New Zealand Miracle: Woman Saved After Spending 27 Hours Under Earthquake Rubble (Time.com)

New Zealand rescuers pulled out a woman alive who had been trapped in rubble for over 24 hours after a massive 6.3 Christchurch earthquake left at least 75 people dead on Tuesday. (Read more about the intial reports from the disaster.)
Ann Bodkin was rescued from the collapsed Pyne Gould Corporation building in the early afternoon, approximately 27 hours after the earthquake struck the city. She had been trapped under her desk, and luckily, had no injuries.
Originally, rescuers thought Bodkin was another victim, an Australian woman named Ann Voss, who has been in contact with people under the rubble on her cell phone. Voss, however, has not been found. Approximately 300 people remain missing on Wednesday as rescuers continue their work. (Read about more about the recent Christchurch earthquake.)
It took three hours for rescuers to reach Bodkin through the debris of the four-story building, guided by her tapping through a wall. Her husband was waiting next to the debris when they managed to pull her out. "I was told to get myself down here because she was asking for me. I didn't break any speed limits but I got here pretty quickly," he told Shepparton News. (See pictures of the earthquake damage in Christchurch.)
Yesterday's earthquake comes close on the heels of another major quake in Christchurch on New Zealand's South Island just five months ago. Though that earthquake, which struck near dawn in September, was stronger, no one was killed; the high number of fatalities in this week's unfolding tragedy have been attributed to the fact that it occurred in the late morning on a weekday.
The September earthquake is estimated to have caused over $3 billion in damages. There is no official figure yet about the cost of this week's disaster, but New Zealand Prime Minister's estimates that it will be at least another $3 billion in damages, while Australian companies are estimating the final tally will be closer to $12 billion. (See pictures of the damage from the September 2010 Christchurch earthquake.)
New Zealand's deadliest earthquake was the Hawke's Bay earthquake in 1931. The magnitude 7.8 earthquake killed 256 people on the nation's North Island. The more recent Christchurch earthquake happened along a fault line that was previously unknown until recently.
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Deputies: 2 dogs fatally maul SC woman, hurt owner (AP)

COLUMBIA, S.C. – Sirlinda Hayes was working in her garden as she did every day, tending turnips and collard greens on a small plot outside her modest one-story home. Moments later she was dead, mauled by two neighborhood dogs that had gotten loose many times before but had not acted aggressively toward humans.

"Never had no trouble," Nijoku Odom, Hayes' nephew, told The Associated Press on Friday, a day after his aunt was attacked. "They've gotten loose before — anybody could tell them go on back home and everything. We call the owner and he'll come get them without any problem."

Hayes, 66, died from the attack in her yard in Dillon, a small city about 100 miles northeast of Columbia, said Capt. Cliff Arnette, spokesman for the Dillon County Sheriff's Department. It was not clear what might have provoked the pair of Rottweilers.

They belonged to a neighbor, who came over to help as Hayes lay bleeding, Arnette said. They turned on him too, biting him and causing injuries so severe he was still hospitalized Friday afternoon.

Arnette did not release the owner's name but did say that he has not been charged in the incident.

The dogs would not let emergency responders near Hayes or their owner. Deputies finally shot both of the animals, which were carted off by animal control.

Animal control officials removed two other adult dogs and one puppy from the owner's home late Thursday. County officials must decide if they will be put up for adoption or euthanized.

Authorities said they had received no formal complaints about the animals, but a woman who lives nearby says she believes the pair killed her dog earlier this week.

Georgia Thomas, who runs a florist shop in Dillon, said she was in the middle of the Valentine's Day rush Monday when her husband called to say their German shepherd puppy had been found dead.

Thomas said she then alerted neighbors and an animal control officer who lives in the neighborhood, but opted not to file a complaint.

Dogs have killed at least three other people in South Carolina in the past two years. In January 2009, the body of a 10-year-old boy was found in a man's yard after he was attacked by six dogs while walking home. The dog's owner is now serving a 5-year prison sentence for involuntary manslaughter.

In January, a 9-year-old McCormick girl was killed by a Japanese Akita three days after her grandfather bought the animal as a gift for his grandchildren. And in November, a 25-year-old man was killed in his Latta home when the family pit bull attacked him.

