Odd and Weird News

Australian bitten while trying to sit on crocodile

2010-07-14T16:17:00.001-07:00

PERTH, Australia – A man ejected from a pub in Australia broke into a zoo and climbed onto the back of a crocodile named Fatso, which bit him on the leg but then let him go. Police said they're surprised the croc didn't inflict worse damage. The 36-year-old man, who police said had just been thrown out of a pub for being drunk, told officials he scaled the barbed wire fence surrounding the Broome Crocodile Park in remote northwest Australia on Monday night because he wanted to give the 16-foot Fatso a pat.

"He has attempted to sit on its back and the croc has taken offense to that and has spun around and bit him on the right leg," Broome Police Sgt. Roger Haynes said.

The saltwater crocodile then inexplicably let the man go, and he climbed back over the fence to safety, police said.

The man, who was a tourist from eastern Australia and whose name was not released, suffered some "very nasty lacerations" and was taken to a hospital, Haynes said.

"Saltwater crocodiles ... once they get hold of you, are not renowned for letting you go," Haynes said. "He's lucky to have escaped with his life."

Saltwater crocodiles are the world's largest reptile and can grow up to 23 feet (7 meters). They have become increasingly common in Australia's tropical north since hunting that almost extinguished the species was banned in 1971.

Man at border: Ankle monitor is support for Lohan

2010-07-14T16:16:00.001-07:00

Border agents said a New York man who's on probation and not supposed to leave the country explained away the ankle monitor he was wearing while returning from Canada as a show of support for actress Lindsay Lohan. Customs and Border Protectionofficers found the bracelet around 29-year-old Eugene Todie's ankle July 9 after he allegedly tried to re-enter the country using someone else's passport.

Officers said Todie told them a probation officer friend gave him the bracelet to wear for Lohan, who's had to wear an alcohol ankle monitor. Record checks showed the Buffalo man is on probation for criminal contempt.

Todie appeared in federal court Tuesday on misuse of a passport and lying charges and must return with a lawyer July 20. A telephone listing couldn't be found.

Police say Pa. woman beat man with frying pan

2010-07-13T10:51:00.002-07:00

Police said a woman faces charges after she hit a man in the head with a large frying pan. Police said the woman, 50-year-old Kimberly Denocheck, hit a 48-year-old man in the head with the pan around 7:25 p.m. Saturday at an apartment in Philipsburg, near State College. Police said the man, whose name wasn't released, suffered an abrasion on his head.

Police said the man, whose name wasn't released, suffered an abrasion on his head.

The woman was taken to the Centre County Correctional Facility to bearraigned on charges of simple assault and harassment.

It was not immediately clear if Denocheck had an attorney.

Armor makers busy ahead of Medieval battle replay

2010-07-13T10:51:00.000-07:00

Just like his Medieval counterparts 600 years ago armourer Tomasz Samula has hardly any time to outfit hisknights before battle commences.

Samula is racing to add the final touches to the metal breastplates, helmets, gloves and other accoutrements needed by the Lublin knights before they take part in re-enacting Grunwald, one of the largest battles of the Medieval age.

Saturday, thousands of re-enactors will become the knights, infantry, artillerymen and other combatants of the Polish-Lithuanian army andthe Teutonic Knights who they defeated in a massive battle on a field near this Polish village in 1410.

"Now people come to me to make last enhancements...The Grunwald (battle) starts in a couple of days so if I hadn't sent the gear by now people would kill me," Samula said, standing in the middle of his garage-turned-armory.

The fashioning and fixing of armor in time for the battle has put a smile on the faces of armourers. A full suit can cost up to 5,000 euros($6,298) or more.

"I myself have provided full armor for one knight who will take part in the battle of Grunwald," Samula said. "It wasn't easy because the guy was huge and it's always difficult to prepare an armor for non-standard sizes."

He said that preparing a full armor takes 5-6 months at minimum.

NO ROSE GARDEN

Samula said armor-making can be a tricky trade in the modern world with fallow periods between mock battles. One of his worries is the volatility of the zloty exchange rate as most of the armor is exported to Germany and France and therefore paid for in the common currency.

"We set a price with the customer a year before (he gets his armor) and he pays a year later so I never know (how much zlotys I will get)," he said pushing a helmet against a swirling polishing machine.

Another problem is the lack of trained personnel to help.

"I had an apprentice once but it took him a year to learn to make the simplest helmet I have on offer. But this is not a business that will make you filthy rich so he fled and now works at a warehouse near Warsaw."

FOR KING AND COUNTRY

A mobilization of knights, just like 600 hundred years ago, is expected for Saturday's battle. However, unlikethe middle ages, the knights and other combatants will also come from Australia, Canada and the United States.

"We expect 6,000 people to take part in the re-enactment of the (military) camp and 2,200 to take part in the battle," said Jacek Szymanski who will lead the Polish-Lithuanian forces into battle as king Wladyslaw Jagiello.

Szymanski had brand new armor made for the battle after some research to find out what it should look like.

"We found the fanciest medieval armor there was and made a replica of it. Kings always had the best armor."

Ohio crash leaves scared pet monkey atop pole

2010-07-13T10:50:00.001-07:00

Police say a truck crash in Ohio left animal carcasses all over a road and the driver's pet monkey stranded atop a utility pole.

The State Highway Patrol says the truck was hauling carcasses for a meat processing plant late Monday afternoon. The patrol says the truck flipped over while going into a curve on a local road in northeast Ohio's Medina (meh-DY'-nuh) County. The frightened monkey scampered up the pole after the accident.

Troopers say the truck driver was OK. The monkey had to be coaxed down from its perch.

The meat plant sent another truck to pick up the carcasses. State and county highway crews were sent to help clean up the mess.

No charges have been filed. The crash is still being investigated.

Corporate "firewalk" ends with burnt feet in Italy

2010-07-10T11:48:00.001-07:00

A "motivation day" organized by one of Italy'sbiggest real estate agencies ended in tears and scars when nine staff had to be treated in hospital after walking barefoot on a bed of hot coals.

Alessandro Di Priamo, a former athlete now turned motivational trainer for companies, said the nine salespeople from the Tecnocasa agency had suffered light burns and none were seriously hurt.

"Firewalking helps people overcome their fears, seek new challenges and understand that most of what they see as their limits are self-inflicted," Di Priamo told Reuters.

He said the hotel near Rome where the exercise was held used the wrong kind of wood and some artificial coal without him knowing.

"I have done this job for 12 years with thousands of people and never had a problem. I myself walked first on that bed of burning coals and didn't feel anything -- in fact that same evening I went for a 16 km run," he said.

Netanyahu bodyguards' guns go missing on U.S. visit

2010-07-10T11:47:00.002-07:00

Four handguns belonging to the bodyguards of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have disappeared from airline cargo during a U.S. visit, Israel's Shin Bet security service said on Wednesday.

"The pistols were part of the equipment sent ahead to Washington, and got lost," a Shin Bet spokesman said, adding that Israeli and U.S. authorities were investigating.

The American news network NBC reported that the guns may have been mistakenly flown to Los Angeles and stolen.

After meeting U.S. President Barack Obama at the White House on Tuesday, Netanyahu was scheduled to continue to New York. The Shin Bet spokesman said the missing pistols had not forced any change to hisschedule or security measures.

Swedes, Norwegians pounce on Chinese garlic smuggler

2010-07-10T11:47:00.000-07:00

Nordic customs officials have arrested a truck driver after he tried to illegally import 28 tons of Chinese garlic into the European Union.

The driver was intercepted last month as he drove the pungent truckload from Norway, which is outside the EU and where garlic is exempt from customs' duties, into Sweden, where garlic is subject to a 9.6 percent EU-wide duty.

Smuggling of cheaply produced Chinese garlic into the EU is on the rise, with around 1,200 tons brought into the 27-nation bloc via Norway since 2009, according to the European Anti-Fraud Office, known as OLAF.

"The interception of the lorry was the result of a carefully prepared initiative coordinated by OLAF," the EU said in a statement. "This action came about due to the excellent cooperation provided by Norwegian and Swedish customs."

China produces about 75 percent of the world's garlic, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, far too much for domestic consumption alone, meaning producers have to seek out markets elsewhere in the world.

Denver driver survives 500-foot drop from road

2010-07-10T11:46:00.001-07:00

Authorities say a 33-year-old Denver man suspected of drinking and driving survived after he lost control of his car and it dropped almost 500 feet off the side of a road. The Colorado State Patrol says Anthoney L. Buckner seemed to be in "amazingly good condition" after rescuers used ropes and a litter to pull him up from the crash site Thursday. Trooper Jonathan Silver says Buckner's 1990 Toyota hatchback was "pretty mangled."

Silver says Buckner may have been saved by wearing a seat belt. Silver says Buckner was driving on slick roads up Red Mountain Passnear Silverton when the accident happened.

Silver says investigators suspect Buckner had been drinking and charges are pending.

Woman who taped dog to fridge gets 30 days in jail

2010-07-09T16:05:00.002-07:00

A Colorado woman convicted of taping her boyfriend's dog to a refrigerator has been sentenced to 30 days in jail and three years' probation.

Twenty-one-year-old Abby Toll was sentenced Friday after she was convicted of felony animal cruelty in April. She could have faced up to 18 months in prison.

Prosecutors say Toll used hair ties and packing tape to bind the snout and legs of her boyfriend's 2-year-old Shiba Inu (SHEE'-bah EE'-noo) named Rex, then taped the dog upside-down to the refrigerator.

Police say Toll told them she was getting back at her boyfriend, Brian Beck, for paying more attention to the dog than to her.

Beck pleaded guilty to misdemeanor attempted animal cruelty and was given a one-year deferred sentence.

Another family has adopted the dog.

Man tries to steal car with fake grenade

2010-07-09T16:05:00.000-07:00

Boston police arrested a man they allege tried to steal a Mercedes Benz from a dealership by claiming he had a hand grenade. Police said the man showed up at Expressway Toyota on Wednesday and asked to test drive the car. Staff, describing the man as "nervous and fidgety," insisted on accompanying him.

When they got back, the man produced what appeared to be a grenade from his pants pocket and told the sales person to "get back or I will blow this up."

He fled when he heard staff calling police and was caught a short time later with a fake grenade.

The suspect was ordered to undergo a 20-day mental health evaluation after pleading not guilty to attemptedarmed robbery at his arraignment Thursday.

Man in buff startles drivers on California freeway

2010-07-09T16:04:00.001-07:00

Southern California commuters can now say they've seen it all, including a naked man in the middle of Interstate 405. California Highway Patrol Officer Monica Posada said the first call came at the height of rush-hour Thursday — a man with no clothes was in the center divide of the freeway. Then came a rush of calls reporting the man in the buff.

Long Beach police detained the 21-year-old man and gave him a mental health evaluation.

Police said he was taken into custody and will be charged with misdemeanor indecent exposure.

Iowa man arrested after lawn mower ride on highway

2010-07-08T10:15:00.002-07:00

MADRID, Iowa – A middle-of-the-night ride on a lawn mower landed one Iowa man in jail.

The Boone County Sheriff's Office says deputies stopped the man on Highway 17 near Madrid around 1 a.m. Wednesday after receiving reports of someone driving a mower all over the road with no headlights. Madrid is about 25 miles northwest of Des Moines.

The man was arrested for drunken driving. The Sheriff's Office says his blood-alcohol level was .190 — well above Iowa's limit of .08.

Boone County Sheriff Ron Fehr says it's illegal in Iowa to drive any kind of motor vehicle anywhere while drunk.

Fehr wasn't sure how fast the man was going on the six-speed Bolens lawn tractor. The Des Moines Register reports that the top speed for that mower is about 5 mph.

Boy, 8, tells Minn. council: Crack down on crooks

2010-07-08T10:15:00.000-07:00

Eight-year-old Logan Fisher is fed up with crime. And he's making sure the leaders of his Minnesota city know it.

Logan was ticked because thieves broke into his Brooklyn Park home last month and stole thousands of dollars worth of electronics, not to mention his wallet filled with quarters.

So the soon-to-be fourth-grader climbed a stool and took the podium at this week's City Council meeting. The Star Tribune reports he wrote out his speech in pencil, then had his mom type it up.

He said, "We need to get mean and we need to mean it."

Deputy Police Chief Craig Enevoldsen agreed with Logan on neighbors watching out for neighbors and stepped up police patrols. But he said the boy's idea to put an armored SWAT vehicle on the streets to scare criminals away wasn't so practical.

Red light cameras catch police in eastern Iowa

2010-06-30T10:07:00.000-07:00

Traffic cameras have snapped 26 local patrol cars speeding and running red lights in eastern Iowa. Cedar Rapids Police Chief Greg Graham said six officers have been issued letters of discipline because they didn't have their patrol car's lights and sirens operating when they were speeding to a call. He said five were not violations and that the remaining 15 instances are under review.

Cedar Rapids police also have notified Marion police and the Linn County sheriff's office of possible violations by their personnel, and are investigating infractions by city buses and a garbage truck.

Marion Police Chief Harry Daugherty said the authorities must be "consistent and show no favoritism."

Man, 81, accused of machete chase near taco stand

2010-06-30T10:06:00.001-07:00

Police said an 81-year-old man was arrested after he chased another man around a Salem taco stand while armed with a machete. Salem police said Monday the man accused the taco stand owner of stealing a drill from his nearby business. When the taco stand owner denied it, the suspect left and returned with a machete.

Lt. Dave Okada said the suspect chased the unidentified man around the stand several times before officers arrested him on accusations of menacing and attempted assault. He was booked into the Marion County Jail.

There were no injuries in Sunday's incident.

