The 11th annual Redneck games

The crazy crew at the East Dublin, GA, rock-N-roll/country music station Y-96 decided they needed to do something special in 1996. It wasn't just because they came in at 96 on the FM dial; no, it was also the year of the Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta.

So the braintrust came up with a plan. "The media kept saying that the Olympics were going to be run by a bunch of rednecks who didn't know what they were doing," says Mac Davis, one of Y-96's afternoon DJs. "So we figured if that's what the world expects, we'll give it to them." So the boys got together and came up with a schedule of events that would become the Summer Redneck Gamesto be held every July.

These events include the cigarette flip, the mudpit belly flop, bobbing for pigs feet, the big hair contest, the hubcap hurl, the seed spitting contest, bug zapper spitball, dumpster diving, and everyone's favorite, the armpit serenade. "That's when you cup your hand under your armpit and make farting noises," Davis says. "But people down here have taken it a step further and can play tunes."

In 1998 one contestant pumped out the entire theme to the television show "Green Acres." Only 500 were expected to show up that year, but when 5,000 curious folk overtook this 2,000-person town, they knew they had a hit.

World Mountain Bike Bog Snorkelling Championships

The World Mountain Bike Bog Snorkelling Championships are held in WaunRhydd peat bog and attract about 30 riders. Competitors must cycle two lengths of a six-foot deep, 45-yard trench on a special lead-weighted bike wearing a weighted backpack. Bring your own snorkel! The winner takes home an engraved glass goblet.

The championships take place on 9th July in Llanwrtyd Wells, Powys, West Wales. Llanwrtyd Wells , the smallest town in Britain , is famous for its bizarre events, including the Man v Horse marathon and the Bog Triathlon. It's also a great location for walking, cycling and real ale!

World pea shooting championships

It began when naughty schoolboys lost their pea shooters to an observant headmaster. Now, girls, boys, their parents and grandparents compete to see who is the surest pea-shooter at the World Pea-Shooting Championship in Witcham, which was held today at 1pm.

In 1971, residents of Witcham were looking to raise funds for their newly built Village Hall. Eagle-eyed headmaster Mr. John Tyson thought of a constructive way to harness his pupil's penchant for pea-shooting.

The community organized a pea-shooting challenge during the Village Fair. The event was a shooting success. Over the years, it has grown into the World Pea-Shooting Championship, attracting competitors from all over the world. Pea-shooters have travelled from the United States, Europe and New Zealand to challenge locals in a contest to hit the bulls eye with a pea.

Former world champion George Hollis of Witcham says, "it's all about selecting the right pea."

The innovative headmaster Mr. Tyson passed away in 2003. But the World Pea-Shooting Championship shoots on. The names of pea-shooting winners will be added to a shield in his memory.

Britain's oldest mum

A 62-year-old has become the oldest British woman to give birth after delivering a healthy baby boy.

Child psychologist Patti Farrant - known professionally as Patricia Rashbrook - delivered her son "J.J." by caesarean section on Wednesday.

The baby was conceived after fertility treatments.

Farrant has three grown children from a previous marriage. It is the first child with her current husband, John Farrant, 60, an education management consultant.

"He is adorable, and seeing him for the first time was beyond words," she was quoted as saying by the Daily Mail. "Having been through so much to have him, we are overjoyed. His birth was absolutely wonderful and deeply moving for both of us."

Jaywalking Gran let off

LOS ANGELES - An 82-year-old woman who was given a jaywalking ticket for taking too long to cross a busy street had her $114 US fine waived by a court commissioner.

Mayvis Coyle became a local media sensation as a result of the case, with camera crews showing up at her trailer unannounced and senior citizen advocates expressing outrage.

Last week, Coyle received by mail the June 20 ruling from Superior Court Commissioner Jeffrey Harkavy who found her guilty of jaywalking but suspended the fine.

"It sounds like a compromise, like they're trying to save face," Coyle's son, Jim Coyle, told the Los Angeles Daily News, which first reported the incident. "We're grateful for everyone's support."

Coyle was vacationing in Colorado and was unavailable for comment.

Police alleged Coyle entered a busy San Fernando Valley intersection on Feb. 15 after the red Don't Walk sign began blinking. Coyle said she walked across the intersection with her cane in one hand and groceries in the other on a white Walk signal.

Coyle said a motorcycle officer who stopped her said: " 'You're obstructing the flow of traffic,' " before issuing her the ticket. Police said throughout the case that the officer acted appropriately and was looking out for Coyle's welfare. The department subsequently launched a string of pedestrian-safety workshops at local seniors' centres.

"How could she have gone any faster?" said Bill Daniel, chief executive officer of ONEgeneration, an agency that provides services to seniors. "It just seems like we have to be more patient."

Custard injury

A surgeon whose career suffered because of a knee injury when he slipped on some custard at work has won £38,928 damages.

John Conti injured the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee in October 2000 while a senior house officer at St Mary’s Hospital, Paddington, West London. He required reconstructive surgery, which was successful, and has made a good recovery.

Mr Conti, 36, a registrar surgeon at St Mary’s Hospital in Newport, Isle of Wight, argued that the injury had delayed his progress to a consultant’s post by about four years.

But Judge Hegarty, QC, at the High Court assessed the delay at only one year. He rejected the defence case that the substantial cause of the surgery was not the custard, but an incident in February 2000 when Mr Conti hurt the knee playing beach volleyball. Afterwards, Mr Conti, of Chandlers Ford, Hampshire said: “I think justice has been done.”

Can you kick it ?

BERLIN - Police in Berlin said on Wednesday they had arrested two men on suspicion of placing cement-filled soccer balls around the city and inviting people to kick them. At least two people injured themselves by kicking the balls, which were chained to lampposts and trees alongside the spray-painted message: "Can you kick it?"

Police said they had identified a 26-year-old and a 29-year-old and had found a workshop in their apartment where they made the balls. The two are accused of causing serious physical injury, dangerous obstruction of traffic and causing injury through negligence, police said.

Teen's name change

HANOI, Vietnam - After nearly two decades of ridicule, a father has agreed to change his son's name from "Fined Six Thousand and Five Hundred" - the amount he was forced to pay in local currency for ignoring Vietnam's two-child policy.

Angry he was being fined for having a fifth child, Mai Xuan Can named his son Mai Phat Sau Nghin Ruoi after the amount he was forced to pay - 6,500 dong (50 cents), said Dai Cuong village chief Nguyen Huy Thuong.

In 1999, local government officials tried to persuade Can to change the name because the boy was constantly being teased by classmates at school. But Can, a former People's Committee official, refused to back down, Thuong said. They appealed to him again recently, and this time it worked.

"I told him that as his son is growing up, he should have another name - not that weird name - and he finally agreed," Thuong said.

The son, now 19, finally got a new name: Mai Hoang Long, which means golden dragon.

Hearse done for speeding

DUBLIN - An Irish hearse driver has been fined for speeding -- while leading a funeral cortege.

Police ordered undertaker John Carr to pay an 80 euro ($102) fine and gave him two penalty points for driving at 69 km/hr (43 miles/hour) in a 50 km/hr zone.

Several other vehicles in the cortege -- on its way to a funeral in County Donegal, northwest Ireland -- were also fined and their drivers threatened with prosecution if they did not pay.

Hundreds of people were caught in the same area during a police crackdown last month, including parents taking their children to school.

"I've never heard of a hearse being done for speeding before. I supposed I'll probably have to pay the fine," The Irish Times newspaper quoted Carr as saying. "I'm not too worried about the points because I intend not to incur any more."

James Morrison

I heard this guy live on the radio today , he's awesome !

Coulrophobia

Organisers of a music festival have had to change their fancy dress circus theme after some ticket holders told them they had a phobia of clowns.

The Bestival, which takes place on 8, 9 and 10 September near Newport, Isle of Wight, had asked festival-goers to turn up in curly wigs and large shoes.

But organisers decided to shelve the idea after a number of ticket holders said they suffered from Coulrophobia.

Revellers are still encouraged to wear fancy dress but to avoid clown outfits.

Organisers have suggested people instead turn up in "bunny ears, a Spam tin outfit, an astronaut's helmet, a witch's hat or just a plain old Buzz Lightyear lycra all-in-one" for the concerts which include performances by the Pet Shop Boys and the Scissor Sisters.

The Bestival, at Robin Hill Country Park, broke the Guinness World Record last year for the biggest fancy dress party when 10,000 people turned up dressed as cowboys and Indians.

Coulrophobia - fear of clowns - can cause panic attacks, shortness of breath, rapid breathing, irregular heartbeat, sweating, nausea and overall feelings of dread.

Deja vu

When Lottie Robertson saw a black-and-white photo of a boy picking his nose on the front of a birthday card, she thought he looked familiar.

And she was right - the picture, taken in 1964, was of her father Edward.

It had been snapped by a photographer in Edgbaston, Birmingham, but was rejected as unsuitable by his parents.

Mr Robertson, 45, of Aldridge, West Midlands, said: "They presented me with this card. I looked at it, had a double take and thought: That's me!"

The photograph was one of a set commissioned by Mr Robertson's parents. The photographer thought it would be funny but his mother and father were not amused by the bad behaviour.

