World News Archive: May 2009
Morocco's New Guiding Force
(Robin Shulman, Washington Post) Not long ago in the Moroccan city of Rabat, Nezha Nassi met an 18-year-old girl in prison on drug charges. The girl was afraid to leave prison because her parents said she was no longer welcome at home. For months, Nassi counseled the girl, who seemed to bloom slowly and build an idea of the life she wanted. Nassi visited the girl's mother to persuade her to take her back, saying the girl would be worse off in the streets and that she had worked to give up her addiction. Nassi told the mother she had the girl's promise.
Doctors give blind Iraqi girl new eyes
(Hala Jaber, Times Online) After flying 2,500 miles from Baghdad and pacing hospitals in London while his daughter underwent four operations in seven weeks, Hisham Kareem knew the moment he had been waiting for had finally arrived. Kareem, 32, bent over three-year-old Shams in Moorfields eye hospital last Wednesday and gazed at her intently. Then he smiled proudly like a father seeing his newborn child for the first time. "Oh God, oh God, my blind angel has eyes now," he said.
Click here to see Parts 1 and 2 of Shams' story
Bridegroom rescues girl from pool
(BBC News) A Cornishman who rescued a girl from a swimming pool on his wedding day has been hailed a hero by his wife. Former Royal Navy diver Todd Sweeney, from Falmouth, was in Cyprus preparing for the nuptials when he saw a girl on the bottom of a swimming pool. The 40-year-old dived into the pool and resuscitated the teenager, who is believed to have suffered a seizure.
Big Ben rings in its 150th birthday
(Raphael Satter, AP) Defiantly low-tech yet accurate to the second, Big Ben will celebrate its 150th birthday Sunday, its Victorian chimes carrying the sound of Britain into the 21st century. It's a birthday the world can share in. The peals of London's favourite clock are carried globally by BBC radio, and its 96-metre-high tower, roughly 16 storeys, is the city's most famous landmark.
Epic swim saves buddy from sea
(Lincoln Tan and Vaimoana Tapaleao, New Zealand Herald) He swam against the tide for more than an hour, broke two toes and ran on rocks and barnacles to get help to save a drowning friend - but Terence Gosnell says it's his friend who is the real hero. The ordeal for Mr Gosnell and fishing partner Colleen Herrick began when their boat hit a semi-submerged log on the northern side of Motuihe Island in the Hauraki Gulf about 4.30am on Thursday.
South African children learn math through painting
(Celean Jacobson, AP) Circles and squares. Rectangles and angles. Cones and cylinders and trapezoids. A science museum is using art and tradition to teach math to poor children in some of South Africa's most neglected schools, based on the exquisite artwork of Ndebele artists. Panels of geometric shapes outlined in black and filled in with bright primary colors usually adorn huts in the Ndebele tribe's homeland in northeast South Africa. On Wednesday, some of those panels appeared on a wall at the Sci-Bono Discovery Center in downtown Johannesburg.
Couple marry 50 years after getting engaged
(The Telegraph) John Searle and Maggie Crook have married half a century after splitting up as teenagers. Mrs Searle was 13 when she first set eyes on John way back in 1952 in their hometown of Exmouth, Devon. The teenagers met at a life-saving club held at the popular seaside resort's long-closed seafront swimming pool. They got engaged at 18 but spilt up before they could name the day after their careers caused them to drift apart. The couple, both 69, married on Wednesday more than five decades after vowing to walk down the aisle.
People making a difference: Andi Arnovitz
(Ilene R. Prusher, Christian Science Monitor) So perhaps it isn't surprising that she grew up to be an artist who, after a decade of life in Israel, creates mixed-fabric works that turn heads and challenges assumptions. The top part of each piece is unmistakably Palestinian, made of the central square in a traditional woman's embroidered dress. The bottom part is unambiguously Jewish, made to resemble the knotted strings that hang either from a prayer shawl or other religious men's garb. The end result: a colorful hybrid cloth, each piece mixing an Arabic qabbeh with Jewish tsitsit, fittingly named "Garments of Reconciliation."
Widow leaves her village £400,000
(BBC News) A village has been left £400,000 by a 90-year-old widow as a thank you for the welcome she had when she retired. Margaret Allan moved to Solva in Pembrokeshire 30 years ago with husband Harry after leaving the Foreign Office. Mr Allan died in 1990 but villagers helped his widow rebuild her life and cared for her in her final years.
