Losing Weight

'People called me Nessie - so I lost 16st': How 'monster' jibes made morbidly obese man shed the pounds

Mickie Ness had no problem with his rather obvious nickname, Nessie.

But when people started calling him the Loch Ness Monster because of his rocketing weight, 31-stone Mickie realised the time had come for him to shed some pounds.

Mickie, 39, started to put on weight after a motorcycle crash 20 years ago.

Mickie Ness, who weighed 31 stone, ( one stone is about 6.35 kgs ) decided to lose weight after people started calling him 'the Loch Ness Monster'

After changing his diet and taking up exercise Mickie now weighs just 15 stone

By the time he reached his 30s his doctor warned he was at risk of an early death if he didn't lose some of it, according to the Sunday Mirror.

Two years ago, Mickie had a gastric sleeve operation and today he weighs in at just 15 stone.

'I feel terrific,' says Mickie, from Deepcar, near Sheffield. 'I may be half the man I was but I feel twice the man.'

Before the operation Mickie, a systems controller with Yorkshire Water, was told by his doctor that he was morbidly obese.

At that time he admits he would eat two double egg and sausage McMuffins on the way to work, followed by a bacon sandwich when he got there.

After the surgery Mickie, from Deepcar, near Sheffield, radically changed his diet and started an exercise regime.

On a typical day he now eats Weetabix for breakfast, cheese and toast for lunch and a fish supper for an evening meal.

He also cycles an average 30 miles a day and his waist size has gone down from 58in to 36.

Mickie's girlfriend Rachel James is delighted with the transformation.

'He looks absolutely amazing,' says Rachel, 37, a mother of three.

'He's got so much more confidence and he knows he's been given a second chance at life. I'm so proud.'

Then: 'Morbidly obese' Mickie and his fiancee Rachel James

Now: Newly healthy Mickie with Rachel and her children, Lucy, Stephen and Sarah

Eleven days before August 15, 1947 - Photo from the Archives

Valued Exposure: Eleven days before August 15, 1947, Viceroy Lord Louis Mountbatten (center), Jawaharlal Nehru (extreme left) and Mohammad Ali Jinnah (right) prepare for the transfer of power from the British Crown. A notional picture of a divided nation comprising India and Pakistan, as distinct from the agglomeration of princely states and provinces administered by the Raj, came into being during these deliberations. Nehru represented the Indian National Congress while Jinnah stood for the Muslim League, which demanded a separate sovereign state for Muslims.

Heavenly Rainbow

Bright and beautiful: The stunning moment a church tower is bathed in the glow of a heavenly rainbow

This is the moment a picturesque English church appeared to receive a blessing from the heavens.

Holy Trinity Church in Minchinhampton, Gloucestershire, is caught in a rainbow beaming down directly onto its tower.

Amateur photographer Ian Peters, 63, was on hand to captured the stunning spectrum of light as it flooded onto the church.

Mr Peters, of nearby Rodborough Common, spotted the remarkable scene as he drove past the village following a heavy thunderstorm last month

Divine intervention? The rainbow appeared to be shining directly on to Holy Trinity church in Minchinhampton when amateur photographer Ian Peters captured the moment

He said, 'I was just driving past and it was staring me in the face. It was the result of being in the right place and the right time - and having my camera.

'While there are so many disasters going on in the world, it's lovely to have something positive to look at.

'It gives us all hope.' Holy Trinity Church was built in the mid 12th century but its spire was pulled down for safety reasons in 1863 and replaced with a coronet structure.

SCIENTISTS Create Glowing Dog !

South Korean Scientists Create Glowing Dog: Report

South Korean scientists said on Wednesday they have created a glowing dog using a cloning technique that could help find cures for human diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, Yonhap news agency reported.

In this undated handout picture released to Reuters on July 28, 2011, a genetically modified dog Tagon and her puppies are seen at Seoul National University (SNU)'s College of Veterinary Medicine in Seoul. REUTERS/Seoul National University/Handout

A research team from Seoul National University (SNU) said the genetically modified female beagle, named Tegon and born in 2009, has been found to glow fluorescent green under ultraviolet light if given a doxycycline antibiotic, the report said.

The researchers, who completed a two-year test, said the ability to glow can be turned on or off by adding a drug to the dog's food.