But it ended up, unknown to the Robertson family, being made into a card four decades later after a firm bought the copyright to some of the photographer's work.

Lottie, 16, saw the card in Birmingham's Mailbox shopping centre and thought the face and the hat looked similar to a picture of her father at home in a photo frame.

The £1.90 card, has the words 'Boys will be boys...." on the front and "It's Too Late to Change Now" inside.

His wife Anne said: "I still think he looks cute."

My hero

An Army bride has married the man she calls her "hero" - a soldier who saved her life while serving in Iraq.

Gunner Natalie Savage was thrown from a Land Rover in Basra in 2003, then attacked by a hostile mob of Iraqis.

But Lance Bombardier James Day came to her rescue, and from there the couple's romance blossomed.

A wedding ceremony was held at Mansergh Barracks in Guterslogh, Germany, where they are both currently serving in the Royal Artillery Regiment.

Natalie, 20, from Thornaby, Teeside, said: "I have got my own hero now.

"I was lying there injured and James said, 'Please don't go. I don't want you to go, I don't want you to die.

"Then he came to the hospital with a teddy bear and I just knew then.

Train of thought

France, the country which invented the philosophy café, has just had another smart idea: "The Train of thought". From this week, passengers who book by internet on certain long-distance French trains can arrange to sit next to other passengers with similar interests.

Would you like to travel from Paris to Marseilles while discussing Nietzsche or football or prospects for next year's presidential elections? Would you like to exchange 90 minutes of conversation in French, for 90 minutes of conversation in English? Would you like to learn to knit? Or play snap? Or combine forces to defeat diabolical sudoko puzzles?

All possibilities - save one - are open to passengers who pay an extra €1.50 (£1.03) to consult the declared interests of passengers already booked on their intended train. The one exception, insisted upon by the surprisingly prudish French national railway system, is that there must be no lonely hearts or erotic proposals. "The mission of the SNCF is not to be a go-between for amorous meetings," said a spokeswoman for the state railways, Mireille Faugère.

There will even be a kind of internet chaperone service, manned by the SNCF, to weed out suspected lonely hearts. Anyone judged to be racist or violent will also be excluded.

To use the new service, you must travel on one of the special, cut-price, high-speed trains offered to internet bookers only. The ID-TGV trains connect Paris with 11 cities - Aix-en-Provence, Avignon, Bordeaux, Cannes, Marseilles, Montpellier, Nice, Nîmes, Saint Raphael, Toulon and Toulouse - from €19 for a one-way trip.

Pic of the week

There's nothing like a friend to help you out when times are tough... And this mouse found himself an unlikely ally when floodwaters devastated parts of northern India.

The quick witted rodent hitched a ride to safety on the back of a friendly frog which ferried him back to the bank when the mouse was swept into a swollen river near Lucknow, the state capital of Uttar Pradesh.

Complaints

Airtours travel agency have revealed some of the odd complaints they get from British customers.

" I had a wonderful holiday in Kenya" wrote one customer "but I think I should bring to your health and safety department's attention the fact that the animals were not fenced in!"

Another grumbled : "I'm never flying to Jamaica again with Airtours. It took us nine hours to get there but it only took the Americans three hours !"

Drugg'd

A man appearing in court asked security staff to look after his cannabis stash while he appeared before magistrates.

Before going into court Stephen West , 20, of Wigan, Lancashire, showed them a lump of cannabis at the town's magistrates' court.

When told he could not take the drug into court, he even signed a receipt to say it was his.

West, was accused of breaching licence conditions. That case was adjourned.

But he was arrested, charged with possession of cannabis and bailed to appear at court.

West pleaded guilty, was fined £50 and ordered to pay £43 costs.

Aussie strings 20 words together without saying bloody or mate

Australia's Prime Minister John Howard has called for the country's Big Brother to be axed after allegations of sexual assault on the reality TV show.

Producers gave tapes of the show to the police after a female contestant seemed to be held down by one man while another rubbed his crotch in her face.

No charges were made but two men have been thrown off the programme.

"Here is a great opportunity for a bit of self-regulation and get this stupid programme off the air," said Mr Howard.

"It is just a question of good taste," Howard told Australian radio as he condemned the show, broadcast by Network Ten.

Bad week - good week

Bad week for ....

Janet Forse - the silly bint is seeking a refund from a dating agencywhich failed to find her Mr Right . The 49 year old divorce hoped to find rugged ,fun -loving solvent manwho owned his own home.

Instead she was sent eight unsuitable dates , who were either drunk , unemployes shy , or lived in a caravan

Wimbledon Umpires

Their trousers keep splitting !

The new uniforms , designed by Ralph Lauren at a cost of £10m, are so tight that 60 of the 335 Umpires have bust through their asses already.

Bollocks to Blair t-shits

A Leicestershire trader has been fined for displaying shirts bearing a rude slogan about the prime minister. Tony Wright, 60, from Burton Lazars, was told the shirts could cause alarm or even distress.

He was caught selling them at the Royal Norfolk Show and told to take down his stand. The shirts have the slogan "Bollocks to Blair" emblazoned on them.

He said he would challenge the £80 fixed penalty the police gave him for causing harassment, alarm and distress.
Mr Wright said: "I am a local country boy - and I don't see anything wrong with me expressing my opinion about Blair. The ticket is a joke - it is for causing harassment, alarm and distress and I look forward to fighting it all the way."

He said he has been selling the shirts in different parts of England for months and had never had a complaint from police about them.

Norfolk Police said they were responding to a complaint from a member of the public.

Crazy arsed police excuse

Motorcyclist Max Foster was stunned when police refused to chase the thief who had just stolen his moped - because the yob wasn't wearing a helmet.

Gobsmacked Max, 18, was told that officers feared being sued if the crook fell off. It left the gang free to escape with Max's £1,200 bike, which was only insured third party and is probably lost for good.

Yesterday the furious heating engineer stormed: "They told me 'sorry mate but there's nothing we can do'. This softly-softly approach is totally ridiculous - I was shocked and appalled by what they said. This policy is giving thieves a perfect way to exploit the law and steal as many bikes as they want without getting arrested."

Amazingly, forces across the country are adopting a similar policy for fear of being taken to court by culprits.

Max lives with stepdad Geoff, 52, mum Claire, 52, and brothers Jack, 19, and Ben, 20, in Coleford, Somerset, and uses his Gilera 180cc moped to commute to work in Bath.

He was staying at a friend's house in Bath on Tuesday night when he was woken in the early hours by the sound of his machine being ridden outside.

He looked out the window at 1.45am and saw three yobs taking it in turns to ride the bike up and down the street without helmets.

Max dialled 999 and a police response unit arrived just minutes after the trio sped away with his bike.

But the two officers told him they could not give chase for health and safety reasons.

Max, who bought the three-year-old bike six months ago, stormed: "I rang the police and when they arrived I told them all about my bike getting stolen. But they said they weren't allowed to follow the yobs becasue they were not wearing helmets and it was too dangerous. They told me the force could be sued if the riders fell off mid-chase and hurt themselves.''

Avon and Somerset police admitted calling off the chase but said its investigation into the theft continued

Sky's the limit

Britain's most endangered dog breed may be saved from extinction , following the birth of seven feamle Skye Terriers.
The breed is known for it's loyalty - As demonstrated by Greyfriars Bobby - but has fallen out of fashion.
Tradiotion British dogs are being elbowed aside by toy dogs such as Shi Tzus, and last year only 30 Skye Terriers were born.

Jenny Miller , whose bitch Witch produced the 7 puppies said: It's vital we find them a good home . it's even more vital that we find more breeders so that we can get the skye terrier off the endangered list "

Callous !

Two 12-week-old puppies have been rescued after being dumped on a road in a black bin liner.

The dogs - a Jack Russell terrier cross and a black collie cross - were discovered near Dunstall Park Racecourse in Wolverhampton on Monday.

A passer-by rescued them and called RSPCA staff who are caring for the dogs, named Jack and Charlton, at Gonsall Farm Animal Centre, Dorrington.

The RSPCA wants people with information about the puppies to contact them.

RSPCA Inspector Martin Dolan, said: "I find it astonishing that someone could be so heartless to dump these puppies on a road placing them in great danger.

"Dumping animals is unacceptable behaviour and I would like to find out who was responsible for such a callous act."

Lest we forget

The UK is commemorating the first anniversary of the London bombings that claimed 52 lives and injured hundreds.

At 0850 BST - when bombs on three Underground trains went off - flowers were laid at King's Cross station, near the scene of one of the attacks.

At midday, a two-minute silence will be observed across the country, including Wimbledon and other events.

A public ceremony will be held later in Regent's Park, with readings and a recital of the names of the dead.

The commemoration comes as Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair gives a firm warning that London must expect another attack.

"I think there will be further attacks, in fact I know there will be further attacks, but as to whether we will stop those, well we've stopped three already," Sir Ian told BBC News.

And Colin Cramphorn, Chief Constable of the West Yorkshire force - one of the forces investigating the bombings on three London Underground trains and a bus - said he believed other 7 July-style attacks in the UK were "not just fanciful" but "very possible".

Their warnings come a day after a video of one of the bombers, Shehzad Tanweer, was aired on al-Jazeera television, showing the 22-year-old from Bradford warning of further attacks.

