The animal hospital at the New York Aquarium won’t officially open until summer, but the $14.5 million facility already had to admit a few patients.

Fonzie, the aquarium’s 22-year-old California sea lion, had an eye problem that needed immediate attention; Danny, the California sea otter, developed a serious fur condition; and JD, one of the aquarium’s female fur seals, had an upset stomach that could have been contagious.

There were also a few short-term patients at the new hospital last week. A green iguana and a red-footed tortoise both needed complete physicals before moving on to other Wildlife Conservation Society zoos.

“We always check and do X-rays before animals are transferred from one location to another,” said Catherine McClave, who is in charge of aquatic health sciences at the aquarium.

The new hospital is one-of-a-kind in the area, said newly appointed aquarium director John Dohlin. For the first time, all 10,000 animals in the collection — from a 20-gram sea horse to a 4,000-pound walrus — can be cared for under one roof.

“In the past, the smaller animals in our collection could be treated here in small, makeshift buildings we had outfitted for medical use, but we had none specifically designed for that purpose,” said Dohlin.

“The larger animals sometimes had to be transported to the Bronx Zoo, which was very stressful to the animals and to the staff,” Dohlin added.

Just about anything you’d find in a hospital for humans can be found at the aquarium facility. There’s an operating room, X-ray machines, plus a kitchen for preparing special meals and infant formulas.
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Scheming Manhattan doctors and medical workers who ran up $6 million in fraudulent insurance billings were busted yesterday, police said.

The fraud ring, run out of the St. Nicholas Ave. Medical Center in Washington Heights, unraveled after it was infiltrated by two undercover cops last fall, officials said.

Word had spread in the neighborhood that anyone visiting the clinic could make a quick buck if they were willing to milk minor car accidents for big medical bills, NYPD Lt. Edwin Martinez said.

The undercover cops, introduced to the St. Nicholas doctors by a confidential informant, only had to show the clinic’s personnel an NYPD accident report.

They were then coached through getting $10,000 worth of bogus treatment - billed to the insurance companies with kickbacks all around, Martinez said.

Everyone took a piece of the pie, Martinez said, with the lion’s share going to the accused owner and operator Gregory Vinarsky, who lives in a luxe pad on the upper East Side.

Vinarsky, along with two doctors and 11 other participants - including medical technicians and an acupuncturist - were swept up yesterday. All pleaded not guilty to insurance fraud charges.
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NEW YORK — A 72.22-carat diamond, so large it could fill a tablespoon, is expected to bring up to $13 million when it goes on auction next month.

Cut from an original rough diamond, the D-color, flawless gem is prized for its pear shape and GIA-graded excellent polish and symmetry. D-color is actually colorless and considered the most highly valued.

It was previewed in Manhattan on Monday and will be offered on April 10 at Sotheby’s Hong Kong galleries, which estimates its value at $10 million to $13 million. The buyer has the privilege of naming the stone.

Sotheby’s said the most expensive diamond and jewel sold at auction, the pear-shaped, 100.10 carat Star of Season, brought $16.5 million in May 1995.

Joshua Irizarry is all of 12 years old. That hardly stopped him from applying for the job of football coach at West Virginia University.

Insisting it was a “completely serious offer,” the Connecticut boy outlined his skills in a letter to West Virginia president Mike Garrison when the job opened in December. They included “making up new plays to fool defenses in local sandlot games.”

The kid also has an eye for marketing.

“Consider the publicity your campus would receive,” he wrote in the letter. “I understand this would be a move more suited for a team like Temple, but I am just asking for your consideration.

“Don’t think of this as hiring a 12-year-old kid from a nowhere town, but think of this as hiring a dedicated football mind trying to help a team,” he said. “I would work for any conditions you would wish to provide.”

In the end, Garrison settled for what he assured the boy was “an equally qualified candidate” to succeed Rich Rodriguez, who quit in December for the same post at Michigan. Former WVU assistant coach Bill Stewart now holds the title.

But in February, the president honored the boy’s two alternative requests — a written response and an autographed photo of his favorite Mountaineer, freshman running back Noel Devine.
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Japan is investigating a possible defect in Apple Inc.’s iPod after one of the popular digital music players reportedly shot out sparks while recharging, a government official said Wednesday.

An official at the trade and economy ministry, which oversees product problems, said a defect is suspected in the lithium-ion battery in the iPod Nano, model number MA099J/A. He spoke on customary condition of anonymity, saying he is reiterating a ministry position.

