Sunday, July 31, 2005


Carburetor breast fantasy wins bad writing contest

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A Microsoft analyst has won an annual contest celebrating bad writing by comparing fixing carburetors to fondling a woman's breasts.

"As he stared at her ample bosom, he daydreamed of the dual Stromberg carburetors in his vintage Triumph Spitfire, highly functional yet pleasingly formed, perched prominently on top of the intake manifold, aching for experienced hands, the small knurled caps of the oil dampeners begging to be inspected and adjusted as described in chapter seven of the shop manual," went Dan McKay's winning entry in the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest.

McKay, 43, of North Dakota was said by organizers on Thursday to be visiting China "perhaps to escape notoriety for his dubious literary achievement." He wins $250.

The California San Jose State University contest challenges entrants to submit bad opening sentences to imaginary novels and has attracted entries from around the world for 23 years.

It was inspired by 19th century novelist Edward George Earl Bulwer-Lytton, who opened his 1830 novel "Paul Clifford" with the now immortal words, "It was a dark and stormy night."

San Jose State English Professor Scott Rice said that judging the contest "is a hoot."

"By and large the entries are submitted by serious readers who have a notion about what is good and bad writing. That is what is heartening," Rice said.

In a contest that now has several sub categories, the winner in the children's literature section was sent in by Shelby Leung of New South Wales, Australia.

"The woods were all a-twitter with rumors that the Seven Dwarves were planning a live reunion after their attempted solo careers had dismally sputtered into Z-list oblivion and it was all just a matter of meeting a ten-page list of outlandish demands (including 700-threadcount Egyptian cotton bedsheets, lots of white lilies and a separate trailer for the magic talking mirror) to get the Princess Formerly Known As Snow White on board."

Read the complete article at Yahoo!News

Doc Who Had Sex in Waiting Room Punished

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - The license of a Clifton Park obstetrician/gynecologist who had sex in a hospital waiting room and who induced another woman's labor early so he wouldn't have to change his vacation plans has been revoked by state health officials.

The Board for Professional Medical Conduct this week found Dr. Akiva Abraham morally unfit to practice medicine. Among the evidence considered was testimony by a psychiatrist who called Abraham "the most amoral person she had evaluated who was not behind bars."

Abraham, 40, had a five-month sexual relationship in 2002 with a troubled 25-year-old woman he was treating, including encounters with her in his office and in a waiting room at St. Peter's Hospital in Albany for doctors on call, according to health officials.

He was also accused of forcing the woman to have sex with him against her wishes.

The state also ruled that Abraham, who worked at several Albany area hospitals, had practiced medicine negligently, filed false reports and failed to maintain accurate records.

Read the complete article at My Way News

Saturday, July 30, 2005

Coke's Calorie-Burning Enviga Slated for 2006 Debut

NEW YORK Coca-Cola is planning to launch Enviga, a soda that is said to burn 50 to 100 calories just by drinking a 12-oz. serving, next year, per one executive.

Enviga, a green tea-based, caffeinated, carbonated drink, is in clinical testing and is said to speed up the user's metabolism. The beverage will target active lifestyle consumers.

A Coke rep said, "Some [of our projects] may find their way to market and some may not." Studies have shown that drinking green tea may promote weight loss by stimulating the body to burn calories.

Read the complete article at Yahoo!News

Rock band demands beauty queens

A rock band has asked for all of this year's Miss Serbia beauty queen contestants in their dressing room.

Finnish band Apocalyptica included the request in their rider for the Exit music festival in Serbia where they are supporting Garbage.

They also asked for a dozen postcards with stamps already attached so they could write to their mums.

Organisers of the four day festival said they had asked the girls if they were willing to visit the band, but it were not sure they could make it.

A spokesman said: "It was a bizarre request, and I don't know why they wanted the postcards. Perhaps they wanted to write about the girls afterwards.

Read the complete article at Ananova

Toothless man steals toothbrushes

A toothless man has been arrested for stealing toothbrushes.

According to O Dia newspaper Ednor Rodrigues, 32, was filmed on CCTV taking 7 toothbrushes from a supermarket in Ribeirao Preto, Brazil.

When he was approached by the police he tried to deny the robbery even showing the officers his toothless mouth.

He finally admitted to the robbery, he said: "I don't know why I did it.

"I know it is a stupid thing to do, I have no teeth, what was I thinking?"

Read the complete article at Ananova

Free Museum Admission For Baring It All

(AP) VIENNA, Austria Vienna’s prestigious Leopold Museum is usually a pretty buttoned-down place, but on Friday, some of the nudes in its marble galleries were for real.

Scores of naked or scantily clad people wandered the museum, lured by an offer of free entry to “The Naked Truth,” an exhibition of early 1900s erotic art, if they showed up wearing just a swimsuit—or nothing at all.

With a heat wave sweeping much of Europe, pushing temperatures into the mid-90s in Vienna, the museum decided that making the most of its cool, climate-controlled space would spur interest in the show.

“We find a naked body every bit as beautiful as a clothed one,” said Elisabeth Leopold, who founded the museum with her husband, Rudolf. “If they came only out of lust, we have to accept that. We stand for the truth.”

Read the complete article at WCCO

Man Offers Cattle For Chelsea Clinton's Hand

(AP) NAIROBI, Kenya A Kenyan city councilman says he offered Bill Clinton 40 goats and 20 cows for his daughter’s hand in marriage five years ago. He’s still awaiting an answer.

Godwin Kipkemoi Chepkurgor wrote Clinton asking for Chelsea’s hand in 2000 when Clinton visited Kenya, Chepkurgor told the East African Standard newspaper.

Chepkurgor, 36, vowed to remain single until he gets an answer to his proposal to marry Chelsea, 25.

Read the complete article at WCCO

Friday, July 29, 2005

Cashier Allegedly Gives Random Discounts

NASHUA, N.H. - In a bizarre case, a store cashier is charged with helping apparently random people steal about $5,000 in clothing from the store.

Police have charged Shayna McDonald, 19, of Nashua, with theft. They said that while she worked as a cashier at the A.G. Wright Department store, she allowed customers to leave with goods after charging them a fraction of the cost.

Lt. Andrew Lavoie said what makes it bizarre, is that McDonald and the customers who got the price breaks apparently didn't know each other. He said the word was out on the street that she gave breaks on clothing and she apparently got nothing in return.

Read the complete article at Yahoo!News

Fetish mugger had 124 spectacles

A FETISH Japanese mugger who longed for his boyhood friend's eyeglasses was arrested with 154 pairs of glasses or contact lenses he allegedly seized by force, police and reports said today.

Construction worker Toru Nagasawa, 29, was caught after he went outside a man's apartment building and asked for directions. Nagasawa then punched the victim in the face, saying he did not answer politely enough, police said.
Nagasawa then allegedly followed the victim into his apartment and forced him to take off his contact lenses, a police spokesman said.

"Are you wearing contact lenses now? Put them in my eyes," Nagasawa told the 31-year-old victim, as quoted by the Tokyo Shimbun newspaper.

After Nagasawa's arrest yesterday in Kawasaki, just south of Tokyo, police put on display what they confiscated from his home - 124 pairs of glasses and 30 pairs of contact lenses of a wide variety.

He reportedly stocked them in plastic bags in his room.

Police did not comment on his motive but Nagasawa reportedly said: "I felt good when I wore the glasses of a friend in my junior high school days. I have ever since been searching for glasses that fit me."

Read the complete article at News.com.au

Japanese develop 'female' android



Japanese scientists have unveiled the most human-looking robot yet devised - a "female" android called Repliee Q1.

She has flexible silicone for skin rather than hard plastic, and a number of sensors and motors to allow her to turn and react in a human-like manner.

She can flutter her eyelids and move her hands like a human. She even appears to breathe.

Professor Hiroshi Ishiguro of Osaka University says one day robots could fool us into believing they are human.

Repliee Q1 is not like any robot you will have seen before, at least outside of science-fiction movies.

She is designed to look human and although she can only sit at present, she has 31 actuators in her upper body, powered by a nearby air compressor, programmed to allow her to move like a human.

"I have developed many robots before," Repliee Q1's designer, Professor Ishiguro, told the BBC News website, "but I soon realised the importance of its appearance. A human-like appearance gives a robot a strong feeling of presence."

Read the complete article at BBC News

Wednesday, July 27, 2005

Mother chooses Audi over baby

STAMFORD -- A Stamford woman was arrested yesterday after she accidentally locked her 23-month-old son in her steaming hot Audi, then refused to let emergency workers break the window to free him.

