Oddly News Around The World

COMA: Wrong diagnose for 23 years

An engineering student thought to be in a coma for 23 years was actually conscious the whole time, it has emerged. For the whole time, he was trapped in his own body with no way of letting friends and family know he could hear every word they were saying.


The 46-year-old, who can now tap out computerised messages and read books on a device above his hospital bed, has revealed: "I screamed, but there was nothing to hear. His misdiagnosis was discovered by neurological expert Dr Steven Laureys, who fears there may be similar cases all over the world.

He looked at Mr Houben's case again at the University of Liege, Belgium, using state-of-the-art imaging that showed the patient was aware of what was happening around him even though he had lost control of his body.

Nothing is impossible

A Japanese mountaineer who just lost his title as the oldest man to climb Mount Everest to a Nepalese fellow septuagenarian vowed Tuesday to do one better and scale the peak aged 80.

Japan's Yuichiro Miura, 77, was officially the oldest man to have reached the roof of the world until Nepal's Min Bahadur Sherchan said Monday that the Guinness Book of Records had now named him as the oldest Everest conqueror.

Killing for human fat

LIMA, PERU - Peruvian police said on Thursday they had broken up a gang that allegedly killed dozens of people and sold their fat to buyers who used it to make cosmetics. Four Peruvians were arrested on suspicion of kidnapping, murder and trafficking in human fat.

The group stored the fat it collected in used soda and water bottles, which police showed reporters.

Reporting by Carlos Valdez

Gingerbread Vandals!

OSLO, Norway - The people of Bergen rolled out the cookie dough Monday as local police tried to sniff out vandals who destroyed the Norwegian city's traditional Christmas decoration -- a town of gingerbread houses.

Saturday vandals entered a massive tent in central Bergen and crushed most of the 650-cookie-house town, topping off the ruins with paint and fire extinguisher foam.

Police in Norway's second largest city asked the public to offer information that could lead to the perpetrators.

Reporting by Richard Solem

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