Somerset East

St. Patrick Catholic Church is moving its church and school from the Broward Road location where it’s been for 50 years.

The church recently got a permit to build two buildings for the school at 601 Airport Center Drive East — that’s east of Main Street — at a cost of $4 million.

Mary Margaret Martin, the school’s principal, said the school will be going into portables on the new property this fall with completion of the buildings expected around Christmas.

The school has 200 students in pre-kindergarten through eighth grade, and the new school will have capacity for 300, she said. Though the school is in North Jacksonville, students come from as far away as South Georgia and Mandarin.

A new 700-seat church will also be built.

Martin said the property at 1429 Broward Road is being sold to Somerset Academy, a charter school.

The Diocese of St. Augustine paid $2.465 million for 21.06 acres on Airport Center Drive, according to the city’s property records.

Etc.

St. Augustine Black Heritage Tours has begun conducting tours specializing in the city’s African-American and civil rights history. It also offers free walking tours each Saturday. staugustineblackheritagetours.com/.

Daniel Davis officially assumes the role of president and CEO of the JAX Chamber on Monday — the same day the newly renovated chamber building opens.

The Dalton Agency has acquired Ant Hill Communications, an Atlanta public relations firm. Dalton first moved into Atlanta a year ago when it merged with the former Kilgannon agency. Ant Hill has three employees.

Crowley Maritime Corp. of Jacksonville has opened an office in Singapore and built two new heavy-lift deck cargo barges for dedicated use in the region.

Doctors Express, the nation’s largest urgent care franchise with one Jacksonville location (on Atlantic Boulevard) has been acquired by American Family Care. Its centers will now be called AFC Doctors Express Urgent Care.

Solstas Lab Partners opened its first Clay County patient service center at 1543 Kingsley Ave., Orange Park.

The incorrect address was given last week for a new RE/Max real estate office. The correct address is 13361 Atlantic Blvd.

When you’re thumbing through the book “Florida Places of Indian Origin” by William A. Reed and come across Nocatee, you see that it comes from the Seminole word nakiti, meaning “what is it?” So that huge development has that going for it.

But on to the news of record:

Permits

8984 Normandy Blvd., demolition of abandoned structure at Normandy Center, $10,000.

10550 Old St. Augustine Road, tenant build-out for Mama Q’s Pizza, $55,000, 1,380 square feet, STG Contracting Group.

701 San Marco Blvd., ADA improvements to Prudential Insurance, $330,000, 10,000 square feet, Dav Lin Interior Contractors

13751 Atlantic Blvd., new metal building at Custom Marine, $150,000, 3,400 square feet, ER Enterprises of North Florida.

4791 River City Drive, tenant build-out for new Sperry Top Sider store at St. Johns Town Center, $400,000, 1,910 square feet, Keen Construction Development.

10211 Atlantic Blvd., demo and replacement of existing car wash at Brumos Motor Cars, $100,000, Elkins Constructors.

1900 Boulevard, renovations of existing shell for phlebotomy and PAT department on the first floor of UF Shands, $389,000, 24,310 square feet, Sauer.

655 W. Eighth St., renovation of UF Shands pharmacy, $202,314.92, 3,250 square feet, Perry-McCall Construction.

116 Druid Street, tenant improvements for CSX crew management, $749,995, 11,238 square feet, Duckworth Construction,

8570 Argyle Forest Blvd., renovation and expansion of McDonald’s, $250,000, 327 square feet, Southland Construction.

3 Shircliff Way 101, interior build-out for Subway at St. Vincent’s Medical Center Riverside, $108,000, 1,211 square feet, Weyer Custom Renovations.

6000 San Jose Blvd., building envelope remediation, stucco and waterproofing at 6000 On The River condominium, $1.65 million, Complete Property Services.

Sales

National Retail Properties of Orlando paid $1,568,500 for the bank at 6375 St. Augustine Road, at the corner of DuPont Avenue.

BSV San Jose Boulevard LLC of Jacksonville paid $625,100 for the retail warehouse at 11350 San Jose Blvd. It’s 4,440 square feet on 1 acre just north of Mandarin Road.

Carriere RE Holdings II LLC of Jacksonville paid $12 million for the bank at 14420 Beach Blvd. and the Medical and Merchants Center, anchored by Publix, at 14444 Beach Blvd.

In town

Haynes family reunion, Wednesday-July 7, 125 people, Crowne Plaza Jacksonville Riverfront.

Christian Congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses, convention, Thursday-July 7, 11,000 people.

Rosier family reunion, Friday-July 7, 100 people, Embassy Suites.

Mighty Distribution System, national meeting, July 10-14, 650 people, Omni Amelia Island Plantation.

Conference of Minority Transportation Officials, national meeting and training conference, 600 people, Hyatt Regency Jacksonville Riverfront.

Most Worshipful National Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Ancient York Masons, grand masters council, July 12-18, 400 people, Hyatt Regency Jacksonville Riverfront.

Pearson family reunion, July 12-14, 100 people, Holiday Inn Express Chaffee.

International Council of Corvette Clubs, annual meeting, July 14-21, 500 people, Jacksonville Airport Hotel.

roger.bull@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4296

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UPDATE: In a June 28 posting on its very own Facebook page, the Virginia Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control defended its actions.

“Agents were working in the area, concentrating on underage possession enforcement. An agent observed what appeared to be an underage person in possession of what appeared to be a case of beer, and approached her to investigate,” the anonymously authored posting reads. “The agent identified herself as a police officer and was displaying her badge. Other agents did not join the incident until the subject refused to cooperate.”

“We take all citizen complaints seriously and the matter is currently under review by the ABC Bureau of Law Enforcement,” the posting also says.

ORIGINAL STORY:

A University of Virginia student spent a night and good part of the next day in jail after seven plain-clothes agents from the state’s Alcoholic Beverage Control division ambushed her.

The student, 20-year-old Elizabeth Daly, made the mistake of walking to her car with bottled water, cookie dough and ice cream in a dark supermarket parking lot near the UVA campus, reports The Daily Progress.

The seven agents sprung aggressively into action, suspecting that the student was carrying was a 12-pack of beer. She was actually carrying a sky-blue carton of LaCroix sparkling water.

Police admit that one of the high-strung agents vaulted onto the hood of Daly’s car. She contends that one of them also drew a gun.

It’s not clear what about Daly’s appearance gave the lawmen (and one law woman) the belief that they had probable cause to confront her en masse.

Daly, along with two roommates who were in the car, did what reasonable, unarmed people usually do when violently pounced upon by seven people. They tried to get away.

“They were showing unidentifiable badges after they approached us, but we became frightened, as they were not in anything close to a uniform,” Daly said in a written account, according to The Daily Progress.

“I couldn’t put my windows down unless I started my car, and when I started my car they began yelling to not move the car, not to start the car. They began trying to break the windows. My roommates and I were … terrified,” the student also wrote.

According to court records obtained by the Charlottesville paper, Daly “grazed” two agents with her vehicle. At this time, the records state, the unidentified passenger in the front seat of her SUV was yelling “go, go, go” and simultaneously diving into the back seat.

Once the three students managed to make it out of the parking lot, they called 911. Daly testified that her goal was to drive immediately to a police station. However, she was stopped by a vehicle with identifiable sirens and lights.

Daly had just left an annual UVA “Take Back the Night” vigil on the famous campus founded by the man who drafted the Declaration of Independence. She was eventually able to explain that she had purchased the water and junk food for a sorority benefit. She also apologized.

‘This has been an extremely trying experience’

27th June 2013

AN exhibition detailing the history of African American soldiers in Dorset has been held at Weymouth Library.

The event, which followed on from the Dorset’s Hidden Histories project, included a workshop run by Louisa Adjoa Parker.

She said: “The exhibition basically explored the African American GI soldiers who came to Dorset ahead of the D-Day landings in 1944.

“It showed how friendships and relationships were built with local people and explored their social history.

“It is an aspect of the Second World War which has not seen the contribution they made widely acknowledged.

“The workshop let people view the exhibition and interact with it while talking about the importance of recording memories.

PICTURE: Louisa Adjoa Parker at the exhibition.

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28th June 2013

FOLLOWING a successful visit by Nick Wadham and his snakes in April, Bugfest returned to Crewkerne Library last week with a collection of crawling beasts.

There were two reasons for the visit – to educate families about the species which play an important part in the ecology of the African rainforests, and to introduce the children’s “Creepy House” summer reading challenge, which will run over the summer holidays. 

Children are invited to work their way through three floors of fun in the “Creepy House”, discovering its secrets by reading six library books and keep track of the action on a special fold out poster. They will also collect stickers as they go along and receive a medal and certificate on completion of the challenge.

The extra collection of creatures to hold and wonder at attracted and even bigger crowd of children this time. Species on show varied from harmless millipedes and stick insects to the more dangerous scorpions, bird eating spiders and deadly centipede. 

The snakes were still a favourite and when the Burmese python came out there was no shortage of volunteers to hold it.

The audience learnt that the large snake, which was only 18 months old, had been rescued with deep burns to its skin. They were told how important it was for people to understand the correct way to keep exotic pets and particularly snakes that will grow ten times their original size. 

Bugfest is a community interest company which exists solely to educate the public and is very popular with schools. 

The next public event will be a “Make and Meet the Monsters” day on Saturday, June 29th in the Yeovil Liberal Club from 10am to 1pm. 

Bugfest will also be at the Crewkerne Lions Fun Day on Saturday, July 21st at Clapton.

PICTURE 1: Lottie Roberston, Sayer Pilton and Victoria Carpenter get close to the bird eating spider.

PICTURE 2 3: Catherine Williams and Ava lisney take turns to wear the Burmese python.

PICTURE 4: The children get up close to a millipede

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• Posted On: 3:11 p.m. | June 28, 2013

Each week we bring you the very best in visual journalism.

Jubilant reaction in West Hollywood to the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to strike down the federal Defense of Marriage Act and essentially void Proposition 8. The court said supporters of the initiative had no standing to defend the measure after state leaders — who opposed the law — had refused to do so. Also in the Southland, a Mexican immigrant prays during a 24-hour vigil calling on Congress to pass immigration reform outside of the federal building in downtown Los Angeles. The bill passed, 68 to 32 in the Senate, but conservative House Republicans aren’t sold. And the renovated Dunbar Hotel opened as a senior-living facility in South Los Angeles. Built in 1928 by John Somerville to serve African Americans seeking accommodations on their visits to Los Angeles, the historic Dunbar hosted many of jazz music’s luminaries, including Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday.

