Saturday, July 27, 2013

Here are some interestin and ver amazing true facts:

1-It is impossible to lick your elbow (busted)
2-A crocodile can't stick it's tongue out.
3-A shrimp's heart is in it's head.
4-People say "Bless you" when you sneeze because when you sneeze,your heart stops for a mili-second.
5-In a study of 200,000 ostriches over a period of 80 years, no one reported a single case where an ostrich buried its head in the sand.

6-It is physically impossible for pigs to look up into the sky.
7-A pregnant goldfish is called a twit. (busted?)
8-More than 50% of the people in the world have never made or received a telephone call.
9-Rats and horses can't vomit.
10-If you sneeze too hard, you can fracture a rib.
11-If you try to suppress a sneeze, you can rupture a blood vessel in your head or neck and die.
12-If you keep your eyes open by force when you sneeze, you might pop an eyeball out.
13-Rats multiply so quickly that in 18 months, two rats could have over a million descendants.
14-Wearing headphones for just an hour will increase the bacteria in your ear by 700 times.
15-In every episode of Seinfeld there is a Superman somewhere.
16-The cigarette lighter was invented before the match.
18-Thirty-five percent of the people who use personal ads for dating are already married.
19-A duck's quack doesn't echo, and no one knows why.
20-23% of all photocopier faults worldwide are caused by people sitting on them and photocopying their butts.
21-In the course of an average lifetime you will, while sleeping, eat 70 assorted insects and 10 spiders.
22-Most lipstick contains fish scales.
23-Like fingerprints, everyone's tongue print is different.
24-Over 75% of people who read this will try to lick their elbow.
25-A crocodile can't move its tongue and cannot chew. Its digestive juices are so strong that it can digest a steel nail.
26-Money notes are not made from paper, they are made mostly from a special blend of cotton and linen. In 1932, when a shortage of cash occurred in Tenino, Washington, USA, notes were made out of wood for a brief period.
27-The Grammy Awards were introduced to counter the threat of rock music. In the late 1950s, a group of record executives were alarmed by the explosive success of rock ‘n roll, considering it a threat to "quality" music.
29-Tea is said to have been discovered in 2737 BC by a Chinese emperor when some tea leaves accidentally blew into a pot of boiling water. The tea bag was introduced in 1908 by Thomas Sullivan of New York.
30-Over the last 150 years the average height of people in industrialised nations has increased 10 cm (about 4 inches). In the 19th century, American men were the tallest in the world, averaging 1,71m (5'6"). Today, the average height for American men is 1,75m (5'7"), compared to 1,77 (5'8") for Swedes, and 1,78 (5'8.5") for the Dutch. The tallest nation in the world is the Watusis of Burundi.
31-In 1955 the richest woman in the world was Mrs Hetty Green Wilks, who left an estate of $95 million in a will that was found in a tin box with four pieces of soap. Queen Elizabeth of Britain and Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands count under the 10 wealthiest women in the world.
32-Joseph Niepce developed the world's first photographic image in 1827. Thomas Edison and W K L Dickson introduced the film camera in 1894. But the first projection of an image on a screen was made by a German priest. In 1646, Athanasius Kircher used a candle or oil lamp to project hand-painted images onto a white screen.
33-In 1935 a writer named Dudley Nichols refused to accept the Oscar for his movie The Informer because the Writers Guild was on strike against the movie studios. In 1970 George C. Scott refused the Best Actor Oscar for Patton. In 1972 Marlon Brando refused the Oscar for his role in The Godfather.
34-The system of democracy was introduced 2 500 years ago in Athens, Greece. The oldest existing governing body operates in Althing in Iceland. It was established in 930 AD.
35-A person can live without food for about a month, but only about a week without water.
36-If the amount of water in your body is reduced by just 1%, you'll feel thirsty.
37-If it's reduced by 10%, you'll die.
38-According to a study by the Economic Research Service, 27% of all food production in Western nations ends up in garbage cans. Yet, 1,2 billion people are underfed - the same number of people who are overweight.
39-Camels are called "ships of the desert" because of the way they move, not because of their transport capabilities. A Dromedary camel has one hump and a Bactrian camel two humps. The humps are used as fat storage. Thus, an undernourished camel will not have a hump.
40-In the Durango desert, in Mexico, there's a creepy spot called the "Zone of Silence." You can't pick up clear TV or radio signals. And locals say fireballs sometimes appear in the sky.
41-Ethernet is a registered trademark of Xerox, Unix is a registered trademark of AT&T.
42-Bill Gates' first business was Traff-O-Data, a company that created machines which recorded the number of cars passing a given point on a road.
43-Uranus' orbital axis is tilted at 90 degrees.
44-The final resting-place for Dr. Eugene Shoemaker - the Moon. The famed U.S. Geological 45-Survey astronomer, trained the Apollo astronauts about craters, but never made it into space. Mr. Shoemaker had wanted to be an astronaut but was rejected because of a medical problem. His ashes were placed on board the Lunar Prospector spacecraft before it was launched on January 6, 1998. NASA crashed the probe into a crater on the moon in an attempt to learn if there is water on the moon.
46-Outside the USA, Ireland is the largest software producing country in the world.
47-The first fossilized specimen of Australopithecus afarenisis was named Lucy after the paleontologists' favorite song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds," by the Beatles.
48-Figlet, an ASCII font converter program, stands for Frank, Ian and Glenn's LETters.
49-Every human spent about half an hour as a single cell.
50-Every year about 98% of atoms in your body are replaced.
51-Hot water is heavier than cold.
Plutonium - first weighed on August 20th, 1942, by University of Chicago scientists Glenn Seaborg and his colleagues - was the first man-made element.
52-If you went out into space, you would explode before you suffocated because there's no air pressure.
53-The radioactive substance, Americanium - 241 is used in many smoke detectors.
54-The original IBM-PCs, that had hard drives, referred to the hard drives as Winchester drives. This is due to the fact that the original Winchester drive had a model number of 3030. This is, of course, a Winchester firearm.
55-Sound travels 15 times faster through steel than through the air.
56-On average, half of all false teeth have some form of radioactivity.
57-Only one satellite has been ever been destroyed by a meteor: the European Space Agency's Olympus in 1993.
58-Starch is used as a binder in the production of paper. It is the use of a starch coating that controls ink penetration when printing. Cheaper papers do not use as much starch, and this is why your elbows get black when you are leaning over your morning paper.
59-Sterling silver is not pure silver. Because pure silver is too soft to be used in most tableware it is mixed with copper in the proportion of 92.5 percent silver to 7.5 percent copper.
60-A ball of glass will bounce higher than a ball of rubber. A ball of solid steel will bounce higher than one made entirely of glass.
61-A chip of silicon a quarter-inch square has the capacity of the original 1949 ENIAC computer, which occupied a city block.
62-An ordinary TNT bomb involves atomic reaction, and could be called an atomic bomb. What we call an A-bomb involves nuclear reactions and should be called a nuclear bomb.
63-At a glance, the Celsius scale makes more sense than the Fahrenheit scale for temperature measuring. But its creator, Anders Celsius, was an oddball scientist. When he first developed his scale, he made freezing 100 degrees and boiling 0 degrees, or upside down. No one dared point this out to him, so fellow scientists waited until Celsius died to change the scale.
64-At a jet plane's speed of 1,000 km (620mi) per hour, the length of the plane becomes one atom shorter than its original length.
65-The first full moon to occur on the winter solstice, Dec. 22, commonly called the first day of winter, happened in 1999. Since a full moon on the winter solstice occurred in conjunction with a lunar perigee (point in the moon's orbit that is closest to Earth), the moon appeared about 14% larger than it does at apogee (the point in it's elliptical orbit that is farthest from the Earth).

66-Since the Earth is also several million miles closer to the sun at that time of the year than in the summer, sunlight striking the moon was about 7% stronger making it brighter. Also, this was the closest perigee of the Moon of the year since the moon's orbit is constantly deforming. In places where the weather was clear and there was a snow cover, even car headlights were superfluous.
67-According to security equipment specialists, security systems that utilize motion detectors won't function properly if walls and floors are too hot. When an infrared beam is used in a motion detector, it will pick up a person's body temperature of 98.6 degrees compared to the cooler walls and floor.

