Karl’s Weird News

US man sets hot dog-eating record:

The world record for competitive hot dog eating has been broken in the US.

Joey “Jaws” Chestnut ate 68 hot dogs in 10 minutes at the annual 4 July contest at Coney Island in New York, shattering his old record of 66.

His main rival, Japan’s six-time winner Takeru “Tsunami” Kobayashi, ate 64 and a half.

It is thought the two men ate around 19,000 calories between them.

The first such hot dog eating contest was held in 1916, when the winner put away only 13 franks.

McAfee false-positive glitch fells PCs worldwide

IT admins across the globe are letting out a collective groan after servers and PCs running McAfee VirusScan were brought down when the anti-virus program attacked their core system files.

In some cases, this caused the machines to display the dreaded blue screen of death. Details are still coming in, but forums show that it’s affecting McAfee customers in Germany, Italy, and elsewhere.

A UK-based Reg reader, who asked to remain anonymous because he was not authorized by his employer to speak to the press, said the glitch simultaneously leveled half of a customer’s 140 machines after they updated to the latest virus signature file.

“Literally half of the machines were down with this McAfee anti-virus message IDing valid programs as having this trojan,” the IT consultant said. “Literally half the office switched off their PCs and were just twiddling their thumbs.”

…Based on anecdotes, the glitch appears to be caused when older VirusScan engines install DAT 5664, which McAfee seems to have pushed out in the past 24 hours. Affected systems then begin identifying a wide variety of legitimate - and frequently crucial - system files as malware. Files belonging to Microsoft Internet Explorer, drivers for Compaq computers, and even the McAfee-associated McScript.exe were being identified as a trojan called PWS!hv.aq, according to the posts and interviews.

‘Run Hadji Run’ fireworks pulled off shelves:

Fireworks called Run Hadji Run were pulled off the shelves of a Wisconsin store after Minnesota Muslims complained that they were racist.

Fireworks called Run Hadji Run were pulled off the shelves of a Wisconsin store after Minnesota Muslims complained that they were racist. The Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-MN) said that both the name and the packaging are demeaning.

One side of the package has a drawing of Uncle Sam yanking the long beard of a man in traditional Muslim attire, while the other shows a Stealth bomber flying over a group of Arabs riding camels. In addition, “Hadji” is an honorific for those who have completed the pilgrimage to Mecca.

Australia probes navy ’sex game’:

An investigation is under way in Australia over claims that navy sailors competed with each other to bed their female colleagues for cash prizes.

According to Channel Seven news, sailors on board HMAS Success put a cash value on each woman’s head.

Sleeping with a female officer or a lesbian, or having sex in a strange place, won more money, the report said.

The Defence Department confirmed that a number of individuals had been sent back to Australia for interviews.

Amtrak train kills two in Alameda County:

Two people have been struck and killed by one Amtrak train in Alameda County.

One was killed in Berkeley, and another two hours later in Oakland.

The first fatality happened around 12:20 p.m. in Berkeley according to Amtrak officials.

After the accident the train was held at the crime scene until 1:50 p.m.

About thirty minutes later, after continuing on it’s route, the same train struck and killed another person in Jack London Square in Oakland.

Sheriff: Bama man eaten by wild dogs

Authorities in Pickens County are trying to track a pack of wild dogs they believe may have killed a 96-year-old man and consumed his remains.

Israel Pope, Jr. was reported missing Monday night and police found his remains in a field on his property, about a quarter of a mile from his house.

 Police believe Pope had been consumed by a pack of dogs authorities tracked to a den under an abandoned mobile home.

Investigators found pieces of Pope’s clothing and what may have been human remains at the mobile home.

Man uses nail clippers to circumcise himself in DIY disaster

DO-IT-YOURSELF is becoming ever more popular these days, but a young man took the concept slightly too far when he used a pair of nail clippers to circumcise himself.

Unfortunately things didn’t work out according to plan, and the unnamed man was taken to Lister Hospital in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, where the wound had to be cleaned and disinfected.

The man was kept in the hospital for further observation.

“This is something we would advise men never to attempt,” a medic told the Telegraph. “The results can be quite horrific and long-lasting and have quite an affect on a man’s sexual performance. Using a pair of nail clippers must have caused excruciating pain, even if he had had a few drinks beforehand.”

Hat tip to Valentina!

Thrown pig leads to religious riots in India

Three people have been killed in religious rioting in southern India between Muslims and Hindus, police said Friday.

 Widespread violence broke out in Mysore Thursday after somebody threw a dead pig into the compound of an under-construction mosque, city police commissioner Sunil Agarwal told CNN.

More than a dozen people were injured in the clashes, he said. Police fired tear gas and used bamboo sticks to break up the rioting, according to Agarwal.

Authorities have, for now, banned assembly of five or more people on the streets of the troubled area, according to the police.

The Post’s ‘Salon’ Plan: A Public Relations Disaster:

For a storied newspaper that cherishes its reputation for ethical purity, this comes pretty close to a public relations disaster.

Politico reported this morning that The Post has been soliciting lobbyists to pay from $25,000 to $250,000 to underwrite off-the-record “salons” at the home of publisher Katharine Weymouth that would provide access to administration and congressional leaders and the paper’s reporters and editors.

The story, accurately reported by Politico (and former Post) reporter Mike Allen, is based on a flier being circulated by a new marketing arm of The Post that has been created to host conferences and events.

The problem: The Post often decries those who charge for access to public officials. This raised the specter of a money-losing newspaper doing the same thing — and charging for access to its own reporters and editors as well.

Qaeda warns France of revenge for burka stance:

Al-Qaeda’s North Africa wing threatened on Tuesday to take revenge on France for its opposition to the burka, calling on Muslims to retaliate against the country, the US monitoring service SITE Intelligence reported.

Earlier this month, President Nicolas Sarkozy said the burka, which covers the whole face, was not welcome in the strictly secular country.

“Yesterday was the hijab (the Islamic headscarf long banned in French schools) and today, it is the niqab (the full veil),” Abu Musab Abdul Wadud, head of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb was quoted as saying.

“We will take revenge for the honour of our daughters and sisters against France and against its interests by every means at our disposal.”

Mint’s $15.3 M golden dilemma: Was there a heist?:

The distinct possibility that precious metals may have been stolen from the Royal Canadian Mint is “inexcusable,” the federal minister responsible for the Crown corporation said Monday.

The findings of a long-awaited external audit, released earlier in the day, concluded that $15.3 million in missing gold is not the result of accounting or bookkeeping errors, raising even more questions about the whereabouts of the metals from what has been touted as one of the most secure facilities in Canada.

“The mint’s still unexplained loss of precious metals is inexcusable,” Transport Minister John Baird and Minister of State for Transport Rob Merrifield, whose department is responsible for the mint, said in a joint release. “The mint will be held accountable.”

Ant mega-colony takes over world:

A single mega-colony of ants has colonised much of the world, scientists have discovered.

Argentine ants living in vast numbers across Europe, the US and Japan belong to the same interrelated colony, and will refuse to fight one another.

The colony may be the largest of its type ever known for any insect species, and could rival humans in the scale of its world domination.

 What’s more, people are unwittingly helping the mega-colony stick together. Argentine ants (Linepithema humile) were once native to South America. But people have unintentionally introduced the ants to all continents except Antarctica.

Flight diverted after passenger undresses in seat

A cross-country US Airways flight was diverted to Albuquerque after a male passenger removed his clothing mid-flight.

Dan Jiron, a spokesman for the Albuquerque airport, said 50-year-old Keith Wright of New York disrobed Tuesday while sitting in his seat in the back of the aircraft.

He said Wright was unresponsive when a flight attendant asked him repeatedly to get dressed and refused to be covered with a blanket.

Jiron said law enforcement employees who were passengers on the plane helped subdue and handcuff Wright before the flight landed. The FBI said Wright is in federal custody on a charge of interfering with flight crew members and attendants.

Father Who Ditched Nine Kids Via Safe Haven Law Has Twins on the Way

The Nebraska man who abandoned his nine children under the state’s Safe Haven law last year is expecting to become the father of twins, FOXNews.com has learned.

Gary Staton, 37, became a single father in February 2007 when his wife, RebelJane, died of a cerebral aneurysm shortly after giving birth to the couple’s ninth child. Unable to handle the burden alone, Staton made national news more than a year later on Sept. 24 when he dropped off his children — ages 1 to 17 — at a hospital in Omaha. According to the law at the time, parents could hand children up to age 18 over to state custody without prosecution. Legislators would later amend the law to limit its reach to infants up to 30 days old.

Joanne Manzer — the wife of RebelJane’s father, Jack Manzer — told FOXNews.com that Staton informed his children last week that he’s expecting to become a father again with his new girlfriend, a woman named Gail.

Two dead, 118 injured in toy factory brawl

A brawl at a toy factory in China has ended with the deaths of two people and a further 60 hospitalised after a dispute flared between workers of different ethnic backgrounds in the Muslim Xinjiang region.

More than 400 police were called to break up the fight involving hundreds of people at the factory in Shaoguan, in the southern province of Guangdong, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

A total of 118 people were injured in the fight. It was not clear what triggered the dispute, but the two dead were both members of China’s Uighur minority, the South China Morning Post reported, adding that 81 of the injured were also Uighurs.

Drunk man killed trying to saw through live power line

New York authorities say a man was fatally electrocuted early Saturday when he tried to cut through a downed power line with an industrial saw.

Authorities say the 64-year-old Pond Eddy man was drunk and ignored repeated orders to stay away from the cable.

The accident happened in the presence of firefighters who had been guarding the fallen line.

The Sullivan County public safety commissioner says officials chased the man away from the line several times before he fetched the saw from his house.

WHoardes of hungry grasshoppers invade Utah

An ambitious director might look at Mitch Halligan’s property and see an instant B-movie classic: “Invasion of the Grasshoppers.”

The place is overrun with the greasy little bugs. With each step you take on his property, the squirmy inch-long grasshoppers jump for cover in every direction.

Those that don’t crunch under foot perch themselves atop tall grass stalks, crawl up pant legs or munch through gardens. Across the road isn’t much better. Grasshoppers blanketed the neighbors’ entryway a few days ago and forced them to come in through the back door.

“I’d call this the closest that I’ve seen to a plague in a long time,” Halligan said.

Chips And Dip 

Meet Lahoma Sue Smith. The Oklahoma woman, 36, copped a plea last week to a prostitution charge for accepting a box of Frito-Lay chips in exchange for oral sex.

According to the below Oklahoma City Police Department report, john Faron Johnson told cops that he informed Smith that he did not have any money, but that she “agreed to give him a ‘blow job’ meaning oral sex, for a box of chips.”

Johnson, a Frito-Lay employee, provided Smith with a case of chips he valued at $30.

MICHELLE OBAMA BOOZE BINGES

Michelle Obama - cracking under the pressure of being First Lady - is drinking way more than she should, friends fear.

Longtime pals have been keeping a close eye on her White House booze intake for months, sources told The ENQUIRER, and her husband President Barack Obama even stepped in when she recently consumed too much alcohol.

“When Barack saw Michelle drink more than she should at a recent dinner, he hit the roof. He told her, ‘This is NOT going to turn into a problem!’” a close source told The ENQUIRER.

“Barack is overly sensitive to the issue because of his own past drinking and substance abuse problems. But he also feels guilty because of the pictures taken of him drinking beer at an NBA game recently.”

The President also feels he may have contributed to his wife’s alcohol issues by not stopping her from overindulging during their date night in New York City on May 30.

Michelle, 45, knocked back “a glass or two of champagne” while the couple flew to the Big Apple on a private jet, according to the close source, and published reports said she downed two martinis during dinner at the Greenwich Village restaurant Blue Hill.

“It was clear that Mrs. Obama was having a VERY good time,” a restaurant employee told The ENQUIRER.

Aide’s tale of John Edwards sex tape:

Former presidential candidate John Edwards is out of luck if he hoped that the extramarital affairs of Gov. Mark Sanford and Sen. John Ensign would take people’s minds off his own cheating scandal.

Former Edwards aide Andrew Young says the ex-senator and his former mistress, Rielle Hunter, once made a sex tape, according to someone who has seen Young’s book proposal. St. Martin’s Press just inked a deal with Young, who also says in his proposal that, contrary to his public statement last year, he is not the father of Hunter’s infant daughter — Edwards is.

Edwards has denied that. Young says that his belief in Edwards ran so deep that he agreed to take the fall for the candidate, inviting the pregnant Hunter to live with him, his wife, Cheri, and their three children. Later, after Hunter delivered the baby, Young and his family moved to a different home in California.

While he was unpacking, Young discovered a videocassette, according to the book pitch. Hunter had been hired by the Edwards campaign to videotape the candidate’s movements, but this one is said to have shown him taking positions that weren’t on his official platform.

‘I’m better off dead. I’m done’: How Michael Jackson predicted his death six months ago

Whatever the final autopsy results reveal, it was greed that killed Michael Jackson. Had he not been driven – by a cabal of bankers, agents, doctors and advisers – to commit to the gruelling 50 concerts in London’s O2 Arena, I believe he would still be alive today.

During the last weeks and months of his life, Jackson made desperate attempts to prepare for the concert series scheduled for next month – a series that would have earned millions for the singer and his entourage, but which he could never have completed, not mentally, and not physically.

Michael knew it and his advisers knew it. Anyone who caught even a fleeting glimpse of the frail old man hiding beneath the costumes and cosmetics would have understood that the London tour was madness. For Michael Jackson, it was fatal.

Monkey urinates on Zambian president

A monkey urinated on Zambian President Rupiah Banda during a press conference outside his office in the capital Lusaka.

President Banda took the unfortunate incident in good humour.

“You have urinated on my jacket,” a startled Mr Banda told the monkey, looking up at a tree.

The monkey was one of a colony that has made the its home in the trees outside Mr Banda’s offices at Lusaka’s State House.

“I will give this monkey for lunch to Mr Sata,” he joked, referring to the opposition leader Michael Sata, who Mr Banda defeated in last year’s elections.

Mr Banda somehow managed to continue his press conference, only the second of his presidency.

Child Porn Images Found At Park Bathroom

More than a dozen Polaroid pictures of graphic child pornography was discovered by a cleaning company in the bathroom of a local park.

Workers at R.B. Satkowiak City Sewer Cleaners of Carrollton Township found the photographs while clearing a sewer drain at Imerman Memorial Park in Saginaw Township on May 27.

Pat Kinney said his crew pulled about 15-30 pictures portraying sex acts between a middle-aged woman and a boy from a suction cleaning pump after the tool became clogged.

“They were tied together with a string,” Kinney said. “Just about everything you could think of was shown in the pictures.”

India plans hot chilli grenades:

Indian defence scientists are planning to put one of the world’s hottest chilli powders into hand grenades.

They say the devices will be used to control rioters and in counter-insurgency operations.

Researchers say the idea is to replace explosives in small hand grenades with a certain variety of red chilli to immobilise people without killing them.

The chilli, known as Bhut Jolokia, is said to be 1,000 times hotter than commonly used kitchen chilli.

Chinese woman boiled man’s head to cure daugther’s psychiatric problems

Lin Zongxiu, from the southwestern province of Sichuan, heard in 2008 that soup made with a man’s head could help cure her daughter who had suffered from psychiatric problems for years, the Chengdu Commercial newspaper reported.

Lin and her husband decided to enlist the help of a man in December who knocked unconscious a drunk 76-year-old passer-by before beheading him, the paper claimed.

The couple then gave their 25-year-old daughter soup made from the man’s head, and duck. A local court sentenced the murderer to death with a two-year reprieve on Monday, and Lin was convicted of helping to destroy evidence that included the culprit’s bloody clothes and shoes, the paper said.

The murderer’s reprieve means that his sentence will likely be commuted to life in prison as long as he commits no further offences in the next two years.

Hat tip to Kara!

Girl Who Does Not Age, Brooke Greenberg Baffles Doctors

Brooke weighs 16 pounds and is 30 inches tall. She doesn’t speak, but she laughs when she is happy, and she clearly recognizes the people around her.  She has three sisters: Emily, 22; Caitlin, 19; and Carly, 13. All three are bright, active and of normal size and development. They say that Brooke has ways of expressing herself like the teenager she is. “She looks like a 6-month-old, but she kind of has a personality of a 16-year-old,” Caitlin said. “Sometimes we joke about how she rebels.”

Brooke will resist and refuse activities that don’t appeal to her by vocalizing her displeasure, not with words, but with sounds typical of an infant. “She makes it known what she likes and what she doesn’t like,” sister Emily said. Carly said it no longer seems strange to have an older sister who is still essentially an infant. “As I got older, she was just like another little sister to me,” she said.

‘Stoned wallabies make crop circles’:

Australian wallabies are eating opium poppies and creating crop circles as they hop around “as high as a kite”, a government official has said.

Lara Giddings, the attorney general for the island state of Tasmania, said the kangaroo-like marsupials were getting into poppy fields grown for medicine.

She was reporting to a parliamentary hearing on security for poppy crops. Australia supplies about 50% of the world’s legally-grown opium used to make morphine and other painkillers.

Arkansas Inmate Nearly Dies After Left in Feces

An Arkansas prisoner nearly died after guards left him lying naked in his own feces for a weekend, and while investigating the incident corrections officials found that guards received lap dances while on the job, documents obtained by The Associated Press show.

The prison system fired Lt. John Glasscock, who supervised guards on duty at the maximum-security Tucker Unit prison. One sergeant was fired, another was demoted and three others received written warnings, according to a report stamped “Sustained (Allegation is True).” The report said Glasscock gave false information to investigators and did substandard work “resulting in injury and/or property damage.”

The disclosure of the inmate’s near death comes after two convicted murderers escaped a different state prison by wearing guard uniforms and officers at the Tucker Unit fatally shot a man who officials said fled from a contraband checkpoint.

Combined, the incidents raise new questions about a troubled state prison system described by a federal judge 40 years ago as a “dark and evil world.”

Girl with tattooed face admits she wanted all 56 stars

A TEENAGE girl who claimed 56 stars were tattooed on her face while she slept has admitted she lied and was awake the whole time.

London’s Daily Telegraph reported Kimberley Vlaminck, who said she fell asleep after asking for only three stars, lied because her father was “furious”.

She initially insisted she dozed had off after asking the tattooist for just three small stars – then woke in horror to find her face was covered.

Tiger Woods taunted at 10th hole; Fred Funk’s name becomes obscenity:

Beer-sodden fans and rain combined for an ugly finish to a long day of golf yesterday, with Tiger Woods and other golfers subjected to drunken heckling as the action at Bethpage Black came to a close.

At 6:42 p.m., dozens of drunken spectators at Hole 10 taunted Woods as he prepared to start his third round in the rain.

“We’re on Long Island, baby, where men are men!” one fan yelled. “Put that umbrella down!” The taunts were mixed with cheers from the majority of the crowd.

Woods did not respond to the people who were heckling him but tried to quiet the crowd with a “sshh” hand gesture, putting his finger to his lips, as golfers prepared to tee off on the adjacent 12th tee.

“Suck it up, you’ve got your own video game!” someone shouted at Woods. Some fans, apparently disgusted by the hecklers’ behavior, walked away from the hole.

Others told the vocal contingent to quiet down, which had no effect on the verbal abuse.

Minutes later, a group of fans greeted Fred Funk at the 10th hole by shouting his last name as an obscenity.

Police: Woman skinned puppy to make belt

A 23-year-old woman who got a friend to kill her Jack Russell terrier was charged with skinning the puppy to make a belt out of its hide.

Krystal Lynn Lewis and Austin Michael Mullins, 26, were being held Friday in the Muskogee County jail on $25,000 bail each. They were charged with one felony count of cruelty to animals. A Muskogee County judge ordered a mental competency hearing for Lewis.

Lewis wanted the puppy, named Poplin, killed because it was a gift from a female ex-lover with whom she doesn’t get along, said Muskogee County sheriff’s deputy George Roberson.

Postmen boycott deliveries after Royal Mail worker is attacked… by a kitten

A family has been warned their mail could be halted after postmen refused to deliver to their house - because of a vicious kitten.

Royal Mail chiefs wrote to Ken Ridge claiming that six-month-old Illy had attacked a postal worker.

 Mail deliveries to the house could now be suspended as a result of the attack on the woman, he was told.

 Mr Ridge, 65, who lives in Clapham, South London, with his 30-year-old son Bradley, said: ‘We were not around when this happened, but it seems some mail was put through the letterbox and their hand was scratched.

‘Illy is only a kitten and I am sure she was just playing. ‘Then we got a letter from the mail delivery office warning our deliveries could be stopped.’

Detroit man confession: ‘I kill people for money’

Hours after police plucked him out of a suburban alley, Vincent Smothers dropped a bombshell confession: “I don’t have a profession,” he told an investigator. “I kill people for money.”

Then, police say, he laid out details of how each of eight hired hits happened. He stalked his victims before shooting them at close range. He killed some while talking on his cell phone and fired on others even when they appeared to lay lifeless on the ground.

 Even in Detroit, which had more than 300 slayings last year, Smothers’ case is notable: Rarely is one person charged in so many deaths. On Friday, his lawyers planned to ask a judge to have the confessions thrown out, arguing he was worn down while in custody. Police deny it.

