in less than a year.

Each time she was given dialysis to flush the toxic solution from her body.

Greater Norfolk coroner William Armstrong recorded a narrative verdict, in which he did not blame the hospital for its failure to save Miss Wooltorton's life.

A hospital spokesman said: 'The test is whether the patient is mentally competent and able to make the decision at the time. The answer in this case was yes

Jessica Lunsford's Killer Dies of Natural Causes

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

A convicted sex offender awaiting execution for kidnapping, raping and burying 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford alive in 2005, died of natural causes Wednesday in Florida.

John Evander Couey, 51, had been ill for some time and died in a Jacksonville hospital where he had been since Aug. 12, said Department of Corrections spokeswoman Gretl Plessinger.

Plessinger declined to provide any specifics, citing a federal law protecting the privacy of hospital patients.

"It was not a surprise," she said.

Click here for photos.

Jessica's grandmother, Ruth Lunsford, 77, said in a telephone interview with the Associated Press that she couldn't feel bad about Couey's death.

"He murdered my granddaughter. He didn't show any mercy to my granddaughter," she said. "God took control of it. He took him out of this world. ... I'm not crying, honey. If my legs and feet would hold up, I'd go out and shout all over Citrus County."

The crime prompted many states to pass laws named for Jessica that impose restrictions on sex offenders, including tougher penalties and registration requirements. Florida's version also bans them and others convicted of serious crimes from school grounds.

Couey died just over a month before the Florida Supreme Court was scheduled to hear his automatic appeal. He had an IQ of 78, slightly above the level generally considered mentally disabled, but the judge rejected an argument by his lawyer that he couldn't legally be executed.

Couey spent much of his 2007 trial, which was moved to Miami because of publicity about the case, drawing in coloring books. He looked straight ahead as Circuit Judge Ric Howard told him he should be executed.

Jessica's father, Mark Lunsford, teared up then as he listened to the judge read a detailed history of the case. Outside court, he had a message for Couey: "Skip all these appeals. Take your punishment. Stand up and be a man."

Couey took Jessica from her bedroom to his nearby trailer in February 2005, triggering a massive search. The third-grader's body was found about three weeks later in a grave in Couey's yard, only about 150 yards from her home.

Couey's confession was thrown out as evidence because he did not have a lawyer present. Jail guards and investigators testified he repeatedly admitted details of the slaying but said he hadn't meant to kill the girl.

Prosecutors also introduced overwhelming physical evidence, including fingerprints and DNA.

Jessica's body was found wrapped in two garbage bags under a foot of dirt.

Couey previously had been convicted of exposing himself to a 5-year-old girl in 1991. His criminal record also included 24 burglary arrests and carrying a concealed weapon.

Houston Woman Fries and Eats Pet Goldfish After Fight With Husband

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

PASADENA, Texas — Authorities say a Houston-area woman who was burned up at her former common-law husband fried their pet goldfish and ate some of them.

Pasadena police say it's a civil matter and no charges will be filed. The seven goldfish were purchased together by the couple during happier times.

Police spokesman Vance Mitchell says the man reported on Saturday that the woman took the goldfish from his apartment.

Mitchell says the two argued earlier about some jewelry the man had given her but took back. She wanted the jewelry returned.

Officers who were dispatched to the woman's home arrived to find four fried goldfish on a plate. The woman said she already ate the other three.

Bodies on the beaches after Samoan tsunami... as thousands go missing in SECOND Indonesian earthquake

By Mail Foreign Service

Last updated at 1:03 PM on 01st October 2009

Thousands of people are feared to have died after two powerful earthquakes rocked Indonesia.

Rescuers were frantically searching for survivors in the rubble caused by the two quakes in the province of Sumatra today - as, far to the west on the Pacific islands of Samoa, stunned residents were battling heat and floods to pull the bloated bodies of tsunami victims from the water.

The devastating quakes came just hours after the powerful tsunami smashed into the Pacific islands of Samoa, American Samoa and Tonga.

Paradise lost: Samoan police carry the body of a tsumani victim found in the waters near Matavai on the southern coast of Western Samoa yesterday

'It's a war zone': Rescue workers carry the body of a girl that was found floating in Pago Pago Harbor after the tsunami slammed into American Samoa yesterday

The first earthquake, a 7.6-magnitude tremor, struck the city of Padang in Sumatra yesterday afternoon. Then, as rescuers desperately searched through the rubble for survivors, a second quake hit early today with a magnitude of 6.6.

Thousands are believed to be still buried under the rubble. Officials have confirmed 529 people dead so far - but the death toll had been set to reach the thousands even before the second quake struck. Now some estimates claim it could rise as high as 6,000.