South Africans are maintaining a vigil at the entrance to the Mediclinic Heart Hospital where former South African President Nelson Mandela is being treated in Pretoria. More photos 

In Europe the Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts 2013 in England is underway;  a skateboarder goes airborne during a Big Air practice session on Day 2 of the X-Games at Olympic Park in Germany; Gay couples in St. Petersburg apply for same-sex marriage registration in vain, since there is no legal recognition of homosexual couples in Russia and same-sex marriages are not allowed.

In India, social workers help Bijlee, a 54-year-old Asian female elephant, after she collapsed and was unable to stand on her own in Mumbai. Bijlee, who has been  on the streets of India for decades, is currently being attended by veterinary staff from Wildlife SOS. Also, Indo-Tibetan border police rescued stranded people with the help of mountaineering ropes and ladders in Uttarkashi in northern Uttarakhand state.  Indian officials stepped up efforts to prevent an outbreak of disease in the northern Himalayan region devastated by landslides and flash floods, as rains hampered the rescue of thousands still stranded.

Skylines are covered under thick haze in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Malaysian authorities declared a state of emergency Sunday in a southern district where a smoky haze blamed on Indonesian forest fires has triggered one of the country’s worst pollution levels in years.

A growing community of Hispanic American immigrants, as well as Hispanics in their home country, are choosing to convert from their predominantly Christian religions to Islam. It’s especially common for women.

Tucked away in a quiet rural neighborhood in Somerset, N.J., is an old brownstone that houses the New Jersey Chapter of the Islamic Center of North America’s WhyIslam Project.

Within its confines, in a second floor office decorated with rose-colored walls, sits the administrative assistant and only female employee of the department, Nahela Morales.

In a long black garment and gray headscarf, Morales sits in front of a computer entering notes and taking phone calls from the program’s hotline, 1-877-WhyIslam, a resource for individuals hoping to learn more about the religion. A Mexican immigrant and recent convert, Morales is the national Spanish-language outreach coordinator for the program, part of ICNA’s mission to disseminate information about Islam nationwide.

But Morales’ efforts go beyond U.S. borders: the 37-year-old recently led a trip to bring Islamic literature, food and clothing to her native Mexico.

Morales, who was born in Mexico City but later moved to California and then New York, is part of a growing population of immigrant Muslim converts from Latin America, many of them women, now helping to bring the religion back to their home countries.

 

Immigrant Latinas find a place in Islam

“Many immigrants are here by themselves,” said Morales, noting that Latina immigrant women are drawn to Islam because of the sense of “belonging” they find within the Muslim community. “When they come into the mosque and see smiling faces, they feel welcome.”

According to WhyIslam’s 2012 annual report, 19 percent of the some 3,000 converts it assisted in 2011 were Latinos, and more than half of those (55 percent) were women. The 2011 U.S. Mosque Survey, which interviewed leaders at 524 mosques across the country, found the number of new female converts had increased 8 percent since 2000, and that Latinos accounted for 12 percent of all new converts in the United States in 2011.

Experts attribute the phenomenon to recent migration trends.

Muslim and Latino immigrants are increasingly living side by side in urban neighborhoods across the country, from California, Texas and Florida to New York and Illinois, states that according to data from the Migration Policy Institute constitute 72.5 percent of the total foreign-born population from Latin America in the United States. At the same time, these five states are also home to the highest number of mosques, The American Mosque 2011 Report shows, reflecting a growing Muslim presence as well.

Wilfredo Ruiz, a native of Puerto Rico who converted to Islam in 2003, is an attorney and political analyst specializing in the Islamic world. In addition to working with various non-profit organizations, including the American Muslim Association of North America (AMANA), he also serves as the imam at his local mosque in South Florida.

“More women than men convert, both in AMANA offices and in the mosques in Southern Florida,” Ruiz said.

Latina immigrants, he explains, often feel exploited both in Latin America and the United States. The higher status afforded women in Islam and their modest dress, he believes, offers a sensible alternative.

“I have heard from Latina women that they seek protection, and they find (that) protection and respect in Islam,” he added.

Juan Galvan, executive director of the Latino-American Dawah Association and author of Latino Muslims: Our Journeys to Islam, believes that Islam may also hold another, distinctly religious appeal to Latino immigrants because it reveals to them what he calls a more profound understanding of monotheism.

“Most Latino Muslim converts have had personal experiences with Muslims that first drew them closer to Islam,” he said. “These Muslims may be their friends, acquaintances, classmates, coworkers, bosses, marriage partners or others. By interacting with Muslims, a non-Muslim learns about Islamic monotheism for the first time.”

Because Islam emphasizes God’s, or Allah’s, oneness, Galvan says, it presents Latinos with a unique alternative to traditional Christian theologies that accept the existence of holy deities – Jesus, the Holy Spirit, saints and miracle workers — which are connected to, yet distinct, from God.

“While Protestantism may have fewer intermediaries than Catholicism, Latinos come to Islam because they believe in a concept of God that acknowledges him as the most powerful and therefore, needs no son,” said Galvan, who is himself a Mexican-American convert to Islam.

 

Prayers answered

Morales found her own place in Islam after a turbulent past.

In 1979, Morales’ mother risked crossing the border into the United States illegally and alone, leaving her infant daughter behind in Mexico under her grandmother’s care. When Morales was 5 years old, she was finally reunited with her mother, who by that time had settled in Los Angeles. Mother and daughter gained amnesty under the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986. However, even as a U.S. citizen, Morales recalls feeling out of place.

“It was a very difficult adjustment since I did not speak English,” Morales said. “I remember entering the school system and not being able to communicate with my teachers or peers. I wanted to go back home (to Mexico).”

Adding to her difficulties, Morales was the victim of years of neglect and abuse at home, and as a pre-teen she was removed from her mother’s custody and placed in foster care and group homes, until ultimately she was able to settle on her own and finish college.

She moved to New York in 2001. Shortly after her relocation, the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks occurred. When news reports blamed Muslim extremists, Morales began to research Islam.

“I was watching the news and they were always showing (Muslim) people shouting ‘Allahu-akbar,’ God is great, so I thought, if your God is so great, why is he allowing you to kill people? If Muslims say Islam (is about) peace, then this doesn’t make sense,” she said.

She decided to find the answers herself and purchased a copy of the Quran, Islam’s holy book. Morales also began befriending Muslim women on MySpace.

“They were so nice, and I became more curious. One of the Muslim women I met happened to be Puerto Rican, and she got in touch with someone in California that could send me an information package about Islam with books, a Quran, a prayer rug and a hijab (headscarf),” Morales recalled.

Morales continued to make contact with Muslims through the Internet and searched online for the closest mosque to her new home in North Bergen, N.J. She began visiting the mosque and eventually converted in 2003. She continues to be an active member of the North Hudson Islamic Educational Center, or NHIEC.

Situated in a predominantly Hispanic neighborhood, 30 percent of NHIEC’s congregants are Latinos. The Latino influence is so great that the mosque offers simultaneous Spanish translation of its Friday sermons and Islamic studies classes, and even hosts an annual “Hispanic Muslim Day.”

During one of her visits to the NHIEC mosque in 2009, a WhyIslam worker overheard Morales speaking Spanish and asked if she would be interested in a bilingual position with the company.

“I asked (God) to please send me a job where I would be able to worship and wear my veil. I knew right then my prayer was being answered,” Morales said.

She’s been working with NHIEC for more than three years, and recently led a campaign to deliver Islamic literature and audio, clothing, and toiletries to a needy Muslim community in Mexico City.

During that trip, Morales met with her own family members, who are mostly Catholic. She says that initially they were not accepting of her decision to practice Islam or of her modest style of dress. They accused her of turning her back on her culture. But on her most recent trip to her hometown of Cuernavaca, she took the opportunity to talk to them more about her religion.

“It is obvious that Islam is still very strange in Mexico,” said Morales, adding that since her last visit her own family has become more receptive. “But it is also very clear that people want to learn about it.”

 

Latina Muslims, at home and abroad

Isabela Duarte has been in the United States since the age of seven. A Muslim convert living in Chicago, the 30-year-old left Mexico with her family in 1990, crossing the border illegally and moving to the Windy City, where she attended school while her parents worked. After high school, she says, she had no other choice but to follow in her parents’ footsteps.

“I figured that there was no possibility of furthering my education because I’d lack assistance due to my status,” she said.

She eventually landed an administrative position in a social services agency, but thanks to the recession she lost her job.

“That’s when my real struggles began. I searched for jobs everywhere. Immigration laws became tougher … most places of employment denied me any type of opportunity regardless of the experience I had,” she said.

She ultimately settled for babysitting jobs that paid under the table.

In the winter of 2008, while her parents faced foreclosure, unemployment and a divorce, Duarte had an emotional breakdown. Seeking help, she came upon a YouTube video of Quran recitations. Her best friend, who was Puerto Rican, had already become a Muslim and Duarte soon followed in her footsteps.

But while she has found solace and community, participating regularly in events held by the Latino Muslims of Chicago, an Islamic group that serves the needs of Latinos, she says her immigration status continues to be a struggle.

“This is my home,” she said. “Chicago has been my home and I don’t recall any other.”

Part of a growing Hispanic population in the United States, Duarte is also among a Muslim community that, according to the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion and Public Life, is expected to increase dramatically over the next 20 years, thanks largely to immigration from South Asia, the Middle East and North Africa.

An estimated 5.3 million Muslims live in North and South America as of 2010. That number is expected to more than double by the year 2030.

Liliana Anaya, a 34-year-old Muslim convert from Colombia and a graduate of American University in Washington, D.C., is familiar with the trend. The mosque in her hometown, Barranquilla, Colombia, reports an average of four conversions a month.

Anaya, who converted to Islam in June 2002, is a graduate of Rollins University in Orlando, Fla., where she majored in political science and international relations. She later attended American University to complete a master’s degree in international peace and conflict resolution.

After graduating, she got a job at a non-profit organization offering mediation for court systems in northern Virginia. At the same time, she met her husband, a Muslim convert from Argentina, and together they applied for U.S. citizenship.

While Anaya was expecting their first child, she decided to travel back to her country to give birth. After their arrival, she and her husband discovered the Othman bin Affan Mosque in Barranquilla, a small Muslim community that lacked adequate resources. Because Anaya’s husband had earned a degree in Islamic Propagation from Umm Al Qura University in Saudi Arabia, they became involved in the mosque, organizing and teaching classes.

“I felt that Muslims in the states are already part of the fabric of the society,” Anaya said. “But here (in Colombia), we are in the baby steps. If I want something, I have to create it. If I want Islamic classes for my children, I have to create them.”

