Weird But True

[NJFFSA16]

SINGAPORE - Singapore may decriminalize oral sex between
men and women, a government minister said, but homosexual oral
sex looks set to stay illegal.
The move follows a highly publicized case of a 27-year-old
policeman jailed for two years in November for receiving
consensual oral sex from a 15-year-old girl.
That case provoked rare public criticism of Singapore's
government. Protests over the law filled newspaper forum pages
and buzzed in Internet chat rooms.
In an earlier case detailed in the Straits Times a wife
tried to punish her unfaithful husband by performing oral sex
on him and then reporting him to the police.
Singapore is relaxing other laws such as rules on
bungee-jumping, bar-top dancing and chewing gum in a bid to
shake off its stuffy image and lure foreign professionals.

[NJFFSA16]

BOSTON, Jan 7 (Reuters) - Talk about a rude awakening.
A Massachusetts man woke with a jolt in the parking lot
next to his home early on Tuesday after a stolen car plowed
into his one-room house, pushing his double bed through the
front wall, police said on Wednesday.
"The driver of the stolen car failed to navigate a turn and
crashed into the house sending the resident and his bed
outside. That is where he woke up," said Dennis Police
Department Lt. Martin Murphy.
Murphy said Ellis Thomas, 34, was shocked but not seriously
hurt. "He thought someone had broken into the house," Murphy
said.
The man who barreled into the Cape Cod house escaped in
another stolen car and has not been found, Murphy said.

Reut13:14 01-07-04

[NJFFSA16]

"Viking village" hopes cruelly dashed in Scotland
LONDON, Jan 8 (Reuters) - Archaeologists were excited to
find what they thought was the first evidence of ninth century
Viking settlement in Scotland.
They had spent days painstakingly excavating the site after
50-year old Marion Garry said she had uncovered an unusual
arrangement of smooth, flat stones a few feet below the surface
of her garden in Fife.
"We thought we'd hit the jackpot," Scottish archaeologist
Douglas Speirs told newspapers.
But as they cleared the site, doubts began to arise -- what
for example was a 1940s baby pacifier doing in there? Never
mind, modern objects are often found in archaeological digs.
Only when the area was completely excavated and materials
analysed did the horrible truth dawn -- the stones were nothing
more significant than a 1940s sunken patio.
"After all our efforts, you can imagine how silly we feel,"
said Speirs.
Ms Garry said that she was looking forward to turning the
patio into a new garden feature.
"It looks quite messy now but I think it will look very
pretty with flowers and plants growing around it during the
summer," she said.
REUTERS

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January 8, 2004 -- Three fugitives who had barricaded themselves in a Florida attic ran out of their hiding hole and straight into the arms of cops - after they found a human skeleton in the creepy spot. One of the panicked probation-violation suspects screamed, "Get me out of here! There's a dead body up here!" said Daytona Beach Sgt. Al Tolley.
Cops are investigating why the skeleton was there in the first place.

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January 9, 2004 -- A Florida golfer who went 40 years without a hole-in-one has beaten 67 million-to-1 odds by notching two - in a single round. Marva Ged, 56, who has a 15 handicap, says she is "still in disbelief" after the two aces at Hunter's Run in Boynton Beach. "When I came to my senses, I called the pro shop and said, 'I'm not on drugs and I've not been drinking, but I've just had two hole-in-ones,' " Ged said.

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January 10, 2004 -- Customers at a Burger King in suburban Detroit are getting an earful of obscenities and insults along with their meals. That's because pranksters are tapping into the same frequency as the fast-food chain's drive-through speaker.
"You don't need a couple of Whoppers. You are too fat. Pull ahead," the pranksters told one patron, according to Troy Police Lt. Gerry Scherlinck.

[E40FDNYL35]

January 11, 2004 -- A Texas man's artwork has gone to the toilet -the toilet-seat lid, that is! Retired plumber Barney Smith has been creating works of art on the lids for the past 32 years. Smith, 82, has produced 677 of the fanciful seats, which now pack his Toilet Seat Art Museum in the garage of his San Antonio home. Flushed with pride, Smith said he gets about 1,000 visitors each year.

just goes to show, one man's trash is another man's art...or something like that

[NJFFSA16]

BRUSSELS, Belgium (Reuters) - Belgian police caught two
rabbit poachers whose armor-plated getaway car was equipped
with so many gadgets it could have been in a James Bond film.
Belga news agency said Tuesday the poachers were caught
overnight with 14 wild rabbits in the back of a car they had
reinforced with metal plates to stop bullets.
The car was also equipped with an automated box ready to
spring tire traps to slow pursuers. The poachers had fitted a
halogen lamp on the outside to blind their prey and shielded
the car's number plates with lead sheeting to avoid
identification.
There was also a device to eject two old bicycles fixed on
the back of the car as an obstacle to any vehicle in hot
pursuit, Belga reported.