68-If the room is too hot, the motion detector won't register a change in the radiated heat of that person's body when it enters the room and breaks the infrared beam. Your home's safety might be compromised if you turn your air conditioning off or set the thermostat too high while on summer vacation.
69-Western Electric successfully brought sound to motion pictures and introduced systems of mobile communications which culminated in the cellular telephone.
70-On December 23, 1947, Bell Telephone Laboratories in Murray Hill, N.J., held a secret demonstration of the transistor which marked the foundation of modern electronics.
71-The wick of a trick candle has small amounts of magnesium in them. When you light the candle, you are also lighting the magnesium. When someone tries to blow out the flame, the magnesium inside the wick continues to burn and, in just a split second (or two or three), relights the wick.
72-Ostriches are often not taken seriously. They can run faster than horses, and the males can roar like lions.
73-Seals used for their fur get extremely sick when taken aboard ships.
74-Sloths take two weeks to digest their food.
75-Guinea pigs and rabbits can't sweat.
76-The pet food company Ralston Purina recently introduced, from its subsidiary Purina Philippines, power chicken feed designed to help roosters build muscles for cockfighting, which is popular in many areas of the world.
77-According to the Wall Street Journal, the cockfighting market is huge: The Philippines has five million roosters used for exactly that.
78-Sharks and rays are the only animals known to man that don't get cancer. Scientists believe this has something to do with the fact that they don't have bones, but cartilage.
79-The porpoise is second to man as the most intelligent animal on the planet.
80-Young beavers stay with their parents for the first two years of their lives before going out on their own.
81-Skunks can accurately spray their smelly fluid as far as ten feet.
82-Deer can't eat hay.
83-Gopher snakes in Arizona are not poisonous, but when frightened they may hiss and shake their tails like rattlesnakes.
84-On average, dogs have better eyesight than humans, although not as colorful.
85-The duckbill platypus can store as many as six hundred worms in the pouches of its cheeks.
86-The lifespan of a squirrel is about nine years.
87-North American oysters do not make pearls of any value.
88-Human birth control pills work on gorillas.
89-Many sharks lay eggs, but hammerheads give birth to live babies that look like very small duplicates of their parents. Young hammerheads are usually born headfirst, with the tip of their hammer-shaped head folded backward to make them more streamlined for birth.
90-Gorillas sleep as much as fourteen hours per day.
91-A biological reserve has been made for golden toads because they are so rare.
92-There are more than fifty different kinds of kangaroos.
93-Jellyfish like salt water. A rainy season often reduces the jellyfish population by putting more fresh water into normally salty waters where they live.
94-The female lion does ninety percent of the hunting.
95-The odds of seeing three albino deer at once are one in seventy-nine billion, yet one man in Boulder Junction, Wisconsin, took a picture of three albino deer in the woods.
96-A group of twelve or more cows is called a flink.
97-Cats often rub up against people and furniture to lay their scent and mark their territory. They do it this way, as opposed to the way dogs do it, because they have scent glands in their faces.
98-Cats sleep up to eighteen hours a day, but never quite as deep as humans. Instead, they fall asleep quickly and wake up intermittently to check to see if their environment is still safe.
99-Catnip, or Nepeta cataria, is an herb with nepetalactone in it. Many think that when cats inhale nepetalactone, it affects hormones that arouse sexual feelings, or at least alter their brain functioning to make them feel "high." Catnip was originally made, using nepetalactone as a natural bug repellant, but roaming cats would rip up the plants before they could be put to their intended task.
100-The nematode Caenorhabditis elegans ages the equivalent of five human years for every day they live, so they usually die after about fourteen days. When stressed, though, the worm goes into a comatose state that can last for two or more months. The human equivalent would be to sleep for about two hundred years.

What ordinarily should have been a thing of joy turned sour recently, as a mother of five, Mrs. Paulina Lucius, was delivered of a set of premature quadruplets. The incident took place at the Rural Hospital in Kaura Local Government Area of Kaduna State.



The birth of the quadruplets has brought the total number of the woman’s children to nine. Paulina’s husband, Mr. Lucius Kanvong, had in the early hours of February 27, this year, visited his wife, who was in labour at the hospital.



He was reportedly shocked to have met his wife with four premature children. Confused, he expressed a mixture of joy and worry, as he had limited resources to raise the four children. One of those who got wind of the arrival of the premature children was Dr. Barclays Foubiri Ayakoroma, Executive Secretary, National Institute for Cultural Orientation (NICO). He called on government and well-meaning Nigerians to support the family, whose breadwinner, Mr. Kanvong, is a peasant farmer in Assu-Attakar village, Kaura Local Government Area of Kaduna State.

Already, some concerned Nigerians have been showing concern and supporting the family. They include Chairman of Kaura Local Government Area of Kaduna State, Mr. Kumai Babung, and the Chief of Takab Chiefdom, Mr. Tobias Wada (Agwan Takab 1). They were said to have visited the family to felicitate with them and offer material and financial donations.

Although the birth of the quadruplets has continued to attract compliments from well wishers, Mr. Lucius Kanvong, the father, appears to have received the babies with mixed feelings.

While he is happy that the wife successfully delivered four babies at a time, the challenge of catering for the children continues to haunt him. According to Mr. Jerry Bighan, elder brother to the father of the quadruplets, who is also a staff of the Kaduna State Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Lucius, has continued to live with the fear of the unknown, having had five children already.

Bighan explained that Lucius had confided in him that he was expecting just one baby to make up six children and stop childbearing but has now ended up with nine children. Moreover, he is worried that as a peasant farmer, he may not be able to cater for the children.

While expressing gratitude to God Almighty for the support given to the family so far, Jerry Bighan further called for more assistance from government, non-governmental organisations and concerned Nigerians to enable the family cater for the children and raise them well, stressing that the father is just a peasant farmer with minimal income.

Meanwhile, the premature quadruplets (two boys and two girls) are reportedly being cared for in an incubator at the St. Gerald’s Hospital in Kaduna State, while the mother has since been discharged from the hospital but remains under close observation by the doctors.

Ayakoroma, who pledged to support the family, also called on more Nigerians to support the couple so that that the coming of the children would remain a source of blessing rather than cause untold hardship for the family.

A father tumbled to his death as he searched for his son who had fallen 300 metres while they were hiking in the French Alps, police believe.

The bodies of Peter Saunders, 48, and son Charlie, 12, were found by rescue services near Mont Blanc on Sunday morning.
Mr Saunders had called for help at 2pm local time on Saturday after Charlie fell down a cliff on a mountain trail in the Chamonix valley.

It was reported the pair had set off without snowshoes to explore a "dangerous, deep, snowy" mountain trail between Bossons and Les Houches when they died. Charlie fell from around 300 metres, while his father fell 200 metres, reports said.
Captain Patrice Ribes, a French police officer, said emergency services had unsuccessfully tried to trace Mr Saunders' mobile phone call and launched a helicopter rescue.
"We think the father tried to find his son after he called us and asked for rescue. We believe he fell as he tried to find his son. Their bodies were found together this morning at 7.40am," he said on Sunday.
In a statement issued by the Foreign Office, their family said: "Peter and Charlie Saunders were involved in a tragic accident whilst walking in the French Alps.
"They had flown to the French Alps for a short weekend of adventure in the Chamonix valley. They were to have a half day walking followed by a full day skiing.
"Charlie was always full of life, had a really happy temperament and loved spending time with his father. Peter was fantastic at making things happen, resourceful, with a positive approach to life. They will both be sorely missed by friends and family alike.

IN another attempt to integrate the web with devices other traditional devices like PCs, tablets and smartphones, new footwear from Google can provide directions, speed and can even dish out motivational talk using connection between the shoes, and an Android smartphone.


