Weird But True

[NJFFSA16]

FREETOWN, Sierra Leone (AP) - Thousands of fans rioted at Sierra
Leone's national stadium Saturday when authorities substituted two
local dwarf comedians for a widely anticipated out-of-town midget
duo. Police arrested 30 people, amid damage and dozens of injuries.
Daylong radio ads had whipped up excitement and ticket sales for
Friday night's scheduled performance by the two Nigerian
entertainers, Aki and Paw Paw.
The Nigerian performers failed to show by early morning.
Organizers put the two local dwarf comedians on the stage instead.
Fans rioted, throwing projectiles and smashing windows, light
fixtures and hundreds of chairs.
Witnesses said police fired tear gas. Authorities said 30 people
were arrested, including eight who allegedly had tried to steal the
stadium's seats.
Dozens of show-goers were reported injured in the melee.
Saturday, blood splattered parts of the stadium.
Acting President Solomon Berewa, filling in while President
Ahmed Tejan Kabbah is at a Commonwealth summit in Nigeria, toured
the riot site Saturday and condemned the violence.
Sierra Leone's National Stadium was built as a gift from China.
The stadium was under repairs for damage from the West African
nation's devastating 10-year rebellion, ended in January 2002.

(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

[E40FDNYL35]

DECEMBER 8, 2003 --- Some firefighters got caught in a bit of trouble when they responded to a water main break in the Bronx Sunday night. A fire truck got stuck in a sinkhole on Tiffany Street. The hole was the result of a 12-inch water main break. A crane and tow truck were used to finally get the truck out late Monday morning. The truck was slightly damaged, but none of the firefighters on board were hurt.

[E40FDNYL35]

December 9, 2003 -- Back in September, when California held a beach-cleanup campaign, 40,000 volunteers were issued special trash bags touted as environmentally friendly because they were made of biodegradable cornstarch. Officials believed the added expense - 10 times the cost of normal plastic trash bags - was justified. But this week, they learned they had been scammed - the bags were plain old environmentally unfriendly plastic.

They want a refund.

[Lewiston2FF]

They want a refund.

So would I. Actually I think I would have checked these things out a little bit before spending 10 times as much on them! D@mn! It is funny though.

[DeputyChiefGonzo]

yeah... but the beach got cleaned (as well as their wallets!)

[FlyingKiwi]

Dear Beach Cleaner.

Any spare bags must be dispossed of by eating them. They can then be disposed of throught the sewerage system.

ROTF

[EFD840]

PERTH, Australia, (AFP) - Red-faced Australian police investigating two men in Ku Klux Klan hoods who sped past a police camera at twice the legal speed limit making rude gestures have admitted the offenders were senior constables.

West Australian state police confirmed an internal investigation was underway into incident at Bunbury, 180 kilometres (110 miles) south of Perth, which a senior officer described as "an embarrassment to this organisation".

A police camera snapped the pair in August 2001 wearing costumes from the white supremicist KKK and gesturing towards the camera as they travelled at almost 130 kilometres per hour (80 m/h) in a 60 km/h (37 m/h) zone.

The car's registration was obsured by a sign bearing an expletive in what police described as a deliberate attempt to taunt them.

At the time, police said they would "crucify" those responsible for the potentially dangerous stunt.

But they found two of their colleagues, not car thieves, were behind the prank.

The pair had used an unmarked police car and were on duty at the time.

"I'd say that the chances of keeping their jobs is very slim at this time," local police commander Daryl Balchin told ABC Radio.

"Whilst probably at the time they considered this a prank, we are professional people and let's face it, the community expects more of us and to do this is ... grossly irresponsible."

He said one of the senior constables is on reduced duties and the other is in hospital on medication.

[NJFFSA16]

BERLIN (Reuters) - A remorseful thief sent $600 worth of
stolen goods to the police and asked they be returned to their
rightful owners, German authorities said Thursday.
Police in the southern town of Darmstadt said the thief
sent them a letter signed "mea culpa," listing the return
address as Ehrlichstrasse (Honest street) in apologizing for
the theft of $608 worth of CDs, cosmetics and other goods.
Darmstadt police spokesman Ferdinand Derigs said the
contrite perpetrator had supplied the addresses of the shops
plundered for the separately packed wares, and enclosed
personal letters of apology to the respective managers.
"The thief even suggested they install more cameras and
improve security, warning that a lot of things were getting
pinched," said Derigs. "Now we have the goods, but no culprit.
One out of two isn't bad though."
REUTERS

[NJFFSA16]

