Online gamer dies after ‘marathon’ session
An obese 26-year-old man in northeastern China died after a “marathon” online gaming session over the Lunar New Year holiday, state media said on Wednesday. The 330-pound man from Jinzhou, in Liaoning province, collapsed on Saturday, the last day of the holiday, after spending “almost all” of the seven-day break playing online games, the China Daily said, citing his parents.
Hat tip to Kara!
Rat disfigures Mo. baby sleeping in crib
Exterminators began sweeping a Kansas City neighborhood infested with rats after one of the rodents crawled into a baby’s crib and severely disfigured the girl’s face.Authorities said the girl’s parents put her in a crib next to their bed early Sunday and awoke a few hours later, when a heart and breathing monitor alarm went off. The 4-week-old baby, which had been born prematurely, was lying in a pool of blood with her nose and part of her upper lip chewed off.
Hat tip to Kara!
Driver Used Laptop Before Crash, Police Say
Authorities investigating a fatal crash in California said they found a dead man’s laptop computer in the wreckage. It was still running. They believe the man was using the computer while driving. It was plugged into his car’s cigarette lighter. The man’s car crossed into oncoming traffic near Yuba City on Monday and collided with a Hummer. The couple inside the Hummer escaped with just bumps and bruises.
Hat tip to Kara!
A judge in the United States has ruled that even though Michigan law does not explicitly define sex with a dead dog as a crime, charges against a local man will stand.
Announcing a trial date, Judge Joseph K. Sheeran confirmed 45-year-old Ronald E. Kuch will face charges of sodomy, indecent exposure and resisting and obstructing an Animal Control officer.
If convicted of either of the first two charges, Kuch will then have a hearing on May 30, at which Sheeran will determine whether Kuch is a “sexually delinquent person.”
Restaurant Adds 123-Pound Burger to Menu
The newest addition to the menu at Denny’s Beer Barrel Pub is one whopper of a burger. The Beer Barrel Main Event Charity Burger weighs in at 123 pounds, a meaty monstrosity that its cooks maintain shatters the world record of 105 pounds shared by two restaurants in New Jersey and Thailand.The sizable sandwich features an 80-pound beef patty, along with a pound each of lettuce, ketchup, relish, mustard and mayonnaise, 160 slices of cheese, up to five onions and 12 tomatoes.
Study Suggests Ice Cream May Aid Fertility
Ben & Jerry might help you get pregnant, but not in the usual way. A diet rich in ice cream and other high-fat dairy foods may lower the risk of one type of infertility, a study suggests. It sounds too good to be true and probably is, some doctors say.But the findings are bound to get attention because they are from the well-known Nurses Health Study at the Harvard School of Public Health and were published Wednesday in the European journal Human Reproduction.
Researchers found that women who ate two or more low-fat dairy products a day were nearly twice as likely to have trouble conceiving because of lack of ovulation than women who ate less than one serving of such foods a week.
Sex with animals? You’re kid-ding
A man accused of having sex with dogs, goats and horses has failed to have details of the case suppressed. Steven Whittam, 24, of Melbourne, faces 19 charges of bestiality over incidents which allegedly took place between January 2001 and June 2006 in suburbs across Melbourne’s south-east.
Neo Nazis Attack Berlin Chabad Kindergarten
Berlin police are trying to track down neo-Nazis who hurled a smoke bomb into a Jewish kindergarten over the weekend and covered the building with Nazi graffiti. The attack took place at a time when no one was in the building. The smoke bomb failed to ignite and a police spokesman said the attack did not cause serious damage or endanger children or staff at the school.Nazi symbols and anti-Semitic phrases including “Auschwitz,” “Juden Raus” [Jews, Out!] “Sieg Heil” [Hail Victory – the common Nazi salute to Hitler], and “Weg hier” [Get away from here] were spray painted on the building’s outer walls, as well as on toys that had been lying around in the school’s playground.
Tooth implant ‘to release drugs’:
Forgetting to take medicine may be a thing of the past as researchers close in on creating an artificial tooth which automatically releases medicine. The Intellidrug device is small enough to fit inside two artificial molars in the jaw, the Engineer journal said.
New Mouse Teeth, Whiskers Grown From Handful of Cells:
Someday soon dentists may not just pull teeth and fill cavities. They could also stick entirely new teeth back in your mouth—perhaps by dabbing just a couple of cells in an empty tooth socket. That is, if recent research pans out. New mouse teeth, whiskers photosScientists in Japan have come up with a controversial method for growing teeth in the lab—and even in adult mice—using a couple of cells from an embryo.
The researchers did the same with mouse whiskers, regenerating them from a single cell. These teeth and whiskers were implanted into other mice, where they took root and seemed to function normally.
A jaguar so mean, they named him Osama
The jaguar that killed a Denver zookeeper Saturday had a twin — and it was so mean that handlers named him Osama. That’s according to an official at the Bolivian zoo that sent the jaguar named Jorge to the Denver Zoo.
Honeybees Vanish, Leaving Keepers in Peril
David Bradshaw has endured countless stings during his life as a beekeeper, but he got the shock of his career when he opened his boxes last month and found half of his 100 million bees missing.In 24 states throughout the country, beekeepers have gone through similar shocks as their bees have been disappearing inexplicably at an alarming rate, threatening not only their livelihoods but also the production of numerous crops, including California almonds, one of the nation’s most profitable.
“I have never seen anything like it,” Mr. Bradshaw, 50, said from an almond orchard here beginning to bloom. “Box after box after box are just empty. There’s nobody home.”
