The front-runners for Afghanistan’s presidency, incumbent Ashraf Ghani and chief executive Abdullah Abdullah, have both declared victory, paving the way for a perilous political standoff at a crucial moment in the country’s long-running conflict. 

Afghanistan’s Independent Election Commission is gathering votes from Saturday’s election. If no candidate wins more than half, a runoff vote would be held between the top two.

"Our votes are the highest in the election, and the election will not go to the second round," Mr Abdullah said at a press conference in Kabul on Monday.

Mr Ghani’s running mate Amrullah Saleh said on Sunday that the president had won a clear first-ballot victory, without offering evidence.

"The information that we have received show that 60 to 70 per cent of people voted (for) us," Mr Saleh was quoted as saying by news outlet VO.

Mr Ghani and Mr Abdullah were also the top two candidates in the last election in 2014, leading to months of turmoil as both men accused each other of fraud.

The United States finally stepped in, brokering a power-sharing deal. The chief executive of the electoral commission, Habiburrahman Nang, told a press conference that no candidate had the right to declare himself the winner before the results are tallied.

Preliminary results are not expected before October 19 and final results not until November 7.

Mr Abdullah said on Monday he would accept only votes that were filed with biometric voter verification. Problems with scanning machines had led the commission to also accept votes without scanning fingerprints.

Foreign countries that have troops in Afghanistan are wary of yet another destabilising election dispute.

It comes at a particularly delicate time following the collapse of peace talks between the Taliban and the US in early September. The extremists mounted hundreds of small-scale attacks around Saturday’s election. 

The Taliban said that low turnout for the vote – which sank to around 2.2 million from over 7 million in 2014 – underlined that the election was illegitimate and that Afghan people do not accept "foreign imported processes".

In a dusty corner of Cyprus, on the frontier between the Greek south and the Turkish north, a large sign proclaims in black and white letters: “No Man’s Land, Stop.”

This is the United Nations buffer zone, a windswept strip of rock, scrub and coils of barbed wire that is patrolled by UN soldiers in white Landcruisers.

Beyond that, on the Turkish Cypriot side of the border, lies a vast ghost town called Varosha, which has been deserted and fenced off since the Turkish invasion of the island in 1974.

But Varosha, which is under the control of the Turkish military, may not remain a ghost town for much longer.

The self-proclaimed Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) has announced that it intends to redevelop Varosha, once a glittering tourist resort that, in its heyday, attracted the likes of Brigitte Bardot, Sophia Loren and Elizabeth Taylor.

The project promises to transform this surreal zone of abandoned hotels, empty apartment blocks and weed-choked streets into a booming Mediterranean playground.

One day it could rival nearby Ayia Napa on the Greek side of the border, a party resort renowned for its wild night life.

Varosha “will become Las Vegas again”, Ersin Tatar, the Turkish Cypriot prime minister, said during the summer.

It is a potential gold mine – a prime piece of real estate in the Mediterranean, with miles and miles of golden beaches sloping down to shallow, turquoise waters reminiscent of the South Pacific.

Land claims by thousands of Greek Cypriots would be taken into account, but so would conflicting claims by Islamic religious organisations dating back to British colonial rule of the island, the prime minister said.

But the intention to unilaterally go ahead with development has infuriated the Greek Cypriots, with an aide to the president of the Republic of Cyprus calling it “completely unacceptable”.

Around 45,000 Greek Cypriots had to flee the area during the war between the two sides and they still own land and property in the sprawling ghost town, which is situated in the Turkish Cypriot north on the southern edge of the port city of Famagusta .

Untouched for 45 years and out of bounds to the public, Varosha harbours old clothes shops with mannequins dressed in 1970s fashions and a car dealership full of old Toyotas.

Nikos Nikolaou, 57, owns a café right next to the No Man’s Land sign, near the Greek Cypriot town of Deryneia.

The border lies just 100 yards away, down a rough track which ends at a Turkish army checkpoint.

In the distance, Turkish and Turkish Cypriot flags fly over camouflaged watch towers and concrete bunkers.

On the roof of the café is a viewing area from where tourists peer through binoculars at the windowless hotels of Varosha, lined up in eerie silence along the beach.

Uninhabited, their balconies collapsing and their concrete lift shafts exposed to the elements, they present an apocalyptic sight.

