Yahoo! News - Croatian professor trapped for three days under pile of books ue Apr 22, 7:24 AM ET
ZAGREB (AFP) - A Croatian professor spent three days trapped under a pile of books in his apartment in Zagreb before being saved by a neighbour who heard his cries for help, a local daily reported.
The unfortunate 60-year-old mathematics professor, identified only by his initials D.K., spent the Easter weekend lying helplessly on the floor, trapped between a bed and a book-case under a pile of books that fell on him, the Jutarnji List daily reported Tuesday.
The neighbour who called the police and paramedics told the daily that the professor's apartment was very untidy, "filled up with books, tapes, furniture and food."
"It looked like a real rubbish dump," he said, adding it was hard to imagine how the rather corpulent professor, weighing some 120 kilos (264 pounds), could freely move around in it.
He was treated for exhaustion and dehydration in his apartment by the paramedics and recovered enough to refuse hospital treatment.
14:13 Posted by David
Yahoo! News - Penis-numbing condom helps men last longer Thu Apr 17,11:54 AM ET
BERLIN (Reuters) - A German company says it wants to market a new condom to improve men's sexual performance by numbing the penis to prevent premature ejaculation.
The condom, which would carry thin film of anaesthetic on its inner lining, has yet to win regulatory approval.
"Men tend to get turned on more quickly than women," a spokesman for Cologne-based firm Condomi told Reuters. "Our condom will even up the odds by numbing the man's sensitive regions -- but not the whole body like when you're drunk."
14:12 Posted by David
Yahoo! News - Bird Survives Road Trip in Van Bumper Fri Apr 18,10:40 AM ET
By The Associated Press
HARRISBURG, Pa. - A 20-inch bird that survived a six-day, 850-mile road trip in the hollow of a minivan bumper has a new name and a new home.
The odyssey of the white Florida egret began last week near Orlando, Fla., when Doug Marsico and his wife were taking their 3-year-old son to Disney World. Their minivan hit the flying egret, sucking it beneath the bumper.
"We heard a thud, then saw feathers flying," Marsico said. "I thought we killed it."
Harry Clark, Marsico's father-in-law, was the first to hear a noise under the front bumper when the family returned to their Mechanicsburg home.
When he heard the noise again Wednesday, he crawled under the minivan, where he saw feathers and a wing.
The bird eventually made enough noise that Marsico took his minivan to a body shop where employee Butch Lockey removed the hungry, irritable bird.
The egret, which has a 4-inch yellow beak and a buff orange crest, breast and shoulders, suffered a broken leg during the ordeal. The bird was placed with the Dauphin County Wildlife Rescue to recuperate.
14:11 Posted by David
Yahoo! News - Exotic Dance Club Recruits at High School Sat Apr 19, 1:08 PM ET
MASHPEE, Mass. - A club known for nude dancers tried recruiting workers at a high school job fair this week before embarrassed school officials asked its representatives to leave.
Junior Bethany Logan said Mashpee High School students were shocked and amused to see a sign for Zachary's Pub briefly displayed at the fair.
"It's a place in town that people are ashamed of, not a place where you want to see anyone from our school work," she told the Cape Cod Times.
Zachary's registered for the job fair under another name, Diamond Real Estate, which is club owner Richard Halpern's other business, according to the Mashpee Chamber of Commerce, the fair's sponsor.
The representatives were looking for bartenders' assistants and landscapers for the real estate business, said Janet Kraskouskas, a school guidance counselor who organized the fair.
Club officials did not immediately return a call seeking comment Saturday and Halpern's number is unlisted. A Zachary's employee told the Times the club wasn't recruiting dancers at the fair.
14:10 Posted by David
Yahoo! News - Police Cite Man for Saving Dog From Fire Mon Apr 21, 8:49 AM ET
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Police cited a dog owner with two misdemeanors after he rescued the animal from an apartment complex fire, against their orders.
Jarrod T. Martin, 26, was cited for disorderly conduct and reckless endangerment on Wednesday night for crossing a safety line and climbing to his second-floor apartment, then breaking a window to let the dog escape.
"Although Martin was told the rescue attempt could not be made at the precise moment he wanted, firefighters knew the dog was in the apartment and would have taken action ... when it could be done safely," police spokesman Don Aaron said.
"Officers and firefighters agree that Martin made the wrong decision, which jeopardized lives."
About 16 families were displaced because of the fire at Premier West Apartments, but the only person injured was Martin, who sustained a minor cut.
Martin could have created a "backdraft" explosion when he broke the window, injuring or killing himself or firefighters, Aaron said. Waiting before trying to rescue the dog would have allowed time to lessen the heat and flames so the attempt could be made with less risk, Aaron said.
14:08 Posted by David
Yahoo! News - Public Humiliation No Cause for Divorce? Mon Apr 21, 8:36 AM ET
ROME (Reuters) - Does your wife make your life hell, humiliating you in front of friends and family, insulting you day after day and even berating you for not giving her pleasure in bed?
Italy's highest court has ruled that this is not exceptional, and if you divorce your wife you must still pay her alimony, according to a report in the daily Il Messaggero.
The Court of Cassation has ruled that Antonio Giulia, a Naples magistrate who left his wife after 10 years of such treatment, was nevertheless at fault for ending the marriage and should pay up, the paper said.
"That woman massacred me for 10 years," a bitter Giulia said after the ruling. His ex-wife, Maria, argued that her behavior was normal in a married couple and she could not be blamed for a few "outbursts." The court agreed, but Giulia was seething.
"Not a day went by without her humiliating me in front of everybody. She would even scream at me that I no longer satisfied her sexually. And now I have to support her?"
14:08 Posted by David
Yahoo! News - Dog Survives Car Crash, Gunshot, Freezer Mon Apr 21,11:08 PM ET
CLEARLAKE, Calif. - A dog named Dosha may have as many lives as a cat.
She was hit by a car, shot in the head and kept in a freezer for two hours, but she survived and is now doing well under a veterinarian's care.
