News story of the day

[chrisp65]

fingers crossed he gets the right news

[tonyh29]

Mayor attacked by a dog

 

A yellow tabby who has been the honorary mayor of an Alaskan town for 16 years has been attacked by a dog.

 

Mayor Stubbs survived the mauling in Talkeetna and is recovering at the Big Lake-Susitna Veterinary Hospital in Wasilla.

He suffered a wound in his side, a fractured sternum and a punctured lung, and underwent three hours of surgery.

A message posted on his Facebook page joked that Secret Service protection would be needed in future.

"While at this point in time it is impossible to know whether my attack was politically motivated, I do hope that the government will seriously consider providing me with some Secret Service protection in the future to assist in preserving my remaining eight lives," it read.

"I am thankful for the opportunity to continue leading the great town of Talkeetna onwards to brighter tomorrows."

 

His owner, Lauri Stec, said the cat was heavily sedated because he was in "so much pain" after the attack.

Stubbs is now reportedly breathing on his own after relying on a chest tube for a couple of days.

Ms Stec, owner of a general store in the small town, said she planned to file a police report, adding that the dog "needs to go away".

Stubbs was discovered among a box of kittens in 1997, and was named after his lack of tail.

 

He ascended to power shortly afterwards when the town's 800 inhabitants did not like the candidates in a mayoral election and encouraged enough people to elect the feline instead.

Although his position is honorary, Stubbs' popularity has grown over the years, earning him national fame and subsequent visits from tourists.

 

raises an interesting point though ... can we get a cat elected into Number 10 in 2015 ?

[drat01]

 

 

raises an interesting point though ... can we get a cat elected into Number 10 in 2015 ?

 

Firstly they would have to be elected to the House of Purr-liament

 

Once elected he or she would have to abide to the Feline-whip and make sure that other members like him

 

Once they have this support, no doubt they would be elected and not be a cat-astrophy like the current one 

[BOF]

Would help if it was litterate too.

[tonyh29]

[BOF]

Men of the U.K., you need to pay attention now ...

Testicle-eating fish, the Pacu, found in Paris with fears it could be coming to the UK

Testicle-eating fish, the Pacu, found in Paris with fears it could be coming to the UK

Small piranha-like fish was found in European waters for the first time in August

It is a fish that could give the great white shark competition as the most terror-inspiring creature of the deep. With the appearance of the piranha, but with teeth that look uncannily human, the pacu usually dines on a feast of insects, decaying plants and fruit that falls into the waters of the Amazon. But it has become more known for reportedly dining on another food: men's testicles.

As though destined to fulfil the script of a spoof horror flick, the pacu is now on the move, and has now been found as far from its South American home as Paris. Could it be making its way to the UK?

The small fish was found in European waters for the first time in August with experts warning men to keep their trunks on if swimming in the Øresund channel between Denmark and Sweden.

Now the pacu has been found in the River Seine, The Paris Prefecture of Police newsletter revealed on Tuesday. Although officers were skeptical of the tropical catch, its human-like teeth marked the species as the feared ‘testicle eating’ pacu.

Fish expert Henrik Carl told the Local earlier in August: “The pacu is not normally dangerous to people but it has quite a serious bite. There have been incidents in other countries, such as Papua New Guinea where some men have had their testicles bitten off.

"They bite because they’re hungry, and testicles sit nicely in their mouth."

The pacu, a relative of the piranha that is commonly found around the Amazon, can grow to up to 90cm and weigh in at a staggering 25kg. Fishermen in South America attacked by the pacu have reportedly bled to death after losing their testicles in the fish's vicious teeth.

The fish are found in most rivers in the Amazon and Orinoco basins in South America and have also been spotted in Papua New Guinea, where they are believed to have been introduced in order to boost fish stocks.

[villaajax]

Jaws has already kept me out of the water for 15 years so far so I'm not too concerned.

[chrisp65]

yeah, but if you could catch one and pull its teeth out.......

[AVFCforever1991]

yeah, but if you could catch one and pull its teeth out.......

 

You could set up stalls around the UK, like they do with the fish that that gives you a pedicure.

[villaajax]

And hepatitis

[chrisp65]

 

yeah, but if you could catch one and pull its teeth out.......

 

You could set up stalls around the UK, like they do with the fish that that gives you a pedicure.

 

Sir,

 

I think we have our Dragon's Den pitch.

 

In the centre of every shopping mall, between the phone covers man and the vibrating leather chairs:  Pisceticles! (alternative name NOSHU!)

