'Nothing left' of tourist eaten by vultures

The griffon vultures' traditional food supply was hit after the EC ruled dead livestock must be burnt. Picture: File

A TOURIST who plunged 300 metres to her death in the French Pyrenees was devoured by vultures before rescuers could reach her.

The 52-year-old woman was trekking on the Pic de Pista with friends when she fell to her death after attempting to take a shortcut, the Daily Mail reports.

Only bones, clothes and shoes were left when emergency services reached her body.

Furious locals are demanding authorities take action against the endangered carrion-eaters.

Fear of the birds has been growing in recent years, which have reportedly also started attacking live animals since the EC ruled that dead livestock must be burned due to the danger of Mad Cow transmission.

The ruling has reportedly hit the vultures' food supply, forcing the birds to look further afield for food.

Local mayor Didier Pericou reportedly told The Times that the seach party saw the vultures while looking for the woman but didn't realise what they were doing.

'There were only bones, clothes and shoes left on the ground.

'They took 40 to 50 minutes to eat the body.'

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'Nothing left' of tourist eaten by vultures

The griffon vultures' traditional food supply was hit after the EC ruled dead livestock must be burnt. Picture: File

A TOURIST who plunged 300 metres to her death in the French Pyrenees was devoured by vultures before rescuers could reach her.

The 52-year-old woman was trekking on the Pic de Pista with friends when she fell to her death after attempting to take a shortcut, the Daily Mail reports.

Only bones, clothes and shoes were left when emergency services reached her body.

Furious locals are demanding authorities take action against the endangered carrion-eaters.

Fear of the birds has been growing in recent years, which have reportedly also started attacking live animals since the EC ruled that dead livestock must be burned due to the danger of Mad Cow transmission.

The ruling has reportedly hit the vultures' food supply, forcing the birds to look further afield for food.

Local mayor Didier Pericou reportedly told The Times that the seach party saw the vultures while looking for the woman but didn't realise what they were doing.

'There were only bones, clothes and shoes left on the ground.

'They took 40 to 50 minutes to eat the body.'

View the original article here

Hurt tourist gets compo for belly-flop

AN Irish tourist who "belly-flopped" into a Fraser Island waterhole and was rendered a partial quadriplegic will receive substantial damages from the State Government because it failed to adequately warn of the dangers.

In a decision in Rockhampton this week, Supreme Court Justice Duncan McMeekin ruled Evan Joseph Kelly, 22, would receive 85 per cent of any damages awarded against the Queensland Government after a three-day hearing in March.

Mr Kelly, an apprentice electrician from Kiljames in Ireland, suffered a C6 body fracture with spinal cord damage when he ran down a sand dune, tripped and fell into the water at Lake Wabby on September 27, 2007.

The hearing was told signage and warnings at Lake Wabby had not been upgraded despite some 18 people suffering serious injuries at the site between 1990 and 2007.

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Tourist may be jailed for taking stones

A man was detained for taking stones from a baech in Turkey. Picture: Shioshvili/Flickr

A TOURIST who collected stones during a six-day beach holiday with his wife said he was briefly detained in Turkey and faces trial for attempting to smuggle historical artifacts.

Jason Dement was taken into custody by security officials at Antalya airport, near Turkey's Mediterranean coast, on Sunday because two of the pieces inside a bag of stones appeared to be artifacts. On Monday, a court released him from custody but barred him from leaving Turkey.

His lawyer said Dement, 30, from Purvis, Mississippi, faces prosecution under strict Turkish laws against the smuggling of artifacts. Turkey has broad definitions about what constitutes historical artifacts and Fatma Zuhre Akinci, the lawyer, said a museum report confirmed the pieces picked out by the security officials to be artifacts.

The report, cited in court papers, did not say precisely what the pieces may have been or say how old they may be, Akinci said.

Dement said he and his wife, Sheila, have a habit of collecting stones as souvenirs. One of stones was a triangular-shaped rough marble piece that looked as though it came from a modern building.