"The creation of Tegon opens new horizons since the gene injected to make the dog glow can be substituted with genes that trigger fatal human diseases," the news agency quoted lead researcher Lee Byeong-chun as saying.

He said the dog was created using the somatic cell nuclear transfer technology that the university team used to make the world's first cloned dog, Snuppy, in 2005.

The scientist said that because there are 268 illnesses that humans and dogs have in common, creating dogs that artificially show such symptoms could aid treatment methods for diseases that afflict humans.

The latest discovery published in 'Genesis', an international journal, took four years of research with roughly 3.2 billion won ($3 million) spent to make the dog and conduct the necessary verification tests, Yonhap said.

Mount Etna Lava Show

Light show at the cathedral: Luminous lava lights up Sicilian town as Etna keeps on erupting by

Menacing and beautiful in equal measure, Mount Etna illuminates the cathedral of Zafferana Etnea with its latest violent eruptions.

In these stunning pictures, Europe's most active volcano appears to be spewing lava right onto the 19th century church.

The Sicilian municipality was in no immediate danger because the lava flowed into a valley, but flights had to be cancelled overnight because of the resulting ash.

An act of God? Mount Etna's lava spews across the skyline behind the 16th-century cathedral of Zafferana Etnea shortly before midnight

Golden glow: The eruption appears to be running right towards the cathedral in this image, but the lava has so far been flowing safely into a valley

Catania's Fontanarossa airport was shut from midnight to 7am this morning.

The Crisis Unit met at 1am to monitor the situation until the activity subdued and the flight schedule was back to normal after the first flight came in from Naples at 7.53am.

At the mercy of nature's power: Etna towers over the municipality of Zafferana Etnea

Taking cover: Residents shelter from the volcanic ash blown across the town. The ash has also caused severe disruptions to flights in the area.

There have already been eight eruptions so far this year.

A blast in May, the fifth of 2011, caused major disruption when lava spewed onto its south-eastern slopes and winds swept ash further afield, stopping flights at Catania's airport.

Etna is the highest active volcano in Europe at 3,295 metres (10,810 feet).

Creeping danger: A view of Etna erupting near Catania, where the airport was closed for seven hours due to volcanic ash

HANGING CLOUDS

Hanging Clouds..........

A Modern-Day MIRACLE: The Man Who Wears his Heart on his Back

A Modern-Day Miracle: The Man Who Wears his Heart on his Back (packed safely in a rucksack)

When Matthew Green leaves hospital, the one thing he really mustn’t forget is his rucksack.

The father of one will be carrying part of his new heart in it.
Mr Green, 40, will be the first Briton to be discharged from hospital with a completely artificial heart.

The device in his chest is slightly larger than the organ it replaces and weighs less than six ounces. It delivers blood to the body with the help of a pump that is carried in the rucksack, along with a battery.

Around 900 of the ‘bridge-to-transplant’ devices have been fitted around the world, although Mr Green is the first to receive one in the UK.

He had been in a critical condition after developing a chronic heart condition and no suitable donors could be found. With his health deteriorating fast, doctors at Papworth Hospital in Cambridgeshire decided to fit him with the device in a £100,000 operation.

Some parts of the Total Artificial Heart have a 50-year working life, although patients are generally expected to use it for around three years – during which it will ‘beat’ more than 200million times.

It is hoped the device will last until a real donor heart is found for Mr Green. The patient said he felt ‘fantastic’ yesterday as he spoke about the new lease of life he has been given.

Revolutionary: The Syncardia total artificial heart has been implanted in more than 900 patients around the world
HEART OF THE MATTER

A total artificial replacement for the human heart has been one of the holy grails of modern medicine.

Dr Denton Cooley implanted the first experimental device in Haskell Carp at St Luke's Hospital in Houston in 1969. The patient died three days later.

Following animal testing in the 1970s, the next operation took place in 1982 when the Jarvik 7artificial heart was transplanted into a dentist called Barney Clark. 198 operations followed.

By 2001 the first completely self-contained total artificial heart was implanted in Robert Tools at the Jewish Hospital in Louisville.

And in 2008, Charles Okeke was implanted with the SynCardia Total Artificial Heart, becoming the the first patient to leave hospital with an artificial heart in May 2010.

Since then the SynCardia Total Artificial Heart has been used in more than 900 implants in 65 hospitals.

Papworth is the 66th hospital in the world and the first in the UK to be allowed to use the SynCardia artificial heart.

