British soldier unexpectedly gives birth in Afghanistan

Mega Millions winners are rich, but not THAT rich

"ST. LOUIS (AP) - Congratulations, Mega Millions winners! You've just won the biggest lottery in history! Move over Bill Gates and Warren Buffett!

Not so fast, Richie Rich.

There's no doubt that you're now each a member of the 1 percent. A life of comfort and leisure awaits, and managed wisely, it just might await your friends and family for generations to come.

Let's just not get carried away.

A luxury box at the stadium you can afford, but forget about buying the franchise and becoming the "No. 1 fan" of your favorite NFL or Major League Baseball team. The Los Angeles Dodgers just sold for $2 billion, besting the NFL record price of $1.1 billion for the Miami Dolphins by nine times your take-home winnings.

If you'd like to turn the keys at the sweetest pad in New York City - an $88 million apartment at 15 Central Park West - you'll have to spend nearly all of it to close the deal. But don't get into a bidding war: You're sure to lose out to the current owner, the 22-year-old daughter of a Russian billionaire.

Even if you're looking to become the next great philanthropist, your good deeds can't compete - at least in terms of dollars and cents - with that Gates guy. His foundation has given away close to $26 billion since it was established in 1994.

So, you've got some catching up to do. Don't worry, you're starting from a good place.

In the hours before the dramatic Friday night drawing, the jackpot was estimated at $640 million. If you each take the lump-sum payout, the cartoon checks made out to you will be worth about $150 million. Uncle Sam gets his share, and your state might, too.

All told, you'll each have roughly 100 million reasons to call April 2, 2012, the best Monday morning of your life.

If you follow the advice of those who know money, you won't splurge on those big-ticket items that you can afford, such as a top-of-the-line Gulfstream G650 jet ($64 million, excluding pilot, maintenance, hanger and fuel costs) and a place to fly it, your own private island (let's call that $25 million even).

Had you won the whole pot, and invested the $300 million conservatively, Steve Fazzari, an economics professor at Washington University in St. Louis, said you could have expected to collect a nice "salary" of about $7 million "after taxes every year for the rest of your life and the rest of the life of your heirs."

Put another way, that's $19,000 a day. Forever. And even a one-third share of that is pretty sweet. "If you put it in perspective, you're pretty rich," Fazzari said.

It's more than enough to join up with the 1 percent, which the Congressional Budget Office pegged as households with incomes that average more than about $350,000 a year.

But it's still not all THAT much, at least according those buzzkills at Forbes. Just 30 years ago, the total after-taxes take of $300 million would have been more than enough to land a single winner on the magazine's annual list of the 400 richest Americans. In 2011, you would have needed $1.05 billion to tie four others for last place on a list topped by Gates.

In fact, your $100 million isn't even two-tenths of 1 percent of Gates' estimated $61 billion net worth. Using Fazzari's math on conservative investing, the Microsoft co-founder can expect to bring in an annual salary of $1.4 billion - or 14 times your share of the historic jackpot.

But that's Bill Gates, America's richest man. Surely you'll be the richest guy on your block?

Perhaps, but not in the city centers of New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. In Chicago alone, Forbes says there are 18 billionaires, including six members of one family.

Even in a smaller city such as St. Louis, you're likely to find yourself a handful of zeros from the top: Under the Gateway Arch, the big money belongs to Enterprise Rent-A-Car's Jack Taylor and his family. They're worth an estimated $9 billion.

But none of that matters, right? So what if there are hundreds of billionaires out there whose wealth makes yours look like that of a pauper, or that there are limits you never imagined facing to a jackpot you could ever imagine winning. Surely that $100 million will at least solve all your cares and provide a lifetime of happiness.

Yeah, not so much.

"After they win the jackpot, most of them self-destruct and they end up much more unhappy than they were before," Dr. Tom Manheim, who offers financial therapy in Solana Beach, Calif. "It's really kind of a sad state of our economy where we think that money, once again, is going to bring us happiness and it doesn't."

So, uh, yeah, congratulations, we guess, to the Mega Millions winners.

(And no, those of us who didn't win aren't bitter. Not one little bit.) " - Jim Salter and Michael Tarm, Associated Press.

