Pet dog can climb trees

A pet dog has become a local celebrity in China for her ability to climb trees.

Owner Wu Jiang, of Yubei district, Chongqing, trained his pet, Tina, to climb by putting her toys in tree branches.

He says Tina, a purebred Belgian shepherd, loves climbing and can go higher than 10ft.

On her owner's command, Tina jumps up the tree, using her front legs to grab the trunk and her hind legs to push up.

She will climb up to her toy, grab it with her teeth and then jump back down, reports the Chongqing Evening Post.

Wu said: "I started to train her to climb when she was six weeks old by putting her favourite toys in trees.

"She would scramble up to get them so I kept putting the toys higher and higher to develop her climbing skills."

Mind-Expanding Liquid Brain Juice In Korea

The government of North Korea claims it has fashioned a mind-expanding, liquid brain juice dubbed the ‘Super Drink’ that can supposedly multiply brain hells and halt skin aging.

Leave it to the world’s most bizarre and out-of-date regime to produce an anti-oxidation drink that, according to the secretive Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), “protects skin from wrinkles and black spots, and prevents such geriatric diseases as cerebral haemorrhage [sic], myocardium and brain infarction by removing acid effete matters in time.”

The Telegraph reports that the mixture contains 60 types of “microelements” extracted from over 30 species of plants. The combination evidently helps improve mental acuity and retention by “multiplying brain cells.” How exactly the juice does this is unclear. Moreover, the KCNA has yet to release the drink’s name or announce its official arrival date on store shelves.

They did however claim that the juice was well received by Chinese, German and other businessmen at a trade fair in Pyongyang last month. Plus they quoted company manager, Jong Song Ho, who testified that the juice “proved efficacious among workers of such industrial establishments as thermal power station and smeltery and at medical institutions.”

Storm blows a 200ft hole in Guatemala City, swallowing a building

This is the scene in Guatemala after a 200ft deep sink hole swallowed up a three-storey building.

The enormous crater appeared in the Central American country's capital, Guatemala City, as it was being ravaged by torrential rain and mudslides during Tropical Storm Agatha.

Agatha, the first named storm of the 2010 Pacific season, slammed into Guatemala and neighbouring El Salvador at the weekend, dumping more than three feet of rain in the region.

The enormous crater appeared while the city was being ravaged with high winds, torrential rain and deadly mudslides. Witnesses claim at least one man was in the three-storey building when it was swallowed up at a downtown intersection, and others remain missing.

Agatha has killed at least 146 people across Central America, and has sparked fears for the economies of Guatemala and El Salvador - as there has been widespread damage to the coffee crop in both countries.

'I've got no one to help me. I watched the water take everything,' said Carlota Ramos in the town of Amatitlan near the Guatemalan capital, crying into her hands outside her brick house almost completely swamped by mud.

As the sun came out, exhausted rescue workers hauled away stones and tree trunks from crushed houses as they fought to reach wounded people and find dozens still missing.

'We just have shovels and picks. We don't have any machinery to dig,' said firefighter Mario Cruz, who had been working almost nonstop since Friday night.

At least 123 people have died in Guatemala, and 59 others are missing, according to the government. Nine people were killed in El Salvador and 14 in Honduras, including a woman who was electrocuted as she was helped from her flooded home.

Helicopters ferried tents and medical supplies to remote towns on Guatemala's Pacific coast and the first foreign aid began to flow in on Monday.

The U.S. government donated $113,000 to pay for emergency supplies and to charter private helicopters to assist in the relief effort. The Guatemalan government is expected to formally appeal for aid today.

More than 94,000 people have been evacuated from the capital.

Sink holes can appear suddenly but are thousands of years in the making, geologists said.

The gaping holes are usually caused by rainwater gradually eating away at porous rock such as limestone below the surface, weakening it, and creating a honeycomb of caverns and caves which can become packed with mud. Floodwater may have flushed away that mud - leading everything above it to collapse.

Paying it Forward with a Giant Pen

Social studies teacher M. Srinivasa Acharya, 50, constructed a 16-foot-tall, 1-foot-wide brass-plated pen as a tribute to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, whose recent efforts helped pave the way for the 2010 enactment of India’s Right to Education bill.

From February 5 to March 29, Acharya and two Hyderabad artists, Ratnam and Malikarajan, labored from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. everyday building the Bharatiya Paali (India’s Pen) from sheets of brass, and then etching illustrations of Indian culture, Hindu dance forms and musical instruments all over it.

The project cost Acharya Rs 2.5 lakh ($5,555 USD), 448 hours and perhaps some strands of his remaining hair, but he holds no resentment.

“Since it is the token of our love and appreciation, none of us complained about undertaking so much effort,” he told the Wall Street Journal.

Acharya hopes to present the pen to Prime Minister Singh on behalf of all Indians as a thank you for his part in securing the Right to Education bill, which has been in the works for almost 10 years. Its implementation will make education a fundamental right for every child between the ages of 6 to 14.

Although India has grown tremendously within the last one hundred years, it still remains plagued by an illiteracy rate of 66%, which means that over 450 million Indians cannot speak or write.

If money is the engine that makes the world go round, then education is the oil that powers that engine. And without education, a society has no hope of developing into something beyond what it is now. This especially holds true for a third-world nation like India that is gradually becoming an international superpower.

Prime Minister Singh has paid it forward for millions of Indians, and in return Acharya has paid it forward for Singh. It’s a simple gesture, but one that holds a very deep meaning.

“My only wish is that all the children in the country should have the right to primary education. They should have access to pen and pencil, which are their weapons to fight against poverty and illiteracy. My idea of presenting this as a gift to the Prime Minister is that whenever he sees it in his drawing room, it should remind him of those children who are deprived of their right to education,” Acharya said.