Local animal groups and the Humane Society of the United States have begun fund-raising efforts to pay for her care.
Last Tuesday, Dosha was hit by a car. A Clearlake police officer reported to the scene and no one could tell him who owned the dog.
Officer Bob MacDonald shot the dog, apparently to save her the pain of her injuries. Dosha, presumed dead, was taken to Animal Control, where she was put in a freezer.
About two hours later, Denise Johnson, Animal Control's interim director, was at the impound facility and was told of the incident.
"Apparently, it was assumed dead," Johnson said. "I went to the freezer and found that she was alive and cold."
She had hypothermia and a gunshot wound, but no broken bones from the car accident, Johnson said.
Police are investigating.
14:07 Posted by David
Yahoo! News - PETA Urges Hamburg, N.Y., to Change Name HAMBURG, N.Y. - A national animal rights group has offered Hamburg officials $15,000 to change the town's name to Veggieburg.
"The town's name conjures up visions of unhealthy patties of ground-up dead cows," said Joe Haptas, spokesman of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, or PETA, in a letter faxed Monday to Hamburg Supervisor Patrick Hoak.
PETA offered to supply area schools with $15,000 worth of non-meat patties for the name change.
"Our offer is serious as a heart attack," Haptas said.
Hoak immediately declined.
"With all due respect, I think it's a delicacy in our community," he said about hamburgers. "We're proud of our name and proud of our heritage."
The Buffalo suburb, named Hamburg since 1812, claims to be the birth place of the American culinary staple. Hamburg commemorates the birth of hamburgers at the annual Burgerfest.
In 1996, PETA proposed that the Hudson Valley town of Fishkill change its centuries-old name to Fishsave, since the group believed the name conjured up violent imagery of dead fish.
The town was named by Dutch settlers in the early 1600s. "Kill" is the Dutch word for "stream."
14:06 Posted by David
Yahoo! News - Baboons Atta Tue Apr 22, 8:41 AM ET
ISIOLO, Kenya (Reuters) - Four young girls had the fright of their lives when a pack of thirsty baboons attacked them for their water containers in a northern region of Kenya ravaged by a long dry spell, a local official said on Tuesday.
Aisha Wako, 12, suffered cuts and bruises to the face as she tried to fight off the animals while Mumina Golicha had her clothes ripped by the baboons' claws.
Wako and her friends were attacked by about thirty baboons as they walked the seven miles back to their village from drawing water at a well in Isiolo district, 192 miles north of the capital Nairobi last Friday.
"This problem is not only confined to the area where the attack took place, but is in most parts of the district which is experiencing severe shortage of water and pasture that threatens both the lives of human beings and wild animals," Isiolo County Council Chairman Ibrahim Halake Fayo said.
As a result of the attack women walking long distances to fetch drinking water for their families have to be accompanied by local men to guard against wild animals.
Lions, hyenas and elephants now share the boreholes used by local people for fresh water due to a biting water shortage caused by low rainfall in the east African country.
14:05 Posted by David
Yahoo! News - Man Bites Dog Tue Apr 22, 8:44 AM ET
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The world turned upside down in Syracuse, New York, on Saturday night -- at least for one drunken bar patron and an unlucky police dog.
After being thrown out of a bar, Paul Russell Jr., 33, bit Renny, a 3-year-old German shepherd who works for the local police, according to a report in Syracuse's Post-Standard newspaper.
The rare "Man Bites Dog" incident happened when Renny and his police handler were sent to investigate a disturbance after Russell was ejected by bouncers, the newspaper reported on Monday.
Russell was on the sidewalk and bleeding from the head when he grabbed the dog by the throat and started choking it and biting it on the neck, police told the paper.
Officer William Foster reportedly punched Russell twice in the face before he released the dog.
Police charged Russell with injuring a police animal, resisting arrest and obstruction of governmental administration.
Russell told the newspaper he was drunk and did not think he bit the dog. He said he had a broken nose and two black eyes. "I don't really remember," he said. "I was pretty drunk."
Russell was treated at the hospital and spent the night in jail.
14:05 Posted by David
Yahoo! News - Death Benefits Come Early for State Workers Tue Apr 22, 8:45 AM ET
BANGKOK (Reuters) - In a bid to bolster the economy at a time of global gloom, Thailand is to allow retired civil servants to spend up to half their death benefits while they are still alive.
The Thai cabinet approved a plan on Tuesday to give 237,000 retired state employees the right to draw up to 200,000 baht ($4,665) in advance from payouts their families would receive after their deaths, Deputy Finance Minister Varathep Ratanakorn told reporters.
The government planned to set aside 34 billion baht from its budget to fund payments from October.
The plan must be approved by parliament, but is expected to meet little resistance.
Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has sought ways of boosting local consumption to offset the effects of a sagging world economy.
14:04 Posted by David
Yahoo! News - Groom Shot in Head During Wedding Tue Apr 22,11:58 AM ET
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - An Indian groom is in a coma in hospital after he was accidentally shot in the head by a friend who was celebrating the wedding by firing into the air, police said on Tuesday.
Software engineer Tapesh Kumar Singh, 22, was sitting next to his bride when his friend shot him with a revolver at the alcohol-laden wedding bash on the outskirts of New Delhi on Sunday, Superintendent of Police Vijay Bhushan said.
"It was a tragic accident and very unusual. The whole incident was filmed on video and we are using this as evidence," Bhushan told Reuters.
Singh's friend, who had been firing shots in the air to celebrate the wedding, has been arrested for causing grievous injury by negligence, Bhushan said.
Some people in India, especially in the country's north, fire in the air to celebrate weddings or the birth of a son.
14:04 Posted by David
Yahoo! News - 'Talentless' Woman Proves Any Publicity Is Good Tue Apr 22, 8:49 AM ET
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Negative advertising works, at least for a Swedish care worker who gave it a try after fruitless attempts to find a new job by more conventional means.
"I want a well-paid job. I have no imagination, I am anti-social, uncreative and untalented," read an advertisement posted by Angelika Wedberg, 30, in the regional daily Goteborgs-Posten on Sunday.
