Free sex not OK
The 4th of November 2004
A Swiss men's magazine has come under fire after it offered readers free sex.
Pietro Attardo, spokesman for the magazine Okay, said: "We wanted to offer something that beats the free music CDs or posters that our rivals were offering." To mark the magazine's 20th anniversary, every reader was offered a free trip to an erotic studio, including free sexual services.
A Swiss MP, Heiner Studer said: "It's a disgrace. This magazine is not even classed as an adult magazine."
The publication's campaign was an instant hit after some local radio stations refused to carry advertisements promoting the offer - which was then written about in Swiss media.
Attardo added: "I don't know why the radio stations refused to carry the advert. Every man wants free sex."
Agencies
SMH 4-11-4
http://www.smh.com.au/news/Unusual-Tales/Free-sex-not-OK/2004/11/03/1099362223046.html
Sticky problem
The 2nd of November 2004
A Romanian father-of-five needed medical help after he superglued a condom to his penis.
Ananova said the father of five, Nicolae Popovici, 43, told doctors he didn't want any more children. But sadly the condom he bought was too big so he stuck it on with glue.
After sex, the man realised he couldn't remove it and went to a clinic for help.
A nurse said: "He thought the condom could be used several times and he wanted it stuck on his penis so he could use it again. We barely managed to remove it."
Agencies
SMH 2-11-4
http://www.smh.com.au/news/Unusual-Tales/Sticky-problem/2004/11/01/1099262785990.html
At it like rabbits
The 21st of October 2004
He wanted a bit of company, so he bought a pair of bunnies - but he ended up with more company than he could handle.
In less than a year, he had 73 rabbits. The man's name was withheld by the Louisiana Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals on grounds that he was embarrassed enough already.
They chewed the furniture. They burrowed into chairs, couches and mattresses. They processed food faster than their owner could clean up after them.
Finally, he moved out and called his doctor for help, said SPCA Director Laura Maloney.
The doctor called the SPCA, which chased rabbits through the house for much of the day. Now - though a few have been adopted - it is asking area shelters for help.
"The rabbits were clean and healthy, even though the house wasn't," said Kathryn Destreza, director of animal services.
Maloney said the man was not cited.
"He was a very nice man who recognised he was in a situation where he needed help," she said.
AP
SMH 22-10-4
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/10/21/1098316762557.html
Passionate couple call 999
The 21st of October 2004
A red-faced British couple launched a police emergency when they accidentally called 999 in the throes of passion.
Officers at Durham Police's communications centre became concerned when a call came through but all they could hear was the sound of a woman apparently in some distress.
They could also hear a man's voice in the background.
When the couple failed to respond to questions, police became worried.
The call was traced to a house in Stanley, County Durham, and police officers, believing it to be an emergency, dashed to the scene.
A dishevelled couple came to the door and officers soon discovered control room staff had been listening in to the language of love rather than a violent exchange.
A Durham Police spokesman said: "The couple, who answered the knock on their door at just after 2am, were rather surprised and not a little flustered to find uniformed police on the doorstep.
"Their dishevelled appearance was soon explained - it seems the physical activity taking place had been of the amorous rather than violent kind.
"In the throes of passion they had managed to roll on top of the telephone, which was resting on the floor, and accidentally depressed the number nine button."
This then registered in the system as an incomplete emergency call, prompting the police response.
PA
SMH 21-101-4
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/10/20/1097951775042.html
Sleepwalker's sex in the city
By Julie Robotham
The 14th of October 2004
By day, she was a respectable middle-aged woman who lived with a steady partner. By night, she would creep out of their house to seek random sex with strangers.
But the woman in question was entirely unaware of her double life, which was conducted while she was asleep, said the Sydney doctor who treated her.
"Incredulity is the first staging post for anyone involved in this," - including medicos, said Peter Buchanan, a sleep physician at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital.
"One has to maintain a healthy degree of scepticism. As doctors we are largely trustful of our patients telling us the truth about themselves."
In this case, though, it was clear the woman's story was not an ingenious cover for clandestine sexual flamboyance. The patient was baffled; her partner distraught. "He was aware of some sleepwalking and there was circumstantial evidence, including the unexplained presence of condoms around the house," Dr Buchanan said.
"On one occasion he awoke to find her absent from the bedroom and searched until he found her - engaged in such activity."
Her condition, known as sleep sex, is a recently identified sleep disorder, Dr Buchanan will tell the Annual Scientific Meeting of the Australasian Sleep Association in Sydney this weekend.
Sleep sex is increasingly being recognised as a real and personally devastating condition, said Dr Buchanan, who expects it will be included in the next revision of the International Classification of Sleep Disorders, giving it the final stamp of legitimacy. It is fraught with personal danger through risky sex practices, and legal danger - if the sufferer commits sexual assault while sleepwalking.
Dr Buchanan said it was hard to confirm the diagnosis, because staying overnight in a sleep laboratory would generally inhibit the behaviour. But in the woman's case, brain tests while she was sleeping showed she was unusually likely to rouse from deep sleep without passing first through lighter sleep patterns - a phenomenon linked to all types of parasomnia.
Almost half of sleep sex cases were associated with psychological problems, and the woman was treated successfully with psychotherapy. But the fact that the condition manifested as aberrant sexual behaviour did not indicate sexual abuse or any other sexual problem, said Dr Buchanan, and it should be viewed as a sleep disorder, not a sexual disorder.
"There's a huge embarrassment about seeking medical help," he said.
SMH 14-10-4
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/10/13/1097607303255.html
The disco terrors
The 8th of October 2004
A Romanian village was left deserted when its inhabitants fled in panic, mistaking disco lights in a nearby town for an alien invasion.
Villagers in Cristinesti, eastern Romania, thought they were under attack by aliens when they saw multicoloured lights in the sky.
Police called to investigate discovered the lights were coming from an open-air disco, Adevarul reports.
Police eventually persuaded villagers to return.
One said: "We believed we were seeing UFOs and some old legends from around here about clocks stopping, animals going crazy and ... a previous UFO landing in the area suddenly came to our minds. We were terrified."
He added: "We were so happy when we heard we had escaped an alien invasion."
Agencies
SMH 8-10-4
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/10/07/1097089493371.html
You're dead, says power company
The 7th October 2004
A solo mum in New Zealand rang her power company yesterday to be told her power would be disconnected - because she was dead.
Bronwyn Petrie, 27, off Lower Hutt in the North Island, rang Genesis Energy to ask where her refund was after mistakenly paying the same bill twice last month.
She was not prepared for the response.
After talking to a call centre worker, she asked to be put through to a manager who told her: "We're not paying you a credit, we're cutting you off because we've got a death certificate for you," Ms Petrie said.
The manager then told her she was going to have to prove she was alive by sending through her passport and birth certificate.
"I said, is this some sort of sick joke? You're talking to me so how could I be dead?"
Ms Petrie, who has lived at the same address for seven years, was close to tears.
Genesis should not be allowed to treat its customers so badly and should be more considerate, she said.
She was shocked at being told she was supposed to be dead, but said she also badly needed the overpaid money - $NZ181.84 ($168.94) - back.
A Genesis spokesman said the company had made an administrative error and regretted any inconvenience caused to Ms Petrie.
A note had mistakenly been attached to her file after the death of a customer with the same name, the spokesman said.
He defended the way the matter was handled once the mistake had been flagged.
NZPA
SMH 7-10-4
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/10/06/1096949595760.html
Jail refuge from ball and chain
The 7th of October 2004
A man in Germany surrendered to authorities saying he preferred spending time in jail rather than being free at home with his wife, police said yesterday.
The 47-year-old man in the North Sea coastal town of Itzehoe had been slapped with a fine of 100 euros ($170) for an offence.
