Good fish! The amazing moment a man pats a Great White Shark as it breaches next to his boat

It's a little to close to the jaws of death for our comfort.

This is the amazing moment a man pats a monstrous Great White Shark off the coast of Australia after attracting it with chunks of bait.

The image was originally taken to demonstrate the powers of the Shark Shield, an electronic device designed to keep sharks away from surfers.

But after one Great White bit right through such a device, and in a separate incident a student died in a horrifying shark attack, scientists began to wonder if the devices do not repel sharks so much as they attract them.

Jarrod Stehbens, 23, was on a University diving trip when he was taken by a shark at Glenelg in Adelaide, Australia in August 2005.

At the inquest into his death, staff from Adelaide University questioned whether shark shields should be used at all.

The university was worried that the devices attracted sharks before deterring them, and posed a health risk, especially to pregnant women or anyone with heart problems.

Other stories of sharks biting through the devices have been documented.

The Shark Shield's website claims the device utilises a technologically advanced three dimensional electronic wave form to repel sharks by inducing spasms in their snouts.

The electronic waves work from about eight metres away. The closer the shark gets, the site claims, the more intolerable the spasms become.

It says the product is tried and tested and does not attract sharks but repels them.

Half-ton man's disastrous date

man who once weighed half a ton has been out on a date - but it was not quite as romantic as he hoped when the forklift truck carrying him hit an overpass.

Uribe made all the necessary arrangements - a forklift to carry him out of the house and a flatbed tow truck big enough to haul the formerly half-ton man and his bed to a party.

But even the open road wasn't big enough to handle Uribe's dream of celebrating a budding romance and his success in losing about 200kgs (440lbs).
Uribe was halfway to a picnic near his Monterrey-area home on Sunday when one of the posts holding a sun-shielding tarp over his bed hit an overpass.

Uribe's blood pressure dropped so much his doctors advised him not to go on and the celebration - being documented by about two dozen photographers and reporters from around the world - was cancelled.

"We were going to celebrate that I've been losing weight for two years and that it was my girlfriend's birthday," Uribe said in a telephone interview.

"The saddest part was that I couldn't fulfill my dream of taking my girlfriend out to eat."

Uribe says that after losing weight on a high-protein diet he started two years ago, he's down to about 360kgs (800lbs).

Last year, Uribe left his house for the first time in five years. Six people pushed his iron bed on wheels out to the street as a mariachi band played and a crowd gathered to see the man who once weighed 560kgs (1,235lbs).

At the time, the 42-year-old mechanic rode through the streets of his native San Nicolas de los Garza to enjoy the sun and wave to neighbors.

Uribe weighed more than 115kgs (250lbs) as an adolescent, and he just kept growing.

Since the summer of 2002, Uribe has been bedridden, relying on his mother and friends to feed and clean him. He drew worldwide attention when he pleaded for help on national television in January 2006.

Uribe says despite the setback, he still hopes to go out with his girlfriend on June 11, when he will turn 43.

"We'll just have to plan it better," he said.

Caught on camera: The rare pygmy hippos surviving civil war in Liberia

These photographs show how rare pygmy hippos are surviving in Liberia's forests despite two civil wars that threatened to destroy their habitat, British scientists said today.

One of the most secretive large mammals on Earth, the pygmy hippo is rarely seen in the wild but was caught on camera in the west African country's only national park, Sapo, by a team led by the Zoological Society of London (ZSL).

The hippo, which looks like a smaller version of the common hippopotamus, had been identified by ZSL's Evolutionarily Distinct and Globally Endangered (Edge) programme as being in need of urgent conservation, prompting the trip to Liberia.

There are thought to be less than 3,000 of the mammals remaining in the wild in Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast, Guinea and Liberia and there are serious concerns about its survival due to habitat destruction and poaching.

But "camera traps" set up by ZSL, Flora and Fauna International (FFI) and Liberia's Forest Development Agency in a monitoring expedition funded by the People's Trust for Endangered Species captured the elusive pygmy hippo on film within three days.

The cameras will remain in place as part of a monitoring programme to produce an accurate population estimate and a conservation plan, the researchers said.

Ben Collen, ZSL research fellow said the team had headed to Liberia, which had suffered two civil wars in the last two decades, to search for the "extraordinary, mysterious creature".