Ill-timed potty break lands suspect in jail

2010-04-25T18:21:00.001-07:00

An alleged ill-timed potty break has landed a man accused of robbing a Suffolk convenience store behind bars. Police said 43-year-old Sean Almond was found urinating behind a Kangaroo Mart minutes after a clerk reported the store had been robbed Thursday night. Police said Almond was carrying the stolen cash.

Almond was charged with one count of armed robbery. Charges of assault and urinating in public are pending.

Almond was being held at Western Tidewater Regional Jail without bond. It was not clear if he has an attorney.

Woman 'gets Chinese accent after bad migraine'

2010-04-25T18:20:00.002-07:00

A Plymouth woman has suddenly started speaking with a Chinese accent after suffering a severe migraine, she said in comments quoted by local media Tuesday.

Sarah Colwill believes she has Foreign Accent Syndrome (FAS) which has caused her distinctive West Country drawl to be replaced with a Chinese twang, even though she has never even visited the country.

The 35-year-old from is now undergoing speech therapy following an acute form of migraine last month which reportedly left her with a form of brain damage.

"I moved to Plymouth when I was 18 months old so I have always spoken like a local. But following one attack, an ambulance crew arrived and they said I definitely sounded Chinese," she said.

"I spoke to my stepdaughter on the phone from hospital and she didn't recognise who I was. She said I sounded Chinese. Since then, I have had my friends hanging up on me because they think I'm a hoax caller."

Colwill added: "The first few weeks of the accent was quite funny but to think I am stuck with this Chinese accent is getting me down. My voice has started to annoy me now. It is not my voice."

FAS has been documented around the world and is usually linked to a stroke or traumatic brain injury. It was first recorded in the early 20th century and there are thought to be only a couple of dozen sufferers around the world.

Woman tried to use 911 as taxi service

2010-04-25T18:20:00.000-07:00

Police in one Connecticut city have a warning for nightclub patrons: Don't call 911 for a ride home.

New Haven police say that's what 28-year-old Quandria (KWAN'-dree-ah) Bailey did, calling the emergency line six times to request a ride from a nightclub back to her Meriden home.

Bailey was charged with six counts of misuse of the 911 system early Sunday. She was released on a $1,000 bond and is scheduled to appear in court May 5.

A telephone number for Bailey could not immediately be located Sunday and it was unclear whether she had an attorney.

Iowan ready for prom with gum wrapper dress

2010-04-13T06:38:00.001-07:00

An Iowa teen is all bubbly over her one-of-a-kind high school prom dress she made out of gum wrappers. Elizabeth Rasmuson made her dress — and matching vest for her date — out of blue and white wrappers from Wrigley's "5 gum." The high school junior says she got the idea after hearing about someone making a dress out of duct tape.

She and her boyfriend began collecting gum wrappers last August. Rasmuson says she quit counting after 200.

Since the wrappers break easily, Rasmuson finished her dress with a vinyl top coat.

Fla. deputy shocks colleague with Taser in joke

2010-04-13T06:37:00.001-07:00

A Collier County deputy was reprimanded after shocking a colleague with a Taser in an incident meant to be a joke. The December scene was caught on tape at the Collier County jail. A female deputy was seen showing a message on her iPod to Cpl. Wilmer A. Arencibia, who followed the woman and shocked her on the behind with his Taser.

Arencibia told investigators it was "a spur of the moment thing" and acknowledged the behavior was improper.

He was given a reprimand and final warning after an internal investigation.

Playboy photographers find reality TV hard work

2010-04-11T15:27:00.000-07:00

They thought it would be all fun and glamour, but when 10 photographers recently gathered for a new reality TV show, they learned there was more to taking pictures of naked women than a good camera lens.

"Playboy Shootout," which premiered this past Saturday on cable television's subscriber-only Playboy Channel puts the photographers together in tandem with 10 models and each group -- shooters and models -- compete to have their work featured in the legendary men's magazine founded by Hugh Hefner.
While perhaps many a young man has dreamed of shooting a nude centerfold for Playboy, only few ever make the grade.

Playboy editorial director Jimmy Jellinek said the magazine annually gets "thousands and thousands" of submissions from photographers, but it is the rare exception who gets picked.
Stephen Wayda, a longtime Playboy photographer and judge on "Shootout," said he tried unsuccessfully for years before finally making it into the magazine's pages and onto a stellar career as a celebrity photographer.

"People think it's all fun, sex and glamour. They don't realize when you're doing nudes there's a lot more to it. You see all the body. You see the wrinkles in the waist when (models) turn. You see how the body is built, and you have to make it look good," Wayda said.
For "Shootout," Playboy gathered the photographers from around the United States and put them together in Los Angeles. The first episode had them assigned to take pictures of the models in a different area of a luxurious mansion, and they were given a time limit to devise a theme, set lighting, pick a costume and put the models through hair and makeup.
A MAN'S WORLD?
A major feature is that the models are competing to be in the magazine, too, and because they are looking for the best pictures possible, they sometimes conflict with the shooters.
"I've gained confidence in myself after doing the show, and I realized that having (many) crew members around me didn't distract me," said photographer Eric LaCour.
Kate Romero, one of two women among the photographers, said she believed being the same gender as the models helped her because she might be able to say things to calm their fears about posing naked in front of a large crew.

"It is a guys' world, definitely," said Romero. "(but) I love that kind of challenge."
Wayda said all the photographers came into the show with strong portfolios of past work, and for many the biggest problem was tailoring their own work to match Playboy's pages.
Under Hefner, the magazine' has always tried to feature models with a homespun, girl-next-door look.

"Some came in and said, 'I want to do something completely different,'" Wayda said. "Well, that's great, so go open up your own magazine."

The series, which ends on June 5, is produced by "America's Next Top Model" director Claudia Frank and hosted by "The Celebrity Apprentice 2" contender and Playboy Playmate Brande Roderick. A new episode airs every week on Saturdays as part of what Playboy is calling its "Date Night" lineup of shows.

Man with no cash eats burrito, Funyuns at store

2010-04-11T15:26:00.001-07:00

Authorities said a man took a bite into crime when he helped himself to a burrito and a bag of Funyuns snacks at a gas station food store in Hastings, then told the clerk to call police because he had no money to pay.

Barry County Prosecutor Tom Evans said 28-year-old Michael Odell was charged with retail fraud. Odell, who told police he is homeless, is jailed on a $2,000 bond with a pretrial hearing set for May 4.

Evans said Odell ate the burrito and Funyuns on Saturday morning, then had the cashier call police. The prosecutor said Odell told officers he had spent his money at a tavern in the city 35 miles west of Lansing.

Jail records say Odell didn't have an attorney as of Wednesday.

Legendary Asteroids record smashed

2010-04-10T18:16:00.001-07:00

One of gaming's oldest records was just blown up. And it wasn't an easy shot.

After a grueling 58 hours of continuous play, John McAllister of Seattle, Washington officially became the best Asteroids player on the planet by scoring an unthinkable 41,338,740 points in the classic 1979 coin-op arcade game. The previous mark of 41,336,440 was set by Scott Safran back in 1982 -- the longest standing record in gaming -- and was considered virtually unbreakable.

"It's basically considered a Holy Grail," he told Portland TV station KGW. "It was a title that a lot of people would want, and I wanted it."

McAllister also holds the world record for the lesser known sequel Asteroids Deluxe, a mark he set in 2009. Before he's inducted into the record books, however, his efforts will have to pass the strict submission guidelines of official game scorekeepers, Twin Galaxies.

It's been a rough year for video game records. In March, a plastic surgeon toppled the all-time Donkey Kong mark, while back in January, a Connecticut man hopped his way to the new high score in Frogger.

Man drove drunk to prison for DUI sentence

2010-04-10T13:42:00.003-07:00

Police said a Massachusetts man headed to a Vermont prison to serve a two-day sentence for driving under the influence was intoxicated when he drove himself to prison.

Vermont State Police say that staff at the Southern State Correctional Facility in Springfield noticed that a 42-year-old man was intoxicated when he arrived late Tuesday afternoon and that he had driven himself there.

So prison staff called police.

Police said the man was then processed for DUI second offense and released back into the custody of the Department of Corrections.

The man was due to appear in court later this month on the latest charge.

UK postal workers boycott house after cat attacks

2010-04-10T13:42:00.001-07:00

Britain's postal service says it has suspended deliveries to a woman following repeated attacks by her 19-year-old cat. Royal Mail said Friday that it had halted deliveries because postal workers had already sustained "nasty injuries" at the address in the town of Farsley, near Leeds in northern England.

The woman was identified as a 43-year-old pharmacy worker. Media reports say she found it hard to believe that her cat, named "Tiger," could be behind the attacks.
She told two newspapers the animal spent most of its day sleeping and didn't have the energy to chase postal workers.

Ohio coach proposes to rival on field

2010-04-10T13:41:00.001-07:00

An Ohio high school softball coach threw a curve at the rival team's coach when he dropped to one knee on the diamond and asked for her hand in marriage. Glen Este High School varsity coach Tim Gregory and Milford High School coach Christy Foster had been dating more than two years before Wednesday's proposal.

Gregory says "softball is really what brought us together." Foster, of course, said yes to the proposal and called it perfect.

The ensuing game wasn't, though. Gregory's team won 1 to 0.

There really is a formula for love

2010-02-11T08:07:00.003-08:00

Romantics looking for everlasting love will swoon over a new love equation released just in time for Valentine's Day and which can calculate the right age to fall in love.
The equation nicknamed the "Fiancee Formula" was created by an Australian mathematics professor and works by factoring in the age at which you start looking for a long-term partner and the absolute oldest age you would consider getting married.
"Although probability isn't the most romantic basis for a marriage, the formula does seem to fit a lot of couples -- whether through accident or design," said the equation's creator, Professor Tony Dooley at the University of New South Wales.
"There's no reason why the science can't be extended to calculate the best moment to marry," Dooley said in a statement.
However, love birds take note, the mathematical equation for love only has a 37 percent success rate.
The formula is helpful as a guide for the right moment to start getting serious, but could also be used by nervous men to calculate when to avoid the ultimate commitment, said Dooley.

Blizzard drives down crime in Washington

2010-02-11T08:07:00.001-08:00

The blizzard that hammered the US east coast with record-breaking snowfall and icy winds had a plus side: it drove down crime in Washington, a police spokesman said Thursday.
"Last night, we had very few reported crimes," Lieutenant Nicholas Breul told AFP.
"Every morning, we put out a report of serious crimes, and this morning it was very, very low," Breul said. "Certainly, the weather had to be a factor in that."
No homicides have been reported in the US capital since February 3, when a few inches of snow fell on Washington and the surrounding area.
That was followed at a weekend storm which together with Tuesday's blizzard dumped several feet of snow on the eastern United States, making the winter of 2009-2010 the snowiest on record in Washington and neighboring states.
The season's snowfall total in Washington DC reached 54.9 inches (139.4 centimeters) Tuesday, the National Weather Service said.
That's more than the past five winters combined, which saw around 48 inches of snow fall on the US capital.
As of Tuesday, 10 homicides had been committed in Washington since the start of the year, a fall of 41 percent from the 17 homicides reported in the US capital at the same period last year.
But Breul refused to pin the fall in the murder rate solely on the snow.
"The weather may have contributed to the fall in homicides, but historically, there have been times when we've gone for two weeks in good weather with no homicides," he said.

Baraboo man accused of using stun gun on 'sinner'

2010-02-11T08:06:00.000-08:00

A Baraboo man was accused of repeatedly shocking a male dance instructor with a stun gun, claiming the instructor was a "sinner" who "defiles married women." A Dane County prosecutor said the suspect, 59, hastily arranged a dance lesson at the instructor's Madison home and showed up with a stun gun and sledgehammer last Friday. The criminal complaint said the man told a detective that his church does not condone touching while dancing and that he was going to scare the instructor "and tell him to leave the women alone."
The Wisconsin State Journal said the instructor told police that the suspect phoned for private dance lessons, and when he opened the door to his home, he began to shock him repeatedly in the neck with the stun gun.

Camel burger newest "healthy" option on Dubai menu

2010-02-09T11:12:00.001-08:00

A traditional Emirati restaurant in Dubai has added a new entree to its menu billed as a fat-free choice for carnivorous but health-conscious diners: the Camel Burger.
For 20 UAE dirhams ($5.45), the Local House restaurant offers a quarter pound camel burger, loaded with cheese and smothered in burger sauce, the Xpress weekly newspaper reported on Thursday.
Ali Ahmad Esmail, Local House assistant manager, told the paper that the burger patties were fat- and cholesterol-free. But he declined to say how the outlet tenderized the tough camel meat.
"It's a trade secret," he said.
Camel meat is widely eaten in some Arab countries, but is not typically sold in supermarkets or served in restaurants.
The paper reported that Local House said it was the first to introduce the burger in the United Arab Emirates. A fast food outlet in neighboring Saudi Arabia put baby camel burgers on its menu last year.
The camel burger, a hit with residents and tourists, could soon also be on offer in the Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest tower formerly known as Burj Dubai, where Local House may open a branch, the paper said.
The burger is served with fries or potato wedges, and the paper suggested it could be washed down with a soft drink or a camel milkshake, also available in Dubai.

