A 61-year-old US swimmer (pictured right) paddled through shark-infested waters off Cuba yesterday on a three-day journey to the United States aimed at promoting closer ties between the Cold War foes.
“We want these three days to help the two countries get closer,” Diana Nyad told a press conference in Havana before embarking on her marathon swim.”
She added: “I am a better athlete today than I was at 29,” she told CNN.
A CNN reporter following the journey by boat said Ms Nyad was almost 32 kilometres off the coast of Cuba by 1300 GMT.
She will have to contend with strong currents and the risk of sharks on the 166-kilometre crossing from Havana to the Florida Keys.
Ms Nyad tried to cross the Florida Straits in 1978 but was forced to abandon the bid after 42 hours due to poor weather. The following year she set an open sea record by swimming from the Bahamas to the Florida Keys 165 kilometres, the same distance as her current swim, but a feat she described as much less dangerous. (AFP)
Engine sucks man
A New Zealand aircraft engineer died after he was sucked into a plane engine while carrying out maintenance work, it was reported yesterday.
Air New Zealand subsidiary SAFE Air said the 51-year-old man died during a routine maintenance operation yesterday morning at its base in the South Island town of Blenheim.
SAFE Air did not detail how the man died but Fairfax Media said sources had informed it he was sucked into the engine of a C-130 Hercules that had been removed from the aircraft and installed in the airline’s testing bay.
The man had apparently walked into the testing bay while the engine was running, Fairfax reported.
Steals $1 million
Mark Twain jokingly recommended crime as a way of learning morals, so the great American writer might not have been shocked at the woman who on Friday admitted to stealing $1 million from his museum-home.
Donna Gregor, 58, pleaded guilty in Bridgeport, Connecticut to wire fraud and filing a false tax return as part of schemes to embezzle the Mark Twain House and Museum, federal prosecutors said.
Ms Gregor, a long-time employee of the museum dedicated to the 19th century author of Huckleberry Finn, siphoned the money from her employer by fiddling accounts and drawing extra pay to which she was not entitled.
She used the stolen money for “home improvements, theatre tickets, dining out, mortgage payments, credit card payments and car payments,” the prosecutor’s office for Connecticut said.
She faces a maximum term of 23 years in prison and a fine of up to $2 million.
‘Smelly’ kebabs ban
The mayor of a northern Italian town announced a ban on shops selling kebabs and sandwiches from Friday, saying he objected to their smell and complaining they were not part of Italian tradition.
Massimo Botocci, a member of the populist Northern League and the mayor of Cittadella, near Padua, said such shops were banned from the centre of the mediaeval walled city.
This kind of food production was “not suited to our historic centre (because of) the way in which the foods are eaten, the smell they give off...”, said Mr Bitocci, citing health and sanitation regulations.
Political stunt
Youths from Russia’s pro-Kremlin groups mounted tandem bicycles and rode through Moscow yesterday in support of Dmitry Medvedev and Vladimir Putin in the latest political stunt ahead of the 2012 polls.
Four tandem bicycles with eight youth activists from recently formed “I really do like Putin” and “Medvedev Girls” groups aimed to “show the country’s leaders the comfort and efficiency of tandem bicycles”, the groups’ joint statement said ahead of their rally.
The bicycles with insignia bearing the President’s and Prime Minister’s faces lodged between the wheel spokes rode from the Kremlin to the White House, which houses the government.
Baby whale recued
A baby whale that beached in Australia has been returned to the ocean, but fears remained yesterday over whether the infant humpback would be able to find its mother.
The week-old whale landed at Surfers Paradise on the Gold Coast in the early hours yesterday and was returned to deep water some 12 hours later in an operation that involved rescuers hauling the calf into the surf. (AFP)