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Thief flees to ... police headquarters
Thu Apr 27, 2:53 PM ET

ROME (Reuters) - A shoplifter took a very wrong turn -- toward Rome's police headquarters -- while fleeing a supermarket with two stolen bottles of alcohol.
Hearing screams of "Stop thief!," heavily armed police just outside the building grabbed the 19-year-old, a police spokeswoman said Thursday.
Stunned, the crook immediately confessed and handed over the liquor.
"Yes, I stole the bottles. But not this chocolate," he said, pointing to a candy bar he had purchased earlier, according to Il Messaggero newspaper.
Three of his friends, spectators to the event, were arrested as accomplices, the spokeswoman said.

China Paper: Man Buys Fighter Jet on EBay
Sun Apr 30, 8:28 AM ET

BEIJING - A Chinese businessman has bought a MiG-21f plane from a U.S. seller on the online auction Web site eBay for $24,730 and plans to use it to decorate an empty space at his offices, a newspaper reported Sunday.
The Beijing News newspaper identified the Chinese buyer as Zhang Cheng.
"I like to collect valuable items. I have the buying power and my company has an empty space where I can display the plane," the newspaper quoted Zhang as saying.
The eBay Web site for the transaction shows the plane is currently located in Lewiston, Idaho.
It said the fighter jet, last flown in 1995, has been inspected by a museum and found to be in excellent condition.
The seller was only identified by the username "inkgirle."
The Beijing News quoted Zhang as saying he learned from the seller's son by telephone that the fighter jet was retired by the Czech military.
It wasn't immediately clear if the fighter jet can be imported into China. Zhang said he is waiting for government authorities to get back to him, The Beijing News reported.
An operator at China's customs department said no one was available for comment.
"There is the precedent of a Chinese company buying a retired aircraft carrier, but I don't know if this jet plane is a banned item," Zhang reportedly said.
Zhang was apparently referring to the Soviet-built Minsk aircraft carrier that a Chinese company bought and converted into a floating theme park in the southern city of Shenzhen. The company went bankrupt and recently put the ship up for sale.
The report gave no indication where in China Zhang was located.
eBay's government relations department didn't immediately respond to a reporter's e-mail seeking comment.

Spanked U.S. woman awarded in lawsuit
Sat Apr 29, 10:19 AM ET

FRESNO, California (Reuters) - A California woman who sued her former employer after she was spanked on the job was awarded $1.7 million (931,000 pounds) in damages and compensation on Friday.
Janet Orlando, 53, said she was embarrassed, permanently scarred and mentally anguished by the fraternity-like atmosphere and sales-building exercises at Alarm One Inc., which included paddling if an employee was late for a sales meeting.
The jury initially awarded her $500,000 in compensatory damages for lost wages, emotional distress and medical expenses. After further deliberation, the jury added another $1.2 million in punitive damages, lawyers said.
"Nationwide this will make for a safer workplace, help ensure less harassment in the workplace," Orlando's attorney Nicholas "Butch" Wagner told Reuters.
"The most compelling evidence is that they made a middle-aged woman go in front of mostly male co-workers between the ages of 18 and 24, bend over, put her hands on the wall and spanked her with a metal sign."
The swatting incidents occurred in 2003 and stopped as soon as executives at company headquarters in Anaheim, California, received a complaint, Alarm One Chief Operating Officer Patrick Smith said.
Sales people at the home security company's Fresno office, which has since closed, developed the unorthodox practices themselves.
Two original plaintiffs who sued over the practice settled out of court, defence attorney K. Poncho Baker said.
The company did not return calls seeking reaction after the jury announced its verdict.

Pakistan couple go free, jailed for falling in love
Sat Apr 29, 5:40 AM ET

HYDERABAD, Pakistan (Reuters) - A Pakistani couple were released on Saturday after serving five years in jail for adultery, their only crime having been to fall in love and get married.
Sodi, 23, and her husband, Abdul Hakeem Kashkeli, 26, appeared in court in the southern city of Hyderabad where the judge ordered their release.
"I am overjoyed. We have got justice at last," Sodi, 23, told reporters waiting outside. "The judgement shows we have done nothing wrong and it is no crime to marry the man you love."
The court heard a statement from the maulvi, or Muslim preacher, who had conducted the marriage and dismissed the adultery case, defence lawyer Khuda Baksh Leghari told Reuters.
Every year, hundreds of Pakistani women become victims of so-called honour killings for marrying without their families' consent, especially in conservative rural areas.
Others end up in jail after relatives file adultery cases.
Sodi and her husband were arrested in October 2001 on adultery charges and held in separate jails after the woman's father accused the man of abducting his daughter.

Thieves Steal Trailer Filled With Red Bull
Sat Apr 29, 6:08 AM ET

DYERSBURG, Tenn. - A trailer containing $100,000 worth of Red Bull energy drinks seemingly grew wings.
A truck driver reported last weekend that his 53-foot trailer containing 2,880 cases of the energy drink was stolen.
Geoffrey Winchester said he parked the truck on Old Highway 51. According to the Dyer County Sheriff's Department, another truck must have pulled the trailer away from the truck and hauled off the load Sunday.
The truck's window had been broken and its satellite tracking system disabled, making the thief's flight untraceable. In its commercials, Red Bull claims that it "gives you wings!"
A trailer containing $100,000 worth of Kraft sauces also was stolen in Dyersburg on Monday, authorities said. The trailer was recovered by police in Ohio Monday night, but all the sauce was gone.