The other was a slanted, 27 centimetre-long, brick-colored piece that had been washed by the sea and looked like it could have been old masonry.

"It had no inscription," Dement said from his hotel in Antalya. "It came from an ordinary beach. There were no historical sites around, no ancient ruins."

Dement, a former soldier, is a civilian employee at the Katterbach US Army base in Germany. His wife, who is also employed at the base was not detained and was allowed to board the plane for Germany on Sunday.

On a blog he created seeking help to cover his costs while in Turkey, Dement said: "The judge is awaiting an official report from a museum historian that will weigh in on the true value of the 'artifact'... and this will be a huge factor in the next phase of my court struggle."

The punishment for smuggling ancient artifacts is up to 12 years in prison.

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Camel attempts to eat tourist

Justine and THAT camel selfie. (Pic: Our Naked Australia) Source: Supplied

• When selfies go wrong
• Couple blog about their "naked Australia"
• Hump day with a difference

This is the moment a Melbourne blogger by the name of Justine was nearly eaten by a camel.

OK, maybe not eaten. But it's definitely a close encounter.

Justine and her boyfriend Dave are travelling around Australia and found themselves face to face with the cutest of creatures (alright, maybe not) in Perth earlier this month.

"We got to this cheese factory called HaVe Harvey Cheese in the south of Perth," Justine explained to news.com.au.

"They have a camel enclosure outside with two camels in it. They seemed pretty placid so we went up and patted them.

"We were getting so close and I wanted to get a picture with one of the camels, the next thing I felt was the camel's tooth making contact with my forehead.

"I must have cat-like reflexes because I flicked my head out of its mouth so quickly."

The picture is so hilarious the couple decided to share it with the world.

"I just burst out laughing," Dave said.

"We all just lost our sh-t for five-minutes."

Bored with the everyday 9-5 and inspired by Les Hiddins' Bush Tucker Series, the couple packed up the 75 Series Landcruiser Troopcarrier and began the adventure of a lifetime around Australia last November.

They are penning their progress on their website Our Naked Australia. (Don't ask.)

Justine can now tick "near-death experience", "media exposure", "viral" and "pashed a camel" off the bucket list.

Beats 9-5 any day, right?

Oh, and a note to Justine. Take it from me. THIS is how to work it with a camel. With added photobomb.

Matt Young. Camel. Photobomb. What could be better? (Pic: Melvyn Knipe) Source: Supplied

Continue the conversation via Twitter @newscomauHQ | @the_mattyoung | @OurNakedAus

View the original article here

Camel attempts to eat tourist

Justine and THAT camel selfie. (Pic: Our Naked Australia) Source: Supplied

• When selfies go wrong
• Couple blog about their "naked Australia"
• Hump day with a difference

This is the moment a Melbourne blogger by the name of Justine was nearly eaten by a camel.

OK, maybe not eaten. But it's definitely a close encounter.

Justine and her boyfriend Dave are travelling around Australia and found themselves face to face with the cutest of creatures (alright, maybe not) in Perth earlier this month.

"We got to this cheese factory called HaVe Harvey Cheese in the south of Perth," Justine explained to news.com.au.

"They have a camel enclosure outside with two camels in it. They seemed pretty placid so we went up and patted them.

"We were getting so close and I wanted to get a picture with one of the camels, the next thing I felt was the camel's tooth making contact with my forehead.

"I must have cat-like reflexes because I flicked my head out of its mouth so quickly."

The picture is so hilarious the couple decided to share it with the world.

"I just burst out laughing," Dave said.

"We all just lost our sh-t for five-minutes."

Bored with the everyday 9-5 and inspired by Les Hiddins' Bush Tucker Series, the couple packed up the 75 Series Landcruiser Troopcarrier and began the adventure of a lifetime around Australia last November.

