World's smallest mother Stacey Herald to give birth for the third time
Stacey Herald, the world's smallest mother, is about to give birth for the third time, despite warnings she is risking her life.
Stacey Herald: She cannot hold her daughter because her belly gets in the way, and has to rely on her husband Will to do most things around the house. Photo: BARCROFT
Mrs Herald, who is just 2ft 4ins, was told that becoming pregnant could kill her but has already defied doctors to have two healthy babies.
The 35-year-old from Dry Ridge, Kentucky, USA, suffers from Osteogenesis Imperfecta, which causes brittle bones and underdeveloped lungs, and means she failed to grow.
Now Mrs Herald, who uses a wheelchair, and her husband Will, who is 5ft 9ins, are awaiting the birth of their third child, due in the next four weeks.
She cannot hold her daughter because her belly gets in the way, and has to rely on her husband Will to do most things around the house.
Mrs Herald admits being pregnant is "uncomfortable" and leaves her bedridden for weeks on end. By the time the new addition, a boy, is one he will already tower over his mum.
But despite all the obstacles, Mrs Herald and her husband, a trainee priest, say they want even more children.
The couple met in 2000 while working for a supermarket in their home town and were desperate for a family after marrying in 2004.
But doctors warned Mrs Herald a baby would grow so large inside her tiny body it would eventually crush her organs.
"It broke my heart that I couldn't have kids," she said.
"All my life my parents had told me that I could do anything. Then there were these doctors telling me that we couldn't be a complete family. It really hurt."
Eight months later, the couple were thrilled when they discovered Mrs Herald was pregnant and decided to go ahead even though family and doctors begged them to reconsider.
"They all told me that I would die. They begged me not to have a baby. Even my mother said,' You know you won't survive right?'
"I told her: 'It's a miracle that I am here, that I have life, why couldn't this be a miracle too?'"
After 28 weeks, doctors performed a cesarean section and daughter Kateri was born, weighing just 2lbs and 1oz in 2006.
She grew well but there was heartbreak for the family when they discovered Kateri had inherited Mrs Herald's condition and would also never grow to a normal height.
But the young family resumed life as normal, before Mrs Herald became pregnant a year later.
"It was kind of like the last time, everyone screamed: 'What are you doing?' at us," she said.
"The doctors told me I was pushing my luck. But we just prayed that God would bring us through it."
She admits that the second pregnancy has taken its toll, saying: "It was hard, I got so much bigger faster. At my worst point I remember bursting into tears, because I looked like a beach ball with a head and little feet.
Doctors tried to let the second baby stay in Mrs Herald's body for as long as possible, letting her pregnancy go to 34 weeks before taking her into theatre.
Daughter Makaya who, at 18 inches was more than half her mum's body length when she was born, weighed 4lbs and 7oz.
Now both girls are bigger than their mother, who is now 30 weeks pregnant with her first boy.
She said: "It's getting tougher and tougher to move.
"At the moment because I'm getting really big again I can't hold my youngest daughter because my belly gets in the way and I can't get my arms around her."
Mrs Herald added: "All my babies are miracles, but we haven't thought about if we're going to have some more, as they're a real handful right now.
"We didn't plan to have more than two kids, we just think that they're a great gift to the world, and when I look at them I see Will and I feel so full of love, it's tough not to want more."
Two adults found dead in Randwick house as children fight for life
The Daily Telegraph
November 09, 2009 11:42pm
TWO people have been found dead, along with a three-year-old girl with a gaping neck wound and a six-month-old boy inside a house in Sydney's eastern suburbs this evening.
The girl who was bleeding profusely was found inside the home where the two adult bodies were discovered, the Daily Telegraph reports.
Both children are in a critical condition, an ambulance spokesperson said.
Acting Superintendent Shayne Woolbank said police forced their way through a side window of the semi-detached home on Clovelly Road at Randwick to find the bodies of a 68-year-old man and his 37-year-old daughter.