Faced with a choice of paying the fine or spending 10 days in jail, he asked officers to lock him away.
"He said he couldn't stand the constant bickering at home with his wife and was looking forward to a bit of peace and quiet," a police spokesman said.
DPA
SMH 7-10-4
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/10/06/1096949595780.html
As strange as it gets
The 5th of October 2004
An elderly Romanian man reportedly mistook his penis for a chicken's neck, cut it off and his dog rushed up and ate it.
The nation's state Rompres news agency says 67-year-old Constantin Mocanu, from a village near the southeastern town of Galati, rushed out into his yard in his underwear to kill a noisy chicken keeping him awake at night.
"I confused it with the chicken's neck," Mocanu, who was admitted to the emergency hospital in Galati, was quoted as saying.
"I cut it ... and the dog rushed and ate it."
Doctors said the man, who was brought in by an ambulance bleeding heavily, was now out of danger.
Reuters
SMH 6-10-4
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/10/05/1096949494127.html
Off the rails
The 28th of September 2004
Poland's state railway has been awarded compensation from a man who caused delays to the service by being run over by a train.
"We are acting in accordance with article 415 of the Civil Code, seeking damages from a person who caused delays in rail traffic - just like anywhere else in the world," said PKP railway spokesman Krzysztof Lancucki.
He said 19-year-old Pawel Banaszek, who was paralysed by the accident, caused 2058 zlotys ($810) worth of losses due to delays in service.
Half the amount was written off and Banaszek is paying the rest in 80-zloty monthly instalments from his 600-zloty disability pension.
Earlier Poland's daily Gazeta Wyborcza reported that Banaszek's house had recently burned down.
Lancucki told Reuters that the railway would most likely write off the remaining amount if Banaszek made a formal request.
The paper said Banaszek, who was lying on the tracks when he was run over, had been beaten up in a fight outside a bar and left for dead on the rails.
But a local prosecutor told Reuters there was no conclusive evidence a fight had taken place.
Reuters
SMH 28-9-4
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/09/27/1096137170883.html
Sex strike labelled 'abuse'
The 20th of September 2004
A Spanish man tried to have his wife charged with domestic abuse because she refused to have sex with him on five consecutive days, Spanish newspaper El Sur has reported.
The middle-aged man from Seville - the city of Don Juan and Carmen - said her refusals amounted to "degrading treatment" and domestic abuse, a term used more often to describe wife-battering.
The judge shelved the case, Andalusia-based El Sur reported.
Reuters
SMH 20-9-4
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/09/19/1095532178376.html
Wife goes nuts
The 17th of September 2004
A Romanian man had his testicles ripped off by his wife because she believed he was having an affair.
Luckily for Aurica Marinescu, 50, surgeons were able to reattach them during a 10-hour operation.
"I wouldn't have said she was a strong woman, but she was furious - and she seemed to have superhuman strength in her anger," Marinescu said.
"The pain was incredible."
PA
SMH 17-9-4
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/09/17/1095320950198.html
Snoring pooch prompts eviction
The 13th of September 2004
A proud Romanian dog owner was forced to leave his apartment after a court ordered his mastiff to be removed from the building because its snores kept the neighbours awake, officials said.
Attila Varga and his Neapolitan mastiff named Sumo left the flat in the central town of Cluj without resistance, said legal official Marius Stolneanu, who was present at the operation.
Varga said however that he would appeal the decision of the court, which granted his neighbours' request to have the 60-kilo beast ousted.
Neighbours said that when Sumo snored, their walls shook and burglar alarms went off.
"My father-in-law couldn't take it any more. He left," said neighbour Iuliu Popa.
Varga said his two-and-a-half-year-old mastiff had won several competitions.
"We share the same bed and I got so used to it (the snoring) that I don't even hear it any more," he said.
AFP
SMH 13-9-4
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/09/12/1094927443977.html
Drunk in charge of pram
The 12th of September 2004
The Sun-Herald
Sweden's opposition spokesman on alcohol has been arrested for violence after being found drunk in charge of a pram, public television reported yesterday.
Per Bill was arrested as he returned to his Stockholm home after taking part in a wine-tasting event, pushing his son's pram.
"He was staggering and he nearly got knocked over, pram and all," security worker Tina Johansson said.
Mr Bill said he had drunk wine but only in reasonable quantities so that "life seemed fantastic". He told reporters he lived in fear of attack by neo-Nazis.
SMH 12-9-4
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/09/11/1094789738379.html
Dog shoots man
The 10th of September 2004
A puppy reportedly saved its own life when its paw slipped and tripped the trigger of a gun that its US owner planned to shoot it with.
The three-month-old puppy is one of four remaining in a litter belonging to Jerry Allen Bradford, 37, of Pensacola, Florida.
Police say Bradford shot and killed three of the shepherd-mix puppies in the litter, but when he tried to kill the rest of the dogs his difficulties began.
Bradford was holding one dog in his left hand and one dog in his right hand, when the puppy in his left hand began to wriggle free, Escambia County Sheriff's Office spokesman Sgt Ted Roy was quoted by ABC News as saying.
As the puppy squirmed, it put its paw on the gun's trigger and it fired, hitting Bradford in the wrist, Roy said. Bradford went to an emergency room for treatment, and a doctor there called authorities.
Bradford told police he had been unsuccessful giving the puppies away, according to ABC News. The three puppies Bradford allegedly shot were found buried with bullet wounds in their heads, Roy said.
The remaining four puppies and their mother are now at the Escambia County Animal Shelter. Bradford faces felony animal cruelty charges.
DPA
SMH 10-9-4
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/09/10/1094530806964.html
Foul experience
The 9th of September 2004
A Dutch car driver was covered in hundreds of litres of manure when a tank burst on a lorry carrying fertiliser in front of him.
"It was a nice night ... so he probably opened his window when he stopped at a traffic light, and then it happened," said Dana Kragten, spokeswoman for police in rural Drenthe province.
"The tank had a small window which burst, probably due to pressure ... The man said he had no time to back away his car or close his window."
Police said the man, whose car was sprayed with an estimated 1700 litres of liquid manure, escaped injury though his car had to be towed away.
Reuters
SMH 9-9-4
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/09/08/1094530699333.html
That's blown it
The 2nd of September 2004
A man caught having sex with a blow-up doll in a busy shopping arcade in Berlin had to be physically parted from his rubber lover and escorted away, said police.
The 38-year-old man was caught with his trousers down on 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.
Reuters
SMH 3-9-4
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/09/02/1093939036419.html
Giant catfish claims dog
The 28th of August 2004
A giant catfish is suspected of having eaten a dog in a German lake near the Polish border.
The estimated 1.5 metre catfish has been making waves in the small lake near Gueldendorf for several years, the Berliner Kurier newspaper reported on Friday.
Catfish are generally scavengers that feed on plants and animals on the beds of lakes and rivers. They can on rare occasions grow up to 4.5 metres and weigh up to 300kg.
But the giant fish has developed other tastes and is emptying the lake of all the other fish. Now a small dachshund dog is believed to have been pulled under and eaten, said the report.
Lutz Affedlt, head of the Gueldendorfer Fisherman's Club, says the fish was probably planted in the lake by someone.
Several club members say they have had the phantom fish on their lines but that it has always broken off.
Attempts to net the giant catfish and to use electroshocks to stun it have so far failed.
DPA
SMH 28-8-4
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/08/27/1093518100876.html
Padded cars offer a crunch-free future
Boston
The 25th of August 2004
A padded car is being developed that would leave pedestrians unharmed in an accident and would allow motorists to drive in city traffic with bumpers touching.
Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Boston have enlisted the help of the architect Frank Gehry to create the revolutionary urban runabout.
Packed full of electronic gadgets, the car would guide motorists away from traffic jams, change colour when approaching a hazard and help the driver find the nearest parking space.
The vehicle would be small enough for commuting, but extra seats and storage space could be added for family outings.
The MIT team includes a neurological expert and a rocket scientist. The designers believe their "soft car" could be on the road by the end of the decade. General Motors has agreed to build a prototype as early as 2006.
Gehry, best known for the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, northern Spain, will draw up the final design.
The car will probably be powered by a hybrid petrol/electric engine, although hydrogen fuel cells have not been ruled out.
Covering the metal frame will be a "skin" made of hundreds of air-filled plastic pads formed from the material ETFE, which was used to create the domes of the Eden Project in Cornwall.
Researchers believe the pads will prevent damage if vehicles bump into each other, so cars could be driven closer together, maximising the use of road space.
The safety measures are timely because car manufacturers in Europe have been ordered by the European Commission to provide protection for pedestrians through improved front-end designs.
DPA/
SMH 26-8-4
http://smh.com.au/articles/2004/08/25/1093246596467.html
Golden banana
The 21st of August 2004
A man who ate a stolen banana was brought before a Crown Court judge at an estimated cost to the taxpayer of $50,000. The Crown Prosecution Service defended its actions.
Paul Fletcher, 26, of Trevethick Street, Bensham, Gateshead, admitted he ate the stolen fruit when he was arrested during a night out with friends.
But when he was also accused of stealing the fruit in a burglary at an Indian restaurant in March, he denied the charge and later exercised his right to a jury trial.
A judge at Newcastle Crown Court handed him a one-day prison sentence after accepting that Fletcher had admitted handling stolen goods to police when he told officers he had eaten the banana.
He was allowed to walk free as he had already spent a day in custody following his arrest. The expensive judicial process was criticised today by the Government's crime adviser Lord Mackenzie of Framwellgate, a former police chief.
"This is a bit over the top," Lord Mackenzie said. "It is more like a prank than a serious burglary and the charges should reflect that. "It seems that commonsense has gone out the window."
A Crown Prosecution Service spokeswoman said today: "The CPS view was always that this case was suitable for trial in the magistrates' court.
"But the defendant exercised his right to a crown court trial."
PA
SMH 22-8-4
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/08/21/1092972833075.html
Bear hits the beer and conks out
The 20th of August 2004
Workers at a US resort were stunned to find a black bear passed out drunk on their lawn after he guzzled 36 beers in a night of drunken revelry, they said today.
Staff at the Baker Lake Resort, about 130 km north-west of the US city of Seattle, discovered the large and furry visitor sound asleep in the campground when they turned up for work, staff member Lisa Broxon told AFP.
"It is very unusual to see a bear just lying there sleeping on the lawn, so the camp host started looking around to find out what had happened," she said.
"He found that some campers had left out some coolers and that the bear had broken into them and started drinking their beer after opening the cans with his teeth.
"The strange thing is that he appeared to like only Rainer (a local brand) beer, and he tried one can of Busch but didn't even finish it," Broxon said of the picky wildlife reveller.
Fish and Wildlife department officers were called to the campground when staff began to worry about how the drunk bear would behave when he woke up.
But the large intruder lumbered off before he could be caught, prompting the wildlife experts to set a trap for him to lure him back the following day. The bait for the trap: more Rainier beer, of course.
The bear was caught and safely relocated to an area well away from humans - and liquor stores - following the incident three weeks ago, Broxon said.
"This is the first time I've heard of a bear drinking beer. He was obviously a party animal."
AFP
SMH 21-8-4
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/08/20/1092972724167.html
Militant graffiti artists
The 20th of August 2004
Swedish graffiti artists kidnapped a fibreglass cow from the international art exhibit CowParade, held power drills to its head and threatened to "sacrifice" it unless the sculptures were declared "non-art".
A video sent to a newspaper showed the cow flanked by two masked, black-clad figures wielding power drills in front of a sign reading "Stockholm's Militant Graffiti Artists".
"We demand that the cows are declared non-art. Otherwise the hostage will be sacrificed," said a voice on the video. The group gave the organisers of the Stockholm exhibit until noon on August 23 to comply with their demand.
The video was shown to police investigating the cow's disappearance last week from an island housing Stockholm's Modern Art Museum.
"We are very upset about the whole matter," said Helena Cederberg, a spokeswoman for CowParade, which is touted as "the world's largest public art event".
It has displayed life-size cows decorated by local artists across the world starting with Chicago and New York in 1999.
The shows are sponsored by local business and promote the work of professional and amateur local artists. When the show ends, the cows are auctioned and 75 per cent of the proceeds go to charity. The Stockholm cows are to be auctioned next month.
There are 68 more fibre-glass cows grazing on pavements, squares and in shop-windows all around Stockholm, but Cederberg said: "We're not going to worry just yet about the other cows, we are waiting for information from the police."
CowParade is also on show in the Czech capital Prague, Manchester, England and Harrisburg in Pennsylvania. It opens soon in South Africa.
Vandalism marred the Prague show, prompting ex-president Vaclav Havel, who decorated one cow, to say: "Maybe some people can't bear to look at anything nice, unusual or ornamental, maybe they can't even bear to look into the mirror".
Reuters
SMH 20-8-4
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/08/19/1092889287723.html
Very superstitious
The 16th of August 2004
A superstitious Romanian, who refused to leave his house on Friday the 13th to avoid bad luck, died after he was stung by a wasp in his kitchen, police said.
Florin Carcu, 54, had even taken the precaution of asking his boss for permission not to go to work on the inauspicious Friday, the police in Cluj, central Romania, said in a statement.
"It was the strangest request I've ever received but I ended up giving him permission to stay at home because he seemed to be really scared of something bad happening to him on that day," Mr Carcu's boss Gheorghe Domsa told the press.
Doctors from the emergency services in Cluj said Mr Carcu had been making coffee when he was stung.
The killer wasp, which is very rare in Romania and whose sting is very poisonous, killed Mr Carcu on the spot.
ABC 16-8-4
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/08/15/1092508267837.html
Blazing bunny spreads cricket club fire
The 14th of August 2004
A rabbit set alight by a bonfire at an English cricket club got its revenge when it ran burning into a hut and set it ablaze destroying costly equipment, the club said.
Members of Devizes cricket club in Wiltshire, western England, were burning dead branches when a rabbit caught up in the waste sped burning from the flames spreading a fire which destroyed lawnmowers and tools worth STG60,000 ($A153,500).
"After it had been going five minutes, the rabbit shot out of the bonfire on fire and went into the hut which is our equipment store," club chairman John Bedbrook said.
Two fire engines were called to extinguish the blaze. The rabbit's skeleton was discovered in the charred hut.
"The firemen were certainly concerned about the rabbit. They felt sorry for it," said Bedbrook.
Reuters
SMH 14-8-4
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/08/13/1092340472508.html
Officer, I'm too drunk to drive
The 13th of August 2004
It was the drunk driver who pulled over the police officer.
"He pulled up behind me, rolled down the passenger side window and said he was looking for a police officer to arrest him," Ian McCollin, chief of police in Vernon, Vermont, said. "When I asked him why, he replied 'I'm drunk'."
To make matters worse, the drunk driver was operating on a suspended licence, which was taken away after a previous drunk driving charge, McCollin said.
Bryan Condo, 28, was driving on a quiet Vermont road at night when he asked McCollin to take him in. Since drivers rarely pull over police cruisers, a cautious McCollin called a colleague for backup with an amused "You won't believe this one."
