Inside job

New Zealand police said on Friday they had arrested a bank manager who had tried to rob his own bank with a gang of thieves that included his lover.

A gang of three armed bandits charged into a bank in Auckland, New Zealand's largest city, on Tuesday dressed in balaclavas and overalls.

They held staff at gunpoint and tried to make off with NZ$65,000 (£22,000) but two of the robbers were arrested at the scene after passers-by reported the robbery to police.

The third bandit escaped but police said questioning of the robbers in custody soon revealed that their accomplice was in fact the bank manager's girlfriend. The New Zealand Herald reported on Friday that the pair were later arrested at the bank manager's home.

"There was never any doubt that it was an inside job," New Zealand police spokesman Jon Neilson said. All four have appeared in court on robbery charges.

Up a tree

Portland , Oregon - A man climbed a tree on Friday to save his cat, but ended up needing to be saved himself. Ken Sinclair's white kitten, Breather, got stuck 30 feet up in a fir tree.

Sinclair tried calling to him, but the cat wouldn't budge, so he climbed up the tree. He managed to coax the cat down, but then couldn't find a way back down the tree.

Sinclair's girlfriend called 991 and firefighters arrived with a 100-foot ladder in tow. The cat and owner are now safe.

Low speed chase

A 42-year-old Lake Crystal man led sheriff's deputies on a goose chase. His getaway vehicle: a 5-horsepower mini-motorcycle.

A call came in reporting that Douglas Lee Menne had wiped out at a downtown intersection. Sheriff's Deputy Jeff Wersal responded, suspecting it was a case of drunk driving.

By the time the deputy arrived at the intersection, Menne had recovered and driven off. After locating him, Wersal tried to get Menne to pull over. The bike had no tail light or license plate.

Wersal pursued Menne to a parking lot where he paused briefly, re-started the bike and zipped out the other side of the lot. The chase continued as Menne put-putted down a nearby street at about 25 mph.

Oh rats !

Petaluma: Animal control officers confiscated about 1,000 rats from the home of a 67-year-old man who they said was living in filthy conditions with the animals.

Some of the rats were running loose in the home, while others were caged, officials said.

Roger Dier, who lives at the Petaluma home, was issued a misdemeanor citation. The case is being investigated by the city's Animal Services department and the Sonoma County Environmental Health Division. The rats were transported to the city's animal shelter in cages acquired from local pet shops.

Sorry seems the hardest word

A descendent of an Elizabethan buccaneer has made a formal apology for slavery in an African country where many slaves were taken.

Andrew Hawkins, wearing chains, appeared in a stadium in Banjul, the capital of Gambia, The Independent reported. He knelt down to express his regret for the actions of Sir John Hawkins, who is believed to have been the first person to sell African slaves in the Caribbean.

Hawkins, a youth worker in Cornwall, went to Gambia with the Lifeline Expedition, a British group. His apology was part of the Roots Festival, which marks the events described in Alex Haley's book about his family.

"It was one of the most memorable things I've ever done," he said. "It was a learning experience. You see just how deep the wounds left by the slave trade are. As someone with family links to the slave traders, it was a very difficult thing to see the consequences of their actions."

Isatou Njie Saidy, Gambia's vice president, accepted Hawkins' apology and removed his chains.

The World Egg Throwing Championship

The World Egg Throwing Championship is going to be held on Sunday 25th June 2006 at the Swaton Vintage Day (Sponsored by NatWest Bank) as a part of the ring entertainment.

Two of the four WETF Disciplines will take place at the 2006 World Championships

1. Egg throwing and catching. 2 person team. One member from each team will throw an egg to the other member. If this is caught, the team members will move further apart and the egg will be thrown back. This will continue until only one team have an unbroken egg. THIS team will be the 2006 WORLD Champions and will be presented with the WETF Egg Cup.
   
2. Egg Relay. 11 person team. There will be a limited display of this discipline. Teams will be limited to the first 10 applications.

The World Egg Throwing Championship has already achieved notable international publicity with coverage in the Times and Guardian UK national newspapers, CNN and Sports Illustrated along with many local newspapers. An American TV crew will be recording the events and BBC radio is undertaking live broadcasts throughout

I wondered where I left my bulls sperm

A 14-Ft inflatable boat, a coffin, false limbs and a lawnmower were just some of unusual items of property people have left on public transport in London.

Breast implants, a jar of bull's sperm and three dead bats have also turned up at Transport for London's lost property office.

In the last year almost 150,000 items of property have been left on Tubes, buses and taxis, with mobile phones and books among the most-mislaid articles.

