Callous!

A Spanish driver who fatally collided with a cyclist is suing the dead youth's family 20,000 Euros (£14,830) for the damage the impact of his body did to his luxury car, a Spanish newspaper reported.

Businessman Tomas Delgado says 17-year-old Enaitz Iriondo caused 14,000 Euros (£10,384) of damage to his Audi A8 in the fatal 2004 crash in La Rioja region, the El Pais newspaper reported.

Delgado, who has faced no criminal charges for the incident, wants a further 6,000 Euros (£4,450) to cover the cost of hiring another vehicle while his car was being repaired, El Pais said.

The youth had been cycling alone at night without reflective clothing or a helmet, according to a police report cited by El Pais.

His family won 33,000 Euros (£24,479)compensation from Delgado's insurance company after the firm acknowledged he had been driving at excessive speed and this could have contributed to the incident, El Pais reported.

"I'm also a victim in all of this, you can't fix the lad's problems, but you can fix mine," Delgado told the newspaper, ahead of a January 30 legal decision on his suit.

Plan to kill Hannah Montana

A teenage passenger was detained after a Southwest Airlines flight from Los Angeles landed in Nashville, an airline spokeswoman said Thursday. Nashville television stations, citing unnamed sources, said the teen unsuccessfully tried to hijack the plane to Lafayette, La., and crash it into a building where a "Hannah Montana" concert was to be performed.

Southwest Airlines spokeswoman Brandy King said the passenger was removed from Flight 284 Tuesday night by authorities at Nashville International Airport. She declined to provide additional details.

Airport spokeswoman Emily Richard confirmed there was an incident, but could not provide more information because the passenger was a minor. The teen was not identified.

WSMV and WTVF in Nashville reported the teenager boarded the plane in possession of handcuffs, rope and duct tape with intentions to hijack the plane.

Where's my house?

Returning home after an absence can mean unpleasant surprises - a leaky roof, a pet's mess, even a break-in. But a Russian woman got a nastier surprise when she returned from her country house: her home was gone, torn down mistakenly by construction workers clearing a site, according to a report Thursday on NTV television.

"There was nothing left, not even a log," Lyudmila Martemyanova said, bundled against the cold and standing on a snow-covered lot in the center of the Volga River city of Nizhny Novgorod.

A local prosecutor, Nikolai Govorkov, said a construction company tore down the wrong building - Martemyanova's, instead of one nearby that was marked for demolition.

Many Russians have faced what they say are unfair and inadequately compensated evictions from older housing being torn down amid the country's oil-revenue-fueled construction boom.

Martemyanova's case is extreme, however, and she has taken it to court. She refused the builder's offer of money, saying it wasn't enough even to get a room on the outskirts of the city, and has sued.

Court hearings started Thursday. Meanwhile, she's shuttling back and forth between her daughter's and her sister's, she told NTV.

Dream Job

While "chief beer officer" might sound like a jokey nickname for your football-watching buddy who's responsible for buying the suds every Sunday, there is at least one person in the country who has this actual job title and gets paid for it: Scott Kerkmans.

Four Points by Sheraton hired Kerkmans last winter as part of a publicity stunt -- the job opening was announced in a large ad splashed across the front page of the Wall Street Journal's Marketplace section. (In order to demonstrate its high-minded intent, the ad cautioned that "no lager louts need apply.")

Almost 8,000 people from more than 30 countries applied, with 7,000 passing the company's initial screening by correctly answering 20 beer-related questions such as "What makes a beer bitter -- the barley or the hops?" (Answer: hops.) The next round consisted of an essay and written application, with the remaining candidates being asked to produce a five-minute video of themselves discussing why they should be selected. Four Points posted the videos from four finalists on its website and asked the public to vote for a winner, and Kerkmans' video, in which he toured the brewery at Chicago’s Goose Island Beer Co., secured roughly half of the public’s 12,500 votes.

Kerkmans, a longtime beer aficionado, now finds himself in the enviable position of being required to make annual trips to Germany’s Oktoberfest, the Great American Beer Festival in Denver, and other notable beer conferences; receiving roughly a case of free beer each month to sample; and going on frequent V.I.P. tours of local breweries.

The 28-year-old Kerkmans admits that his duties are far from onerous. "I get a paycheck, but it certainly pales in comparison with the perks," he says.

After graduating, Kerkmans volunteered to do grunt work at several breweries in Salt Lake City so he could learn more about brewing, and he finally landed a job as a brewer for the Alaskan Brewing Co. in Juneau. While there, he passed a three-hour exam to become a certified beer judge, which allows him to officiate at contests, including those at the Great American Beer Festival. After returning to his hometown of Phoenix in 2005, Kerkmans worked as a sales rep for one of the country’s largest beer distributors and co-founded (with several friends) and wrote for Draft magazine, a publication about beer culture.

"It's my dream job," Kerkmans says of being C.B.O. "But then, I think it’s everyone’s dream job."