The futuristic Google Talking Shoe is an experimental talking sneaker concept being developed by Google. The shoe is said to be able to literally talk and communicate with its user in a very social way, as it motivates that user and gives feedback while that person is doing certain tasks such as walking, running or exercising, for example.



The shoe is fitted with a speaker, computer, accelerometer, gyroscope and pressure sensor.

It is the perfect invention for anyone who needs a gentle reminder to get off the sofa.

Google’s talking shoe can sense activity – and inactivity – and tells the wearer when they need to get moving.

It is fitted with a host of gadgets that measure movement, direction and balance, a built-in microprocessor connects to an audio speaker in the tongue of the trainer.

The gadgets are programmed to translate the pressure sensor and accelerometer readings into simple audio instructions for the wearer.

But not content simply to give someone feedback, the inventors at Google have created the shoes to have their own personality – that of a sarcastic, impatient personal trainer who cheers and sneers in equal measure.

When the wearer, for example, is stationary for too long, the trainers will say, ‘This is super boring’, or ‘Let’s do this’.

When someone ups their activity, the shoes will say something like, ‘That’s more like it’, or ‘I love the feel of the wind in my laces’.

And increasing to a sprint will prompt the speakers to call out: ‘Call 911, you are on fire’, or the ultimate in praise: ‘You have made me a very proud shoe.’

The trainers also connect to the internet via bluetooth and an Android phone and work with Google’s mapping software to track and plot runs.

Mike Glaser, product marketing manager for Google, said: “The trainer has pressure sensors in the sole and all of those collect the wearer’s data in real time.

“So if I’m running, it recognises how many times my foot hits the ground in a minute through the accelerometer and sends the information to the web to an Android app allowing us to tell a very rich story of the wearer.”

But, unfortunately for anyone who likes the sound of super-smart trainers, there are no plans to put them on sale.

Google, which unveiled the trainers at the SXSW technology festival in Austin, Texas, developed the concept to showcase the possibilities of integrating everyday objects with cutting-edge technology.

Advertising executive, Aman Govil, said the shoe was an exercise in showing what could be done – ‘an experiment’ in connecting any kind of object to the web and using it to collect and analyse information.

Google has partnered with shoe-maker Adidas in their talking sneaker project. No word yet has come out about its price and availability.

This is Google's second high-profile experimental project on wearable technology after Google Glass, an augmented reality eyewear, which is expected to be released by Google sometime this year.

Will Smith has revealed the reason that he passed on playing the role of Django in the Oscar-winning 'Django Unchained'.


Smith was originally in line to play the role in Tarantino's exploitation thriller, but turned it down leaving Jamie Foxx to slip into the part of the wronged slave.

For those who haven't seen the film, there's a mild spoiler ahead...

“Django wasn’t the lead, so it was like, I need to be the lead,” he told EW.

“The other character was the lead! I was like, ‘No, Quentin, please, I need to kill the bad guy!'

“I thought it was brilliant, just not for me.”


Tarantino revealed last year that when the pair met, 'it just wasn’t 100 percent right, and we didn’t have time to try to make it that way'.

Other actors who were in the frame for the part included Idris Elba, Chris Tucker and Terrence Howard.

Since 'Reservoir Dogs' and 'Pulp Fiction', Tarantino has largely been able to pick and choose his actors, though the director does not always get his first choice.

Leonardo DiCaprio was originally set to play the lead in 'Inglorious Basterds' - taken by Brad Pitt instead - but eventually worked with the director as slave owner Calvin J. Candie in 'Django'.

Elsewhere in the world of Tarantino casting, as recently emerged in an article in Vanity Fair, Daniel Day-Lewis was originally in the frame for Vincent Vega in 'Pulp Fiction' and both Matt Dillon and Mickey Rourke missed out on playing Butch.

North Korea's leader has told rocket units to be on standby for an attack on US bases, according to state media.

The country's KCNA news agency said Kim Jong-Un had signed off on the order to train sights on American bases in South Korea and the Pacific after a midnight meeting with top generals.
It comes after two American stealth bombers flew over South Korea in a show of force to Pyongyang, following an escalation of rhetoric from the North's young leader.
The two nuclear-capable B-2 planes flew a 13,000-mile round trip from an air base in Missouri, dropping a dummy bomb on a target range in the South.
The planes were taking part in a joint South Korea-US military exercise that has inflamed tensions with Pyongyang, which earlier this month threatened to unleash an "all-out war" backed by nuclear weapons.


 "This .... demonstrates the United States' ability to conduct long range, precision strikes quickly and at will," the US military said in a statement.
"The B-2 bomber is an important element of America's enduring and robust extended deterrence capability in the Asia-Pacific region."
KCNA reported that Mr Kim had "judged the time has come to settle accounts with the US imperialists in view of the prevailing situation".
The agency said: "He finally signed the plan on technical preparations of strategic rockets of the KPA, ordering them to be standby for fire so that they may strike any time the US mainland, its military bases in the operational theatres in the Pacific, including Hawaii and Guam, and those in South Korea."
The US has denied the exercise was provocative but said it was "committed to a pathway to peace" and "prepared to deal with any eventuality" in the region.
Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel and General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the B-2 bombers were a message intended more for allies than Pyongyang.
"The North Koreans have to understand that what they're doing is very dangerous," Mr Hagel said.
"I don't think we're doing anything extraordinary or provocative or out of the ... orbit of what nations do to protect their own interests."
The US, he added, must make it clear to South Korea, Japan and other allies in the region that "these provocations by the North are taken by us very seriously, and we'll respond to that".

Thirty-two pregnant teenagers at various stages of their pregnancies have been arrested in Umuzue community in Osisioma Ngwa Local Government Area of Abia State by men of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defense Corps (NSCDC).


They were arrested together with the owner of the home, Mrs Nnenna Mba and two male workers on April 2, 2013 following a tip-off. The girls , whose ages range between 10 and 20 were believed to have run to the home after getting pregnant without the knowledge of their parents or were impregnated at the home by visiting males employed by the proprietor of the home.
Speaking to Naija talk at the office of the NSCDC, the Commandant, Mr Ben E. Dikuro said that his men stormed the home and arrested the teenage girls and the proprietor on Tuesday.



“We gathered from a tip-off that girls who get pregnant are lured to the home with rosy promises of compensation when they deliver. Also young girls who needed money are also convinced to get pregnant and deliver the child and be paid some amount of money.

The young girls are also allowed to sleep with some of the men they brought to the home. Anyone who delivers a girl is paid N80,000 and the child is sold by the owner of the home for N400,000. But if a girl delivered a boy, she was paid N100,000.

While the boy would be sold to those that need them for N450,000. “Our investigation revealed that she has been operating the home since 2009 but was able to register it in 2012. The aim of the registration was to run the outlet as a home for the less privileged, but she was hiding under that cover to perpetrate atrocities. All the girls we caught there are at various stages of pregnancy.

We have gone to the Ministry of Women Affairs and discovered that her registration is different from what she is doing.” The Public Relations Officer of NSCDC, Mr Victor Ogbonna advised parents to take good care of their female children just like the males.

“You can imagine, this type of girls that should be responsible to their parents being lured into the business of baby making just for money.

The cause of all these is poverty and lack of orientation. You see children going into illegalities and evil to survive. The parents of these girls should know that as the boys are important, so are the girls and should be able to give them attention. My advice to the young girls is that they should keep away from bad friends.

It is all about societal influence. Everybody wants to make it big , not minding how it is made. Almost all of them are pregnant, cant you see?” the PRO said. The proprietor of the home, Mrs. Mba, who spoke to Naija Talk argued that she was not doing any illegal thing.

She said her ordeal was the handiwork of her enemies who were not happy that she was running a legal outfit. “I registered this home with Ministry of Women Affairs in December 2012, the Women Affairs came and inspected the place and certified it fit. The area we are attending to the girls is the social aspect of our job.

I have never sold any baby since we started. Many of them were conscious before coming to us, they were not hoodwinked into coming and they didn’t sign any document for us as agreement.

