Short-arse Would-be cop hid wood in hair

An Indian man was arrested for hiding a piece of wood in his hair to meet the minimum height requirement to join the police.

Suspicious officers made Gajendra Kharatmal take the height test again and the wood popped out of his hair, reports Mid-Day newspaper.

Officials of the Maharashtra Public Service Commission in Mumbai say Kharatmal reached the 5ft 3ins mark exactly when he first stood at the scale.

An examiner said: "So we asked him to stand there once again. The second time, we felt something hard hidden in his hair and discovered a piece of wood."

Kharatmal was arrested on charges of cheating and is currently out on bail.

Police spokesman A K A Kaiser said: "He had taken the exams last year and even cleared the written test. The MPSC officials however rejected the application, as he was two inches short of their requirement.

"On his second attempt Kharatmal was aware he would be rejected for the same reason. To get selected, he adopted this approach."

In-flight lizard meal lands Indian airline in court

NEW DELHI, India (AFP) - The lizard biryani served on a Jet Airways flight in India proved just too spicy for a startled passenger who is taking the private carrier to court.

The airline admitted in a statement published Friday that it had launched an inquiry into how the two-inch lizard came to be cooked and served up to businessman Ashok Sharma.

"We are conducting an investigation of the unfortunate incident," Jet Airways chief operating officer Peter Luethi said.

"I am planning to file a case in the consumer court on returning to Bangalore," Sharma told The Statesman newspaper.

"This is a gross act of negligence and someone has to be made accountable," he said.

The biryani has been sent for testing amid claims from airline officials of "sabotage" at LSG Sky Chefs, a catering firm who supplied the food for the Bangalore to New Delhi connection on Wednesday night.

"We have taken all possible action in our operation in Bangalore to identify the potential root cause of this incident," LSG's operations director Michael Machartzek told the daily.

Jet Airways afforded Sharma VIP treatment on arrival in Delhi and a car to take him to his hotel, but he refused to hand over the lizard until he was ready.

"I insisted that I will bring it back to Delhi to highlight their negligence in the media," he said.

Witching power

Students who turn up at US schools dressed in Halloween costumes could be sent home ... out of consideration for witches.

Some schools in the Puyallup School District in Washington state have banned Halloween because of worries about offending real witches.

School officials took the step after followers of the Wiccan religion had complained about the way Halloween was celebrated. One official said: "Witches with pointy noses are not respective symbols of the Wiccan religion."

Shocking marriage

A Wisconsin man who said he threw a live electrical wire into his wife's bath hoping a near-death experience would save their marriage has been convicted of attempted murder.

William Dahlby said in court he was only trying to scare his wife Mary. He told jurors the wire was hooked to a "ground fault interrupter" designed to cut the electricity when the cord encountered water. His wife was not hurt.

Prosecutors said Dahlby was trying to kill his wife to start a new life with another woman. He will be sentenced in December.

Dog calls ambulance to save owner

It was like a scene from Lassie. A dog telephoned for an ambulance and then unlocked the door for the police after her owner fell from her wheelchair.

After calling 911, four-year-old Rottweiler, Faith, barked urgently into the receiver to get help for 45-year-old Leana Beasley.

Ms Beasley suffered a seizure at her home in Washington state, in the north west United States.

"I sensed there was a problem on the other end of the 911 call," said emergency operator Jenny Buchanan. "The dog was too persistent in barking directly into the phone receiver. I knew she was trying to tell me something."

Faith has been trained to knock the receiver off the hook and press a speed dial button to call the emergency services.

But that's not all. The dog is also trained in first aid.

"She's trained to get under my body, roll me to my stomach so that fluid can run out," Ms Beasley told the local television channel KVEW-TV.

"She takes her nose pushes my chin up to open the airway, and then she's trained to lick my face and keep any fluid away so I don't drown."

Faith also uses her sensitive nose to detect changes in Ms Beasley's body chemistry which could indicate she is about to have a seizure.

Ms Beasley believes Faith had been trying to warn her all day that she was in danger. The day of the fall, Faith "had been acting very clingy, wanting to be touching me all day long" Ms Beasley said.

Late payment

After putting up with pangs of conscience for 24 years, a Norwegian finally settled a hotel bill he skipped out on in 1980.

The Clarion Hotel Ernst in the southern town of Kristiansand received a hand-written anonymous letter of apology with a 500 kroner note (£38) attached, said hotel director Kay Johnsen.

"I've never seen anything like it," said Johnsen, who has been in the hotel business for more than 20 years. The note said the sender had stayed at the hotel in the autumn of 1980, had some sandwiches and drinks on his room bill, and then left without paying for anything "because of my lifestyle at that time."

