Retired bank manager sets record for most body piercings
A former Barclays Bank manager has made the record books for having more piercings than anyone else in the worl
Published: 8:40AM GMT 25 Oct 2009
John Lynch: John , who worked for Barclays Bank for 30 years is also nicknamed Prince Albert and admits to having a "few bits and bobs" on his manhood. Photo: PETER SIMPSON PHOTOGRAPHY
John Lynch has clinched the title with 241 piercings all over his body, including 150 on his head an neck.
The 78 year-old from Apsely, Hertfordshire, gave up flying years ago because his vast array of body art kept setting off security scanners at airports.
And the eccentric pensioner also has hundreds of tattoos on his body including his favourite, a huge portrait of film star Marilyn Monroe which takes up most of his torso.
Mr Lynch, who worked for Barclays Bank for 30 years, had to show all his adornments to an official from the Guinness Book of Records who had to count and verify the number of piercings all over his body.
He got his first piercing on his eyebrow when he decided he had enough of working in the bank in his 40's and also got himself his first tattoo an eagle on his right arm.
But since then Mr Lynch, who looks fearsome, has become a well-known character in the area.
"I gave up working at the bank all those years ago because I was a square peg in a round hole and I always wanted to get a few piercings and tattoos," he said.
"I knew I wanted to stand out a bit from the crowd, and I could not do that at the bank," he added.
He says the reaction he gets from his shocking looks is mainly favourable from passers by.
He said: "I never thought about breaking the record. I've always just done it because I like it but it is quite an achievement.
"I was actually a few short so had 20 or so popped into my arms to up the numbers and if somebody beats me I could always find space for a few more.
Mr Lynch appears in the 2010 edition of the Guinness World Records book, which has just been published
Teen Girls Accept Rape as Price of Joining Gangs
Monday, October 26, 2009
Teenage girls wanting to join violent male gangs are being forced into having sex and ferrying guns, knives and drugs, police and charities have found.
The girls, some as young as 13, want to join gangs to raise their own profile or to seek protection. Often they are swayed by the status given to the senior members of the gang.
When they first join they are told they must have sex with one member of the gang — and then find several of the gang waiting for them.
What has shocked welfare workers is that the girls accept the situation as normal and do not appreciate that they are being violated.
The girls are also being asked to store and transport guns, knives and drugs for the male members of the gang and police have evidence that girls are taking guns direct to killers and then disposing of the weapons once someone has been shot.
The problem has been growing over the past couple of years, with charities getting ever more girls coming to them with tales of gang rapes, and yet reluctant to press charges.
Maine Girl With 'Mermaid Syndrome' Dies at Age 10
Saturday, October 24, 2009
KENNEBUNKPORT, Maine — Shiloh Pepin, a girl who was born with fused legs, a rare condition often called "mermaid syndrome," and gained a wide following on the Internet and national television, has died. She was 10.
Doctors had predicted she would only survive only for days after her birth at the most, but the girl, described by her mother as "a tough little thing," died at Maine Medical Center on Friday afternoon, hospital spokesman John Lamb said. She had been hospitalized in critical condition for nearly a week.
Being born with "mermaid syndrome," also known as sirenomelia, meant that the Kennebunkport girl had only one partially working kidney, no lower colon or genital organs and legs fused from the waist down.
Some children who have survived sirenomelia have had surgery to separate their legs, but Shiloh did not because blood vessels crossing from side to side in her circulatory system would have been severed. She had received two kidney transplants, the last one in 2007.
Her story was featured recently on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" and other national television programs.
Earlier this month, her mother, Leslie Pepin, said her daughter came down with a cold that quickly turned to pneumonia
. Shiloh rushed to Maine Medical Center on Oct. 10 and was placed on antibiotics and a ventilator.
For a while, Leslie Pepin said, things were looking up. "She's a tough little thing," she said of her daughter earlier this week.
Shiloh was a fifth-grader at Kennebunkport Consolidated School. "She was such a shining personality in that building," said Maureen King, chairwoman of the board of the regional school district. Counselors will be available next week to talk to students.
Through the television shows, news articles, Facebook and other Web sites, Shiloh inspired many.
"I live in Iowa. I have cerebral palsy. I love your video," 12-year-old Lydia Dawley wrote to Shiloh on Facebook. "You have a great personality I wish you lived close so we could be friends and hang out. You opened my eyes because you are so brave."
Fiery 'meteor' creates 50ft crater in Latvian countryside
By Mail Foreign Service
Last updated at 11:41 AM on 26th October 2009
A fiery object struck farmland creating a large crater near a small town in northern Latvia.
