Yahoo! News - CVS Offers $4 Off When You Buy Stomach: "Thu Sep 23, 7:41 AM ET
BINGHAMTON, N.Y. - Some drug store customers in Binghamton, N.Y., are doing a double-take this week when they receive a bonus coupon after making a purchase.
The cash register coupon distributed by a CVS store promises a discount on the customer's next purchase of a stomach.
The coupon offers a savings of $4 'on any stomach purchase of 15 dollars or more.'
While some CVS customers may have found the offer a bit funny, the store manager didn't sound amused when asked about it.
The manager says the store wasn't selling stomachs, just stomach remedies. "
12:01 Posted by David
Yahoo! News - Anti-Ketchup Comments Draw Fire From Heinz: "Thu Sep 23,10:54 AM ETSARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Is putting Heinz ketchup on a burger tantamount to supporting John Kerry president?
An upstate New York lawmaker apparently thinks so.
Republican state Assemblyman Jim Tedisco recently told the crowd at a GOP cookout in Saratoga County that using Heinz ketchup would benefit Kerry's presidential campaign.
The Democratic senator from Massachusetts is married to Teresa Heinz Kerry, whose late husband was a descendant of the condiment giant's founder.
The H-J Heinz Company caught wind of Tedisco's comments and responded, saying its ketchup is a nonpartisan condiment enjoyed by 'Republicans, Democrats and Independents alike.'
The company says Heinz Kerry is involved with Heinz-funded endowments and foundations, but not the company's ketchup business.
Nevertheless, Tedisco says he's 'a mustard man' until the November election. "
11:59 Posted by David
Yahoo! News - Court Rules a Horse Is Not a VehicleThu Sep 23,10:55 AM ET
PITTSBURGH - The state Supreme Court ruled that Pennsylvania's drunken driving law can't be enforced against people on horseback, a decision that inspired the dissenting justice to wax poetic.
The court ruled Wednesday in a case against two men in Mercer County in 2002. Riders Keith Travis, 41, and Richard Noel, 49, were charged with drunken driving along with a man driving a pickup who allegedly rear-ended the horse Travis was riding away from a bar on a dark country road.
All three men failed field sobriety tests, police said, but a judge threw out the charges against Noel and Travis after they argued that the word "vehicles" in the state's drunken-driving law doesn't apply to horses.
Prosecutors said the code specifically includes people riding animals. But the majority justices cited a similar case in Utah, where judges said such a statute is confusing and too vague about which regulations would apply to animals as well as vehicles.
Justice Michael Eakin, who is fond of writing rhyming opinions, summed up the lone dissent with two stanzas mimicking the theme song of "Mister Ed" — a 1960s TV sitcom about a talking horse:
"A horse is a horse, of course, of course,
but the Vehicle Code does not divorce
its application from, perforce,
a steed as my colleagues said.
"'It's not vague,' I'll say until I'm hoarse,
and whether a car, a truck or horse
this law applies with equal force,
and I'd reverse instead."
11:55 Posted by David
Yahoo! News - Beer Belly Bandit Strikes Again in Fla.TAMPA, Fla. - The "Beer Belly Bandit" has struck again after a 10-month break, adding to the dozens of bank robberies he has committed in Florida since 2000.
The robber, known for his bulging midsection, hit a bank on Tuesday, pulling a gun on two tellers. It was the first robbery he had committed since November, when he held up a bank in Sarasota, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement said.
The amount stolen was not disclosed.
"Normally with investigations like this, you get an abundance of leads, especially with a $25,000 reward," said agent Steve Davenport. "We're not getting much at all. It's kind of perplexing."
Investigators are not sure where the bandit has been for the past 10 months. Jail is one possibility, but Davenport said police have the bandit's description and he probably would have been recognized.
The Beer Belly Bandit — also known as the "Band-Aid Bandit," because he had a bandage on his face in some holdups — has a skin condition on his hands and arms that makes his skin look bleached.