Susan Guita Silverstein, 42, of 124 Fieldstone Road, was charged with reckless endangerment and risk of injury to a minor.

Her son, who police said was "nonresponsive" when he was removed, spent more than 20 minutes in the car before the window was smashed open.

"As soon as they told me the air conditioning was not on, that's when I told them to break the window," said Capt. Susan Bretthauer, who ordered the command over the radio.

The baby was taken to Stamford Hospital "for precautionary measures," Bretthauer said. He was treated and released, a nursing supervisor said last night.

Read the complete article at stamfordadvocate.com

Police Give Man Amputated Foot Back

LAWRENCE, Kan. - Ezekiel Rubottom now has his left foot back exactly where he wants it — in a bucket on the front porch. Police in Kansas have returned the amputated foot to him after seizing it during the weekend to check out just how it got there.

The 21-year-old man's foot was amputated three weeks ago after a series of medical problems, and he started keeping it in a five-gallon bucket filled with formaldehyde.

It came to the attention of police after a call from a parent whose child reported seeing the severed foot. Officers who went to the home late Saturday night found the foot, and some of Rubottom's friends, but no sign of Rubottom himself.

Unsure of what to make of the unusual discovery, police confiscated the severed foot and put it into evidence storage.

"We had to make sure that no crime had been committed," Sgt. Dan Ward said.

Read the complete article at Yahoo!News

Tuesday, July 26, 2005

Canada wins dumbest government at World Stupidity Awards

MONTREAL (CP) - The Canadian government secured a surprise win Friday, beating out such luminaries as Iran, North Korea and the United States, for the dumbest government of the year at the World Stupidity Awards.

It also bested the United Nations in a hotly contested category that organizers said proved Canadians can compete with the rest of the world.

"Canadians often feel we're in the shadow of the U.S., especially when it comes to stupidity, but now we're proving we're world class," said Robert Spence, spokesman of the awards handed out during he Just for Laughs comedy festival.

"And as host country, who could ask for more?"

The Gomery inquiry into the sponsorship scandal secured the award for Canada, said Spence.

Dubbed the "Oscars of Idiocy," host Lewis Black of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart led a team of comics and celebrities who handed out awards recognizing achievement in ignorance and stupidity.

"I was dumbfounded," Spence said in a statement. "To see so much stupidity in one room, I almost lost my mind. In fact, I did..."

U.S. President George W. Bush may not have led the dumbest government, but he was honoured with the award for the Stupidest Statement of the Year after telling a news conference: "They never stop thinking of ways of harming America, and neither do we."

Accepting the award for Bush was Darth Vader.

Hotel heiress Paris Hilton won in two categories. She was named Stupidist Woman of the Year and was star of The Simple Life, which was named Stupidest Show of the Year.

Read the complete article at canada.com

Mom Pleads Guilty to Hosting Sex Parties

GOLDEN, Colo. - A woman who told police she wanted to be a "cool mom" pleaded guilty to sexual assault charges Monday for having sex with high school boys at parties where authorities said she supplied drugs and alcohol.

Silvia Johnson, 40, pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor counts of sexual assault and nine felony counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor. As part of a plea agreement, prosecutors dropped two counts of distribution of methamphetamine.

"She described herself as a `cool mom,'" Detective R.J. Vander Veen wrote in the affidavit. He said Johnson told investigators "she was never popular with classmates in high school and now began `feeling like one of the group.'"

Prosecutors did not recommend a sentence, but each sexual assault count carries up to two years in prison, and each count of contributing to the delinquency of a minor carries up to six years, district attorney's spokeswoman Pam Russell said.

Johnson, who is free on bail, held parties for the boys almost weekly between October 2003 and October 2004, authorities said. She was accused of providing drugs and alcohol to eight boys and having sex with five of them.

Read the complete article at Yahoo!News

Car crashes into Car Crash

A newly opened restaurant called Car Crash has had to close down - after a car crashed into the building.

The car lost control in wet weather and smashed into the entrace of the restaurant in Santiago.

Owner Nancy Araya says she named the restaurant Car Crash because the area was an accident blackspot.

Read the complete article at Ananova

Who wouldn't fall for such a clever trick?

PALERMO, Italy (Reuters) - An Italian couple stole 50,000 euros from a woman in the Sicilian city of Palermo after convincing her they were vampires who would impregnate her with the son of the Anti-Christ if she did not pay them.

The man, a cabaret singer, and his girlfriend took the money from their victim over four years by selling her pills at 3,000 euros each that they said would abort the Anti-Christ's son.

Read the complete article at Yahoo!News

Russia’s Biggest Spammer Brutally Murdered in Apartment

Vardan Kushnir, notorious for sending spam to each and every citizen of Russia who appeared to have an e-mail, was found dead in his Moscow apartment on Sunday, Interfax reported Monday. He died after suffering repeated blows to the head.

Kushnir, 35, headed the English learning centers the Center for American English, the New York English Centre and the Centre for Spoken English, all known to have aggressive Internet advertising policies in which millions of e-mails were sent every day.

In the past angry Internet users have targeted the American English centre by publishing the Center’s telephone numbers anywhere on the Web to provoke telephone calls. The Center’s telephone was advertised as a contact number for cheap sex services, or bargain real estate sales.

Another attack involved hundreds of people making phone calls to the American English Center and sending it numerous e-mails back, but Vardan Kushnir remained sure of his right to spam, saying it was what e-mails were for.

Read the complete article at mosnews.com

Monday, July 25, 2005

Dying To Tell Someone Something After You Die?

HARTFORD, Conn. (Wireless Flash) – Some people are dying to tell someone something but want to wait until they die first.
And a businessman in Hartford, Connecticut is dying to take their money.

Frederic Camboulives owns a website, NeverUnder.com, that lets people send “posthumessages” after they die in the forms of letters, DVDs, or computer software.

He encourages customers to be as positive as possible with their messages but admits a small number of people may see the product as an opportunity for revenge.

Camboulives figures his biggest market will come from people in

Read the complete article at Wireless Flash

Dad Boxed With 3-Year-Old, Mom Says In Murder Trial

TAMPA - Even though the boy would shake and wet himself, his father, Ronnie Paris Jr., would box with the 3-year-old, slapping him in the head until he cried because he didn't want his son to grow up to be ``a sissy,'' the boy's mother testified Monday.

Others corroborated Nysheerah Paris' testimony as the prosecution built its case during the first day of the capital murder trial of Ronnie Paris Jr., 21, accused of abusing 3-year- old Ronnie Paris until the boy slipped into a coma Jan. 22.

He died six days later with swelling on both sides of his brain.

``He was trying to teach him how to fight,'' said Shanita Powell, Nysheerah Paris' sister. ``He was concerned that the child might be gay.''

Read the complete article at TBO.com News

Sunday, July 24, 2005

Former Bus Driver Headed to Prison

CHARLESTON, S.C. -- A former school bus driver has been sentenced to five years in prison for accepting a $10 bribe to ignore two students as they sexually assaulted a 14-year-old girl, authorities said.

Lacey Jane Bolen, 26, of Goose Creek, pleaded guilty Wednesday to being an accessory after the fact to second-degree criminal sexual conduct with a minor, Assistant Prosecutor Kristi Harrington said.

Bolen's attorney did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

The bus was equipped with a 911 panic button to alert authorities to problems, but Bolen never triggered the device during the assault in January.

"At any point, she could have stopped this from happening to this young girl," Harrington said.

A student reported the incident to a school official the following day. The sex act had been caught on a school bus videotape and resulted in the arrests of Bolen and two 16-year-old Berkeley Alternative School students.

Read the complete article at WashingtonPost.com

Builder stole panties for work

A German builder admitted stealing hundreds of pairs of ladies' knickers because he likes to wear them for work.

Police arrested the 23-year-old for stealing pants from neighbours' washing lines after he was trapped by one of his victims.

Ingrid Volkmann, 53, had her hubby install a motion sensor under the washing line to catch the thief.

After he was arrested, the man reportedly told police: "I like wearing women's knickers to work but was too embarrassed to buy any myself, which is why I took my neighbours."

Read the complete article at Ananova

Day-care kids allegedly molested, forced to eat worms

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - The state suspended the licenses of two church-affiliated day care centers where children allegedly were sexually molested, forced to eat worms and pick each other's noses during employee-led games of "Truth or Dare."

The former director of the Kid's Palace centers and one employee have been charged, and the investigation is continuing.