Anaya and her husband are now in the process of establishing an Islamic school for the Muslims of Barranquilla. Both say that given their commitment to the work, return to the United States is unlikely.

“The Muslim community here needs us,” Anaya said, “so we can’t move.”

 

This story was made possible by a grant from Atlantic Philanthropies and was produced as part of New America Media’s Women Immigrants Fellowship Program. It was edited to conform with New America Media’s and Public Radio International’s style guidelines. This story also appeared in The Muslim Link.

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Public Radio International partners with New America Media to elevate public awareness of, and discourse about the experiences, struggles and successes of the over 38.5 million immigrants across America. The partnership is part of the “Immigrant Lives” initiative, funded in part b

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President Barack Obama is about to launch a new high-profile “climate change” initiative, according to a personally-signed Sunday tweet from the White House’s Twitter account.

“We owe it to our kids to do something about climate change. Share this video and join me Tuesday … –bo,” the tweet reads.

The tweet included a link to a short video, in which Obama touts the impending initiative, but the president offered no details on the plan’s goals, costs or spending.

“This Tuesday, I’ll lay out my vision for where I believe we need to go — a national plan to reduce carbon pollution, prepare our country for the impacts of climate change and lead global efforts to fight it,” Obama said in the video.

The Washington Post reported that the plan will include promise regulations to force down carbon-dioxide emissions from power plants. Those rules likely will drive up the cost of electricity.

The planned June 25 speech at Georgetown University is one of a series of high-profile media events that the president’s team scheduled for June and July.

This week, he attended a G8 summit in Ireland and travelled to Berlin to give an outdoor speech to several thousand invited guests on the landmark Brandenburg Gate.

Next week, starting on June 26, he and his wife will travel through telegenic spots in Africa for six days.

The Africa trip will keep him — and much media coverage — outside Washington D.C., where his allies in the Senate are trying to push through an controversial bill that would double the immigration rate for the next 20 years.

The details of the immigration bill are very unpopular. In 2007, last-minute public protests derailed a similar effort.

On Monday, Senators are expected to vote on a critical cloture vote to end debate on the 1,200-page bill, prior to a final up-or-down majority vote by June 27.

Obama announced support of immigration bill Saturday

Arab Idol winner Palestinian Mohammed Assaf, center, is welcomed by Muneb Al-Masri, a Palestinain businessman, right, upon his arrival to Rafah crossing point on the border between Egypt and the southern Gaza Strip, Tuesday, June 25, 2013.

Palestinians wait for the Arab Idol winner Palestinian Mohammed Assaf, unseen, in front of his family house in Khan Younis Refugee Camp southern Gaza Strip, Tuesday, June 25, 2013. Huge crowds of Gazans gave a gleeful welcome Tuesday to the first Palestinian winner of the Arab Idol talent contest, thronging the territory’s border crossing with Egypt and the singer’s home in hopes of embracing him, but internal politics surfaced quickly. Assaf?s victory in the popular contest Saturday sparked huge celebrations in the West Bank and Gaza, giving Palestinians a sense of pride.

Singer Mohammed Assaf, second right, receives the Arab Idol award in Beirut, Lebanon. On Saturday night, Assaf became the first Palestinian to win the Arab world?s version of American Idol, setting off wild celebrations across the Palestinian territories. After the victory, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas declared the singer an honorary ambassador.

What’s brown and smelly and falls from the sky?

That’s what Emma Gilfillan-Giannakos of Mississauga, Ont., wants to know — and what Transport Canada investigators are trying to determine.

Gilfillan-Giannakos was sitting in her backyard earlier this week, her kids playing nearby.

“I was sitting underneath the gazebo .. with my son, and my two other kids were on a fort over here, and all of a sudden we heard this big bomb! Like it hit the pool.”

When she investigated she found her patio, her pool and her garden were covered with brown splashes.

What was it?

As far as Gilfillan-Giannakos is concerned there’s no doubt.

“I stuck my finger in it and I smelt it and … it smells like poo!”

Her home sits along the flight path to Canada’s busiest airport, Pearson International. Planes can be seen criss-crossing the sky above her home all day long.

Transport Canada officials are investigating but haven’t come to a final conclusion.

They do say there’s something they call ‘blue ice’ that occasionally falls from airliners.

‘Blue ice’ forms when there’s a leak from the tanks which store lavatory waste. The waste sometimes freezes and sticks to the aircraft.

When the plane descends and begins to warm up, the ice falls off.

Investigators say if that is what happened they’ll try to identify the aircraft and take corrective measures.

But Gilfillan-Giannakos says she doesn’t need to wait for the result of a long investigation.

“All I know is something came from the sky. And to me it’s either a bird or a plane. And there’s way too much of this to be birds.”

Gilfillan-Giannakos, says she’s been left with a bill for about $5,000 for emptying and cleaning her pool, replacing the liner and cleaning the patio.

Related on HuffPost:

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• Third Eye Blind

  Tilde Nörgaard, a Swedish sixth grader, is still trying to figure out how she got a third eye in her class photo.

• 150-lb Boulder Crashes Through Car Windshield

  This 150-lb boulder crashed through the windshield of a rental car in Sedona, Az. The passengers, Bob Jaczko and Peter Wilson suffered minor cuts.

• Kid Has LEGO stuck in nose for three years.

  Isaak Lasson can finally breathe easy after three years of sinus problem caused by a single wheel-shaped LEGO that he got stuck up his nose back when he was three.

• Scrapyard Destroys Wrong Car

  Ben Forrer outside Sita UK, a scrap yard in Coventry, today, 25, 2012. Refer to NTI story NTICRUSH. Ben Forrer looked on in horror as a Coventry scrapyard crushed his van by mistake. Ben Forrer had only left his Citroen Relay for a few minutes as he dropped off an old cooker at the Sita yard, in Longford. But workers mistook the van for scrap and began crushing it in the jaws of a mechanical grabber

• Middle Finger Bush

  A bush carved into the shape of a middle-finger has landed a gardener into trouble after somebody failed to share his humour over the shrub. The council received a complaint about the shaped bush eight years after it was carved by Richard Jackson, 53, in his front garden. Despite only receiving one complaint, the council have since contacted Richard to alter the bush as it is considered a public offence. But Richard, from Tamworth, Staffs, said his neighbours are backing his pledge to keep the bush and they have even began a Save the Bush campaign to support him. Credit: Caters News

• Cathedral Licker

  A man has made a 5,000 mile pilgrimage to every Anglican cathedral in England so he can give them a good LICKING. Lawrence Edmonds has staked his claim as Britains first every cathedral licker by tongue tickling an incredible 42 in less than two years. Christian approval, Polish condemnation, and looks of confusion from a flock of Dutch tourists have all been experienced by Lawrence on his epic journey Back in January 2011, Lawrences friend Adam challenged him to a bet- that he couldnt lick every Anglican cathedral in the UK within five years. Credit: Caters News

• Baobab Tree Sculpture

  Mike De Butts adds the finishing touches to a giant Baobab Tree sculpture entitled ‘Under the Baobab’, outside the Southbank Centre on May 24, 2012 in London, England. The Pirate Technics’ installation is made from a selection of brightly coloured fabrics from around the world, and is part of the Southbank Centre’s ‘Festival of the World’ exhibition, which includes a series of large scale pieces of art that will be in place around the Southbank centre over the Summer.

• My Little Ponies

  Some of Sarah’s ponies. Sarah Butler, 28 from Barnsley, Yorkshire has been collecting 1980’s My Little Ponies for 24 years and now has over 1,000 of them as well as having a themed room in her house including My Little Pony curtains, bedspread and other collectables.

• Rapunzel Hair

  Natasha Moraes de Andrade, 12, is nicknamed Rapunzel because her hair is more than 5 feet long — just one and a half inches shorter than her height. In March, she planned to cut and sell the locks for some $2,600 to help get her family in Rio De Janeiro out of poverty.

• Moscow City Lights

  Swirling colors of city lights from a 900ft crane fill the Moscow skyline. Photographer D. Chistoprudov boards the crane, which is being used to build a skyscraper called Federation, and takes pictures over a period of two hours. Chistoprudov, 28, starts taking the swirling snaps around 1am and battles freezing weather to remain completely still so not to ruin the careful process. (Caters News / ZUMA Press)

• iPoo

  The sleek design, the impressive functionality, the distinctive logo – was it only a matter of time before Apple redesigned the humble toilet with the iPoo? The iPoo is literally a case of toilet humour and Belgrade designer Milos Paripovic makes the tongue-in-cheek claim his work isn’t intentionally related to the Apple brand.

• Tamaseseri Festival

  Naked men wearing only loincloths vie for a wooden treasure ball weighing eight kilos to bring good fortune, during the Tamaseseri festival at Hakozaki shrine in Fukuoka, on Japan’s southern island of Kyushu on Jan. 3, 2012. Two teams of farmers and fishermen competed for the rich harvest or largest catch at a festival that dates back some 500 years.

• Snow Church

  Visitors stand around a snow church just after its inauguration on Dec. 28, 2011 in Mitterfirmiansreut, Germany. The circa 25 meters long church was made of 1,400 cubic meters of snow and aims to commemorate the winter of the years 1910/1911, when so much snow fell that believers of Mitterfirmiansreut were no more able to go to church in the neighboring community of Mauth. So they decided to build their own church, made of snow. (Armin Weigel, AFP / Getty Images)

• Snow Church

  Visitors stand around a snow church just after its inauguration on Dec. 28, 2011 in Mitterfirmiansreut, Germany. The circa 25 meters long church was made of 1,400 cubic meters of snow and aims to commemorate the winter of the years 1910/1911, when so much snow fell that believers of Mitterfirmiansreut were no more able to go to church in the neighboring community of Mauth. So they decided to build their own church, made of snow. (Armin Weigel, AFP / Getty Images)

• Heine Braeck, 33, from Sarpsborg, Norway, has been without an right arm since he lost it during a freak accident when he was 13. Now he has decided to make the stump look like a dolpin’s head with the help of Bulgarian tattooist Valio Ska.

• Giant Slipper

  A man who ordered a special slipper to fit his oversized foot was sent a size 1,450 – after manufacturers failed to spot a decimal point in his order. Tom Boddingham, 27, has a size 13 right foot while his left is slightly bigger and measures a size 14-and-a-half. But when he ordered his custom-fit slipper manufacturers in China misread size 14.5 and accidently made a whopping 7ft long size 1,450

• Eight-year-old girl is world’s youngest drag racer

  Eight-year-old girl Belle Wheeler has become the youngest drag racer in the world — just two days after her eighth birthday. The pint-sized dragster then went onto compete against youngsters more than twice her age and qualified for the UK National Finals.

