Teen On Solo Sail Around Globe To Stop In MexicoThe 16-year-old Southern California girl attempting to become the youngest person to sail around the world alone says she is stopping in Mexico with power problems.
On her blog, Abby Sunderland of Thousand Oaks wrote Saturday she's headed for Cabo San Lucas to add a "new battery or two" because solar panels and wind generators aren't keeping up with her energy needs.
Sunderland says she'll restart the sail in her 40-foot craft Wild Eyes soon. She set sail Jan. 23 from Marina Del Rey and plans to be at sea for five or six months.
The problems bring an end to Sunderland's goal of making no land stops during the trip. She can still break the record of 17-year-old Mike Perham of Britain, who stopped on land during his voyage.
Good Luck, Abby! Godspeed and fair winds.
A teenage New Zealand girl bitten by a shark bashed it over the head with her body board until it let her go, she said.
Lydia Ward, 14, was in waist-deep water with her brother on Monday at Oreti Beach on the country's South Island when the shark -- believed to be a broad-nosed seven gill shark -- grabbed her hip. She said she did not notice the shark until the attack was under way.
"I saw my brother's face and turned to the side and saw this large gray thing in the water so I just hit it on the head with a boogie board," Ward told National Radio, adding that she had read about a surfer who fought off a shark attack with her board. "That's what she did, and that's what you're meant to do."
The pair fled from the water safter the attack. The girl's mother, Fiona Ward, said the shark's bite had ripped Lydia's wet suit and penetrated her skin, but the teen required no stitches.
Conservation Department marine scientist Clinton Duffy said the shark was likely a broad-nosed seven gill shark, a species that grows to up to 10 feet (3 meters) long and that has attacked swimmers at the Oreti Beach in the past.
The last time the species attacked a human at Oreti Beach was in 1999, and the young girl victim required 60 stitches, Duffy said.
Lydia, a former competitive swimmer and regular beach swimmer, said she would be sticking to rivers and lakes in the future.
Judge Denies Feng Shui Master Wang Fortune
A bartender-turned-fortune teller who had an affair with the pig-tailed Hong Kong tycoon who was Asia's richest woman lost his bid for her multibillion-dollar estate Tuesday when a court deemed his will a forgery.
The legal battle over the late Nina Wang's fortune has fascinated Hong Kong with its often-bizarre stories of Chinese feng shui rituals and illicit love affairs, offering a rare glimpse into the private quarters of the ultra-rich in this money-obsessed city. Feng shui is the Chinese practice of arranging objects or choosing dates to improve one's fortunes.
Wang died of cancer in April 2007 at age 69. The lawsuit centered on two competing wills - the 2006 will held by feng shui master Tony Chan Chun-chuen and 2002 will that left Wang's fortune to Chinachem Charitable Foundation Ltd., a charity set up by the late businesswoman and her husband.
High Court Judge Lam Man-hon on Tuesday ruled that Chan's will was forgery and upheld the 2006 will, according to a summary of his judgment issued by Hong Kong judicial officials.
While Lam accepted that Wang and Chan - more than 20 years her junior - had an intimate relationship, the affair was a secret Wang wanted to bury and when it came to her estate, "she placed a higher regard on her charitable objectives than the defendant," the summary said.
"The court does not believe that their relationship was such that Nina was prepared to give him her entire estate irrespective of her other commitments and responsibilities. Giving him gifts or even large sums of money during Nina's lifetime when he made her happy is one thing. Making him her sole heir in respect of her entire estate is quite different," according to the document.
The court ruled that the purported Wang signature on the 2006 will is a "highly skilled simulation."
One of Chan's lawyers, Jonathan Midgley, said his client was "extremely disappointed" and plans to appeal.
"We have won now. There is justice in this world," Wang's brother, Kung Yan-sum, told reporters Tuesday.
Hong Kong police didn't immediately return a reporter's call asking if it will investigate and prosecute Chan for forgery. Forgery carries a maximum penalty of 14 years in prison in Hong Kong.
Chan captivated public attention during the trial with his lawyer's claims that he and Wang were so intimate that she left him a pair of her pigtails. Chan himself testified they were having an affair when his wife was pregnant with their eldest son, telling the court that Wang called him her "husband."
Adding to the mystery surrounding Chan was his spotty resume that included bartender, waiter, machinery salesman, market researcher and computer parts exporting. He testified that when he became a feng shui consultant he once advised a client to burn real money.
Meanwhile, Chinachem's lawyers argued that Chan's 2006 will was part of a feng shui ritual to prolong Wang's life. The ruling Tuesday marked another episode in the colorful saga of Wang, nicknamed in Hong Kong as "Little Sweetie" for her girlish outfits and hairdo.
Wang had to fight her own probate battle. She inherited developer Chinachem Group from her late husband, Teddy Wang, after an eight-year court case against her father-in-law. Teddy Wang was abducted in 1990, and despite the family paying $33 million in ransom, he was never released and his body never found.
In 2007, Forbes magazine ranked Nina Wang as the world's No. 204 richest person with a fortune of US $4.2 billion, but it is not clear how much her fortune is currently worth because Chinachem Group is a private company. Kung told reporters on Tuesday that Wang's estate is worth "at least several tens of billions" of Hong Kong dollars (billions of U.S. dollars).
Man Battles Marauding Crocodile For Shark
A group of Australian mates on an annual fishing holiday was not going to let anything come between them and their prize catch - not even a marauding crocodile.
The friends landed a small shark on a beach recently in the tropical north of Australia - also home to wild saltwater crocodiles known to attack humans.
As they dragged the shark ashore with the help of a hooked pole, a croc about 6-feet long emerged from the water, ran up the beach to the flailing shark, and opened its jaws menacingly.
Unperturbed, the fisherman holding the hook banged it down on the head of the crocodile, which turned tail and scrambled quickly back into the water.
The incident was captured on video and posted on YouTube, where it gained a popular following and attention from Australian media.
"He was full on," Bob Callan, one of the anglers told Nine Network television Friday, describing the croc's lunge. "He was going for that shark right or wrong, then it was - bang - hit him on the snout and away he went."
After dispatching the reptile, the video shows the anglers lined up behind the shark on the beach for photos - with their backs to the water. One casts a nervous eye over his shoulder, and another jumps as his neighbor gives him a sly pinch on the leg.
Callan said the friends, from the New South Wales town of Inverell, travel to the north every year for a fishing holiday, and the shark - like all the fish they catch - was released back into the wild.
Taken from reports by The AP; Hong Kong News Agencies; the Nine Network
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