Fifth of adults choose pet over partner on Valentine's Day

2010-02-09T11:11:00.002-08:00

Rather than spending Valentine's Day with their partner, one fifth of adults would prefer to be with their pet, although the French still came top for romance, according to a joint global poll by Reuters/Ipsos.
The survey of 24,000 people in 23 countries found 21 percent of adults would rather spend February 14 with their pet than their spouse, although the French were least likely to choose a furry friend over a human with only 10 percent taking that option.
But the survey found that age and income were more of a determining factor than nationality when it came to romance, with younger, less affluent people more likely to choose their pet as their Valentine's Day companion.
John Wright, senior vice president of Ipsos, said 25 percent of people aged under 35 opted for their pet over their partner compared to 18 percent of those aged 35-54 and 14 percent of people aged 55 plus.
Men and women were evenly split over the question.
Those choosing pets over people were also more likely to be those who have a lower income (24 percent) compared to those who were middle or higher income earners (20 percent).
"Likely defying stereotype, the desire to spurn a partner for a pet is not rooted in gender but rather age and even there it seems the older you are, the least likely it is you'd choose pet over partner," said Wright.
"While there are country differences, it's more of a personal choice made by younger and less affluent individuals."
On a country-by-country basis, residents of Turkey were the most likely, at 49 percent, to choose their pet over their spouse or partner.
Next came India with 41 percent, then Japan with 30 percent, China with 29 percent, the United States with 27 percent and Australia with 25 percent.
On the other hand, the nations where residents were the least likely to want to spend the day with a pet instead of their spouse or partner were France at 10 percent, Mexico 11 percent, the Netherlands 12 percent and Hungary at 12 percent.
About 1,000 individuals participated on a country by country basis via an Ipsos (http://www.ipsos.com) online panel with weighting employed to balance demographics and ensure that the sample's composition reflected that of the adult population according to the most recent country census data.

Cattle battle: NZealand has more cows than kiwis

2010-02-09T11:11:00.001-08:00

WELLINGTON, New Zealand – New Zealanders who for decades have endured jokes about being outnumbered 20-to-1 by sheep have a new farm animal majority to worry about: cows.
A record 5.8 million dairy cattle were counted in the year ended June 2009, Statistics New Zealand said Tuesday — well more than one animal for each of the country's 4.3 million citizens.
In contrast, sheep numbers declined to some 32 million in 2009, less than half the peak of 70 million reported in 1982.
"Increased numbers in the milking herd have resulted in there being one milking cow for every New Zealander," farm statistics manager Gary Dunnet said. "In 2009, New Zealand had fewer than eight sheep per person."
The new figures are unlikely to do much to discourage the ribbing New Zealanders often get on the topic get when they travel abroad.
Australians in particular tease their near neighbors in the Pacific Ocean about the popularity of sheep in New Zealand, usually in jokes of questionable taste.
In the popular HBO series "Flight of the Conchords" about two New Zealand musicians living in New York, a tourism poster hangs in an office of the country's consulate showing a flock of sheep staring out and the slogan: New Zealand Ewe Should Come. The 2006 movie "Black Sheep" made fun of the disparity in a dark comedy about genetically mutated sheep who turn on their owners on a New Zealand farm.
Statistics New Zealand said cow numbers last year were 4 percent higher than in 2008 and up 76 percent from 3.3 million in 1989.
The dairy herd's expansion was due to the conversion of sheep and other farms to the more lucrative dairy industry and to the growth in the number of milking cows in existing herds.

Woman seeks "Jessica Alba" makeover to win back lover

2010-02-08T18:57:00.000-08:00

A Chinese woman is seeking extensive plastic surgery to look like U.S. actress Jessica Alba, mainly because she hopes to win back her boyfriend who she said always wished she looked more like the Hollywood star.
The 21-year-old, who would only give her name as Xiaoqing, said she was devastated after she broke up with her lover, an ardent fan of the actress who has starred in hit movies such as "Fantastic Four" and "Into the Blue."
Xiaoqing, who works at an Internet firm in Shanghai, said that during their 18-month-long relationship, her 28-year-old boyfriend had been obsessed with Alba, adorning their apartment with her photographs and talking about her constantly.
She said that while her boyfriend had not forced her to look like Alba, he always hinted that the wanted her to resemble his favorite star and even bought her a blonde wig to wear.
A month ago, Xiaoqing left her boyfriend, whom she did not name, because his Alba obsession became too much for her. But now she says she can't get over the break-up and wants him back.
"When I broke up with my boyfriend, I was very sad," she told Reuters at the Shanghai Time Plastic Surgery Hospital which has agreed to help her fulfill her wish.
"My friends... kept consoling me but it did not work, so they suggested I do plastic surgery to look like her (Jessica Alba)."
The hospital said Xiaoqing would need multiple surgeries to alter her eyes and nose so that they would resemble Alba's. They also agreed to do it for free to showcase their surgery skills.
Hospital director Jiang Shan said he had personally spoken to Xiaoqing and advised her to think seriously about the procedure.
"If she wants to look much better than she does now, for example if she wants her skin to look smoother and her overall facial facade to look more beautiful, I think we are able to help her fulfill her wishes," Jiang said.
"But if she wants to totally look like Jessica Alba, I would think she is still not confident of herself and that she needs to solve this problem psychologically."
Shortly after the break-up, Xiaoqing posted a comment on a local web forum asking for help to win her boyfriend back.
She said that despite the many bloggers who advised her against having cosmetic surgery, she was keen on it.
"As a member of the younger generation in this country, I have a choice to decide what I want in life," she said.
"I have never been able to let him go. If in the end he still does not accept me after I undergo the plastic surgeries, I will give up. I will then choose to let go, start afresh and live life by myself," she added.
Xiaoqing said she would speak to her mother, who lives in Hubei province, while visiting home during the annual lunar new year holiday before making a final decision.
The hospital said it was not unusual for young women such as Xiaoqing to undergo cosmetic surgery to look like celebrities.
The government estimates billions of yuan are spent each year by Chinese on plastic surgery, which is seen by many as a way to boost job or marriage prospects in a highly competitive society.

Ancient dialect extinct after last speaker dies

2010-02-08T18:56:00.002-08:00

One of the world's oldest dialects, which traces its origins to tens of thousands of years ago, has become extinct after the last person to speak it died on a remote Indian island.
Boa Sr, the 85-year-old last speaker of "Bo," was the oldest member of the Great Andamanese tribe, R.C. Kar, deputy director of Tribal Health in Andaman, told Reuters on Friday.
She died last week in Port Blair, the capital of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, which were hit by a devastating tsunami in 2004.
"With the death of Boa Sr and the extinction of the Bo language, a unique part of human society is now just a memory," said Stephen Corry, director of Survival International, an organization that supports tribes worldwide.
"Boa's loss is a bleak reminder that we must not allow this to happen to the other tribes of the Andaman Islands," he said in a statement.
Kar said Bo was one of the ten dialects used by the Great Andamanese tribe.
According to Survival International, there are now only 52 members surviving members of the tribe, which is thought to have lived on the Andaman Islands for as many as 65,000 years, making them descendants of one of the oldest cultures in the world.
The Great Andamanese had the biggest population of all the island tribes until the early 20th century.
Originally 10 distinct tribes, the Great Andamanese were 5,000-strong when the British colonized the Andaman Islands in 1858. Most were killed or died of diseases brought by the colonizers, Surival International said.
The surviving Great Andamanese depend largely on the Indian government for handouts and alcohol abuse is rife.
The cluster of more than 550 Andaman and Nicobar islands, of which only about three dozen are inhabited, are home to six tribes of Mongoloid and African origin, who have lived there for thousands of years.
The current home of the Great Andamanese is Strait Island, a small island of Middle Andaman Region.

Ohio strip club hosts 'Lap dances for Haiti'

2010-02-08T18:56:00.001-08:00

A strip club in Ohio has raised $1,000 for Haitian earthquake relief during what was billed as "Lap dances for Haiti." Marilyn's on Monroe in Toledo donated the $10 cover charges collected Saturday to ISOH (I-S-O-H)/IMPACT, an organization based in suburban Perrysburg that provides food and clothing for Haiti.
Marilyn's general manager Kenny Soprano says his establishment had been looking for a reason to hold a charity fundraiser even before the quake, as a way to improve its image. He says you don't hear much about strip clubs giving back to the community.
ISOH/IMPACT CEO Linda Greene doesn't have a problem with where the money came from. She says her group appreciates any donations to help Haiti.

Rotten radishes prompt gas leak calls in Ohio

2010-02-08T18:55:00.000-08:00

An Ohio fire department says the smell of decaying radishes prompted calls from residents worried about a possible gas leak. Tiffin Township Volunteer Fire Department near Defiance in northwest Ohio responded to five reports of suspicious smells in the last 45 days. A field of oilseed radishes, planted as a cover crop that adds nutrients to the field, is near a natural gas compression station and a gas exchange station.
Tiffin Township Fire Chief Jamie Wonders said each run to investigate the odor takes about an hour. The agency responds to calls even when it suspects the smell is from the radishes.
Mark Reynolds, a pipeline technician with the TransCanada natural gas compression station, said the gas stored at the facility is odorless.

Man tries to buy crack with credit card

2010-02-08T18:54:00.001-08:00

Authorities said a man accused of stealing a car then reporting it stolen remains in custody after telling police he was robbed at gunpoint while trying to buy crack cocaine with a credit card. The Flint Journal said the man reported Thursday night that a 2003 Chevy Malibu had been stolen.
Police reports indicated the vehicle was previously stolen out of Lapeer, about 50 miles north-northwest of Detroit.

The suspect is being lodged at the Genesee County Jail.

No further details were released.

Farmers fear pigs may get swine flu from people

2009-05-01T11:32:00.002-07:00

Humans have it. Pigs don't. At least not yet, and U.S. pork producers are doing everything they can to make sure that the new H1N1 virus, known around the world as the "swine flu," stays out of their herds.

"That is the biggest concern, that your herd could somehow contract this illness from an infected person," said Kansas hog farmer Ron Suther, who is banning visitors from his sow barns and requiring maintenance workers, delivery men and other strangers to report on recent travels and any illness before they step foot on his property.

"If a person is sick, we don't want you coming anywhere on the farm," Suther said.

Those sentiments were echoed by producers around the nation this week as fears of a possible global flu pandemic grew, with more than 200 people sickened, including more than 100 in the United States, and at least 177 dead, all but one in Mexico.

"There is no evidence of this new strain being in our pig populations in the United States. And our concern very much is we don't want a sick human to come into our barns and transmit this new virus to our pigs," said National Pork Producers chief veterinarian Jennifer Greiner.

"If humans give it to pigs, we don't have things like Tamiflu for pigs. We don't have antivirals. We have no treatment other than to give them aspirin," said Greiner.

The World Health Organization on Thursday officially declared it would stop calling the new strain of flu "swine flu," because no pigs in any country have been determined to have the illness and the origination of the strain has not been determined.

The never-before-seen H1N1 flu virus has elements of swine, avian and human varieties.

PIGS BEHIND SECURITY FENCES

Still, U.S. hog farmers said flu fears have hit them hard in the wallet as hog prices plummeted this week in response. Many countries reacted to the outbreak earlier this week by banning pork or meat from U.S. states that have human cases of the flu. And Egypt ordered the slaughter of all pigs in the country as a precaution.

U.S. hog producers have already been struggling financially for more than a year due to poor prices and high feed costs. If the new flu strain does hit their herds, it could spur further price declines, and could potentially spread broadly through herds.

To try to protect against such a scenario, industry groups and veterinarians this week warned farmers to step up their biosafety protocols, keeping pigs in barns behind security fences with access by any outsiders extremely limited.

Purdue University veterinarian Sandy Amass said farmers should keep an eye on pigs for "coughing, runny nose, fever and a reduction in feed intake," and to have the animals tested immediately if they exhibit such flu symptoms.

"Pigs get flu just like people get flu," Amass said. "We're want to do everything possible so the pigs don't get infected."

For Carroll, Iowa, producer Craig Rowles that means if any of his workers feel sick, they are ordered to take time off work -- paid -- to keep them away from the pigs.

"It's a real issue," Rowles said. "If the pigs get it, there isn't much we can do. Water, aspirin, and bed rest, that's all we've got."

Pop star's arrest inspires "naked" T-shirts

2009-05-01T11:32:00.001-07:00

What's wrong with being naked?

That's what a Japanese TV star asked police who arrested him for public indecency when he was found drunk, naked and screaming in a Tokyo park in the early hours of the morning last week.

His words struck a chord with the public and have now become the slogan on a new range of T-shirts sold by online retailer ClubT.

"They are definitely selling," said company spokeswoman Nanako Shibuya, who said she could not give precise figures.

Tsuyoshi Kusanagi, 34, who shot to fame 20 years ago as a member of boy band SMAP, resisted arrest and was bundled into a police vehicle wrapped in a blanket, media reports said. Police questioned him at length and also searched his home.

Prosecutors decided on Friday not to charge Kusanagi, media reports said.

But the incident has sparked sympathy for Kusanagi. Many Japanese complained the slight, serious-looking actor was treated too harshly, especially after he appeared close to tears during a news conference he called to apologize for his behavior.

One fan threatened online to attack the Akasaka police station where he was held, the Asahi newspaper said last week.

Woman accused of taking 500 pounds of gold from job

2009-05-01T11:31:00.000-07:00

Call her the modern day Goldfinger.

A New York woman was charged Wednesday with stealing as much as $12 million in gold bullion and jewelry over a period of six years, lifting the ill-gotten booty from her employer by concealing the stash in the lining of her pocketbook.

The district attorney for New York City's borough of Queens said Teresa Tambunting, 50, was arraigned Wednesday on charges of first-degree grand larceny and first-degree criminal possession of stolen property from Jacmel Jewelry Inc.

"The defendant is accused of establishing a virtual mining operation ... which siphoned off millions of dollars worth of the precious metal from her employer," Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said in a statement.

In January, an inventory audit conducted at Jacmel revealed that nearly 850 pounds (386 kg) of gold merchandise worth about $12 million was unaccounted for, Brown's statement added.

After an investigation was initiated, Tambunting returned to Jacmel a suitcase containing 66 pounds (30 kg) of gold. On February 13, an additional 448 pounds (204 kg) of gold was recovered from Tambunting's residence, the DA said.

Jack Rahmey, Jacmel's president, declined to comment.

Spot gold traded at around $890 an ounce Thursday.