The sky's the limit for extreme sports fan who aims to be Iraq's first man in space
(Michael Howard, The Guardian) He has been hailed as Iraq's superman: a role model for the nation's youth who flies, glides, dives and races motorcycles. He has already made the Guinness World Records by taking part in the first ever skydive above Mount Everest. But last week Fareed Lafta, a Dubai-based extreme sports fanatic, returned to Baghdad to seek backing for his ultimate ambition – to be the first Iraqi in space. "I want to represent my country, and to be one of the men like Neil Armstrong and Yuri Gagarin, who showed with all humility what it is to be a good human," said Iraq's pioneer cosmonaut. In his badged blue flightsuit and cap, he cut a curious figure as he lobbied for support among the suits, robes and turbans in Iraq's parliament.
Britain's longest married couple celebrate their 81st anniversary
(Eleanor Glover, Daily Mail) They credit a little arguing and a happy outlook, but whatever the secret is to a long-lasting marriage Frank and Anita Milford must be doing something right as they celebrate their 81st wedding anniversary today. Devoted Frank Milford, 101, and wife Anita, 100, tied the knot on May 26, 1928, after meeting at a YMCA dance. The pair already hold the record for the UK's longest living marriage and say their secret is 'a little argument every day'.
City's homeless people enjoy 'day of kindness'
(Chris Zdeb, Edmonton Journal) Michel Richard found himself in a scary, unfamiliar place Sunday: a free event for homeless people. It took only two months to lose the roof over his head after he lost his job as a cabinet installer. The father of two, who is in the midst of a divorce, now lives at the Hope Mission. "Everything went wrong at the same time ... and this is where I ended up," said Richard, 50, who was looking for work and a home at the Homeless Connect Edmonton event at the Shaw Conference Centre.
Moving house: How a little old lady spent 23 years single-handedly dismantling her cottage brick by brick and rebuilding it 100 miles away
(Zoe Brennan, Daily Mail) For a labour of love, it was the DIY job of the century. Brick by brick, the gutsy little old lady demolished her precious home, pulling each medieval nail from its ancient oak beam. Dressed in a workman's apron, her greying hair tucked beneath a headscarf, she single-handedly piled high the thousands of hand-made Hertfordshire peg tiles from the roof. Huge timbers were loaded onto a lorry, alongside Tudor fireplaces and Elizabethan diamond leaded glass, for a rebuild that would consume the rest of her life.
Cancer patients given style boost
(BBC News) A top Scottish hairdresser aims to help young cancer patients by professionally styling their wigs. Charlie Miller said the loss of their hair can be devastating for teenage girls undergoing chemotherapy. He hopes to enlist the help of leading stylists across the country, who will offer to give up their time to transform the look of young patients.
The woman who ran the world: The inspirational story of the widow who conquered her grief by jogging round the globe
(Amanda Cable, Daily Mail) Rosie Swale-Pope marked her 57th birthday by donning trainers, pulling on a backpack and leaving her pretty Welsh cottage to go for a run. Five years, 20,000 miles and 53 pairs of running shoes later, she hobbled back on crutches with a fractured hip but an unbroken, and truly remarkable, spirit. During her extraordinary (some might say fool-hardy) solo round-the-world run, she was shadowed by a pack of wolves in Russia, confronted by a naked gunman in Siberia and nearly froze to death in Alaska. In the end, it was both a bitter fight for survival and a vivid celebration of life - but it began because she found herself widowed and, for the first time in her life, alone. Just months after losing her beloved husband, Clive, to prostate cancer in June 2002, Rosie decided to embark on a charity run to raise money awareness. She says: 'I pulled out a map of the world and sat there trying to choose a destination for my run. Then the idea suddenly came to me. I thought: "I know, I'll run the whole world - it will be like a package tour on legs." So Rosie, a grandmother, began planning her adventure in meticulous detail.
Fitness clubs take off in Iraq
(Hamza Hendawi, New Zealand Herald) Across a mirrored room from stationary bikes and an occasional treadmill, men in tank tops knock back protein shakes and pump iron to loud hip hop. It's a common scene in America - and the latest craze in Baghdad. In a city of few diversions and long cut off from the outside world, the boom in health clubs represents another sign that Iraq is slowly emerging from decades of dictatorship and war.