If any of them delivers and they want to give out their child, it will be a matter between them and the authorities that are in charge of adoption. We only act as intermediaries.

They are all conscious. I did not force them, I am a qualified nurse.

A Brazilian man has somehow avoided any brain damage after shooting himself through the eye with a six-inch harpoon.

Bruno Coutinho was cleaning his harpoon gun at his home in Petropolis when he accidentally triggered the apparatus, sending the harpoon through his left eye and into his cranium.
X-rays showed the harpoon speared through his eye straight through to the back of his skull.
It took doctors four hours to successfully remove the metal harpoon.
A neighbour said: "There were people who saw it and got frightened. A thing like this you only see in a movie."

After the accident, Mr Coutinho was able to call for help before he was taken to Santa Teresa hospital.
Surgeons carried out two operations to remove the harpoon, which had been stuck inside his head for more than 10 hours.
Dr Orlando Maria, chief of neurosurgery at the hospital, said the harpoon came within millimetres of piercing a major artery in Mr Coutinho's head.
He said: "The object, it seems, took a path where it didn't damage any vital structures, any vascular structures and was taken out."
Amazingly, Mr Coutinho has not suffered any brain damage, although he has lost the sight in his left eye.
He has remained in intensive care, but is expected to be released in the next few days.

A new model of flying car could make flying as easy and safe as driving on the ground - with an autopilot “steering”, and a full-vehicle parachute for when things go wrong.


The Terrafugia TF-X will also be able to take off vertically - meaning that, in theory, drivers will be able to lift off direct from their homes.

The vehicle is partially electric-powered, has helicopter-style rotors, and predicted to cost around the price of a luxury car once it is in full production.

The car will carry four travelers and will have a range of 500 miles, with advanced autopilot systems which will steer it out of the way of planes and other obstacles.


Its makers claim it will be "statistically safer" than driving a car.
It will be able to take off vertically as long as it’s parked in a level clearing with around 100ft of room.

It takes off using helicopter-style rotors built into the wings. The vehicle is a hybrid, and relies on electric motors on the ground, and to assist during take-off. In the air, it will use liquid aviation fuel.

It is still not clear what the legal status of such vehicles would be in the UK, whether in the air, or on the ground.

A “sister” model from the same company, the Transition, could be on sale in 2015, the company claims - but requires a runway to take off, and will cost £190,000.

The Transition has already completed a successful test flight, flying for eight minutes at 8,000 feet.

Earlier models have had top speeds of 115mph in the air, and 62mph on the ground. Prototypes have been shown off at car shows over the past few years.

The new model has been built for safety first, and will have automated systems built to ensure it can take off and land safely.

The aircraft will operate at low levels - below 18,000ft, around half the altitude of long-haul flights.

“Operating a TF-X vehicle should be statistically safer than driving a modern automobile,” the company says. “The Terraugia vehicles will be capable of automatically avoiding other air traffic, bad weather, and restricted and tower-controlled airspace. It will have a backup full-vehicle parachute system which can be activated by the operator in an emergency if it is  incapable of auto-landing.”

The company says that the TF-X will take eight to ten years to develop. Customers who buy a Transition will be “first in line” for the new model, the company said.

“It is the practical realisation of the dream of countless visions of the future; it is designed to be the flying car for all of us,” said the company this week. “Terrafugia will focus on the safety, simplicity, and convenience of personal transportation.  We believe these goals are achievable today.”

A woman died after she ate one of the world's most poisonous mushrooms that she unwittingly picked from her garden in Somerset, an inquest has heard.

Christina Hale died from multiple organ failure five days after using death caps while cooking her and her husband an evening meal.
The death cap is so poisonous that eating just half of one can be fatal and there is no antidote.
Mrs Hale had gathered the deadly fungi at the couple's Bridgwater home and used them to make mushroom soup last November.
Her husband, Jocelyn Lynch, survived because he ate a smaller amount than his wife.
Speaking at the inquest in Taunton, Mr Lynch said: "We had picked mushrooms for soup before. She hadn't done it on her own before.

"Normally it was added to a can of Campbell's condensed soup."
The couple began to feel unwell the morning after the meal and were forced to spend the night in separate bathrooms with vomiting and diarrhoea.
It wasn't until the next morning that they rang an out-of-hours doctor, complaining of having "eaten some dodgy mushrooms".
Later that evening she was rushed to Musgrove Park Hospital by ambulance, where her heart stopped at least four times and her kidney and liver failed.
Mrs Hale died in intensive care surrounded by her family the following day.
The coroner was satisfied that the delay in receiving hospital treatment had not reduced her chance of recovering.
Michael Rose, from West Somerset Coroner's Court, said: "Half a mushroom has been known to kill people.
"The assault that had been made from the toxins into the body of Christina was too great to survive."
He recorded a verdict of death by misadventure.

Filming of the next Star Wars movie will take place in Britain, returning the franchise to its British roots.

The seventh film in the cult sci-fi series is due to start production next year and is planned for release in 2015.
The six previous Star Wars films were all partly filmed in the UK at several studios steeped in British cinematic history, including Pinewood, Elstree and Shepperton.
Disney's Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy said in a statement: "We've devoted serious time and attention to revisiting the origins of Star Wars as inspiration for our process on the new movie, and I'm thrilled that returning to the UK for production and utilising the incredible talent there can be a part of that.

"Speaking from my own long-standing connection to the UK with films like Raiders Of The Lost Ark, Empire Of The Sun and recently War Horse, it's very exciting to be heading back."
Disney announced three new Star Wars films in October 2012 when it purchased George Lucas' Lucasfilm company for \$4.05bn (£2.7bn).
Star Wars: Episode VII will be made by Emmy-award-winning director JJ Abrams next year and the three icons of the original Star Wars movies - Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher - are expected to make a comeback.
It is hoped legendary Hollywood composer John Williams - the man behind the music for the iconic saga - will also return to write the score for the forthcoming Star Wars Episode VII.
It is being scripted by Toy Story 3 writer Michael Amdt, while Abrams, who was behind TV's Lost and was also picked to revive the Star Trek franchise has been described by Lucas as the "ideal choice" to direct the movie.
Since the first film was released in 1977, the Star Wars franchise has grossed more than \$4.4bn at the worldwide box office.
The Chancellor, who helped broker the deal, hailed the move as a fresh coup for British tax breaks and tweeted: "Great news for our creative industries. May the force be with us."
He told Sky News: "The UK has done good work in the last couple of years to make it self a more competitive place to come and do your movies and your television, and this is a fantastic vote of confidence in the United Kingdom."
Asked who his favourite Star Wars character was, he replied: "Hans Solo."
In an official statement, Mr Osborne said: "Today's announcement that the next Star Wars film will be shot and produced in the UK is great news for fans and our creative industries, and it is clear evidence that our incentives are attracting the largest studios back to the UK. I am personally committed to seeing more great films and television made in Britain."
Adrian Wootton, chief executive of the British Film Commission, said the announcement was a "great success story".
"It is an indication of how well regarded our talent and facilities are across the globe and testament to the Government's ongoing commitment to ensuring the UK is a world centre for the production industries," he added.
UK fans also took to Twitter to welcome the news, with one saying: "I may get to be a Jedi yet!", while another hopeful tweeted: "Where do I sign up for a part?"
Another wrote: "The force is coming home."
The deal to produce the next instalment in Britain was struck after Lucasfilm representatives met with Mr Osborne earlier this year.
Over the past five years the British film industry has received a boost after the Government offered lucrative tax breaks to filmmakers.
It is estimated that around 1,000 films - including the James Bond and Harry Potter film franchises - have taken advantage of the tax incentives.

On the eve of his return to Earth after nearly five months on board the International Space Station, Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield has recorded his own version of David Bowie's Space Oddity.