Read the complete article at azcentral.com

Friday, July 22, 2005

Bank puts the 'fun' into 'funds'

Injecting excitement into the faintly dreary business of using a cash machine may seem a tall order, but one Japanese bank is trying its best.
Ogaki Kyoritsu Bank is introducing fruitmachine-style games of chance which run while the ATM processes its more mundane transactions.

Get three sevens, and your withdrawal fee is waived; three golds promise a jackpot of 1,000 yen (£5; $9).

The purpose of the gimmick, says the bank's Yoshi Enami, is simply "fun".

Read the complete article at BBC News

Florida Police Search for Naked Tickler

NEW SMYRNA BEACH, Fla. - Police are on the lookout for the naked tickler. Investigators said they believe one man could be responsible for a series of bizarre break-ins in which a naked man enters victims' rooms while they are sleeping and tries to tickle their feet.

The naked tickler struck again in New Smyrna Beach over the weekend.

Investigators have been working on five similar, unsolved cases since 2001. Most of the victims are women over age 60, said police Cmdr. Wade Kirby.

Read the complete article at Yahoo!News

Indian Guru Gives Hug Therapy

BOSTON -- People around the world flock to "Amma," the Indian woman known as the "Hugging Saint."

She is believed to have hugged more than 25 million people, including several during her Massachusetts visit Wednesday, reported WCVB-TV in Boston.

It is what Amma does for hours -- takes people in her arms and gives them an intense hug. Recipients swear she changes their lives.

"You could feel the vibration. She was hugging you for half a minute or so, maybe even a minute, I would say," said Indra Jethra, of Burlington, Mass.

"It is the eternal bliss you feel. Total peace in your mind and you get eternal bliss," said Meena Motwane, also of Burlington.

Marie Kirchberger came for the first time last year and said she had to return.

"I came back because it's a very powerful feeling," Kirchberger said. "It's a sensation that's lacking in our culture. It's the power of love. The power of a mother's love."

Read the complete article at NBC 4

Singapore Goes For Blind Date Record

(AP) SINGAPORE Hundreds of college freshmen at a Singapore university met up with members of the opposite sex in this country’s latest wacky feat: setting up blind dates en masse.

Organizers at Nanyang Technological University paired 536 people into 268 couples who spent at least an hour together Wednesday during a single 12-hour period, a university statement said.

The previous record of 123 couples was set in London in 2001. Regulations require couples to spend at least an hour together in a 12-hour period.

Read the complete article at WCCO

Thursday, July 21, 2005

Woman caught shopping in the nude

GERMAN police let a naked shopper go home after she told them she was getting groceries in the nude because she lost a spin the bottle contest.

"We're a tolerant city that is open to the world," said police spokesman Burkard Jahn.
"She could have been arrested for disturbing the peace, but we decided to let her go home with a verbal warning to dress appropriately next time."

The 35-year-old Cologne woman entered the 24-hour shop at 4am wearing nothing but an unbuttoned denim jacket, Mr Jahn said.

Read the complete article at News.com.au

Father of the TV Dinner dead at 83

PHOENIX (Reuters) - Gerry Thomas, the former poultry-company executive who helped marry American television with mealtime as inventor of the TV Dinner, has died at age 83, his family said on Wednesday.

Thomas, honored with a Hollywood ceremony in 1999 to mark the 45th anniversary of his innovation, died of cancer at a Phoenix hospice on Monday after a long illness, according to his wife, Susan Mills Thomas.

"He was very proud of the TV Dinner, but it never crossed his mind that he would ever get any notoriety out of it," she told Reuters. "He just ate up the publicity. He was a real ham."

A decorated World War II veteran, Thomas was a marketing executive at C.A. Swanson & Sons in the 1950s when he conceived of the frozen TV Dinner as a solution to the company's post-Thanksgiving surplus of turkeys. Swanson is now a unit of Pinnacle Foods Corp.

Read the complete article at Yahoo!News

Bride marries wrong man

An Indian woman ended up marrying the wrong man by mistake after a slip of the tongue by the priest.

The priest mixed up the groom with his brother at a Muslim wedding in Udaiya, Uttar Pradesh, reports Press Trust of India.

During the exchange of vows, the priest said Mehraj instead of Siraj and the bride, not hearing him, consented.

The faux pas came to light the following morning when the groom's family saw the marriage document

It is reported the bride was sent back to her parents' home and is now in a dilemma whether she is married to her original groom or his brother.

Read the complete article at Ananova

Wednesday, July 20, 2005

Free university for virgins

KAMPALA, Uganda (Reuters) -- A Ugandan member of parliament has pledged to reward girls for their chastity by paying their university fees if they are virgins when they leave school, a local newspaper said on Wednesday.

Bbaale County MP Sulaiman Madada said any girl in his district who wanted to take part in the scheme aimed at promoting girls' education would be given a gynecological examination by health workers to check they were virgins.

"The criterion is that a student must be a virgin and from Kayunga district," he told the state-owned New Vision.

The MP did not extend his offer to young men.

Read the complete article at CNN.com

Vietnamese Arrested for Mailing Skull

HANOI, Vietnam Jul 18, 2005 — Police arrested two men in southern Vietnam for allegedly attempting to send a human skull to a relative in the United States to be used as a prayer idol, state-controlled media reported Monday.

Doan Ngoc Phang, 37 and Huynh Thai Son, 49, were arrested in Ho Chi Minh City on Sunday and accused of "encroaching on graves and remains," the Ho Chi Minh City Law newspaper said.

The case was uncovered last week when customs officials found the skull stuffed in a plaster bust. Phang said he paid Son 1.6 million dong (US$100) for the skull, which he tried to send to a relative in California who wanted to use it to pray for prosperity, according to the paper.

Read the complete article at ABC News

Bigger wallet, more sex

HIGH earners of both genders boast an increased libido over their poorer colleagues, but only the wealthy men end up having more sex.

As their incomes rise, men and women are more likely to have a higher sex drive, according to a study of almost 30,000 people from 170 countries - the largest survey of its kind.

The findings, from an online survey conducted by the BBC, offer fresh evidence for the theory that women tend to be more attracted to men with money and resources, but that a woman's wealth does not much affect her sex appeal to men.

"Men accumulate resources, which they use to attract women," said John Manning, professor of psychology at the University of Central Lancashire, who analysed the results.

"When it comes to men with little by way of resources, women are just not interested in them at all. As a man's earning power goes up, you would expect him to be having more sex and be with more sexual partners."

Feminine charms were little enhanced by income because men paid more attention to other qualities, such as looks, Professor Manning said.

The increasing frequency with which high-earning men have sex is probably a direct result of their salaries, but the link between income and libido in both genders is more likely to have indirect causes, Professor Manning said.

Sex drive in men and women is thought to be influenced by the male hormone testosterone, which is also associated with assertiveness. High levels of the hormone may make people more competitive and pushy, and thus more likely to earn more, while independently increasing their libido.

The study, which will feature in a new BBC TV series, The Secrets of the Sexes, analysed the responses given by 14,488 men and 14,032 women to an online questionnaire.

Professor Manning's team is submitting the results for publication in the journal Archives of Sexual Behaviour.

Participants were asked to place themselves into one of four income groups and to rate their sex drive and the frequency with which they had sex, on a scale of one to seven. Men had a higher self-rated libido than women in all income groups, but in both sexes their scores increased markedly with rising salaries.

Male frequency of sex also rose significantly with income: men earning more than £50,000 ($117,000) scored 3.64 compared with 2.69 for men earning less than pound £10,000.

Among women, income made little difference. Those earning less than £10,000 had sex somewhat less frequently, but scores for women in the other three categories were very similar.

The research has limitations because it relies on people's ratings of their own behaviour and participants were not randomly selected, but its findings are in tune with those of smaller but more rigorous studies.

An analysis of 10,000 men and women from 37 different cultures by David Buss, of the University of Texas, found a pattern to male and female preferences. Women were much more likely to favour mates with high income and social status, but these mattered little to men.

A study of lonely hearts advertisements has shown that men tend to emphasise their income and professional status, but women are more likely to claim good looks or slim figures.

Read the complete article at News.com.au

Now, this is one scary story...

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Grand juries across California have indicted 40 pilots for fraud after they falsified medical records to hide disabilities like schizophrenia and severe heart problems that would have grounded them, federal officials said on Monday..

The pilots claimed to be fit to fly airplanes but collected disability payments for medical and psychological conditions that would have disqualified them from operating an aircraft, according to a statement by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of California. Other pilots failed to report they had prior criminal convictions, the statement said.

Authorities said they found pilots who continued to fly even though they had disabilities including schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, drug and alcohol addiction, disabling back pain and severe heart conditions.