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) - A boy who was left with a Cambodian
gasoline vendor as collateral for three liters (0.8 gallons) of
gasoline earlier this year has been reunited with his family, a
police officer said Thursday.
Ron Dy, 9, was handed over to his uncle, Roeun Eng, on Monday
after gasoline seller Chim Thy appealed to the boy's parents
through the media, said Ly Lim, a police chief in Kampong Thom
province, 130 kilometers (80 miles) north of the capital, Phnom
Penh.
Chim Thy, 70, had been caring for Ron Dy in Kampong Thom since
February, when a man who claimed to be the boy's uncle said he
couldn't pay for the fuel and left the boy as collateral while he
went to get money.
However, the man - who identified himself only as Vy - never
returned and media earlier this month quoted Chim Thy as saying she
wanted Ron Dy's relatives to pick him up.
Roeun Eng, 33, said Vy wasn't the boy's uncle but had offered to
give him a ride on his motorcycle.
It wasn't clear why Chim Thy waited 10 months before appealing
to Ron Dy's family to claim the boy.
Roeun Eng gave the gasoline vendor 10,000 riel (US$2.50) for
looking after his nephew, and took Ron Dy to his mother and two
siblings in the northwestern province of Siem Riep.
Ron Dy cried as he said goodbye to Chim Thy, saying he wanted to
visit her again one day, the Rasmei Kampuchea (Light of Cambodia)
newspaper said.

(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

[NJFFSA16]

BERLIN (Reuters) - Almost every second German cheats on or
has cheated on their partner, according to a new survey
published Wednesday.
A November survey of 1,059 men and women aged between 20
and 60 by the Hamburg-based GEWIS research institute for
"Stern" magazine showed 51 percent of men and 43 percent of
women said they had cheated at least once.
Of the self-confessed cheats, some 61 percent of women and
47 percent of men said their transgressions came from a lack of
love or interest shown by their partner.
GEWIS head Werner Habermehl told Reuters increased personal
freedom and the illusion of the perfect lover propounded by
movies and the media were fueling the wave of infidelity.
"People's demands of their partners are rising continually
which means they are on the look-out for something better more
than ever before -- and so they try more partners out," he
said.

Reut14:09 12-10-03

[NJFFSA16]

Santa caught with his trousers on
SYDNEY - An absent-minded bank robber dressed as Santa
Claus will spend Christmas in an Australian jail, after he
forgot about his pants.
Gregory Harland-White, 40, planned to rob a bank in a small
town on Australia's island state Tasmania dressed as Santa
Claus, dump the suit in a horse trailer and get away on a
bicycle, The Mercury newspaper in Tasmania reported on
Wednesday.
Harland-White bought his Santa suit from a chicken feed
shop near the bank and armed himself with two pieces of pipe
taped together to look like a gun.
After robbing the bank of A$13,451 (US$9,963),
Harland-White ran into a nearby horse trailer to dump the Santa
suit, before heading for his get away vehicle, a bicycle
chained to a power pole more than a block away.
But he forgot to take off his Santa pants and was quickly
caught, never making it to his bicycle. Harland-White pleaded
guilty to bank robbery in a court in Tasmania on Tuesday and is
awaiting sentencing, The Mercury said.

[NJFFSA16]

Voyeur Web site JenniCam to go dark after 7 years
SAN FRANCISCO - A pioneer of electronic exhibitionism --
Jenni of JenniCam fame -- is turning off the lights after seven
years.
Jennifer Ringley, 27, became a quasi-celebrity when she
installed video cameras in her room at Dickinson College in
Pennsylvania in April 1996 and launched JenniCam.org.
Over the years the cameras have followed the redhead's
every movement 24 hours a day, from brushing her teeth in the
nude and snuggling with her partner Dex to playing with her
numerous cats and watching TV.
Now, her Web site has a notice saying it will be closing on
Dec. 31. While Ringley did not provide a reason on the site or
respond to an e-mail query Tuesday afternoon, it appears that
her undressing may be her undoing.
A spokeswoman at online payment company PayPal confirmed
that they were closing her account because the frontal nudity
on her Web site violates the company's acceptable use policy.
Ringley, a self-described former computer geek who works at
a non-profit social service agency in the Sacramento,
California, area, says in her mission statement that she wanted
to create a "window into a virtual human zoo."