Her phone started ringing incessantly and job offers poured in, Wedberg told the Internet edition of the daily Expressen.
She has an interview on Wednesday with a company called Map Media offering a salary of 18,000 crowns ($2,118) per month -- an increase of more than a third on her current job as a care worker for the elderly. Expressen did not say what the new position was.
23:41 Posted by David
Yahoo! News - Drunk driver nabbed for picking up drunk son Mon Apr 14,10:26 AM ET
BERLIN (Reuters) - A German father and son lost their driving licences within hours of each other for being drunk at the wheel, after the son got caught and the inebriated father went to pick him up, police have said.
"First the son came off the road under the influence, so police took his licence. Then the father set off for the scene of the accident, got stopped and was also found to be over the limit, so he had his taken too," said a police spokesman in the southern town of Hildesheim on Monday.
23:41 Posted by David
Yahoo! News - Thieves break into safe -- at prison Mon Apr 14,10:29 AM ET
LONDON (Reuters) - Thieves have broken into a safe and stolen 650 pounds -- from a prison.
A prison spokesman said on Monday that the crime took place in the reception area of Spring Hill open prison near Aylesbury, around 40 miles (64 km) northwest of London. The thieves also broke into prisoners' lockers.
Police are investigating the Friday night break-in, the spokesman said.
23:39 Posted by David
Tue Apr 15, 8:14 AM ET
ROLLING HILLS ESTATES, Calif. - Adultery will soon be legal in this small community southwest of Los Angeles.
On Monday, the City Council voted to repeal a 46-year-old ordinance that prohibited immoral conduct, which included extramarital sex. The archaic law, which could result in a $250 fine or three months in jail, was passed after the city was incorporated in 1957.
Council members weren't endorsing adultery but they took some pleasure in commenting about the ordinance. "So this is a pro-adultery thing?" Councilman James Black joked before the meeting. "Good for us!"
City officials heard about the ordinance after a resident scouring the municipal code mentioned it at a recent forum for City Council candidates. They were unsure if anyone had been cited for breaking the law and couldn't figure out why it was put there in the first place.
"Why this particular law has been dormant and allowed to remain on the books all these years is anyone's guess," City Attorney Mike Jenkins said. "I doubt it had anything to do with the rate of adultery in Rolling Hills."
The ordinance could be formally repealed at the end of May, 30 days after the repeal is given a second reading on April 28.
Rolling Hills Estates, a community of 1,900, is 25 miles southwest of Los Angeles.
23:37 Posted by David
Yahoo! News - Boston License Plates May Get Smiley Face Wed Apr 16, 6:29 AM ET
BOSTON - Boston is trying to put a happy face on traffic.
Lawmakers are considering a specialty license plate featuring a yellow Smiley Face.
The simple design, created in 1963 by the late Harvey R. Ball of Worcester, became an international icon in the 1970s.
"How can you be riding the tail of someone with a Smiley Face plate?" said Charles Ball, whose father died two years ago. "If there are enough of those plates on the road, all kidding aside, there would be a positive effect out there."
At the peak of their popularity in 1971, more than 50 million Smiley Face buttons were sold. The U.S. Postal Service issued a Smiley Face stamp in 1999.
Proceeds from the plate would go to the World Smile Foundation, a charitable trust run by Charles Ball. It distributes grants to schools and libraries across the state.
His father, co-owner of an advertising firm in Worcester, designed the Smiley Face to help ease the acrimonious aftermath following the merger of two insurance companies.
Before the Registry of Motor Vehicles produces plates, sponsors must post a $100,000 bond to ensure they can get to 3,000 orders within two years. After a month of organizing, they currently have 315 orders, Ball said.
23:36 Posted by David
Farmers Put Live Chickens in Wood Chippers
Mon Apr 14,10:32 AM ET
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Two California poultry farmers who fed some 30,000 live chickens into wood chippers will not face criminal charges because they had permission from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, prosecutors said on Friday.
But a spokesman for the Humane Society of the United States called the farmers "callous and barbaric" and disagreed with the decision not to prosecute them.
The farmers needed to destroy the chickens because they were "spent" -- or no longer able to produce eggs -- and could not make chicken soup out of them because the farms were under quarantine for the poultry virus Exotic Newcastle Disease, District Attorney's spokeswoman Gayle Stewart said.
Stewart said the men, who run a poultry farm near San Diego, asked a senior veterinarian with the Agriculture Department if they could employ the wood chippers and were given permission.
"Once they had permission we decided that they did not have any criminal intent," Stewart said.
Brothers Arie and Will Wilgenburg, who run Escondido-based Ward Poultry Farm, could not be reached for comment on Friday. Earlier, they told the San Diego Union Tribune newspaper that they were doing "what we thought we had to do" based on expert advice and stopped as soon as they learned otherwise.
Wayne Pacelle, a spokesman for the Humane Society, said that explanation was unacceptable.
"The act of feeding live chickens into a wood chipper is an extraordinarily callous and barbaric act and I can't imagine any person with a whit of common sense would use a wood chipper as a killing tool," he said. "No person with any experience in killing animals would sanction the use of this technique."
Pacelle said the District Attorney's decision not to prosecute the brothers rested on the "faulty assumption" that using wood chippers to kill chickens was an accepted practice.
23:33 Posted by David
Unemployed Man Files for $1.5M Tax Refund
Wed Apr 16, 6:35 AM ET
By TOM HAYS, Associated Press Writer
NEW YORK - An unemployed man masquerading as a millionaire filed an income tax return claiming he was owed a refund of more than $1.5 million, authorities said.
Turns out he almost got it, they said.
Benjamin Harris, 47, of Brooklyn, was arrested and arraigned on charges of filing a false claim last year with the Internal Revenue Service. After pleading innocent, Harris was released on $10,000 bond.
Defense attorney Heidi Cesare told a judge her client had made a career out of working temporary jobs, had no criminal record and had volunteered to meet with IRS investigators on tax deadline day. He soon found himself in handcuffs.