Basketball marvel

3,200 ft. High Tightrope Walk

Theft proof car stolen

It was supposed to be a theft-proof car, the pride of Berlin police force, until a thief simply drove it off.

The high-tech BMW worth $147,000 police car which is equipped with high-tech surveillance equipment and sophisticated electronic locks and immobilizers to make it theft proof, was stolen in the city's Wedding district after officers left it unlocked with the key in the ignition.

However, the Berlin police are trying to justify the fiasco saying it was stolen after the two officers had to jump out of the car to give chase to a joy-rider on foot who had abandoned a car he had stolen earlier.

Ironically, while the officers failed to apprehend the felon, they also lost the expensive BMW.

With the police at a loss on who might have stolen the expensive car, the two police officers are now facing disciplinary action.

Holy Schmidt!

Former German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt's famous fondness for tobacco has got him into trouble. The former leader lit up at a theater in Hamburg -- after the city introduced a smoking ban. Now an anti-smoking group has reported them to the police.

Helmut Schmidt, former German chancellor, former minister of defense and co-publisher of the influential weekly newspaper Die Zeit, is being accused of breaking the law -- for violating Germany's new ban on smoking in public places.

Committed smokers Helmut Schmidt and his wife Loki -- aged a lung-cancer-defying 89 and 88, respectively -- are being investigated by Hamburg public prosecutors under suspicion of breaking the smoking ban and endangering public health, the mass-circulation daily Bild reported Friday. The complaint was brought by the Wiesbaden Non-Smokers Initiative, an anti-smoking organization based in the town of Wiesbaden, near Frankfurt.

It all started at a New Year reception at the famous Hamburg theater Komödie Winterhuder Fährhaus on Jan. 6, where the Schmidts were the guests of honor. A member of staff, knowing the couple's fondness for tobacco, placed an ashtray at their table, and the Schmidt's lit up.

There was only one problem: Smoking in public buildings had been banned in Hamburg since Jan. 1.

The Wiesbaden Non-Smokers Initiative saw a photo of the couple smoking in Bild and reported the offense to the police. "We're now looking into the case," Rüdiger Bagger, spokesman for the Hamburg public prosecutor, told Bild on Friday. The anti-smoking activists also reported the manager of the theater, Michael Lang, for permitting the heathen act to transpire.

Smoking in enclosed paces is now verboten in Germany. So the German smokers are on the move, journeying not to France (where a smoking ban persists) but to Poland, historically an intrepid German’s first port of call on any freewheeling European adventure.

Mass carries on

Not even the death of a worshipper was enough to stop Mass in a small church in the northern Italian town of Trento. Pio Lieta, 86, suffered a fatal heart attack during an early-morning service at the Church of the White Madonna last Sunday.

An ambulance was called, and Mr Lieta, whose name means "pious" in Italian, was pronounced dead at the scene. However, instead of halting the Mass, Father Mario Peron asked for the body to be covered with a white cloth and left Mr Lieta in the nave of the church while he finished the service. It is against Italian law to move a body without the authorisation of a local magistrate.

"What could I have done?" said Fr Peron afterwards. "The Holy Mass has to be celebrated. It is not right to make an exception for one individual. Only people who do not understand the point of Mass would not understand the logic of my decision. We could not stop. We were united together in church and we prayed for him."

Only a handful of parishioners were present for the early-morning service, and some expressed their surprise at the priest’s decision to L’Adige, the local newspaper. "We should have stopped as a sign of respect," said one unnamed worshipper.

Mr Lieta’s funeral took place at the same church today, and his family said they were not upset by what had happened. Father Angelo Lieta, his son and a missionary in Chile, said: "My father would have agreed with the continuation of the Mass. I am only sorry I could not have been there myself."

Pac it in

They're just harmless mints - but police in the U.S. are concerned that Hershey's new Ice Breakers Pacs look too much like packets of cocaine.

Police are especially fearful that a child familiar with Ice Breakers Pacs may for whatever reason come into contact with a packet of cocaine - and mistake the cocaine for the Hershey's treat.

Needless to say, the consequences could be tragic. So the Hershey Company is stopping production of Ice Breakers Pacs, the company's president and chief executive officer said yesterday.

Hay presto!

Hiding a needle in a haystack is easy enough. But Robert Fidler kept something much bigger concealed among the piles of straw down on his farm... a castle.

Over the course of two years, he managed to secretly – and unlawfully – build the imposing mock Tudor structure in one of his fields, shielded behind a 40ft stack of hay bales covered by a huge tarpaulins. Once it was finished, he and his family moved in and lived there for four years before finally revealing the development – complete with battlements and cannons – in August 2006.

Mr Fidler claims that because the building has been there for four years with no objections, it is no longer illegal. But he is under siege from council planners, who say the castle at Honeycrock Farm, Salfords, Redhill, Surrey, will have to be knocked down.

"I can't believe they want to demolish this beautiful house," said 59-year-old Mr Fidler. "To me they are no different than vandals who just want to smash it down."

Mr Fidler, a farmer, erected the disguise in 2000 out of hundreds of 8ftx4ft bales of straw and covered the top with blue tarpaulin.

