children

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A Burmese python measuring 17 feet in length was caught on the grounds of the Okeechobee Veterinary Hospital - the male snake weighed 207 pounds and measured 26 inches in diameter. The snakes are often abandoned by disgruntled pet owners when they become too large to handle and too expensive to feed. 150,000 snakes "out of control" & spreading - they can reproduce rapidly with female pythons laying up to 80 eggs at a time, and have no natural predators in Florida.

Fla. trapper captures 14-foot python near day care center  read more »

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Before being saved on Sunday morning (July 12), a missing baby boy was "navigating" his battery-powered toy truck in a wild ride down B.C.'s Peace River for 12 kilometers over 2 hours on his 3rd birthday. When spotted, the toddler was kneeling on all fours on top of the overturned car, sitting in about three meters of water, according to Fort St. John RCMP. "He was wet from his knees down, and his hands were wet, but this torso was okay". Rescued from the swirling 10ft deep water, the boy was insisting that he wanted to get back on his “boat”, and he “had made his truck into a boat and rode down the river.” The baby navigator was in good shape except for needing a diaper change.

The boy was not wearing a lifejacket, just a diaper and T-shirt at the time. He went missing from his family's campsite in the Peace Island Park just after 7 a.m. Sunday. Campers joined Fort St. John RCMP in a full-scale search of the park to find him. Don Loewen spotted the boy more than two hours after he went missing while searching the river with four other men in his boat.  read more »

According to UNHCR, 2.1 million Afghan refugees were reported in 72 asylum countries; UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon visits the camps for displaced persons in northern Sri Lanka; Red Cross: refugee status in Sri Lanka "very critical"

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"Earth Song" - written & composed by Michael Jackson, released on November 27, 1995. It centered around the destruction and rebirth of Earth and went on to receive a Grammy nomination in 1997. The song was a top five hit in most European countries. In the UK, it remains Jackson's best-selling single. "Earth Song" was not released as a single in the United States.

Lyric excerpts:

What about sunrise
What about rain
What about all the things
That you said we were to gain...
What about killing fields
Is there a time
What about all the things
That you said was yours and mine...
Did you ever stop to notice
All the blood we've shed before
Did you ever stop to notice
The crying Earth the weeping shores?
Aaaaaaaaaah Aaaaaaaaaah

What have we done to the world
Look what we've done
What about all the peace
That you pledge your only son...
What about flowering fields
Is there a time
What about all the dreams
That you said was yours and mine...
Did you ever stop to notice
All the children dead from war
Did you ever stop to notice
The crying Earth the weeping shores? …Aaaaaaaaaah…
I used to dream
I used to glance beyond the stars
Now I don't know where we are
Although I know we've drifted far…Aaaaaaaaaah…

Hey, what about yesterday (What about us)
What about the seas (What about us)
The heavens are falling down (What about us)
I can't even breathe (What about us)
What about the bleeding Earth (What about us)
Can't we feel its wounds (What about us)
What about nature's worth (ooo,ooo)
It's our planet's womb (What about us)
What about animals (What about it)
We've turned kingdoms to dust (What about us)
What about elephants (What about us)
Have we lost their trust (What about us)
What about crying whales (What about us)
We're ravaging the seas (What about us)  read more »

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His music is a lasting legacy. As a songwriter, singer and dancer, Michael Jackson was an undoubted genius and the most important pop-music figure since Elvis Presley as well as being related to him, marrying Elvis Presley’s daughter Lisa Marie in 1964. Michael Jackson has two lovely children: daughter Paris and son Prince with ex-wife Debbie Rowe. Most of Michael Jackson's closest friends had also been child stars, one of them is actress Elizabeth Taylor who said "I loved Michael with all my soul...I don't think anyone knew how much we loved each other - the purest most giving love I've ever known."

MICHAEL JACKSON  read more »

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Photos from National Geographic Best Photo Awards - Nature.

Top left: Glass might have separated Morgan Hurley from Kimani, one of the lowland gorillas at the Franklin Park Zoo, but these two didn't seem to have any trouble sizing one another up. When Kimani wandered off to check out some other visitors, Morgan did her best to get the young gorilla's attention.

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Photos courtesy of authorstream.com, izismile.com, greenexpander.com, Bill Brett / Boston.com, and National Geographic

Original Source: Boston Globe