Palmtree Save

A four-year-old boy had a lucky escape after falling from a 17th floor hotel balcony only to bounce off palm trees and land with minor injuries. Rescuers found Joey Williams still alive after he bounced off a cluster of palm trees and landed on a dirt surface near the hotel's swimming pool.

Less than four hours after the fall at his hotel in Miami, Florida, he was sitting up in bed eating chips and drinking.

Lt Ignatius Carroll, a spokesman for Miami Fire Rescue, said it was amazing the boy was still alive. "I've seen people die after falling 30 feet, but this boy fell up to 80ft," he said. "He looked to be in pretty good shape. He wasn't all banged up like we expected."
Joey was with his parents and grandparents at the Doubletree hotel in Miami when the incident occurred on Saturday.
His grandfather Jerry Unawich said the youngster had been chasing a balloon in the hotel room. When the balloon drifted out on the balcony his grandson chased after it and is believed to have climbed over the railing surrounding the balcony.
Williams landed by the hotel's pool on the 10th floor of the building in Miami, Florida.
"There are no broken bones and doctors told us everything is fine," said Unawich.

Junior Voter

A 14 year old boy, named locally as Alfie McKenzie of Carleton near Pulton, Lancs, managed to evade basic checks to cast a vote in the Wyre and Preston North Constituency during the 2010 General Elections in Britain. The legal voting age is currently 18.

It came on the night in which hundreds of adults were denied the chance to vote by long queues at polling stations.
Alfie, who stood as a candidate in his school election before defying taking part in the real thing, was questioned by police over the breach.

His mother, Nadine, said:"Alfie is sorry is he has caused any mayhem- he loves his politics and I am sure just wanted to be part of the Election process. Sadly at 14 that cannot be done."
Lancashire Police were called in to investigate after a tip off. Jim Corry, chief executive of Wyre Borough Council, confirmed that an under-age voter had taken part in the poll.
But police stressed that the breach had no effect on the results for the seat, which was held by Tory Ben Wallace with a large majority.

Minimal Million

Childen who were expecting a new £70,000 playground complete with swings and slides have been left "devastated" after the council gave them a pile of concrete blocks instead.The "minimalist" design at Diamond Hall Pocket Park includes a variety of rectangular grey concrete blocks, described by Sunderland Council as "play features".
Parents had been expecting a traditional playground after they had been sent a leaflet on the plans which showed images of a climbing frame and swings.
Instead they have been left with the task of telling their children how best to play on the new blocks.
The park, in Millfield, has been given a makeover with money from a £2.5million Play Pathfinder grant awarded to Wearside.
Saacha Thompson, 34, said she had a hard time explaining to her three-year-old daughter Imogen that the park was finished. “When they said they had £2.5million for all the parks in Sunderland I think we were expecting something really good. But it looks like they spent about £200 on it,” she said.
Adele Hopper, 24, said her three-year-old son was devastated when she told him the play park was finished. “He was really upset at first. I was surprised to find out the park was finished. It didn't look finished. I thought they would put stuff on top of the concrete blocks”, she said.
However, the council said the concept for the playground was agreed after consultation with the community. Julie Gray, Head of Community Services, said: “The design of the park was the result of extensive public consultation, with the local community and councillors asked to give their views at a number of events on the layout of the park and what kind of equipment they would like to see installed.
“This design also includes a CCTV camera being installed to help maintain a safe and secure playing environment.”

Cleanliness is next to evilness

Excessive cleanliness in modern homes has led to a steep rise in allergies, a new report indicated. The conditions have become increasingly widespread in developed countries with hay fever, eczema, hives and asthma on the rise. The study, by Guy Delespesse, a professor at the University of Montreal Faculty of Medicine, linked the trend to the sterile environment created by the cleaning habits. “The more sterile the environment a child lives in, the higher the risk he or she will develop allergies or an immune problem in their lifetime,” says Prof Delespesse.

Lethargic Leader

A cast of young pupils were left in tears after their town’s mayor fell asleep in the audience as they performed a school musical. Children at Vale First and Middle School in Worthing, West Sussex, were excited to be entertaining Mayor Noel Atkins and his wife Helena at their production of Bugsy Malone. However, the budding actors’ confidence was crushed when their guests of honour dozed off within minutes of curtains up on their rendition of the gangster story.
Some of the actors, aged 11, were left sobbing during the interval, believing that the couple’s attitude was a reflection of their performance. Parents condemned Atkins’s behavior as “appalling”.

Save Scooby-doo

Cartoons should be given movie-style age ratings to protect children from the violence shown in programmes such as Scooby Doo and Batman, a child safety expert has warned. A senior lecturer at Lincoln University, USA, said that risky behavior which would normally lead to injury is rarely shown to have negative consequences in cartoons. She claims to have found evidence that there children who watch violent programmes are more likely to engage in risky behavior and injure themselves. Among the programmes she deemed to contain the most risky behavior were Scooby-Doo, Batman, X-Men and Ben 10.
There have been some protests among children against this but they have failed to bring any change as thet are very localised, being limited to households and neighborhoods.

Birth on plane, Free filghts for life

A Malaysian woman, who gave birth to a boy on board an aeroplane minutes before it landed, has been promised free flights for life, as has her child, an airline official said on Friday. Liew Siaw Hsia (31) gave birth on budget carrier AirAsia's flight from Penang to Kuching on Wednesday. Nazatul Mokhtar, a spokesman for the airline, said on Friday that the flight had been diverted to nearby Kuala Lumpur for an emergency landing when Liew had labour pains. A doctor on the flight helped the woman deliver her son, while the plane was still 2,000 feet in the air in its final approach to land

Pen DNA

One of darkest criminal mysteries in France, the murder of a little boy a quarter century ago, is back in the news after investigators found DNA on a poison-pen letter. The body of Gregory Villemin (4) was found tied up in the Vologne river in Vosges mountains, in October 1984. The next day, a letter arrived at his home claiming responsibility for the murder. The case was wrapped up in 2001 without identifying the murderer. Prosecutors relaunched the probe last December in the light of new DNA testing techniques and the results of a five-month expert analysis were filed with the state prosecutor on Thursday.

Alien balloon

A six-year-old Colorado boy feared to have fallen to his death from a homemade helium balloon was found hiding in his garage. Falcon Heene was discovered on Thursday in the garage attic of his family's home in Fort Collins, outside Denver, roughly four hours after his brother told police he had climbed into the experimental craft and taken off. The event set US aviation officials and the Colorado National Guard on alert, rerouted planes around Denver and captivated millions of viewers as US networks followed the progress of the balloon.
At last when authorities reached the baloon, they found no one inside.
The picture shows him sitting on his family's van after the incident

Baby Genius

Oscar Wrigley, a two-year-old with the same IQ as Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking, has become the youngest boy in Britain to be accepted into Mensa. Assessors at the Gifted Children's Information Centre in Solihull said Oscar, with an IQ of at least 160, is one of the brightest children they have every come across. He has been ranked in the 99.99th percentile of the population and has been ranked off the scale as the Stanford-Binet test cannot measure higher than 160. Oscar's father Joe (29), an IT specialist from Berkshire, said: "He is always asking questions. We knew there was something remarkable about Oscar."