11:52 Posted by David
Yahoo! News - Students Punished for Dorm Stripper PoleThu Sep 23, 6:43 PM ET
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - Three students at Jacksonville University have been punished for installing a stripper pole in an on-campus apartment and taking pictures as fully clothed women performed on it at a party. A female student who won a dance contest also was disciplined.
About a dozen women competed for a $100 Victoria's Secret gift certificate Sept. 11, said James Foster, a 20-year-old who hosted the party. None of the women disrobed.
The men bought the steel pole from Home Depot, bolted it to the concrete ceiling and attached the bottom to a plywood stage covered in red felt.
"Honestly, we just wanted to say we had a stripper pole," Foster said. "We never actually expected girls to dance on it."
When university officials ordered the men to remove the pole, they complied, but not before building a huge party around it.
Signs reading "Pole Dancers Wanted" were posted around campus and the men bought large quantities of beer. Friends were enlisted friends to check identifications and manage security. They charged $5 for men, and women were let in free.
The party ended shortly after the beer ran out.
John Daigle Jr., a school spokesman, said the party's hosts may have violated the university's alcohol policy and broken rules against indecent behavior and the making of unapproved changes to university property.
Daigle, citing school privacy rules, would not identify the students or the punishment they received, but said: "The university took this seriously and the punishment was appropriate."
Punishments at the university can range from a reprimand to dismissal.
Foster said he was put on residential probation through Nov. 9 and had to write a letter of apology.
Daigle said he later learned the woman who won the dance contest was also disciplined, but would not say what her punishment was. "There was no public nudity involved here," he said.
Residential adviser Amber Davis said the party degraded women.
"There are other ways they can go out and get a girlfriend if that's what they want," she said.
The men have taken down the pole and converted the stage to a pingpong table.
11:49 Posted by David
Yahoo! News - Safe Haven for Naked Yoga: "Thu Sep 23, 7:37 AM ETSAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Nudists, grab your yoga mats and head for San Francisco.
City prosecutors on Wednesday said it was not illegal to perform naked yoga in the city -- even at the crowded tourist destination of Fisherman's Wharf.
Prosecutors dropped charges against a limber nudist, known locally as the 'Naked Yoga Guy,' who made a habit of striking yoga poses in the buff in order to promote a book and his lifestyle.
The Naked Yoga Guy, whose name is George Monty Davis, had stripped to stretch near Fisherman's Wharf, prompting a public complaint. But prosecutors decided they had a weak public nuisance case against him because local laws do not bar public nudity.
'Simply being naked on the street is not a crime in San Francisco,' said Debbie Mesloh, a spokeswoman for the district attorney's office.
'To bring a case, a person would have to exhibit lewd behavior, block traffic or impede pedestrians on a sidewalk, something along those lines.'
In another case involving a Los Angeles teenager who dropped his pants to expose his bottom, or 'moon,' passing motorists from a nearby sidewalk, a California appellate court ruled nudity itself is not a crime, Mesloh said. "
11:47 Posted by David
Yahoo! News - Marijuana Smoker Beheads Two Women: "BLANTYRE, Malawi (Reuters) - A Malawian man believed to be high on marijuana beheaded two women with an axe Friday, police in the southern African country said.
The man, in his mid-20s, beheaded a 52-year-old woman while she worked in her garden with her daughter and did the same to a 68-year-old friend who came to the daughter's aid, police spokesman Kelvin Maigwa told Reuters.
'The unsuspecting woman greeted the stranger who, instead, threw the axe at her, aiming at the chest,' Maigwa said.
He said police found marijuana, or hemp, when they searched the suspect's home.
'The house was full of stench from recently smoked hemp. We believe he had an overdose of the hemp that made him go berserk,' Maigwa said, adding that the walls of the house bore quotations from famous reggae songs.
Police have launched a manhunt for the killer, who fled into the bush after the attacks"
07:47 Posted by David
Yahoo! News - Thieves rob bus full of policemen: "Wed Sep 15, 6:03 PM ET
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (Reuters) - Forty-six Brazilian policemen travelling to a sports competition were caught with their guard down this week when four Brazilian thieves robbed the bus carrying them to the event.
