2.32 PM Thursday, 28 March 2024
  • City Fajr Shuruq Duhr Asr Magrib Isha
  • Dubai 04:57 06:11 12:27 15:53 18:37 19:51
28 March 2024

Best of web: iPod to keep the doctor away...

Published
By Staff & Agencies

Dad holds baby hostage

(AGENCY)

A father took his infant son hostage and torched the family Christmas tree during a wild standoff with New York City police on Christmas Eve.

The baby's arm was broken and cut badly during the incident, and father Trevor Mann, 26, was being held in a psychology ward after being hit with a list of charges including felony assault, assaulting a cop, arson and resisting arrest.

The terrifying scene unfolded shortly before midnight on Christmas Eve, when an off-duty officer spotted a red Nissan run a red light and plow into a van.

Police chased the driver, a 6-foot, 300-pound man believed to be Mann, to his home, where he threw out the rest of his family who had gathered to celebrate.

The only one left inside with Mann was two-month-old Tredon. Outside, the off-duty police phoned for backup and waited as uniformed officers descended.

As police moved quietly to the back of the house to position themselves for a raid, they saw through a window that as Mann was holding the baby in one hand, he had half of a Christmas tree burning in the other. A strong smell of smoke was in the air.

Four officers then burst into the building and subdued Mann. In the kitchen, they found the stove was cluttered and all four burners were lit.
 

 

The secret of keeping the doctor away: An iPod a day

(AGENCY)

A trial plan will begin soon to test the theory that music helps people recover faster from surgeries and feel less pain as well.

Patients could be given Apple iPods loaded with their favourite music to help them recover from operations faster, reports Daily Mail.

The trial also plans to test if such patients feel less pain or need less medication after surgery.

If the trial succeeds, new mothers will be the first ones to be exposed to music before and after they give birth. Those admitted for orthopaedic operations such as hip and knee replacements would also benefit, said the newspaper.

Patients will be monitored to see how music affects their anxiety levels, blood pressure and heart rate compared to those who don’t listen to music.
 
 

Eight thrill seekers stuck in Santa's Enchanted Forest

(GETTY IMAGES)

Eight thrill seekers had to be rescued from a rollercoaster in Santa's Enchanted Forest - a Miami amusement park - after a malfunction trapped them.

Two cars on The Crazy Mouse Rollercoaster at the park in South Miami-Dade became stuck on the top of the upper track for about 30 minutes on Thursday,  the Miami Herald said.

Ride operators were able to rescue passengers in one car but the other car required assistance of firefighters who responded to the scene about 10pm local time.

"They had fun coming down," said Miami-Dade Firefighter Captain Eric Baum. "It's not every day you get to climb down a firefighter's truck ladder."

The ride will remain closed as Florida Department of Agriculture inspectors and park engineers investigate the cause of the malfunction.
 
 
Man fights to keep pet crocodile from dead father

(AP)

A man is fighting to keep a pet crocodile that tore his father's hand off - then was left to him in his dad's will, the Townsville Bulletin reports.

John Casey, 49, was two years old in 1963 when his father Alf was given the baby saltwater crocodile after her mother was shot about 2000km north of Brisbane where the Casey family lives.

The crocodile, named Charlie, became part of the Casey household and used to go for walks down Proserpine's main street with Alf. It would even go to the bar with him.

Charlie and Alf were best mates, but this did not stop the family pet from tearing off her master's hand in 1986 after he returned from a fishing trip. The family believes it was a mistake on Charlie's part and that she thought Alf's hand was a fish.

Alf died last year, aged 93. He held the permit to keep the protected animal, who has a pen and swimming pool about 80 feet (25m) from the house.
 

 

Iraqi kills daughter recruited as Al-Qaida bomber

(AFP)

An Iraqi man killed his 19-year-old daughter after he discovered Al-Qaida had recruited her as a suicide bomber in an area north of Baghdad, a police spokesman said on Friday.

Al-Qaida has been recruiting women for suicide attacks because they can pass police checkpoints easier than men by concealing explosives under an abaya, a loose, black cloak that conservative Muslim women wear.

Suicide bombers have been al-Qaida's most lethal weapon in Iraq, killing hundreds of civilians and members of Iraq's security forces.

The killing of the young woman was discovered when security forces, searching for her on suspicion she had ties to Al-Qaida, raided her father's home Thursday outside the former Sunni-insurgent stronghold of Baqouba, 35 miles (60 kilometers) northeast of Baghdad, said Maj. Ghalib al-Karkhi, a police spokesman in Diyala province.

The father, Najim al-Anbaky, was detained in the raid. During questioning he told police he had killed his daughter, Shahlaa, a month earlier because he found out she intended to blow herself up in a suicide attack for Al-Qaida, al-Karkhi told The Associated Press.

Al-Anbaky showed police what he said was the woman's grave, al-Karkhi said. The father remains in custody and is under investigation, but no charges have been made yet.

A police official at the interior ministry in Baghdad confirmed the killing. He spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

A female suicide bomber was behind one of the deadliest attack this year in Iraq, after she blew herself up among Shiite pilgrims Baghdad in February, killing 54 people.

In a separate incident Friday, a Shiite militia leader, his wife and three children were killed in a bomb attack on their home south of Baghdad.

The early morning blast levelled the militia leader's home in Haswa, some 30 miles (50 kilometers) south of the capital, Babil province police spokesman Maj. Muthana Khalid said. Four people were also wounded in the blast.

A local policeman, Abdul-Salam al-Maamouri, identified the dead man as a commander in the Mahdi Army, the militia loyal to radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

The militia terrorized Sunni neighborhoods during the height of Iraq's sectarian fighting in 2006 and 2007, and its fighters have been targets of retribution.