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A man thought by doctors to be in a vegetative state for 23 years was actually conscious the whole time, it was revealed last night. Student Rom Houben was misdiagnosed after a car crash left him totally paralysed. He had no way of letting experts, family or friends know he could hear every word they said. Rom Houben was trapped in a coma for 23 years and had no way of letting anyone know he could hear what they were saying (pictured posed by model) 'I screamed, but there was nothing to hear,' said Mr Houben, now 46.

A 13-year-old boy suffocated to death after his parents left him trapped in their car for more than 12 hours on the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe. The French teenager had tried desperately escape from the locked vehicle, where he had been left after his parents spent an evening with friends. When they returned to their holiday villa at night, they went inside to bed leaving their son asleep in the car. His body was discovered slumped on the back seat of the high-security 4x4 vehicle, parked in full sunshine, when his parents woke up at 10am the following morning. Temperatures...

Ukraine gas blast kills 63 miners, traps 37 Last Updated: 1:40am GMT 19/11/2007 A gas explosion tore through a Ukrainian mine killing at least 63 men and trapping another 37 underground in shafts engulfed by fire and smoke. Officials said the chance of rescuing the survivors was "poor". A pocket of methane gas detonated at around 3?am local time at the Zasyadko mine in the Donetsk region at a depth of more than 3,280 feet, the Emergency Situations Ministry said. Yuri Zayats, the head of the Zasyadko coal mine's trade union council, said: "There is thick smoke in the shafts...

ARGHANDAB, Afghanistan - Afghan, U.S. and Canadian troops have surrounded a pocket of some 250 Taliban fighters who have commandeered people's homes in villages just outside Afghanistan's major southern city, officials said Wednesday. ADVERTISEMENT Hundreds of Afghans — their cars and tractors piled high with personal possessions — were fleeing the battleground about 15 miles north of Kandahar city. The provincial police chief said the combined forces have killed some 50 Taliban in three days of fighting. Three police and one Afghan soldier also have died, said Sayed Agha Saqib.

In one of the most hilarious cases of being tripped up by dubious scientific hype, British yachtsman Adrian Flanagan attempted to be the first to sail across the arctic north of Russia. He based his hope on the fact that he believed in the Global Warming propaganda that the arctic is rapidly losing its ice thus making his trip possible. One little problem. Cold cruel reality has crushed the Global Warming hype and now Flanagan's boat is trapped by ice in the arctic. To add to the irony, Flanagan who seems to be destined to go down in history as Wrong...

A Cabinet minister sought Wednesday to portray a mining accident that left 181 miners trapped and presumed dead as a natural disaster, deflecting criticism that more could have been done to save the workers. China's coal mine industry is the most dangerous in the world. Coal feeds most of China's energy needs, but accidents kill an average of 13 miners a day. Mining company officials also visited families and told them to stay at home. Some families said they received $265 — more than two months of the average miners' wages — to keep quiet.

PUTRAJAYA, Malaysia (Reuters) - Malaysia's best known Christian convert, Lina Joy, lost a six-year battle on Wednesday to have the word "Islam" removed from her identity card, after the country's highest court rejected the change. The ruling threatens to further polarize Malaysian society between non-Muslims who feel that their constitutional right to religious freedom is being eroded, and Muslims who believe that civil courts have no right to meddle in Islamic affairs. "You can't at whim and fancy convert from one religion to another," Federal Court Chief Justice Ahmad Fairuz Sheikh Abdul Halim said in delivering judgment in the case,...

NAHR AL-BARED, Lebanon (AFP) - Fears for thousands of civilians caught in the Lebanese army's siege of Islamist militants grew Sunday as those brave enough to escape told harrowing tales of survival. The United Nations made an urgent appeal for the safety of children among an estimated 10,000 mainly Palestinian civilians caught in the crossfire at the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp, where the Islamist gunmen are holed up. Lebanese troops encircled the camp a week ago, when fighting broke out with Fatah al-Islam militants that has killed 78 people, forced thousands to flee and trapped thousands more in unbearable conditions....