 ”He’d been accused of doing so many, he just wanted to get it over (with),” said Detective Sgt. Ken Ducker of the Michigan State Police.

Police say the work paid $60,000 over two years, although Smothers did one job for as little as $50. All but one of his victims were involved in drugs. The exception was a police officer’s wife.

A Sonic Boom In The World Of Lasers:

It was an idea born out of curiosity in the physics lab, but now a new type of ‘laser’ for generating ultra-high frequency sound waves instead of light has taken a major step towards becoming a unique and highly useful 21st century technology.

Microwave Scientists at The University of Nottingham, in collaboration with colleagues in the Ukraine, have produced a new type of acoustic laser device called a Saser. It’s a sonic equivalent to the laser and produces an intense beam of uniform sound waves on a nano scale.

The new device could have significant and useful applications in the worlds of computing, imaging, and even anti-terrorist security screening. Where a ‘laser’,(Light Amplification by the Stimulated Emission of Radiation), uses packets of electromagnetic vibrations called ‘photons’, the ‘Saser’ uses sound waves composed of sonic vibrations called ‘phonons’.

In a laser, the photon beam is produced by stimulating electrons with an external power source so they release energy when they collide with other photons in a highly reflective optical cavity. This produces a coherent and controllable shining beam of laser light in which all the photons have the same frequency and rate of oscillation. From supermarket scanners to DVD players, surgery, manufacturing and the defence industry, the application of laser technology is widespread.

The Saser mimics this technology but using sound, to produce a sonic beam of ‘phonons’ which travels, not through an optical cavity like a laser, but through a tiny manmade structure called a ‘superlattice’. This is made out of around 50 super-thin sheets of two alternating semiconductor materials, Gallium Arsenide and Aluminium Arsenide, each layer just a few atoms thick. When stimulated by a power source (a light beam), the phonons multiply, bouncing back and forth between the layers of the lattice, until they escape out of the structure in the form of an ultra-high frequency phonon beam.

Mexico: Almost 1 ton of cocaine found in sharks:

Mexico says it found nearly one ton of cocaine hidden inside frozen shark carcasses.

Prosecutors say hundreds of packages stuffed in the bellies of dozens of dead sharks seized in the Gulf port of Progreso contained 1,965 pounds (893 kilograms) of cocaine.

The Attorney General’s Office says the sharks were found in two containers on Tuesday.

The containers had been shipped from Costa Rica. There was no immediate information on its intended destination.

The 870 packages were found wrapped in plastic and inserted in the sharks.

Oregon woman obsessed with rabbits arrested again

Washington County’s “Bunny Lady” is back in the hutch after violating a court order banning her from owning animals for five years. Miriam Sakewitz, 47, was arrested Tuesday at a hotel in the Portland suburb of Tigard after an employee reported finding rabbits hopping around in her room.

Problems for Sakewitz started in October 2006 when police in Hillsboro, about 15 miles west of Portland, found and confiscated nearly 250 rabbits in her home, including about 100 dead ones in freezers and refrigerators.

Police said she broke into the facility where the survivors were being cared for in January 2007 and stole most of them back. Authorities found her a few days later in Chehalis, Wash., with eight live rabbits and two dead ones in her car. Another 130 rabbits were recovered at a nearby horse farm.

Sakewitz was sentenced in April 2007 to five years probation and was banned from owning or controlling animals. She also was told not to go within 100 yards of a rabbit.

Hat tip to Jinny!

9,200 Uncounted Vials Found at Army Biodefense Lab

An inventory of deadly germs and toxins at an Army biodefense lab in Frederick found more than 9,200 vials of material that was unaccounted for in laboratory records, Fort Detrick officials said Wednesday.

The 13 percent overage mainly reflects stocks left behind in freezers by researchers who retired or left Fort Detrick since the biological warfare defense program was established there in 1943, said Col. Mark Kortepeter, deputy commander of the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases.

He said the found material included Korean War-era serum samples from patients with Korean hemorrhagic fever, a disease still of interest to researchers pursuing a vaccine.

Other vials contained viruses and microbes responsible for Ebola, plague, anthrax, botulism and host of other ailments, Kortepeter said in a teleconference with reporters.

What did she expect? Incredible face revealed of the man who tattooed girl with 56 stars when she only asked for three

A teenage girl is suing a tattoo artist for £10,000 after she allegedly asked him for three stars on her face - but ended up with 56.

Eighteen-year-old Kimberley Vlaminck paid £55 for ‘the graffiti that has ruined my life’ in her Belgian home town of Courtrai.

She claimed the Romanian tattooist who performed the artwork misunderstood her French and English. She claims she fell asleep while he was doing his work… and awoke to ‘this nightmare’.

But today, Rouslan Toumaniantz - himself covered from head to foot in tattoos and piercings - said he would help pay for treatment to remove the tattoos.

‘I maintain that she absolutely agreed that I tattoo those 56 stars on the left side of her face,’ he told newspaper La Derniere Heure. ‘

A witness, a woman who was present, has already been questioned by police, and she confirms it.

Kimberley says the tattoos have ruined her life

Rouslan Toumaniantz, who runs the tattoo parlour, says Kimberley asked for 56 stars.

‘But be that as it may: Kimberley is unhappy and it is not my wish to have an unsatisfied client. There is a way to remove the tattoos with the help of a laser. I accept to pay for half the cost.’

Battle for hearts — and screens — of the world
#iranelection

Apparently, the song was right: The revolution will not be televised. It will be thumbed.

With traditional reporting silenced and with Iranian e-mail and Web services shut down by the government Tuesday, much of the information about the election protests in Tehran was coming through social media sites such as Twitter.com and Facebook.com.

Many users of social media sites access them through cell phones and messaging services, which use different pathways from the World Wide Web circuits that Iranian censors have labored to shut down.

“They’ve cut off telephone, e-mail, texting, and for foreign press issued a letter saying nobody can report without permission,” the Center for Arab and Iranian Studies in London said in a statement. “Twitter is the one thing being used.”

Moaning German soldiers an ‘embarrassment’ say chiefs

German soldiers are softies who lack discipline, hate responsibility and show an inadequate desire to serve their country, according to the army’s chief inspector.

General Wolfgang Schneiderhahn, the general inspector of the Bundeswehr, told the German parliament that depite their positive contribution in Afghanistan, complaints from troops about their conditions were an “embarrassment”.

“We have given a good account of ourselves in Afghanistan, but we cannot guarantee an all-round feel-good feeling for soldiers,” said the general, before going on to detail the less dignified side of the country’s armed forces.

He cited complaints reaching him about the quality of sleeping bags used in a deployment in the Congo. “Are our soldiers too soft?” asked the best-selling daily German newspaper Bild.

Gen Schneiderhahn told politicians in Berlin on Monday that the descendants of the country’s mighty military machines of the past needed to have “a better feeling for discipline and to show a greater readiness to serve the state”.

Cambridge students vomit and collapse after wild party

A DRUNKEN Cambridge University student staggers home after a wild party - dubbed Suicide Sunday - ended with revellers collapsing and throwing up.

Passers-by were shocked and disgusted after a notorious end-of-exams party lived up to its reputation with students binge drinking.

The party saw bikini-clad students struggling to stand up and vomiting at midday on a Sunday afternoon. The party was organised by the Wyverns - an all-male Magdalene College drinking society.

It had to be held in a new location for the first time in 80 years after officials banned students from holding the event on university land.

The controversial decision was made after a 23-year-old student was last year arrested during the infamous jelly-wrestling contest for punching a spectator.

Scientists Say ‘Super Volcano’ May Be Brewing Beneath Mount St. Helens

A team of scientists say they have evidence that a “super volcano” may be brewing underneath Mount St. Helens, NewScientist.com reports.

Researchers say indicators suggest Mount St. Helens and other northwest volcanoes are plugged into a huge subterranean pool of magma that could one day burst to the surface in a “super” eruption.

If what they believe is true, the structure beneath the mountain would be comparable in size to the biggest magma chambers ever discovered, such as the one below Yellowstone National Park.

Scientist Graham Hill led a team of researchers that set up magnetotelluric sensors around Mount St Helens.

The measurements revealed a column of conductive material that extends downward from the volcano which they found to connect to a much bigger zone of conductive material.

Man ‘cooked’ to death in Australian prison van:

The family of an Australian Aboriginal elder who died after being “cooked” in the back of a prison van on a scorching hot day is considering suing, they said.

A coroner Friday dismissed treatment of the 46-year-old man as inhumane and a “disgrace,” saying he would ask prosecutors to consider criminal charges over his death from heatstroke in Western Australia in January 2008.

The elder, known only as Mr Ward as his first name was withheld for cultural reasons, was transported 360 kilometres (225 miles) to jail in temperatures of up to 50 degrees Celsius (122 F) in a van with faulty air conditioning.

Ward, who was arrested a day earlier for drink driving, spent four hours in the searing heat between the mining towns of Laverton and Kalgoorlie, suffering third-degree burns where his body touched the metal floor, the inquest heard.

Western Australia Coroner Alastair Hope found that Ward was effectively “cooked” to death and heavily criticised the state prisons department, the private security firm that operated the van and the two guards who escorted Ward.

Baby Born On NYC Mass Transit For 2nd Straight Day

For the second day in a row a newborn girl has been born on New York City’s mass transit system. A Brooklyn bus became a makeshift delivery room on Friday morning. A woman passenger helped the mother deliver the baby that just couldn’t wait to come aboard.

Paramedics took the new mother and baby to a hospital. Their names were not released.

On Thursday, conductor Bretta Sykes helped a mother deliver a girl in a subway car. The mother of two says she used information from her own chilbirth classes to coach the woman through her seven-minute delivery.

A New York City Transit spokesman says it could be the system’s first consecutive births on a subway train and a bus.

‘Imelda’ Strikes Again: Thieving Fox Amasses 120 Shoes

A vixen has stolen more than 120 shoes from doorsteps in the German town of Föhren over the last year, amassing a collection that would impress even Imelda Marcos. Little bite marks on the laces suggest they’re intended as toys for her cubs.

For more than a year, the people of Föhren, a small town in the wooded Eifel hills of western Germany, wondered who was going around stealing shoes from their doorsteps and garden terraces at night. Well over 100 muddy hiking shoes, wet Wellingtons, steel-capped workman’s boots, flipflops and old slippers went missing.

The mystery has now been solved after a forestry worker discovered an Imelda Marcos-scale collection of footwear in a fox’s den in nearby woods. The bushy-tailed culprit, believed to be a vixen with a family of cubs, is still at large, and locals have two explanations for her kleptomania. Either she amassed them as toys for her children, or she simply likes collecting shoes, or both. So far 120 stolen shoes have been retrieved.

Gorilla attacks man in brief zoo escape:

A 177-kilogram gorilla grabbed low-hanging bamboo to scale a wall at a zoo in South Carolina, escaping his enclosure and tackling a worker before returning to his pen about five minutes later. The gorilla at Riverbanks Zoo and Gardens ran into a pizza-stand employee who curled up and played dead to try to avoid further injuries during Friday’s incident, officials said. The man was taken to hospital and released a short time later with cuts and bruises. Zoo executive director Satch Krantz said the worker heard a strange sound, saw the gorilla outside the enclosure and turned to run. “Then the gorilla did what gorillas do,” he said.

US cities may have to be bulldozed in order to survive

Dozens of US cities may have entire neighbourhoods bulldozed as part of drastic “shrink to survive” proposals being considered by the Obama administration to tackle economic decline.

The government looking at expanding a pioneering scheme in Flint, one of the poorest US cities, which involves razing entire districts and returning the land to nature. Local politicians believe the city must contract by as much as 40 per cent, concentrating the dwindling population and local services into a more viable area.

The radical experiment is the brainchild of Dan Kildee, treasurer of Genesee County, which includes Flint. Having outlined his strategy to Barack Obama during the election campaign, Mr Kildee has now been approached by the US government and a group of charities who want him to apply what he has learnt to the rest of the country.

Mr Kildee said he will concentrate on 50 cities, identified in a recent study by the Brookings Institution, an influential Washington think-tank, as potentially needing to shrink substantially to cope with their declining fortunes.

Most are former industrial cities in the “rust belt” of America’s Mid-West and North East. They include Detroit, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Baltimore and Memphis.

US government securities seized from Japanese nationals, not clear whether real or fake

Italy’s financial police (Guardia italiana di Finanza) has seized US bonds worth US 134.5 billion from two Japanese nationals at Chiasso (40 km from Milan) on the border between Italy and Switzerland.

 They include 249 US Federal Reserve bonds worth US$ 500 million each, plus ten Kennedy bonds and other US government securities worth a billion dollar each. Italian authorities have not yet determined whether they are real or fake, but if they are real the attempt to take them into Switzerland would be the largest financial smuggling operation in history; if they are fake, the matter would be even more mind-boggling because the quality of the counterfeit work is such that the fake bonds are undistinguishable from the real ones.

What caught the policemen’s attention were the billion dollar securities. Such a large denomination is not available in regular financial and banking markets. Only states handle such amounts of money.

The question now is who could or would counterfeit or smuggle these non-negotiable bonds.

Boy Hit On Arm By White-Hot Meteorite From Outer Space Travelling At 30,000mph

A teenager was hit by a meteorite travelling at 30,000mph - and lived to tell the tale.

The meteorite struck Gerrit on the hand, and buried itself in the road Gerrit Blank was on his way to school when he saw a massive fireball heading straight towards him from the sky.

The white-hot meteorite bounced off the schoolboy’s hand and hit the ground so hard it left a foot-long crater in the tarmac - as well as a three-inch scar on his hand.

Gerrit, 14, said: “At first I just saw a large ball of light and then I suddenly felt a pain in my hand. “Then, a split second after that, there was an enormous bang like a crash of thunder.”

“The noise that came after the flash of light was so loud that my ears were ringing for hours afterwards.

“When it hit me it knocked me flying and then was still going fast enough to bury itself in the road.”

Scientists are now studying the pea-sized meteorite, which crashed to Earth in Essen in Germany. Chemical tests on the rock have now proved it is from outer space.

Ansgar Korte, director of Germany’s Walter Hohmann Observatory, said: “It’s a real meteorite, therefore it is very valuable to collectors and scientists.”

Chances of being struck by a meteorite are around one in 100 million.

Jyoti, the world’s smallest girl set to make it big on British TV at barely two feet tal

Her tiny form is disarming. But Jyoti Amge’s dreams are as big as those of her friends. At 15 she stands just 1ft 11½in tall and weighs less than a stone, giving her one very big claim to fame - as the smallest girl in the world.

 Doctors believe Jyoti is a pituitary dwarf but have never been able to pinpoint her condition. Such dwarfism is caused when the body fails to produce enough growth hormone.

Specialists have told her she will remain the same size for the rest of her life.

‘When I was three I realised that I was different to the rest of the kids,’ she said. ‘I thought that everyone was bigger and I should get bigger too.’

Jyoti has her own mini grey uniform and school bag and even a tiny desk. But she looks like a doll next to her teenage classmates.

She said: ‘I am proud of being the smallest girl. I love all the attention I get. I’m not scared of being small, and I don’t regret being small.

Sky ‘rains tadpoles’ over Japan

Residents, officials and scientists have been baffled by the apparent downpour of tadpoles in central Japan’s Ishikawa Prefecture. Clouds of dead tadpoles appear to have fallen from the sky in a series of episodes in a number of cities in the region since the start of the month.

 In one incident, a 55-year-old man who was caught in a tadpole downpour described hearing a strange sound in the parking lot of a civic centre in the city of Nanao.

Upon further exploration, he found more than 100 dead tadpoles covering the windshields of cars in an area measuring 10 square metres.

Dead tadpole downpours were also reported by local officials 48 hours later in the city of Hakusan in the same prefecture.

Dog Playing Fetch in Germany Delivers Live Grenade to Owner 

A dog playing fetch in Germany has found and delivered to its owner a U.S. hand grenade from World War II.

Police in the western town of Erkrath said Monday they were called by the dog’s 40-year-old owner who stopped walking her pooch when she recognized the “rusty” object it was carrying was a weapon.

Police summoned a munitions expert Sunday to identify and defuse the grenade.

European elections 2009: BNP in line for £4 million cash boost in Euro success

The British National Party is in line for a £4 million cash boost as its European election breakthrough was widely condemned as a “shaming” for Britain.

The far right group won its first two seats in the European Parliament as the Labour vote collapsed, sending shock waves through Westminster and the country. Leader Nick Griffin, one of the successful MEPs, said it meant a “huge change in British politics”. Critics lined up to condemn the result.

Mr Griffin and his new MEP colleague, Andrew Brons, will now be able to take advantage of EU expenses and allowances worth up to £395,000 a year each over their five year term. Mr Griffin and Mr Brons will each have access to an annual salary of £80,443, an annual staff budget of £190,000, phone and postal allowances of £45,000 a year and a daily attendance allowance worth up to £80,000 a year, with no receipts required. In comparison, in 2007, the BNP raised just £500,000 and in the first five months of this year are said to have raised £650,000.

Crossbow-Wielding Stalker Attacks Actress

A stalker obsessed with a young Spanish actress shot at her with a crossbow before being wrestled to the ground and arrested outside a Madrid theater, police said Monday.

The official says the arrow from the crossbow aimed at Sara Casasnovas hit a male bystander, who was not seriously hurt in the attack Sunday evening.

The suspected attacker is a 39-year-old German, who became obsessed with Casasnovas after seeing her a year and a half ago on Spanish National Television’s international channel.

 The official told The Associated Press the man had been sending the 25-year-old actress love letters and attacked her outside a theater where she had just finished a performance of “Night of the Iguana,” after she told him she wanted nothing to do with him.

The man was carrying a military-style backpack that contained a second crossbow, arrows with harpoon-style tips, a can of gasoline, handcuffs, rope, a canister of mace and a poster from a play in which Casasnovas had performed a few months ago, the official said.

Hacker named to Homeland Security Advisory Council

Jeff Moss, founder of the Black Hat and Defcon hacker and security conferences, was among 16 people sworn in on Friday to the Homeland Security Advisory Council.

The HSAC members will provide recommendations and advice directly to Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano.

Moss’ background as a computer hacker (aka “Dark Tangent”) and role as a luminary among young hackers who flock to Defcon in Las Vegas every summer might seem to make him an odd choice to swear allegiance to the government. (Although before running his computer conferences, Moss also worked in the information system security division at Ernst & Young.)

 I’d like to hear some of the banter as he rubs elbows with the likes of former CIA (Bill Webster) and FBI directors (Louis Freeh), Los Angeles County sheriff, Miami mayor, New York police commissioner, governors of Maryland and Georgia, former Colorado Sen. Gary Hart, and the president of the Navajo Nation.

In an interview late on Friday, Moss, who is 39, said he was surprised when he got the call and was asked to join the group.

“I know there is a newfound emphasis on cybersecurity and they’re looking to diversify the members and to have alternative viewpoints,” he said.

“I think they needed a skeptical outsider’s view because that has been missing.”

Sweden’s Pirate Party captures Euro seat

Sweden’s Pirate Party, striking a chord with voters who want more free content on the Internet, won a seat in the European Parliament, early results showed on Sunday.

The Pirate Party captured 7.1 percent of votes in Sweden in the Europe-wide ballot, enough to give it a single seat.

The party wants to deregulate copyright, abolish the patent system and reduce surveillance on the Internet. “This is fantastic!” Christian Engstrom, the party’s top candidate, told Reuters.

“This shows that there are a lot of people who think that personal integrity is important and that it matters that we deal with the Internet and the new information society in the right way.”

Previously an obscure group of single-issue activists, the party enjoyed a jump in popularity after the conviction in April of four men behind The Pirate Bay, one of the world’s biggest free file-sharing website.

Feds Search for Man Allegedly on ‘Mission to Kill the President’

Federal authorities in Utah are searching for a man who allegedly made threats against President Obama.Daniel James Murray has been charged with making threats against President Obama, after telling a bank teller he was part of a “mission” to kill the president.

The Secret Service says Murray has at least eight registered firearms. His whereabouts are unknown. Murray entered Zion’s First National Bank in St. George, Utah on May 19, to open a savings account with an $85,000 check, according to a criminal complaint filed in federal court in Salt Lake City today.

Murray allegedly asked if the bank was solvent and then stated, according to the complaint, “With all this mess going on under President Obama with banks and the economy, I’m sure if citizens happen to lose their money, they will rise up and we could see killing and deaths.”
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Murray told the teller during that visit, the complaint added, “We are 94 million miles from the sun, and are in-between the sun and moon, and the eagle that flies between them, and it’s a giant step for mankind. … I have traveled thousands of miles to be here and know things that are going to happen. … The banking system will fail and people will die. … There will be chaos in the world.”

The next day, according to the complaint, Murray withdrew the remaining $72,000 and closed his account.

Kung Fu star Carradine found dead:

 Kill Bill and Kung Fu star David Carradine has been found dead in a Bangkok hotel room on Thursday.

Thai police told the BBC the 72-year-old was found naked by a hotel maid in a wardrobe with a cord around his neck and other parts of his body.

The US star was in Thailand filming his latest film, Stretch, according to his personal manager Chuck Binder. Mr Binder said the news was “shocking”, adding: “He was full of life, always wanting to work… a great person.”