The bus with 46 unarmed policemen from northeastern Paraiba state was headed to the city of Salvador in Bahia when two cars with armed robbers forced them to stop on the country's main interstate highway on Tuesday.
'The robbers took their cameras, cellular phones, wallets and even the sports uniforms and sneakers,' a police spokesman said.
The suspects, who escaped, apparently did not know the bus was full of police when they stopped it, he said.
'We are looking for them, but I cannot say there's any particular ardour here due to the fact that policemen have been robbed.' "
07:42 Posted by David
Yahoo! News - Pa. Golfer Cleared of Not Yelling 'Fore': "Fri Sep 17, 1:46 PM ETCARLISLE, Pa. - A golfer plunked in the face by an errant ball was unable to convince a jury that the man who hit him was negligent for failing to yell 'Fore!'
James A. Tomkins claimed fellow golfer George Long didn't yell the standard warning when he hit a wayward shot on the Cumberland Golf Course in 1999.
The ball hit Tomkins in the right eye, knocking him out of his golf cart.
Jurors deliberated two hours Tuesday before deciding that Long was not negligent.
Long, who claimed he did yell a warning, said golfers in Pennsylvania would be happy with the verdict.
'When you play golf, you take a risk,' he said.
Potential jurors were asked if they were golfers, and about half of those picked to hear the case said they were either casual or serious about the game. "
07:10 Posted by David
Yahoo! News - What Are the Odds of a Ghost Closing Your School?: "NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Fear of a ghost who knocks on doors and wafts the scent of aftershave lotion along corridors has forced a prestigious college for statisticians in the Indian capital to close.
Students of the Indian Statistical Institute said the ghost of a dead classmate had knocked on doors, jostled them on staircases and left traces of aftershave lotion and cigarette smoke, the Times of India said.
Students linked the aftershave aroma to a first-year student who died last month of a rare heart condition.
'A fear psychosis had gripped some students. We thought it was best to allow them to go home if they wanted to,' the newspaper quoted Rajeev Karandikar, head of the prestigious institute, as saying. "
09:16 Posted by David
Yahoo! News - Man OK After Being Run Over by Train: "Thu Sep 9, 7:05 PM ET
LE MARS, Iowa - A man who police say was intoxicated was unhurt after a train drove over him. Shawn M. Polley, 44, of Bowling Green, Ky., was passed out between the rails of the train tracks last week, police said.
The train's engineer hit the emergency break and notified authorities that the northbound train may have hit a pedestrian. Two of the train's engines passed over Polley's body without hitting him, Officer Jay King said.
Authorities woke Polley and removed him from the tracks after the first engine was disconnected.
'He was sleeping, passed out, whatever you want to call it,' King said. 'He's just a lucky guy.'
Polley was arrested for public intoxication and interference with official acts. "
09:14 Posted by David
Yahoo! News - Man Gets 6 Months for Swinging Alligator: "Fri Sep 10, 7:14 AM ET
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - A man who swung an alligator at his girlfriend during an argument was sentenced to six months in jail.
David Havenner, 41, of Port Orange, pleaded no contest to misdemeanor charges of battery and possession of an alligator, said Linda Pruitt, spokeswoman for the State Attorney's Office. He changed his earlier plea of not guilty, she said Wednesday.
He was sentenced to six month in jail with 48 days credit for time served during the Sept. 1 hearing, according to court records.
Sheriff's officials said Havenner was keeping the 3-foot gator in his bathtub and swung it at his girlfriend, Nancy Monico, 39, during an argument on July 16.
Monico told investigators that Havenner beat her with his fists, then grabbed the gator and swung it at her as she tried to escape. The gator struck Monico at least once, after which time Havenner threw empty beer bottles at her and then kicked her out of their mobile home, she told investigators.
Havenner told investigators that Monico bit his hand because she was upset that they had run out of alcohol.
The alligator was later released into the St. Johns River, wildlife commission officials said."