Read the complete article at Yahoo!News

Fell in love with 999 operator's voice

A German man was arrested after repeatedly dialling '999' after falling in love with the operator's voice.

Cops managed to track down Guenther Bergmann by following the line of telephone booths he used to make the calls.

Bergmann, 45, from Duesseldorf, who had been drinking, told police he couldn't help himself.

"The first time I called it was an accident, I just pressed the wrong buttons. But the operator had such a sexy voice that I lost control and had to keep ringing back. I think I'm in love with her," he said.

Read the complete article at Ananova

Singing makes for safer driving-report

LONDON (Reuters) - Motorists who enjoy a sing-along while driving tend to concentrate more and fall asleep less than their silent counterparts, new research showed on Tuesday.

However, drivers should avoid overly rousing tunes or complex rhythms which can divert attention away from the road.

Read the complete article at Yahoo!News

Farmers declared independence

Three members of an 'Australian' family were convicted of fraud after declaring their land an independent kingdom.

The Rigoli family named their property in northern Victoria the Principality of Ponderosa, reports News.com.au.

Virgilio Rigoli, 67 - the self-proclaimed Prince of Ponderosa - and sons Philip, 36, and Little Joe, 25, refused to pay taxes.

During a pre-sentencing hearing, a Melbourne court heard the trio earned $6.9 million between 1991 and 2000.

Virgilio wrote a letter to the Australian Tax Office (ATO), addressing it "to the devil possessed," and Little Joe wrote another letter explaining why he refused to pay tax.

"I do not recognise nor will I ever recognise the government of Australia, signed His Royal Highness, Little Joseph Rigoli," the letter read.

Fences were erected around their 24 hectare property, which issued its own Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1994.

The farm was surrounded by a moat and people required passports to enter and leave.

Read the complete article at Ananova

Tuesday, July 19, 2005

Chicago Man Steals Squad Car To Get To Work

(CBS) CHICAGO A West Side man says he needed to get to work, and he made a decision that he'll probably regret.

Now Miguel Espinosa is in jail for stealing a marked Chicago police squad car.

Detectives say the 38-year-old Espinosa noticed the squad car outside a restaurant on North Western Avenue Thursday night.

The officer had left the keys in it while he went inside to eat. So Espinosa stole it and drove to work at the Whole Food Bakery House.

Read the complete article at CBS 2 Chicago

Police: Man's Notes Demanded Women Strip In Parking Lot

A 27-year-old married man was arrested and charged for allegedly leaving threatening notes on women's cars demanding that they remove their panties and leave them in the space where their vehicle was parked, police told Local 6 News.

Investigators said Nicholas Koger, 27, (pictured, left) would wait until a woman would exit a vehicle in a parking lot at Celebration Health in Osceola County and other locations and then leave a note between the front driver's door and rear passenger's door or on the windshield.

If the door was unlocked, he would also leave the note on a car seat, the report said.

"Koger demanded that the women remove their underwear and place the garment in the parking space where he would presumably pick it up later," Local 6 News reporter Nancy Alvarez said. "If they didn't comply, he threatened to find them and perform various sex acts."

The first incident of threatening notes was reported in 2000 but no leads appeared until May.

Read the complete article at local6.com

Monday, July 18, 2005

Man cuts feet off 'promiscuous' wife

A Pakistani man and some of his relatives chopped off his wife's feet after accusing her of being promiscuous, police said yesterday.
The woman survived the gruesome attack, the latest in a wave of assaults that have raised international concern about the plight of women in rural Pakistan.

'It is a shameful act of cruelty against a woman,' said Talat Ali, a senior police official in Punjab.'

The 32-year-old woman told police her feet were chopped off on 24 June by her husband, her father-in-law, a brother-in-law and two others after they accused her of being 'of bad character', a euphemism for promiscuous.

Violence against women is common in rural Pakistan where tribal and feudal customs hold sway.

Read the complete article at The Observer

Nostalgic? Open a can of car exhaust

BERLIN (Reuters) - A German man has canned the noxious-smelling exhaust fumes of East Germany's cult Trabant car and is doing a brisk trade selling the scent to those nostalgic for the former Communist state.

The smell is something very special and scarce nowadays," said Thorsten Jahn, whose cans of "Trabi" exhaust sell online for 3.98 euros ($4.81).

"I wanted to preserve the past in an original way."

Fifteen years since reunification, nostalgia for East Germany has been running strong as rosy memories of the communist state's social safety nets, holiday camps and quaint consumer products like the tiny, box-like Trabants increasingly eclipse its negative aspects.

A friend of Jahn produced 1,800 cans in four days by holding pieces of cotton wool into the exhaust pipe of his Trabi.

Read the complete article at Yahoo!News

Porn drive makes audience sit up and notice

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Indian police forced around 200 people caught watching pornography to do sit-ups in public to shame them and keep them away from theaters that illegally screen smutty movies.

The Hindustan Times reported Monday that police stopped the screening of a pornographic movie at a cinema in Balasore district in the eastern state of Orissa and made audience members -- some as young as 17 -- do 10 sit-ups each at a public square, watched by onlookers.

The police made the all-male group vow not to watch pornography again. To make matters worse for the embarrassed teenagers who were caught, police called their parents to watch them doing sit-ups.

Read the complete article at My Way News

Mob fire-bombs 'teapot' cult HQ

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - A mob fire-bombed the headquarters of a bizarre Malaysian cult built around a giant teapot Monday, police and a fireman said, two weeks after the sect was raided by religious officials.

About 30-35 assailants armed with Molotov cocktails attacked the commune in the early morning, torching a car and the roof of a building and scorching the giant teapot itself, emergency services officials, local media and a lawyer for the sect said.

The sect, which believes the teapot has healing properties, is in Malaysia's northeast, a strongly Muslim area that has suddenly lost patience with the sect, headed by an elderly man who says he is God and owner of everything, his "Sky Kingdom."

Read the complete article at Yahoo!News

Bigfoot Allegedly Spotted In Canada's Yukon Territory



Several people in Canada's Yukon Territory say they've spotted a Sasquatch, and some claim to have evidence.

In one case, a chunk of alleged Bigfoot hair has been sent to Vancouver for DNA testing.

Also, an extra large set of footprints was found in the woods.

"My Uncle Doug, he's been in the bush, he says it's not a bear track or anything he's ever seen," said resident Trent Smarch.

Some claim to have even seen one of the animals.

"When I looked up, it was just standing there, like watching me," said resident Roger Smarch.

Residents say that tree branches in the area have been broken off at the 10-foot level.

Read the complete article at NBC 4

Ebay Customers Get Stinky Product

(AP) ST. LOUIS A man is being sued by Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon for allegedly sending garbage and even feces to eBay customers who thought they were bidding for new or slightly used clothing.

Nixon filed the fraud suit against Michael D. Pickens of Bethany. His wife, Tamera Pickens, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch he is disabled with a rare blood disease, is unemployed and has never sold anything over the Internet.

The suit claims Internet ads promised top-quality clothes, including ads from Victoria Secret, Banana Republic and other well-known brands. When customers placed their orders through the online auction site eBay, the suit says, Pickens arranged for the shipment to come from companies that sell industrial rags, unwanted clothing or household items meant for poor countries. In one case, a customer received feces.

Nixon said Pickens either ignored or refused requests for refunds.

Read the complete article at WCCO

Asbo orders teen to get drunk

A teenager has been given an Asbo ordering him to get drunk in a court blunder

The error was only noticed when the 15-year-old ended up in front of magistrates again for an alleged breach of the conditions.

Magistrates heard the youngster, who cannot be named, was technically breaking the law if he was found walking the streets of a quiet market town without alcohol.

The order also required him to use threatening behaviour likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress to members of the public in Alnwick, Northumberland.

Read the complete article at Ananova

Joke is on comedian after jailbreak stunt

BANGKOK (Reuters) - A Thai comedian was left laughing on the other side of his face when he was arrested for a mock jailbreak in which he and another actor dashed onto a Bangkok bus handcuffed and wearing prison uniforms.

Police arrested Santi Meesaengchan, 37, after intercepting the bus and fined him 1,000 baht ($24) for "causing panic in public places" while pretending to be a prisoner on the run in Wednesday's made-for-TV prank.

Read the complete article at Yahoo!News

Sunday, July 17, 2005

'He wanted to win'

Police: Coach paid kid to hurt disabled teammate

PITTSBURGH (AP) -- A T-ball coach allegedly paid one of his players $25 to hurt an 8-year-old mentally disabled teammate so he wouldn't have to put the boy in the game, police said Friday.

