(iWIDK By Nina Hoffman) – The response to a deadly earthquake in New Zealand is being questioned.

A husband who lost his wife in the massive New Zealand earthquakes of 2011 told an inquest of their heartbreaking final conversations. 

Dr. Tamara Cvetanov was trapped in the Canterbury Television tower when it collapsed, but initially survived and was able to call her husband using her teeth.

Search and rescue teams tried to get Cvetanov to text her location to them, but she had lost her fingers when the tower came down.

A coroner is currently investigating whether 8 of the 115 people who survived the collapse could have been saved.

Key listening equipment used to find victims was at another, smaller, collapsed site where 18 people ended up losing their lives.

The USAR engineer who would have used the equipment told the inquest that where it was to be used wasn’t his decision to make and that his bosses would have taken it to where there would have been the greatest chance of pulling out survivors.

A senior fire and rescue official, Jim Stuart-Black, has vigorously denied claims made by Cvetanova’s husband, Alec, that he told the man his wife’s death was inevitable.

Stuff.co.nz reported that Stuart-Black told the inquest, “I cannot accept that statement. Under no circumstances did I think anything along these lines, let alone say it. My statement would have been that we’re trying everything and that sometimes no matter what we do, we simply cannot get everyone out alive. I said very similar things to a number of people.”

Stuart-Black also faced questioning regarding his decision to not reach out to the UN for assistance, despite the fact that they may have been able to provided the necessary support to rescue the surviving 8. ”I … maintain, based on the arrival times of international teams, [it was] not appropriate to have an Undac team in Christchurch,” he said.

185 people died in the February 2011 tragedy. The inquest continues.

(iWIDK By Nina Hoffman) – A Good Samaritan saved a pooch from a cruel and painful death. 

A grocery store clerk rescued a pit bull that had been left to bleed to death after a failed home-neutering attempt.

Jan Durham found the dog leashed to a grocery cart outside of the Safeway where she worked in Springfield, Oregon.

The owners had left a bag of dog food and a note that read “Every little bit helps”.

Durham rushed the dog to a nearby vet clinic, where he was close to death.

Hospital manager Beth Mitchell told KVAL.com, “They tried to slice the skin open in the scrotal sack to remove the testicle and apparently, when our client brought him in, things were hanging out, he was bloody and it was painful.”

Durham paid for the surgery to fix the dog, whom she christened Buddy, out of her own pocket.

Durham is fostering Buddy until he can be adopted out.

(iWIDK By Nina Hoffman) – Makes you feel kind of bad for missing lectures because of the flu, right?

Cao Huishen isn’t letting a little thing like having no arms stop him from attending university to earn a degree in computer engineering. 

When Huishen was 8 years old, he lost both arms after burning them so badly they had to be amputated, and his mother told him only children who could read were allowed to go to school.

So the enterprising Chinese student taught himself to write and eventually type, sew and play guitar with his feet.

His story has inspired others, with one business man offering to pay for his tuition expenses and providing him with a job when he finishes school.

Huishen,19, told The Daily Mail, “I am not useless, I want to be a good citizen and to ensure I make a real contribution to society.”

(iWIDK By Nina Hoffman) – Racist twins face jail time after beating up a 10-year-old. 

Sandra and Sondra Karwell were arrested in Palm Bay, Florida, after they attacked a mother and her young son. 

The Karwell’s, 52, have a history of violence, with police charging Sandra only last month after she attempted to run over a child while on her bike.

In the most recent incident, neighbors reported an argument breaking out between the sisters and their neighbor.

According to 13 News, they set upon the woman, beating her in the head and body while shouting racial slurs.

When the woman’s 10-year-old attempted to pull the women off his mother, Sandra lifted him up by the hair and punched him several times.

The pair were charged with battery, child abuse and resisting arrest with bail set at $6,000 for Sandra and $2,000 for Sondra.

Both women have previously unsuccessfully applied for seats on local council.

(iWIDK By Nina Hoffman) – A cruel family went to desperate lengths to ensure their daughter stayed a virgin.