U.S. Marine makes out with his boyfriend after coming home: Viral Photo

Smallest man alive faces the big world to collect Guinness title

Has Anne Frank been baptized?

Woman accused of running step-daughter to death in the U.S.

The baby killed by the family dog may have been an unintentional accident.

"Lost dog comes home for the holidays — eight years later"!

"When Frankie Pruitt came home from school for the holidays, he stopped on the way up the driveway to hug his pit bull, who had run to him with her tail wagging. “Petunia!” he said, and rubbed the fur around her ears, and looked into her brown eyes.

“Same eyes,” he said. “Same old Petunia!”

He hadn’t seen the dog since 2003, when she ran out of the house one morning just like she always did, headed toward the family alpaca barn, and didn’t come back.

For anyone who ever lost something beloved, here is a Christmas homecoming story.

Tell us your lost-and-found pet story in the comments below. 

Perhaps a million pets get lost every year, and some 3.7 million are killed at shelters. Petunia beat the odds. She was found, in a wilderness area 2,700 miles from her Virginia farm, and sent home.

Eight years ago, Kristen and John Pruitt and their children worried that their friendly, affectionate American Staffordshire terrier had been hit by a car. Or, maybe even worse, pulled into a brutal dogfighting ring.

Instead, their dog seemed to have embarked on a cross-country trip that took her — who knows where? All they know for sure is that she was found wandering in the foothills of a wildlife preserve in Northern California, got picked up by a wildlife biologist, then jetted home for an improbably glamorous return via Times Square mixing with celebrities, political candidates and Rockettes, all just in time for the holidays.

* * *

Frankie Pruitt was 7 when his dad passed a sign for puppies and decided, on a whim, to take one home. He told Frankie not to tell his mom. They had plenty of room for another dog on their 100-acre alpaca and horse farm near Fredericksburg. But Kristen Pruitt said she didn’t want a pit bull in the house with her children; it seemed too dangerous.

“Then I saw her, and she was so small, and so ugly, and so cute,” she said.

And sweet: That’s why they named her Petunia.

The sandy-and-white dog slept with Frankie, wiggling up to his pillow during the night, snoring her head off. She ran free, following him around the place, an old family farm that played a key role in the Civil War battle of Chancellorsville, with a pond, tall magnolias and horse fences crisscrossing the fields.

Then one morning around Thanksgiving 2003 he was drinking hot chocolate in their big stone house while Petunia, Booboo and Bear ran out before breakfast, and only two dogs came back.

Frankie didn’t worry at first; in rural Spotsylvania County, they figured someone would see their missing-dog signs. But as the winter wore on, they gave up hope.

* * *

A few days after Thanksgiving this year, Meg Eden, a wildlife biologist from Oregon, was camping in the Spenceville Wildlife Area in California. It’s a remote spot miles from any houses, mostly grasslands and oak trees with mountain lions, foxes and coyotes Eden heard howling at night. One morning, a dog appeared over a hill and came toward Eden with her tail wagging.

Eden, who rescues dogs, had just a moment’s hesitation because it was a pit bull. But the dog seemed so delighted to see her.

The dog snuggled with her and her dogs that night. “Her personality is 100 percent sugar,” Eden said.

Eden called an animal shelter, which began searching for an owner. In this rare case, it was easy: The Pruitts implant microchips in all their animals. Only a small minority of pet owners do that, but the number is growing, said Adam Goldfarb at the Humane Society.

The Pruitts’ vet called them. Frankie didn't believe it until he saw a photo. Petunia!

Then Petunia went big time, appearing in local papers and on national TV when Fox paid to fly her back east. She was friendly in the New York studio when she saw the Pruitts, but they weren’t certain she remembered them.

But as soon as they got back to the farm and let her out of the car, Petunia seemed to know she was home. Her tail was wagging so fast it’s invisible in the photos they took. She touched noses with Booboo, their tiny fluffy Maltese-toy poodle, then raced into the house right to the spot where her water bowl had always been.

“She seemed ecstatic,” he said.

* * *

The Pruitts can’t help but wonder where she’s been all this time.

