7-year-old boy almost buys fighter jet via internet

SYDNEY: A seven-year-old British boy nearly bought a real-life Harrier fighter jet for $113,515 via online shopping.

The boy hit the "buy it now" button to purchase the fighter jet, which was put on sale at the online store eBay.

But his father quickly apologized to the sellers, saying his son was not able to buy the aircraft out of his pocket money, news.com.au reported Friday.

"His dad rang up and profusely apologised to us, so it's still for sale. We've put it on as an auction now so that won't happen again," said a spokeswoman for Britain-based Jet Art Aviation, which is selling the Harrier.

The elite fighting machine was part of Britain's arsenal in the 1982 Falklands War, but the government put the plane out of service in 1997.

Falklands War was fought in 1982 between Argentina and Britain over the disputed Falkland Islands, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands.

The US Marines still use a second-generation model of the Harrier.

Woman locked for 20 years in Brazil house

SAO PAULO: Police in Brazil said they had freed a 45-year-old woman who had been locked in a house for 20 years with no communication with the outside world.

Police in the state of Parana yesterday said that the woman was locked in the home by her partner, a 60-year-old man, in the city of Mariluz, 550 kilometers (340 miles) from the state capital Curitiba.

Following a complaint by social workers, police arrived at the house to find it closed but heard the voice of a woman who appeared to be calling for help, a police statement said.

Police Lieutenant Denis Wellington Viana said the woman told a psychologist later that "she was prohibited from any form of communication" and had to perform household chores.

In the complaint, "the assistant told the police that a person was kept imprisoned for 20 years and was going through health problems, since she was banned from medical supervision," said Viana.

The news came just a week after Brazilian authorities released a mentally disturbed woman imprisoned in her husband's squalid cellar for eight years in another part of Brazil.

Nagpur schoolboy scores 461 not out !!!!

NAGPUR: Unsurprisingly, 15-year-old Ali Zoren Khan , a Std X standard student of Saraswati Vidyalaya, scored a stupendous unbeaten 461 for NCA against Reshimbag Cricket Club on Friday.

Idolizes Sachin Tendulkar. And like most youngsters playing cricket, he aspires to play for India.

Well, like his idol - who first shot into the limelight by posting a record 664-run stand with Vinod Kambli as a schoolboy, too made waves on Friday by scoring 461 not out for the Nagpur Cricket Academy against Reshimbag Cricket Club in an inter-academy tournament conducted by the Vidarbha Cricket Association.

It was the highest score by an Indian schoolboy, eclipsing the 439 by Mumbai's Sarfaraz Khan in a Harris Shield tie in November 2009. It is still not clear, though, whether left-hander Ali's innings will be recorded as the highest individual score in school cricket.

"Since this is a recognized tournament of the Vidarbha Cricket Association, it must be a record but I can't confirm it yet," noted statistician Mohandas Menon.

In his seven-hour innings, Ali, a Class 10 student of Saraswati Vidyalaya, faced 308 balls, hit 64 fours and cleared the 60-yard boundary 12 times. "I could have scored 500 but we had a plan to bat till lunch as we needed enough time to bowl them out twice. So no regrets," he said.

Thanks to Ali Zoren's effort, NCA, resuming at 805 for 4, amassed 1,025 for the loss of 5 wickets in 125 overs. Apart from Ali Zoren, three other batsmen too made centuries. Menon was also not able to confirm if the team score was a record.

Though he was unbeaten on 364 on Day 1 and was chasing a record, Ali said he slept well on Thursday. "My coach told me about Sarfaraz's record and I was determined to cross it."

How ever, I decided to play my natural game and didn't miss out on any bad delivery today,'' he said. When the golden moment came, Ali Zoren's celebrations were restrained. It was enough to suggest that no score was satisfying enough for this youngster.

Ali Zoren's parents Shalah and Mujaffar Khan, who watched his marathon effort, were on cloud nine. "We hope he continues to work hard and makes us more proud,'' they echoed.

Ali Zoren, whose elder brother Aman played for Vidarbha Under-15 three years back, is already being looked as a bright Vidarbha prospect. Surprisingly, he started as a bowler but childhood coach Mangesh Pandit saw Ali Zoren's batting potential. "He had natural batting talent. I never stopped Ali Zoren from bowling but made him believe that if he worked hard, he could become a very good batsman. The results are there for everyone to see,'' said Pandit.

Smallest girl in the world

Young Charlotte Garside loves playing with her cuddly toys and dolls like any two-year-old girl. But at just 22 inches tall, the toddler is smaller than many of her playthings.

The youngster, who lives with her family in a small seaside village near Hull, has a rare form of primordial dwarfism that affects only 100 people in the world.

She is currently half the height she should be and doctors have told her parents, Scott and Emma, they don't know if she will grow much taller.

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One-year-old ‘pregnant’ with twins

A one-year-old girl has survived surgery to remove her unborn twin’s foetus from her swollen stomach.

Kang Mengru was abandoned at birth and was taken in by a childless couple in Luohe City, in the central Chinese province of Zhenzhou.

Within months, her stomach began to swell and superstitious neighbours began calling the little girl a 'monster' and gossiping that she was pregnant.

Medical scans revealed Kang was actually carrying the parasitic foetus of her unborn twin in her belly.

A doctor told Kang’s worried foster parents: ‘She will die unless she has the surgery immediately.’

After 10 hours of complex surgery to remove the foetus, Kang's family have been told she can return home at the end of the month having made a full recovery.

Chief surgeon Dr Zhang Xuedong told The Sun: 'She will be able to go home at the end of the month, with her mother Wang Guihua and father Kuang Xiqing.

'There was a very real risk of cardiac arrest. The pressure within the child's chest and belly was very great but now she is out of danger.'

But Kang’s foster family had to rely on donations to be made to a fund set up by local government in order to pay for the surgerty.Source said such cases "foetus in foetus” is very rare and can be found one in every 500,000 pregnancies.

related source:

• One-year-old ‘pregnant

• Kang Mengru