Drug dealer gets tax break on stolen money

CANBERRA (Reuters) - An Australian drug dealer who dug up hundreds of thousands of dollars from his backyard to buy heroin but had the money stolen in the deal can claim a tax deduction for his losses.

Under Australian law, income earned from illegal activity can be subjected to income tax. The High Court of Australia ruled this week that if illegal income is subjected to tax, then losses should be deductible.

The ruling ended a 10-year battle between convicted drug dealer Francesco Dominico La Rosa and the Australian Tax Office, which argued the tax deduction was against good public policy.
Drug dealer Francesco Dominico La Rosa buried more than A$220,000 (90,000 pounds) in his back garden in 1995 and dug it up again to buy heroin, but had the cash stolen. La Rosa spent six years in jail for heroin import and possession.

The Australian government said on Friday it would close the tax loophole to stop other drug dealers claiming tax breaks.

It (the court) said that this drug dealer could claim as a deduction some money that was stolen from him. If that's the state of the law as interpreted by the high court, I don't think it's very good," Treasurer Peter Costello told local radio.

"I will seek to introduce legislation to change that law," he said.

Train conductor stamps dead man's ticket

LONDON (Reuters) - A train conductor carefully stamped the ticket of a slumbering passenger without realising the man was dead.

The thoughtful train worker thought the passenger was dozing when he came across him in the carriage clutching his ticket.

He carefully prised the ticket from the man's hands, punched it and returned it to him.

Shortly afterwards the train pulled into the station at York and rail staff alerted paramedics when they realised the man was not breathing.

"The conductor needn't have been so careful, as it turned out that the passenger had expired, long before his ticket ever did," said a report in the Transport Police's staff magazine.

Lion's ingrowing toenail keeps town awake

Lion's ingrowing toenail keeps town awake

A lion with an ingrowing 'toenail' is keeping residents of a Brazilian town awake at night.

Eight-year-old Maruk's poorly claw has him roaring loudly late into the night, reports Terra Noticias Populares.

The lion lives in a zoo, Parque da Cidade, in the northeastern town of Industrial, where residents say he roars so loudly that it sounds like he's outside their homes.

Zoo keepers say the problem is that the lion is 30kgs overweight which puts extra pressure on his feet.

They have put him on a special diet and say the pain from his foot should be bearable once he loses weight.

A police spokesman said: "We have received lots of complaints but what can we do? Arrest the lion?

"I don't think so. People will have to be understanding and wait until the vets deal with the problem."

Identical Number plates cause a row

TEHRAN (Reuters) - An Iranian who saw a woman driving what he swore was his own car accused her of stealing it, only to find two identical vehicles had accidentally been issued with the same registration plate.

"You are driving my car!" state television quoted him as saying on Wednesday, after he saw the car while walking down a street in the northeastern city Mashhad.
when she protested, he rang his family to find his car of the same color, model and registration still safely at home.

The carmaker said there had been a mix-up because of Iran's new system of issuing plates.
State television tracked down the two small brown cars and filmed them driving side by side down a street in Mashhad.

Mix-up sees wrong home shuttered

The council mixed up Patricia Driscoll's home for a nearby flat
A mother has described how she returned from a weekend break to find the council had boarded up her home.
Patricia Driscoll was told the shutters had gone up on her three-bedroom Cardiff council house because officials thought she had abandoned the property.

She had to spend the night with a friend after the authority mistook her home for a flat on the same estate.

The council has apologised and replaced the backdoor which was damaged in the work - and sent Miss Driscoll flowers.

Care assistant Miss Driscoll, 39, lives on the Brynfedw estate in Llanedeyrn with her 13-year-old daughter, Amber.

She said "They are not really sure how the number got twisted up, but the fact that it was a flat and I live in a house is a dead giveaway, isn't it! "

Her 19-year-old son, James, was house sitting for her while she was away for the weekend in Blackpool and Amber was at her grandmother's.

She said James had been at the property until 1230 BST on the weekday that she returned home, from the railway station some four hours later.

"As we drove up, I could see that there were shutters on my window frames.

"The first thing I did then was that I panicked and looked for black smoke marks on the house, but there weren't any. Then I thought the house had been smashed in."