"We were delighted to discover that a population still persists there, but remain highly concerned for the species, which continues to face significant threats from poaching and habitat degradation," he said.

FFI senior projects manager Africa Stephen van der Mark said: "Liberia's Upper Guinean forest ecosystem, where the pygmy hippo was photographed, is a major global conservation priority.

"Though unsustainable forestry and mining operations were especially devastating during the civil wars, they still pose a significant threat today.

"Only 10 per cent of the original Upper Guinean forest is left, of which Liberia contains about 40 per cent.

"This new sighting gives us hope that, with a concerted effort, we can still protect the area's remaining biodiversity including the charismatic pygmy hippo," he said.

Liberia's Forestry Development Authority's managing director John T Woods said he had been "pessimistic" about the existence of the pygmy hippo at Sapo, but the photos confirmed the richness of biodiversity in the Liberian forest.

Amazing picture of the moment a British teacher was attacked by a 400lb lion

This was the horrific moment a British teacher was savaged by a lion - coming within inches of death.

The big cat pounced on Kate Drew from behind and dragged her to the ground, sinking its teeth into the back of her neck.

As wardens on a Zimbabwe game reserve rushed to help, the 400lb lion kept the 28-year-old tourist firmly in its grip - but, mercifully, its jaws just missed her brain stem.

Seconds later, she was rescued, dripping with blood. The bite wounds left her needing 13 stitches.

Recalling the attack just over a month ago, Miss Drew, from Hornchurch, Essex, said she assumed she was a "goner" after the lion pounced.

As it held her down, she was even more terrified to glance up and see two more lions coming her way.

She was saved only when the wardens rushed in with sticks and wrestled the animal away.

It is thought the lion intended only to "play" with her after being attracted by her mane-like long blonde hair.

The closeness of her brush with death sank in only after Miss Drew saw these photographs of the attack, taken by a fellow traveller.

"It brings back just what a crazy experience it was," she said.

"It's quite shocking to see a picture of it."

The primary school headmistress had been working as a volunteer teacher in Tanzania since last September and was spending a few weeks travelling across Africa on a bus with other backpackers.

As part of the trip, they visited a project where lions are bred to be released back into the wild.

Tourists can pay £24 to walk with several of the big cats, which are considered tame enough to be allowed contact with humans.

Miss Drew, who is now helping at an orphanage in Peru, said: "I was a bit apprehensive, but we were just leaving and everything seemed to have gone well - until this one lion jumped at me from behind.

"I was scared enough when he pinned me to the ground, but when I looked up and saw the other two, I really thought I'd had it. I thought, 'Oh my God, I'm a goner'."

Man Creates Vigilante Robot to Battle Drug Dealers

Atlanta bar owner Rufus Terrill has built an armor plated remote control robot to video tape and chase away drug dealers and other unsavory characters who are causing problems in the neighborhood.Late at night several times a week, Terrill powers up the 4-foot-tall, 300 pound device and reaches for a remote control packed with two joysticks and various knobs and switches. Standing on a nearby corner, he maneuvers the machine down the block, often to a daycare center where it accosts what Terrill says are drug dealers, vagrants and others who shouldn’t be there.He flashes the robot’s spotlight and grabs a walkie-talkie, which he uses to boom his disembodied voice over the robot’s sound system.

“I tell them they are trespassing, it’s private property, and they have to leave,” he said. “They throw bottles and cans at it. That’s when I shoot the water cannon. They just scatter like roaches.”

Salad days for coleslaw wrestlers

Shaunah Gordon is covered in coleslaw after being pinned by coleslaw wrestling champion Angela Kosobud, during the double elimination event at a coleslaw wrestling contest.
The event saw women wrestling in a mixture of chopped up cabbage and oil, for a chance to win $500. As you do.

The coleslaw wrestling took place at Sopotnick's Cabbage Patch in Samsula, Florida on Wednesday. Somehow, you just knew this was going to be in Florida, didn't you?

Children saved from global sex ring

Eight British children have been rescued from sexual predators belonging to a global paedophile ring.

The youngsters, aged between six and 14, were identified from thousands of images seized in an international police operation.

Police safeguarded the victims after they were traced to addresses in the UK, the Child Exploitation and Online Protection (Ceop) Centre said.

