Dinosaur Had Crocodile-Like Skull

This bizarre British dinosaur may look like a meat-eater, but its skull actually functioned more like that of a fish-eating crocodile, a new study has found.When eating, Baryonyx walkeri's skull stretched and bent in a similar fashion to the modern-day gavial, or gharial, an Indian crocodile with long, narrow jaws.

This spinosaur—part of a family of dinosaurs called "spine lizards," which lived about 125 million years ago—also had large, 12-inch-long (30-centimeter-long) front claws.The 30-foot-long (9-meter-long) animal may have used them for scooping fish from the water (see above illustration).In the latest issue of the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, researchers used an engineering technique to compare digital models of snouts of gavials and Baryonyx.

The data show that, through "quirks in evolutionary history," the two species had different-shaped skulls that achieved the same outcome—eating fish."This shows us that in some cases there is more than one evolutionary solution to the same problem," study co-author Angela Milner, of the Natural History Museum in London, said in a statement.

Where Money means Paper

Caught on camera: Moment teenager risks death by lying on track as train hurtles overhead

A teenager with a death-wish has filmed himself lying on a railway track as a speeding train drives straight over him.In a sick twist of the game "chicken", the youth places himself flat out on the sleepers before a train hones into view behind him.

He remains motionless as it hurtles over his head, leaving him just inches from death - with the whole episode videoed to show off later.
Amazingly, he escapes entirely unharmed but lies still after the train has passed to ensure another one is not on its way.

After checking behind him, he raises his arm to the camera - thought to be in his mobile phone - in triumph before standing up and nonchalantly walking off.

The video on YouTube is thought to be part of a sick twist on "chicken", in which teenagers are now seeking to outdo each other with their daredevil stunts.

Internet sites have been flooded with footage of dangerous games which see youngsters vying with each other by risking their lives.

Police have warned that people will die unless the activity stops.

And the British Transport Police has warned that anyone caught performing such a stunt on railtracks would be prosecuted.

A transport source said: "All it would take is for something to be hanging from the train and it could take a limb - or a head - clean off.

"It is surely only a matter of time before someone ends up dead."

Tata unveils Nano, the cheapest car

India's giant Tata Group has unveiled the world's cheapest car that auto analysts say could turn upside down the cost of vehicles globally.The long-awaited "People's Car", over which the company has thrown a shroud of secrecy, was slated to be unveiled in the auto show at Pragati Maidan by Ratan Tata, the 70-year-old tycoon who heads the tea-to-steel group. Tata, whom the Indian media have likened to US automobile pioneer Henry Ford, has said he hopes the ultra-cheap car will "make a contribution to making life safer" for Indian families who often travel four to a motorbike -- father driving, mother riding pillion and two children wedged in between. The car, expected to carry a sticker price as low as 2,500 dollars could "revolutionise car costs downward," said leading Indian car analyst Murad Ali Baig. It "is bound to be followed by other low-cost ones."The four-door five-seater rear-engined auto, described by those who have seen it as boasting "cute" looks, is targeted at drivers trading up to four wheels from two in India as a booming economy creates new affluence. The car on which Tata Motor engineers have cut costs to the bone has sparked a race among global automakers to come up with rock-bottom priced vehicles to appeal to this growing lucrative segment in India and other emerging markets.The lightweight car has only one windshield wiper instead of two, no power steering, no power windows and no air conditioning, according to media reports and company comments. Already Germany's Volkswagen, leading Indian motorbike maker Bajaj Auto and France's Renault and Ford among others have said they planning or mulling new cheap cars for India where small autos comprise two-thirds of annual passenger vehicle sales of one million in the country of 1.1 billion. India's biggest carmaker, Japanese-owned Maruti Suzuki, has said it may cut the price of the Maruti 800, its most popular budget model that sells for 4,800 dollars -- the cheapest car now on the country's roads. Tata, which has been on an aggressive overseas expansion drive, is also expected to win its reported two-billion-dollar bid for the British Land Rover and Jaguar brands -- which would put it in the unusual position of making two prestige cars as well as the world's lowest-cost automobile. Environmentalists see clouds on the horizon if Tata's cheap car is a winner, fearing it will further jam up India's clogged roads and add to choking pollution. "With more cars you have more emissions and that adds to global warming -- what we need is public transport," said Souparno Banerjee, an official of Delhi's Centre for Science and Environment.But Tata says the car will create no more pollution than a motorbike. "If I can get a loan from my boss, I might buy the car so my family and I could travel, I can't take my mother on my motorcycle any more -- she's too old," said courier driver Daniel Abraham.