"I was a little concerned but I also wanted him to hear the story too," he said. "I was afraid they'd think I was senile or losing my mind."
Police discovered Condo, a resident of North Pownal in Western Vermont, was four times over the legal limit and charged him with driving under the influence as well as driving without a licence.
"This guy was hilarious," McCollin said. "And he was very cooperative and polite, unlike your average drunk driver."
Reuters
SMH 13-8-4
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/08/12/1092102593886.html
Airliner avoids near catastrophe
The 11th of August 2004
A SN Brussels airliner made an emergency landing after an "agitated" passenger - a cat - got into the cockpit and attacked the co-pilot, the airline said.
The flight from Brussels to Vienna, Austria, had been in the air about 20 minutes when "it was noticed" that a passenger's pet had escaped from its cage, "although it is not yet clear how", according to an airline statement.
"Once free, the animal proceeded to wander around the cabin," slipping into the cockpit when meals were being delivered to the two-man flight crew, it said.
"At this stage the animal became agitated and nervous," it said. An airline spokeswoman added that the cat scratched the co-pilot's arm.
The pilot decided to return to Brussels as a precaution, and the 58 passengers left Brussels two hours later on another flight.
The cat had been checked in Oslo, Norway, in an internationally approved "flight transport bag", but the airline said it may end up changing its procedures for pets in the cabin once it concludes its investigation.
Advertisement Advertisement
"At no time throughout the incident was the passengers' security affected in any way," it said.
© 2004 AP
SMH 11-8-4
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/08/11/1092102499676.html
Bad vibrations
The 5th of August 2004
A British woman who played music so loudly it moved furniture in the flat above was banned from owning a stereo or a television, following a landmark court ruling.
Sharon McLoughlin, 33, became the first person in Birmingham, central England - and possibly in Britain - to face such a ban under new legislation intended to curb anti-social behaviour.
McLoughlin, who is also being evicted from her flat, had been warned several times before officials moved in to confiscate her audio equipment, including a karaoke machine, on three separate occasions.
"Even though environmental health officers had seized equipment from the property, McLoughlin showed absolutely no regard for her neighbours or the law and obtained more equipment," said Ian McGibbon from the Birmingham Anti-Social Behaviour Unit (BASBU).
On Monday, Judge Alistair MacDuff granted the city council possession of McLoughlin's property within 14 days and prohibited her from owning any electronic music equipment or television while she lives at the flat.
Advertisement Advertisement
She was also banned from causing harassment, alarm or distress anywhere in England and Wales for two years.
"We are pleased that the courts have dealt with this matter decisively, as this woman has shown complete disregard for previous actions by environmental health officers and BASBU officers who attempted to modify her behaviour," said John Lines, the city council member in charge of housing.
AFP
SMH 5-8-4
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/08/04/1091557927664.html
400-tonne bridge missing
The 5th of August 2004
Polish police are looking for a 400-tonne steel bridge, reported to have been stolen from a warehouse in the Baltic port city of Gdansk.
A Gdansk construction company had stored and forgotten the disassembled bridge in a local warehouse until it was found to be missing during an inventory, Poland's Gazeta Wyborcza reported yesterday.
Police suspect thieves made off with the bridge in bits and pieces over several months.
They stole a veritable fortune in scrap metal; the company claimed losses of nearly two million zloty ($770,700).
DPA
SMH 5-8-4
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/08/04/1091557927357.html
Thailand bans orang-utan kickboxing
Wednesday, the 4th of August 2004
Thailand has banned controversial kickboxing fights between endangered orang-utans after an international outcry over the bouts at a popular Bangkok wildlife park.
The orang-utans, wearing boxing gloves and garish Thai shorts, have appeared daily at the Safari World wildlife park for the past two decades.
The ban follows allegations of cruelty and the confiscation of 110 orang-utans from Safari World by Thai police.
The police suspected the animals had been smuggled illegally from Indonesia and Malaysia, according to the Bangkok Post.
Orang-utans are native to Indonesia and Malaysia but hunting and loss of habitat have seen their numbers tumble to fewer than 20,000, according to the Orang-utan Foundation.
International animal rights groups last week called for a boycott of the park, alleging the animals were being exploited for easy profits and were destined for a short and miserable existence after their days in the ring were over.
Safari World played down the ban, saying it had decided to stop the show anyway.
"We decided to stop the monkey show for various reasons and because it was a small show anyway," a park spokeswoman said.
Thai animals rights groups say they have tried on many occasions to stop the bouts, which began with the Rocky movie theme and included chimpanzees wearing bikinis carrying cards with the bout number.
--AFP
ABC 4-8-4
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200408/s1168907.htm
Lots of drive, no licence
The 1st of August 2004
A Berlin driving instructor who taught more than 1000 motorists how to drive said he never got a driver's licence because he was too nervous to retake the test after he failed the first time - 43 years ago.
"I flunked it because I drove too fast at a roundabout and didn't come to a complete standstill at a stop sign," the instructor, identified by police as Wolf-Dieter R, told Berlin's BZ newspaper. "I was too afraid to try again."
He was caught by police after a minor accident with a Polish truck recently. He told police he never had a licence. He said it was his first accident after four decades driving cars, tractors, and even tanks as a former East German army soldier.
Reuters
SMH 1-8-4
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/07/31/1091080486818.html
Sex, murder and texting
The 1st of August 2004
The Sun-Herald
A Swedish Lutheran pastor who faked telephone text messages from God to get his nanny/lover to murder his wife and attempt to kill his neighbour has been jailed for life. The case has fascinated Sweden with its intoxicating mix of sex, death and the workings of an obscure religious sect.
Helge Fossmo, a Pentacostal minister in a rural town, was found guilty of inciting Sara Svensson, his children's 27-year-old nanny, to kill his second wife and his next-door neighbour. He was having affairs with the nanny and his neighbour's wife.
SMH 1-8-4
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/07/31/1091080488416.html
Dumb and dumber
The 30th of July 2004
A Louisiana man who went up to police to chat about stupid criminals was himself arrested when the officer noticed marijuana sticking out of his pocket.
The Times-Picayune says Jesse Bryant went up to a uniformed deputy sheriff at a petrol station in Slidell and started talking about how there were some "stupid people out there".
But the officer noticed a plastic bag sticking out of his pocket and, after persistent questioning, a red-faced Bryant handed the bag over.
"What was that you were saying about stupid people?" the officer asked. Bryant has been summonsed to appear in court on a charge of simple possession of marijuana.
"The deputy then went out to deal with more 'stupid people', most of whom aren't as helpful as Mr Bryant in exposing their own misdeeds," a sheriff's office spokesman said.
SMH 30-7-4
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/07/29/1091080383530.html
Car that pulls faces
The 28th of July 2004
It could be the ultimate angry driver's accessory - a car that pulls faces at other motorists.
The vehicle, patented in the United States, would glow red and narrow its headlight 'eyes' when upset.
It would raise its eyebrows if surprised by another motorist's antics, shed a tear when sad or wink when happy.
It even wags an antenna, like a tail, to denote excitement.
The eccentric idea is that of four inventors working for Toyota in Japan who want drivers to have more than just a car horn to express themselves.
In the patent, they write: "As traffic grows heavier and vehicle use increases, vehicles having expression functions, such as crying and laughing, like people and other animals do, could create a joyful, organic atmosphere rather than the simple comings and goings of inorganic vehicles.
"Such emotive, organic vehicles could also lead occupants to have great affinity for their vehicles, and make the driving experience more comfortable."
The car would express emotions via a computer system which detects factors such as steering angle, braking or speed.
Occupants of the car are also able to enter information about their moods.
"The state of angry will be changed either over time or in response to soothing input supplied by the occupants," according to the patent.