‘I felt so ill before, so now to be feeling so well and full of life is great. I feel very lucky,’ he said. ‘I’m still recovering from my operation so not all of the bones in my chest have healed yet. I struggle to carry it (the rucksack containing the pump and batteries) but I can walk around fine. I needed a trolley to start with.’

He added: ‘It feels very different – before the operation my heart beat was very weak and I could hardly feel my pulse. Now it’s a very strong heart beat.

‘Two years ago I was cycling nine miles to work and nine miles back every day but by the time I was admitted to hospital I was struggling to walk even a few yards. I am really excited about going home and just being able to do the everyday things that I haven’t been able to do for such a long time - such as playing in the garden with my son and cooking a meal for my family.’

Mr Green, a pharmaceutical consultant who lives with wife Gill and their five-year-old son Dylan in London, was diagnosed with Arrhythmogenic Right Ventricular Cardiomyopathy, a disease of the heart muscle that can cause arrhythmia, heart failure, and sudden death.

The exact cause of the condition – the second most common reason for sudden death in the young – is unknown, although it appears to be passed on genetically.

With time running out as both chambers of his heart failed, a transplant team led by cardiothoracic surgeon Steven Tsui went to Paris for training.

They were assisted during the six-hour operation on June 9 by Dr Latif Arusoglu, an expert Total Artificial Heart surgeon from Germany, and seven weeks on Mr Green is ready to return home.Another patient received a totally artificial heart at the same hospital back in 1986 but the Jarvik-7 device was removed after two days when a donor was found. It is unlikely the patient could have been discharged anyway because of the bulkiness of the equipment needed at the time.

Mr Tsui said: ‘The beauty of this device is the simplicity of the components which make it so durable.

Heading home: Mr Green will be able to leave hospital with his family as the heart is powered by a device that is carried in a bag

‘If there’s a problem we can easily switch to a back-up console. Primarily heart transplant is still the best, if available, and if there is sufficient time to find a suitable donor heart.

‘Matthew’s condition was deteriorating rapidly and we discussed with him the possibility of receiving this device, because without it he may not have survived the wait for a suitable donor heart.

‘The operation went extremely well and Matthew has made an excellent recovery. I expect him to go home very soon, being able to do a lot more than before the operation, until we can find a suitable donor heart.’

The device, which costs £20,000 a year to maintain, was developed by U.S. firm SynCardia Systems, which is based in Arizona.

The moment of alarm Matthew Green was extolling the virtues of his artificial heart when an alarm went off.
The whine cut through the hubbub of the press conference at Papworth Hospital, after only 90 seconds.

Scary moment: Matthew Green was shocked when his heart machine started to emit a high-pitched squeal during a press conference

Panic flashed on Mr Green’s face before he said: ‘That’s just me getting a bit nervous. If I get a little stressed it doesn’t like it.’

Medics stepped in (above) and prescribed a few minutes of calm until Mr Green’s blood pressure returned to normal.

The device monitors tiny changes in pressure but can also be triggered by activities such as sneezing or laughing.

GIGANTIC LADY of the Lake Who's Got Germans in a Lather

Making Waves!
Gigantic Lady of the Lake Who's Got the Germans in a Lather

Meet the not-so-Little Mermaid that has been having a right old knees-up in the German city of Hamburg.

Oliver Voss's floating sculpture is designed to look like a woman bathing in the picturesque Alster Lake.

The three-piece work of art, which is 13ft high and 98ft long, will be turning heads for the next ten days - with many visitors boarding rowing boats to get a closer look.

Lady of the lake: The giant 'mermaid' will be on show at the Alster Lake in Hamburg for the next ten days

Controversial: District mayor Markus Schreiber has said that the sculpture was 'sullying the beloved lake'

Voss, head of the advertising academy Miami Ad School, said he wanted the aquatic sculpture, called The Bather, to be 'a topic of conversation in Germany'.

But his creation has also caused controversy, with district mayor Markus Schreiber telling de Bild newspaper that it was 'sullying the beloved lake'.

The enormous sculpture, made from steel and styrofoam, does not resemble a traditional mermaid.
Instead of a woman with a fishtail, Voss's lady of the lake has legs bent at the knee and protruding from the water.