Iowa Man Discovers He’s a Lucky ‘Idiot’
Ed O’Neill’s bank account just got a lot bigger, thanks to a co-worker who told him some “idiot” hasn’t claimed an $800,000 Powerball lottery prize.O’Neill, 58, who works for the Clinton Chamber of Commerce, bought the ticket for a Jan. 6 Powerball drawing. He told Iowa Lottery staffers he didn’t think to check the results until a couple days afterward when a chamber receptionist pointed out an article in the local newspaper.
“She said, ‘Read this article about the idiot that hasn’t claimed his ticket.’ So I read it and noticed where the ticket was bought,” O’Neill said. “I thought, ‘Gee, I better look at my ticket.’ That’s when I said, ‘I think I won.’”
Aunt’s Whipping of Boy in Class Investigated
Prince George’s County public schools officials are investigating an incident in which the aunt of a second-grader at a county charter school ordered him to remove his pants and underwear and whipped him in front of his teacher and classmates Friday.Kenneth Jones, principal of Turning Point Academy in Lanham, a charter school founded last year, acknowledged in a letter to the regional superintendent that the incident had taken place. Jones said the aunt would write a letter of apology to the parents of the students in the class.
Man Seeks Stand-In Mistress for Wife’s Abuse
A Chinese businessman has advertised on the Internet for a stand-in mistress to be beaten up by his wife to vent her anger and to protect his real mistress, Chinese media reported on Monday.
Girl Lost in Poker Game Pleads for Help
A teenage girl in southern Pakistan, whose late father lost her in a poker game when she was 2 years old, has asked authorities to save her from being handed over to a middle-aged relative.
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Her mother, Nooran said her husband racked up a debt of 10,000 rupees, or $151, to Haider playing cards.“My husband didn’t have money to pay, and instead he told Lal Haider that he could take Rasheeda when she grows up,” she said.
Despite being paid his money last year, she said Haider still insisted the girl should be given to him because of tribal customs.
China Premier: Democracy 100 Years Away:
Democracy will emerge once a “mature socialist system” develops but that might not happen for up to 100 years, Premier Wen Jiabao wrote in an article in the People’s Daily, the main Communist Party newspaper.For now, China must focus on “sustained rapid growth of productive forces … to finally secure fairness and social justice that lies within the essence of socialism,” Wen wrote.
The premier, China’s No. 3 leader, said the country is “still far from advancing out of the primary stage of socialism. We must adhere to the party’s basic guidelines of the primary stage of socialism for 100 years.”
Not too much going on – here’s a sample:
03.02.2007 0245 LT in position 06:03.0N – 003:25.5E, Lagos Roads, Nigeria. Five pirates armed with guns boarded a tanker drifting 20 miles off the breakwaters. Pirates threatened the duty AB at forward station by pointing a gun at him. They entered the bosun store. Other duty crew informed OOW who raised the alarm. Crew mustered. Port control informed but call ignored. Pirates stole ship’s stores and escaped in a motor canoe. No one was injured
Hallucinogenic herb a problem in Wash. – Health:
Both Washington state and U.S. officials are growing increasingly concerned over the popularity of a legal hallucinogenic herb in the region around Seattle.An herb from the mint family, Salvia Divinorum has become a popular drug of choice with many Washington teenagers and its reported ability to make its users hallucinate and forget has many officials concerned, Seattle`s KIRO-TV reported.
‘Just because it`s legal, just because it`s not classified, just because it`s not a controlled substance doesn`t mean that it`s healthy and safe,’ DEA official Rodney Benson said.
L.A. madam’s ‘trick book’ is unsealed – Los Angeles Times:
When Hollywood madam Jody “Babydol” Gibson was busted eight years ago, word that police had seized her list of celebrity clients stirred intense curiosity in Hollywood — and not a little worry.The much-anticipated disclosure of famous names never occurred, however. The evidence presented to the jury that convicted Gibson in 2000 of operating an international prostitution ring included phone books and other records in which, prosecutors said, she listed her customers. But authorities blacked out the names in publicly available court records.
Now, their identities are entering the public domain. In “Secrets of a Hollywood SuperMadam,” an autobiography due in bookstores Thursday, Gibson names two dozen celebrities she says patronized her call-girl service.
Asian paper’s ‘I Hate Blacks’ column assailed:
A San Francisco weekly newspaper that bills itself as “The Voice of Asian America” is facing harsh criticism from that very community for publishing a column Friday titled “Why I Hate Blacks.”In the column, AsianWeek regular contributor Kenneth Eng listed “reasons” to discriminate against African Americans. The piece has been pulled from the newspaper’s Web site, but the print edition of the free paper, owned by the politically influential Fang family, was still available in news racks Monday.
Eng called himself an “Asian supremacist” in January in another installment of the column, which runs under the label “God of the Universe.”
Overweight 8-Year-Old May Be Taken Into Protective Custody in U.K.
British authorities may take an 8-year-old boy weighing 218 pounds into protective custody unless his mother improves his diet, officials said Monday. Social service officials will meet family members Tuesday to discuss the health of Connor McCreaddie, who weighs more than three times the average for his age. “The worst case would be Connor getting taken into care. He is well cared for,” the boy’s mother, Nicola McKeown, told ITV television.
Hat tip to Kara!