Also Thursday, a 3-year-old girl walking with her baby sitter in the coastal city of Port Royal was bitten in the head by a pit bull. Authorities said they planned to charge the owner of the dog, which animal control officials said they had picked up in the past six weeks after complaints of the animal running and jumping on neighbors. Across the state in Aiken County, a deputy shot and killed a pit bull that was circling and snapping at a jogger.

Authorities have not said what may have provoked the dogs that killed Hayes, but one animal control officials says it simply may have been the time of year. Female dogs typically go into heat in the spring, according to Jamie Nelson, director of Spartanburg County Environmental Enforcement, causing male dogs to become more aggressive as they look to mate.

"We deal with animals similar to dealing with a teenager," Nelson said.

Hayes' only child died in 1987, so she poured her love on her nieces and nephews, who all lived on the same land just outside of Dillon. She loved going fishing and working with her sister to grow seasonal vegetables in the garden, Odom said.

"It's one of those things that's meant to be," Odom said Friday. "She is in a better place."

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Associated Press Writer Jeffrey Collins contributed to this report.

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Woman Dies in Her Cubicle -- But Nobody Notices Until the Next Day (Time.com)

Ever feel like no one notices all the effort you put into your job?

Well, hopefully they at least notice you're alive and breathing. If not, you could find yourself in the same situation as Rebecca Wells, a 51-year-old woman who died in her cubicle Friday in Los Angeles County.

Though she died on Friday, she was unnoticed at her desk in the Department of Internal Services until Saturday. The county coroner is yet to determine the cause of death.

(More on TIME.com: See the best pictures of the week)

When she passed away,  Wells, who worked in risk management, was performing an audit. Despite not noticing the deceased, one of her coworkers remembered, "She was always working, always working." Maybe, after this event, her coworkers will check on one another more often.

The tragedy reminds us of Mad Men, when a tireless worker passes away at her own desk:

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Ohio woman in embryo mix-up OK with no more kids (AP)

NEW YORK – An Ohio woman who gave birth to another woman's baby after a getting the wrong embryo implanted by a fertility clinic said in a television interview broadcast Friday that she can accept not having any more children.

Carolyn Savage told "Dateline NBC" that she has no regrets about carrying the baby boy and giving him to his biological parents, Shannon and Paul Morrell, who live in the Detroit suburb of Utica, Mich., after giving birth in September 2009. Savage didn't want to have an abortion and had no desire to raise the child.

Savage, who's in her 40s, and her husband, Sean, live in the Toledo suburb of Sylvania with their three children. The couple told "Dateline" said they were still hoping to have a fourth of their own and even hired a surrogate as Savage was pregnant with the Morells' child, Logan.

Carolyn Savage said they were elated to learn in late August that the surrogate was pregnant. But a week after Savage gave birth, she said the surrogate called to tell her that she had miscarried.

Although she was devastated by the news at the time, Savage also said "there is no way to fill that void." Savage won't have another chance to carry her own baby because of her age and difficulties during her earlier pregnancies.

"We're to a point now that if we don't have any more children, I think we're good," she said.

Embryo mix-ups at fertility clinics are extremely rare, and this is one of the only known cases that ended amicably.

The Savages said they have since learned that two factors contributed to the mix-up at the fertility clinic, which neither couple has identified.

One was that Shannon Morrell's maiden name was Savage, and she hadn't it changed until after using in vitro fertilization to become pregnant with twins. After their daughters were born in 2006, the Morells had six frozen embryos left and planned to try for another baby.

The other, Savage said, was that a clinic employee had discovered a mistake on her birth date in the clinic's files. Her birth year was incorrectly listed as 1967, instead of 1969, she said.

The couples have stayed in touch, and Shannon Morell told "Dateline" they would continue to do so as Logan grows up by getting together "probably a couple times a year." And when he's old enough, Morell said she would like her son to thank Savage for carrying him.

"It's important he realizes that she protected him for nine months," Morell said.

The Morells co-wrote a book with author Angela Hunt about their experience, "Misconception," which was published in April. The Savages have their own book, "Inconceivable," due out Monday.

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