A US embassy official confirmed the actor’s death, but added that the cause of death had not yet been established.

Mouse steals food from African leopard

A mouse diced with death when it stole some food from under the nose of a leopard at the Santago Rare Leopard Project in Hertfordshire.

Instead of pouncing on the the mouse, the 12-year-old African leopard, called Sheena, simply watched as it fed on scraps of meat thrown into its enclosure.

At one stage she tried to nudge the mouse away with her nose, but the mouse carried on eating regardless.

The extraordinary scene was captured by photography student Casey Gutteridge, a photography student.

The 19-year-old, from Potters Bar, Herts, who was photographing the leopard for a course project, was astounded by the mouse’s behaviour.

“I have no idea where the mouse came from - he just appeared in the enclosure after the keeper had dropped in the meat for the leopard.

“He didn’t take any notice of the leopard, just went straight over to the meat and started feeding himself. But the leopard was pretty surprised - she bent down and sniffed the mouse and flinched a bit like she was scared.

Labour MPs tell Brown to quit for UK’s sake:

GORDON Brown was last night on the brink of being overthrown in an ­unprecedented Labour uprising.

Around 100 Labour MPs were ready to sign a letter circulated by email, urging the Prime Minister to quit – for the sake of the country.

The brutal coup attempt began to snowball ­earlier yesterday after the vengeful shock resignation of Cabinet ­Minister Hazel Blears.

She quit the Government on the eve of today’s ­critical Euro and local elections in a calculated bid to cause the maximum damage to Mr Brown, becoming the fourth minister to resign in a sensational 24 hours.

Communities Secretary Ms Blears made clear her desire to destabilise Mr Brown by hitting the ­campaign trail yesterday wearing a brooch bearing the words “Rocking The Boat”.

In an increasingly febrile atmosphere of plotting at Westminster, Labour rebels claimed at least 80 ­backbenchers had already promised to sign the ­message urging the Prime Minister to go.

Westville man charged with fouling Gloucester Township building with fire and feces

A Westville man who reportedly couldn’t pay his bar tab wound up being charged with using his own feces to draw on the walls and set fire to a bathroom in the police station.

 Police were called at 2:55 a.m. Sunday when Jason Detora, 24, couldn’t pay his bar tab at Skeeters Pub on the Black Horse Pike in Blenheim.

Detora told officers his girlfriend was on her way with money so he could pay, police said. Nicole Leadbeater, 22, of the same address as Detora, arrived at Skeeters.

Officers spoke with her in the parking lot and charged her with driving while intoxicated and on outstanding warrants from Pitman, said police.

She was taken to police headquarters to be processed and Detora was taken, too, as a courtesy, police said, so he could wait there for another ride.

Once at the police station, Detora allegedly used a rest room, but when he came out, a patrolman noticed an odor coming from the men’s room.

Police found toilet paper and paper towels had been piled up and set on fire in the bathroom. Detora allegedly had defecated on the floor and used his own feces to draw on the walls, said police.

Detora was charged with arson and criminal mischief and committed to the Camden County Jail in Camden in default of $35,000 bail.

Hat tip to Kara!

Allderdice student faces charges for swinging snake:

Pittsburgh police say a high school student will be charged with animal cruelty and theft for swinging a snake around in a biology class.

 Police say the incident occurred Monday at Allderdice High School. Police aren’t identifying the 17-year-old suspect because he’s being charged in juvenile court.

The snake survived and was being treated by a veterinarian.

According to Ebony Pugh, a spokeswoman for Pittsburgh Public Schools, the student removed the snake from its cage and twirled it several times, like a “windmill.”

The teacher ordered the student to put the snake back in its cage and then told the student to go to the office. The school referred the matter to police.

Michael Jackson fears nose will fall off

MICHAEL Jackson is allegedly in constant fear of dying and is terrified his nose will fall off.

Close friends of the star said the singer is in a fragile state after being diagnosed with skin cancer, reports The Sun.

“Michael has become convinced that his nose is going to fall off,” a friend is said to have told the newspaper.

“The doctors have reassured him that this won’t happen,” another friend allegedly told The Sun.

“But Michael believes that the skin cancer will kill him and lives in constant fear of dying.

Egypt Man Castrates Self for Love, Police Say

A 25-year-old Egyptian man cut off his own penis to spite his family after he was refused permission to marry a girl from a lower class family, police reported Sunday.

After unsuccessfully petitioning his father for two years to marry the girl, the man heated up a knife and sliced off his reproductive organ, said a police official.

The young man came from a prominent family in the southern Egyptian province of Qena, one of Egypt’s poorest and most conservative areas that is also home to the famed ancient Egyptian ruins of Luxor.

The man was rushed to the hospital but doctors were unable to reattach the severed member, the official added citing the police report filed after the incident.

Saudis Behead, Crucify Convicted Child Molester, Murderer

Saudi authorities beheaded and crucified a man convicted of brutally slaying an 11-year-old boy and his father, the Interior Ministry announced.

According to the statement issued by the ministry Friday, shop owner Ahmed al-Anzi molested the boy and then strangled him with a length of rope. He then stabbed the boy’s father to death when the man came looking for his son. He hid both the bodies in his shop, the statement said, adding that al-Anzi threatened police with a knife when they came to arrest him.

Al-Anzi had previously been convicted of sodomy and owning pornographic films, a crime in conservative Saudi Arabia.

Crucifying the headless body in a public place is a way to set an example, according to the kingdom’s strict interpretation of Islam. Normally those convicted of rape, murder and drug trafficking in Saudi Arabia are just beheaded.

Cat Falls 26 Stories, Lives to Purr Again

Do cats always land on their feet?

The unbelievable tale of a cat named Lucky — who fell 26 stories and survived — doesn’t quite prove the myth but it comes pretty close.

In early May, Keri Hostetler was readying her lower Manhattan apartment for guests who were coming to visit. She cracked the window of her home office a few inches — something she “never, ever did” — just to air the place out. She left the door to the room ajar and got to work on her laundry.

Her beloved cat Lucky, a 3-year-old gray-and-black striped male who Hostetler describes as “a lover and a hugger” was wandering around the apartment. Or so Hostetler thought.

“I came back up from doing laundry and saw that the room where the window was open — the door was open,” she told “Good Morning America Weekend Edition.” “I rushed in to the window and saw the window washers kind of waving for me.”

Russian inventor ‘murdered five in home-made electric chair’

A serial killer obsessed with electricity murdered at least five people in a series of lurid experiments to test his home-made electric chair, Russian police said on Friday.

The 30-year-old electrician, identified only as Dmitry K, lured victims to his house by posting adverts for computer equipment on the internet. Police in Yekaterinburg, a city in Russia’s Urals region, tracked the suspect down after finding the charred body of a law student in a roadside ditch.

Dmitry K admitted murdering the student, investigators said, before claiming that he had also killed several other victims as he conducted experiments on an improvised electric chair that he had invented.

The suspect, who worked at a local power plant, told detectives he would confess to the other murders if they found the bodies.

Police say they are investigating at least four other incidents in which Yekaterinburg residents went missing after responding to internet adverts for computer supplies over the past 12 months.

Drug Czar’s Pot-Potency Claims Go Up In Smoke:

A newly released report about marijuana potency undermines previous claims by the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) that the drug’s potency has hit record highs.

In May, the media ran wild with stories of highly potent pot sweeping the nation, as the ONDCP announced that their testing showed average marijuana potency had topped 10 percent THC-level for the first time ever. THC is the active ingredient in marijuana.

“According to the latest data on marijuana samples analyzed to date, the average amount of THC in seized samples has reached a new high of 10.1 percent,” reads the announcement by Gil Kerlikowske, the Drug Czar.

But the full report is now available and it shows that the 10-percent bar is only crossed by throwing hash into the equation. Without hash, the average potency was 8.52 percent. The average potency of hash was 20.76 percent.

Pennsylvania Newspaper Runs Ad Calling for Obama Assassination 

A small-town newspaper is apologizing for running a classified advertisement calling for the assassination of President Barack Obama.

Warren Times Observer Publisher John Elchert says the ad appeared Thursday.

It read, “May Obama follow in the steps of Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley and Kennedy!”

The four presidents were all assassinated. Elchert tells The Associated Press that the newspaper’s advertising staff didn’t make the historical connection.

North Korea Could Opt for Devastating Land Assault

North Korea’s nuclear threats are grabbing the world’s attention. But if the North were to strike South Korea today, it would probably first try to savage Seoul with the men and missiles of its huge conventional army.

The attack might well begin with artillery and missiles capable of hitting South Korea’s capital with little or no warning.

North Korea’s vast cadre of commandos could try to infiltrate and cause chaos while the South tried to respond.

The hair-trigger nature of the danger is reflected in the pledge of preparedness that American ground forces stationed just below the North-South divide have lived by for decades: ‘’Fight tonight.'’

If it came to war, destruction — civilian and military — would be heavy, even if the North held back whatever nuclear weapons it may have.

The consensus American view, generally shared by allies, is that the South would prevail but at enormous human cost, including a refugee crisis on the Korean peninsula.

Tiger mauls zookeeper to death:

A senior zookeeper has been mauled to death by a white tiger at a wildlife park in New Zealand.

Two keepers went in to clean the white tiger enclosure at Whangarei’s controversial Zion Wildlife Park about 11am today when it attacked one of the keepers, a police spokeswoman said.

She said that, despite the best efforts of the other keeper, the tiger would not let go. The man died before an ambulance arrived at the park.

The keeper suffered injuries to the abdomen and lower leg which involved “tearing” by a big cat.

His identity has not been released yet. The other keeper was not injured. The tiger was shot dead.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad hands out potatoes to poor to buy presidential votes

Two weeks from today, Iran’s presidential election will determine whether Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Holocaust-denying, Israel-hating, America-bashing incumbent, remains in office, whether his country continues its drive to become a nuclear power, and whether a state with a key role in Iraq, Afghanistan and other international flashpoints remains hostile to the West.

The stakes could scarcely be higher, but it is the lowly potato that has been grabbing attention.

The Government is handing out 400,000 tonnes of free spuds in rural towns. It says that it is merely distributing the surplus from a bumper crop, but Mr Ahmadinejad’s opponents accuse it of bribing the poor.

“Death to potatoes,” they chant at rallies. The spat is instructive. To much of the world, the election is about the nuclear ambitions of a pariah state. To most Iranians, the economy is the main issue. Mr Ahmadinejad’s rivals are savaging the record of a President who took office promising to give all Iranians a share of the oil wealth.

Time Warner to Spin Off AOL, Undoing Failed Merger

Time Warner Inc. will spin off the entire AOL Internet unit by the end of the year, reversing a failed $124 billion merger that triggered record losses. AOL’s online advertising and Internet-access businesses will be separated into an independent, publicly traded company, New York-based Time Warner said today in a statement.

“A separation will be the best outcome for both Time Warner and AOL,” Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Bewkes said in the statement. “The separation will also provide both companies with greater operational and strategic flexibility.”

Bewkes is getting rid of AOL, which has confronted falling ad sales during the recession, to focus Time Warner on its film and cable-television businesses. AOL has dealt Time Warner a series of setbacks since the 2001 deal: shareholder lawsuits, a regulatory probe and declining sales.

The parent company wasn’t able to sell or find a partner for the unit after talks last year with Google Inc., Yahoo! Inc. and Microsoft Corp.

“The obvious implication of spinning out all of AOL in one entity is that Time Warner’s efforts to sell AOL failed,” Fred Moran, a Boca Raton, Florida-based analyst at Benchmark Co., said in an interview. “Now, as a last resort, Time Warner is looking towards spinning the whole company out.”

NYC Teacher Busted Having Sex With Student In Class

A Queens teacher and her student were recently caught having sex in the classroom.

On Thursday she was behind bars, charged with rape, sexual abuse and child endangerment after the student’s mom tracked her down.

Her head hung low, Melissa Weber was ushered away in cuffs, no doubt thinking about the probable end to her teaching career and whether her alleged sexual rendezvous with her 14-year-old student had been worth it.

“It’s real disconcerting to find that,” said parent and school employee Stacy Gold. Gold works at I.S./M.S. 8 with Weber. “It’s extremely shocking. This is a teacher that teaches my son,” Gold said.

It was inside a second-story classroom where police said Weber gave one of her students an up close and personal lesson in sex education.

Beavers return after 400 year gap:

A total of 11 beavers have been released into the wild in Argyll as part of a reintroduction programme. Four more may join the Scottish Beaver Trial being run in Knapdale Forest.

The beavers have been brought to Scotland from Norway and their release marks a return to the UK after a 400 year absence.

The release will be studied to determine whether the trial should be extended and beavers reintroduced across Scotland.
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But SNH’s Colin Galbraith said he felt a duty towards the beavers: “For me the argument is very simple.

“They were here - we killed them out.

“I think we’ve got the moral obligation to bring them back.”

Witnesses testify in albino trial:

Witnesses have testified in the case of 11 men in Burundi, accused of the attempted murder of albino people and selling of their body parts.

Initial charges of murder have been dropped because the prosecution failed to produce enough evidence.

Police suspect the body parts are being sold in neighbouring Tanzania, for use in witchcraft.

Forty-six albino people have been murdered in Tanzania in the past 18 months, but no-one has been convicted.

Chihuahua Chases Cougar From Philomath Yard:

A feisty Chihuahua chased a cougar out of a Philomath yard earlier this week. As Pete Springer reports, it’s the third cougar sighting in the area in the past year. Chiquita the Chihuahua and Rosie the border terrier charged the cougar after it jumped a backyard fence. The mountain lion pinned Rosie down but Chiquita kept barking incessantly at the big cat until it jumped out of the yard and ran off. The house is next to a wooded area where Philomath police have posted cougar warning signs. Roger Furhman is with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. He says cougars will generally run away when they encounter humans, but people shouldn’t count on a dog to scare a big cat away.

Dutch Artist Famous for Skinning Pet Cat Publishes Expose on Authors of Hate Mail 

A Dutch artist famous for making her pet cat into a purse has launched a new controversial project: revealing personal details about everyone who has sent her hate mail over the cat “art.”

Katinka Simonse, also known as Tinkebell, has assembled the thousands of e-mails she received since twisting her cat’s neck and skinning it with her own hands in 2004, and she has published them along with the names, ages and addresses of each sender, according to the English version of the Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad.

The book, “Dearest Tinkebell,” is especially controversial because it also includes YouTube videos, MySpace profiles and any other embarrassing information available on the Web pertaining to the e-mail authors, NRC International reported.

Simonse was quoted in NRC as saying that “everything has been obtained legally,” and all the published information already was made accessible by the people themselves.

Cancer Medication Causes Man’s Fingerprints to Vanish

Patients undergoing a common treatment for cancer are being warned to carry medical documentation when traveling abroad because the drug can make their fingerprints disappear.

A cancer sufferer was detained at an airport in the United States when immigration officials were unable to take a print from his fingers, his doctor has revealed.

The patient, only referred to as Mr. S, was taking the drug capecitabine, which is sold under the brand name Xeloda and can result in several side-effects.

One of them is chronic inflammation of the palms or soles of the feet. Known as hand-foot syndrome, it can result in peeling of the skin, bleeding and development of ulcers or blisters.

Immigration officials held the patient for several hours before they allowed him to enter the country.

Radio Canada rapped for Obama assassination joke

Canada’s public broadcaster was wrong to show a skit that joked about the possible assassination of President Barack Obama and suggested he could be a thief, an industry panel ruled on Monday.

The New Year’s Eve “Bye Bye” comedy program — shown by the French-language Radio Canada network — generated more than 200 complaints. In one segment, two hosts discussed Obama’s election in November 2008. Obama, who took office in January, is the first black U.S. president.

“We’re not racists. It will be good to have a Negro in the White House. It will be practical. Black on white, it will be easier to shoot him,” one of the show’s hosts remarked. The Canadian Broadcasting Standards Council said it found “nothing redeeming in the allegedly comedic notion that an American president should be shot, still less that this would be easier to achieve because of the color of the president’s skin. It was a disturbing, wounding, abusive racial comment”.

The show also featured an interview with an actor pretending to be Obama. The host said, “The blacks, you all look alike,” and then warned viewers to hide their purses.

Scientologists in France go on trial for fraud

The Church of Scientology in France went on trial today on charges of organised fraud.

Registered as a religion in the United States, with celebrity members such as actors Tom Cruise and John Travolta, Scientology enjoys no such legal protection in France and has faced repeated accusations of being a money-making cult.

The group’s Paris headquarters and bookshop are defendants in the case. If found guilty, they could be fined €5 million ($7 million) and ordered to halt their activities in France.

Seven leading French Scientology members are also in the dock. Some are charged with illegally practising as pharmacists and face up to 10 years in prison and hefty fines.

Man charged in penis ‘puppet’ incident - UPI.com:

Police in Washington state said a suspect used his genitals as a puppet while standing over an air conditioner intake at an apartment complex.

The police report of the incident said Timothy Wayne Martin, 44, of Auburn, Wash., was arrested after residents of the Arcadia Apartment Complex in Federal Way called police at about 10:30 a.m. May 13 and reported a man standing over an air conditioner intake wearing only an unbuttoned flannel shirt and “was apparently manipulating” his penis with a string “like a puppet,”

Seattlepi.com reported Thursday. Police said Martin was arrested at the scene and still had the string attached to his penis. He was charged under the state’s felony indecent exposure statute due to having two prior convictions for similar crimes.

Ariz. inmate dies after hours in outdoor cell

An Arizona inmate who died after spending nearly four hours in the desert heat was left in an outdoor holding cell for twice as long as she should have been, the state prisons director said Wednesday.

Three corrections officers have been put on paid leave while the state investigates Wednesday’s heat-related death of Marcia Powell, who was left in her unshaded cell in 103-degree heat at a prison in Goodyear.

“The death of Marcia Powell is a tragedy and a failure,” prisons director Charles Ryan said.

“The investigation will determine whether there was negligence and will tell us how to remedy our failures.”

Powell, who was serving a 27-month sentence for prostitution, was placed alone in the cell while being moved to an onsite detention unit. Ryan said officers placed Powell in the cell after a disturbance at the detention unit, but he would not elaborate on the nature of the disturbance.

Man Mows Down Traffic Cop to Avoid Parking Ticket

A man was so desperate to avoid a parking ticket that he ran over a NYPD traffic cop before she could write it, breaking her legs and causing a head injury.

The incident happened Friday afternoon on Jerome Avenue in the Bronx. The 26-year-old agent was about to write a ticket for a double-parked car when the motorist ran to the vehicle, got in and tried to drive away, police said.

As he made his escape, the car knocked the agent to the ground and then drove over her, crushing her legs. Police were trying to identify a suspect. They say the traffic agent is in guarded condition at St. Barnabas Hospital.

Surveillance video captures the suspect wearing a red shirt and dark pants running across the street to his 2002 black Ford Taurus. The suspect is described as a man who is about 5 feet 8 inches tall and 250 pounds.

Report: Would-be suicide jumper pushed off bridge

A passerby pushed a would-be suicide jumper off a bridge in southern China because he was angry at the jumper’s “selfish activity,” Chinese media reported Saturday.

It happened Thursday in the city of Guangzhou as Chen Fuchao threatened to jump off Haizhu Bridge, China’s Xinhua news agency reported. The bridge has gained a “macabre” reputation with 11 jumpers having thrown themselves off the bridge since the start of April, Xinhua said.

Traffic was held up for nearly five hours and a crowd gathered as Chen sat on the bridge, threatening to jump, Xinhua reported.

Chen wanted to kill himself because he had 2 million yuan ($294,000) in debt after a failed construction project, Xinhua reported.

YouTube Flooded With Porn Clips

The “/b/tards” strike again.

The teenaged pranksters of 4chan.org’s /b/ discussion board flooded YouTube with pornographic clips Wednesday and Thursday, according to various reports.

YouTube has strong filters and dedicated employees seeking out and deleting porn from the site, but it wasn’t enough to handle the onslaught of uploading clips. To get around the filters, many of the clips appeared innocuous for the first 20-30 seconds, the tech blog Ars Technica reported, but then cut abruptly to hardcore sex scenes.

A spokesman for Google, which owns YouTube, said most of the porn had been removed by Wednesday afternoon.

“It may take some time for video search results and thumbnail images to disappear from the site,” Scott Rubin told ArsTechnica.

“Typically, this should not take more than a couple of days, but the videos themselves are no longer viewable.”

Miracle of back-to-front Beth, the jigsaw kid

A GIRL dubbed the Jigsaw Kid due to her jumbled-up organs has amazed medics by defying the odds against her survival.

Brave Bethany Jordan was born with five spleens, a hole in her heart, a diseased and back-to-front liver, two left lungs and her stomach on the wrong side.

Doctors who saw pregnancy scans warned parents Lisa, 37, and Robert, 44, there was little chance she would survive birth.

Now six, Bethany looks a picture of health — despite having a body like no other child in the world

Airman spots midair fuel leak

Staff Sgt. Bartek Bachleda doesn’t consider himself a hero, but passengers on a recent jumbo jet flight might beg to differ.

One of 300 passengers on a United Airlines flight from Chicago, Illinois, to Tokyo, Japan, in April, Bachleda noticed white “smoke” billowing from the left side of the Boeing 747-400 jet on takeoff and then again at cruising altitude of over 30,000 feet. He said he was sure it was a leak, a big one that could lead to a potentially dangerous situation.