CNN's Eye of Sauron. CNN Airport Network is available in 42 of the busiest U.S. airports and is seen in more than 1,880+ gates and other viewing areas.

ORLANDO, Fla. -- A 14-year-old who was sucked to the bottom of a hotel hot tub and kept under water for at least seven minutes was likely saved by air his father breathed into his mouth during the ordeal. Aljuwon Pipkin, who was visiting Walt Disney World from New Jersey, became stuck at the bottom of the hot tub last Thursday at the Radisson Parkway Hotel. Officials said a grate at the bottom of the tub apparently broke and created a strong suction that pulled the teen underwater. Click here to find out more! Pipkin's father was at the pool...

Boys trapped by Mugabe mob are rescued By Mike Pflanz, East Africa Correspondent (Filed: 08/06/2006) Zimbabwean police yesterday rescued a six-year-old British boy held hostage at a friend's farm for almost 24 hours by drum-beating supporters of President Robert Mugabe. As the mob pounded on doors and windows, James Mackenzie and his friend Ross Grinham, also six, were barricaded into a room behind several locked internal gates by Ross's mother, Chantelle Grinham. The mob, members of Mr Mugabe's Zanu-PF party, kept up the drum-beating and chants for the farm's owners to leave throughout the night and all yesterday morning. Police...

Tasmania's miracle miners Todd Russell and Brant Webb fulfilled the promise to walk out of their rock prison before daybreak this morning after surviving almost 14 nights trapped a kilometre under the earth. "Yee-hah" were the men's first words when rescuers broke through the last metre into the rockfilled cavern where the men had been trapped since Anzac Day. The men slid down a vertical tunnel, were put onto roll-up stretchers and carried 36-metres to the Beaconsfield gold mine's main shaft. The men were checked by doctors and paramedics, took a shower and then took the lift to the surface...

A mining expert says the recovery operation at the Beaconsfield Gold mine in northern Tasmania is now reaching a highly technical phase. The anxious wait is continuing at the mine as rescuers prepare to bore a 12-metre-long tunnel to reach trapped miners Todd Russell and Brant Webb. After six days being trapped one kilometre underground, the two men are now receiving food, water and medication. The body of their colleague, Larry Knight, was brought to the surface last Thursday. Adelaide University Professor in Mining Geology Ian Plimer says at this stage of the rescue operation, extreme delicacy needs to be...

The rescue operation at the Beaconsfield Gold mine in northern Tasmania is now focussed on getting food and water to the two men trapped underground since last Tuesday. Rescue workers are continuing to edge towards Brant Webb and Todd Russell. The miners are close to receiving water and food via a hole drilled through 12 metres of rock. They have survived on supplies in their drink bottles, and water seeping through the mine, since their ordeal started six days ago. Family members have arrived at the mine to get more information about the rescue. The aunt of Brant Webb, Karina...

TWO men trapped 1km underground since last Tuesday have been miraculously found alive. Todd Russell, 35, and Brant Webb, 36, were found last night in Tasmania's Beaconsfield gold mine and have spoken with amazed rescuers. The men were captured on thermal imaging cameras as they huddled in the collapsed shaft of the gold mine. But there was still a lot of work needed to dig them out. The men were saved from the rock fall by the cherry-picker cage they were in. Brant Webb's mother-in-law, Julie Kelly, said it appeared a large slab of rock had fallen on the cage,...

MELVILLE, W.Va. -- Intense heat from an underground fire slowed rescue crews and threatened to collapse part of a mine as the search for two missing miners passed 41½ hours Saturday -- the time it had taken to find the bodies of 12 miners trapped in the Sago Mine less than three weeks earlier. Nineteen miners had escaped after a conveyor belt caught fire inside the Alma No. 1 mine Thursday evening, but two others never made it out.

VANCOUVER, Wash. - An 88-year-old woman, trapped in her car for six days after driving off the road on the way home from the grocery store, sustained herself by wiping condensation off the windshield with a towel and sucking the moisture, her son says. Mary Lillian Anderson was in satisfactory condition Thursday at Southwest Washington Medical Center. She was rescued Wednesday by a delivery truck driver who noticed the car stuck in blackberry bushes just off Interstate 5 and peered inside. He says he was braced for the sight of a body. "She was sitting right there, staring back at...

