Heroic father punches out alligator to save his son from the reptile’s jaws

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a1A terrified Florida father got into a fistfight with an eight-foot alligator Friday to save his son’s life.

Joseph Welch and son Joey, 6, were on a canoe trip through the Loxahatchee Wildlife Refuge in Boynton Beach when the boy fell into the water and the waiting alligator’s jaws.

‘I heard these blood-curdling screams and I saw this gator that had his right arm in his jaw and I just freaked,’ Joseph said.

a2Joseph told Local 10 that he immediately jumped into the water to save his son.

The alligator wasn’t wasting time either.

‘He just swam up to me and clamped my arm,’ Joey said. ‘He didn’t wait for a second.’

Joseph feared a struggle could tear the boy apart.

‘I didn’t want to play tug-of-war with the alligator and get his arm ripped off,’ Joseph told WSVN 7. ‘So I started punching the alligator on top of the head as hard as I could.’

Luckily an unidentified good Samaritan joined the man-versus-beast brawl and booted the alligator in the stomach.

Joey escaped with minor injuries and the gator was later tracked and killed by authorities because of its aggression.

Once on the attack, alligators are relentless.

Kaleb Langdale, 17, had his arm bitten off by a ten-foot long alligator last summer.

‘(I) knew I either got to lose this arm or I’m gonna die,’ he told reporters.

 

Inside the salt mine so large it has a mosque and electric railway and where tourists can follow in footsteps of Alexander the Great

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m8The Khewra salt mine, the second largest in the world, is a warren of 40 kilometers of tunnels housing an illuminated mosque made from salt rock, an electric train and even an asthma clinic.

The mine 100 miles south of Pakistan’s capital Islamabad is the largest and oldest salt mine in the country, drawing up to 250,000 visitors a year.

Khewra was discovered back in 320 BC by Alexander the Great’s troops, but trading started in Mughal era in the sixteenth century.

The main tunnel at ground level was developed during British rule by Dr. Warth, a mining engineer in 1872 and has been flourishing ever since.

An electric railway has been working in the mine since the 1930s. It once hauled extracted salt from the mines, but now brings tourists in to marvel at the salt formations.

The mine is still the largest source of salt in Pakistan with more than 350,000 tons produced per year, excavated at 18 different working levels.

To keep the vast mine from collapsing, only fifty percent of the salt found is mined in the 110 square kilometre area.

The cavernous tunnels have alternate bands of translucent, white and pink coloured salt.

As well as the traditional mining, for the past three years there has also been an experimental asthma clinic at the mine, attracting patients from all over the world.

Salt caves are seen by some as an alternative to drugs as asthma suffers can benefit from inhaling antibacterial salt particles to clear the lung passages.

The largest mine in the world is the Sifto Canada salt mine in Ontario.

 

Abductors free daughter, 10, of Bulgaria ‘drug lord’

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2Առևանգիչները ազատ են արձակել Բուլղարիայի կոկաինի թրաֆիկինգի «լորդիÂThe kidnapped 10-year-old daughter of one of Bulgaria’s alleged cocaine-trafficking lords, Evelin “Brendo” Banev has been released after 47 days in captivity, police said Monday.

Lara Baneva was left at a parking lot in the capital around 10:00 pm (1900 GMT) Sunday and walked to a nearby police station, the interior ministry said.

The girl was in good physical condition and was put under psychological care, it added.

State BNR radio reported that a ransom of 500,000 euros ($653,000) was paid for her release, but the information was not officially confirmed.

Lara Baneva was kidnapped on March 5 in the posh Boyana neighbourhood on Sofia’s outskirts while being driven to school.

Witness reports said three masked men had opened fire on the car, wounding the driver and abducting her.

 

Lufthansa cancels almost all flights due to strike

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LufthansaGerman airline Lufthansa said Monday it has cancelled most of its domestic, European and long-haul flights at six German airports due to strike action by ground personnel and some cabin crew.

Out of nearly 1,800 planned flights on Monday, “we will operate 20 short and medium-range flights and 12 long-distance services,” a spokesman told AFP.

Services union Verdi called the strike after three rounds of pay talks with management ended without any agreement.

Verdi is demanding a 5.2-percent pay increase for 33,000 Lufthansa ground staff, plus employees of various subsidiaries as well as cabin crew members who are Verdi members.

The escalating pay dispute threatens to cause transport chaos across Europe’s top economy and comes a month after Lufthansa was forced to cancel nearly 700 out of a total 1,800 flights due to half a day of warning strikes.

 

President Serzh Sargsyan sent a letter of condolences to the President of the People’s Republic of China Xi Jinping

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 Սերժ Սարգսյան

 

Today, President Serzh Sargsyan sent a letter of condolences to the President of the People’s Republic of China Xi Jinping on the devastating earthquake in Sichuan province of China.

“I am confident that resolute steps undertaken by the government of China will allow to quickly overcome this calamity and eliminated its consequences.

Sharing your and friendly Chinese people’s grief, I wish a speedy recovery to the injured, resilience and fortitude to the families of the victims and all people of China,” the letter of condolences of the President of Armenia reads.

 

 

It’s ours! Japanese school asks for boat that washed up in California after 2011 tsunami to be returned after school teacher recognises picture of it on Facebook

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j1Japan has asked for a boat back that has washed up in America following the massive 2011 tsunami.

