WhiteBoard News for Friday, April 11, 2003

London, England (Reuters):

A record-breaking knife thrower shocked viewers when one of his daggers sliced into the head of his assistant on live TV.

Circus performer Jayde Hanson, 23, was demonstrating his skills when one of his knives hit his assistant and girlfriend, 22-year-old Yana Rodianova on Thursday.

As she clutched the side of her head, horrified presenter Fern Britton shouted: "Oh my God, there is blood, quick -- get her off."

A spokeswoman for ITV's "This Morning," one of the country's most popular daytime programmes, said the wound was only "a nick".

"She's absolutely fine and recovering well," the spokeswoman said, before adding ruefully: "You don't really expect that kind of thing from a world record-holder."

Over one million viewers had been watching as Hanson, who works for the Cottle and Austen Circus, showed off how many knives he could hurl at Yana in 60 seconds.

He had been trying to emulate the pace of his world record-breaking effort of 120 knives thrown in two minutes which he achieved as part of National Circus Day on Tuesday.

"He felt confident as he has been throwing his mother's kitchen knives since the age of 10," the show said on its website before the accident.

Perhaps not surprisingly, Hanson, whose father was an elephant tamer and mother a trapeze artist, is currently having to advertise for a new assistant as Yana, who bears two scars from previously mis-directed knives, wants to concentrate on her hula-hoop act.

His previous assistant reportedly left the job after being hit in the foot, her third injury from a wayward knife.

"In 11 years of performing, I've only hit my assistant on five occasions," he told the Daily Mail recently
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Hong Kong (Ananova)"

Tourism officials in S.A.R.S.-hit Hong Kong are regretting running an ad campaign with the slogan: "Hong Kong will take your breath away."

With the epidemic spreading fear among travellers worldwide, the local tourist board must be ruing the day it commissioned the series of magazine ads, reports the Media Guardian.

Shortness of breath is one of the main symptoms of S.A.R.S. (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) which started in southern China and quickly moved to Hong Kong before spreading to other countries.

More than 100 people have already died and there are at least 3,000 reported cases worldwide - though most of the fatalities and cases are in China and Hong Kong.

A spokeswoman for the Hong Kong Tourism Board told the Wall Street Journal Europe the ad campaign, which has been running in British editions of magazines including Cosmopolitan and Conde Nast Traveller, as well as on billboards in Hong Kong, was commissioned before the outbreak.

She added they tried to pull the ads or get the headline changed to "There's no place like Hong Kong" but it was too late for some magazines.
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Berlin, Germany (Reuters):

A German court has ordered a brothel to reimburse a man charged for sex he could not remember having, after the establishment failed to provide an itemized receipt for services rendered. 

"The brothel failed to provide concrete documentation of the prices and services provided," said court spokesman Vera Huth in the western town of Duesseldorf on Friday. 

"They should have, for example, listed two sexual intercourse sessions at 600 euros ($644), oral sex at 300 euros ($322) or anal sex at 400 euros ($429) a go," she told Reuters. 

The man told the court he had been too drunk to remember what sexual services he may have ordered at the brothel in Kaarst. The establishment charged him 9,000 euros ($9661) on his credit card. The brothel owner testified he had ordered the "full program." 
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Perdizes, Brazil (Ananova):

A gang of robbers were arrested in Brazil after they kept being interrupted by pizza delivery boys.

A shop employee ordered a pizza for his lunch minutes before the gang arrived at the car workshop in Perdizes, Sao Paulo.

When the pizza delivery boy arrived, the gang locked him up with the 50 workers.

Staff at the pizza shop began to worry about what had happened to him and sent a second delivery boy to check, reports Agora Sao Paulo.

He too was locked up and when he didn't come back, the pizza shop manager decided to check for himself.

When the manager didn't return, the owner called the police who arrested part of the gang, recovered most of the stolen goods and released the hostages.

A police spokesperson said: "What a funny story. I just wonder why they sent three people in before calling the police. It was so obvious something wrong was going on."
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Lydney, England (Ananova):

A vet's nurse has saved a snake with the kiss of life.

Claire Farina began blowing into the five-foot non-poisonous reptile's mouth after it stopped breathing during an operation, says The Sun.

The Californian king snake, called Nipper, was rushed to the vet's after eggs got stuck while it was giving birth in Lydney, Gloucestershire.

Owner Ryan Mills, 13, said: "Claire was really brave to go near those big teeth. Nipper has bitten me a couple of times and it really hurts. She saved Nipper's life and I'm so grateful."

The vet's nurse said it had been scary getting so close. "I just thought it was worth a try. I blew gently into its mouth until it started breathing again.

"My boyfriend just couldn't stop laughing when I told him I had been snogging a snake."
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Chow
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