The problem surfaced in January in Kanagawa Prefecture southwest of Tokyo, and Apple reported the problem to the ministry in March. No one was injured, the official said. Other details weren’t available.

Apple Japan did not contest the ministry statement but declined further comment. Nano players are sold all over the world, and it was still unclear where else besides Japan the suspected model was sold, said Masayoshi Suzuki, an Apple spokesman in Tokyo.

The ministry has instructed Apple Japan to find out the cause of what it is categorizing as a fire and report back to the government.

The iPod was assembled in China, but it was unclear who made the lithium-ion battery, the ministry official said.

Lithium-ion batteries have been blamed for a series of blazes in laptops recently that have resulted in massive global recalls.

The ministry said Apple has shipped about 425,000 iPods of the same suspected model were shipped into Japan. It was unknown how many have been sold and how many might still be in stores.
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When Manuel Uribe went out on a date, he made all the necessary arrangements: a forklift to carry him out of the house and a flatbed tow truck big enough to haul the formerly half-ton man and his bed to a party.

But even the open road wasn’t big enough to handle Uribe’s dream of celebrating a budding romance and his success in losing about 440 pounds.

Uribe was halfway to a picnic near his Monterrey-area home on Sunday when one of the posts holding a sun-shielding tarp over his bed hit an overpass.

Uribe’s blood pressure dropped so much his doctors advised him not to go on and the celebration - being documented by about two dozen photographers and reporters from around the world - was canceled.

“We were going to celebrate that I’ve been losing weight for two years and that it was my girlfriend’s birthday,” Uribe said in a telephone interview. “The saddest part was that I couldn’t fulfill my dream of taking my girlfriend out to eat.”

Uribe says that after losing weight on a high-protein diet he started two years ago, he’s down to about 800 pounds.

Last year, Uribe left his house for the first time in five years. Six people pushed his iron bed on wheels out to the street as a mariachi band played and a crowd gathered to see the man who once weighed 1,235 pounds).
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A dolphin swam up to two distressed whales that appeared headed for death in a beach stranding in New Zealand and guided them to safety, witnesses said Wednesday.

The actions of the bottlenose dolphin — named Moko by residents who said it spends much of its time swimming playfully with humans at the beach — amazed would-be rescuers and an expert who said they were evidence of the species’ friendly nature.

The two pygmy sperm whales, a mother and her calf, were found stranded on Mahia Beach, about 500 kilometers (300 miles) northeast of the capital of Wellington, on Monday morning, said Conservation Department worker Malcolm Smith.

Rescuers worked for more than one hour to get the whales back into the water, only to see them strand themselves four times on a sandbar slightly out to sea. It looked likely the whales would have to be euthanized to prevent them suffering a prolonged death, Smith said.

“They kept getting disorientated and stranding again,” said Smith, who was among the rescuers. “They obviously couldn’t find their way back past (the sandbar) to the sea.”

Along came Moko, who approached the whales and led them 200 meters (yards) along the beach and through a channel out to the open sea.

“Moko just came flying through the water and pushed in between us and the whales,” Juanita Symes, another rescuer, told The Associated Press. “She got them to head toward the hill, where the channel is. It was an amazing experience. The best day of my life.”

Anton van Helden, a marine mammals expert at New Zealand’s national museum, Te Papa Tongarewa, said the reports of Moko’s rescue were “fantastic” but believable because the dolphins have “a great capacity for altruistic activities.”

These included evidence of dolphins protecting people lost at sea, and their playfulness with other animals.

“We’ve seen bottlenose dolphins getting lifted up on the noses of humpback whales and getting flicked out of the water just for fun,” van Helden said.

“But it’s the first time I’ve heard of an inter-species refloating technique. I think that’s wonderful,” said van Helden, who was not involved in the rescue but spoke afterward to Smith.

Smith speculated that Moko responded after hearing the whales’ distress calls.

“It was looking like it was going to be a bad outcome for the whales … then Moko just came along and fixed it,” he said. “They had arched their backs and were calling to one another, but as soon as the dolphin turned up they submerged into the water and followed her.”

After the rescue, Moko returned to the beach and joined in games with local residents, he said.

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands—Like a herd of antelope, jockeying and shoving for position, 150 young women raced down Amsterdam’s most famed fashion street in stiletto heels Thursday, racing for a $15,000 prize.