Keith Moon's Drum Kit Gets Record 120,000 Pounds at London Sale

Sep. 29 (Bloomberg) -- Keith Moon's five-piece drum kit, custom-made for The Who drummer in 1968, sold for 120,000 pounds ($215,772) in London to an American collector, setting a world auction record for a set of drums, Christie's International said.
The price of the Premier brand drums, which Christie's had valued at no more than 15,000 pounds, was driven up by two bidders competing via telephone. They were part of a sale of pop memorabilia including Madonna and Beatles items that took in a total of 602,538 pounds including Christie's commission.
The sale showed that fans are willing to pay well over asking price for items associated with musicians who remain popular -- even after their death. A 1964 poster for a Rolling Stones concert in England sold for 6,000 pounds before Christie's commission, more than seven times the high estimate.

Man uses 32,000 coins to pay for goods

A Brazilian man has paid for goods in an electrical shop with more than 32,000 coins.

Ernesto Torres do Couto, 50, told Terra Noticias Populares said he was protesting against The Electronics Shop in Nova Iguacu, Rio de Janeiro.

He said two years ago he had waited almost six hours for his credit to be checked and at the end it was rejected.

Mr Couto said he then decided to plan his revenge.

He decided to pay for his next purchases at the shop with coins - all 32,052 of them.

He returned to the shop this week to buy a number of items and used the coins to pay.

Do Couto said: "I spent two years putting all the coins together, it was a lot of work, but I feel that I've got my revenge now."

It took 11 shop assistants almost three hours to count the coins.

Man fills in historic treasure after row with officials

A Dutch artist who discovered historic treasure in his garden has decided to cover his find up.

It's believed Gerd Jan Roos from Oudeschild on the Dutch isle of Texel found items dating back 400 years last week.

It resulted in him gaining national media coverage.

However, officials who came to see the items showed more interest in a garden shed he'd built without permission, so he's decided to ban any further inspections.

Roos, an artist, said: "I originally thought I'd dug up an old cesspit, which was full of old pipes, pottery, perfume bottles, vases and boots."

But now he's filled in the hole and built a pond.

He told the Noordhollands Dagblad: "No-one will be allowed to enter my garden anymore. No civil servants and no archeologists. As long as I live their will be no more digging."

Quirky holiday postcard business going well

A new service that sends postcards from exotic locations on behalf of holidaymakers is doing well in Germany.

The MayDayCard service enables people to have cards sent to friends or colleagues from exotic places even though they are holidaying somewhere else.

The service collects people's personally written cards and posts them from a variety of expensive holiday destinations, just so they can impress others.

For Ā£8.50 people can have a genuine, stamped postcard from Los Angeles or Mauritius, and for another Ā£5 people can have a card sent from Hawaii.

The scheme was set up by 37-year-old Edith Gailus, who said she never liked writing postcards herself.

A team of 20 people, consisting of pilots, flight attendants and Gailus and her husband, collects the postcards and posts them from the select destinations.

According to Gailus, cards from Hong Kong are especially popular among businessmen.

The MayDayCard service has been selling over 1,500 holiday cards a month since it was launched at the beginning of 2004.

Flamingo in flap over identity

A flamingo with an identity crisis is ruffling a few feathers at a nature reserve.

Andy, a 40-year-old male Andean flamingo, has spent the last fortnight incubating a pebble he has mistaken for an egg.

Wardens at the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust in Slimbridge, Gloucestershire, are baffled by his bird-brained behaviour, as it is female flamingos which traditionally sit on the nest waiting for eggs to hatch.

Back-seat driver system to be tested

LONDON (Reuters) - Drivers may soon have no excuse for ignoring road signs.
Australian scientists have invented an electronic driver's assistant system, similar to the back-seat driver who forever points out road signs and warns against speeding.

"The Australian invention is part of a global effort to make drivers more aware of road signs, especially those concerned with safety," New Scientist magazine said on Wednesday.
The new driver's assistance system (DAS) developed by National Information and Communications Technology Australia (NICTA) in Canberra detects road signs and warns drivers to slow down.
"DAS uses three cameras: one to scan the road ahead and a pair to monitor where the driver is looking," the magazine said.
A computer system fitted behind the dashboard collates the information with data on the speed the car is going.

If it appears the driver has not seen a sign or has not slowed down, a warning is issued.
In preliminary tests, DAS performed "pretty well" even at high speeds, according to its developers. They plan to test it in full-scale road trials with many types of road signs soon.

Toddler shocks doctors by surviving 30ft plunge

(The Scotsman)TWO-year-old Daniel Meehan astonished doctors by surviving a 30ft fall on to concrete after landing on his bottom.

The toddler escaped with only a broken ankle after somersaulting from the third-storey window of his home in Perth on Friday.