Man builds record breaking 25ft house of cards

Bryan Berg has a surprising gravity-defying hobby. The 33-year-old American builds huge structures out of playing cards and his latest 25ft skyscraper has broken all records.The professional 'cardstacker' has created a variety of breathtaking sculptures over the years including models of cathedrals, skyscrapers and stadiums, without using anything to stick them together.Berg said the combined weight of the cards and his special grid structures helped hold his constructions in place.His latest creation, which took five weeks to build, stands at 25ft 9inches tall and was made from 1,800 decks of playing cards. It was limited only by the height of the building he was working in.While Berg's remarkable feats may take unyielding concentration and patience he insists his work is highly rewarding."I like what I do. This is no kind of torture or boredom for me," he said."In my lifetime, cardstacking has gone from a hobby to an obsession to a livelihood."Berg first started building card houses at the age of eight. He broke the Guinness World Record for the World's Tallest House of Cards in 1992 at the age of seventeen, with a tower fourteen feet, six inches tall.When asked recently if he could build a taller structure, perhaps even 100ft high, he was undaunted. "You bet!" he said.Bryan has never suffered a paper cut though he has admitted his hands can shake

Woody's Woods Pecker

Taking a break from swimming in the Pacific Ocean with pal Owen Wilson, Woody Harrelson was anything but relieved to spy a cameraman spying on him -- while he relieved himself.Luckily, he had time to shake it off.

Unrest in Kenya continues

Kenya's embattled opposition vowed another day of rallies on Friday, setting the stage for more violence. This comes amid a political deadlock between the president and his chief rival who claims the closest election in the country's history was rigged. The US and Europe pushed for reconciliation, but said a ''made-in-Kenya solution'' is needed to end the violence that has killed 300 people and displaced 100,000 since President Mwai Kibaki was declared the winner of the December 27 polls. Jendayi Frazer, the top US diplomat for Africa, had planned to leave Thursday for talks with Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said. Frazer would not serve as a mediator, but would try to encourage the leaders to talk, McCormack said. Nairobi was calm early Friday, but Salim Lone, a spokesman for opposition chief Raila Odinga, said ''we are not going to give up our right to assemble peacefully.'' ''We will not back down until there is a clear solution for the crisis caused by the stolen election,'' Lone said. Kibaki has said he is ''ready to have dialogue with concerned parties once the nation is calm and the political temperatures are lowered enough for constructive and productive engagement.'' South African Nobel peace laureate Desmond Tutu met Odinga in Nairobi Thursday, saying afterward Odinga was ready for ''the possibility of mediation.'' Kibaki's office said the president was expected to meet Tutu on Friday. Government spokesman Alfred Mutua, however, said Kenya had no need for mediators. ''We are not in a civil war,'' he said. In the Mathare slum in Nairobi, Ruth Otieno said Friday about 60 houses were burned down overnight, displacing scores of families. On Thursday, riot police fired tear gas and water cannons to beat back crowds of opposition protesters in Nairobi, where postelection violence in what had been one of Africa's most stable countries left shops, homes, cars and at least two churches in flames. The violent images _ of burning churches, machete-wielding gangs, looters making off with petrol _ are heartbreakingly common in a region that includes war-ravaged Somalia and Sudan, but not in Kenya. The dispute over the Dec. 27 vote has degenerated into violence pitting Kibaki's influential Kikuyus against Odinga's Luos and other tribes. The upheaval has spread to the coast to the western highlands. Hundreds of young men marched Thursday in the coastal resort of Mombasa but were quickly driven back by security forces. Police shot one protester in the head and he was taken to a hospital, said witness Moses Baya. ''War is happening here,'' said 45-year-old Edwin Mukathia, who was among thousands of people who poured out of Nairobi's slums Thursday to heed Odinga's call for a million man march in the city's Uhuru Park. Mukathia and the others were kept at bay by riot police, who choked off the roads and fired live bullets over their heads. Opposition leaders canceled the march but said they would hold it on Friday, setting the stage for yet another day of upheaval. Kenya's electoral commission said Kibaki had won the December 27 vote, but Odinga alleged the vote was rigged and international observations say it was flawed. On Thursday, Attorney General Amos Wako called for an independent probe of the counting. Wako did not elaborate or say whether an independent body would include foreign observers, and it was unclear whether he had Kibaki's backing or had made the statement independently. Wako, who was appointed to his lifetime post by former President Daniel arap Moi, has been seen as close to Kibaki. The decision to launch an independent election probe was a surprise and could reflect the seriousness of the rigging allegations. But the government has a long history of appointing independent commissions to investigate wrongdoing, only to have them take years and end with reports that are never released and have no practical effects. Mutua said he had ''no problem'' with Wako's call. But Odinga's spokesman, Salim Lone, rejected it, saying his party had ''no faith in any government institution.'' Also Thursday, Odinga toured Nairobi's City Mortuary, which was full of piles of bodies of babies, children, young men and women. Some were burned, while others had head wounds. Many did not have visible wounds. It was unclear when they had died, but opposition officials said some were killed on Thursday.