Cabbage patch wife lovers

Detailed plans are currently afoot for a group of devoted Japanese men to gather in a cabbage patch in a sleepy part of rustic Gunma Prefecture so they can scream their lungs out about their love for their wives, according to Shukan Asahi.

These men are members of the Japan Aisaika Association, the "aisaika" literally translating as "wife lovers."

They're gathering on Sept. 9 in the Gunma Prefecture village of Tsumagoi, which is where the legendary 4th century Emperor Yamato Takeru no Mikoto allegedly bawled following the loss of his wife, who had sacrificed her own life to soothe the gods' wrath toward her husband.

Legend has it that the emperor loudly wailed his love for his missus following her demise, prompting the modern-day devotees of spousal adoration to head out to Tsumagoi, which translates as "Wife Love"; but instead of the romantic spot it may have been 1500 years or so back, it's now best known for its cabbages.

Google - (v.) to find information quickly on the world wide web

Mouse potatoes have joined couch potatoes, google has officially become a verb and drama queens have finally found the limelight, as they cross over from popular culture to mainstream English language.

The mouse potato (who spends as much time on the computer as his/her 1990s counterpart did on the couch), the himbo (attractive, vacuous - and male) and the excessively emotional drama queen were among 100 new words added to the 2006 update of America's best-selling dictionary, the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary.

The Internet search engine Google also found its way into the dictionary for the first time as a verb, meaning to find information quickly on the world wide web.

New words and phrases from the fields of science, technology, pop culture and industry are chosen each year by Merriam-Webster's team of editors after months of poring over books, magazines and even food labels.

"They are not tracking verbal language. They are looking for evidence that words have become assimilated into the written English language," said Arthur Bicknell, senior publicist with Merriam-Webster.

"Unfortunately with slang words by the time it has become assimilated it probably isn't cool any more. If the grown-ups are using it, forget it," Mr Bicknell said.

Other words making their debut this year were soul patch (a small growth of beard under a man's lower lip), unibrow (two eyebrows joining together) and supersize - the fast food industry phrase for extra large meals.

The technology world contributed ringtones (changeable incoming cellphone call signals) and spyware (software installed in a computer to surreptitiously track a user's activities) while biodiesel and avian influenza came from the world of science.

America's first dictionary - Noah Webster's A Compendious Dictionary of the English Language - was published 200 years ago and also introduced a crop of fresh words that have now become familiar.

Those "new" words in 1806 included slang, surf, psychology and, naturally, Americanize.

Interview gets jail

Applying for a job in law enforcement may not be the best move - if you're wanted by the law.

Brian Shearer thought he was going to be interviewed for a guard's position at Florida's Charlotte County Jail.

But he was the one who ended behind bars.

Authorities say a background check showed Shearer was wanted for being a deserter from the U.S. Army.

The Bradenton Herald reports Shearer has been charged and released without bail at the Army's request.

He's been ordered to report to Fort Knox, Kentucky, to face the charges.

Family sues 'ugly wife'

SPRINGFIELD - Arranged marriages are an ancient tradition in India, but when a Belchertown family went there to meet a bride-to-be and judged her too ugly for the groom, they chose a 21st-century solution. They called the wedding off, and the groom's father is now suing for damages.

Vijai B. Pandey, 60, filed a lawsuit in Hampden Superior Court last month against friends who tried to arrange a marriage between his son Pranjul K. and their niece. The Pandeys, after spending money on long-distance calls and airfare, found her much too homely.

When the Pandeys saw the bride in New Delhi last August, they were "extremely shocked to find ... she was ugly ... with protruded bad teeth, and couldn't speak English to hold a conversation," Vijai Pandey stated in the lawsuit. The woman's complexion was also cited for the broken engagement.

However, the Giris' former lawyer, Matthew R. Hertz, said the conflict doesn't belong in court, and Pandey mischaracterized the original plan. "It was more of an informal 'would you like to meet her' ... no money ever changed hands that would require reimbursement," said Hertz, of Solomon, Malech & Cohen in Bethesda, Md.

Nimai Nitai das, president of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness of New England in Boston, said he hears occasionally of Hindu families seeking reimbursement for marriage arrangements gone awry. "In the U.S., sooner or later, everything winds up in court ... but I've never heard of a lawsuit about this," he said in a recent interview.

Mouse scammer jailed

NEWPORT , Va. - A woman who tried to extort money from the Cracker Barrel restaurant chain by putting a dead mouse in a bowl of soup was sentenced to a year in jail.

Carla Patterson, 38, and her 22-year-old son, Ricky Patterson, sought $500,000 from the chain after claiming they found the rodent in the vegetable soup the woman ordered at a Newport News restaurant on Mother's Day weekend in 2004.

A jury convicted the Pattersons of conspiracy to commit extortion in April. The Pattersons maintained their innocence, but evidence included tests showed the mouse had not been cooked and had not drowned but instead died of a fractured skull.

Carla Patterson wept Wednesday as a judge imposed the jail sentence and a $2,500 fine. Defense lawyer Michael Woods said Patterson plans to appeal.

Ricky Patterson's sentencing, which had been scheduled for Wednesday, was postponed until Sept. 14. He is at Virginia Peninsula Regional Jail in Williamsburg after pleading guilty to forgery in an unrelated check-fraud case.

Pies cause jam

New Zealand - A train driver brought Wanganui to a standstill when he could not get enough pies for lunch.

State Highway 3 traffic was backed up in both directions at a crossing on Victoria Ave and London St when the driver stopped the single engine in the middle of town to get his daily fix.

The driver had a habit of stopping at The Big Bite takeaway shop in London St while taking the engine across town, but when he had to wait, so did Wanganui.

After picking up six pies on Monday, the driver told staff he would be back for more the next day. However, when he arrived there were not enough of his favourites – steak or steak and onion – ready to go. "He had to wait for a while while we warmed them up in the oven, because he wanted 10," staff member Janine Hart said. "That was what the holdup was."

The train had activated the barrier arms on the crossing and traffic was left waiting for about 20 minutes. One woman had to pay twice the normal taxi fare due to the traffic jam.

Residents and motorists could see the funny side of the incident, but were not impressed with the train driver's attitude.

Toll NZ spokeswoman Sue Foley said the company was investigating the incident.

She was unable to say if the train driver had been stood down, but Toll would certainly be speaking to him.

Big Ben Bong Back

Big Ben is back to normal. The melodic quarter-hour chimes from Britain's Houses of Parliament that precede the famous bonging of the 12-tonne Big Ben bell have been silenced by repairs since early June.

On Wednesday, technicians fitted two new hammers to the largest of the four bells that have marked the quarter hours from parliament's clock tower since 1859.

Keeper of the Great Clock Mike McCann said the melodic chimes - replicated on many a mechanical clock or doorbell in homes around the world - resumed just after 4 p.m.

The chimes had been silenced while the Whitechapel Foundry in east London produced two new hammers for the nearly four-tonne quarter bell. The bell needs two hammers because of a repeated note in the tune, said Mark Backhouse, works manager at the foundry.

"The same note is struck in fairly fast repetition, and to get a big hammer to lift and drop takes time," he said, noting that the head of the hammer alone weighs some 90 kilograms.

What a load of bull

PAMPLONA, Spain - Thousands of delirious revellers were gathering in the small plaza outside Pamplona's municipal office Thursday to celebrate the start of Spain's most famous festival: San Fermin - the running of the bulls.

The festivities begin at noon with the firing of a rocket above the crowd and the immortal words: "Men and women of Pamplona, Long Live San Fermin!" After that it's nine days of drinking, drinking, and more drinking. Oh, and a daily dash down the cobblestone streets ahead of bulls weighing more than six tonnes.

The first of eight bull runs begin Friday morning, but the party starts Thursday with the traditional "chupinazo." A "chupin" is a small rocket.

From then on, Pamplona is converted into a 24-hour-a-day party town, with ancient streets packed with young and old. Many cavort into the early hours, then go straight from the bars to the famous 825-metre route where the bull runs take place every day at 8 a.m.

Pamplona's population of about 250,000 is expected to rise to more than 1.5 million during the festival, with visitors from the United States, Europe and virtually every other corner of the world pouring in.

The San Fermin festival dates back to the late 16th century, though its roots reach back further, to the era when Spain was first Christianized.

The festival became famous when it was immortalized in Ernest Hemingway's 1926 novel The Sun Also Rises. A bronze bust of the writer stands proudly outside the bullring where the bull runs end, and Hemingway T-shirts and other knickknacks can be purchased on nearly every street corner.

Not everyone in Pamplona looks forward to the San Fermin festival. Many locals choose this week to leave town, taking advantage of special offers by travel agents to escape the madness of the bull runs. Countless shops choose to close, boarding up windows to protect merchandise from the throngs of partygoers.

Animal rights activists also make an appearance every year to protest the runs, and bullfighting in general. Several hundred activists ran the length of the famous bull run topless or nearly nude on Tuesday to highlight what they see as cruel treatment of animals.

While the runs and subsequent bullfights are nearly always fatal for the bulls, they can also be dangerous for the runners.

Since record-keeping began in 1924, 13 people have been killed during the runs. The last was a 22-year-old American, Matthew Peter Tassio, who was gored to death in 1995.