Young Pakistanis Tackle Trash Problem
(Sabrina Tavernise, New York Times) The idea was simple, but in Pakistan, a country full of talk and short on action, it smacked of rebellion. A group of young Pakistani friends, sick of hearing their families complain about the government, decided to spite them by taking matters into their own hands: Every Sunday they would grab shovels, go out into their city, and pick up garbage. It was a strange thing to do, particularly for students from elite private schools, who would normally spend Sunday afternoons relaxing in air-conditioned homes. But the students were inspired by the recent success of the lawyers’ movement, which used a national protest march to press the government to reinstate the country’s chief justice, and their rush of public consciousness was irrepressible.
British couple travels to Michigan for purr-fect cat
(The Telegraph) Rose and Chris Rasmussen were in Harrison on Tuesday to adopt the cat from the Clare County animal shelter, where the young cat has become a mascot of sorts since he arrived last August. "Sparky likes to explore," Betty Beadle, a volunteer at the shelter, told the Morning Sun of Mount Pleasant newspaper. "He destroyed Christmas trees twice." The Rasmussens discovered Sparky on Petfinder.com, a pet adoption website. They could have had him shipped to the London suburb where they live, but instead decided to make the journey to adopt their new pet.
India singalong sets world record
(BBC News) A mass singalong of 160,000 people in the Indian city of Hyderabad, in Andhra Pradesh, has broken a 72-year-old record for the world's largest choir. Participants sang religious hymns by "saint-composer" Annamacharya for just under 40 minutes at an event on Sunday. An adjudicator from Guinness World Records said the audience was "ecstatic" to learn of their record.
Prince William visits 109-year-old woman to say sorry for the Queen's birthday card
(Andrew Pierce, The Telegraph) When Catherine Masters, one of the oldest women in the country, noticed that the Queen was wearing the same yellow dress in the last five of the nine cards, she wrote to complain to Buckingham Palace. Neither she or staff at the Grange Care Centre in Stanford in the Vale in Oxfordshire thought much more of it until a telephone call came from St James's Palace. Only five minutes later a casually dressed Prince William, flanked by his protection officers, was at the home and talking recipes for shepherd's pie with Mrs Masters.
Berlin thanks airlift pilots 60 years later
(TheLocal.de) The city of Berlin on Tuesday kicked off celebrations to mark the 60th anniversary of the end of the Soviet blockade of West Berlin. Speaking at a ceremony at the Tempelhof airport, Berlin mayor Klaus Wowereit said Berliners still feel a deep gratitude towards western nations responsible for organizing the Berlin airlift 60 years ago. "The Berlin airlift was a human and logistical stroke of mastery," Wowereit said, adding that the Allied forces had won the hearts of Berliners with the operation.
In Britain, Guys With Metal Detectors Find Respect Along With History
(Mary Jordan, Washington Post) Derek Eveleigh walked carefully, searching for buried treasure. "It's such a thrill when I find something -- and I often do," Eveleigh said as he listened to the steady beeps of his metal detector. Not far away from this Welsh seaside town, he recently found 6,000 copper coins dating to the Roman Empire. "It turned out they were 1,700 years old! Many emperors ago," said Eveleigh, 79, one of thousands of British "metal detectorists" who search for history as a hobby.
Poem Inspires U.S. Sculptor To Honor Quake Victims
(Melissa Block, NPR) Last year, a week after a massive earthquake rocked southwest China, we aired a poem on All Things Considered called "Elegy," by Chengdu poet He Xiaozhu. Little did we know that when we returned to Sichuan province this year, we would meet an NPR listener who was so inspired by the poem, he decided to make a sculpture based on it.
Portrait of generosity
(Linda Herrick, New Zealand Herald) On March 31, 2005, Auckland Art Gallery director Chris Saines' assistant came into his office and said a man called Julian Robertson was on the phone. "He told them he hasn't got very long in town and he was hoping to pop in and see me - 'now would be good'," recalls Saines - a man with a crammed schedule - with a laugh. "I didn't know who he was. It didn't occur to me to Google him or anything like that. I thought this could be a person coming to see me about anything." He came in, he is a tall North Carolinean, a very imposing man. We started talking and he said, 'Look, Josie [his wife] and I have been coming to this gallery over a number of years. We are very frequent travellers to New Zealand.' He didn't tell me about his business interests and I had no picture of his length of connection with New Zealand. "Then he said, 'I have always loved this gallery and I love what you are doing here. I am wondering, because we are developing a very modest collection, which we have been doing for a bit over a decade, if you'd be interested in borrowing any of that work - we've got artists like Cezanne, Picasso, Matisse...'"
