Fun had by all at these two different African weddings

How's this for wedding dance fun?

Or this one?

A National Day of Mourning

Two aircraft lost in less than four months.

All souls lost those two terrible days.

Wherever you are. Whoever you are.

We are thinking of you.

RIP MH370 and MH17

Immoral not to abort if foetus has Downs syndrome....

Scientist says a mother has a responsibility to "abort it and try again" if she knows her baby would have DS.

What would you do? What would I do? Who is he to tell a woman what to do with her body, her child? Maybe the woman should be told? And the father? Does he have a say? Does religion have a role to play?

I don't know the answers. I just hope that those in this position have the strength to make the right decision. And whose ethical dilemma is it? Who decides who is the moral authority when it comes to life? And death?

Read the full story in today's The Guardian here

RIP James Foley

You were a true hero to the very end.

You knew the risks we all fear in this profession.

You faced your execution like a man. 

You looked death in the eye. And never blinked.

May God rest your soul.

Read the BBC story here

A True Story: Pushing my Limits

Kashmir's Death Valley

I was very close to serious injury, perhaps even death, had I not been rescued by a mule. 

Sheltering from the wind among the large boulders in Kashmir, India, I could hardly move.

I was quickly turning hypothermic in the high-altitude desert of the Indian Himalayas.

Lying on the ground, covered in dust and dirt, I waited for help.

I set my compact camera to video mode and recorded a short message for whoever found me.

While the contents of that message remain private, I still keep it on my computer hard drive to remind me of how close I was to death.

I felt like I had run a marathon and couldn’t catch my breath. For every step forward, I needed to stop to take a dozen deep breaths.

I had to stop, balancing heavily on my trekking poles for support.  I had to lie down, before I collapsed.

Acute Mountain Sickness, or AMS, can be deadly if you don’t know what you are up against.

It can hit you at altitudes of only 2300-meters. I was at double that. The lower pressure of the oxygen in the air at altitude is the danger.

I didn’t have any swelling in my limbs or face, or a nosebleed. Yet. My appetite was still huge, and I was sleeping very well with no headaches at all.  I was fighting fit, until that morning.

Now I couldn’t move my body. Despite months of training and a couple of weeks of acclimatizing to the altitude, AMS had struck me down when I least expected it. And I now had a pounding headache.

I could be dying from fluid on my lungs, hence my great difficulty in breathing. Or perhaps I just had a brain swelling?

The only way to avoid AMS is to descend to a lower altitude. And the only solution was to trek over the next mountain pass and down again. But I couldn’t move. And my guide was about half my size.

So he had gone ahead to look for one of our expedition’s mules that had overtaken us.

That mule was to be my saviour. The smelly, flea-ridden animal would carry me to safety.

The hour-and-a-half it took him to return with the mule was possibly the longest and most worrying 90-minutes of my life. I owe that mule.

It’s good to push your limits and feel alive.

But take notice when your body starts to misbehave. It’s a warning that your adventure may soon take a serious turn. Always have a buddy on hand to help out. Or a mule.

Children held in Nauru immigration detention camp

Nearly 200 children are being held in an immigration detention camp on Nauru Island in the South Pacific, due to Australian immigration violations.  Some without their parents.  

Most are from Iran, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, and Afghanistan, among others.

Their drawings and letters tell their story of their search for freedom in Australia. Please click here for the full story in today's The Guardian.

TGI Friday music quiz with Liam Gallagher

Liam Gallagher (bless him) is well known for his cutting and insulting comments made of other singers.

Find out who he doesn't rate in today's quiz here