When Frankie saw her, he immediately noticed the eight or 10 jagged scars, and traced them with his hand in the short fur on her head. They think it’s from a barbed-wire fence, not from dogfighting or abuse. Because she seems to be the same old Petunia: sweet, gentle.

With maybe just a tiny wild streak underneath it all.

She does seem to be the kind of dog who loves to wander, Kristen Pruitt said; sometimes now Petunia will stop outside, and just stare off into the woods.

The other day, they opened the door and Petunia trotted out, headed toward the alpaca barn. “Frankie!” Kristen Pruitt called, leaping forward to grab her collar. Petunia looked back at her, tail wagging. “Get her leash!” " - Susan Svrluga, The Washington Post.

Christian Bale 'Flowers' overseas in his new Chinese movie.

"LOS ANGELES - Christian Bale has never been afraid to speak his mind. But the Oscar-winning actor took his outspokenness to new levels during a visit to Beijing last week for the premiere of his film The Flowers of War.

Days after appearing at the official unveiling of director Zhang Yimou's epic (opening in select U.S. cities starting Wednesday), the 37-year-old actor drove eight hours to visit the home of Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng. The blind lawyer has been under house arrest since September 2010 after speaking out against the government's alleged human rights abuses.

The resulting footage, from a CNN crew traveling with Bale, shows the actor being roughed up by government-backed guards. "What I really wanted to do was shake the man's hand and say 'thank you,' tell him what an inspiration he is," Bale told CNN.

Perhaps compounding the public-relations fallout for the government, Bale is starring in what's touted as the most expensive Chinese film in history (at an estimated $94 million). The film also is the country's official submission to the Oscars.

As director Yimou notes in a joint interview with Bale prior to the China visit, Bale looks to play a significant role in Chinese popular culture with the release of the film.

"Everyone in China is really familiar with his work," says Yimou, speaking through a translator. "But after this movie, Christian is going to be a really big star. Everyone is going to fall in love with him."

The film, which received a Golden Globe nomination last week, features Bale as a selfish Westerner who turns sacrificing protector to a motley crew of schoolgirls and courtesans during the brutal Japanese occupation of Nanking during World War II.

It is not new historical territory for Bale. He broke into Hollywood as a child actor, earning rave reviews in Steven Spielberg's 1987 Empire of the Sun, set in an internment camp during the Japanese occupation. Yimou says he was inspired to cast Bale for his film after visiting Spielberg's home in 2010.

Christian Bale in Steven Spielberg's Empire of the Sun (1987).

"Steven read the script and said it was like the Schindler's List of China," says Yimou. "He said, 'You have to cast Christian for this!' He even wrote a personal note to Christian. It was destiny.''

Bale jokes that the casting conversation went a different way. "(Spielberg) probably said, 'Do not do it,' " says Bale, laughing. "But it was probably just translated incorrectly."

The actor found time before the production of the Batman saga Dark Knight Rises (due next summer) to shoot Flowers in Nanking and immediately was blown away. Yimou had overseen the production of an elaborate set, including a nearly full-size re-creation of a cathedral.

"I am accustomed to the types of (set) buildings where you can't lean too heavily or the whole thing is going to fall down," says Bale. "This thing was a concrete, heavy-duty cathedral, which will probably be standing in 100 years' time. The commitment to the work was amazing. I have not seen anything like that before."

Whole portions of 1937 Nanking were re-created for the movie. While the production required more than five months of non-stop shooting for the rest of the cast and crew, Bale shot his role in two intense months.

"In China, there is no union. So everyone works. There are no days off whatsoever," says Yimou. "Christian actually sacrificed his weekends and resting time to keep on working."

The actor had to get used to many cultural differences on the set. He was asked to mentor the actors ("It would have been rude not to," he says), which he found difficult to get used to. Away from the set, Bale was constantly pleading for restraint from his well-meaning but highly intimidating bodyguard, whose presence was mandated by the filmmakers.

