A view of a British Airways plane flying past the moon over Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championships at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in LondonPicture: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

43-year-old Guo Shubo, from Xiantao in eastern China's Zhejiang Province, lost both his arms in an accident when he was 7. Over the past 30 years he has faced many challenges, but always with an optimistimism. Now, not only does he has a happy family life, but is also able to take care of himself perfectly, including driving...and answering the phone with his legsPicture: Quirky China News / Rex Features 

Weather: record 110,000 lightning bolts strike during 'superstorms'

 

Britain was hit by a record amount of lightning strikes during the freak thunderstorms that battered the country on Thursday, experts have said. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Met Office said more than 110,000 lightning bolts were recorded across the UK, with more than 200 strikes recorded every minute at the peak of activity.

Experts said this was 40 times higher than an average lightning storm and was the equivalent of four months’ worth of strikes in one day.

Government forecasters said most of Thursday’s strikes, which came as rare “super cell” thunderstorms battered the Midlands and northern regions, were fork lightning and hit the ground.

In one dramatic video, footage showed a spectacular bolt striking the lighting storm over a field in Suffolk, UK Bridge, linking Newcastle and Gateshead, which captured the intensity of the fierce storms that swept across the North.

While the Met Office does not maintain lightning records, the UK Tornado and Storm Research Organisation (TORRO) suggested Thursday’s levels were a record amount to hit Britain in one day.

A spokesman said Britain’s previous highest published daily lightning ground strike total was 85,000, recorded on July 24, 1994.

Forecasters said the huge levels of lightning was caused by warm air, originally from Spain and Portugal, travelling North where it was met by cold air caused by several weather fronts that had come in from the Atlantic in the West.

The Met Office described it as an "exceptionally severe weather".

Emma Sharples, a Met Office forecaster, said this combination then produced significant levels of “convection”, which in turn caused the lightning strikes.

“It has been a good few years since we have seen something of that magnitude across the UK,” she added. “From the reports we have received it was quite a spectacle.”

Kashmiri farmers walk through terraced rice fields in Bandipora, north of SrinagarPicture: REUTERS/Fayaz Kabli

Comic daredevil Bello Nock walks on a high wire strung across the front of the Beau Rivage Resort & Casino in Biloxi, MississippiPicture: MCT /Landov / Barcroft Media

Australian mushroom forager Matt Donnelly stumbled across this enormous 2.7kg boletus mushroom while out mushrooming in a pine plantation in MelbournePicture: Craig Borrow/Newspix / Rex Features

Supporters of Muslim Brotherhood's presidential candidate Mohamed Morsy pray after Morsy won the presidential election at Tahrir Square in CairoPicture: REUTERS/Suhaib Salem

U.S. shot putter Kurtis Roberts throws during the the U.S. Olympic athletics trials in Eugene, OregonPicture: Reuters

Artist Alicia Martin used 7,000 books to create this sculpture in Madrid, Spain. The work is called called Biografies and has been created to show how important books are to culture and education 
Picture: Alicia Martin/Solent News

This photo, captured on a mobile phone, shows a huge cloud hovering threateningly over Kota Kinabalu, MalaysiaPicture: Xinhua /Landov / Barcroft Media

A car sits in a giant sinkhole in Duluth, Minnesota, after flash floods caused by torrential rainPicture: The Star Tribune, Brian Peterson/AP

Thailand's Got Talent rebuked over topless painter

 

A contestant auditioning for the popular "Thailand's Got Talent" show shocked judges and earned producers a government dressing down after she doused her breasts with paint and used them to paint a canvas. 

 

The 23-year-old woman appeared on the Thai version of the international franchise aired on Sunday evening by the public broadcaster, Channel 3. She was demurely dressed in a checked shirt and jeans, and spoke politely to the three judges.

But she turned her back to the camera, faced a canvas and pots of paint, and removed her shirt and bra. She doused her naked torso from the buckets of yellow, green, red and black paint and rubbed it into her breasts.

Then as dance music played she rubbed her breasts against the canvas, using them to paint as a stunned audience and the three judges – two men, one woman – looked on in disbelief at the scene unfolding before them.

Thailand's culture minister, Sukumol Khunploem, summoned the producers for a dressing down over airing the clip in the show that is watched by audiences of all ages, including children.

She said that public nudity was unacceptable and jarred with Thailand's conservative culture.
"There must be limits to artist expression," said the minister, Ms Sukumol. "The minister will meet the producers of Thailand's Got Talent to get an explanation."
The show had not gone out live and the producers could easily have cut the clip entirely if they had desired. Indeed a YouTube video of the segment shows they had pixilated out a shot of the contestant's breasts taken from the side.
The woman judge on the panel, who eventually walked off the set, complained that the performance was inappropriate to Thai culture and was dismayed by audience members who expressed their support for the artist.
But the contestant interviewed after her performance, now covered by a sheet, said that if she had merely done a normal painting the act would have been nothing special.
The two male judges decided the performance was a form of artistic expression and advanced her to the next round. 

Human pyramids in Catalonia

 

Castells have been a fixture of Catalan summer festivals for more than 200 years.