"Ironically, they scheduled (the meeting) for today, of all days," she said Tuesday.
The IRS denied the timing was calculated.
Prosecutors allege a 2001 return filed by Harris included a doctored W-2 form showing he made nearly $9 million that year as an attorney for an employment agency, Temporary Time Capitol Corp. He claimed he paid $3,196,431 in taxes and was owed $1,580,065, court papers said.
Harris allegedly checked a box requesting the refund be directly deposited into his checking account at a Manhattan branch of HSBC, which was done. When he sought to withdraw money from an automatic teller machine, his bank notified him of a hold on an account that normally had an average balance of $2,000.
The defendant faxed the bank a copy of the altered W-2 form "to prove the deposit was legitimate," court papers said. But the bank still refused to release the money.
Instead, the bank alerted the IRS to "the unusually large deposit, which led to a federal investigation," the papers said.
An IRS spokesman, Joseph Foy, credited the bank with being "perceptive enough to freeze the funds and notify us."
The investigation found that Harris, who could face up to five years in prison if convicted, had worked for Temporary Time in 2000, when his reported income was $1,061.
23:26 Posted by David
Lawn Mower Racing the Cutting Edge Sport Wed Apr 16,11:32 AM ET
By Matthew Jones
LONDON (Reuters) - Spring has arrived in Britain and with it, the suburban drone of the lawn mower.
But while most people are content merely to cut the grass, a small band of adrenaline junkies are preparing their machines for something far more exciting -- lawn mower racing.
The first race of the season is now less than three weeks away and as sunny weather spreads across the country, hopes are high for a good Summer of racing culminating in the world championships, being held this year in the southern English county of Surrey.
In Britain, the sport is represented by the British Lawn Mower Racing Association (BLMRA), motto "Per Herbam Ad Astra" -- Through Grass to the Stars.
Mark Constanduros of the BLMRA (www.racemower.co.uk) says the sport appeals to people from all walks of life attracted to the smell of engine fumes, the spectacle of daredevil maneuvers and the honor of crossing the finishing line first.
"We have farmers through to company directors. It is a cheap fun sport for people who love to race," he told Reuters.
Grand Prix racing legend Stirling Moss is a previous winner of the British lawn mowing 12-hour endurance race.
Racing is open to anyone with a spirit of adventure and a motor mower.
The Ferraris or McLarens of this sport have names more often associated by the layman with garden centers: Atco, Webb or Westwood.
Real aficionados of course scorn anything that might actually be able to trim the grass and build their own customized machines, complete with cut-out switch in case they are thrown off during a race. There are categories for all sizes of wallets and levels of fitness ranging from full-blown sit-on mowers which can reach speeds of 50 mph to mowers one walks behind: top speed -- as fast as you can run.
Any mower designed to cut domestic lawns can be raced -- so long as the blades have been taken out.
"The rusted wreck at the bottom of the garden is the starting point for many of the most successful racing machines on the circuit," said Constanduros.
Races are usually held at country fairs in southern England and Wales and are taken seriously, despite the lack of cash prizes in Britain.
In the United States the sport has thousands of followers with major races attracting television coverage. The United States Lawn Mower Racing Association (USLMRA) -- www.letsmow.com -- was set up on an auspicious date, April Fool's Day in 1992.
The British racing season starts on May 3 with an event at West Grinstead in West Sussex and ends with the British lawn mower Grand Prix at the Bat and Ball pub in Wisborough Green, West Sussex.
The world championship will be held on September 20-21 at Dunsfold, Surrey. Previous championships have attracted international competitors from as far afield as Hong Kong and New Zealand.
23:18 Posted by David
LSD Takes Trip Down Memory Lane at Age 60 Wed Apr 16,11:31 AM ET
By Michael Shields
ZURICH (Reuters) - LSD, the hallucinogenic drug that launched a million trips for hippies, was discovered 60 years ago when a Swiss chemist accidentally inhaled a substance that made his bike ride home something special.
Albert Hofmann was actually trying to develop stimulants for the circulatory system in his Sandoz AG lab on April 16, 1943 when he mixed up a batch of LSD from ergot, a fungus that grows on rye.
Instead, he created one of the most powerful agents ever to change perceptions of reality, an icon of the 1960s Flower Power movement and the drug of choice for a generation of musicians and writers who rode the psychedelic wave.
Hofmann, now 97 and living near Basel, recalled in a newspaper interview 10 years ago that he had made LSD in his lab that fateful day after discovering it five years before.
"Afterwards on the way home I suddenly had hallucinations, a beautiful and pleasant trip. The only thing was, I could not at first explain what had made me so high," he recalled.
Only three days later did he conduct a direct experiment on himself with lysergic acid diethylamide-25.
"I took what I then thought to be a very small amount, namely 25 mg. Then it all became clear," he remembered.
Researchers seized on the drug as a tool to probe human consciousness and perhaps shed light on psychoses such as schizophrenia, but it also became an underground cult drug whose illicit use Hofmann came to decry.
Sandoz, which also isolated hallucinogen psilocybin from Mexican mushrooms in 1958, never marketed either drug but distributed them free to research labs and clinics until 1966, when it halted shipments.
"Unfortunately, increasing abuse of hallucinogenic drugs is being noticed of late, especially among young people abroad," it said at the time, blaming sensational media reporting that gave rise to "an unhealthy interest" in mind-bending drugs.
Hofmann always insisted LSD should remain administered only by researchers and psychiatrists because of the danger that people high on the drug could unwittingly do themselves harm.
"The great danger of LSD is that one cannot come to grips with and integrate the shock of being transported into a different reality, that one 'flips out'," he once recalled.
00:43 Posted by David
Elephant unlatches gate to save South African antelopes
Tue Apr 8, 8:36 AM ET
EMPANGENI, South Africa (AFP) - The matriarch of a herd of elephants in South Africa opened a gate with her trunk to free antelopes being held at a camp in the east of the country.