Mr Nikolaou was 12 when he fled Varosha with his family, who left behind houses, a restaurant and land, including beach front plots which will be worth a fortune if the resort is developed.

“The Turkish Cypriots are taking a city that doesn’t belong to them,” he said, in between serving coffee to visitors and tending to a large population of cats at his feet.

“I remember living there. We’d go to the beach, to the cinema. It was a very sophisticated place compared to the rest of Cyprus at the time,” he said.

“But then the war came. Turkish aircraft bombed the city, we heard the soldiers shooting with machine guns. We left.”

The café that Mr Nikolaou runs was built by his father on the only piece of land that the family did not lose.

“We used to own land right next to the beach. It would be worth a fortune now. If Varosha was ours, I would be a rich man – and so would a lot of Greek Cypriots.”

For years, a progressive group of Greek and Turkish Cypriots has been pushing for Varosha to be turned into a sustainable eco-resort.

Vasia Markides, the founder and director of the project, is trenchantly opposed to the idea of a "Copacabana-like redevelopment" of the ghost town.

"That is the complete opposite of what we’re trying to inspire with the Eco-city Project," said Ms Markides, the daughter of an exile from Varosha.

She thinks that if the Turkish Cypriots forge ahead on their own, any prospect of Cyprus being unified as a federal state would be killed, "given that Famagusta and the resettling of Varosha is one of the big ticket items discussed in any negotiations".

"I think taking a green, collaborative approach to Famagusta versus the quick money approach will be much more productive, lucrative and beneficial for both communities, and could really solve many of our problems on the island."

Cyprus appealed to the UN Security Council last week to intervene in the dispute and to block the development plans.

The government points out that under UN resolutions, Varosha is supposed to be administered by the UN, rather than the Turkish military, and should be returned to its original Greek Cypriot owners.

Andreas Mavroyiannis, Cyprus’ permanent representative to the UN, sent letters of protest to the president of the General Assembly and the head of the Security Council.

Fiona Mullen, an expert on the economics and politics of Cyprus, agrees that if the Turkish Cypriots go ahead with the development of Varosha, then efforts to push for the unification of Cyprus would be doomed.

"If Varosha opens under Turkish Cypriot control, I think it is the end of any chance of uniting the island. And I think the people doing this know that," said Ms Mullen, director of Sapienta Economics, a research consultancy in Nicosia.

"Varosha was the one place that was guaranteed to come under Greek Cypriot control after a solution of the Cyprus problem."

The confrontation comes at an already fraught moment in relations between the internationally-recognised Republic of Cyprus on the one hand, and the self-declared TRNC and Turkey on the other.

The discovery of vast reserves of oil and gas in the waters around Cyprus has sent both sides scrambling to stake claims.

Cyprus vehemently objects to Turkey sending vessels, escorted by warships, to drill in waters where it has exclusive economic rights.

Nicos Anastasiades, the president of Cyprus, last week condemned what he called Turkey’s “threats and unlawful actions” in conducting offshore drilling operations.

On Friday, the Cypriot government denounced the arrival of a Turkish drilling vessel in an area that has already been licensed to French and Italian companies as “utterly provocative and aggressive behaviour”.

The government said the presence of the ship was “a severe escalation” by Ankara and vowed that it would not give in to “threats and bullying tactics”.

Turkey does not recognise Cyprus as a state, claims 44 per cent of the island’s exclusive economic zone and says it is merely protecting the interests of Turkish Cypriots.

The timing of the Varosha development announcement may well by linked to the battle over oil and gas prospecting.

“The Turkish Cypriots are making this move to retaliate against the Greek Cypriots on the drilling issue,” said Prof Ahmet Sözen, a professor of political science at Eastern Mediterranean University in Famagusta, in the north of Cyprus.

“It’s to scare the Greek Cypriot side and push them to the negotiating table.”

Whether the Turkish Cypriots and their backers in Turkey have the financial clout to demolish the crumbling hotels and build anew is open to question.

The cost of constructing a new resort town has been estimated at $30 billion or more.

“We are talking about a huge area which has been left to nature and decay for decades. All its infrastructure – water, sewage, electricity supply – would have to be rebuilt. It will require a massive amount of financing and a lot of time,” said Prof Sözen.

But the Turkish Cypriots would not have to revive the entire ghost town to put pressure on their neighbours across the island’s divide.

“As a tactic they may develop part of it, the part closest to Famagusta, to showcase what they intend to do,” said Prof Sözen.