Stepfather Andrew Irvine said: "It wasn't as if Dan landed on grass or fell through a tree to break his fall because he landed flat on a concrete path. The doctors couldn't believe there was nothing wrong. They were as stunned as we were," he said.

A passer-by saw Daniel tumble as he fell and doctors believe it was the way he landed on his bottom that cushioned his fall.

Daniel's aunt, Sharon Meehan said that the toddler was happily playing and appeared fine apart from a small cast on his ankle. "He's back to his normal self. He can't walk but apart from that he's fine."

The accident happened after his mother opened her bedroom window to let a wasp out and then turned her back for a few seconds.

Daniel was taken to Ninewells Hospital, Dundee, and released on Monday.

Mr Irvine said: "Dan must have jumped up on a laundry basket and toppled out. The last thing I saw were the soles of his feet as he fell."

Dr Alistair Sutcliffe said Daniel's age gave him an advantage. "Children have chubbier bodies and a higher amount of body water so they are more robust to injury."

Jedi Academy opens in Romania

Jedi Academy opens in Romania

A Star Wars acedemy that teaches about the religion of the Jedi, use of the light sabre and speaking in Wookiee has opened its doors in Romania.

Adrian Pavel, who runs the country's Star Wars Club, decided to found the Jedi Academy after getting so many questions from fellow fans on how they can be more like their heroes in the Star Wars films.

He told local daily Libertatea: "We have meetings and lectures, and we dress like Jedis, but this is no longer enough. We'll soon learn how to handle the light sabres in academy classes.

"The academy is open to everybody. There is a quiz with 100 questions that will cover even the darkest aspects of the Star Wars phenomenon that needs to be done in 24 hours. Anyone who passes quiz will have a place in the Jedi Academy."

The academy is also offering special modules for true devotees, like cooking some of the dishes seen in the Star Wars films including Wookiee Cookies, Princess Leia Danish donughts, Sand Trooper sandwiches and Twin Sun toasts.

Skint student does record-breaking 30-mile wheelie

A penniless student who took the front wheel off his cycle after he got a puncture has broken the world wheelie record.

Martin Lasak, 21, who started riding on one wheel because he couldn't afford to fix the tyre, completed a 30-mile wheelie.

It took him two and a half hours to wheelie between Vradiste and Kopcany in western Slovakia.

He said the bike repair shop wanted too much money to fix the inner tube, and he did not have the time to do it himself, local daily Novy Cas reported.

He said: "I was going to a friend's house when I got a puncture. I got to his house, took the wheel off and when I found out the price of the repair I decided to leave it off until I could fix it myself.

"But it was so easy riding on one wheel, I never really got round to finding the time to sort it out. I've just been going around with the one wheel on the bike ever since."

Sexually frustrated chimp takes up smoking

BEIJING (Reuters) - Sexual frustration has turned a Chinese chimpanzee from a mild-mannered simian into a problem primate who smokes cigarettes and spits at visitors, the Xinhua news agency says.

Feili, a female chimp in the city of Zhengzhou in the central province of Henan, picked up her nasty habits by imitating visitors who behaved "improperly" around her, Xinhua quoted zoo director Liu Bing as saying on Sunday.

But, Liu said, the root cause of Feili's transformation from a "gentle girl" into a "shrew" lay with the inability to find her a satisfactory mate.

A male chimpanzee at the zoo has failed to live up to Feili's sexual demands, and she has snubbed other potential suitors.

Zoo officials said Feili was not addicted to nicotine, but the chimp has also demonstrated clever -- if not desperate -- behaviour to score a smoke.

"The chimp is spitting at tourists and smoking," Xinhua quoted a boy visiting the zoo. "Just now a tourist threw a cigarette butt to just outside the cage, she tried to get the butt with a stick."

Wanted: Family for lonely Italian pensioner

MILAN (Reuters) - "Elderly retired school teacher seeks family willing to adopt grandfather. Will pay."

Lonely Giorgio Angelozzi, 79, published his appeal in the classified pages of daily Corriere della Sera over the weekend, tugging on heart strings across family-loving Italy.

The classics teacher has lived alone outside Rome with seven cats since his wife died in 1992 but on Monday he had received dozens of replies from across the country.

"So many families want to adopt me as their grandfather," said Angelozzi who promised 500 euros a month to the family who took him in. "So many families answered my appeal and want me to teach their children and their grandchildren about Horace and Catullus."

Among those who responded -- from southern Catanzaro to northern Milan -- was much-loved Roman popular music singer Antonello Venditti, one of Angelozzi's former students.