News of the victims came to light after a two-year investigation led by the FBI and Queensland Police in Australia concluded last week. Investigators successfully infiltrated the online newsgroup, which also had members in the United States, Australia, Canada and Germany.

A total of 22 people were arrested last week, including two men in the UK, by officers in the final act of dismantling the paedophile ring. Six further British men have already been jailed for their roles in trading and receiving pictures and videos on the network.

Paul Griffiths, who heads the victim identification team at Ceop, said the children were subjected to horrendous abuse.

He said: "In every image there is a child. These images are crime scene photos where children are being subjected to sexual abuse. This is not 'child pornography'.

"It's important to remember, too, that these children were not missing. They were located in the place where they were supposed to be safe - their own home - where their abuse was recorded and made available over the internet to satisfy sickening sexual desires of a deviant group of individuals."

As a result of the two-year operation, 400,000 images of child abuse were seized and some were passed to individual countries for investigation.

Officers in the UK used facial recognition software and painstaking detective work to identify victims from clues in each image.

Attack of the 122ft snow woman

The world's largest snowwoman has been constructed in Bethel, Maine, beating their own record for building giant snow beings.

The snowwoman - named Olympia, in honour of Maine's senior Senator, Olympia Snowe - stands an impressive 122ft 1in tall.

Bethel's previous record-breaking snowperson was the 114ft tall Angus, King of the Mountain. That snowman, built in 1999, was named after Maine's then Governor, Angus King.

What they'll do when Maine doesn't have any local politicians whose names lend themselves to snowpeople is anybody's guess.

Goat people offer goat for goat marrying man

We all remember the giddily romantic tale from two years ago of Mr Charles Tombe, the Sudanese man who was forced by village elders to marry a goat after they caught him drunkenly having sex with it.

Attentive followers of internet tales of goat-love will also recall that, tragically, the goat died in May 2007, leaving Mr Tombe as Sudan's - nay, the world's - most famous goat-widower.

Luckily for Mr Tombe, a firm is now trying to brighten up the goat side of his life once more, as they're trying to track him down and give him a replacement goat.

The goat matchmaking service is being carried out by www.buzzmygoat.com, which is a new comedy mobile messaging service. Selflessly, they're offering up one of their corporate mascots as Mr Tombe's new bride.

The goat in question is named Daisy (a devestatingly original name for a goat) and is a British Toggenburg (which is a type of goat).

British Toggenburgs have 'excellent longevity', according to the British Toggenburg Society's website, so if the matchmaking is successful, Mr Tombe should have many years of goat bliss ahead of him.

Of course, the main problem with the plan is finding Mr Tombe, who perhaps understandably has not exactly been revelling in his goat-fame.

To those ends, the comedy-on-your-mobile people have been round to the Sudanese embassy to see if they can help. If you'd like to see how they got on, you can watch the video here.

Of course, we eagerly await the day you can download an actual goat bride via your mobile phone. Then, and only then, will technology have finally fulfilled its potential. It'd be well weapon.

Welshman decorates his house with nine thousand daffodils to mark St David's Day

A patriotic Welshman has covered his house with nine thousand daffodils for St David's Day.

John Jenkins turned his terraced house into a sea of yellow by pinning the plastic daffodils to netting on the front of his home - in honour of patron saint St David.

It took him a week to fix the nine thousand daffodils to his terraced house in Abergavenny, South Wales.
Jenkins said: "It puts a smile on the face of everyone passing by.

"I'm a patriotic Welshman and I couldn't think of anything better for marking our national day than turning my house into a field of daffs.

"Everyone feel a bit brighter when they see my house bursting out in yellow. It's amazing how it lightens people's mood and gets them smiling."
He said: "It's been cold and my hands were like blocks of ice - but the daffs show that spring is just around the corner.

"You know when you see a daffodil that winter is over - it must be the most cheerful flower in the world."

Jenkins is also hoping to raising hundreds of pounds for the Marie Curie Cancer charity with a pipe outside his house leading to a bucket so people can donate money.

The 75-year old bodybuilder who has the same amazing physique as he did at 21

Taken 54 years apart, there is little difference between these two photographs of super-fit grandfather Max Moore - apart from the grey hair and extra wrinkles.

