Iguanas smuggled in false leg

LOS ANGELES - A man has been charged with stealing three endangered iguanas from a nature preserve in Fiji and smuggling them into the United States in his prosthetic leg.

Jereme James, 33, faces a single count of smuggling, according to a federal indictment returned Friday in Los Angeles. The charge carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison.

Prosecutors say he stole the Fiji Island banded iguanas while visiting the South Pacific island in September 2002. He then brought the reptiles to the U.S. by hiding them in a special compartment he had constructed in his prosthetic leg, prosecutors said.

James came under scrutiny several years ago when someone informed U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials that he had several of the neon green iguanas, which are protected under an international treaty regulating trade in endangered species.

During an undercover probe, James told investigators he sold three of the iguanas for US$32,000, prosecutors said.

When a search warrant was served at his house on April 26, Fish and Wildlife agents seized four iguanas. Authorities suspect James may have bred the creatures to sell them.

"That's what we believe has been going on," Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph O. Johns said. "Mother nature has taken her course."

The seized iguanas will end up in a breeding program in the U.S., Johns said.

TV channel called Dave

TV channel UKTV G2, which shows cult comedy and game shows aimed at young men, is to be rebranded Dave.

UKTV says the new name is based on the idea that "everyone knows a bloke called Dave".

The channel, which carries shows like Never Mind The Buzzcocks and Top Gear, will be available on Freeview for the first time when it launches in October.

The move will mean Dave can be watched in 20 million homes across the country, according to UKTV.

The head of Dave, Steven North, said: "Changing the channel name to Dave enables us to create a strong and noisy personality for the channel that immediately aligns us with our core 16-34 male audience."

UKTV is a joint venture between the BBC's commercial arm, BBC Worldwide, and cable TV provider Virgin Media.

Dave, which starts up on 15 October, will replace UKTV Bright Ideas on Freeview.

Queen wins raffle

A raffle prize of two bars of soap and bath oil has been won by The Queen. Organisers couldn’t believe it when a winning ticket was pulled out with “The Queen, Buckingham Palace” written on it.

A prankster was suspected and the stub was about to be thrown away, with a redraw for the £10 prize. But a fellow punter in the summer raffle at Fox Primary School in Notting Hill, West London, revealed that the ticket WAS genuine.

A courtier at Buckingham Palace has children at the school — and the Queen offered to buy some tickets after overhearing him selling them to other workers. Her name then went into the hat with thousands of others.

A source said: “I understand Her Majesty has been formally notified about her lucky win, but has not yet come to claim her prize.”

Superman sighting

Police are investigating after villagers in Romania claimed to see a Superman-like figure flying through the sky. Almost 20 villagers, from Gemeni, Mehedinti county, claim the UFO was wearing a shiny blue suit, just like Superman’s.

Police officers took written statements from all of the witnesses and say they described the figure in the same way.

Local policeman Ion Anuta said: “We talked to people of different ages who are all reliable citizens in our village. They all said they saw this strange creature who flew over their houses in his shiny blue costume. We’ll just have to see what happens next.”
Villager Constantin Toader, 41, said: “He looked like Superman and was flying slowly at about 100 yards from the ground in a standing position. He didn’t make any smoke or sound. Just cruising around.”

Cyclist with a goal

A football fan cycled 170 miles (274km) to watch his team play only to find himself locked out of the ground. Peter Woor, 57, a lifelong Cambridge United fan, pedalled for 12 hours to cheer on his team as they played Altrincham FC last Tuesday.

However, he got lost in Leicester and by the time Mr Woor got to the ground the gates were closed. "It's a sorry tale. I was really upset because of the 3-0 win I missed," said Mr Woor, of Fulbourn, Cambridgeshire.

Mr Woor started out at 07:45 am and got to the gates at 8:20pm.

He said: "They usually open up the gates at half-time but they must have kept them banged up in there - it's a rum place. No-one heard my shouts so I went to a pub across the road. The locals were amazed by my tale and bought me a pint."

Mr Woor, a lab worker at Addenbrooke's Hospital, finally got in with 20 minutes left but missed United's three goals.

He said: "I have cycled a total of 8,000 miles to 56 different grounds. I have been late before but I've never been locked out."

A spokesman for Altrincham FC said: "We have a late gate which closes approximately 20 minutes into the game and we open the exit gates 20 minutes before the game ends. However, we do have a bell on the main gate and someone watching the game keeps an eye on it. Mr Woor should have got in."

Non á Sarkozy

Local councillors in a French village have refused to hang the official portrait of the country's president in their municipal hall. Councillors in Sannat, central France, voted five to four against putting up Nicolas Sarkozy's photograph.

