Crazy World: Speeding car cuts girl in half...

Speeding car cuts girl in half

(AGENCY)

THAILAND: A teenaged girl was cut into half by a speeding Porsche car when she crossed a road on Friday afternoon.

Police quoted a witness as saying that the 17-year-old girl, who worked in a shop, had just bought her lunch from a noodle stall and was crossing the road when the accident happened.

It took place at 2.30pm in Muang district.

Initially, only the lower half of her body was found in the middle of the road.

Later, the upper half of the body was found in the Porsche's passenger's seat, which was left about 10km from the scene.

The upper half of the body had crashed through the windshield and landed there.

Police said the car had been stolen and the driver was fleeing.
 
Man taunts mum in need

(AGENCY)

CHINA - A webpage designer from China has been fired from his job after it was revealed that he taunted and made fun of a mother who sent out a plea for donations on a social networking site, Tianya (www.tianyayidu.com).

A post on the site revealed that the mother, Xie Sanxiu, came from Jingzhou, Hubei to Guangzhou to seek treatment for her six-month-old baby daughter, Shanshan.

Shanshan suffers from malignant retinoblastoma, a form of childhood eye cancer. Xie had exhausted all her savings on seeking treatment for her child. However, she could not continue treatment at the Children's Hospital in Guangzhou and the Zhongshan Opthalmic Hospital, as she still owed the hospitals large sums of money.

She then posted a plea for help on a popular Chinese social networking site to ask for donations in order to continue treatment.

Her plea caught the attention of a netizen, named ""Guangzhou Fu Gongzi" (Guangzhou's Rich Man), who set Xie a challenge in return for a 20,000 yuan (S$3,800) donation from him.

He wrote in a post: "There are so many people in the world that need help, why must I help you? You say you are willing to exchange your life with your child's health, who believes you?

"If you can kneel and crawl on the road for 1,000 metres, I will immediately give you 20,000 yuan."

The 34-year-old mother took up his challenge and got down on her knees along a main street in Guangzhou on March 22. A moderator on the social networking site, "Jinquan Shao Xia" (Jin Quan's Young Knight), who learned that Xie was intending to make the 1,000m crawl, then informed Guangzhou Daily, the provincial newspaper.

A Guangzhou Daily reporter who rushed to the scene found Xie crawling towards the Tianhe Sports Centre with her baby in her arms. At least three other photographers also went to the scene.

But "Jinquan Shao Xia" later told the reporters that "Guangzhou Fu Gongzi" was reluctant to donate the promised sum, despite knowing what Xie had done.

Netizens who were following the story later pointed out that there were various similarities between both Jinquan Shao Xia" and "Guangzhou Fu Gongzi".

Daily Chilli also reported that a  Tianya spokesman affirmed that the two people were the same persons, and the networking site said it has already sacked the webpage designer for his irresponsible act.
 
Dad pulled through CD-sized gap alive

(AGENCY)

ENGLAND: A man has miraculously survived after being dragged through a gap the width of a CD case in a freak workplace accident.

Matthew Lowe, 25, was grabbed by a high-powered conveyor system at the Compass Engineering factory where he worked in Barnsley, northern England, and squeezed through a five-inch gap from his shoulders to his feet, The Sun reported.

He broke his back, ruptured his stomach and bowel, shattered his pelvis and fractured both hips, his right arm and several ribs.

"I don't know how I'm alive," said the dad of one, whose head was pulled through a wider space. "I knew what was happening to me so just relaxed and hoped for the best. I really thought it was the end - I was completely trapped.

"The machine crushed my body, ripped my clothes to shreds and spat me out. I was still alive but had no idea how."

His partner, 29-year-old Kim Swift - mum to the couple's five-year-old daughter Evie - was told to "expect the worst" when she arrived to see him in the hospital.

But Mr Lowe is now back working for the same company, which was set to appear in court today over alleged health and safety breaches, along with the conveyor's German installers.

