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Los AngelesUnited States - California cops rushed to a zoo after a 911 call — only to find it had been placed by a mischievous monkey.

Dispatchers sent officers to investigate a possible emergency after receiving a call Saturday night that had disconnected.

Sheriff’s deputies in San Luis Obispo County traced the call to the offices of Zoo to You, a conservation park 200 miles (320 kilometers) north of Los Angeles, but couldn’t find any humans in trouble.

Undeterred, and determined to get to the bottom of the mystery, they began to investigate.

“Then they all realized… it must have been Route the Capuchin monkey,” said a social media post by the sheriff’s office.

“Apparently, Route had picked up the zoo’s cell phone… which was in the zoo’s golf cart… which is used to travel around the zoo’s 40 acre site.”

Capuchins are particularly inquisitive creatures, who enjoy poking and pressing objects they pick up.

“And that’s what Route did… just so happened it was in the right combination of numbers to call us.”

 
 
 

BeijingChina - Struggling developers in China have started taking payment for homes in watermelons, peaches and other agricultural produce, state media reported on Sunday, as they attempt to lure buyers deterred by a property market slump.

China's housing market has been hit by a slowing economy and debt crisis precipitated by a government ban on builders taking deposits before construction begins on a project.

One developer in the eastern city of Nanjing said it would accept truckloads of watermelons worth up to 100,000 yuan as down payment from local farmers, state-run China News Weekly reported.

In the nearby small town of Wuxi, another developer was taking peaches as payment, the magazine said.

Homebuyers in Qi county, a major garlic-producing region in central China's Henan province, can exchange their produce at three times the market price to settle part of their down payment.

Accepting crops at inflated prices has allowed developers to offer steeper discounts on homes than permitted by local governments while tapping into an underserved market.

"On the occasion of the new garlic season, the company has made a resolute decision to benefit garlic farmers in Qi county," homebuilder Central China Management said on social media in late May. "We are helping farmers with love, and making it easier for them to buy homes."

About 30 properties had been sold since the garlic campaign was launched, it added.

Home sales in China measured by floor area have slid for 11 consecutive months and were down 31.5 percent in May compared to the same month last year, official data shows

 
 

 Los AngelesUnited States-A bear that let itself into a US couple's car had to spend the night there after shutting itself in.

The ursine intruder successfully navigated the handle on the outside of the door -- possibly in a hunt for food -- but seemingly couldn't work out how to open it again from the inside.

"It was there from a little after eleven at night to almost seven in the morning," Mike Pilati told KTVQ in Red Lodge, Montana.

"Every once in a while you'd hear a crunch. I thought it had a garbage can it was chomping on or something. But it was my car it was crunching up," Pilati said.

Pilati and his wife, Maria, called the local sheriff to report the bear break-in, and were told that wildlife officials would be out the following day.

But Pilati needed to get things moving a bit quicker, so early the next morning he gingerly opened the car door with a stick from the safety of a building.

"I reached through that side door there and reached out and popped the door of the car, and the bear came roaring out," he said.

Footage shows the black bear jumping out of the car before scampering off to find her young cubs, who were nearby.

Having got rid of their unwanted guest, the Pilatis went to inspect the damage -- a shattered windshield, a chewed dashboard, a mangled passenger door and a whole lot of smell.

"Bears are stinky creatures," Mike Pilati told the broadcaster.

While the Subaru car -- a brand favored by outdoorsy types -- is no longer in pristine condition, Maria Pilati says the couple have still found reason to smile.

"Now we call a Su-bear-ru," she said.

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© Agence France-Presse

Hong KongChina - Jiri Prochazka was a football hooligan in his native Czech Republic until martial arts and an ancient Japanese text inspired him to turn from street fighting to cage fighting -- and become a UFC world champion.

"The Book of Five Rings" was written in 1645 by the master Japanese swordsman Miyamoto Musashi, and when Prochazka was handed a copy about eight years ago he finally found the focus to "become a warrior" after a wildly misspent youth.

"You have to look into yourself, and you have to follow the rules -- be honest, be brave, be calm in hard situations," said the 29-year-old Prochazka, of what he has learned from the book and from the "Bushido" Samurai code of discipline that it encourages.

Prochazka became the UFC's first Czech world champion after a thrilling back-and-forth battle with Brazilian light heavyweight Glover Teixeira that went deep into the fifth and final round in Singapore in June.