Lockheed’s F-22 Raptor Gets Zapped by International Date Line:
Lockheed’s F-22 Raptor is the most advanced fighter in the world with its stealth capabilities, advanced radar, state of the art weapons systems and ultra-efficient turbofans which allow the F-22 to “supercruise” at supersonic speeds without an afterburner.
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But while the simulated war games were a somewhat easy feat for the Raptor, something more mundane was able to cripple six aircraft on a 12 to 15 hours flight from Hawaii to Kadena Air Base in Okinawa, Japan. The U.S. Air Force’s mighty Raptor was felled by the International Date Line (IDL).When the group of Raptors crossed over the IDL, multiple computer systems crashed on the planes. Everything from fuel subsystems, to navigation and partial communications were completely taken offline. Numerous attempts were made to “reboot” the systems to no avail.
14 Iranian troops killed in helicopter crash
Fourteen Iranian military personnel were killed in a helicopter crash last week during an operation against rebels close to the Turkish border, the Revolutionary Guards confirmed on Monday.A statement carried by the ISNA agency said that two commanders of the Guards’ ground force and 12 other military personnel were killed in Friday’s accident. Kurdish rebels had claimed they shot down the aircraft.
“Commanders Ghahari Said and Dorosti of the Guards’ Hamzeh Army 3, along with 12 other members of the Islamic republic’s army and the Guards, were martyred in the helicopter accident,” the army statement said.
IT seemed almost too good to be true, and in the end it was. A conscientious pianist who had enjoyed an active if undistinguished career in London falls ill and retreats to a small town. Here she undertakes a project to record virtually the entire standard classical repertoire. Her recordings, CDs made when she was in her late 60s and 70s, are staggering, showing a masterful technique, a preternatural ability to adapt to different styles and a depth of musical insight hardly seen elsewhere.
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Now it has become brutally clear that “passing along” is exactly what she was up to. Earlier this month, a reader of the British music magazine Gramophone told one of its critics, Jeremy Distler, that something odd happened when he slid Ms. Hatto’s CD of Liszt’s “Transcendental Études” into his computer. His iTunes library, linked to a catalogue of about four million CDs, immediately identified it as a recording by the Hungarian pianist Laszlo Simon. Mr. Distler then listened to both recordings, and found them identical.
Police raid Yamaguchi-gumi headquarters over shooting death of rival gangster
Police raided the headquarters of the Yamaguchi-gumi gang on Monday over the shooting death of a senior member of a rival affiliate of the Sumiyoshi-kai crime syndicate, investigators said.This is the second raid that the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) has conducted over the incident following its search of the headquarters of the Kokusui-kai, an affiliate of the Yamaguchi-gumi.
Investigators suspect that at least one organization under the umbrella of the Yamaguchi-gumi, the nation’s largest crime syndicate, was involved in the killing even though the MPD says it has not identified the suspect.
11 Dead, Over 100 Hurt at Kite Flying Festival in Pakistan
At least 11 people died and more than 100 people were injured at an annual spring festival in eastern Pakistan celebrated with the flying of thousands of colorful kites, officials said Monday.The deaths and injuries were caused by stray bullets, sharpened kite-strings, electrocution and people falling off rooftops on Sunday at the conclusion of the two-day Basant festival, said Ruqia Bano, spokeswoman for the emergency services in the city of Lahore.
Fake terror message goes out to Connex customers
Thousands of Melbourne commuters were last night sent a chilling SMS from Connex telling them that ticket inspectors loved killing people and would help bomb a train.Connex says it will prosecute those who hacked into its computer system and texted the message. The rail operator was swamped by calls from subscribers to its SMS which usually informs them when trains are cancelled or delayed. They were surprised to get the message: “ALLAHU AKBR FROM CONNEX!” which flashed across their phone screens about 9.45pm.
‘Perfectionism’ bowel pain link:
Perfectionists are more prone to developing irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) after an infection, a study has suggested.University of Southampton researchers asked 620 people with gastroenteritis about stress and their illness.
Those who pushed themselves or were particularly anxious about symptoms were more likely to develop IBS.
Global Warming Alarm: Doomsday for Australia?:
If global warming continues at its current rate, the CSIRO report warned, life in the city of Sydney could be completely transformed by the year 2070.In just one generation, Sydney could slide into a near permanent state of drought. There could be a dramatic rise in deadly bushfires. Temperatures would rise 10 or 15 degrees Fahrenheit, or more. Heat-related deaths would soar from nearly 200 to more than 1,200 a year. The report was very grim reading, especially for the people of Sydney.
Could we have hitched a ride on UFOs?
It is not the sort of discussion you imagine among the grey-suited ranks of Whitehall – defence analysts debating the existence of little green men and speculating about whether they have visited Earth.
But a set of newly released internal Ministry of Defence documents gives a fascinating insight into the military’s interest in UFOs. They tell the story of the MoD’s decision to investigate the threat they might pose and whether alien military technology could be used in the defence of the realm. They also reveal the conflicting attitudes within Whitehall to the subject and the lengths that officials went to in order to keep the project secret.
