US officials are trying to determine how a farmer came to be eaten by his own herd of pigs.
Terry Garner, 70, set out to feed his animals on his farm in Coos County in Oregon, but never returned.
A family member found Mr Garner’s dentures and pieces of his body in the pig enclosure several hours later, but most of his remains had been consumed.
District Attorney Paul Frasier said several of the animals weighed 318 kilograms or more.
Mr Frasier said Mr Garner may have had a medical emergency, such as a heart attack, or was knocked over by the animals, and was then killed and eaten.
He pointed out that at least one of the animals had previously bitten Mr Garner. (PA)
Brazil’s cutest bottoms
Brazil’s upcoming municipal elections are being overshadowed by the Miss Bum Bum pageant, a nationwide online contest to find the cutest female behind.
Young ladies representing the country’s 26 states and the federal district Brasilia are vying to qualify for the grand finale scheduled to take place in Sao Paulo on November 30.
The female derriere has traditionally had great symbolic significance in Brazilian culture, as attested by the wild popularity of bum dancing among the young.
“I think that the tropical climate, the carnival and all this racial mixing gives the Brazilian woman a unique biotype on the planet,” pageant organizer Cacau Oliver, a well-known female beauty spotter, told AFP.
“The Brazilian woman’s derriere is a part of the body that the whole world admires and the contest just reaffirms this,” he added. (AFP)
Cow’s anti-allergy milk
Researchers in New Zealand have genetically engineered a cow to produce milk with very little of a protein that causes an allergic reaction in some children.
They hope the technique, which uses a process called RNA interference that reduces the activity of certain genes without eliminating it completely, can be used to control other traits in livestock.
With mothers breastfeeding less, cows’ milk is an increasing source of protein for babies, but the different composition of cows’ milk can cause an allergic reaction.
“In developed countries, two to three per cent of infants are allergic to cows’ milk proteins in the first year of life,” the researchers said in a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. (Reuters)
Tax agency on YouTube
Italy’s tax agency has launched its own channel on YouTube to tell Italians how to pay their taxes, as the Government pursues a sweeping crackdown against evasion aimed at boosting public finances.
Videos lasting one or two minutes inform viewers fed up with bureaucracy in clear and simple language on questions like how to obtain a card for health services, how to register a house rental contract or how to pay taxes online.
The website www.youtube.com/entrateinvideo yesterday showed eight videos but the tax agency said that new videos would be posted soon.
Italy’s tax authorities have long been criticised for using overly complex bureaucratic language and methods, making it hard to fulfil all requirements.
Since coming to power last year, Prime Minister Mario Monti has stressed Italians must see paying taxes as a sign of civility. Tax evasion is estimated at between €120 billion and €150 billion a year. (AFP)