Many more people are injured, though officials say the runs have gotten safer as more people have heeded advice on ways not to get hurt. One official piece of advice - if you fall in front of a bull, don't lift your head or you might get it knocked off.

Don't drink too much is another important piece of advice, but one many are expected to ignore.

Daft pet names

Vets’ waiting rooms are starting to sound more like the England World Cup dressing room with dogs called Posh and Beckham, cats called Rio Ferdinand and rabbits called Rooney, a survey published today has revealed.

The temptation of using the name of a glamorous celebrity for the family mongrel is proving irresistible for an increasing number of pet owners.

The survey by pet charity, PDSA, has found that while old favourites like Max and Charlie are still popular monikers celebrity names like Beyonce, Missy Elliot and Elvis are growing in popularity.

“There has certainly been an increase in pets with famous names. Calling Robbie Williams or Elvis in for an appointment can cause quite a stir in the waiting rooms at our PetAid hospitals,” says PDSA Senior Veterinary Surgeon, Elaine Pendlebury.

Max and Charlie top the ten favourite cross-species names with Molly jumping from eighth place to third.

But the sophisticated Lady drops out of the top ten altogether- now replaced by Jess.

In the overall cat top ten, owners are still plumping for the predictable
Tigger, Sooty, Felix and Lucky.

Counting bats in Parliament

There is something batty going on inside the Palace of Westminster, home of Britain's Parliament, and it is got nothing to do with political shenanigans.

In a first, the Bat Conservation Trust will deploy inside the gothic-style premises in central London next Monday to determine exactly how many bats live beneath its rafters, towers and gargoyles.

"We're hoping the evening will demonstrate that bats and people can and do live in harmony - whether it be in our palaces, our churches, our homes or our barns," said Amy Coyle, the charity's chief executive.

The trust is planning a nationwide bat count later this month to take stock of the 17 species of bat which live in Britain - the most common being pipistrelles, typically just five centimetres (two inches) long.

Monopoly jibe

The city of Dundee is to be lampooned by a board game being produced for Aberdonians.

The new granite city version of Monopoly is set to replace its traditional "Go to Jail" square with one saying "Go to Dundee".

The move was inspired by research carried out by the game's makers in Aberdeen itself.

This latest version of the property trading board game will feature Union Street and other places of interest.

A Monopoly spokesman said that any offence taken in Dundee was unfortunate.

He said it may be based on sour grapes because Aberdeen was chosen for the third Scottish version of the 70-year-old board game ahead of the city of discovery.

Edinburgh and Glasgow already have their own versions of Monopoly.

Widow urns aplology

A woman took her dead partner's ashes to court after bureaucrats refused to accept he was dead and summonsed him for non-payment of council tax. Denise Moon, 43, told Stockton Borough Council her partner Stuart McMillan, 42, had died last April, even sending his death certificate.

Despite that, bills kept being sent and finally the court summons, leading Mrs Moon to her desperate measure.

The council apologised and said it was reviewing its procedures.

Mr McMillan, who was a roadie and helped set up equipment at music gigs, died days after hitting his head in a fall in April 2005. Mrs Moon, of Cowper Road, Stockton, repeatedly told the council her partner had died and forwarded copies of his death certificate to several departments.

But bills continued to be sent out and it culminated in a summons being issued against Mr McMillan saying he owed £805 in unpaid council tax. Mrs Moon went to Teesside Magistrates' Court with an urn with his ashes in. When she was asked by a court usher where Mr McMillan was, she nodded at the urn.

Council officers who were there for the hearing told her she need not go into the courtroom.

Council head of taxation and administration Debbie Hurwood said: "We are very sorry to have caused this distress to Mrs Moon. We do have procedures in place to deal with situations where we become aware of the death of a relative. We will be liaising with Mrs Moon and our colleagues to identify what went wrong on this occasion and review our procedures to reduce the chance of this happening again."

EccyThump ee bah gum

The World Black Pudding Throwing Championship is to be recreated by gardening experts - in flowers. Council officials at Bury in Greater Manchester, home town of the delicacy, are entering the unusual design in Cheshire's Tatton Flower Show.

The pudding competition, in which entrants try to knock rival Yorkshire puddings off a wall, is held every year in Ramsbottom. The floral bed will depict a hand in motion alongside both counties' roses.

The design is currently being nurtured by experts and will be assembled when the Royal Horticultural Society show gets under way in two weeks.

The flower bed will show both counties' white and red roses, with a pink centre, where the two counties merge on the Pennines. The throwing competition is designed to mimic the War of the Roses between Yorkshire and Lancashire. Legend has it that when both armies ran out of ammunition, they threw food at each other.

Ramsbottom's main street closes to allow competitors to throw the puddings at the Yorkshire puddings off two platforms.

The most knocked off in one go, after two attempts, determines the world champion.

Chadwicks black pudding company is also involved with the flower bed competition entry. The family-run business has been based on Bury's market since 1929.

Black pudding is a traditional dish made of cooked pig blood, fat and rusk, encased in a length of intestine.

Hard man ? cry baby

A senior Liverpool judge who jailed a man for assaulting a pub landlord was under fire for making a mockery of the sentencing system last night - after he relented when the criminal started crying.

The highly unusual move came after Daniel Hardman, 21, broke down in tears in the dock when the six-month term was imposed on him at Liverpool Crown Court yesterday.

As he was led away by a security officer, Judge Denis Clark asked that a careful eye be kept on him in jail to make sure he did not harm himself.

But, minutes later, he ordered that Hardman be brought back into the dock and to the courtroom's amazement suspended the sentence for two years.
"I like to think I am experienced and not born yesterday.

"I have 18 years' experience and I saw your demeanour when you left the dock and saw your genuine fear, regret and remorse at the thought of going to prison," said Judge Clark. I am prepared to reconsider my original sentence. The court is not in the business of destroying people. The few weeks you would spend in prison might destroy you."

Victims of crime organisations last night criticised Judge Clark for making "a mockery of sentencing guidelines." They said they feared other criminals would now make a show of crying in the dock in an attempt to get a more lenient sentence.

Clive Elliot, of the Victims of Crime Trust, said: "I am genuinely shocked and appalled. I've never heard of anything like it. The judge says he wasn't born yesterday, but what he has done opens up the floodgates to any perpetrator to lay it on in the hope of a more lenient sentence."

Handbags at dawn

New Zealand's rugby union team has criticised a promotion for Saturday's Tri-Nations Test against the Wallabies, which shows the All Blacks performing their traditional haka with handbags.

The Bledisloe Cup promotion makes light of a recent pub incident in Christchurch, in which former All Blacks captain Tana Umaga belted a team-mate with a woman's handbag.

Channel Seven's digitally enhanced haka shows the New Zealand players all wearing handbags.

All Blacks assistant coach Wayne Smith described the ads as disrespectful.

"It's insensitive, I think, to Maori and disrespectful of all the All Blacks," he said.

An amused Australian coach John Connolly refused to be drawn on the issue.

"Mate, I haven't seen those yet," he laughed. "I haven't seen them."

The Australian Rugby Union said it had no control over, or input into, the promotions for the Test match.

I haven't found the Handbag Haka YET , but here is the original.

Smell ya later !

The Japanese has proven once again, that if men can imagine it, they can build it, or at the very least, attempt to build it. Imagine being able to record a smell and play it back later, just as you can with sounds or images.

Engineers at the Tokyo Institute of Technology in Japan are building an odour recorder capable of doing just that. Simply point the gadget at a freshly baked cookie, for example, and it will analyse its odour and reproduce it for you using a host of non-toxic chemicals.
"Point the gadget at a freshly baked cookie and it will reproduce the odour"

The device could be used to improve online shopping by allowing you to sniff foods or fragrances before you buy, to add an extra dimension to virtual reality environments and even to assist military doctors treating soldiers remotely by recreating bile, blood or urine odours that might help a diagnosis.

Upside-down girl cured

Rochdale: A student who could only read and write upside down has been cured by the colour orange.

Gemma Williams, 17, could read a book only if it was upside down, reports the Mirror.

Her computer monitor had to stand on its head and she wrote the wrong way up, too.

But now she can read and write normally thanks to orange paper and filters. Tutors at Hopwood Hall College in Middleton, Greater Manchester, solved the sports student's problem.

Gemma said, "Now I can read and write the right way up. It's done using an orange filter which I put over the words."

Sue Fowler of the Dyslexia Research Trust said: "We know amber makes things clearer by increasing the contrast."

Coke's secret formula almost sold

Three people have been arrested and charged with stealing confidential information about drink recipes from The Coca-Cola Co. and trying to sell it to rival PepsiCo Inc., federal prosecutors said Wednesday.

The suspects include an executive administrative assistant at Atlanta-based Coke, Joya Williams, who is accused of rifling through corporate files and stuffing documents and a new Coca-Cola product into a personal bag.

Williams, 41, of Norcross, Ga., and 30-year-old Ibrahim Dimson of New York and 43-year-old Edmund Duhaney of Decatur, Ga., are charged with wire fraud and unlawfully stealing and selling Coke trade secrets, federal prosecutors said.

They are expected to appear before a federal magistrate judge on Thursday in Atlanta.

Spokespersons from Coke and PepsiCo did not immediately return calls Wednesday seeking comment.

