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Woman in US delivers in loo!

New York: Home delivery! A woman in the US has managed to do the unthinkable by delivering her daughter with her own hands alone in a bathroom. 34-year-old Erica Bovino from Southington, Connecticut, thought she had plenty of time before the baby came. But then her water bag broke and Bovino realised she was going to have to give birth on her own. 

She drew herself inward and did not panic. Summoning all of the relaxation and breathing techniques she knew, she chanted and moaned and stayed calm through the pain of labour. 

Somehow, she managed to do what many would find unthinkable, Bovino delivered her daughter with her own hands in the toilet while her 3-year-old son lay sleeping in a room nearby and her husband Paul Sulzicki was rushing home from his overnight shift as a police officer. 

"There was no time to be scared," Bovina was quoted by Today as saying. "You get into a primal mode. If I had an ounce of fear, I wouldn't have been able to have a healthy outcome," Bovino said. Little Stella was born in the couple's bathroom early on May 6, five days before her due date. The birth was not without complications. The umbilical cord was severed during delivery and there was a lot of blood loss, Bovino said. 

But Stella did not require any special treatment at the hospital where the mother and baby were taken after the birth for monitoring. "I'm blessed that everything turned out the way it did, that she was healthy and I was healthy because, who knows, any number of things could go wrong in childbirth," Bovino said. 

Still, Bovino said, she hopes her unique experience will inspire pregnant women "to trust themselves and trust their bodies. For thousands of years, women birthed naturally. Now women don't trust themselves and they fear the unknown of it." 

Dr Mary Rosser, an obstetrician who did not treat Bovino, credits the new mom for staying calm and focused in a situation that could have been deadly. 

Rosser said the potential complications include problems with the placenta or uterus (which could be deadly for the mother), a severed umbilical cord like Bovino had (which could have been fatal for the baby), or the baby crashing to the floor.

Tiger in circus loo

Washington : A fun trip to a local circus turned into a nightmare for a US woman who came face-to-face with an escaped tiger while accompanying her three-year-old daughter to the washroom.

   Jenna Krehbiel from central Kansas went to the bathroom with her daughter after finishing watching the large cat show at the Isis Shrine Circus.

  As she closed the door behind her, she was shocked to see a tiger standing less than a metre away, Salina.com reported.

  Krehbiel said the tiger “wasn’t the biggest one” performing, but she estimated it was more than 113 kg.

   The tiger had escaped from the circus after its turn in the ring and had wandered into the bathroom. While the staff had launched a search, they were yet to check the toilet, reports PTI.

  Krehbiel said she tried to stay calm and that her daughter wasn’t bothered by the presence of the creature. “It was the closest I have ever been to a tiger not in a cage. You don’t expect to go in a bathroom door, have it shut behind you and see a tiger walking towards you,” Krehbiel said.

  “My daughter wanted to know if it had washed its hands. That was her only concern. I think that shows the thoughts of children and that they wouldn’t have known there was danger,” Krehbiel said.

  Although the tiger was captured within minutes and returned to its enclosure, Chris Bird, manager at the Bicentennial Centre, said he is glad nobody was hurt.

  “Overall, it was a scary, surreal moment. I’m glad no one was hurt or injured,” Bird said. Krehbiel said she has been asked why she didn’t scream or run. She attributed that to her training as a social worker.

  “I’m always on alert, and it was easy to walk out, that’s how I am trained. Looking back, it was a scary ordeal. At the time, I was thinking I just needed to get out,” Krehbiel said.

Man bites traffic cop

Moscow: Car lovers can be willing to go to great lengths for the sake of their vehicles. A motorist in Russia bit a police officer to avoid being fined for having tinted windows. The incident took place in Cherepanovo town in Novosibirsk region. The car with pitch-black windows was spotted and signalled to stop by a traffic patrol, police said. The motorist ignored the signal to stop and instead reversed to the premises of a nearby warehouse. When the two patrolmen approached his car there, he addressed them with a string of profanities and tried to flee - biting the hand of an officer who tried to stop him. The other officer managed to subdue the man, who was also threatening to burn down the officers' houses. The 26-year-old local resident, whose name was withheld, was detained.

The fine for having excessively tinted car windows in Russia is only 500 rubles ($16), but cars can also be stripped of their license plates until the violation is corrected.

Most expensive pair of melons

Tokyo : A pair of cantaloupe melons sold at auction in Japan  for 1.6 million yen ($15,730), one of the highest prices ever paid for the coveted orange-fleshed fruit.

A local fruit wholesaler snapped up the 3.7-kilogramme (8.1-pound) Yubari melons at the high-end fruit and vegetable sale, which took place on the first day of the season for the prestigious melons.  It was the third-highest price ever paid for the luxury melon brand and cost the equivalent of splashing out on a small car.

In a country where a single apple can cost more than $5 and a presentation pack of 20 cherries sells for over $100, Japanese shoppers are used to paying high prices for their fruit.But the eye-watering figures paid at the Sapporo Central Wholesale Market in northern Hokkaido reflect buyers' desire for prestige.