Despite having met and known each other at church for more than 20 years, a mother and her daughter failed to realize they were related.

Mute daughter Tan Baoyu (name transliterated) had been placed under the care of others since she was a child. It was only when she had trouble applying for her MyKad (a national identity card for Malaysian citizens) and went in search of her biological mother that she discovered that the woman who had given birth to her had been by her side all along.

31 years ago, her biological mother Xie Yazhu (name transliterated) – who is also mute – conceived a child with an Indian man and gave birth to Baozhu. Baozhu’s father abandoned them, and because she was unable to bring up Baozhu on her own, Yazhu left her under the care of a Chinese couple.

Since her foster parents did not go through a formal adoption process when they took in Baozhu, she had not been able to apply for a MyKad when she was 12. She had to rely on a temporary IC when she took tests, attended interviews and registered her marriage.

After four months of searching, her foster mother Zheng Yarong (name transliterated) successfully tracked down Baozhu’s biological mother. After DNA analysis confirmed Baozhu’s relation to her birth mother, the National Registration Department finally issued a MyKad to Baozhu.

Ever since she was little, Baozhu had a habit of going to church to pray, and her biological mother was a member of that church’s congregation, so the two of them had actually known each other for more than 20 years. (AFP)

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A Chinese man took a chicken out of the freezer after two days – and was shocked to find it was still alive.

Gan Shugen, of Chengdu city, says the hen was a gift from a relative, reports Chengdu Evening News.

It was wrapped in a thick plastic bag with its legs bound so, assuming it was dead, Gan put it straight in the freezer.

But two days later, when Gan opened the freezer, he was amazed by what he saw.

"I heard weak sounds, and when I opened the bag, a red head popped out," he said. "It was still warm, and when I removed the tape, she could stand."

Gan says the bag also contained a big chunk of frozen excrement.

Li Fazhi, of the Chinese Association of Animal and Veterinary Sciences, said he was mystified.

"If the hen was locked in a fridge, that’s still amazing; but if she survived in a freezer for two days, that’s magic," he said.

Gan locked the hen into the freezer again for more than 20 minutes, when a local TV station came for an interview, and the hen still came out alive.

But the bird’s tribulations are now over – Gan says he will not eat the chicken but look after it in his home. (Chengdu Evening News)

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Two men have been arrested in New York for wheeling a dead friend through the streets in an office chair and trying to cash his cheque.

David Dalaia and James O’Hare, were seen pushing Virgilio Cintron’s body from their Manhattan apartment to a cheque-cashing store a block away.

"Hell’s Kitchen has a rich history but this is one for the books," police spokesman Paul Browne told the New York Times.

"The witnesses saw the two pushing the chair with Cintron flopping from side to side and the two individuals propping him up."

The men left Cintron’s body outside the store, went inside and tried to cash his cheque, worth about £180.

The store’s clerk, who knew Cintron, asked the men where he was, and O’Hare told the clerk they would go and get him, Browne said.

Meanwhile, a police detective having lunch at a restaurant next door noticed a crowd forming around Cintron’s body.

The detective called uniformed New York Police Department officers who arrested Dalaia and O’Hare at the store.

Cintron’s body was taken to a hospital morgue. The medical examiner’s office told police it appeared Cintron, 66, had died from natural causes.

Dalaia and O’Hare, both 65, were being held by police and faced cheque fraud charges. (New York Times)

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A Croatian soldier who suffered years of stabbing stomach pains has had a four-inch needle removed from his stomach.

The needle remained in Toma Zupan’s stomach for 16 years after it was forgotten when army doctors saved his life in a battlefield operation.

He had been seriously injured in 1991 during the civil war that began the break up of the former Yugoslavia.

And incredibly the mistake was never discovered until recently, despite frequent trips to doctors to complain about the problem.

In the end an x-ray at the local hospital revealed the needle in the stomach of Zupan, from Gospic in central Croatia.

The old soldier, now 73, said: "Normally I would have blamed the doctors for the mistake they made back then but at that time but they saved my life when they operated on me – so I’ll not be taking the matter further." (Ananova.com)

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What an extraordinary coincidence! Three vehicles with the same license plate number stopped for fuel at the same petrol station at eight in the morning on Monday (December 31st, 2008).

Chen Baozhu (name transliterated) went to the petrol station in his lorry, while Guang Ming Daily reporter Tan Shaolai (name transliterated) rode in on his motorcycle. Gu Guangming (name transliterated) completed the trinity when he drove up with his Proton car. The license plate numbers for all three vehicles were the same – 1108.

The three unanimously said that they had gone to the station to fill up their tanks because they had heard rumours that there would be a price hike for petrol on Tuesday (January 1st, 2008).

Since there would be a special Toto lottery on New Year’s Day, the three decided to buy tickets for the number “1108”. However, the trio were out of luck as the number had already been sold out on December 27th, 2007. (Guang Ming Daily)

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A wolf walked into a packed bar in Italy, ate a steak sandwich and walked out again.

The wolf strolled into the bar at Villetta Barrea, near to the Abruzzo national park, and helped itself to a steak sandwich from a table.

Bar owner Giacinto Lorenzo, 43, said: "It sounds like the start of a bad joke, but it really happened.

"Everyone here knows what a wolf looks like and there was no mistaking this beast for a big dog. It was one of the wolves from the national park.

"It looked pretty thin and we guess it must have been suffering with the recent cold weather and the snow.

"Everyone was so frightened we couldn’t move for about five minutes afterwards, but the wolf just sauntered out as if it was the most normal thing in the world."

Local authorities have sent a team out to search for the wolf. (Ananova.com)

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A 26-year-old Miami woman was married to 10 men at the same time, prosecutors allege, in a marriage-for-pay scheme to enable the men to remain in the United States.