Nun's cop burgalr

New Zealand -- Nuns at the Nazareth House convent in Christchurch didn't wait for divine intervention when a female burglar raided the convent on the day of the Lord - they caught her and held her until police arrived.

Police say the 34-year-old woman, who has since been charged with two burglaries, allegedly entered the convent about 11.45am on Sunday.

After she took wallets and personal property from unoccupied rooms, she was challenged by sisters and staff of the convent.

Although she became "agitated and violent", Senior Sergeant Rob Patterson said, the sisters were able to restrain her.

The woman has been charged with burglary of Nazareth House and another house burglary, also yesterday morning, in Avonside, and has been remanded in custody.

The nuns have asked not to be requested for comment.

The horse that won't get tanned

An albino police horse is coping with this summer's heatwave with the help of 30 bottles of sun cream every day.

Humberside Police horse "Blue", nicknamed "Sunny", has a rare genetic condition which means that he has no melanin and therefore little or no pigmentation to protect him from the sun.

Mounted officers put out an Internet appeal for help to get Sunny through the heatwave. A pharmacy donated five gallons of factor 50 lotion in huge drums.

"We have been so worried about Sunny, especially now the temperature is soaring," a police spokeswoman said.

Temperatures on Tuesday exceeded 30 degrees centigrade (86F) for the fourth day running.

The street piano saved

Sheffield City Council today backtracked on an eviction order to remove an old joanna. Sheffield's street piano was served notice to quit the pavement in Sharrowvale Road - or face the music.
Since last August passers-by have tickled its ivories, schoolchildren have stopped by on their way to school and on occasion it has been the centre-piece of a full-blown street orchestra.

After the Council slapped an "eviction notice" on the battered old joanna, outside number 165, claiming it was an obstruction, there was outrage in the local community.

Local people rushed to the defence of former students Doug Pearman and Hugh Jones, who put it there, with notices of their own.

"Save the Sharrow Street Piano" said one. "This piano is part of the community. It sooths (sic) the soul," pleaded another: "Be nice and let the street piano stay," said a third.

Doug and Hugh, aka the Piano Liberation Army, claim they no longer own it. "It was a gift to the community of Sharrow and to Planet Earth more generally," they told Highways Enforcement Officer Dennis Wyatt in an e-mail.

Dennis sent the PLA a reply in what sounds like Doggerel.

"Acknowledged is your e-mail, the contents of which are noted of your desire to allow everyone to play the piano on a street."Congregations of the people, although not intent on evil, macabre noises they make in the gathering on the street"
No Poet Laureate there.

Doug, who had lugged his piano around different digs, parked the piano on the pavement last year for people to play. It was nicked but a well-wisher donated the current one, now padlocked to the pavement, and Doug has dreams of a whole network of pianos.

So as not to annoy the neighbours, he put up a notice asking people not to play it after 9pm, although he had to stop a group making music at 3am the other morning.

The street piano has become famous. It has its own website (www.streetpianos.org) and Sheffield-based VeryMuchSo Productions is making a mini-documentary for the Discovery Channel. Doug, a student union officer and Hugh, a kitchen fitter are looking for a new street steward, to take care of it or move the piano to another street. And they need a piano tuner.

Train "joyrider"

A 19-year-old train buff from Rawmarsh, South Yorkshire , has been sentenced to 200 hours community service after going joyriding in a 49-tonne locomotive.

Daniel Matthews sneaked into sidings at Sheffield's Tinsley marshalling yard in May. He started the engine and drove it up and down for 40 minutes.

Rotherham Magistrates heard he was such an expert he knew how to change points so the train could switch tracks. Matthews even left it switched off and safely parked before cycling away.

He was identified after police released CCTV footage of him and another man on BMX bikes in the area.

Inspector David Boldison of British Transport Police said it was an act of stupidity. "Potentially it was very dangerous," he said. "If he'd managed to get himself on to the main line, where there were passenger trains, then potentially that could have had bad consequences".

Lock-up cock up

A jail is spending £250 000 on replacing all its locks after a bunch of keys was screened in a TV news clip.

Prison chiefs at Feltham Young Offenders' Institution were worried people could use the clip to make copies. They are replacing their 11 000 locks and 3 200 keys which could cost the taxpayer £250 000, reports the Mirror.

An ITN crew was reporting on the public inquiry into the racist killing of Asian inmate Zahid Mubarek.

Feltham governor Andrew Cross said: "The establishment is going through a re-locking."

ITN said it was "looking into the matter".

Mark Leech, editor of the Prisons Handbook, said: "ITV News should pay the cost in Feltham if they are found to have been responsible for the security breach."

Bear faced cheek

STATELINE, Nevada -- A bear cub drew a crowd of spectators at a Lake Tahoe neighborhood as it munched on barbecue-chicken-and-jalapeno pizza in the back seat of a vintage red Buick convertible.

It also apparently washed it down with a swig of a Jack Daniel's mixer, some vodka and a beer taken from a cooler, the vehicle's owner said.

About 30 people watched the cub lumber around a parking lot Sunday before it homed in on the car and the spicy pizza on the floor.

The cub appeared unfazed by the car's horn that blew nonstop as the animal pressed the seat into the steering wheel.

"The bear was loping along in the parking lot and then decides to get inside the car," said resident Jerry Patterson.

The owner of the car, David Ziello of South Lake Tahoe, said the bear didn't cause any damage but slopped cheese and jalapenos on the seats and floor.

Carl Lackey, a biologist with the Nevada Department of Wildlife, said up to two dozen bears live in the Kingsbury region near the south shore of Lake Tahoe.

They come for food from trash bins and people who leave it in the open, said Lackey, who tracks and relocates bears on the Nevada side of the Tahoe basin.

Lackey warned visitors and residents against keeping food inside their vehicles.

Hot ice cream

Angier , N.C. - "Cold sweat" ice cream comes with an unusual stipulation: customers must sign a waiver before tasting it because it's so hot.

Cold Sweat, a flavour sold at ice cream shop Sunni Sky's, is made with three kinds of pepper and two kinds of hot sauce.

"It tastes like fire - with a side of fire," said Scott McCallum, a regular customer, who was eating the more sedate butter pecan flavour. I thought it was a cool idea, but I didn't think he'd make it that hot," McCallum said of proprietor Scott Wilson.

Wilson started out experimenting with jalapenos in vanilla ice cream to appeal to Hispanic customers - which was unsuccessful - and worked his way up to Cold Sweat.

The waiver for the fiery mixture has dozens of signatures. Pregnant women and people with health problems are not supposed to eat it. Anyone younger than 18 needs the consent of a guardian.

Among the first to try Cold Sweat was Justin Smith, 22, an Angier woodworker. He went to the restroom and vomited after a spoonful.

He's had about five samples since, and wants to go for the record of 14 ounces (395 grams) in a sitting.

"It's got a good flavour," Smith said. "As someone who really likes hot stuff and doesn't mind being scorched, I can taste the difference, and it really does taste good."

If he doesn't get the record soon, he might not get a chance. Wilson isn't sure he'll make another batch after the current supply runs out.

Coney Is hotdog munching

A Japanese man who devoured more than 53 hot dogs in 12 minutes to break his own world record says he really prefers tofu.

A crowd of 25,000 watched 27-year-old Takeru Kobayashi take his sixth annual July 4 hot dog eating title at Coney Island in New York, downing 53.75 hot dogs.

Most cheered for his arch rival Joey Chestnut from California, whose final tally was 52 hot dogs.

"I'm not happy with the result, I'm going to be back," Mr Kobayashi said through a translator.

"I can do more but I'm not sure I want to tell you (how many)," he said, adding that hot dogs are not even his favourite food and he prefers tofu.

Standing just 168 centimetres tall and weighing 77 kilograms before the contest, Mr Kobayashi proved size is not everything in competitive eating.

Under pressure from the 22-year-old Mr Chestnut who stands 185 centimetres tall and weighs 102 kilograms, Mr Kobayashi kept his cool throughout the contest, maintaining a steady pace.

Mr Chestnut, winner of the world deep-fried asparagus eating championship, strained and turned red as he shoved fistfuls of hot dog into his mouth.

After his win, Mr Kobayashi bit into another hot dog to celebrate as he posed for photographers.

He was one of 20 competitors in the contest at the Nathan's beach-front hot dog stand.

Standing in front of a long table on a stage, the eaters dipped the dogs in soft-drinks to help them go down, monitored closely by judges who kept count.

The contest drew competitors from the United States, Sweden, the Czech Republic and Japan.

The only woman in the running was Sonya "The Black Widow" Thomas of Virginia, a petite 38-year-old who earned her nickname by beating a string of men at eating events.

"I'm not satisfied, I could be better," she said after taking third place with 37 hot dogs.

Competitive eating is a popular sport in America, particularly at holidays, with contests for everything from chicken wings to "turducken", turkey stuffed with duck stuffed with chicken.

I donna wanna liva witha grandpapa

ROME - An Italian man escaped from house arrest and begged police to put him in jail because he could not bear living with his grandfather, his lawyer said Monday.

The 30-year old, who could only be identified by his initials A.M., had been placed under house arrest for six months in the Sardinian town of Sassari after a scuffle with a policeman.