Bachleda, 30, should know. He serves in an air refueling squadron in the U.S. Air Force. He videotaped the midair vapor from his window seat and tried to warn a flight attendant. But at first, she paid him no heed.

“When I initially hit the call button, she thought maybe I wanted something, and she said, ‘Sir, I’m handing out drinks, I’ll be right back with you,’ ” Bachleda said.

Death sentences for Suzanne Tamim murderers:

An Egyptian billionaire and former top political figure has been sentenced to death in Cairo for the 2008 murder of Lebanese pop star Suzanne Tamim.

Hisham Talaat Moustafa was found guilty of paying $2m to an ex-policeman to kill the singer. The killer Muhsin Sukkari was also sentenced to hang.

Ms Tamim reportedly broke off a secret love affair with Moustafa months before she was stabbed to death in Dubai. The tale of sex, politics, money and show business gripped the Arab world.

Reports described “chaos” in the courtroom after the judge read out a short statement and ordered the sentences referred to the religious authorities for confirmation - as is normal in Egypt.

Sukkari’s face went pale and family members burst into tears as the sentence was delivered, news agency AFP said.

$10m instead of $10,000: couple on run after bank bungle 

A New Zealand couple are reportedly on the run after $10 million - instead of $10,000 - was mistakenly deposited in their bank account.

The couple, who ran a Rotorua service station, were understood to have applied for a $10,000 overdraft from Westpac but instead had the larger amount mistakenly paid into their account.

Detective Senior Sergeant David Harvey said some of the money had since been withdrawn and the Asian couple had disappeared, the New Zealand Press Association reported.

Interpol had been called in to help find them, NZPA said.

The service station has closed its doors after going into receivership.

800-pound corpse hoisted from downtown Fresno room

Fresno firefighters had to remove a wall and use an improvised pulley system to remove a man believed to weigh more than 800 pounds who was found dead in a downtown residential hotel Tuesday night. The 51-year-old man was not identified.

Fire Department spokesman Ken Shockley said that the removal effort, at the Asia Hotel near the intersection of Kern and G streets in Chinatown, was unlike anything anyone in the department has ever seen.

Fresno police officers and firefighters from Station 3 responded, then called for assistance from the fire department’s urban search and rescue unit when it became clear that they couldn’t remove the body in the normal way.

The Fresno Fire Department had to cut out part of the wall of the apartment to extract the man, who was believed to weigh more than 800 pounds.

“It was a major challenge, and our firefighters were trying at the same time to protect his identity and the dignity of his remains,” Shockley said.

Secret meeting of world’s richest people held in New York

A top-secret meeting of the world’s richest people to discuss the global financial crisis was held in New York on May 5, IrishCentral.com has learned exclusively.

The mysterious, media-blackout meeting was called by Warren Buffett, CEO of Berkshire-Hathaway; Bill Gates, co founder of Microsoft; and David Rockefeller Jr., chairman of Rockefeller Financial Services.

In addition to Gates, Buffett and Rockefeller, the attendees included Oprah Winfrey, George Soros, Ted Turner, and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, among others.

It was held in the President’s Room at Rockefeller University In New York at 3 p.m. on that Tuesday afternoon.

How so many giant figures in American life managed to interrupt and coordinate their schedules on such short notice, and meet in total secrecy in the world’s media capital remains a mystery — as does the ultimate outcome of the billionaires’ conference.

Gun Safety Demo Turns Tragic

An Arizona man killed himself early Sunday while demonstrating gun safety techniques.

 Samuel Benally, 26, of Phoenix, was in an apartment with the two witnesses when he told them guns should be kept unloaded because people could point them at their heads, Sierra Vista police Sgt. Brett Mitchell told the Arizona Star

. Benally put his own 9mm Ruger, which he thought was unloaded, to his head and fired, Mitchell said. He was flown to University Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead, Mitchell said.

Move to Electronic System Means Long Waits at U.S. Copyright Office

The envelopes fill white plastic tubs, stacked on hundreds of shelves in the basement of the Library of Congress. They’re spreading to a ground-floor space that once housed the gift shop and are clogging offices on the fourth floor. And each day, the mail trucks bring about a thousand more.

A serious logjam in the U.S. Copyright Office has created a growing mountain of paper applications, more than the staff can process. Like the marching buckets of water in “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice,” the envelopes just keep coming, threatening to flood the operation.

The problem has tripled the processing time for a copyright from six to 18 months, and delays are expected to get worse in coming months. The library’s inspector general has warned that the backlog threatens the integrity of the U.S. copyright system. The irony is that the slowdown stems from a new $52 million electronic process that is supposed to speed the way writers and others register their literary, musical or visual work.

Space: U.S. Navy Satellites Hijacked:

Brazil and the U.S. have been arresting people who have been illegally using obsolete, but still functioning, U.S. Navy FLTSATCOM communications satellites. The FLTSATCOM (Fleet Satellite Communications System) were eight communications satellites launched between 1978-89. Two of the launches failed, and FLTSATCOM was replaced by the UFO in the 1990s.

Although the FLTSATCOM birds were built to last for seven years, two of them are still operational twenty years later. As the navy stopped using FLTSATCOM in the late 1990s (shifting over to the more efficient UFO satellites), ham radio users in Brazil discovered that the FLTSATCOM satellites had no security on them. If you knew the frequency and had a satellite dish, you could send a signal to the FLTSATCOM satellite, that would then automatically be rebroadcast by the satellite over a wide area below.

While the navy sent encrypted messages (which sound like static, for anyone picking it up below on ham radio gear), the Brazilians found that they could simply use FLTSATCOM to communicate over a wide area (the interior of the country) that lacked telephones. FLTSATCOM birds had multiple transponders, making several simultaneous conversations possible. There was no security because, back in the 1970s, the remote possibility of homemade satellite dishes using FLTSATCOM, did not seem to warrant the additional hassle of adding passwords to transmit from the satellites.

Chinese Sex Theme Park Knocked Down After Photos Released 

This investment turned out to be as risky as it was risque.

A sex theme park that featured explicit exhibits of genitalia and sexual culture is being demolished before it can even open, a government spokesman in southwestern China said.

The park, christened “Love Land” by its owners, went under the wrecking ball over the weekend in the city of Chongqing, said the spokesman, who like many Chinese bureaucrats would give only his surname, Yang.

Yang refused to give the reason for the demolition or other details. However, photographs of the adult-only park had circulated widely on the Internet over the weekend, prompting widespread mockery and condemnation.

Exhibits had included giant-sized reproductions of male and female anatomy, dissertations on how the topic of sex is treated in various cultures and what the official China Daily newspaper called “sex technique workshops.”

The park’s main investor, Lu Xiaoqing, had earlier claimed that the attractions sought only to boost sexual awareness and improve people’s sex-lives.

Statue of Former President Beheaded in Ohio 

Someone has beheaded a statue of President James Garfield that was installed last week at an Ohio college.

Hiram College spokesman Shawn Brown says the vandalism was discovered Friday morning, just a day after the sandstone statue was dedicated on the campus in Hiram, 30 miles southeast of Cleveland.

Brown says the college is hoping the head will be recovered so the 95-year-old statue can be restored, but police have no leads in their investigation.

Man joyriding on roof of car dragged to his death

Police say a man is dead after slipping from the roof of a car while joyriding.

The man was one of two male passengers riding on the roof of a Toyota Camry in Sunnyvale Saturday night, police say.

The car was traveling between 30 and 40 miles per hour.

The victim slipped off the car’s roof, holding on while being dragged an undetermined distance and then falling onto the road.

The victim died shortly after being taken to El Camino Hospital.

My twins have different dads 

A STUNNED mum has shown the world her twin sons — born to DIFFERENT fathers.

Babies Justin and Jordan Washington arrived just seven minutes apart. But incredibly they were CONCEIVED separately because their mother Mia was cheating on partner James Harrison with another lover.

Astonished US medics say different eggs were fertilised by each man within a very short time of each other — a million-to-one condition. That makes the boys, who are now 11 months old, half-brothers rather than real twins.

Worker cooked to death at soup factory

A worker at a Lübeck soup factory died after getting trapped inside a giant cauldron and cooking to death, daily Bild reported Saturday.

The accident happened at midday on Friday, the newspaper reported, when the man climbed into a cauldron at the Eraso soup factory to clean it.

The cauldron’s lid suddenly closed while the 36-year-old was still inside and began to fill with steam as part of the disinfection process.

A doctor confirmed that the unidentified man had been cooked to death.

Teen accused of strangling mother and sexually abusing corpse to appear in court June

A 17-year-old boy accused of killing his mother last week intentionally strangled her to death and sexually abused her corpse before dumping her body in a trash can, according to a juvenile court document released Monday.

Johnson City Juvenile Court Judge Sharon Green ordered Codey Wayne Miller, 17, held at the Upper East Tennessee Juvenile Detention Center pending a June 5 status hearing, when she will hear motions in the case, including prosecutors’ request to transfer the teenager to adult Criminal Court for trial.

Miller is charged with first-degree murder, felony murder and abuse of a corpse in the death of his mother, Sherry R. Cooper, 36, at her Lake Terrace housing development apartment on Thursday. Assistant Public Defender Ivan Lilly, appointed to represent Miller, waived the teen’s detention hearing after telling Green that details from the homicide had not been released to news media or Miller’s family.

How Neanderthals met a grisly fate: devoured by human

One of science’s most puzzling mysteries - the disappearance of the Neanderthals - may have been solved. Modern humans ate them, says a leading fossil expert.The controversial suggestion follows publication of a study in the Journal of Anthropological Sciences about a Neanderthal jawbone apparently butchered by modern humans. Now the leader of the research team says he believes the flesh had been eaten by humans, while its teeth may have been used to make a necklace.

Fernando Rozzi, of Paris’s Centre National de la Récherche Scientifique, said the jawbone had probably been cut into to remove flesh, including the tongue. Crucially, the butchery was similar to that used by humans to cut up deer carcass in the early Stone Age.

“Neanderthals met a violent end at our hands and in some cases we ate them,” Rozzi said.
The idea will provoke considerable opposition from scientists who believe Neanderthals disappeared for reasons that did not involve violence. Neanderthals were a sturdy species who evolved in Europe 300,000 years ago, made complex stone tools and survived several ice ages before they disappeared 30,000 years ago - just as modern human beings arrived in Europe from Africa.

Hat tip to Una!

Teen Accused of Banana Hold-Up Attempt:

Authorities say a North Carolina teen who was thwarted as he tried to rob a store with a banana ate it before they could arrive.

Winston-Salem authorities say 17-year-old John Szwalla held the banana under his shirt when he entered the store Thursday, saying he had a gun and demanded money.

Owner Bobby Ray Mabe says he and a customer jumped Szwalla, holding him until deputies arrived. While they waited, Mabe says the teen ate the banana.

Dems red-faced over veteran imposter 

Rick Strandlof, executive director of the Colorado Veterans Alliance and the man most colleagues knew as Rick Duncan, was front and center during the 2008 political campaigns in Colorado.

He spoke at a Barack Obama veterans rally in front of the Capitol in July, co-hosted several events with then- congressional candidate Jared Polis and attacked Republican Senate candidate Bob Schaffer in a TV ad paid for by the national group Votevets.org. And the mostly Democratic candidates he supported — looking for credibility on veterans issues and the war — lapped it up appreciatively.

Now, politicians are dealing with news that the man they believed to be a former Marine and war veteran wounded in Iraq by a roadside bomb, in fact, never served in the military — but did spend time in a mental hospital.

Many of the candidates he supported won their elections handily and now say they were defrauded as much as anyone else.

“His fraud is a slap in the face to veterans everywhere and a betrayal to us all,” Rep. Polis, a Boulder Democrat, said in a written statement Thursday.

“It sounds like this man had a problem telling the truth and needs help,” said Tara Trujillo, a spokeswoman for Sen. Mark Udall, D-Colo.

Moscow police detain scores at gay pride rally:

Riot police broke up several gay rights demonstrations in Moscow on Saturday, hauling away scores of protesters hours before the capital hosted a major international pop music competition.No injuries were reported, but the detentions could damage Russia’s desire to be seen as a modern nation as it holds the finals of the Eurovision song contest, a cultural event televised around the world. City officials had warned that they would not tolerate marches or rallies supporting the rights of gays and lesbians, but activists had targeted Moscow and the Eurovision contest to press their claims that Russia officially sanctions homophobia.

Moscow police spokesman Anatoly Listovetsky said 40 people were detained, but media reports said up to 80 had been seized. None of the protests in central Moscow took place near the capital’s Olimpiysky Sports Complex, where the Eurovision concert being held live Saturday night.

Police seized gay rights advocates as well as some religious and nationalist protesters who staged counter-demonstrations. They also took away gay rights activists for talking to reporters, and ripped the bra and shirt off one female protester.

More details available here: Russian Riot Police Arrest Scores of Gay Rights Protesters

Police: Acid Attack Burns Crowd of 30, Injuring Infant 

Two bottles of acid were thrown into a crowd in a popular shopping district in downtown Hong Kong on Saturday, injuring 30 people, police and news reports said.

It was the second such attack in five months in the neighborhood.

Television footage showed firefighters washing off victims’ arms and legs before sending them to hospitals for treatment. Some had holes in their clothing.

Hong Kong Cable TV said people in the Mong Kok district had been splashed with acid, though police Superintendent Leung Ka-ming would not confirm what liquid was thrown.

43 stun-gunned at prisons’ Take Your Kids to Work Day 

A total of 43 children were directly and indirectly shocked by electric stun guns during simultaneous ‘’Take Your Sons and Daughters to Work Day'’ events gone wrong at three state prisons, according to new information provided Friday by the Florida Department of Corrections.

Also, a group of kids was exposed to tear gas during a demonstration at another lockup. Three prison guards have been fired, two have resigned and 16 more employees — from corrections officers to a warden — will be disciplined due to the incidents that unfolded April 23, said DOC Secretary Walt McNeil. An investigation is ongoing.

 None of the children in any of the incidents required medical attention or was notably harmed, McNeil said. He said the children, who ranged in age from 5 to 17, were all children of prison officials.

In nearly every case, the guards had permission from parents or grandparents to administer the ‘’electronic immobilization devices,'’ McNeil said.

Furious public demand a general election now:

GORDON Brown was under pressure last night to call an immediate general election in the face of public fury over the Westminster expenses scandal. Angry voters across the country are demanding a mass clearout of MPs.

At the same time, Scotland Yard has announced a team of leading police officers and prosecution lawyers will meet next week to decide what action to take against those who have abused the public’s trust. A poll of voters yesterday found two-thirds want an election called as soon as poss­ible. The same number want MPs who have been named and shamed to be forced to stand down, according to the ComRes poll.

Sickened by the amount of taxpayers’ money wasted on moats, trouser presses and mole catchers and chocolate snacks, many fear the depth of sleaze revealed by the leaking of MPs’ expenses details means a significant section of the ruling establishment needs to be swept away for good. Opposition MPs backed the call for an election as the only way of restoring trust in Britain’s political system.

The odd couple: How an orang-utan and stray dog became best friends… and landed a slot on Oprah

Odd couples come in all shapes and sizes but the story of the primate and the canine who are best friends has proved to be a match made in showbiz heaven.

Suryia the orang-utan and Roscoe a Blue Tick hound became friends when they crossed paths at a South Carolina sanctuary for endangered animals. Now they swim together, play together and Suryia even takes the dog for his walks.

Such is their bond that the pair drew the attention of National Geographic magazine and Oprah Winfrey, who will feature them tomorrow in a special show called Amazing Animal Friendship.

4 US citizens found strangled in Tijuana:

The bodies of four U.S. citizens were found strangled, beaten and stabbed in a van in this border city, two days after they reportedly left their Southern California homes for a night at the Mexican clubs, U.S. officials said Thursday.

The victims, ages 19 to 23 years old, were found tied up on Saturday, but their deaths were not reported earlier because they were under investigation, said Fermin Gomez, an assistant state prosecutor in Baja California.

U.S. consular officials in Tijuana said the victims — two men and two women from the San Diego and Chula Vista areas — were U.S. citizens. The state attorney general’s office in Baja California said one of the women was Mexican.

Spanish study shows traces of cocaine, other drugs in the air in Madrid, Barcelona:

Air pollution has long been a fact of life in Spanish cities, but scientists now say it is not just smog that chokes people as they walk to work or stroll through the park.

A new study has found the air in Madrid and Barcelona is also laced with at least five drugs — most prominently cocaine.

The Superior Council of Scientific Investigations, a government scientific institute, said on its Web site Thursday that in addition to cocaine, they found trace amounts of amphetamines, opiates, cannabinoids and lysergic acid _a relative of LSD — in two air-quality control stations, one in each city.

U.S. Will Pay $2.6 Million to Train Chinese Prostitutes to Drink Responsibly on the Job:

The National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAA), a part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), will pay $2.6 million in U.S. tax dollars to train Chinese prostitutes to drink responsibly on the job.

Dr. Xiaoming Li, the researcher conducting the program, is director of the Prevention Research Center at Wayne State University School of Medicine in Detroit. The grant, made last November, refers to prostitutes as “female sex workers”–or FSW–and their handlers as “gatekeepers.”

“Previous studies in Asia and Africa and our own data from FSWs [female sex workers] in China suggest that the social norms and institutional policy within commercial sex venues as well as agents overseeing the FSWs (i.e., the ‘gatekeepers’, defined as persons who manage the establishments and/or sex workers) are potentially of great importance in influencing alcohol use and sexual behavior among establishment-based FSWs,” says the NIH grant abstract submitted by Dr. Li.

Head Start teacher charged with kicking preschoolers

A teacher at a Head Start preschool in Miami has been charged with hitting three children in his care, including a 5-year-old girl whom police say he kicked in the face as she lay on her cot during nap time.

Jean E. Dorvil, 56, a preschool teacher at the Head Start program at Charles R. Drew Elementary in Miami, was charged Friday with aggravated child abuse with great bodily harm, three charges of battery and two charges of child abuse with no harm.

Four of the charges are felonies. Dorvil is in jail without bond.

Woman Says Waitress Shot Her in Dispute Over Food

A Clarendon County waitress is accused of shooting a customer at the restaurant after the two had a dispute.

Yakeisha Ward, 29, is charged with assault and battery with intent to kill. An early morning run for breakfast at the Waffle House on Paxville Highway in Manning turned terribly wrong for Crystal Samuel.

 ”I thought I was gonna get me an All-Star,” says Samuel. A popular meal on the menu. “Grits, sausage, toast, eggs and a waffle,” says Samuel. She didn’t get what she came for. Instead, she says while she waited for her order, her friends started eating.

That’s when Samuel says she was told they couldn’t eat from carryout trays inside the restaurant.

“I said what is your fuss about. I said we haven’t paid for our food. She (Ward) said well you all got to leave. How you want us to leave and we ain’t paid for the food yet,” says Samuel. That’s when it got ugly.

Samuel says she threw a waffle at the waitress. “I did actually throw some food but it didn’t hit her,” says Samuel. “That’s when she (Ward) jumped across the counter and we got into it,” says Samuel.

Clarendon County Sheriff Randy Garrett says the altercation continued outside where he says Ward got a gun from her car and a gun magazine from her trunk.

British Politicians Run for Cover as Scandal Rages

Britain’s prime minister called for drastic steps to restore trust in the country’s scandal-tainted political class, as lawmakers across the political spectrum sought to take cover from public anger over their lavish expense claims.

Political leaders have been writing checks, making apologies, calling for inquiries and even threatening action against their own lieutenants in an effort to survive the publication of their expense claims in Britain’s Daily Telegraph newspaper over the past few days.

The paper has stoked outrage in recession-hit Britain by revealing how lawmakers have asked to be reimbursed for everything from porn movies to chandeliers to housekeepers. One legislator even charged the public for sacks of horse manure, while an ex-minister submitted a claim for cleaning the moat that circles his country home.

Brown said “extreme action” was needed to reform the expense system “because politicians must show themselves worthy of public trust.”

Mentally Disabled Forced Into ‘Fight Club’ at Texas Home

Terrified residents at a Corpus Christi, Texas, state school for the mentally disabled were forced to be part of a brutal “fight club” operated by night shift employees, who made videos of the sessions with their cell phones, the newly released videos show.

Mentally disabled residents forced to brawl as employees prod and laugh. On the videos employees can be seen and heard laughing and prodding the residents to fight.

One resident is seen on the video trying to run away from his attacker and a large group of employees and residents tracking him through the halls. When cornered, he wails and moans and tells the employees, “I will behave.”

The videos were discovered by police in March when one of the school employees left his phone at a hospital and it was turned over to police. In an effort to find its owner, officers saw the disturbing videos.

Neo-Nazis attack concentration camp survivors during memorial service for 345,000 dead

Survivors of a Nazi death camp were shot at and abused as they gathered to remember their liberation. Masked neo-Nazi thugs screamed ‘Heil Hitler!’ and ‘This way for the gas!’ at ten elderly Italian men and women, who returned to the site of the Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria.

The gang also fired air guns at a group of 15 French survivors, many dressed in the striped pyjama-style uniforms they wore as inmates. One suffered a head wound while another was injured by a shot in the neck.