Thieves nab head, leave earrings behind
Fri Apr 28, 8:57 AM ET TORONTO (Reuters) - A distraught Canadian family is offering a reward for the return of their mother's head, hacked from her body in a funeral home a year ago by thieves who left cash, and her earrings behind.
Canadian newspapers reported Thursday someone broke into a funeral parlor in Longueuil, Quebec in July last year, where the body of Cecile Lemay was awaiting burial.
The thief or thieves made off with the 68-year-old's head, but left her earrings and a cash charity donation behind.
"Each morning, when we get up, we ask ourselves: 'Where is the head? Will it show up on our lawn one morning?'," the Globe and Mail newspaper quoted Lemay's sister Carmelle as saying.
The family is offering a reward of C$10,000 ($8,900) for information leading to the return of the stolen head or to the arrest of those responsible.
"We think about it each day. We can't find closure and we want to know who did it and why," another of Lemay's sisters, Ghyslaine, said.

Woman Tosses 150 Pounds of Bird Seed a Day
Thu Apr 20, 5:03 PM ET

LOS ANGELES - Hollywood officials say they want to stop a mysterious bird lady who hauls 25-pound sacks of feed and draws flocks of messy pigeons whose droppings have fouled cars, sidewalks and buildings.
Authorities say they've asked the woman to stop feeding the birds but they can't order her to quit. City law only bans pigeon feeding in a section of downtown.
Local residents aren't happy.
"I've collected birdseed bags she's discarded," said Laura Dodson, president of the Argyle Civic Association. "We calculate she spreads 112 tons a year above Sunset Boulevard, centering on Vine Street. We've spotted 29 spots she puts down food."
Dodson said the woman puts down 150 pounds of bird seed a day at a triangular traffic island the community wants to beautify with palm trees.
The feedings have interfered with an $80,000 landscaping project, officials said.
Some local leaders worry that the pigeons could spread avian flu but "wild pigeons don't seem to be a major source," Karen Ehnert, senior veterinarian for the Los Angeles County health department.
The pigeon poop also covers bridges and signs on the nearby Hollywood Freeway.
That's a headache, said Dave White, a spokesman for the California Department of Transportation.
"You can't paint over it. You can't wash it out with a hose because it turns into a muddy slurry that you can't send down the flood drain," White said. "So you shovel it out into bags or knock it to the ground and clean it up as fast as you can."
Aides to City Councilman Tom LaBonge, who represents part of Hollywood, told the Los Angeles Times that the woman has refused to stop feeding the pigeons.
"I spoke to her. She told me she was afraid the birds would die if she wasn't there," said a staff member who declined to be identified.
Erik Sanjurjo, a LaBonge deputy, said the next step could be amending city law to ban pigeon feeding in sections of Hollywood or throughout Los Angeles.
Pigeon feeding is banned in some areas of other California cities, including San Francisco, Sausalito, Seal Beach and Pasadena. Scofflaw pigeon lovers can be fined hundreds of dollars — and that's not chicken feed.

Teen Gets Boot Camp for Angering Judge
Thu Apr 20, 4:48 PM ET

PONTIAC, Mich. - An Oakland County judge has had enough of one 17-year-old. Cameron D. Wells, was accused of vandalizing a court office and stealing a judge's gavel, and repeatedly angered Circuit Court Judge Gene Schnelz with his behavior.
On Wednesday, the judge sentenced Wells to 56 days in a county boot camp program on a larceny charge. If he fails to complete it, he'll get 180 days in jail, and even prison time if he uses drugs or alcohol.
"Test positive one time, and I'm giving you two to four (years) in the state prison," Schnelz told the youth.
Wells' problems started when a Farmington Hills district court judge sentenced him to community service on a minor in possession of alcohol charge. But while doing the work in September, Wells was accused of vandalizing a court office and stealing the gavel.
He ended up in Circuit Court and pleaded guilty to larceny in a building, but didn't admit that he took the gavel.
"He's 17 years old," Daniel Hilf, his lawyer, told The Oakland Press after the sentencing. "He did something stupid and he was punished for it."
Hilf also asked that Wells be considered for the Holmes Youthful Trainee Act, which would have erased the offense from his criminal record. But Schnelz denied the request.
"He disrespected the court to the degree that he did," Schnelz said. "No, no favors. Quit whining and being a baby. You're 17 years old. A little discipline is what he needs."

Cougar Bites Man Playing Fetch With Dog
Wed Apr 19, 9:59 PM ET

WENATCHEE, Wash. - A state wildlife agent believes a cougar was being playful when it bit a man on the leg as he was playing stick-toss with his dog at his home near Leavenworth.
Searchers were unable to find the cat Tuesday night and nearby residents are advised to keep their pets indoors, said Sgt. Doug Ward of the state Fish and Wildlife Department.
Ward said the young cougar appeared more curious than hungry and it may have been excited by watching the game of fetch.
The man, Alex Schmidt, was treated for a puncture wound in his calf at Cascade Medical Center.
Schmidt said his wire-haired fox terrier, Ellie, barked and nipped at the cougar to drive it off.