"Police were called here and upon arrival have located the two deceased,'' Acting Supt Woolbank said at the scene.
He would not confirm how the couple died.
"At this stage, it's very early in the investigation,'' he said.
"We have scientific police on scene including the homicide squad and local detectives.''
The girl was taken to the local hospital. A baby boy, believed to be the dead woman's son, was also taken to the hospital where community service staff were looking after the children until family could arrive, he said.
Acting Supt Woolbank said police were trying to contact the woman's husband but could not confirm who owned the house.
A neighbour, who identified himself only as John, said he heard a man screaming just before police arrived.
John said he knew the man as "Ben'' and said the family of four moved in about two years ago.
"I heard somebody screaming,'' John said. "A man's voice.''
Another neighbour, Antinina Mautone, said she knew the man and his wife. She said they had two children, one about two years old. She was unsure about the age of the other child.
Another neighbour, Antinina Mautone, said she knew the man and his wife. She said they had two children, one about two years old. She was unsure about the age of the other child.
"They were very nice to me," Ms Mautone said.
"It's a shock to us that this has happened."
She also said she would often see the woman and the children playing in the back lane.
"She was a wonderful lady," Ms Mautone said.
"The kids were very happy."
Clovelly Road remained in lockdown throughout the evening and police expect to remain on scene well into Tuesday morning.
Up to 30 local officers, detectives and forensic investigators are examining the crime scene and door-knocking neighbours in case anyone heard or saw what happened
Brazilian Student Expelled for Wearing Mini-Dress to Class
Sunday, November 08, 2009
SAO PAULO — A Brazilian university expelled a woman who was heckled by hundreds of fellow students when she wore a short, pink dress to class, taking out newspaper ads Sunday to publicly accuse her of immorality.
The private Bandeirante University in Sao Bernardo do Campo, outside Sao Paulo, said 20-year-old Geisy Arruda disrespected "ethical principles, academic dignity and morality."
Arruda made headlines last month when she had to be escorted away by police after she tried to go to class wearing the mini-dress. She put on a professor's white coat and left amid a hail of insults and curses.
Video of the Oct. 22 incident was posted on YouTube
and picked up by Brazilian networks. Arruda has since appeared frequently on TV, saying she is struggling to return to normal life after being humiliated.
Bandeirante University published advertisements accusing Arruda of attending class with "inadequate clothing" and having a provocative attitude that was "incompatible with the university environment."
In the ad, titled "Educational Responsibility," the college said it had warned Arruda to change her behavior and decided to expel her after talking to students, staff and Arruda herself. It accused her of posing for pictures and provoking other students.
Arruda told Folha Online on Sunday she was appalled.
"I was the victim," she said. "How can I be expelled? It's absurd."
Arruda said she learned of her expulsion through the news media and had not received official notification.
She said university officials told her last week she would be allowed to return to classes with the protection of a security guard.
'Drunken yob left me blind in one eye for asking him not to swear'
By Fay Schlesinger
Last updated at 12:27 PM on 09th November 2009
When Julie Hobson heard a man uttering obscenities in a quiet residential street, she asked him to stop to protect her daughter from his foul-mouthed tirade.
But the thug viciously attacked the 38-year- old mother of two without warning, leaving her blind in one eye and with reduced vision in the other.
Mrs Hobson was on her way to a party in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, with her daughter Sarah, 13, and two adult friends when they came across Thomas Wilkinson, 20.
Battered and bruised: Julie Hobson lost her left eye in the attack. She has criticised her attacker's sentence as too short
As he launched into a drunken rant of the most offensive words, Mrs Hobson asked him to 'shut up'.
Wilkinson was sentenced to six years in a young offenders' institution
But Wilkinson, who had been discharged from the Army, pushed 5ft 1in Mrs Hobson into a bush and rained blows on to her head. Neighbour Tony Young ran from his house to stop the violence, but was attacked himself.