The four thugs managed to escape. Jewish leaders in Austria were appalled by the weekend scenes that marred events marking the 64th anniversary of the camp’s liberation by American troops.

An estimated 320,000 people were murdered or worked to death at Mauthausen and its outlying slave labour installations. Jewish leaders condemned Saturday’s incidents, which marred events marking the 64th anniversary of the camp’s liberation by U.S. troops.

Hopeful dad hasn’t washed for 35 years

AN Indian man who fathered seven daughters has not washed for 35 years in an apparent attempt to ensure his next child is a boy, newspapers report.

Kailash “Kalau'’ Singh replaces bathing and brushing his teeth with a “fire bath'’ every evening when he stands on one leg beside a bonfire, smokes marijuana and says prayers to Lord Shiva, according to the Hindustan Times.

“It’s just like using water to take a bath,'’ Kalau was reported as saying. “A fire bath helps kill germs and infection in the body.'’

Kalau, 63, from a village outside the holy city of Varanasi, outraged his family by refusing to take a ritual dip in the river Ganges even after his brother died five years ago.

Top kidnap expert becomes Mexico abduction victim

A US security consultant who negotiated the release of dozens of kidnap victims in Latin America has himself been kidnapped by masked gunmen in northern Mexico.

The gunmen abducted Felix Batista outside a restaurant last Wednesday in the relatively safe industrial city of Saltillo in Coahuila state, Mexican authorities and his employer, security consultancy ASI Global, have revealed.

“We have notified the FBI and Mexican authorities, and they are working on the case,” said Charlie LeBlanc, chairman of ASI. Mr LeBlanc said Mr Batista had his own security business and that “he was in Mexico for business that wasn’t associated with our company”.

Taleban using white phosphorus, some of it made in Britain 

Taleban fighters have been using deadly white phosphorus munitions, some of them manufactured in Britain, to attack Western forces in Afghanistan, according to previously classified United States documents released yesterday.

White phosphorus, which can burn its victims down to the bone, has been found in improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in regions across Afghanistan including in the south, where British troops are based. It has also been used in mortar and rocket attacks on American forces.

Last night the US military in Kabul condemned the use of white phosphorus by the insurgents as “reprehensible”. White phosphorus is banned as an offensive weapon under international rules of armed conflict.

Major Jennifer Willis, a spokeswoman for the US Army at Bagram, near Kabul, said that markings on some of the white phosphorus munitions that had been recovered showed that they had been manufactured in a number of different countries, including Britain, China, Russia and Iran.

Texting Trolley Driver Is Transgendered Male

The Boston-area transit authority trolley driver who allegedly slammed into another train while text-messaging his girlfriend Friday was hired as a minority because of his transgendered “female-to-male” status and had three speeding tickets on his driving record in recent years, ABC News has learned.

Aiden Quinn, 24, was born Georgia Quinn and boasts on an Internet networking site that he was one of the first transgender hires by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. The trolley driver lists his sexual orientation as “FTM” and was hired as a minority using his transgender status, two sources told ABC News.

“[Quinn] was initially hired as a minority and used her transgender status,'’ an MBTA source said today.

Man Who Tried to Buy 9-Year-Old Girl for Sex Sentenced to 10 Years in Federal Prison Without Parole

Kevin Moake, 50, of Flower Mound, Texas, was sentenced this morning by U.S. District Judge David C. Godbey to 10 years in federal prison, the statutory maximum, following his guilty plea in January to one count of possession of child pornography, announced James T. Jacks, acting U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas. Judge Godbey also ordered that Moake register as a sex offender and serve a lifetime of supervised release following his release from prison. Moake, who has been on bond, was remanded to the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service at the conclusion of the sentencing hearing.

According to documents filed in court and public documents, Moake admitted that on May 30, 2007, he drove to a Burger King restaurant, on Mockingbird Lane near Love Field in Dallas, to meet an undercover officer in an attempt to buy a 9-year-old girl for sex. Public documents reveal that Moake gave the undercover officer $100 to spend the night with the nonexistent child, the cash representing a down payment in a “rent-to-own” plan. Moake was arrested on the spot and is presently facing charges in Dallas County related to this sting operation. Moake’s federal sentence will run concurrent to any state sentence he receives.

How can we ever trust an MP again asks Lord Carey, former Archbishop of Canterbury

THE moral authority of Parliament is at its lowest ebb in living memory. That, I’m sorry to say, is my inescapable verdict on Westminster’s great expenses scandal. Coming at a time of financial crisis and political betrayal of the Gurkhas, this threatens to be the straw that finally breaks the camel’s back.

Can public trust ever be restored? The whole nation has seen minister after minister on TV, cringeingly trying to justify their allowances and expenses claims.

And let us not forget there was a time when to become an MP was seen as a noble and honourable way of serving your country.

Ask yourself now whether men or women of integrity from whatever walk of life will want to touch political office? Our politicians of the future are all likely to have climbed the greasy pole from within by working as researchers or lobbyists.

Already our MPs are seeking a scapegoat. The first reaction was to shoot the messenger, blaming so-called chequebook journalism. Yet they’ve only themselves to blame.

It is not just the clawing greed of painstaking claims for such minor items as tampons, barbecue sets and bathrobes, but also the egregious way some have transferred allowances from one second property to another-enabling them to refurbish homes at public expense then sell at a profit.

Saudi judge says slapping wife for overspending is ok

A SAUDI judge has told a seminar on domestic violence that it is okay for a man to slap his wife for lavish spending, a local newspaper has reported.

Jeddah judge Hamad al-Razine gave the example of overspending to buy a high-end abaya, the head-to toe black shroud Saudi women have to wear in public, as justifying a smack for one’s wife, Arab News said.

”If a person gives 1,200 riyals ($423.50) to his wife and she spends 900 riyals ($317.65) to purchase an abaya from a brand shop, and if her husband slaps her on the face as a reaction to her action, she deserves that punishment,” he said.

Boy, 7, dies in apparent trespass shooting

A 7-year-old boy who was allegedly shot in the head by a couple who thought he and three other people were trespassing on their property died Saturday, authorities said.

Donald Coffey Jr. died Saturday morning at a Houston hospital, less than two days after the boy was struck in the head by shotgun pellets, Sheriff’s Cpl. Hugh Bishop said.

Sheila Muhs and her husband, Gayle Muhs, both 45, were charged with second-degree felony counts of aggravated assault in the shootings Thursday. They were being held at Liberty County Jail with bail set at $25,000 each and had not yet retained an attorney, Bishop said.

300 Stray Dogs Dumped on Island Turn to Cannibalism

More than 300 stray dogs that were dumped on isolated islands turned to cannibalism after weeks of starvation, animal welfare activists said Thursday.

The plight of the dogs cast away by villagers on two small, uninhabited islands off Malaysia’s western Selangor state ignited outrage after activists this week released photographs showing dogs eating the carcasses of ones that had died.

Residents of a fishing village on Pulau Ketam, another island off Selangor, caught the dogs last month and took them to the islands covered in mangroves. The villagers said they never intended to be cruel — they believed the dogs could feed on the deserted islands’ wildlife — but wanted to rid their island of dogs that defecate on the streets and sometimes bite children.

Under Restructuring, GM To Build More Cars Overseas

The U.S. government is pouring billions into General Motors in hopes of reviving the domestic economy, but when the automaker completes its restructuring plan, many of the company’s new jobs will be filled by workers overseas.

According to an outline the company has been sharing privately with Washington legislators, the number of cars that GM sells in the United States and builds in Mexico, China and South Korea will roughly double. The proportion of GM cars sold domestically and manufactured in those low-wage countries will rise from 15 percent to 23 percent over the next five years, according to the figures contained in a 12-page presentation offered to lawmakers in response to their questions about overseas production.

Naked Swiss hikers must cover up:

The tiny Swiss canton of Appenzell Innerrhoden has voted to prohibit the phenomenon of naked hiking. Anyone found wandering the Alps wearing nothing but a sturdy pair of hiking boots will now be fined. Appenzell is considered one of the most conservative regions of Switzerland; it gave women the vote only in 1990. Locals have been outraged by an apparent upsurge in hikers who think the best way to appreciate the mountains is with their clothes off.

Hat tip to Valentina!

Witch hunts, murder and evil in Papua New Guinea

A tide of torture and killing of innocent women linked to ’sorcery’ and the ‘dark arts’ is overwhelming the nation’s police.

Nearly all the residents of Koge watched as Julianna Gene and Kopaku Konia were dragged from their homes, to be hung from trees and tortured for several hours with bush knives. No one came forward to help. In the eyes of the villagers, the women were witches. They deserved to die.

“They used their powers to bewitch a man to death,” said Kingsley Sinemane, a community leader. “We had to get rid of them, as they could have killed others. We had to protect our village.”

Hat tip to Una!

Secretary accidentally bites off boss’ penis:

A SECRETARY accidentally bit off the penis of her employer while giving him oral sex in a car.

Sin Chew Daily and China Press reported yesterday that while the 30-year-old woman was performing oral sex on the man, the car was hit by a reversing van.

The impact of the crash, China Press reported, caused the woman to bite off her lover’s organ.  The daily reported that the incident occurred in a Singapore park where the couple met after work.

To make matters worse for the woman, her husband had sent a private investigator to spy on her after suspecting that she was being unfaithful.

Praise to Sin Chew Daily for sharing this with us!

Giant Spiders Invade Australian Outback Town

This Australia is known around the world for its large and deadly creepy-crawlies, but even locals have been shocked by the size of the giant venomous spiders that have invaded an Outback town in Queensland.

Scores of eastern tarantulas, which are known as “bird-eating spiders” and can grow larger than the palm of a man’s hand, have begun crawling out from gardens and venturing into public spaces in Bowen, a coastal town about 700 miles northwest of Brisbane.

Earlier this week locals spotted an Australian tarantula wandering towards a public garden in the center of town where people often sit for lunch. They called in a pest controller, but not before using a can of insect spray to paralyze the spider.

Audy Geiszler, who runs Amalgamated Pest Control in Bowen, said that the spider was a large male with powerful long fangs and was so big that when he placed it — dead — in the palm of his hand, its legs hung over his fingers.

Indian business students snap up copies of Mein Kampf

Sales of Mein Kampf, Adolf Hitler’s autobiography and apologia for his anti-semitism, are soaring in India where business students regard the dictator as a management guru.

 PA Booksellers told The Daily Telegraph that while it is regarded in most countries as a ‘Nazi Bible’, in India it is considered a management guide in the mould of Spencer Johnson’s “Who Moved My Cheese”.

 Sales of the book over the last six months topped 10,000 in New Delhi alone, according to leading stores, who said it appeared to be becoming more popular with every year.

Several said the surge in sales was due to demand from students who see it as a self-improvement and management strategy guide for aspiring business leaders, and who were happy to cite it as an inspiration.

“Students are increasingly coming in asking for it and we’re happy to sell it to them,” said Sohin Lakhani, owner of Mumbai-based Embassy books who reprints Mein Kampf every quarter and shrugs off any moral issues in publishing the book.

Police: Beer-pong + dare = homicide

After they got into a dispute over a beer-pong game, Joseph Jiminez, 24, and Scott Riley, 25, met in a Bridgeport alleyway and Riley made a dare, investigators said.

“Shoot me, shoot me,” Riley said to Jiminez and a companion. “You guys ain’t got the … ”

Jiminez accepted the challenge, police said, and today he is being held without bail at the Montgomery County Correctional Facility on murder and related charges pending a hearing a week from now.

Sun Oddly Quiet — Hints at Next “Little Ice Age”?:

A prolonged lull in solar activity has astrophysicists glued to their telescopes waiting to see what the sun will do next—and how Earth’s climate might respond.

The sun is the least active it’s been in decades and the dimmest in a hundred years. The lull is causing some scientists to recall the Little Ice Age, an unusual cold spell in Europe and North America, which lasted from about 1300 to 1850.

The coldest period of the Little Ice Age, between 1645 and 1715, has been linked to a deep dip in solar storms known as the Maunder Minimum.

During that time, access to Greenland was largely cut off by ice, and canals in Holland routinely froze solid. Glaciers in the Alps engulfed whole villages, and sea ice increased so much that no open water flowed around Iceland in the year 1695.

Gong’an county government tells officials ’smoke or be fined’

OFFICIALS in a county in central China have been told to smoke nearly a quarter million packs of locally made cigarettes annually or risk being fined, state media reports.

The Gong’an county government in Hubei province has ordered its staff to puff their way through 230,000 packs of Hubei-produced cigarette brands a year, the Global Times said.

Departments that fail to meet their targets will be fined, according to the report. “The regulation will boost the local economy via the cigarette tax,” said Chen Nianzu, a member of the Gong’an cigarette market supervision team, according to the paper.

The measure could also be a ploy to aid local cigarette brands such as Huanghelou, which are under severe pressure from competitors in neighbouring Hunan province, according to the paper.

Many die in Turkey wedding attack:

At least 45 people have been killed in an attack on a wedding party in south-eastern Turkey, officials say. Mask-wearing assailants opened fire with automatic rifles and grenades, officials in Mardin province said.

The area, near the border with Syria, has been plagued by fighting between Kurdish separatists and government troops for 25 years. But Turkey’s Interior Minister Besir Atalay said the attack did not appear to be a “terror event”.

Local media have suggested the violence might have been the result of a blood feud or an argument between guests. Other unconfirmed reports said the wedding guests included members of a militia who help troops to fight Kurdish rebels.

Regulators Scrutinize Apple-Google Ties

The Federal Trade Commission has begun an inquiry into whether the close ties among the boards of two of technology’s most prominent companies, Apple and Google, amount to a violation of antitrust laws, according to several people briefed on the inquiry.

Apple and Google share two directors, Eric E. Schmidt, chief executive of Google, and Arthur Levinson, former chief executive of Genentech. The Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914 prohibits a person’s presence on the board of two rival companies when it would reduce competition between them.

The two companies increasingly compete in the cellphone and operating systems markets. Antitrust experts say the provision against “interlocking directorates,” known as Section 8 of the act, is rarely enforced. Nevertheless, the agency has already notified Google and Apple of its interest in the matter, according to the people briefed on the inquiry, who agreed to speak on condition of anonymity because the inquiry was confidential.

For steaks, campers near Rochester steal and kill calf from dairy farm:

The local Sizzler must have been closed.

Two upstate New York campers broke into a dairy farmer’s barn, stole his calf, shot it with arrows and then slit its throat before slicing off a couple steaks, police said.

“They were out camping and decided they wanted something to eat,” State Police Investigator John Stubbe said of the cattle rustling.

“One guy led the calf by a rope around its neck, and the other shot it twice with an arrow. It still wouldn’t die, so he cut its throat.”

After cutting off a couple of steaks from the 2-month-old calf named Emmy, the two discarded the rest of the carcass.

David Lochner, 21, and Timothy Welch, 18, were arrested Wednesday on burglary charges. Police said more charges are pending, including cruelty to animals.

Pirates seized after threatening French navy ship

The French Navy said they seized 11 pirates Sunday after they apparently mistook a French military vessel for a commercial ship and made a run at it.

Two pirate assault boats approached the Nivose “at great speed,” Capt. Christophe Prazuck said, but a French helicopter intervened before the attackers had time to fire at the French navy ship.

The helicopter fired warning shots, he said.

The pirates, who had a mother ship as well as the two assault boats, are being held for questioning on the Nivose, Prazuck said. The vessels were carrying AK-47 rifles and rocket-propelled grenades, but the pirates did not fire, he said.

The incident took place about 1,000 km (620 miles) east of Mombasa, Kenya, at 8:30 a.m. local time (0430 GMT) he added.

REPORT: DAVID HASSELHOFF ALMOST DIES FROM ALCOHOL POISONING

In the latest chapter in the agonizing chronicle of David Hasselhoff’s multiple falls off the wagon, a new report surfaced today that the former Baywatch hunk was hauled off to the hospital after his youngest daughter found him passed out at home.

Vodka-swilling Hasselhoff registered a mind-numbing 0.39 blood alcohol level when he was taken to Los Angeles’ Cedars-Sinai Medical Center on Saturday, radaronline.com reported.

The legal limit in California is 0.08.

The 56-year-old “America’s Got Talent” judge was found passed out at his home in Encino, Calif., by 16-year-old daughter Hayley, the Web site reported. The teen called mom Pamela Bach, from whom Hasselhoff is estranged.

Two Berkshire towns plagued by rats which have become immune to poison

The British Pest Control Association (BPCA) is calling on the Government to allow the use of more powerful pesticides to contain Britain’s growing rodent population.

It is estimated that their numbers have swelled by 13 per cent in the past year to more than 50 million, one for every person living in England.

Infestations in some towns and cities have reportedly doubled in the past 12 months. Exeter council has seen a 66 per cent rise in vermin call-outs in 2008, while there was a 40 per cent rise in Salford.

The BPCA says the situation has also escalated in two Berkshire towns, which it has not named, because the local rat population is now almost completely resistant to the standard poisons.

Austria: Suspect arrested in poisoning of 5 people:

Police in Vienna arrested a man suspected of slipping drugs into drinks at a crowded bar Sunday, causing five people to collapse. Authorities said all five victims were hospitalized in life-threatening condition.

Investigators said they were still trying to determine a motive for the attack, which happened on a sunny afternoon at a small bar packed with up to 50 people enjoying an “after hours” party.

Authorities were called to the scene when customers at a sidewalk ice cream salon across the street from the bar saw the five victims fall to the ground.

“We got an emergency call at 5 p.m.,” or 1500 GMT, said police spokeswoman Iris Seper. She said officers later took the unidentified suspect into custody after witnesses said they had seen a man offering the victims drinks.

Investigators said it was unclear exactly what substance had been added to the drinks, but that it appeared to be some kind of narcotic. Seper said the victims drank freely, apparently unaware that anything was amiss.

May Day turns violent in Turkey, Germany, Greece:

May Day protesters clashed with riot police in Germany, Turkey and Greece on Friday while thousands angry at the government’s responses to the global financial crisis took to the streets in France.

Rising unemployment across Europe and beyond has added intensity to May Day marches as last year’s market crash and banking meltdown rolls into the real economy.

There were early morning clashes in Germany and protests in Istanbul swiftly turned violent. Greek police clashed with self-styled anarchists.

Turkish riot police fired water cannon and tear gas, firing shots and pepper spray to disperse masked protesters.

Young men hurled stones and Molotov cocktails, smashing bank and shop windows in side streets.

An Istanbul police spokesman said 68 demonstrators were detained and 11 police wounded. Leftists and Kurdish separatists regularly clash with police at demonstrations in Turkey and the May Day protest last year also turned violent.

Google Accidentally Offends Japanese Sensibilities 

When Google Earth added historical maps of Japan to its online collection last year, the search giant didn’t expect a backlash. The finely detailed woodblock prints have been around for centuries, they were already posted on another Web site, and a historical map of Tokyo put up in 2006 hadn’t caused any problems.

But Google failed to judge how its offering would be received, as it has often done in Japan. The company is now facing inquiries from the Justice Ministry and angry accusations of prejudice because its maps detailed the locations of former low-caste communities.

The maps date back to the country’s feudal era, when shoguns ruled and a strict caste system was in place. At the bottom of the hierarchy were a class called the “burakumin,” ethnically identical to other Japanese but forced to live in isolation because they did jobs associated with death, such as working with leather, butchering animals and digging graves.

Castes have long since been abolished, and the old buraku villages have largely faded away or been swallowed by Japan’s sprawling metropolises. Today, rights groups say the descendants of burakumin make up about 3 million of the country’s 127 million people. But they still face prejudice, based almost entirely on where they live or their ancestors lived. Moving is little help, because employers or parents of potential spouses can hire agencies to check for buraku ancestry through Japan’s elaborate family records, which can span back over a hundred years.

Mice ‘attack’ elderly Australians:

Australian government has ordered an investigation after mice repeatedly bit residents of a nursing home.

 One man, a bedridden veteran aged 89, was found covered in blood after his ears, neck and throat were chewed by the mice. He had to be sedated later.

The incident at the home in Queensland state was “extremely disturbing”, said Minister for Ageing Justine Elliot.

Couple fined for strolling naked in Singapore:

A Swedish man and a Singaporean woman have been fined for strolling naked through a busy upscale bar and restaurant area for a stunt after a few drinks, local media reported Friday. Jan Philip, 21, an exchange student with a local university, and Eng Kai Er, a 24-year-old Singaporean studying in Sweden, were each fined 2,000 Singapore dollars (1,300 US) for committing an obscene act, the Straits Times said. In January, the two attracted much attention when they strolled naked through Holland Village, a place popular among expatriates for its bars and al fresco restaurants, apparently after drinking beer.

Tiny bride wows Sierra Leone:

Thousands of people have thronged the streets of the Sierra Leone capital, Freetown, to see one of the country’s shortest people get married. Masire Kamara is well known in the city where she sells tea in a market. When word spread that she was getting wed, many people did not believe it was true and went to see for themselves. Street parties were held in the happy couple’s honour. The event was covered live on state television and was on the front page of many newspapers. Thousands packed the church and hundreds more climbed onto rooftops to see Sierra Leone’s celebrity wedding - the local equivalent of David and Victoria Beckham.