When the 75-year-old retired ten years ago, the former award-winning bodybuilder was determined to restore his body to its physical peak.

Hours of training in the gym have turned back the clock and given Max back the muscles that won him more than a few admirers.

The pensioner, from Swindon, Wiltshire, was a physical training instructor in the RAF, putting military hopefuls through gruelling sessions in the gym.

In 1952, he was crowned Mr South-West Britain bodybuilding champion and the following year saw him come third in the Mr Britain championship.

Max, who has four children and five grandchildren, said: "I went into the RAF to do my national service in 1952 but the job of an airman wasn't for me so I asked what other roles were available.

"I trained as an instructor and it was basically my job to keep in good shape and put the recruits through their paces.

"My six-month training course was the hardest and most gruelling of my life but I had to be fit to train the troops day in, day out.

"The competitions were just a bit of fun for me but I won the regional one in 1952 and came close to winning the national one the next year."

But when, after four years, Max left the RAF, his training regime stumbled and it would be half a century before he regained the body that won over his teenage sweetheart and future wife Thelma, now 71.

Max recalls it was a trip to the swimming baths with his RAF recruits in 1952 where he first met Thelma and impressed her with his body.

He said: "I remember meeting Thelma as if it was yesterday.

"I had taken a group of recruits to the swimming baths and one of them bet me half a crown that I wouldn't have the nerve to go and talk to her.

"I walked right over to her and whipped off my top to show her my pecs. Thelma was suitably impressed and we married in 1956."

After leaving the RAF, Max worked as a salesman selling to the construction industry as well as being director of a building merchants company.

With a full-time job and a wife and four children to support, spare time for training fell by the wayside.

It wasn't until he retired in 1997 that Max had the time to get back in the gym and get back the body he craved.

He said: "I had always wanted to get back into training but never seemed to have the time.

"When I was in the RAF, it was my job to exercise but my jobs after that weren't very physical at all.

"The trigger for me to get back in the gym came in the 1990s when I saw the actor John Mills on Parkinson.

"He was in his 80s then but Michael Parkinson said that he looked 20 years younger.

"It made me think that if he could do it, so could I."

So after his retirement, aged 65, Max signed up to the JJB gym in Swindon and set about resurrecting his award-winning body of old.

Max visits the gym three times a week lifting weights and using the rowing machine.

He said: "My biggest shock when I stepped back into the gym was that all the weights had gone metric.

"Back in the 1950s, they were all in pounds so the kilograms took a bit of working out.

"I do a lot of rowing and can row 2,000m in ten minutes.

"Matthew Pinsent can do that in six-and-a-half minutes but he is 40 years my junior and a professional athlete so he has a bit of an edge on me.

"I get a lot of comments from people down the gym saying they can't believe I am 75 and in such good shape.

"It took many months to get back my body but I am now 12 stone, the same as I weighed when I was in the RAF.

"I don't think my body is any different now to what it was except I have shrunk a bit.

"I was never very tall, but I used to be 5ft 7in and I'm now only 5ft 6in.

"I think Thelma is pleased as well - I like to think it reminds her of the man she fell for all those years ago."

Max cites other fit pensioners such as Clint Eastwood and Bruce Forsyth as his inspiration to stay in shape but says the secret of his success is that he hasn't abused his body.

He added: "I never smoked and I never drank and have always had a good diet.

"They say you reap what you sow so I suppose by not abusing my body over the years, I am getting the benefit in old age.

"I have muesli for breakfast and try to eat two portions of fruit every day.

"Fish is good for you so I usually eat that three times a week too.

"I think a lot of people think once you get to my age, there is not much point of challenging yourself to do something.

"But I'm living proof of what you can do, even if you are 75."

Wild monster python eats pet dog as parents fear their children will be next victims

A couple in tropical Australia today feared their children were in danger after a giant, wild, five-metre python swallowed their family dog in front of them.

And just weeks ago other snakes killed their cat and pet guinea pig.

Shocked Daniel Peric said he is now terrified of leaving his two children, aged five and seven, alone in any part of the house, after the "enormous" python ate his silky terrier-cross chihuahua on Monday night.

"Actually watching it unfold before your eyes was pretty gut wrenching," he said. "We'd had the dog about five years, so it was part of the family."

