A blind schoolgirl who is fluent in four languages has become the youngest interpreter to work at the European Parliament – at the age of ten.

Alexia Sloane, from Cambridge, lost her sight when she was two-years-old after she was diagnosed with a brain tumour whilst on holiday in France.

But despite her disability the little girl has excelled at languages and at the age of 10 she is already fluent in English, French, Spanish and Mandarin – and is learning German.

Now she has fulfilled her dream of working as an interpreter after East of England MEP Robert Sturdy invited her to the European Parliament in Brussels.

"There is usually a minimum age requirement of 14 just to enter the European Parliament so for Alexia to interpret there at the age of 10 was amazing," said mum Isabelle.

Alexia has been tri-lingual since birth as her mum is half French and half Spanish and her dad Richard is English.

"She has always been very good at languages and shown an interest from a very young age," added Isabelle, who also has a four-year-old daughter Melissa.

Alexia has dreamed of becoming an interpreter since she was six and chose to go to the European Parliament as her prize when she won the Young Achiever Community Award of the Year.

She asked if she could shadow interpreters and MEP Robert Sturdy agreed to take her along as his guest.

"It was fantastic and I’m absolutely determined now to become an interpreter," said Alexia. "Nothing can stop me." (Orange News)

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It may not be everyone’s cup of tea but for Wanda Matthews shocking pink is not so much a colour but a life choice.

The mother-of-two has made her council house in Bolton, Greater Manchester, into a candy-coloured shrine to the hue, right down to only buying pink cleaning products.

Over three years, she has converted the three-bedroom home into a vision in pink with everything from carpet, wallpaper and furniture in the colour.

Miss Matthews, 20, wears something pink every day, keeps fit by working out with rose-pink weights, listens to a pink iPod and has a pink mobile phone.

Her wardrobe is crammed with an array of pink clothes, shoes and accessories while the kitchen has a baby pink kettle, toaster, pots, pans and ironing board.

Daughters Keira, two, and Keelie, three, are also roped into the theme – dressed up in pink clothes and given pink toys to play with.

Next up is a hot pink renovation for the bathroom, a repainting of the garden fence and an attempt to decorate her oven in heat-proof pink paint.

Miss Matthews said: ‘Some people may think that it’s a bit much, but I don’t care. My friends and family know me surrounded by pink, so they’re used to it.

‘I just never get sick of the colour and neither do my little girls. I don’t know what I’d do if I had a boy though.

‘I don’t think I have anything other people would find unusual, but people normally react by saying "wow, that’s a lot of pink".’

Even toiletries and bleach have to fit in with the colour theme, with beauty products including perfume, sun-tan lotion and deodorant all picked for their colour.

The mother said: ‘I buy pink cleaning products as well over others, like pink bleach and that, so maybe that’s strange to other people.’

Her daughters have proved to be the perfect excuse to fuel her obsession and now have a pink-themed playroom with pink furry fairy lights and a pink chandelier.

Her penchant for the colour is unsurprisingly now shared by her boyfriend but she says he has long accepted it as part of their lives.

‘It’s a proper fetish. While some people don’t understand, I never get sick of all this pink. Danny knows I love it and doesn’t criticize,’ Miss Matthews said. (Mail Online)

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She was a trained lawyer from a deeply religious family who married at the age of 17.

But Maria Hose Cristerna, a 35-year-old mother of four from Mexico is known as vampire woman after becoming a tattoo artist and taking her body art to the extreme.

She says she turned to body art after suffering years of domestic abuse.

She has tattooed almost 100 per cent of her body, had titanium ‘horns’ implanted into her skull and dental implants that give her ‘fangs’.

‘The horns I have are a symbol of strength and were implanted without anaesthetic.’

I had the fangs done because I loved vampires as a little girl and I changed the colour of my eyes so they were how I really wanted them to be,’ she told the Sun.

She showed off her looks at a tattoo exhibition in Monterrey, Californa.

But her transformation is not complete. She says she wants to have more titanium horns implanted in the back of her head

She claims to live a ‘normal life’ at her home in Mexico. (Daily Mail)

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A man is able to write calligraphy by holding pen using 43 different body parts.

Cao uses his ear to write calligraphy while also playing a woodwind instrument

Cao Ruiqin, 44, can form the elegant markings using his eyes, ear hole, nostrils, finger gap, wrist, armpit, belly button, elbow and knee joints.

Now he wants to apply for a Guinness World Record to have his talent recognised.

Cao started to practice Chinese calligraphy when he was six years old.

He said: ‘I learnt with my grandfather. However, due to family poverty I could only write with a stick on the ground.’

