Yahoo! News - Sri Lanka sends army drivers back to school: "Mon Oct 13,10:14 AM ET
COLOMBO (AFP) - The Sri Lankan army will send some 4,000 of its drivers on refresher courses following a spate of fatal accidents involving military vehicles.
The move followed investigations into several deadly accidents involving army drivers which occurred on the island's northern peninsula of Jaffna, defence ministry spokesman Sumedha Perera said Monday.
'We are starting this program from the north and the east and then (we will) extend to other areas,' Perera said. 'Respect of road rules in the north-east is somewhat lower and bad driving on our side makes it worse.' "
14:51 Posted by David
Yahoo! News - Thief Stopped by His Landlord _ a Cop
RENO, Nev. - Ernest Dumpti was feeling so wealthy after he allegedly helped steal $90,000 from an elderly woman that he decided to pay off a year's worth of his rent, police said.
The problem was he tried to pay it off in $50,000 cash, to his landlord — a Reno police officer.
Dumpti, 39, and his alleged accomplice Patrick Payne, 43, were booked Monday into the Washoe County Jail for investigation of grand larceny.
The men allegedly took the money from the attic of a Reno woman whose home they were renovating, Reno police said.
Officer Jim Stegmaier said he became suspicious when Dumpti told him he had come into some cash and wanted to pay a year in advance on the property he rents from the officer.
Dumpti allegedly showed Stegmaier the money while Stegmaier was wearing his police uniform.
Police detectives then obtained a search warrant for Dumpti's home and recovered the $90,000. The woman was not aware the money was missing until she was contacted by police.
14:50 Posted by David
Yahoo! News - Man Attacks Stain in Trousers...Destroys Apartment: "Mon Oct 13,10:36 AM ET
MOSCOW (Reuters) - A Russian man may wish he had stuck with having dirty trousers after an imaginative attempt to purge a stubborn paint stain on them destroyed his apartment.
The unnamed Muscovite added a liter of petrol to his washing machine to help dissolve the stain, Itar-Tass news agency reported Monday, but the ensuing explosion wrecked his kitchen and demolished two internal walls.
Moscow police confirmed there had been an explosion in a south-eastern Moscow apartment, but would not comment on the cause. "
14:49 Posted by David
Yahoo! News - Wedding Party Shoots Down Plane: "Mon Oct 13,10:37 AM ET
BELGRADE (Reuters) - A two-seater sports plane on an unauthorized joyride was apparently shot down by mistake when it flew over a Serbian wedding party where guests were firing guns into the air, local media reported Sunday.
Two men were reported to have sustained serious injuries when their aircraft burst into flames and crashed near Kraljevo, central Serbia.
'I heard shots from a wedding party which was very close to the crash site. Then I saw the plane in flames. It was shot in the left wing,' witness Zoran Vukadinovic told reporters.
'A few moments later, while attempting a crash landing, it was caught in overhead power cables,' he said.
Local media said neither of the men held a pilot's license.
Firing guns into the air at weddings and other celebrations is common in Serbia. "
14:48 Posted by David
Yahoo! News - Police Nab Vicious Crow by Getting It Drunk: "Tue Oct 14,10:50 AM ET
BERLIN (Reuters) - German police apprehended a vicious crow which was attacking passers-by by getting it drunk on bait laced with alcohol, authorities said Monday.
The bird eluded its captors after attacking a woman and a young girl at the weekend until cat food soaked in high-alcohol fruit schnapps proved too tempting to resist.
'The crow was completely smashed,' said a spokesman for police in the western city of Dortmund.
Police said the crow was sleeping off its hangover in a local animal home. "
13:25 Posted by David
Yahoo! News - Pay Up or Fluffy Gets It: "Thu Oct 2, 9:50 AM ET
MOSCOW (Reuters) - For a Russian electricity company, pets are not just for Christmas -- they are for ransom.
Russia's First Channel television reported Dalenergo, an electricity company in Russia's Far Eastern city Vladivostok, is so frustrated by customers who owe around $10 million that it has decided to confiscate their pets.
'Let the father answer his daughter's question as to why her favorite cat has been taken away,' Dalenergo Director Nikolai Tkachyov told First Channel.
Dalenergo's parent, Unified Energy System (UES), disowned the pet-snatching plan.
