Pianist Liu Wei sits quietly to compose himself before plunging into the music. Then he takes off a sock. The 23-year-old, whose arms were amputated after a childhood accident, plays the piano with his toes.
Mr Liu was thrust into the limelight earlier this month when he performed on China’s Got Talent, the Chinese version of the TV show that helped make Susan Boyle a singing star. In his first appearance, he received a standing ovation from the audience, many of whom were moved to tears, for a performance of Mariage d’Amour by Richard Clayderman.
“Whatever other people do with their hands, I do with my feet. It’s just that,” says Mr Liu, a tall, slender man who peers shyly from behind dark-rimmed glasses. His biggest beef is with people who insist on helping him without asking first and he would like to be seen just as a pianist. (PA)
School sorry for Hitler costume prize
A west Australian school issued an apology to parents yesterday after a young boy dressed as Adolf Hitler won a costume parade.
The boy was judged best dressed among his class of nine- and 10-years-olds by the principal and other teachers in a book week contest, with a costume featuring the swastika, a famous symbol of Nazi brutality.
But the unnamed Perth Catholic school sent a letter of apology to parents after a number of complaints that commending an outfit of the Nazi dictator was inappropriate.
“It’s a one-off thing that in retrospect we’d do differently,” the principal, who was not named, told The West Australian newspaper, defending himself by saying Hitler “was a fairly famous person”.
“To me it’s a mountain out of a molehill,” he added. (AFP)
Videos to curb tax evasion
Sales receipts, satellite photos and now home videos will be used in Greece in a never-ending quest against tax evasion which costs the cash-strapped nation billions of euros a year.
The Greek finance ministry said it would pay budding filmmakers including teenagers up to €5,000 for home-made TV clips “to bolster tax awareness and deal with tax evasion in Greece”. The top ten entries, to be aired on national TV in finance ministry campaigns, would be awarded prizes between €1,000 and €5,000.
Strapped for cash and having recently avoided bankruptcy only thanks to a loan from the EU and the International Monetary Fund, the Greek government is cracking down on hidden wealth. In recent months, the state has even used satellite photography to ferret out undeclared swimming pools. (PA)
Wrongly plastered
A hospital has apologised and launched an investigation after medical staff plastered the wrong arm of a two-year-old girl.
Honey Wight was taken to the accident and emergency department of Southampton General Hospital on Wednesday by mother Katie after she jumped off a slide and hurt her left arm.
Medics X-rayed the arm and found the youngster had chipped a bone. Nurses then plastered the right arm and sent the family home. (PA)
No soft toy
A drugged tiger cub hidden among stuffed toy tigers was found in the suitcase of a woman flying from Bangkok to Iran.
Police say the woman, identified as a Thai national, checked in for her flight but her oversized bag was sent for an X-ray, which showed what appeared to be a live animal inside.
The woman was arrested at Suvarnabhumi Airport before boarding her flight on Sunday and the cub was sent to a wildlife conservation centre, where it is recovering from its trip. (PA)
Red Baron’s mission
A Polish historian says he has located the village where Manfred von Richthofen, the German fighter ace known as the Red Baron, took on his first mission of the First World War.
Maciej Kowalczyk said that from Richthofen’s writings he has determined that the misspelled “Kielcze” he mentions is almost certainly the village of Chelmce. Richthofen was stationed about six miles northwest of the village as a cavalry officer.
On August 1, 1914 he was sent to lead a reconnaissance mission into what was then Russian territory and spent almost a week in what Mr Kowalczyk says must be Chelmce, today in Poland. (PA)