Mannequin threatens to bust Ohio barbecue joint

2009-05-01T11:30:00.000-07:00

A man who runs a Cincinnati-area barbecue joint says the busty mannequin he tethered to the front of the building has been good for business, but city officials say he needs a permit to keep her there.

Under Reading (REH'-ding) city rules, the 5-foot-10 brunette is considered a sign and requires a permit.

Restaurateur Kenny Tessel says the bikini-clad figure in the tight short-shorts cost him nearly $200, but he quickly made that back in profit.

He already has made one change. He removed a chain that kept the mannequin latched to a utility pole after police said that was against the sign code.

Tessel had chained the mannequin because he said he didn't want some "yahoo" tossing her into the back of a pickup truck.

Man accused of drunken horse riding in snowstorm

2009-01-30T08:33:00.000-08:00

A man has been cited for public intoxication while riding a white horse during a snowstorm in the northern Wyoming town of Cody.

Police say they cited 28-year-old Benjamin Daniels after they received a call Sunday afternoon from a motorist concerned that a man was creating a road hazard by riding his horse on a street in conditions with poor visibility.

Cody Assistant Police Chief George Menig says officers noticed Daniels was intoxicated after they stopped him to explain that drivers were having difficulty spotting his slow-moving white horse.

Menig said Thursday that Daniels was detained Sunday and released the following day. He will go before a municipal judge later.

A friend of Daniels picked up the horse.

There was no telephone listing for Daniels.

NY boy dressed as girl to cheat on exam

2009-01-30T08:31:00.000-08:00

Dressing as a girl to take a high school Regents exam in place of another student landed a 17-year-old upstate New York boy in some serious detention. Deandre Ellis, 17, of Schenectady was arrested on a felony charge after the incident Tuesday. City school officials said a monitor verifying that each student was taking the proper exam suspected something was amiss when the name on the test and the person taking it didn't match.

District spokeswoman Karen Corona said a closer look revealed the test-taker was a boy masquerading as a girl.

Police said Ellis, who was released to probation authorities, was charged with burglary for entering the school to commit a crime. His public defender didn't immediately return a phone call or e-mail seeking comment.

Man smears feces on his lawyer, flings it at jury

2009-01-29T10:01:00.001-08:00

A San Diego judge has declared a mistrial in a kidnapping and assault case after the defendant smeared excrement on his lawyer's face and threw it at jurors. The judge boosted defendant Weusi McGowan's bail from $250,000 to $1 million after the Monday incident.

Prosecutor Christopher Lawson says McGowan was upset because the judge refused to remove public defender Jeffrey Martin from the case.

McGowan had smuggled a bag of feces into court and spread it on Martin's hair and face before flinging the excrement at jurors. No jurors were hit.

McGowan has pleaded not guilty to kidnapping for robbery, assault with a deadly weapon and other counts in connection with a 2007 home invasion.

Tuscan city says 'basta' to ethnic food

2009-01-29T10:00:00.000-08:00

If you are craving a kebab, tandoori chicken or Peking duck you may go hungry in the small Tuscan city of Lucca, which has just barred new ethnic restaurants from opening in its historic medieval center.

Officials say new rules passed last week by Lucca's conservative administration aim to protect local specialties from the rising popularity of "different" cuisines. The measure also bans fast food restaurants and hopes to reduce littering within the city's ancient walls, a magnet for tourists.

"By ethnic cuisine we mean a different cuisine," city spokesman Massimo Di Grazia said Thursday. "That means no new kebabs, Thai or Lebanese restaurants."

Di Grazia said ethnic restaurants opened before the measure was passed could stay in business.

The move has sparked accusations of gastronomic racism from opposition politicians and criticism from Italian chefs, who say modern cuisine relies on fusion, the combination of ingredients used in different food traditions.

"It's a discriminatory ban," center-left councilman Alessandro Tambellini told the Corriere della Sera daily. "It's a sign of closure toward different cultures."

"There is no dish on the face of the Earth that doesn't come from mixing techniques, products and tastes from cultures that have met and mingled over time," said Vittorio Castellani, a TV chef and cookbook author.

Castellani told Corriere the ban was also a blow to immigrant communities, whose members often make a living by selling ethnic food.

Downtown Lucca, 40 miles (70 kilometers) west of Florence, is a popular destination for thousands of visitors, who roam its intact walls, medieval churches and Renaissance palaces.

Di Grazia, noting that other nearby towns had passed similar rules, told The Associated Press the measure was not discriminatory. He said it aimed to improve the city's image and protect Tuscan products, like wine and oil, as well as Lucca's cuisine, rich in soups, meat and pasta dishes.

It remained unclear how "different" a restaurant's menu would have to be to fall under the culinary ban.

Di Grazia said a French restaurant would be allowed to open, but he was not sure about a restaurant offering Sicilian dishes, which often include Middle Eastern ingredients.

Swiss police google farmers, find marijuana field

2009-01-29T09:59:00.000-08:00

Swiss police said Thursday they stumbled across a large marijuana plantation while using Google Earth, the search engine company's satellite mapping software.

Police said they arrested 16 people and seized 1.1 tons (1.2 US tons) of marijuana as well as cash and valuables worth 900,000 Swiss francs ($780,000).

Officers discovered the hemp field in the northeastern canton (state) of Thurgau last year while investigating an alleged drug ring, said the head of Zurich police's specialist narcotics unit Norbert Klossner.

The plantation, measuring almost two acres (7,500 square meters), was hidden inside a field of corn. But officers using Google Earth to locate the address of two farmers suspected of involvement in the drug operation quickly spotted the illegal crop.

"It was an interesting chance discovery," said Klossner.

Prosecutor Gabi Alkalay told reporters in Zurich that she plans to complete her criminal investigation in February, after which she will formally charge the 16 suspects and ask for prison sentences for all of them.

The gang is alleged to have sold up to 7 tons (7.7 US tons) of hashish and marijuana between 2004 and 2008, with an annual turnover of 3-10 million francs a year, officials said.

Delayed by her bra, air passenger is indignant

2008-08-27T19:33:00.000-07:00

When Berkeley resident Nancy Kates arrived at Oakland International Airport to board JetBlue flight 472, she thought she was heading off on a routine journey to visit her mother in Boston. Instead she ended up in a standoff with Transportation Safety Administration officials over her bra.

In the post-Sept. 11 world of heightened airport scrutiny, Kates, like most travelers, is familiar with the drill: Take off shoes and belts, open the laptop, carry shampoo in 3-ounce bottles.

For Kates, on Sunday, though, the security check got too invasive. A big-busted woman wearing a large underwire bra, she set off the metal detector. She was pulled aside and checked by a female TSA agent with a metal-sensitive wand.

"The woman touched my breast. I said, 'You can't do that,' " Kates said. "She said, 'We have to pat you down.' I said, 'You can't treat me as a criminal for wearing a bra.' "

Kates asked to see a supervisor and then the supervisor's supervisor. He told her that underwire bras were the leading item that set off the metal detectors, Kates said.

If that's the case, Kates said, the equipment must be overly sensitive. And if the TSA is engaging in extra brassiere scrutiny, then other women are suffering similar humiliation, Kates thought.

The Constitution bars unreasonable searches and seizures, Kates reminded the TSA supervisor, and scrutinizing a woman's brassiere is surely unreasonable, she said.

The supervisor told her she had the choice of submitting to a pat-down in a private room or not flying. Kates offered a third alternative, to take off her bra and try again, which the TSA accepted.

"They tried to humiliate me and I was not going to be humiliated over this," Kates said. "If I was carrying nail clippers and forgot about them, I wouldn't have gotten so upset. But here I was just wearing my underwear."

So she went to the rest room, then through the security line a second time. Walking through the airport braless can be embarrassing for a large-chested woman, not to mention uncomfortable. The metal detector didn't beep on the second time through, but then officials decided to go through Kates' carry-on luggage, she said.

The whole undertaking took 40 minutes, Kates said, and caused her to miss her flight. JetBlue put her on another one, but she was four hours late getting to Boston.

"It's actually a little funny in a way, but a sad, sad commentary on the state of our country," Kates said. "This is bigger than just me. There are 150 million women in America, and this could happen to any of them."

TSA spokesman Nico Melendez said Monday that he wasn't familiar with the incident. But he said in all circumstances, "we have to resolve an alarm."

That's the case for bras, artificial hips or anything with metal that sets off an alarm, he said. "Unfortunately, we can't take a passenger's word for it."

Melendez said he didn't have any statistics on how many times passengers are screened because of bras. But he said, "we do everything we can to ensure that a passenger doesn't feel humiliated."

Kates said she plans to talk to her family lawyer as well as the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Organization for Women and decide how to pursue the incident.

Barry Steinhardt, the director of the American Civil Liberties Union's technology and liberty program, said Monday of federal security officials: "They can't find bombs in checked luggage, and they're essentially doing a pat-down of private parts. This is a security apparatus that is out of control."

Kates said that although she flies about once a month, the only other time her bra has set off alarms in an airport was while she was being "wanded" in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. When she explained to the security agent that the wand was picking up the metal in her bra, she said, that was the end of the matter and she was allowed to go on her way.

Free pizza in price protest

2008-08-27T19:31:00.000-07:00

"Pizzaioli" or pizza chefs in Naples, birthplace of the Margherita, handed out free pizzas on Wednesday in protest at high prices charged by rivals who, they say, use the spike in commodity prices to rip off consumers.

In the city where the classic "Margherita" with mozzarella, tomato and basil topping was invented in the 19th century -- and named in honor of a queen with a taste for fast food -- 30 cooks lit up six wood-burning ovens to cook 5,000 thin-crusted Neapolitan pizzas for queues of local people and tourists.

The group staged the protest in Piazza Dante to demand stricter price controls to defend the reputation of a traditional Neapolitan product which they said should be "the synthesis of quality and low cost."

Commodity prices, like fuel prices, have fallen back from record highs in the past month on worries about global consumer and business demand as the world economy heads into a slowdown. But retail prices have so far failed to reflect that trend.

"Everything has become more expensive now, including pizza, for people who need to watch what they spend," said 19-year-old Arianna Masiello, taking advantage of the free pizza offer.

Pizzaioli in Naples favor fixing the price of a slice at 3-3.50 euros ($4.40-$5.15) -- when most pizza outlets charge a minimum of 4 euros and often nearly twice that much.

"In Naples and elsewhere in Italy that should be enough to cover costs and give a profit margin, without damaging quality," Sergio Miccu, president of the Association of Neapolitan Pizza Cooks, told Reuters.

The Treasury says that in June the price of pasta jumped more than 30 percent and that of bread more than 13 percent, and consumers are feeling the pinch.

Italians are likely to spend an additional 2,000 euros per family on food and energy bills this year.

Italy's biggest consumer group wants shoppers to observe a "bread strike" on September 18 after last year's "pasta strike."

Agriculture Minister Luca Zaia proposes introducing low-cost staple products to protect consumers from price hikes he blames on speculation by "five groups that control 80 percent" of the retail food sector in Italy.

Rat meat in demand as inflation bites

2008-08-27T19:29:00.001-07:00

The price of rat meat has quadrupled in Cambodia this year as inflation has put other meat beyond the reach of poor people, officials said on Wednesday.

With consumer price inflation at 37 percent according to the latest central bank estimate, demand has pushed a kilogram of rat meat up to around 5,000 riel ($1.28) from 1,200 riel last year.

Spicy field rat dishes with garlic thrown in have become particularly popular at a time when beef costs 20,000 riel a kg.

Officials said rats were fleeing to higher ground from flooded areas of the lower Mekong Delta, making it easier for villagers to catch them.

"Many children are happy making some money from selling the animals to the markets, but they keep some for their family," Ly Marong, an agriculture official, said by telephone from the Koh Thom district on the border with Vietnam.

"Not only are our poor eating it, but there is also demand from Vietnamese living on the border with us."

He estimated that Cambodia supplied more than a tonne of live rats a day to Vietnam.

Rats are also eaten widely in Thailand, while a state government in eastern India this month encouraged its people to eat rats in an effort to battle soaring food prices and save grain stocks.

Feisty puppy scares off 3 bears in NJ back yard

2008-08-27T18:01:00.001-07:00

If only Goldilocks had a cockapoo.

A 15-pound cocker spaniel-poodle mix named Pawlee scared off a mother bear and her two cubs Sunday morning after they strayed into his owners' back yard.

Whether his bark was worse than his bite, Pawlee's tactic worked just fine. These three bears got the hint and took off.

"We had just let him out for the morning and he ran into the yard and started barking his head off," owner Fran Osiason said.

Osiason said her 9-year-old son, Jacob, went outside to see what the commotion was about and came running back in to report there were bears in the yard.

She was worried that the mother would come after Pawlee to protect her cubs, but the pugnacious pup, just 8 months old, had other plans.

His barking drove the two cubs up a tree, and they eventually climbed down and hopped over a fence with their mother and retreated into the woods.

Osiason said she, her son, husband Andrew and daughter Eden, 6, have had Pawlee since he was about 8 weeks old. She marveled at his fearlessness.

"He's a little fur ball," she said.

Northern New Jersey seems to breed feisty pets: In 2006, a tabby cat named Jack chased a bear up a tree in his West Milford yard.

Bears are not uncommon in Wyckoff, but Osiason said her family has lived there for about 10 years and had not seen any until Sunday.

With Pawlee on guard, they might not see another one anytime soon.

Woman wearing veil told to leave Italian museum

2008-08-27T18:00:00.000-07:00

The head of one of Venice's most prestigious museums apologized on Wednesday to a Muslim woman asked to leave the building by a guard because she was wearing a veil over her face.

The episode, which has kindled controversy in the Italian media and arguments between centre-left and centre-right politicians, occurred on Sunday in Venice's Ca' Rezzonico museum, which houses 18th-century Venetian art.