The race on the P.C. Hooft street called the “Stiletto Run” is only three years old but has quickly grown in popularity and spawned imitation races in Germany, Sweden, Poland and Russia.

The race’s motto is “Shopping is a Sport” and friendly competition is encouraged—though not always observed.

“At the start there was a lot of pushing, you really get elbowed over,” said Fauve Stukje, 18, who came with a small entourage and a big pink sign—but failed to win, show or place.

She said she slightly regretted her choice of shoes, which were nearly 4 inches high—a little higher than the 3 1/2 inch minimum.

Tamara Ruben, 25, from the town of Veenendaal, claimed first prize in the 380-yard race, running so smoothly you might think she was wearing sneakers.

Asked how she would spend the money, she said: “Anything but high heels.”

BEIJING—A spurned Chinese wife set fire to more than 400 cell phones owned by her and her husband after he walked out on their marriage, a news agency reported Friday. The official Xinhua News Agency said the 37-year-old woman, identified only by her surname Wang, was arrested for arson.

The couple had owned a successful retail phone business in Weifang, the eastern province of Shandong. However, their shaky relationship hit rock bottom when her husband left her on March 3, the news agency reported, citing the local Qilu Evening News.

Overcome with despair, the woman gathered up their entire stock of more than 400 new mobile phones, reportedly valued at more than 300,000 yuan ($42,000), and set them on fire, before walking out of the house, the report said.

Neighbors who saw smoke coming from the house called firefighters, who quickly extinguished the blaze.

TULSA, Okla.—Two fortune cookies helped Tulsa police make an arrest after a pair of break-ins Chinese restaurants. Terrence Middleton, 30, was booked Friday on charges of second-degree burglary and attempted second-degree burglary after police responded to a burglar alarm to find him with more than $20 in coins and the cookies in his pockets, Officer Leland Ashley said.

Middleton was being held on $15,000 bond.

Ashley said police were able to link Middleton to the Asian Express that was robbed because he had possession of the same type of fortune cookies that were at the restaurant.

The alarm went off at the Asian Express about 14 minutes after one sounded at the Chinese Chef Restaurant down the street Thursday night, Ashley said.

When officers arrived, both restaurants had their front doors broken. At the second restaurant, the cash register had been pulled open.

Minutes later, officers stopped Middleton, who was walking down the street, and he dropped various coins and a prison identification card, Ashley said.

Ashley said it appeared there was nothing stolen from the first restaurant, and all that was missing from the second restaurant was $20 in change—and the fortune cookies.

PRINCE GEORGE, British Columbia—A man in Prince George, British Columbia, thought he had the perfect way to propose to his high school sweetheart. Instead of popping the question on a moonlit Caribbean beach this week, though, Aaron Tkachuk, 24, wound up popping the question to Jennifer Rubadeau, also 24, at an airport security screening station.

A screener at the Prince George airport, Adam Buhler, insisted on having a closer look at the contents of a small box in the toe of a sock. Inside the box was a white gold, diamond and ruby ring.

Tkachuk decided to propose on the spot, and other travelers and security personnel cheered as Rubadeau said yes.

CLEVELAND—A scrawny, black and white female kitten has apparently survived a trip across the Pacific Ocean and North America inside a shipping crate. Cleveland Animal Protective League Executive Director Sharon Harvey says a Cleveland company that received the crate of spooled steel coil Friday found the kitten inside one the spools.

Harvey says the mother cat and other kittens found in the crate were dead. The crate came to Samsel Supply Co. from Singapore. It was sealed Feb. 4 and shipped three days later.

The approximately 12-week-old kitten has been checked by a veterinarian and has responded well to being fed.

It will be kept in quarantine for about three weeks to make sure it doesn’t pass any infectious disease to other animals.

ROCKVILLE, Md.—No matter what the cameras say, some drivers are refusing to pay dozens of $40 speeding fines. Who? Police officers.

In the last eight months of 2007, Montgomery County’s new speed cameras recorded 224 cases in which police vehicles were recorded traveling more than 10 mph over the speed limit, according to department records.

Supervisors dismissed 76 of those citations after determining the officers were responding to calls or had valid reasons to break the speed limit.

But that left 148 who didn’t have that excuse, and about two-thirds of those citations haven’t been paid, said police Lt. Paul Starks.

