 | PerspectiveVolume LII | 
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Sunday August 3, 2003 |
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| Perspective is a weekly features of unorthodox news reports from around the globe. Some of the reports serve to prove the point that we as Nigerians are not as unique as we may think. To put any news report in Perspective please send a note to perpective@ekiti.com | ||
Headlines
Woman Gives Birth to 12-Pound Baby Matthew Joseph Potyak was born by Caesarean section at 11:10 a.m. Tuesday in Benedictine Hospital in Kingston, 50 miles south of Albany. "When his head came out, the one doctor said, 'Oh my God, he's enormous,'" his mother, Jane McSpirit, told the Kingston Daily Freeman in Thursday editions. "Then his hand came out, and they said, 'Look how big his hand is.' I thought he was going to jump out all by himself." Most newborns weigh between 7 and 9 pounds, and don't reach Matthew's birth weight until they are between 5 and 10 weeks old, said hospital spokeswoman Lucy Brandenburg. Matthew has one older sister. McSpirit's 3-year-old daughter Samantha weighed 10 pounds 6 ounces at birth. McSpirit and Joseph Potyak said they don't plan to have any more children. In October 2001, then-28-year-old Amy Volke-Baldwin, of Batavia, gave birth to a baby girl weighing 14 pounds 3 ounces at Strong Memorial Hospital. She had suffered from diabetes during her pregnancy.
Black Church Offers Money to Lure Whites Shreveport, Louisiana, will get $5 an hour on Sundays and $10 an hour on Thursdays, Bishop Fred Caldwell told Reuters on Thursday. Caldwell said his 5,000-member church has been almost exclusively black since it was founded in 1958, which he thinks was not the way Jesus wanted it. "The most segregated hour in America, depending on the time zone, is 11 o'clock Sunday morning," he said. Caldwell first announced the offer in his sermon on Sunday, telling the congregation the money would come out of his own pocket, not church coffers. Supportive members have offered to help pay. So far, he said, the church has gotten more than 100 phone calls from whites wanting to attend, with many offering to forgo the money. The motives of those who want the cash are not questioned, Caldwell said. "Jesus said that we're to fish for men," he said. "I'm just using money to fish with." Caldwell said his budget is limited to several thousand dollars and for now the offer will go only to whites. Hispanics, Asians and other ethnic groups will have to wait. "I'm only paying for white folks in August," Caldwell said. "We'll probably move on to other ethnic groups from there."
Couple nearly hit by lightning, in bed Idar Roenningen and companion Charlotte Amundsen, both 28, were kept awake by thunder late Friday night at their country home outside Porsgrunn, 60 miles (100 kilometers) southwest of the capital, Oslo. So, Roenningen unplugged some appliances. Shortly after returning to bed, the room flared "like 10 welder's torches" and then everything went dark, Roenningen said. Smoke from charred electrical sockets traced through the room. Pillows apparently insulated the couple from the iron bed frame. They were not injured, but they chose to spend the rest of the night on the sofa. "I think I'm more afraid of lightning now than I'll ever be," Roenningen told The Associated Press. Their 5-year-old son, Jonathan, normally liked to sneak into bed with the couple, but he was away for a holiday break.
Man sues doctor for three-hour wait Belavilas, 58, sued Dr. Ty Weller for $5,000, saying he wanted to teach him a lesson about treating patients with respect. A small claims court in Las Vegas this month awarded Belavilas $250. "My time is worth something just like his is," Belavilas said. Weller, a pain management specialist, said he was "appalled" by the outcome. "Even more important than the money is that now I have to worry about other patients doing this to me," the doctor said. Weller said he was overbooked the February day he scheduled Belavilas for a back pain injection, but said he was trying to accommodate Belavilas before the patient left on vacation. "I can't hurry a patient along who needs my attention just to be on time," Weller said. Belavilas said his appointment was for 2 p.m., but Weller didn't show up until 5:15 p.m. The doctor "didn't say he was sorry and that he was with another patient or that he had gotten a flat tire," Belavilas said. "Nothing." Weller said he'll appeal the decision. He's been ordered to pay a total of $365 to cover Belavilas' judgment and court fees.
OSLO (Reuters) - It will be two pints of lager and a ballot, please, in Norway this year after a change in the law allowing voters to get drunk and then go out to vote.
"The election board can no longer refuse anyone to vote because they are intoxicated," an adviser at the Local Government Ministry said Thursday. Until now, Norway's election law has denied entry to polling stations anyone with "seriously impaired judgment" or "reduced consciousness" from booze, but that law has been scrapped, adviser Steinar Dalbakk told the Bladet Tromsoe newspaper. But Norwegians will have to sober up again for the 2005 general elections. Politicians -- possibly fearing the effects of a political hangover -- have re-enacted the law banning drunken voting. The new law will however not take effect until after September's local government polls.
Church robber caught after reporting lost wallet James Drag was arrested when he went to the police station to claim the wallet left behind at the scene, authorities said. Drag, 37, was charged with burglary, criminal trespass, theft by unlawful taking and receiving stolen property. Drag is accused of trying to take $295.50 in quarters and $74.20 in dimes from St. Ann's Basilica in West Scranton on Sunday afternoon. He dropped the money, along with his wallet, while a parishioner chased him, police said. Police went to Drag's home and told a member of his family that his lost wallet was at the police station.