Something strange is happening in the outer reaches of our solar system. The Pioneer 10 and 11 spacecraft are not where they are supposed to be. These missions, launched in 1972 and 1973, have covered hundreds of millions of kilometers, heading toward the edge of our solar system. But something is holding them back. Each year, they fall behind in their projected travel by about 5,000 kilometers (3,000 miles).Jet Propulsion Laboratory scientist John Anderson and his colleagues have been searching for an explanation since 1980. But as of yet, they have found nothing conclusive; no spacecraft behavior or previously unknown property of the outer solar system can explain the deceleration of the Pioneer spacecraft. Scientists are being forced to consider the unthinkable: something may be wrong with our understanding of the laws of physics. An important line of inquiry will be to study mounds of Doppler (velocity) data and spacecraft status data (like temperatures) that have been unavailable to researchers—but that is about to change
Virgin Mary image draws throngs in Houston
They kneeled. They cried. They asked for healing. Before them, on an altar of roses and prayer candles, was a metal baking sheet, stained with what hundreds of Houston Catholics now believe is an image of the Virgin Mary. Guadalupe Rodriguez, a Pugh Elementary School cafeteria worker, discovered the possible miracle on Ash Wednesday, while scrubbing away the last crumbs from the pizza lunch.
Stalin’s last army – hordes of gigantic crabs on their way to invade Europe
Millions of giant Pacific crabs, whose ancestors were brought to Europe by Joseph Stalin in the 1930s, are marching south along Norway’s coast, devouring everything in their path.The monster crabs, which can weigh up to 25lb and have a claw-span of more than three feet, are proving so resilient that scientists fear they could end up as far south as Gibraltar.
Energised by a mysterious population explosion a decade ago, whole armies of the crustaceans – known as the Kamchatka or Red King Crabs – have already advanced about 400 miles along the roof of Europe, overwhelming the ports of northern Norway.
Another fine mess to celebrate
Whether getting stuck up Everest or down an alley in a tank, the members of the Cock-Up Club believe that failure can be glorious. Their club dinner is tomorrow: prepare for breaking glassUntil now, it has been a secret society, shadowy and on the margins. Which is perhaps understandable. Its leading lights include the man who climbed Everest “and fell off”, the major who captured a flock of sheep instead of the IRA, and the explorer who went into the jungle with 24 bottles of wine, but forgot the food.
Now, though, the Cock-Up Club is opening its doors to the admiring gaze of the public. On the eve of the club’s first dinner of 2007, its co-founder, Anthony Willoughby, 56, has offered The Sunday Telegraph the first look into the group’s history, members and “achievements”.
US funds terror groups to sow chaos in Iran
America is secretly funding militant ethnic separatist groups in Iran in an attempt to pile pressure on the Islamic regime to give up its nuclear programme.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s regime is accused of repressing minority rights and culture In a move that reflects Washington’s growing concern with the failure of diplomatic initiatives, CIA officials are understood to be helping opposition militias among the numerous ethnic minority groups clustered in Iran’s border regions.
The operations are controversial because they involve dealing with movements that resort to terrorist methods in pursuit of their grievances against the Iranian regime.
In the past year there has been a wave of unrest in ethnic minority border areas of Iran, with bombing and assassination campaigns against soldiers and government officials.
New Sea Creatures Discovered in Antarctica
Spindly orange sea stars, fan-finned ice fish and herds of roving sea cucumbers are among the exotic creatures spied off the Antarctic coast in an area formerly covered by ice, scientists reported on Sunday.This is the first time explorers have been able to catalog wildlife where two mammoth ice shelves used to extend for some 3,900 square miles over the Weddell Sea .
At least 5,000 years old, the ice shelves collapsed in two stages over the last dozen years. One crumbled 12 years ago and the other followed in 2002.
Ground Rises Near Ancient Italian Volcano:
The ground on the western edges of Naples, Italy is rising, spurring worries of a possible volcanic eruption, but scientists now think they know exactly what is causing the uplift and may be able to better predict any potential eruption.Using GPS measurements, a group of scientists at the National Institute of Geophysics and Vulcanology in Italy monitored the ground’s motions for several years, and based on the patterns they observed, they believe the uplifting is caused by magma intruding from a shallow chamber.
The rising motions of the ground reached a peak rate of about three feet per year during two major uplift episodes in the last few decades. Some previous episode of the alternate uplifting and subsidence left its mark: Bore holes from mollusks can be found on Roman pillars in the area, indicating the ground once subsided below water and has since risen up again.
A 78-year-old Norwegian woman died this week from burns suffered when her television set exploded in her apartment.The woman lived alone in a senior citizens’ housing project in Odda, western Norway. The explosion was apparently so powerful that the TV itself was virtually pulverized.
Pirates have hijacked a cargo ship delivering UN food aid to northeastern Somalia. The ship, NV Rozen, had just delivered 900 tonnes of food aid to the semi-autonomous region of Puntland when the pirates attacked, said Stephanie Savariaud, a spokeswoman for the UN’s World Food Programme. “We know it has been hijacked by pirates but we do not know how many pirates there are,” Savariaud said.
Swarms of Locusts Terrorize Mexican Farmers:
Thousand of crops in the southeastern Mexican state of Yucatan have been destroyed by a severe locust plague, that has invaded the region since early this year. In Merida, officials believe nearly 5,000 acres of corn and other goods have been affected by the insects.
Family Ties Sharpton to Thurmond
Geneaologists have found that civil rights activist the Rev. Al Sharpton is a descendent of a slave owned by relatives of the late Sen. Strom Thurmond, a newspaper reported Sunday.
The Daily News said professional genealogists, working at the newspaper’s behest, recently uncovered the ancestral ties between one of the nation’s best known black leaders and a man who was once a prominent defender of segregation.
“I have always wondered what was the background of my family,” the newspaper quoted Sharpton as saying. “But nothing — nothing — could prepare me for this.” “It’s chilling. It’s amazing.”