"I'm sorry for what happened and if she ever wants to return to our museum, she will be more than welcome," director Filippo Pedrocco told Reuters by telephone from Venice.

The woman, visiting the museum with her husband and children, had cleared security when she entered the building.

When she reached the second floor, a room guard told her she must remove her "niqab," which leaves only the eyes visible, or leave.

"The room guard was over-zealous. He should not have done it. She already passed security and his only duty was to guarantee the safety of the artwork in his room," Pedrocco said.

The woman was believed to have been a member of a well-off family visiting Venice from Saudi Arabia or a Gulf state.

She refused to take off the veil and left the building, which faces Venice's Grand Canal and houses works by such 18th century Venetian masters as Giandomenico Tiepolo.

Italian anti-terrorism laws dating from the 1970s ban the wearing of face coverings in public but they are rarely enforced in cases of Islamic veils.

Italian media reported that the guard, who Pedrocco said worked part-time and was employed by an outside security firm, would be disciplined and risked being fired.

However, the guard, whose name was not disclosed, was hailed as a hero by some in the Veneto region, where there has been tension between long-time residents and Islamic immigrants.

Senator Roberto Castelli, a member of the anti-immigrant Northern League, asked the justice minister to make sure the guard was not disciplined or sacked "for doing his duty and making sure the law was respected."

Giancarlo Gentilini, deputy mayor of the city of Treviso north of Venice, said the guard should be "given an award and not punished."

Spanish town blushes with annual tomato fight

2008-08-27T17:59:00.000-07:00

Spanish revelers have pelted each with 113 tons of ripe tomatoes in an annual food fight. Town hall says an estimated 40,000 people took part in the hour of messy fun in the village of Bunol near Valencia. The ritual dates back to the 1940s.

Some warriors in Wednesday's battle wore swimming goggles to protect themselves from the acid sting of projectiles in the form of pear-shaped tomatoes. Others swatted them away with tennis rackets.

Afterward, many washed off in a nearby river while crews hosed down a town painted red.

U.S. mail carrier demands kilt uniform option

2008-08-10T22:08:00.000-07:00

A 6-foot-tall, 250-pound mail carrier wants the U.S. Postal Service to add kilts as a uniform option for men.

The idea was defeated in July at a convention of the 220,000-member National Letter Carriers' Association, but Dean Peterson says he is not giving up — and he has his supporters.

Peterson, a resident of Lacey, Washington, spent $1,800 to mail about 1,000 letters and photographs of him wearing a prototype Postal Service kilt — or what he refers to as an 'unbifurcated garment' — to union branches in every U.S. state, Guam and Puerto Rico.

"Unbifurcated Garments are far more comfortable and suitable to male anatomy than trousers or shorts because they don't confine the legs or cramp the male genitals the way that trousers or shorts do," he wrote. "Please open your hearts — and inseams — for an option in mail carrier comfort!"

With his build, Peterson said, his thighs fill slacks to capacity.
FIND MORE STORIES IN: Washington | California | Britain | Oregon | Puerto Rico | Scotland | Anaheim | Halloween | Scottish | Norwegian | Finnish | St. Patrick | Guam | Lacey | Royal Mail

Earlier this year letter carrier unions in Washington and Oregon passed identical resolutions endorsing kilts. Another kilt enthusiast, Paul Lunde led the effort in Oregon, imploring Postal Service decision makers to consider mail carriers' hot-weather plights.

"With a kilt, it doesn't get as hot. There's less chafing," he said.

Unlike Peterson, Lunde has been allowed to wear a kilt to work on St. Patrick's Day, Halloween and National Tartan Day on April 6.

Peterson has never considered himself an activist. He has Finnish and Norwegian ancestry but not Scottish. He began wearing kilts a couple years ago when his wife brought one back from a trip to Scotland. (A spokeswoman for Britain's Royal Mail said kilts are not allowed as part of its letter carrier uniforms.)

Now he wears them everywhere.

The union's executive committee recommended disapproval, saying there was not enough demand for kilts to be worth the bother of the resolution. Delegates agreed by a large margin.

But, there are plenty of approved uniform items which very few mail carriers wear, including a cardigan sweater, vest and pith helmet, Peterson said.

For an article of clothing to be approved as a uniform option, the union must first agree, followed by testing by a Postal Service Committee and selection of a manufacturer.

Peterson said many convention delegates expressed support after his resolution was voted down.

"I got so pumped up after being at such a low that I'm taking this to the next convention in 2010 in Anaheim, California," he said.

Spanish shopkeeper finds Homer Simpson euro

2008-08-10T22:07:00.001-07:00

A one euro coin has turned up in Spain bearing the face of cartoon couch potato Homer Simpson instead of that of the country's king, a sweetshop owner told Reuters on Friday.

Jose Martinez was counting the cash in his till in the city of Aviles, northern Spain, when he came across the coin where Homer's bald head, big eyes and big nose had replaced the serious features of King Juan Carlos.

"The coin must have been done by a professional, the work is impressive," he told Reuters.

The comical carver had not taken his tools to the other side of the coin displaying the map of Europe. So far, no other coins of the hapless, beer-swilling oaf have been found in circulation.

"I've been offered 20 euros for it," said Martinez.

Forklift helps 700-lb Mexican man take rare outing

2008-08-10T22:05:00.000-07:00

A 700-pound (310-kilogram) man once considered the world's most obese person left his home for the first time in five months Sunday with the aid of a forklift and a platform truck.

Manuel Uribe traveled to the shore of a lake in northern Mexico without ever leaving his specially designed bed. A forklift hoisted the bed onto the truck, which then hauled him to the lake, where he snacked on fish and vegetables and joked with a local boat operator.

Looking at the boatman's small craft, Uribe joked, "Too bad I can't get on it — it would sink."

Once considered the world's fattest man when his weight hit over half a ton, more than two years of steady dieting had helped Uribe drop to about 700 pounds (310 kilograms) as of June — 550 pounds (250 kilograms) less than his former Guinness record weight of 1,235 pounds (560 kilograms). He did not say what his current weight is.

While somewhat bothered by the summer heat, Uribe appeared to enjoy Sunday's outing. He is still unable to walk, and his last planned outing in March was aborted after the platform carrying his bed got stuck under an overpass.

His last successful trip outside his home was in March 2007, when six people pushed Uribe's wheel-equipped iron bed out to the street as a mariachi band played and a crowd gathered to greet him.

Before that, he hadn't left his home in five years.

World's oldest joke traced back to 1900 BC

2008-07-31T12:53:00.002-07:00

The world's oldest recorded joke has been traced back to 1900 BC and suggests toilet humor was as popular with the ancients as it is today.

It is a saying of the Sumerians, who lived in what is now southern Iraq and goes: "Something which has never occurred since time immemorial; a young woman did not fart in her husband's lap."

It heads the world's oldest top 10 joke list published by the University of Wolverhampton Thursday.

A 1600 BC gag about a pharaoh, said to be King Snofru, comes second -- "How do you entertain a bored pharaoh? You sail a boatload of young women dressed only in fishing nets down the Nile and urge the pharaoh to go catch a fish."

The oldest British joke dates back to the 10th Century and reveals the bawdy face of the Anglo-Saxons -- "What hangs at a man's thigh and wants to poke the hole that it's often poked before? Answer: A key."

"Jokes have varied over the years, with some taking the question and answer format while others are witty proverbs or riddles," said the report's writer Dr Paul McDonald, senior lecturer at the university.

"What they all share however, is a willingness to deal with taboos and a degree of rebellion. Modern puns, Essex girl jokes and toilet humor can all be traced back to the very earliest jokes identified in this research."

The study was commissioned by television channel Dave. The top 10 oldest jokes can be viewed at www.dave-tv.co.uk.

Golden retriever adopts tiger cubs at Kansas zoo

2008-07-31T12:53:00.001-07:00

A dog at a southeast Kansas zoo has adopted three tiger cubs abandoned by their mother. Safari Zoological Park owner Tom Harvey said the tiger cubs were born Sunday, but the mother had problems with them.

A day later, the mother stopped caring for them. Harvey said the cubs were wandering around, trying to find their birth mother, who wouldn't pay attention to them. That's when the cubs were put in the care of a golden retriever, Harvey said.

Harvey said it's unusual for dogs to care for tiger cubs, but it does happen. He said he has seen reports of pigs nursing cubs in China, and he actually got the golden retriever after his wife saw television accounts of dogs caring for tiger cubs.

Puppies take about the same amount of time as tiger cubs to develop, and Harvey said the adoptive mother just recently weaned her own puppies.

"The timing couldn't have been any better," he said.

The mother doesn't know the difference, Harvey said. He said the adopted mother licks, cleans and feeds the cubs.

The Safari Zoological Park is a licensed facility open since 1989 and specializes in endangered species.

It has leopards, lions, cougars, baboons, ring-tailed lemurs, bears and other animals. It currently has seven white tigers and two orange tigers.

Because whit tigers are inbred from the first specimen found more than a half-century ago, they are not as genetically stable as orange tigers.

The zoo's previous litter of white tiger cubs was born April 23, although one of the three has since gone to a private zoo near Oklahoma City.

A vote on banning new minarets

2008-07-31T12:51:00.000-07:00

Switzerland will hold a referendum on whether to ban building any more minarets in the Alpine country, the government said on Tuesday.

A group of politicians from the Swiss People's Party (SVP) and Federal Democratic Union gathered more than 100,000 signatures to support the initiative, saying the minarets threaten law and order.

Switzerland has two minarets, in Zurich and Geneva, which would be unaffected by the vote. Neither issues a Moslem call to prayer.

"The Federal Chancellery checks of the signature list showed that of the total 114,137 signatures turned in, 113,540 are valid," the government said in a statement.

The proposal has to be discussed by parliament before being put to a popular vote and the process could take several years.

The SVP previously ran an anti-immigration campaign featuring three white sheep kicking a black sheep off a Swiss flag. The campaign was condemned as racist by rights groups and the United Nations.

Swiss voters recently rejected another SVP proposal which would have made it more difficult for foreigners to secure citizenship, a campaign which included posters of yellow and black hands grabbing at Swiss passports.

Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey has said a minaret ban would threaten security, and the country's seven-member ruling council said this month it would "naturally be recommending that parliament and the electorate vote against the initiative."

The SVP's populist program focuses on tackling crime, forcing cuts in public spending and keeping Switzerland out of the European Union.

It has proven highly popular with Swiss voters in recent years and helped the party secure around 29 percent of the vote in last year's national election.

Fish pedicures: Carp rid human feet of scaly skin

2008-07-27T00:59:00.000-07:00

Ready for the latest in spa pampering? Prepare to dunk your tootsies in a tank of water and let tiny carp nibble away.

Fish pedicures are creating something of a splash in the D.C. area, where a northern Virginia spa has been offering them for the past four months. John Ho, who runs the Yvonne Hair and Nails salon with his wife, Yvonne Le, said 5,000 people have taken the plunge so far.

"This is a good treatment for everyone who likes to have nice feet," Ho said.

He said he wanted to come up with something unique while finding a replacement for pedicures that use razors to scrape off dead skin. The razors have fallen out of favor with state regulators because of concerns about whether they're sanitary.

Ho was skeptical at first about the fish, which are called garra rufa but typically known as doctor fish. They were first used in Turkey and have become popular in some Asian countries.

But Ho doubted they would thrive in the warm water needed for a comfortable footbath. And he didn't know if customers would like the idea.

"I know people were a little intimidated at first," Ho said. "But I just said, 'Let's give it a shot.' "

Customers were quickly hooked.

Tracy Roberts, 33, of Rockville, Md., heard about it on a local radio show. She said it was "the best pedicure I ever had" and has spread the word to friends and co-workers.

"I'd been an athlete all my life, so I've always had calluses on my feet. This was the first time somebody got rid of my calluses completely," she said.

First time customer KaNin Reese, 32, of Washington, described the tingling sensation created by the toothless fish: "It kind of feels like your foot's asleep," she said.

The fish don't do the job alone. After 15 to 30 minutes in the tank, customers get a standard pedicure, made easier by the soft skin the doctor fish leave behind.

Ho believes his is the only salon in the country to offer the treatment, which costs $35 for 15 minutes and $50 for 30 minutes. The spa has more than 1,000 fish, with about 100 in each individual pedicure tank at any given time.

Dennis Arnold, a podiatrist who four years ago established the International Pedicure Association, said he had never heard of the treatment and doubts it will become widespread.

"I think most people would be afraid of it," he said.

Customer Patsy Fisher, 42, of Crofton, Md., admitted she was nervous as she prepared for her first fish pedicure. But her apprehension dissolved into laughter after she put her feet in the tank and the fish swarmed to her toes.

"It's a little ticklish, actually," she said.

Ho said the hot water in which the fish thrive doesn't support much plant or aquatic life, so they learned to feed on whatever food sources were available — including dead, flaking skin. They leave live skin alone because, without teeth, they can't bite it off.

In addition to offering pedicures, Ho hopes to establish a network of Doctor Fish Massage franchises and is evaluating a full-body fish treatment that, among other things, could treat psoriasis and other skin ailments.

Ho spent a year and about $40,000 getting the pedicures up and running, with a few hiccups along the way.

State regulations make no provision for regulating fish pedicures. But the county health department — which does regulate pools — required the salon to switch from a shallow, tiled communal pool that served as many as eight people to individual tanks in which the water is changed for each customer.

The communal pool also presented its own problem: At times the fish would flock to the feet of an individual with a surplus of dead skin, leaving others with a dearth of fish.

"It would sometimes be embarrassing for them but it was also really hilarious," Ho said.

Pet rabbit credited with saving couple from fire

2008-07-27T00:58:00.000-07:00

A pet rabbit is credited with saving a couple from a fire that swept through their home in the southern city of Melbourne.