Danish police find heroin stash in sword blades
Wed Apr 19, 11:29 AM ET

COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Danish police said on Wednesday they had found heroin worth more than $1 million (559,000 pounds) that had been smuggled into the country from Pakistan in the hollowed-out blades of 25 antique sword replicas.
They made the discovery after raiding the apartment of a British man who had died earlier from a drug overdose along with a woman of unknown nationality in a hotel room in Copenhagen.
Detectives found 740 grams of heroin of 70 percent purity in the metre-long engraved blades of the decorative swords.
"The blades were the last place we thought to look and it was a surprising place to find the drugs," Ole Wagner of the drugs squad told Reuters. He believed at least five more swords had reached Denmark earlier this year.

Phony doctor gives free breast exams
Thu Apr 20, 11:40 AM ET

MIAMI (Reuters) - A 76-year-old man claiming to be a doctor went door-to-door in a Florida neighborhood offering free breast exams, and was charged with sexually assaulting two women who accepted the offer, police said on Thursday.
One woman became suspicious after the man asked her to remove all her clothes and began conducting a purported genital exam without donning rubber gloves, investigators said.
The woman then phoned the Broward County Sheriff's Office and the suspect fled. He was arrested at another woman's apartment in the same Lauderdale Lakes neighborhood on Wednesday, a sheriff's spokesman said.
The white-haired suspect, Philip Winikoff, carried a black bag and claimed to be visiting on behalf of a local hospital.
"He told the woman that he was in the neighborhood offering free breast exams," sheriff's spokesman Hugh Graf said in a statement.
At least two women, both in their 30s, let him into their homes and he fondled and sexually assaulted them, the investigators said.
Winikoff was not a doctor, Graf said. He worked as a shuttle driver for an auto dealership.

Man Accused of Changing Traffic Lights
Mon Apr 17, 6:14 PM ET

LONGMONT, Colo. - A man who said he bought a device that let him change traffic lights from red to green has received a $50 ticket on suspicion of interfering with a traffic signal.
Jason Niccum of Longmont told the Daily Times-Call that the device, which he bought on eBay for $100, helped him cut his time driving to work.
"I guess in the two years I had it, that thing paid for itself," he told the newspaper Wednesday.
Niccum was cited March 29 after police said they found him using a strobe-like device to change traffic signals.
"I'm always running late," police quoted Niccum as saying in an incident report.
The device, called an Opticon, is similar to what firefighters use to change lights when they respond to emergencies. It emits an infrared pulse that receivers on the traffic lights pick up.
Niccum was cited after city traffic engineers who noticed repeated traffic-light disruptions on certain intersections spotted a white Ford pickup passing by whenever the light patterns were disrupted.
City traffic engineer Joe Olson said traffic engineers plan to update the city's Opticon system this year to block unauthorized light-changing signals.

Retiree flushes fortune down the toilet
Thu Apr 20, 9:20 AM ET

BERLIN (Reuters) - A German pensioner flushed bundles of old banknotes worth a small fortune down the toilet because he thought they were now worthless, police in the northern city of Kiel said Thursday.
"He flushed the cash down the loo because he didn't think it was worth anything," said police spokesman Uwe Voigt.
Police said he dumped some 60,000 deutschemarks -- which the euro replaced in 2002 -- into the bowl, unaware they could still be exchanged for about 30,000 euros ($37,000).
Sewage workers recovered about half the sodden currency from the 64-year-old's plumbing. The remaining notes created a bottleneck in local sewers, where most were fished out.
"There may have been more cash that got away," said Voigt.
Police said the man lived in "spartan" circumstances and had dried out the notes and taken them to a bank. It was unclear if he had laundered the money first.

Woman Allegedly Smuggles Grenade Into Jail
Wed Apr 19, 10:44 PM ET

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador - A Salvadoran woman was detained after she tried to smuggle a military grenade and marijuana hidden in her vagina into the country's main prison, authorities said Wednesday.
Officials subsequently raised the security level at jails across the country, prison system spokesman Alberto Uribe said, adding the discovery showed "the inmates are planning something."
Lidia Alvarado, 44, was found hiding a cylinder containing the weapon and the drugs, as she entered La Esperanza prison on the northeastern outskirts of the capital of San Salvador, Uribe said.
She was turned over to police and charged with illegal weapons possession and drug trafficking, he said. Police who inspected the M-67 grenade said it was in working condition.
Alvarado was visiting two inmates, serving 25 and 30 years. Each had been convicted of rape, robbery and illegal arms possession.
Prison Director Wilson Galeas was quoted by the daily newspaper La Prensa Grafica as saying it was not the first time Alvarado had visited the two convicts.

School Makes Kids Use Buckets for Toilets

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - A principal trying to prevent walkouts during immigration rallies inadvertently introduced a lockdown so strict that children weren't allowed to go to the bathroom, and instead had to use buckets in the classroom, an official said.
Worthington Elementary School Principal Angie Marquez imposed the lockdown March 27 as nearly 40,000 students across Southern California left classes that morning to attend immigrants' rights demonstrations. The lockdown continued into the following morning.
Marquez apparently misread the district handbook and ordered a lockdown designed for nuclear attacks.
Tim Brown, the district's director of operations, confirmed some students used buckets but said the principal's order to impose the most severe type of lockdown was an "honest mistake."
"When there's a nuclear attack, that's when buckets are used," Brown told the Los Angeles Times. The principal "followed procedure. She made a decision to follow the handbook. She just misread it."
In some cases teachers escorted classmates to regular restroom facilities, students said.
A message left by The Associated Press for the principal at the school before business hours Monday was not immediately returned, and Marquez did not return telephone calls from the Times.
Appalled parents have complained to the school board. Brown said the school district planned to update its emergency preparedness instructions to give more explicit directions.
Parents and community activists asked the school board at its April 5 meeting to explain the principal's decision. They also sought promises that the lockdown wouldn't be repeated.
"There was no violence at the protests, so this was based on what?" activist Diane Sambrano asked. "It was unsanitary, unnecessary and absolutely unacceptable."