Police protect girls forced to convert to Islam
Extremist Muslims who force vulnerable teenage girls to convert to Islam are being targeted by police, Met chief Sir Ian Blair has revealed.Police are working with universities to clamp down on “aggressive conversions” during which girls are beaten up and forced to abandon university courses.
The Hindu Forum of Britain claims hundreds of mostly Sikh and Hindu girls have been intimidated by Muslim men who take them out on dates before terrorising them until they convert.
Millions of migrants have crossed illegally from Mexico into the United States. Their experience could hardly be more real. But now at a controversial theme park in Mexico, tourists can pretend to be an illegal migrant.
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They come to the Eco Alberto Park to be shot at, chased and to wade through fast-flowing rivers. I myself developed a certain connection with one such river, but more on that later. For the equivalent of $19.50 (£10), you can spend a night living like the millions of Mexicans who actually risked their lives crossing into the United States.
CIA recruited Japanese war criminals
Col. Masanobu Tsuji was a fanatical Japanese militarist and brutal warrior, hunted after World War II for massacres of Chinese civilians and complicity in the Bataan Death March. And then he became a U.S. spy. Newly declassified CIA records, released by the U.S. National Archives and examined by The Associated Press, document more fully than ever how Tsuji and other suspected Japanese war criminals were recruited by U.S. intelligence in the early days of the Cold War. The documents also show how ineffective the effort was, in the CIA’s view.
Mugabe party mocks starving nation
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe’s endlessly proclaimed illusion of Zimbabwean democracy, prosperity and health and education for all reached its most surreal extreme at a party held yesterday costing 300m Zimbabwe dollars to celebrate his 83rd birthday.This sum would have been worth £150,000 when officials of the ruling Zanu-PF began collecting for the event in December, but by this weekend it was down to £23,000, so fast is the currency falling in value.
Police caught onto Kline after a Canadian computer whiz hacked into the judge’s Irvine home computer and discovered sexually explicit images of young boys and a diary that revealed Kline’s fantasies involving young boys. A subsequent search of his court computer revealed more images and more Web sites. Brad Willman, the Canadian hacker, forwarded the information to an anti-pedophile watchdog group, which then sent the information to Irvine police detectives.
Cadbury sorry over graves stunt:
Cadbury Schweppes has apologised to the authorities in the US city of Boston after a marketing stunt closed an historic cemetery. The UK firm was promoting its Dr Pepper drink in the US by organising gold coin treasure hunts for big cash prizes. Contestants flocked to the 347-year-old Granary Burying Ground to find the hidden coin, but the site was shut amid fears that graves may be desecrated. The firm said burying the coin there had been “poor judgement”.
The problem today is not only the draconian sentences that white-collar offenders are receiving, but the fact that because of the elimination of parole they will actually have to serve them. [Oh the Horrors! Imagine that! Ed.]
For example, if Michael Milken had been sentenced under today’s sentencing regime, and if he had been made to serve his entire sentence, he might not have been able to found the Prostate Cancer Foundation or FasterCures, two organizations that have made serious inroads in the treatment of diseases. Without the freedom to undertake this extraordinary work in the fight against cancer, he might never have earned Fortune Magazine’s title of “The Man Who Changed Medicine.” [Shocking! Shocking! Ed.]
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Not surprisingly, the sentences in white-collar cases have matched Congress’s desires. Look at the case of Chalana McFarland, a first-time offender who received a thirty-year prison term for her role in a mortgage fraud scheme that skimmed twenty million dollars from the sale of over one hundred homes from 1999 to 2002.Congress might want to be tough on crime, but does Congress really want McFarland to serve more time than John Walker Lindh, who received a twenty-year sentence for supplying services to the Taliban”? Is there a legitimate reason for white-collar offenders to receive longer prison sentences than a traitor?
Denver Zookeeper Dies From Jaguar Attack:
A zookeeper died Saturday after a 140-pound jaguar mauled her in its enclosure, and the big cat was fatally shot when it approached emergency workers treating the injured woman, the zoo said.The zookeeper, whose name was not immediately released, was taken to Denver General Hospital, where she died, police spokesman Sonny Jackson said.
The park closed after the shooting and it wasn’t immediately known whether it would reopen Sunday, spokeswoman Amy Sarno said. “Obviously, everyone is very upset,” she said.
Teacher sends drug-deal texts to cop
A middle school teacher trying to buy pot was arrested after she sent text messages to state trooper instead of a dealer, police said.Trooper Trevor Pervine was at dinner with his wife and parents celebrating a birthday when his phone started buzzing with messages about a marijuana purchase.
Clashes in Northwest Iran!… Chopper Down-Dozens Dead!:
Ten Revolutionary Guard members including two officers were killed when their helicopter was shot down by insurgents on Saturday. Iranian news reported that 17 “terrorists” were eliminated during the fighting.The helicopter was on a mission at Khoy region, East Azarbaijan province, where it had to make an emergency landing immediately after which it was exploded. All IRGC forces on the board including two commanders were killed instantly.
Antifreeze-Like Blood Lets Frogs Freeze and Thaw With Winter’s Whims:
The freeze-thaw, freeze-thaw see-saw of this winter’s temperatures may be a sign of global warming. But for now wood frogs are weathering the flux in style, according to an expert on the amphibians.“They undergo freeze-thaw cycles all the time,” said Kenneth Storey, a professor of biochemistry at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada.
Some animals migrate to warmer climes for the winter and others burrow deep underground to sleep until spring. Wood frogs instead seek cover under leaves near the surface, where they actually freeze and thaw with their surroundings.