08:48 Posted by David
Yahoo! News - Racing Pigeons Face Dope Testing: "Fri Sep 10, 8:48 AM ET
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's pigeon racers are being subjected to random dope tests as the sport's ruling body clamps down on suspected foul play.
The Royal Pigeon Racing Association has sent test kits to 60 race organizers across England after complaints some birds have been given performance-enhancing drugs such as anabolic steroids and synthetic hormones.
'Just like any other sport, there is a suspected small, determined band of cheats who are spoiling things for other owners,' Peter Bryant, the Royal Pigeon Racing Association's general manager, told the Daily Telegraph newspaper on Thursday.
'We are hoping to send more and more of the kits to smaller organizations. It is sad that it has come to this but it is the only way we are going to know if the sport is clean.'
Britain has more than 50,000 pigeon racers, known as 'pigeon fanciers,' breeding a million birds a year to race against each other in what can be long-distance endurance events. "
08:32 Posted by David
Yahoo! News - Woman Gets Ticket While Stuck in Traffic: "Fri Sep 3, 9:33 AM ET
OSLO, Norway - Renathe Opedal was hopelessly stuck in traffic during rush hour when an overeager attendant slapped her a $73 parking ticket.
Opedal, 32, couldn't believe it, took the case to court and won.
'I'm really glad I won,' she said by telephone on Friday. 'But it took much too much time and energy. I'm glad it's over.'
On March 26, traffic had backed up in the southern town of Kristiansand during rush hour and Opedal's car got stuck in the middle.
According to the ruling by the Kristiansand District Court, the city parking attendant misunderstood the situation and thought Opedal had caused the traffic jam by parking illegally.
The court ruled that the traffic attendant was wrong, annulled the ticket, and ordered the traffic department to pay Opedal $585 in costs.
'Parking companies do some pretty strange things sometimes,' said Opedal. 'They should have ... come to their senses. Instead, we had to go to court.'
Kristiansand is on Norway's southern tip, about 175 miles south of Oslo."
08:22 Posted by David
Yahoo! News - Airplane's Toilet Ice Crashes Garden Party: "Mon Sep 6, 9:50 PM ET
GRAZ, Austria - It was an inelegant intruder on a sunny afternoon: a chunk of ice from a jetliner toilet that broke free and slammed into an Austrian family's garden.
No one was injured when the ice tumbled from the sky Sunday afternoon in Graz, about 120 miles south of Vienna, authorities said. The fragment bore deep into the soil in the garden, where the unidentified family was enjoying a lazy summer afternoon.
Police said the 6-inch ice ball almost certainly came from an airliner toilet, judging from its blue color and its odor. They did not elaborate."
08:18 Posted by David
Yahoo! News - Shoppers Foil Juggling Lipstick Thief: "BERLIN (Reuters) - A man who walked into a shop and amused shoppers by juggling with lipsticks and other expensive cosmetics from its counters faces charges after being spotted pocketing them during his performance, police said Tuesday.
The juggler had bagged more than 200 euros in cosmetics in the store in the western town of Euskirchen when staff realized something was amiss and called the police.
'People watched the 18-year-old man gradually put the items in his bag,' a police spokesman said."
08:17 Posted by David
Yahoo! News - 'Thanks' for the Cash, Taunts ATM Thief: "BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thai police are looking for a thief who left a word of thanks after stealing 4.7 million baht ($113,000) from an automatic teller machine at the weekend.
'He wrote the word 'Thanks' on the side of the tampered ATM with a felt-tipped pen. The hand-writing was rather neat. I think he may be trying to taunt us,' Lieutenant-Colonel Nathachai Thepsuporn told Reuters on Monday.
Nathachai, the deputy police commander in the northern province of Phrae province where the robbery took place, said the heist appeared to have been the work of someone with a fair knowledge of how an ATM operates.
Near the looted ATM, police found a box of metal-cutting acetylene equipment the thief had used to get through two security doors protecting the rear of the machine. ($1 = 41.60 baht)"
08:16 Posted by David
Yahoo! News - Sounds Like an Idea for a TV Series...: "BERLIN (Reuters) - Two German nuns took the law into their own hands and recovered a picture of the Virgin Mary stolen from their Franciscan hospital, police said Tuesday.