"When the number of points is reduced below the threshold value, the vehicle no longer shows angry."
It goes on: "The headlights, antenna and windshield and exterior panels can be regarded as the vehicle's eyes, tail and a body surface."
The car could also appear awake or asleep, according to whether its 'eyes' are open or closed.
Instead of simply flashing the lights to let another motorist pull out, the car may wink while the antenna wags.
But if a person or car pulls out in front of the vehicle, the eyes will open wide in surprise, the bonnet glow orange and the vehicle will lower at the rear.
PA
SMH 28-7-4
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/07/27/1090693968670.html
Granny bores burglar to sleep
The 27th of July 2004
A crafty 73-year-old grandma put a burglar to sleep - by boring him with an album of her cherished family photos.
Police said that when Juan Garcia Vasquez broke into the woman's San Francisco home, she persuaded him to look at her snapshot albums and listen to stories about her grandchildren.
When he nodded off, she called for help.
PA
SMH 27-7-4
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/07/26/1090693894772.html
Hooked on new hobby
The 24th of July 2004
Law enforcement officials in Florida Keys are mystified by a bizarre new pastime - young people dangling themselves from meat hooks on a popular sandbar.
A US Coast Guard spokeswoman said that authorities were called on July 12 to the sandbar off Whale Harbour in Islamorada. They found a woman dangling from a bamboo tripod with hooks embedded in her shoulders.
A Coast Guard spokesman told the Key West Citizen newspaper that a young man, who also had hooks embedded in his heavily pierced and tattooed skin, assured him the group was "just enjoying the afternoon".
The group appeared to have performed such body piercing rituals before and intended to post photos on a website dedicated to so-called body modification, a Coast Guard spokeswoman said.
Reuters
SMH 24-7-4
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/07/23/1090464865250.html
Monkey walks like human
The 22nd of July 2004
A young monkey at an Israeli zoo has started walking like a human following a near death experience, the zoo's veterinarian said.
Natasha, a small five-year-old black macaque monkey at the Safari Park next to Tel Aviv, began walking exclusively upright on two legs after a stomach ailment nearly killed her, zookeepers said.
Monkeys usually alternate between upright movement and walking on all fours. A picture in the Ma'ariv daily on Wednesday showed Natasha standing ramrod straight like a human. The picture was labelled humorously: The Missing Link?
Two weeks ago, Natasha and three other monkeys were diagnosed with severe stomach flu. At the zoo clinic, she slipped into critical condition, veterinarian Igal Horowitz said.
"I was sure that she was going to die," he said. "She could hardly breathe, and her heart was not functioning properly."
After intensive treatment, Natasha's condition stabilised, but she exhibited strange behaviour, and a day after was released from the clinic, she began walking erect like a human being.
"I've never seen or heard of this before," said Dr Horowitz. One possible explanation is brain damage from the illness, he said.
Besides her evolutionarily advanced method of movement, Dr Horowitz said, Natasha's behaviour had returned to normal.
AP
SMH 22-7-4
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/07/22/1090089229929.html
Pint-sized
The 22nd of July 2004
A British pensioner has vowed to sit tight after being ordered by a court to quit half of his house, a former pub, under the terms of an unusual 19th-century lease.
Derrick Bensted, 77, vowed to "stick it out" after complaining that the order - which would see him lose his kitchen, bedroom and half his sitting room - was unfair.
The dispute is centred around the lease under which Mr Bensted's home was first built.
Half the former pub in Whitstable, on the south-east coast of England, was constructed around 1860 on land rented from the Whitstable Oyster Fishery Company.
The company has now been fighting to reclaim what it considers its share of the property.
A six-month deadline for Mr Bensted to leave following a court ruling against him has expired.
"I am going to stick it out here and see what happens," Mr Bensted, a former taxi driver, said.
"I feel that they were wrong in making the judgement."
AFP
SMH 22-7-4
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/07/21/1090089222964.html
Crazed surgeon amputates penis
The 17th of July 2004
A Romanian surgeon underwent a fit of madness while operating on a patient's testicles and instead cut off the man's penis and sliced it into three pieces, hospital officials said.
The surgeon, Naum Ciomu, was described as a senior member of the hospital staff and a professor of anatomy.
He had been operating on a 34-year-old man for a testicular malformation when he committed the act, the officials said.
"We are shocked by what has happened. It is the first time we have had such a case," said Sorin Oprescu, head of the Bucharest emergency hospital where the patient was rushed for emergency reconstructive surgery.
The operations have been entrusted to a highly respected Romanian plastic surgeon, Ioan Lascar, who said he would try to restore the man's urinary function but that he was unlikely to recover normal sexual activity.
Doctor Ciomu has been banned from entering an operating theatre for two months pending the results of an investigation by the medical council, Oprescu said.
Advertisement Advertisement
Meanwhile the wife of the patient said she was suing Ciomu.
AFP
SMH 17-7-4
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/07/16/1089694566537.html
Demons on the loose
The 13th of July 2004
A school in Uganda was shut down in May after parents complained that their children were being attacked by demons, The New Vision reported this week.
Parents accused a local man of bringing the demons to Bisika primary school.
He had sourced the demons, known locally as mayembe, from a witch doctor to help him acquire wealth, the paper reported.
Officials ordered the man's arrest and the temporary closure of the school.
The man, who is still in custody, said that when he failed to satisfy the demons' "demands for 300 virgin girls and cows to provide them with blood ... for sustenance" they broke free and attacked the pupils.
SMH 13-7-4
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/07/12/1089484304992.html
New slug for snail cruelty
The 12th of July 2004
London: Slugs and snails will be offered the same protection against mistreatment as cats and dogs under a proposed new law that has been condemned by gardeners as absurd.
Legislation to be announced by the Government this week will give courts the power to impose fines of up to £20,000 ($51,000) and 12 months in jail on people found guilty.
Anyone under the age of 16 will be banned from owning a pet, and goldfish will no longer be allowed to be given as prizes at fairgrounds.
The legislation could mean gardeners are fined for killing insects, worms, caterpillars, slugs and snails, if scientific evidence proves they have suffered pain and distress. Horticulturalists said the plan was excessive; they rejected the idea that they could be guilty of cruelty.
John Cushnie, a regular panellist on BBC Radio's Gardeners' Question Time, said some aspects of the legislation were nonsensical. "To give worms and slugs protection under the law is ludicrous. If I have an infestation of slugs or snails or cabbage white butterflies, then I will get rid of them in whatever way I choose.
"If I want to boil them alive, stamp on them or treat them to a slow drawn-out death by poison, then I will."
Under the new law
unborn animals will receive the same protection.
RSPCA inspectors would gain the right to enter without a warrant any lorry, ferry, plane or hovercraft carrying animals.
The crackdown, which follows pressure from the RSPCA and organisations such as the Kennel Club, has been criticised for not going far enough. The draft contains no reference to circus animals and fails to ban the docking of dogs' tails.
The Telegraph, London
SMH 12-7-4
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/07/11/1089484242577.html
Miracle cow
The 8th of July 2004
Thousands of ill Cambodians are flocking to the village of Phum Trapeang Chum to be licked by a mystical cow named Preah, who is curing their complaints, its owner has claimed.
Farmer Puch Pich said up to 400 people have been turning up daily for the past fortnight to be slobbered over, after the 13-month-old white animal apparently cured his wife Kong Mich of a chronic illness.
They have been braving Cambodia's notoriously bad rainy season roads to travel from around the kingdom, paying 500 riel (18 Australian cents) a person for four licks on the limb or body part of their choice.
"The cow won't lick people who don't put in their money ... and if he doesn't think you believe in his powers, she won't lick you either," Puch Pich said.