Miami Church Brands Members With ‘666′ Tattoos
Surrounded by a mob of news cameras, a group of smiling, well-dressed church members crowded into a South Beach storefront parlor on a recent muggy evening and got matching tattoos of their prophet’s symbol: 666.Members of Growing in Grace, a controversial religious sect headquartered in Doral, said they were following the example of their leader, Jose Luis De Jesus Miranda, who has claimed to be Jesus and recently declared himself the Antichrist.
Critics have called De Jesus a cult leader who manipulates followers. Church members say he has brought them happiness and spiritual fulfillment.
Woman allegedly advised by geese not guilty in tot death
A 53-year-old woman who claimed she received spiritual messages from geese before allegedly stabbing her toddler granddaughter to death was found not guilty by reason of insanity Friday.
A judge ordered Carol Lynn Pappas committed to the state mental health hospital, where officials will decide “when and if she will ever be released,” said Kathleen Walsh, spokeswoman for the district attorney.
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Authorities said Pappas had told her son she had been receiving spiritual advice from geese flying over his house, where she was living.
Ice Chunk Crashes Through Bucks Co. Home:
A Bucks County family was abruptly awakened after a large piece of icy debris crashed through the roof of their home.Police were called to the family’s home on 43 Trailwood Drive in Northampton Township after a large chunk of ice came hurtling through the roof just after midnight Friday.
”My mom heard a huge explosion-type of sound and we all came out just to see and there was a huge hole in our ceiling,” said Miyoung Choi.
Aside from the impromptu skylight, Choi said ice and insulation was scattered throughout the home in the aftermath of the crash. Fortunately, no one was injured.
Woman Allegedly Shoots at Tailgater
A woman who told authorities she was fed up with tailgaters pulled out a gun and shot at the tires of a pickup that got too close, police said. Officials believe the bullet missed the pickup, and no one was hurt.
Child Finds $1,300 in Thrift Store Book
Rhiannon Barnes may be the luckiest 15-month-old ever. Or maybe her baby sitter is the fortunate one. While playing with a thrift store book bought earlier in the day for 25 cents, Rhiannon uncovered $1,300 in cash stuck between the pages. Her baby sitter Sheila Laughridge said she only bought the book at Rhiannon’s insistence and was surprised when the toddler found a brown paper bag full of $100s, $50s, $20s and $10s.
ACLU ex-president charged in child-porn case
Federal authorities yesterday charged the former president of the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia, who serves as a leader of youth sports organizations in the state, with receiving and possessing child pornography.Charles Rust-Tierney, 51, of Arlington, was named in a criminal complaint filed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Alexandria and was taken into custody by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and Arlington County police.
His arrest was announced by Arlington police after an initial court appearance before U.S. Magistrate Judge Barry R. Poretz. The arrest, according to court documents, came after ICE agents and Arlington police — armed with federal warrants — searched Mr. Rust-Tierney’s home.
Morse code is in need of some serious SOS.The language of dots and dashes, first used during the infancy of electronic communication in the mid-1800s, is going the way of Latin.
Beginning today, amateur or “ham” radio operators in the United States won’t be tested in Morse code – also known as Continuous Wave – in order to be licensed by the federal government.
Self-Styled Justice in Guatemala:
People here call it limpieza social , Spanish for “social cleansing.” But the recent surge in armed abductions and murders by self-appointed anti-crime squads throughout Guatemala is leaving a messy trail of blood and tears.Almost every night, teams of gunmen storm into the nation’s poorest neighborhoods to seize another man, woman, or teenager deemed guilty of wrongdoing. Almost every morning, another corpse turns up showing signs of torture or strangulation.
Already this year, Guatemalan human rights monitors say, as many as 98 people in this nation of about 13 million are known to have been murdered by such groups, and 364 others have been killed by methods that suggest such groups could be responsible. Last year, nearly 3,000 murders similar to these took place, and officials predict the total this year could exceed that.
Often the targets are petty thieves or tattooed members of the fearsome gangs that have terrorized residents across Central America for the past decade. But just as often, they appear to be victims of mistaken identity, false accusations or petty personal feuds.
Giant sinkhole swallows father, teens
A giant sinkhole opened before dawn Friday, swallowing several homes and a truck and leaving a father and two teenagers missing in Guatemala City.
Officials said the 100-meter-deep (330-foot-deep) sinkhole in a crowded neighborhood of poor, concrete homes was caused by recent rains and an underground sewage flow from a ruptured main.
National disaster coordinator Hugo Hernandez identified the missing as Domingo, Irma and David Sosyos, ages 53, 18 and 15, respectively. A body appeared in a river of sewage near the sinkhole, but it was unclear whether the corpse was a victim.
Tip prompts arrest of man suspected in dismemberment murders:
New York Police Detective James Osorio was struck by the details of two cases mentioned at a training session he attended at FBI headquarters last year. The dismemberment killings of two women in Albania, he noted, echoed the 1990 beating and dismemberment of a Bronx widow.Osorio’s observation has now led to the arrest of a man in Montenegro who is a suspect in similar slayings throughout Europe, officials said.
NASA’s plan for unstable astronauts: Duct tape, tranquilizers
What would happen if an astronaut became mentally unstable in space and, say, destroyed the ship’s oxygen system or tried to open the hatch and kill everyone aboard?That was the question after the apparent breakdown of Lisa Nowak, arrested this month on charges she tried to kidnap and kill a woman she regarded as her rival for another astronaut’s affections.