 

ladies, just drop your man off at our 1.2 metres deep fishtank and go do some shopping, guaranteed he'll still be there when you get back, relaxed and happy to listen to you talk foundation or bags

[tonyh29]

One expects this kind of behaviour in Sheffield , but not Brazil

 

 

A Brazilian man is to wed his pet goat – but has promised not to consummate the marriage.

 

Former stonecutter Aparecido Castaldo, 74, has decided to end his days as a single man to marry his beloved Carmelita.

The happy couple will walk, or trot, down the aisle on October 13 in Igreja do Diabo, or Devil’s Church, in the city of Jundiai, Brazil.

Aparecido has been in love with the pet for two years and says a goat has advantages over a human companion.

‘She doesn’t speak and doesn’t want money,’ says the father of eight children – four women and four men from four different marriages.

 

The ceremony is scheduled for midnight and will be followed by a big party on All Souls’ Day the following day.

Carmelita ate her first wedding dress but has been found another, said Aparecido.

‘Whenever someone says I am doing something wrong I reply the goat does not speak, ask for money to go shopping and doesn’t get pregnant – and she can’t talk.’

The ceremony will be conducted by a bishop who said the pair will not be consummating the marriage.

‘This is not the first goat he has, because he likes animals. He just needs a companion. There will be no intercourse between the two.’

[mjmooney]

Yeah, right. That won't survive the first two tequilas. 

[leviramsey]

Or cachacas, as the case may be...

[tonyh29]

Masseur makes insane double goal-line clearance to deny team win ..video here

 

A team masseur prevented a certain goal by kicking the ball off the line during a Brazilian fourth division match and was then chased off the field by the enraged attacking team.

Tupi said they would take legal measures following the last-minute incident in the tie against Aparecidense which led to them being eliminated from the competition.

"It was our only chance. If I hadn't done it, Aparecidense would have been knocked out," the masseur, Romildo Fonseca da Silva, was quoted as saying by Brazilian media.

"I don't regret it because I did it out of love for the club."

Tupi described the incident as "one of the most shameful episodes in the history of Brazilian football" on their website and said they would lodge a protest.

Television pictures showed the masseur, wearing the Aparecidense uniform, standing next to the goal when Tupi launched an attack late in the game.

As Tupi threatened, he moved into the goal, cleared one shot off the line and then stopped the rebound with both feet before scrambling the ball away, for a double save any goalkeeper would have been proud of.

He then turned, ran behind the goal, hurdled the advertising hoardings and sprinted to the dressing room entrance, chased by furious Tupi players. Riot police prevented the livid players from following him down the tunnel.

 

Play was re-started after a 20-minute delay but Tupi were unable to create further chances.

The game ended 2-2 and Aparecidense went through on away goals after a 3-3 aggregate draw in the round of 16 tie.

The Brazilian fourth division consists of a group stage following by a knockout competition

[tonyh29]

 

Meanwhile in North Korea

Kim Jong-un’s Ex-Lover Reportedly ‘Executed by Firing Squad’

Kim Jong-un's ex-girlfriend was among a dozen well-known North Korean performers who were executed by firing squad nine days ago, according to South Korean reports.

Hyon Song-wol, a singer, rumoured to be a former lover of the North Korean leader, is said to have been arrested on August 17 with 11 others for violating laws against pornography.

The reports in South Korea's Chosun Ilbo newspaper indicate that Hyon, a singer with the Unhasu Orchestra, was among those arrested on August 17 for violating domestic laws on pornography.

All 12 were machine-gunned three days later, with other members of North Korea's most famous pop groups and their immediate families forced to watch. The onlookers were then sent to prison camps, victims of the regime's assumption of guilt by association, the reports stated.

“They were executed with machine guns while the key members of the Unhasu Orchestra, Wangjaesan Light Band, and Moranbong Band as well as the families of the victims looked on,” said a Chinese source reported in the newspaper.

Hyon's band was responsible for a string of patriotic hits in North Korea, including "Footsteps of Soldiers," "I Love Pyongyang," "She Is a Discharged Soldier," and "We Are Troops of the Party." Her popularity reportedly peaked in 2005 with the song "Excellent Horse-Like Lady."

The 12 who were executed were singers, musicians, or dancers with Hyon's band, the Unhasu Orchestra, or the Wanghaesan Light Music Band and were accused of making videos of themselves performing sex acts and then selling the recordings.

The reports stated that both groups have been disbanded as a result of the scandal.

Some of the musicians were also found to have Bibles when they were detained, and all were treated as political dissidents.