Lawrence Anthony told the SAPA news agency Tuesday that a private game capture company had rounded up the antelopes at their camp near Empangeni to relocate them for a breeding programme.
The team were settling in for the night when the herd of 11 elephants approached, he said.
"The herd circled the enclosure while the capture team watched warily, thinking the herd were after lucerne (alfalfa) being used to feed the antelope," he said.
The herd's matriarch, named Nana, approached the enclosure gates and began tampering with the metal latches holding the gates closed.
She carefully undid all the latches with her trunk, swung the gate open and stood back with her herd.
"At this stage the onlookers realised this was not a mission for free food, but actually a rescue," Anthony said.
The herd watched the antelope leave the camp before they walked off into the night.
Ecologist Brendon Whittington-Jones said: "Elephant are naturally inquisitive -- but this behaviour is certainly most unusual and cannot be explained in scientific terms".
00:30 Posted by David
Yahoo! News - Ex-N.Y. Officer Admits to Strip Stops Wed Apr 9, 1:01 AM ET
CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. - A former police officer pleaded guilty Tuesday to charges that he forced four women to strip after he pulled them over for traffic violations.
Prosecutors said Frank Wright, 36, forced one woman to walk home wearing only her underwear. He pleaded guilty to civil rights violations carrying up to five years and three months in prison.
No sentencing date was set, Assistant U.S. Attorney Sanford Cohen said.
A telephone call to Wright's attorney for comment Tuesday was not returned.
Court documents filed by federal prosecutors in February accused Wright of mistreating more than a dozen women, while on patrol on Long Island between 1998 and 2000.
Several women said they were driven to isolated locations, sometimes in handcuffs, after they were stopped by Wright. Some were released without being forced to disrobe.
00:28 Posted by David
Ala. Man Floods Hotel Flushing Fake Cash Wed Apr 9, 5:25 AM ET
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. - A Tuscaloosa man flooded three hotel rooms when he tried to flush counterfeit bills down a toilet as police raided his room, authorities said.
Travis Leon Jackson, 21, was charged with first-degree criminal mischief after allegedly causing more than $1,000 damage to his third-floor room and the ones below while trying to flush the fake cash Monday.
The U.S. Secret Service is investigating and Jackson could also face federal charges.
An employee at another hotel reported finding cut-up bills in a room, and investigators later found a large amount of marijuana packaged for sale at Jackson's home, Tuscaloosa police Lt. Randy Vaughn said.
The cost of the damage warranted the criminal mischief charge, Vaughn said.
Vaughn is unsure how much of the money, printed in $20, $50 and $100 denominations, has been circulated in the area.
"He's been all over town with it," said Capt. Mike Everett, commander of the department's criminal investigations division. "We expect to see more that he has passed. If we trace it to him he will face more charges."
Investigators recovered approximately $1,000 in fake money at the second hotel, some of it shredded or cut in half. They found more bills in the trash at the first hotel.
Police also seized a color printer, currency and other items relating to counterfeiting when they arrested Jackson.
00:26 Posted by David
Yahoo! News - Police: Suspects Threw Dog Feces at Foes Wed Apr 9, 5:28 AM ET
CHEBOYGAN, Mich. - Two people who authorities say used dog feces to settle a grudge may have stepped into something themselves.
Cheboygan County prosecutors authorized littering charges against Frank Scott, 51, and Sharyn Ostroske, 55.
State police from the Cheboygan post say the suspects threw 40 plastic bags filled with dog feces and toilet paper on the roadway in front of another person's house.
Troopers told the Cheboygan Daily Tribune that the campaign began last November and extended through January.
The suspects each face a $150 fine.
00:25 Posted by David
Yahoo! News - Jail Employee Accused of Smuggling Candy Wed Apr 9,12:22 PM ET
PORT MANATEE, Fla. - A Manatee County Jail employee is now inside a cell after he was arrested for allegedly smuggling in Easter candy, Mountain Dew and cigarettes to sell to an inmate.
Jesse Penaloza, 37, was charged Tuesday with bringing contraband to a correctional facility and unlawful compensation for official behavior.
He was booked into the jail and remained there on a $10,000 bail Wednesday. The public defender's office said Wednesday the arrest was too recent to know if they would represent Penaloza.
Penaloza, who had worked on the jail's farm since 1996, was fired after his arrest. The Manatee County Sheriff's Office launched an investigation last week after receiving a tip about Penaloza, spokesman Dave Bristow said.
Penaloza twice was seen accepting $100 from an inmate's family member in exchange for soda, tobacco, rolling papers, and Rockin' Rabbit candy, Bristow said.
The jail is a no-smoking facility but does sell soda and candy at its commissary.
"Maybe they don't have Mountain Dew or Easter candy there," Bristow said. "I don't know what the deal is."
00:19 Posted by David
Yahoo! News - Puppy Recovers After Swallowing Knife Wed Apr 9, 7:59 PM ET
LONDON - A puppy that swallowed a kitchen knife nearly the length of his body is back to his playful self after an operation to remove it.
The baffled owners of 12-week-old Jake took him to the vet when they noticed him vomiting and trying to keep his body in a straight line.
X-rays revealed why the puppy was so reluctant to curl up: A kitchen knife was running through his body, with the plastic handle at the base of his pelvis and the blunted metal point at the top of his throat.
"Dogs are always swallowing strange things, from kebab sticks to corn-on-the-cobs to tape cassettes, but this was particularly unusual because it was such a large knife in a small puppy. It really did run the length of his body," said vet Christina Symonds on Wednesday.
The owner, John Mallett, 22, said he knew something was wrong but had no idea the Staffordshire Bull Terrier cross had swallowed the knife.
"He would put his feet on you and put his head back, trying to keep his body in a straight line," said Mallett.
Jake was back on his feet less than 24 hours after the operation on March 30. "He's totally back to his old self," said Mallet.
00:14 Posted by David
Yahoo! News - Wanted: Four Nuns on the Run After Car Crash Wed Apr 9,11:14 AM ET
ROME (Reuters) - Italian police said on Wednesday they were scouring the countryside for four nuns after a hit-and-run accident near the northern city of Bergamo.