• Lawn Mower Endurance Race

  Competitors race in the 12-hour Lawn Mower Endurance Race on September 24, 2011 in Billingshurst, England. First started in 1973 as a motorsport that would be accessible to as many as possible, this year’s competition included more than 30 teams including some from South Africa, America and Luxembourg.

• Pumpkin Art

  An employee arranges pumpkins to form a fish at the pumkin exhibition of the asparagus and experience farm Buschmann and Winkelmann in Klaistow near Beelitz, northeastern Germany on August 31, 2011. The exhibition will start on September 1 , 2011, with over 100,000 pumkins in 400 different varieties.

• Cable Car High Wire

  High wire artist Freddy Nock balances as he walks up on the rope of a Zugspitze cable car in Grainau near Garmisch-Partenkirchen, southern Germany, Saturday, Aug. 20, 2011. Nock walked up the 995 meters long rope with an altitude difference of 348 meters aiming at collecting money for the UNESCO. He is attempting to set a new world record by doing seven summits in Germany, Austria and Switzerland in seven days. It took him about 90 minutes to arrive on top of Zugspitze, the highest mountain in Germany.

• Third Story Exit

  A 16-ton salt spreader blasted through the fifth-floor wall of a Queens Sanitation Department garage and came within inches of plummeting 50 feet to the street. The driver survived the spectacular 9:30 am crash, which sent bricks and debris raining down on cars parked outside the Maspeth repair facility, but spent 15 terrified minutes dangling in the cab of the bright orange vehicle. It’s unclear how driver Robert Legall, a 10-year Sanitation veteran with a clean record, lost control of the big rig. “There are signs up there warning drivers to slow down,” Commissioner John Doherty told the New York Post. “He’s familiar with the rules. We think it was just an unfortunate accident.”

• Speed Record Spins Out

  Driver Joe Wales crashes through the surf after veering off course during an attempt on the British land speed record for battery-powered vehicles in the Bluebird Electric on Pendine Sands on August 14, 2011 in Pendine, Wales. Driver Joe Wales and his father, fellow driver Don Wales, come from a famous family who have been setting land and water speed records since 1924. Don holds the current UK record of 137 miles an hour in an electric vehicle.

• Giant Cabbage

  Harrogate Autumn Flower show Director Martin Fish with a giant cabbage, as he introduced a series of new classes for Giant Vegetables to mark the 100th Anniversary of the Show. Giant onions, tomatoes and many others will all compete for the top prize of the biggest vegetable.

• Keep Claer

  An incorrectly spelled “Keep Clear” road marking is pictured in Kingswinford, on August 3, 2011 in West Midlands, England.

• Etna Volcano lava

  Lava spewed from a crater of the giant Etna volcano in the southern Italy island of Sicily on July 30, 2011 in Catania. The lava flown into a valley overnight and did not represent a danger to inhabited areas. Etna is the highest active volcano in Europe at 3,295 metres (10,810 feet) which last eruption was in May.

• Killer Plant Eats Bird

  An exotic plant expert was stunned when he inspected one of his garden
  pitcher plants and discovered it had eaten a blue tit.
  Prize winning Nigel Hewitt Cooper one of Britain’s leading carnivorous plant
  growers, from West Pennard, Somerset, couldn’t believe his eyes when he
  checked the Nepenthes x mixta or Monkey Cup pitcher and found the dead bird
  inside.
  Normally the plants which are native to south east Asia consume insects
  which thy attract by secreting a sticky, sweet fluid at the bottom of the
  pitcher.
  Sometimes in the wild they have been known to kill small mammals like mice
  but Mr Hewitt Cooper who regularly wins prizes at the Chelsea flower show
  says for a cultivate plant to capture a bird is incredible.

• Giant Mermaid

  A man adjusts a sculpture “Giant Mermaid” on the Alster lake in the northern German city of Hamburg on August 1, 2011. The sculpture is created by art and advertising agency headed by Oliver Voss.

• Huge Pastry

  People look at a huge khachapuri (Georgian cheese pastry) in central Batumi on July 28, 2011. The cake was baked using 100 eggs, 90 kilograms of cheese, 150 kilograms of flour, has 8 meters length and was eaten within 1minute 32 seconds by people at a street.

• Velomobiles

  Velomobiles, recumbent bicycles with sleek, colorful outer shells, head for the open road in Portland, Ore., Thursday, July 28, 2011. Twenty five riders from Europe and twenty five riders from North America are on a cross-country trip which will finish on the U.S. Capitol steps in Washington D.C. on August 26. The bikers are trying to spread the message that sustainable, clean transportation can be fun.

• Bobblehead Bishop

  Erie Catholic Bishop Donald W. Trautman has been immortalized in miniature with a bobblehead doll made in his likeness. The bobblehead comes as Trautman prepares to end his tenure as bishop of Erie.

• Canadian bubble artist

  Canadian bubble artist Yang Fan, who has set world record by packing 118 people inside a soap bubble, performs at the Gazillion bubble show in Beijing on July 19, 2011. Yang has earned international acclaim as a result of his complex displays of “bubble theater”. In addition to performing he has developed his own bubble solution formulas and equipment to create bubbles.

• Giant Marilyn

  Newly-wed bride Magda Villasenor looks at “Forever Marilyn”, a sculpture by Seward Johnson, on July 15, 2011 in Chicago, Illinois. The stainless steel and aluminum sculpture, which stands 26 feet tall and weighs 34,000 pounds, will be on display in Chicago through the spring of 2012. The sculpture was inspired by Marilyn Monroe’s iconic scene in the 1955 movie “Seven Year Itch”.

• Hot Dog Hot Rod

  The iconic Oscar Mayer Wienermobile vehicle is seen outside of the New York Stock Exchange as part of its day-long 75th birthday celebration, Monday, July 18, 2011. To commemorate the milestone, the Oscar Mayer brand rang the closing bell at NYSE. (Diane Bondareff/AP Images for Oscar Mayer)

• Harry Potter Corn Maze

  An aerial view of Top Pearsy’s Maize Maze in the shape of Harry Potter, on July 11, 2011 in York, England. Farmer Tom Pearcy has cut two portraits of Harry Potter in his crop of maize plants. With some subtle differences the two images create the world’s largest spot the difference competition. At over 50m in diameter, and cut out of over 1 million living maize plants, the York Maze is the largest ‘Maize Maze’ in Europe and one of the largest in the world.

• Recycled Sailboat

  A sail boat made of recycled material makes its maiden voyage to mark World Oceans Day in Taipei, Taiwan, Wednesday, June 8, 2011.

• Pontiac Deluxe Six ‘Ghost Car’

  An extraordinary transparent car could fetch as much as GBP 295,000 when it goes up for auction.The motor, dubbed the ‘Ghost Car’, is a Pontiac Deluxe Six which has been covered in Plexiglas. The first transparent full-sized car to be made in America, it was built in 1939 by General Motors and chemical company Rohm and Haas. Billed as a vision of the future, it was a sensation at the 1939-40 New York World’s Fair and continues to cause a stir today. Just two were ever made and this model, which has a three-speed manual transmission, is thought to be the last of its kind. It has clocked up just 86 miles in its lifetime; and now its set to go on sale for the first time since the early 1980s. It last sold for an undisclosed amount. American auctioneers RM expect it to sell for between $275,000 and $475,000.

• Serbian Brides Race

  Serbian women take part in a wedding dress race in downtown Belgrade on June 19, 2011. More than fifty “brides” took part in an annual wedding dress race in the Serbian capital, competing for numerous prizes. (Andrej Isakovic, AFP/Getty Images)

• World Naked Bike Ride

  People take part in the annual “London World Naked Bike Ride” event in central London on June 11, 2011. Now in it’s eighth year, the event has seen participation grow from 58 in 2004 to 1,200 in 2009. Taking a route that passes many of London’s most famous landmarks, the ride allows those participating to decorate their body with messages of protest against oil dependancy and motor vehicle usage.

• Hanging Around

  British artist Alice Newstead hangs by shark hooks during her demonstration to protest against shark slaughter in Hong Kong on June 14. The protest was organized by marine conservation group Shark Savers, and supported by Lush Fresh Handmade Cosmetics who are launching a global campaign to protect the sharks.

• Reptile House

  Diska Putra, holds one of his snakes in bed at home on June 10, 2011 in Bintan, Indonesia. Putra, 24, cohabitates in Indonesian with a collection of 30 snakes, some of which are deadly poisonous.

• Monkey God

  An Indian priest walks outside the temple of Hindu monkey God Hanuman in New Delhi early June 12, 2011. The highly popular monkey-god Hanuman known for his strength is worshipped for his unyielding devotion and selfless dedication to the Lord Rama.

• Big Baby

  Ron Mueck’s ‘Big Baby’ sculpture is displayed in front of Jenny Saville’s painting ‘Interfacing’ at the Masterpieces Exhibition at Christie’s on June 13, 2011 in London, England.

• Drunken Knight

  A would-be knight who tried to woo a maiden by riding into her home on a horse is facing five years behind bars for aggravated burglary. Lovelorn Jan Rudnicki, 40, hatched the scheme to bowl over divorcee Gosia Domoslawska after a night’s drinking down his local bar in Jarnoltowka, Poland. But terrified Gosia, 36, dialed 999 when her drunken suitor – stripped to the waist – galloped up her garden path and smashed his way through the front door like a battering ram.

• Sideshow Fat Man Dies

  Bruce Snowdon, the last sideshow fat man, was honored in a memorial service on Jan. 30, 2010. Snowdon performed as “Harold Huge,” and weighed 607 pounds (though by some billing he tipped the scale at 712 pounds). Here he is with fellow sideshow star Peter Terhurne, a fire-eating dwarf.

• So, What Do You Do For a Living?

  Mexican tattoo artist and trained lawyer Maria Jose Cristerna, known as “Vampire Woman”, attends the Fifth International Tattoo Convention in Bogota, Colombia, on June 4, 2011.

• It’s All Fun And Games…

  A Sufi Kalandar (wandering ascetic) performs an act of self torture during devotion at the annual death anniversary of Sufi saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti in Ajmer, India on June 2.

• Indian spiritual guru Swami Baba Ramdev

  Indian spiritual guru Swami Baba Ramdev performs yoga during his hunger strike at the Pitanjali Yogpeeth in Haridwar, some 240kms from New Delhi, on June 7, 2011. India’s embattled prime minister on June 7 defended a police crackdown on a peaceful anti-graft demonstration led by a famous yoga guru, saying authorities had been left with no choice.