The mayor, Henri Sauthon, told AFP news agency the practice was a tradition but was not mandatory. Presidential portraits are thought to feature in every one of France's 36,000 municipal halls.

"The question arose when we were offered a portrait of the president," said Mr Sauthon, an 81-year-old retired farmer and mayor of Sannat, a village of 380 inhabitants. "During our meeting on Tuesday, some said they were against hanging the picture, so we had a vote - which ruled against by five to four. Maybe we are rebels. Maybe we're a bit hard-headed. Not everyone is a yes-man," he said.

Mr Sauthon, who claims no political affiliation, says Mr Sarkozy's two predecessors, a conservative and a socialist, did not suffer the same fate.

"We had no problems in putting up Jacques Chirac, who remained on the wall alongside Francois Mitterrand," he said.

Black pudding throwing championships

Spectators and competitors gathered at a pub in Greater Manchester on Sunday for the annual World Black Pudding Throwing Championship. The competition was being held at the Royal Oak in the village of Ramsbottom, near Bury, for the third time.

The event was saved in 2003 after the previous venue - the Corner Pin pub in nearby Stubbins - closed down. Contestants aim to knock some Yorkshire puddings off a ledge 20ft (six metres) up the pub wall with a black pudding.

The winner is the person who manages to dislodge the most Yorkshire puddings with the Lancashire delicacy. Black pudding is a traditional dish made of cooked pig blood, fat and rusk, encased in a length of intestine.

The tradition dates back to the 1850s and is believed to be a revival of the Lancashire-Yorkshire rivalry. Historically Bury, now part of Greater Manchester, was in Lancashire.

One legend says the event is based on a battle during the War of the Roses. Both armies are said to have run out of ammunition and instead threw food at each other.

This years winner was Paul Rudge from Southport with 4 puds.

Forklifted

LANSING, Mich. -- Firefighters cut a hole in the side of a house and used a forklift to extricate a 900-pound man from his second-floor bedroom after a visiting nurse became worried about his health.

Rescue workers were called in Tuesday by the nurse, who determined the 33-year-old man needed medical help, Fire Chief Tom Cochran said.

Cochran said the man had not left his home since 2003.

The man's brother, who lives with him, said he suffers from Prader-Willi Syndrome, a rare genetic disorder that creates a chronic hunger feeling that can lead to overeating and life-threatening obesity.

Rescue workers brought in a forklift, high enough to raise a platform to a hole cut into the wall of the house. They covered the man with a blue tarp to shield him from onlookers and slid the platform onto a flatbed truck for a trip to Sparrow Hospital.

LIzard extraction

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Seven-year-old Finley Collins thought her pet 12-inch bearded dragon might be giving birth when she noticed an unusual protrusion near the lizard's tail.

But Finley's father, Jeff Collins, feared it might be something more ominous and rushed Mushu to an animal hospital, where a veterinarian pulled out a 7-inch toy rubber lizard.

"I've never extracted a lizard from another lizard before," said veterinarian John Rossi.

Rossi had sedated Mushu and pulled on the protrusion.

"The next thing I knew, I was seeing legs and a body and a head. It was very strange to be tugging on this thing," he said.

By the time the rubbery lizard's legs began to appear, Rossi realized what it was.

"We were all laughing," he said. "It passed completely through the entire (gastrointestinal) tract," Rossi said.

Rossi said bearded dragons, a variety of Australian lizards, often swallow such things as small suction cups, screws and dimes.

Judge ok's Hitler Youth badges

Newark - Two students in northern New Jersey can wear badges (buttons) featuring a picture of Hitler youth to protest a school uniform policy, a federal judge ruled Thursday.

U.S. District Judge Joseph A. Greenaway Jr. sided with the parents of the students, who had been threatened with suspension last fall for wearing the buttons. However, the judge added in his ruling that the boys will not be allowed to distribute the buttons at school.

Citing a 1969 case in Iowa involving students who wore black arm bands to protest the Vietnam War, Greenaway wrote that “a student may not be punished for merely expressing views unless the school has reason to believe that the speech or expression will ’materially and substantially disrupt the work and discipline of the school.”’

The buttons bear the words “no school uniforms” with a slash through them superimposed on a photo of young boys wearing identical shirts and neckerchiefs. There are no swastikas visible on the buttons, but the parties agreed that they depict members of Hitler youth.

After the suspension threat, the boys’ parents filed a federal lawsuit claiming the district stifled the children’s First Amendment free speech rights.

District lawyers asserted that the image of the Hitler youth was abhorrent because it conveyed intolerance and racial inequality represented by Nazism.