No-one was injured in the incident and geologists are now studying the object, which may be a meteorite.
Locals claimed the object fell near a farmhouse on the outskirts of Mazsalaca town in the district of Valmiera last night. 
Mystery: Russian news agency Itar-Tass reported this was the crater created when the 50-foot meteor fell from the sky yesterday
Truth or hoax? Russian blogs claimed this image was taken from a video filmed on a mobile phone just after the meteor crashed to earth
It created a crater which measured 50 feet across and 16 feet deep.
A witness who claimed to have seen the incident described the 'meteorite' as making a noise similar to the one of an aircraft flying at a low altitude.
ldis Nulle, a scientist at the Latvian Environment, Geology and Meteorology Center, said there was smoke coming out of the crater when he arrived at the crash site late Sunday in the Mazsalaca region near the Estonian border.
'My first impression is that, yes, it was a meteorite,' he said. 'All the evidence suggests this when compared to pictures of real meteorite craters.'
He said the rim of the crater was slightly raised and there was a black-grayish scar at the bottom - both signs of a meteorite impact.
Experts outside Latvia said it was unusual for such a large meteorite to hit the Earth. The planet is constantly bombarded with objects from outer space, but most burn up in the atmosphere and never reach the surface.
In 2007, a meteorite crashed near Lake Titicaca in Peru, causing a crater about 40 feet (12 metres) wide and 15 feet (5 metres) deep.
Asta Pellinen-Wannberg, a meteorite expert at the Swedish Institute of Space Research, said she didn't know the details of the Latvian incident, but that a rock would have to be at least three feet (one metre) in diameter to create a hole that size.
Henning Haack, a lecturer at Copenhagen University's Geological Museum said more information was needed to confirm that the crater was indeed caused by a meteorite.
'With all these kind of reports we get there always is a pretty large margin of error,' he said.
In Latvia, Nulle said a group of experts would examine the crater today and bring rock samples back to the capital, Riga, for testing.
Nulle rushed to the site after people in the area reported seeing a fiery object falling from the sky.
Inga Vetere of the Fire and Rescue Service said a military unit has tested the site and found that radiation levels are normal. There were no injures.
She said police have cordoned off the area to prevent souvenir hunters from taking away the soil.
'We are not finally sure that this is a meteorite,' she told Itar-Tass news agency. 'Eyewitnesses said something fell from the sky and fire started.'
Russian blogs posted YouTube video that claimed to show the remains of the meteor burning brightly shortly after the crash, but the validity of the video has not yet been confirmed.
Church Janitor Charged in Murder of N.J. Priest
Sunday, October 25, 2009
CHATHAM, New Jersey — An arrest in the brutal murder of a Roman Catholic priest has brought little comfort to the spirital leader's close-knit hometown, which widely views the suspected role of the longtime church janitor as a second tragedy.
More than 150 people at St. Patrick's Church for Sunday's early Mass prayed for the Rev. Ed Hinds, whose body was discovered in the church rectory Friday, and for Jose Feliciano, who is charged with stabbing the priest 32 times with a kitchen knife.
"This is a tragedy for this community," the Rev. Owen Moran said after leading Mass. "It's a tragedy for Father Ed and his family, and it's a tragedy for the Feliciano family."
Authorities say the murder occurred at about 5 p.m. Thursday after an argument between Hinds and Feliciano in the rectory.
Morris County Prosecutor Robert Bianchi told CNN that the two men argued "over Feliciano's continued employment." He said Hinds dialed the police emergency dispatcher from his cell phone and said he was being attacked and needed help. The call was cut off. The emergency dispatch operator called back and Feliciano answered and said "everything's fine," Bianchi said. The operator wasn't able to send authorities because the calls from the cell phone could not be traced, he said.
Bianchi said investigators found the priest's cell phone, bloody clothing and bloody towels at Feliciano's home in Easton, Pennsylvania, about 45 miles (72.4 kilometers) west of Chatham.
"It's just not believable," said parishioner Dan Langborgh, 47, who lives across the street from the church. "Jose is a very nice guy who has been around for many years. He's the last person I would have suspected."
Feliciano had worked at the church 17 years and his family is part of the parish. His son is a graduate of the church school, which runs from kindergarten through 8th grade, and his daughter is a student there.
Hinds, who was born in nearby Morristown, had been St. Patrick's pastor since 2003. He was also a regular sight in the neighborhood, where he walked Copper, his cocker spaniel.