The Canadian commander, who has been described by Twitter followers as the "coolest guy in outer space", has posted a five-minute clip on YouTube in which he performs the 1969 classic.
It shows the 53-year-old singing with unexpected dulcet tones and strumming his guitar while floating in the cabin of the space station.
David Bowie's version of Space Oddity was used by the BBC as part of its coverage of the Apollo 11 moon landings in 1969.
Produced with the help of staff at the Canadian Space Agency and others, the cover features a piano intro and modified lyrics that reference the Soyuz capsule that is due to return Hadfield to Kazakhstan today.

Cmdr Hadfield starts singing: "Ground control to Major Tom ... Ground control to Major Tom ... Lock your Soyuz hatch and put your helmet on."
When he gets to the words "and I'm floating in a most peculiar way" he can be seen floating in mid-air in zero gravity while breathtaking views of Earth are visible from the space station's windows.
Cmdr Hadfield, who already has a dedicated Twitter following of more than 770,000, has attracted global adoration for his musical stint - as well as praise from Bowie himself, who tweeted "Hallo Spaceboy".
Cmdr Hadfield became the first Canadian to command the ISS in March. He is handing the reins of the expedition to fellow astronaut Pavel Vinogradov of Russia.
During his time on the mission, Hadfield and his team had to make a rare, hastily planned spacewalk to fix a serious ammonia leak.
At the time, Cmdr Hadfield tweeted from inside: "Gloved fingers crossed". Half an hour later he wrote: "No leaks!"

A female zoo worker who was injured in a tiger attack at an animal park in Cumbria has died, police have said.

Sarah McClay, 24, was in the big cat enclosure when she was mauled at South Lakes Wild Animal Park in Dalton-in-Furness on Friday afternoon.
She was taken by air ambulance to Royal Preston Hospital immediately after the incident, but she had been so badly mauled, she died four hours later.
Ms McClay was from the Barrow-in-Furness area. Cumbria police described her death as "tragic".
The force's Insp Matt Pearman said: "She did suffer some serious injuries; particularly neck and head injuries which proved to be fatal.

"Sarah's family have been informed. Quite clearly they are very shocked, very distressed by this episode and have requested to be given some time to come to terms with their loss."
The animal that carried out the attack was a Sumatran tiger. The park's website says it keeps both Amur (Siberian) and Sumatran tigers.
The animals can be up to three metres long and weigh around 300kg (47 stone).
Ms McClay had worked at the wildlife park for a number of years and was said to be "very proficient" in her work with big cats.
The incident happened at about 4pm on Friday, when staff were working as normal and the park was open to the public.
Police insist visitors were not at any risk but think some may have seen her being attacked.
In an interview with BBC Radio 5 Live, the park owner David Gill said: "For some unknown reason, an inexplicable reason, because there is no reason why she did it, she opened the door and went into the tiger enclosure and straight in to the tigers, and now we’ll never know why."
Sky News's Becky Johnson said the attack happened during Big Cat Feeding Time.
She said police are keen to find out which members of staff and members of the public witnessed the incident.
Officers are also understood to be keen to find out what safety procedures are in place.
The Detective Inspector who is investigating has told Sky News he believes the safety procedures are 'pretty stringent'.
The rules are said to be that no member of staff should be inside the tigers' cage at any point.
Becky Johnson says the owner of the wildlife park is adamant the tiger will not be put down.
Mr Gill has said that the tiger had been at the wildlife park for ten years since it was a cub and that it is a tiger's instinct to kill.
He said the tiger was not doing anything wrong, as the rules are that no one is supposed to be in the cage.
Mr Gill said in a statement: "The park is a very safe environment and never at any stage were any other public or staff in danger.
"We have been given the all clear by the authorities after initial investigations yesterday and we hope you will allow us all to work through this tragic event."
"With my deepest sympathies to Sarah's family and friends."
Barrow and Furness MP John Woodcock said: "The death of Sarah McClay has shaken the community, everyone's thoughts and prayers will be with her family and her friends and colleagues at the animal park."
"I hope the rigorous investigation that is now necessary will be carried out as soon as possible to strengthen safety at this local institution."
The zoo has said none of the tigers will be on display to the public on Saturday but the zoo itself will remain open.

An 80-year-old Japanese mountaineer, Yuichiro Miura, who climbed Mount Everest five years ago, but just missed becoming the oldest man to reach the summit, has finally claimed the title.

Miura reached the summit days before his rival, 81-year-old Nepalese man Min Bahadur Sherchan, is due to set off on the same climb.
Public broadcaster NHK showed footage of Miura’s daughter Emili talking with them via speaker phone in Tokyo, clapping when her brother told her they had reached the top.
“I made it!” he said over the phone. “I never imagined I could make it to the top of Mt. Everest at age 80. This is the world’s best feeling, although I’m totally exhausted. Even at 80, I can still do quite well.”

The climbers planned to stick around the summit for about half an hour, take photos and then start to descend, Miura’s Tokyo office said.
Nepalese mountaineering official Gyanendra Shrestha, at Everest base camp, confirmed that Miura had reached the summit, making him the oldest person to do so.
On his expedition’s website, Miura explained his attempt to scale Everest at such an advanced age: “It is to challenge (my) own ultimate limit. It is to honour the great Mother Nature.”
He said a successful climb would raise the bar for what is possible.
“And if the limit of age 80 is at the summit of Mt. Everest, the highest place on earth, one can never be happier,” he said.
However, if Sherchan is able to follow him, it is possible that he will only hold the coveted title for a few days. Miura’s daughter, Emili, said he “doesn’t really care” about the rivalry. “He’s doing it for his own challenge.”
The situation was not too different five years ago, when, at the age of 75, Miura sought to recapture the title of oldest man to summit the mountain. He had set the record in 2003 at age 70, but it was later broken twice by slightly older Japanese climbers.
He reached the summit on May 26, 2008, at the age of 75 years and 227 days, according to Guinness World Records. But the record eluded him because Sherchan scaled the summit the day before, at the age of 76 years and 340 days.
Sherchan, a former Gurkha soldier in the British army, first began mountaineering in 1960 when he climbed Mount Dhaulagiri, the 26,790-foot high peak in Nepal, according to his grandson, Manoj Guachan. Always an adventurer, and unbowed by age, he walked the length of Nepal in 2003.

A young man lived for many years with a pencil lodged inside his head, said German surgeons who detected the object on a CT scan and safely removed it.

The patient, a 24-year-old man from Afghanistan, had complained of impaired vision in his right eye, headaches and a discharge from his right nostril.
Asked how the pencil had become lodged in his head, he said he only remembered a childhood accident about 15 years earlier where he fell and suffered a strong nosebleed.



A medical presentation on the 2011 case at Aachen University Hospital was presented at a conference in the western city of Essen this week and sent on to AFP on Wednesday.
Surgeons spotted the seven-centimetre (2.7-inch) pencil, which had lodged in the back of the throat and damaged the eye socket, in a Computerised Tomography scan.
After the surgery, the unnamed patient made a quick recovery and was released from hospital within days, the presentation says, although the man's vision remained impaired.

Angelina Jolie has made her first red carpet appearance since revealing she has had a double mastectomy.

She joined her fiance Brad Pitt at the London premiere of his new film World War Z.
Jolie thanked him for his support, and spoke about how pleased she is that the important issue of women's health was now being discussed more.
The actress revealed last month that she had had her breasts removed after discovering she has an inherited genetic mutation that puts her at high risk of breast and ovarian cancer.
She said: "I feel great, I feel wonderful and I am very, very grateful for all the support. It has meant a lot to me.

