North Korea is loosening some restrictions on foreign mobile phones by allowing visitors to bring their own handsets into the country.
For years, North Korea required visitors to relinquish foreign mobiles at the border until their departure, leaving most tourists without a way to communicate with the outside world.
Now, foreigners can bring qualifying phones into the country and purchase a SIM card for use in North Korea, which allows them to call most foreign countries and international hotels in the North Korean capital. However, foreigners will not be able to communicate by mobile phone with local North Koreans, whose handsets operate on a separate network. (AP)
Malaysian climber has second thoughts
A Malaysian with a craving for coconut milk who decided to shin up a palm tree ended up having to be rescued by the fire brigade.
Mohd Hafiz Che Yusoff was left clinging to the tree in Kelantan state for more than three hours.
The 30-year-old told the New Straits Times: “After plucking a few young coconuts, I suddenly felt dizzy and could not work my way down. I was so scared that I just held on tight to the tree.”
A passing friend called the fire brigade and they used a ladder to rescue him. (AP)
Rage Room to help people let off steam
Two Serbian teenagers have found a smashing way to make money and help people let off steam safely – by creating a Rage Room where users pay to wreck everything.
Founder Nikola Pausic, 18, says roughly one person a day comes to the room in Novi Sad and pays £4 (€4.76) to smash a chair, a table, a bed, a coat-rack and a book-shelf, along with items such as framed photographs, empty cans and plastic containers.
They must wear a helmet, protective glasses and gloves. Afterwards they get to unwind to relaxing music.
“Dozens have come so far,” Pausic said, “people of all ages”– adding that it is also popular among women. Customers are given a CD that includes information about professional therapists. (PA)
Two coffees to exacerbate incontinence
The amount of caffeine typically found in two cups of coffee could exacerbate, if not cause, male incontinence.
New research suggests men who consume the most caffeine are more likely to have the problem than those who drank the least, the UK’s Daily Mail reports.
Published in The Journal of Urology, it suggests caffeine may irritate the bladder, if not causing then exacerbating the problem.
Dr. Alayne Markland, of the University of Alabama, used responses from about 4,000 men to a national health survey between 2005 and 2008. (PA)
Prince Harry arrives back home in UK
Prince Harry arrived back in the UK last night after his tour of duty in Afghanistan. He said his comrades were longing to go and see their families and loved ones, adding that he was as well.
The prince has been on post-deployment “decompression” at a British military base in Cyprus since leaving war-torn Helmand Province on Monday evening.
He landed at Brize Norton on a regular personnel flight and was expected to travel with his unit, 662 Squadron, 3 Regiment Army Air Corps, to their Suffolk headquarters.
In the picture, Prince Harry (fourth from right) walks down the steps of a Royal Air Force A-330 transport aircraft yesterday. (AP)