Record breaking horse

A Puerto Rican horse that can't win a race at least now has a claim to fame.

Dona Chepa, a nine-year-old brown mare, finished last in a six-horse field at Camarero Racetrack in eastern Puerto Rico on Wednesday, a 125th consecutive loss that is believed to be the longest in history.

Track spokesman Joe Bruno said Wednesday's loss surpasses an equine losing record of 0-124 set by Australian horse Ouroene, who raced from 1976-83.

There is no world governing body that tracks lack of success for horses, but Dona Chepa's penchant for losing at least beats other notable marks for futility, including Ouroene, Gloria Springs (106, Japan), Thrust (105, North America) and Quixall Crossett (103, Britain).

Dona Chepa, which comes from a distinguished line of champion racers, began her woeful ways on Valentine's Day in 2001. The closest she came to victory was in May 2003, when she finished second, Bruno said.

The star-crossed horse has still won US$12,971 despite results that include 22 fifth-place performances and 90 other finishes outside the established slots.

The last-place finish Wednesday wasn't a total loss for trainer Efrain Nieves, who received a plaque from the Camarero Racetrack to mark Dona Chepa's record-breaking streak.

Woman "invades" Sumo pit

There are claims in Japan that a 1,400-year-old tradition has been breached after a woman jumped onto the arena at a sumo tournament.

The woman stepped from the audience up onto the dohyo, the clay mound on which sumo wrestlers grapple.

She was quickly stopped by a wrestler who was between meals bouts, and was taken away by security officials.

The Sumo Association denies that the sacred tradition of keeping women out of the ring has been breached, saying the woman only set foot on the dohyo, and did not step inside the ring where the bouts take place.

The Association says it does not intend to press charges against the woman, whose motives are unclear.

Sacked for eBaying

Nine council workers have lost their jobs for spending too long on the internet auction site eBay. Three were sacked and six resigned after managers at Neath Port Talbot council found some staff were spending up to two hours a day on the website.

Union officials have blamed bosses for "putting temptation in their way" - by allowing access to the internet. The council said it carried out an investigation after officers spent a "significant time" on the internet. It highlighted "an unacceptable level of usage of shopping, entertainment".

Graham Jones, personnel chief at the council, said: "We have a policy of allowing employees to use the internet in their own time. "We know it benefits them as well as the council as they became more expert in using it and more IT-aware. But we clearly don't want them to use it in council time - at the end of the day they are employed to do a job of work not be shopping online."

The council, which employs 7,500 staff, had security software in place to prevent access to inappropriate websites such as porn sites but not eBay sites.

Unison welfare officer Mark Fisher said people got "addicted" to certain websites. "People get very involved in eBay, Sky Sports and their favourite soccer teams. It happens in many, many offices," he said. "Obviously we cannot justify people spending a couple of hours of working time looking at these sites - but temptation was put in their way," he added.

"We plan to push for the authority to make changes to its IT system, to help prevent workers landing themselves in hot water." He called for internet access be limited to lunch break and that web access should be filtered at other times.

"We want them to take temptation out of people's hands," Mr Fisher said. "These were decent well-paid jobs in admin earning between £20,000 and £25,000 a year. It is personally devastating to them to lose their jobs over this."

In-Convenienced

Police started a missing person alert for a great-grandmother - only for her to turn up 12 hours later having been locked in a public loo overnight. Gwyneth Coles, 77, of Pickering, North Yorkshire, got locked in the town's toilets after nipping in following a bus journey on Monday evening.

Although an attendant locking up shouted to check the building was empty, he failed to hear her answer. Flushed council officials apologised and sent Mrs Coles a bunch of flowers.

Mrs Coles' relatives and friends became worried when she did not return home and called North Yorkshire Police who issued a nationwide missing person alert.

"I thought, I'm here for the night, they're closed and I've been forgotten and they don't open 'til seven tomorrow morning what am I going to do?" said Mrs Coles.

The resilient great-grandmother put on four jumpers she had in her bags and settled down for a night under the tiles. She even managed to drift off to sleep for part of the night.

But salvation came when the caretaker returned at 0700 BST on Tuesday morning and found her inside. Mrs Coles said: "I couldn't tell anyone, there was no way of communicating you see. I'd no mobile phone on me, there's nothing in here, you know, emergency equipment. So I thought, nobody knows I'm here."

John Davidson of Rydale District Council said: "Very unfortunately Mrs Coles was locked into our public toilets overnight which was extremely unfortunate. "We're very sorry that this happened."

Bluetooth conviction

A vandal who ran on top of a £120,000 Lamborghini car was caught by police after video of him was sent to the vehicle's owner. Frankie Hulme, 23, trampled on the bright yellow car as it was parked in Dereham, Norfolk.