"He (Pitt) has been extraordinary, just extraordinary. He's just such a wonderful man and a wonderful father, and I am very, very lucky.
"I have been very happy just to see the discussion about women's health expanded and that means the world to me.
"After losing my mum to these issues, I'm very grateful for it, and I've been very moved by the kind support from people."
Jolie's mother Marcheline Bertrand died from ovarian cancer at 56, and the actress' aunt died of breast cancer last month.
Her aunt's funeral was taking place in California while she signed autographs in London to help promote World War Z.
The decision to miss the funeral and be at the premiere was a show of support and reciprocal love for the man who has stood by her through this difficult year and with whom she has six children.
Speaking at the premiere, Pitt told Sky News: "I am very proud, I am. I'm very proud and I'm just relieved that, that is not going to be the be thing that takes her out.
"The biggest fear as a father is keeping the family alive and safe and together, and she did that for us ... I get a bit teary eyed."
He added: "It's heroic."
Wearing a backless, full-length, black gown, few could believe quite how glamorous and relaxed Ms Jolie looked, just weeks after enduring such major surgery.
One member of the crowd told Sky News: "She's a role model - not just as a star but as a person. She radiates from within. She's got a great soul and is a great person."
Another said: "She's a strong character. She's brave and she's doing it for her family. I'm proud of her for doing that."
Many have praised Jolie for making the prospect of cancer less frightening, following her touching and eloquent editorial in the New York Times about the decision to undergo a double mastectomy.
Her chances of developing the disease have fallen from 87% to 5% as a result of the procedure.
World War Z is released on June 21.
Some 128 pupils and staff have been evacuated after a "suspicious" fire broke out at an Islamic boarding school in Kent.

 
Police were called to the Darul Uloom School, in Foxbury Avenue, Chislehurst, at 11.50pm on Saturday.

Two men were treated for smoke inhalation and 10% of the building was damaged during the blaze, which was brought under control within an hour.
Sky News' Charlotte Lomas said there would be a police update shortly, "which does suggest, perhaps that this fire was deliberate".
It follows a rise in religious hatred crimes after the killing of Drummer Lee Rigby in Woolwich last month.
Last week, a Somali cultural centre and mosque was burned to the ground in Muswell Hill, north London, and the letters "EDL" - the initials of the English Defence League - were found scrawled on the outside.

A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: "The fire was extinguished shortly after the arrival of London Fire Brigade.
"Enquiries continue into the circumstances of the fire. At this early stage it is being treated as suspicious."
No arrests have been made.
The school said they did not want to comment yet and were "dealing with the parents".
The £3,000-a-year boarding school was established in 1988 with the purpose of producing "great scholars and Huffaz (people who have memorised the Koran) to preserve and transmit the eternal message of Allah".
It was built in 1974 and comprises 130 boarding rooms in addition to classrooms, dining hall, assembly hall, prayer hall, gym, playing fields and car parking with 100 spaces, over a 10 acre site.
An extension was built in 2007 consisting of 18 classrooms, a science laboratory, a prayer hall and wudhu (ablution) facilities.

IT was double tragedy in Ondo State as a 47-year-old ex-banker, now a taxi driver, Jimoh Lateef, after ten years of marriage, stabbed his former wife, Amudat Oluwafunmilayo, to death and thereafter committed suicide by hanging. The marriage was blessed with five children before things fell apart between the couple who lived at Omoniyi quarters along Agbogbo area of Owo-Benin-Akure expressway.



The wife, 45,  was a trader at Iloro market, Akure and hailed from Ijaraisin, Kwara State. The husband hailed from Osogbo, Osun State. A report said the couple had been estranged in the last two years with the husband threatening to kill the wife and then commit suicide. Sources said that their families members, after failing to reconcile them, agreed that they should separate for a while to allow time heal their troubled marriage following alleged battering of the wife by Jimoh.

However, it was learnt that, two weeks ago, the husband went to court for divorce and the court granted his request, but when Oluwafunmilayo went back to the house to pack her belongings, the husband  pleaded with her not to leave him. The relationship between husband and wife took a tragic turn on Friday afternoon when one of their children after returning from school met his mum in the pool of her own blood and the body of his father dangling from the ceiling of their apartment.  He reportedly raised the alarm which attracted neighbours and the whole community was thrown into confusion.
The Chairman of the Landlord Association of Omoniyi Quarters, Mr Ojo Oluwatayo, with other landlords in the area rushed to the Divisional Police Station in Ijapo to report the matter.
The DPO, SP Jane Mbanefo, and other policemen mobilised to the scene.Naija Talk  gathered that the the bodies of the couple have been deposited at the state Specialist Hospital, Akure morgue for autopsy. Meanwhile, the family of the husband has pleaded with the police to release his corpse to them for burial since he was a Muslim.
Speaking with Naija Talk, the uncle of late Jimoh, Baba Labaika, said, “We have reported to the Deji of Akure and we want to bury Jimoh in his house while his ex-wife will be buried elsewhere.
Ondo State police image maker, Wole Ogodo, confirmed the incident. He said a blood stained knife suspected to have been used by the late husband to kill the wife was recovered from the scene of crime.

A man has been accused of attempting to murder a police officer who was struck by a car in Birmingham.

The policeman suffered multiple fractures after the collision in Oval Road, Erdington on Friday and remains in a serious but stable condition in hospital.
A 50-year-old man has been remanded in custody and will appear before magistrates on Monday, West Midlands Police confirmed.
He has also been charged with dangerous driving, burglary and assault.

The officer had responded to a report of a shed break in on Friday afternoon when he spotted a man matching the description of the suspect in a blue Honda estate.
When attempting to stop the car, the policeman was hit leaving him with a suspected fractured pelvis.
The injured officer, 44, is from the Sutton Coldfield police station and is now awaiting surgery.
Skid marks and smashed glass were still visible at the scene on Saturday.

The pressure to look like sculpted sportsmen and movie stars is being blamed for why teenage boys are taking anabolic steroids and dubious boydbuilding supplements despite the risk to their health.Using such steroids is not illegal in the UK, but selling them is.


They are easy to find online, with overseas pharmacies shipping the class C drugs to customers in Britain.
A recent study by experts at King's College London and John Moores University in Liverpool has found that 23 out of 24 bodybuilding supplements being sold alongside legitimate products in the UK contained such substances.

Drug researcher Dr Andrew Kicman said: "The people who manufacture the supplements deliberately put obscure names to get around legal issues in the supplying of such compounds.
"An experienced bodybuilder will be able to look these things up and find out what they are taking, but there will be young men who are naive. They are taking potent anabolic steroids that could have adverse effects."
The in-depth analysis revealed that the actual content of supplements did not match the listed ingredients. In many cases, the compounds detected were either a different anabolic steroid or a mixture of two or more compounds.
Ricardo James-Pittau, 19, works out at the gym six times a week - not just to build his strength, but also to look good.
He knows people who take anabolic steroids, but would not even consider it himself.
"You can train for longer but, at the end of the day, it's going to do nothing but mess your body up," he said.
"There's a lot of pressure. It's all over TV. You see people with great physiques, like celebrities, and they want to look like that but you can take the shortcuts or you can do it properly and you feel the benefit if you do it properly. It just takes a bit longer."
The parents of Mathew Dear are convinced anabolic steroids are to blame for his death.
He was secretly taking pills to boost his strength. But weeks before applying to be a marine he fell ill and died, aged 17. Methandienone abuse was cited as a factor on his death certificate.
Now Tina and Chris Dear, from Southend, in Essex, have set up a foundation in their son's name to educate others about the risks.
Mrs Dear said: "I think the problem with a lot of these youngsters is they don't think they are drugs, they think they are some kind of supplement and they are not. They are a class C drug and they haven't got a clue what's in them, where they are coming from, what goes in them."
She believes the desire to emulate buff-bodied sportsmen, models and celebrities is major factor.
"Society is very aware of girls wanting to be like models, wanting to be stick thin and taking diet pills but we are not aware of the pressures put on young men to be like their role models, look a certain way, to have a certain image.
"They have got to have the six pack and the rippling muscles."

Police in Spain have arrested a suspected illegal immigrant found secretly clinging onto the roaring engine of a catamaran ferry.

Dramatic police footage shows the barefoot, shirtless man dangerously positioned over the water-churning propeller of the vessel.
The Interior Ministry said the 48-year-old Algerian was immediately detained after he was spotted on board the passenger boat from Tangier, Morocco, as it arrived in Tarifa.