A battered Prochazka seemed on the verge of defeat to Teixeira, but somehow drew on reserves of strength to apply a choke hold and force the Brazilian veteran into submission.

"Some people say my style is unpredictable," Prochazka told AFP.

"But I'm not doing unpredictable things. I am calm and I just look for the space for attack -- where is the weak point of my opponent -- and I attack."

 

- Spartan surroundings -

 

Prochazka was speaking via video phone call from a remote cottage in a forest retreat 30 minutes drive away from his birthplace in the southern Czech city of Brno.

His spartan surroundings, Prochazka explained, are so he can be alone with his training. The cottage has electricity but no running water, forcing Prochazka to take daily trips to a well.

Prochazka pointed his phone outside the cottage to show the Dojo, or fight ring, he has carved out of the forest floor and the gym equipment frames he has fashioned from local timber.

"You have to find the way that is best for you and this is what's best for me," said Prochazka, whose hair is styled in the "chonmage" top-knot favoured by Japan's ancient Samurai warriors.

"I meditate, and I train, and I live the life I want to be living."

 

- 'Never stop learning' -

 

The sense of calm and purpose wasn't always with Prochazka.

As a teenager he fell in with the local Ultras -- football hooligan gangs -- supporting FC Zbrojovka Brno and fought in more than 100 street battles with rival fans.

"It was a part of my life and without that there would be no me like I am today," said Prochazka of his youth. "I had to be that guy to become the guy I am now."

At 17, Prochazka discovered Muay Thai kickboxing at a local gym and that he could fight legally.

After winning a national title at 19 he turned to MMA as the sport began to grow in global popularity.

Prochazka's talent led him to Japan with the Rizin Fighting Federation where he was advised by a coach to read Musashi and the history of the ways of the Samurai.

Prochazka started winning in Japan and his life turned around. A Rizin MMA title was followed by a call from the Las Vegas-based Ultimate Fighting Championship in 2020.

Two straight knockout wins gave him the chance to face the 42-year-old Teixeira for the world title at UFC 275 in Singapore and Prochazka grabbed it.

Back in his cottage, recovering from a knuckle break suffered against Teixeira, Prochazka was plotting the next phase of his career and a possible rematch with the Brazilian.

"I am still going forward," said Prochazka.

"In our lives we all have to fight at some time, in different ways. So I am still learning and I think we should never stop learning."

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© Agence France-Presse

 

ParisFrance - Italian Samantha Cristoforetti became the first European woman astronaut to embark on a spacewalk outside the International Space Station o, NASA footage showed.

Cristoforetti was joined by Russian cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev on the spacewalk which began just before 1500 GMT, with the pair expected to spend around six and half hours more than 400 kilometres (248 miles) above Earth.

Among their tasks is work on a Europe-made robotic arm which just a week ago became embroiled in tensions between Russia and the West over Moscow's war in Ukraine.

Early last week the head of Russian space agency Roscosmos Dmitry Rogozin, furious at the European Space Agency's decision to cut ties with Moscow on a Mars rover mission, told cosmonauts on the ISS to stop using the European Robotic Arm.

But President Vladimir Putin dismissed Rogozin as Roscosmos chief, and hours later Washington and Moscow said they would renew flights together to the ISS.

On Thursday, the spacewalkers will continue work on setting up the robotic arm, which was installed a few months ago after being launched into orbit in July 2021 following numerous delays.

The 11-metre long robot, which looks like a pair of compasses, is one of three such robots on the ISS, but it is the only one that can reach the station's Russian segment.

Once fully set-up, the arm will perform numerous tasks mostly on the Russian segment, and can be controlled from inside or outside the space station, or even from back on Earth.

Thursday was the third spacewalk that involved work on the arm.

The pair will also carry out work on the Russian Nauka laboratory module.

It was Artemyev's sixth spacewalk, but his first not alongside a fellow Russian.

Cristoforetti, a 45-year-old European Space Agency astronaut and former Italian air force pilot, arrived for her second tour on the ISS in April.

She holds the record for the longest stay in space by a woman after spending 199 days in orbit in 2014 and 2015.

The ISS space station has long symbolised closer ties between Russia and the US in the aftermath of the Cold War.

Now it remains one of the last areas of cooperation between Russia and the West, which has imposed sanctions over Moscow's war in Ukraine.