He later described the force of the blows on Mrs Hobson as an attempt to 'knock her head off'.
When one of Mrs Hobson's friends, Emma Goodhall, tried to intervene, Wilkinson punched her to the ground, knocking her unconscious. Jobless Wilkinson then fled.
Mrs Hobson was taken to Scunthorpe General Hospital with an agonising pain in her left eye.
Surgeons were forced to remove it and she was later fitted with a prosthetic eye.
She had to quit work as a seamstress and does not leave home in Runcorn, Cheshire, without her husband Paul, 43.
Mrs Hobson said: 'I am devastated and still wake screaming in the night. Both my daughters have had counselling. But if a yob swore in front of my daughter again I'd do the same. To walk away isn't the kind of world we want to live in.'
Last night she urged police to clamp down on people who use obscene language in public, adding: 'It has become acceptable to swear in public. But it's just not on.
'Such horrible language smacks of a failing society, where there is no respect for other people and no care for children.'
Wilkinson admitted grievous bodily harm with intent on April 4 and causing actual bodily harm to Miss Goodhall and Mr Young.
Attack victim: Julie with her 13-year-old daughter Sarah who she was trying to protect from Wilkinson's foul-mouthed tirade
He was sentenced to six years in a young offenders' institution at Lincolnshire Crown Court, though he could be released in just 30 months after spending six months in custody.
Judge Michael Heath told him: 'You were in drink. As you walked past, Mrs Hobson told you to "shut up". Her daughter was entitled not to hear this filthy language.'
In a letter to the court, Wilkinson said: 'I would do anything to have taken back what I have done.'
But Mrs Hobson criticised his 'lenient' sentence and said the law had failed the victims of street crime.
She said: 'This has changed my life. I can't work, my prosthetic eye is
very painful, and there's a dark area of the sight I do have. My husband has to walk on my left, as I bump into things. 'I've been run over by a wheelchair twice and burnt myself because I can't see everything.
'If the resident who came to help hadn't done so, I would probably be dead.'
Julie Hobson pictured with husband Paul before the attack
Militants behead school principal
From correspondents in the Philippines
Agence France-Presse
November 09, 2009 02:50pm
THE severed head of a school principal who was abducted by Islamic militants in the troubled southern Philippines was dumped at a petrol station, authorities said.
The head of Gabriel Canizares was found inside a bag at a petrol station on Jolo island at dawn, 22 days after the 36-year-old primary school headmaster was kidnapped, local police chief inspector Usman Pingay said.
His body remains missing, police said.
Authorities had previously said militants from the Abu Sayyaf group, listed by the United States as a terrorist organisation, snatched Canizares from among a busload of teachers near the Jolo town of Patikul on October 18.
The Abu Sayyaf demanded a two-million-peso ($A45,000) ransom, which his relatives refused to pay.
"We shall make them pay for the enormity of this savagery," President Gloria Arroyo's spokeswoman Lorelei Fajardo said in a statement.
She said Arroyo had ordered "punitive action" to "put an end to the Abu Sayyaf group's heinous and inhumane atrocities."
"The people of Jolo are condemning this dastardly act," Jolo municipal mayor Hussin Amin said in a television interview aired in Manila.
The beheading came three days before a visit to Manila by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in which the Philippines said security issues would be a key topic.
The Abu Sayyaf has been blamed for many of the country's worst terrorist attacks, including the firebombing of a ferry in Manila Bay that claimed more than 100 lives in 2005, and the abduction of American tourists in 2001.
One of the Americans was beheaded while another was killed in a military rescue.
The Abu Sayyaf mostly operates out of Jolo, a hotbed of a decades-old Muslim separatist insurgency, where small numbers of US military advisers are providing training to Filipino counter-terrorism forces.
Manila said ahead of the Clinton visit on Thursday that it would welcome any help to persuade Muslim separatists to sign a peace treaty to end four decades of low-level rebellion in the Mindanao region.