The engraving vanished Saturday and Sisters Georgia and Isabella decided not to leave the case just to the police.
'The two nuns took a car and scoured the local area on Sunday morning,' said a police spokesman. 'They got lucky and found the picture at a flea market.'
'When the seller asked for 500 euros they said they would have to ring to get someone to bring the money. Instead they called the police,' he said.
The seller is being investigated for handling stolen goods."
14:59 Posted by David
Yahoo! News - 10-Year-Old Caught Driving After Wreck
Tue Aug 31, 5:53 PM ET
LONDON - Firefighters got a surprise when they cut a driver from a wrecked car early Tuesday — he was 10 years old.
The youngster was alone and driving his father's blue Rover 420 through Basildon, northeast of London, when he lost control and hit a lamppost around 5:30 a.m., police said. Police didn't say where the boy was going or how he got the car.
The boy, whose identity was not released, suffered a hand injury and was taken to Basildon General Hospital.
14:57 Posted by David
Yahoo! News: Runaway Turtle Travels 3 Miles in 3 Months
LONDON - Herman the tortoise is more than 30 years old, but she can still cut a dash. The female tortoise has just been returned home after a rushing three miles across country in a little over three months, her owners said Wednesday.
"It is great to have her back," said owner Ken Swanston, 62, a retired fisherman from West Lilburn, near Alnwick in northeast England.
"Herman escaped from a hole in the garden fence when we were away on holiday at the end of May. We hunted high and low looking for her but we never found her and we even reported her missing to the police."
Herman's journey ended when a mailman found her on Amerside Moor, near Wooler, last week.
Herman — so named because she is a Herman tortoise — lives with four spur thigh tortoises, three females called Big Un, Hole in Shell and Lawnmower, and a male called Rambo, in a greenhouse in the Swanstons' garden. All five are in their 30s and have been together for the past 28 years.
Lisa Bolton, who runs the Wildlife In Need rescue center at Chatton, near Alnwick, where Herman was taken first, said the tortoise would have faced dangers including cars, combine harvesters, hungry foxes, badgers, stoats, weasels and even rats.
"Three miles is quite some distance to travel and for a tortoise it is a very long way," she said.
14:54 Posted by David
Yahoo! News - Doctors Find Loose Change in Man's Stomach: "BANGKOK, Thailand - It was almost like breaking open a piggy bank. Doctors performing emergency surgery on a man who was rushed to hospital writhing in pain were stunned when more than 4.2 pounds of loose change spilled out of his stomach.
Sanguan Pongsawat, 37, who has a history of mental disorders, was operated on Tuesday in the northern town of Payao, said Dr. Sakchai Athawiboon of the Payao hospital.
Sakchai said that Sanguan, who lived with his mother, had been swallowing the coins for a long time without her knowledge.
'He is in safe condition. But he has to be in the hospital for some time in case of side effects because the metal coins had been in his body for a long time,' Sakchai said Wednesday.
The coins had turned black from stomach acid.
Sanguan was in excruciating pain on Tuesday and was taken to a hospital, where an X-ray showed hard objects in his stomach. They weren't identified until the surgery.
Payao is about 375 miles north of Bangkok. "
14:54 Posted by David
Yahoo! News - Noisy Sex Session Awakens Entire Street: "Tue Aug 31,10:20 AM ET
BERLIN (Reuters) - A pair of young lovers so annoyed their neighbors with a noisy sex session that police had to go and ask them to lower the volume, police said on Tuesday.
Officers in the western city of Essen interrupted the couple shortly after midnight after neighbors, listening to the sounds through an open window, called to complain.
'Gradually more and more neighbors gathered in front of the house to investigate the noise,' said a police spokesman.
The embarrassed couple were asked to close the window and continue at a lower volume, he said."