However, this year will see the first programme of regular castell constructions in Barcelona, with performances taking place in the cathedral square on Saturdays throughout the summer. Here are some of the logistics that go into building a castell:

1. First, the “cap de colla” – the boss of the colla, or group – arranges everybody in position. He gives the most important instruction to the “pinya” – the people, sometimes in their hundreds, that form the giant scrum that holds the tower steady – of: “Don’t look up!’’ Anyone who is reasonably healthy can join the pinya as long as they’re aware that, on occasion, the tower will collapse abruptly on top of you. Luckily, serious injuries are extremely rare.

2. The “baixos” – that’s the men at the base – link arms and gird themselves to take a weight of up to 450 kilos on their shoulders. This enormous strain is one reason why a 10-storey tower with three men in the base was only managed for the first time in 1998. The small town of Vilafranca’s colla did it again in November of last year. They are currently the team to beat in the competitive world of castellers.

3. Another important level are the “manilles” – literally, the handles. These people provide a kind of human walkway, allowing the smaller, lighter members of the tower to climb up. It’s crucial to do this as quickly as possible, because the baixos won’t be able to carry the weight indefinitely.

4. When all the layers are in place, the “enxaneta” – a child who can be as young as six – scrambles all the way to the top. Until recently they didn’t wear helmets but, after a 12-yearold girl died in a fall in 2006, enxanetas are now given spongy protective headgear. Despite the risks, castellers insist that their sport is as safe as many others and a great way to develop Catalan virtues – hence the castellers’ motto  “Força, equilibri, valor i seny”, or “Strength, balance, courage and common sense.”

See the castells at Avinguda de la Catedral, Barcelona, at 7pm on Saturdays through 15 September, except in August.

Sheer florals show soft side to British men's fashion

British menswear designers showcased a mixture of transparent florals and detailed paisley prints accessorized with quilted handbags and colored briefcases on the final day of London's first standalone men's fashion event.
Designer J.W. Anderson's showcase for London Collections Men featured teddy bear prints, sheer floral patterns and knitted ensembles. The models wearing black wigs and headscarves tied to one side carried quilted handbags and branded sketchbooks.
Vivid pink and red jackets were seen alongside knitted bell bottom trousers and tops, as well as shirts and shorts with a printed paintbrush effect.
A crisp palette of pale grays, white, blue and ochre with neat tailored finishes and contrasting color details were seen at Richard Nicoll's debut menswear collection.
"I thought the color was good. Good color, good silhouettes. It looked well made. A lot of collections in London look very worked on but not necessarily well made. This looks chic," said style blogger Scott Schuman, of The Sartorialist.
Leather jackets in teal and aqua with contrasting details also featured alongside rich paisley prints, with models carrying colored briefcases and duffel bags.
Menswear is the fastest growing fashion sector and the three-day London show has seen a mixture of haute couture and high-street designers showcase the best of British menswear featuring fashion luminaries such as Tom Ford and Paul Smith.
"You can go to Savile Row, Burlington Arcade or Jermyn Street and see fantastic heritage, and then there are probably the most cutting edge designers in the world showing in London, amazing street style, you sort of get everything," said Dylan Jones, editor of men's magazine GQ.
"It's the new generation of men who are actually spending money, they've learnt how to shop like women, and they're going out and buying clothes. It's great for the economy."

 Paris may dig under Eiffel Tower

 The hours-long wait endured by hordes of tourists visiting the Eiffel Tower each year could become less painful if Paris presses forward with plans to move ticket counters and queuing underground, beneath the monument's giant feet.
On Tuesday, the city council will issue a call for architects to submit bids, which it will assess before launching a project to develop the area underneath the tower to relieve crowding and add sorely needed services.
The idea of digging underneath the 324-meter-high pride of Paris has been floating around for decades. But with around 7 million visitors flocking to the site each year, the pressure is on to make visiting the tower built by Gustave Eiffel in 1889 a more welcoming experience.
Since the area directly under the tower, which was built to celebrate modern French engineering, must remain empty and new construction is forbidden on the scenic Champ de Mars lawn that stretches out behind it, the only way is down.
Jean-Bernard Bros, president of the group that manages the tower, SETE, said it was imperative to improve the visitor experience at Paris' best-known tourist site.
"Because we need extra facilities to better welcome our visitors, the only way is to dig," Bros told Reuters.
While crowds of tourists will continue to swarm the site, queuing could be better organized in a subterranean space, sheltered from the elements, he added.
"It's a question of comfort, and to improve the reception for visitors," he said. "It's not nice to welcome visitors in the rain, and when it's really hot it's the same thing."
Up to two basement levels could also accommodate ticket counters and services like a coat check, information desk, toilets, souvenir shop and even a museum dedicated to Gustave Eiffel.
Any tinkering with the tower could elicit howls of protest from locals, who have grown to love the impressive wrought-iron spire despite 19th century critics calling it an eyesore.
But Bros said the point was not to create a new piece of public art - like the controversial pyramid at the main entrance of the Louvre Museum, which remains despised by many and loved by others - nor a commercial centre.
"The idea is create a space for things dedicated to the Eiffel Tower. It's not to make a commercial zone," he said.
Studies are still needed to determine definitively whether there is any risk of weakening the tower, as well evaluating the cost of any underground development.
The project - which could begin in two years and take another two to three years to complete - would mostly be funded by revenue generated by the tower itself, he said.