Ros Sath, 68, told AFP that before he underwent the unconventional treatment he could barely walk a few metres due to a stiff leg.
"After the cow licked me four times I felt comfortable again and now I can walk 300 or 400 metres without getting exhausted," he said.
Advertisement Advertisement
The curative powers of Preah - which means God in Khmer - were revealed when Kong Mich took the animal out to graze, said Puch Pich, who has owned the cow for five months.
"The cow was always wanting to lick my wife's arms and legs and, two months after she started, she completely recovered from an illness we'd spent a lot of money trying to fix," he said amid the mayhem at his farm, about 90 kilometres north of Phnom Penh in Kampong Chhnang province.
The couple's theory was first tested on a 72-year-old visually impaired woman from the village, whom Puch Pich claimed regained her sight after four licks.
"Then the news really spread," he told AFP.
Some of the hundreds are bringing water for "take away" licks, while others are taking grass the cow has touched while eating, hoping to boil up some of its magic.
Puch Pich attributes the cow's powers to its birthplace at nearby commune Banteay Rongvek, which Cambodians believe was also the site of a mystical cow that was stolen by Cambodia's historical rival Thailand in ancient times.
Cambodians are highly superstitious, particularly in the countryside where people continue to meld animist practices with Buddhism.
AFP
8-7-4
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/07/07/1089000230173.html
Groom finds bride is bald, wants divorce
The 8th of July 2004
A university professor in Helwan, south of Cairo, demanded a divorce after discovering on his wedding night that his bride was bald.
The local al-Akhbar newspaper reported a police investigation into a complaint lodged by the 40-year-old groom.
The professor said his 34-year-old bride, also an academic, managed to fool him during the seven months they were engaged by wearing a wig of "long voluminous hair".
"On their wedding night, the bride went into a deep sleep and the wig slipped. The groom woke her up screaming at her," al-Akhbar said.
The professor demanded an annulment and a waiving of any rights for the bride for "fraud and deception".
DPA
SMH 8-7-4
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/07/07/1089000232618.html
Farming in the nude
The 6th of July 2004
Women in the world's only Hindu kingdom are reverting to the ancient tradition of ploughing fields naked in a bid to appease the rain god, an official said.
With drought crippling parts of western Nepal, dozens of women in Baijapur village of Banke district have ploughed their fields by night stark naked to appease Lord Indra, the rain god, said village council member Shukiram Tharu.
While ploughing, the women chanted, "Barso Maharaj, Barso" (Oh rain god, send us a plenty of rain), he said.
Ambika Tharu, a 35-year-old married woman, said she had performed the ritual at the insistence of her father-in-law who had claimed the rain god would respond to calls for rain if the fields were ploughed by nude women.
"If no rain comes, it will spell disaster for us ... we will have to tighten our belt around the year," Tharu said.
The ploughing of fields by women is extremely rare as it is forbidden by local custom.
AFP
SMH 6-7-4
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/07/05/1089000086954.html
Snuffed goat gets up burglars' noses
By Steve Butcher, in Melbourne
The 3rd of July 2004
The drug-fuelled burglars had ransacked the house, stealing antique furniture, jewellery, electrical equipment and dinner sets. They also grabbed a wooden box containing a powder they thought might be a drug.
So they began sniffing it, until one of them, Elizabeth Kniese, suspected that the box contained "the remains of someone". She was almost right. They were the ashes of the family's pet goat.
In the County Court yesterday, the prosecutor, Sebastian Reid, said
the box was taken by the gang during the burglary on January 8 because it was believed it "contained drugs of some description".
Kniese, 37, pleaded guilty in Melbourne yesterday to charges of burglary and theft over the incident at Menzies Bay, in the city's outer south-east, and to identical charges involving a house last December.
Her counsel, Simon Moglia, said Kniese's multifaceted and compulsive drug use stemmed from her "terrible" experiences as a parentless child and teenager in foster care.
Mr Moglia said Kniese, who has been in custody since her arrest in March, had low self-esteem but felt she had achieved something by raising a teenage son.
Kniese, who had not identified her co-offenders out of fear, had not offended for eight years until 2002, when she got a suspended sentence that she had now breached, he said.
She will be sentenced on July 23.
SMH 3-7-4
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/07/02/1088488155634.html
Teacher fined for setting schoolgirls loose on boys
The 23rd of June 2004
A Scottish teacher has been fined £750 ($2000) by a court after recruiting a squad of schoolgirls armed with rulers to carry out her classroom punishments.
Avril Mackenzie, 55, used girls in primary five - the equivalent of year 5 - to keep primary four boys in check at the small village school in the Scottish Highlands.
Mackenzie, who denied five charges of assault dating from 2002, was found guilty after a trial at Dingwall Sheriff's Court.
The sheriff, Alasdair MacFadyen, told the teacher: "Your behaviour was quite unacceptable. When parents entrusted their sons to you, they were entitled to expect they would not be assaulted in the classroom.
"Equally, other parents did not expect their daughters to receive instruction in the infliction of pain on classmates."
Earlier in the trial, seven girls and boys, including some of the victims, told how Mackenzie had instructed the older girls to hit the boys.
One child, who was eight at the time, told how he was hit every day for a week before Christmas 2002.
Advertisement Advertisement
A pupil, now 10, claimed three primary five girls hit him when he failed to do his work or if he talked in the class. "They would hit me on the back of the hand with a ruler," he said.
"One time they used a metre stick. Other times they used wooden rulers."
Ruth Anderson, for the defence, said: "I can't imagine ... she'll ever be allowed to return to employment."
The Guardian
SMH 23-6-4
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/06/22/1087844940928.html
Cuffed for hot chocolate
The 20th of June 2004
An American teacher's aide who forgot to put away her marshmallows and hot chocolate at Yellowstone National Park last year was taken from her cruise ship cabin in handcuffs and hauled before a judge, accused of failing to pay a year-old fine for the offence.
Hope Clarke, 32, crying and in leg shackles, told the judge yesterday she was rousted at 6.30am by federal agents after the ship returned to Miami from Mexico. She insisted that she had paid the $US50 ($A74) fine before she left Yellowstone, which has strict rules about food storage to prevent wildlife from eating human food.
Customs agents meet all cruise ships arriving from foreign ports and run random checks of passenger lists, and a warrant claiming Clarke had not paid the fine was found in the federal law enforcement database.
Assistant US Attorney Peter Outerbridge conceded there were some "discrepancies", but suggested to the judge that Clarke appear in court again to clear up the warrant.
US magistrate Judge John O'Sullivan, who had a copy of a citation indicating the fine had been paid, apologised to Clarke, who spent nearly nine hours in detention, and he demanded that the US attorney's office determine what went wrong.
Zach Mann, spokesman for US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, called the arrest "an unfortunate set of circumstances". He added, "We were acting on what we believed was accurate information."
AP
SMH 20-6-4
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/06/19/1087595780693.html
Blow-dry call doesn't wash
The 17th of June 2004
A man caught speeding in New Zealand told police he was trying to blow-dry his car.
Roger Edward Daniel, 37, was fined $US300 ($A431) and disqualified from driving for six months after pleading guilty in Whangarei District Court to dangerous driving.
When caught by police last Sunday doing more than 120kmh in a 50kmh zone, Daniel told officers he had just washed his car and was trying to dry it off, the Fairfax-owned news website http://www.stuff.co.nz reported.
"I have a bad back and just thought I would do that (drive at speed) to dry the car instead of having to chamois it dry," Daniel told the court.
"I was looking at the water on my bonnet as I was picking up speed, but I backed off when I realised how fast I was going."