Officials from the Japanese city of Rikuzentakata said it is in a ‘giddy state of shock’ and would love to get the boat back now it has been found in northern California.

The 20ft boat was been discovered in the town of Crescent City, midway between the cities of San Francisco and Portland.

The boat had travelled a distance of some 5,500 miles.

The Japanese found out where the boat was after officials in the U.S. posted a picture on Crescent City’s Facebook page.

Just hours later, a teacher from a school in Japan, said the boat was their’s.

When the deadly tsunami struck Japan in March 2011, about five million tons of debris was dragged into the Pacific Ocean, according to Japanese government estimates.

Most of the flotsam and jetsam later sunk to the bottom, but about 1.5 tons of debris continued floating across the ocean.

Some of tsunami remnants found their way to American shores, including two docks that made landfall in Washington and Oregon. But the only living organisms that were discovered on the docks included plant life and invertebrate like limpets and barnacles.

 

Two British teachers travel the world to promote education…in a tuk-tuk: 3-wheeled mission aims to help the 61million children without access to school

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Two British teachers are travelling around the world powered only by a tiny tuk-tuk’s lawnmower-sized engine in a bid to promote education.

Nick Gough and Rich Sears, from Guildford, Surrey, have already become the first to conquer Africa in their open-sided 395cc rickshaw after setting off from London last August.

They travelled around the UK in the three-wheeler – which can reach a top speed of 34mph downhill – before crossing Europe and passing down through the continent.

They are shipping the vehicle to Mumbai in India after reaching the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa, from where they will continue across Asia and around the Americas.

The pair are aiming to raise awareness of grassroots projects in parts of the world where there is poor access to education.

Rich Sears said: ‘The world’s leaders have made a commitment to achieving universal primary education by 2015 but, despite this pledge, over 61 million primary-aged children worldwide still lack access to any form of education.’

The pair have been visiting schools along the route to assess needs and invite sponsors though their charity Tuk-Tuk Travels.

 

British driver killed and dozens of tourists injured as coach careers off cliff in French Alps and explodes in fireball

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այրված ավտոբուսOne Briton was killed and up to 18 others injured when a coach exploded in a fireball after crashing in the French Alps yesterday.

More than 50 UK nationals were on their way home from resorts around Alpe d’Huez when the coach veered off the road after suspected brake failure.

It smashed into rocks shortly after 2pm before bursting into flames seconds later as passengers leapt to escape. The British driver was killed in the crash.

A number of passengers escaped from the burning wreckage by jumping out of smashed windows, and at least four of the injured were in a serious condition, according to French authorities.

Two helicopters were scrambled to the scene and airlifted the more seriously injured to hospital in Grenoble, while firemen battled to put out the flames.

A local police spokesman said: ‘There was apparently a problem with the coach’s brakes. The driver seems to have lost control on a steep bend in the road and his vehicle crashed into rocks.’

He added it was a miracle so many had survived the crash, thought to have happened towards the bottom of a mountain.

 

The Hand Prints of the Culprit by Rosario Teixeira

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Watertown-1Watertown, MA – During the month of April 2013, Peace of Art, Inc., will be displaying the Armenian Genocide commemorative billboards to honor the victims of the Armenian Genocide, calling for recognition and condemnation of the genocide.  Peace of Art, Inc. is a nonprofit educational organization that uses the universal language of art to address human concerns and to promote peaceful solutions to conflict. www.Peaceofart.org.  This year the billboards will be located in Foxboro, Watertown, and Cambridge.

 

On Easter Eve, March 30th, a 10’x 30′ digital billboard will be on display on Route 1 in Foxboro, MA, 1/4 mile south of the main entrance to Gillette Stadium and Patriot Place.  A second 11′ x 27′ billboard will be on display on Mount Auburn Street, Watertown, in the heart of the Armenian community, close to the Armenian cultural centers and churches. In addition, a third 11′ x 27′ billboard will be on display on Cambridge Street, near Lechmere Station, East Cambridge.  This area, with high traffic and high visibility, is the gateway between Cambridge, Boston, and Somerville.

 

The artist Daniel Varoujan Hejinian, president and founder of Peace of Art Inc., said that “with these billboards we are honoring the memory of the victims of the Armenian Genocide, calling upon the international community to recognize the Armenian Genocide, and to condemn the perpetrators.  He added, “98 years have passed but the bloody hand prints of the horrible events of 1915 stained the pages of the world history, when 1.5 million Armenians lost their lives.”

 

The 2013 billboard depicts the bloody hand prints on the words ‘Armenian Genocide’ over a black background.  Since 1996, Mr. Hejinian has been calling for the recognition of the Armenian Genocide.  In 2004 Peace of Art, Inc. began to sponsor the commemorative billboards honoring the victims and calling for the recognition of the Armenian Genocide.  This year’s message further calls for the condemnation of genocide.

 

To date, the Armenian Genocide has been recognized by over 20 countries and 42 U.S. states. However, in spite of his campaign promise to recognize the Armenian Genocide, in the last four years President Obama has failed to use the term genocide in reference to the slaughter of Armenians, which took place almost to a century ago.  Once again we urge the President on his second term, to honor his first campaign promise.

 

The Armenian Genocide is not a matter of concern for Armenians alone but to everyone.  Genocide is a crime against humanity.  Without recognition and condemnation, the Armenian Genocide remains a wound that continues to bleed, under the hand prints of the culprit.

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