Metropolitan Fire Brigade commander Mick Swift said the husband returned home from a night shift early Thursday and heard the family pet, named "Rabbit," scratching at the couple's bedroom door half an hour after he had gone to bed.

Swift said the husband, whose identity has not been released, discovered a fire in a back room and smoke spreading quickly through the house. He was able to escape the house with his wife unharmed.

Swift said the rabbit saved the couple from injury.

He said the blaze caused substantial damage to the house before it was extinguished by four crews of firefighters.

Peru wants jail for nude woman using flag as saddle

2008-07-27T00:53:00.000-07:00

A naked model photographed using Peru's flag as a saddle while mounted on a horse will face charges that could put her in jail for up to four years for offending patriotic symbols, the country's defense minister said on Wednesday. The suggestive shot of Leysi Suarez, whose main job is dancing for the band Alma Bella, or Beautiful Soul, was splashed on the cover of DFarandula magazine and has caused a political uproar as Peru prepares to celebrate the 187th anniversary of its independence from Spain on Monday. "These are patriotic symbols that demand total respect, and using them improperly requires punishment," Defense Minister Antero Flores told reporters. "This is an offense." Flores has ordered a public prosecutor to take up the case and file charges. Suarez said it was patriotic to pose for the photo. "I haven't committed a crime. I love Peru and show it with my body and soul," the dancer said on RPP radio. Mario Amoretti, a well-known lawyer, said it depends in part on how Peru's red-and-white flag was used. "It's one thing to cover your body with the flag, but quite another thing to be naked and using it as a horse's saddle," he said.

Angry man shoots lawn mower for not starting

2008-07-27T00:48:00.000-07:00

A Milwaukee man was accused of shooting his lawn mower because it wouldn't start. Keith Walendowski, 56, was charged with felony possession of a short-barreled shotgun or rifle and misdemeanor disorderly conduct while armed.

According to the criminal complaint, Walendowski said he was angry because his Lawn Boy wouldn't start Wednesday morning. He told police quote, "I can do that, it's my lawn mower and my yard so I can shoot it if I want."

A woman who lives at Walendowski's house reported the incident. She said he was intoxicated.

Walendowski could face up to an $11,000 fine and six years and three months in prison if convicted.

A call to Walendowski's home went unanswered Friday morning.

UPS driver gets special, final delivery

2008-07-27T00:44:00.000-07:00

Jeff Hornagold loved being a UPS driver.

So when the suburban Chicago man died this week of lung cancer, longtime co-worker Michael McGowan agreed to take him on one last delivery.

McGowan transported Hornagold's body from Davenport Family Funeral Home to Saturday's funeral services in his UPS truck.

McGowan says he plans to keep a picture of Hornagold in his truck until he retires so that they can keep riding together.

Hornagold was a UPS driver for 20 years, and his wife Judy Hornagold described him as "just the happiest UPS man alive."

She says the special delivery was the perfect tribute.

Men sentenced for setting friend's crotch ablaze

2008-07-22T11:18:00.000-07:00

Two practical jokers are behind bars for setting their passed-out drinking buddy's crotch ablaze while boozing in Grover Beach. Matthew Craig Pillers and Jack Brent Nicholas Keiffer pleaded no contest to a felony great bodily injury charge.

Prosecutors say the 22-year-old Pillers, a parolee, was sentenced to two years in prison and the 19-year-old Keiffer got 45 days in San Luis Obispo County jail.

Elliot Tuleja was passed out when the men poured cologne on the man's groin and set him on fire on Jan. 18. Tuleja had second-degree burns on his testicles.

Break-in suspects found asleep on stolen goods

2008-07-22T11:17:00.000-07:00

Police say a trail of pillows and backpacks led to two sleeping men who were arrested after a department store break-in. Kyle Burress, 25, and Allen Pierce, 27, have been charged with second-degree burglary.

Police spokeswoman Debbie Willis says a break-in was discovered July 9 at a Fred Meyer department store northeast of Seattle. The two were still being held on bail Monday, and it was not clear whether they had lawyers.

Willis says police followed a trail of cardboard and items from storage containers in a locked area behind the store that led to the two men. One was sleeping in a stolen hammock and the other on a pile of stolen pillows.

Police photographed the men before waking and arresting them.

Willis says alcohol was involved.

Air hostess picks up chocolate bar, wins space trip

2008-07-19T18:27:00.000-07:00

A French air hostess will become one of Europe's pioneer space tourists after picking a chocolate wrapper out of the rubbish and finding a winning number in a competition to fly to the upper reaches of the earth's atmosphere.

Mathilde Epron, 32, said she had bought a Kit Kat chocolate bar at her local supermarket but initially threw the wrapper in the bin, telling herself that "it's only others who win."

Two hours later, thinking back to the competition, she decided to try her luck and fished the wrapper out of the bin, only to find a code marked inside.

"For someone who works in air travel it's really a dream come true," she told France Info radio.

A spokeswoman for Nestle in France confirmed that Epron had won the prize to take a flight on a four-seater, fighter-sized aircraft built by Rocketplane, a company that builds aircraft intended to provide cheap flights into space.

She will receive four days of astronaut training in Oklahoma City in the United States before boarding the Rocketplane XP aircraft which will reach an altitude of 100 km (60 miles) and allow a five-minute experience of weightlessness.

Two-thirds of Egyptian men harass women?

2008-07-19T18:26:00.000-07:00

Nearly two-thirds of Egyptian men admit to having sexually harassed women in the most populous Arab country, and a majority say women themselves are to blame for their maltreatment, a survey showed Thursday.

The forms of harassment reported by Egyptian men, whose country attracts millions of foreign tourists each year, include touching or ogling women, shouting sexually explicit remarks, and exposing their genitals to women. "Sexual harassment has become an overwhelming and very real problem experienced by all women in Egyptian society, often on a daily basis," said the report by the Egyptian Center for Women's Rights.

Egyptian women and female visitors frequently complain of persistent sexual harassment on Egyptian streets, despite the socially conservative nature of this traditional Muslim society.

The behavior could have repercussions on Egypt's tourism industry, a major foreign income earner, with 98 percent of foreign women saying they had experienced harassment in the country, the survey said.

The survey of more than 2,000 Egyptian men and women and 109 foreign women said the vast majority of Egyptians believed that sexual harassment in Egypt was on the rise, citing a worsening economic situation and a lack of awareness or religious values.

It said 62 percent of Egyptian men reported perpetrating harassment, while 83 percent of Egyptian women reported having been sexually harassed. Nearly half of women said the abuse occurred daily.

Only 2.4 percent of Egyptian women reported it to the police, with most saying they did not believe anyone would help. Some feared reporting harassment would hurt their reputations.

"The vast majority of women did nothing when confronted with sexual harassment," the survey said, adding that most Egyptian women believed the victim should "remain silent."

Some 53 percent of men blamed women for bringing on sexual harassment, saying they enjoyed it or were dressed in a way deemed indecent. Some women agreed.

"Out of Egyptian women and men interviewed, most believe that women who wear tight clothes deserve to be harassed," the survey said. It added most agreed women should be home by 8 p.m.

The survey said most of the Egyptian women who told of being harassed said they were dressed conservatively, with the majority wearing the Islamic headscarf. The harassment took place on the streets or on public transport, as well as in tourist destinations and foreign educational institutions.

Brothel offers customers gas rebate

2008-07-10T14:35:00.001-07:00

A Nevada brothel is trying to stimulate business by offering free gasoline.

Clients of the Shady Lady Ranch will get a $50 gas voucher if they fork out $300 -- worth about one hour's worth of services -- at the brothel in Beatty, Nevada, 130 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

Owner James Davis said he already has had to order another $1,000 set of gas vouchers because the first $1,000 were spent in one week.

"It's rocking along. We're doing quite well. June and July historically are not big months," said Davis, who is co-owner of the brothel along with his wife Bobbi, in a telephone interview.

The $50 rebate would roughly cover the cost of a round trip drive from Las Vegas to the ranch.

Davis said business at the ranch, which has been operating for 16 years, generally slows in the early summer. He said the brothel regularly offers specials to lure clients and his wife came up with the gas vouchers for this month.

U.S. gasoline prices hit a record $4.08 a gallon last week, up 38 percent from a year ago.

Brothels, illegal in most U.S. states, are legal in parts of Nevada.

Woman kills husband with folding couch

2008-07-10T14:34:00.001-07:00

A Russian woman in St Petersburg killed her drunk husband with a folding couch, Russian media reported on Wednesday.

St Petersburg's Channel Five said the man's wife, upset with her husband for being drunk and refusing to get up, kicked a handle after an argument, activating a mechanism that folds the couch up against a wall.

The couch, which doubles as a bed, folds up automatically in order to save space. The man fell between the mattress and the back of the couch, Channel Five quoted emergency workers as saying.

The woman then walked out of the room and returned three hours later to check on what she thought was an unusually quiet sleeping husband.

Police refused to comment.

Man breaks record by sitting in 39,250 seats

2008-07-10T14:32:00.000-07:00

Jim Purol took a seat at the Rose Bowl, and then another, and then another, until he broke a world record.

The Anaheim man set a Guiness World Record on Wednesday for "Most Seats Sat in 48 Hours" by sitting in 39,250 seats.

He began the task Monday morning, and he's still going, hoping to rest his tush in each of the stadium's 92,542 seats by sometime this week.

The 56-year-old, who already holds several other world records, says he has dreamed of tackling the Rose Bowl seats for 20 years — ever since he sat in all 107,501 chairs at the University of Michigan's football stadium.

The feat has taken a toll on his body and his cleanliness, as soot on the seats rubbed off on his clothes. He says he loves the Rose Bowl but calls the place "filthy."

Cigarettes whisked out of sight at Canadian stores

2008-06-09T15:49:00.000-07:00

You can browse the latest porn magazines at Canadian shops, but tough new laws mean that cigarette packages are simply too suggestive.

Shop owners in Ontario, Quebec and a few other provinces must now hide tobacco products from their customers under rules that will cover most of Canada by year-end as the country tries to stamp out smoking by young people.

The provincial governments want to discourage the habit by "de-normalizing" the presence of cigarettes, which typically enjoyed prime placement behind the cash register.

Retailers must store cigarettes in drawers or behind grey wall coverings that cost as much as C$1,000 (496 pounds), leaving some fuming over the cost, inconvenience, and hypocrisy.

"It's a pain in the ass, and a double-standard that the government supports liquor sales," said a Toronto shop owner who did not want to be named, but who noted children too young to buy pornography are still free to eye the plastic-covered magazines, which are only partly hidden by their shelving.

"It's kind of like a nanny state."

The law has its critics, including those who point accusingly at Ontario's provincially owned liquor stores. But advocates say the seemingly draconian measure will eventually work, and is too important to get bogged down by morality.

"Pornography, with all its faults and deficits, won't kill you," said Michael Perley, director of the Ontario Campaign for Action on Tobacco, an anti-smoking lobby group. "Tobacco industry products kill one in two of their long-term users."

Perley's group, backed by national cancer and medical associations, complains that the cigarette industry paid retailers to display their colourful products in prominent positions in retail stores.

The latest move puts Canada, which already bans cigarette advertising and sports sponsorships by tobacco companies, among a small group of countries which hides tobacco products at the cash register.

Iceland was first in 2001 and Thailand followed in 2005, while Ireland is moving in the same direction.

Canadian retailers complain the law will confuse customers and sellers, and stifle sales of their top product.

But the provinces, which are responsible for managing Canada's publicly funded healthcare system, say they are trying to curb the country's No. 1 cause of early death, cancer.

Canada's explicit health warnings on tobacco products, including graphic images of blackened lungs and rotten teeth, are already considered among the world's most direct.

"It doesn't take long to de-normalize social psychology," said Toronto cigarette-smoker Karolina Jonsson. "People underestimate just how much advertising we are exposed to every day, and cigarettes are the same."

Hen who lived at a McDonald's finally captured

2008-06-09T15:48:00.000-07:00

In the end, the elusive chicken that took up residence outside a McDonald's just got too comfortable in its new home.

For four months customers tried unsuccessfully to catch the brown hen using bait or bare hands. Last week, the fast fowl was finally captured after it settled in for the night right on top of the drive-through window box.

A group of employees distracted the bird with bites of hamburger bun and nabbed it.

Restaurant manager Chona Cauley said the chicken's downfall was that it got a little bit too comfortable around the drive-through.

"Normally, the chicken sleeps in the bushes," Cauley said.

The bird won't end up on the menu. It has been sent to live as a pet with other chickens at the home of a restaurant worker.

Since the chicken arrived, customers often found themselves waiting to order their McNuggets while the bird blocked the drive-through lane.

Homing pigeon checks into hospital for rest

2008-06-09T15:19:00.000-07:00

A homing pigeon on its last leg of a 515-mile race checked into the hospital for a well-deserved rest. The friendly pigeon flew into the Meadows Hospital courtyard earlier this week and stuck around after receiving a warm welcome, said technician Jennifer Sommer, who first spotted the bird.

"Miss Pigeon" was not afraid of people, making her popular with the staff and the patients at the mental health facility. She has even sat in on some group health sessions.

"She just sat on the picnic table, and just sat next to us and wasn't afraid of us at all," Sommer said.

Sommer called the number on the band on the pigeon's leg and connected with the Central Indiana Racing Pigeon Club, which said the bird belonged to Al Coury, who lives in Wanamaker, not far southeast of Indianapolis.

Coury raises racing pigeons, hand-feeding the nestlings to socialize them. He has about 100 pigeons in his loft. He told Sommer to feed his bird unpopped popcorn, which she gobbled up.

He said the bird was one of 12 pigeons he shipped to Montgomery, Ala., for release on May 31. It took the bird about a day and a half to get to Bloomington.