Man Trading Up From Paper Clip to House
Mon Apr 17, 12:59 AM ET

By BRIAN BERGSTEIN, AP Technology Writer
Kyle MacDonald had a red paper clip and a dream: Could he use the community power of the Internet to barter that paper clip for something better, and trade that thing for something else — and so on and so on until he had a house?
After a cross-continental trading trek involving a fish-shaped pen, a town named Yahk and the Web's astonishing ability to bestow celebrity, MacDonald is getting close. He's up to one year's free rent on a house in Phoenix.
Not a bad return on an investment of one red paper clip. Yet MacDonald, 26, vows to keep going until he crosses the threshold of his very own home, wherever that might be.
"It's totally overwhelming, I'm not going to lie," he said by phone from Montreal, where he and his girlfriend, Dominique Dupuis, live with two roommates. "But I'm still trading for that house. It's this obsessive thing."
The story begins last July.
MacDonald had spent years backpacking, delivering pizzas and working other part-time jobs, suiting his jack-of-all-trades, restless nature. He paid his $300 share of the rent by occasionally promoting products at trade shows.
But he yearned for one piece of settled-down adulthood: a house, which he knew he could not afford.
It's clear, however, that MacDonald has a knack for promotion. Asked what he had talked up at all those trade shows, MacDonald slipped right into his spiel for the employer, TableShox.com. "You ever sat at a wobbly table at a restaurant?" he said.
Beyond a gift for advertising table stabilizers, he's a geography buff, keeps a blog and writes short stories. Random interactions with strangers and the rich kitsch of North Americana provide his favorite material.
Put it all together, and you have the outline of MacDonald's quest.
He advertised it in the barter section of Craigslist.org, the Web site teeming with city-specific listings for everything from job openings to apartment rentals. At first, MacDonald said merely that he wanted something bigger or better for his red paper clip. No mention of a house — he feared seeming flaky.
While he was visiting his hometown of Vancouver, British Columbia, two women gave him a fish-shaped pen for the paper clip.
Later that day, MacDonald headed to Seattle to catch a ballgame and a flight home. Before the airport, though, he stopped to see Annie Robbins, an artist who had just stumbled upon the Craigslist barter section. She admired its anticonsumerist vibe, she said, so she answered MacDonald's posting "on a lark."
MacDonald left her home the proud owner of a small ceramic doorknob with a smiley face, made by the son of an artist Robbins knows.
Next up was Shawn Sparks, who was packing up to move from Amherst, Mass., to Alexandria, Va. Sparks, 35, is a huge fan of Craigslist barters, having acquired his 1993 Chevy Blazer in a trade for a used laptop.
Sparks offered MacDonald a Coleman camping stove. Sparks had two, and didn't want to lug both on his move. And he needed a new knob for his espresso machine.
Done. The men celebrated with a barbecue at Sparks' house.
MacDonald gave the camping stove to a Marine sergeant at Camp Pendleton, Calif., getting a generator in return.
East again. MacDonald swapped the generator for an "instant party package" — an empty beer keg, a neon Budweiser sign and a promise to fill the keg — proferred by a young man in Queens, New York City.
Before the trade, MacDonald left the generator in storage in his hotel. When he went to claim it, he was told it had been confiscated by the fire department because it was leaking gas.
"If there was ever a movie based on all that, that would be the closest to losing it all," he said, recalling his anguish.
But more on movies later.
MacDonald reclaimed the generator by tracking it to a firehouse in lower Manhattan, where he got a Tootsie Pop from the crew and petted their Dalmatian.
The beer package went to a Montreal disc jockey, in exchange for a snowmobile.
Here's where the project's grassroots purity may have gotten compromised. MacDonald's blog, http://oneredpaperclip.blogspot.com, was attracting attention, and MacDonald was invited onto Canadian television. Our wandering man was asked if there was anywhere he wouldn't go to trade the snowmobile.
An obscure place came to mind, so he spit it out: Yahk, a hamlet in the Canadian Rockies.
Some publicity-seeking ensued. A snowmobiling magazine offered an expense-paid trip to Yahk in exchange for the snowmobile. The trip went to Bruno Taillefer, Quebec manager for the supply company Cintas Corp. He got headquarters to let him give MacDonald a 1995 Cintas van that he had been planning to sell.
MacDonald gave the van — stripped of Cintas logos — to a musician seeking to haul gear. In turn, the musician, who works at a Toronto recording studio, arranged a recording contract, with studio time and a promise to pitch the finished product to music executives.
MacDonald handed the contract to Jody Gnant, a singer in Phoenix who owns a duplex.
And that is how Kyle MacDonald has turned a paper clip into a year of shelter in the desert.
Where it goes now, who knows. He says he has offers from Hollywood studios to turn his story into a film.
But he pledges not to accept gifts or overly lopsided trades that would undermine the peer-to-peer joy that he says has animated his journey. Asked what he has learned from all this, he responded:
"If you say you're going to do something and you start to do it, and people enjoy it or respect it or are entertained by it, people will step up and help you."