Mark R. Downs Jr., 27, of Dunbar, is accused of offering one of his players the money to hit the boy in the head with a baseball, police said. Witnesses told police Downs didn't want the boy to play in the game because of his disability.

Police said the boy was hit in the head and in the groin with a baseball just before a game, and didn't play, police said.

"The coach was very competitive," state police Trooper Thomas B. Broadwater said. "He wanted to win."

Downs has an unpublished telephone number and couldn't immediately be reached for comment Friday. It was unclear whether he had an attorney.

Read the complete article at SI.com

Saturday, July 16, 2005

Wife sues man for loss of husband's love

A spurned wife in Durham, N.C., has sued her husband's male lover, accusing him of wooing away her husband. Pamela Lavone Putjenter alleges in a lawsuit filed in Durham superior court that Stephen Glenn Barefoot of Durham began to "willfully and intentionally seduce, entice, and alienate the affections" of her husband in January 2002.

She said her husband, Ronald Joseph Putjenter, eventually admitted to the alleged affair. As a result, the couple separated in March 2004, according to the lawsuit, which seeks compensatory and punitive damages of at least $10,000 each.

North Carolina is one of a handful of states that still allow scorned spouses to file lawsuits and collect monetary damages for alienation of affection and "criminal conversation," the term used in civil lawsuits to refer to sexual intercourse between a defendant and the plaintiff's spouse. Successful plaintiffs have won awards ranging from $1 to more than $1 million.

Read the complete article at Advocate.com

Friday, July 15, 2005

King County sheriff's office investigating possible animal abuse

SEATTLE -- King County sheriff's detectives are investigating possible animal cruelty at a farm near Enumclaw that apparently has attracted "a significant number of people" to have sex with animals, a sheriff's spokesman said Thursday.

The investigation was launched this month after authorities discovered the July 2 death of a man who suffered internal bleeding after engaging in anal sex with a horse at the farm, Sgt. John Urquhart said.

Authorities are not releasing the man's identity because the King County medical examiner has ruled his death accidental. The victim was in his 40s, Urquhart said.

Investigators have interviewed several people in connection with the case, which was brought to authorities' attention after the man was dropped off at a hospital for medical treatment. A surveillance camera picked up the license plate of the car, which led sheriff's detectives to the farm and other people involved, Urquhart said.

Bestiality is not illegal in Washington state

Read the complete article at Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Repeat Robber

OAKLAND, Calif. Stephen Holloday has a familiar face _ at least to tellers at one downtown Oakland bank. Police say he robbed the same bank four times between March 9 and May 23, but on his fifth attempt this month, a teller recognized him and alerted another co-worker who had been robbed previously by Holloday.

The two confronted the man, who panicked and fled, Oakland police Sgt. George Phillips. He was arrested a short time later on a street not far from the Summit Bank, the evidence _ a demand note _ still in his pocket.

Read the complete article at Xposed

Woman Arrested After Giving Birth Drunk

BARTLESVILLE, Okla. Jul 14, 2005 — A woman has been arrested on child neglect charges after giving birth while drunk, police said. Melissa Irene Tanner, 37, is accused of having a blood alcohol content close to three times the legal limit when she gave birth to a baby girl on June 30.

She is being held in jail with bail set at $30,000 and the baby has been placed in foster care.

The baby was not breathing upon birth and had to be administered a medication to counteract any narcotics that may have been present in the child's system. After an emergency procedure by hospital staff, the child started breathing.

Tanner reportedly has six other children.

Read the complete article at ABC News

Thursday, July 14, 2005

'Human-brained' monkeys

SCIENTISTS have been warned that their latest experiments may accidently produce monkeys with brains more human than animal.

In cutting-edge experiments, scientists have injected human brain cells into monkey fetuses to study the effects.
Critics argue that if these fetuses are allowed to develop into self-aware subjects, science will be thrown into an ethical nightmare.

An eminent committee of American scientists will call for restrictions into the research, saying the outcome of such studies cannot be predicted and may in fact produce subjects with a 'super-animal' intelligence.

The high-powered committee of animal behaviourists, lawyers, philosophers, bio-ethicists and neuro-scientists was established four years ago to examine the growing numbers of human/monkey experiments.

These procedures, known as 'human-primate chimeras', involve the combination of human and monkey cells, tissue and DNA to observe any effect and examine the possibility that such combination could actually exist.

Read the complete article at News.com.au

Wednesday, July 13, 2005

Beauty queen used to be a man

The winner of a German beauty contest has confessed she used to be a man.

Judges at the Miss Marksmen Festival 2005 competition held in Hanover voted unanimously for 24-year-old Kira.

She was among nine leggy contestants at the traditional men's only shooting club's annual beauty pageant.

It was only after the dark haired student teacher accepted her prize did she admit that until two years ago she used to be a man called Tarek.

She said: "I always felt that I was a woman trapped in a man's body and always wanted to be treated as such. This prize means a lot to me as it shows I really am a woman now."

Read the complete article at Ananova

Deputy mayor in U.K. resigns: caught scratching neighbour's car with her ring

LONDON (AP) - A deputy mayor in northwest England resigned Wednesday after a closed-circuit TV camera caught her using her ring to scratch a neighbour's car.

Prentice Howarth, 68, stood down from her post as deputy mayor of Bolton after police questioned her about damage to the black Citroen car while it was parked in the Bolton district of Greater Manchester.

"I would like to express my sincere regrets and offer my heartfelt apologies over this unfortunate incident," a statement from Howarth said.

Read the complete article at CNews

Drive-through robber gets bank loot

CHICAGO (Reuters) - That was easy.

A bank robber behind the wheel of his car on Tuesday sent a note through a vacuum tube to the teller at the drive-through window at a branch of Chicago's LaSalle Bank and the teller obliged, returning an undisclosed amount of cash, police said.

The exchange was completed through the bank's pneumatic tube communications system, in which canisters are passed back and forth between motorist and teller.

Read the complete article at Yahoo!News

Drunk picks fight with bear

A drunk Ukrainian who boasted to friends of his amazing strength was left fighting for his life when he picked a fight with a 42 stone grizzly bear.

The 22 year-old man, not named, had been drinking with friends in the town of Cherkask when he decided to show them how strong he was by wrestling with the biggest animal he could find.

They went to the local zoo where he climbed over the railings into the bear cage and started to hit one of them on the leg.

The bear pushed the man away with a swipe of his paw but when the man hit him again the bear pinned him to the ground and began mauling him.

Staff managed to drag the man out of the cage and calm the bears down, local daily Ukrainsky Novini reported.

Doctors at a hospital in the town where he was being treated said his condition was serious.

Read the complete article at Ananova

Tuesday, July 12, 2005

San Diego death linked to silicone injection party

SAN DIEGO (Reuters) - A 45-year-old transgender woman who received illegal silicone injections at a party in a private home in San Diego has died after nearly a month on life support, the county medical examiner said on Monday.

Patricio Gonzalez, who police said received silicone injections to her hips, buttocks, cheeks and lips, died on Sunday. Gonzalez and at least nine other people were injected at a so-called "pumping party" on June 19, police said.

"Pumping parties," where people seeking a more feminine appearance have silicone injected into their bodies, have been on the upswing in the last few years, experts say. The silicone used at the parties is often industrial-grade material like floor sealant.

The Food and Drug Administration banned direct injections of silicone in 1992 and the substance has been known to migrate within the body and cause chronic, degenerative illnesses.

Gonzalez and another transgender woman received more silicone than the other party guests and suffered immediate respiratory problems, prompting the Los Angeles-area woman who was administering the silicone to flee, police said.

Police have issued an arrest warrant for Sammia "Angelica" Gonzalez, 39, who was injecting the party guests with silicone, is believed to have fled to Mexico.

The second transgender woman, 30, was also comatose after the party. There was no update on her condition from police on Monday.

Deaths stemming from "pumping parties" are on the rise, with at least five fatalities reported in Florida, Texas and Georgia since 2003.

Read the complete article at Yahoo!News

Honey, you make me hot!

GRANTS PASS, Ore.

To prove his love, a 38-year-old man set himself on fire before getting down on one knee and asking his girlfriend to marry him.

About 100 people gathered to watch Todd Grannis perform the flaming stunt on Monday, which involved wearing a cape soaked in gasoline.

Grannis climbed up a 10-foot scaffold, was set on fire and then plunged into a swimming pool, dousing the blaze. Emerging unscathed, he got down on one knee and proposed, as a friend standing nearby slipped him the engagement ring.

"Honey, you make me hot," he told his sweetheart, Malissa Kusiek. "I hope I'm getting the point across that I'm on fire for you."