"It was a very difficult race with lots of wind," Coury said.

Several of Coury's other pigeons were home to roost the night before, and his loft won the race.

"I was shocked that they got here so soon," he said.

Lawyer sues Delta for ruining family vacation

2008-06-02T04:59:00.001-07:00

A New York lawyer is suing Delta Air Lines for $1 million, saying his family vacation turned into a nightmare after they were stranded in an airport for days and treated disdainfully by airline employees.

Richard Roth, who filed the lawsuit on behalf of himself and his mother, said he planned the Christmas 2007 trip to Buenos Aires to celebrate his mother's 80th birthday. She had grown up in the city, but had not returned in years, he said.

Instead, Roth, his two teenage children, his wife and mother spent three days in airports, went days without their luggage, were treated rudely by airline employees and were forced to spend $21,000 on unused hotel rooms in Argentina, replacement clothes, and other costs.

"Through its gross negligence, malfeasance and absolute incompetence, Mr. Roth holds Delta responsible for ruining his vacation," said the lawsuit, filed in New York state court.

Delta Air Lines Inc had no immediate comment.

Roth said that he has been in touch with Delta about getting reimbursed, but was repeatedly rebuffed. He told Reuters on Wednesday filing the suit was a last resort.

After the initial flight from New York was delayed by more than two hours, the family was not allowed to board their connecting flight in Atlanta, Roth said.

A Delta employee "literally walked away chuckling that he had left them stranded," he said.

After waiting in the airport for hours, Roth was told the next available flight would depart more than two weeks later.

He then booked a flight through a different airline and arrived in Argentina three days later than planned. The family was not reunited with their luggage for more than five days.

"Suffice it to say, Mr. Roth's elderly mother was a mess. And she has been suffering ever since. The kids are all upset. And it was Christmas Eve. Mr. Roth had spent one-half of his vacation in Buenos Aires chasing Delta and its incompetent representatives," the lawsuit said.

Twin, separated at birth, sues for mix-up

2008-06-02T04:58:00.000-07:00

A Spanish twin, separated from her family for 28 years, is suing the Canary Islands for a mix-up at the maternity hospital which led to her being taken home by the wrong mother, media reported Wednesday.

The woman discovered she had an identical twin when she was mistaken for someone else in a shop in 2001.

The two sisters , who were not named, found they were born in the same hospital in 1973 around the same time and a DNA test subsequently showed they were identical twins.

"In 1973 there were two assistants and one supervisor for 60 babies," Densi Calero, who worked in the maternity unit of the clinic at the time, told local radio. "It's not impossible to imagine something like this could happen."

The woman is suing the Canary Island health services for 3 million euros ($4.7 million) for emotional trauma, El Pais newspaper reported. "I wish I'd never found out about it," her lawyer quoted her as saying.

Her sister was brought up alongside another girl, believing they were twins.

Police hunt for robbers wearing thongs as masks

2008-06-02T04:57:00.000-07:00

Police in a Colorado town are searching for two robbers whose masks showed plenty of fashion sense but little modesty: women's thong underwear.

A surveillance video released this week by police in Arvada, Colo., shows two unarmed men inside the convenience store. They stole an undisclosed amount of cash and cigarettes in the robbery May 16.

One man wore a green thong and the other wore blue. Each thong barely covered the man's nose, mouth and chin and left the rest of his face exposed. One also wore a pink backpack in which he stuffed the stolen items.

The suspects also wore T-shirts and pants and were described as in their 20s. One had a left arm tattoo.

Ticketed driver pays Wis. fine, 21 years later

2008-06-02T04:51:00.000-07:00

Someone in Texas apparently had a guilty conscience, paying up on a parking ticket handed out 21 years before.

The Kenosha Police Department says officers found a $6 payment for the ticket, issued Jan. 20, 1987, in a drop box.

A notice on the ticket indicated that failure to pay within 120 hours would result in doubling of the $3 forfeiture.

It was signed by a man who listed a Dallas address.

Man sues airline over flight spent in toilet

2008-05-15T03:14:00.001-07:00

A New York man who says he was denied a seat on a five-hour JetBlue flight and was instead told to "hang out" in the plane's bathroom has sued the airline for $2 million, saying he suffered "extreme humiliation."

When Gokhan Mutlu arrived to check in for a JetBlue flight from San Diego to New York in February he was told the flight was full, according to the lawsuit filed in New York State Supreme Court.

But Mutlu was allowed to board after a JetBlue flight attendant agreed to give up her seat and travel in an airline employee "jump seat." It was not clear in the lawsuit whether the flight attendant was working.

However 90 minutes into the flight, the pilot told Mutlu the flight attendant was uncomfortable and he would have to give up his seat and "hang out" in the bathroom for the remainder of the flight, the lawsuit said.

The pilot "became angry at (Mutlu's) reluctance" and said Mutlu "should be grateful for being onboard," the lawsuit said. When Mutlu volunteered to sit in the "jump seat," he was told it was reserved for airline personnel.

At one point, the airplane experienced turbulence and Mutlu sat on the toilet seat without a seat belt, causing him "tremendous fear," the lawsuit said.

JetBlue was not immediately available for comment.

10-year-old scholar takes Calif. college by storm

2008-05-15T03:11:00.000-07:00

With the end of another school year approaching, college sophomore Moshe Kai Cavalin is cramming for final exams in classes such as advanced mathematics, foreign languages and music. But Cavalin is only 10 years old. And at 4-foot-7, his shoes don't quite touch the floor as he puts down a schoolbook and swivels around in his chair to greet a visitor.

"I'm studying statistics," says the alternately precocious and shy Cavalin, his textbook lying open on the living room desk of his parents' apartment in this quiet suburb east of Los Angeles.

Within a year, if he keeps up his grades and completes the rest of his requirements, he hopes to transfer from his two-year program at East Los Angeles College to a prestigious four-year school and study astrophysics.

One of his primary interests is "wormholes," a hypothetical scientific phenomenon connected to Albert Einstein's theory of relativity. It has been theorized that if such holes do exist in space, they could — in tandem with black holes — allow for the kind of space-age time travel seen in science fiction.

"Just like black holes, they suck in particulate objects, and also like black holes, they also travel at escape velocity, which is, the speed to get out of there is faster than the speed of light," Cavalin says. "I'd like to prove that wormholes are really there and prove all the theories are correct."

First, he has statistics homework to finish. Later, he'll work with his mother, Shu Chen Chien, to brush up on his Mandarin for his Chinese class. Then it's over to the piano to prepare for his recital in music class.

His father, Yosef Cavalin, frets about the piano-playing, noting that his only child recently broke his arm pursuing another passion, martial arts. He has won several trophies for his age group.

"Finals are coming and everything and he cannot play with both hands. He'll just try to play with the right hand," he says. "I don't know how his grade's going to be in piano. It worries me a bit."

If past success is any indication, his son will find a way to compensate. Cavalin, who enrolled in college more than a year ago, has maintained an A-plus average in such subjects as algebra, history, astronomy and physical education.

College officials couldn't immediately say whether he is the youngest student in the school's 63-year history. Among child prodigies, Michael Kearney, now 24, is often cited as the world's youngest college graduate, having earned a bachelor's degree in anthropology from the University of South Alabama at age 10.

Cavalin's professors can't recall having a younger student in their classes.

"He is the youngest college student I've ever taught and one of the hardest working," says Daniel Judge, his statistics professor. "He's actually a pleasure to have in class. He's a well- adjusted, nice little boy."

Cavalin was an 8-year-old freshman when he enrolled in Guajao Liao's intermediate algebra class in 2006. By the end of the term, Liao recalls, he was tutoring some of his 19- and 20-year-old classmates.

"I told his parents that his ability was much higher than that level, that he should take a higher-level course," Liao says. "But his parents didn't want to push him."

Cavalin's parents avoid calling their son a genius. They say he's just an average kid who enjoys studying as much as he likes playing soccer, watching Jackie Chan movies, and collecting toy cars and baseball caps with tiger emblems on them. He was born during the Year of the Tiger in the Chinese zodiac.

Cavalin has a general idea what his IQ is, but doesn't like to discuss it. He says other students can achieve his success if they study hard and stay focused on their work.

His parents say they never planned to enroll their son in college at age 8, and sought to put him in a private elementary school when he was 6.

"They didn't want to accept me because I knew more than the teacher there and they said I looked too bored," the youngster recalls.

His parents home-schooled him instead, but after two years decided college was the best place for him. East L.A. officials agreed to accept him if he enrolled initially in just two classes, math and physical education. After he earned A-pluses in both, he was allowed to expand his studies.

"He sees things very simply," says Judge, his statistics teacher. "Most students think that things should be harder than they are and they put these mental blocks in front of them and they make things harder than they should be. In the case of Moshe, he sees right through the complications. ... It's not really mystical in any way, but at the same time it's amazing."

Iowa man charged with throwing candy at police

2008-05-13T04:24:00.000-07:00

A college student whose friend was being questioned in a hit and run found himself charged with assaulting an officer with a curious choice of weapons: M&Ms.

Sean McGuire was arrested early Sunday at a convenience store after Drake University security guards noticed the colored candies falling on the ground around the officer. When the officer turned around, an M&M hit his shoulder, according to a police report.

McGuire claimed he threw the candy because he was "sticking up for his friend," who apparently was the man suspected in the accident, the report states.

McGuire, of Glenview, Ill., was released from jail Sunday after posting $1,000 bond. A telephone call to his cell phone Monday wasn't immediately returned.

Play of the Day: Clinton's rise and shine surprise

2008-05-13T04:23:00.000-07:00

Doris Smith went downtown early Monday to see about getting tickets to Barack Obama's rally. Advance seats were sold out, she said, and the only option was to stand in line for up two hours or more and hope for the best.

Disappointed, she decided instead to go for breakfast — and walked right into Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign stop.

"Oh, I didn't want to do this," Smith said, embarrassed, wearing an Obama T-shirt as Clinton walked into the restaurant. "I didn't know she was going to be here."

At Tudor's Biscuit World, you can get just about anything on a biscuit. The Thundering Herd is a biscuit sandwich with sausage, egg and potatoes. The Peppi comes with pepperoni and cheese. Try the fried apple on a biscuit, the regulars said.

Clinton, however, passed up the biscuit counter. She signed autographs and posed for pictures with the mostly older clientele who gathered for a late Monday morning breakfast.

Smith, who lives in nearby Institute, said she liked Clinton but prefers Obama.

"We've got to get the Republicans out of there," she said.

As Clinton left the building, Smith stepped up to shake her hand. She told the candidate that getting a Democrat in office was her priority.

"It's been too long since we have," Clinton agreed, touching Smith's shoulder gently, and smiling.

Jell-O snack packs splatter over highway in Florida

2008-04-24T13:59:00.001-07:00

A driver is being treated at a Saint Johns County hospital after his truck overturned, spilling Jell-O snack packs all over I-95.

Police say the driver's truck flipped over this morning after it slammed into another truck. Individual packs of Jell-O splattered all over the highway, which caused a major traffic jam.

The driver was trapped inside the mangled truck, but was quickly rescued by police.

He was airlifted to the hospital and is being treated for non-life threatening injuries.

Police say no one else was hurt in the crash.

Pittsburgh subway station tile mural worth $15 million

2008-04-24T13:57:00.000-07:00

A mural in a subway station is worth $15 million, more than the cash-strapped transit agency expected, raising questions about how it should be cared for once it is removed before the station is demolished.

"We did not expect it to be that much," Port Authority of Allegheny County spokeswoman Judi McNeil said Thursday. "We don't have the wherewithal to be a caretaker of such a valuable piece."

It would cost the agency more than $100,000 a year to insure the 60-foot-by-13-foot tile mural by Romare Bearden, McNeil said. Bearden was paid $90,000 for the mural, titled "Pittsburgh Recollections." It was installed in 1984.

The subway station that is home to the mural is being demolished as part of a $435 million plan to extend the subway. The authority didn't know what it was going to do with the mural but wanted to know its value before taking it down, McNeil said.

The Port Authority is looking for an arts organization to bear the cost of removing, restoring, relocating and maintaining the mural, McNeil said. If that fails, the agency will either look for an arts group willing to exhibit the mural or will auction it off, she said.

The transit agency also owns a work by Sol LeWitt, an American master of conceptual art, at another subway station. LeWitt's "Thirteen Geometric Figures," 203 feet long and 9 feet tall, was paid for by philanthropist Vira I. Heinz.

The Port Authority has not decided whether to have the LeWitt piece appraised, McNeil said.

The county this year implemented a 10 percent alcoholic drink tax and $2-per-day car rental tax to help pay its $30 million subsidy for the Port Authority.

Farmer cuts property in two to give to ex-wife

2008-04-07T11:38:00.002-07:00

A Serb farmer used a grinding machine to cut in half his farm tools and machines to comply with a court ruling that he must share all his property with his ex-wife, local media reported on Thursday.

Branko Zivkov, 76, told Belgrade daily Kurir he had been ready to give his wife Vukadinka her equal share of everything earned during their 45-year marriage, but was furious at being asked to give away half his farming equipment.

Instead, he bought a grinder and cut in two all his tools, including large items such as cattle scales, a harrow and a sowing machine.

"I still haven't decided how to split the cow," he told the newspaper. "She should just say what she wants -- the part with the horns or the part with the tail."

Man used hedgehog as weapon

2008-04-07T11:38:00.001-07:00

A New Zealand man has been accused of assault with prickly weapon — a hedgehog.

Police allege that William Singalargh picked up the hedgehog and threw it several yards to hit a 15-year-old boy in the North Island east coast town of Whakatane on Feb. 9.

"It hit the victim in the leg, causing a large, red welt and several puncture marks," police Senior Sgt. Bruce Jenkins said Monday. The teen did not need medical treatment, he added.