But he escaped, and Sunday showed up at a police station in the northern city of Genoa, asking them to arrest him and put him in a cell.

"He said he could not face staying with his grandpa anymore," defense lawyer Pietro Bogliolo told Reuters by phone.

The lawyer said he did not know what the problem between the two was. "It's probably irreconcilable differences," he said.

A Genoa court however ruled Monday that A.M. should return to his grandfather's house and spend an additional two months and 20 days there because of his escape.

Saturday, a Sicilian man also asked police to put him in prison rather than have him confined to his house, saying he did not have enough money to buy himself food. He later returned to house arrest after police gave him food supplies for a few days.

Brain "Re-wires" itself

MILWAUKEE, Wisconsin - Doctors have their first proof that a man who was barely conscious for nearly 20 years regained speech and movement because his brain spontaneously rewired itself by growing tiny new nerve connections to replace the ones sheared apart in a car crash. Read more

Nano flag

RICHARDSON, Texas -- Imagine singing "Oh, say, can you see" to a flag you can't see.
That's what graduate students at the University of Texas at Dallas had in mind when they created the likeness of an American flag so small it would take more than ten to span the width of a human hair.

While the work of two electrical engineering students has so far been rejected by the Guinness Book of World Records, they hope the process will lead to advances in nanotechnology, a world of creations viewed only through microscopes.

The image of the flag -- complete with all 50 stars and 13 stripes -- is seven microns tall, compared to the 100-micron width of a human hair.

Fire CRACKERS

TAMPA, FL -- A 16-year-old from Tampa is recovering from burns he received when someone put a lit firecracker in his pocket.

Fire rescue officials say Derrick Underwood was with a group yesterday throwing fireworks at one another. The teen was seriously injured and taken to the hospital with second and third degree burns on his backside and thigh.

Reports say the teen ran for nearly a block with his pants on fire before removing them.

Twins for granny

A 59-year-old American is believed to have become the oldest woman in the world to give birth to twins.
Lauren Cohen's babies Gregory and Giselle were conceived using donor eggs, the New York Post reported.

Lauren Cohen and husband Frank Garcia's babies, Gregory and Giselle, were successfully delivered by Caesarean section despite life-threatening complications, according to the New York Post.

They were conceived by IVF using a donor egg. The couple, from Paramus, New Jersey, already have an 18-month-old daughter, Raquel, who was conceived in the same way.

Mrs Cohen lost 33 pints of blood during the delivery, during which she had to have an emergency hysterectomy, as doctors at New York-Presbyterian Hospital battled to save her and the twins' lives.

She told the newspaper: "I'm happy. I come out healthy, and the two babies came out healthy."

Mrs Cohen, who turns 60 on August 11, also has a 27-year-old daughter, Renee, from her first marriage.

The oldest woman in the world to give birth is thought to be Adriana Iliescu, from Romania, who gave birth to a daughter last year at the age of 66.

Foreign accent syndrome

A Geordie woman has apparently developed foreign accents after waking up following a stroke.

Linda Walker awoke in hospital to find her distinctive Newcastle accent had been transformed into a mixture of Jamaican, Canadian and Slovakian.

The 60-year-old may have Foreign Accent Syndrome, where patients speak differently after a brain injury.

The former university administrator says she hates what has happened to her and now feels like a different person.

Mrs Walker said: "My sister-in-law said that I sounded Italian, then my brother said I sounded Slovakian and someone else said I sounded French Canadian.

"But the latest is that I sound Jamaican, I just don't know how to explain it.

"Everybody is obviously hearing me differently. I didn't realise what I sounded like, but then my speech therapist played a tape of me talking. I was just devastated."

Researchers at Oxford University have found that patients with Foreign Accent Syndrome have suffered damage to tiny areas of the brain that affect speech.

The result is often a drawing out or clipping of the vowels that mimic the accent of a particular country, such as Spain or France, even though the sufferer has limited exposure to that accent.

The syndrome was first identified during World War II, when a Norwegian woman suffered shrapnel damage to her brain. She developed a strong German accent, which led to her being ostracised by her community.

Well swum !

Little Britain star David Walliams has successfully completed the 21-mile swim across the English Channel to France.

The 34-year-old comedian, who entered the water at Shakespeare Beach in Dover, Kent, at 0531 BST on Tuesday, reached France at about 1600 BST.

He had expected the crossing to take 14 hours, so was "relieved and pleased" to make it in 10 hours and 30 minutes.

Walliams undertook the gruelling swim as part of Sport Relief, for which he hopes to raise about £500,000.

Gnoma mia !

BENTONVILLE, Ark. - Six garden gnomes arrived atop Poppi's Italian Family Kitchen about the time of the summer solstice - facing the sunrise - and the restaurant's owner says it's OK for them to stay.

"We've noticed there's fewer pigeons. We think they're afraid of the gnomes," owner Dan Perryman said Thursday.

Perryman suspects area teenagers placed the gnomes atop the restaurant; no employees have admitted taking part in the prank.

It's twins ! x6

LANSING, Mich. -- It all began with Chastity Keeler, who delivered twin boys. Keeler gave birth at 9:05 a.m. and 9:06 a.m. Tuesday. Over the next 32 hours, five more mothers gave birth to twins at Lansing's Sparrow Hospital.

Sparrow nurses, doctors and officials think that's probably a record for the hospital.

"We have a number of experienced nurses, and it's the first time within their collective memory that we've had six sets of twins born in such close proximity," Sparrow spokeswoman Nan Simons told the Lansing State Journal for a story Friday.

Keeler, of Jackson, said it's a story she'll tell her sons, Nick and Ty, as they grow up.

"That was an extraordinary couple of days, and they were part of it," Keeler said. "They will forever be known in Sparrow history, and that's kind of cool."

Five sets of the twins were boys.

"It's fun for Sparrow to mark a record like this," Simons said. "Six sets of twins: That's a lot of babies."

Kerrrrchingggggg

EAU CLAIRE, Mich. -- Rick "Pellet Gun" Krause has reclaimed family bragging rights.

Krause on Saturday took home his 13th championship at the International Cherry Pit Spitting Championship in southwestern Michigan, an event his family has dominated in recent years.
Krause, of Tuba City, Ariz., also knocked off his son, power spitter Brian "Young Gun" Krause, who had won the previous four years and currently holds the Guinness World Record after spitting a pit 93 feet, 6 1/2 inches in 2003.

The 52-year-old also celebrated his 10th wedding anniversary with wife Marlene, whom he married at the event in 1996.

Krause's winning spit was 67 feet, 5 inches. Bart Pierce took second at 44 feet, 5 inches and Keith Roush placed third at 43 feet, 8 inches.

Brian Krause, 28, struggled at the 33rd annual competition held at the Tree-Mendus Fruit Farm, propelling a pit just 33 feet, 5 inches.

Pit-spitters had to battle gusty winds during the competition, event coordinator Lynne Sage said.

Alexis Haimbaugh, 14, was the top woman spitter at 41 feet.

Two of "Young Gun" Krause's sons carried on the family's winning tradition. Cole Krause won the 5 and younger category with a 20 foot, 3 inch spit, and Braden Krause won the age 6 to 8 division with a distance of 31 feet, 7 inches.

Alexis Teichman won the 9 to 12 age group with a 31-foot, 7-inch

Special blend of herbs & erm spices ?

A pair of pot smokers picked the wrong day to use the drive-thru window at a KFC restaurant in Buffalo. Two men in their 20s pulled up to the restaurant's window and asked for the Wednesday special.

Meanwhile, a couple of narcotics detectives were inside ordering their food. That's when a cloud of marijuana smoke wafted into the restaurant. The detectives then spotted the two men smoking what one of the cops called "the biggest marijuana cigar your ever saw."

The detectives went outside and arrested 23-year-old Charles Morris and 26-year-old Gregory Quick, both of Buffalo. The two men were charged with possession of marijuana and smoking it in public.

One of the cops said he got the cashier to refund the pot smokers' money for the Wednesday special.

Near miss

An asteroid up to half a mile wide was due to have brushed past the Earth early today, approaching almost as close as the Moon.

In astronomical terms, that counts as a near miss, but scientists who had been tracking the path of asteroid 2004 XP14 were not worried as it approached at about ten miles per second.
Nevertheless, the body has been classified as a potentially hazardous asteroid (PHA) along with 782 known others.

The object, discovered in December 2004, is one of a class of "Apollo" asteroids, whose orbits cross that of the Earth. Initially there were concerns that the body might collide with Earth later this century.

However, further analysis has ruled this out - at least for the foreseeable future. If XP14 did hit the Earth the effects would be devastating. "It would probably be big enough to wipe out a small country," said Dr David Asher, from the Armagh Observatory in Northern Ireland.

"At least we knew about this asteroid. We should be more worried about the unknown ones. There are quite a lot of them flying around out there in space that have still to be discovered."

Scientists hope to gather valuable information about the asteroid by bouncing radar signals off it from the 230ft diameter Goldstone dish in California's Mojave desert.

The asteroid was expected to make its closest approach to Earth at 5:25am today.

At that moment it should have been 268,624 miles away, or almost the Moon's average distance from Earth.

Big brother in your car

Scientists are developing a computer that will become the ultimate... back seat driver.