"I was not expecting so much warmth, so much interest in my story," Angelozzi told Corriere on Monday. "But remember that my problem is one that affects so many elderly people in Italy."

Italy has long been famed for the central role of the family in society. But in recent years, as the divorce rate rises and families move more easily from city to city, elderly relatives are frequently left on their own.

In the record heat of summer 2003, 4,175 elderly people died. Many of them had been left to sweat out July and August in Italy's sweltering cities where many pharmacies and food stores close down and basic services are cut back.

Swiss man is made millionaire by mistake

A Swiss man was made a millionaire overnight after public finance officials transferred more than Ā£2.5m to his account by mistake.

The 29-year-old from Zurich said he couldn't believe his eyes when he checked his account and saw what looked like "dozens of noughts" instead of the minus sign he was expecting.
But he didn't stay rich for long after reporting the transfer to the authorities.
"It was obviously a mistake and I didn't want to get in trouble with the revenue office so I reported it straight away. It was nice to be rich for a short time though," he said.
An investigation revealed that a computer glitch in the Zurich accounting office had directed millions in public payments to the man's account.
The payments included police officers' phone bills and social services fees.
Rudolf Meier, head of the Zurich financial office, called the incident a "data processing error and a chain of unfortunate circumstances" and said the problem in the canton's new system had since been fixed.

Oops wrong car ......sorry!

BERLIN (Reuters) - A German woman became so furious after a fight with her husband she stormed out of the house armed with a hammer and smashed up his car -- before realizing she had vandalized the wrong vehicle, police said Wednesday.

The 43-year-old from Essen, western Germany, told police she shattered the windshield, broke the headlights and wrenched off the wing mirrors, causing more than $1,200 in damage, because she was filled with rage after a telephone quarrel.
After going back indoors she realized she had battered the wrong car. Only noticing the color, she had attacked her neighbor's blue Opel Corsa and not the blue Ford Fiesta belonging to her spouse.

Police confused over expensive fake Yen

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese police have been scratching their heads in bewilderment over the country's latest counterfeiting trend -- fake bills that cost more to make than their face value.

Experts estimate that it cost 1,000 yen ($9.10) to make each of the more than 400 bogus 1,000 yen notes that have turned up in vending machines in Saitama Prefecture, north of Tokyo, suggesting profit was not the motive, the Asahi newspaper's English-language edition reported Tuesday.
"Police suspect a techno-maniac is involved," the Asahi said.
The fake bills are made by replacing the middle strip of genuine notes with a color photocopy, and securing them with tape. To the human eye they are obviously bogus, but they fool some older vending machines.

Mayor says don't air your pants in public

NICOSIA (Reuters) - Drying wet laundry in public will earn residents of Cyprus' capital Nicosia a fine later this year as authorities launch a drive to clean up the city's image, its mayor has said.
The unseemly sight of underwear flapping in the breeze along narrow streets of the medieval city will be punishable with a 50 Cyprus pound (52 pound) fine as of October 1.
"Imagine walking along a road and having wet washing drip all over you... from someone else's underwear," Nicosia Mayor Michalakis Zampelas told Cyprus radio on Tuesday.
In a country which has almost uninterrupted sunshine all year round, most Cypriots hang their washing outside to dry.
Washing wardens will also be responsible for ensuring householders don't beat their carpets or rugs over balconies or throw laundry water into the streets, Zampelas said.

Baby rhino in plaster after mum steps on foot

BERLIN (Reuters) - A new-born baby rhinoceros in a Berlin zoo is in plaster after his mother trod on his foot one day after his birth, zookeepers have said.
Patna, born last week to mother Betty and father Belur, will have to wear a plaster cast on his left lower leg for up to five weeks to heal a broken leg.
The incident is not the first in the zoo, which now houses seven rhinos.
"In 2002, mother Betty, also born in the zoo, killed her first child by treading on the baby shortly after birth," said zoo keeper Ingolf Kastierke.
Zoo keepers had waited in keen anticipation of Betty's second baby, the zoo's second this year.
But the morning after birth they noticed the baby was limping and called in the vet.
"We assume that the mother had trodden on her son in the middle of the night," said Kastierke. Luckily the injury was easily treated and keepers expect a full recovery.
The baby has already put on five kilos since birth.
The zoo said only four or five rhinoceros are born in zoos in Europe per year.