"We would welcome Clinton as a representative of our oldest and staunchest friend, the United States. We expect the talks between the two sides to be fruitful and productive," Arroyo spokesman Gary Olivar said.
Clunk, click ... hiss: World's first inflatable seatbelt will 'soften blow' of a crash
By Ray Massey
Last updated at 2:01 AM on 09th November 2009
A car maker is introducing seatbelts that inflate like airbags to give extra protection to passengers.
Ford is fitting the back seats of vehicles with belts that inflate automatically during a crash.
Experts say they will be particularly effective at preventing broken ribs, internal damage and bruising in children.
The seatbelt inflates over the shoulder and torso in a mere 40 milliseconds
Frail and elderly passengers will also benefit particularly from the cylindrical airbag that stretches from the buckle to the shoulder and fits inside a pocket sewn into the belt.
The technology will be introduced on the latest model of Ford Explorer 4x4, which goes into production in the United States next year.
If the trials work well it could open the way for the belts to be used in Britain.
In a crash, sensors in the Explorer will calculate the severity of any impact and inflate the belts with compressed gas, stored below the seat, in 40 milliseconds - the time it takes a car to travel one yard at motorway speed.
The airbag breaks through the belt fabric and spreads the impact forces over an area five times larger than a traditional belt. 
On impact the belts' air bags are filled with compressed gas that is stored below the seat
This helps to keep the passenger in the safest seating position - reducing pressure on the chest and controlling head and neck movement.
Sue Cischke, vice-president of safety engineering at Ford, said the belts would improve safety for all rear-seat passengers.
'Ford's rear inflatable seatbelt technology will enhance safety for rear-seat passengers of all ages, especially for young children who are more vulnerable in crashes,' she said.
In everyday use, the inflatable belts work like conventional seatbelts and are safe to use with children's safety and booster seats.
More than 90 per cent of people who tested the belts said they were similar to or more comfortable than traditional belts.
Clarence Ditlow, of the Centre for Auto Safety, said they will help to reduce broken ribs, common in back-seat passengers involved in a crash, because the airbag inflates more gently than a conventional front-seat airbag.
Ex-Navy Swimmer OK After 212-Foot Suicide Leap
Sunday, November 08, 2009
NEW YORK — The former Naval Academy water-polo player who miraculously survived a 212-foot suicide leap from the George Washington Bridge suffered no neurological damage from his ordeal.
The family of Adrian Rawn, 28, was by his side yesterday at Hackensack University Medical Center.
In recent weeks, he was having trouble at work and his grandmother died, sources said.
Rawn jumped from the bridge at about 11:30 a.m. Friday. He plummeted into water that was a frigid 55 degrees. Because he is a strong swimmer, he made it to the New Jersey side.
He was left with cuts, bruises and a concussion, and will have to undergo surgery.
Click here for more from the New York Post.
Fantastic display, Mr Fox: Cub falls 12ft through the ceiling... and into shop window
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 10:53 AM on 09th November 2009
Shoppers at a busy leather goods store couldn't believe their eyes when a fox fell through the ceiling and into the front window display.
The startled animal dropped into the shop and fell 12ft before landing on a pile of luggage.
It is believed the fox, who is only a cub, crept into the suspended ceiling through the fan system, which is switched off at night.
Startled consumers crowded around the front window as the fox nestled between some handbags and allowed itself to be petted.
Brush with death: A fox fell through the ventilation system at Dolphin Leather Goods in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset
Store owner Ruth Reeves, 47, photographed the animal on her mobile phone before calling a local wildlife centre to arrange a rescue at the Dolphin Leather Goods in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset.
She said: 'We heard some scratching and a kerfuffle in the suspended ceiling and one of the panels just sort of collapsed.
'I thought, "Oh, gosh. Something's fallen on to the floor," and I then I heard this scuffling and I went over to the window and there was this beautiful little fox.