'We've seen pick-up trucks carrying the dead... after three hours it seemed normal'

Meanwhile in Samoa, American Samoa and Tonga total of 149 people have been confirmed dead on so far.

But as planes scoured the seas for the hundreds who are still missing, officials warned the death toll will rise.

'We've seen pick-up trucks carrying the dead ... back to town,' said New Zealand tourist Fotu Becerra. 'We were shocked when we saw the first one but after three hours, it seemed normal.'

British officials are desperately trying to establish if any UK travellers have been caught up in the Indonesian earthquakes.

The nearby Mentawais Islands are popular with surfers from Western nations.

It is feared that British surfers may have been using Padang - the city of 900,000 on the main island of Sumatra which has been badly hit by the earthquakes - as a base.

Meanwhile in Padang, Indonesia, students climb out of the rubble of a collapsed building after the first earthquake struck the archipelago yesterday

There were also concerns for several other Britons who failed to contact relatives after entire villages were flattened or washed into the sea by the Samoan tsunami.

In Samoa the British child was swept away from its parents when a tidal wave, which reached a height of 35ft according to witnesses, struck.

The tsunami was also caused by an earthquake - the most powerful of the three earthquakes to rock the Pacfic in the space of roughly 36 hours. The Samoan quake was under the sea, with a magnitude of 8.0.

Double disaster: Stunned residents walk through the remains of a street in Padang today after a second earthquake rocked the Indonesian island of Sumatra

Still hoping: People search victims underneath a collapsed shop in Padang after the first quake. Thousands were believed to be trapped beneath the rubble of the city

All three quakes took place along the Pacific Ring of Fire, a horseshoe-shaped area of seismic activity ringing the Pacific basin.

Some 90 per cent of the world's earthquakes take place there.

'We saw cracks emerge in the soil and water come out of the ground like it was Universal Studios'

The Indonesian quakes took place on the same fault-line as the devastating Boxing Day tsunami which killed 230,000.

Indonesian officials fear that the two earthquakes could be as disastrous as the 2006 quake that killed nearly 6,000 people in the Indonesian city of Yogyakarta in 2006.

Thousands of people are trapped under the rubble in Padang, a city of 900,000, after the first quake yesterday afternoon, senior Indonesian health ministry official said.

The second quake's epicentre - inland and further to the south-east - was 154 km (96 miles) northwest of Bengkulu, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

Reporters have been unable to get through to the area.

The epicentres of all three quakes are shown on this graphic

Health Minister Siti Fadillah Supari told reporters at an airport in Jakarta before leaving for Padang that the number of victims 'could be more (than hundreds or thousands). I think it's more than thousands, if we look at how widespread the damage is. But we don't really know yet'.

Australian businesswoman Jane Liddon told Australian radio from Padang that the city centre was devastated.

'The big buildings are down. The concrete buildings are all down, the hospitals, the main markets, down and burned. A lot of people died in there. A lot of places are burning.'

TV footage showed piles of debris, collapsed houses and multi-storey buildings, with scores of crushed cars.

This graphic charts first the Samoan tsunami, then the first of the Indonesian earthquakes. The second Indonesian earthquake struck in the early hours of this morning

Padang's airport was operating, although many people were camping out on prayer mats as they tried to flee the city, while soldiers and aid groups such as the Red Crescent arrived.

Patrick Werner, 28, a German tourist at the airport, was on a beach when the quake struck. Some overseas visitors use Padang as an entry point to visit nearby beaches and mountains.

'All the lights have gone out completely'

'We saw some cracks emerge in the soil and water come out of the ground like it was Universal Studios. We grabbed our passports and some money and ran up to the street,' he said.

'We need aid as soon as possible. We need food and medicine. Our houses have collapsed,' said Siti, a resident of Padang, capital of West Sumatra province.

Rustam Pakaya, the head of the health ministry's disaster centre, said via a telephone text message that a hospital in Padang in the area near the epicentre of the quake had also collapsed.

A man runs past houses burning in the aftermath of the earthquake that struck Padang yesterday

Race against time: A soldier and volunteers look for victims under the ruins of a collapsed four-storey building in Padang on Indonesia's Sumatra island after the first earthquake hit yesterday afternoon

'Jamil hospital collapsed and thousands of people are trapped in the rubble of buildings,' Pakaya said. A Reuters reporter at the hospital said there were at least 40 corpses lying on the ground there.

A resident called Adi told Indonesia's Metro Television in the minutes after the first quake that there was devastation around him. 'For now I can't see dead bodies, just collapsed houses. Some half destroyed, others completely. People are standing around too scared to go back inside. They fear a tsunami.

