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Brangelina adopting seventh child

(AGENCY)

HAITI: Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt are at it again, preparing to welcome a seventh child into their ever-growing rainbow brood.

The star couple are reportedly adopting a four-year-old girl named Leah from an orphanage in Haiti, according to the Daily Mirror UK.

All going to plan, the little one will be part of the couple's big happy family by the end of the year.

Jolie and Pitt already have three biological children including Shiloh, four, and twins Knox and Vivienne, two, and three adopted children including Maddox 10, Pax Thien, seven, and Zahara, six, from Cambodia, Vietnam and Ethiopia respectively.

According to the report, Leah lost her family in the devastating earthquake in January and is due to the visit the US to get to know the Jolie-Pitt family soon.

Jolie reportedly met the little girl when she visited Haiti in February last year and has been in contact with adoption agencies, government officials and charity workers to ensure everything is above board.
 
Cockroaches inspiration behind future robots

LONDON: Ask anyone who has ever tried to squash a skittering cockroach - they're masters of quick and precise movement. And scientists are now trying to incorporate this feature in robots of the future.

Professor Amir Ayali, a zoologist, says the study of cockroaches has already inspired advanced robotics.

Robots have long been based on these six-legged houseguests, whose nervous system is relatively straightforward and easy to study, according to the professor's statement.

He and his fellow researchers are delving deeper into the neurological functioning of the cockroach.

This, he says, will give engineers the information they need to design robots with a more compact build and greater efficiency in terms of energy, time, robustness and rigidity. Such superior robotics can be even used to explore new terrain in outer space.

Prof Ayali says it's clear why robotics have been inspired by these insects. A cockroach is supported by at least three legs at all times during movement, which provides great stability.

"Not only do cockroaches arguably exhibit one of the most stable ways to walk, called a tripod gate," he explains, "but they move equally quickly on every kind of terrain.

Their speed and stability is almost too good to be true."

This research was recently presented at the International Neuroethology conference in Spain.
 
Woman's thumb bitten off in bar catfight

AUSTRALIA: A woman will face court after a 19-year-old woman had part of her thumb bitten off during a fight.

A 19-year-old woman was drinking at her home in Mountview Crescent, Tamworth, with another woman.

An argument developed between the women which turned physical. As a result the 19-year-old discovered the top of her right thumb had been bitten off. The other woman left the house.

Emergency services were called to the house with police later locating the body part. The 19-year-old has undergone surgery at Tamworth Base Hospital.

A 28 year-old woman was arrested further along Mountview Crescent. She was taken to Tamworth Police Station and subsequently charged with recklessly cause grievous bodily harm.
 
Police called in over baggage fee fight

SPAIN: More than 100 passengers on board a Ryanair flight from the Canary Islands had to be removed by police after a large scuffle broke out over baggage fees.

Spanish newspaper La Provincia said the disruption happened when low-cost Ryanair tried to charge one passenger extra for carry-on baggage and his friends aboard the plane "mutinied".

An Interior Ministry spokesman said the pilot was preparing for takeoff at Guacimeta airport on the Lanzarote island resort for Charleroi, Belgium, when she radioed for police assistance.

He said that, of the 168 passengers, only 64 were allowed to re-board the flight. The rest had to find other carriers and some spent the night on Lanzarote. He spoke on condition of anonymity in keeping with ministry rules.

Ryanair confirmed the passengers "became disruptive and refused to comply with crew instructions" after a requirement to pay a gate bag fee "for outsized luggage".

The airline said in a statement that police had required the entire aircraft be offloaded and each passenger identified.

"Following further disruptive behaviour, the police required for security reasons that this entire group be refused travel," the statement said.

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