An investigation was under way in an Austrian ski resort after a British toddler was crushed by a giant snowman, police said yesterday.
The child, who was named as two-year-old Louis Nisbett-Vindal, struggled to breathe after the three-metre high figure collapsed on him, the local tourist board said.
It took his parents, Yves Vindal and Michelle Nisbett, more than five minutes to rescue him with the help of volunteers, the Olympic Region of Seefeld tourist board director said.
Markus Tsehoner said: "The boy was trying to fix a broken hand on the snowman but the sun had been shining and the figure collapsed on top of him.
"It was a big accident that no-one could have foreseen. It was a big shock for everyone.
"He was pulled out but for some minutes it was a very dangerous situation." (PA)
Diagnoses tumour through web
A mother said she convinced doctors her daughter was seriously ill after diagnosing her with help from the internet.
Carly Hornbuckle was told four-year-old daughter Bella Flint's condition was nothing serious.
But the worried 25-year-old did her homework online and realised Bella could be suffering from a brain tumour.
After finally convincing doctors of the seriousness of her condition, a brain scan revealed a tumour the size of a golf ball.
Bella was suffering from Medulloblastoma - a brain tumour found in the cerebellum, which controls movement and balance.
Miss Hornbuckle, who has now set up a charity called Tinkerbella's Wishes, said she understood many GPs may never see the condition during their career, but said she was keen to raise awareness for other families. (PA)
Love supermarket
The I'm Looking For You market opened in November last year, for the China's unofficial Singles Day which is marked on the 11th of that month. Since then, the supermarket has attracted more than 1,000 clients and successfully matched more than 50 couples.
The supermarket - essentially a dating service that offers a venue where singles can meet - only charges a 20 yuan (£1.88) registration fee. (Reuters)
Sex braggart gets no relief
A Saudi appeals court has upheld a sentence of five years in jail and 1,000 lashes for a Saudi man who bragged about his sexual exploits on television, newspapers reported yesterday.
The court in Jeddah also confirmed a five-year travel ban for airline employee Mazen Abdul-Jawad, and sentences of two years plus 300 lashes for three friends who also appeared on the show, aired by Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation (LBC) Officials at the court could not be reached for comment. (Reuters)
Seroxat and tamoxifen danger
A popular antidepressant could interfere with a breast cancer drug and lead to a greater chance of dying from the disease, researchers said yesterday.
Women taking the antidepressant paroxetine (brand name Seroxat) alongside tamoxifen for breast cancer were more likely to die from the disease than women on other antidepressants, a study found.
The researchers, writing in the British Medical Journal (BMJ), said their results had "major implications for clinical practice".
Tamoxifen is taken by thousands of British women each year and works by blocking the female sex hormone oestrogen, which can fuel tumour growth.
Up to one in four women with breast cancer can experience some degree of depression and antidepressants are also prescribed for hot flushes, they said.
The researchers, who believe paroxetine interferes with the metabolism of tamoxifen, found no evidence that other SSRIs increased the risk of death. (PA)
Einstein's first wife's remains
A cousin of Albert Einstein's first wife is campaigning to have her remains repatriated to Serbia from Switzerland, a daily reported yesterday.
Mathematician and physicist Mileva Maric, married Einstein in 1903 but the couple divorced in 1919 three years after Einstein formulated the theory of relativity.
Ms Maric died in 1948 in Zurich, Switzerland, and was buried in a communal grave.
Her cousin Dragisa Maric told Vecernje Novosti daily that Serbia should bring back her remains.
"The remains of Mileva should be buried along with her parents Milos and Marija in Novi Sad or Titel," her native town in the northern Serbian province of Vojvodina, Ms Maric told the newspaper.
Ms Maric's remains lay largely forgotten in the communal Swiss grave until last June then the Serbian embassy put up a commemorative plaque, the daily said.
She was born in 1875 in Titel, studied in Novi Sad and nearby Sremska Mitrovica before enrolling at the Zurich Polytechnic school, where she met Einstein and started working with him. (AFP)
Robbed with cup of coffee
A thief in the German town of Hamelin robbed an amusement arcade by threatening the attendant with a cup of coffee, authorities said yesterday.
"He wasn't going to pour coffee over her, he was going to hit her with the cup," a spokesman for local police said. Brandishing the steaming cup he had just ordered, the thief forced the 26-year-old to open the till and fled with cash.
Police would not say how much money he had taken from the attendant, who had been alone in the arcade. "We don't want to encourage others to try this," the spokesman said. (Reuters)