'No help has arrived yet. I can see small children standing around carrying blankets. Some people are looking for relatives but all the lights have gone out completely.'

A man carries an injured person from the rubble of a collapsed university building in Padang yesterday after the first earthquake

A woman clutching her dead baby cried for help: 'My son is dead. My son is dead.' TV footage showed troops carrying a woman on a stretcher, blood seeping from wounds on her legs and her body covered in dust.

Heavy rain initially hampered rescue efforts and officials said power had been cut in Padang, which lies on a coastal plain and is surrounded by steep mountains that stretch far inland.

'Everyone was just walking around, curious about what was going to happen... Then out of nowhere, this big wave, tall as the sky'

In Samoa, signs of devastation from the tsunami were everywhere.

Some 20 villages were destroyed as the serioes of four waves ripped buildings apart and washed people out to sea, some still sleeping in their beds, survivors said.

One mother watched in horror as her three children playing in the sand were swept away. Many died after being crushed by debris swirling in the floodwaters.

Two refrigerated shipping containers, on grass behind the main hospital in the Samoan capital Apia, served as makeshift morgues after the hospital morgue could accept no more corpses.

Along the southern coast of Samoa's main island Upolu, which bore the brunt of the tsunamis, palm trees had nearly all been flattened, snapped like twigs by the force of the ocean.

A satellite image shows moments after a tsunami wave hit Pago Pago village on the island of American Samoa

Tsunami waves approach American Samoa's Tafuna International Airport in Pago Pago

A layer of mud and sand covered many shattered buildings and boats and cars hung from trees, as survivors scavenged the debris. Survivors said people were collecting dead fish, washed ashore by the waves, to feed their families.

Pago Pago resident Joey Cummings said buildings were not just destroyed, but had vanished, washed away by the waves.

'It's all sand and fish in what's left of the houses'

'The harbour area where the radio station was looks like a bomb went off,' Cummings told U.S. television. 'If your building was not made of concrete it doesn't exist any more.'

Reuters photographer Hugh Gentry said Pago Pago looked 'like a war zone'. 'The most tragic (scene) was the discovery of a small girl found floating in the harbour,' he said.

The waves hit early in the morning, almost without warning, leaving many villagers little chance to outrun waters surging 200 metres (650 feet) inland.

In the mountains behind the beaches men banged gas cylinders, like the church bells that call the deeply religious island to church on Sunday, to warn of the danger approaching. Police drove along roads calling residents to go to higher ground.

'Some, they have no place (to run), especially kids and the oldest, they lost their lives,' Tua Taleu, who fled to higher ground as waves swallowed his village, told Australian radio.

A car has been tossed on its roof by the churning waters of the tsunami as it swept through Pago Pago, on American Samoa

Samoan Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi said it was fortunate that the tsunami struck in daylight. 'If it had come in the dark and the tide was high, the number of people who died would be much higher,' he said.

The undersea 8 magnitude quake created small tsunamis which reached Hawaii, the coast of California and Japan within hours.

Radio New Zealand, quoting disaster authorities, said 32,000 people had been affected, with 3,000 homeless.

'The devastation is frightening. Every family has been affected. One of my staff members has lost 13 members of her family,' said Adimaimalaga Tafunai, director of Women in Business Development Inc (WIBDI) in Apia.

A 21-year-old woman who only gave her name as Ngutu said: 'Everyone was just walking around as normal after the earthquake, curious about what was going to happen.

'Then out of nowhere this big wave, as tall as the sky, hit. Everyone just started running inland towards the hills, running for our lives.

'We've lost everything. Our whole village is gone. It's all sand and fish in what's left of the houses.'

Actress-turned-psychologist Pamela Stephenson, who was on Samoa filming a documentary about writer Robert Louis Stevenson, a former resident of the island, said a friend of hers was killed.

No one spared: An aerial of Hihifo on the western side of Tonga after the first powerful earthquake sent tsunami waves sweeping through the Pacific

An aerial view of the devastation in Falehau in Tonga after the first earthquake hurled tsunami waves through the Pacific

Miss Stephenson, wife of comedian Billy Connolly, said: 'She and her husband were trying to run to their car.

'They were caught by the waves. She was found on the beach later.'

The Queen yesterday sent a message of condolence to the Samoan head of state.

Authorities in the neighbouring island nation of Tonga confirmed nine dead and officials feared whole towns on outlying islands had been destroyed. The two Samoas and Tonga have a combined population of about 400,000 people and rely on subsistence agriculture, fishing and tourism.

In Washington, President Barack Obama declared a disaster for American Samoa. The Federal Emergency Management Agency said it was deploying teams to provide support and assess damage.