The huge snake had already devoured the pet dog before they realised what had happened: "All we could see was his back legs sticking out. There was nothing we could do to save the dog."

Mr Peric said in the weeks before, the family had found their cat's body, which looked like something had attempted to swallow it and on Sunday a smaller python had eaten their pet guinea pig.

"When it happens once, you think it's a one-off, but last night I thought 'this is serious,'" he said.

"We have ducted air-conditioning. Call it paranoia, but my big fear is that a snake will get in there and come into the house and attack the kids while they're sleeping."

Australian Venom Zoo owner Stuart Douglas took the call from the distressed Peric family on Monday night and arrived at their home in the town of Kuranda near Cairns in far north Queensland to remove the scrub python within 20 minutes.

"They were very upset but they still had the decency to call us to come and get it," Mr Douglas said.

"It was at the bottom of the veranda. They'd thrown chairs at the python to try to stop it, but it had already eaten the animal."
Mr Douglas said by the time he arrived, all that could be seen of the dog was its back legs and tail.

"It only took about 30 minutes to eat the dog, but it will be digesting it for two days," he said.

Mr Douglas said pythons were amazing animals that belonged in far north Queensland but people needed to be aware that pets were potential prey.

"These pythons used to feed on wallabies but now they feed on cats and dogs in suburbia," he said. "This python actively stalked their dog."

He said if anyone saw a large snake near their home they should call someone to remove it as soon as possible."

Mr Douglas said he would wait until the python had fully digested its prey before releasing it.

Shiver me timbers... meet the parrot that needs a wooden leg

Somebody forgot to tell George that it's the pirates who are supposed to have a peg-leg, not their pet parrots.

Today, he will be fitted for a prosthetic claw to replace the one he lost in a fight with a wild animal which got into his aviary 18 months ago.

Hopefully, the procedure will mean the ten-year-old African Grey will be able to get a decent night's sleep once more.

Currently, whenever George dozes off, he loses his balance and falls off his perch, squawking "Bloody Hell!" in surprise.

The hullabaloo has also been keeping owner Sheila Weare awake at nights at her farmhouse in Crewe.

Concerned for George's wellbeing, Mrs Weare sought advice and was referred to Dr Glyn Heath.

Through Salford University, Dr Heath runs Lacerta, an animal prosthetics company, and has agreed to treat George, in what he called a "completely unique" operation in Britain.

The prosthetic claw will be attached to the perch, rather than George himself, but he will be trained to slot his injured leg in it for balance.

Glyn said: "While I've worked on dogs, rats and even a panda, George is my first bird. He's quite a challenge."

Model strips naked in Selfridges' window causing rush hour chaos

It's certainly one way to liven up the rush hour.

People on their way to work got an eyeful today when a woman stripped naked in the window of Selfridges - but it was all in the name of art.

The model posed nude for an artist to paint her to promote Strip, a fragrance by lingerie label Agent Provocateur.

Passers-by gaped, fumbling for their camera phones, while buses slowed down and passengers swarmed to the windows.

But once the artist, who calls himself Jacques le Trompet, finished the painting, the model, Jen, covered up and the curtain was drawn.

Sadly for those with a sudden urge to rush down to Selfridges this afternoon she has now been replaced by a clothed mannequin.

It is the latest and most daring window display by the label. A spokeswoman said: "It's part of the tradition for Agent Provocateur. In 2005 we had a live striptease in the window of our Soho branch. The street was rammed."

Transparent fish causing ripples in the marine world with its alien-like smiling face

This baby ray born into captivity in the UK is making waves for its ghostly other-world smile.

The semi-transparent fish left visitors to a popular aquarium reeling after it gave them an alien-like grimace.

And now the month old thornback ray is proving something of a hit with Doctor Who fans - because it looks just like one of the baddies from the hit show.

With its smiling face, it is a spitting image of the time lord's enemy 'The Last Human' played by Zoe Wanamaker in the BBC show, fans say.

The young fish is just 12 centimetres long and is one of a dozen hatched from eggs known as 'mermaid's purses.' They were all born as part of a captive breeding programme at the Blue Reef Aquarium at Southsea, Hants.