Knees-up! Many rowers have approached the sculpture to get a closer look

Night-time soak: The sculpture will only be display for ten days

One 'L' of a manoeuvre

A learner driver took a wrong turn during her driving lesson in Austria - straight into a fast flowing river.

Christina Ritter, 17 - from Schladming - had just crossed a bridge over the River Enns with her firefighter dad Ralph in the passenger street when she suddenly swerved straight back to the bank.

Her father's colleagues rescued the pair after they realised they were trapped in the river and dialled 999.

"They'd gone over the bridge and for some reason the car did a U-turn at high speed and bounced down the embankment into the water," said one eye-witness.

Pensioner's amazing morning work-out

A 72-year-old woman attracts crowds to her daily exercise work-out - because of her amazing flexibility.

Pensioner Tan Zhauxian, of Nanning, capital of southern China's Guangxi Province, can bend her legs to nearly any part of her body.

"I have been doing my morning exercises every day since I retired and they keep me fit and healthy," she said.

Onlookers could not believe that a woman of her age could be so supple.

"Even young people would find it difficult to do that, never mind a grandmother," said one, a Mr Zhou.

Gran, 83, splashes out on boob job

A grandmother has made the headlines in the US - by getting breast implants at the age of 83.

Marie Kolstad, of Santa Ana, California, said she opted for the £5,000 boob job because nature had taken its course on her natural assets.

"Your breasts go in one direction and your brain goes in another," she told the New York Times.

Mrs Kolstad says she's in good health and figured "why not take advantage of it?"

She also says her mother lived a long life, and she's hoping to do the same.

Several national media outlets have picked up Mrs Kolstad's story, citing a rise in so-called senior citizen plastic surgery.

A plastic surgeon told ABC News that he'd rather operate on a healthy 70-to-75-year-old than an unhealthy 40-something patient.

Sparrows are 'like gangster rappers'

Chirping sparrows are actually trading insults like gangster rappers, a new study has shown.

What sounds like harmonious song is really the noise of males trying to appear macho, say researchers.

And, just like humans, most of the boasting and trading of insults is done to impress the girls.

"Song sharing among sparrows is actually an aggressive behaviour akin to flinging insults back and forth," said lead researcher Janet Lapierre, from the University of Western Ontario in Canada.

Sparrows have a large repertoire of songs but, when advertising for a mate, males stick to a 'greatest hits' selection that they perform repeatedly.

"The birds sing as aggressively and loudly as possible," said Ms Lapierre.

Sparrows living in more competitive environments are likely to perform a more aggressive but smaller selection of songs, the researchers say.

This is like trying to prove themselves in a tough neighbourhood.

Those living in less competitive areas are more likely to sing their own songs rather than compete with other males by chirping the same tunes as them, the study adds.

The research has been published in the journal Behavioural Ecology and Sociobiology.

Shop worker bitten by scorpion

A Scottish shop worker is recovering at home after being stung by a scorpion while opening a box of bananas.

Billy Clark, 48, of Stonehaven, felt a sharp sting in his right little finger after opening the box, which had been imported from Colombia.

He told STV: "At first I thought it was a centipede because I just saw a long thing going under the cardboard and when I moved it there was a scorpion.

"When I saw it I thought 'oh my god, is it a deadly one'. It was quite sore - like a bee sting but more intense."

Mr Clark captured the three inch arachnid before being taken by ambulance to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary.

He said: "I took it to the hospital with me. I used a pair of grippers and put it in an empty coffee jar. I thought if I went to hospital and said I'd been stung by a scorpion they'd think 'he's on something'.

"An hour after being admitted to hospital I was feeling tired and feeling sick but they did blood tests and a heart trace and kept an eye on me every hour."

Staff at the hospital named the scorpion after Colombian pop singer Shakira.

Mr Clark said he would like to be reunited with the scorpion which is currently under the care of the Scottish SPCA.

Bat on a plane sparks panic

A bat on a plane caused panic among passengers on board a flight in the US.

The animal was filmed flying through the cabin during a Delta Airways flight from Madison, Wisconsin, to Atlanta' Georgia.

It caused so much distress that the pilot was forced to return to the departure airport, reports the Daily Telegraph.

Passenger Mike Schmidt filmed the bat flying over passengers' heads as they ducked and screamed.

The animal was finally contained when it flew into the onboard toilet and a passenger shut the door.