Eunice Lopez was charged with nine counts of bigamy Wednesday, reported WPLG-TV in Miami.

The charges say she married the men between 2002 and 2006 without divorcing any of them. In one case, she married two men in the same month.

• On June 22, 2002, Lopez married Mauricio Carlo Matos as evidenced by a Certificate of Marriage filed with the Miami-Dade County Clerk of the Court on June 27, 2002.
• On Aug. 11, 2003, while still married to Natos, Lopez married Jose L. Ramos. A Certificate of Marriage was filed with the clerk of the court on Aug. 19, 2003.
• On March 5, 2005, while still married to Natos and Ramos, Lopez married Antonio Roberto Cordeiro. A certificate of marriage was filed with the clerk of the court on March 15, 2005.
• On Nov. 5, 2005, Lopez married Humberto Navarro Suarez. A certificate of marriage was filed on Nov. 8, 2005. Lopez was still married to Natos, Ramos and Cordeiro.
• Just 12 days after her marriage to Suarez, Lopez married Leandro Abelha on Nov. 17, 2005. The same day a marriage certificate was filed with the clerk of the court.
• On Jan. 6, 2006, Lopez married Euclides Yepes Ceballos. There were still no divorce proceedings on file for Lopez with the clerk of the court, but a marriage certificate was issued on Jan. 9, 2006.
• On May 11, 2006, Lopez married Martin Errazola Alvarez. The same day a marriage certificate was filed with the clerk of the court.
• On June 2, 2006, Marco Antonio Serrano and Lopez were married. Again, on the same day, a certificate of marriage was filed with the clerk of the court.
• On July 24, 2006, Diego M. Hernandez-Figueroa and Lopez were married and the same day a certificate of marriage was filed with the clerk of the court.
• On Nov. 21, 2006, Lopez married Fernando Jose Urroz Leguisamo. A certificate of marriage was filed with the clerk of the court the same day.

She was held at the Women’s Detention Center on $75,000 bond, but posted bond Friday morning, according to the state attorney’s office.

The investigation is continuing. (WSB-TV)

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A colorful bunch of balloons inflated to honor a beloved teacher who died of leukemia broke free and traveled more than 900 miles to a South Dakota cornfield.

"The balloons were still full of air," said Michael Beadle, who recently discovered them while deer hunting near Onaka, S.D.

Stephanie Bernritter, 39, a teacher at West High School, died last month.

On Nov. 30, hundreds of students stood below clusters of balloons as they celebrated their English teacher. Their emotional messages about Bernritter were attached to the balloons.

Most balloons were tied to the football stadium but a few escaped, including a bunch held by Bernritter’s husband, Kevin Van der Merwe.

Beadle did some searching on the Internet and learned about the teacher’s death.

When he heard about the balloons landing in South Dakota, Van der Merwe recalled how his wife had wanted to fly.

"She was so ready to just be free," he said Monday.

West High Principal Margery Parker described the balloon discovery as closure.

"It kind of makes you feel that everything happened for a purpose," she said. (AP)

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Australian scientists are trying to give kangaroo-style stomachs to cattle and sheep in a bid to cut the emission of greenhouse gases blamed for global warming, researchers say.

Thanks to special bacteria in their stomachs, kangaroo flatulence contains no methane and scientists want to transfer that bacteria to cattle and sheep who emit large quantities of the harmful gas.

While the usual image of greenhouse gas pollution is a billowing smokestack pushing out carbon dioxide, livestock passing wind contribute a surprisingly high percentage of total emissions in some countries.

"Fourteen percent of emissions from all sources in Australia is from enteric methane from cattle and sheep," said Athol Klieve, a senior research scientist with the Queensland state government.

"And if you look at another country such as New Zealand, which has got a much higher agricultural base, they’re actually up around 50 percent," he told AFP.

Researchers say the bacteria also makes the digestive process much more efficient and could potentially save millions of dollars in feed costs for farmers.

"Not only would they not produce the methane, they would actually get something like 10 to 15 percent more energy out of the feed they are eating," said Klieve.

Even farmers who laugh at the idea of environmentally friendly kangaroo farts say that’s nothing to joke about, particularly given the devastating drought Australia is suffering.

"In a tight year like a drought situation, 15 percent would be a considerable sum," said farmer Michael Mitton.

But it will take researchers at least three years to isolate the bacteria, before they can even start to develop a way of transferring it to cattle and sheep.

Another group of scientists, meanwhile, has suggested Australians should farm fewer cattle and sheep and just eat more kangaroos.

The idea is controversial, but about 20 percent of health conscious Australians are believed to eat the national symbol already.

"It’s low in fat, it’s got high protein levels it’s very clean in the sense that basically it’s the ultimate free range animal," said Peter Ampt of the University of New South Wales’s institute of environmental studies.

"It doesn’t get drenched, it doesn’t get vaccinated, it utilizes food right across the landscape, it moves around to where the food is good, so yes, it’s a good food."

It might take a while for kangaroos to become popular barbecue fare, but with concern over global warming growing in the world’s driest inhabited continent, Australians could soon be ready to try almost anything to cut emissions. (AFP)

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Scientists say they have found the fossil of part of a sea scorpion bigger than a man.

The armoured giant was 8ft long, weighed 400lb and terrorised the seas 400 million years ago.

The huge scorpion prowled the ocean floor but may also have crawled on to the land, scientists said.

After a foot-long fossilised claw was found in a German quarry, British expert Dr Simon Braddy said: "This is an amazing discovery.

"We have known for some time that the fossil record yields monster millipedes, super-sized scorpions, colossal cockroaches, and jumbo dragonflies.

"But we never realised until now just how big some of these ancient creepy-crawlies were."

The scorpion, called Jaekelopterus rhenaniae, was found by scientists including Markus Poschmann.

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