AAP
SMH 17-6-4
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/06/16/1087244974511.html
Chinese test cheats 'stealing secrets'
The 17th of June 2004
China plans to charge students with stealing state secrets over a scheme to sell answers to the national university entrance exam.
Official media reports say the ring obtained questions from students who left the exam hall during the test. The answers were then looked up and sent by mobile phone text message to students in the test hall.
They said about 20 students were detained last week at the Zhenping No 1 High School in the central province of Henan after the highly competitive exams.
Five were still being held in a local jail and another suspect, a second-year university student in the northwestern province of Gansu, had also been detained.
Authorities also were looking for the mother of the scheme's alleged mastermind after police confiscated a computer and mobile phones from the woman's home.
Students who received the answers reportedly paid 1,000 yuan ($A175) each.
China's defines state secrets broadly, and the law is often used to prosecute political dissidents or others who release information that embarrasses the government.
It wasn't clear if there was any precedent for test questions being defined as state secrets.
AP
SMH 17-6-4
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/06/16/1087244974335.html
Ancient undies discovered
The 11th of June 2004
A 1000-year-old padded bra has been dug up in Inner Mongolia, China, a news report said today.
The gold-coloured bra was found in tomb in the province's Aohan region, according to the South China Morning Post.
Archeologist Shao Guotian said the bra dated back to China's Liao dynasty and was made of fine silk with shoulder and back straps.
"It is just like brassieres of today," he told the Hong Kong newspaper. "It's a pity most of the cotton padding in the cups has already decayed."
DPA
SMH 12-6-4
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/06/10/1086749831730.html
Loggers use dirty tricks
The 10th of June 2004
Illegal loggers in a northern Philippine province have been hiring women to strip naked to prevent forest rangers from seizing their stolen logs, a provincial environment official said in a newspaper report today.
Rafael Otic, provincial officer of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), said the unusual tactic was being employed by illegal loggers in the town of General Tinio in Nueva Ecija province, 90 kilometres north of Manila.
Otic told the Manila Standard newspaper that the hired women bare their breasts and sometimes even go naked at the sight of apprehending officers, who then shy away from their tasks in fear of being accused of abuse and exploitation.
"DENR personnel are finding it hard to make arrests because they are afraid of being accused of rape," he was quoted as saying by the newspaper.
General Tinio is considered the centre of illegal logging in the Philippines, where most of the country's primary forests have already been denuded.
Otic noted that in the past, illegal loggers fought forest protection officers with guns, wooden bats, bamboo spears and jungle knives. He added that efforts to stop illegal logging had failed, as villagers do not have an alternative source of livelihood.
DPA
SMH 11-6-4
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/06/10/1086749831701.html
Short skirt ban stirs indignation
The 8th of June 2004
A Russian regional government has told its women employees to stop wearing short skirts and tone down their make-up because they were arousing their male colleagues' "animal instincts".
The ruling by Oleg Shlyk, deputy governor of Kaliningrad on Russia's Baltic coast, has stirred indignation among many in the enclave -- including its menfolk.
"Of course, a woman must attract a man's attention, but not so much as to overstep norms and arouse not business-like but only animal instincts," Shlyk told the NTV television network.
An NTV commentator said Shlyk's ruling meant that women in Kaliningrad administration headquarters would have to forsake short skirts in favour of business-suits, shun outlandish jewellery and wear only modest make-up.
Yuri Matochkin, a deputy in the regional parliament, indignantly said the ruling brought shame on Shlyk himself.
"If this distracts him, then he has chosen the wrong job and if he cannot control himself to direct his energy correctly he ought to change his job," Matochkin said.
Vladimir Nikitin, a senior parliament official, agreed.
"Deputies of our duma (parliament) and members of staff have not given any reason to doubt their high moral level and reliability, as far as their dress code goes at least," Nikitin said.
Reuters
SMH 9-6-4
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/06/07/1086460237782.html
Green sweat a riddle
The 4th of June 2004
Doctors in southern China are baffled by a man whose sweat is green, according to a newspaper report.
The man, from Guangzhou, Guangdong province, sought help after discovering his white tee-shirts were turning green under the arms within a few minutes of him putting them on.
Doctors were unable to find a cause for the green sweat, which they believe is a medical first, and think it may be caused by a parasite in his body, the Hong Kong edition of the China Daily reported.
DPA
smh 6-6-4
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/06/04/1086203617873.html
Dial-a-condom
The 31st of May 2004
A Swedish aid organisation is to roll out a new line of defence to the country's emergency services - the condom ambulance.
From Friday, June 4, amorous couples can call the telephone number 696969 and a white van featuring a large red condom with wings as a logo will deliver them a packet of 10 prophylactics.
"We need to increase the usage of condoms," said Carl Osvald, marketing manager for the Swedish Organisation for Sex Education, the non-governmental organisation behind the initiative. "It is 50 per cent about pregnancy and 50 per cent about sexually transmitted diseases."
The ambulances will operate in Stockholm and the southern cities of Malmo and Gothenberg. The service, aimed at young people, will run until June 25 and be available between four in the afternoon and nine at night.
A packet of 10 condoms will cost 50 crowns (about $A9.40) less than they cost on average in the shops.
The incidence of sexually transmitted disease was increasing rapidly in Sweden and not enough young people used condoms, Osvald said.
"We need to change attitudes to condoms," he said. "If we need to get out into the bedrooms to make things better we will do it."
Reuters
SMH 31-5-4
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/05/30/1085855439969.html
DVD strictly for the birds
The 24th of May 2004
Good news for bored parrots.
The World Parrot Trust, with headquarters in Cornwall, south-west England, has produced what is thought to be the world's first DVD aimed at an avian audience.
"PollyVision: Strictly for Parrots" is 80 minutes of wild parrots preening, calling, feeding and flying through the rainforest - all intended to keep pet parrots company while their owners are out.
"We wanted to make a film for captive birds, to fill some of the boring moments in their lives," said parrot biologist Jamie Gilardi, who produced the DVD.
"Parrots are highly intelligent, sensitive and social creatures, so they need a great deal of enrichment and stimulation or they get bored and depressed."
The DVD, released in time for World Parrot Day on May 31, has been edited to appeal to parrots' interests - and attention spans. Gilardi said it was best viewed on a flat, wide-screen television.
Britain boasts an estimated one million pet parrots.
AFP
SMH 24-5-4
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/05/23/1085250868002.html
Talking toilet triumphs
The 20th of May 2004
A German inventor who developed a gadget that berates men if they try to use the toilet standing up has sold more than 1.6 million devices, his business manager said.
German women fed up with a man with a poor aim can turn to the ghost-shaped gadget, which lurks under the toilet rim and, if the seat is lifted, declares in a stern female tone:
"Hello, what are you up to then? Put the seat back down right away, you are definitely not to pee standing up ... you will make a right mess ... "
Alex Benkhardt, 46, invented the "WC Ghost" and its creators are in negotiations to market it in Britain, Canada and Italy.
Reuters
SMH 20-5-4
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/05/19/1084917656651.html
Shell shock: $1400 omelette
The 19th of May 2004
The menu at Le Parker Meridien's restaurant, a French-owned hotel in New York, is offering an omelette for $1,465, which stunned even patrons used to high-priced cuisine in the Big Apple.
The omelette, named Zillion Dollar Frittata, is a mix of eggs, lobster and sevruga caviar.
"Every six months we come up with new dishes for the menu," said Steven Pipes, the hotel's general manager. "We don't like things to get stale."
Pipes was not disappointed that patrons have yet to order the expensive frittata since it was added to the menu only on May 5.
But he also ordered his chefs to make less expensive omelettes - which still run for $145 and include sevruga worth $95. They didn't find any takers either, reports the New York Daily News.