Kusiek, who has been dating Grannis for several years, said "yes," but added that she was a little angry because of the danger.

"At first I was mad, because I thought, 'He's not a stuntman,'" Kusiek said. "Then, of course, the tears started flowing. Of course I said yes. I was so thrilled."

Read the complete article at Xposed

Springs cops cite mom for 5 kids found drunk

Colorado Springs police officers found five children ages 9 to 16 drinking alcohol and smoking marijuana at home with their mother and aunt Saturday night.

Felony delinquency charges were filed against the mother, Jerianne Garcia, 35, and her sister, Melissa Collins, 39.

All the children were drunk and vomiting when officers Jennifer Lewis and Charles Szatkowski discovered them at 11:45 p.m., police said.

The 9-year-old had a blood-alcohol level of 0.16, police said, well above the 0.08 level at which Colorado drivers are considered intoxicated. The others had blood-alcohol levels between 0.10 and 0.15.

The 16-year-old was a veteran of a drug rehabilitation program, according to the police report.

"The 9-year-old could quote the percentage of alcohol in each drink, and had a cure for hangovers," the report noted.

Read the complete article at DenverPost.com

Monday, July 11, 2005

Granny grows tired of prostitution at age 63

BERLIN (Reuters) - A Berlin grandmother who has worked the city's diplomatic quarter as a prostitute for the last 49 years plans to retire when she turns 64 next year, according to Germany's Bild newspaper.

Even though prostitutes were forced to leave the area after the Berlin Wall, fell because dead-end streets in the downtrodden district were re-connected to east Berlin and property values surged, Renate Dolle was allowed to stay, Bild said.

"I've got a lot of regular clients," the blonde woman told the newspaper, pictured wearing a short red mini skirt and high-heeled white boots as she stood near the Japanese embassy. She said she charges 30 euros ($36) and on good nights she has four to five clients.

"I'm going to stop at 64 and retire," said Dolle, whose husband drops her off for work each night after the television evening news and who has a nine-year-old granddaughter.

Read the complete article at Yahoo!News

Weathermen sued for getting it wrong

Weathermen are being sued in Romania by hotel and restaurant owners who say the rain they keep forecasting has frequently failed to arrive.

They say reports every week that resorts will face heavy rains have hit business hard and left hotels in tourist areas like the Black Sea coast only half full.

Despite the forecasts of bad weather, in many cases the whole weekends have been sunny and bright.

Nicu Popescu, the owner of a large villa compound in the Costinesti resort, said: "When the forecasts are this bad and yet the weather proves excellent, it is obvious that we have a problem.

"The seaside season is short and the forecasts make all our efforts to get business useless."

The news comes just four months after Ion Poiana, head of Romania's National Meteorology Agency, was sacked by the environment ministry for making incorrect weather forecasts.

Read the complete article at Ananova

Parrot helped catch robbers

A parrot has become a celebrity in El Salvador after it helped police catch a gang of robbers.

The robbers stole the parrot, named Paquita, in a raid on a house in San Salvador, reports Las Ultimas Noticias.

And when the getaway car was stopped by police for a routine check, the bird squawked: "Robbery! robbery!"

A police spokesperson said: "What a fantastic bird! It repeated what its owner said when she saw the robbers.

"It made us suspicious and we checked the car and found the stolen goods."

Read the complete article at Ananova

Sunday, July 10, 2005

In London, uninjured singer seeks prayers

NEW YORK (Reuters) - London was the scene of carnage on Thursday after a series of deadly blasts but American R&B crooner Omarion, who suffered no injury or inconvenience, wants people to pray for him.

"Omarion was in London during the tragic bombings that struck this morning," a statement by the singer's publicist AR PR Marketing, released hours after the bombings, said.

Making no mention of the fatalities or casualties of the blasts, the singer's statement concluded, "He would like his fans to pray that he has a safe trip and a safe return home. He appreciates your support."

He was in London for Saturday's Live 8 show, his publicist Shana Gilmore told Reuters from Los Angeles. Asked why anyone should pray for him, Gilmore said, "He wasn't hurt or anything, but just the fact that he was there and all that."

Read the complete article at Yahoo!News

City to pay him 1.75M for lost testicle

The city has agreed to pay $1.75 million to a Bronx man who lost a testicle after a cop kicked him in the groin during a traffic stop 12 years ago.
Edward Dominguez, 29, was a teenager when he suffered the injury that has made it impossible for him to father children, according to his lawyer.

"He would love to be a father," said attorney Barry Weiss. "He comes from a close-knit family and he is the only boy. The Dominguez family line will stop with Edward unless he undergoes an in-vitro-like process to father a child."

According to court papers, Dominguez was a passenger in a car driven by his brother-in-law on April 21, 1993, when cops stopped them on the Bronx River Parkway believing the auto might be stolen. The two men were placed facedown on the pavement and handcuffed, then transported to the 52nd Precinct stationhouse.

At the stationhouse, Dominguez claimed he was kicked in the groin by one of the arresting officers, Police Officer Francisco Rodriguez. But he and his brother-in-law were later released and no criminal charges were filed against them. Hours later, Dominguez was taken to Montefiore Medical Center because his testicle was swollen. Weeks later, it had to be surgically removed.

Read the complete article at New York Daily News

Saturday, July 09, 2005

Bored student proposes mid-exam

A law student was so bored with his final year paper that he stood up in the middle of the exam and asked his girlfriend to marry him.

Student Edin Smailovic, 29, requested permission to address the rest of the students during an economic law exam at Bijelo Polje University in Montenegro.

Examiners gave their permission believing he had a query regarding the paper that was also of importance to the rest of the group.

But after approaching the front of the room he got down on one knee and asked his 26-year-old girlfriend, Edita Bikic, who was also sitting the exam, to marry him.

"I had planned to take Edita on holiday to Egypt after our exams were over and propose there, but I was so bored with the paper and so excited about the prospect of getting married that I decided I had to ask her there and then," said Smailovic.

Edita said "yes" and the couple are to marry later this month, local daily Glas Javnosti reported.

Read the complete article at Ananova

Couple Sentenced for Hiring Son a Stripper

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - A couple pleaded guilty Thursday to hiring a stripper for their son's 16th birthday party and were sentenced to two years probation.

Landon and Anette Pharris, who were charged with contributing the delinquency of a minor, also were ordered to take parenting classes.

The parents hired the stripper to perform at a September party attended by about a dozen young people.

Cassandra Joyce Park, 29, who police say used the stage name "Sassy," danced for a few hours before partygoers took up a collection and paid her $150 more to fully disrobe, Anette Pharris said.

The stripper and the man she was with were also granted probation.

Police were tipped off to the party by a photo developer at a drug store who saw pictures of the occasion.

Read the complete article at Yahoo!News

Friday, July 08, 2005

450 Sheep Jump to Their Deaths in Turkey

ISTANBUL, Turkey Jul 8, 2005 — First one sheep jumped to its death. Then stunned Turkish shepherds, who had left the herd to graze while they had breakfast, watched as nearly 1,500 others followed, each leaping off the same cliff, Turkish media reported.

In the end, 450 dead animals lay on top of one another in a billowy white pile, the Aksam newspaper said. Those who jumped later were saved as the pile got higher and the fall more cushioned, Aksam reported.

"There's nothing we can do. They're all wasted," Nevzat Bayhan, a member of one of 26 families whose sheep were grazing together in the herd, was quoted as saying by Aksam.

The estimated loss to families in the town of Gevas, located in Van province in eastern Turkey, tops $100,000, a significant amount of money in a country where average GDP per head is around $2,700.

Read the complete article at ABC News

Thursday, July 07, 2005

Giant ice pop melts, floods streets



NEW YORK (AP) -- An attempt to raise the world's largest ice pop in a city square ended with a scene straight out of a disaster film -- but much stickier.

The 25-foot-tall, 17 1/2-ton treat of frozen Snapple juice melted faster than expected Tuesday, flooding Union Square in downtown Manhattan with kiwi-strawberry-flavored fluid that sent pedestrians scurrying for higher ground.

Firefighters closed off several streets and used hoses to wash away the sugary goo. Some passers-by slipped in the puddles, but no serious injuries were reported.

Snapple had been trying to promote a new line of frozen treats by setting a record for the world's largest ice pop, but called off the stunt before it was pulled fully upright by a construction crane. Officials said they were worried the thing would collapse in the 80-degree, first-day-of-summer heat.

"We planned for this. ... We just didn't expect for it to happen so fast," said Snapple spokeswoman Lauren Radcliffe. She said the company would offer to pay the city for the cleanup costs.

