London, September 28 (ANI): Hundreds of people in London dressed themselves in gorilla outfits to raise money for charity.

Approximately 750 runners participated in the '2008 Great Gorilla Charity Run' setting a world-record for the largest-ever gathering of people wearing gorilla costumes.

The 7km event that took place in London on September 27 had been organised by 'The Gorilla Organization' - a charity based to protect Central African gorillas from becoming extinct.

Hoping to raise 200,000 pounds, Jillian Miller, the charity director claimed that the event was becoming more successful with every passing year.

"The event has got better every year and the atmosphere among the runners and spectators is incredible," Telegraph quoted him as saying.

Bill Oddie, the conservationist and BBC's 'Springwatch' presenter, who fired the starting pistol, said: "It is great that people are prepared to put so much effort into something so worthy, while maintaining such good humour." (ANI)

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Melbourne, September 28 (ANI): One in five Australian parents is 'unfit' to be a parent, says leading child-health expert Professor Fiona Stanley.

Owing to either excessive professional commitment or lack of parenting skills, or simply the lack of means, the health of future children is bound to suffer.

"There are a worrying number of threats to children's health in society today," News.com.au quoted the expert as saying.

"If we don't respond to these challenges ... we will be looking at our generation, my generation, as being the last generation that lives longer than its parents," she added.

Insisting on the urgency of the situation as grave as that of the global warming, Professor Stanley criticized the Federal Government's policy on paid parental leave.

She said: "The fact we don't have maternity leave or parental leave in Australia is just indicative of our lack of valuing of parents."

"There's this increasing group of parents who are just not making ends meet.

"And they may represent as much as 20 per cent of the population when you add in Aboriginal people and the most disadvantaged in society."

The Australian epidemiologist further warned against mental illness, obesity, asthma and substance abuse as the principal threats facing the future generation. (ANI)

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London, Sept 28 (ANI): Brit kids as young as nine are being forced to get married by their families, it has been revealed. The revelation comes after official figures revealed that the Government's Forced Marriage Unit rescued around 60 kids aged 15 or under in the past four years.

The cases have fuelled concerns that large numbers of children are disappearing from British schools to be forced into wedlock overseas.

Karma Nirvana, a charity that runs a national helpline on forced marriage and "honour"-based crimes, revealed that in one incident a nine-year-old girl from a Pakistani family in the east Midlands was taken into council care after her parents told her she was to wed.

Jasvinder Sanghera, director of Karma Nirvana, said that on average four children a month aged under 16 have contacted its helpline since it launched in April.

"The youngest child we have dealt with was nine years old. The girl told her teacher she was going to be forced to marry someone and initially she was not believed," Telegraph quoted her, as saying.

"Ultimately, with the help of the Forced Marriage Unit, she was dealt with through child protection procedures. She was assessed and, thankfully, taken into foster care," she added.

Sanghera has urged ministers to make sure primary school kids are taught about forced marriage and given advice on how to avoid becoming a victim. (ANI)

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London, Sept 28 (ANI): Ever wondered how easy it would be if we could shop for clothes without having to try them on? Well, that vision could soon become a reality, thanks to the 'magic mirror" developed by researchers in Berlin.

Scientists at Heinrich-Hertz-Institut (HHI) in Berlin said that this mirror-like display enables shoppers to see themselves wearing different items of clothing without having to undo a single button.

The computerized mirror takes a life-size 3-D image of customers' bodies and "dresses" them in a picture of the outfits they have chosen.

At this pioneering stage, shoppers can navigate around a control panel at the side of the mirror to change the colour and pattern of the clothes they have tried on.

Researchers hope soon to be able to change clothes on screen without the need to struggle with zips or buttons.

"Our goal is to be able to dress people virtually," Timesonline quoted Anna Hilsmann, one of the mirror's developers at the Heinrich-Hertz Institute in Berlin, as saying.

The new technology is one of a range of body-scanning techniques that could one day lead to an electronic version of bespoke tailoring.

After a visit to a shop to be photographed and have their measurements logged, consumers could order goods online or at the store.

Their measurements would then be sent to factories where the chosen designs could be manufactured in the right size.

Consumers could order goods whenever they saw a new range they liked.

Hilsmann said several international companies were interested in developing the mirror technology.

One benefit could be to reduce the number of wrong-sized clothes bought in shops. (ANI)

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