Mr Schmidt said: "I woke up to a small scream and then I saw the bat fly over my head.

"I grabbed my phone to get some video as my friends would never believe this.

"It went up and down the aisle about four to five times before being trapped in the back lavatory."

Trucker gets that sinking feeling

A cement mixer driver was shocked in China when one of his rear wheels suddenly sank into the road.

Zhang Fengyi was driving the 12-tonne vehicle to a building site in Xi'an, capital of western China's Shaanxi Province, when it happened.

"I suddenly he heard a 'pang' sound and then the vehicle tipped up at the front," he said.

Local investigators found three deep pits under the road, which they suspect may be the result of erosion or unauthorised works.

"Underneath were heating pipes carrying 3,000 tonnes of hot water. If broken, it could have been quite a disaster," said spokesman Zhang Jian.

How Bella the dog survived being stabbed in the HEAD

How Bella the dog survived being stabbed in the HEAD during burglary

This brave German Shepherd sits calmly with her owner - just minutes after burglars stabbed an eight inch blade into her skull.

The six-year-old family pet, named Bella, needed emergency surgery to remove the protruding knife after the horrific incident on Saturday.

This shocking picture shows how the robbers narrowly missed the animal's eyes as they plunged the deadly blade into her forehead.

Before surgery: The German Shepherd ahead of having the knife pulled out

Today Bella's owner Vernon Swart said he feared the worst when he saw the knife sticking out of her skull following the attack at his home in South Africa.

He said: 'I was in the house on Saturday morning when the neighbours called to say our dog was running around in the street with a massive knife in her head.

'I didn't believe them but when I went outside I saw it for myself.

'The neighbours said they had caught intruders trying to enter their home and they must have then tried to get into my place when Bella attacked them in our garden.

'One of them had stabbed her right in the head and the end of the knife was poking out between her eyes.

'I feared the worst and assumed she was going to die, but incredibly she was running around as if nothing had happened.'

Mr Swart, a professional artist from Stellenbosch near Cape Town, said he rushed Bella to the vet for surgery after the stabbing.

He said: 'My wife was at work but she came home and we drove down to the vet.

'Stella was on the back seat and every time she turned her head the handle of the knife banged against the window.

'She obviously couldn't feel anything as she was acting normally, but it looked horrific.

Sickening: Vernon Swart with his Bella while she had a knife in her head

'The vet couldn't believe what he was seeing and said he had no idea how Bella had survived.

'He put her under an anaesthetic and then pulled the blade out.

'It was imbedded so far into her skull that he had to put his knees up against Bella's head and lever it with his arms.

'When we saw the size of the knife we were absolutely shocked.

'The vet said it must have missed her brain by fractions of a centimetre and otherwise she would have been dead.'

The eight inch diver's knife was later handed to the police as evidence after the surgery.

Detectives confirmed they had opened a case of malicious damage to property following the incident.

They were today hunting for the suspected thieves, who ran away after the attempted break-in.

Meanwhile Bella was recovering at home after her ordeal.

Mr Swart said: 'She's been lying beside the fire and we've been treating her to all sorts of nice food, but she seems absolutely fine.

'People keep coming to look at her but she can't understand what all the fuss is about.'

He added: 'We're just so relieved that she's okay.

'She's been with our family for ages and we'd have been devastated to have lost her.

'I've told the police that if they find the guys who did this we'd like to leave them alone in a room for a few minutes with Bella, and she'd quickly get her revenge.'

Man let 'deadly' snakes bite daughter

A snake handler has been slammed in Australia after he let 'deadly' snakes bite his 10-year-old daughter to prove they had been de-venomised.

Raymond Hoser, 49, allowed a taipan and a death adder to bite his daughter during a demonstration at a Melbourne shopping centre, the Manningham Leader reports.

Mr Hoser, a director of reptile education company Snakebusters, said a video of the incident, which left his daughter with bleeding puncture wounds in her forearm, proved she had never been at risk.

"She was only bleeding and if they'd been venomous she'd have been dead in two minutes," Mr Hoser said.

"If I'm confident to do that to her, it shows you I have never used a snake with venom."

Mr Hoser was fined £7,650 for breaches of his Commercial Wildlife Demonstrator Licence.

Australian Childhood Foundation chief executive Joe Tucci said children should never be put through an ordeal to prove a point.

"Children should never be exposed to unnecessary harm so there's no reason for a dad to put their children through something like that," he said.