The police union says officers shouldn’t pay because the citations are issued to the owner of a vehicle, in this case the county, and not to the driver.

Police Chief Thomas Manger doesn’t buy that argument.

“We are not above the law,” Manger said. “It is imperative that the police department hold itself to the same standards that we’re holding the public to.”

Manger said officers who continue to ignore citations might be disciplined.

SPRINGFIELD, Ore.—For guys who park in front of the TV during college basketball’s March Madness, the Oregon Urology Institute has a suggestion: Why not use that time to recover from a vasectomy?

“When March Madness approaches you need an excuse … to stay at home in front of the big screen,” the clinic’s radio ad says. “Get your vasectomy at Oregon Urology Institute the day before the tournament starts. It’s snip city.”

Institute Administrator Terry FitzPatrick said men need two to four days to recover from the procedure—but not all take the time.

He’s reserved a dozen appointment slots for March 19, the day before the first tipoffs of the NCAA Tournament, and another dozen for March 26, before the tournament’s second week.

He reported filling 15 slots by Thursday afternoon and expects to fill all 24.

The sports radio station broadcasting the clinic’s ads promises to send each patient a recovery kit of sports magazines, free pizza delivery and a bag of frozen peas.

Peas?

“The frozen peas are malleable enough that you can get them right in there and get the swelling down,” FitzPatrick said.

YELLOW SPRINGS, Ohio—No, that’s not a hallucination. That pear tree is wearing a sweater.

Wrapped around the trunk is a colorful, crazy-quilt skin made up of panels of yarn knitted individually by residents and visitors alike. Good-luck charms cling to the yarn. Family photos, poems and jokes peek out of knitted pockets.

The art project in this southwest Ohio village, already known for its offbeat art, has become a conversation piece and even a photo op.

“What takes this to a different level is it is a community thing,” said Corrine Bayraktaroglu, an artist who helped start the “knitknot tree” project. “People are really, really enjoying it. They’re coming from towns to have their photograph taken with the tree. They’re adding stuff to the pockets.”

Knitters around the U.S. are dressing trees, street signs, benches, door handles and other objects.

Last month, residents of Columbus, Ind., knitted cozies for 33 ornamental pear trees that line the city’s main street. One tree, called the People Hugger, has knitted arms.

Knitted coverings are showing up on trees and doorknobs in Charleston, W.Va. In Houston, knitters have dressed up park benches, car antennas, telephone poles and beer bottles.

“It’s fascinating what’s going on in the knitting world,” Bayraktaroglu said. “Graffiti street art is going to a whole different realm. It’s gone beyond just painting on sides of buildings.”

Artist Carol Hummel is among the pioneers. She crocheted a cozy for a tree in front of City Hall in Cleveland Heights several years ago. It took her 500 hours and the use of a hydraulic lift to dress the upper branches.

The cozy has survived several winters and even a swarm of cicadas, which left their molted skins clinging to the material.

“There are a lot of copycats now,” Hummel said. “A lot of people are getting into putting things on the trees. That’s cool.”

In Yellow Springs, the first knitted panel—a gold piece with the words “Knitknot Tree” and a smiley face—went up in October. It wasn’t until early February that more panels began to be added.

“Then it just took off like crazy,” Bayraktaroglu said. “People were coming from out of town and adding their own knitting.”

Artist Nancy Mellon said people love to come up and touch the tree, and children like to check out what’s in the pockets.

“There was a man—while I was working on the tree—who walked by, and all he said was ‘Thank you,’” Mellon said.

Other residents in this village about 15 miles east of Dayton also seem to like the dressed-up tree.

“It looks like Yellow Springs; it’s unique, it’s colorful, unpredictable,” said Lynda Sirk. “It makes me smile. That’s what I like.”

The tree is vulnerable to the raised legs of passing pooches. Because of that, the panels of yarn don’t extend all the way to ground level.

As the panels spread up the trunk, the knitters had to follow, first standing on a chair, then a three-step ladder, a 6-foot ladder and finally an 8-foot ladder. They finally decided they had gone high enough after someone suggested scaffolding and village officials began to worry about someone falling.

“The fear factor has kicked in,” Mellon said.

The artists who started the project tentatively plan to remove the knitting on Arbor Day at the end of April and give away the pieces of yarn.

But Bayraktaroglu has some reservations about that.

“People get very attached,” she said, “and I think they’ll be mad at us if we cut it down.”