• Kwok Mang Ho

  Chinese artist Kwok Mang Ho performs during the 54th International Art Exhibition in Venice on June 1, 2011. The Biennale entitled Illuminazioni that will open to the public from June 4th to November 27th 2011, in the Giardini and the Arsenale exhibition venues, as well as in various other locations around the city.

• Chinese Cabbage Art

  These glamour models look good enough to eat but will not turn your girlfriend green with envy – because they are made entirely of cabbage. Artist Ju Duoqi created the bizarre sculptures for her project called “The Fantasies of Chinese Cabbage”. Every body part is made from the vegetable. Ju is from Beijing, China. Pictured, some of Ju’s work, made from cabbage leaves.
  This is entitled: ‘An’
  (Ju Duoqi/Solent News Photo Agency)

• Chinese Cabbage Art

  These glamour models look good enough to eat but will not turn your girlfriend green with envy – because they are made entirely of cabbage. Artist Ju Duoqi created the bizarre sculptures for her project called “The Fantasies of Chinese Cabbage”. Every body part is made from the vegetable. Ju is from Beijing, China. Pictured, some of Ju’s work, made from cabbage leaves.
  This is entitled: ‘Susan’
  (Ju Duoqi/Solent News Photo Agency)

{ story.summary|safe|escape }

• Axed: Mickey Arthur. Photo: Getty Images

Cricket Australia has sacked head coach Mickey Arthur on the eve of the Ashes.

The former South Africa coach, whose contract was due to run until the end of the World Cup in March 2015, was informed of the decision over the weekend.

CA is expected to confirm his axing on Monday. It is not known who will replace him, although highly rated Queensland coach Darren Lehmann is in England and has just completed a coaching stint with Australia A.

Arthur came in for heavy criticism for his role in standing down four players, including then vice-captain Shane Watson, during the Test tour of India in March for failing to complete performance feedback on time.

Did Cricket Australia make the right call? Have your say in the comments section below.

There has been a school of thought that the South African was not tough enough to oversee the generational change in the Australian team, and he has been made responsible for a team culture that has gone backwards this year.

The latest examples were David Warner’s twin run-ins with trouble – first on Twitter, then in a bar in Birmingham – which led to the opener being suspended until the first Test at Trent Bridge.

Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland was furious at Warner’s conduct and understood to be also angry at the handling of the bar-room affair – in which Warner punched England’s Joe Root – by team management.

The decision comes as all of Australia’s squad converges for the first time in Taunton in England on Monday, for their first pre-Ashes tour match, against Somerset beginning on Wednesday.

Arthur was one of the major appointments in the aftermath of the Argus Review, which was ordered after Australia lost the 2009-10 home Ashes series to England.

He was then coaching Western Australia but was selected after a worldwide search for the newly created head coach and selector position – former coach Tim Nielsen did not apply for it – on a three-and-a-half-year contract.

The Ashes series begins on July 10.

East London – Seven hikers had to be rescued after becoming trapped on a ledge during a Spring high tide in Haga Haga, near East London, the National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) said on Sunday.

One of them, Wesley Dragh, 33, had fractured his ankle while trying to prevent his daughter from falling onto rocks during a hike along the shoreline on Saturday, NSRI spokesman Craig Lambinon said in a statement.

Thirteen-year-old Jonathan Nicholas, the son of a Port Edward NSRI volunteer was with them and contacted his father John Nicholas for help, he said.

He found them trapped on a ledge, soon to be immersed by the incoming Spring high tide, said Lambinon.

Shortly after he arrived, a wave swept Dragh’s partner Dafre Trotsky, 43, into the sea. Nicholas sen. jumped in and rescued her.

He then moved the four children in the group, aged between six and eight, to higher ground, before carrying Dragh 100 metres to safety and raising the alarm.

He and two fisherman rigged a make-shift stretcher which they used to carry Dragh 500 metres up a cliff, where they were met by emergency services, who took him up another 300m.

Dragh, who is from Somerset East, was later was airlifted to a hospital in East London. His fracture was set in a cast and he returned to Haga Haga on Sunday morning. He would be operated on in Somerset East on Wednesday, said Lambinon. – Sapa

England said Monday rising star Joe Root was “currently the best opening partner for Alastair Cook” as they left Nick Compton out of their squad for the Ashes warm-up against Essex.

Compton, grandson of England great Denis, has opened for England alongside captain Cook in their last nine Tests but could only manage 39 runs in four innings in a 2-0 home series win over New Zealand last month.

Root, thus far for England a middle order batsman but an opener with Yorkshire, has been in fine form this season and scored his maiden Test hundred, against New Zealand, on his Headingley home ground.

Compton, however, will have an excellent chance to restate his case when south-west side Somerset, his county, play Australia in a four-day warm-up match in Taunton starting Wednesday.

But he will not play for England against Essex, Cook’s county, at Chelmsford, east of London, this coming weekend.

“We believe Joe Root is currently the best opening partner for Alastair Cook, and he will open the batting against Essex,” said England national selector Geoff Miller in a statement.

“Joe has performed well for Yorkshire at the top of the order earlier this season, and during his international career so far has proven to be very adaptable in all three formats and relished the challenge of international cricket,” the former England off-spinner added.

England named Monday a 14-man squad for the match, beginning on Sunday, and are expected to finalise a 12 or 13 a week or so later for the first Ashes Test at Trent Bridge starting on July 10.

Former Ireland international Boyd Rankin is the only member of the squad to face Essex who has yet to play for England in any format.

He joined five other pacemen in the squad — James Anderson, Tim Bresnan, Stuart Broad, Steven Finn and Graham Onions.

Rankin, Onions and a fit-again Kevin Pietersen are the only players selected who were not named in either a Test or one-day squad to face New Zealand at the start of this season.

Miller added: “This match is a vital part of our preparations for the Ashes after a period of limited-overs cricket for a large number of the squad.

“We have a very exciting two months of Test cricket coming up, and it is important we start well at Chelmsford next week.

“Kevin Pietersen has had no complications following his recent return to cricket after a knee injury — which is pleasing — and Graeme Swann is recovering well from a calf injury.”

Swann, England’s leading off-spinner, played in just one of the hosts’ matches in the Champions Trophy and missed Sunday’s final loss to India at Edgbaston on Sunday

Star batsman Pietersen, out of action since March because of right knee bruising, returned in style by making 177 not out for Surrey against Yorkshire in the County Championship on Sunday in his first innings of the season.

Ashes-holders England will be bidding for a third straight Test series win over Australia — something they last achieved in the 1950s.

England squad to play Essex at Chelmsford (June 30-July 3): Alastair Cook (Essex, capt), James Anderson (Lancashire), Jonny Bairstow (Yorkshire), Ian Bell (Warwickshire, Tim Bresnan (Yorkshire), Stuart Broad (Nottinghamshire), Steven Finn (Middlesex), Graham Onions (Durham), Kevin Pietersen (Surrey), Matt Prior (Sussex, wkt), Boyd Rankin (Warwickshire, Joe Root (Yorkshire), Graeme Swann (Nottinghamshire), Jonathan Trott (Warwickshire)

NSRI

John Nicholas (in white T-shirt) picks up the stretcher holding Wesley Dragh, 33, and helps paramedics move him from a bakkie to a helicopter. Dragh was put in a neck brace as a precaution.

Related Stories

• Seven hikers rescued

Durban – A KwaZulu-Natal man has performed a daring double rescue, saving the lives of holidaymakers in Haga Haga, 70km north of East London, after a day hike went wrong and a father broke his ankle saving his daughter.

Working alone, John Nicholas, a volunteer at the Port Edward National Sea Rescue Institute, managed to get the five children out of danger, before rescuing their mother when she was washed off the rocks. He then carried the father up a steep cliff before the rising spring tide could engulf them.

Nicholas was in a holiday cottage reading when he received a distress call from his son Johnathan, 13. The teen had been hiking with Wesley Dragh and Dafre Trotsky, of Somerset East, and their four children aged between six and eight.

NSRI spokesman, Craig Lambinon, said Dragh had fractured his right ankle while preventing his daughter from falling off the rocks.

Nicholas drove to a beach near the stranded family, and ran the last 600m to where the family were waiting with Dragh on a rock, in danger of being swept out to sea by the incoming tide.

Dragh also had lacerations from dragging himself higher up the rocks.

“He was in extreme pain and I could see the ankle’s deformed bone bulging under his skin,” said Nicholas.

After getting the five children to safety, Nicholas turned his attention to an “extremely injured” Dragh, who was in shock.

But while putting on a splint and preparing to carry Dragh to higher ground, a violent wave washed Trotsky into the sea.

“It was windy and the waves were high,” Nicholas said. “The panicked woman flapped around with her eyes wide open in fear as the water pulled her away,” he said.

Nicholas clambered down until he was chest-deep in the water, and managed to hold on while he grabbed her hand. He said she was light and he was able to pull her to safety without being dragged out himself.

With the tide looming, it was a race against time as he turned his attention back to Dragh. Propelled by a rush of adrenalin he scooped up the injured man in his arms and carried him to a narrow ledge on higher ground.

“I just lifted him like a baby and carried him to safety.”

Waiting for a lull in the waves, he carried Dragh 500m to a safer place. There he enlisted the help of two fishermen, and they made a stretcher out of a driftwood plank to carry Dragh to the top of the cliff.

Paramedics, sent after Nicholas made a call to his station commander, met them and once they had stabilised Dragh, carried him yet another 300m to a bakkie, which took him to the emergency rescue helicopter which airlifted him to an East London hospital.

The entire rescue took two-and-a-half hours.

“He is in a lot of pain but is recovering. He is due to be operated on, on Wednesday in Somerset East to further treat his fracture,” said Lambinon.

Nicholas’s heroic actions prevented a potentially disastrous situation, Lambinon said.

“While Wesley remains in a lot of pain he is recovering and just extremely grateful for John’s efforts at preventing the situation from escalating out of control.

“All admit that John’s actions were heroic under the extremely tense and difficult circumstances on the shoreline cliffs of Haga Haga on Sunday.”

The 51-year-old said he knew what to do because of his NSRI training. The construction company owner, who lives in Port Edward, volunteered for the NSRI three years ago.

After a lifetime on the sea, as a dive master and skipper, he decided to use his sea-going skills and expertise to save lives.

“I had something to offer so I thought it would be a way to contribute to my community,” Nicholas said.

Daily News

There is a certain intractability to Sudan’s conflicts these days, which defies logic or, it seems, any moral responsibility. The inability to move the international community off its course of pandering to Khartoum’s interests seems both irrational and unreasonable, given the significant upsurge in violence in Darfur and the critical situation now facing the population in Blue Nile and South Kordofan.