The new system will be able to "read" the thoughts and mood of drivers by analysing their facial expressions.

It will know when they are angry, bored or tired and alert them and it could be installed in cars as a safety feature within five years.

The computer program, developed by scientists at Cambridge University, is linked to a camera and tracks 24 facial points, such as eyebrows.

Another 20 key facial movements, like a shake of the head, have also been identified. Combinations of movements linked to moods are then fed into the computer.

Prof Peter Robinson said: "The system would have fantastic potential to improve driver safety and prevent accidents. "

It will be on show at the Royal Society summer exhibition in London tomorrow.

School for sale on eBay

Local officials in the rural Alaskan town of King Cove have put an old school up for sale on eBay, saying they hope to raise $1.8 million (985,000 pounds).

The Aleutians East Borough has put the school in the southwestern Alaska coastal village of 725 people up for sale on the online auction house eBay, hoping a new owner can take advantage of the 43,000-square-foot (3,995-sq-metre) building's location on the waterfront in the midst of Alaska's biggest commercial seafood harvests, officials said.

"We have salmon, halibut, cod, crab, pollock, sablefish that's right outside the front door of the school," said borough spokeswoman Karen Montoya.

The borough hopes to raise $1.8 million by selling off the school, although the eBay listing cites a starting bid of $400,000, Borough Administrator Bob Juettner said.

A new school, located in a less industrialised area of the village, is almost ready for King Cove's 100 or so students, he said.

While many state and local governments have turned to the online auction service to sell surplus property, eBay spokesman Dean Jutilla said he does not know of any other school put up for sale.

"I don't recall off the top of my head. But that doesn't mean it hasn't happened," he said.

A 2003 sale of a surplus Alaska state ferry helped inspire the decision to list the school on eBay, Montoya said.

As of Thursday, no bids had been received, but Montoya remained optimistic. Already, the eBay listing had tallied up more than 500 hits and generated some telephone inquiries from potential buyers, she said.

The drinking gorilla experiment

Wellington researcher Melanie Takarangi and former Victoria University student Seema Clifasefi have shown that people given a stiff vodka tonic failed to notice a gorilla walking through the middle of a basketball game.

"Even having one stiff drink can make you blind drunk," said Ms Takarangi, of Victoria University, in a joint report on the research with Ms Clifasefi and Jonah Bergman from the University of Washington, in the United States.

Ms Clifasefi previously studied for a PhD at Victoria University.

The researchers tested people focused on the task of counting the number of basketball passes in a video.

People who had a cocktail were twice as likely as non-drinkers to fail to notice a woman in an ape suit who suddenly walked to centre screen, beat her chest and departed – a nine-second appearance.

The psychology experiment, published yesterday in the scientific journal Applied Cognitive Psychology as `Blind Drunk: The Effects of Alcohol on Inattentional Blindness', tested only 46 people, but the researchers said it could have implications for drink-driving laws if a bigger experiment showed similar results.

The subjects were volunteers between 21 and 35 years old and half were given plain tonic water to drink but the rest were given enough alcohol to lift their blood-alcohol level to 0.04 percent.

They were each shown a video of two three-person teams passing a basketball and asked to count the number of passes.

Only four of those who got vodka, or about 18 percent, saw the gorilla.

Of the tonic-only crowd 11, or about 46 percent, spotted the ape.

The results suggested that mildly intoxicated drivers, focused intently on their speed to keep from being stopped by the police, might not see pedestrians or other vehicles, the researchers said.

A 1999 study at Harvard University used the same video to show that even without alcohol, about half of the participants missed the gorilla.

Other studies have shown that witnesses to crimes involving weapons often couldn't recall details about the assailant because they were too focused on the weapon.

Nice to have me car back

New Zealand - A Christchurch woman has found a silver lining to the theft of her car after the vehicle was recovered complete with a new battery, wheels, steering column and glove box.

"It's going like a charm," the woman told police yesterday, saying the 20-year-old car's mechanical performance was also much improved.

Christchurch police communication centre shift supervisor Jed Oskam said the woman no longer had problems starting the car in cold weather.

"She also said she usually has to tickle the accelerator when she gets to an intersection to keep it going, but now it runs beautifully," he said.

The car was taken from a St Albans address on about June 23 and recovered by Rangiora police a week later.

Inspector Michael Coulter said police were pleased to hear of the improvements to the car.

"We do recover quite a few (stolen cars) after a period of time but generally they're in a worse state of repair, not better," he said.

Christchurch mechanic Colin Grey said the parts could be worth as much as $450 second-hand.

"But if they flogged it in the first place, they probably had the bits on hand," he said.

A person has been charged in relation to the car's theft and will appear in the Rangiora District Court.

False teeth scare

A shortage of false teeth is looming as new regulations threaten to put thousands of denture-makers out of business.An estimated 5,000 dental technicians, known as denturists, make more than half of the false teeth used by Britain's estimated 13 million denture wearers.

Under rules introduced by the General Dental Council, denturists will be banned from working in the UK unless they have passed an approved course and have registered with the GDC.

After July 31, those who continue to work without having registered will face fines of up to £5,000 and a prison sentence of up to six months.

Tony Ward, the chairman of the Association for the Promotion of Denturism and owner of a dental clinic in Darlington warned that waiting times for a set of false teeth could double when the regulations come into force.

"We're all up in arms, and so are our patients," he said. "False teeth are an old music hall joke, but when you need them yourself it isn't quite as funny."

A spokeswoman for the GDC denied that the rules would lead to a shortage and said that denturists would still be able to manufacture false teeth if they registered and performed their work under dentists' supervision.

However, Mr Ward said: "Many of us have been practising for 20 years or more but, because of the steep penalties, we are going to have to stop and our patients will have to try and find dentists to make their dentures. If we aren't making dentures, there is going to be an enormous shortage. We believe that waiting times could more than double."

Dentures, which cost up to £300 for a full set, need to be replaced on average every five years. Waiting times vary from four weeks to three years in parts of Scotland where gum disease is endemic.

Some best man !

A football fan tried selling his role as best man on eBay so he could watch yesterday's England World Cup match against Portugal.

James Circus offered his seat at the top table at his friend's wedding in Essex. Bidding on the online auction website started at £2 for the role, which includes speech and meal.

Mr Circus, from Wickford in Essex, admitted the bid began as a joke after he bought tickets for the quarter finals but realised it was impossible to go.

He intended to turn up for the wedding at 2pm and carry out his duty handing the rings to the groom, but was determined not to miss the match at 4pm.

He says on eBay that he will be returning from the pub at 7pm to resume his role, adding "and at that point you will have to leave". He added "There must be some non-football fans that have always wanted to do this."

Sad

CLEVELAND - Officers who went to a home to serve a search warrant found a skeleton in the bed where an 80-year-old woman said her mother was sleeping.

Police believe the remains belong to woman's 98-year-old mother, who hadn't been seen in at least three years. Officers went to the home Wednesday to serve a search warrant for building, housing and health code violations, but the woman said they couldn't come inside because her mother was sleeping. After persuading her to let them in the house, the officials pulled back the blanket on the bed and found the skeleton.

The daughter, whose name was withheld until her family was notified, was taken to St. Vincent Charity Hospital.

Cuyahoga County coroner Elizabeth Balraj said Thursday she would need more information to identify the body, which showed no signs of injury.

Police Lieut. Thomas Stacho said no charges were expected.

World wife-carrying championships

Finishing upside down clinging to a man's back may not be the most graceful way of winning gold, but it has helped Sandra Kullas and Margo Uusorg to the world wife-carrying crown.

The Estonians were among 40 pairs from eight countries who competed in the annual event in Sonkajarvi, in central Finland.

They raced along a 250-metre track, complete with pools and hurdles, with the men running or walking and carrying the women on their backs.

The championship, being held for the 11th time, evokes the legend of robber Rosvo-Ronkainen who made people trying to join his gang run through a forest carrying heavy sacks.

Mr Uusorg, 26, finished in 56.9 seconds - a world record - while 19-year-old Ms Kullas clung to his back upside down with her legs around his neck.

They beat Mr Uusorg's brother Madis by three seconds.

"I was a bit nervous before the start, but when I started running it felt fine," Margo Uusorg said after the race.

"I wanted to jump over the hurdles, but I was afraid I might fall and get penalty seconds."

It was Mr Uusorg's fifth world-championship and he said it might be his last.

The winning Estonians received laptop computers and Ms Kullas' weight, 49 kilograms, in beer.

Shop for pensioners

A convenience store chain in Japan has opened outlets tailored for the elderly, featuring wider aisles, larger price labels and a chill out space.The model store on Awaji Island opened today.

Japanese convenience stores used to target customers in their 20s to 30s, but sales have been sluggish because of tougher competition and the rapidly aging society.

The company, Lawson, which hopes to cultivate a new customer base, plans to open more model stores across Japan by the autumn.

The Awaji store has a calming brown sign, a departure from Lawson's trademark blue, and features a rest space and an array of items targeting the elderly.

The rest space is equipped with tables and a liquid crystal display television, in addition to massage chairs, so that customers can freely eat, drink and have conversations while shopping.

During a pilot program last year in Kawanishi, steps such as installing blood pressure monitors and enlarging price labels turned out to be so popular that they led to a 50 per cent increase in store sales.

