At the age of six, pint-sized martial arts lover Alec Cross has become the youngest black belt taekwondo fighter in the country.
Alec, from Portsmouth, only took up the sport after watching it at the London Olympics two years ago but has breezed through eleven belts already.
To crack the black belt the young ninja had to perform a series of routines including breaking a three-quarter of an inch piece of wood in half with his bare hands.
Alec said: “It is great fun. I do moves like palm, punch, chop, side-kick, front-kick, jump, spin and spin-kicks.
“To get the black belt you have to smash the wood really hard and it hurts because it is really thick. I am so happy to get the belt already.” The primary school pupil trains twice a week at the TaeKwonDo Academy in Paulsgrove.
When not demonstrating his skills on older fighters, Alec puts on his pads and helmet to spar with his younger brother, Calan, five, who is also learning.
Proud mum Sandra, who has also taken up the sport, said: “He took to it straight away.
“We went up to the London Olympics and we saw some taekwondo and they had an arena just outside the venue where kids could put the gear on and do a few moves.
“He is quite a shy boy and doesn’t say an awful lot but he is definitely more confident through taekwondo. It is important to be able to defend yourself.”
So, this horse walks into a police station
A horse has been captured on CCTV cameras wandering into a police station in the early hours of the morning.
The brown and white stallion strolled through two sets of automatic doors at Cheshire Police Headquarters in Winsford.
The force released CCTV footage of the moment a civilian police worker challenged the horse as it came into the reception area.
Police later discovered the horse had broken loose from a field near the police headquarters and trotted into the station.
A police spokesperson said: “We like to ensure a warm welcome to all our guests at HQ and at ‘neigh’ point did the horse pose a risk to security.”
Mystery of polar bear on zebra crossing
A photograph of a young blonde woman apparently walking a polar bear over a crowded zebra cross in Tokyo is going viral online.
The mini-skirted woman seems to be walking the huge white bear on a lead in the middle of a crowd of people on the world-famous Shibuya Scramble crossing.
Internet users speculated the bear was either a robot or somebody dressed up in a sophisticated costume.
But dozens of people uploaded photographs and videos taken on their smartphones and uploaded them to social media websites.
One posted a video saying: “There’s someone taking a polar bear for a walk in Shibuya LOL.”
Popular theories included that it was a PR stunt for Lady Gaga, or part of a marketing campaign for ice cream or cosmetics
Some people thought it might be part of a conservation project warning of the dangers of global warming.
The woman and men with her were all wearing T-shirts with the “LALSH” printed on them, which is believed to be the name of as-yet unspecified group from Russia.
It has a Facebook page which mysteriously describes the group as an ‘organisation’ – but promises some sort of reveal in Shinjuku at the end of this month.
So far however no more information is available either on the realistic looking bear or the organisation.
Court to decide if chimps get ‘human rights’
A New York court is set to decide whether chimpanzees are entitled to “legal personhood” and the protections that go with it.
The case, which experts say is the first of its kind, revolves around Tommy the chimp, who is currently being kept by his owner in a cage in upstate New York.
Lawyer Steven Wise represents an animal rights group called the “Nonhuman Rights Project” and has been campaigning for decades to extend human rights to other intelligent animals.
Its website states: “Our mission is to change the common law status of at least some nonhuman animals from mere ‘things’, which lack the capacity to possess any legal right, to ‘persons’, who possess such fundamental rights as bodily integrity and bodily liberty, and those other legal rights to which evolving standards of morality, scientific discovery, and human experience entitle them.”
Mr Wise is seeking a ruling that 26-year-old Tommy has been unlawfully imprisoned and should be cared for in a Florida sanctuary. Previous lawsuits have been thrown out, but Mr Wise has appealed against the decision.
If the New York state appeals court rules in his favour it could strengthen the case for extended rights for other high intelligence animals such as dolphins and elephants.
The Boston-based lawyer has also lodged an appeal on behalf of another chimp called Kiko.
He is using a legal argument usually deployed by prisoners who feel they have been locked up illegally. Tommy’s owner, Patrick Laverty, has waived his right to make an argument before the court, but has said previously that Tommy actually lives in a state-of-the-art facility and that he has been on a waiting list for an animal sanctuary for some time. He told the Albany Times Union newspaper: “He’s got a lot of enrichment. He’s got colour TV, cable and a stereo … he likes being by himself.”
Some legal experts such as US Circuit Judge Richard Posner and New York University law professor Richard Epstein have criticised the court case.
According to Reuters news agency, both men believe that if animals are afforded the rights traditionally reserved for humans, courts could be overwhelmed by difficult legal questions.
Post published in: World News