Compensation for 10 year hard-on

A former Rhode Island handyman won more than $400,000 in a lawsuit over a penile implant that gave him a 10-year erection.

Charles (Chick) Lennon, 68, received the steel-plastic implant in 1996, about two years before Viagra went on the market. The Dura-II is designed to allow impotent men to position the penis upward for sex, then lower it.

But Lennon could not position his penis downward. He said he could no longer hug people, ride a bike, swim or wear bathing trunks because of the pain and embarrassment. He has become a recluse and is uncomfortable being around his grandchildren, his lawyer said.

In 2004, a jury awarded him $750,000. A judge called that excessive and reduced it to $400,000. On Friday, the Rhode Island Supreme Court affirmed that award in a ruling that turned on a procedural matter.

"I don't know any man who for any amount of money would want to trade and take my client's life," said Jules D'Allessandro, Lennon's lawyer."He's not a whole person."

A lawyer representing both Dura-II manufacturer Dacomed Corp. and the company's insurer declined comment. Dacomed maintained nothing was wrong with the implant. It filed for bankruptcy after the lawsuit was filed.

Lennon cannot have the implant removed because of health problems, including open-heart surgery, his lawyer said. Impotence drugs could not help Lennon even if he were able to have the device taken out, because tissue had be to removed for it to be implanted.

Anyone seen my hotel?

German police rescued an American soccer fan lost in Hanover and unable to find his hotel again after helplessly wandering around the city for more than six hours after a match, federal police said on Friday.

The 25-year-old Boston man had checked into his hotel in the afternoon before going to see a match between Poland and Costa Rica but could not remember his hotel's name, its address or anything else about it, police spokesman Holger Jureczko said.

"He came into the police station at 3 a.m. and asked for help," Jureczko said.

"The only thing he could remember was paying 10 euros (7 pounds) for a taxi ride to the city centre and that he went past a park and a Mercedes dealer. There are a lot of Mercedes dealers in Hanover but we were able to find the one in the vicinity of a park."

Police took the American to the area that matched his vague description in the city of 500,000 and spent an hour driving up and down streets in that quarter until he recognised his hotel just before dawn on Wednesday.

Garbage truck reef

Thailand dumped 189 old garbage trucks off its southern coast on Friday in a bid to build an artificial reef to lure fish for local fishermen. The trucks, once used to collect refuse in the sprawling Thai capital Bangkok, were dropped into the Gulf of Thailand, about 5.5 km (3.4 miles) from the southern province of Pattani.

Under a project initiated by Thailand's queen in 2002, everything from concrete pillars to old rail cars have been dumped at 47 sites in the waters off southern Thailand.

Fishery Department official Rangsan Chayakul said some 43 species of fish were now living around these artificial reefs, up from 15 species before.

"The reef will protect shallow-water fishermen from high waves and give them a good source of income," he told Reuters.

BBC's Bigscreen flop

Brazil's 4-1 World Cup thrashing of Japan might have sparked samba in the streets of Rio de Janeiro but the football folk of Preston were hardly going nuts, a British regional newspaper has said.

The Lancashire Evening Post reported that only 20 hardy souls turned up at the BBC's costly giant screen in the northwest English city on Thursday to watch the match, after just four people and a dog braved the miserable rain for the earlier Group E games.

The public service broadcaster was slammed by one member of parliament for wasting money on the 27-metre screens dotted across the country, which cost 500,000 pounds (910,000 dollars, 725,000 euros) each and 5,000 pounds a day to operate.

"It would have been cheaper, and probably gained more of an audience for the games on show, if they had bought five plasma screens and given them to the people there and told them to invite their friends along," said Nigel Evans.

Live screenings in Liverpool and London were scrapped after trouble flared during the transmission of England's opening World Cup game against Paraguay.

Former mill town Preston was once a hotbed of football and the city's big screen is outside the National Football Museum at English Championship club Preston North End's Deepdale ground.

Pounds from heaven

Pennies literally fell from heaven in the centre of the west Wales coastal town of Aberystwyth when a man threw 5,000 pounds up in the air, much to the bemusement and delight of passers-by.

"Who wants free money?" the man shouted as he threw bundles of 20 pound notes around the street.

The windfall caused traffic jams as motorists and pedestrians fought to fill their pockets with the cash.

The source of the rich pickings remains unknown.

Local police have asked anyone who has pocketed any of the money to get in touch, although they did acknowledge that it is not illegal to throw money away, nor pick it up.

As for the generous benefactor, a 40-year-old man, he was questioned on suspicion of speeding after the incident, which was filmed by a witness.

"I just couldn't believe my eyes. People were shocked and just couldn't believe it," the eyewitness said.