Reut09:44 12-10-03

[NJFFSA16]

BERLIN, Dec 9 (Reuters) - German police charged a man with
drugs possession after officers spotted a small quantity of
heroin concealed in his ear when he entered a police station to
check if he was on their wanted list.
"I suppose he may have heard he was wanted for some offence
and just wanted to see if the police had anything on him,"
Volker Pieper, a spokesman for police in the central city of
Kassel, said on Tuesday. "It didn't go quite as he had planned."
As the 33-year-old man, a known drug abuser, questioned
police, an officer noticed a suspicious lump stuck in his ear
which turned out to be a gram of heroin, said Pieper. Police
confiscated the drug before filing charges.

Reut10:26 12-09-03

[E40FDNYL35]

December 13, 2003 --Here's a new twist on gun control. The town council in the tiny prairie town of Geuda Springs, Kan. - population 210 - recently passed an ordinance requiring the heads of most households to own a gun and ammo or face a $10 fine. But before the locals could strap on their gunbelts, the mayor shot down the plan. He took the law into his own hands - and tore it up.

[E40FDNYL35]

December 14, 2003 -- It was an out-of-this-world idea that never got off the ground. Florida lottery officials rejected a plan that would give lottery winners a chance to ride a Russian spacecraft to the International Space Station. The idea was nixed because players said they just want the money. "It was an intriguing enough concept to present to our focus groups . . . but people like to win cash," said lottery chief Bob Nave.

[NJFFSA16]

Italian woman kills husband with scrubbing brush
SPINAZZOLA, Italy, Dec 13 (Reuters) - An Italian pensioner
beat her husband to death with a scrubbing brush because the
couple had never had children, Italian media reported on
Saturday.
The woman in her 70s from Spinazzola, near Bari, on Italy's
southeast coast, brawled with 78-year-old husband Ignazio
Lacitignola on a daily basis, finally killing him on December 8
with dozens of blows from the heavy bathroom brush, Italian
daily La Repubblica reported. Police confirmed his death.
"It seems the woman, even after years of marriage, resented
her husband for never having given her a child," the newspaper
report said. The local prosecutor had issued a warrant for the
unnamed woman's arrest.

[NJFFSA16]

Thousands of yen bills wander into Japanese garbage plant, police
search for owner
TOKYO (AP) - A garbage disposal plant in central Japan has hit
the jackpot.
Operations at the plant suddenly came to a halt Friday morning
when a machine used to crush refuse began spewing out 10,000
yen-bills (US$93) onto a conveyor belt.
In total, some 31 million yen (US$287,000) had found its way
into the garbage, Gyoda city police said Saturday.
Police, shown by public broadcaster NHK, sifted through the some
3,200 soiled bills strewn across the floor, patching together the
torn pieces with tape and piling them onto a banquet-sized table to
be counted.
"I got the creeps - it was kind of scary. You expect garbage
but you never imagine money to come out," said one unidentified
employee interviewed by NHK.
No one has come forward to claim the money, and police are
trying to track down the owner. If the money is not claimed within
six months, it will go to Gyoda city, which owns the plant, police
said.
Gyoda lies just northwest of Tokyo in neighboring Saitama
prefecture.

(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

[NJFFSA16]

Lehigh Acres man charged after moonshine fire
kjtmyr-jcp
LEHIGH ACRES, Fla. (AP) - Luis Manuel Orama says he just wanted
to make a little homemade moonshine for Christmas.
But the Lee County Sheriff's Office says a wood-burning fire
used in the fermentation process got out of control late Thursday,
engulfing the outdoor still and spreading to his detached garage
with three vehicles inside.
Orama, 52, was charged with second-degree arson and possession
of a still to manufacture liquor. He told investigators he was
making moonshine for Christmas.
Authorities said the fire caused about $50,000 in damages, but
no one was hurt.
Investigators later found several propane tanks behind the
garage and empty jugs, hoses, a water system and three 55-gallon
drums - one filled with a fermenting liquid. The incident has
raised some eyebrows in the neighborhood.
"That's kind of nuts," said neighbor Joy Harris. "We really
don't talk to our neighbors."
---
Information from: News-Press, http://www.news-press.com

(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

[E40FDNYL35]

December 15, 2003 -- The JETS won !!! and nobody cares...

[E40FDNYL35]

December 16, 2003 -- Better think twice before bringing Broadway to Bluffton, S.C. Pols there have banned a production of the award-winning show "The Vagina Monologues" from the Town Hall auditorium because the title is too suggestive. "I'm thinking more about the children - they would see those posters up everywhere," said Town Clerk Sandra Lunceford. Poor Sandra. Wait until she has to deal with one of this year's Broadway hits: "Puppetry of the Penis."