A stroke turned a butch British rugby player gay, the Daily Mail claims.

Chris Birch, 26, a Welsh bank clerk, broke his neck while attempting a back flip and then suffered a stroke, the Daily Mail reported Tuesday.
When he woke up, he told his family he had changed. "It sounds strange, but when I came round, I immediately felt different," Birch told the paper. "I wasn't interested in women any more. I was definitely gay. I had never been attracted to a man before - I'd never even had any gay friends."
He quit his job, dropped his old friends, and began studying hairdressing, the Daily Mail reported.
Birch lost 110 pounds, cut his hair and started dating men.
The London Mirror, which first carried the story in September, said Birch’s accident took place in 2005 after Birch broke up with his fiance.
Birch spent months in recovery.
“I had to learn to walk, eat, even speak again and all my family were supporting me, hoping they would see the old Chris come back soon enough,” he told the Mirror.

“My old friends would come round and visit me but the conversation would dry up straightaway. I wasn’t interested in the rugby scores, going down the pub to watch football or anything else I used to do.
“Suddenly, I hated everything about my old life. I didn't get on with my friends, I hated sport and found my job boring.
“Everyone said I was more sarcastic, behaved differently and that even my mannerisms had changed, but to me the way I felt was natural. So I started avoiding seeing my old friends who wanted me to be someone I wasn’t,” he said.
Instead he began going to local dance clubs and made new friends, including one special man.
“I continued seeing this man and then one night we slept together. I knew then that I wasn’t interested in women any more. I was definitely gay,” he told the Mirror.
For the last 18 months he has been living with a 19-year-old lover above the hair salon he works in, the Mirror and Daily Mail said.
Neither paper interviewed any of Birch’s family members or friends, or any of his doctors or neurologists.

Feds To Take Over Your TV, Radio On Wednesday

Uncle Sam will be taking over your television or radio on Wednesday. Don’t worry, it’s not some sort of Big Brother conspiracy, instead it’s just a test.

Federal emergency managers will test the nationwide Emergency Alert System (EAS) at 2 p.m. The test will last 30 seconds and interrupt programming on all television, radio, cable and satellite shows.

“This test will provide important conformational data on the capabilities of the system should it ever need to be activated for an actual emergency,” said Florida’s director of emergency management Bryan Koon in a statement.

Under the FCC’s rules, radio and television broadcasters, cable operators, satellite digital audio radio service providers and direct broadcast satellite service providers are required to receive and transmit presidential EAS messages to the public.

A national test will help federal emergency managers and EAS participants determine the reliability of the system, as well as its effectiveness in notifying the public of emergencies and potential dangers both nationally and regionally.

Spanish government has granted citizenship to singer Ricky Martin

MADRID -- The Spanish government says it has granted citizenship to singer Ricky Martin and boyfriend Carlos Gonzalez.

Spokesman Jose Blanco said Friday that Martin and Gonzalez were recognized for their artistic talents and that the government was happy they wished to have Spanish nationality.

Both Martin and Gonzalez are from Puerto Rico and have U.S. citizenship.

Spain normally obliges people to renounce any other nationality they have before granting them a Spanish passport, but it makes exceptions for citizens from Latin American countries and some other places including Puerto Rico.

It was not immediately clear why the two celebrities sought Spanish citizenship.