World's youngest transexual, 12

A boy believed to be the youngest sex change patient in the world wants to bring forward the operation two years.

The German youngster, christened Tim and now called Kim, was allowed to start hormone treatment at the age of 12. Now aged 14, Kim told Germany's Stern TV his dearest wish was to have the final cosmetic surgery to remove male genitalia when he is 16.

Under German law the operation can not take place until Kim is 18, which would mean either a law change or traveling abroad.

Pictures of him on German TV showed Kim looking like a typical teenage girl, playing with strands of his long hair while seated in the pink attic bedroom of his parents' house.

He keeps a piggybank filled with change he has been saving for the operation - since the age of five, even though all the costs so far have been paid by the German National Health Service.

When he was just two Tim tried on his older sister's clothes and played with Barbies. As soon as he could speak he told his parents "I'm a girl" and later had a row where he declared he wanted to "cut off my thing".

His father, named only as Lutz P. for legal reasons, said they realised then it was not just a phase and that the problem was serious.

Kim's mother, who has not been named, said: "If your child has a heart defect you send him to a specialist, but when your child is transsexual, everyone seems to have an opinion."

Kim's family turned to Dr. Bernd Meyenburg, head of a clinic for children with identity disturbances at Frankfurt university. He has studied transsexuality since the 1970s but said Kim was a "real dilemma".

He said: "If we do something about it, it's irreversible. And if we allow nature to take its course, that too is irreversible." He added however that: "it would have been a crime to let Kim grow up as a man".

Man kept contact lenses in for a year

A Chinese man had to have his contact lenses surgically removed after he did not take them out for a year.

Liu, 40, started to wear contact lenses a year ago and never took them out because he found it difficult. "I only have some eye drops for when they feel uncomfortable," he told Chutian City News.

Liu recently felt his eyesight was getting worse, so he bought another pair of lenses and wore them on top of the old ones. But when his eyesight still didn't improve, he took another startling decision.

"I put a pair of used disposal contact lenses over the other two pairs in my eyes. By then, I was wearing three pairs of lenses," he said. By the next day, Liu's eyes had reacted badly to his DIY eyecare and he finally sought medical attention.

A doctor was shocked to find the first lenses had grown into his eyes and surgery was needed to take them out.

'Dead' duck survives two days in fridge

A duck has been found alive in a fridge two days after being shot.

The duck was discovered alive after the hunter's wife opened the door and the duck lifted his head.at their home in Talahassee, Florida.

Local vet Laina Whipple said: "The man's wife was going to check on the refrigerator because it hadn't been working right and when she opened the door, it looked up at her.

"She freaked out and told the daughter to take it to the hospital right then and there."

The duck was transferred to Goose Creek Wildlife Sanctuary, where it was been treated for wounds to its wing and leg.

Sanctuary veterinarian David Hale said it will probably never be released back into the wild, reports the BBC.

He said the duck, which has a low metabolism, could have survived in a big enough refrigerator, especially if the door was opened and closed several times.

Patient fixes hospital machine

A Bosnian hospital patient spent seven hours repairing hospital machinery so his operation could go ahead.

Doctors had told car mechanic Slobodan Mocevic, 56, his operation to remove a kidney stone was cancelled because of faulty equipment.

Mocevic asked to borrow a set of tools and then stripped down and repaired the Extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy machine at the hospital in Kasindol.

He said: "I was in agony, and there was no way I could have waited any longer."

The device removes kidney stones by sending a sonic wave through a patient's body to break up the stone.

'Mr Magoo' driven off the road

A partially-sighted driver, dubbed Mr Magoo by anxious neighbours, has been ordered off the road..

Partially-sighted learner driver Peter Davies, 25, who is determined to pass his test despite concern from local residents in Burry Port, Carmarthenshire /PA

Peter Davies, 25, of Burry Port, west Wales, failed a basic eye test, reports icWales.

Residents urged him to give up driving after he recently mounted a kerb and crashed into a fence.

He was banned after police called at his home and asked him to carry out a partial eye test in the street outside.

He agreed to take part and went on to fail four times to read a number plate of a car parked 20 yards away.

Mr Davies admits having just 50% effective vision in one eye and 45% in the other but insists he is a safe learner driver.

His father, Antony Davies, who was teaching him to drive, says Peter was 'gutted' and had booked another test with an optician.

"To be honest he is gutted by what has happened. We are both hoping an optician can put an extra thickness into his glasses," he said.

"Personally I don't think it is justified, stopping him driving, but there was a campaign to get him off the road and this is where it has led."

Pensioner survives 100ft fall

A pensioner walked away with cuts and bruises - after driving his car over a 100ft cliff.

