Labrador Alfie was over three times the healthy weight for Labradors and was struggling with things like walking when he was checked into RSPCA’s Leybourne Animal Center in England, according to news reports. Alfie weighed 80 kg when RSPCA, a leading U.K. animal welfare charity, took him in. Four people with slings were needed to lift the 12-year-old pup when he arrived at the animal center. He was admitted because his elderly owner kept forgetting that he had already fed his pet. Christine Dool

Sept. 5, 2012

A Florida casino was forced to close two floors of gambling areas when a second-floor fish tank burst and leaked 13,000 gallons of water into the facility.Tim Ritvo, president and general manager of the Gulfstream Racing and Casino Park, said two floors of gambling facilities at the Hallandale Beach casino will be closed for at least a few days while crews work to clean up from Sunday‘s saltwater tropical fish tank spill, the South Florida Sun Sentinel reported Monday.Ritvo said a hazmat team vi

Sept. 4, 2012

STOCKHOLM (AFP) - Swedish social media entrepreneur Erik Wachtmeister on Monday announced the launch of a new social networking site targeting the “top one percent” of Internet users, called Best of All Worlds.The site, which helps users find events and contacts, counted 20,000 members even before its launch.Wachtmeister, 57, created one of the world‘s first social networking sites, aSmallWorld, in 2004, the same year as Facebook. He left the company in 2008.Best of All Worlds is targeting the s

Aug. 29, 2012

BEIJING (AFP) - Giving up his successful career as the head of a medical research firm to spend his days at home reading from children‘s story books was a tough choice for Chinese father Zhang Qiaofeng.But Zhang, one of a small but growing number of Chinese parents who are turning their backs on the country’s rigidly exam-oriented state-run school system, felt he had no choice.“China‘s education system has special problems,” said Zhang, a wiry-looking graduate of one of the country’s top univers

Aug. 29, 2012

PARIS (AFP) ― U.N. cultural body UNESCO on Tuesday called on Libya to immediately cease the destruction of Sufi holy sites after Islamist hardliners wrecked shrines across the country.UNESCO Director General Irina Bokova expressed “grave concern” at the destruction of Sufi sites in Zliten, Misrata and Tripoli and urged perpetrators to “cease the destruction immediately.”“I am deeply concerned about these brutal attacks on places of cultural and religious significance. Such acts must be halted, i

Aug. 29, 2012

South Korea’s largest Buddhist sect has set up new rules that would suspend duty of high-ranking monks if they broke any laws, the sect said Wednesday after illegal gambling by its monks sparked a scandal in religious circles.The Jogye Order said the new rules aim to prevent illegalities by individual monks from tainting the image of the sect. The sect formerly had no rules to bar senior monks from carrying out their roles in the leadership unless they voluntarily resigned, even after they were

Aug. 29, 2012

LONDON (AFP) ― Revellers filled the streets of west London as the Notting Hill Carnival, Europe’s biggest street festival, reached its climax on Monday with its famous Caribbean-inspired parade.A multi-ethnic throng milled between the stalls and thumping sound systems, drinking, dancing, and tasting jerk chicken as the smells of open-cooked food wafted through the air.Cloudy weather did not deter hordes of party-goers from flooding the streets to cheer on dozens of floats and flamboyantly dresse

Aug. 28, 2012

MADRID (AFP) ― An elderly woman’s catastrophic attempt to “restore” a century-old oil painting of Christ in a Spanish church has provoked popular uproar, and amusement.The well-intentioned but ham-fisted amateur artist, in her 80s, took it upon herself to fill in the patches and paint over the original work, which depicted Christ crowned with thorns, his sorrowful gaze lifted to heaven.Her work done, the “restored” figure looks somewhat like a monkey with fur surrounding a pale face and a child-

Aug. 23, 2012

ROME (AP) ― Part of an early 19th-century wall near a panoramic terrace overlooking an ancient square in Rome has collapsed.No one was injured when about 9 meters of the Pincio wall fell over above Piazza del Popolo before dawn on Wednesday. Rome Mayor Gianni Alemanno inspected the damage and promised the wall would be repaired in two weeks. City culture officials blamed a winter of heavy rains and rare snowfall, followed by this summer’s hot, dry weather for causing an outer layer of brickwork

Aug. 23, 2012

World heritage experts and activists from non-governmental organizations in the Asia-Pacific region will gather in Seoul next week to discuss how to better preserve the region‘s world heritage, the South Korean government said Thursday.The forum, the first of its kind, will be held from Aug. 27 to 30, the Cultural Heritage Administration said.About 40 world heritage administrators, experts and executives of youth organizations for the preservation of world heritage will take part in the event, t

Aug. 23, 2012

Adherents of a religious sect in western Mexico are physically blocking school teachers from entering their walled community, setting up one of the most high-profile confrontations between religious and civil authorities in Mexico since the 1930s.  Local officials in the western state of Michoacan said Wednesday it may be time to call in a large-scale police operation to enforce the right to schoo

Aug. 23, 2012