[NJFFSA16]

Cyprus army embarrassed over plans found in dump
NICOSIA, Cyprus (Reuters) - Red-faced army bosses in Cyprus
came under fire over the weekend after secret ground plans of
military installations were found in a garbage dump.
Authorities launched an inquiry into how the documents came
to be discarded at a landfill, only to be found last Friday by
a curious truck driver who alerted TV stations.
Local media said the papers contain details ranging from
technical specifications for weapons launch sites to the
thickness of walls at sentry posts along the island's tensely
guarded cease-fire line.
Defense Minister Koullis Mavronicolas tried to play down
the incident, saying the documents "are not important."
But President Tassos Papadopoulos said, "It's regrettable
if it's true."
Cyprus has been divided since a Turkish invasion in 1974.

REUTERS

[NJFFSA16]

SINGAPORE (AP) - Women in Singapore are buying their husbands
special Chinese New Year briefs, hoping to bring them good fortune
and increase their sexual potency.
Women are also buying themselves "Funky Monkey" panties
specially designed for the year of the monkey, featuring smiling
cartoon primates. The Lunar New Year begins on Jan. 22 and is
celebrated by the Chinese diaspora around the globe.
But the most popular style is bright red briefs for men
featuring Chinese characters for wealth and prosperity, said
Jeannette Cheong, owner of the underwear store ButtOn Trendy
Undies.
Cheong said she has sold more than a thousand pairs of the
festive undergarments, priced at 5.90 Singapore dollars (US$3.50),
since Christmas.
"The Year of the Monkey is definitely more marketable than the
other zodiac signs," Cheong said. "Because the cartoon designs
for women's underwear are cuter and more appealing."
The items are most popular with middle-aged women who tell
Cheong they want to spice up their love lives, she said.
She said she has also received bulk orders from companies
looking for Chinese New Year gifts for their staff.
More unusual buyers of the lucky underwear include gray-haired
men shopping for themselves and "mamasans" - local slang for
women who arranges sexual liaisons - looking for "corporate
gifts" for their clients, Cheong said.

(Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

[NJFFSA16]

KATMANDU, Nepal (AP) - Monkeys have invaded the Indian Embassy
in Nepal's capial, forcing diplomats to seek help from animal
specialists, the embassy said Wednesday.
About three dozen monkeys have attacked embassy officials,
defecated in offices, and destroyed equipment, embassy spokesman
Sanjay Verma said.
"We have sought help from experts and hope to get rid of the
problem soon," Verma said.
Experts from the Department of National Parks and Wildlife
Conservation and from a zoo were called in to capture the monkeys.
The embassy plans to pay 25,000 rupees (US$350) for the task, Verma
said.
The embassy previously had caught some of the monkeys and took
them out of Katmandu.
"But somehow they managed to find their way back," Verma said.
New Delhi has its own monkey problems. The animals are known to
ransack files, screech at visitors and bang on office windows in
India's Parliament complex.

(Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

[NJFFSA16]

Knife-wielding 90-yr old sends NZ intruder packing
WELLINGTON, Jan 14 (Reuters) - A 90-year old New Zealand
man grabbed a carving knife from his kitchen and chased away a
masked intruder who had threatened his wife with a butter
knife.
The intruder waved the flimsy weapon at David Saulbrey's
wife when she tried to ring the police to report Tuesday's
break-in at their home in Lower Hutt, near Wellington, the
Dominion-Post newspaper reported.
Saulbrey, who failed to hear the hapless intruder's demand
for money because he was not wearing his hearing aid, then beat
the burglar in a search for a more threatening weapon.
"Once I got the carving knife I said: 'Now you bastard,
you're for it.' With that he threw his knife at me and took off
out the door," Saulbrey told the newspaper.
"I was that bloody wild I would have stuck (the knife) in
his Adam's apple," he said.
New Zealand police said they did not recommend confronting
an armed intruder but praised Saulbrey's bravery.
"He's a tough old bugger. You wouldn't think he was 90,
that's for sure," Detective Scott Cooper was quoted as saying.