Bianchi said Feliciano and another man found the body Friday after Hinds failed to show up for 8 a.m. Mass. Bianchi said Feliciano was performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation on the priest when officers arrived and his halfhearted attempts struck them as suspicious.
Hinds was dressed in his clerical robes and appeared to be brewing coffee in the rectory kitchen at the time. He sustained wounds to his upper torso, the back of his body and his head from a kitchen knife, officials said. Hinds also had defensive wounds on his hands and face, Bianchi said. An autopsy determined the cause of death was severe trauma.
The slaying rocked the New York City bedroom community of about 10,000 residents, where the last violent death occurred in 1990. The median family income is $132,000 and authorities and residents had initially suspected that Hinds died at the hands of a needy outsider who had come to him for help.
"Everyone thought it was an outsider because Father Hinds always opened the church to the needy," Langborgh said.
Parishioners learned of Feliciano's arrest Saturday near the end of 5 p.m. Mass.
Parishioner Juliette Peros told the Star Ledger of Newark that several people cried when the announcement was made and a woman seated behind her yelled, "Jose! No, Jose!"
"It's so sad," said parishioner Pat Patello, 52. "I don't think this town will ever get over this."
Boy, ten, dies after being found hanging in woodland
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 8:07 AM on 26th October 2009
A boy aged ten has died after being discovered hanging in woods in what police said appears to have been a 'tragic accident'.
The youngster, who has not been identified, was found near Guisborough in North Yorkshire on Saturday evening.
He was taken to the James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough where he was pronounced dead on arrival.
Cleveland police are not treating his death as suspicious.
The boy was taken to the James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough
A post-mortem examination carried out yesterday afternoon confirmed the cause of death was hanging.
Detective Sergeant Lewis Matthews, of Redcar and Cleveland CID, said: ‘The boy's death appears to be a tragic accident and obviously his family are devastated by what has happened.
'Inquiries are ongoing, but we do not believe the death to be suspicious
Extreme cheek piercings at religious vegetarian festival in Phuket, Thailand
Report: British Pilot Dies After Saving Passengers' Lives in Caribbean
Sunday, October 25, 2009
A British pilot drowned after saving the lives of nine passengers by ditching his plane into the sea when one of his engines failed, The Sunday Times reported.
Robert Mansell, 32, was hailed as a hero after carrying out a forced landing of a light aircraft in the Caribbean between the islands of Curaçao and Bonaire. Last night it emerged that his final words to air traffic controllers were: “I’ve lost control of one of my engines ... so long.”
At 9.30am on Wednesday, Mansell, from Knowle, in the West Midlands, had embarked on his fourth island hop of the day, carrying seven locals and two Dutch tourists. He was flying at 3,500 feet when the right engine of his Britten-Norman Islander gave out.
He made a mayday call but was knocked unconscious by the impact of the landing. He became trapped between his seat and the cockpit instrument panel. Several passengers were knocked unconscious in the incident but regained consciousness with minor head injuries and escaped with everyone else on board.
Two passengers on the Divi Divi Air flight attempted to pull Mansell out of the aircraft but fled through the door when it began to sink. The passengers were all plucked from the sea by rescue services.
One former colleague has posted details of the crash on a tribute website. He said: “He slammed his head on the cockpit glass and remained unconscious. It was difficult to get the safety belts out. [They had] 10 to 15 seconds to get out of the plane, otherwise more people could have died.”
The Foreign Office has confirmed that Mansell died on Wednesday. His body has yet to be recovered: rescuers have located the aircraft beneath the Caribbean sea but lack the equipment to retrieve it.
Accused of murder, chased by tribes armed with bows and arrows, and now facing starvation: How British soldier's bid to be the first to walk the Amazon is in danger
By Paul Sims
Last updated at 12:14 PM on 26th October 2009
He has been accused of murder, thrown into a concrete cell for 48 hours, chased by tribes armed with bows and arrows and fallen out with his walking partner over an iPod.
For former Army captain and adventurer Ed Stafford the last 565 days of his epic bid to become the first man to walk the entire length of the Amazon River have been far from easy.
And it seems they are destined to get a lot harder for, more than halfway into his 4,000 mile trek, the 33 year old is now relying on handouts after his sponsors pulled out due to the recession.
Swamp thing: Ed Stafford wades through a river during his Amazon expedition
If that wasn't bad enough his GPS system no longer works and his medical insurance has lapsed. Unable to give his precise location and without any cover there can be no rescue effort.