It is not known whether any honest beneficiaries who reported their windfall to the police will get it back if it turns out not to come from any criminal source.

Warhol wig sale

His paintings sell for millions but fans of Andy Warhol picked up some bargains at an auction of memorabilia, including one of the artist's trademark silver wigs that sold for more than $14,700.

Auction house Christie's said the wig was part of sale of film and entertainment memorabilia that raised a total of $1.14 million, with 231 of the 283 lots on offer sold at the auction in New York.

A pair of the late artist's paint-splattered Ferragamo shoes went for more than $10,600 while a paintbrush raised more than $5,200.

A 1977 Polaroid of Muhammad Ali taken by Warhol and signed by the boxing legend raised more than $26,100 - more than twice the presale estimate.

The items were among gifts that the Pop Art icon bestowed on his nephews when they visited their famous uncle from the late 1960s until his death in 1987.

The market for Warhol art has been especially hot in recent years.

Just last month Christie's sold his 1962 Small Torn Campbell's Soup Can (Pepper Pot) at auction for more than $16 million - the highest price paid for one of the artist's seminal soup can works.

The memorabilia sale also drew high prices for items associated with other stars, notably Marilyn Monroe.

A cocktail dress she wore in The Misfits raised $90,000 and her personal address and telephone book from 1960-62 went for $42,500.

Two wristwatches owned by Clark Gable were sold for more than $36,000 and three photographs of Marlon Brando on the set of A Streetcar Named Desire raised more than $27,000.

Satire could mean jail

A Brit artist is facing up to three years’ jail in Turkey for exhibiting a collage that depicts its Prime Minister as a dog being awarded a rosette by President Bush in a pet show.

Police in Istanbul seized Michael Dickinson’s Best in Show — in which he superimposed the head of Recep Tayyip Erdogan on to a dog’s body — from his exhibition in the city.

He has been told that he is likely to be charged with “insulting the dignity of the Prime Minister”. The show’s organiser, Erkan Kara, will go on trial on September 12 on the same charge.

Mr Dickinson, 56, said: “It’s such an Alice in Wonderland feeling. The law is so absurd . . . This law exists in Turkey about insulting ‘Turkishness’ or the State. You’re not allowed to state your opinion.”

The case could greatly embarrass Turkey and Britain, for it raises questions about Turkey’s human rights record as it seeks EU membership, with Tony Blair’s backing.

Pledge rings banned

A school has banned Christian pupils from wearing rings that symbolise the teenagers' belief in chastity until marriage. Youngsters have been ordered to remove the 'purity rings' because they contravene the school's uniform policy.

Millais School, an all-girls' comprehensive in West Sussex, has a strict 'no jewellery' rule, allowing only small stud earrings. But the girls' families argue that that the rings - simple bands of silver given to youngsters who complete an evangelical church course preaching abstinence - hold genuine religious significance.

Parents also point out that the school allows Muslim and Sikh pupils to wear headscarves or kara bracelets as a means of religious expression.

Heather and Philip Playfoot have been in dispute with the school in Horsham over the issue for two years. Their 15-year-old daughter Lydia began wearing her ring to the school in June 2004.
The Playfoots claim Lydia and up to a dozen pupils have been punished for breaking the rules. Lydia recently stopped wearing the ring but feels 'betrayed' by the school.

She said: "My friends and I have had detentions and been taught in isolation for wearing the ring. I feel like I've been treated the same as someone who is caught bringing cannabis into school. My ring is a symbol of my religious faith. I think, as a Christian, it says we should keep ourselves pure from sexual sinfulness and wearing the ring is a good way of making a stand. I stopped wearing the ring because it was being made really difficult for me. I am sitting GCSE modules this year and I missed loads of drama lessons because the teachers would teach us in isolation."

Her parents Heather, 47, a housewife and Phil, 49, a minister in a nondenominational church, are considering taking legal action.
Mrs Playfoot said: "The ring is a reminder to them of the promise they have made, much the same as a wedding ring is an outward sign of an inward promise. There are Muslim girls at the school who are allowed to wear the headcovering, although that isn't part of the school uniform, and Sikh girls who are allowed to wear the bangle, although that isn't part of the uniform. It's a discriminatory policy. We don't want her education to be disrupted because of it but we do want her to feel free to wear something that is very significant."

Lydia's ring comes from Silver Ring Thing, an evangelical American Christian movement.

It has encouraged a growing number of teenagers to make a 'pledge of chastity'.

The silver ring demonstrates commitment to this pledge.

Karate kid beats mugger

A 12-year-old told how he turned the tables on a would-be mugger when he unleashed his martial arts skills on the yob.