'Dalenergo will not take away Vladivostok residents' four-footed friends,' it said in a statement. "
13:18 Posted by David
Yahoo! News - Drunken driver caught napping in fast lane: "Wed Oct 1, 5:49 AM ET
BERLIN (Reuters) - German police have detained a drunken man after finding him sitting behind the wheel of his car asleep in the fast lane of a motorway, authorities say.
'He had a bottle of wine between his legs and a rifle next to him. He pulled up there to sleep off the booze,' police said.
The man, 28, was believed to be a hunter. He was wearing camouflage clothing and there was a dog in the passenger seat, a police spokesman in the northern city of Schwerin said. "
13:15 Posted by David
Yahoo! News - Man Sets Record for Eating M&MsWed Oct 1, 8:22 AM ET
OAKLAND, Calif. - Three minutes after Jim Hager started eating M&Ms with a pair of chopsticks, he was headed for the Guinness Book of World Records.
The 47-year-old Oakland resident gobbled 115 M&Ms in 3 minutes Sunday, breaking a previous record of 112 Smarties consumed by Kathryn Ratcliffe of England in December 2002.
The new record won't become official until event organizers send documentation to the Guinness association, including a videotape, photographs and written declarations from witnesses, but it seems likely he'll have his place in the list.
For his efforts, he received 25 pounds of M&Ms courtesy of a local candy store that sponsored the event.
"His kids were very happy," said store owner Wendy Winter.
She said the association gave very specific guidelines: Contestants had to use wooden chopsticks, the M&Ms had to be of the standard variety and they had to be carried to the mouth — one at a time — in the chopsticks.
13:13 Posted by David
Yahoo! News - Court Won't Accept Check on TombstoneFri Oct 3,11:13 AM ET
LONDON - A peace activist attempted to pay a court fine with a check chiseled on a small tombstone Friday, as a protest at the number of civilians killed in the recent war in Iraq (news - web sites).
Court officials refused to accept the check.
Nick Buxton, a 31-year-old aid worker from London, was fined 120 pounds (US$200) for blocking the entrance to a military base in January.
His "check," complete with account number signature, was made from cast stone and weighed about five pounds. On the reverse side was written "RIP 25,000 dead in Iraq" — a "conservative estimate," Buxton said, of the number of civilians killed in the Iraq conflict.
The Association for Payment Clearing Services (APACS), the British trade association of banks and building societies, said a check can be written on anything and be legally valid as long as all the proper details are included.
"The classic example was someone who wrote a check on the side of a live cow, while others have written checks on clothing, or on paving stones," said Stephanie Watson, a spokeswoman for APACS.
"However, the payee can always refuse a check, just as a shopkeeper can demand to be paid in cash," she said.
13:11 Posted by David
Yahoo! News - Am I on Fire or Is It Just TV?: "Fri Oct 3, 7:39 AM ET
BERLIN (Reuters) - A German TV network's regular early morning film of a burning log is playing havoc with night owls and even tricked a woman into calling out the fire brigade.
A spokesman for police in the northern town of Luebeck said on Thursday that the woman woke up thinking her television was on fire, called emergency services and alerted her neighbors.
'Fire services rushed in and extinguished the 'blaze' using the television remote control,' the spokesman said.
Sabine Kreft of the Super RTL network said the 'burning log' video which runs from three until six in the morning is popular, promotes congeniality, but is distinguishable from a real fire.
'Once I heard an old lady poured water on her TV. But most people should really be able to tell the difference.' "
13:10 Posted by David
Yahoo! News - Man Dies After Wife Crushes Testicles: "Fri Oct 3, 8:28 AM ET
ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - An enraged Ethiopian mother of five will be tried for the murder of her husband who died after she crushed his testicles in a fight, police told the state-run Ethiopian News Agency.
Police said on Friday the man was so embarrassed after the incident that he declined to seek treatment for the injury, and died days later.
'Following a disagreement over the husband's spending habits, his wife refused to give him his dinner and also decided to sleep alone,' police in the western region of Wellega said.
'The husband was so angered by this affront by his wife that he tried to beat her. In the melee that followed, the wife grabbed and twisted his testicles causing serious damage.'
Police said the unnamed woman, a resident of Wayu-Tuka district in Wellega, had had several arguments with her husband about the amount of money he spent on booze. "
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