Congressman Plays “Name That Fetish” on House Floor

Fort Lauderdale Rep. Alcee Hastings nearly turned C-Span into XXX-Span when he ran through a laundry list of sex fetishes on the House floor in D.C. on Thursday.

The outraged Hastings was apparently mad that the odd array of sex acts and fetishes were listed in an amendment to a hate crimes bill that he had to read over.

The Florida pol gave a warning before he ran through the list of nearly 25 different sexual terms - part of a two-minute rant worthy of late-night talk show television.

 “I apologize to our transcriber, but I want to put into the record what we have to put up with in the Rules Committee,” Hastings said. OK, now run and get your dictionary because you are going to need it to keep up.

Hastings list included but was not limited to: asphyxiphilia, apotomnophilia and autogynophilia (a quick Web search gave the definition as “a form of sexual response in biological males characterized by sexual arousal over the idea of being or becoming female.” Translation: jones-ing to change one’s name from Bob to Betty).

Captain once held by pirates urges military protection, armed crews

The freed captain of a merchant ship attacked by pirates near Somalia last month called Thursday for military protection and armed crew members to thwart attacks in dangerous waters.
Capt. Richard Phillips, skipper of the Maersk Alabama, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that it was the “responsibility of the U.S. government” to protect any ship flying an American flag, through military escorts or onboard squads of highly trained security forces

He added that an armed brigade of specially trained senior crew members also could deter pirate attacks in certain situations. “And I don’t mean a security guard. I don’t mean a mall cop. I mean someone who’s sufficiently trained,” Phillips said

Woman Claims Her Father Was Zodiac Killer - News Story - KTVU San Francisco:

A woman stepped forward Wednesday to claim her late father was the infamous Zodiac Killer and that she as a 7-year-old wrote some of the letters that taunted local police.

Kevin McLean, the former law partner of the late Melvin Belli, said he has led a two-year investigation into claims by Deborah Perez that her father, Guy Ward Hendrickson, was the Zodiac killer. Hendrickson, who lived in Orange County, died in 1993 of cancer.

 “He was a Jekyll and Hyde,” McLean said of Hendrickson. “He was nuts. He set out to kill people. Some of these killings were not random.”

McLean said Perez came forward on Wednesday because another investigator in Sacramento was about to come forward with a different theory of the killings. She was also currently involved in making a documentary on the crime.

As a youngster, Perez said she sometimes accompanied her father on his killing sprees to the Bay Area. The family lived in Santa Ana, but McLean said Hendrickson may have worked at one time at the Mare Island Naval shipyard in Vallejo.

SWINE FLU: Egypt Slaughters All Pigs To Prevent Outbreak:

The Egyptian government began slaughtering pigs today as a preventative measure to stop the spread of the swine flu, reports the AP. Over 300,000 pigs will be killed immediately despite no reported cases of the pandemic in the country.

The state news agency MENA reported to AFP yesterday about the passage of the measure in lower parliament:

 ”The People’s Assembly urged the government to immediately start culling pigs and not to relocate pig-breeding farms away from residential areas for fear of the spread of swine flu,” MENA said.

Egypt’s 80-million population consists mainly of Muslims, whose religion forbids them from eating pork, as well as an estimated six to 10 percent Christian Copts who may eat pig meat.

FOXNews.com - Police Raid Ohio Bar, Find 14-Year-Old Topless Dancer

Police say a 14-year-old girl was dancing topless at an Akron strip club when they raided the bar and arrested four exotic dancers. The girl has been placed in protective custody. Akron police vice officers served a search warrant Friday night at the Playhouse bar. The bar’s owner and manager were charged with illegal use of a minor in a nudity performance and child endangering.

Hawks Divebomb University of Miami Students

While the Miami Heat and Atlanta Hawks wage war in the NBA playoffs, the games are a far cry from the real battle going on at the University of Miami.

A pair of real hawks is terrorizing students as they walk through one section of the college campus. One female student suffered a concussion after falling down from an aerial assault and others have reported lacerations to their heads and face from the talons of the menacing little birds.

The attacks curiously began around the same time the Round 1 playoff series started.

Coincidence? As Arsenio Hall would say, it’s one of those “things that make you go hmmm.”

Six Banks Fail Stress Test:

Six banks have failed the preliminary stress test, Bloomberg says. They’re now appealing.

The government wants these banks to raise capital by converting preferred stock to common stock, which would stave off the need for additional capital injections. This makes sense, but debtholders should be forced to do the same thing.

At least six of the 19 largest U.S. banks require additional capital, according to preliminary results of government stress tests, people briefed on the matter said. While some of the lenders may need extra cash injections from the government, most of the capital is likely to come from converting preferred shares to common equity, the people said.

The Federal Reserve is now hearing appeals from banks, including Citigroup Inc. and Bank of America Corp., that regulators have determined need more of a cushion against losses, they added. By pushing conversions, rather than federal assistance, the government would allow banks to shore themselves up without the political taint that has soured both Wall Street and Congress on the bailouts. The risk is that, along with diluting existing shareholders, the government action won’t seem strong enough.

Hope y’all were short the financials!

SKorean experts claim to have cloned glowing dogs:

South Korean scientists say they have engineered four beagles that glow red using cloning techniques that could help develop cures for human diseases. The four dogs, all named “Ruppy” — a combination of the words “ruby” and “puppy” — look like typical beagles by daylight.

But they glow red under ultraviolet light, and the dogs’ nails and abdomens, which have thin skins, look red even to the naked eye.

Seoul National University professor Lee Byeong-chun, head of the research team, called them the world’s first transgenic dogs carrying fluorescent genes, an achievement that goes beyond just the glowing novelty.

“What’s significant in this work is not the dogs expressing red colors but that we planted genes into them,” Lee told The Associated Press on Tuesday.

Plane stupid: Mayor Bloomberg outraged over military photo-op involving low-flying presidential jet:

The White House apologized late Monday after the U.S. military - without public warning - buzzed New York City with one of the presidential planes trailed by an F-16 fighter jet. Not even Mayor Bloomberg knew they were coming.

Flying in as low as 1,000 feet to 1,500 feet above New York City and taking photographs along the way, the planes circled the Statue of Liberty and flew over Manhattan, Staten Island, and New Jersey - then vanished.
Before they were gone, hundreds of frightened people had jammed the emergency lines, thousands of terrified people evacuated from buildings in the city and across the river in Jersey, and many New Yorkers had flashbacks to the 9/11 attacks.

“I approved a mission over New York,” Louis Caldera, director of the White House military office, said in a hastilly-prepared statement. “I apologize and take responsibility for any distress that flight caused.

Minister denies betting on Labour defeat

Security minister Lord West denied today that he placed a bet on Labour to lose the next general election. The former head of the Royal Navy was named in the Daily Telegraph today as the minister who had reportedly made the wager on a Labour defeat.

It followed a report in the Sunday Times that an unnamed minister placed a bet at odds of 66-1 in mid-2007. But arriving today for a conference in London, West said: “I have never placed a bet on Labour losing the election.”

He added: “I have never placed a bet at all while a minister ever on a political issue.” The bet – that Labour would fail to win an outright majority – was said to have been made around the time Gordon Brown took over from Tony Blair as prime minister.

Hat tip to Una!

IZZY: DIZZY FOR MOSCOW

Another one of the left’s cherished political myths bites the dust.

For decades, the late I.F. Stone has been a revered liberal journalistic icon: An anti-establishment, muckraking crusader whose self-published weekly newsletter was required reading in Washington. He was also, it now turns out, a paid agent of the Stalin-era KGB.

Claims that the Soviets had co-opted Stone have been debated by historians and heatedly denied by his admirers; the initial evidence was inconclusive. But now come John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, the two leading experts on Soviet espionage in America, who’ve written a new book based on 1,100 pages of notes taken by former KGB officer Alexander Vassiliev, who was given access to some of the spy agency’s historic files.

His transcription of the internal documents is definitive: From 1936 through 1938 — when, sad to say, he was also chief editorial writer for the then-liberal New York Post — Stone was an agent of Soviet intelligence.

American Stonehenge: Monumental Instructions for the Post-Apocalypse:

The strangest monument in America looms over a barren knoll in northeastern Georgia. Five massive slabs of polished granite rise out of the earth in a star pattern. The rocks are each 16 feet tall, with four of them weighing more than 20 tons apiece. Together they support a 25,000-pound capstone. Approaching the edifice, it’s hard not to think immediately of England’s Stonehenge or possibly the ominous monolith from 2001: A Space Odyssey. Built in 1980, these pale gray rocks are quietly awaiting the end of the world as we know it.

Called the Georgia Guidestones, the monument is a mystery—nobody knows exactly who commissioned it or why. The only clues to its origin are on a nearby plaque on the ground—which gives the dimensions and explains a series of intricate notches and holes that correspond to the movements of the sun and stars—and the “guides” themselves, directives carved into the rocks. These instructions appear in eight languages ranging from English to Swahili and reflect a peculiar New Age ideology. Some are vaguely eugenic (guide reproduction wisely—improving fitness and diversity); others prescribe standard-issue hippie mysticism (prize truth—beauty—love—seeking harmony with the infinite).

What’s most widely agreed upon—based on the evidence available—is that the Guidestones are meant to instruct the dazed survivors of some impending apocalypse as they attempt to reconstitute civilization. Not everyone is comfortable with this notion. A few days before I visited, the stones had been splattered with polyurethane and spray-painted with graffiti, including slogans like “Death to the new world order.” This defacement was the first serious act of vandalism in the Guidestones’ history, but it was hardly the first objection to their existence. In fact, for more than three decades this uncanny structure in the heart of the Bible Belt has been generating responses that range from enchantment to horror. Supporters (notable among them Yoko Ono) have praised the messages as a stirring call to rational thinking, akin to Thomas Paine’s The Age of Reason. Opponents have attacked them as the Ten Commandments of the Antichrist.

Mind power can now operate Honda’s Asimo:

In a development that realizes a scenario out of a science fiction movie, scientists have developed technology enabling a robot to be controlled by thought power.

A user wears a helmet that detects changes in blood flow and brain waves in different parts of his or her brain and converts them into radio signals that are transmitted to the bipedal humanoid robot, operating its limbs and making it speak.

The technology was developed by a team of scientists from Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International, Honda Motor Co. and others.

 In experiments using Honda’s Asimo robot, test participants were able to move the robot’s limbs and make it speak just by imagining those actions, with a success rate of 90 percent.

Similar research is being done in the United States and European countries, but the success rate there reportedly is between 60 percent and 70 percent.

So far, the Japanese team has only been able to have the robot raise its arms and legs and utter a few words in response to controllers’ thoughts. There is a delay of about seven seconds between the detection of changes in a test participant’s brain and corresponding reactions by the robot. The brain wave reader weighs about 300 kilograms and is as large as a chest.

Teacher puts poop in kid’s backpack 

An unexpected surprise in their son’s backpack caught some Yakima Washington parents off guard. It was human waste, with a note attached from the boy’s teacher. And the school isn’t denying that’s what happened.

“I’m still kinda in shock over this, because why would somebody do this? It’s disgusting,” said Jason, the father of the little boy. It all started on Friday at Apple Valley Elementary, when kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Graham called Jason and told him her classroom was “stinky” and asked if it could possibly be his son.

Jason’s son had a couple of accidents in the past. So when the teacher called, he says he told her right away, there was an extra set of clothes in his son’s bag. But when the 5-year-old came home, the boy was still wearing his original outfit, and Jason says his son was completely clean.

It wasn’t until Jason’s wife emptied her son’s backpack that they got a big surprise.

“She found a clear plastic baggie with a piece of fecal matter wrapped up in some a brown paper towel with the note on it. ‘This little turd was on the floor in my room’ And that’s all it says. Q: Nothing else? A: Nothing else. If it was his did she see him do this? Or did she follow him around to make sure this was his, did she see it drop out? Or just assume it was his because he had an accident a few months ago?”

Mexico’s Calderon Declares Emergency Amid Swine Flu Outbreak

Mexican President Felipe Calderon declared an emergency in his country’s swine flu outbreak, giving him powers to order quarantines and suspend public events.

Authorities have canceled school at all levels in Mexico City and the state of Mexico until further notice, and the government has shut most public and government activities in the area. The emergency decree, published today in the state gazette, gives the president authority to take more action.

 “The federal government under my charge will not hesitate a moment to take all, all the measures necessary to respond with efficiency and opportunity to this respiratory epidemic,” Calderon said today during a speech to inaugurate a hospital in the southern state of Oaxaca.

At least 20 deaths in Mexico from the disease are confirmed, Health Minister Jose Cordova said yesterday. The strain is a variant of H1N1 swine influenza that has also sickened at least eight people in California and Texas. As many as 68 deaths may be attributed to the virus in Mexico, and about 1,000 people in the Mexico City area are showing symptoms of the illness, Cordoba said.

The first case was seen in Mexico on April 13. The outbreak coincided with the President Barack Obama’s trip to Mexico City on April 16. Obama was received at Mexico’s anthropology museum in Mexico City by Felipe Solis, a distinguished archeologist who died the following day from symptoms similar to flu, Reforma newspaper reported. The newspaper didn’t confirm if Solis had swine flu or not.

Galaxy’s centre tastes of raspberries and smells of rum

Astronomers searching for the building blocks of life in a giant dust cloud at the heart of the Milky Way have concluded that it tastes vaguely of raspberries.

The unanticipated discovery follows years of work by astronomers who trained their 30m radio telescope on the enormous ball of dust and gas in the hope of spotting complex molecules that are vital for life. Finding amino acids in interstellar space is a Holy Grail for astrobiologists, as this would raise the possibility of life emerging on other planets after being seeded with the molecules.

In the latest survey, astronomers sifted through thousands of signals from Sagittarius B2, a vast dust cloud at the centre of our galaxy. While they failed to find evidence for amino acids, they did find a substance called ethyl formate, the chemical responsible for the flavour of raspberries.
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Curiously, ethyl formate has another distinguishing characteristic: it also smells of rum.

Man Pretending to Fall Off Bridge Actually Falls

Police said a 23-year-old man is in stable condition after he pretended that he was falling off a bridge over the Minnesota River, then actually fell off the bridge.

Police got a call just before 5 a.m. Sunday from a 21-year-old man who said his friend fell off the Highway 77 bridge and into a marshy area about 30 feet below.

The caller said he was driving north when his friend, who he said had been drinking, told him to pull into the bridge’s emergency lane so he could urinate.

The 23-year-old stood eventually climbed to the ledge of the bridge, then looked at his friend and pretended to fall. “He then in fact fell,” reads a press release from the Bloomingtin Police Department.

South Africa has a new President but who will be first among his ladies?

When Jacob Zuma fulfils a lifelong dream and assumes the presidency of South Africa next month his first major policy headache is going to be which of his current crop of wives and girlfriends should become First Lady.

Mr Zuma is a polygamist who has had as many as four wives at one time. He currently has two after one committed suicide in 2000 and another one - Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, the South African Foreign Minister - divorced him in 1998. She remains a trusted aide.

He recently paid lobolo (a Zulu dowry) for two other women. One is a long-time girlfriend. The other is Sebentile Dlamini, a Swazi princess, whom he apparently is not too keen on, but he does not want to upset the neighbouring kingdom of Swaziland. Speculation has been growing that he may marry one or both of them soon.

Clown cannot wear giant shoes due to health and safety 

Valerik Kashkin, a clown in the Moscow State Circus, was performing in Liverpool’s Sefton Park last Saturday when he fell from a three metre high slack wire, injuring his foot.

Although he continued to perform for the rest of the show, when he went to hospital later that evening, he was told he had broken the metatarsal bone in his left foot.

When he returned to the circus he was told by management he could no longer wear the size-18 shoes because they compromised his health and safety.

Mr Kashkin features in the circus’ reworking of the Rasputin tale, The Monk’s Dream.

His routine includes dressing himself whilst walking on a wire, dress himself within a hoop of fire, and playing a drum-kit, trumpet and double-bass all at the same time.

But he is now worried performing in his regular sized footwear will lose impact on the audience.

Against Insect Plague, Nevadans Wield Ultimate Weapon: Hard Rock

The residents of this tiny town, anticipating an imminent attack, will be ready with a perimeter defense. They’ll position their best weapons at regular intervals, faced out toward the desert to repel the assault. Then they’ll turn up the volume. Rock music blaring from boomboxes has proved one of the best defenses against an annual invasion of Mormon crickets.

The huge flightless insects are a fearsome sight as they advance across the desert in armies of millions that march over, under or into anything in their way. The 2-inch-long insects often carpet the arid landscape in the spring and summer, devouring vegetation and driving residents to distraction.

But the crickets don’t much fancy Led Zeppelin or the Rolling Stones, the townspeople figured out three years ago. So next month, Tuscarorans are preparing once again to get out their extension cords, array their stereos in a quarter-circle and tune them to rock station KHIX, full blast, from dawn to dusk. “It is part of our arsenal,” says Laura Moore, an unemployed college professor and one of the town’s 13 residents.

Scientists: Incest Doomed European Royal Dynasty

The powerful Habsburg dynasty that ruled Spain for nearly 200 years came to an abrupt end in 1700 with the death of King Charles II, who left no heirs to the throne. The termination of that royal lineage may be the result of frequent inbreeding of the line, which may have left Charles II ill and infertile, a new study suggests.

The House of Habsburg was one of the major royal houses of Europe for many centuries. The Habsburgs ruled over Austria for more than six centuries, eventually coming to rule (through marriages) over Bohemia, Hungary and Spain.

The Spanish Habsburg dynasty was founded by Philip I (or Philip the Fair, son of the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I) in 1516 when he married Joanna the Mad, the daughter of the Catholic Spanish rulers Ferdinand of Aragon and Elizabeth of Castile. The house ruled over Spain throughout the height of its influence and empire.

Meet the happy-faced spider sure to make you smile

This amazing happy-faced spider found in Hawaii is bound to leave you beaming from ear to ear. The tiny insect, which measures just a few millimetres across, has developed bizarre markings which look just like a smiling face.

Scientists think the spider, which is harmless to humans, has evolved the patterns to confuse predators. spider This tiny spider has developed markings that look like a smiling face But it’s no laughing matter for the spider which is under-threat from extinction from its home in the rainforests of the Hawaiian island chain in the Pacific ocean.

Spider expert and geneticist Dr Geoff Oxford, 62, from the University of York, said studying happy-face spiders was a real joy. He said: ‘I must admit when I turned over the first leaf and saw one it certainly brought a smile to my face.

A Cyber-Attack on an American City:

Just after midnight on Thursday, April 9, unidentified attackers climbed down four manholes serving the Northern California city of Morgan Hill and cut eight fiber cables in what appears to have been an organized attack on the electronic infrastructure of an American city. Its implications, though startling, have gone almost un-reported.

That attack demonstrated a severe fault in American infrastructure: its centralization. The city of Morgan Hill and parts of three counties lost 911 service, cellular mobile telephone communications, land-line telephone, DSL internet and private networks, central station fire and burglar alarms, ATMs, credit card terminals, and monitoring of critical utilities. In addition, resources that should not have failed, like the local hospital’s internal computer network, proved to be dependent on external resources, leaving the hospital with a “paper system” for the day. In technical terms, the area was partitioned from the surrounding internet.

What was the attackers goal? Nothing has been revealed. Robbery? With wires cut, silent alarms were useless. Manipulation of the stock market? Companies, brokerages, and investors in the very wealthy community were cut off. Mayhem, murder, terrorism? But nothing like that seems to have happened. Some theorize unhappy communications workers, given the apparent knowledge of the community’s infrastructure necessary for this attack. Or did the attackers simply want to teach us a lesson? Although they are silent on the topic, I hope those responsible for emergency services, be they in business or government, are learning the lessons of Morgan Hill.

The first lesson is what stayed up: stand-alone radio systems and not much else. Cell phones failed. Cellular towers can not, in general, connect phone calls on their own, even if both phones are near the same tower. They communicate with a central switching computer to operate, and when that system doesn’t respond, they’re useless. But police and fire authorities still had internal communications via two-way radio.

Realizing that they’d need more two-way radio, authorities dispatched police to wake up the emergency coordinator of the regional ham radio club, and escort him to the community hospital with his equipment. Area hams dispatched ambulances and doctors, arranged for essential supplies, and relayed emergency communications out of the area to those with working telephones.

Bonuses To New York Times Execs Under Fire:

At a time when New York Times managers are forcing all employees to take a five percent pay cut, and demanding even larger sacrifices from the NYT-owned Boston Globe, top executives of the beleaguered newspaper received substantial bonus and fringe benefit payments over and above their salaries, according to a proxy statement released on March 11.

These bonuses and benefits to top Times company executives have provoked growing resentment among Times staffers, and frank anger from Globe reporters who have been warned by Times executives that their paper will be folded if they do not come up with $20 million in pay cuts and layoffs.

On Tuesday, the Times disclosed a $74 million first quarter loss, 221 times larger than the $335,000 loss in the first quarter of 2008.

“Star Trek” Fortune Goes to the Dogs

The Star Trek fortune is going to the dogs.

 Just before Majel Roddenberry, wife of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, died in December 2008, she put a clause in her trust that provided lavishly for her beloved pups, according to TMZ.