TALLMANSVILLE, W.Va. - In a stunning and heartbreaking reversal, mining officials told family members early Wednesday that 11 of the 12 trapped coal miners initially thought to have survived a mine explosion had died. The devastating news came more than three hours after Gov. Joe Manchin announced he had been told 12 of the miners survived the disaster. Rescue crews found the first victim earlier Tuesday evening. "About the confusion, I can't tell you of anything more heart-wrenching than I've ever gone through in my life. Nothing," Manchin said. The sole survivor of the disaster, identified by mining officials as...

LA authorities warn of more booby-trapped pens Dan Glaister in Los Angeles Wednesday December 7, 2005 The Guardian (UK) The authorities in Los Angeles have issued a warning to pupils after the discovery of three exploding pens. The latest booby-trapped device went off on Friday morning when a pupil picked up a marker pen lying on the floor in the boys' toilets. It went off in his hands. In August two other devices went off at El Monte district schools, injuring two others. The victims suffered minor burns and scratches on their hands and faces. Article continues

Saturday, September 03, 2005 (Appeals for immediate help and rescue posted on Nola blog within the last hour) Grandmother stranded in Ninth Ward 10:42 pm Name: Colette Leirer Home: 336 364-1840 Email: yankeebelle@peoplepc.com Subject: My Hurricane Story -- missing/stranded Story: Please help. My grandmother and uncle were in the ninth ward. They were at 6305 Burgundy St at the corner of Tricou, one block from Jackson Barracks on the Orleans Parrish side. We last heard from them on Monday at 4am as the water began rising into the house. They were moving upstairs. My grandmother, Elaire Schulz, is 81 yrs...

Man says Dr. Phil was inspiration to scare wife Fredonia man to serve 6 months, undergo counseling Port Washington - A Fredonia man who says he was influenced by TV talk show host "Dr. Phil" McGraw to hire someone to give his wife "a terrific scare" by kidnapping her and locking her in a truck of a car was sentenced Tuesday to six months in jail and ordered to undergo mental health counseling With the man's wife, five grown children and several friends looking on, Ozaukee County Circuit Judge Tom R. Wolfgram also sentenced Ronald J. Schueller to three years...

Trapped Russian mini-sub, crew rescued in Pacific Sun Aug 7, 2005 10:08 AM BST By Oliver Bullough MOSCOW (Reuters) - Rescuers cut free a Russian mini-submarine ensnared in deep-sea cables on Sunday, saving its seven crew with British help, after a three-day ordeal at the bottom of the Pacific with dwindling oxygen. "Today was a very happy event. The intensive work to free our submarine at a depth of 200 metres brought results... Our comrades in the crew opened the hatch themselves," said Admiral Viktor Fyodorov, commander of Russia's Pacific Fleet. "They behaved valiantly over these 76 hours under water,...

CNN just abnnounced a Brit robosub just cut the last cable holding the sub down, and Russians have communicated to freed sub, to prepare for emergency surfacing! Sub acknoledged HOOOORAAAAYYY!

PETROPAVLOVSK-KAMCHATSKY, Russia - U.S. and British planes carrying robotic undersea vehicles landed in Russia's Far East on Saturday to help rescue seven sailors trapped in a mini-submarine far below the Pacific Ocean. The crew's limited oxygen supply was dwindling, but officials couldn't say exactly how much remained. One official on Saturday said the supply might last until Sunday. Members of the U.S. Air Force 89th Aerial Port squadron unload the U.S. Navy Deep Drone 8000, a remotely operated salvage and diving vehicle, at Andrews Air Force Base Friday, Aug. 5, 2005 outside Washington. The unmanned U.S. Navy deep ocean recovery...

Boy Gets Trapped Inside Vending Machine ELKHART, Ind. - A 3-year-old boy upset that his mother wouldn't let him use a crane vending machine to try to win a small stuffed animal took matters in his own hands. He climbed up the chute to get the prize himself. Danielle Manges said she took her eyes off her son, James, for a moment to pick up a juice bottle he threw. When she looked up, he was in with the plush toys. "I bent over to clean it and within two seconds he had climbed through the hole, into the chute...