"He would pick people up and move them out of the way on the street," says Bale. "I was like, 'Don't do that. I am just walking down the street.' (The bodyguard) was like, 'Respectfully, this is what I must do.' "

Bale certainly set a great example on the set as the rare Hollywood actor in a Chinese domestic film. He had no entourage during his time in China (normally, even minor Chinese stars have multiple assistants) and went beyond expectations to aid the film's completion.

Says Yimou: "He set an example for Chinese people to understand Western people and actors. …We're a little bit spoiled now.'' " - Bryan Alexander, USA Today.'

Check out this awe-inspiring, inspirational story (Click here).

A smiling face of optimism and hope as she battles for every breath she takes...

"From the time she was born, [20-year-old] Hélène [Campbell] has been on the move. Moments after birth, she had her groove going -her hands would not keep still. Now at twenty, not only is she constantly on the go, but her joyful personality contagiously lifts the spirits of others. Whether at school, work, church, in hospital, or studying in Spain, people have easily joined with her and enjoyed her positive vibe.

Hélène has been famous for her kindness towards others and she received an award for this in grade six. At her high school graduation, she was given the Christine Proulx Award for her cooperation and perpetual willingness to help others. Someone commented “She has such a bubbly disposition; she should have a new soft drink named after her.”

Hélène loves music. People marvel at the variety she keeps on her iPod and how she integrates it with another passion of hers – film making. She loves capturing memorable moments, but her specialty seems to be creating them. Her mini musical dance documentary in Spain involving many friends and strangers is the perfect example of her ability to create joyful moments out of daily experiences. She believes life is worth living and sharing, a theme through many of her videos. With music in the background, camera in hand, smile on her face and not a minute to lose, she’s on the move…

In July 2011, Hélène was admitted to The Ottawa Hospital with collapsed lungs. It was discovered that she suffers from advanced Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis. This means that her lungs have been permanently scarred by inflammation and the root cause of the inflammation is unknown. Treatment with Prednisone has not stopped the progression of the disease. Hélène requires oxygen to perform physical tasks. With twenty-four percent of remaining breathing capacity, a lung transplant is the next step. She has been referred to the Transplant Program in Toronto. She and some of her family must relocate from Ottawa to Toronto. 

This is a time of loss for Hélène - independence, physical strength, employment income, and savings for school. Despite this, she chooses to focus on the positives in her life like family, friends, new friends from her stay in hospital and creative media. We see her with her radiant smile, enjoying even the simplest things in life, like orange juice and Reese’s limited edition chocolate bars. Even though she must now pace herself, she is still always moving onward. 

-Hélène, you are an inspiration- 

If you wish to donate to Hélène's living expenses in Toronto, while she waits to receive new lungs and during her recovery, please visit alungstory.ca".

Une jeune adolescente aspergée d'essence provenant de bouteilles de bière.

"QUÉBEC – Horrible histoire à Saguenay où trois gamins âgés de 12 à 14 ans ont été arrêtés par la police. Ils sont suspectés d’avoir tenté de mettre le feu à une jeune fille de 12 ans.

L’incident s’est produit vendredi soir, vers 20 h, dans un secteur résidentiel de Jonquière, sur la rue Rembrandt. La jeune fille, qui serait une connaissance des présumés agresseurs, aurait été avec ceux-ci en début de soirée à la résidence d’un des trois garçons.

Elle aurait ensuite quitté les lieux avant d’être invitée à revenir. Selon nos informations, les jeunes à l’intérieur de la maison se seraient moqués de la jeune fille, durant un bon bout de temps, pendant qu’elle attendait devant la porte de la résidence. Les trois garçons, qui étaient accompagnés de deux autres jeunes filles, à l’intérieur, auraient par la suite aspergé la présumée victime à l’aide d’une bouteille de bière, a raconté le lieutenant André Gagné.

Odeur d’essence

Ce dernier a fait savoir que dans son témoignage aux policiers, la jeune fille a raconté qu’elle avait rapidement réalisé, par l’odeur, que ce n’était pas de la bière, mais bien de l’essence qui se versait de la bouteille. Cette information n’a toutefois pas pu être confirmée par le lieutenant, qui a mentionné que les policiers «ont tout de même de bons motifs pour croire qu’il s’agissait d’essence».