The drama was witnessed by Andy Baldwin who called 999 - but only realised later the driver was his own stepfather Terry Flynn, 72.

Mr Flynn swerved off a coast road in his Vauxhall Corsa and smashed through a barbed wire fence into a field, reports the Mirror.

He then drove in circles round the field in the pitch black before plunging over the cliff 300 yards from the road.

But, amazingly, Mr Flynn had only minor head and rib injuries. He was winched to safety by coastguards and taken to hospital where he was said to be "comfortable".

Mr Baldwin, 54, who was driving past at the time of the crash, said: "It seems Terry swerved to avoid an animal and ended up in a field.

"He got disoriented, probably banged his head, and drove over the cliff. The car is almost completely flattened. It was low tide otherwise he could have drowned."

A Hampshire Police spokeswoman said: "We are treating it as an accident. We have no idea why he lost control."

Man loses 16 stone - on Oxo cubes

A Cornwall man has lost 16 stone in a year on a diet of Oxo cubes.

Stephen Kay, 39, swapped fry-ups, pies, pasties and pints of lager for three bowls of hot broth a day.

The dad-of-three, who is 6ft 2ins, weighed 31.5 stone, reports the Daily Mirror.

He devised with his own diet made up of Oxo stock cubes, topped up with fruit and vegetables.

Within 12 months he had slimmed down to 15.2 stone and lost two foot off his waist as his belt size shrank from 60 to 36.

Stonemason Stephen said: "I'd read all the weight loss magazines and watched all the TV programmes - but I hate salads.

"I remember my grandfather eating hot Oxo broth soaked up by wholemeal bread so I went for that."

Stephen decided to fight the fat after constant pestering from wife Caroline and children Gary, 21, Claire, 14 and Jack, 11.

Caroline makes her husband's filling broths three times a day using two stock cubes, hot water and pepper. She also gives him three slices of wholemeal bread.

The 42-year-old part-time cleaner said: "This diet has totally transformed him. He used to get tired easily and spend all his time on the sofa. Now he is out playing badminton."

Woman gives birth to own grandchild

A Japanese woman in her 50s has given birth to her own grandchild.

The woman had the baby last year, using an egg from her daughter and sperm from her son-in-law.

It was the first time a woman has acted as a surrogate mother for her daughter in Japan, reports the BBC.

Yahiro Netsu, the head of the Suwa maternity clinic in Nagano, told a news conference the woman agreed to act as a surrogate mother because her daughter was unable to have children due to cancer.

Both the mother and child were reported to be in good health.

Dr Netsu said the woman had first registered the baby as her own and then the child was adopted by her daughter and son-in-law.

The case is set to stir debate in Japan where surrogate births are opposed by the government and a key medical group.

Japan's justice ministry views the woman who gives birth as a child's mother - not the biological mother.

Dr Netsu called on the government and the medical authorities to review their stance.

Jesus is My Chiropractor!

A Pennsylvania woman has found Jesus, and he’s living right inside of her!

Has the Lord decided that it’s time to get caught up to the advancement of medical science?

After centuries of people claiming to find the images of the Virgin Mary and Jesus Christ in fabric, in water stains on walls, and in patterns in sand, a recent sighting of the likeness of Jesus is a little more high-tech.

There is a clear image rendering Jesus at the Crucifixion visible in the film of an MRI of her spine, says Rhonda Hodge, 34, of Pittsburgh. This miraculous MRI shows a detailed image of Jesus on the cross, she claims.

Plagued by numbness of the neck and left arm, the MRI was performed to try to help address a bulging disc. Upon receiving the films of her spine, Hodge was astonished to discover the presence of the Lord in her backbone!

Hodge claims that pictures of her spine clearly show a detailed rendering of Christ’s Passion. "You can almost seen the thorns around the head and the nails... the nails through the feet," she said.

Man’s buttocks provide him with a new tongue

Modern science and technology progress at such high rate that fantasy and sci-fi books no longer capture the attention they used to: for the most part even the most daring and bizarre idea that crosses creative minds of imaginative authors shortly becomes a reality. “Fiction turned fact” – a task quite attainable by this century’s scientists who overcome all challenges and stumbling blocks on their path to show forth ever more incredible discoveries. In the medical field, for instance, new breakthroughs are made almost on a daily basis. Enough is to mention the plastic surgery development that allowed a woman to put on a brand-new face after her own was destroyed by her pet dog…

In another case a young man from Poland was able to recover his ability to speak thanks to the masterful skills of modern doctors. His misfortunes began the day Yarislav Ernst, 23, of Glivich, found out that his tongue had developed a malignant formation and that surgery would be inevitable. After the doctors finished operating on the man’ organ of speech they decided to attempt to completely restore it.