Cristiano Ronaldo's mum has breast cancer

Delores Aveiro has lump removed Cristiano Ronaldo's mum is battling breast cancer and is recovering from a life-saving operation.Dolores Aveiro had radiotherapy after surgery to remove a lump from her breast and broke the news to the Man United star before Christmas.The soccer star would like to be by the 53-year-old's side at home in Madeira but must stay in England to continue playing in the premiership league.'This has hit Cristiano really hard,' a pal reveals. 'He had his fair share of heartache and his mum means the world to him.'But the 22-year-old is determined to look after his mother and calls her every day to keep her spirits up.'I try to give my mum lots of love and affection,' Cristiano tells the Sunday Mirror.'I'm just sorry I can't be with her for her birthday.'

The half ton mum: Tragic story of world's heaviest woman

Renee Williams became the largest person ever to have gastric bypass surgery earlier this year after ballooning to nearly seventy stone – but died 12 days later.The bedridden 29-year-old begged doctors to perform the operation when she became so large that she couldn't hug her two children.Her astonishing size meant that the operating table had to be specially widened for the procedure. The operation was successful and Renee lost four stone due to her reduced stomach capacity before dying of a sudden heart attack less than two weeks later. Her story is told in a Channel 4 programme next week.Renee, from Austin, Texas, had battled with her weight since childhood and was classified as super-morbidly obese at the age of 12.She was married by the age of 15 and had her first child, Mirina, at 16 weighing 30 stone.Renee had grown to a massive 35 stone by the time she had her second daughter Mariah.
"When you don't have that thing in your head that tells you you're full, it's disgusting the amount of food you can eat," She said.In 2003, she was hit by a drunken driver in an accident that left her unable to walk because her leg was crushed.She became bedridden and began eating even more."She wouldn't stop eating until her stomach started to hurt," says 13-year-old Mirina."She would get about eight burgers and eat them all. I kept telling her she was eating her emotions. I think she was sick and tired of being in that bed."Renee piled on more and more weight and by 2007 she was nearing 70 stone - six times the size of a healthy woman in her age group.She begged doctors to perform gastric bypass surgery on her and was turned down by 12 who insisted that the operation was too dangerous for a woman of her size."I understand the risks but I am not going to make it if I don't have the surgery," Renee said at the time."I want to be able to care for my daughters and see them graduate high school."Gastric bypass surgery makes the stomach smaller and allows food to bypass part of the small intestine. Patients feel full sooner, consume fewer calories and lose weight.Houston's Renaissance hospital finally agreed to perform the surgery after Renee's condition deteriorated and she was given just a year to live by doctors.The operation on February 20th took five hours as surgeons had to cut through masses of fat to secure the band."I feel like I've been run over by a truck," she said afterwards.Renee began to lose weight immediately but suffered a sudden heart attack on March 4th which took her life."I wanted to sit down in a corner and die." Says a distraught Mirina."Mom was my best friend and now she has gone it hurts."'