Russian pays mystics "to lift curse"
Mon Apr 17, 2:57 AM ET

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian police are looking for two mystics who persuaded a student to part with over 91,000 pounds in exchange for lifting a curse, RIA news agency reported on Sunday.
"Two unknown women, on the pretext of lifting a curse, stole cash and some jewellery by means of deception. The total amount stolen is estimated at 4.48 million roubles (61,000 pounds)," the agency quoted a police source as saying.
The victim is a female student at Moscow's elite State Institute for International Affairs, RIA said. Many Russians are highly superstitious. They spend huge sums each year on faith healers and alternative medicine.

Two fathers arrested after Abbey protest
Fri Apr 14, 5:26 PM ET

LONDON (Reuters) - Two fathers' rights campaigners were arrested on Friday after scaling Westminster Abbey with a crucified dummy Jesus Christ, police said.
Two protesters demanding greater access to their children clambered up the historic landmark on Thursday with the dummy figure that wore a T-shirt bearing the words: "Our Father Who Art in Hell."
The "Real Fathers For Justice" said in a statement that they had staged their Easter protest to "demand that both parents be as equal in family law as they are in the eyes of God."
A police spokeswoman said: "They were arrested for aggravated trespass when they came down early this afternoon. They have been taken to a central London police station."
In January, the mainstream Fathers4Justice campaign group decided to disband after reports that police had foiled a plot to kidnap Prime Minister Tony Blair's five-year-old son Leo.
The group, which insisted that none of its current members had been involved in any kidnap plot, had staged several high-profile protests in the past few years.
A campaigner dressed as Batman climbed Queen Elizabeth's Buckingham Palace in 2004 and another threw purple flour bombs at Blair while he addressed parliament.

Texas halts arrests of drunks in bars
Fri Apr 14, 1:08 PM ET

SAN ANTONIO, Texas (Reuters) - A controversial Texas program to send undercover agents into bars to arrest drunks has been halted after a firestorm of protest from the public.
The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission has "temporarily suspended" what it called "Operation Last Call" even though it still believes it was worthwhile, commission spokeswoman Carolyn Beck said on Thursday.
"We understand that everything has room for improvement, this included," she said.
She said most of those arrested in the sting operations had been "dangerously drunk" and might have tried to drive if TABC agents had not busted them.
The TABC has launched an internal investigation of Operation Last Call and a Texas Legislature committee will hold hearings on the program on Monday.
The TABC announced the program in late August but it received little attention at the time.
But recent media reports that drunks were being arrested in bars provoked both ridicule and anger around the world and, perhaps more importantly, complaints from hotels, restaurants and bars in Texas who said it could hurt business.
The program drew support from groups such as Mothers Against Drunk Driving.
The Houston Chronicle found that 1,740 people across the state had been arrested for public intoxication in Operation Last Call.

Firefighters Find Secret Stash in Basement
Sun Apr 16, 6:29 AM ET

WADSWORTH, Ohio - Firefighters dousing a fire in a new home were confused when the man they thought was the owner suddenly left — until they found $700,000 worth of marijuana plants in the basement, officials said.
"It seemed so strange to me" that the man left, said Wadsworth Fire Chief Ralph Copley. "If it were my home burning, I'd want to be there."
After firefighters extinguished the fire, which started in the attic early Friday morning, they found 239 marijuana plants filling one-fourth of the basement, which was wired throughout for indoor plant growing, authorities said.
"It was unreal," Copley said. "In 24 years, I've never seen a fire quite like that."
The Medina County Drug Task Force and firefighters on Friday confiscated items from the home, including peat moss, 1,000-watt bulbs and large reflecting discs. The basement had no fire damage.
The marijuana-cultivating system was wired to the home's electrical system in a way that bypassed the meter, said Michael Barnhardt, acting director of the task force. Such wiring would help a grower avoid the large electric bills that clue in investigators, he said.
Copley said the cause of the fire was unknown, but it did not appear to be related to the marijuana operation or electrical wiring. It caused about $150,000 in damage.
The home, bought for $229,000 less than one month ago, is owned by a Lan Le. There is no telephone listing under that name in the northeast Ohio city 30 miles south of Cleveland.

Shop worker finds cocaine instead of bananas
Tue Apr 11, 10:12 AM ET

MUNICH (Reuters) - A supermarket worker's discovery of 20 kilograms (44 lb) of cocaine hidden in a case of fruit had German police going bananas.
A spokesman for Bavarian state police said officers dug through 4,600 cartons of bananas after a man working at a Munich grocery store found the drugs in a shipment of fruit from Colombia.
"A worker unloading a case saw that there weren't any bananas under the first layer," a spokesman for Bavarian state police said Monday. In their place, he said was 20 kilograms of drugs.
Around 30 police officers were set to search through the remainder of the shipment but found no more suspicious packages.
The bananas originally came from Colombia and were shipped through the Belgian port of Antwerp before being trucked into Germany. The investigation is under way.