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JeddahSaudi Arabia - A futuristic Saudi megacity is to feature two skyscrapers extending across a swathe of desert and mountain terrain, according to the latest disclosures on the project by the kingdom's de facto ruler.

The parallel structures of mirror-encased skyscrapers extending over 170 kilometres (more than 100 miles), known collectively as The Line, form the heart of the Red Sea megacity NEOM, a plank of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's bid to diversify the Gulf state's oil-dependent economy.

First announced in 2017, NEOM has consistently raised eyebrows for proposed flourishes like flying taxis and robot maids, even as architects and economists have questioned its feasibility.

In a presentation Monday night, Prince Mohammed sketched out an even more ambitious vision, describing a car-free utopia that would become the planet's most liveable city "by far".

Analysts noted, though, that plans for NEOM have changed course over the years, fuelling doubts about whether The Line will ever become reality.

NEOM was once touted as a regional "Silicon Valley", a biotech and digital hub spread over 26,500 square kilometres (10,000 square miles).

Now it's a vehicle for reimagining urban life on a footprint of just 34 square kilometres, and addressing what Prince Mohammed describes as "liveability and environmental crises".

"The concept has morphed so much from its early conception that it's sometimes hard to determine its direction: scaling down, scaling up, or making an aggressive turn sideways," said Robert Mogielnicki of the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington.

 

- Population boom -

 

Officials had earlier said NEOM's population would top one million, but Prince Mohammed said the number would actually hit 1.2 million by 2030 before climbing to nine million by 2045.

The eye-popping total is part of a hoped-for nationwide population boom that Prince Mohammed said would be necessary to make Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest crude exporter, an economic powerhouse.

The goal for 2030 is to have 50 million people -- half Saudis and half foreigners -- living in the kingdom, up from roughly 34 million today.

By 2040 the target is 100 million people, he said.

"That's the main purpose of building NEOM, to raise the capacity of Saudi Arabia, get more citizens and more people in Saudi Arabia. And since we are doing it from nothing, why should we copy normal cities?"

The site will be powered by 100 percent renewable energy and feature "a year-round temperate micro-climate with natural ventilation", a promotional video released Monday said.

Past environmental pledges by the kingdom, such as a vow to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2060, have sparked scepticism from environmentalists.

NEOM is well-positioned to harness solar and wind energy, and plans are also afoot for the city to host the world's largest green hydrogen plant, said Torbjorn Soltvedt of risk intelligence company Verisk Maplecroft.

"But the feasibility of NEOM as a whole is still unclear given the unprecedented scale and cost of the project," he said.

 

- Finding funds -

 

At just 200 metres (yards) wide, The Line is intended to be Saudi Arabia's answer to unchecked and wasteful urban sprawl, layering homes, schools and parks on top of each other in what planners term "Zero Gravity Urbanism".

Residents will have "all daily needs" reachable within a five-minute walk, while also having access to other perks like outdoor skiing facilities and "a high-speed rail with an end-to-end transit of 20 minutes", according to a statement.

Though NEOM will operate under its own founding law, which is still being prepared, Saudi officials say they have no plans to waive the kingdom's alcohol ban.

An airport is already operational at NEOM, and authorities announced in May it would begin receiving regular flights from Dubai, but it is unclear whether major construction of the megacity itself has commenced.

NEOM said Tuesday it would create 380,000 jobs by the end of the decade "whilst providing the ultimate work-life balance".

The "first phase" of the project, lasting until 2030, will cost 1.2 trillion Saudi riyals (roughly $319 billion), Prince Mohammed said.

Besides government subsidies, potential sources of funding include the private sector and an initial public offering for NEOM expected in 2024, he said.

Securing the necessary financing remains a potential challenge, though the current climate is more favourable than during the coronavirus pandemic that lowered oil prices.

"But funding is only part of the equation... demand is harder to buy, especially when you're asking people to be part of an experiment on living and working in the future," Mogielnicki said.

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© Agence France-Presse

EdinburghUnited Kingdom - In a wave tank at a robot laboratory in the Scottish capital Edinburgh, engineers observe in silence as an underwater drone rises stealthily to the surface.

The team, which led the development of the remotely operated vehicle (ROV) at Heriot-Watt university, believe the submersible machine is a game-changer for offshore wind farms, obviating the need for divers.