The Herald on Sunday newspaper reported that it was not known whether the hedgehog was dead or alive at the time of the attack, but that it was dead when collected as evidence.

Jenkins said Singalargh, 27, was arrested shortly after the incident on a charge of assault with a weapon. He is expected to appear in court again on April 17.

His lawyer, Rebecca Plunket, said Singalargh intends to plead innocent. The maximum penalty for the charge is five years in prison.

While using a hedgehog as a weapon in an assault is uncommon, Jenkins said, "People often get charged with assault for throwing things at other people."

Live, on Good Mourning TV!

2008-04-03T17:15:00.000-07:00

Pay-per-view funerals go live online in Britain on Tuesday, allowing mourners who cannot attend services in person to pay their last respects via the Internet.

Despite criticism of the scheme as macabre, the company who launched the service, Wesley Music, is planning to offer it to crematoria across the country who will charge a one-off payment of around 75 pounds ($150) for access to a funeral webcast.

Mourners use the password to access a live online broadcast of the funeral service captured by a small camera mounted in the chapel.

"Families are dispersed across the world these days and sometimes it's the case that someone cannot get home in time for a funeral," said Alan Jeffrey, director of Wesley Music.

"For those who need it, this is a very important service. It means that rather than being excluded, they can at least witness and be a part of a funeral as it happens. In a time of stress this is something that can ease the pain."

David Powell, of funeral directors Henry Powell and Son in Southampton, southern England said he had already tested the service during three funerals. He insisted they remained private, intimate affairs despite being broadcast on the web.

"It's a personal thing. It doesn't go out for all and sundry to gawk at," he told Reuters. "There is a password for the family to send to people who want to watch online."

He said mourners as far away as Australia and Canada had already used the system. "The families have been absolutely delighted to be able to share in the proceedings when it wasn't possible for them to get over here and attend."

Woman bites dog who attacked her dog

2008-04-03T17:14:00.000-07:00

MINNEAPOLIS - Amy Rice feared for her dog's life when a pit bull jumped over a fence into her yard and attacked her pooch. So she took matters into her own mouth.

Rice says she bit the pit bull on the nose Friday after trying to pull the dog's jaws off her Labrador retriever, Ella. The dog had jumped a fence to get into Rice's northeast Minneapolis yard, and Rice says she feared the pit bull would kill Ella.

Rice says she drew blood when she bit the dog, and her doctor will have to determine whether she should get shots for rabies.

The pit bull was quarantined. Ella is recovering with staples and stitches to her head and a crushed ear canal.

Hawk swoops, attacks girl at Fenway Park

2008-04-03T17:12:00.000-07:00

A student touring Fenway Park was attacked by a resident red-tailed hawk that drew blood from a girl's scalp Thursday.

The girl was taken by ambulance to a hospital, but wasn't seriously injured.

The hawk was perched on a railing in the upper deck behind home plate while the group from Memorial Boulevard Middle School in Bristol, Conn., toured the stadium. The hawk flew at the girl and swooper with its talons extended, scratching her scalp.

A single egg lay in the hawk's nearby nest in an overhang near the stadium's press booth.

The nest and egg were removed at the direction of state wildlife officials.

Man escapes from jail, nobody notices

2008-04-01T19:50:00.000-07:00

Law enforcement officials are trying to understand how a convicted felon managed to escape from a privately owned jail across the street from the police headquarters without anyone noticing his absence for a full day.

Esequiel Pena, 35, escaped from a private San Antonio jail sometime between Sunday afternoon and Monday afternoon. He remained at large Tuesday but was thought to be in the San Antonio area, said U.S. Marshals Service spokesman Thomas J. Smith.

Pena apparently escaped by pulling back chain-link fencing around a rooftop recreation yard and climbing down an eight-story fire escape, Smith said.

Pena was being held at the privately operated Central Texas Detention Facility for violating terms of his supervised release. He was previously convicted of an unspecified weapons charge and later re-arrested for a different offense, Smith said.

The facility, which has nearly 700 inmates, is operated by The GEO Group. Spokesman Pablo Paez said Tuesday the company is assisting the U.S. marshals' investigation, but he would not say why it took so long to discover Pena was gone.

Cops clock man on motorcycle at 156 mph

2008-04-01T19:49:00.000-07:00

Mount Carmel police say a Kingsport man clocked driving a motorcycle 156 miles per hour may have been testing the town's new speed enforcement cameras. Authorities said 23-year-old Loda Eugene Ward Jr. has been charged with reckless driving.

Police say the cameras were not activated last week, but an officer on patrol clocked him at the high speed. Police did not pursue but an arrest warrant was issued and they detained Ward on Sunday.

Mount Carmel police said Monday they suspect Ward was testing the cameras because he had removed his license plate to avoid detection.

Police say the camera's maker has assured the department they will capture the image of a vehicle speeding up to 200 mph.

Women dash for cash in stiletto heels

2008-03-07T12:06:00.000-08:00

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands - Like a herd of antelope, jockeying and shoving for position, 150 young women raced down Amsterdam's most famed fashion street in stiletto heels Thursday, racing for a $15,000 prize.

The race on the P.C. Hooft street called the "Stiletto Run" is only three years old but has quickly grown in popularity and spawned imitation races in Germany, Sweden, Poland and Russia.

The race's motto is "Shopping is a Sport" and friendly competition is encouraged — though not always observed.

"At the start there was a lot of pushing, you really get elbowed over," said Fauve Stukje, 18, who came with a small entourage and a big pink sign — but failed to win, show or place.

She said she slightly regretted her choice of shoes, which were nearly 4 inches high — a little higher than the 3 1/2 inch minimum.

Tamara Ruben, 25, from the town of Veenendaal, claimed first prize in the 380-yard race, running so smoothly you might think she was wearing sneakers.

Asked how she would spend the money, she said: "Anything but high heels."

Network apologizes for mocking town name

2008-03-07T12:05:00.001-08:00

A cable sports network says it no longer will make Athol the butt of its jokes.

Comcast SportsNet said Thursday it would pull a newspaper ad that leaders of the small central Massachusetts town called insulting and offensive.

The ad featured two side-by-side signs that together read: "We can pronounce Worcester ... without sounding like an Athol."

A network spokesman said it apologized Thursday to the town and Selectman Wayne Miller, who raised the issue this week after residents complained that the ad ridiculed Athol by linking its name to a similarly sounding vulgarity.

Town selectmen voted Tuesday to have the town attorney write a letter of protest to the company, and Miller also urged residents to boycott papers if they ran the ads.

It was even more offensive, they said, because the advertisement required mispronouncing Athol to make its point. The correct pronunciation is "ATH'-awl."

"There's always been this, shall we say, 'humorous' pronunciation," Miller said Thursday. "If one person is doing it, that's nothing to worry about. But you have to draw the line when a major company uses it to make money."

Comcast SportsNet spokesman Skip Perham said Thursday the ad was intended as a humorous play on words, but that they respect Miller's concerns. Its reference to the odd pronunciations of some Massachusetts town names was meant to underscore the ad campaign's tag line: "If you live here, you get it."

The network will immediately stop publishing the ad, which last appeared in Thursday's editions of the Boston Herald. Perham said it ran periodically to promote one of Comcast SportsNet's regular sports analysis and interview programs.

Athol, a town of about 11,500 in north-central Massachusetts, is believed to have been named for the Scottish second Duke of Atholl, who died two years after the town was incorporated in 1762.

That's the legacy modern-day Athol residents and leaders promote, though Miller said they recognize they have to accept a certain amount of lowbrow humor.

"Obviously we've heard it before," he said.

Selectman Susannah Whipps was the lone selectmen of the five to vote against sending the letter to the network. She told the Telegram and Gazette newspaper of Worcester that she was not offended by the ad, and predicted the publicity would help Comcast.

She was more concerned, she said, about vandals who add an "r" and an "e" to town signs to change the name to "rathole."

Deputy fires gun in courthouse restroom

2008-02-21T22:26:00.001-08:00

A Cass County Sheriff's deputy who accidentally fired his handgun in a courthouse restroom has been suspended for eight days without pay. Authorities said Dean Wawers, 57, also will receive a written reprimand in personnel file.

No one was hurt when the gun belonging Wawers discharged during lunch hour on Jan. 10.

Fargo police said an investigation determined that his weapon was discharged accidentally.

Authorities said he had hung the gun by its trigger guard, and the gun caught on the hook and discharged into the ceiling when he went to retrieve it.

Do they make barf bags for fish?

2008-02-21T22:09:00.000-08:00

Seventy-two small fish were briefly launched into space by researchers Thursday, hoping their swimming patterns would shed some light on motion sickness.

German researchers sent the cichlids on a 10-minute rocket ride that blasted off from a launch pad in northern Sweden, said Professor Reinhard Hilbig, who was in charge of the project.

"They were very happy, I think they want to have another flight," he said.

The thumbnail-sized fish were filmed as they swam around weightlessly in small aquariums during the unmanned space flight.

The German team will now study the video to see if some of the fish swam in circles because that is what fish do when they experience motion sickness, said Hilbig, of the Zoological Institute at the University of Stuttgart.

He said scientists hope the experiment can help explain why some people experience motion sickness while others do not. The mechanisms involved are similar for both fish and humans.

Hilbig said the fish landed safely and appeared to be in good condition.

Cichlids were picked for the experiment because they are sturdy fish who were deemed to have good chances to survive the stress of a space flight.

"Goldfish are a little bit fat and messy, while the cichlid fish is a well-trained, sporty fish with muscles," he said.

Vanity plate sold for $14 million in UAE

2008-02-18T00:40:00.002-08:00

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates - A license plate with nothing but the number "1" on it went for a record $14 million at a charity auction Saturday.

Saeed Khouri, a member of a wealthy Abu Dhabi family, wouldn't say how many automobiles he owned or which of them might carry the record-breaking single-digit plate.

"I bought it because it's the best number," said Khouri, whose family made its fortune in real estate. "I bought it because I want to be the best in the world."

The oil-rich UAE began auctioning off vanity license plates last May.

Ordinary automobile license plates issued to drivers here — and even most other vanity series plates — carry both Arabic and Western numerals and script, defining the issuing city and country.

Khouri's plate, however, has only the Western numeral and no letters.

The record sale surpassed the $6.8 million that was paid for an Emirati license plate at an earlier auction with the Western number 5 on it — also without Arabic numerals or letters.

Proceeds from the auctions, which are held in a lavish hotel here, go to a rehabilitation center for victims of traffic accidents.

On Saturday, 90 license plates were auctioned off in all, raising a total of $24 million. The previous five such events raised more than $50 million.

Kitten found after 25 days in NYC subway

2008-02-18T00:40:00.001-08:00

A skittish kitten that scampered out of its carrier on a subway platform has been found after 25 days in the underground tunnels.

Transit workers tracked down 6-month old Georgia under midtown Manhattan Saturday. Police reunited her with owner Ashley Phillips, a 24-year-old Bronx librarian.

After hearing that the black cat might have been spotted below Lexington Avenue and East 55th Street, track workers Mark Dalessio and Efrain LaPorte went through the area making "meow" sounds.

Georgia responded, and they found her cowering in a drain between two tracks.

Georgia had lost some weight and scratched her nose but was otherwise unhurt. She had disappeared while Phillips was bringing her home from a veterinarian visit last month.

301 pennies auctioned off for $10.7M

2008-02-18T00:38:00.000-08:00

A penny saved is not necessarily just a penny earned: One man's collection of rare American cents has turned into a $10.7 million auction windfall.

The collection of 301 cents featured some of the rarest and earliest examples of the American penny, including a cent that was minted for two weeks in 1793 but was abandoned because Congress thought Lady Liberty looked frightened.

That coin and a 1794 cent with tiny stars added to prevent counterfeiters each raised hundreds of thousands of dollars, according to the Dallas-based auction house Heritage Auction Galleries, which held the sale in Long Beach on Friday night.

Heritage Auction president Greg Rohan said the auction was the biggest ever for a penny collection, with hundreds of bidders vying for the coins. Presale estimates valued the collection at about $7 million.

"It was a fabulous night," Rohan said. "Every major coin collector of American cents was either there in person, bidding online or on the telephone."

The coins came from the collection of Burbank resident Walter J. Husak, the owner of an aerospace-part manufacturing company. Husak became interested in collecting at age 13, while visiting his grandparents who paid him in old coins for helping with chores.

There were 168 successful bidders, and the auction gallery got 15 percent of the total.

Woman seeks lost pet goat with bagels

2008-02-13T14:43:00.001-08:00

A Bensalem woman has been walking around in the snow with a bucket of bagels and goat feed trying to locate her lost pet Buckwheat. Iris Star said Buckwheat apparently worked her way through a metal cattle fence on Saturday and wandered off from the three-acre property where she has lived for 10 years.

Police have been getting reports of the goat ramming front doors with its 6-inch horns and leaving messes in driveways in the area.

During Tuesday's snow, Star took her bucket to Lower Southampton Township, the area of the latest sightings.

Star said Buckwheat is like a pet and is just seeking companionship and warmth.

Boston man receives postcard from 1929

2008-02-13T14:36:00.000-08:00

The message on the postcard to a "Miss Margaret McDonald" was short. Its path to the intended address was much longer. Nearly 79 years after it was sent, a postcard of Yellowstone National Park's Tower Falls arrived in a Boston mailbox recently with the one-word message, "Greetings."

Its intended recipient had long since left the Victorian on Sparhawk Street, and the sender was not identified by name.

Michael Cioffi was shocked to find the card dated June 1929 in his mail. He says the McDonald family did own his house for generations, but he doesn't think there is anyone left in the family to pass the postcard to.

A U.S. Postal Service spokesman says it's impossible to know what happened with the card. It somehow got into the mail and was sent with a one cent stamp from Seattle earlier this year.