Yusara Farin, 51, has been placed on probation after abusing her daughter for talking to boy. 

The Iraqi mother, who lives in Phoenix, pleaded guilty to burning her daughter with a hot spoon and tying her down to the bed after she was spotted talking to a boy outside her school.

20-year-old Aiya Altameemi had told school officials that she protested against being forced into an arranged marriage with a 38-year-old resulting in abuse from her mother, sister, and father.

The abuse took place because the family wanted her to be a virgin on her wedding night.

Daily Mail reported that Farin was arrested after Aiya had to be taken to hospital after her mother severely beat her with a shoe.

During her trial, Farin pleaded not guilty, telling the judge, “‘I swear I didn’t hurt her, only slightly, just like any parent would do to their children.”

Aiya’s sister and father were also convicted on abuse charges.

(iWIDK By Nina Hoffman) – Seems like there’d be a pretty simple way to check, no?

A mother had to wait three months before doctors would officially confirm she had given birth to  a girl, Aolani Argyle, despite the fact she was born with female genitals.

Aolani Argyle was born 15 weeks premature and spent the first three months of her life in intensive care.

Emma Sohrabin was stunned when, after the difficulties following her child’s birth, doctors informed her they could not officially confirm if the newborn was a girl or a boy.

Aolani was born with Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia, a rare and life-threatening disease for which there is no cure.

According to Daily Mail, the condition means Aolaini, “didn’t have the enzyme needed to make the hormones cortisol and aldosterone. Without these hormones, the body produces more androgen, a type of male sex hormone. This can cause enlarged genitals, leading doctors to question Aolani’s sex.”

Doctors eventually confirmed the child was female, but she may require surgery later in life to correct the appearance of her genitals.

(iWIDK By Nina Hoffman) – A family trip to the zoo ended in horrifying tragedy for one Pittsburgh family.

A 2-year-old boy died in a vicious mauling after his mother lost her grip on him while holding him above a railing. 

The pair had been looking at an African wild dog exhibit when the child slipped and fell 14 ft into the enclosure.

Almost immediately he was surrounded by 11 of the animals who began to savagely attack him.

The Huffington Post reports that Zoo authorities responded within minutes, but as the animals had entered into a pack mentality it was difficult to draw them away from the boy.

They managed to drive 7 of the dogs into the back of the enclosure, but one animal had to be shot due to its aggressive continued attacks.

Police have been unable to determine at this time if the boy was killed by the fall or the mauling.

(iWIDK By Nina Hoffman) – A Photographer famous for his large-scale nudes got ghostly on Día de los Muertos.

Spencer Tunick shot 150 volunteers for a work entitled Spirits,  commissioned by the Festival of Skeletons in Mexico. 

 Tunick dressed his models in transparent white sheets for the shoot which celebrated the Mexican ‘Day of the Dead,’ a celebration designed to honor friends and family who have died.

This is not the first nude photo shoot Tunick has done, nor the largest.

Fox News Latino noted that in 2007 Tunick filled the Zocalo Plaza in Mexico City with 18,000 nude subjects.

(iWIDK By Nina Hoffman) – Pictures of privates and plenty o’ guns – sounds like a fun guy!

Police were alarmed to find a huge gun collection at the home of a gynecologist who was also keeping secret snaps of his patients’ genitals. 

Authorities were responding to allegations of misconduct against Dr Christian Koller of Munich, when they stumbled across his huge weaponry collection.

Koller, who described himself as “an obsessed collector” had a licence for some of the guns, but “nothing on this scale” officers told The Daily Mail.

Police discovered 700 guns and thousands of rounds of ammunition during their search.

Dr Koller gave up his medical license following the raid.

(iWIDK By Nina Hoffman) – A furry feline helped a bum turn his life around.

James Bowen was suffering from a heroin addiction and busking to make a living when a chance encounter with a stray saved his life – and made him a best selling author. 

Bowen found Bob the cat abandoned with an injury outside of his apartment and after three days of not being claimed, he took him to the RSPCA to have him looked at.

The broke busker spent all of the money he had buying medication to get the animal back to full health, and he was rewarded with undying loyalty.