The engineers reckon it will soon be ready to perform inspections and maintenance at wind farms, transforming the nature of the high-risk and costly endeavours just as the industry is set for huge expansion.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has promised to make the UK the "Saudi Arabia" of wind power, with plans to generate enough electricity from offshore to power every UK home by 2030.

While Johnson is on his way out of office, the industry is banking on the expansion plans, especially after Russia's invasion of Ukraine sent the price of traditional carbon energy through the roof.

"We have to imagine that in 10, 15 years time there will be hundreds of wind farms, which means thousands of wind turbines all across the coast of the UK," Yvan Petillot, a robotics and autonomous systems professor at Heriot-Watt, told AFP.

"You also have hydrogen technology being developed and all of this will need to be maintained, inspected and serviced.

"What we are developing is remote technologies where people can inspect and maintain those assets from shore, without putting anyone in harm's way."

 

- Accumulation of micro-organisms -

 

In May the ROV, which is equipped with sensors and advanced software, conducted what is believed to be the first ever autonomous offshore wind farm inspection.

The device was deployed at French energy firm EDF's Blyth wind farm, off the coast of Northumberland, northeast England.

It successfully recorded videos that allowed researchers to assess the exterior condition of turbine foundations and cables.

Meanwhile its software created a 3D reconstruction model of parts of the energy company's underwater assets.

Petillot said the 3D model can pick up the accumulation of micro-organisms, plants and algae on the turbine foundations.

If a problem is detected, the ROV system can be deployed with a robotic arm to conduct a repair.

"The system will first do an autonomous inspection of the seabed and the structure, and build the 3D model that someone from shore can look at and say, 'there's a problem here'," Petillot said.

"Typically you would have corrosion on the system, you might have to turn a valve, you might have to connect a cable, you might have to change an anode and clean the surface if there is too much bio-fouling."

Maxime Duchet, an offshore wind research engineer at EDF, said the images and modelling will greatly enhance the ability to conduct operations and maintenance activities on-site.

 

- 'Safer and faster' -

 

Further tests are needed to estimate the time required to inspect all of the turbine foundations and to demonstrate the full potential of marine robotic technology, he noted.

"However, it is clear from these initial results that the technology can ensure safer and faster operations and a reduced carbon footprint," Duchet added.

Engineers, who use a joystick to pilot the vehicle, say the ROV can be left alone to perform its primary mapping task for most of the time.

If it becomes stuck, or lingers too long in a particular area, a pilot can commandeer it.

Petillot said a long-term benefit could be allowing more people to join the team managing the ROV remotely, who might not have been willing or able to work offshore.

It is incredibly difficult to find a diver or a qualified pilot for such projects, he noted.

In contrast, finding somebody to help control the system as though they were playing a video game should prove far easier, according to Petillot.

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© Agence France-Presse

 Paris (AFP) – AIDS researchers announced that a fourth person has been "cured" of HIV, but the dangerous procedure for patients also battling cancer may be little comfort for the tens of millions living with the virus worldwide.

The 66-year-old man, named the "City of Hope" patient after the Californian centre where he was treated, was declared in remission in the lead up to the International AIDS Conference, which begins in Montreal, Canada.

He is the second person to be announced cured this year, after researchers said in February that a US woman dubbed the New York patient had also gone into remission.

The City of Hope patient, like the Berlin and London patients before him, achieved lasting remission from the virus after a bone marrow transplant to treat cancer.

Another man, the Duesseldorf patient, has also previously been said to have reached remission, potentially bringing the number cured to five.

 
 Jana Dickter, an infectious disease specialist at the City of Hope, told AFP that because the latest patient was the oldest yet to achieve remission, his success could be promising for older HIV sufferers who also have cancer.

Dickter is the lead author of research on the patient which was announced at a pre-conference in Montreal but has not been peer reviewed.

'I am beyond grateful'

"When I was diagnosed with HIV in 1988, like many others, I thought it was a death sentence," said the patient, who does not want to be identified.

"I never thought I would live to see the day that I no longer have HIV," he said in a City of Hope statement. "I am beyond grateful."

Dickter said the patient had told her of the stigma he experienced during the early days of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s.

"He saw many of his friends and loved ones become very ill and ultimately succumb to the disease," she said.

He had "full-blown AIDS" for a time, she said, but was part of early trials of antiretroviral therapy, which now allows many of the 38 million with HIV globally to live with the virus.