Authorities believe he intended to leap off the ferry and swim to shore once the vessel neared the Spanish coast, before scaling the perimeter fence at a border post.
Police said he was arrested for breaching the Immigration Act by attempting to enter the country via an unauthorised access point.
Some 61 people have already been held at Tarifa this year over similar incidents.
Tarifa, a port in southern Spain, is one of several points in the country where illegal immigrants are caught.

Dodging buses and cars in the morning rush hour could be a thing of the past for the hard-done-by cyclist - thanks to a new invention by a group of bike boffins.

Three companies in the Czech Republic have teamed up to make a prototype of an electric bicycle that is capable of flying.
The amazing machine is currently controlled remotely while in development but its designers hope to have it capable of carrying people soon.
They also hope battery technology will advance enough to improve the five minute flights it is capable of performing currently and make the invention marketable.

"Because the capacity of batteries doubles about every 10 years, we can expect that in the future the capacity would be enough for the bike to used for sports, tourism or similar things," said Milan Duchek, the technical director of Duratec Bicycles.
Looking like a heavy mountain bike, it has two propellers in the front, other two in the back and one on each side.
Its six engines are powered by batteries.
The "pilot", Jan Spatny, said the weight of the craft made it tricky to control.
"It's not as easy (to control) as a toy or RC (Remote Control) model. It's quite a complicated thing, you have to take into account that it weighs 95kg."

A US college football player has been charged after he was spotted barking at a police dog.University of Florida linebacker Antonio Morrison was arrested early Sunday on two misdemeanours.

According to the Alachua County Sheriff's Office, Morrison walked up to the open window of a police car and barked at a dog named Bear.
The dog responded by barking back, prompting an officer to arrest Morrison for interfering with a police canine.

He also was charged with resisting arrest.
It was the second arrest in little more than a month for the sophomore from Bolingbrook, Illilnois.
Morrison also was arrested on June 16 and accused of punching a bouncer.
He received a deferred prosecution on the simple battery charge, a deal in which he was ordered to stay out of trouble for six months.
Florida head football coach Will Muschamp announced via the team's official Twitter account that Morrison "has been suspended from the team and will miss at least two games to begin the season".

At least 70 people have been killed after security forces attacked a protest by supporters of deposed President Mohamed Morsi in Cairo, according to the Muslim Brotherhood.

Doctors at a field hospital said another 1,000 people had been wounded in clashes on the road to Cairo's international airport.
"They are not shooting to wound, they are shooting to kill," Muslim Brotherhood spokesman Gehad El-Haddad said, adding that demonstrators had been hit by gunshot in the head and chest.
He said the shooting started just before pre-dawn prayers at a round-the-clock sit-in staged by Morsi supporters at Rabaa al-Adawiya in east Cairo.
Activists rushed blood-spattered casualties to the makeshift hospital, some carried on planks or blankets. Many had fatal head wounds.

A Reuters reporter at the scene counted 36 bodies at an improvised morgue.
Amid claims that rooftop snipers had opened fire on the vigil, Egypt's interior ministry blamed the Brotherhood for the violence.
The MENA state news agency, quoting an unnamed security official, reported that nine people had been killed in the violence and at least 200 wounded.
Foreign Secretary William Hague said in a statement that he was "deeply concerned" by the violence.
He said: "I am deeply concerned by recent events in Egypt, and condemn the use of force against protesters which has led to the loss of lives."
The violence broke out as rival rallies were held across Egypt for and against the overthrow of Mr Morsi, who is under investigation for murder.
Hundreds of thousands of Egyptians heeded a call by army chief General Abdel Fattah al Sisi to take to the streets, while the Muslim Brotherhood mounted counter-demonstrations in Cairo.
A spokeswoman for the pro-Morsi camp said eight Brotherhood supporters had died in a clash near the Cairo vigil alone, and another said rooftop snipers had opened fire.
At least 10 people have also been killed in Egypt's second city of Alexandria, where hundreds of people fought pitched battles, with birdshot fired and men on rooftops throwing stones at crowds below.
Several of those killed were stabbed, hospital officials said, and at least one was shot in the head.
The investigation into Mr Morsi over his 2011 escape from jail has signalled a clear escalation in the military's confrontation with the deposed leader and his Islamist movement.
MENA said Mr Morsi, who has been held at an undisclosed military facility since his overthrow, had been ordered detained for 15 days pending the inquiry.
Egypt's army-installed interior minister, Mohamed Ibrahim, said month-old Cairo vigils by Mr Morsi’s supporters would be "brought to an end, soon and in a legal manner".
An army official said the military had given the party a Saturday deadline to end its resistance and join a military-set roadmap to fresh elections.
But the Brotherhood says it wants nothing to do with the army's transition plan and called its own crowds out for counter-demonstrations in a "day to remove the coup".
Mr Morsi has been in military detention at an undisclosed location since he was overthrown.
UN leader Ban Ki-moon has called on the military to free Mr Morsi and other Islamic Brotherhood leaders, said deputy UN spokesman Eduardo del Buey.

Fenway Sports Group, headed by Liverpool's principal owner John W Henry, was reported to be ready to consider offers for the Premier League club.

The group completed its purchase of Liverpool in October 2010, after a turbulent period under previous owners George Gillett and Tom Hicks.
Liverpool have been unable to play their way into the Champions League places since the new owners moved in, despite heavy investment in the playing staff, with manager Brendan Rodgers guiding his side to seventh place last season.

The Sun newspaper claims Liverpool is "unofficially" on the market with a price tag of £350million, however Liverpool and their owners state that is not the case.
A club spokesperson said in a statement released to Press Association Sport: "Fenway Sports Group has made its position clear, Liverpool Football Club is not for sale. There is no truth in this story."
A spokesperson for Fenway Sports Group said: "Like so many rumours in the past about a sale of Liverpool Football Club, there is absolutely no truth in this. We have had no meetings with anyone about a sale, we don't know who the source of the rumour is."
The Sun reports that Fenway Sports Group received a takeover proposal from Saudi Arabian oil firm Saudi Aramco recently, and states that City banking sources claim two American billionaires could also be potential buyers.

Northern youths, under the auspices of Arewa Rapid Response Network (ARRN), have said they will retaliate if the ‘persistent humiliation’ of their leaders continues.

 The youths issued the threat yesterday in a statement following Tuesday’s incident in Rivers State where four northern governors were held hostage by suspected political thugs.

They warned that the North would no longer tolerate a situation where their leaders were made to face a gangster-like humiliation in the way it was done in Rivers State.


According to National Coordinator of the group, Yakubu Ahmed, “Northern youths equally have many options including the option of retaliating and if anybody is in the doubt, then Jonathan and his cohorts should be held responsible if a repeat of the Rivers State show of shame leads to other unpalatable events that may follow.

“The North has received enough humiliation in the course of the Jonathan presidency with criminal war lords calling our leaders unprintable names, calling for war against the North, making inflammatory statements and challenging the basis of our nationhood without any effort by the presidency to call them to order.

“The fact that Rivers State has been on the boil (and is still boiling) arising from the badly mismanaged imbroglio between the desperate pro-Jonathan forces bent on forcing the president on the PDP in the 2015 general elections and the supporters of Governor Rotimi Amaechi is no longer in contention.

“It is clear to all that the Presidency is the chief instigator of the violence in Port Harcourt, which has almost made the state ungovernable leading to the taking over of the functions of the Rivers State House of Assembly by the House of Representatives. As things stand now, the crisis in Rivers State is threatening to engulf the nation due to the risky dimension the problem is taking.

“While the crisis may look entirely as the business of the PDP, we must be careful not to stir up other chain of events that would snowball into an uncontrollable national crisis capable of leading to other unsavoury events that may truncate our nascent and vulnerable democracy.

“We recall that the election of the chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum at which the candidate of the president was squarely defeated as well as other unpalatable consequences that have rattled the presidency were at the base of the Rivers crisis, we hasten to caution that the dimension the crisis is taking in relation to the events that led to the pelting of four governors from the North, who paid a solidarity visit to the their Rivers State counterpart would, if not well handled, lead to other events whose results could not be guessed.