It turns out NASA has detailed, written procedures for dealing with a suicidal or psychotic astronaut in space. The documents, obtained this week by The Associated Press, say the astronaut’s crewmates should bind his wrists and ankles with duct tape, tie him down with a bungee cord and inject him with tranquilizers if necessary.
Rats run wild in KFC-Taco Bell in NYC
New Yorkers are used to seeing rats where they catch their trains – not where they buy their burritos. About a dozen rats were having a grand party Friday in a locked KFC/Taco Bell restaurant, scampering around the floor, playing with each other and sniffing for food as they dashed around tables and children’s high chairs.Onlookers could not keep their eyes away from the jaw-dropping sight – a gang of urban vermin invading a restaurant that had been taking people’s chicken and taco orders just a day earlier. Video of the rats was seen around the world, disseminated on TV stations and the Internet.
News on ‘Project SERPO’ deceptions takes researchers, public on complex paths to truth:
This week, new information related to the so-called “Project SERPO” was posted on a Web site involved in this story. The information describes a new angle of deception and disinformation about this alleged U.S. Government project.Project SERPO refers to claims that a top secret exchange program in the 1960s and ‘70s involved sending an American team of 12 military personnel to another planet, similar to the depictions in parts of the 1977 Steven Spielberg film CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND.
The newly released information may provide additional clarification, and confusion, on some of the factors involved in the Project SERPO story that surfaced for the general public in late 2005 and has been presented on the Web site serpo.org.
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They devised a setup that was two-fold in its release.
1 – would show how the material was leaked to the outside and by whom.2 – once the material was released, track the flow and study where it may lead. It was a bonus to them when these projects hit the Internet and they learned the identities of those viewing the information and for study in the near future tests.
Scientists stumble upon one of world’s oldest cities
A Spanish scientific team found one of the world’s oldest cities, thought to be about 5,500 years old, in Syria.The discovery, based on pottery fragments and other ceramics found at the site, was announced in Madrid by two of the scientists in charge of the investigation, Ignacio Marquez of Spain’s CSIC scientific research council and Juan Luis Moreno of the Universidad de La Coruña.
Tiger Kills 6-Year-Old at Chinese Zoo
A six-year-old girl was bitten to death by a tiger at a south China zoo while posing for a picture with the animal, state media reported Friday.
The girl, identified only as Ruixin, was standing behind the tiger with her mother and four other relatives when it attacked at a zoo in Yunnan province on Thursday, the official Xinhua News Agency said.
The local Chuncheng Evening News reported on its Web site that the tiger attacked the girl shortly after the flash went off on her uncle’s camera. The tiger’s paw shot out and grabbed Ruixin, pulling her head into its mouth, it said.
Computerized Babies Cry, Burp at Students
High school students in the Mexican state of Chihuahua are being made to care for screaming, hiccuping baby dolls that run on computer chips to try to bring down the state’s soaring teenage pregnancy rate.
Pairs of teen-age boys and girls aged 13 to 17 have to spend two or three days tending to the computerized babies, programed to cry for food, burp and wake up screaming at night until they are rocked back to sleep.
“You have to change their diapers, feed them and slap them on the back so they burp. They laugh, they get colic. They simulate the behavior of a real baby,” said state education official Pilar Huidobro, who is in charge of the program.
Rodong Sinmun on Korean People’s Socialist Lifestyle:
Our socialist lifestyle is the most noble and advantageous one as it reflects the nature of our socialist system and the thoughts and desire of the Korean people.The advantages of our socialist lifestyle lie in that it is a noble and sound one thoroughly meeting the intrinsic requirements of the social being and the one strong in the national character as it fully represents the noble national sentiments and emotion of the Korean nation.
The advantages of our socialist lifestyle also lie in that it is the most revolutionary one fully reflecting the militant spirit of the Korean people who like to make a revolution and wage a struggle.
How UK attempted bizarre X-Files tests on soldiers:
The Ministry of Defence funded a secret study to ascertain whether people with psychic powers could help protect the nation, it emerged last night.The MoD arranged the tests to discover whether volunteers were able to use psychic powers to “remotely view” hidden objects. The studyinvolved blindfolding test subjects and asking them to “see” the contents of sealed brown envelopes containing pictures of random objects and public figures.
Dog Store Sign Angers Seattle Residents
A newly opened store catering to very pampered dogs, especially female dogs, is getting more than questioning looks for its name, High Maintenance Bitch.The third word in the sign is widely visible at North 45th Street and Wallingford Avenue North, one of the main intersections in the Wallingford neighborhood business west of Interstate 5 and north of the Lake Washington Ship Canal.
‘Kasper the Clown’ faces prison for punching schoolboy
As a child going to the circus, you might expect the clown to throw a bucket of confetti at you, or squirt you with water from the flower on his lapel.You certainly wouldn’t be prepared for him to grab you by the scruff of the neck, punch and kick you and leave you needing hospital treatment for cuts and bruises.
As these astonishing pictures show, that’s what happened when 12-year-old Amos Lutz met Kaspar the Clown at a circus in Leipzig, Germany.
Sex attacks blamed on bat demon:
Men in parts of Tanzania’s main city, Dar es Salaam, are living in fear of a night-time sex attacker. A BBC correspondent says the attacks are being blamed by some on a demon called “Popo Bawa” meaning winged bat. Some men are staying awake or sleeping in groups outside their homes. Others are smearing themselves with pig’s oil, believing this repels attacks.