Boy takes joyride on airport conveyor belt

OSLO (Reuters) - A four-year-old boy caused chaos at a Norwegian airport this week when he hopped aboard a luggage conveyor belt as if it were a merry-go-round.
Ole Tobias crawled onto the belt next to an unmanned check-in desk on Monday, continued unnoticed through a trapdoor along with bags and suitcases about his size, then passed through an X-ray scanner and into the luggage hall.
"It was just a moment of inattention and Ole Tobias disappeared," his mother, Ingvild Aakervik, told NRK radio on Tuesday. "I panicked and made the entire airport search for him."
She said Ole Tobias was not hurt and seemed to have enjoyed the ride, which ended abruptly when staff at the Aalesund Vigra airport in central Norway noticed the boy in the X-ray machine and pressed the alarm button

Strippers need naked pics for visas

Women wishing to enter Canada to work as strippers must provide naked photos of themselves to qualify for a visa.
The Canadian Embassy in Mexico says "stage photos during performances are required'', says Ottawa's CFRA radio.
Immigration officers are having to pore over naked pictures of hundreds of exotic dancers to keep imposters out of Canada.
In a memo to fellow visa officers around the world, officials said if a dancer passes the no-clothes test, they may then require a police certificate or medical examination.

Brisk baguette on sale at drive-in bakery

PARIS (Reuters) - A croissant on the go? A brisk baguette? France may have found the answer in a drive-in bakery.
"People have become extremely busy, especially in the Paris region. We help them get to their food faster," said Michael Joly, who says his new "Drive-in Joly" boulangerie is the first in France and caters to about 200 customers per day.
The bakery is set in a former service station on a busy road west of Paris. Cars drive up to the window to buy items ranging from baguettes to tarts and pain au chocolat.
France long resisted U.S. fast-food trends, although companies such as McDonald's restaurants and coffee chain Starbucks are now common in Paris.
"It's simple -- people are in a rush, and we respond to that," Joly said.

Londoner is last in the world with his surname

An elderly Londoner has been told he's the only living person in the world with his surname.
Mike Pimbury, who lives in North London, has never married or had children so he now accepts his surname will accompany him to the grave.
After a worldwide search going back more than 300 years and taking in New Zealand, Australia and Canada, genealogists have told him that he is the only living Pimbury in the world.
The 73-year-old said: "I don't mind being the last Pimbury. But it does seem a shame that the name is going to die out."
But he has the consolation of knowing the name will live on in literature - Laurie Lee mentions a Mrs Pimbury in Cider with Rosie, his autobiographical novel about growing up in the Gloucestershire village of Slad in the Stroud Valley in the early 1900s.
Mr Pimbury and his sister Jo Wilkes started their research into the family name just over two years ago, says The Times. After months of poring over records and telephone books, they called in Karen Bali, a Southampton-based genealogist who specialises in tracing living relatives.
Ms Bali said: "I have worked on cases where the surname is quite rare but this is the first case that I have worked on where it is actually confirmed as the last."

Man wins lottery two days after divorce

An Indiana man has won a million dollars on a state lottery two days after divorcing his wife after he found her in bed with a neighbour.
The Hoosier Gazette says Randy Fletcher's sudden good luck came in a year which has so far seen him lose his wife, vintage car, and pet dog.
He found his wife Tara in bed with a neighbour when he came home from work feeling sick in January.
Then in March a deer ran into his 1956 Chevy, and in May his German Shepherd dog Molly was diagnosed with cancer and put down.
He thought he had lost his life savings when his divorce from Tara came through on July 15 after a four-year marriage.
But two days later he found he had won the million dollar jackpot in the lottery he had been taking part in twice a week for several years.
Fletcher, an electrician from Brownstown, said: "I was in complete shock for several hours.
"It took me several minutes to catch my breath. It was the most unbelievable and amazing feeling I have ever had, especially after all that had happened this year."
Although he will only take home 289,000 dollars, or 157,225 pounds, after going for the cash option and paying off taxes, he says he plans to use the money to buy a Harley Davidson, a new German Shepherd dog, and go on holiday to Cancun this winter.
Asked what advice he would give to others who were having a run of bad luck, he said: "Just keep plugging away. Sooner or later things will look up. I am a prime example of that."

Sleazy guests prompt call to ban hotel porn

OSLO (Reuters) - Angry hotel workers in Norway want to ban pay-TV pornography to stop naked porn-watching guests calling room service to lure female staff to their rooms.
A typical trick by guests, mostly businessmen, is to call the front desk for extras, such as fresh towels, to get female company, said the Norwegian Hotel and Restaurant Workers' Union, reporting a rising number of complaints.
"Most room service personnel work alone. It can be very unpleasant to get called to a room to be met by a naked man," union leader Eli Ljunggren told Reuters. She said the complaints ranged from sleazy remarks to physical assaults.
"Pornography does not belong in hotel rooms. Pay-TV should be limited to entertainment," she said. Most Norwegian hotels, like many hotels around the world, have easy access to pornography channels in hotel rooms for a fee.