Consider what would happen if any government elsewhere (let’s say North Korea, for example), had the temerity to actually cross borders, drop bombs on innocent people, blatantly shut off oil supplies and sponsor militias to purposefully create instability in a neighboring country. In such a case, the whole world would be up in arms, diplomatic secure phones would be buzzing with telephone traffic and condemnation would be both swift and decisive.

Yet, when it comes to South Sudan and the rights of marginalized people inside Sudan, anything goes. The Sudanese government can cause havoc, force people to work like slaves in gold mines in Darfur, starve local communities who are now corralled in camps, oversee non-existent health provision leading to the worst global outbreak of yellow fever in decades and terrorize people in the Jebel Marra to within an inch of their lives.

A wanted war criminal, Ali Kushayb, can drive around as Commander of the Central Reserve Forces (known as Abu Tira) in South Darfur with no sanction at all. In South Kordofan and Blue Nile, the government can block humanitarian access, shell local populations and purposely locate itself close to civilian populations in towns like Kadugli so as to create maximum civilian casualties. Being even handed in its dispersal of war criminals, it can install Ahmed Haroun as the Governor of South Kordofan who is currently busy hosting football championships, while also overseeing the murder of innocent people.

The big question is why the silence? Why is the international community so compliant with the Sudanese government while all this unspeakable horror is going on? Why are they so full of what needs to happen elsewhere in the world, while apparently so blind to the rights of the people of Sudan? Why can Obama stand in Berlin talking about freedom and the horrors of the Stasi, while being unconcerned about the horrors of the NISS and indicted war criminals? Why are certain dictators worthy of US attention, while others aren’t?

The answer of course lies in the dirty hand of Qatar in world geopolitics. Across the world today Qatar is so busy in trading its cash for influence in world affairs, that it has been able to compromise the diplomatic credibility of the USA, UK, much of Europe and North Africa. It has been doing this quietly by using its relationships with the likes of Yusuf al-Qaradawi, to shine its credentials of having some control over the Muslim Brotherhood and the ikhwan influence that is fast spreading across the Sahel. It has been doing so at the expense of its neighbors in the Gulf, notably the UAE, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, and also at the expense of people suffering inside Sudan, who, it appears, have no rights at all.

Buying its way into the hearts of governments across the world, Qatar has set its sights high. In the United Kingdom, it has agreed to invest more than £10 billion in infrastructure projects that include energy plants, road and rail projects and even the new ‘super-sewer’ project under the capital, London. Elsewhere in London, Qatar has recently invested in Harrods, the Shard skyscraper and Heathrow Airport. Outside the capital, discussions are also underway to fund a new £14 billion nuclear reactor at Hinkley Point in Somerset, planned and operated by EDF, the French energy giant.

Not wishing to lose out on Qatar’s largesse, France has also agreed to allow the Emirate to invest millions in its depressed ‘banlieues’ – the rings of poor suburbs with high immigrant populations that surround Paris. What was originally slated to be an exclusively Qatari project was however not taken up by Sarkozy due to the pressure of impending elections.

It was however later adapted by François Hollande to include a joint plan between the French government, French private sector and the Qatari government, after accusations that the plan could amount to an ‘Islamic Trojan Horse’ being allowed deep into the heart of depressed Muslim areas. Undeterred the Qataris have continued to work on the issue, promoting a sixty five million dollar fund for young entrepreneurs from these areas. They have also bought football clubs, hotels, office buildings and public companies.

This pattern of influence trading and soft power usage spans much of Europe, including bailouts to the Greek government, interest in privatizing the defense giant Hellenic Defense Systems and buying six of its islands. In Germany the ‘Aamal Company, one of the Gulf region’s fastest growing diversified conglomerates, has signed an agreement with Vivantes International Medicine, the biggest hospital group in Germany, to create a joint venture (JV) outpatient medical centre in Doha’. In a spirit of reciprocity, Qatar is also investing in property and the leisure industry in Berlin.

In the USA, the Emir has developed strong relationships on account of the Defense Cooperation Agreement, which moved the U.S. Combat Air Operations Center for the Middle East from Prince Sultan Airbase in Saudi Arabia to Qatar’s Al Udeid airbase south of Doha, the Qatari capital. Udeid and other facilities in Qatar now serve as logistics, command, and basing hubs for the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) area of operations, including Iraq and Afghanistan’.

Education city, Doha, now hosts six top US universities: Georgetown, Carnegie Mellon, Northwestern, Cornell, Texas AM and Virginia Commonwealth. US think tanks such as the Brookings Institution also call Doha home. Working closely with Qatar on the current crisis in Syria, the US is also developing strong diplomatic relationships with the Emirate as it moves forward.

Qatar’s spiderlike web of influence is growing at a rapid pace and spreading across the globe. The fact that Qatar has the ear, and has cultivated relations of dependence with many western governments, means that it has a lot of leverage in the case of Darfur, not only to keep pushing the Doha Peace Process as the only game in town, but also to ensure continued support for the Sudanese government and its operations. Elsewhere it can keep the pressure on the government of South Sudan and on the so called ‘rebel’ movements like the SRF operating on the border, while turning attention away from Sudan’s own sponsorship of militias inside South Sudan.

The question is how ill-informed and self-interested the world community can get. Are they so entranced by Qatar’s message that they have failed to notice the fact that the Emirate is speaking out of both sides of its mouth? Do they really think that once they’ve bought into Qatar’s influence over the Muslim Brotherhood, that it will end there?

Are they too lazy to look a little further down the road to see what might be heading in their direction? Yes, it is easy to hit the soft targets like South Sudan and the already pulverized people of Darfur, South Kordofan and Blue Nile. Yes, it is easy to sell innocent people out in exchange for economic benefit and fat cat deals. However, getting too involved with such a government, as they will soon find out, can be rather unpredictable. As with so many situations where people get into bed with the devil, the international community had better pay attention to who they will wake up with in the morning.

Dr. Anne Bartlett is Professor of Sociology and Director of the Graduate Program in International Studies at the University of San Francisco. She may be reached at albartlett@usfca.edu

The views expressed in the ‘Comment and Analysis’ section are solely the opinions of the writers. The veracity of any claims made are the responsibility of the author not Sudan Tribune.

If you want to submit an opinion piece or an analysis please email it to comment@sudantribune.com

Sudan Tribune reserves the right to edit articles before publication. Please include your full name, relevant personal information and political affiliations.

An array of international writing talent comes to the Bristol and Bath area during June in a unique festival to celebrate literature from around the world.

A dozen of the best writers and performance poets from across the African Diaspora will be taking part in the Yardstick Festival in Bristol and Bath libraries from June 27th to 30th.

Prestigious authors at the festival include Lorna Goodison, Tanya Shirley, Geoffrey Philp (all Jamaican), Lemn Sissay (British Ethiopian), Warsan Shire (Somali), Mukoma Wa Ngugi (Kenyan), Nick Makoha (Ugandan), Leeto Thale (South African), Jamal Safari (Congolese), Emman Egya Sule (Nigerian), Nii Ayikwei Parkes (Ghana) Dean Atta (British Jamaican) and Chioma Okereke (Nigerian).

Lorna Goodison, Jamaica 50 Cultural Medal of Honour recipient and festival patron, headlines the opening event at Bath central Library on Thursday, June 27th, followed on Saturday with Yardstick’s Griot Globetrotters group performance in Bristol on Friday, June 28th and Bath on Saturday, June 29th. Lemn Sissay at Bristol Central Library will headline the final day on Sunday June 30th. The closing event is a VIP After-show late evening party with poet Dean Atta.

The festival will also include a series of thought provoking panel discussions. These include Rural v Urban, chaired by Chino Odimba (Bristol, June 28th), Lost in Translation chaired by Dee Jarrett-Macauley (Bath, June 29) and Black Publishing chaired by Richard Jones (Bristol, June 30th).

There will also be two schools writing workshops on Friday, June 28th. Warsan Shire and Chioma Okereke will be at City Academy, Redfield.  Geoffrey Philp and Jamala Safari will teach with students at North Bristol Post-16 Centre, Cotham. The Centre is providing up to 16 volunteers for the festival.

Councillor David Dixon, Bath North East Somerset Council’s Cabinet Member for Neighbourhoods, said: “For the second year running, Bath North East Somerset Council is proud to welcome inspirational writers and enthusiastic audiences to Bath Central Library for the Yardstick Festival. We’re also presenting a ‘sound portrait’ by Karen Wallis, on Sunday 30 June at 2pm – a free event at the library which offers a fascinating insight into Fairfield House; the place where Haile Selassie lived during his exile from Ethiopia, and which is now used by Bath minority and ethnic groups.”

Councillor Gus Hoyt, Assistant Mayor with responsibility for Neighbourhoods, Environment and Council Housing, said: “This is a thrilling line-up of talent and I’m very pleased that Bristol will be co-hosting this event with Bath. It’s also a brilliant opportunity to celebrate and explore the work of authors, poets and performers from across the African diaspora.”

Richard Dowden, Director of The Royal African Society  said: “We are thrilled to be working with Yardstick Festival this year to bring some of the best African authors and literature to Bristol and London, and we look forward to an enduring partnership.”

Emma D’Costa (Commonwealth Writers) said: ”Commonwealth Writers is delighted to partner with Yardstick to celebrate the writers E.E. Sule from Nigeria and Jamala Safari from South Africa. The festival is a great opportunity for them to engage with other writers across the African Diaspora in an inspiring programme of events. This year, both writers were recognised by the Commonwealth Book Prize and Yardstick is an important platform for them to reach out to a wider audience.”

Yardstick Festival news release.

An array of international writing talent comes to the Bristol and Bath area during June in a unique festival to celebrate literature from around the world. A dozen of the best writers and performance poets from across the African Diaspora will be taking part in the Yardstick Festival in Bristol and Bath libraries from June 27th to 30th.  

Prestigious authors at the festival include Lorna Goodison, Tanya Shirley, Geoffrey Philp (all Jamaican), Lemn Sissay (British Ethiopian), Warsan Shire (Somali), Mukoma Wa Ngugi (Kenyan), Nick Makoha (Ugandan), Leeto Thale (South African), Jamal Safari (Congolese), Emman Egya Sule (Nigerian), Nii Ayikwei Parkes (Ghana) Dean Atta (British Jamaican) and Chioma Okereke (Nigerian)

Lorna Goodison, Jamaica 50 Cultural Medal of Honour recipient and festival patron, headlines the opening event at Bath central Library on Thursday, June 27, followed on Saturday with Yardstick’s Griot Globetrotters group performance in Bristol on Friday, June 28 and Bath on Saturday, June 29. Lemn Sissay at Bristol Central Library will headline the final day on Sunday June 30. The closing event is a VIP After-show late evening party with poet Dean Atta

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The festival will also include a series of thought provoking panel discussions.  These include Rural v Urban, chaired by Chino Odimba (Bristol, June 28), Lost in Translation chaired by Dee Jarrett-Macauley (Bath, June 29) and Black Publishing chaired by Richard Jones (Bristol, June 30).