The baby rays are currently being looked after in a special nursery tank, but once large enough they will join adult thornbacks and a variety of sharks, in a huge, open-top pool.
A Blue Reef spokesman said the babies were proving very popular with visitors.

He said: "Their faces are very distinctive, especially the apparent smile.

"Some people have likened them to an alien or even the 'The Last Human' featured in Doctor Who.

"UK waters are home to up to nine different species including the electric ray and the giant skate which can reach lengths of up to three metres.

"Thornbacks are the most common ray in British waters and can grow up to 1.2 metres in length.

"They are called thornbacks because their upper body is covered with coarse prickles."

'The Last Human' featured in two episodes of Doctor Who, starring opposite both Christopher Eccleston and current time lord David Tennant.

Amazing marine wilderness where the spiders as big as dinner plates live alongside massive, creepy crabs

More than a mile below the icy surface of Antarctic waters scientists have discovered an amazing world of giant sea creatures, including spiders as large as dinner plates and jellyfish with tentacles that stretch more than half the length of a London bus.

They live in a dark and mysterious wilderness of thick sea grasses and coral gardens that are teeming with creatures never seen before – huge worms, giant prawns and massive, creepy crabs.

Many of the marine animals hauled to the surface and landed on the decks of the research ship Aurora Australis have never been seen before and will now be sent to universities and museums around the world so their relationship to other known creatures can be assessed.

Tissue sampling and DNA will be used in the tests, but voyage leader Martin Riddle said when he arrived back in Hobart, Tasmania, yesterday that he believed much of his catch would be totally new species.

"With us we had some of the world's experts on Antarctic fish and they were completely, completely flabbergasted at the sight of some of the fish that came on board – they were unable to name them," said Dr Riddle after the census of the South Pole's marine life.

"The fish had fins in various places. They had funny, dangly bits around their mouths.

"Many of them had very large eyes, although what they are going to use them for where this is no light I couldn't tell you. But they are very strange-looking fish."

In some places, he said "every inch of the sea floor is covered in life".

Giantism, he said, was "very common in Antarctic waters", where his team had even found deep gouges in the sea floor, caused by icebergs scraping the coral" as they floated by.

"Some of the video footage we have collected is really stunning – it's amazing to be able to navigate undersea mountains and valleys and actually see what the animals look like in their undisturbed state."

The scientific team used three ships to trawl for life in 30,000 square miles off the east of the Antarctic continent.

Dr Riddle said he and his team made the voyage "with certain expectations" but they were totally exceeded.

"What we found just blew me away and made me realise just how really important it is to document all this before the changes that we're seeing take effect, ocean acidification among them."

This toxic destruction, he said, was brought about by global warming which came from increasing carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere.

"This is a real threat to some of these marine creatures."

An Australian scientist who was travelling on an accompanying Japanese research ship, Dr Graham Hosie, said his team had discovered totally new species of plankton and jellyfish.

Although the jellyfish looked much like the species found around most coastlines of the world, the Antarctic variety had tentacles that stretched up to 18ft.

His team had also found glass-like creatures called tunicates, unidentifiable fish, starfish and sea urchins.

The scientists estimate that at least a quarter of the sea life – weighing up to 65lbs - they have brought to the surface has been previously unknown.

They believe the census, known as the Collaborative East Antarctic Marine Census – made up of researchers from France, Japan and Australia – will help scientists understand how marine communities have adapted to the unique, unspoiled Antarctic environment.

Marine scientists have already suspected that huge creatures live in the very deep waters of the Southern Ocean which reaches Antarctica.

Giant squid have been caught by New Zealand fishermen, but these are usually sick creatures which have risen up from the sea bed.

Tournament of blood: The sheer horror of horse-fighting

The crowd roars its approval as the chestnut stallion sinks his teeth into the throat of his opponent.

The terrified victim rears up on his hind legs and veers away in a desperate bid to escape, but it is no use.

Blood is pouring into his eyes and he can no longer see. His right ear is torn and bloody.

The bigger horse moves in for the coup de grace, repeatedly kicking the weaker animal in the head with his front hooves.

His opponent soon collapses and lies panting on the ground, an all too typical end to one of the most horrific spectator 'sports' ever devised - horse-fighting tournaments.

But that hasn't stopped them becoming hugely popular in the Philippines, where these appalling pictures were taken.

