Mickeys

Music fans can now download Simon Cowell’s charity song which is raising money for victims of last month’s devastating earthquake in Haiti.

Leona Lewis records her vocals for the Haiti charity song

Twenty-one acts have joined forces to record the single, which is a cover of REM’s Everybody Hurts.

Among those stars who have lent their vocals are Robbie Williams and former Take That bandmates Gary Barlow and Mark Owen as well as Kylie Minogue, Mariah Carey and Westlife.

X Factor winners Leona Lewis and Joe McElderry, Susan Boyle from Britain’s Got Talent, Rod Stewart and JLS are also participating.

The order of those singing on the record is Lewis, Stewart, Carey, Cheryl Cole, Mika, Michael Buble, McElderry, Miley Cyrus, James Blunt, Barlow, Owen and Jon Bon Jovi.

James Morrison, Alexandra Burke, Boyle, Aston Merrygold and Marvin Humes from JLS, Westlife’s Shane Filan and Mark Feehily, Minogue and Williams complete the line-up.

Proceeds from the sale of the single go to Haiti quake victims

The ballad will be available to buy in shops on Monday, with those behind it hoping it will top the charts and provide much-needed funds for charities in the process.

Originally a hit in 1993, the new version was recorded in London and Los Angeles and got its first airplay on Tuesday.

REM are waiving royalty rights to the charity track, while the Government has said that there will be no VAT cut.

Proceeds will be split between the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) and The Sun’s Helping Haiti campaign.

Up to 200,000 people are believed to have died as a result of the 7.0 magnitude earthquake on January 12, with hundreds of thousands more left injured and homeless.

taken from SkyNews

Love is a temporary insanity, as all those know who have ever lost their hearts to a stranger. Here are 25 signs that a new relationship is heading for disaster.

There are certain telltale signs early on in a relationship that ‘the path of this love may never run smooth’:

• You are hesitant to introduce your new partner to your parents or friends
• You are sure you will eventually get used to the smell of smoke
• Your idea of a good movie is a three-handkerchief affair while your partner prefers the latest in the schlock-horror genre
• You like to sleep in, while your partner prefers the early morning for marathon training sessions
• Your partner kisses with his/her eyes open
• You belong to two book clubs, while your new partner’s reading skills are restricted to figuring out instructions on DIY kits
• You are a dog person and she is a cat person
• Her ex-boyfriend hides behind a shop display when he sees her approaching
• He takes you to a cheap franchise restaurant on a first date
• You really mind that she messes red wine on your couch
• You think her children are undisciplined and demanding brats
• Your partner has an uncertain and erratic employment history, yet drives a fancy car
• You lose the battle for her attention to computer games on a Saturday night
• Your partner is using a credit card that bears a different surname to his own
• You find out that there are three ex-husbands lurking in the background – and she is only 29
• Your new partner is rude to waitresses in restaurants
• There are certain phone calls your partner will not answer in your presence
• You get a box of chocolates for Christmas, his daughter gets a car
• He/she never opens bank statements or accounts
• Your new partner constantly badmouths previous partners
• You like food from delis – she likes McDonalds Burgers
• You find your partner’s ID Book on the floor – and realise she has subtracted 8 years from her real age
• Your partner wants to have children with you, but shows little interest in those he already has
• She does not seem to have any friends who have known her for longer than six months

The answer is simple – get out while you can still do so with minimal damage to yourself and your self-esteem.

taken from Health24

Port-au-Prince – Haiti’s desperate earthquake survivors faced a new deadly threat on Friday as the United Nations reported a rise in cases of diarrhoea, measles and tetanus in squalid tent camps for victims.

Haiti

A vast foreign aid effort is struggling to meet survivors’ needs 17 days after the disaster, which killed around 170 000 people and left one million homeless and short of food, water and medical attention.

And with medicine running low amid efforts to treat hundreds of thousands of injured and homeless cramped into makeshift camps, officials and aid groups are scrambling to avoid a potential public health calamity that could push the death toll higher.

“Several medical teams report a growing caseload of diarrhoea in the last two to three days,” World Health Organisation spokesperson Paul Garwood said.

“There are also reports of measles and tetanus, including in resettlement camps, which is worrisome due to the high concentration of people,” he told journalists in Geneva.

UN agencies and Haiti’s government aim to launch a vaccination campaign against measles, tetanus and diphtheria next week. Just 58% of Haitian infants were immunized before the quake, Garwood said.