Il a aussi indiqué que des témoignages ont permis d’apprendre que les trois jeunes auraient brandi un briquet devant la jeune fille. Aucun projectile enflammé n’a toutefois été lancé à celle-ci, a-t-il ajouté.

Les circonstances et les témoignages ne permettaient pas au lieutenant de confirmer si les jeunes avaient eu l’intention de mettre feu à la jeune fille, ou s’ils voulaient plutôt lui faire peur. Peu importe l’intention des jeunes, selon le lieutenant Gagné, «ça reste un geste d’imbécillité».

La jeune fille s’est ensuite sauvée et a tenté de se cacher, pendant que les jeunes auraient brièvement essayé de continuer de l’asperger. Elle est finalement parvenue à prendre ses distances et à rejoindre ses parents par téléphone, qui ont porté plainte aux policiers, a ajouté le lieutenant.

Accusations?

Les trois jeunes ont été arrêtés et ont été libérés sous promesse de se présenter devant le tribunal de la jeunesse après les fêtes. La police a confirmé qu’ils pourraient faire face à des accusations de voies de fait armées contre la jeune fille.

Le bureau des enquêtes criminelles travaillera en collaboration avec la Direction de la protection de la jeunesse.

La jeune fille n’a pas subi de blessures. Il a été impossible de savoir si des adultes étaient à l’intérieur de la résidence où a débuté l’incident." - Jean-Nicolas Blanchet, Le Journal de Montreal.

Que se passe-t-il au Canada? Des choses bien épeurantes se passes dernièrement chez les "pré-adolescents"... 

Ces jeunes hommes on clairement planifié leur coups, reste à voir ce que la cour va dire.

Unbelievable but true horror story of bullying!

"OTTAWA - A local mom is demanding a harsher penalty for a 9-year-old girl who she says threatened to kill her 10-year-old daughter and brought a knife to school Monday.

Angelle Bow said she cried when her daughter told her the events of the past few days at St. Marguerite d'Youville elementary school.

"I thought I was going to throw up," she said.

Her daughter Haylee told her that a week ago -- during anti-bullying week -- she intervened when two girls assaulted one of her friends. According to her daughter, one girl held the other while the attacker slapped her.

Bow says it sounds like her daughter's uncharacteristic decision to get involved made her a target as well -- she and her friend were allegedly threatened that bags would be placed over their heads until they were suffocated and that one of the girls intended to bring a knife to school.

Another alleged assault happened Thursday at an anti-bullying assembly at the school when Bow claims her daughter was kicked in the back by the same girl who slapped her friend and threatened her life.

Haylee told her mom about the violence, but not the threat to her life or anything about a knife.

Bow complained to the school, but because Friday was a PA day, no inquiries were made until Monday when Bow claims the girl was found in possession of a knife.

School principal Carole Parent said the student has been suspended and the police are involved.

"We are doing a threat assessment," Parent said. "There will be a safety plan in place when the student returns."

Ottawa Police spokesman Marc Soucy said he could not "confirm or deny" a knife was seized at the school.

"We can confirm we went for a report of an assault," said Soucy.

"We don't confirm or deny pieces of evidence. Both children are under the age that one can be charged."

Bow further claims that when the accused student was asked to write a letter about the slapping incident earlier in the week she penned more threats instead of asking forgiveness or offering an explanation or denial.

"It said I'm going to Google your name, find out where you live and I'm going to come to your house and I'm going to kill your whole family," said Bow, adding she heard the letter also contained threats that the student's brothers have guns.

She said she is considering taking her daughter out of school." - Canoe.ca CNews.

All Bow wants is help for the victims in this bullying, not just help for the bully.

I am gobsmacked that a nine-year-old can think such horrible things! I cannot believe that this is true!

7 billion and counting...

"The United Nations had projected world population to pass the seven billion mark on October 31, and several countries announced a "7 billionth baby" to mark the milestone.

The Filipino baby, Danica Mae Camacho, was born just minutes before midnight on Sunday October 31. Cheers erupted from hospital staff and U.N. officials waiting outside the delivery room of the Dr. Jose Fabella Hospital.

Camille Camacho, mother of the newborn, said she could not contain her happiness despite being exhausted from labour.