The nuns, behind the wheel of a Citroen, ignored a stop sign at a crossroads and plowed into a Mercedes driven by a 63-year-old man, who escaped uninjured.
Instead of stopping as Italian law requires, the nuns sped off before anyone could even get a glimpse of their car registration.
"This is the first time I've ever heard of such a thing happening in all my years in the police. It's extremely strange," Enzo Fiocchi, the police chief heading the search, told Reuters by telephone from the village of Albano Sant'Alessandro.
19:06 Posted by David
Yahoo! News - L.A. County Names Camel As Deputy Mon Apr 7, 7:51 AM ET
SAN DIMAS, Calif. - He's been on the job for a while, but it became official last week: Bert the camel is now a Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputy.
Bert, who weighs in at 1,700 pounds, got his sheriff's ID card after a swearing-in ceremony Saturday during a festival in this city 30 miles east of downtown Los Angeles.
Bert is a member of the Sheriff's Posse in San Dimas and visits area schools as part of a presentation on California history, said Nancy Fite, a member of the Sheriff's Posse and Bert's handler.
"He's very intelligent," Fite said.
In California, Bert's ancestors were once part of the U.S. garrison at Fort Tejon, which operated between 1854 and 1864, about 77 miles north of Los Angeles.
Bert joins other members of the sheriff's four-footed force that also includes dogs and horses.
Bert, not quite full grown at 6, was joined at the swearing in by two other reservists, Muffin and Brougan, a pair of 100-pound-plus bull mastiffs. Like Bert, the two dogs are not crime fighters, but public relations representatives.
19:05 Posted by David
Yahoo! News - Man Gets $12,000 Electric Bill Fri Apr 4, 8:06 AM ET
NORTH PLATTE, Neb. - Randy Carroll got quite a shock when his electric bill arrived this week.
For 33 days of service, he was charged $12,344.16.
"It was April Fool's Day, and I thought someone was playing a joke on me," said Carroll, who lives in a small, two-bedroom house.
It turned out it was a real bill. But the amount was wrong.
A glitch in Municipal Light and Water's new billing software caused Carroll's bill to show he used 310,421 kilowatts. Usually, he uses about 300.
Carroll's bill has now been straightened out.
The real amount due: $26.26.
"That," he said, "I can handle."
19:04 Posted by David
Yahoo! News - Man Uses Vacuum Cleaner to Steal Coins Fri Apr 4, 8:20 AM ET
STOCKHOLM, Sweden - There was plenty of change jingling in one Swedish man's pockets — but unfortunately for him, police saw him vacuum it out of a parking meter.
Mikael Persson, 44, has been charged with theft for sucking coins out of city-owned meters Feb. 17 in the southern city of Goteborg using a vacuum cleaner, according to court documents seen Friday.
Police said Persson used a pilfered set of keys to open the fronts of two meters, which take 1-, 5- and 10-kronor coins. Then, because the area holding the coins couldn't be cleaned out by hand, he plugged his vacuum cleaner into electrical sockets that, conveniently enough, are provided on Sweden's electronic parking meters.
He had emptied one meter and had started on a second when police saw him. In his pockets, they found coins worth more than 2,220 kronor (US$260).
Persson pleaded guilty, but hasn't been sentenced.
Goteberg is 295 miles southwest of Stockholm.
19:03 Posted by David
Homeless Man Gets $6 Million Tax Bill Mon Apr 7, 7:56 AM ET
SALEM, Ore. - A homeless man billed for $6 million in taxes by the Internal Revenue Service (news - web sites) has been notified it was a mistake.
John Ramer, known as the "six million dollar man" by his buddies at the Union Gospel Mission in Salem, was told Friday that his $5,981,104.02 tax bill was an error and he owed nothing.
The IRS refused to comment on the case, but an agency spokeswoman previously confirmed that they were looking into Ramer's complaints.
Ramer, 30, said the agency's Taxpayer Advocate Service traced the source of the mistake to an employer's computer glitch in 1994.
The problem started with some malfunctioning magnetic tape. Instead of reporting earnings of $35 to the IRS for a few hours work at a bowling alley, the mistake ballooned Ramer's pay to more than $2 million. Penalties and interest boosted the tax amount into the $6 million range.
"It was just the luck of the draw that it happened to me," Ramer said.
His former boss said he didn't remember Ramer's brief stint behind the snack counter, but he did recall there were some problems with the company's W-2 forms about 10 years ago.
Despite wide publicity about the case, Ramer says his financial situation has not improved. He said a television reporter bought him lunch, and someone gave him a T-shirt that says, "I'm not really a bum, but I
19:02 Posted by David
Yahoo! News - Small Plane Lands on L.A. Freeway Sun Apr 6, 8:27 AM ET
ANAHEIM, Calif. - A small plane having engine trouble clipped a car but landed safely amid the traffic of the Riverside Freeway that runs through the Los Angeles suburbs.
The impact Saturday afternoon shattered the car's rear window, scattering glass on two children who were in the back seat on their way to Disneyland, but authorities said no one was seriously injured.
Kevin Glovinsky said he saw a shadow over his car and heard his girlfriend, Tiffany Jennings, screaming that an airplane was landing on the freeway. He said they had to pick broken glass out of the hair of his 4-year-old son and her 8-year-old daughter.
"I'm still kinda in shock," he said.
The pilot, Mike Manning of West Covina, had been headed to the nearby Fullerton Municipal Airport but was having engine trouble shortly after 1 p.m. He set the plane down on the freeway, where traffic was relatively light, and was able to pull it over to the shoulder near an exit, said Highway Patrol Officer Colleen Richardson. Two freeway lanes were shut down for about three hours.
"I couldn't believe it was happening," Manning, 45, told The Orange County Register. "I'm still in a period of denial."
19:00 Posted by David
Yahoo! News - Police Arrest Three with Fake Iraqi Cash Mon Apr 7,10:44 AM ET
ROME (Reuters) - Italian police said on Monday they had arrested three men and charged them with counterfeiting hundreds of thousands of dollars in fake Iraqi money.