The trust documents, filed in L.A. County Superior Court, stipulate that Roddenberry’s dogs will be able to live in one of the family’s mansions until they cease to live long and prosper.

 The dogs also are entitled to a $4 million fund to upkeep their swanky dog house, and their own highly paid attendant.

The trust provides $1 million for Reinelda Estupinian, who cared for the dogs for the last few years. In the paper Rodennberry said Estupinian “did an excellent job of caring for my animals (giving them comparable or better care than that which I gave them during my lifetime).”

At least 24 stoned and hacked to death in Kenya violence

Residents of a central Kenyan town took up arms against a violent gang, sparking fierce battles in which at least 24 people were stoned and hacked to death, police said on Tuesday.

The clashes started late on Monday when residents organised in small groups armed with crude weapons decided to fight back against the Mungiki, a violent mafia-like extortionist group famous for beheading and skinning its victims.

“A total of 24 people are dead as we speak but we are not able to tell who is Mungiki and who is not,” a police spokesman, Eric Kiraithe, said. “It’s a very bad scene.”

“At night, the groups of locals started attacking some of the youths they suspected to be Mungiki members and slashed some of them to death,” he said. Police sources said at least three people were wounded and 37 suspected were arrested.

Robots are narrowing the gap with humans:

Robots are gaining on us humans. Thanks to exponential increases in computer power — which is roughly doubling every two years — robots are getting smarter, more capable, more like flesh-and-blood people.

Matching human skills and intelligence, however, is an enormously difficult — perhaps impossible — challenge. Nevertheless, robots guided by their own computer “brains'’ now can pick up and peel bananas, land jumbo jets, steer cars through city traffic, search human DNA for cancer genes, play soccer or the violin, find earthquake victims or explore craters on Mars.

At a “Robobusiness” conference in Boston last week, companies demonstrated a robot firefighter, gardener, receptionist, tour guide and security guard. You name it, a high-tech wizard somewhere is trying to make a robot do it.

A Japanese housekeeping robot can move chairs, sweep the floor, load a tray of dirty dishes in a dishwasher and put dirty clothes in a washing machine.

Intel, the worldwide computer-chip maker, headquartered in Santa Clara, Calif., has developed a self-controlled mobile robot called Herb, the Home Exploring Robotic Butler. Herb can recognize faces and carry out generalized commands such as “please clean this mess,” according to Justin Rattner, Intel’s chief technology officer.

Apollo astronaut demands release of “Saucer Secrets”:

Retired navy captain and Apollo XIV astronaut Edgar Mitchell today called for the U. S. government to disclose to its citizens and other Earthlings what he asserts are the realities of long-standing extraterrestrial visitations and interactions with our planet.

Speaking this morning at “X-Conference 2009″ in Gaithersburg, MD, a suburb of the nation’s capital, Mitchell told several hundred attendees and a phalanx of video cameras that, with our planet confronting population pressures and critical questions of environmental and energy sustainability, the need for disclosure about extraterrestrial involvement with Earth is critical.

Mitchell contends that the dispersal of knowledge about what he believes to be the end of Earth’s apparent quarantine from other civilizations, and advancement of planetary culture beyond its present fragmentation and incoherence, are desirable results of the widest public release of information about the extraterrestrial presence he believes is real.

Sorry folks, but this secret got privatized long ago.  Good luck trying to find it (or wring it free) now…

World’s Largest Model Rocket to Lift Off Saturday 

On Saturday, April 25, the Saturn V, the rocket that sent men to the moon 40 years ago, will once again lift off from U.S. soil and soar over the Atlantic.

Only this time, it won’t be quite real. Rather, what’s going up will be the largest model rocket ever built — a one-tenth scale, 36-foot-tall, fully working replica of the Saturn V.

Its nine rocket engines will provide 8,000 pounds of thrust to lift it between 3,000 and 4,000 feet above its launching point in Price, Md.

Once it reaches its zenith, it’ll separate into three sections, each of which will parachute back to the ground.

Mystery surrounds deaths of horses before polo match - CNN.com:

Fourteen thoroughbred horses dropped dead in a mysterious scene Sunday before a polo match near West Palm Beach, Florida, officials said.

State and local veterinary teams are trying to figure out what happened at the International Polo Club Palm Beach in Wellington, Florida, as team Lechuza Caracas prepared to compete in a U.S. Open match. It’s unclear what killed the horses but necropsies and blood tests were being done Sunday, the Palm Beach Post reported.

The U.S. Polo Association, the sport’s governing body, is expected to open an investigation Monday, the Sun-Sentinel newspaper reported. Two horses initially collapsed, and as vets and team officials scrambled to revive them, five others became dizzy, said Tim O’Connor, spokesman for the polo club.

Nunavut man who jumped from plane showed signs of depression: police:

A 20-year-old Nunavut man who jumped to his death from an airplane flying at 23,000 feet Wednesday was sent to a Yellowknife hospital earlier that day showing signs of depression, RCMP say.

Police identified the man Friday as Julien Tologanak of Cambridge Bay in western Nunavut.

Tologanak was a passenger on an Adlair Aviation charter flight that travelled Wednesday from Yellowknife when about 180 kilometres from Cambridge Bay, he forced open the aircraft’s exit door and jumped out, despite efforts by the pilots to calm him.

At the time, the King Air 200 turboprop aircraft was flying at an altitude of 23,000 feet, or about 7,000 metres.

Jackie Chan’s China comments prompt backlash:

Action movie star Jackie Chan questioned the need for freedom for Chinese people during a speech Saturday, prompting outrage from lawmakers in Taiwan and Hong Kong, who accused him of insulting his own race.

The 55-year-old star of “Rush Hour” said at a business forum in the southern Chinese island province Hainan on Saturday that a free society may not be beneficial for authoritarian mainland China.

“I’m not sure if it’s good to have freedom or not,” Chan said at the Boao Forum. “If you’re too free, you’re like the way Hong Kong is now. It’s very chaotic. Taiwan is also chaotic.”

Chan added, “I’m gradually beginning to feel that we Chinese need to be controlled. If we’re not being controlled, we’ll just do what we want.”

Slumdog Millionaire star Rubina Ali who played Latika is offered for sale by dad Rafiq Qureshi to the News of the World’s Fake Sheikh

THE poverty-stricken father of Slumdog Millionaire child star Rubina Ali plans to become a millionaire himself-by SELLING his nine-year-old daughter.

In a bid to escape India’s real-life slums, Rafiq Qureshi put angel-faced darling of the Oscars Rubina up for adoption, demanding millions of rupees worth £200,000.

As he offered the shocking deal to the News of the World’s undercover fake sheik this week, Rafiq declared: “I have to consider what’s best for me, my family and Rubina’s future.”

Rafiq tried to blame Hollywood bosses for forcing him to put his daughter up for SALE. As he tried to fix the illegal adoption deal, real-life slum dweller Rafiq declared: “We’ve got nothing out of this film.”

Woman makes cup of tea after being shot in head

Police and doctors hailed the survival of Tammy Sexton, 47, as miraculous after a bullet from a .38-calibre handgun struck her squarely in the forehead, passed through her skull and exited through the back of her head.

She is expected to make a full recovery, while her husband shot himself dead after the attack on his wife. But law enforcement officers in Jackson County, Mississippi, were also astonished that Mrs Sexton offered them tea when they arrived at her home after the shooting.

Sheriff Mike Byrd said: “When the officer got there she said, ‘What’s going on?’ She was holding a rag on her head and talking. She was conscious, but she was confused about what had happened.

“She had made herself some tea and offered the officer something to drink.

“There’s no way she should be alive other than a miracle from God. You just don’t hear of something like this. Somebody gets shot in the head and they’re dead.”

Europe heads for new Middle Ages

Is Europe headed for a new Middle Ages? On the basis of some disquieting signs, I should say it is indeed. Politically, it seems to be in the midst of a process of further disintegration.

Ten years ago, in The Rise and Decline of the State, the Israeli military historian Martin van Creveld was among the first to suggest the world was headed towards a new Middle Ages. The European Middle Ages are characterized by international political instability and endless wars. A modicum of spiritual and ecclesiastical control was exerted by the Pope in Rome, while the German Emperor could sometimes wield political pressure to restore order. Fundamentally however, disorder prevailed. The impending collapse of the nation state.

Now look around you, what do you see? Some of Europe’s major nation states are governed by men who are little more than clowns. Take Gordon Brown, for instance. Is it possible to find a more laughable figure than him? Heading a bankrupt, pauperized nation where all residual wealth is concentrated in and around London, Brown still has the gall to lecture the rest of the world on how to run an economy. Even Italian premier Berlusconi, regarded by many Anglo-Saxons as a frivolous imitation of his famous predecessor whose last name started with an M, looks more serious after somehow rising to the occasion during the recent earthquake disaster. As for French president Sarkozy, the odour of boyish amorous adventurism and lack of focus still surrounds him and makes it difficult to regard him as a serious statesman. With the possible exception of Mrs. Merkel the German Chancellor, most other European leaders are pathetic mediocrities who do not even manage to produce a benevolent smile on any observer’s face.

BBC NEWS | Africa | Dutch forces free pirate captives:

Dutch commandos have freed 20 fishermen whose vessel was hijacked by Somali pirates and used to launch an attack against a tanker in the Gulf of Aden.

The captives, all Yemeni, were freed when Dutch forces chased pirates back to the fishing dhow by following the smaller craft used in the attack.

The dhow was being used by the pirates as a “mother ship” from which to launch armed attacks on commercial shipping.

Meanwhile, officials suspect a Belgian-registered ship may have been attacked.

The Dutch took action after receiving a distress call from the Greek-managed tanker.

Intercepting the pirates, the troops then boarded the fishing vessel and freed the 20 Yemenis.

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The pirates were set free, the Associated Press news agency reports, because under Dutch law they could not be held at sea under the circumstances in which they were captured.

Golden arches topple, crush Naperville couple

A giant set of golden arches outside a McDonald’s in eastern Arizona toppled in high winds Wednesday, crushing a Naperville couple’s Chevy Trailblazer as they sat inside the parked vehicle. Retirees Russell and Carolyn Janke suffered multiple injuries.

They had stopped at the McDonald’s on the Navajo Nation reservation in Window Rock as they were making their way back to suburban Chicago from their winter home near Tucson.

Navajo acting Police Chief Steven Nelson said winds hit 60 mph Wednesday, causing the sign to be blown down from atop a pole across the street from the restaurant.

“It was a freak accident,’’ Nelson said.

Bush Approved Use of Insects in al-Qaeda Interrogations:

The Bush Administration approved the use of “insects placed in a confinement box” during the interrogation of top Al Qaeda official Abu Zubaydah, according to a 2002 document that President Obama declassified for release Thursday.

The legal memorandum for the CIA, prepared by Assistant Attorney General Jay Bybee, reviewed 10 enhanced techniques for interrogating Zubaydah, and determined that none of them constituted torture under U.S. criminal law. The techniques were: attention grasp, walling (hitting a detainee against a flexible wall), facial hold, facial slap, cramped confinement, wall standing, stress positions, sleep deprivation, insects placed in a confinement box, and waterboarding.(View pictures of life inside Guantanamo.)

The CIA desire to use insects during interrogations has not previously been disclosed, according to two civil liberties experts contacted by TIME.

The Bybee memorandum, which was written on August 1, 2002, described the CIA’s plans for using insects this way: “You [the CIA] would like to place Zubaydah in a cramped confinement box with an insect. You have informed us [the Department of Justice] that he appears to have a fear of insects. In particular, you would like to tell Zubaydah that you intend to place a stinging insect into the box with him. You would, however, place a harmless insect in the box. You have orally informed us that you would in fact place a harmless insect such as a catapiller in the box with him.”

Room 101 anyone?

Officials Say U.S. Wiretaps Exceeded Law

The National Security Agency intercepted private e-mail messages and phone calls of Americans in recent months on a scale that went beyond the broad legal limits established by Congress last year, government officials said in recent interviews.

Several intelligence officials, as well as lawyers briefed about the matter, said the N.S.A. had been engaged in “overcollection” of domestic communications of Americans. They described the practice as significant and systemic, although one official said it was believed to have been unintentional.
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And in one previously undisclosed episode, the N.S.A. tried to wiretap a member of Congress without a warrant, an intelligence official with direct knowledge of the matter said.

The agency believed that the congressman, whose identity could not be determined, was in contact — as part of a Congressional delegation to the Middle East in 2005 or 2006 — with an extremist who had possible terrorist ties and was already under surveillance, the official said. The agency then sought to eavesdrop on the congressman’s conversations, the official said.

The official said the plan was ultimately blocked because of concerns from some intelligence officials about using the N.S.A., without court oversight, to spy on a member of Congress.

Domino’s Pizza: Workers Who Videotaped Themselves Passing Gas on Food Face Arrest

Domino’s Pizza says there is a warrant out for the arrest of two fired North Carolina employees who videotaped themselves passing gas on salami, stuffing cheese up their nostrils — then using the foul fixins’ in the fast food.

The silly-yet-stomach-turning clips — which also showed the workers sneezing and blowing their noses on meals they were handling — were filmed at a Conover, N.C., Domino’s and posted on YouTube.

The pizza delivery giant said it was stunned when the footage surfaced. The pair, who call themselves “Michael” and “Kristy,” were promptly terminated.

Russian Cannibals: Men ‘Kill And Eat Their Older Brother’ In Central City Of Perm

Two men have reportedly admitted killing their elder brother and eating parts of his body which they kept in the fridge for months.

The pair, named only as Timur and Marat G, said they murdered their brother Rafis at their home in the central Russian city of Perm, according to newspaper Tvoi Den.

Police grew suspicious when the brothers reported Rafis missing but were vague about his details.

After raiding their house, officers are said to have found the victim’s skeleton, which had been stripped bare and buried in the garden.

 White House hit by swarm of bees

The Secret Service is always on the alert for aerial assaults — but on Thursday, White House grounds were hit by one unexpected airborne threat. A swarm of honey bees took over a bush located between the Northwest security gate of the White House and the area where television networks stand-up positions are located early Thursday. CNN photojournalist John Bodnar said he came through the Northwest gate around 12:30 pm and was warned about the bees by Secret Service on duty in the guard post. “I walked out and thought it was a swirl of blossoms blowing in the wind, but turns out it was a swarm of bees,” he says. Half an hour later, they were still issuing warnings.”

U.S. retargets nuclear missiles to 12 Russian economic facilities

The USA is developing a new nuclear doctrine. American experts believe that today’s system of U.S. nuclear forces is out of date. Now they are going to change nuclear targets on the territory of Russian federation. The U.S. is going to retarget their nuclear missiles from large Russian cities to 12 most important Russian economic facilities. According to the U.S. experts destruction of these facilities will paralyze Russia’s economy and Russia will not be able to maintain military resistance.

This information was provided in the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) report calling for fundamental changes to U.S. nuclear war planning, a vital prerequisite if smaller nuclear arsenals are to be achieved.

“From Counterforce to Minimal Deterrence - A New Nuclear Policy on the Path Toward Eliminating Nuclear Weapons” calls to abandon the almost five-decade-long central mission for U.S. nuclear forces, which has been and continues to be “counterforce,” the capability for U.S. forces to destroy an enemy’s military forces, its weapons, its command and control facilities and its key leaders.

Spokane parks to detonate squirrels:

The Finch Arboretum is being overrun by ground squirrels, and Spokane Parks and Recreation is bringing in some special artillery.

The agency is using a special machine called the Rodenator Pro to detonate some of the estimated 100 to 150 squirrels tearing up the grounds.

Shades of Carl Spackler, the gopher-hating groundskeeper from “Caddyshack.” The Rodenator Pro pumps propane and oxygen into the tunnels of squirrels, then sends an electric spark that causes an explosion. The shock waves kill the squirrels and collapse their tunnels - but in a humane way, the agency said.

Spokanimal, which is the local animal shelter and Humane Society chapter, was caught by surprise by Monday’s announcement. “You’re kidding,” Director Gail Mackie said when she learned the news. “That borders on cruelty.”

Feds Waking Up To Nightmare Of Bedbugs:

The federal government is waking up to what has become a growing nightmare in many parts of the country - a bed bug outbreak.

The tiny reddish-brown insects, last seen in great numbers prior to World War II, are on the rebound. They have infested college dormitories, hospital wings, homeless shelters and swanky hotels from New York City to Chicago to Washington.

They live in the crevices and folds of mattresses, sofas and sheets. Then, most often before dawn, they emerge to feed on human blood.

Faced with rising numbers of complaints to city information lines and increasingly frustrated landlords, hotel chains and housing authorities, the Environmental Protection Agency is hosting its first-ever bed bug summit on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Hairdresser turns robber into sex-slave :

A hairdresser from the small Russian town of Meshchovsk has subdued a man who tried to rob her shop, and then raped him for three days in the utility room, Life.ru reports.

The incident occurred on Saturday, March 14. The working day was coming to an end at a small hairdressers, when a man armed with a gun rushed in and demanded the day’s earnings. The frightened employees and customers agreed to fulfill his demand, but when the shop’s owner, 28-year-old Olga, was handing the money to the robber, she suddenly knocked him down on the floor and then tied him up with a hairdryer cord.

The 32-year-old Viktor couldn’t have known that the woman was a yellow belt in karate. Read more Olga locked the unlucky robber in the utility room and told her colleagues that she was going to call the police – but didn’t do so. When everybody left home, she approached the man and ordered him to ‘take of his underpants’ threatening to hand him over to the police if he refuses to cooperate.

After that Olga raped her hostage for three long days. She chained Viktor to the radiator with pink furry handcuffs and fed him Viagra. She eventually let the man go on Monday, March 16, saying: “Get out of my sight!”

Viktor went straight to hospital as his genitals were injured, and then to the police.

Thousands of dolphins block Somali pirates

Thousands of dolphins blocked the suspected Somali pirate ships when they were trying to attack Chinese merchant ships passing the Gulf of Aden, the China Radio International reported on Monday.

The Chinese merchant ships escorted by a China’s fleet sailed on the Gulf of Aden when they met some suspected pirate ships.

 Thousands of dolphins suddenly leaped out of water between pirates and merchants when the pirate ships headed for the China’s. The suspected pirates ships stopped and then turned away.

The pirates could only lament their littleness before the vast number of dolphins. The spectacular scene continued for a while.

China initiated its three-ship escort task force on Dec. 26 last year after the United Nations Security Council called on countries to patrol gulf and waters off Somalia, one of the world’s busiest marine routes, where surging piracy endangered intercontinental shipping.

China’s first fleet has escorted 206 vessels, including 29 foreign merchant vessels, and successfully rescued three foreign merchant ships from pirate attacks.

Pakistan in danger of collapse:

PAKISTAN could collapse within months, one of the more influential counter-insurgency voices in Washington says.

The warning comes as the US scrambles to redeploy its military forces and diplomats in an attempt to stem rising violence and anarchy in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

“We have to face the fact that if Pakistan collapses it will dwarf anything we have seen so far in whatever we’re calling the war on terror now,” said David Kilcullen, a former Australian Army officer who was a specialist adviser for the Bush administration and is now a consultant to the Obama White House.

“You just can’t say that you’re not going to worry about al-Qaeda taking control of Pakistan and its nukes,” he said.

A stopped clock is accurate twice a day.   Sooner or later, so will this one…

Undeterred Somali pirates hijack 3 more ships:

Undeterred by U.S. and French hostage rescues that killed seven bandits, Somali pirates brazenly hijacked three more ships in the Gulf of Aden, the waterway that’s become the focal point of the world’s fight against piracy.

The latest trophy for the pirates was the M.V. Irene E.M., a Greek-managed bulk carrier sailing from the Middle East to South Asia, said Noel Choong, who heads the International Maritime Bureau’s piracy reporting center in Kuala Lumpur.

The Irene was attacked and seized in the middle of the night Tuesday — a rare tactic for the pirates.

Mexico slams Burger King for ‘whopper’ of insult:

- Mexico is protesting what it says is a whopper of an insult. An advertisement for Burger King’s chili-flavored “Texican” burger that has run in Europe shows a small wrestler dressed in a cape resembling a Mexican flag. The wrestler teams up with a lanky American cowboy twice his height to illustrate the cross-border blend of flavors.

“The taste of Texas with a little spicy Mexican,” a narrator’s voice says. The much-taller cowboy boosts the wrestler up to reach high shelves and clean tall windows, while the Mexican helps the cowboy open a jar.

Mexico’s ambassador to Spain said Monday he has written a letter to Burger King’s offices in that nation objecting to the ad and asking that it be removed. Jorge Zermeno told Radio Formula that the ads “improperly use the stereotyped image of a Mexican.”

Man Dies Days After Swordfight That Killed Woman

A man died Monday, days after he was involved in a swordfight with the grandson of a woman who was killed when she tried to intervene in the fight, police said.

Adolf Stegbauer, 69, died from complications of a stab wound. Charges pending against Chris Rondeau, 39, were expected to be upgraded. Police said he stabbed Stegbauer.

Franziska Stegbauer, 77, also died as a result of stab wounds after the fight early Thursday morning, but police were not initially sure which of the men had stabbed her.

Rondeau and Adolf Stegbauer got into an argument at a home in the 5200 block of Raceway Road that escalated when one of the men grabbed a sword, prompting the other man to also brandish a sword.

