Chinese accent brought on by severe migraine, and more

Chinese accent brought on by severe migraine

A British woman who suffered a severe migraine headache suddenly developed a strong Chinese accent. Sarah Colwill’s headache was so severe she went to the hospital; when she woke there the next day, she sounded like she’d been born in China, and her friends and family no longer recognized her voice on the phone. Doctors diagnosed foreign accent syndrome, a rare condition caused by damage to the brain, and said Colwill’s speech may never return. “I want my own voice back,” said Colwill. “I have never even been to China.”

Whose overdue library books? George Washington's?

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Former President George Washington owes more than $300,000 in late fees to a New York library, says the New York Daily News. On Oct. 5, 1789, Washington borrowed a treatise on “the Law of Nations” and a volume of transcripts from the British House of Commons from the New York Society Library in Manhattan, and has yet to return them. “We’re not actively pursuing the overdue fines,” said head librarian Mark Bartlett. “But we would be very happy if we were able to get the books back.”

Rare leech discovered in nose of 9-year-old

A rare species of leech has been discovered in the nostril of a 9-year-old Peruvian girl. After she complained that something was moving in her nose, her parents took her to a doctor, who extracted a 2-inch-long leech with a row of teeth arranged along a single jaw. Naturalist Mark Siddall said the girl probably acquired the leech while swimming in a rural stream, and was lucky not to be in more pain. “Their teeth are big and these things hurt,” said Siddall.