That's all I have so far.

British trapped in Basra vacuum (Filed: 30/08/2004) Iraqis urge the Army to reclaim the streets from Shia rebels, reports Thomas Harding in the troubled city After three deaths in as many weeks the British Army has stopped patrolling the streets of Basra, choosing instead to remain in barracks under daily bombardment despite pleas from residents to take on the Iraqi insurgents. With troops now moving only in Warrior armoured vehicles on patrols not more than 100 yards from base, forces loyal to the rebel cleric Moqtada al-Sadr have stepped into the power vacuum, roaming the streets with rocket-propelled grenades and...

Visa row erupts over trapped cavers The plight of five British military cavers and their guide trapped in a partly flooded Mexican cavern has erupted into a diplomatic controversy after the Britons apparently entered Mexico without permits or proper visas.President Vicente Fox ordered a letter of protest sent to the British government and demanded an explanation, as the Britons fumbled to explain the ill-fated expedition that left half their team trapped in the Alpazat caverns in central Puebla state. "I have instructed the Minister of Foreign Relations to take immediate action and file a note of protest, and demand a...

Trapped al-Qa'eda leader is Uzbek mullah (Filed: 21/03/2004) Bin Laden's number two is no longer believed to be the man cornered in Pakistan. Massoud Ansari and Philip Sherwell report on the other leading al-Qa'eda figure suspected of leading the resistance. A tribal family flees from their home as Pakistani troops intensify their hunt for militants in Wana A radical Uzbek mullah who is one of Osama bin Laden's most important lieutenants is believed to be the senior al-Qa'eda figure leading the resistance to a ferocious five-day Pakistani offensive in Waziristan, the Telegraph has learned. As heavy artillery and Cobra helicopter...

Al-Qa'eda 'mastermind' trapped By David Rennie in Washington (Filed: 19/03/2004) A battle was raging in the Pakistani tribal borderlands last night as hundreds of troops surrounded a "high-value al-Qa'eda target" protected by fanatical fighters. Pakistani officials said they believed they had cornered Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden's right-hand-man and physician. Egyptian-born al-Zawahiri, 52, helped to mastermind the September 11 attacks and numerous other atrocities. Osama bin Laden pictured in August 2001 with al-Zawahiri Officials said he was being defended by more than 200 al-Qa'eda guerrillas in mud-walled fortified villages. American intelligence officials were hoping he would be taken alive. A...

SHEBOYGAN (AP) -- A 7-year-old boy had to be rescued with the help of a locksmith Saturday after crawling into a supermarket's stuffed animal game machine while his father talked on the telephone. "He was sitting right in there with the stuffed animals," said Shift Commander Mark Zittel of the Sheboygan Fire Department. He said the boy, whose name was not released because he is a minor, crawled through about an 8-inch-by-10-inch opening to get into the glass enclosure via a chute where the toys come out, but when he tried to get back out his way was blocked. The...

Complex global web had arms dealer trapped from the very beginning Import-export trader out of his depth as intelligence agencies closed in Julian Borger in Newark and Nick Paton Walsh in Moscow Thursday August 14, 2003 Hemant Lakhani was in trouble from the moment he began talking to his American contact in December 2001. This was someone he could talk comfortably with in Urdu and Hindi and someone he clearly thought he could trust. But in the charge sheet presented against the London businessman which was published yesterday, his contact was identified as a "cooperating witness" - or CW -...

Mountaineer cuts off trapped arm with penknife By Andrew Gumbel 03 May 2003 A mountaineer whose right arm became trapped under a heavy boulder in a remote stretch of the eastern Utah desert took the drastic step of hacking off his own arm with a pocket knife before abseiling down a sheer rock wall and looking for help. The extraordinary story of Aron Ralston, a fitness fanatic and highly experienced mountaineer, hit the headlines yesterday as police officials from Green River, Utah, gave accounts of his bravery to American television. "He's pretty darn tough. He wanted to live. He saved...

This is huge. It means that Scott's boat was NEVER LAUNCHED.