They are penning their progress on their website Our Naked Australia. (Don't ask.)

Justine can now tick "near-death experience", "media exposure", "viral" and "pashed a camel" off the bucket list.

Beats 9-5 any day, right?

Oh, and a note to Justine. Take it from me. THIS is how to work it with a camel. With added photobomb.

Matt Young. Camel. Photobomb. What could be better? (Pic: Melvyn Knipe) Source: Supplied

Continue the conversation via Twitter @newscomauHQ | @the_mattyoung | @OurNakedAus

View the original article here

Farmers admit to gang-rape of tourist

Police in India have arrested a group of farmers who have confessed to gang raping a Swiss cyclist.

FIVE villagers have confessed to gang-raping a Swiss tourist in central India, police said, in an incident that has renewed focus on the rampant violence against women in the country.

The woman was on a biking holiday with her husband in central Madhya Pradesh state when she was attacked on Friday night while putting up a tent in a remote forested area.

Her husband was tied up as she was assaulted and the pair were also robbed, police said.

"We have detained five men and they have confessed to gang-raping the woman and attacking her husband,'' local police official M.S. Dhodee told AFP.

Mr Dhodee said they had recovered a laptop, some cash and a mobile phone stolen during the assault, which occurred as the couple were getting ready to spend the night ahead of a trip to the Taj Mahal in the town of Agra.

"They were passing by, noticed the couple putting up their tent and saw an opportunity to attack and rape the woman," Mr Dhodee said.

"We found the laptop buried carefully under a pile of leaves, near some shrubs in the forest. The mobile phone was recovered from the home of the mother-in-law of one of the men," he added.

The Swiss woman, centre, is escorted by policewomen for a medical examination at a hospital in Gwalior, in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh on Saturday. Picture: AP

The five arrested men face charges of rape and robbery. The sixth suspect is expected to face the same charges.

Their confessions to police will likely be inadmissible as evidence under Indian law, which rarely allows court prosecutors to cite such statements since they are seen as unreliable and involuntary.

The alleged rapists live in a village near the scene of the assault, which took place about 70 kilometres from the nearest town of Gwalior, which is about 290 kilometres south of New Delhi.

After the attack, the 39-year-old rape victim and her husband, a 30-year-old mechanic, stopped a motorcyclist who took them to the nearest police station, said SonntagsBlick, a Swiss German-language newspaper.

She underwent a medical examination at a local hospital before leaving for the Indian capital Delhi, police said.

The woman's mother-in-law told AFP in Switzerland that she had spoken to her son and the couple were recovering.

Indian children participate in a protest against child abuse and rising crimes against women, in Bhubaneswar, India, on Saturday. Picture: AP

"This morning he phoned me to say they are in New Delhi and that they are both alright," she said in a phone interview from the family's farm in central Switzerland.

U.C. Shadangi, another local police officer, said that his force was in touch with the Swiss embassy who declined to comment to AFP about the case.

The couple arrived in Mumbai last month after visiting Iran and began a cycling holiday across India, making their way to Orchha, a popular foreign tourist haunt in Madhya Pradesh on Thursday, police said.

The Swiss foreign ministry in Bern released a statement on Saturday expressing deep shock at the "tragic incident".

The ministry had issued an advisory for Swiss nationals travelling in India last month, warning that sexual violence was on the rise across the country, and urging both women and men to travel in large groups and with local guides.
In January, a South Korean student holidaying in Madhya Pradesh said she had been raped and drugged by the son of the owner of the hotel where she stayed.

That incident came just six weeks after thousands took to India's streets in nationwide protests following the fatal gang-rape of a 23-year-old student on a bus in New Delhi.

The victim, a physiotherapy student died from internal injuries after being savagely assaulted by six men. One of her alleged attackers was found dead in his prison cell in New Delhi on Monday.

Police suspect he hanged himself, but his family says he was murdered. The government has since opened an investigation into his death.