Dr Stephen Rogers, the British Honorary Consul in the capital, Apia, said he believed about 20 Britons were on the island when the tsunami struck, and several had lost all their possessions.

'We've had calls from a number of Brits in different accommodation who are claiming to be okay,' he said.

But he added: 'We've had calls from the UK about people we've got no information about.'

Five Britons in their 20s and 30s were yesterday found alive.

This graphic provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) shows how fast the tsunami travels after an earthquake with a magnitude of 8.0 rocked the island nation of Samoa

The quake hit at 6:48 am local time (17:48 GMT) midway between the two island groups.

At least one entire village in American Samoa was reported to have been flattened by the tsunami, later reports said, but confirmation of the destruction was difficult because communications were cut to many areas.

While the earthquake and tsunami were big, they were not on the same scale of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, said Brian Atwater of the U.S. Geological Survey in Seattle. That tsunami killed more than 230,000 in a dozen countries across Asia.

The 2004 quake was at least 10 times stronger than the measurements being reported for Tuesday's quake, Atwater said.

Horror in Pacific tourist paradise loved by writer Robert Louis Stevenson

Robert Louis Stevenson, pictured in 1881, was one of Samoa's most famous residents. He and his wife Fanny were fascinated by the traditional way of life, coupled with its verdant beauty

The two Samoan islands have grown in popularity with tourists in recent years despite their vulnerability to natural disasters.

Between them, both Samoa and American Samoa in the last decade have experienced hurricanes, tropical cyclones and flooding, as well as the recent tsunami.

Samoa and American Samoa came into existence in the later half of the nineteenth century when Germany and the United States divided the Samoan archipelago.

Germany had been handed control of Samoa in 1899 but was driven out by New Zealand during the First World War. New Zealand acquired a UN mandate to administer the islands until 1961, when Samoans finally voted for and gained independence.

Officially called the Independent State of Samoa, it is made up of nine volcanic islands.

American Samoa, which lies immediately to the east, is comprised of five volcanic islands and two coral atolls.

Tourism to both has grown as they have become known as just as picturesque and idyllic as other South Pacific destinations such as Fiji and Tahiti.

The islands are fringed with reef and turquoise blue lagoons, are home to tall coconut palms towering above white sand beaches and benefit from almost endless sunshine.

In April this year the Guardian newspaper reported 115,882 foreign visitors per year to Samoa.

Face in the sand: British team unearths Roman amphitheatre at ancient port

By Daily Mail Reporter

Last updated at 1:04 PM on 01st October 2009

A face appears eerily from beneath the ground at the site of an ancient port that once hustled and bustled supplying goods to the rulers of Rome.

The well-preserved statue is one of many stunning artefacts uncovered by British archaeologists, who have unearthed a major amphitheatre at Potus, close to Fiumicino airport.

Blast from the past: A statue head uncovered after a six-year dig by British archaeologists at the site of the ancient port of Portus, which supplied Rome

The ancient gateway to the Mediterranean was twice the size of the port of Southampton and supplied the centre of the Roman Empire with food, slaves, wild animals, luxury goods and building materials for hundreds of years. It is now two miles inland.

The excavation team conducted the first ever large-scale dig at Portus, which has been described by experts as one of the major archaeological sites in the world.

Today it sits incongruously next to the airport runway and the team digs to the sound of jet engines.

The project concentrated on the banks of a hexagonal-shaped man-made lake which formed part of the 2nd century harbour, about 20 miles from the Italian capital, and found the amphitheatre inside a gigantic imperial-style palace. It could have held up to 2,000 people and is similar in size to the Pantheon in Rome.

The unearthed statue (l) and Professor Simon Keay inspecting cellars, untouched for almost 2,000 years (r)

The Roman port is now two miles from the current coastline

Portus project director Professor Simon Keay said he thought the material used to build the amphitheatre means it could have played host to the famous Roman emperors in the 2nd century.

Prof Keay said: 'This amphitheatre is, in fact, tucked away. It's at the eastern end of the palace and it's a very intimate building and you would not even know it was there unless you approached from the east.

'Its design, using luxurious materials and substantial colonnades, suggests it was used by a high status official, possibly even the emperor himself, and the activities that took place there were strictly private: it could have been games or gladiatorial combat, wild beast baiting or the staging of mock sea battles, but we really do not know.

'What we do know is it's unusual to find this type of building with elements of imperial architecture so close to a harbour.'