There will also be two schools writing workshops on Friday, June 28. Warsan Shire and Chioma Okereke will be at City Academy, Redfield.  Geoffrey Philp and Jamala Safari will teach with students at North Bristol Post-16 Centre, Cotham. The Centre is providing up to 16 volunteers for the festival.

Councillor David Dixon, Bath North East Somerset Council’s Cabinet Member for Neighbourhoods, said: “For the second year running, Bath North East Somerset Council is proud to welcome inspirational writers and enthusiastic audiences to Bath Central Library for the Yardstick Festival. We’re also presenting a ‘sound portrait’ by Karen Wallis, on Sunday 30 June at 2pm – a free event at the library which offers a fascinating insight into Fairfield House; the place where Haile Selassie lived during his exile from Ethiopia, and which is now used by Bath minority and ethnic groups.”

Councillor Gus Hoyt, Assistant Mayor with responsibility for Neighbourhoods, Environment and Council Housing, said: “This is a thrilling line-up of talent and I’m very pleased that Bristol will be co-hosting this event with Bath. It’s also a brilliant opportunity to celebrate and explore the work of authors, poets and performers from across the African diaspora.”

Richard Dowden, Director of The Royal African Society  said: “We are thrilled to be working with Yardstick Festival this year to bring some of the best African authors and literature to Bristol and London, and we look forward to an enduring partnership”

Emma D’Costa (Commonwealth Writers) said: “Commonwealth Writers is delighted to partner with Yardstick to celebrate the writers E.E. Sule from Nigeria and Jamala Safari from South Africa. The festival is a great opportunity for them to engage with other writers across the African Diaspora in an inspiring programme of events. This year, both writers were recognised by the Commonwealth Book Prize and Yardstick is an important platform for them to reach out to a wider audience.”

Photographers are invited to attend:

1. The Yardstick launch reception at the Guildhall, Bath, at 6pm on Thursday 27th June attended by the Chair of BANES
2. A writing workshop by Warsan Shire who will be joined by Nigerian poet and novelist Chioma Okereke at the City Academy Bristol at 11am on Friday 28th June
3. A Lord Mayor’s reception held at Bristol Mansion House at 3.30pm on Friday 28th June, where the Lord Mayor will be hosting Yardstick authors in the festival for afternoon tea

For further information about the Yardstick festival contact Asif Khan, Library Community Engagement Coordinator Tel: 0117 9037 218 asif.khan@bristol.gov.uk

21st June 2013

THE Rotary Club of Crewkerne District met for a special dinner at the Henhayes Centre where guests from Crewkerne Rotary Club joined them for a meal supplied by Richard Hall and two guest speakers gave informed illustrated talks on their charities.

Zoe Steer, regional Fundraiser for Parkinson UK gave them an update on the work of the charity and Scott Chandler from Crewkerne shared his latest news on his efforts to set up his FACES Africa charity.

Mr Chandler, a trainee teacher in special educational needs, was pleased to announce that his next trip to Uganda, where he is working with a school for special needs and supporting a small group of young people who were previously homeless, has been funded by Hazel’s Footprints Trust.

He spoke to Rotarians about the loans to young people scheme he has set up to enable young people aged 18 to 30-years-old from disadvantaged backgrounds with practical skills and work experience through a combination of training,  mentoring, business planning and/or job placement, and enterprise development support. When they pay back the interest free loan they then pay it forward to the next young person who needs it. 

The pilot scheme has enabled one young man to begin farming pigs. 

FACES is a not for profit organisation which Mr Chandler hopes to become a charity very soon and he is anxious to talk to any more groups who may be able to support his work in any way. For more information look up FACESAfrica on Facebook. 

PICTURE: INFORMATIVE TALKS | Jeremy Webb president elect, Sarah Holley president, Scott Chandler FACES Africa and Zoe Steer Parkinsons UK

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No coffee with that DOUGHNUT?

Around and around went stunt driver Terry Grant, maneuvering his way to the world record for most rotating doughnuts in a car in 100 seconds. Grant achieved the dizzying feat Thursday at the Vospers car dealership in Plymouth, England.

This marks Grant’s twentieth world record, which include the furthest distance travelled in a car on two wheels and the tightest parallel park in reverse. He is 43.

And no, that is not a toy car.

Watch the full video above

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• This photo released by the Glendale Police Department shows a black Cadillac that lost control and careened onto the roof of a neighbor’s home on Saturday, March 23, 2013 in Glendale, Calif. The Cadillac driver lost control before leaving his driveway, plunging off a hill “onto the roof of his neighbor’s house directly below his driveway. (Photo courtesy of Glendale Police Department)

• Third Eye Blind

  Tilde Nörgaard, a Swedish sixth grader, is still trying to figure out how she got a third eye in her class photo.

• 150-lb Boulder Crashes Through Car Windshield

  This 150-lb boulder crashed through the windshield of a rental car in Sedona, Az. The passengers, Bob Jaczko and Peter Wilson suffered minor cuts.

• Kid Has LEGO stuck in nose for three years.

  Isaak Lasson can finally breathe easy after three years of sinus problem caused by a single wheel-shaped LEGO that he got stuck up his nose back when he was three.

• Scrapyard Destroys Wrong Car

  Ben Forrer outside Sita UK, a scrap yard in Coventry, today, 25, 2012. Refer to NTI story NTICRUSH. Ben Forrer looked on in horror as a Coventry scrapyard crushed his van by mistake. Ben Forrer had only left his Citroen Relay for a few minutes as he dropped off an old cooker at the Sita yard, in Longford. But workers mistook the van for scrap and began crushing it in the jaws of a mechanical grabber

• Middle Finger Bush

  A bush carved into the shape of a middle-finger has landed a gardener into trouble after somebody failed to share his humour over the shrub. The council received a complaint about the shaped bush eight years after it was carved by Richard Jackson, 53, in his front garden. Despite only receiving one complaint, the council have since contacted Richard to alter the bush as it is considered a public offence. But Richard, from Tamworth, Staffs, said his neighbours are backing his pledge to keep the bush and they have even began a Save the Bush campaign to support him. Credit: Caters News

• Cathedral Licker

  A man has made a 5,000 mile pilgrimage to every Anglican cathedral in England so he can give them a good LICKING. Lawrence Edmonds has staked his claim as Britains first every cathedral licker by tongue tickling an incredible 42 in less than two years. Christian approval, Polish condemnation, and looks of confusion from a flock of Dutch tourists have all been experienced by Lawrence on his epic journey Back in January 2011, Lawrences friend Adam challenged him to a bet- that he couldnt lick every Anglican cathedral in the UK within five years. Credit: Caters News

• Baobab Tree Sculpture

  Mike De Butts adds the finishing touches to a giant Baobab Tree sculpture entitled ‘Under the Baobab’, outside the Southbank Centre on May 24, 2012 in London, England. The Pirate Technics’ installation is made from a selection of brightly coloured fabrics from around the world, and is part of the Southbank Centre’s ‘Festival of the World’ exhibition, which includes a series of large scale pieces of art that will be in place around the Southbank centre over the Summer.

• My Little Ponies

  Some of Sarah’s ponies. Sarah Butler, 28 from Barnsley, Yorkshire has been collecting 1980’s My Little Ponies for 24 years and now has over 1,000 of them as well as having a themed room in her house including My Little Pony curtains, bedspread and other collectables.

• Rapunzel Hair

  Natasha Moraes de Andrade, 12, is nicknamed Rapunzel because her hair is more than 5 feet long — just one and a half inches shorter than her height. In March, she planned to cut and sell the locks for some $2,600 to help get her family in Rio De Janeiro out of poverty.

• Moscow City Lights

  Swirling colors of city lights from a 900ft crane fill the Moscow skyline. Photographer D. Chistoprudov boards the crane, which is being used to build a skyscraper called Federation, and takes pictures over a period of two hours. Chistoprudov, 28, starts taking the swirling snaps around 1am and battles freezing weather to remain completely still so not to ruin the careful process. (Caters News / ZUMA Press)

• iPoo

  The sleek design, the impressive functionality, the distinctive logo – was it only a matter of time before Apple redesigned the humble toilet with the iPoo? The iPoo is literally a case of toilet humour and Belgrade designer Milos Paripovic makes the tongue-in-cheek claim his work isn’t intentionally related to the Apple brand.

• Tamaseseri Festival

  Naked men wearing only loincloths vie for a wooden treasure ball weighing eight kilos to bring good fortune, during the Tamaseseri festival at Hakozaki shrine in Fukuoka, on Japan’s southern island of Kyushu on Jan. 3, 2012. Two teams of farmers and fishermen competed for the rich harvest or largest catch at a festival that dates back some 500 years.

• Snow Church

  Visitors stand around a snow church just after its inauguration on Dec. 28, 2011 in Mitterfirmiansreut, Germany. The circa 25 meters long church was made of 1,400 cubic meters of snow and aims to commemorate the winter of the years 1910/1911, when so much snow fell that believers of Mitterfirmiansreut were no more able to go to church in the neighboring community of Mauth. So they decided to build their own church, made of snow. (Armin Weigel, AFP / Getty Images)

• Snow Church

  Visitors stand around a snow church just after its inauguration on Dec. 28, 2011 in Mitterfirmiansreut, Germany. The circa 25 meters long church was made of 1,400 cubic meters of snow and aims to commemorate the winter of the years 1910/1911, when so much snow fell that believers of Mitterfirmiansreut were no more able to go to church in the neighboring community of Mauth. So they decided to build their own church, made of snow. (Armin Weigel, AFP / Getty Images)

• Heine Braeck, 33, from Sarpsborg, Norway, has been without an right arm since he lost it during a freak accident when he was 13. Now he has decided to make the stump look like a dolpin’s head with the help of Bulgarian tattooist Valio Ska.

• Giant Slipper

  A man who ordered a special slipper to fit his oversized foot was sent a size 1,450 – after manufacturers failed to spot a decimal point in his order. Tom Boddingham, 27, has a size 13 right foot while his left is slightly bigger and measures a size 14-and-a-half. But when he ordered his custom-fit slipper manufacturers in China misread size 14.5 and accidently made a whopping 7ft long size 1,450

• Eight-year-old girl is world’s youngest drag racer

  Eight-year-old girl Belle Wheeler has become the youngest drag racer in the world — just two days after her eighth birthday. The pint-sized dragster then went onto compete against youngsters more than twice her age and qualified for the UK National Finals.