James Ker-Lindsay, an expert on Cyprus at the London School of Economics, said the Turkish Cypriots have deliberately kept Varosha empty and out of bounds to settlers in order to use it a bargaining chip.

“They know the Greek Cypriots will view this talk of development as very provocative. Tensions are high at the moment and it could well be linked to the oil and gas issue.”

On the Turkish Cypriot side of the border, tourists sunbathe on a beach that stretches right up to a scrappy fence made of corrugated iron, wooden pallets and barbed wire, topped with images of Turkish soldiers armed with automatic rifles.

Beyond stretches Varosha, its ranks of empty hotels lined up along a long, curving beach that is devoid of life.

“What a weird sight,” said a middle-aged tourist from, of all places, Greenland, as his children played in the shallows.

Turkish Cypriots would love to see the former resort brought back to life because it would massively boost the economy of the region, but some have their doubts as to whether the development will happen.

“I came here from Turkey when I was five and they were saying back then that Varosha would soon be opened up. I’m 47 now and it’s still not happened,” said Salih, the owner of a beach bar who declined to give his surname.

Back on the other side of the border, as a Greek Cypriot army helicopter clattered over parched scrubland, Mr Nikolaou recalled the one time that he ventured over the frontier to peer at his former home in Varosha through chain link fences.

“It was a strange feeling. In a way, I didn’t want to go back because it made me feel so sad. On the other hand, I wanted to be there. It reminded me of all the good times. It was paradise.”

German police are investigating a bitcoin transfer made to the far-Right extremist behind Wednesday’s terror attack in Halle to determine if the man possessed a broader support network.

German media outlet Spiegel reports that a transfer of 0.1 bitcoin – approximately €750 (£660) – was made to alleged attacker Stephan Balliet in the lead up to the attack. Police said the transfer came from an unknown source.

Balliet told police interrogators that he had received the money from someone whom he had communicated with on the internet, but that he did not know who they were.

Questions were raised as to how Balliet, who had been unemployed for a significant period of time in the lead up to the attack, was able to fund the attack, including buying the materials for his home-made weapons.

As reported by Spiegel, the man told investigators that the weapons were cheap to manufacture, primarily as he constructed them from basic raw materials.

He told police he bought steel worth €50, cartridge cases for €25 and a telescope for €20 to manufacture the weapons, which he based on designs released online by British pro-gun activist Philip Luty

"The further investigations will deal in particular with the question of whether other persons were involved in the act or its preparation alongside Stephan Balliet", said a spokesman for the Federal Criminal Police Office.

The 27-year-old Balliet was active in far-Right chatrooms, with police suspecting he was radicalised online.

Balliet uploaded a manifesto outlining his motives, details of his weapons and indications as to the nature of his plans in the lead up to the attack.  

The world’s first female spacewalking team made history high above Earth on Friday, floating out of the International Space Station to fix a broken part of the power network.

As Nasa astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir emerged one by one, it marked the first time in a half-century of spacewalking that a woman floated out without a male crewmate.

America’s first female spacewalker from 35 years ago, Kathy Sullivan, was delighted. She said It’s good to finally have enough women in the astronaut corps and trained for spacewalking for this to happen.

Nasa leaders – along with women and others around the world – cheered Ms Koch and Ms Meir on. At the same time, many noted that this will hopefully become routine in the future.

"We’ve got qualified women running the control, running space centers, commanding the station, commanding spaceships and doing spacewalks," Sullivan told The Associated Press earlier this week. "And golly, gee whiz, every now and then there’s more than one woman in the same place."

Tracy Caldwell Dyson, a three-time spacewalker who watched from Mission Control, added: "Hopefully, this will now be considered normal."

Nasa Administrator Jim Bridenstine watched the big event unfold from Nasa headquarters in Washington.

"We have the right people doing the right job at the right time," he said. "They are an inspiration to people all over the world including me. And we’re very excited to get this mission underway."

Nasa originally wanted to conduct an all-female spacewalk last spring, but did not have enough medium-size suits ready to go.

Ms Koch and Ms Meir were supposed to install more new batteries in a spacewalk next week, but had to venture out three days earlier to deal with an equipment failure that occurred over the weekend. They need to replace an old battery charger for one of the three new batteries that was installed last week by Ms Koch and Andrew Morgan.