U.S. Tourist in Costa Rica Kills Mugger:
A tour bus of U.S. senior citizens defended themselves against a group of alleged muggers, sending two of them fleeing and killing a third in the Atlantic coast city of Limon, police said on Thursday.One of the tourists _ a retired member of the U.S. military aged about 70 _ put assailant Warner Segura in a head lock and broke his clavicle after the 20-year-old and two other men armed with a knife and gun held up their tour bus Wednesday, said Luis Hernandez, the police chief of Limon, 80 miles east of San Jose.
Boy, 12, falls 5 stories with blankets tied like rope:
A cab driver arrived home to find his 12-year-old son’s body in a courtyard below their fifth-floor apartment, wrapped in blankets tied together like a rope.Police said Jonathan Batista’s injuries were consistent with a fall and that the death was not suspicious. The boy had learning disabilities.
Teodoro Batista, 42, had just finished an overnight shift driving a cab on Wednesday when he discovered that Jonathan was missing from the Manhattan apartment where they live with Jonathan’s stepmother.
Chimpanzees ‘hunt using spears’:
Chimpanzees in Senegal have been observed making and using wooden spears to hunt other primates, according to a study in the journal Current Biology. Researchers documented 22 cases of chimps fashioning tools to jab at smaller primates sheltering in cavities of hollow branches or tree trunks.
Strange lights over Somerset County:
Callers from four southern Somerset County towns reported seeing strange lights in the sky Wednesday night.From 7:35 to 8:12 p.m., the Somerset County Communications Center took calls from Anson, Fairfield, Norridgewock and Skowhegan.
The Anson call came from 42 Hilltop Road, not far from town. The caller told dispatchers she saw reddish-orange UFOs through the trees. She said she saw three unusual lights, then two and then one, before it “burned up like a comet.”
Record power for military laser:
A laser developed for military use is a few steps away from hitting a power threshold thought necessary to turn it into a battlefield weapon.The Solid State Heat Capacity Laser (SSHCL) has achieved 67 kilowatts (kW) of average power in the laboratory.
It could take only a further six to eight months to break the “magic” 100kW mark required for the battlefield, the project’s chief scientist told the BBC.
Error leads to billion-dollar utility bills
Perhaps his $24 billion electric bill will teach Richard Redden not to leave the heat running.Thanks to a printing error, Redden and more than 1,300 Weatherford utility customers this week received billion-dollar electric bills marked as late notices.
Protesters to defy Mugabe crackdown as police loyalty drains away
Police banned rallies and demonstrations across much of Harare yesterday, imposing a virtual state of emergency in the Zimbabwean capital.In the clearest sign yet of government alarm at the deepening public discontent over the country’s economic collapse, it invoked the three-month prohibitions under the draconian Public Order and Security Act.
The Act was brought into effect for the first time because existing regulations were “insufficient to prevent public disorder,” officials said.
Kembo Mohadi, the Home Affairs Minister, last week imposed a blanket ban on all political meetings “due to the volatile situation all over the country”.
Mugabe better run away soon or he’ll end up having a date with a rope…
Woman stabs boyfriend after disappointing sex:
A 40-year-old man from Luleå received life-threatening injuries after being stabbed in the lung by his 28-year-old Russian girlfriend. The pair were staying at the man’s apartment in the northern Swedish town when they got into a heated argument about their relationship. The 40-year-old says that his girlfriend was disappointed with the quality of their sex that evening
Mayhem Main Event at NBA All-Star Weekend
NBA All-Star Weekend in Vegas was an unmitigated failure, and any thoughts of taking the extravaganza to New Orleans in 2008 are total lunacy.
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The game is a sloppy, boring, half-hearted mess. The dunk contest is contrived and pointless. The celebrity contest is unintended comedy. And, worst of all, All-Star Weekend revelers have transformed the league’s midseason exhibition into the new millennium Freaknik, an out-of-control street party that features gunplay, violence, non-stop weed smoke and general mayhem.Word of all the criminal activity that transpired during All-Star Weekend has been slowly leaking out on Las Vegas radio shows and TV newscasts and on Internet blogs the past 24 hours.
“It was filled with an element of violence,” Teresa Frey, general manager for Coco’s restaurant, told klastv.com. “They don’t want to pay their bills. They don’t want to respect us or each other.”
Man Returns Home, Trips on Corpse
A Haight-Ashbury man returning home from an extended vacation tripped and fell on a corpse in his bedroom after finding his apartment had been ransacked, police said.Authorities have not released the name of the resident or the victim, identified only as a white male, but are treating the death as suspicious, said Sgt. Neville Gittens.
The resident had just come back from a two-week visit in Humboldt County when he made the grisly discovery Monday, Gittens said.
Affidavit: McVeigh had high-level help:
Oklahoma City bombing conspirator Terry Nichols says a high-ranking FBI official “apparently” was directing Timothy McVeigh in the plot to blow up a government building and might have changed the original target of the attack, according to a new affidavit filed in U.S. District Court in Utah.The official and other conspirators are being protected by the federal government “in a cover-up to escape its responsibility for the loss of life in Oklahoma,” Nichols claims in a Feb. 9 affidavit.
Documents that supposedly help back up his allegations have been sealed to protect information in them, such as Social Security numbers and dates of birth.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Utah had no comment on the allegations. The FBI and Justice Department in Washington, D.C., also declined comment.
Nichols does not say what motive the government would have to be involved in the bombing.