He highlighted a “critical” need for surgeons, with an estimated 30 to 100 amputations being carried out every day in some hospitals, while supplies of anaesthetics and antibiotics were also needed.

The 7.0-magnitude quake on January 12 decimated Haiti’s already meagre health system, creating conditions for disease to thrive in the cramped refugee camps.

Only one person in two among the Haitian population of more than nine million people has access to clean drinking water, and only 19% have decent sanitation.

On Friday, Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa became just the second foreign leader to visit Haiti since the quake, lending his voice to international calls for more emergency relief and assistance with reconstruction.

“This is a tragedy, a humanitarian tragedy. Haiti at this moment represents the pain of victims but also hope,” Correa said.

(continue reading…)

Hong Kong – Hong Kong police are seeking the internet user behind a Facebook group that encouraged teenagers to commit mass suicide, a report said Thursday, after a 15-year-old member tried to kill himself.

Nearly 190 people joined the group “I have to practise suicide”, which called on members to take their own lives on December 21, the daily South China Morning Post reported.

However the site’s unknown creator had also posted a message on the social networking site saying that the group was just an “inside joke”, the Post said.

Members were supposed to talk about ways to die in a “retarded way”, such as “jumping off a chair”, the creator wrote, adding: “I’m not encouraging suicide. It’s supposed to be an inside joke.”

The site was removed from Facebook when local media reported the story.

Police launched their investigation after classmates stopped a teenage boy who belonged to the group from throwing himself off the roof of their school two weeks ago in Tin Shui Wai.

The working class neighbourhood in the city of seven million has been nicknamed “City of Sadness” because of its social and domestic violence problems.

Last year, a mother and her two young children died in a grisly murder-suicide in their Tin Shui Wai home.

taken from News24

The mother of a chronically ill baby has defended her court battle with the child’s father to have his life support machine turned off.

The mother of chronically ill baby RB defends her court fight to end his life

The boy, known only as RB, has congenital myasthenic syndrome, a rare neuromuscular condition which severely limits limb movement and the ability to breathe independently. He has been in hospital since birth.

Doctors want to take the one-year-old off a ventilator which helps him to breathe, but the boy’s father, who is separated from the mother, opposes the plan.

The hospital trust which provides his care has taken the case to the High Court.

If the trust wins, it would be the first time a British court has ruled against the wishes of a parent whose child does not suffer from brain damage.

In a statement, the mother’s lawyer, Anthony Fairweather said: “RB’s mother has sat by her son’s bedside every day since he was born.

“Every day she has seen the pain he experiences just to survive.

“In deciding to support this application she has listened and consulted with some of the best doctors in the world. Their view has been unanimous.

“In her mind the intolerable suffering experienced by her son must outweigh her own personal grief should she lose her child.”

But lawyers for the father argue the baby’s brain is unaffected by the condition and that he can see, hear, feel and recognise his parents.

They will submit video footage which they say shows Baby RB playing with toys, enjoying listening to music and interacting with his parents.

The father argues that a tracheostomy, where a hole is made in the neck to allow air to reach his lungs, would allow his son to leave hospital and be cared for at home.

Christopher Cuddihee, a solicitor acting for the father, told The Sunday Telegraph: “This is a tragic case.

“The father feels very strongly that Baby RB has a quality of life that demands the trust should continue to provide life-sustaining treatment.

“The father clearly adores his son and hopes to demonstrate to the court that the trust’s application should be rejected.”

Neither of the parents nor the NHS trust can be identified for legal reasons.

story from SkyNews

Two powerful earthquakes have struck the Indonesian island of Sumatra, possibly killing thousands of people. More people could be trapped under the rubble.

How long can someone survive, trapped without food or water, and maybe severely injured?

For a young, healthy person who started the ordeal well-hydrated and well-nourished, the chances of surviving are fair, as long as they are rescued within about four days. The time period goes down considerably under different conditions.

Someone who is injured, particularly if they have lost blood, has a very poor chance of surviving for more than 24 hours. In fact, even if someone is not injured, experts agree that the person’s chances of survival drop once 48 hours have passed.

Without food and water
What happens to the body without food and water over an extended period?

The lack of food is of less importance than the lack of water. The body can call on fat stores and eventually the protein in muscle for fuel, but it cannot draw water from anything other than external sources.

The kidneys
Kidneys are the organs most severely affected by lack of water. Their chief function is to maintain both the volume and the concentration of body water.