India's government is facing heavy pressure to step up efforts to protect women after the deadly gang-rape in the capital last December.

Under a new bill approved by India's cabinet last week, rapists face a minimum 20-year jail term and the death penalty if the victim dies from injuries or is left in a persistent vegetative state.

View the original article here

Eight men rape Swiss tourist in India

Police in India have arrested a group of farmers who have confessed to gang raping a Swiss cyclist.

FIVE villagers have confessed to gang-raping a Swiss tourist in central India, police said, in an incident that has renewed focus on the rampant violence against women in the country.

The woman was on a biking holiday with her husband in central Madhya Pradesh state when she was attacked on Friday night while putting up a tent in a remote forested area.

Her husband was tied up as she was assaulted and the pair were also robbed, police said.

"We have detained five men and they have confessed to gang-raping the woman and attacking her husband,'' local police official M.S. Dhodee told AFP.

Mr Dhodee said they had recovered a laptop, some cash and a mobile phone stolen during the assault, which occurred as the couple were getting ready to spend the night ahead of a trip to the Taj Mahal in the town of Agra.

"They were passing by, noticed the couple putting up their tent and saw an opportunity to attack and rape the woman," Mr Dhodee said.

"We found the laptop buried carefully under a pile of leaves, near some shrubs in the forest. The mobile phone was recovered from the home of the mother-in-law of one of the men," he added.

The Swiss woman, centre, is escorted by policewomen for a medical examination at a hospital in Gwalior, in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh on Saturday. Picture: AP

The five arrested men face charges of rape and robbery. The sixth suspect is expected to face the same charges.

Their confessions to police will likely be inadmissible as evidence under Indian law, which rarely allows court prosecutors to cite such statements since they are seen as unreliable and involuntary.

The alleged rapists live in a village near the scene of the assault, which took place about 70 kilometres from the nearest town of Gwalior, which is about 290 kilometres south of New Delhi.

After the attack, the 39-year-old rape victim and her husband, a 30-year-old mechanic, stopped a motorcyclist who took them to the nearest police station, said SonntagsBlick, a Swiss German-language newspaper.

She underwent a medical examination at a local hospital before leaving for the Indian capital Delhi, police said.

The woman's mother-in-law told AFP in Switzerland that she had spoken to her son and the couple were recovering.

Indian children participate in a protest against child abuse and rising crimes against women, in Bhubaneswar, India, on Saturday. Picture: AP

"This morning he phoned me to say they are in New Delhi and that they are both alright," she said in a phone interview from the family's farm in central Switzerland.

U.C. Shadangi, another local police officer, said that his force was in touch with the Swiss embassy who declined to comment to AFP about the case.

The couple arrived in Mumbai last month after visiting Iran and began a cycling holiday across India, making their way to Orchha, a popular foreign tourist haunt in Madhya Pradesh on Thursday, police said.

The Swiss foreign ministry in Bern released a statement on Saturday expressing deep shock at the "tragic incident".

The ministry had issued an advisory for Swiss nationals travelling in India last month, warning that sexual violence was on the rise across the country, and urging both women and men to travel in large groups and with local guides.
In January, a South Korean student holidaying in Madhya Pradesh said she had been raped and drugged by the son of the owner of the hotel where she stayed.

That incident came just six weeks after thousands took to India's streets in nationwide protests following the fatal gang-rape of a 23-year-old student on a bus in New Delhi.

The victim, a physiotherapy student died from internal injuries after being savagely assaulted by six men. One of her alleged attackers was found dead in his prison cell in New Delhi on Monday.

Police suspect he hanged himself, but his family says he was murdered. The government has since opened an investigation into his death.

India's government is facing heavy pressure to step up efforts to protect women after the deadly gang-rape in the capital last December.

Under a new bill approved by India's cabinet last week, rapists face a minimum 20-year jail term and the death penalty if the victim dies from injuries or is left in a persistent vegetative state.

View the original article here