Embargoed until 0001 Thursday 1 October 2009. Handout picture dated 2009 released by Southampton University of a statue head as it was excavated by British archaeologists. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Issue date: Wednesday September 30, 2009. British archaeologists have unearthed a major amphitheatre at an ancient port supplying Rome that may have played host to emperors such as Hadrian and Trajan. The team, led by the University of Southampton, has spent two years at the well-preserved site of Portus, close to Fiumicino airport near Rome. See PA story HISTORY Amphitheatre. Photo credit should read: Southampton University/PA Wire

The well-preserved site of Portus, is close to Fiumicino airport near Rome

Portus was close to the ancient river port of Rome Ostia and was certainly very important and vital to the survival of the Roman Empire and so would have been of interest to the emperors, who would have used it to travel to and from the city.

The team has found a 295ft-wide canal that linked two huge basins where ships weighing up to 350 tonnes unloaded their cargo to Ostia. Cargo could then use the Tiber to travel to Rome.

Geophysical surveys have found what could be remains of a bridge across the canal.

Prof Keay said the dig is very important and has also uncovered thousands of smaller finds.

Stairs to a Roman warehouse, where goods would have been stored at the busy ancient port

'It's going to generate a lot of rethinking about how ports were used and that will change the way we think about Rome's relationship with the Mediterranean,' he said.

'The site has been known about since the 16th century but it has never ever been given the importance it deserves. It has been grossly understudied. This is one of the most important archaeological sites in the world.

'Certainly it should be rated alongside such wonders as Stonehenge and Angkor Wat in Cambodia. So much of this imperial port has been preserved and there is much more to learn about its role in supplying Rome and in the broader economic development of the Roman Mediterranean.'

Southampton University created this computer generated image of how the port may have looked like from the top of the inner lighthouse

Colorado Man in Wheelchair Tackles Suspected Child Molester in Walmart

Thursday, October 01, 2009

Cameron Aulner doesn't think of himself as a hero. The wheelchair-bound Colorado resident says he just did what anyone else would do when he saved a little girl from a child molester right in the Walmart where he works.

Witnesses say a man sexually assaulted a young girl inside a Walmart in Westminster on Sept. 19, picked her up and then tried to flee the store, KDVR FOX 31 TV reported.

Aulner, 22, was working at the Comcast table in the front when he heard the commotion. He tackled the suspect, 34-year-old Kevin Salyers, before he could escape and held him until cops arrived, he said Tuesday in an interview with KDVR.

“It was something that happened so fast, I didn’t even think about it,” Aulner told the station. “I’m not a hero, I just did what you’re supposed to do.”

Salyers was arrested and charged with sexual assault on a child, police told FOXNews.com on Wednesday.

Aulner has been in a wheelchair since he fell from a roof while hanging up Christmas lights, he told the station. He said he might get an award from police for his actions.

Hero soldier who lost three limbs in Afghanistan taunted about his disabilities by teenagers

By Daily Mail Reporter

Last updated at 1:08 PM on 01st October 2009

Survivor: Since returning to Britain from Afghanistan, Sapper Matthew Weston has become the target of cruel jibes about his disabilities

A soldier who lost three limbs in an Afghanistan bomb blast has become the target of cruel jibes about his disabilities since returning to Britain.

Sapper Matthew Weston lost both legs and his right arm as well as most of his hearing after he stepped on an improvised explosive device while on patrol in Helmland Province in June.

He has been classified as the most seriously injured soldier to survive the conflict in Afghanistan.

But since returning to Britain, the 20-year-old has been verbally abused by teenagers on the streets of Birmingham, where he has been receiving hospital treatment for his injuries.

Sapper Watson's mother Rena said: 'When we took him out people said things like "Haven't you forgotten something? Oh yeah, your legs."

'One shouted at him "If you didn't want to be blown up, don't go to war." It's disgusting.'

She added: 'If you don't like what you see please walk on by - don't hurt abuse at him.

'He's still Matthew. He wasn't expected to make it but he has. He's making really good progress but there's still a long way to go.

'It has been devastating, totally emotionally draining and has changed all our lives.'

Sapper Watson has refused to talk about the incidents.

His girlfriend Bryony Bolland said: 'It probably does get to him. He hides his emotions quite well.

Sapper Weston lost both legs and his right arm as well as most of his hearing after he stepped on an explosive device in Helmland Province (file picture)

'We were shocked and horrified that people can be so ignorant. It's horrible and very sad.

'They must see the news and realise there are soldiers being killed and injured. They don't understand because to them it is just numbers not people.'

Sapper Weston, from Taunton, Somerset, is currently at the Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre at Headley Court in Surrey.

He enlisted at 17 and was on his first deployment to Afghanistan when he was blown up. He plans to return to the Army next year and hopes to make the Paralympic shooting team.

He will receive artificial legs next week.

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