“It is as if history meant nothing to the agent-provocateurs of Rivers State particularly the pro-Jonathan drum beaters of war, who appeared irredeemably bent at having their way regardless of the dangers their action pose for the nation.

“The act of pelting northern leaders has proved, in the past, to be dangerous to national cohesion and we must stress here that the action of some misguided youths in Port Harcourt against the four visiting northern governors has the potentials to be interpreted as a calculated attempt by the Jonathan Presidency to humiliate our leaders and to kickstart the beginning of a larger anti-North movement aimed at facilitating the disintegration of the country in the event that Jonathan loses his bid for another term.

“We, in the Arewa Rapid Response Network view this dangerous trend as inimical to the well being of the country and capable of pitching one section of the country against another – all in a diabolical attempt to get another term for an underperforming president.

“We view this as approval of the actions of the criminal elements. There is a limit to our tolerance and the fact that we have restrained ourselves should not be seen as cowardice,” the statement read.

The youth group therefore appealed to all reasonable people in the country to call those working against the Nigerian project to order, so that Nigerians would join hands together to move the nation forward by respecting each other and evolving collective measures to ensure growth and integration.

Woolwich murder suspect Michael Adebolajo has been assaulted in prison, according to Sky sources.

Adebolajo, 28, of Romford, Essex, and Michael Adebowale, 22, of Greenwich, London, are both charged with the murder of Drummer Lee Rigby in May.
A statement from the Metropolitan Police said: "We can confirm that an allegation of assault was passed to the MPS on the 17th July by Belmarsh prison. An investigation has been started."
Drummer Rigby was hacked to death in broad daylight as he returned to Woolwich barracks from the Tower of London on May 22.

His funeral took place last week with thousands of people lining the streets of Bury to pay their respects.
Adebolajo and Adebowale are due to stand trial at the Old Bailey on November 18 charged with his murder.
They are also charged with possession of a firearm with intent to cause others to believe that violence would be used.
Adebolajo, who was shot by armed officers at the scene of Drummer Rigby's death, is further charged with the attempted murder of two police officers.
The pair will appear at the Old Bailey for a plea and case management hearing on September 27. -

After all this talk of a 'Justice League' movie, it looks as though a Superman/Batman storyline could happen sooner than we thought… in the impending 'Man of Steel' sequel. 

It's official -DC's greatest superheroes, Batman and Superman, will be teaming up for the first time on the big screen… in an all-new adventure from the team that brought you 'Man of Steel'. This incredible announcement comes amidst speculation of an impending 'Justice League' movie… and it looks as though we might be getting the epic superhero team-up that we've all been waiting for.


Officially announced at the Warner Bros. Comic-Con panel, the staggering news came just moments after Zack Snyder explained that there was only one thing he could tell us about the 'Man of Steel' sequel…

"I want you to remember Clark in all the years to come," said DC spokesperson Henry Lennox. "In all your private moments. In all the years to come, my hand at your throat. I want you to remember, the one man who beat you."
Comic-book fans will quickly realise that this was a line from Frank Miller's 'The Dark Knight Returns'… and Zack Snyder went on to confirm that this classic storyline will provide the basis for a Superman/Batman movie.
"I'm so excited to begin working again with Henry Cavill in the world we created," explained Snyder. "I can't wait to expand the DC Universe in this next chapter. Let's face it, it's beyond mythological to have Superman and our new Batman facing off, since they are the greatest Super Heroes in the world."
Of course, anyone who has read the comics will realise that this storyline provides the basis for a rather epic battle between the Man of Steel and the Dark Knight… and it's something we've been desperate to see play out on the big screen for a long time.


And after the success of 'Man of Steel' it looks as though Zack Snyder and David S. Goyer will be working together once again… with a little help from Christopher Nolan of course.
"Superman and Batman together on the big screen is a dream come true for DC fans everywhere," said DC president Diane Nelson. "All of us at DC Entertainment could not be more excited for Zack's continuing vision for the DC Universe."
Producer Emma Thomas explained that "Whilst our 'Dark Knight' trilogy is complete, we have every confidence that Zack's fresh interpretation will take the character in a new and exciting direction. His vision for Superman opened the door to a whole new universe and we can't wait to see what Zack does with these characters."
Of course, Henry Cavill is confirmed to reprise his role as the Man of Steel... but who will play Batman? For the time being, nobody knows. But there's still one big question that remains - Is Zack Snyder up to the task? For now we'll have to wait and see… but after the phenomenal success of 'Man of Steel' I can't help thinking that this Superman/Batman crossover is in good hands.

Every internet user will be forced to opt in if they want to access internet pornography in a new crackdown spearheaded by David Cameron.

Possessing violent pornography showing simulated rape scenes will also be made a crime in England and Wales under the Prime Minister's plans.
Mr Cameron has also set out steps to subject videos streamed online in the UK to the same restrictions as those sold in shops.
And he warned internet giants that they could face tough new laws if they fail to blacklist key search terms for horrific images by this October.
In an emotive speech, the Prime Minister warned that access to online porn is "corroding childhood" and demanded tough action by search engines such as Google.

Under his plans, internet service providers (ISPs) will introduce a "default on" filters that will oblige homeowners to "opt in" to receive sexually graphic material.
The filter will be automatically enabled for new customers setting up broadband accounts or switching providers unless a request is made to disable it.
Mr Cameron said: "In the darkest corners of the internet, there are things going on that are a direct danger to our children, and that must be stamped out.
"I feel profoundly as a politician, and as a father, that the time for action has come. This is, quite simply, about how we protect our children and their innocence."
The internet industry has already agreed to use a database to proactively scan, block and remove any unacceptable images wherever they occur.
But Mr Cameron says they have a "moral duty" to go further and need to work out further measures to block access to content by focusing on searches for particular phrases.
The Government is "already looking at the legislative options we have to force action", the Prime Minister said.
He added that firms could not just stand by and blame "technical obstacles" and urged them to use their "great brains to overcome them".
Mr Cameron pointed out: "You are the people who have worked out how to map almost every inch of the earth from space, who have algorithms that make sense of vast quantities of information."
He also called for warning pages which pop up if people try to access illegal content to spell out more explicitly the consequences of their actions.
In a statement, a Google spokesman said: "We have a zero tolerance attitude to child sexual abuse imagery. Whenever we discover it, we respond quickly to remove and report it.
"We recently donated $5m (£3.28m) to help combat this problem and are committed to continuing the dialogue with the Government on these issues."
Women's groups and academics who have campaigned to close the "rape porn" loophole welcomed the plans.
Holly Dustin, director of the End Violence Against Women Coalition, said: "We are delighted that David Cameron has responded to the call by experts and women's groups to ban pornographic images of rape that promote and eroticise violence against women.
"The coalition Government has pledged to prevent abuse of women and girls, so tackling a culture that glorifies abuse is critical for achieving this.
"The next step is working with experts to ensure careful drafting of the law and proper resourcing to ensure the law is enforced fully."
Experts from Ceop will be given enhanced powers to examine secretive file-sharing networks, and a secure database of banned child porn images gathered by police across the country will be used to trace illegal content and the paedophiles viewing it.
Mr Cameron, who has faced criticism from Labour over cuts to Ceop's funding, insisted that the centre's experts and police will be given the powers needed to keep pace with technological changes on the web.
He also set out proposals to link the storage banks of illegal imagery held by police forces across the country to produce a single, secure database enabling officers from different areas to work together to "close the net on paedophiles".
However, former Ceop chief Jim Gamble - who resigned in protest over its merger with the National Crime Agency - warned sex abusers would simply "laugh" at the plans and called for greater actino.
"This Government has stood still for two years with regard to Ceop," he claimed. "Ceop's budget has in real terms decreased.
"There are 50,000 predators we are told by Ceop downloading images from peer-to-peer, yet from Ceop intelligence only 192 were arrested last year. That's simply not good enough.
"We have got to get the balance right. The balance is attack the root cause, invest with with new money into child protection teams, victim support and policing on the ground.
"Let's create a real deterrent, not a pop-up that paedophiles will laugh at."

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