Man Gets $218 Trillion Phone Bill
Tue Apr 11, 1:38 AM ET

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - A Malaysian man said he nearly fainted when he recieved a $218 trillion phone bill and was ordered to pay up within 10 days or face prosecution, a newspaper reported Monday.
Yahaya Wahab said he disconnected his late father's phone line in January after he died and settled the $23 bill, the New Straits Times reported.
But Telekom Malaysia later sent him a $218 trillion bill for recent telephone calls along with orders to settle within 10 days or face legal proceedings, the newspaper reported.
It wasn't clear whether the bill was a mistake, or if Yahaya's father's phone line was used illegally after after his death.
"If the company wants to seek legal action as mentioned in the letter, I'm ready to face it," the paper quoted Yahaya as saying. "In fact, I can't wait to face it," he said.
Yahaya, from northern Kedah state, received a notice from the company's debt-collection agency in early April, the paper said. Yahaya said he nearly fainted when he saw the new bill.
Government-linked Telekom Malaysia Bhd. is the country's largest telecommunications company.
A company official, who declined to be identified as she was not authorized to speak to the media, said Telekom Malaysia was aware of Yahaya's case and would address it. She did not provide further details.

Woman, 82, Gets Ticket for Slow Crossing
Mon Apr 10, 4:12 PM ET

LOS ANGELES - An 82-year-old woman received a $114 ticket for taking too long to cross a street. Mayvis Coyle said she began shuffling with her cane across Foothill Boulevard in the San Fernando Valley when the light was green, but was unable to make it to the other side before it turned red.
She said the motorcycle officer who ticketed her on Feb. 15 told her she was obstructing traffic.
"I think it's completely outrageous," said Coyle, who described herself as a Cherokee medicine woman. "He treated me like a 6-year-old, like I don't know what I'm doing."
Los Angeles police Sgt. Mike Zaboski of the Valley Traffic Division said police are cracking down on people who improperly cross streets because pedestrian accidents are above normal. He said he could not comment on Coyle's ticket other than to say that it is her word against that of the citing officer, identified only as Officer Kelly.
"I'd rather not have angry pedestrians," Zaboski said. "But I'd rather have them be alive."
Others, however, supported Coyle's contention that the light in question doesn't give people enough time to cross the busy, five-lane boulevard.
"I can go halfway, then the light changes," said Edith Krause, 78, who uses an electric cart because she has difficulty walking.
On Friday, the light changed too quickly even for high school students to make it across without running. It went from green to red in 20 seconds.
Councilwoman Wendy Greuel said she has asked transportation officials to figure out how to accommodate elderly people.
"We should look at those areas with predominantly seniors and accommodate their needs in intersections" she said.

Sip Slowly: a $1,000 Mint Julep
Tue Apr 11, 10:59 AM ET

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - As if custom-made hats, premium box seats and limo rides weren't enough, the Kentucky Derby will now feature the $1,000 mint julep.
Sip this drink slowly.
The sweet cocktail will be made with one of the state's finest bourbons and served in a gold-plated cup with a silver straw to the first 50 people willing to put down the cash at the May 6 race.
Mint from Morocco, ice from the Arctic Circle and sugar from the South Pacific will put this mint julep in a class of its own, the distillery selling the drink said.
"We thought we would reflect on and complement the international nature of the Kentucky Derby," said Chris Morris, master distiller for Woodford Reserve. The distillery, owned by Louisville-based Brown-Forman Corp., will sell the drink only on race day to raise money for a charity for retired race horses.
The company already sells about 90,000 mint juleps at the Derby each year but hopes what's being dubbed the "ultimate" mint julep will catch on. Those who buy the $1,000 cocktail will get to watch Morris and others make it.
"People want a memory," said Wayne Rose, Woodford Reserve's brand director. "This is something they can take home and share with friends."
Mint juleps have been synonymous with the Kentucky Derby for decades. They are often served in silver or pewter cups and are meant to be sipped and savored.
The new 24-karat gold cup promotion fits in with the high-class atmosphere, said Gary Regan, a spirit and cocktail expert who's been to the Derby twice.
"I think there will be enough people with enough money at the Kentucky Derby that will go for that sort of thing," said Regan, author of "The Joy of Mixology."
Churchill Downs officials said the expensive mint juleps will help raise awareness about the needs of retired thoroughbreds.
"A concern has developed over time that these horses were finding their way to be sold for slaughter," track spokeswoman Julie Koenig said.
Churchill Downs will funnel money from the pricey juleps to the New Jersey-based Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation, a nonprofit organization that provides homes for the former race horses.
"These horses are there making these memories special to us," Kornig said. "It's nice to find a way to give back to them."

'Karate kids' rescued after Japan mountain quest
Thu Apr 6, 8:07 AM ET

TOKYO (Reuters) - Three Singaporeans were found safe Thursday after getting lost on what they said was a mission to find a legendary karate expert on a snowy mountainside in Japan.
One of the three men told police in Hirosaki, near the northern tip of Japan's main island, that they had come to Japan after his dying father, a martial arts expert, had ordered them to seek out the karate teacher, TV Asahi said on its Web site.
"Japan looked so small on the world map that we thought we would be able to find him straight away," one of the group, aged between 25 and 50, was quoted as saying.
All three were dressed in light clothing and huddling in an abandoned car when they were rescued from the slopes of 1,600-meter (5,249-ft) Mount Iwaki in the early hours of the morning after calling for help on a mobile phone, a police spokesman said. "Neither police nor local people know of anyone running karate classes in this area," the spokesman added.