The leaders of the counterfeiting ring were arrested in Rome on Sunday and some $600,000 worth of Iraqi dinars had been confiscated.
They said the three men, two Italians and one German, had made numerous trips between Italy and the Middle East recently.
Police said they were still trying to determine what the men were intending to do with the money.
18:58 Posted by David
Yahoo! News - Man Jailed for Hair Cutting Spree Mon Apr 7,10:50 AM ET
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - When police finally came to Michael Howard's home, they discovered hair everywhere: a thin carpet of hair covering the floor, huge mounds on the bed and in the closet plus photos of severed ponytails lined up as neatly as bodies in a morgue.
The cops knew then that they had finally caught up with the notorious "Haircut Bandit."
For three weeks in December of 2001, Howard cruised the streets of Los Angeles and Long Beach, California, casing bus stops and park benches for women with ultra-long tresses.
Before he was caught, Howard chopped hanks of hair or entire ponytails from the heads of nine victims, ages 12 to 45. Investigators began closing in on the bicycle repair shop owner on New Year's Eve when a deputy sheriff saw him approach a woman at a bus stop and shear off her waist-length hair.
He escaped -- dropping his scissors and his hair trophy -- but police nabbed him the next day. On Thursday, Howard entered a surprise guilty plea and was sentenced to eight years in prison for his hair-razing rampage.
18:57 Posted by David
Yahoo! News - Man Jailed for Keeping Wife on Dog Chain Mon Apr 7,10:52 AM ET
SAN ANTONIO, Texas (Reuters) - A man who allegedly padlocked a 30-foot dog chain around his wife's neck and kept her in a cage after she threatened to leave him is now in a cage of his own -- a prison cell.
San Antonio police arrested 41-year-old Jerry Wayne Thomason on Thursday after a neighbor spotted his 45-year-old Patricia wife wearing the chain around her neck after the couple dropped off their two children at school, police said on Friday.
When police found her, the chained woman was standing in her driveway while her husband slept in the passenger seat of his car, holding onto the chain.
Neighbors said the bizarre situation began when Patricia Thomason told her husband she wanted to leave him.
"He also had her in a cage, chained up in a cage, because he didn't want her to leave," neighbor Yolanda Esquivel said.
Firefighters had to use bolt cutters to remove the chain from her neck and police said she was released from a hospital after treatment for minor cuts and bruises.
Thomason was jailed in lieu of $35,000 bond on charges of felony aggravated assault with bodily injury and unlawful restraint.
Police said the couple had been married for 15 years.
18:55 Posted by David
Yahoo! News - Nuns Found Guilty of Sabotage Tue Apr 8,10:24 AM ET
DENVER (Reuters) - Three Catholic nuns have been found guilty of sabotage and malicious destruction of property for breaking into a missile silo last year in a peace protest.
One of the sisters, Carolyn Gilbert, turned to the jury as the guilty verdict was read Monday and said: "We are not guilty under God's law and international law." Another sister, Ardeth Platte, remained silent but made the sign of the cross as she looked at the jury of six men and six women.
The three peace activists, who wore orange jail jumpsuits during their five-day trial, have said they cut cables and made the sign of the cross on the lid of the silo with their own blood before they were arrested by military police.
The three could be sentenced to up to 30 years and fined up to $250,000.
18:54 Posted by David
Tue Apr 8, 8:07 AM ET
PINE BLUFF, Ark. - Police say they aren't sure what charge is appropriate for a man arrested after tellers laughed him out of a bank he apparently tried to rob.
The man entered a branch of the Bank of America about 10 a.m. Monday, with a trash bag, authorities said.
"Put the money in the bag," he demanded.
Instead, one of the two tellers told him the bank was out of money, and the other teller laughed and offered the man deposit slips. She told police that made the intruder angry, and he left without any money in his bag.
Minutes after tellers alerted authorities, a Jefferson County sheriff's deputy picked up Julius Kearney, 23, of Little Rock, as he walked nearby. Kearney was arrested after witnesses in the bank identified him as the man with the trash bag, police said.
No weapon was found, and the man at the bank never threatened anybody, so police are unsure how the case will be handled.
"Technically, it could be robbery, and since it is in a bank, the FBI might also have some regulations about what we can charge him with," said police spokesman Robert Rawlinson.
"Either he'll be (in jail) or we will put him in for mental evaluation," Rawlinson said. "He's not just going to be released."
23:25 Posted by David
Yahoo! News - Marijuana washes ashore Wed Apr 2, 2:04 PM ET
MIAMI (Reuters) - About 500 pounds (220 kg) of marijuana has washed ashore on several south Florida beaches, prompting a late-night search for drug smugglers in choppy coastal waters.
Federal and local law enforcement agencies sent two helicopters and two boats on Tuesday night to scour the sea for suspects after a man reported coming across a large bale of marijuana while strolling on the beach, police said.
In total, police found 12 bales of marijuana wrapped in white burlap sacks with a street value of up to $1.5 million, (980,000 pounds) said Jim Messer, a Delray Beach police spokesman.
While fairly common during the drug-trafficking decade of the 1980s, Messer said it was rare to see such large quantities of illegal drugs floating ashore on Delray Beach, which is just north of Fort Lauderdale.
"Every once in a while we get refugees washing up on shore, every once in a while we get dope washing up on shore," he said.
23:21 Posted by David
Yahoo! News - Law Firm Decides to Shorten Name Wed Apr 2, 7:58 AM ET
MARINA DEL REY, Calif. - The law firm Berger, Kahn, Shafton, Moss, Figler, Simon & Gladstone has decided its name was too much of a mouthful.
Now it will just be Berger Kahn.
"Everybody is delighted," managing partner Allen Michel said Tuesday.
The change — dropping 13 syllables to just three — is part of a trend among law firms with long names to shorten them.