"Jessica and Christina, we are so proud of you. You’re going to do great today," Mr Morgan radioed from inside as the women exited the hatch.

Ms Meir, making her spacewalking debut, became the 228th person in the world to conduct a spacewalk and the 15th woman.

It was the fourth spacewalk for Ms Koch, who is seven months into an 11-month mission that will be the longest ever by a woman.

A hunter in the US was gored to death after a deer he believed he had shot dead got up and attacked him. 

Thomas Alexander, 66, was hunting in the Ozark Mountains, Arkansas, when he shot the buck and watched it fall to the ground. 

When Mr Alexander approached the animal to see if it was dead, the buck stood back up and attacked him.

Mr Alexander suffered multiple puncture wounds but managed to call his wife who alerted the emergency services. He was later declared dead in hospital.

Keith Stephens, from the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, told local media that the hunter’s death was "one of the stranger things that’s happened" in his 20 years of working for the agency.

“I don’t know how long he left [the buck] there, but he went up to check it to make sure it was dead. And evidently it wasn’t," Mr Stephens told local network KY3.

“When you get up there, be really careful around it because it may not be dead. But if you let them lay there for a while and they don’t move, and he may have done that. We just don’t know," he added.

Mr Stephens said that it was unclear whether Mr Alexander had died from the puncture wounds, or another cause, such as a heart attack.

He added that he believes there will not be an autopsy on Mr Alexander’s body, so the actual cause of death may never be known.

Mr Stephens said he has only come across a similar incident one other time in the state, when someone was struck by a buck’s antlers. 

He said the injury was "pretty significant", but added that the person survived. 

The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission said it advises that hunters wait around 30 minutes to check a deer is not moving before approaching it.

The wildlife agency said it has been searching for the wounded animal.

When Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared himself the caliph of the Islamic State in 2014 he did so in front of the world from the al-Nuri mosque in the city of Mosul, the crown jewel of a jihadist empire which at the time stretched across Iraq and Syria. 

His successor’s coronation had none of that grandeur. 

The man known by the nom de guerre Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi takes over a caliphate of ashes. Isil has been driven from Mosul and every other city it once controlled. A territory once the size of Britain has been reduced to a few pockets in the deserts of eastern Syria. 

Abu Ibrahim himself is in hiding along with the rest of Isil’s leadership. His elevation to the position of caliph was announced in a seven and a half minute audio tape, rather than in a speech at one of Islam’s most storied mosques.    

Western intelligence officers are scrambling to piece together the identity of the new Isil leader but for now almost nothing is known about him.

“Nobody – and I mean nobody outside a likely very small circle within Isil – has any idea who their new leader is,” said Paul Cruickshank, editor of the Counter Terrorism Centre Sentinel. 

Donald Trump tweeted on Friday that the US knows “exactly” who the Isil leader really is but gave no further details.   

In the audio statement, Isil’s new spokesman described Abu Ibrahim as “an emir of war” who had experience of fighting against the United States. That has led some to suspect that, like Baghdadi, he is an Iraqi who fought US forces during the post-2003 insurgency. 

While Isil’s de facto capital was the Syrian city of Raqqa, many of its senior leaders were Iraqis who emerged from al-Qaeda in Iraq. 

“The new leader is almost certainly Iraqi,” said Hassan Hassan, an analyst at the Center for Global Policy. “He very likely has credentials as a longstanding field commander within Isil, who fought in Iraq after 2003 against the Americans."

Speculation has mounted that Abu Ibrahim may be Abdullah Qardash, a former officer in Saddam Hussein’s army who turned to jihad after the US invasion of Iraq. Qardash was imprisoned alongside by the US alongside Baghdadi in 2003 but both men were released and became leading al-Qaeda insurgents. 

Qardash is believed to have stayed at Baghdadi’s side through the split with al-Qaeda in 2013, the formation of the caliphate a year later, and its ultimate defeat at the hands of a US-led coalition. Sometimes known as “the Professor”, Qardash has a reputation for brutality.    

However, Mr Hassan said he thought it was unlikely Qardash is the new caliph. 

One issue is that Qardash is from a Turkmen background, which would complicate his claim to be from the same tribe as the Prophet. 

The two surnames Abu Ibrahim has adopted – al-Hashimi and al-Qurayshi – each hold significance. He is claiming to be a member of the Quraysh tribe, the clan of the Prophet Mohammed, which is a requirement for any caliph. 