Woman, 61, abandons epic swim

A 61-year-old woman has been forced to abandon her attempt to swim through shark-infested waters from Cuba to Florida.

Endurance swimmer Diana Nyad had hoped to be the first to complete the 60-hour swim without the protection of a shark cage.

But she was forced to give up on the record bid after 29 hours, CNN reported.

"I am not sad, It was absolutely the right call," she told CNN, which had a producer on a boat accompanying her on the 103 mile swim.

Ms Nyad failed in her first attempt to complete the crossing from Cuba in 1978, when she was 28.

She set off from Havana on Sunday with the aim of reaching Key West in the Florida Keys on Wednesday.

But the swimmer was struggling with shoulder pain, ocean swells and asthma before she was brought on board a vessel.

It took more than a year of negotiations to get both countries, former Cold War enemies, to allow the epic swim to take place.

It was a huge operation, with support boats carrying medical assistants, nutritionists and a shark protection team.

Man says it with dancing carrots

A Chinese man persuaded 48 friends to dress as giant carrots in a bizarre but successful bid to win his girlfriend's hand in marriage.

Pang Kun's pals donned costumes to dance in a shopping mall in Qingdao, Shandong Province, to attract girlfriend Xhao Xinyu's attention.

Meanwhile Pang, who had slipped away from Zhao pretending he needed the toilet, began speaking on a microphone.

"Six months ago, I met you. I still remember your shyness on our first date, my longing for the next date and my excitement when I first held your hand at the cinema," he began.

A surprised Zhao recognised Pang's voice but couldn't see him and tried to call him on his mobile phone.

Suddenly, one of the carrots walked up to her and removed his costume, revealing that it was Pang, who knelt down and proposed.

As passers-by chanted "marry him! marry him!", Zhao nodded shyly and the couple celebrated with a kiss.

Yuan Mei, a friend of Pang, said Zhao had planned the project with his friends for three weeks.

He had chosen carrots because orange was Zhao's favourite colour.

"He spent around 100,000 Yuan (£10,000), including costumes, actors and equipment," he said. "They rehearsed the dance for two full days."

Acrobat walks wire between balloons

A Chinese high wire artist walked into the record books - by crossing a wire between two hot air balloons 100 feet off the ground.

Saimaiti Aishan encountered some problems in crossing between the two balloons, sitting down halfway across when he had problems with his balancing pole.

But he completed the 15 metre walk, in Xinning County, southern China's Hunan Province, to achieve his fourth Guinness World Record.

However, he failed in another record attempt - walking between the hot balloons at a height of 100 meters - due to strong winds.

Dawa Zi, also known as high-wire, is a traditional acrobatic performance of the Uygur nationality, in Xinjiang Province.

As a seventh-generation Dawa Zi, Aishan already had three Guinness World Records - for the longest headstand on a high wire, walking backwards on a high wire and walking on the steepest high wire.

His next target is to walk along a high wire between two flying helicopters.

Peacock flies into eighth floor flat

A Chinese woman has spoken of a surprise - after a peacock flew into her eight floor apartment.

An Qiyu, of Chongqing city, was watching television in her bedroom when she suddenly heard noises from her living room.

"I went to check what it was and couldn't believe it when I saw a beautiful peacock staring at me," she said.

An says the bird must have flown through the open living room window.

She had no idea what to do with the bird and is keeping it for now in a dog cage in her bathroom.

"I searched online and found that peacocks' favourite food is maize. I bought some but it won't eat it - all I have managed to feed it is a little bread," she said.

She is now hoping a local zoo will come and take the bird away - not least because it wakes her every morning by honking like a goose.

Jonathan, 178, 'is world's oldest tortoise'

A tortoise captured on a Boer War photograph has been declared the oldest in the world after researchers found that it is still alive.

Jonathan the tortoise - who still lives on the remote South Atlantic island of St Helena where the picture was taken - is said to be at least 178-years-old.

The photograph was taken around the year 1900 and shows Jonathan with a Boer War prisoner, reports the Daily Telegraph.

It was discovered as part of a collection of Boer War images taken by a man named L.A. Innes who had a studio in the British territory's capital Jamestown.

The pictures were recently sold at auction for £4,000. Further investigation revealed the tortoise in the picture was Jonathan who was still alive.