"When we were younger, many of us, including me, thought we needed our name on the door to feel important," said Craig Simon, another managing partner. "Now that we are wiser, we know that seven names is too many."
Michel said his colleagues voted unanimously for the change partly because they hear chuckles in the courtroom each time they mention the firm's name.
The change means his office will "save a lot of ink and toner" when printing documents with the firm's name.
There's also another benefit.
"We expect our receptionist to be able to handle more calls without saying the full firm's name," Michel said.
23:13 Posted by David
Yahoo! News - Sperm Turned on by Lily of the Valley Wed Apr 2, 9:16 AM ET
BERLIN (Reuters) - Human sperm become excited when exposed to the scent of lily of the valley, doubling their speed and homing in on the aroma, a German scientist said on Wednesday.
Hans Hatt, a biology professor at Ruhr University in Bochum, said knowledge about a newly discovered odor receptor on the sperm's surface could enable researchers to devise alternative contraception methods or ways to boost fertility.
"This is the first time sperm has been shown to respond to smell," Hatt, who said the findings came after three years of study, told Reuters. "The application of the substances in a salve to the vaginal area could raise the chance of conceiving."
He said receptors in the sperm's membranes are attracted to two chemical compounds, cyclamal and bourgeonal, used in the cosmetics industry to imitate the plant's smell.
Another compound, undecanal, was found to block the attraction and could be used for contraceptive ends, he added.
18:53 Posted by David
Love Car Park to avoid mamma's eye Mon Mar 31,10:33 AM ET
ROME (Reuters) - All roads are supposed to lead to Rome, but amorous young Italians anxious to escape mamma's beady eye might be tempted to take a detour to the country's first "Love Car Park".
The Tuscan town of Vinci, more commonly known for its Renaissance artist son Leonardo, is renovating a car park complete with soft lighting and special dustbins for condoms.
"We're just recognising that young people love each other," Mayor Giancarlo Faenzi told Reuters by telephone on Monday.
"If you don't face that fact, you're simply closing your eyes to reality and you just end up sending them a kilometre (half a mile) down the road," he said, adding that the town was still deciding whether to install a condom machine.
The back seat often acts as a substitute bed for those Italians who live with their parents well into their 30s.
Even Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi famously reminisced last year about how "many of us first kissed our girl in a Fiat 500".
Italians talk of a "Car-ma Sutra", illustrating positions best suited to specific car models, though no one can ever remember the name of the book.
Car sex is not illegal in strongly Catholic Italy -- as long as the windows are covered up.
But woe betide anyone who is spotted in flagrante, whatever their age.
Last month an 85-year-old man and his 74-year-old lady friend were caught having sex in a car park next to
18:51 Posted by David
Court: Man Can Bark at Police Dog Mon Mar 31, 6:22 AM ET
ATHENS, Ohio - A man was using his free speech rights when he barked back at a police dog, a state appeals court has ruled.
The 4th Ohio District Court of Appeals upheld the dismissal of charges against a man who answered the barks of Pepsie in this southeast Ohio city in September 2001.
Jeremy Gilchrist, then 21, encountered the dog, which was in a police cruiser, as he walked along a street with friends.
His attorney said he was trying to be funny when he barked back.
"The mere fact that the police dog had commenced the barking did not entitle it to a solo performance," attorney Patrick McGee wrote in the appeal.
State law makes it illegal to taunt, torment or hit a police dog or horse. Officer Krishea Osborne testified that Gilchrist's barking made the dog "work himself up into a frenzy."
However, Athens County Municipal Judge Douglas Bennett threw out the charges last June, saying the law violated the right to free speech. The appeals court agreed Wednesday.
Bennett also said Gilchrist wasn't a threat to the animal or public safety because he was 30 feet away from the cruiser.
City Prosecutor Lisa Eliason argued in the appeal that taunting can occur from any distance.
No decision has been made whether to file another appeal, Eliason said Friday.
Athens is about 65 miles southeast of Columbus.
18:49 Posted by David
Yahoo! News - Deputies Find Marijuana in Truck's Tires Tue Apr 1, 2:18 AM ET
DENTON, Texas - There wasn't much air in the tires of a pickup truck Denton County deputies stopped early Monday, but they say there was plenty of marijuana.
Dora Valdez, 27, and Michael Navarette, 21, both of El Paso, were charged with possession of marijuana over 50 pounds, a felony.
Authorities said they found more than 80 pounds of marijuana, valued at more than $64,000, packed into metal boxes welded around the wheels inside the tires. A drug dog alerted to the three tires on the ground and a spare.
"I was going to move the spare tire out of the way, but I couldn't even move it," Deputy Armin Melo said in a story in Tuesday's Denton Record-Chronicle. "I knew there was something in that tire."
Melo said he became suspicious after stopping the truck for speeding on Interstate 35, south of Denton. He said the driver was extremely nervous and told the officer a different story than her male passenger. Melo said the driver allowed a search of the vehicle.
"There was some air in the tires, but mostly they were full of marijuana," Melo said. "They said it rode pretty rough."
Melo said Valdez is on federal probation on similar charges.
18:44 Posted by David
Yahoo! News - It's Toilet Time! Tue Apr 1, 9:14 AM ET
BERLIN (Reuters) - A German artist who turns dried cow manure into wall clocks and small sculptures wants to expand his repertory to include cow dung wrist watches.
"Artists are always looking for new materials and I was struck by the similarities in the consistency of the manure to my paints," said Bernd Eilts, 43. "I used sheep droppings at first but they were too small so I switched to cow dung."
Eilts said the idea came to him as he walked through a mound-filled field 10 years ago. He lets the cowpats dry out over a few weeks before sculpting, painting or lacquering them.
He said animals fed on fresh grass produced the best pats, but other foods made for interesting varieties. "Cows fed on carrots and turnips produce a reddish dung, which looks quite different from the normal material."
His trademark clocks cost 150 euros ($140), and he said wrist watches and even alarm clocks may soon appear.
Eilts made his first splash in the Dutch town of Groningen in 2000 with an exhibit entitled "Bullshit."
