Mexico's Manuel Uribe, once the world's most obese man, celebrated his 43rd birthday on Wednesday with a very short trip outside his house. In only his third outing in six years, Mr Uribe, sitting on his huge reinforced bed, was dragged outside his garage bedroom and onto the pavement outside his house in Monterrey in northern Mexico. Presents of suckling pig and lamb arrived.
Still weighing the size of three hefty men, Mr Uribe sat on his bed wearing only a bedsheet, drank a beer and chatted to his mother, girlfriend and neighbours in the cool evening air, waiting for a cake.
"I'm happy that it is my birthday," he told reporters interviewing the man who weighed 324 kilos in May after losing 235 kilos since March 2006 on a diet of grapefruits, egg-white omelets, fish, chicken and vegetables.
Mr Uribe is still unable to move his swollen legs and his dream is to walk again and visit the mountainous countryside around Monterrey. He had spent the 1990s eating pizzas and burgers in the United States where he worked as a computer repairman. Addicted to junk food, he eventually tipped the scales at 560 kilos back in Mexico, binging on greasy tacos.
Friday 13th not more unlucky
Unlucky for some? Dutch statisticians have established that Friday 13th, a date regarded in many countries as inauspicious, is actually safer than an average Friday. A study published yesterday by the Dutch Centre for Insurance Statistics (CVS) showed that fewer accidents and reports of fire and theft occur when the 13th of the month falls on a Friday than on other Fridays.
"I find it hard to believe that it is because people are preventatively more careful or just stay home, but statistically speaking, driving is a little bit safer on Friday 13th," CVS statistician Alex Hoen told the Verzekerd insurance magazine.
Manhole memo prompts mutterings
Mumbai city officials are upset by an American warning about the risks of falling into manholes in India's commercial capital during the monsoon season.
An item posted on the US consulate website said that municipal workers in Mumbai sometimes open manhole covers at times of heavy flooding and then leave them unattended and unmarked.
"It's possible that you could inadvertently step into an open manhole," said the warning, issued after the monsoon rains arrived at the weekend.
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation rejected the statement, and said it had e-mailed the US consulate stating it had cast the city in a bad light. Elizabeth Kauffman, speaking for the consulate, said they did not mean to hurt anyone's feeling. The consulate has since added a single sentence to its online advisory, saying open manholes are sometimes marked with tree branches.
Jail break foiled by air vent
A woman who attempted to escape from jail in Sydney had to be rescued by police after she became stuck in an air conditioning duct, police said yesterday. The 22-year-old woman had just been refused bail by a Sydney court when she attempted the escape, but then spent about an hour stuck in the air vent before she was rescued.
Police in the New South Wales state said the woman would now face an extra charge of attempting to escape.
'Spiderman' defends skyscraper climb
The man known as the French "Spiderman" bristled at accusations his feat of scaling a New York skyscraper encouraged novice copycats and said the act of "free speech" was a tribute to the city.
"This was not about, 'Alain Robert is climbing the building.' This is a fight against global warming," the climber, Alain Robert, 45, told reporters outside New York State Criminal Court, after appearing briefly before a judge on Wednesday.
Mr Robert scaled the 52-storey, 348-metre skyscraper last week, and six hours later another climber, Renaldo Clarke, made an apparent copycat ascent to raise awareness of malaria that was broadcast live on television. Both men appeared before separate judges on Wednesday on misdemeanour charges of criminal trespass and reckless endangerment as well as disorderly conduct, a violation. The charges carry a maximum penalty of one year in jail.
Robert has climbed more than 80 skyscrapers and landmarks including Chicago's Sears Tower and Taipei 101 in Taiwan, the world's tallest building.
