Our dog cut his paw on a broken bottle while running and playing at our local dog park last week and we ended up taking him to our vet for stitches. Could you remind owners about the increased hazards that our pets are exposed to during the spring?

You are absolutely correct when you say that pets are at an increased risk of getting into trouble in spring. During the winter months, the snow can hide a lot of hazards, such as broken glass and sharp pieces of metal. When the snow disappears, the problems appear, and veterinary hospitals experience a significant increase in medical problems.

Probably one of the biggest problems is the accumulation of feces, garbage and dead things...

Sharjah: Car mechanics who modify engines to produce a louder and meaner sound are squaring off with police who are looking to enforce a new law aimed at silencing motorists who break the sound barrier with their noisy car exhaust.

Shop owners say police are permanently confiscating cars and quad bikes belonging to motorists from their garages. Senior police officials, however, deny the claim.

The showdown stems from a decision taken recently by authorities to close down any workshop in Sharjah found to involved in modifying exhaust systems of cars or fixing other fittings which enhance the sound of the vehicles engine.

Owners of garages claim that Sharjah Police are closing...

Last Monday night, Mitt Romneys wife, Ann, discussed a scandal that has been plaguing her husbands campaign: During road trips with his family of seven in the 1980s, her husband used to habitually strap their Irish Setter, Seamus, to the car roof in a crate.

He would see that crate and, you know, he would, like, go crazy because he was going with us on vacation. It was, to me, a kinder thing to bring him along than to leave him in the kennel for two weeks, she says. Sawyer brings up the fact that, during one twelve-hour sojourn with the family in 1983, Seamus got diarrhea and his poop dripped down the rear window, much to the delight of his five young sons.

One of them repeated...

Thousands of children are among the refugees who have escaped to Lebanon from the violence in Syria. They feel more safe across the border but the scars of their ordeal remain, reports Zoi Constantine, Foreign Correspondent

TRIPOLI, LEBANON // Every morning when the school bus stops in front of their building, Abu Adils three youngest children rush outside from their ground-floor flat.

But they dont have backpacks slung over their shoulders. Instead, they watch as their friends and neighbours board the bus, then they wave goodbye.

Tamer, 12, Dalal, 10, and Asma, 8, have not been to school in more than a year.

They are among thousands of Syrian refugees who have...

For as long as he can remember, German teenager Robin Dittmar has been obsessed with airplanes. As a little boy, the sound of a plane overhead would send him into the backyard to peer into the sky. Toys had to have wings. Even today, Dittmar sees his car as a kind of ersatz Boeing.

Ive got the number 747 as the number plate of my car. Im really in love with this airplane, the 18-year-old says.

Less-than-perfect school grades dashed Dittmars dream of becoming a commercial pilot. But they were good enough to earn him a coveted apprenticeship slot with Lufthansa Technik, the technical arm of Europes largest airline, responsible for aircraft maintenance and repair across the globe.

One-third...