Woman acquires British accent after routine dental surgery

A woman from Toledo, Oregon has developed a peculiar accent after undergoing routine dental surgery.

According to ABC News, Karen Butler, aged 56, now speaks with a British-like accent, along with a slight Transylvanian inflection.

“I had just had surgery, so at first we assumed it was because of all of the swelling,” Butler said.

“But within a week the swelling went…

Teenagers jailed over ‘Facebook for criminals’

Two British schoolboys have been jailed for running a website that provided a forum for criminals.

Nick Webber, 19, and Ryan Thomas, 18, created and operated GhostMarket.net, which gave details of tens of thousands of stolen credit cards. The site had about 8,000 members.

Teenagers jailed over ‘Facebook for criminals’ It contained instructions on ’14 ways of hacking credit cards’…

HISTORY OF ZANZIBAR

A Portuguese interlude: 16th – 17th century AD

The small tropical island of Zanzibar, a mere twenty miles off the east coast of Africa, has played a part in local history out of all proportion to its size. The reason is its easy access to traders and adventurers exploring down the east coast of Africa from Arabia. Islam is well…

HISTORY OF THE WAR OF THE AUSTRIAN SUCCESSION

Charles VI and the Pragmatic Sanction: AD 1720

The great issue dominating Austria in the years after the War of the Spanish Succession is again a problem of succession – this time relating to the remaining Habsburg territories, ruled from Vienna. The emperor Charles VI has a son, born in 1716, but the child dies before…

HISTORY OF UGANDA

Buganda: 19th century AD

Uganda, on the equator and surrounded by the great lakes of central Africa, is one of the last parts of the continent to be reached by outsiders. Arab traders in search of slaves and ivory arrive in the 1840s, soon followed by two British explorers. Speke is here in 1862. Stanley follows in 1875.

The ruler visited…

HISTORY OF TOGO

German colony: AD 1884-1914

The first German connection with Togo is the arrival of missionaries in 1847 to work among the largest tribal group in the region, the Ewe. German traders soon follow, establishing a base at Anécho on the coast.

When Bismarck decides to put together an off-the-peg German empire in Africa, Togo is one of the three places which…

HISTORY OF TANZANIA

Uncharted territory: to the 19th century AD

In the uncharted centuries of prehistory, Tanzania is criss-crossed by tribal trade routes linking the Great Lakes (Victoria and Tanganyika) with the coast. These are the same routes along which Arab traders subsequently move inland, searching for slaves and ivory.

In a second wave of penetration by outsiders, Europeans use Bagamoyo (opposite Zanzibar) as…

HISTORY OF SWAZILAND

Colonial rule: AD 1906-1967

In their small landlocked upland kingdom, under a British high commissioner from 1906, the Swazi preserve their tribal traditions more effectively than most other African nations. Part of the explanation is that little development occurs during the colonial period, because the status of the region is so uncertain.

The South Africa Act of 1909, creating the Union…

HISTORY OF SOMALIA

Between Arabia and Ethiopia

The land of the Somali people, much of it arid and inhospitable, has for thousands of years been close to civilization and international trade. To the north, just across the Gulf of Aden, is Saba, the land of the legendary Queen of Sheba and the earliest part of Arabia to prosper. To the west is Ethiopia,…

HISTORY OF SENEGAL

The Senegal and Gambia rivers: to AD 1894

For a vessel sailing down the west coast of Africa, the mouth of the Senegal river offers the first refreshing welcome after the parched territory of the western Sahara. Further south, round the difficult promontory of Cape Verde, is the even more enticing estuary of the Gambia. Here the channel is sufficiently…

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND

Skara Brae: c.2500 BC

In the extreme north of Scotland, in the Orkneys, a small neolithic community builds a village in about 2500 BC on a site already occupied for many generations. There is no wood on the island, so the walls of the one-room dwellings are of stone. So is the built-in furniture. There are stone beds and shelves…