The images are deeply disturbing, but the Mail believes they must be seen.

"These tournaments are truly barbaric," says Andrew Plumbly of the welfare group Network for Animals, which has been campaigning to bring an end to the savage contests.

"Our vets have seen horses being kicked in the head so hard that their eyes have popped out of their sockets. Other horses have had their ears ripped off. It's straight out of the Middle Ages."

Horse-fighting occurs almost exclusively in Mindanao in the southern Philippines, and in parts of China.

The horrific tournament captured in our photographs happened in the town of Don Carlos and involved 54 horses, many of which had gruesome injuries.

Thousands of people turned out to watch the bloodbath, including hundreds of children. Many of the adults were drunk and spent their time gambling and jeering at the battling animals.

Though horses do not normally fight one another, these stallions had been whipped into a fighting frenzy by the presence of a young mare who was "in season" and had been staked to the ground in the middle of the muddy arena.

Overwhelmed by desire, the stallions attacked each other in a bid to defeat their sexual rivals.

Many were soon covered in gashes and bites. Others limped around the arena with a glazed look in their eyes as they pathetically tried to escape.

The tournament was equally traumatic for the mare used as "bait" for the stallions.

Not only was she repeatedly hit by stray blows from the duelling horses, but the poor creature was also obliged to mate with the victorious stallions from each "bout", meaning that she was mounted as many as 30 times during one tournament which can last up to six hours.

"Horses often die in the ring from exhaustion or their injuries," says Mr Plumbly, who has witnessed one such tournament.

Veterinary care is too expensive for most owners to bother with, so wounded horses are often killed for their meat and the choicest cuts barbecued and sold to the crowd.

A similar fate awaits those horses deemed too old or too weak to fight. These are "sacrificed" by pitting them against much stronger stallions.

Some break their legs as they desperately try to escape. But the bloodier the injuries, the louder the crowd cheers.

Although horse-fighting is illegal in the Philippines, corruption and lack of enforcement ensure that the tournaments continue - and with apparent official sanction.

Matches are featured on TV, and local businesses sponsor horses and tournaments. Local authorities offer prize money.

The tournaments are promoted as a "cultural tradition", but in fact they are largely organised and controlled by crime syndicates, who rake in huge profits from gambling.

Thousands of pounds are bet on each fight - a small fortune in a desperately poor country such as the Philippines.

Network for Animals wants to build clinics to treat injured horses and to educate local people about caring for animals. It is also encouraging tourists to avoid the southern Philippines.

"If people want to help stop these tournaments they should write to the embassy in London and tell them that they will not visit these islands," says Mr Plumbly.

"The threat of a loss of tourism money will help bring this despicable blood sport to an end."

Green Blues: Biofuels wwwadd to Global Warming

It is official: the Green Blues has began. Almost all biofuels used today cause more greenhouse gas emissions than conventional fuels if the full emissions costs of producing these “green” fuels are taken into account, two new studies published in the top-tier journal Science have concluded.

The studies for the first time take a detailed, comprehensive look at the emissions effects of the huge amount of natural land that is being converted to cropland globally to support biofuels development. The destruction of natural ecosystems — whether rain forest in the tropics or grasslands in South America — not only releases greenhouse gases into the atmosphere when they are burned and plowed, but also deprives the planet of natural sponges to absorb carbon emissions. Cropland also absorbs far less carbon than the rain forests or even scrubland that it replaces.

Together the two studies offer sweeping conclusions: It does not matter if it is rain forest or scrubland that is cleared, the greenhouse gas contribution is significant. More important, they discovered that, taken globally, the production of almost all biofuels resulted, directly or indirectly, intentionally or not, in new lands being cleared, either for food or fuel.

This is horrible news news for biofuel proponents. In the energy bill just passed, the U.S. is betting heavily on ethanol, mandating a sixfold increase in the use of biofuels by 2022. Current ethanol demands are already pushing up grain and meat prices and contributing to inflation. The tradeoff was that we were saving the world. Now that bargain looks pretty shaky.

But not all is lost on the biofuel front. Some companies are working on ways to make fuel from algae or ”waste” plants like sawgrass that wouldn’t prompt farmers to clear-cut the precious rainforests and grasslands.