Recalculating Happiness in a Himalayan Kingdom
(Seth Mydans, New York Times) If the rest of the world cannot get it right in these unhappy times, this tiny Buddhist kingdom high in the Himalayan mountains says it is working on an answer. "Greed, insatiable human greed," said Prime Minister Jigme Thinley of Bhutan, describing what he sees as the cause of today’s economic catastrophe in the world beyond the snow-topped mountains. "What we need is change," he said in the whitewashed fortress where he works. "We need to think gross national happiness."
Woman, 90, delivers great-granddaughter using 1940s' midwifery training
(Telegraph) Margaret Jones thought her days of being a midwife were over, until her granddaughter Kathy Shah, 32, went into labour and called for help last Friday. Despite having two artificial hips and not having delivered a baby since the 1950s, Mrs Jones, from Malmesbury, Wiltshire, went to her granddaughter's aid, and successfully helped bring 7lb 7oz Carys into the world. Mrs Jones said she initially thought she was required for moral support. She said: "It got to the point where I realised my services might be required. I thought to myself 'Maggie, it's time to wash your hands and don your overalls'. I was a bit worried because Kathy was on the floor and not on a bed. If there are complications, like a breach, you really need to be on a bed. But thankfully we didn't have any problems."
Four-year-old boy takes up ballet after losing limbs through meningitis
(Telegraph) Harvey, from Louth, Lincolnshire, had his lower legs, right arm and fingers on his left hand amputated in 2005 when he was just nine months-old. His mother Lisa Phillips, 34, feared he would never be able to run around with friends or enjoy music and dance. But Harvey proved her wrong after watching his older sister Kayla, five, at her local ballet class. He was so determined to take part that he took to the dance floor without the aid of traditional prosthetic limbs. Now he is able to run, jump and twirl using custom-made plastic caps to protect his legs. The ballet classes have improved his posture and are also helping him walk on his new prosthetic limbs.
A Rock and Roll Jihad for the Soul of Pakistan
(Rob Asghar, Huffington Post) The Taliban's forerunners stole the show from Salman Ahmad one evening two decades ago. He and a growing army of Pakistani artists and cultural leaders intend to take it back -- and in the process, to rescue their nation and renew the cultural vibrancy of their ancient heritage. Ahmad's plan was to impress the audience at a talent show at his Pakistani college, by playing a spot-on version of Van Halen's legendary "Eruption." But militant students from the local madrasas managed to rock the crowd even more convincingly, erupting onto the stage, declaring music to be blasphemy and violently sacrificing Ahmad's Les Paul to the gods of intolerance. They even destroyed the drummer's kit for good measure. A little like the Who at their peak, just without amplifiers. Ahmad was destined by heritage and by coursework to be a doctor, and he dutifully responded. Still, he loved music enough to decide later that guitars rather than stethoscopes would be his instrument of healing.
UK man lands 'world's best job'
(BBC News) A British man has been appointed the new caretaker of an Australian tropical island, a six-month position described as "the best job in the world". Ben Southall, 34, a charity fundraiser from Petersfield, Hampshire, emerged from a field of over 34,000 applicants. His new job requires Mr Southall to live and report from Hamilton Island, on Queensland's Great Barrier Reef. The process gave a global profile to Australian tourism, which has gone into decline amid the worldwide recession. Mr Southall was chosen from among 16 finalists competing for the A$150,000 (£73,500; $110,000) position.
Homeless man in Winnipeg jumps into river to save teen
(CBC News) A homeless Winnipeg man is being hailed as a hero after pulling a teenager from the Red River, which is still swift and swollen from floodwaters. The teen fell from the Provencher Bridge Sunday afternoon after he and a group of other boys were running across the bridge, dodging traffic and hopping over the railings between the eastbound and westbound lanes. The teen then tried to leap across a gap from the traffic lanes to the adjacent pedestrian bridge, but didn't make it. Farron Hall and his friend Wayne Spence heard the screams from their makeshift home on the riverbank. Hall threw off his backpack and jumped into the cold water.
Wind takes $10,000, but passing strangers return it
(CBC News) A Charlottetown landlord is thanking the strangers who helped scoop up the more than $10,000 in cash that blew into a city street Monday. Ian Walker was getting out of his truck to go to the bank when a gust of wind carried the money out of his unzippered deposit bag. Cash quickly scattered everywhere on the busy street.
Border cut that sparked an exodus
(Nick Thorpe, BBC News) Exactly 20 years ago Hungarian border guards began dismantling the physical barrier along the Hungarian-Austrian border known as the Iron Curtain. It was an act with huge consequences for other Eastern European countries and eventually the whole of Europe.