105-yr-old woman commits suicide

A 105-year-old woman, Anastasia Khoreva hanged herself after telling her family she was tired of waiting to die.

Friends said great-great-great-gran Anastasia Khoreva had been depressed after being struck down with a lung infection.

The pensioner waited until her family had left the house then used a clothes line to fashion a makeshift noose in her bedroom.

Anastasia, from Darsun, Russia, had lived through the Russian Revolution, two world wars and the mass executions of communist tyrant Joseph Stalin.

"It's a strange thing to do at her time of life but she used to say she was fed up with waiting for death — so she wanted to go and meet it," said one neighbour.

A family member added: "She'd tried once before saying she'd had enough, but that time we managed to stop her.

"This time we weren't so lucky."

Woman's bones eroded by pet parasites

A twenty one (21) year old woman, identified only as Zhou, has been left paralysed after parasites from infected pets eroded her bones.

Zhou, spent years consulting doctors after suffering from constant fever and began losing the use of her lower limbs.

According to Guangzhou Daily, doctors at Zhu Jiang Hospital eventually finally performed a biopsy and discovered the rare form of a type of echinococcosis.

Zhou using a walker to help her recover after her operation

Zhou's mother said her daughter is fond of cats and dogs and often sleeps with her pets.

Doctors believe Zhou may have been infected by the pet parasites since childhood.

Her bones have been eroded by the bites from the parasites over many years.

Experts say parasites can infect children through interaction with pets, and incubate in the human body for years.

Families with pregnant women or children are advised to fully quarantine their pets.

Woman dies from too much Coke

Experts have concluded that a New Zealand woman's eight to 10 litre a day Coca-Cola habit likely caused her to suddenly collapse and die.

Natasha Harris, 30, was a stay-at-home mother of eight who was helping her children get ready for school when she collapsed slumped against a wall.

Her partner, Chris Hodgkinson, quickly called emergency services and tried to resuscitate her using mouth-to-mouth.

However, all efforts failed and she passed away
.

Medical reports state that she died of a heart attack. However, expert witnesses at an inquest testified that her 2-gallon-a-day Coca-Cola habit, combined with poor nutrition, likely lead to hypokalemia.

Hypokalemia, also known as low potassium levels, can include abnormal heart rhythms.

Pathologist Dr Dan Mornin added that the high levels of caffeine in Coke that built up to toxic levels in her body may have contributed to her death.

Hodgkinson testified that Harris would drink between 2.1 to 2.6 gallons of regular Coke every day.

She would drink a Coke when she woke up and would drink another just before she went to sleep.

He admitted she was addicted to Coke.

Reports by the Daily Mail said she would go 'crazy' if she ran out of it, becoming moody, irritable and low.

In a press statement, Coca-Cola said their products are safe.

"But grossly excessive ingestion of any food product, including water" could be harmful," the statement added.

"We believe that all foods and beverages can have a place in a balanced and sensible diet combined with an active lifestyle."

Woman who weeps crystal tears

Thirty-five (35) year old Jody Smith from the United Kingdom weeps crystal tears that sparkle like jewels.

Sounds very poetic but she finds her condition a nuisance.

“My doctor and husband say the crystals look like beautiful diamonds, but to me they’re a painful nuisance," said Jody.

“I know they sound lovely but it’s really awful, especially when the sun’s in my eyes. It feels like I’ve got sand in them.”

There is no cure for cystinosis, which stresses the kidney functions.

She has undergone two kidney transplants.

Purple crabs discovered

A new species of crabs have been discovered in the Philippine island of Palawan and they're purple...

National Geographic reports the species is named Insulamon Palawanese.

"It is known that crabs can discriminate colours. Therefore, it seems likely that the colouration has a signal function for the social behaviour, e.g. mating," Hendrik Freitag of the Senckenberg Museum of Zoology in Dresden, Germany told AFP.

"The particular violet coloration might just have evolved by chance, and must not necessarily have a very specific function or reason aside from being a general visual signal for recognition," Freitag told National Geographic.

Freitag's report was published in the Raffles Bulletin of Zoology.

The newly discovered crabs are quite small in stature, each from about an inch to two inches wide.

Giant growth removed from 'Turtle Boy'

A young lad branded 'turtle boy' due to a large shell-like growth on his body is finally free of the birthmark thanks to a British surgeon.

Little Didier Montalvo, six (6) year old from Colombia, suffered from Congenital Melanocytic Nevus, which meant a mole grew so large it almost entirely covered his back.

He was teased and banned from going to school because of the growth.

Locals in his village feared he had been cursed by evil forces as he was conceived during an eclipse.

Didier had said, "I want to grow up. But the mole won't let me."

His mum, Luz, could not afford to pay for surgery to help her son get rid of the birthmark blighting his life.

But when plastic surgeon Neil Bulstrode, from Great Ormond Street Hospital, in London, heard about the boy’s plight, he and his team flew to capital Bogotá to operate on him.

They eventually managed to remove the mole with a series of skin grafts.


"Didier's was the worst case I had ever seen. Effectively three quarters of the circumference of his body was affected. Obviously he has had to go through a number of painful operations, but we feel it was worth it. It’s great to see the photos of how Didier is getting on now. I'm really happy with how things have healed," said Mr Bulstrode.

River dolphins may be extinct in 15 yrs

Finless porpoise is the last surviving mammal in China's Yangtze River after the extinction of the white Yangtze River dolphin.

But now, the species - commonly called river dolphin - is also facing extinction due to human impact – fishing with dynamite and electric current, draining of habitat, dredging, river traffic and pollution.

Chinese scientists believe the mammal – which has been around for twenty-five (25) million years - would be extinct in some fifteen (15) years if nothing is done to protect them.

Since January, more than twenty (20) river dolphins were found dead in China.

Post-mortems showed that most of them had starved to death and one was severely injured by a boat's propeller.

Today only around one thousand (1,000) finless porpoises live in the Yangtze River, including around eighty (80) in Dongting Lake and some in Poyang Lake.

The river dolphin has long been considered a signal of coming storms.

River dolphins need to breathe fresh air through their lungs and when the air pressure falls ahead of a major storm, they jump out of the water and fishermen know it’s time to head home.

Their appearance also marks good fishing sites.

An adult male river dolphin can grow up to two (2) metres long and weigh as much as two hundred and twenty kilogram (220kg).

The mammal is highly intelligent and is said to have an Intelligence Quotient (IQ) as high as that of a chimpanzee.

Chinese fisheries authorities have taken emergency measures to protect finless porpoises including taking measures to reduce human impact, cracking down on illegal fishing, suspending all sand gathering activities for a few months and monitoring pollution discharge.