The name al-Hashimi suggests he is also claiming to be a Hashemite, a clan with direct lineage from the Prophet.

Qardash is also well known to Western intelligence, potentially making him a vulnerable target. Isil might prefer to choose a lower-profile leader to keep its enemies guessing. 

The new caliph was announced five days after Baghdadi detonated a suicide vest in a tunnel rather than allow himself to be captured by advancing US commandos. That is a relatively quick succession for the scattered jihadists and suggests that Abu Ibrahim was been pre-anointed as the successor while Baghdadi was still alive.      

His elevation was endorsed by Isil’s shura council, a consultative body of senior figures, and the statement mentioned that Baghdadi had left "a will" with instructions for after his death. 

Abu Ibrahim is likely to address his new followers in the near future but Rita Katz, director of the SITE intelligence group, said it was unlikely he would risk revealing his identity. “I don’t expect Isil will release any video speeches from this new leader or at least ones that show his face,” she said. 

Abu Ibrahim will not control a territorial caliphate like his successor but he is still the head of the world’s most potent terror organisation, with thousands of loyal followers across the globe. 

The US estimates that Isil still has around 14,000 fighters at large in Syria and Iraq. They have made their presence devastatingly felt in recent weeks with a series of car bombs in Kurdish-held areas of northeast Syria. “The insurgency has a lot of options,” warned Russell Travers, America’s top counterterrorism official.  

Western officials fear that number could swell as Isil capitalises on the chaos in northern Syria to break its comrades out Kurdish-run prisons. 

There around 10,000 Isil fighters, including 2,000 foreigners, currently in the custody of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). Around 100 have escaped in recent weeks, Mr Travers said, but more may be able to break out in the coming months. 

In one of Baghadi’s last ever addresses, he called on his supporters to free “the Muslim prisoners” from Kurdish custody. Isil’s new spokesman repeated that call in the statement announcing Abu Ibrahim’s ascendancy.  

Beyond Syria and Iraq, the group has around 20 affiliates stretching from the Philippines to central Africa to Egypt’s Sinai desert. Some of these affiliate groups are only a few hundred strong. But others, like the Afghan franchise Isil Khorasan, can count on thousands of fighters.   

“America, don’t you realize that the Islamic State is now at the doorstep of Europe and is in central Africa? It is also expanding and remaining from east to west,” Isil said in the audio statement.

In the coming months we will learn more about Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi and how he plans to lead his weakened, but still deadly, band of jihadists.

The Malaysian authorities have detained a senior Cambodian official who plans to join a mass return of exiled opposition leaders to Cambodia on Saturday, in what the Southeast Asian country’s autocratic leader has denounced as an attempted coup. 

Mu Sochua, 65, the vice-president of the banned Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), is being held at the airport in the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur, ahead of her bid to fly home to Phnom Penh with Sam Rainsy, the party’s founder, and other senior politicians and Cambodian supporters. 

The reasons for her detention have not been made clear. Ms Sochua was also recently refused entry to Thailand and Cambodia sought her arrest after a news conference in Indonesia on Wednesday, which was hijacked by its ambassador to Jakarta. 

In a recent interview with the Telegraph, Ms Sochua said that she and fellow exiled CNRP leaders were ready to risk detention or death in returning to their homeland to try to peacefully restore democracy. 

Cambodia this week deployed troops along its borders and staged live fire drills in an apparent effort to intimidate the delegation. 

“Democracy in Cambodia is dead. It is a one-party state,” she said, accusing Hun Sen, the Cambodian prime minister of being a “dictator” who lived in a “fear and paranoia.”

She added: “The reason why Hun Sen publicly announced that he will bring the armed forces to arrest us – or do more than arresting, I don’t know what he will do – that means that he is very afraid of our appeal for the people to come and walk alongside us.”

Hun Sen is the world’s longest serving prime minister. Last year he extended his rule of more than three decades in an election that was widely criticised by the international community as neither free nor fair. 

His ruling party won all the seats in parliament after the CNRP was disbanded by a Supreme Court ruling. Kem Sokha, the party’s leader, was arrested and jailed in 2017. 

Ms Sochua, who fled Cambodia in 2017 after Hun Sen publicly denounced her as an “urban terrorist,”  said that exiled leaders had mapped out several scenarios in response to their planned return.   