American captain rescued, pirates killed, U.S. official says

The captain of the Maersk Alabama was freed Sunday after being held captive since Wednesday by pirates off the coast of Somalia, a senior U.S. official with knowledge of the situation told CNN.

Capt. Richard Phillips of the Maersk Alabama is being held by pirates on a lifeboat off Somalia. Capt. Richard Phillips of the Maersk Alabama is being held by pirates on a lifeboat off Somalia.

The official said Capt. Richard Phillips is uninjured and in good condition, and that three of the four pirates were killed. The fourth pirate is in custody.

Phillips was taken aboard the USS Bainbridge, a nearby naval warship.

Earlier Sunday afternoon Maersk Line Limited, owner of the Maersk Alabama, said the U.S. Navy informed the company that it had sighted Phillips in a lifeboat where pirates are holding him.

Polar Bear Attack At Berlin Zoo Where Famous Abandoned Bear Knut Is Being Raised

This is the moment a woman was mauled by a polar bear after she jumped into its enclosure at Berlin Zoo.
The intruder was attacked just yards away from Knut, the abandoned bear who became famous around the world.

Zookeepers managed to push the bear away and carry the woman from the cage.

The mauling took place inside an enclosure occupied by four polar bears not far from Knut’s home.

Heiner Kloes, a Berlin Zoo spokesman, said the enclosure is surrounded by a fence, a line of prickly hedges and a wall.

The woman was taken to a hospital for treatment.

Police did not say why she jumped in with the bears.

Goldman Sachs hires law firm to shut blogger’s site

Goldman Sachs is attempting to shut down a dissident blogger who is extremely critical of the investment bank, its board members and its practices.

The bank has instructed Wall Street law firm Chadbourne & Parke to pursue blogger Mike Morgan, warning him in a recent cease-and-desist letter that he may face legal action if he does not close down his website.

Florida-based Mr Morgan began a blog entitled “Facts about Goldman Sachs” – the web address for which is goldmansachs666.com – just a few weeks ago.

In that time Mr Morgan, a registered investment adviser, has added a number of posts to the site, including one entitled “Does Goldman Sachs run the world?”. However, many of the posts relate to other Wall Street firms and issues.

According to Chadbourne & Parke’s letter, dated April 8, the bank is rattled because the site “violates several of Goldman Sachs’ intellectual property rights” and also “implies a relationship” with the bank itself.

Pirates must be hunted down and their vessels sunk on sight - Telegraph:

Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum, raise the Jolly Roger and all that. The thought of pirates brings a smile to the lips – but in reality there is nothing jolly about pirates, as this week’s hijacking of the Maersk Alabama off the coast of Somalia, should remind us.

 On Wednesday, Somali gunmen briefly hijacked the colossal freighter, only to be driven off by the crew. Retaining the captain as a hostage, they fled to a lifeboat, where they were yesterday engaged in a David-and-Goliath standoff with the might of the US Navy.

Last year, more than 130 such attacks were reported, centred on the Gulf of Aden. Approximately 50 were successful, with millions of pounds being extracted in ransom money, most notoriously for a Saudi supertanker carrying £70 million in oil, and a Ukrainian ship transporting 33 tanks. The civilised world long believed that piracy was part of history, long ago stamped out by the navies of the industrialised nations. Instead, at the chokepoints of sea lanes, off the shore of weak – or completely failed – states, piracy is flourishing.
…
So our campaign must be ruthless and pitiless: pirate ships must be sunk on sight and the crews left to swim to safety, if it can be reached.

Many would complain about such tactics but, in my opinion, pirates have no rights – indeed, it will be vital to exclude human rights lawyers from the anti-piracy campaign. To bring any captives to Europe or America for trial would probably be to grant them their dearest wish, which is to secure entry to a new life in the First World.

As the saying goes, read the whole thing…

Pirates seize U.S.-owned, Italy-flagged tugboat:

Pirates seized a U.S.-owned and Italian-flagged tugboat with 16 crew on Saturday in the latest hijacking in the busy Gulf of Aden waterway, a regional maritime group said.

Andrew Mwangura, of the Mombasa-based East African Seafarers’ Assistance Programme, said the crew were believed to be unharmed on the tugboat, which he added was operated from the United Arab Emirates.

He said the tugboat was towing two barges at the time of capture but there were no details on their cargo.

“This incident shows the pirates are becoming more daring and violent,” Mwangura told Reuters by phone.

Environmental agency offices pollute Wash. creek:

Washington state environmental regulators say they’ve finally found the source of pollution that has been fouling a creek near Vancouver Lake: the agency’s own sewer pipes.

City workers have discovered that an office building’s sewer line was mistakenly connected to a storm drain, rather than the municipal sewer main.

The 1970s-vintage building houses Washington state Department of Ecology regional offices, as well as those of the Department of Fish and Game and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Arroyo, ASEAN leaders evacuated from Thailand:

Helicopters began evacuating foreign leaders Saturday after anti-government protests forced the postponement of a major Asian summit in Thailand, Agence France-Presse reporters and police said.

Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo boarded a civilian helicopter which landed on the roof of the luxury beach resort hotel in the city of Pattaya where the meeting was being held, an AFP correspondent said.

Arroyo’s Press Secretary Cerge Remonde said by phone that the President was “very safe and very OK.”
Remonde said Ms Arroyo and the other leaders were never in danger. “The protesters were not rowdy.”

Remonde confirmed that Ms Arroyo was flown out of the convention center of the Royal Cliff Grand & Spa Hotel, venue of the summit, toward the airport in Pattaya.

Polish politician fumes over ‘gay’ elephant

A Polish politician has criticised his local zoo for acquiring a “gay” elephant named Ninio who prefers male companions and will probably not procreate, local media reported today.

“We didn’t pay 37 million zlotys ($11 million) for the largest elephant house in Europe to have a gay elephant live there,” Michal Grzes, a conservative councillor in the city of Poznan in western Poland, was quoted as saying.

“We were supposed to have a herd, but as Ninio prefers male friends over females how will he produce offspring?” said Grzes, who is from the right-wing opposition Law and Justice party.

Hat tip to Kara!

Infamous spy’s son released pending trial:

The son of an infamous CIA double agent who is himself accused of spying was released from jail Friday in Portland, Oregon, pending trial after a federal judge ruled he did not pose a flight risk.

Judge Anna J. Brown ordered that Nathaniel Nicholson, 24, can be freed provided he stay with family, not leave Oregon without permission from authorities and wear a GPS monitoring device. Brown also ordered that he not have any contact with his father, the admitted spy Harold James “Jim” Nicholson.

The elder Nicholson pleaded guilty in 1997 to spying for Russia and is the highest ranking CIA officer ever to be sentenced for espionage. While serving a 23-year prison sentence, prosecutors allege, Jim Nicholson, 58, restarted his career as a double agent and enlisted his son Nathaniel in his efforts to collect money owed to him by the Russian spy services and to sell more secrets.

Both father and son were charged in January with acting as agents of a foreign government, money laundering and conspiracy to commit money laundering. They have pleaded not guilty. Court appointed lawyers representing the men did not return CNN’s calls for comment

Is a Death Star Poised for Final Supernova Detonation Aimed at Earth? Astronomers Say “Maybe”:

Australian astronomers have been studying an intergalactic assassin poised to wipe out life on Earth. Maybe.

Observations indicate that cosmological curiosity WR104 may be a killer - and we might be the victim. The pretty pinwheel that makes the system so distinctive is now know to be a combination of two stars - a blue star orbiting the Wolf-Rayet 104.

 Note that the “Wolf-Rayet” name is the astronomical equivalent of a beeping red LCD countdown reading “0:01″ - it’s a swollen star getting ready for final supernova detonation.

At the moment its fusion reactions are blasting its own photosphere off into space, where the blue companion orbits and illuminates the material, creating a seriously impressive spiral over twice the size of our solar system. We have a perfect view of this pinwheel pattern, since the spiral is at right angles to us, in the same way a man being held at gunpoint has a perfect view of the little hole the bullets come out of.

And the gun is over twenty-five times the size of the sun. When a binary system collapses into a black hole, which astronomers call ‘coalescence’ (a euphemism which makes ‘heated debate’ a valid description of World War II), it can release a gigantic burst of gamma rays.

Gamma rays are the ultimate high energy electromagnetic radiation, and while the burst lasts less than two minutes it can contain more energy than the entire mass of the sun converted into energy by E = m c^2. You’ll notice that the mass of the sun and the speed of light, c, are extremely large numbers.

Jellybean guess is good for $25,000:

A Harlem woman took home $25,000 Thursday for guessing the exact number of jelly beans in a jar - for the second time in her life.

The first time Jessica Silverman struck it lucky was 21 years ago, when she was a 5-year-old kindergarten student and the trophy was a stuffed toy dragon.

This time, the prize will help her put a deposit on a new home after she correctly guessed there were 7,954 treats on display at a stand in the Hilton hotel on Sixth Ave. Tuesday.

“I’m a lucky girl, and I was in the right place at the right time,” Silverman said. “This is going to the ‘Get Jessica a first apartment’ fund.”

Asian-Americans Blast Texas Congressman’s Call for ‘Easier to Deal With’ Names

Asian-Americans say they are outraged that a Texas lawmaker suggested in a hearing that Asian-American voters should adopt names that are “easier for Americans to deal with” at the polls.

Texas Rep. Betty Brown, a Republican, made the comments on Tuesday as Ramey Ko, an associate member of the Organization of Chinese Americans, testified before the Texas House Elections Committee on voter identification legislation.

Ko testified that people of Asian descent frequently have difficulties voting due to differences in their legal transliterated names and the English name shown on their driver’s licenses.

Brown asked Ko: “Rather than everyone here having to learn Chinese — I understand it’s a rather difficult language — do you think that it would behoove you and your citizens to adopt a name that we could deal with more readily here?”

Conficker begins stealthy update:

The Conficker worm has started to update infected machines with a mystery package of data.

Computer security firms watching the malicious program noticed that it sprang into life late on 8 April. The activity on its update system delivered encrypted software to compromised machines. It is not yet clear what the payload contains.

The Conficker virus variants are thought to be present on millions of PCs around the world.

Pirate ships converge on US hostage at sea:

Escalating a dramatic Indian Ocean standoff, more U.S. warships — as well as pirate reinforcements with an international gallery of hostages — rushed Friday toward the spot where four Somali bandits are holding a U.S. sea captain aboard a drifting lifeboat.

The pirates apparently fear being shot or arrested if they hand over Capt. Richard Phillips — captured in a failed effort to seize the Maersk Alabama on Wednesday — and hope to link up with their colleagues who are using Russian, German, Filipino and other hostages captured in recent days as human shields.

U.S. Central Command chief Gen. David Petraeus said U.S. warships also are headed to the area, more than 300 miles (480 kilometers) off Somalia’s Indian Ocean coast.

“We want to ensure that we have all the capability that might be needed over the course of the coming days,” he said.

Sabotage attacks knock out phone service:

Vandals cut fiber-optic cable lines belonging to AT&T at two locations early today, knocking out phones and access to 911 emergency services to thousands of residential customers and businesses in southern Santa Clara County, in Santa Cruz and San Benito counties and along the Peninsula, authorities said.

Four AT&T fiber-optic cables in an underground vault were severed shortly before 1:30 a.m. along Monterey Highway north of Blossom Hill Road in south San Jose, police Sgt. Ronnie Lopez said.

Four more underground cables, at least two of which belong to AT&T, were cut about two hours later along Old County Road near Bing Street in San Carlos, authorities said.

John Britton, spokesman for AT&T, said, “Clearly, we have some vandalism. Someone purposefully and deliberately cut the wires.”

Dead mayor re-elected by US town:

Voters in a small town in the US state of Missouri have re-elected their popular mayor to a fourth term, several weeks after he died of a heart attack.

Harry Stonebraker died at the age of 69 in March - after ballot papers had been printed and absentee voting in the town of Winfield had begun.

 He won by a landslide, securing 90% of the vote in the 723-population town.

 Winfield will appoint a temporary mayor to serve until a special election is held in April 2010.

Footballer given yellow card ‘for breaking wind’ during penalty shot

The drive to bring good manners back to football has reached new heights after a referee issued a yellow card to a player for “breaking wind” as a penalty was being taken.

The official deemed the act “ungentlemanly conduct” and booked the player responsible. However Chorlton Villa, who conceded a goal on the second take, went on to win the match 6-4 against local rivals International Manchester FC at Turn Moss in Stretford, Manchester, last Sunday.

Ian Treadwell, manager of Chorlton Villa for the past eight years, said his team had learnt lessons from the game in which three players were dismissed and two were booked.

Friend bites man’s penis off in row

A man was rushed to hospital after telling doctors how his best friend bit his penis off in a row - and swallowed it.

Horrified Marian Milczarek, 53, from Lesna in south west Poland, was attacked following a row with his friend - apparently over borrowing a trailer.

‘He began hitting me with a chain and then pulled down my trousers and started biting. It was agony,’ he said.

Hat tip to John M. !

FOXNews.com - German Man’s Skeleton Found in Tree Nearly 30 Years After His Suicide

A skeleton of a German man who shot and killed himself in a tree has been found by a hiker – nearly 30 years later.

Police said the 69-year-old retiree who had been missing since 1980 tied himself to the tree before firing the gun, Reuters reported.

His remains were discovered after an 18-year-old hiker found a bone in the forest last week and brought it to police, who then searched the area, Reuters reported.

Thug throws cat off roof :

A TEENAGER who laughed at a cat’s “screams” as he hurled it off a second storey rooftop into a swimming pool was fined $1000 in Cairns Magistrates’ Court yesterday. The court heard that Christopher Jeffrey James, 18, paused before throwing the cat - his ex-girlfriend’s mother’s pet - as his friend got his mobile phone ready to record the cruel show.

“The video footage clearly shows a man throwing a cat from the roof of a two-storey house,” police prosecutor Constable Siobhan O’Rourke said.

“There is the sound of a cat’s scream as he does this.”

“The cat lands in a nearby swimming pool and swims to the edge then runs into nearby bushes.

“Voices are heard laughing in the background.” 

Helicopter pilot in sex act denied license:

Flying and oral sex don’t mix, a judge ruled Tuesday as he upheld the Federal Aviation Administration’s decision to revoke the license of a pilot who allowed a busty blonde woman to perform a sex act on him as he flew her around San Diego.

The FAA took the action earlier this year after a videotape of the May 29, 2005, encounter surfaced on the Internet. Neither the identity of the videographer or the woman seated next to David Martz was revealed. However, published reports have identified the woman as a Swedish porn star.

“The evidence clearly shows grossly reckless conduct on the part of the respondent,” National Transportation Safety Board administrative law Judge William R. Mullins said after spending an hour in private reviewing an unedited version of the video with FAA officials, Martz and his lawyer.

Clinton Seeks End to ‘Scourge of Piracy’ as U.S. Navy Races to Hijacked American Ship

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called Wednesday for world action to “end the scourge of piracy” as U.S. warships raced to confront pirates who hijacked a U.S.-flagged ship off the coast of Somalia.

American crew members aboard the hijacked ship were able to regain control of the vessel Wednesday, but the ship’s captain still is being held hostage on a smaller boat.

“We are deeply concerned and we are following it very closely,” Clinton said.

“Specifically, we are now focused on this particular act of piracy and the seizure of a ship that carries 21 American citizens. More generally, we think the world must come together to end the scourge of piracy,” she said.

U.S. Navy officials told FOX News on Wednesday afternoon that its closest ship was 300 miles away, which would place it 15 hours from the vessel, known as the Maersk Alabama.

Pirate life offers power, prosperity

For young Somalis, piracy offers a life of adventure and money: At sea, they are armed with automatic weapons, rockets and grenades. On land, they are a cross between a town official and a gangster rapper — with grand houses, luxury cars and beautiful wives.

Piracy is a lucrative business in Somalia, a country with no central government, no banks and few merit-based opportunities because of an entrenched clan system. For Somali men such as those who hijacked an American cargo ship, banditry at sea offers power and potential prosperity in a land so bleak that life expectancy is just 46 years and a quarter of children die before they reach 5.

Pirates are attracted by Somalia’s lawlessness and its strategic location. The Gulf of Aden is one of the world’s busiest waterways, with 20,000 merchant ships passing through yearly on their way to and from the Suez Canal. Countless fishing boats drop anchor in search of tuna, snapper and barracuda, which are plentiful in Somali waters.

Somali pirates seize ship and US crew off Horn of Africa:

Somali pirates have seized a Danish-owned, US-operated container ship with 21 American crew members aboard, in the latest attack on shipping off the Horn of Africa, a regional maritime group said today.

Andrew Mwangura, of the Kenya-based East African Seafarers’ Assistance Programme, said the Maersk Alabama, a 17,000-tonne ship, was hijacked in the Indian Ocean, 400 miles from the Somalian capital, Mogadishu.

“All its 21 American crew members are believed to be safe,” Mwangura said.

The US navy confirmed that a US-flagged ship with 21 crew members was hijacked early today off the eastern coast of Somalia.

U.S. electrical grid penetrated by spies:

Cyberspies have penetrated the U.S. electrical grid and left behind software programs that could be used to disrupt the system, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.

The spies came from China, Russia and other countries, and were believed to be on a mission to navigate the U.S. electrical system and its controls, the newspaper said, citing current and former U.S. national security officials.

The intruders have not sought to damage the power grid or other key infrastructure but officials said they could try during a crisis or war, the paper said in a report on its website.

Hitler’s picture on Bulgarian billboard

A picture of Adolf Hitler was displayed on a huge billboard in Sofia and immediately prompted the Israeli Embassy to protest to Bulgarian authorities.

The picture of the Nazi leader shown on an advertisement billboard caused outrage in Sofia, the Bulgarian SNA news agency said Tuesday.

White House press corps grounded in Turkey

While President Obama took off for home around Tuesday 2 pm ET from Baghdad aboard Air Force One, the bulk of the journalists who followed him on his European journey found themselves stuck in Turkey.

Several hours before the president took flight, the United crew providing transportation for the White House Press Corps’ return discovered a problem with the United 777 scheduled to leave a few hours later.

It turns out the motor that moves the captain’s left chair forward to reach the controls was broken.

Iranian nuke plot vaporized in the city: NY banks unwittingly aided in material transfers, says DA:

The Manhattan district attorney’s office has smashed a sinister plot to smuggle nuclear weapons materials to Iran through unwitting New York banks, the Daily News has learned.

Officials plan to unseal a 118-count indictment Tuesday accusing a Chinese national of setting up a handful of fake companies to hide that he was selling millions of dollars in potential nuclear materials to Tehran.

“This case will cut off a major source of supply to Iran and it shows how they are going ahead full steam to get a nuclear bomb. Long-range missiles they pretty much have already,” a law enforcement source close to the case said.

“We think it is one of the largest suppliers of weapons of mass destruction to Iran.”

Military used pigs in blasts to test armor:

Military researchers have dressed live pigs in body armor and strapped them into Humvee simulators that were then blown up with explosives to study the link between roadside bomb blasts and brain injury.

For an 11-month period that ended in December, researchers subjected pigs and rats to about 200 blasts, according to Pentagon documents and interviews. The explosions have ranged in intensity, wounding some of the pigs and killing others. Roadside bombs are the top killer of U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The research on pigs has determined that body armor does not worsen brain injury, said Jan Walker, a spokeswoman for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, which conducted the study. The military feared body armor would deflect the force of blasts toward the head and increase the risk of brain injury.

Italy muzzled scientist who foresaw quake:

An Italian scientist predicted a major earthquake around L’Aquila weeks before disaster struck the city on Monday, killing dozens of people, but was reported to authorities for spreading panic among the population.

The first tremors in the region were felt in mid-January and continued at regular intervals, creating mounting alarm in the medieval city, about 100 km (60 miles) east of Rome. Vans with loudspeakers had driven around the town a month ago telling locals to evacuate their houses after seismologist Gioacchino Giuliani predicted a large quake was on the way, prompting the mayor’s anger.

Giuliani, who based his forecast on concentrations of radon gas around seismically active areas, was reported to police for “spreading alarm” and was forced to remove his findings from the Internet.

EXCLUSIVE: Fox News Fires Showbiz Columnist For “Promoting” Piracy:

News Corp like all major Hollywood studios takes the crime of piracy very seriously. Nor will the Fox parent company tolerate it if its employees don’t.  Especially after a stolen, early and unfinished work print of 20th Century Fox’s big summer blockbuster X-Men Origins: Wolverine was put onto the Internet illegally this week in a major scandal that the FBI is now investigating.

So there was universal shock on Friday when long-time “Fox 411″ freelance columnist Roger Friedman wrote what I’m told his bosses felt was a blatant promotion of piracy on his Fox News web outlet. Besides writing a review from watching the purloined print of Wolverine, Friedman posted, “I did find the whole top 10 [movies in theaters], plus TV shows, commercials, videos, everything, all streaming away. It took really less than seconds to start playing it all right onto my computer. I could have downloaded all of it but really, who has the time or the room?

For what it’s worth, there’s a hell of a lot more out there than just the top 10 in the theaters.  Indeed, there’s vastly more out on USENET than there is on Netflix.