Cashiers wear Diaper to Avoid Breaks Female cashiers in western Mendoza province must wear adult diapers in case "cold, nerves, pressure or stress" provoke incontinence, union official Jorge Cordova told local news agency Diarios y Noticias on Thursday. Cordova refused to name the supermarket, but he did say the chain is backed by foreign capital, said Sandra Varela, Mendoza's labor subsecretary. "The truth is, it's difficult to imagine a line of 20 adult cashiers wearing diapers for eight hours," said Varela, who is investigating the matter. "In seventeen years as a labor lawyer, I've never heard anything like this before," she added.
OSLO, Norway (Reuters) -- A Norwegian vandal who ransacked offices in a city hall and stole a pair of shoes to disguise his footprints as he escaped was nabbed after police saw him running awkwardly from the scene on pointy black high-heels.
A pair of worn-out tennis shoes found at the scene of the crime convinced police that the 19-year-old man, who could not explain his choice of footwear, was to blame. Police said he later admitted breaking into the Soerum city hall in southeast Norway where walls were daubed with graffiti including a swastika in the overnight break-in last week. "We thought it was strange that he was wearing women's shoes, especially since he could not explain why," sheriff Harald Kopperud told Reuters Thursday. "When someone found a pair of old tennis shoes at the city hall we put two and two together and got four," Kopperud said. Police said the man had probably donned a pair of shoes left in the office by a city hall employee, hoping to avoid leaving tracks from his own shoes, but forgot to take his own shoes with him when the alarm sounded and he fled.
Guard Dog Chases Medics from Dying Owner The ferocious Staffordshire bull terrier kept doctors at bay as they tried to approach the middle-aged patient on Wednesday. "Doctors and the man's wife tried to approach the man for a long time, but the dog was furious and would not allow it," Andrei Rudomyotov, a regional police chief, said by telephone from the city of Chelyabinsk near the Ural mountains. "The doctors had to call the police, and our officers shot the dog, but by the time the doctors could get in, the patient was dead." Russians living in small apartments often own large and energetic dogs. Fighting dogs, such as bull terriers, are fashionable as a means of protecting property against post-Soviet crime.
Koalas Going on Birth Control Pill Parks Victoria is planning to inject a small tube containing the same hormones as the contraceptive pill under the skin of around 3,000 wild female koalas in the Mount Eccles National Park, 300 km (186 miles) southwest of Melbourne. Sally Troy, Parks Victoria's research manager, said on Wednesday that the koala population had to be brought under control because their staple food, the manna gum in the Mount Eccles National Park, was close to depletion. "The forest is continuing to decline as the animals just keep eating and breeding," Troy told Reuters. "We're concerned there is a really high risk that we will get a population crash in the next five years -- that is the trees die and thousands of koalas starve to death," Troy said. "We have found that relocation and surgical sterilization hasn't worked that well, so now we're shifting to a more humane, large scale option which is basically putting them on the pill." Troy said contraceptive implants, which can be inserted on-the-spot without the use of any anaesthetic and last for about five years, have previously been used in zoos on kangaroos and other marsupials, but never on wild animals. Koalas can live for up to 18 years and may produce between eight and 11 offspring during their lifetime. They generally start breeding when they are around two-years-old. The Australian Koala Foundation says there are around 100,000 of the creatures in the country. "There's not a lot of predator pressure on these animals anymore...They are also protected species so the numbers in some areas have just grown steadily," Troy said. She said the Parks Victoria operation to catch and inject the contraception tubes into the koalas would begin late next year and was likely to take two years.
Dognapper Demands $10,000 or 'Skipper' Dies "Skipper," who is so infirm his owners had recently begun taking him out for his perambulations in a child's stroller, was reported missing last Wednesday. "Since then the couple has spoken to the blackmailer four or five times, but we have advised them not to answer the phone anymore," said a police officer in the small town of Bogense on the island of Fuen in central Denmark. The small brown and black dog's abductor has not given a final deadline for payment of the ransom. Police have advised his owners not to raise the money.
Toddler Crashes Dad's Car Twice in Four Days Using a ladder, the boy stole the keys to his father's Honda Accord, started the car and plowed it into a nearby Toyota, causing some 5,000 euros ($5,750) of damage but escaping unharmed. When a television crew came to their home in the town of Bocholt near the Dutch border to reconstruct the incident four days later, the young lad took matters into his own hands. Sitting behind the wheel with the car key given to him during filming, his urge to drive overtook him again. "The father was with the television crew," said Borken police spokesman Frank Rentmeister. "The car was in gear and the boy just started up and drove into the car ahead." The boy was not hurt, but chalked up further damages totaling around 1,000 euros. Police are now investigating the father for criminal negligence.
Rich Merchant's Wife in Lottery Windfall Ghada Basma, who lives in a luxury villa by the southern port city of Sidon, said late Monday she had won the five billion Lebanese pound ($3.3 million) prize, after keeping the news secret even from her three children since last week's draw. Basma, in her 40s, is married to Mohammed Wehbe, one of Sidon's most prominent and wealthiest businessmen. The couple decided not to go public until they confirmed with the lottery board that theirs was the winning ticket. "We were shocked, even though we are financially comfortable," Basma told reporters who gathered outside her home. "Our priorities before the fortune were to educate the children and do good, and they still are." The news caused dismay in the country's poorer south among ordinary Lebanese, many of whom felt luck should have smiled on someone more needy.
Thief Battered shop worker with Stolen Bananas Attempting to flee, the man first kicked and punched the 38-year-old assistant but then switched to using the fruit. "The bananas were handy so he decided to use them," said Duesseldorf police spokesman Norbert Peters. "By the time the police arrived, the attendant's face and upper body were completely smeared with bananas," police said in a statement. He was not seriously injured. Police arrested a 24-year-old man.
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