内容摘要：“They beat me and told me: ‘You have no other option; do this or we’ll kill you,’” the 36-year-old told The Associated Press, describing the 2 1/2 weeks he was held last summer by the Israeli military in

“They beat me and told me: ‘You have no other option; do this or we’ll kill you,’” the 36-year-old told The Associated Press, describing the 2 1/2 weeks he was held last summer by the Israeli military in

There was a call about a chipped tooth (“it’s starting to throb”), a bloody toe (“I’ve cut my little nail on the toe and I’ve nipped across the top of it.”) and a person who stuck their finger in an electrical socket who appeared to be fine (“I’m worried that I could be electrocuted”).Then there was the call Emma Worrall took last year that she won’t soon forget.

“I remember saying ‘alligator?’ and my call-taker supervisor just looked at me and was like, ‘What is going on in your call?’” Worrall said.As a dispatcher in a busy call center in Wales, Worrall has to be unflappable, patient and able to efficiently handle the most stressful calls in which a delay of seconds or minutes could be the difference between life and death.She understands that some people have a different gauge of what is life-threatening and an emergency. But it’s still frustrating when someone phones the emergency number to say they’re locked out of their house and cold or their dog jumped in a river and won’t swim back — calls she also fielded.

“We just ask everybody to find alternative pathways before phoning for an ambulance,” she said. “The ambulance service is for those who are experiencing life-threatening problems.”Worrall’s craziest call came one afternoon when a man phoned to say his son’s pet alligator had escaped and was hiding under the sofa.

“I asked if he’d been hurt, and he said, no. He was scared,” Worrall recounted.

He wanted paramedics to help him corral the toothy reptile.— and one of the few that is open to visitors.

Others include the royal residences (Iolani Palace and Queen Emma Summer Palace); Hawaiian Mission Houses (such as Hawaii’s oldest Western-style house, built in 1821); Hawaii’s Plantation Village in Waipahu, which includes restored sugar plantation buildings; andan ode to Islamic art and culture built by tobacco heiress

The oldest hale — a traditional Native Hawaiian thatched house — is enshrined atwhere it was built on site in 1902.