A Dutch man who calls himself a tantric master has broken his own world record by standing in ice for 72 minutes. The 48-year-old Wim Hof stood on a Manhattan street in a clear container filled with ice for an hour and 12 minutes on Saturday. He set the world record for full body ice contact endurance in 2004, when he immersed himself in ice for one hour and eight minutes. Hof says he survives by controlling his body temperature with the tantric practice of tumo. His feat kicks off BRAINWAVE, a five-month series of events in New York exploring how art, music, and meditation affect the brain.
■ United States
Christian Brando dies
Christian Brando, the troubled eldest son of the late actor Marlon Brando, has died from pneumonia at a Los Angeles hospital. He was 49. Brando died on Saturday morning at Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center, said David Seeley, an attorney representing Marlon Brando's estate. Seeley said Christian Brando was taken to the hospital on Jan. 11. "This is a sad and difficult time for the family," Seeley said. Born on May 11, 1958, Christian Brando was a high school dropout and never had much of a career. He had small roles in a handful of movies, including 1968's I Love You, Alice B. Toklas! but he was better known for his brushes with the law. He spent five years in prison after pleading guilty to manslaughter in 1990 for killing his sister's boyfriend, Dag Drollet, at the Brando family's hilltop estate.
■ United States
Miss America crowned
Miss Michigan Kirsten Haglund, a 19-year-old aspiring Broadway star, was crowned Miss America 2008 on Saturday in a live show in Las Vegas billed as the unveiling of the 87-year-old pageant's new, hipper look. Haglund, of Farmington Hills, Michigan, sang Over the Rainbow to clinch the title. She beat Miss Indiana Nicole Elizabeth Rash, the first runner up, and Miss Washington Elyse Umemoto, the second runner up for the US$50,000 scholarship and year of travel that comes with the crown. Haglund, who studies music at the University of Cincinnati, grew up in a pageant family. Her mother is an active volunteer, and her grandmother Iora Hunt, competed for the crown as Miss Michigan 1944.
■ United States
Cat to lose two of five legs
Cats may have nine lives, but one unique feline has five legs -- for now. The cat, named Babygirl, will undergo surgery to remove the extra leg and another crippled leg, though the operation has not yet been scheduled. The surgery is expected to leave the cat with three legs, and improve her quality of life, according to the Washington Area Humane Society in western Pennsylvania, where the cat will live until a home can be found for her.
■ United States
Five killed in car crash
A car speeding down a private airport runway in Ocala, Florida, ran off an embankment and was airborne for 60m before smashing into a tree early on Saturday, killing all five young men in the vehicle, the Florida Highway Patrol said. Investigators did not know whether the BMW was alone or was racing another car on the air strip at the exclusive "fly-in" community of Jumbolair Aviation Estates, officials said. According to the preliminary investigation, the car ran off the 26m-high embankment at the end of the runway.
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