Kim Jong-un, who became leader of North Korea after the sudden death of his father in December 2011, is believed to have met Hyon about 10 years ago and struck up a relationship.

His father, Kim Jong-il, did not approve of the relationship and ordered him to break it off. Hyon subsequently married an officer in the North Korean military and reportedly had a baby, although there are suggestions that Hyon continued to see Kim after her marriage.

Kim's wife, Ri Sol-ju, was also a member of the Unhasu Orchestra before marriage, and one theory is that Ri objected to the continuing high profile of her husband's former girlfriend.

North Korea's Communist dictator reportedly purged his own stepmother, Kim Ok, from her post as a senior official in the Workers' Party Finance and Accounting Department as he sought to tighten his grip on power within the country.

She was luckier than Kim Chol, vice minister of the army, who was executed with a mortar round in October 2012.

Kim Chol was reportedly executed for drinking and carousing during the official mourning period after Kim Jong-il's death.

On the explicit orders of Kim Jong-un to leave "no trace of him behind, down to his hair," according to South Korean media, Kim Chol was forced to stand on a spot that had been zeroed in for a mortar round and "obliterated."

An expert on North Korean affairs believes the singer was executed for "political reasons."

"If these people had only made pornographic videos, then it is simply not believable that their punishment was execution," Toshimitsu Shigemura, a professor at Tokyo's Waseda University and an authority on North Korean affairs, told The Daily Telegraph.

"They could have been made to disappear into the prison system there instead."

There is a political reason behind this," he said, suggesting that the groups may have been leaning toward a rival faction in Pyongyang's shadowy political world. "Or, as Kim's wife once belonged to the same group, it is possible that these executions are more about Kim's wife," Professor Shigemura added.

 

 

 

the story is most likely not true  .. as was the recent story from the same source about a General being executed by a Missile !! ... tbh There is probably no way to confirm these sort of stories until after the DPRK collapses or Dennis Rodman confirms it

[BOF]

Your heavily monitored trip to North Korea has given you a fairly romanticised view of the country though Tony. You didn't visit their gulags by any chance? The stories that come from the people who manage to escape to South Korea tend to paint a picture closer to the one above than the one I get when you talk about your time there. It would surprise me if they showed you anything but the veneer they wanted you to see (your brief unsurveilled escapades notwithstanding ).

[tonyh29]

Your heavily monitored trip to North Korea has given you a fairly romanticised view of the country though Tony. You didn't visit their gulags by any chance? The stories that come from the people who manage to escape to South Korea tend to paint a picture closer to the one above than the one I get when you talk about your time there. It would surprise me if they showed you anything but the veneer they wanted you to see (your brief unsurveilled escapades notwithstanding ).

 

no , I don't doubt the Gulags etc are real , I've seen the clips of executions etc ...But I've also seen footage like that from China as well so the DPRK isn't the only country in the world locking people up and executing them ( not that this is justification or excuses it )  

 

 it's true that by and large we were only allowed to see what they wanted us to see and sometimes to get from A to B you went via C, D and E to avoid seeing something that you probably shouldn't   ... but it wasn't that heavily monitored ... I left the shop the group of us were in and went for a walk down the street , I figured when I got too far someone would blow a whistle or shout but it didn't happen  and I walked around the corner and witnessed what can only be described as a stampede going on  .. I think it was a food shop opening up with fresh produce but it's hard to say 100%  it happened quite quick and much as I wanted to go see figured I'd get my guides into trouble if I crossed over the road to find out ...

 

I've described my visit as being like the star of the Truman show , I'm even thinking the whole military parade was staged for our benefit :-)  , but things like the underground train journey we did and the visit to a couple of exhibits in Pyongyang just can't have been staged managed , it's too random and too many people involved  ... arguably they are the Pyongyang elite that you read about in the articles though  ... out in the sticks people are starving make no mistake , they lack machinery and people were tendering the land by hand as even basic equipment seems to be denied to them , people had the look of anemia about them due to lack of vitamin B etc  , but so do people from Up North  in the Uk so again it's not confined to one country

 

I'm just cynical of stories like this one that come from a clearly biased and anti DPRK source  and then how it went around the western media outlets verbatim  ... you could almost compare it to the Syria chemical weapon evidence , only in this case nobody seems to be questioning it

[BOF]

I have no doubt China is every bit as rotten as North Korea. You won't hear me defending that toilet either.

[tonyh29]

I have no doubt China is every bit as rotten as North Korea. You won't hear me defending that toilet either.

 

 

when did the Chinese score a handball goal against you in a WC qualifier ? 

Edited September 9, 2013 by tonyh29