The giant ice pop was supposed to have been able to withstand the heat for some time, and organizers weren't sure why it didn't. It had been made in Edison, New Jersey, and hauled to New York by freezer truck in the morning.

Read the complete article at CNN.com

Tom Cruise sparks 'alien' panic

War Of The Worlds has been blamed for a mass panic in Siberia after locals mistook a tornado for an alien invasion.

People in the Khabarovsk region of Siberia jumped into their cars and fled their homes in panic when the freak wind arrived out of nowhere, flattening trees and destroying property.

But officials from local emergency services said the destruction had been caused by a freak tornado that ripped through the area.

They blamed the fear of an alien invasion on the recent showing of the Tom Cruise epic.

Natalia Lukash, spokesperson for Russia's Far-Eastern Emergency Situations Centre, said: "It was a strange phenomenon and many people jumped to the wrong conclusion and believed it had been caused by alien space ships landing in the area."

Read the complete article at Ananova

Dead Steelers Fan Laid Out On Recliner, Watching Sports

PITTSBURGH -- James Henry Smith loved his country. He served in Vietnam and spent 25 years in the Army, Army Reserve and National Guard.

But the 55-year-old Garfield man also had love for his favorite football team, the Pittsburgh Steelers -- and that led to an unusual viewing after he died from prostate cancer this week.

Smith's family asked the Coston Funeral Home in Lincoln-Lemington to place his body not in a casket, but in a recliner that faced a television playing Steelers highlights, with a remote control in his hand.

The body was dressed in black and gold clothing -- traditional Steelers colors -- and a blanket bearing the team's logo was draped over an armrest. Sitting on a table next to the chair were a pack of cigarettes and a can of beer.

The scene was reminiscent of Steelers game days in the Smith household, according to his family.

"He wanted to be at home in a surrounding with the things he liked to do," said Smith's widow, Denise. "I tried to do everything in the world to make it peaceful for him."

Family members and friends welcomed the arrangement.

"Everyone who knew him and loved him can always remember he was just at peace, sitting up there watching television, and he just went to sleep," Denise Smith said.

Read the complete article at NBC 4

Wednesday, July 06, 2005

Texas Man Arrested After Heroic Rescue

SAN MARCOS, Texas - A man who rescued a swimmer caught in swirling currents of the San Marcos River found himself in trouble soon afterward when he was arrested by authorities who claimed he was interfering.

Dave Newman, 48, disobeyed repeated orders by emergency personnel to leave the water, police said. He was charged with interfering with public duties. The police report does not mention Newman's rescue Sunday afternoon of 35-year-old Abed Duamni.

"I was amazed," Newman said Monday after his release on $2,000 bail. "I had a very uncomfortable night after saving that guy's life. He thanked me for it in front of the police, and then they took me to jail."

Duamni had just finished eating at the nearby restaurant when he decided to go for a swim. He said he did not see signs warning swimmers about any danger, and jumped into the water several times before the current caught him.

"I reached a point where I said, 'I'm dead,'" Duamni said.

Newman said he pulled Duamni from the water, swimming under a waterfall and over to the shore opposite from the restaurant. He could hear law enforcement personnel telling him to come back to the other side.

"When he came across the river, the officer stuck out his hand like he's going to help him out of the water, and he put cuffs on him," said John Parnell, pastor of St. Augustine Old Roman Catholic Church in Fort Worth.

Read the complete article at Yahoo!News

Foiled by fake boobs

A Russian man who tried to sit university entrance exams for his sister was caught because his breasts were too big.

The young man was not admitted to the entry exam for Moscow State University's journalism department, reports Interfax.

Yasen Zasursky, dean of the journalism department, said security staff paid particular attention to a girl with bright makeup and "especially outstanding feminine features".

A thorough check revealed that the girl was in fact a young man trying to pose as a girl to pass the exam for his sister.

The dean said that security were especially suspicious because the applicant's breasts were of "incomparable proportions".

Read the complete article at Ananova

Blog Bares Sex Offender's Demons

Netizens began gathering at the chilling weblog of accused kidnapper Joseph Duncan this week, turning the online journal into both a forum for their rage against the convicted sexual predator and a tribute to his victims.

"Thank God and our law enforcement community that you are now permanently behind bars," wrote one anonymous poster, addressing Duncan. "I would have reported you if I had seen this blog earlier," wrote another. A third reads simply, "Thoughts and prayers for the family."

In all, there were more than 1,000 comments posted to the weblog by the end of the day Tuesday.

Duncan, 42, was arrested early Saturday after turning up in a 24-hour diner with 8-year-old Shasta Groene just a few miles from where the bodies of Shasta's mother, her mother's boyfriend and an older brother were found bound and bludgeoned at their home near Coeur d'Alene, Idaho.

Shasta and her 9-year-old brother Dylan had been missing since the murder was discovered May 16. Police have said they believe Dylan to be dead. On Tuesday, they charged Duncan with two counts of kidnapping.

A convicted sex offender and a fugitive from child-molestation charges at the time of his arrest, Duncan spent approximately 18 years in prison for raping a 14-year-old boy at gunpoint when Duncan was 16. Released in 2000, Duncan moved to Fargo, North Dakota, and studied computer programming at North Dakota State University.

While police continue to investigate Duncan's life after prison, armchair internet detectives are piecing together details of his electronic life, digging up an online personal ad, two amateur videos, Usenet postings seeking computer advice, and forays into the geek sport of GPS geocaching.

But the most revealing -- and disturbing -- ripples in Duncan's data wake come from a weblog called Blogging The Fifth Nail that he started in January of last year.

A static website maintained by Duncan and hosted by GoDaddy was not accessible Tuesday. But Duncan's blog, hosted by Blogger, has remained up and running even following heavy media attention. (Google, which runs Blogger, didn't return phone calls regarding Duncan's blog.) The weblog is easy to find, and Duncan configured it to allow visitors to post comments, a feature that appears to have enjoyed little use prior to his arrest.

According to his first post, dated Jan. 4, 2004, Duncan launched the blog to document his comings and goings in case he was "falsely accused of some crime or another." The first six months of entries complained about the challenges of moving through society while wearing the scarlet letter of a registered sex offender: keeping a job, finding a girlfriend, dealing with aggressive police.

In several entries, he insisted he was not a pedophile. "I was molested so often and by so many different people that, up until the time of my offense, I actually thought it was normal and that everybody did it," he wrote.

Read the complete article at Wired News

Astrologer Sues NASA Over Comet Mission

MOSCOW - NASA's mission that sent a space probe smashing into a comet raised more than cosmic dust — it also brought a lawsuit from a Russian astrologer.

Marina Bai has sued the U.S. space agency, claiming the Deep Impact probe that punched a crater into the comet Tempel 1 late Sunday "ruins the natural balance of forces in the universe," the newspaper Izvestia reported Tuesday. A Moscow court has postponed hearings on the case until late July, the paper said.

Scientists say the crash did not significantly alter the comet's orbit around the sun and said the experiment does not pose any danger to Earth.

The probe's comet crash sent up a cloud of debris that scientists hope to examine to learn how the solar system was formed.

Bai is seeking damages totaling $300 million — the approximate equivalent of the mission's cost — for her "moral sufferings," Izvestia said, citing her lawyer Alexander Molokhov. She earlier told the paper that the experiment would "deform her horoscope."

Read the complete article at Yahoo!News

Monday, July 04, 2005

Man recites pi from memory to 83,431 places

TOKYO - A Japanese psychiatric counselor has recited pi to 83,431 decimal places from memory, breaking his own personal best of 54,000 digits and setting an unofficial world record, a media report said Saturday.

Akira Haraguchi, 59, had begun his attempt to recall the value of pi - a mathematical value that has an infinite number of decimal places - at a public hall in Chiba city, east of Tokyo, on Friday morning and appeared to give up by noon after only reaching 16,000 decimal places, the Tokyo Shimbun said on its Web site.

But a determined Haraguchi started anew and had broken his old record on Friday evening, about 11 hours after first sitting down to his task, the paper said.

He reached the 80,000-digit mark after midnight early Saturday, according to the paper, which had a photo showing Haraguchi with his eyes closed, his face contorted in concentration.

If verified and recognized by the Guinness Book of Records, Haraguchi's feat would beat his own previous best - currently under review - of 54,000 digits. The official current record-holder, also Japanese, calculated pi from memory to 42,195 decimal places in 1995.

Pi, usually given as an abbreviated 3.14, is the ratio of the circumference to the diameter of a circle. The number has fascinated and confounded mathematicians for centuries.