Although he has few outward scars, he is a mass of metal on the inside since surgeons bolted, plated and screwed him back together.
 
Nightclub offers booby prize

(AGENCY)

GOLD COAST: A surfers paradise nightclub is promoting breast enlargement surgery as a prize in a controversial lottery which has infuriated body image experts, women's groups and plastic surgeons.

Sin City Nightclub this week launched posters of well-endowed, lingerie-clad women holding a sign saying "Win a boob job worth $10,000", the Gold Coast Bulletin reported.

Nightclub owner Jamie Pickering said male and female patrons at the April 3 Ibiza-themed party at the heart of the promotion would be given scratchie-style tickets that would give them either minor prizes or, if their scratchie dictated, a chance to enter the ticket in the barrel for the "boob job" draw.

However, a disclaimer on the promo poster states the prize is actually $10,000 cash, with the nightclub simply suggesting a boob job as a way to spend the windfall.

Women's Network Australia founder Lynette Palmen said the marketing ploy was aimed at the ''inflated-ego Kardashian crowd'' while a spokesman for the Department of Justice and Attorney-General said the Office of Liquor and Gaming Regulation was investigating the promotion.

''It's stooping to a new low as a marketing ploy in an image-driven society where cleavage dictates status,'' Ms Palmen said.

''We're now seeing the magazine industry pull back on airbrushing so young women are given a chance to develop naturally without feeling pressured.

''This flies in the face of what the industry at large is trying to achieve.''

Queensland University of Technology body image expert Dr Evonne Miller dubbed the campaign ''sexist insanity''.
 
Sleepover turns into real life horror movie

(AGENCY)

BRISBANE: Six boys cowered in the dark as a knife-wielding man threatened to kill them during a suburban sleepover from hell.

The group of mostly 12-year-olds yesterday told how their neighbour went on a rampage, screaming they "were going to die" and trying to batter down the door to their townhouse in the Brisbane suburb of Capalaba.

The three-hour ordeal ended only when Brett Hayes, 50, was shot in the groin by a policewoman after he allegedly lunged at her with six 30cm knives.

An investigation has been launched into the shooting as police defended their response to several frantic calls for help.

Deputy Commissioner Ross Barnett said police had visited the unit block "on a couple of occasions" earlier in the night, but were unable to find the source of a reported disturbance.

He brushed aside reports that police took more than an hour to respond to calls for assistance.

"On a busy Friday night, resources are stretched and priority is given to various jobs as they come in," he said.

The sleepover was being held at the townhouse of a 14-year-old boy, who had invited school friends aged 12 to 14 over for the night.

Just before midnight, the boy said Hayes had knocked on the door and asked whether the boys wanted to take a walk with him.

Their refusal sparked a three-hour rampage, during which they cowered in the dark while Hayes threatened to break the door down.

The boy said Hayes returned many times during the three hours, smashing against the lower-floor glass door, pounding on windows and fences and screaming threats.

One boy said the scariest moment was sitting in the house with the lights off as Hayes scratched at the door and shouted to the boys that they "were going to die".

As well as three calls to police, the boy also made a desperate phone call to his mother, who was working a late shift. She arrived shortly before the shooting.

Eyewitnesses say two female police officers ordered Hayes to return to his townhouse, a few doors down from the boy's home. But onlookers watched in horror as Hayes allegedly rushed out of his home armed with knives, lashing at the officers.

One said he was just metres from one of the officers who shot Hayes in the leg just before 3am after he allegedly ignored three warnings, lunging at the officer with a blade within centimetres of her face.

The mother of one of the boys at the sleepover said her son was still trying to deal with the terrifying ordeal.

"They will have nightmares for ages," she said. "You don't want your 12-year-old around guns, knives and shootings."

The mother said she was disappointed with the police response time.

No charges had been laid against Hayes, who spent last night in hospital.

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