It's Bubble O seven: James Bond underwater car fantasy becomes a reality

Ever since he saw James Bond drive into the sea to escape a villain in The Spy Who Loved Me, Frank Rinderknecht dreamed of creating his own submarine dream machine.

Yesterday, he launched the astonishing result.

The pioneering Swiss car designer has created the sQuba, a vehicle equally at home on land, sea and beneath the surface.

"For three decades I have tried to imagine a car that can fly under water," he said.

"Now we have made this dream come true."

In the 1977 movie, Bond, played by Roger Moore, avoids the clutches of the metal-toothed thug Jaws by plunging his Lotus Esprit Turbo into the ocean.

Computer animation techniques show the wheels folding under the chassis while lateral fins and propellers emerge before 007 dispatches his foes with a built-in rocket launcher, harpoons a fish and drives on to a convenient beach.

Just like its inspiration, the sQuba is built on the chassis of a Lotus, although this time it is the more rounded Elise.

But realising it would be too difficult to make a car completely watertight as in the Bond film, Mr Rinderknecht designed the sQuba to be open-topped.

If driven into water it will float and operate as a boat.

Two propellers positioned either side of the rear number plate push it along.

Rinderknecht

Dream: Swiss designer Frank Rinderknecht

But open a door and the car begins to dive. Under water, one of its three battery-powered engines sucks in water through the car's front grille and pushes it out of its two side jet vents.

It is these two jets, mounted on swivelling heads, which manoeuvre the car up, down, left and right.

The sQuba will go on show at next month's motor show in Geneva, Switzerland.

As a one-off concept car it is not for sale, but it cost around £750,000 to be built by Mr Rinderknecht's company Rinspeed, which normally specialises in restoring and modifying classic cars.

The interior boasts mother-of-pearl embossed trim with diamond-plated inlays. And the upholstery features sharkskin-style patterning.

In a nod to another of James Bond's gadget-filled cars – the Aston Martin DB5 in 1964's Goldfinger – another feature is a rotating rear number-plate holder.

Rocket launcher and harpoon gun, however, are not among the optional extras.

Crested ‘beach bum’ dinosaur found in Mexico

Washington: Seventy-two million years ago, a dinosaur with a sail-shaped crest on the top of its head lived at a Mexican seashore, munching plants and trying to avoid a cousin of Tyrannosaurus rex.

US, Mexican and Canadian scientists on Tuesday announced the discovery of Velafrons Coahuilensis, a duck-billed dinosaur that lived about 7 million years before a big rock from space wiped out the dinosaurs and many other creatures.

Its fossil was found in the rugged, dry terrain of north-central Mexico’s Coahuila state.

“Velafrons was probably a beach bum,” said palaeontologist Terry Gates of the Utah Museum of Natural History and University of Utah.

At the time, its shoreline home was lush, with rivers flowing into a warm, shallow sea, the scientists said.

“It would have been a beautiful time to have been there – very warm, very Mediterranean-like,” Utah Museum of Natural History palaeontologist Scott Sampson said. “But you’ve got to worry about the tyrannosaurs out there.”

The creature’s head is its most remarkable feature. Sitting on the top of its skull is a hollow crest, shaped a bit like the sail of a sailboat.

Velafrons coahuilensis means “sailed forehead from Coahuila.”

Velafrons and other similar duck-billed dinosaurs had nose bones at the top of the head, with their nasal passages greatly lengthened and running through large crests.

Scientists do not know the crest’s function, but think it may have helped attract mates.

Air blown through the crest passages could have made a distinctive trumpeting noise.

The adolescent Velafrons was 25 to 30 feet long, and a full-grown adult would have been 35 feet long, the researchers reported in the Journal of Vertebrate

Palaeontology. That would have put the species around the same size as the Tyrannosaurus rex – though it probably wasn’t as vicious, being a plant eater.

The Velafrons fossils were found in 1995, but it was not until 2002 that scientists – using a jackhammer to get through the hard rock – managed to free the skull from the ground.

Sampson said the remains of a horned dinosaur related to Triceratops were also found, as was evidence that a big meat-eater related to Tyrannosaurus was on the prowl. Many of the dinosaur bones are covered with fossilised snails and clams, indicating these animals lived near the shore.