Woman tricks herself out of reward
Reuters - Fri Apr 7, 8:08 AM ET

BERLIN (Reuters) - When a German woman found a wallet containing 1,000 euros (696 pounds) she decided it was better to get a reward from the owner than to keep the money -- even if that meant resorting to extortion, police said on Friday.
"It was a bit stupid. She could just have kept the wallet," said a spokeswoman for police in the southwestern city of Darmstadt. "But she wanted the finder's reward -- and might have got one anyway. But she opted to extort it instead."
Police said the 47-year-old found the owner's phone number in the wallet and told the pensioner she could only have it back for 100 euros "plus 20 euros travel costs".
The owner agreed to the terms, and tipped off police, who arrested the woman with the wallet at the handover point.

Keep your kisses short in Indonesia's Tangerang
Thu Apr 6, 11:52 PM ET

JAKARTA (Reuters) - Unrelated people who kiss each other on the lips for more than five minutes at public places in the Indonesian city of Tangerang will face arrest, local media said on Friday.
The government in Tangerang, a suburb west of Jakarta, defended the regulation as a practical guideline for its officers to follow up on tough and heavily criticised anti-prostitution laws passed by the city council last year.
"Please do not dramatise this. We will not arrest people at will as we are not oppressors," Ahmad Lutfi, head of the city's public order department, told the Koran Tempo newspaper.
Lutfi declined to comment on whether officers would be armed with stopwatches, Tempo reported.
It was not clear if the guideline referred to an uninterrupted five-minute kiss.
Kissing in public is generally frowned upon in Indonesia, especially in rural, predominantly Muslim areas, but giving a time limit for such behaviour is unheard of.
Around 85 percent of Indonesia's 220 million people follow Islam, giving the sprawling archipelago the largest number of Muslims of any country. Although most are moderates, there is a growing tendency towards showing Islamic identity and conservative attitudes.
That backdrop, along with the recent devolution of power to regional governments, has given several regions space to create tighter rules on morality.
The new anti-prostitution laws in Tangerang, a city of more than one million, sparked complaints from liberals in February after a female restaurant worker waiting for her husband on a street at night was picked up because police officers thought she was a prostitute.
At the national level, draft legislation addressing pornography issues has been circulating for years in parliament and debate on it is reaching a peak. The original draft proposed a ban on public kissing on the lips but it is unclear whether the particular article will survive in the final version.

Chiropractor Claims He Can Go Back in Time
Thu Apr 6, 9:39 PM ET

By JOHN McCARTHY, Associated Press Writer
COLUMBUS, Ohio - A chiropractor who claims he can treat anyone by reaching back in time to when an injury occurred has attracted the attention of state regulators.
The Ohio State Chiropractic Board, in a notice of hearing, has accused James Burda of Athens of being "unable to practice chiropractic according to acceptable and prevailing standards of care due to mental illness, specifically, Delusional Disorder, Grandiose Type."
Burda denied that he is mentally ill. He said he possesses a skill he discovered by accident while driving six years ago.
"My foot hurt and, knowing anatomy, I went ahead and I told it to realign and my pain went away," Burda said Thursday.
Burda calls his treatment "Bahlaqeem."
"It is a made-up word and, to my knowledge, has no known meaning except for this intended purpose. It does, however, have a soothing vibrational influence and contains the very special number of nine letters," Burda's Web site says.
The board alleges in three counts against Burda that the treatment is unacceptable and constitutes "willful and gross malpractice." Burda has until May 1 to request a hearing. The board can levy penalties ranging from a reprimand to revoking his license to practice, said Kelly Caudill, the board's executive director.
Caudill said she could not discuss the board's allegations while the investigation continues and could not comment on whether any of Burda's patients had complained. She said the board began the investigation when it learned of Burda's Web site. Burda said he likely will seek a hearing.
Burda said he charges nothing for his first "visit," usually by phone or Internet, and subsequent treatments are $60.
"All treatments are satisfaction-guaranteed. Treatment is always done before payment is made," Burda said, adding that one patient "just wasn't satisfied, and I tore up her check.
The Web site describes the treatment as "a long-distance healing service (not a product) to help increase the quality of your life that can be performed in the privacy of your home or other personal space. There is no need to come to my office."
The treatment is not telepathic because the patient does not have to believe in what he's doing, Burda said. He has treated hundreds of patients and reports nine out of 10 patients are satisfied, he said.
While he knows of no other people who have his particular skill, he said lawmakers and regulators should allow alternative forms of treatment for the patients who seek them.
"People who are in need cannot go to these people because they are not allowed to practice. This is terrible," Burda said.

"Monster rabbit" targets vegetable patch
Fri Apr 7, 5:07 AM ET

LONDON (Reuters) - It sounds like a job for Wallace and Gromit.
A "monster" rabbit has apparently been rampaging through vegetable patches in a small village in northern England, ripping up leeks, munching turnips and infuriating local gardeners.
In an uncanny resemblance to the plot of the hit animated film "Wallace & Gromit in the Curse of the Were-Rabbit," angry horticulturists in Felton, near Newcastle, have now mounted an armed guard to protect their prized cabbages and parsnips.
"They call it the monster. It's very big -- it's nearly the size of a dog," said Joan Smith, whose son Jeff owns one of the plots under attack.
"It's eating everything, all the vegetables," she told Reuters. "They are trying to shoot it. They go along hoping to catch it but I think it's too crafty."
In the "Wallace" film, which topped both the U.S. and UK box office charts and in March won an Oscar for best animated feature film, the plasticine heroes battle a mutant rabbit bent on destroying their home town's annual Giant Vegetable Contest.
Those who say they have witnessed Felton's black and brown monster describe it as a cross between a rabbit and a hare with one ear bigger than the other.
Its antics came to public attention when Jeff Smith, 63, raised it as an issue with the local parish council.
"He came along to pay the annual fee for the allotment (vegetable patch) and he said 'ooh we've got this big cross between a hare and a rabbit,'" the council's clerk Lisa Hamlin told Reuters.
Smith himself has described it as a "brute" which had left huge pawprints.
"This is no ordinary rabbit. We are dealing with a monster," he was quoted by newspapers as saying.
"It is absolutely massive. The first time I saw it I thought to myself 'What the hell is that?'
"We have two lads here with guns who are trying to shoot it, but it is very clever."