"We will do our best to take care of her. This baby is a blessing," she said.

Government officials and private donors congratulated the family and gave the child a birthday cake and a scholarship grant, while the parents were given a livelihood package to start a small store.

Fabella Hospital is one of the largest maternal and newborn hospitals in the Philippines, catering mostly to low-income families. It has been called a baby factory, as it delivers roughly a fifth of Manila's babies, a local daily reported.

The Philippine population ranks second largest in Southeast Asia behind Indonesia with 94.9 million people.

United Nations Resident Coordinator Jacqueline Badcock, who was at the Fabella hospital to see the baby, said a country that utilises its resources well can manage a large population.

"Well, the thing is whether you have a large number or a small number, you need to plan for your population, and you need to provide the services that you need to live a productive life. So it is not only for the countries with large population, it is for all countries," Badcock said." - The Telegraph.

285 Indian girls replace names meaning ‘unwanted’ to rise above gender discrimination

(Associated Press) - "Girls hold certificates stating their new official names during a renaming ceremony in Satara, India, Saturday, Oct. 22, 2011. Almost 300 Indian girls known officially as “Unwanted” have traded their birth names for a fresh start in life. Given names like “Nakusa” or “Nakushi” (or “unwanted” in Hindi) they grew up understanding they were a burden in families that preferred boys in Maharashtra state."

"MUMBAI, India — More than 200 Indian girls whose names mean “unwanted” in Hindi have chosen new names for a fresh start in life.

A central Indian district held a renaming ceremony Saturday that it hopes will give the girls new dignity and help fight widespread gender discrimination that gives India a skewed gender ratio, with far more boys than girls.

The 285 girls — wearing their best outfits with barrettes, braids and bows in their hair — lined up to receive certificates with their new names along with small flower bouquets from Satara district officials in Maharashtra state.

In shedding names like “Nakusa” or “Nakushi,” which mean “unwanted” in Hindi, some girls chose to name themselves after Bollywood stars such as “Aishwarya” or Hindu goddesses like “Savitri.” Some just wanted traditional names with happier meanings, such as “Vaishali,” or “prosperous, beautiful and good.”

“Now in school, my classmates and friends will be calling me this new name, and that makes me very happy,” said a 15-year-old girl who had been named Nakusa by a grandfather disappointed by her birth. She chose the new name “Ashmita,” which means “very tough” or “rock hard” in Hindi.

The plight of girls in India came to a focus after this year’s census showed the nation’s sex ratio had dropped over the past decade from 927 girls for every 1,000 boys under the age of 6 to 914.

Maharashtra state’s ratio is well below that, with just 883 girls for every 1,000 boys — down from 913 a decade ago. In the district of Satara, it is even lower, at 881.

Such ratios are the result of abortions of female fetuses, or just sheer neglect leading to a higher death rate among girls. The problem is so serious in India that hospitals are legally banned from revealing the gender of an unborn fetus in order to prevent sex-selective abortions, though evidence suggests the information gets out.

Part of the reason Indians favor sons is the enormous expense of marrying off girls. Families often go into debt arranging marriages and paying for elaborate dowries. A boy, on the other hand, will one day bring home a bride and dowry. Hindu custom also dictates that only sons can light their parents’ funeral pyres.

Over the years, and again now, efforts have been made to fight the discrimination.

“Nakusa is a very negative name as far as female discrimination is concerned,” said Satara district health officer Dr. Bhagwan Pawar, who came up with the idea for the renaming ceremony.

Other incentives, announced by federal or state governments every few years, include free meals and free education to encourage people to take care of their girls, and even cash bonuses for families with girls who graduate from high school.

Activists say the name “unwanted,” which is widely given to girls across India, gives them the feeling they are worthless and a burden.

“When the child thinks about it, you know, ‘My mom, my dad, and all my relatives and society call me unwanted,’ she will feel very bad and depressed,” said Sudha Kankaria of the organization Save the Girl Child. But giving these girls new names is only the beginning, she said.

“We have to take care of the girls, their education and even financial and social security, or again the cycle is going to repeat,” she said." - By Associated Press, Published: October 22