He explained how he started to practice writing with other body parts after a disabled friend of his died

He said: ‘More than ten years ago a friend of mine had limb amputation surgery.

‘He used to write very beautiful Chinese calligraphies and after the surgery he lost his biggest interest in life and died a few years later out of desperation.

‘I decided to invent a way for disabled people to write and to improve their confidence in life.’ (Metro)

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Britain’s oldest professional roller skater has become the star of a television advert by performing these incredible athletic moves – at the age of 83.

Flexible grandmother-of-two Jocelyn Taylor, who still skates daily, has won nine British champion titles over the past 76 years and now works as Britain’s oldest professional coach.

And now she is the star of the latest advert for private health company Bupa after her incredible moves came to the attention of advertising executives.

Sprightly Miss Taylor, of Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, yesterday revealed the secret to her good health is ‘to keep moving’ and has promised to carry on skating ‘forever’.

She said: ‘Roller skating is a passion for me. It is my life. I do not think I shall ever lose it. Never, ever give up – that is what I say. It is a wonderful reflection to have.

‘I started on my sister’s skates, practising everyday, I thought I was a real fairy.

‘The key to staying healthy is to keep moving, the old wives’ tale ‘if you don’t use it, you lose it’ is absolutely true.

‘Skating keeps my brain in gear and my body active, it keeps me alert. I intend to carry on skating forever and don’t plan to stop any time soon.

‘Obviously at my age I have to be careful that I don’t injure myself but it is still fantastic exercise.’

Miss Taylor picked up her passion for skating aged seven after she borrowed her elder sister’s roller skates and practised in the basement of her family home in Manchester.

When she reached 18 she persuaded her parents to let her train professionally, and qualified to compete at a national level within one month.

She went on to win nine British Championships, including pair skating, dance, figure and free skating, and qualified as a National Skating Coach in 1960.

The mother-of-one has never sustained a serious injury during her career and can still perform arabesques, spins and roller skate backwards.

She currently works at her local RollerWorld in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, where she teaches two classes a week.

Miss Taylor recently caught the eye of bosses at Bupa and she can currently be seen performing an arabesque in an advert for good health.

She was paired with Stanley Balls, an old skating rival who she hadn’t seen for 60 years, for the TV advert. (Daily Mail)

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For former chef Li Zongwen a man’s best friend is really his dog, as he looks after more than 140 strays in his home in China.

Mr Li, 59, has become a dog’s best friend after adopting a number of stray and abandoned pooches.

Walkies must be a nightmare and dealing with the poop almost unimaginable because Li takes care of over 140 of the animals in his home in China.

Rescued from the streets on the outskirts of the city of Wuhan, they are given a roof over their heads and a meal to eat.

The rescued animals like to sit and watch as the former chef rustles up their grub in a big cauldron using a garden spade.

Taking care of more than 140 stray canines is no small task and the dog lover couldn’t do the job without support.

Food and rent for the house costs 5000 yuan (about £480) each month, which is covered by people donating money to Mr Li.

The dogs have been living with him in his house since 2009 and Mr Li even eats his dinner surrounded by his canine friends. (Reuters)

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Moses Lanham plans on stepping into the record books in a rather unusual fashion.

‘Known as backwards feet man’ and ‘Mr elastic’, the Michigan based 49-year-old can rotate his feet 120 degrees behind him, a feat he hopes will earn him a place in the Guinness Book of Records.

As that’s not all; he also plans on setting a record for the fastest man to walk 20 metres with his feet turned backwards.

Despite the daunting task ahead, Mr Lanham can however remain quietly confident – both records have never been attempted before.

Speaking to AOL News, Mr Lanham said: ‘I know I can put my toes together in back, but for the record, I’ll do a full 120 degrees.’

Despite the visually excruciating appearance, Mr Lanham says his flexible feet cause him no pain, in fact he quite enjoys the back-to-front feeling.

‘A lot of times when I’m sitting down I’ll put my feet in a twisted position because it’s more comfortable for me,’ he said.

Mr Lanham discovered his strange quirk at 14 after a high school gym class accident.

Climbing a rope, he lost his grip and fell nearly 18 feet before landing with his feet in an extremely awkward position.

‘They thought something was dislocated,’ Mr Lanham said. ‘But I stood up and was fine.’

Mr Lanham has made the most of his talent ever since.

In high school he was prone to walking backwards and at college he would wear his clothes backwards to match the direction of his feet.

Sadly, Mr Lanham’s 17-year-old son Trey has only partially inherited his father’s funny feet.

Trey can not turn them the full way round like his father, and also feels pain after staying in the position for a short time.

‘It’s a shame because I was hoping I could retire and be his manager,’ Mr Lanham added.