But he was caught after footage of his actions was inadvertently sent via bluetooth to an acquaintance of the car's owner.

Hulme, 23, later admitted in court to a charge of criminal damage. Businessman Neil Greentree, 38, said he had only parked the car outside a pub for 15 minutes and had driven it home without noticing the damage.

However, several days later his friend phoned to tell him about footage he and a number of other people had received on their phones via a bluetooth link.

They had all been sitting in a pub watching football when some of their phones picked up the video of Hulme on bluetooth - which allows video clips and pictures to be given to other mobile phones in the immediate vicinity.

Mr Greentree was then sent the film by his friend in the pub.

He explained: "It had the guy running over my car. I stayed calm. The roof is made of aluminium so it left a foot indentation."

He forwarded the clip to the police.

Mr Greentree, of Greentrees Adventurestore - which sells caravans and motor homes - said he had received a lot of support from people who had seen the images on the internet. "Everyone has said they are disgusted by it," he said.

"I think this has been done by just one idiot whose friends goaded him into doing it and he was stupid enough to do it." He said the damage would cost £15,000 to £20,000 to repair.

Hulme, of Scarning, was later sentenced to 100 hours of unpaid work and a four-month weekend curfew. He was also ordered to pay £1,000 in compensation.

Things to do when bored

Carbondale, Pensylvania - Authorities said a man wearing nothing but a hat tried to rob a convenience store in Carbondale. Police say the 24-year-old man charged in last month's robbery attempt often stands naked in front of the window of his apartment.

He was first arrested on an accusation of exposing himself to two women at his apartment building. Carbondale Police Sgt. Thomas Heller says the man ultimately confessed to being the one who tried to rob the store — and said he did so because he was bored.

The clerk at the store kept her cool during last month's robbery attempt. She refused to give the man money and dialed 911. The man left, still undressed, without getting any cash.

Bees know no boundaries

Bee escape

BILLINGS, Montana — Thousands of bees got loose when the truck carrying their hives ran off a highway and overturned near a Montana community, the Highway Patrol said.

State trooper Dell Aman said he was stung twice but didn’t know of anyone else who was. “The public was in no way in danger, as long as they didn’t stop to get out of their vehicles,” he said. “If they did get out, they figured out pretty quickly that that wasn’t the place to be — no pun intended.”

The truck, headed from North Dakota to California, veered into a ditch Tuesday along Interstate 94 near the exit for Huntley, a community just northeast of Billings, the Highway Patrol said.

The truck was hauling 465 beehives — nearly 13.7 million bees, Aman said. Most of the bees stayed in their hives but a “couple thousand“ got loose, he said.

The driver, Robert Esper, 66, of Winnemucca, Nev., was uninjured. Aman said Esper wasn’t speeding but was cited for alleged careless driving.

Aman said the escaped bees returned to their hives as the weather cooled in the evening. “The temperature dropped about 10 degrees while I was there, and they started going home,” he said.

On Wednesday, the hives and their trailer were at a storage yard awaiting further arrangements, said Scott Hanser of Hanser’s automotive and towing business in Billings.

Beer theft

Drinkers of Moosehead beer in Ontario are being advised to stock up on their favourite brew after thieves made off with more than 100,000 cans and bottles.

Two tractor-trailers carrying 70,000 cans and 44,000 bottles of Moosehead Lager were stolen early Wednesday morning at a transport company's facility in Mississauga, Ont.

The beer company says the retail value of the load is $200,000.

"Moosehead drinkers in Ontario would be wise to stock up today," company spokesman Joel Levesque said in a release. "We expect it may take until early next week to replenish the stolen beer."

This is the second time in three years that Moosehead has been hit with a major beer heist. In August 2004, a truck containing 50,000 cans of Moosehead Lager bound for Mexico was stolen.

Only 14,000 of the cans were ever found.

"We can't believe that of all the beer available in Canada that Moosehead would be targeted again," Levesque said.

Rear of the Year

It's a coveted title, previously achieved by such prestigious posteriors as those belonging to Charlotte Church, Denise van Outen and Ulrika Jonsson.

Now weather forecaster Sian Lloyd's beautiful behind has been deemed worthy of the Rear of the Year Award.

Neath-born Ms Lloyd, 49, beat off her younger competitors in an online poll to become the award's oldest winner.

Ms Lloyd said she was "honoured" and added: "Fifty is the new 30, I suppose."

This year's male title went to the winner of the BBC's Any Dream Will Do talent search Lee Mead.

He said: "I keep my bum in shape by plenty of gym visits - and, of course, doing eight performances of Joseph a night."