Lucky escape: Despite suffering from concussion, the disorientated animal was otherwise unharmed
'There are air fans up there that run during the day that are off at night so he must have come through the vents after hours.
'He didn't hurt himself because he fell on some big travel bags which are full of stuffing I've got near the front window.
'He was lovely. He let me stroke him in the window just like a little cat.
'He looked like a perfect little fox - he had a lovely bushy tail and his coat was beautiful, although he seemed to have a little cataract in one eye.'
Window dressing: The docile fox brightened up the shop front
Mother-of-three Ruth phoned the Secret World Wildlife Sanctuary in nearby Highbridge, Somerset, after the fox fell into her store at around 1pm on Monday.
Secret World founder Pauline Kidner, who is now caring for the animal, said he was 'very lucky' not to have been seriously injured in the fall.
She said: 'He was certainly suffering from concussion when he came in - he was very disoriented and very quiet.
'He was very lucky that he had a soft landing on some bags when he fell.
'We put him in one of our casualty pens and supported him with heat and pain relief because he had bruises, but luckily he had escaped without any other injuries.
'He's doing very well now, and we've been walking him up and down the corridor.
'He's a cub from this year, who's in very good condition. We're hoping to release him on Sunday in the middle of the night.
'We've been calling him Fantastic Mr Fox.'
NYC Man Falls 5 Stories After Trying to Escape Disabled Elevator
Sunday, November 08, 2009
NEW YORK — A 34-year-old man who tried to exit a stuck elevator died after falling five stories down a Brooklyn elevator shaft.
Police say the man had been trying to jump out of a disabled elevator car when his clothing caught on something.
The man was unconscious and unresponsive when emergency responders brought him to Bellevue Hospital Center. He was pronounced dead at around 3:30 a.m. Sunday, about three hours after the fall in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn.
British couple are oldest in the world to divorce at age 98 - but man dies before he can enjoy the single life
By Luke Salkeld
Last updated at 3:24 AM on 09th November 2009
A British man and his wife have become the oldest couple in the world to divorce – at the age of 98.
Bertie and Jessie Wood got a decree absolute to end their 36-year marriage when they were both two years away from their 100th birthdays.
Both had been married before when they wed in Elstree, Hertfordshire, in 1972. They moved to Falmouth, Cornwall, four years later, but by 2008 the relationship was over.
OAP divorce: Bertie and Jessie Wood split at age 98 (picture posed by models)
Both were 97 at the time and it is unclear why their marriage failed although a decree absolute is believed to have been granted subsequently.
According to neighbours of the former couple, Mrs Wood now lives in a care home. Mr Wood, however, died shortly before he turned 99.
Mrs Wood's daughter Pauline Rowe, 65, refused to discuss the split. 'It's too hurtful to talk about,' she told the News of The World.
Terence Wood, Mr Wood's son from his first marriage, also refused to comment on the marriage break-up, which prompted divorce expert Francine Kaye to say: 'At that age you'd think you'd find some way of getting on with each other.'
But to prove romance is not dead in the West Country, in the neighbouring county of Devon last month, a couple married at the combined age of 181 to become Britain's oldest newlyweds.
Les Atwell, 94, and Sheila Walsh, 87, married in a quiet ceremony attended by family and friends. They met four years ago, introduced by Mr Atwell's cleaner.
His new wife explained: 'His cleaner told me about Les and I thought he sounded nice but then she told me he's 90 and I thought "oh no, I'm not so sure".
'But when we met, that was it. It was love at first sight.'
The couple, who live in Paignton, went on a two week Mediterranean cruise for their honeymoon, stopping off in Athens, Rome and Barcelona.
James Mason, 93, and his wife Peggy, 85, also from Paignton, shortly held the title of the country's oldest newlyweds after they married in 2007.
The world record is held by French couple Francois Fernandez, then 96, and Madeleine Francineau, then 94. who married in 2002.