Doctors who have examined Mr Lanham say he was born with extra tissue and cartilage in his joints, making his hips, knees and ankles especially elastic.

There are no records of anyone else in the family, apart from Trey, having the condition.

His peculiar talent has also gained him national notoriety after he appeared on ‘Candid Camera’, ‘Ripley’s Believe It or Not!’, ‘America’s Funniest Home Videos’, ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live’ and the Discovery Channel’s ‘Medical Incredible’. (Daily Mail)

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A university professor says he has become addicted to doing press-ups on upturned chopping knives.

Xie Guanghai, 57, a physics professor in Luoyang, central China’s Henan Province, claims he does about 4,000 push-ups a day.

He said it took him four years to master his technique of doing press-ups on knives fixed into place on a wooden board.

Xie has developed thick calluses on his palms which allow him to do his press-ups without cutting his hands.

"Along with the growing of my interest in this unusual exercise, the calluses have grown thicker and thicker," he said.

Xie already holds two world records for conventional press-ups, including one for doing 6,012 in a row, and now plans to apply for a place in the record books for ‘blade push-ups’.

"Four years ago I started to try these blade push-ups after watching a TV programme where a folk artist climbed up a ladder made of blades," he explained.

"Hopefully I can achieve the record of doing the most push-ups on blades." (Orange News)

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The desperate parents of a nine stone three-year-old have told how they can’t make the giant toddler diet because they are scared of him.

Lu Hao, from China, is dangerously overweight, and at 9st 6lb (60kg) is FIVE TIMES as heavy as other boys his age.

He is getting so big his family are frightened of him — and have given up trying to stop the youngster from gorging on huge plates of ribs and rice.

His parents claim he throws vicious tantrums if he doesn’t get third or fourth helpings of dinner.

And mum Chen Huan from Dashan, Guangdong Province, admits: "We have to let him be as if we don’t feed him he will cry nonstop."

She said she has tried to cut down his meals in the past, but despite her best efforts he still managed to put on whopping 1.5st in the last year alone.

He has already been banned from nursery over fears his size might be a danger to other children, and usually plays alone at home.

But moving around is becoming tougher and tougher for the toddler, whose weight means he gets out of breath easily.

Ironically when Lu Hao was born he was underweight, at 5.7lbs, but he started piling on the pounds at three months old, and hasn’t stopped since.

Dad, Lu Yuncheng, who struggles to pick him up, said: "His appetite is so good that for a meal he can eat three big bowls of rice, even larger than I and his mother."

Last year Lu Hao’s worried parents took him to see specialists at the Guangdong Children’s Hospital.

Doctors there said they think it is possible his weight gain could be down to a hormone disorder.

Dr Lu Hong said at the time: "He is not just overweight but very tall as well so we may be able to treat him if it really is hormonal.

"But he cannot remain like this or his heart will never stand the strain."

A recent government survey showed there are 60million obese people in China, with the number doubling between 1992 and 2002. (The Sun)

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A bright spark artist has come up with incredible sculptures made from spent matches – and he doesn’t even smoke.

IT specialist Stanislav Aristov began making the beautiful artwork to satisfy a burning desire to create something beautiful.

Since then the 28-year-old has gone on to fashion some amazing sculptures from a smokey butterfly to a burning heart.

The part-time artist – who despite his talent is so far yet to exhibit – discovered the idea after he entered a photo competition in Russia.

Unable to come up with an idea Stanislav struck a match before noticing the incredible patterns formed in the carbon of the used wood – and so match art was born.

Russian Stanislav, from Yekaterinburg, central Russia, has now become a sensation in his mother country and wants to come to the UK soon.

He said: ‘I guess the funny thing is, I don’t even smoke.

‘My first match was born or maybe burnt by chance at a monthly photo contest just as something I wanted to try.

‘It was while I was watching the match trying to think of something that I began to think of how it represents life.

‘There is burnt for the past, the smoke of memories left and the untouched part of the match the future. The fire is the life.

‘Matches of course are quite a usual object but it turned out can be presented in a very unusual ways

‘Fire as well as smoke sometimes swirls in a very freakish forms, which bring very interesting associations.

‘About three years ago I did an unusual sequence with lamps and then I first understood that usual things can be presented in a very unusual form.

‘Sadly I have had no exhibitions yet, I have almost no connections in photographic circles and my works are represented only on the Internet.

‘Of course I want to show my works to English people as well as everywhere else where there is an interest.

‘I never have a plan what to do next, it just occurs to me – the next image will this or that.

‘Usually it is connected with some inner thoughts but sometimes it’s just like a tribute to spectators.’ (Daily Mail)

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