The Awaji Island store also has wider aisles than the regular Lawson stores to accommodate pensioner stopping abruptly , which would normally block the aisle.

Low speed chase pt. II

Police did not have too much trouble catching a stolen vehicle making a getaway from one of Wales' top hotels. Not surprising really, as it was a "courtesy buggy" - similar to a golf cart - doing 5mph on the main road from the Celtic Manor Resort at Newport.

Gwent Police received several calls from motorists who saw two men in the buggy on the A449 on Friday night.

The Celtic Manor said it was unusual, as the resort had tight security. Police said two men were arrested.

Officers were alerted at about 1930 BST on Friday to the incident.

The seven-seater buggy in hotel livery normally used to ferry guests around the resort site was intercepted on the road. Two men ran into nearby woods and were arrested shortly after walking on the A449 towards Newport.

A Celtic Manor spokesman confirmed a buggy was taken off the resort's grounds, and recovered by police. "This sort of thing is particularly unusual", said the spokesman. "We have very tight security around the resort."

The venue is owned by Wales' richest man, electronics billionaire Sir Terry Matthews, and regularly hosts high-profile events.

Recently these have included a summit of European foreign ministers, and a European-American celebrity golf tournament featuring stars such as Catherine Zeta-Jones, Michael Douglas, Boris Becker and Ronan Keating, which was the idea of TV presenters Ant and Dec.

The resort will also host golf's Ryder Cup in 2010. Police said two men were due to be questioned.

Betsy or Bust

A Somerset pig farmer is preparing to set off on an attempted world record 15,000 mile trek around Britain on his 53-year-old tractor. Terry Williams from Bruton plans to spend four months behind the wheel of his T20 tractor, nicknamed Betsy.

The journey, starting at the Panborough Inn near Wells on Saturday, will take him around the coast of Britain. Mr Williams set the record for such a journey with a 3,176 mile trip in 2003, but this has since been broken.

He now wants to reclaim the title with the help of the faithful tractor he rebuilt after discovering it lying on its side in a peat bog in 2002. Mr Williams said: "It's 15,000 miles or bust. We're raising money for prostate cancer research.

"My old record was broken by a Russian team and someone told me Britain doesn't have what it takes to get it back - that set my blood boiling, so now I want to prove them wrong."

He plans to drive up to 137 miles a day at an average speed of around 12.8 mph.

Along the way Mr Williams, who is completing the journey without the help of a support team, will sleep in a 1927 wagon towed on the back of 'Betsy'.

His only companions will be two stuffed animals, Petal the Pig and Barnaby the Bear, given to him by children from a local school who will be following Mr Williams' progress on his website.

Mr Williams' wife Emma said: "Sometimes I think there are three people in this marriage - me, him and the tractor, as he talks to her as if she's another woman. "However, if he can break the record and raise enough money for charity, I'm not complaining."

How to name your son - idiot guide

A man who wanted to name his son Gerrard after the England midfielder Steven has held an internet vote in an attempt to convince his wife.

Matt Evans, from Cheltenham, had set his heart on naming the newborn in honour of the Liverpool captain.

So when Mr Evans' wife Jenny vetoed the idea, preferring William or Matthew, he set about trying to change her mind.

But despite Gerrard polling more votes, Mrs Evans refused to give in - the baby will now be called Matthew Gerrard.When the Register Office wrote to Mr and Mrs Evans reminding them he had to be named within 40 days, golf professional Matt, 29, shot into action, setting up the site.

And despite losing the battle, he still insists on calling Matthew 'Gerrard'.

The name Gerrard won 581 online votes, William got 564 and Matthew 75.

Baby Matthew was born on 20 May, but with his parents unable to agree on a name, had remained unregistered.
England went out of the World Cup 3-1 on penalties after their quarter-final with Portugal ended 0-0.
England lost skipper David Beckham to injury just after half-time and Wayne Rooney was sent off after 62 minutes for a stamp on Ricardo Carvalho.They battled on bravely for the rest of normal time and extra-time with 10 men to take the game to a shoot-out.But Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher missed to end their hopes and Sven-Goran Eriksson's reign.England went out of the World Cup 3-1 on penalties after their quarter-final with Portugal ended 0-0. :(

Loam sweet loam

Sheila Batterbury couldn’t bear to leave her garden — so she took it with her. Sheila, 74, spent a year transferring 600 plants, shrubs and bushes into grow-bags.

She hired an extra removal van to drive them 150 miles from South East London to Bathampton, Somerset. Then she spent six months replanting her original award-winning design — even buying two neighbouring plots to fit it all in.

The retired teacher said: “My garden was my pride and joy. I just couldn’t leave it behind.“I put roses, azaleas, wisteria, rhododendrons into compost bags and trays. I did most in winter to disturb them as little as possible. There wasn’t much left when I’d finished.”

Sheila and hubby Paul, 72, an ex judge, had spent ten years cultivating their original third of an acre plot at Greenwich. Their buyer did not mind what they removed.The mum of two dug up everything from tiny campanulas to a 5ft lilac bush, conifers — and a 15ft lamppost.

Her new half-acre creation has now won a place in the prestigious National Gardens Scheme, and can open to the public for charity.Sheila, whose first stint last weekend raised £300, said: “It looks wonderful.”

90 years on

Church bells rang out across the killing fields of the Somme today, 90 years to the minute after thousands of young British soldiers poured out of their trenches to their deaths.

At exactly 7.30am French time, bells echoed across the cornfields between 60 separate villages across the former front line.

Almost 20,000 young British and Empire soldiers were cut down at the Somme on July 1, 1916 alone - a death toll for a single day eclipsing the UK’s losses in the Crimean, Boer and Korean wars combined.

Today, with the sun burning through the morning mist, conditions were almost exactly as they were that morning, when the first of 120,000 British troops moved into “no-man’s land”.

The Prince of Wales, accompanied by the Duchess of Cornwall, joined thousands of Britons on the battlefields of the Somme to honour those who fell on the bloodiest day in the history of the British army.

For both the Prince and the Duchess today’s commemorations were a very personal pilgrimage.

In an address at the monument the Prince told the congregation, many of them veterans of wars or relatives of those who fell, that both he and the Duchess had lost great uncles in the First World War - he one, and Camilla three.

Bird flu dance

A local Ivory Coast DJ is attempting to lighten the mood after the arrival of the deadly H5N1 strain of avian influenza in Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) . Twenty-one-year-old DJ Lewis has invented a wacky bird flu dance that is sweeping nightclubs in the West African country's major city of Abidjan .

The infectious craze has hundreds of people shaking, flapping their arms, and clucking on the dance floor—an imitation of chickens' death throes when they are culled to stop the virus from spreading.

"I created the dance to bring happiness to the hearts of Africans and to chase away fear—the fear of eating chicken, If we kill all our chickens and poultry, our cousins in the village will become poor. So I created the bird flu dance to put joy back into our hearts." He said

Ivory Coast health experts have been encouraging people to continue eating chicken, saying well-cooked poultry poses little risk of transmitting bird flu.

350lb Wedding dress

At seven and a half stone , Carly O'Brien is a mere slip of a girl. But if her bridegroom had tried to carry her across the threshold, he would have done himself a permanent mischief.

Thanks to 30 layers of material and 30,000 Swarovski crystals, Carly's wedding dress weighed an astonishing 25 stone and is believed to be the heaviest in the world. Family and friends took more than eight hours to dress her in the voluminous gown, which was more than 8ft wide and would not fit through the church doors.

Its train was more than 60ft long and was so heavy that ten guests had to push 5ft 3in Carly up the aisle.

The dress, designed by a family friend, is believed to have cost the bride's proud father Frank more than £15,000. It was accompanied by a white gold tiara, studded with hundreds more crystals.

Carly's sister Linda, one of six bridesmaids, said it was designed to look like Jordan's outfit when she married Peter Andre last year.

The bride arrived at St Peter's Roman Catholic Church, in her home town of Gloucester, in the same horse-drawn carriage used for Jordan's wedding. Three male friends were required just to lift her to the ground.

More than 500 guests were there to see her marry landscape gardener Michael Coffey. But they had to wait for the privilege. While the ceremony was due to start at 3pm on Wednesday, 16-year-old Carly took so long to get ready that it was 4.15 before she arrived.

Thelma Madine, owner of Liverpool-based Nico's Dressmakers, said Carly's dress was created with 120 metres of silk, 1,600 metres of tulle and thousands of metres of net.

Dozens of steel hoops were sewn into the skirt's 30 layers to give support to the entire structure. After stepping out of her carriage, Carly was forced to remove three under-layers - including one of the widest hoops - from her dress to fit through the church doors.

Despite its enormous weight, Carly insisted on wearing the dress throughout the wedding reception at Hatherley Manor hotel near Cheltenham. She spent most of reception sitting down, but did manage to get to her feet for the first dance of the night with her father, to the Temptations classic My Girl.

The bride and her 17-year-old husband then gratefully jettisoned their wedding outfits before leaving for a honeymoon in the Canary Islands.

A spokesman for Guinness World Records said they did not have a current entry for heaviest wedding dress. But the record for the longest train is 2,545ft, set by a Dutch couple in 2002.