World Briefs

Funeral home workers in the Colombian city of Cali got the shock of a lifetime when an apparently dead 45-year-old woman suddenly started breathing and moving as they prepared her for burial.

The woman had been declared clinically dead at a medical facility last Tuesday after having been hospitalised in serious condition with a neurological condition a day earlier.

A doctor at the clinic where the woman was treated, said the instruments gave no blood pressure or heart rate readings. Medical staff signed the women's death certificate and her body was transferred to a funeral home to be prepared for burial. But the woman was not actually dead and when they were going to apply formaldehyde, the patient began to breathe again and make movements.

The woman was readmitted to hospital and was in a coma. (AFP)

Pensioner paperboy turns 90

A pensioner from Wiltshire, UK, has vowed to keep delivering his local newspaper despite turning 90 at the weekend.

Ted Ingram, believed to be Britain's oldest "paperboy", first began his Dorset Echo round in 1942 and he never looked back.

He had to give up using his bike because of a hip replacement but now covers the village of Winterbourne Monkton in his car.

He told the Dorset Echo: "I've always enjoyed doing the paper round because you meet people and have a bit of a chit-chat, and it keeps me fit... If you stop and watch television all day you will go downhill."

Mr Ingram still keeps up a second job, mowing lawns at houses and caravan parks. (PA)

Advert excess

Eight TV adverts shown during an episode of Sherlock Holmes were too loud, watchdogs have ruled.

The Advertising Standards Authority said the slots on digital channel ITV3 were "excessively strident" and breached the sound levels code.

It followed a complaint from a viewer that the adverts were excessively noisy compared to the surrounding programme material, reflecting a long-standing issue for some TV watchers. (PA)

Long surgical tool left inside

Czech medical staff are being disciplined after a foot-long surgical instrument was found in the abdomen of a woman who was operated on five months ago.

The patient, 66-year-old Zdenka Kopeckova, repeatedly complained of severe abdominal pain following a gynaecological operation at a hospital in Ivancice.

Ms Kopeckova is seeking compensation after the spatula-like instrument was discovered a week ago and successfully removed. She is claiming staff initially tried to cover up the mistake by saying there was nothing they could do but recommend pain killers.

She added she had requested an x-ray but was told this would needlessly expose her to radiation. (Reuters)”

Chef recommends feline meat

Italy marked "national cat day" yesterday amid a storm of controversy over a TV host's insistence that feline meat is a "delicacy" to be savoured.

Beppe Bigazzi, 77, was suspended Monday by Italian state TV after he recommended "cat, kept three days in spring water" on his popular lunchtime cooking programme. He said he had eaten cat meat "many times."

Italy's undersecretary for health Francesca Martini slammed "the glorification of the taste of feline meat and the encouragement of its consumption" while the internet was abuzz with mixed views on Mr Bigazzi's suggestions.

Southern daily Il Mattino suggested on its website that eating a cat was no different from eating a pig or a horse but one blogger suggested a recipe for cooking Mr Bigazzi himself, in "an old bathtub," garnished with celery and tartar sauce. (AFP)

Facebook fallout

A teenager was given a suspended jail sentence for posting insulting comments on a romantic rival's Facebook page.

Farah Nur Arafah, 18, was convicted of defaming her 18-year-old friend Felly Fandini. She feared Ms Felly was attempting to spoil the relationship with her boyfriend.

Ms Arafah's posting called her a pig and a dog, as well as saying she was promiscuous and overweight. (PA)

Jailed for killing cat

A 41-year-old man was jailed 10 weeks in Singapore yesterday after pleading guilty to killing a cat by swinging it twice against a wall.

A woman had seen ZamZam Ismail smash the cat against the wall before throwing it away on January 1 and called the police and the Society for The Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, or SPCA.

"The SPCA supports the decision today by the Courts to impose a custodial sentence," SPCA executive officer Deirdre Moss said.

She urged people to come forward if they witness acts of cruelty being committed against animals, adding that very few cases of abuse are solved due to lack of witnesses or evidence.

"The SPCA stresses that cruelty to animals is a crime and one that should not be taken lightly," the welfare group said in a statement. (AFP)