Without water, the body gradually dehydrates because water intake no longer replaces water lost through sweating, breathing, passing urine and absorption in the gut.

With increasing dehydration, the blood becomes thicker, which causes the kidneys to retain water and concentrate the urine they do produce.

This causes the blood pressure to fall, resulting in less blood passing through the kidneys. Thus yet more water is retained and urine becomes even more concentrated. Eventually, no urine is produced at all.

Once this happens the person is in danger of kidney failure.

As dehydration increases, so does thirst, and tiredness. Eventually, when the kidneys have stopped producing urine, the person may become confused and even lapse into a coma as the kidneys start to fail.

Drop in blood pressure
Obviously, in a traumatic situation such as an explosion and disaster, many other things might complicate this process. Shock results in decreased blood pressure, which speeds up the inevitable course of kidney failure.

Other injuries may cause blood loss on top of a lower blood pressure. Any chest injury can lead to breathing difficulties.

Not enough air
Some people die because they are trapped under rubble in a small space with limited quantities of air – they will run out of oxygen.

But, the human body is marvellous and the will to survive is so strong in many people that they can overcome all these obstacles and remain alive long enough for rescuers to arrive.

But there are no hard and fast rules, and miracles do happen: Ismael Cimen, a Turkish four-year-old boy, was rescued after spending 140 hours under the rubble in the 1999 earthquake.

taken from Health24

Dozens of people have died and thousands left stranded in flooding after a tropical storm slammed ashore in the Philippines.

Flood victims wade through waist-high water in Manila

The government declared a “state of calamity” in Manilaand 25 storm-hit provinces with more than 106 people considered dead or missing.

More than a month’s worth of rain fell in just 12 hours as Tropical Storm Ketsana struck with winds of up to 53mph, delivering the capital’s worst flooding in more than 42 years.

A landslide and flash flooding in nearby Rizal province killed 35 people, most of whom drowned, local officials said.

The mayor of Cainta, also in Rizal, told reporters: “The whole town is almost 100% underwater.”

A further three people were reported killed in Manila’s southern suburb of Muntinglupa and two others in Quezon city.

Philippine television showed a dramatic video of more than a dozen people perched on roofs of damaged houses being swept away by the Marikina River.

They smashed against the pillars of a bridge and were separated from each other in the rampaging river. It was unclear whether they were rescued.

Forecasters said seasonal monsoon rains were intensified by Ketsana, which packed winds of 53 mph with gusts of up to 63 mph when it hit land early on Saturday.

By the evening, the storm maintained its strength as it moved over the coast of western Zambales province and headed west toward the South China Sea.

story from SkyNews

A police force has been fined £40,000 after one of its firearms instructors accidentally shot a civilian colleague during a gun tutorial.

A Magnum gun, similar to the one used in the accidental shooting of a civilian

PC David Micklethwaite, who had failed a shooting training course, mistakenly loaded a powerful Magnum .44 revolver with a live round from an old Quality Street tin.

The 52-year-old then pulled the trigger while pointing it at a civilian colleague during one of his classroom tutorials.

He was fined £8,000.

The bullet hit Keith Tilbury, 51, at Thames Valley constabulary headquarters in Kidlington, Oxfordshire.

It caused devastating injuries, London’s Southwark Crown Court heard.

Mr Tilbury, a phone operator who used to shoot for Britain, underwent five hours of life-saving surgery for an “exploded” bowel and kidney, as well as lung and liver damage.

He was unconscious for 12 days and has not returned to work.

Both Thames Valley police and Micklethwaite, who were also ordered to pay £25,000 and £8,000 costs respectively, admitted breaching health and safety rules.

Sentencing, Judge Nicholas Loraine-Smith said the incident was a “disaster waiting to happen”.

She said it was clear the police force failed to provide “basic firearms awareness training to ensure, so far as it was reasonably practicable, persons in their employment… were not thereby exposed to risk.”

She added: “The major failings for this offence was the control in ammunition.

“It is vital for public confidence that the police should be seen to be safe with weapons at all times and the guns and firearms and ammunition must be carefully audited and monitored.”

Thames Valley Police said it was an “embarrassing episode” that should never have happened.

A decision on Micklethwaite’s future with the force will be made after an internal disciplinary hearing.

story from SkyNews

A father has described his shock at finding his ‘dead’ baby had come back to life when he said goodbye at the wake.