He had HIV for 31 years, longer than any previous patient who went into remission.

After being diagnosed with leukaemia, in 2019 he received a bone marrow transplant with stem cells from an unrelated donor with a rare mutation in which part of the CCR5 gene is missing, making people resistant to HIV.

He waited until getting vaccinated for Covid-19 in March 2021 to stop taking antiretrovirals, and has been in remission from both HIV and cancer since.

Reduced-intensity chemotherapy worked for the patient, potentially allowing older HIV patients with cancer to get the treatment, Dickter said.

But it is a complex procedure with serious side effects and "isn't a suitable option for most people with HIV", she added.

Steven Deeks, an HIV expert at the University of California, San Francisco who was not involved in the research, said the "first thing you do in a bone marrow transplant is you destroy your own immune system temporarily".

"You would never do this if you didn't have cancer," he told AFP.

'Holy Grail'

Also announced at the AIDS conference was research about a 59-year-old Spanish woman with HIV who has maintained an undetectable viral load for 15 years despite stopping antiretroviral therapy.

Sharon Lewin, president-elect of the International AIDS Society which convenes the conference, said that it was not quite the same as the City of Hope patient, because the virus remained at a very low level.

"A cure remains the Holy Grail of HIV research," Lewin said.

"We have seen a handful of individual cure cases before and the two presented today provide continued hope for people living with HIV and inspiration for the scientific community."

She also pointed to a "truly exciting development" towards identifying HIV in an individual cell, which is "a bit like finding a needle in a haystack".

Deeks, an author of the new research also presented at the conference, said it was an "unprecedented deep dive into the biology of the infected cell".

The researchers identified that a cell with HIV has several particular characteristics.

It can proliferate better than most, is hard to kill, and is both resilient and hard to detect, Deeks said.

"This is why HIV is a lifelong infection."

But he said that cases such as the City of Hope patient offered a potential roadmap towards a more broadly available cure, possibly using CRISPR gene-editing technology.

"I think that if you can get rid of HIV, and get rid of CCR5, the door by which HIV gets in, then you can cure someone," Deeks said.

"It's theoretically possible -- we're not there yet -- to give someone a shot in the arm that will deliver an enzyme that will go into the cells and knock out CCR5, and knock out the virus.

"But that's science fiction for now."

 
 


ParisFrance - A new drug touted as the first real breakthrough in acne treatment in decades has been available for months in the United States, but when it will hit the shelves in Europe and elsewhere remains unclear.

The topical cream clascoterone could give fresh hope of respite from the red pimples and oily skin that plagues around three quarters of all teenagers -- as well as many adults.

Despite being such a common affliction, new drugs to treat acne have been rare -- though recent research has revealed the role played by diet.

But experts have hailed clascoterone as the first new type of acne treatment in nearly 40 years.

"What is so exciting about clascoterone is that it is a completely new mechanism of action that addresses the fundamental hormonal (causes) underlying all acne," US dermatologist John Barbieri told AFP.

There have long been two main types of acne treatment. One uses antibiotics to target the bacteria that causes acne, while the other stops dead skin cells from building up.

Clascoterone however makes the cells less receptive to the hormones that produce sebum, an oily substance that normally keeps skin moist but which acne sufferers produce in excess.

There are pills that also target these hormones. But they are often contraceptive pills, so are only prescribed for women. And by directly affecting the body's hormone production, they can have far worse side effects.

- 'Very small company' -
A 2020 study published in the journal JAMA Dermatology found that clascoterone was more effective than a placebo -- and did not have significant side effects.

The study was enough to convince US authorities to approve the treatment, which US doctors have been able to prescribe since the end of last year.

French dermatologist Emilie Sbidian cautioned that the study did not compare clascoterone to existing treatments, "so we don't really know where to place it".

However she said the cream was "very interesting" because it could give a new option to patients reluctant about other drugs -- or be used in conjunction with those other treatments.

However people with acne in Europe are unlikely to get their hands on the drug any time soon.

The wait is not due to any reluctance on the part of the health authorities. The European Medicines Agency told AFP it has not even started evaluating the drug.

The time frame instead comes down to the company that produces the drug, Switzerland's Cosmo Pharmaceuticals.

"As a very small company, we were focused first on the biggest market of the world, which was the US," said Diana Harbort, the head of Cosmo's dermatology division.