Reut21:50 01-13-04

[NJFFSA16]

White socks taboo at Dutch finance ministry
AMSTERDAM, Jan 13 (Reuters) - White socks have been declared
indecent by the Dutch Finance Ministry.
A ministry official on Tuesday confirmed a recent internal
publication that proclaimed white sports socks "transgress the
limits of decent dress behaviour" for ministry employees.
The officials were also expected to wear dark blue or grey
suits in order to convey "reliability and professionalism."
"People are expected to dress in accordance with their
function," said a spokeswoman, stressing there were no strict
controls.

Reut06:31 01-13-04

[NJFFSA16]

German woman causes parking lot chaos
BERLIN (Reuters) - A German woman caused about $130,000
damage when an attempt to back out of her spot in a parking
garage ended with her car flipped over on its roof and four
other vehicles damaged, police said Monday.
Police said the woman reversed sharply out of her spot on
the upper level of a multistory parking garage in the
southwestern town of Kirchen, wrecking a parked Nissan and
damaging a Mitsubishi next to it, police said.
She then accelerated forward, speeding through her original
parking place and over a low protective wall -- pitching her
Audi some 20 feet down to a lower level of the lot.
The car crashed onto a Renault, hit a Citroen and finally
came to rest on its roof.
Police said the woman was treated in a hospital but that
her injuries were not life threatening. "A blood test was taken
after suspicions she was under medication," a spokesman said.
REUTERS

Reut09:39 01-12-04

[E40FDNYL35]

January 15, 2004 -- A West Virginia firefighter torched his mom's mobile home - because he was upset over how messy it was, cops say.
William Feimster, 25, of Martinsburg, complained that the home "was very sloppy and he didn't like it," said Berkeley County Sheriff's Sgt. Russell Shackelford.

In another odd twist, Feimster went with his ladder company to put the blaze out after neighbors called it in.

[NJFFSA16]

SPOKANE, Washington (AP) - Three men who went streaking through
a restaurant were chilled and chagrined when they spotted a thief
drive off in their getaway car, their clothes inside.
Naked in the minus 7 degree Celsius (20 degrees Fahrenheit)
weather, the three young men huddled behind cars in a parking lot
until police arrived.
"I don't think they were hiding. I think they were just
concealing themselves," police spokesman Dick Cottam said.
The three entered the restaurant before daybreak Wednesday,
wearing only shoes and hats. They left their car running so they
could make a quick escape.
But the streakers watched through the windows as a man who had
been eating inside the restaurant drove off in their car.
No charges were brought against the streakers.
"I think it was just three kids who decided to fool around,"
Cottam said. He added: "We always tell people to not leave their
car running."

(Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

[NJFFSA16]

Suspected German drug smuggler foiled by call of nature
BERLIN (Reuters) - The untimely bowel movements of a man
arrested with marijuana at an airport yielded German police an
unexpected haul of 54 condoms containing cocaine, authorities
said Thursday.
"It's pretty silly to get caught carrying hard drugs
because you've got a tiny amount of marijuana on you," said a
spokeswoman for prison authorities in Berlin.
After police discovered the 2 grams (0.076 ounce) of
marijuana, a check revealed an outstanding international arrest
warrant for the 51-year-old man for drug-related offenses.
They were unaware he was carrying 2.2 pounds of cocaine,
estimated at $150,400), authorities said.
"The man had the condoms in his stomach and after a certain
period of time his bowels passed them out again. I don't know
why he didn't flush them down the toilet, perhaps he needed to
keep them," the spokeswoman said.
The man hid the excreted condoms in his clothes, where jail
authorities later found them, authorities said.
REUTERS

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January 16, 2004 --A deranged woman tore off her shirt and bra aboard a jet in Australia and screamed at passengers that she had a vision they were all going to die in a 9/11-style tragedy.Passengers were still stunned after the ordeal on the Virgin Blue flight from Hobart to Melbourne. "Everyone was pretty freaked out," one flier said. "[When] we landed, the whole plane applauded."
The 23-year-old woman was released into the custody of her parents.