"Loyal" donkeys better than wives, says textbook
Tue Apr 4, 8:51 AM ET

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - A textbook used at schools in the Indian state of Rajasthan compares housewives to donkeys, and suggests the animals make better companions as they complain less and are more loyal to their "masters," The Times of India reported Tuesday.
"A donkey is like a housewife ... In fact, the donkey is a shade better, for while the housewife may sometimes complain and walk off to her parents' home, you'll never catch the donkey being disloyal to his master," the newspaper reported, quoting a Hindi-language primer meant for 14-year-olds.
The book was approved by the state's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party government but has sparked protests from the party's women's wing.
State education officials in Rajasthan, a western state known for its conservative attitude toward women, said people should not be upset by the comparison, the paper said.
"The comparison was made in good humor," state education official A.R. Khan was quoted as saying. "However, protests have been taken note of and the board is in the process of removing it (the reference)."

Cut off by floods, man survives on frogs
Wed Apr 5, 9:37 AM ET

PRAGUE (Reuters) - A Czech man ate frogs and other small animals for four days after he was trapped on an island cut off by flooding, the daily Pravo reported Wednesday.
Zdenek Bucek, 30, was taking a short-cut through the woods near the southeastern town of Breclav when a flood wave trapped him on a small patch of high ground.
Bucek was not carrying a cell phone and the water was too cold to swim through. To survive, he caught frogs and drank the floodwater until he flagged down an emergency crew passing by on a boat four days later.
"I had no idea a flood was coming. I had not even noticed that the forests were declared off limits," he said.
Pravo said Bucek had matches, but did not elaborate on how he preferred his frogs.
Floods from rain and melting snow have killed at least six Czechs over the past week and forced thousands to flee their homes.

How would you like to meet these guys?
Wed Apr 5, 9:22 AM ET

COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - A Danish security firm said Tuesday it had fired three of its guards for stealing toys and DVDs from critically ill children at Copenhagen's main hospital.
The guards were caught on video tape after managers became suspicious when toys intended for the children -- many of whom have cancer or need heart transplants -- started to disappear.
"I feel terrible, and we are deeply sorry about this," said Falck Securitas's managing director, Peter Boye Larsen.

Plumbers stall waterless urinals in Philadelphia
Mon Apr 3, 10:58 AM ET

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - Philadelphia's plumbers are seeing red about an attempt to install "green toilets" in a new high-rise building, saying their work may dry up.
Plumbers Union Local 690 has come out against the installation of waterless urinals in the Comcast Center, a 975-foot building that will be the city's tallest when completed in 2007.
Jeanne Leonard, a spokeswoman for Liberty Property Trust, the building's developer, said the urinals had been used in many other buildings around the country and would cut water use by 1.6 million gallons a year.
"We would be frustrated if we are unable to use this technology that's being used in many other places without incident," Leonard said.
The union opposes the urinals because they do not have water lines and would therefore require less labor than the traditional kind, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. It said Mayor John Street and other local politicians were trying to mediate the dispute.
The union did not return phone calls seeking comment.

Lawmakers turn to stunts to get elected
Mon Apr 3, 10:59 AM ET

By Maria Luisa Palomino
LIMA, Peru (Reuters) - In Peru's congressional election campaign, every day can seem like April Fool's Day.
Candidates for Peru's Congress are turning to everything from stripping to the buff to staging hunger strikes to win voters' attention, as a record 2,500 people vie for 120 seats on April 9.
Candidate Abelardo Gutierrez, a chronically overweight singer, has taken to parading through central Lima wearing only his underwear, with toenails painted the Peruvian national colors of red and white, winning him ample media coverage.
Not to be outdone, three candidates this week went paragliding off Lima's coast despite a lack of wind to caution against "jumping into the vacuum of populist politics."
One of the candidates, Federico Tong, ended up tangled around a street lamp.
Gustavo Pacheco, a lawmaker running for re-election, this week started a hunger strike from his seat in Congress, where he is also sleeping. He says he is protesting against front-running presidential candidate Ollanta Humala, who is accused of human rights abuses as a soldier in the 1990s.
Other candidates have chained themselves to the railings outside the Palace of Justice to protest the candidacy of Humala, an ultranationalist.
"The candidates have turned this election into a show and they fail to realize that this is not the way to legitimize Congress, which is fundamental to democracy," said political analyst Alberto Adrianzen.
Peru's current Congress, elected in 2001, has an approval rating in the single digits and is widely viewed as corrupt. Peru elects its president and Congress on the same day, once every five years.
Lawmakers are especially loathed because of their salaries, at $8,000 a month, considered unsuitably high in a country where half the population lives on $1.25 a day or less. Peru's minimum wage is $137 per month.

 

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