Aided by a supercomputer, a University of Tokyo mathematician set the world record for figuring out pi to 1.24 trillion decimal places in 2002.

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Mother-in-law syndrome

Psychiatrists in a Romanian town say they are being overwhelmed with cases of 'mother-in-law syndrome'.

It's the name they've given to mental problems suffered by men who have to share their home with their mothers-in-law.

Doctors in Botosani say tens of men every week are asking for help in dealing with anxiety and increased nervousness.

Dr. Nicolae Vlad, head of Botosani's Psychiatry Hospital, told 7 Plus newspaper: "These men believe they are the head of the family but in fact they're not.

"They simply do what their mothers-in-law let them and this situations lead to obsessions and sexual disfunctions.

Read the complete article at Ananova

Missing comma sends wrong message

A minor omission in anti-drug signs at bus stops in North Miami Beach make it look like local police are supplying drugs, not crusading against drug use.

What was left out was a comma or dash or some sort of grammatical separator. The signs read Say NO' to Drugs from the NMB Police D.A.R.E Officers, the Miami Herald reported.

I know what the message should be, but right now it means something else, Emilio Guerra, a local resident and grammar stickler, told Mayor Raymond F. Marin in an e-mail.

Read the complete article at Webindia123.com

Tourist 'fed beer and ice cream to tiger'

A drunken American tourist has been arrested for breaking into a zoo and feeding stolen beer and ice cream to a tiger.

The man allegedly stole beer and ice cream from the zoo shop and, as well as giving it to the tiger, drank so much himself that he passed out.

The 26-year-old was found by keepers the following morning, still out cold, in front of the panda cage in Munich's Hollabrunn Zoo.

Read the complete article at Ananova

Sunday, July 03, 2005

Estonians snatch world wife-carrying title again



SONKAJARVI, Finland (Reuters) - Estonia reigned supreme once again in the wife-carrying world championship on Saturday, as Margo Uusorg sprinted home to win the Baltic country's eighth straight title in the offbeat competition.

Forty couples from 10 countries gathered in the remote Finnish village of Sonkajarvi to complete a 253.5-meter-long obstacle course. A man must carry a woman, not necessarily his spouse, through a pool and across hurdles.

The few rules require a minimum weight of 49 kg (108 lb) for the "wife" and state that all contestants must have fun.

Uusorg, 25, completed the course in 59 seconds with friend Egle Soll, 23, clinging to his back in the trademark "Estonian Carry" -- hanging upside down with her legs clenched around his neck.

Uusorg's prizes were his partner's weight in beer and a high-tech mobile phone.

It was his fourth victory, and the third in a row for his family. Brother Madis won in 2004.

"We don't have a secret, we just try to run fast and hope the legs work," said Uusorg, who works in Stockholm as an embassy driver. He warned that the family would be even stronger contenders next year when brother number three, Urmet, takes part.

Read the complete article at Yahoo!News

Surgeon took flesh home to train dogs

A Dutch surgeon has been disciplined for taking human tissue home to train rescue dogs.

The surgeon took home small samples from three patients he operated on at the Meander Medical Centre in Amersfoort.

His wife used the human flesh to train rescue dogs to find survivors during disasters such as earthquakes, reports Nu.nl.

A spokesman for the medical centre said the surgeon, who has not been named, had been given an official warning.

"It was very unprofessional, unacceptable and against all ethical codes," said the spokesman.

Read the complete article at Ananova

Dinner party held in balloon

A group of men claim to have broken the record for the highest dinner party.

David Hempleman-Adams, Bear Grylls and Lt Commander Alan Veal ate a three-course meal in a balloon 24,262ft above Somerset.

Dressed in formal evening wear they skydived back to earth reports The Sun.

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Male housework made law

SPANISH men will be required to scrub toilets and change nappies as often as their harried wives under revolutionary reforms aimed at shattering the traditionally macho Latin nation's patriarchal division of labour in the home.

Changes to the marriage contract supported by the Socialist Government of Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, along with conservative Catholic and right-wing politicians, will force men and women to promise not only fidelity but equal shares of housewor, childrearing and care of the elderly until death they do part.
As Australia grapples with Sex Discrimination Commissioner Pru Goward's report calling on men to do their fair share of household chores, Spain has used the force of law to propel lazy husbands off their couches and marital beds and into the historically female territory of the kitchen, bathroom and nursery.

The historically socially conservative Catholic country dominated by a male hierarchy is undergoing a delayed social revolution, evidenced by yesterday's decision by Spain's parliament to legalise gay marriage.

Yet despite the prescriptive nature of the new gender laws - due to pass the Spanish Senate this week - there is no means of enforcing equal sharing of unpaid work in the home in a nation where many mothers still regularly do their adult sons' washing and young girlfriends automatically prepare their partners' meals.

Read the complete article at News.com.au

Friday, July 01, 2005

Are these college oral-sex parties for real?

If drinking, driving and college admissions aren't enough for the parents of teenagers to worry about, there's a new specter on the horizon: "rainbow parties."

As explained in a new paperback novel for teenagers from Simon & Schuster, rainbow parties are group oral sex parties in which each girl wears a different shade of lipstick, and each guy tries to emerge sporting every one of the various colors.

While "Rainbow Party," by Paul Ruditis, has received a less-than-enthusiastic reception from booksellers, it has won plenty of attention from bloggers and conservative columnists and prompted lots of talk among teenagers, parents and school officials.

"We knew it would be controversial," Ruditis said. "But everyone involved felt it was an issue worth exploring in a fictional setting. And I don't think anyone who reads the book could come out wanting to have a rainbow party."

Ruditis and his publishers see the book as useful for teaching young people about the dangers of oral sex. But many parents and commentators see it as exploitative, and publications from Publishers Weekly to USA Today have weighed in with articles about large book chains and small children's bookstores shying away from the book.

Michelle Malkin, a syndicated columnist, found the book appalling. "Why on earth would a publisher market such smut to kids?" she asked. Malkin was heartened by the many children's booksellers not stocking "Rainbow Party." But she worries that it could nonetheless end up on school library shelves in the name of helping children "deal with reality."

But in reality, how common are rainbow parties? It's hard to say.

Certainly, almost any sexual practice that can be imagined stands a good chance of having been tried somewhere, sometime. But many sex researchers and adolescent-health professionals say that rainbow parties are not a big part of teenage sexual behavior.

"This 'phenomenon' has all the classic hallmarks of a moral panic," said Dr. Deborah Tolman, director of the Center for Research on Gender and Sexuality at San Francisco State University. "One day we have never heard of rainbow parties and then suddenly they are everywhere, feeding on adults' fears that morally bankrupt sexuality among younger teens is rampant, despite any actual evidence, as well as evidence to the contrary."

Oral sex has, undoubtedly, become part of many teenagers' sexual repertory. According to the 1995 National Survey of Adolescent Males, released in 2000, about half of boys aged 15 to 19 had received oral sex from a girl, and slightly more than a third had performed it. A 2004 NBC-People survey of 13- to 16-year- olds found that 12 percent had engaged in oral sex, and 4 percent of those - or less than half a percent overall - had been to an oral sex party.

Tolman and others said most teenagers would avoid such parties.

"One of the reasons this is so dubious to me," Tolman said, "is that girls, particularly early adolescents, are still getting labeled as sluts and suffering painful consequences. The double standard is remarkably intact. So what could be girls' motivations for participating in such parties? And I can't quite imagine, even for a moment, teenage boys comparing their lipstick rings."

Many say rainbow parties are just a new urban legend - suburban, actually - not much more trustworthy than the old stories about alligators in the sewer.

At Planned Parenthood of New York, teenagers trained to discuss sex with their peers in the Bronx and on the Lower East Side, reported that while most teenagers do not see oral sex as sex, and some use it to preserve virginity, they had never heard of young people in those communities having rainbow parties.

The whole question has prompted some head scratching among adolescent-health professionals.

"There was a posting on the Society for Adolescent Medicine listserv, asking if anyone had heard about rainbow parties, and no one knew anything about them," said Dr. Donna Futterman, a clinical pediatrics professor who works with HIV-positive and at-risk adolescents at the Children's Hospital at Montefiore in the Bronx.

Still, an informal survey of teenagers found that most of those aged 13 to 16 knew what rainbow parties were, believe they take place and hear of them through the school gossip mill. "I think it's completely gross, but there's a girl in my class and everybody says she's been to one," said the girl, a 13-year-old from New York. "I heard two guys talk about her."

Read the complete article at azcentral.com