The hospital is expected to carry out an investigation into the baby's care

Jose Alvarenga’s son was born prematurely in Asuncion, Paraguay, weighing just 500 grams (17.6 ounces).

The infant was pronounced dead on Thursday and officials put the tiny body in a box and took it to his parents house four hours later.

Mr Alvarenga said: “I opened it to look at his remains and found that the baby was breathing. I began to cry.”

He hurried back to the hospital where his partner was receiving treatment, and nurses put the baby in an incubator.

The infant is understood to be in a stable condition.

The hospital has said it will carry out an investigation into the incident.

“This is a very unusual case,” the head of paediatric intensive care, Ernesto Weber, said.

He said the doctor in charge may not have properly checked the baby.

Other staff at the hospital said they had fought to save the infant’s life for more than an hour but the pulse may have been too faint to detect.

taken from SkyNews

A father has been charged with murdering his five chidren and their mother amid reports the victim’s throats had been cut.

Mesca Damas has been charged with six counts of first degree murder

Authorities in southwest Florida charged Mesac Damas with six counts of first-degree murder in what has been dubbed “the worst of the worst” killing spree.

According to reports in the States, Damas was found hiding in a property in Haiti after flying there from his Florida home.

Damas claims that he surrendered voluntarily to police and had travelled to Haiti to “say goodbye” to his family.

The 33-year-old had boarded a flight from Miami International Airport to the Caribbean nation on Friday.

The following evening, deputies found wife Guerline Damas and their five children slain in a Naples town house.

Police issue picture

A relative told the Associated Press news agency that the victims had had their throats cut.

Florida investigators are travelling to Haiti to interview Damas.

Just days before he left the country, a Department of Children and Families caseworker visited the family’s apartment unannounced, it has emerged.

The caseworker reported that the children, ages 11 months to 9 years, seemed healthy and safe.

Mesac Damas was apparently home and dinner was cooked.

The toddler was playing with her doll while the older daughter, dressed in pink, asked the caseworker if she had brought her a pink book bag, because she was going to school next year.

The boys were in T-shirts and shorts and the worker didn’t see any bruises or marks.

The murders have been described by police in Florida as “the worst of the worst”.

taken from SkyNews

I received this in my Inbox over the weekend, enjoy!

This is one of the neatest stories you will ever hear. You will know precisely what this little girl is talking about at the end (you’ll want to share this one with your loved ones and special friends)!

‘Danielle keeps repeating it over and over again. We’ve been back to this animal shelter at least five times. It has been weeks now since we started all of this,’ the mother told the volunteer.

‘What is it she keeps asking for?’ the volunteer asked.
‘Puppy size!’ replied the mother
‘Well, we have plenty of puppies, if that’s what she’s looking for.’  ’I know….. we have seen most of them, ‘ the mom said in  frustration…

Just then Danielle came walking  into the office

‘Well, did you find one?’ asked  her mom.

‘No, not this time,’ Danielle said with sadness in her voice. ‘Can we come back on the weekend?’
The two women looked at each other, shook their heads and laughed

‘You never know when we will get more dogs. Unfortunately, there’s always a supply,’ the volunteer said.

Danielle took her mother by the hand and headed to the door. ‘Don’t worry, I’ll find one this weekend,’ she said.

Over the next few days both Mom and Dad had long conversations with her. They both felt she was being too particular. ‘It’s this weekend or we’re not looking any more,’ Dad finally said in frustration.
‘We don’t want to hear anything more about puppy size, either,’ Mom added.

Sure enough, they were the first ones in the shelter on Saturday morning. By now Danielle knew her way around, so she ran right for the section that housed the smaller dogs.

Tired of the routine, mom sat in the small waiting room at the end of the first row of cages.  There was an observation window so you could see the animals during times when visitors weren’t permitted.
Danielle walked slowly from cage to cage, kneeling periodically to take a closer look. One by one the dogs were brought out and she held each one.
One by one she said, ‘Sorry, but you’re not the one.’

It was the last cage on this last day in search of the perfect pup. The volunteer opened the cage door and the child carefully picked up the dog and held it closely. This time she took a little longer.

‘Mom, that’s it! I found the right puppy!  He’s the one! I know it!’ She screamed with joy. ‘It’s the puppy size!’

‘But it’s the same size as all the other puppies you held over the last few weeks,’ Mom said.

‘No not size… The sighs. When I held him in my arms, he sighed,’ she said.
‘Don’t you remember? When I asked you one day what love is, you told me love depends on the sighs of your heart. The more you love, the bigger the sigh!’

