Tractor tragedy

Prague, March 27 (Reuters): A Czech tractor driver died under eight tonnes of manure in a bizarre accident that has baffled his employers, local media reported.

The 34-year old man, identified only as Martin T., suffocated after the load fell on him while he was dumping it in a field near the Czech city of Karlovy Vary, website www.novinky.cz reported today.

?It absolutely beats me how this could happen,? said Vladimir Erps, chief of the company employing the victim. ?The truck is operated from the tractor cabin, using hydraulics. There was nothing for him to do under the truck, but it?s tough to blame him now that he is dead.?

Top target

London (Reuters): Despite confessing to a fear of heights, intrepid British explorer Ranulph Fiennes is to set out to climb Mount Everest. Fiennes, 61, hopes to raise money for the British Heart Foundation charity, two years after he suffered a near-fatal heart attack.

Fiennes became one of the first men to reach both poles on foot on his Trans-Globe Expedition in 1982 and 11 years later he and Stroud became the first men to cross the Antarctic unsupported on foot.

Just five months after suffering his heart attack, Fiennes ran seven marathons in seven days.