• Lawn Mower Endurance Race

  Competitors race in the 12-hour Lawn Mower Endurance Race on September 24, 2011 in Billingshurst, England. First started in 1973 as a motorsport that would be accessible to as many as possible, this year’s competition included more than 30 teams including some from South Africa, America and Luxembourg.

• Pumpkin Art

  An employee arranges pumpkins to form a fish at the pumkin exhibition of the asparagus and experience farm Buschmann and Winkelmann in Klaistow near Beelitz, northeastern Germany on August 31, 2011. The exhibition will start on September 1 , 2011, with over 100,000 pumkins in 400 different varieties.

• Cable Car High Wire

  High wire artist Freddy Nock balances as he walks up on the rope of a Zugspitze cable car in Grainau near Garmisch-Partenkirchen, southern Germany, Saturday, Aug. 20, 2011. Nock walked up the 995 meters long rope with an altitude difference of 348 meters aiming at collecting money for the UNESCO. He is attempting to set a new world record by doing seven summits in Germany, Austria and Switzerland in seven days. It took him about 90 minutes to arrive on top of Zugspitze, the highest mountain in Germany.

• Third Story Exit

  A 16-ton salt spreader blasted through the fifth-floor wall of a Queens Sanitation Department garage and came within inches of plummeting 50 feet to the street. The driver survived the spectacular 9:30 am crash, which sent bricks and debris raining down on cars parked outside the Maspeth repair facility, but spent 15 terrified minutes dangling in the cab of the bright orange vehicle. It’s unclear how driver Robert Legall, a 10-year Sanitation veteran with a clean record, lost control of the big rig. “There are signs up there warning drivers to slow down,” Commissioner John Doherty told the New York Post. “He’s familiar with the rules. We think it was just an unfortunate accident.”

• Speed Record Spins Out

  Driver Joe Wales crashes through the surf after veering off course during an attempt on the British land speed record for battery-powered vehicles in the Bluebird Electric on Pendine Sands on August 14, 2011 in Pendine, Wales. Driver Joe Wales and his father, fellow driver Don Wales, come from a famous family who have been setting land and water speed records since 1924. Don holds the current UK record of 137 miles an hour in an electric vehicle.

• Giant Cabbage

  Harrogate Autumn Flower show Director Martin Fish with a giant cabbage, as he introduced a series of new classes for Giant Vegetables to mark the 100th Anniversary of the Show. Giant onions, tomatoes and many others will all compete for the top prize of the biggest vegetable.

• Keep Claer

  An incorrectly spelled “Keep Clear” road marking is pictured in Kingswinford, on August 3, 2011 in West Midlands, England.

• Etna Volcano lava

  Lava spewed from a crater of the giant Etna volcano in the southern Italy island of Sicily on July 30, 2011 in Catania. The lava flown into a valley overnight and did not represent a danger to inhabited areas. Etna is the highest active volcano in Europe at 3,295 metres (10,810 feet) which last eruption was in May.

• Killer Plant Eats Bird

  An exotic plant expert was stunned when he inspected one of his garden
  pitcher plants and discovered it had eaten a blue tit.
  Prize winning Nigel Hewitt Cooper one of Britain’s leading carnivorous plant
  growers, from West Pennard, Somerset, couldn’t believe his eyes when he
  checked the Nepenthes x mixta or Monkey Cup pitcher and found the dead bird
  inside.
  Normally the plants which are native to south east Asia consume insects
  which thy attract by secreting a sticky, sweet fluid at the bottom of the
  pitcher.
  Sometimes in the wild they have been known to kill small mammals like mice
  but Mr Hewitt Cooper who regularly wins prizes at the Chelsea flower show
  says for a cultivate plant to capture a bird is incredible.

• Giant Mermaid

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• Huge Pastry

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• Velomobiles

  Velomobiles, recumbent bicycles with sleek, colorful outer shells, head for the open road in Portland, Ore., Thursday, July 28, 2011. Twenty five riders from Europe and twenty five riders from North America are on a cross-country trip which will finish on the U.S. Capitol steps in Washington D.C. on August 26. The bikers are trying to spread the message that sustainable, clean transportation can be fun.

• Bobblehead Bishop

  Erie Catholic Bishop Donald W. Trautman has been immortalized in miniature with a bobblehead doll made in his likeness. The bobblehead comes as Trautman prepares to end his tenure as bishop of Erie.

• Canadian bubble artist

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• Giant Marilyn

  Newly-wed bride Magda Villasenor looks at “Forever Marilyn”, a sculpture by Seward Johnson, on July 15, 2011 in Chicago, Illinois. The stainless steel and aluminum sculpture, which stands 26 feet tall and weighs 34,000 pounds, will be on display in Chicago through the spring of 2012. The sculpture was inspired by Marilyn Monroe’s iconic scene in the 1955 movie “Seven Year Itch”.

• Hot Dog Hot Rod

  The iconic Oscar Mayer Wienermobile vehicle is seen outside of the New York Stock Exchange as part of its day-long 75th birthday celebration, Monday, July 18, 2011. To commemorate the milestone, the Oscar Mayer brand rang the closing bell at NYSE. (Diane Bondareff/AP Images for Oscar Mayer)

• Harry Potter Corn Maze

  An aerial view of Top Pearsy’s Maize Maze in the shape of Harry Potter, on July 11, 2011 in York, England. Farmer Tom Pearcy has cut two portraits of Harry Potter in his crop of maize plants. With some subtle differences the two images create the world’s largest spot the difference competition. At over 50m in diameter, and cut out of over 1 million living maize plants, the York Maze is the largest ‘Maize Maze’ in Europe and one of the largest in the world.

• Recycled Sailboat

  A sail boat made of recycled material makes its maiden voyage to mark World Oceans Day in Taipei, Taiwan, Wednesday, June 8, 2011.

• Pontiac Deluxe Six ‘Ghost Car’

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• Serbian Brides Race

  Serbian women take part in a wedding dress race in downtown Belgrade on June 19, 2011. More than fifty “brides” took part in an annual wedding dress race in the Serbian capital, competing for numerous prizes. (Andrej Isakovic, AFP/Getty Images)

• World Naked Bike Ride

  People take part in the annual “London World Naked Bike Ride” event in central London on June 11, 2011. Now in it’s eighth year, the event has seen participation grow from 58 in 2004 to 1,200 in 2009. Taking a route that passes many of London’s most famous landmarks, the ride allows those participating to decorate their body with messages of protest against oil dependancy and motor vehicle usage.

• Hanging Around

  British artist Alice Newstead hangs by shark hooks during her demonstration to protest against shark slaughter in Hong Kong on June 14. The protest was organized by marine conservation group Shark Savers, and supported by Lush Fresh Handmade Cosmetics who are launching a global campaign to protect the sharks.

• Reptile House

  Diska Putra, holds one of his snakes in bed at home on June 10, 2011 in Bintan, Indonesia. Putra, 24, cohabitates in Indonesian with a collection of 30 snakes, some of which are deadly poisonous.

• Monkey God

  An Indian priest walks outside the temple of Hindu monkey God Hanuman in New Delhi early June 12, 2011. The highly popular monkey-god Hanuman known for his strength is worshipped for his unyielding devotion and selfless dedication to the Lord Rama.

• Big Baby

  Ron Mueck’s ‘Big Baby’ sculpture is displayed in front of Jenny Saville’s painting ‘Interfacing’ at the Masterpieces Exhibition at Christie’s on June 13, 2011 in London, England.

• Drunken Knight

  A would-be knight who tried to woo a maiden by riding into her home on a horse is facing five years behind bars for aggravated burglary. Lovelorn Jan Rudnicki, 40, hatched the scheme to bowl over divorcee Gosia Domoslawska after a night’s drinking down his local bar in Jarnoltowka, Poland. But terrified Gosia, 36, dialed 999 when her drunken suitor – stripped to the waist – galloped up her garden path and smashed his way through the front door like a battering ram.

• Sideshow Fat Man Dies

  Bruce Snowdon, the last sideshow fat man, was honored in a memorial service on Jan. 30, 2010. Snowdon performed as “Harold Huge,” and weighed 607 pounds (though by some billing he tipped the scale at 712 pounds). Here he is with fellow sideshow star Peter Terhurne, a fire-eating dwarf.

• So, What Do You Do For a Living?

  Mexican tattoo artist and trained lawyer Maria Jose Cristerna, known as “Vampire Woman”, attends the Fifth International Tattoo Convention in Bogota, Colombia, on June 4, 2011.

• It’s All Fun And Games…

  A Sufi Kalandar (wandering ascetic) performs an act of self torture during devotion at the annual death anniversary of Sufi saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti in Ajmer, India on June 2.

• Indian spiritual guru Swami Baba Ramdev

  Indian spiritual guru Swami Baba Ramdev performs yoga during his hunger strike at the Pitanjali Yogpeeth in Haridwar, some 240kms from New Delhi, on June 7, 2011. India’s embattled prime minister on June 7 defended a police crackdown on a peaceful anti-graft demonstration led by a famous yoga guru, saying authorities had been left with no choice.

• Kwok Mang Ho

  Chinese artist Kwok Mang Ho performs during the 54th International Art Exhibition in Venice on June 1, 2011. The Biennale entitled Illuminazioni that will open to the public from June 4th to November 27th 2011, in the Giardini and the Arsenale exhibition venues, as well as in various other locations around the city.

• Chinese Cabbage Art

  These glamour models look good enough to eat but will not turn your girlfriend green with envy – because they are made entirely of cabbage. Artist Ju Duoqi created the bizarre sculptures for her project called “The Fantasies of Chinese Cabbage”. Every body part is made from the vegetable. Ju is from Beijing, China. Pictured, some of Ju’s work, made from cabbage leaves.
  This is entitled: ‘An’
  (Ju Duoqi/Solent News Photo Agency)

• Chinese Cabbage Art

  These glamour models look good enough to eat but will not turn your girlfriend green with envy – because they are made entirely of cabbage. Artist Ju Duoqi created the bizarre sculptures for her project called “The Fantasies of Chinese Cabbage”. Every body part is made from the vegetable. Ju is from Beijing, China. Pictured, some of Ju’s work, made from cabbage leaves.
  This is entitled: ‘Susan’
  (Ju Duoqi/Solent News Photo Agency)