“The best scenario is that there will be dialogue through international community intervention…not just with Mr Hun Sen but with..civil society, the people,” she said. 

“Among the issues that we want to discuss and find a solution to is the immediate and unconditional release of Mr Kem Sokha, and our right to organise political activities and get back in touch with our grassroots supporters, to go around Cambodia without fear of being arrested.”

While the opposition did not want any violence, she acknowledged the risk. 

“The not-so-good scenario is that we will be arrested immediately,” she said. “In the worst scenario, there will be an uprising and bloodshed and we are killed, or one of us is killed or seriously wounded, and there is chaos and the country goes back to point zero.”

Following a turbulent history when the Khmer Rouge under dictator Pol Pot killed 1-3 million in a horrific genocide in the 1970s, Cambodia began to function nominally as a democracy in the 1990s, with its beautiful beaches and stunning Angkor Wat temple complex becoming a huge lure for tourists. 

The crackdown on the opposition in recent years coincided with a surge in its popularity. In the 2013 general election and the 2017 communal elections, the CNRP won nearly half of the vote.

“We represent half of the country,” said Ms Sochua. “How many times have we walked alongside the people, facing the police, facing grenade attacks? she asked. 

“Taking Hun Sen’s word seriously, that will paralyse you and that’s exactly what he wants – you fall in his trap. Cambodia needs people who are willing to come out and peacefully ask for change.”

The Malaysian immigration authorities did not respond to Telegraph enquiries about Ms Sochua’s detention. 

Saifuddin Abdullah, the foreign minister, told FMT, a local media outlet, that Malaysia had received a request from Cambodia to deport some individuals trying to enter the country. He added that immigration officials simply wanted to interview Ms Sochua. 

But Human Rights Watch called her detention ludicrous and unacceptable. “She’s done nothing wrong and should be immediately released and allowed to undertake the consultations she planned with the Malaysia government and civil society groups,” said Phil Robertson, the group’s deputy director for Asia. 

Deux gigoteuses de la marque HEMA sont rappelées du marché pour vice de production. Si vous êtes concernés, il vous faudra les rapporter en magasin.

Les magasins HEMA ont procédé à un rappel de deux gigoteuses “suite à une faute de production.” Le communiqué fait savoir que la languette d’une des fermetures Eclair “risque de se détacher et de causer un risque d’étouffement.”Les gigoteuses concernées sont celles désignées par le numéro 33.39.5511 (taille 68/80) et le 33.39.5512 (taille 86/104).Il vous est alors demandé de ne pas les utiliser et de les rapporter en magasin où vous serez remboursés, avec ou sans ticket de caisse.Pour toute informations supplémentaires, HEMA se rend joignable au 01 40 39 94 61

LEVITTOWN, NY — Just one out of every 10 people who suffer cardiac arrest outside a hospital survive the ordeal. Even fewer survive with little or no everlasting brain damage.

That’s why a family calls it a “miracle” that 71-year-old Gary Peterson of Levittown is walking and talking today. It’s also why they’re committed to learning CPR, or cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

On the afternoon of Dec. 11, Peterson and his wife, Susan, returned home from running errands and saw a child skateboarding outside. A medal-winning skateboarder in his younger days, Peterson thought he’d teach the child a few moves.

“I know, that’s my Dad,” his daughter, Jennifer Peterson, told Patch in an interview Friday.

Gary Peterson seemed fine until he went inside and sat on the couch. He appeared to fall asleep — and made a strange snoring-type sound. Alarmed, his wife rushed over to see if he was OK. When Susan’s attempts to wake him proved unsuccessful, she slapped him. Then again. No response.

“Now she’s freaking out,” Jennifer Peterson said.

Susan rushed outside and called to their neighbor Brian, who is a former New York City firefighter and knew how to perform first aid. After moving Gary to the floor, the neighbor immediately launched into chest compressions while Susan performed mouth-to-mouth.

When they checked for a pulse, they felt nothing. He was suffering from cardiac arrest, meaning his heart stopped beating.

“During cardiac arrest, the heart cannot pump blood to the rest of the body, including the brain and lungs,” the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention writes on its website.

When the heart stops beating, death comes within minutes without treatment. CPR uses chest compressions to mimic how the heart pumps. These compressions help keep blood flowing throughout the body.

