Pro surfer Evan Geiselman catches the wave that he fell on and nearly drowned at Pipeline, near Haleiwa, Hawaii. Photo / AP
Pro surfer Evan Geiselman catches the wave that he fell on and nearly drowned at Pipeline, near Haleiwa, Hawaii. Photo / AP
North America
Hawaii officials are crediting a South African with saving the life of a professional surfer who almost drowned after a wipeout. Two-time world bodyboarding champion Andre Botha found the surfer, Evan Geiselman, unconscious in the water off Oahu's Ehukai Beach. "His face was a dark blue, almost purple.
He was foaming at the mouth. His eyes were rolled back and his body was completely limp," Botha said. "The first thing that went through my mind at that point was that he was dead." Botha attempted to resuscitate Geiselman while trying to swim to shore.
Safety officials estimate that the pair travelled about 300m before other surfers and lifeguards reached them. "All the oncoming waves crashing on him, he was able to just hold on to that surfer's body and help until we got there and got to him. It was amazing," said Captain Vitor Marcal of the Ocean Safety and Lifeguard Services Division.
Botha said that staying afloat while clinging to the 22-year-old Geiselman took a "huge amount of energy". Geiselman regained consciousness after he was brought to shore. He was rushed to hospital in critical condition.
A car has slammed into a house in Sydney's southwest and landed on a sleeping woman's bed. The 50-year-old woman driving the car first hit a parked car before reversing into the side of a home in Green Valley.
A 46-year-old woman inside the home was sleeping when the car crashed through her bedroom wall.
Her son, Grant Alexander, said she suffered bruising and swelling. "The car was parked on my mum's bed. I checked she was all right and ran outside to check the (other) woman was all right and shut the car off because it was pumping fumes into the house."
The driver also suffered minor injuries.Prince William is close to a breakthrough in his battle against the illegal wildlife trade after China agreed to send a delegation to discuss the subject in London tomorrow.
China is the world's biggest market for ivory and rhino horn, and stamping out demand for body parts of endangered species is essential to ending poaching and saving them from extinction.
The Duke of Cambridge visited China this year and appeared on a current affairs programme devoted to the issue of the wildlife trade. The charity Save the Elephants this week reported a sharp drop in the price of ivory in China - a result of falling demand and the slow-down of the economy.
Lord William Hague will chair a meeting of the Duke's United for Wildlife task force on the transportation of banned wildlife products, where China's presence will provide a huge boost to the chances of success.
In the past year China has committed to phasing out its legal trade in ivory products made from old stock, destroyed 600kg of seized ivory and prosecuted traders.
Save the Elephants said that over the past 18 months the price of illegal raw ivory in China had fallen from $3170 per kilo to $1660 per kilo.
Europe
Austria has started building a fence along its border with Slovenia. The Austrian Army is erecting a fence 2.1m high and 3.7km long near the Spielfeld border crossing - the first such barrier erected within the passport-free Schengen travel zone.
Austria insisted the move was merely to channel refugees, rather than halt them. It follows the erection of fences by Hungary on the border with Serbia, and Bulgaria on its border with Turkey. Slovenia has built a fence on its border with Croatia.
As the art of sending letters declines, the Netherlands has come up with a novel way to keep its postmen occupied: making them the "eyes and ears" of the community.
PostNL, a Dutch postal delivery service, is conducting a trial in which postmen use a smartphone to take pictures of overflowing bins or unwanted dog mess, and use an app to send the pictures to the city council for remedy.
The service is running a two-month trial in the southern province of Schiedam. PostNL said that declining volumes of post - down by more than 10 per cent a year due to competition from free e-cards and other postal firms - meant that it had to find more services it could offer.
The business contacted city councils to talk about what other duties its 30,000 posties could perform.
Middle East
The US is reviewing and seeking to confirm reports that Iran launched a ballistic missile last month in violation of UN Security Council resolutions, US Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power says.
She added that if Washington confirmed the reports that Iran tested a medium-range ballistic missile on November 21, the US would bring the issue to the 15-nation council and seek appropriate action.
A anonymous Western diplomatic source last week said that the test of a Ghadr-110, a spinoff of the Shahab-3 missile, was held near Chabahar, a port city near Iran's border with Pakistan. He said it was a liquid-fuelled missile with a 1900km range and was capable of carrying a nuclear warhead.
All ballistic missile tests by Iran are banned under a 2010 Security Council resolution.
Africa
The number of people killed by malaria dropped below half a million in the past year, reflecting vast progress against the mosquito-borne disease. The World Health Organisation's annual malaria report showed deaths falling to 438,000 in 2015 - down from 839,000 in 2000 - and found an increase in the number of countries moving towards the elimination of malaria.
Malaria prevention measures - such as bednets and indoor and outdoor spraying - have averted millions of deaths and saved millions of dollars in healthcare costs in many African countries, the report said.
It's a bit odd
Authorities in Florida believe 22-year-old Matthew Riggins died after an attack from an alligator. Photo / Supplied
Authorities in Florida believe a 22-year-old man died after an attack from an alligator, which has since been euthanised. The body of Matthew Riggins was discovered in a lake in late November, the Brevard County Sheriff's Office said.
Investigators believe Riggins, of Palm Bay, Florida, drowned following an encounter with the animal. Some of Riggins's remains were missing when his body was recovered, and there were bite marks present, Major Tod Goodyear, of the sheriff's office, said.
"When the body was found, it had injuries that were consistent with an alligator attack. When we opened [the alligator] up, there were some remains inside that were consistent with injuries found on the body."
In mid-November, Riggins told his girlfriend that he and another man were going to the area of Barefoot Bay and planned to commit burglaries.
Authorities received an emergency call from a local resident, who said two men clad in black were walking near homes there. The suspects ran when they spotted law enforcement, and authorities weren't able to locate them. Riggins never returned home.
Researchers have come up with a theory why Stonehenge in Wiltshire, is partially made from Welsh stones hewn about 320km away away. The idea is that Stonehenge was built in Wales, and sat there for hundreds of years before being moved.
University College London researchers published evidence in the journal Antiquity that two quarries in Wales are the source of the distinct 'bluestones' used in Stonehenge.
Radiocarbon dating of remnants from campfires indicates that the sites were mined around 3200 and 3400 BC. The rocks didn't make it to Stonehenge until 2900 BC. "It could have taken those Neolithic stone-draggers nearly 500 years to get them to Stonehenge, but that's pretty improbable," UCL professor Parker Pearson said.
"It's more likely that the stones were first used in a local monument, somewhere near the quarries, that was then dismantled and dragged off to Wiltshire."