14:52 Posted by David
Yahoo! News - Teacher Sentenced for Slapping Leader: "Wed Sep 1, 8:48 AM ET
BERLIN (Reuters) - An unemployed teacher received a four-month suspended sentence Friday and ordered to perform community service for slapping German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder in the face at a Social Democratic Party event in May.
The court in Mannheim described 52-year-old Jens Ammoser as a 'scatterbrain,' but said physical assault was an unacceptable way of expressing political discontent.
An program of welfare cuts has unleashed anger against Schroeder's government, and thousands of demonstrators have taken to the streets. Earlier this week, protesters in the eastern city of Wittenberg threw eggs at Schroeder, but missed. "
14:51 Posted by David
Yahoo! News - Coast Guards Use Popcorn for Oil Slick Drill: "Wed Sep 1, 8:31 AM ETSTOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Coast guards from Scandinavia and the Baltic delighted seagulls Wednesday by using popcorn to simulate an oil slick as they carried out an oil-spill emergency drill.
The area is permanently on high alert for spills because of intense tanker traffic -- which the World Wide Fund for Nature estimates could double in the next 10 years in the Baltic alone.
'Popcorn is good...as we don't want to cause any more pollution and nature will take care of what we don't pick up,' Swedish Coastguards spokesman Karl Gustav von Konow told Reuters. 'It also spreads like oil on the water's surface.'
Ten cubic meters of popcorn were used -- of the unsalted and unbuttered variety. The seagulls did not seem to mind, flocking around the oil tanker, nine coastguard vessels and two tugboats taking part in the drill near the Brofjorden refinery on the west coast of Sweden. "
14:50 Posted by David
Yahoo! News - Three Killed in Rush for IKEA Vouchers in Saudi: "Wed Sep 1,11:13 AM ET
JEDDAH (Reuters) - Three men were trampled to death in a rush to claim vouchers at the first IKEA furniture showroom in Saudi Arabia Wednesday, hospital officials said.
Sixteen shoppers were injured at the Sweden-based furniture store opening in Jeddah. Medics revived some 20 customers who had fainted in the crush. IKEA said two were killed.
The rush was triggered by an offer for the first 50 shoppers to receive $150 in vouchers. An IKEA statement said more than 20,000 people showed up.
Hospital officials said two of the dead were a Pakistani and a Saudi national.
The IKEA statement said the company had worked closely with Saudi security officials to plan the opening.
IKEA is known for simple, reasonably priced products. "
14:49 Posted by David
Yahoo! News - Store Clerk Accepts Fake $200 Bill, Makes Change: "PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - At first glance it looked like the real thing, so store clerk Kathryn Miller was happy to accept the $200 bill as payment -- and even make change.
The bill did carry a picture of President Bush, but he is not one of the presidents who appear on the U.S. currency and in any case there is no such thing as a $200 bill.
That did not stop Miller, who works at Fashion Bug, a women's clothing store in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, from taking the bill in payment for an item costing $99.
She also gave change to Deborah Trautwine, a resident of nearby Jeanette, said Jeanne Martin, a spokeswoman for the state police in Greensburg.
'Anyone with any bit of knowledge should have recognized that it wasn't the real thing,' Martin said.
Trautwine, who was located by police on the basis of information from the clothing store, was charged on Wednesday with forgery, theft by deception, and receiving stolen property.
The bill was probably a joke rather than a forgery, said Martin. 'It was some sort of gag money,' she said.
She didn't know whether Miller still works at Fashion Bug. "
14:41 Posted by David
Yahoo! News - How Would You Like to Meet This Guy?: "Wed Sep 1, 9:32 AM ET
BERLIN (Reuters) - A man caught having sex with a blow-up doll in a busy public shopping arcade had to be physically parted from his rubber lover and escorted away, said police in Stuttgart Wednesday.
The 38-year-old man was caught with his trousers down early Monday evening after alarmed witnesses alerted the police.
'It was real, he was caught in mid-action with the doll,' said a press spokeswoman. Police said that they had considerable difficulty separating the drunken man from his partner. "
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