Bob began to follow 33-year-old Bowen out busking on the streets of London and became popular with the locals who would make the cat scarves and jackets to wear.

As Bob’s fame grew, he gained a Facebook following and videos of him high-fiving Bowen began showing up on YouTube.

One day, according to the Islington Tribune, Bowen was approached by literary agent Mary Pachnos who said she had seen the pair in the street and wanted to know their story.

After hearing Bowen’s journey and the help Bob had given him, she encouraged him to write a book.

That paved the way for A Street Cat Named Bob, which shifted 200,000 copies and spent 6 weeks on top of the Sunday Times best seller list and landed Bowen a Hollywood movie deal.

With his new found fame the recovered junkie told reporters  he would never go back to his old ways. “I’ll never go back to drugs. I’ve learnt too much and grown up…It’s all down to Bob. For the first time, I felt like I had family. It gave me the determination to make my life more comfortable, to make his life better, too.”

(iWIDK By Nina Hoffman) – What is more amazing, writing a book on Blackberry, or the fact people are still using Blackberry phones?

Georgia Campbell made a bet with her daughter and ended up producing a 55,000 word novel that has been picked up by publishers. 

Campbell was watching the low-budget British alien invasion movie Attack The Block and argued with her daughter that she could write a better script.

Her 14-year-old bet her she couldn’t, and so the mother-of-three began spending every spare moment dedicated to the task.

She decided to write the novel on the memo pad of her Blackberry because it was something she always had with her.

Campbell, who works as a chef at the U.S Embassy, told Express.co.uk that she became “immersed” in the task, and completed 200 pages in just four months.

The novel, which has been described as a “gritty thriller,” is available on amazon.com.

(iWIDK By Nina Hoffman) – A young boy lost his life for not studying hard enough. 

7-year-old Yaseen Ali Ege died after his mother allegedly beat him to death and set him on fire because he failed to learn the Koran fast enough.  

Sara Ege has been accused of brutally beating her son and then setting his corpse on fire to hide her crime.

It was initially believed that Yaseen’s death had been an accident, however a post-mortem revealed that he had been suffering beatings for months leading up to his July 2010 death.

Firefighters who were present on the scene said in court that the situation was very strange and that Yaseen’s father seemed unusually calm.

An attending paramedic testified that 32-year-old Ege was suffering from smoke inhalation and clearly knew her son was dead by the time they had arrived.

An examination of her clothing later revealed barbecue fluid on her dress.

The Telegraph reported that in an interview with police Ege said, “I was trying to teach him the Koran.  I was getting more and more frustrated.  If he didn’t read it properly I would be very angry — I would hit him… I was getting all this bad stuff in my head, like I couldn’t concentrate, I was getting angry too much, I would shout at Yaseen all the time.”

The court heard that in the months leading up to Yaseen’s death, Ege told her GP she heard voices telling her to kill her son and that after he had died she felt “100% better”.  Notes kept by her doctor reveal that after her son’s death Ege told him, “It is like something has been released. For three or four months I have not been normal.”

However, Ege later retracted her confession and testified in court that it was her husband who had killed their son and told his brother to set fire to the body to hide the beatings.

The case was initially heard in June, but after 13 hours deliberation, the jury foreman informed the judge they would be unable to ever reach a verdict.

The retrial is currently in session.

(iWIDK By Nina Hoffman) – A total cat-astrophy was diverted as 500 felines were saved from ending up on the dinner table. 

A truck headed for restaurants was intercepted in China with a cargo of 500 cats, all crammed in cages or burlap sacks.

The animals were saved when police stopped the vehicle during a routine traffic inspection in the Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province.

The Mirror reported that Officer Sun Hai instructed the driver to uncover his load, and were “shocked to find a full load of living cats.”

They quickly cut into the bags to save the cats from suffocation.

A local rescue group was called and removed the animals to a nearby shelter.

Chinese people have eaten cat and dog for centuries, although in the last 10 years a move has been made to phase it out of the diet, most notably with the removal of dog meat from restaurant menus during the 2008 Olympic Games.