Police and emergency medical responders rushed to the Peterson’s home, slapping paddles on Gary’s chest and shocking him, desperate to restart his heart. They checked for a pulse again. Still, his heart wouldn’t beat.

Once at St. Joseph Hospital, medical staff finally found a pulse. After arriving at the hospital, his daughter Pamela Peterson, a nurse at North Shore University Hospital, knew his outlook was grim.

Gary was moved into the intensive care unit, and medical staff used ice packs to drop his temperature several degrees to give his brain and body time to rest, a procedure known as therapeutic hypothermia. He remained in that state for about three days before he warmed back to normal.

After eight days in the hospital, doctors removed Peterson’s ventilator since he was breathing on his own. They lowered his sedatives to see how his brain had been affected.

“They call us into the room and the doctor turns to my dad and says, ‘Raise your hand,’ and he starts raising his hands, and we all start clapping and crying,” Jennifer Peterson said. “And then my dad starts clapping, too!”

When they asked his name, he simply replied, “‘Gary.”

“Like nothing happened,” Jennifer said with a laugh.

Initially, Gary showed signs that he was still recovering. He struggled to string words together but improved with each passing day. Eventually, he was taken to St. Francis Hospital where doctors installed a pacemaker/defibrillator in his chest. The device helps control abnormal heart rhythms using electrical pulses. After a week there, he spent another week at a rehabilitation center before returning home about a month after the cardiac arrest.

Gary has almost completely recovered, with Jennifer estimating he’s about 90 percent to 95 percent of his old self.

“He’s totally with it,” she said, though he may not remember where he put something or briefly forget that he has to enter a password to use a cell phone. But by and large, he’s back.

“To go from basically dead on our living room floor to walking around, doing what he used to do now, is incredible,’ Jennifer said.

She called it a “miracle.”

Both Jennifer and her mother plan to take CPR classes, and the family hopes others will hear Gary’s story and feel inspired to do the same. Jennifer lives in Manhattan and passes thousands of people every day. Should someone collapse on the street in front her, she wants to be prepared.

BUENA PARK, CA — A group of strangers on a flight from Colorado to California made the day Dustin and Caren Moore brought their adopted newborn daughter home even sweeter than anticipated. In a thread on Twitter, Dustin Moore, who lives in Buena Park, shared his telling of the extraordinary act of kindness and how it reminded him “there is goodness to be had in this world.”

The couple were on a Southwest Airlines flight after recently being cleared to return home to California with their first child, Moore tweeted. After nine years of trying to become parents, he and Caren were “emotionally tender” and closing a difficult week — scared but determined to do well in their new roles, he said.

Their unique experience unfolded when the baby awoke mid-flight, in need of a diaper change, and a flight attendant named Jenny cleared a private space for them in the back of the plane.

“After a change, Jenny and another passenger complimented my beautiful daughter and politely asked what had prompted a flight with such a young infant,” Moore tweeted. “I gave them the shortened adoption story, to which they hastily offered congratulations, and shared a few more kind remarks.”

About 10 minutes later, the couple was greeted by another flight attendant named Bobby, who congratulated them after hearing about the adoption. Moore and his wife exchanged what he called “curious looks,” but thought nothing more of it, he said.

Then an announcement was made on the plane’s intercom. It was Bobby, and he announced there was a special guest on board — the Moores’ newborn daughter.

Bobby continued, saying the flight crew would pass out pens and napkins for passengers to offer advice or words of encouragement to the new parents.

“We sat in speechless gratitude as people kept peeking over their chairs to congratulate us,” Moore tweeted.

The crew then gathered the napkins and read a few of their favorites on the intercom.

Words of wisdom written on napkins for new parents Dustin and Caren Moore. PHOTO CREDIT: Dustin Moore

After the cheers calmed down for favorites like “make time for date night” and “drink lots of wine,” Jenny and Bobby approached the Moores with the bundle of napkins and a special set of pilot wings for their youngest passenger. To their surprise, the Moores learned Jenny and Bobby were married, and someone gifted them with a similar act of kindness on their honeymoon flight.

“(Jenny) thought it was a perfect opportunity to pay forward the kind act they had been shown on their honeymoon,” Moore tweeted. “Even as we disembarked, people kept approaching us and wishing us well, and complimenting our beautiful daughter. Our hearts were full.”

Moore said he’s unable to describe what the outpouring of love meant to him and Caren, and how it lifted up two new parents determined to love their daughter.