Kerry's wife tells reporter to "shove it"

BOSTON (Reuters) - Minutes after telling her husband's supporters to restore a more dignified tone to politics, Teresa Heinz Kerry told a reporter to "shove it."
In a reception on Sunday in Massachusetts, the wife of Democratic candidate Senator John Kerry told Democratic Party delegates from her home state of Pennsylvania there needed to be a change in American politics.
"We have to turn back some of the creeping, un-Pennsylvanian and sometimes un-American traits that are coming into some of our politics," she said. Morning television shows broadcast the remarks on Monday morning.
When a reporter from a conservative Pennsylvania newspaper, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, pressed Mrs. Heinz Kerry what she had meant by "un-American" she said repeatedly, "No, I didn't say that, I didn't say that."
She then turned away only to return moments later. "You said something I didn't say, now shove it," she said, pointing her finger at the reporter.

Sunday, July 25, 2004

Bush Kerry - this land

This is one of the funniest flash videos I've seen in ages click here , well done you 2 dudes at jibjab

quotes of the week

Blake? Blaine? pass - Malachi Davis , an american until a few days ago but who will now represent Britain at the Olympics, Struggling to name the Prime minister

I even pretended years ago to be an African , a half caste African , of course - Princess Michael of Kent defends herself against claims that she is racist

The first one's the hardest, then after that you know the routine - Liz taylor ,giving advice to recently divorced Lionel Ritchie

I think the greatest thing when you're a femal is to remember that your place is in the home - Hollywood actress Kate Hudson

Vikings had small "willy" fear

THE terrifying Vikings had a nagging worry ā€” about the size of their manhoods, scientists say.
Even as they raped and pillaged their way across Europe, they were troubled by the thought that size really DID matter.
The theory comes from studies of Viking writings by Cardiff University.
One researcher said: ā€?The sagas show a relationship between male genitals and a manā€™s identity that is both familiar and alien to us.ā€¯
In one, a serving wench laughs at a naked warrior, saying: ā€?It seems to me extraordinary how small he is below.ā€¯

Prisoners go on beer run

FOUR jail inmates who walked out of an unlocked cell to go and buy booze are now facing charges.
Ridgy Dean Coleman, Jimmy Joe Stapleton, David Wayne Blizzard and David Allen Hopkins realised their luck was in after dozy guards at a prison in Tennessee, US, forgot to lock the prisoners inside.
Two of the group slipped out through a fire exit and made a hole in the exercise yard fence.
They hot-footed it to the nearest shop, bought some beer and came back to prison.
After the four had swigged all the beer, the other two prisoners went to get more supplies from a different store.
Supermarket staff had no idea who their customers were because the escapees were wearing street clothes borrowed from other inmates, the Sun Sentinel reported.
The four have now been charged with escape and introduction of alcohol into a prison.
"I guess they thought if they came back they wouldn't be charged with escape but they were wrong," said Sheriff Warren Rimer.
He admitted it was an "unfortunate incident" but pointed out that all 36 inmates could have absconded.
"At least they came back," he added.

The Ā£2million Lotto liar

A CALLOUS hoaxer was facing the fury of his friends last night after he conned them into believing he had won a Ā£2.4million Lotto jackpot.
Dalip Singh, 21, told four best mates he was taking them to LAS VEGAS.
He promised to kit them out in Ā£900 Hugo Boss fitted SUITS, Ā£1,000 Raymond Weil WATCHES and bling-bling JEWELLERY.
The skint university student told his frail mother he would buy her a luxury HOUSE. And he vowed to set up a trust fund to send his niece and nephew to PRIVATE SCHOOLS.
Another of Singhā€™s friends in Maidenhead, Berks, said the four pals all believed they were jetting off to the US today.
He said: ā€?Theyā€™ve taken time off work. Theyā€™ll be gutted when they find out the truth.
ā€?He told them he had sorted out designer suits for each of them and they would also get designer watches. He said they were going to London to buy the bling to go with it and pick up the airline tickets.
ā€?Theyā€™ve been celebrating all week down the local pub. If he hasnā€™t won it there will be a lot of his friends seriously unhappy.
ā€?I canā€™t believe he took the joke this far. Heā€™s hurt his oldest friends. If he thinks itā€™s funny I think heā€™ll soon find out otherwise.ā€¯
Singh stayed up until 7am boozing with his mates after telling them he had won Ā£2,448,478 in last Saturdayā€™s draw.
The business student also duped his local newspaper, the Maidenhead Advertiser, which pictured him on the front page holding his bogus winning ticket ā€” despite being told by Camelot that Singh had NOT won.
A Camelot spokesman confirmed last night: ā€?Itā€™s ridiculous. He has not won any money. This was not a nice thing to do.ā€¯