- Searching for a partner -
She told AFP that "there isn't one big company who has interest in acne around the world", pointing out that big pharma firms like Pfizer, Sanofi and Novartis do not sell acne drugs.

This means that Cosmo needs partners to distribute the drug in each new world region. In the US, clascoterone is distributed by the firm Sun Pharma.

In its latest financial statement released this week, Cosmo announced it has found a distribution partner in China.

It has also agreed to a deal with Sun Pharma to expand into Japan, Brazil, Mexico, Russia, Australia and New Zealand.

So why is it taking so long to find a European partner? Cosmo pointed to the Covid-19 pandemic, saying it had slowed the market for such drugs.

However financial analyst Jamila El Bougrini said "the dermatology market is rather buoyant".

"I think there have been errors in the group's strategy," she told AFP.

The analyst found it hard to understand why Europe's medicine authorities had not started evaluating clascoterone.

She also pointed out that in recent years Cosmo had tried to sell its dermatology division -- whose only product is clascoterone -- but failed due to a lack of interest.

El Bougrini questioned whether it might be difficult to attract interest from investors if a treatment had not been shown to be more effective than existing drugs.

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Birmingham (United Kingdom) (AFP) – Weightlifter Cyrille Tchatchet II is aiming for Commonwealth Games glory in his "home town" of Birmingham after a compelling journey since he competed in Glasgow in 2014.

 The 27-year-old is lifting for England after receiving his citizenship earlier this year. Eight years ago he disappeared at the Glasgow Commonwealths having represented Cameroon, his country of birth.

In between, he competed for the refugee team at last year's delayed Tokyo Olympics, where he finished 10th. He was also the flag bearer for the team.

"I was homeless. Then I was a refugee. Now I am a proud British citizen," he told the Daily Mail.

What would make a medal in the 96kg category even more special is the role host city Birmingham has played in his life.

 
"Birmingham is the first place where I settled, the first place that felt like home for me in the United Kingdom," he told The Times.

"Birmingham saw me during my very difficult moments (he was in a hostel for asylum seekers) and I would be very happy for Birmingham to see me stepping on that podium and winning a medal for Team England."

Tchatchet II lives in Walsall, just north of the city. He works as a senior mental health practitioner.

He has never revealed why he fled the athletes' village in Glasgow -- he told The Times last week it was linked to "blackmail" -- with just his backpack, containing his weightlifting shoes and belt.

"It was a very difficult experience," he told AFP last year, ahead of the Olympics. "I had to escape. I was very young, very scared. I didn't think much about the future."

'I didn't give up'

Tchatchet II ended up homeless for two months, scraping an existence in the sout-coast city of Brighton -- haunted by suicidal thoughts.

"I was sleeping under this bridge," he told the Daily Mail. "I used to feed on biscuits. With the little money I had, I used to buy custard creams from (supermarket) Lidl.

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"I was very lonely. I felt useless. I thought about the previous months when I was competing for my country. Now I found myself in a very vulnerable position."

He admits he considered taking his own life.

"I was just depressed," he said. "I couldn't really see a way out. I used to stare at the sea, day in, day out.

"I felt like I just wanted to jump in the sea and see what happened.

"I went to the top of the road one day and was just thinking about something that would be quick."

Tchatchet II, who took up weightlifting after seeing a photograph of an uncle lifting weights, was saved by the Samaritans, a charity supporting those in emotional distress.

The Samaritans alerted the police, who got him off the streets into detention centres, which he says were more like a "prison."

He faced a couple of turbulent years while he waited for his asylum application to be processed but he was granted refugee status in 2016 and went on to gain a first-class degree in mental health nursing.

"In Cameroon, depression isn't even a thing. If you have schizophrenia, they'll probably say you have witchcraft, got into a sect, or paying for a bad thing you've done," he told AFP.

"Even here (in Britain), there's always that stigma: 'You're a man, you shouldn't have depression.' We need to change our mindsets. It can affect anyone."

On Monday he will go through his eve-of-competition ritual of eating celery and having a hot bath -- a far cry from those dark days under the bridge.

"I've had a difficult journey," he told The Times. "I'm still training, I didn't give up."

 
 

The Foreign Post is the newspaper of the International Community in the Philippines, published for foreign residents, Internationally-oriented Filipinos, and visitors to the country. It is written and edited to inform, to entertain, occasionally to educate, to provide a forum for international thinkers.

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