Jake Oliver was walking back to his home in Hartcliffe, Bristol, on Saturday morning when he was confronted by the balaclava-clad thug. The stocky, 5ft 10ins, assailant had leapt out from behind a bush and demanded Jake's phone.

But the unruffled youngster - who won a gold medal at a national karate championships last year - refused and delivered a karate chop, which broke the man's nose.

The bleeding yob fled empty-handed and drove off after being given a lesson he will never forget by the junior crime fighter.

Jake, who has practised freestyle karate for four years, today described how he had used his martial arts to defend himself against the mugger.

"He said 'Give me your phone or you'll get hurt.' But I'd worked really hard doing lots of odd jobs to pay for the phone and I hated having to give it away," he told the Bristol Evening Post.

"Then he swung at me so I had no choice but to defend myself, or I knew I'd get a beating and lose my phone in the process. So I side-stepped his punch and delivered a right-hander in the face. It broke his nose and there was blood everywhere."

Jake then ran back to tell his mother, Sue, 39, and lorry-driver father Oly, 36, what had happened.

The youngster, who trains five days a week at his local club, won the 9-11 age category of the Cobra Martial Arts Association World Kickboxing and Karate Association Championship (WKA) in Manchester last year.

Is this CRAP worth £2.6m ?

One of British artist David Hockney's most famous works, The Splash, has been sold for £2.6m at Sotheby's in London.

The painting, dating from 1966, had been in a private collection in California for the past 20 years.

The piece, in Hockney's minimalist style, depicts the moment someone hits the water, diving into a swimming pool.

Paintings by two other British artists - Peter Doig and Bridget Riley - also fetched more than £1m each in an auction which raised just over £30m.

Baboon flag thieves

A safari park in Merseyside is urging patriotic football fans to remove England flags from their vehicles to stop gangs of baboons pinching them.

Bosses at Knowsley Safari Park say the 120-strong troop of baboons usually swipe windscreen wipers but have turned to stealing World Cup flags instead.

Safari Park general manager David Ross said: "Many people are wisely removing them before going on the safari drive.

"If they forget the baboons usually take them."

According to Mr Ross, the baboons have built up quite a stash.

He added: "Visitors are certainly enjoying their antics with the flags as it does look like they are showing their support for the efforts of the England team.

"The baboons have always been great fun but they are the vandals of the animal world.

"Our advice to England fans is to remove their flags before they arrive or to use the alternative car-friendly route around the outside of the monkey jungle."

Art or graffiti ?

Graffiti artist Banksy has returned to his home town and left his mark on a Bristol building with a stencil design. The painting, on the side of a building near Park Street, depicts a naked lover caught with his pants down, hanging from a window ledge.

The city council, whose offices overlook the artwork, said it will ask the public whether or not to clean off the mural or paint over it.

"We have to decide if it's public art or graffiti," said a spokeswoman. We are encouraging debate amongst residents and would like to hear people's views and comments about this latest addition to the Banksy collection."
Art student Chris Williamson, 20, said the stencil should stay.

"It's a well done, thoughtful and playful piece, and because of that it really adds to the building. The majority of graffiti is usually somebody spraying 'Dazzer woz 'ere' but this is in a completely different category and should be allowed to stay."

Bristolian Banksy is a controversial artist whose previous works have included murals on the West Bank Barrrier, and flocks of spray-painted farm animals.

He has also created spoof historical artefacts and planted them in some of the world's leading museums and galleries.

Football mad monks

Buddhist monks in Thailand are too tired to receive early morning alms because they are staying up late to watch the World Cup, a Thai newspaper reported.

The Nation quoted a woman in the northern city of Chiang Mai who said her birthday celebrations were ruined because monks at a city temple were not awake to receive her morning offering, a mandatory religious ritual in the predominately Buddhist country.

The woman, who declined to be identified, said she was told by a senior monk that most of his young colleagues were still asleep because they had stayed up to watch the games which can go on well past midnight.

The Sangha Council, which oversees the tens of thousands of Buddhist temples in Thailand, has not banned monks from watching the World Cup but said it should not interfere with religious activities.

Chiang Mai chief monk Phra Thep Wisuthikhun said he had received complaints about "inappropriate behaviour" at seven temples in the province.

"It is the duty of the abbot of each temple to supervise the behaviour of young monks, making sure that their religious activities will not be affected by the games," he told Reuters.

In neighbouring Cambodia, some 40,000 monks have been warned they could be defrocked if they became too excited while watching the games.

"If they make noise or cheer as they watch, they will lose their monkhood," Phnom Penh patriarch Non Nget told Reuters this month.