His expedition is rapidly becoming a survival mission. And with no money for food he and his Peruvian guide are now living off the fish they catch and the goodwill of local tribes.
Legendary adventurer Sir Ranulph Fiennes is among those who have offered him support, but even he has admitted that the chances of him finishing the expedition now hang in the balance.
Yellow haze: Ed looks out over the Apurimac River in Peru which is the source of the Amazon River
'We are 90km from the next community that we know exists and we have no food, no food whatsoever, full stop,' said Mr Stafford.
'My Global Positioning System doesn't work any more and the map I have was designed for pilots.
'Our biggest worry, of course, is food.
'If all goes well we have our daily ration of farine, a local carbohydrate, and we catch fish - mostly piranhas - which we put in a soup or we smoke overnight if we want to make a sort of piranha jerky. 
These boots were made for walking: Ed's funding problems began five months ago when his main sponsors were forced to pull out
Solimoes sunset from Marirana: Ed's expedition is rapidly becoming a survival mission, but views like these must keep him going
'But many of the rivers are now dry. Even finding rivers big enough to fish in is not easy and we often have no protein at all. Sometimes we eat really well. But when there's nothing life is a bit more grim.
'Some days we've had to decide whether to fish in the biggest river we have seen for days, eat well that night and leave in the morning or head down river hoping to find a community where we can eat real things, like chicken.
'If, however, we don't come across a community we have less time to fish and less to eat.'
His funding problems began five months ago when his main sponsors - recruitment firm JBS Associates - were forced to pull out.
Until then they had paid him £1,000 a month. Now he has nothing to rely upon at all - except the fish he and his guide catch, the kindness of local tribes and communities and donations from back home.
His mother is even considering selling the family's £450,000 home in Leicestershire in a bid to keep his expedition going. There has also been support from high-profile figures, including Sir Ranulph.
All the adventurer relies on are the fish he and his guide catch, the kindness of local tribes and communities and donations from back home
Room with a view: Ed admires a sunrise on the Solimoes
In a letter to Mr Stafford he wrote: 'I think things will get increasingly difficult for you. Over forty years I must of been involved with over thirty big journeys, at least half of which have failed.
'It is always a matter for the traveller to decide in his or her own head when to turn back and when to continue.
'Sometimes to continue is plain daft and irresponsible. At other times there is a chance that pushing on over a particular obstacle or series of obstacles may make things look a whole lot better in which case its well worth fighting off 'weak thoughts' which occur when the morale is down.
The adventurer hauls his kit through murky-looking water as he tries to travel the length of the River Amazon 
Toothpaste, soap and deodorant: Ed's wash kit contains the bare essentials
'Only you can be your own final arbiter. Whatever you may decide over the weeks or months ahead, know that you have already done fantastically well.'
Mr Stafford, from Hallaton, near Market Harborough, began his epic adventure in April last year.
He started at the source of the river in Nevado Mismi, Peru, with his walking partner Luke Collyer, 37, an outdoor activities instructor.
But after just 90 days together an apparent row over an MP3 Player saw the two go their separate ways. Mr Collyer headed back to the UK and Mr Stafford continued the trek with only his guide as company.
Mr Stafford hopes his trek will raise awareness of climate change and raise funds for a number of medical and conservation charities
Mr Stafford, who is now in Brazil, has since battled through tropical storms, been bitten by scorpions, had his tent eaten by ants, and been held on suspicion of murder.
He was also held as a prisoner for failing to have the right permit and with food now a real issue he has lost two stones in weight in as many months.
If that wasn't bad enough his GPS system no longer works and his medical insurance has lapsed. 'We've often had to redraw the rivers on the map in pencil because it's so inaccurate,' he added. 'It's been a navigational joke. If it wasn't life threatening it would be hilarious.
The former army chief catches his breath with some locals
'We carry an emergency position indicating rescue beacon but, as our medical insurance has lapsed due to lack of funds, if we pulled the plug nothing would happen.
'No evacuation would be initiated - we are on our own. It's a long time to stay positive but we are taking one day at a time. Just ten more months to push.'
Last night, his spokeswoman Vikki Rimmer said his chances of completing the trip were now in jeopardy because of the lack of funding.
'He's so determined,' she said. 'His reality is different to ours. He's been walking this day after day so in his own mind there's no way he will give up.
'His sponsors were very supportive but due to the credit crunch were unable to continue paying him a monthly allowance so he's had no money for the last five months.'
Mr Stafford hopes his trek will raise awareness of climate change and raise funds for a number of medical and conservation charities, including cancer research.