Brain tumour sufferer received surgery on knee
December 26, 2007 | Leave a Comment
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On November 8, surgeons at Tanzania’s main Muhimbili Hospital opened the skull of Emmanuel Didas to remove a non-existent brain tumour while Emmanuel Mgaya, who had the tumour, underwent knee surgery.
An health ministry official report faulted doctors and nursed for “gross negligence” that led to the blunder.
Mr Didas is in India having further treatment, where he is reportedly doing well, but Mr Mgaya died four days after a second operation.
“Two consulting surgeons, three junior doctors, one anaesthetic doctor, two anaesthetic nurses, two theatre nurses and two ward nurses are to be held responsible for the blunder and will appear before the professional councils for disciplinary action,” the report said.
Chuck Norris sues over mythical facts
December 24, 2007 | 1 Comment
Tough-guy actor and martial arts expert Chuck Norris has sued publisher Penguin over a book he claims unfairly exploits his famous name, based on a satirical internet list of “mythical facts” about him.
Penguin published The Truth About Chuck Norris: 400 facts about the World’s Greatest Human in November.
Author Ian Spector, an undergraduate at Brown University, and two websites he runs to promote the book, including www.truthaboutchuck.com, are also named in the suit.
The book capitalises on “mythical facts” that have been circulating on the internet since 2005 that poke fun at Norris’s tough-guy image and super-human abilities, the suit said.
It includes such humorous “facts” as “Chuck Norris’s tears cure cancer. Too bad he has never cried” and “Chuck Norris does not sleep. He waits,” the suit said, as well as “Chuck Norris can charge a cell phone by rubbing it against his beard.”
“Some of the ‘facts’ in the book are racist, lewd or portray Mr Norris as engaged in illegal activities,” the lawsuit alleges.
Norris, who rose to fame in the 1970s and 1980s as the star of such films as The Delta Force and Missing in Action, says the book’s title would mislead readers into thinking the facts were true.
“Defendants have misappropriated and exploited Mr Norris’s name and likeness without authorization for their own commercial profit,” said the lawsuit.
The suit, filed in Manhattan federal court, seeks unspecified monetary damages for trademark infringement, unjust enrichment and privacy rights.
Norris, whose real name is Carlos Ray Norris, claims in the suit he is protective of what his name is associated with. He has recently made US headlines for backing Republican presidential candidate former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee.
Norris, an author himself of fiction and non-fiction books, has been in more than 20 films. The actor was a six-time undefeated World Professional Middle Weight Karate champion who in 1997 became the first man in the Western Hemisphere to be awarded an 8th degree Black Belt Grand Master recognition in the Tae Kwon Do system, the suit said.
A spokesman for Penguin was not immediately available for comment.
Drunken Santas rampage through cinema
December 24, 2007 | 1 Comment
A Gang of drunk Santas wreaked havoc in a New Zealand cinema at the weekend, pushing families out of the way, ripping down posters and shouting “ho, fucking ho”.
The crowd, thought to be students, ran into the Hoyts cinema in the CBD of the South Island city of Christchurch on Saturday afternoon, the Press newspaper reported.
Kate Gorman, 35, was waiting to see Enchanted with her two young children.
“At least 50 drunk idiots dressed up like Santa came in through the main door,” she said. “They were kicking things over, ripping down posters and smashing everything in sight.”
“They were all dressed as Santa and shouting ‘ho fucking ho’,” she told the paper.
Her children, Gabriella, 6, and Jackson, 7, had been confused by the incident, she said.
“They asked me, ‘are they Santa’s helpers gone crazy?’ and I said `no, they are just idiots’.
The cinema was evacuated for 30 minutes while the gang was dealt with. Police said there had been no arrests.
Miss France dethroned over sexy photos
December 23, 2007 | 1 Comment
The president of the Miss France beauty pageant has demanded the winner of the 2008 competition hand back her crown after a magazine published suggestive photographs of the 22-year old model.
“If she had some courage and a bit of dignity she would say ‘I’m resigning because I’m not worthy to carry on as Miss France’,” the head of the Miss France committee, Genevieve de Fontenay, said on Europe 1 radio.
Valerie Begue, who comes from the French-run, Indian Ocean island of Reunion, was elected Miss France 2008 on prime time television earlier this month.
She has ruled out standing down, saying the pictures were published without her consent.
The photos showed the bikini-clad brunette floating in a swimming pool on a wooden cross in a Christ-like pose.
Another one showed her licking condensed milk in a provocative fashion.
Anyone standing for the Miss France crown has to sign a contract saying they had never been photographed in the nude or in suggestive poses.
“If I had been aware (of the pictures), she would never have been let into the Miss France competition I wouldn’t want to be seen walking down the streets with a girl like that,” Ms Fontenay said, indicating she would take legal action if necessary.
It is not the first time the competition organizers have been embarrassed by their queen.
The 2004 Miss France, Laeticia Bleger, was suspended for six months after photos of her surfaced in Playboy.
Santa Claus Crucified in Christmas protest
December 23, 2007 | 3 Comments
Santa Claus has been nailed to a crucifix outside a suburban US home in a bizarre protest against the commercialization of Christmas. The Associated Press reports that Art Conrad, from Bremerton in the state of Washington, crucified the stuffed Santa because Christmas had become “perverted”.
Mr Conrad has also given his friends Christmas cards decorated with a photo of the crucified Saint Nick and the words “Santa died for your Master Card”.
“Santa has been perverted from who he started out to be,” Mr Conrad told AP. “Now he’s the person being used by corporations to get us to buy more stuff.”
The crucified Santa has provoked a mixed reaction among Bremerton residents, with some horrified and others simply bemused.
