The bling beetle: Woman entering U.S. was wearing LIVE gem-encrusted insect as brooch

U.S. customs officers stopped a woman on her way into the country because she was wearing a jewel-encrusted beetle as a brooch - and it was alive.

The woman was entering America from Mexico when she was stopped at a border outpost in Brownsville, Texas.

The live insect - which is studded with gemstones and gold - was fastened to her sweater by a gold chain and safety pin but was able to wander on her jumper.

She declared the live insect to officials and said she had bought it in Mexico as a brooch but it was immediately confiscated by pest control.
Officials refused to allow her to keep the live jewellery because she did not have the correct documents.

Because the woman had declared the insect correctly, she was not handed any fine or penalty.

The beetle was sent to the Plant Inspection Station at Los Indios International Bridge for further identification.
Moving live plant pests in any form into or out of the U.S. has to be declared to customs.

Beetles are a popular subject for jewellery, going back for centuries. It is thought to be relatively common in Mexico for live ones to be decorated in this way.

Jackie Kennedy was rumoured to have been given a living brooch when she was America's first lady.

Schoolgirl looter Fabienne Geismar, 15, killed by a single bullet to the head for stealing a few photographs

She lies limp on the ground, killed by a single shot to the head.

Crushed beneath her bloodied face, are the garish paintings which she paid for with her life.

But Fabienne Geismar was not one of 4,500 prisoners to escape after the Haiti earthquake broke Port-au-Prince prison apart.
Fabienne had survived the quake which devastated the family home but died in its aftermath, laying face down in her own blood beside the rubble and the pictures she was said to have been stealing.

In recent days the city has become so used to the sight of dead bodies that she hardly drew a glance as she lay crumpled, clad in a pink and grey top and pink skirt, he flimsy shoes still resting on her feet.
Her father Osam, sister Samantha and brother Jeff had watched helpless as she was cut down by a bullet in the ruins of Marthely Seeiee Street.

Later they returned with a cart to collect her body. Her mother Armante stood wailing, barely able to stand as she was supported by relatives.
As a small crowd watched, her 52-year-old father lifted Fabienne from the ground and then laid her on a cart before breaking down in tears.

It is unclear whether police deliberately aimed at looters, who had targeted properties destroyed in the earthquake, or had been firing warning shots over their heads.

Fears of widespread violence and looting have eased in Haiti as U.S. troops provided security for water and food aid deliveries, and thousands of displaced Haitians heeded the government's advice to seek shelter outside Port-au-Prince

While military escorts still are needed to deliver relief supplies, the United Nations said security problems were mainly in areas considered "high risk" before the quake.

"The overall security situation in Port-au-Prince remains stable, with limited, localized violence and looting occurring," the U.N. Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said.

Open Brain Coral on the Ocean Floor

Images of gore that would make an axe murderer proud are not the sort of stuff you would expect to find on the ocean floor, but with open brain corals that’s exactly what you get. Less gruesomely known as crater corals or pacific rose corals, open brain corals are a favourite with aquarium owners but might also prove popular with slasher movie fanatics or proponents of bad brain surgery, if only they knew. Take a gander and see what you think.

Definitely something on the brain: Red Wellsophyllia open brain coral

Tough, colourful and captivating, open or folded brain corals are stony specimens characterised by two or three growths of expanding fleshy tissue known as polyps projecting from their base. The way their skeletons form miniature valleys with separate, pinched walls is what makes them appear so delightfully brain-like to human perception.

Purple patch: Wellsophyllia open brain coral

Tags: slasher movie, tissue, skeletons, Human being, aquarium, corals, ocean, open brain coral, sea, tentacles