The omelette will stay on the menu, said Emile Castillo, the executive chef at the hotel's restaurant Norma.
DPA
SMH 20-5-4
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/05/18/1084783496892.html
Complain about the food if you dare
Peanut butter terrorism in class
The 27th of April 2004
Israel's first sadomasochist restaurant is set to open today, claiming however, that only the surroundings, not the food will be a painful experience, the Israeli Yediot Ahronot daily reported yesterday.
The restaurant, appropriately named the "Dungeon", is to open its doors in the old southern Tel Aviv suburb of Yaffo, with a hostess dressed in a black vinyl outfit welcoming guests by flashing her whip.
Waiters and waitresses in similar outfits serve the diners, who must be 18 years or older, from a French bistro menu.
The diners can tie themselves to the restaurant's metal tables if they like, using the shackles provided.
If they dare to complain about the food or the service, however, they risk being whipped or hung in an iron cage from the ceiling.
"If somebody complains about his steak for example, he will be put in a cage or he must go down on his knees," said owner Amos Levy, who nevertheless says the idea of the restaurant is to "serve high-quality food, but in the framework of an alternative experience".
DPA
This story was found at: http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/04/26/1082831497286.html
SMH 27-4-4
The 24th of April 2004
South Orange, New Jersey: An elementary school student was suspended after school officials accused him of threatening to expose a highly allergic teacher to peanut butter cookies, the boy's father said yesterday.
Loubert Gabriel said his son, 12-year-old Jules, had been kept out of class since April 2, after a girl in his social studies class at South Orange Middle School told the teacher that the boy had made the threat.
The father said Jules was carrying a snack packet of Nutter Butter cookies and made a comment about having "something dangerous" but never said he had a weapon. "They mishandled this," Gabriel said.
Gabriel said his son has not been allowed to return to classes pending a May 13 hearing by the district. The family had believed the suspension would be for 10 days, he said.
School superintendent Peter Horoschak said several classmates who were interviewed said the boy - with the teacher out of the room - waved the cookie over his head and said he would use it against the teacher as protection from receiving detention or any other penalties.
"We're very concerned about the teacher's welfare, and how the teacher was threatened by this," Horoschak said.
So far, Horoschak said, the boy has shown no remorse and refused to recognise the seriousness of his actions. Horoschak and the school principal planned to meet with the boy and his parents today.
Ingestion of even a morsel of peanut can cause people who are allergic to suffer severe reactions, from throat irritation to death. Gabriel said the teacher was not exposed to the cookies and had no reaction.
AP
This story was found at: http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/04/23/1082616331668.html
SMH 24-4-4
The 22nd of April 2004
A rampant rhinoceros gave a group of visitors a glimpse of nature in the raw at a British safari park when he tried to have sex with their car.
Sharka, a two tonne white rhino, got amorous with Dave Alsop's car when he stopped with three friends to take pictures of the animal mating with his partner Trixie at the West Midland Safari Park.
The 12-year-old rhino tried to mount the Renault Laguna from the side, denting the doors and ripping off the wing mirrors before Dave drove away with a puffing Sharka in pursuit.
"He was a big boy and obviously aroused," Alsop told the Sun newspaper. "He sidled up against us. The next thing I know he's banging away at the car and it's rocking like hell."
A spokeswoman for the park, which says "rhinos are not particularly intelligent animals" on its website, said Sharka was a hit with the female rhinos and had fathered two calves in the last five years.
"He's got a bit of a reputation, this lad, and he was obviously at it again," she added.
Reuters
This story was found at: http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/04/22/1082616262533.html
SMH 23-4-4
Saturday, the 17th of April 2004.
A limosine company based in Mexico has come up with what it thinks is the ultimate luxury car - a converted Boeing 727 passenger plane.
The company has taken the wings off the Boeing and turned it into a big deisel-powered car, capable of whizzing 50 people along the highway, at up to 200 kilometres an hour.
From next month, anyone with a spare $1,500 will be able to book a three hour trip in the converted 727, taking advantage of its dance club, bar and lounge - and hope it does not hit any pot-holes.
"We had to make a superhuman effort to bring the plane's parts here," said Martin Vaca, the limousine company's owner.
"The trip was very difficult."
Sixty people worked on the plane's transformation for three months.
The six-tonne plane is 18 metres long and 3.9 metres high. It has a six-cylinder, turbocharged diesel engine in the back and air brakes and suspension.
The interior is decked with neon strobe lights and audio and video systems.
Passengers can boogie on a dance floor, make a pit stop at a bar or retire to a "romantic" space in the back of the aircraft-turned-luxury-automobile.
Outside, the wingless plane still has its 30 portholes, but passengers looking out the windows will be admiring asphalt instead of white clouds.
--AFP
ABC 17-4-4
www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/s1089488
Last elves sacked from Santa's Finland HQ
The 17th of April 2004
Helsinki: The last three worker elves at Father Christmas's official headquarters in Finland's Arctic have been sacked as Santa Park grapples with its finances.
"It is really unfortunate that we had to fire them, but there is just no work," said Wille Rajala, the park's fourth director since it opened in 1998.
"The person who has been called the head elf ... still works for Santa Park."
Lack of visitors has meant that the number of Santa's little helpers is now down to two, a far cry from plans to employ 120 staff on a monthly wage when the park opened.
Some 800 kilometres north of Helsinki, this is where letters addressed 'To Santa' arrive. The elves were supposed to help Santa and guide visitors around the park.
"During these five years (Santa Park) has been able to employ a fraction of the 120 staff for a maximum of three months (a year), usually for about eight weeks," Rajala said, adding the sacked elves had been on temporary leave since last August.
Santa Park made its first operating profit last year, but the company's bottom line remained in the red as it still has annual costs of some 400,000 euro ($A647,880) related to the initial construction of the park to pay for the next 15 years.
"It is unfortunate that the illusion that was once created has been shattered, but now it's time to look reality in the eyes and (decide) whether we want Santa Park to rise ... My contract says: put things in order," Rajala said.
Reuters
This story was found at: http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/04/17/1082055663068.html
SMH 17-4-4
Friday, the 6th of April 2004.
A woman with an uncontrollable desire for liquorice has sued German sweets manufacturer Haribo for feeding her addiction.
The 48-year-old plaintiff is asking for 6,000 euros in damages from Haribo because she developed heart problems after consuming 400 grams of the chewy candy every day for four months.
She collapsed at the end of her last daily binge and said she was unable to work for several months.
The company denies any responsibility for the woman's condition.
--AFP
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/s1088335.
ABC 16-4-4
The 15th of April 2004
A mystery buyer from Italy today paid $278,340 for a Concorde nose cone - to install in his Milan home. Bidders from across the world logged onto the internet in their hundreds to take part in the auction, which was held at Stoneleigh Park in central England and simultaneously broadcast online.
Among the 6,122 pieces of Concorde memorabilia which went under the hammer were cockpit instruments, crockery, seats, food trolleys and toilet cubicles -- one of which sold for STG5,500.
Mike Bannister, chief Concorde pilot for British Airways, said: "It is great to see people bidding from across the world.
"Concorde visited over 250 destinations and we have seen bidders from Australia, Japan and the United States, as well as here at Stoneleigh Park."
British Airways and Air France, the only two airlines ever to fly the supersonic airliners, pensioned off the planes last year, a move hastened by the July 2000 crash of an Air France Concorde in Paris that killed 109 people.
The last decommissioned Concorde passed though London yesterday as it was carried down the River Thames on a barge heading for Edinburgh in Scotland, where it will be restored before being put on display.
AFP
This story was found at: http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/04/15/1081838837210.html
SMH 16-4-4