The tortoise was already about 70 at the time the black and white picture was taken. His life has spanned eight British monarchs from George IV to Elizabeth II.

Jonathan lives on St Helena, along with five other tortoises David, Speedy, Emma, Fredricka and Myrtle, in a plantation.

Despite his old age, locals say he still has the energy to regularly mate with the three younger females.

A spokesman for the island's tourist board said: "Jonathan is the sole survivor of three tortoises that arrived on St Helena Island in 1882.

"He was already mature when he arrived and was at least 50-years-old. Therefore his minimum age is 178-years-old.

"Jonathan is still very active despite his age and adores attention, he is a real poser. He seems to be sightless in one eye, but does not let that slow him down."

Chimpanzee feeds tiger cubs

A chimpanzee has become the star attraction at a zoo in Thailand for his habit of feeding tiger cubs every day.

Two-and-a-half-year-old Dodo has been feeding the cubs for more than a year at the Samut Prakarn Crocodile Farm and Zoo.

His trainers at the zoo, around 25 miles south east of Bangkok, initially just wanted to challenge the chimp, reports the Daily Telegraph.

Since he showed no fear of the tiger cubs, they worked with him until he picked up the habit.

"It's not difficult as he knows how to hold the bottle. I just taught him to hold it and stay with the cub. I've been teaching him everyday so he can do it," said Sirinaj who has been working at the zoo for 20 years.

The only problems is when he ignores his feeding tasks and just plays with cubs which are aged from three weeks to five months.

The zoo said that the cubs eventually outgrow Dodo and then need to be moved to an area more suited to their size.

The world's longest motorbike

A Lincolnshire plumber has built the world's longest motorbike - which is an incredible 72ft (22m) long.

Colin Furze, 31, spent a month building the 25-seater bike, which is as long as a tennis court, in his mum's back garden.

He used one-and-a-half 125cc mopeds which he extended using an aluminium frame and drove the bike on the runway at Saltby Airfield in Grantham.

He managed to get the bike, which is worth around £3,000, up to 35mph, but found it almost impossible to steer.

"When I first got on it I thought it would never work and at a slow speed it's almost impossible to keep upright," said Mr Furze, from Stamford.

"But once you get going it becomes a bit easier, although it is a real strain on your arms as it has such heavy steering.

"It is very difficult to handle and it would be hard to ride on the roads as you need about six widths of road to turn. I think it is really built for Roman roads."

To make it into the record books, Mr Furze had to drive the bike 100 metres, but amazingly he managed to ride more than a mile.

He will now send the video along with signed witness statements to Guinness World of Records, so they can verify it.

According to Guinness World of Records the previous longest motorbike in the world was 14 metres.

New diet for chocoholic fish

An overweight fish is being weaned off a diet of chocolate biscuits after outgrowing its tank.

Aquarium staff were baffled when the 8.8lb giant gourami called Gary rejected normal food after being donated to them, reports The Sun.

Then the previous owners of the exotic Asian freshwater fish admitted feeding it only with chocolate-covered biscuits.

Experts at the Sea Life London Aquarium had to put crushed Kit Kat pieces inside grapes and banana slices to tempt the 15.7in-long fish on to a normal diet.

Gary's handler Rebecca Carter said: "I've never heard of a fish being fed chocolate, let alone brought up entirely on the stuff.

"Gary doesn't appear to have suffered ill effects. Most fish wouldn't be able to survive on Kit Kats but gouramis are very hardy."

Boffin breeds 'world's tiniest frogs'

A computer sciences professor in China claims he has artificially bred the world's smallest frog.

Hu Gansheng, 56, says his tiny frogs are so small they can only be seen clearly through a magnifying glass.

But he added that he was reluctant to tell his colleagues at the Jiangxi Science and Technology Normal University in Nanchang, Jiangxi Province, of his achievement.

"I am afraid my leaders and colleagues would say I am not devoted to my work, although I did all this in my spare time," said Hu.

The professor says his frogs are smaller than a mung bean at only half a centimetre long, but can leap more 10cm.

"This type of new frog is very small, but very active. They love sports," he explained.

Hu said the small frog was a cross-breed between several local frogs.

"Last year, I went to the suburbs and caught several types of frogs, and dedicated myself to cross-breeding them to make new frog types," he said.

Hu now plans to breed more mini frogs to sell as novelty pets.