Keys removed from patient's sore leg

An Iranian man who lost his keys 16 years ago was shocked to find they'd been embedded in his leg all along.
The 50-year-old man felt a strong pain in his leg and was taken to the hospital.
An X-ray showed the keys were lodged in his leg.
The man accidentally fired a rifle 16 years ago, injuring himself in the leg, says nbc10 news.
The bullet was removed but the keys that were lodged in his leg along with the bullet were left there

Mystery lottery winner donates winning ticket

TOKYO (Reuters) - Officials in western Japan are marvelling at the generosity of a mystery philanthropist who donated a $1.8 million (980,000 pound) lottery ticket to help victims of recent torrential rainstorms.
In an extremely rare display of charity, a winning lottery ticket good for a 200 million yen grand prize was mailed to the governor of Fukui prefecture on Friday with a note saying it was intended as a donation for rain victims.
"I am sending a lottery ticket that is blessed with luck hoping that it will be of some help to the people who had the misfortune of suffering damages," the letter said.
Hiroko Imatomi, a Fukui prefecture official who first spotted the mail, said the note convinced her the sender was sincere.
"It was a wonderful letter ... It was definitely not intended as a hoax or a joke," she said.
"It must be from a rare type of person who has a big heart and hopes it will help people who suffered a lot," Imatomi said.
The sender used a false name and local authorities have no way to find out who sent the winning ticket, which has been confirmed as being authentic, she said.
Torrential downpours pounded Fukui prefecture on July 17-18, killing three people, injuring 17 and destroying or damaging more than 200 homes.

Swindling great-granny busted

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Police raid summer camp for thieves

Police raid summer camp for thieves

Russian police have raised a summer camp over allegations it was bring run as a school for thieves.
Teenagers attending the summer day camp on the Far East island of Sakhalin have been sent home after it was found they were being trained as criminals.
In a real-life version of Oliver Twist, the youngsters were being given lessons including insights into the hierarchy of the robbery underworld and how to behave if arrested.
Police stormed the summer camp after an anonymous caller alerted them to the large number of teenagers who had gathered on the banks of the Kamenka River.
The camp was fully equipped with its own field kitchen and electricity generators.
At least 30 teenagers and two "trainers" were caught, and officers recovered a number of hand-written manuals with detailed instructions and methods for robbery.
According to Russian news agency Novosti, no arrests were made but police are now investigating the possibility of other such camps in the area.

Red wine - good for the breasts

Red wine is the latest craze in the beauty salons of Buenos Aires where it's said to tighten the stomach and firm the breasts.
Creams made with red wine or even a glass of pure wine are applied directly to the person's skin.
Wine therapy expert Diego Barberan told Las Ultimas Noticias: "After cleansing, the skin receives a special wine mask that is rich in vitamin E.
"It brings firmness and nutrition to the skin, making it healthy and elastic."
Beauty clinics all over Buenos Aires are reporting a huge increase in women asking for wine therapy.
Wine therapy fanatic Marcy Andres said: "It is fantastic. It does what it promises. I can say with no fear that I am addicted!"

Horse flavoured ice cream?

Japanese ice-cream lovers have swapped traditional flavours such as raspberry ripple for something a little more exotic - horse-flesh.
As Tokyo swelters in soaring temperatures, people are being invited to cool off by choosing from a variety of unusual flavours.
Garlic, potato and lettuce, and cactus and seaweed along with raw horse-flesh are now available in Japan's shops.
Adventurous ice cream lovers not tempted by those flavours could try soybean and kelp or strawberry and spinach.
The new flavours are being promoted by the Japan Ice-Cream Association which has set up a summer trade fair.
It hopes to boost the popularity of ice cream during the current heatwave as, although the Japanese spent more than Ā£1.5bn on ice-cream and sorbets last year, the country ranks only 19th in world consumption.

'Officer? My cannabis has been stolen'

An Australian man who called police after his marijuana plants were stolen is to escape charges.
Police said the man, from Adelaide, was not charged because there was no longer any evidence.
He reported the theft after the offenders stole two plants after smashing a window of the house.
Police believe the premises were targeted solely because of the presence of the plants.

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