The two women looked at each other for a moment. Mom didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. As she stooped down to hug the child, she did a little of both.

‘Mom, every time you hold me, I sigh. When you and Daddy come home from work and hug each other, you both sigh. I knew I would find the right puppy if it sighed when I held it in my arms,’ she said. Then, holding the puppy up close to her face, she said, ‘Mom, he loves me. I heard the sighs of his heart!’

Close your eyes for a moment and think about the love that makes you sigh. I not only find it in the arms of my loved ones, but in the caress of a sunset, the kiss of the moonlight and the gentle brush of cool air on a hot day.  They are the sighs of God. Take the time to stop and listen; you will be surprised at what you hear. ‘Life is not measured by the breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.’

I hope your life is filled with Sighs!!!

The mother of a cancer patient has become the first woman to give birth at the world-famous Great Ormond Street children’s hospital.

Nicola Tyler and daughter Kelly with baby Zac at Great Ormond Street

The 157-year-old central London hospital treats sick babies and children but does not have a maternity unit, and there are no records of children ever having been born there.

Baby Zac decided to arrive while his mother Nicola Tyler, 32, was staying with her six-year-old daughter Kelly, who is having treatment for Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma there.

Before she left home for Kelly’s nine-day stint, Nicola, from Canvey Island, Essex, told her partner Dave Abbott: “I’m scared I’m going to have him up there.”

Her fears came true four days later when she went into labour on Elephant ward.

Ward sister Sue Snaith, a Territorial Army major who is off to Afghanistan for three months, may have tempted fate when she told Nicola she was upset she would not see the baby until she came back.

Little did she realise that the next day she would be holding her hand as Zac arrived in his sister’s hospital room.

When Nicola went into labour, GOSH ward staff called the maternity team at nearby University College London Hospital.

With contractions more than 30 minutes apart, she was told to lie down and not to worry.

“I went and took a warm bath and lay on the bed in Kelly’s room, but within a matter of minutes my contractions had become stronger and more frequent,” Nicola said. (continue reading…)

Greg has had his sheepdog, Jessie, for eleven years. She has gone everywhere with him, slept in a basket in his room and has been his best friend for more than a decade.

In short, on a daily basis, Jessie is more of a companion to him than his housemate or some of his friends. She’s a living companion and they exercise together and are tuned in to one another’s moods.

But recently Jessie has developed serious kidney problems and she’s getting more and more miserable, despite all the efforts of both Greg and the vet. Now she has also stopped eating. Greg knows it’s probably time to have her put down, but he simply cannot face it. He knows he can’t let her suffer, but life without Jessie is simply not imaginable. What now?

“All your life you have loved and protected your animal. Now you are required to end its life. It’s almost unthinkable. And yet, if the animal is suffering, it is the caring and the right thing to do,” says Dr Awie de Villiers, Health24’s CyberVet.

“The decision to have my cat, affectionately named Rubbish, put down was simple. There was no choice in the matter,” says Tasmin Kockott, Rosebank tour operator. “I was incredibly sad, because I was losing a close friend. The affection and the connection there had been between us was so special and I feel I am a better person for having had that. “

The reasons for pet euthanasia vary and can include:

• an incurable disease
• old age
• serious injury
• no money for treatment
• behavioural problems
• lack of space in shelters for strays
• change in living conditions for owners (e.g. emigration)

(continue reading…)

Police have named a man suspected of the murder and rape of a woman in 1979 following the exhumation of his body.

Detectives have revealed the DNA of David Lace, 26, whose remains were dug up last month, matched that of the suspected killer of Teresa De Simone.

Teresa De Simone's mother said she was a "happy girl, but shy"

The 22-year-old victim was found in her car at the pub in Southampton where she worked part-time, in December 1979.

Sean Hodgson, 58, of County Durham, spent 27 years in jail for the murder before his conviction was quashed.

Mr Lace was originally from Portsmouth and, at the time of the murder, he was 17 and living in the city.

He took his own life in December 1988 when he was living in Brixham, Devon. He did not feature in the original police investigation and was not thought to have had prior links to Miss De Simone.

He made admissions to the murder in 1983 following Mr Hodgson’s conviction at Winchester Crown Court some 18 months earlier.

The Ministry of Justice gave permission for Mr Lace’s body to be exhumed from Kingston Cemetery, Portsmouth, after new DNA samples indicated he was the prime suspect in the case.
(continue reading…)