[NJFFSA16]

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) - SARS fears have stopped the Chinese
from eating civet cats. But that hasn't turned off others from
sipping the strangest of brews - one they insist is made from
coffee beans eaten, partly digested and then excreted by the
weasel-like animals.
The story goes like this: Civets live in the foliage of
plantations across Southeast Asia. These fussy foragers pick the
best and ripest coffee berries. Enzymes in their digestive system
break down the flesh of the fruit before the animals expel the
bean.
Workers collect beans from the plantation floor, wash away the
dung and roast them to produce a unique drink that devotees might
say is good to the last dropping.
Skeptics, though, dismiss it all as a weird and unverifiable
marketing gimmick.
Still in Indonesia's capital Jakarta, the owner of three
fashionable cafes, Agus Susanto, sells what he claims is a mix of
regular beans and those that have passed through civets. The blend
and the cafes are both called "Kopi Luwak" - in English: "Civet
Coffee."
"Our coffee has a strong taste and an even stronger aroma,"
Susanto said by telephone from his factory in central Java.
In Vietnam, now the world's second-largest regular coffee
grower, a blend supposedly containing some civet beans is produced
by the Trung Nguyen company under the "Weasel Coffee" brand.
In the Philippines, the Old Manila Coffee House used to sell a
civet brew, but supplies have dwindled over the years, said Ellen
Tuason, its finance officer.
"Some of our guests said it was an aphrodisiac. It has a strong
coffee smell, but different. There is a distinct odor and flavor,"
she said.
The beans are also marketed internationally. Several US-Internet
based coffee traders claim to offer them for up to $150 a pound,
($325 a kilogram) making among the world's most expensive
beverages.
However, many in Asia's coffee trade doubt whether the beans are
truly produced in significant quantities, if at all.
"There are maybe a few bags here, a few bags there, but mostly
its just a myth," said Victor Mah, a Singaporean who has been
selling coffee from Southeast Asia for more than 25 years.
Others just won't swallow the claims.
"I think it's a big scam," said Mark Hanusz, who spent eight
months traveling Indonesia researching his book about coffee called
"A Cup of Java."
In the past few weeks, authorities in southern China have
exterminated thousands of civet cats on fears that they carry and
spread the severe acute respiratory syndrome virus.
The World Health Organization also sees a potential relationship
between the furry black and white animals and the disease that
killed 774 people worldwide last year.
If that link is confirmed, consumer interest in civet coffee
could plummet.
But in Jakarta, Susanto isn't worried. He expects to keep
selling what he claims is 100 metric tons (110 tons) of civet
coffee a month.
"There are many different kinds of civets in this world. The
Indonesian ones are different from those in China," he said.
Henry Harmon, an American from Boston, Massachusetts who owns a
chain of coffee shops in Indonesia, said he thinks the drink is for
real, though he has no plans to introduce it in his stores.
"It has a nice romantic - well semi-romantic - twist to it, but
I'd be worried about product liability lawsuits," Harmon said.
----
On the Net:
www.thecoffeecritic.com
www.mountanosbros.com

(Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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RPT-Toronto relief workers hand homeless a hot potato
(Fixes typo in headline)
TORONTO, Jan 16 (Reuters) - In the face of flesh-freezing
temperatures, Toronto's homeless community now has an
alternative to crowded shelters -- a hot, cooked potato in a
sock.
The Potato Tikun Olan Program is the brainchild of Iris
Halbert, a student at the University of Toronto. It is
organized by Ve'ahavta, the Canadian Jewish Humanitarian and
Relief Committee, which is combing the city in a van, handing
out boiled potatoes in socks to those out in the cold.
"We've done a thermal test to see how long they keep warm,"
Darrel Borden, director of homeless initiatives for Ve'ahavta,
told Reuters. "They keep a sleeping bag warm for about five
hours and a pocket for three."
An average of 15 homeless people die every year in Toronto
from exposure to frigid temperatures. This winter, a cold snap
with wind chill temperatures as low as -40 Celsius (-40
Fahrenheit) has already claimed one life.
Halbert, who studies the politics of development, said she
got the idea from a book she read as a teenager about Eastern
European peasants.
"During the cold season they would put potatoes in their
pants to keep them warm as they went about their daily chores,"
she said.
About a month ago she approached Borden and the idea grew.
Since Wednesday, they have distributed over 180 potatoes, which
provide fuel as well as warmth.
"As they cool off people can eat them and get fiber, and
potassium and other nutrients," he said.
Halbert and Borden have been conducting a vigorous local
media campaign and hope from now on to bring warm, edible
assistance to Toronto's streets every year.
"Simple solutions to complex problems, it's what we need,"
said Halbert.

Reut16:38 01-16-04