But neighbours were unimpressed. One said: "Nobody thought anything of it when the hay went up. It was presumed he was building a barn or something similar. It was a complete shock when the hay came down and this castle was in its place. Everyone else has to abide by planning laws, so why shouldn't they?"

Problems began last April when Mr Fidler, thinking he had beaten the planning system, applied for a certificate of lawfulness which is given if a property is erected but nobody objects to it after four years.

But Reigate and Banstead Council says the four-year period after which the building would be allowed to stay is void – because nobody had been given a chance to see it.
The matter will now be decided in February by the council's planning inspector, who could give the Fidlers as little as six months to tear the castle down.

Cat with 5 legs

Cats are known for having nine lives, but one feline in Pennsylvania has a little something extra somewhere else.

A black and white cat named "Baby Girl" was born with five legs as the result of inbreeding.

She's living at the Washington Area Humane Society in the Pittsburgh area until she can find a permanent home.

"Baby Girl" needs surgery to move the extra leg and another one that's crippled.

The shelter is asking for donations to cover the surgery.

Rape victim arrested

Louisiana - An Alexandria woman who reported to police that she had been raped was arrested Sunday on an outstanding warrant and booked into the Rapides Parish Jail immediately after being treated for her injuries at a local hospital.

Her charge -- a worthless check charge -- dated back to a May 24, 2004, arrest, records show. The court date regarding the $329.58 check was in December 2004.

Alexandria Police Chief Daren Coutee said that as long as there is an outstanding warrant on someone, officers have to make an arrest -- no matter the situation.
"There are no exceptions to the rule," he said.

The 27-year-old woman told police she was raped by her boyfriend Sunday morning at her home after the two had gotten into an argument late Saturday. She was booked about two hours after the reported rape, according to jail and police records released Tuesday.

Alexandria Police arrested Andrew Dawayne Howard, 19, of 2920 Levin St. in Alexandria and charged him with forcible rape and criminal damage to property in connection with the incident, authorities reported.

Howard admitted to raping the woman while being transported to the jail, telling officers he wanted to go to jail so he could be locked up with his relatives, the police report states.

He remains jailed in lieu of $75,250 bond. The rape victim was released on $10,750 bond after spending a little more than two hours in jail, according to jail personnel.

Kidnapped cow car crash

A cow kidnapped and bundled into the back of a family saloon car died after a chase in Malaysia. Thieves squeezed the cow into the back seat of a car and drove off with it, but abandoned the animal when the getaway vehicle crashed into a tree, police said.

The cow, injured in the crash, was slaughtered by villagers.

The thieves managed to push the cow into the back of a mid-sized sedan Tuesday night, but were spotted by villagers who gave chase, said a local police official in the northern state of Kedah.

He declined to be named, citing protocol. The driver lost control during the chase and drove into a tree, injuring the cow, he said. By the time villagers got to the crash site, one person was seen running from the car, but police believe more people were involved in the theft, the official said.

It was not clear how they managed to push the cow into the car or whether the animal had been sedated.

Eye eye!

A hotel guest got an eyeful in the middle of the night when he was delivered a human eyeball. The eyeball had been meant to go to a hospital for a transplant operation, but was wrongly delivered to the hotel.

The guest, at a hotel in Hobart, Tasmania in Australia, was shocked when he received the foam box containing a single human eyeball. Hotel worker Gabriel Winner told the Courier Mail newspaper the agitated guest took the eye to the reception desk.

He told the newspaper: "He got the box and signed for it and opened it in the middle of the night. I thought this is just too weird. I went and put it in the fridge because I didn't know what else to do with it. It was more than a little disconcerting."

The box was marked 'Live human organs for transplant' was delivered by mistake by an unwitting taxi driver. An Australian Air Express spokeswoman confirmed a "failure in an internal handover process" which meant the taxi driver was given the wrong package to deliver.

A health spokeswoman said despute the incident the tissue from the eye was recovered and successfully used in an operation.

Less salt solution

A generous sprinkling of salt is as much a part of the traditional fish-and-chips experience as a splash of vinegar. But in these health-conscious times, it was never going to be long before the nation's chippies came under pressure to change. To cut the amount added, a council has come up with a novel, and extremely simple, solution - cut the number of holes in the lids of salt shakers.

Takeaways are being issued with catering-sized salt pots with just five holes in the lid, rather than the usual 17 or 18, cutting the amount of salt on the average portion of chips by more than half.

However critics questioned whether councils ought to be intervening in this way, saying it ought to be down to customers to decide whether to opt for less.

Health campaigners say excess salt intake causes raised blood pressure and that encouraging people to consume no more than the recommended 6g a day would save thousands of lives a year.

They are targeting manufacturers of ready meals and fast food chains such as Pizza Hut and McDonald's, but huge amounts of salt are also routinely added to portions of chips.

Analysis of takeaway meals sprinkled with salt using the traditional 17-hole shakers found they contained up to 3.9g of salt, more than half an adult's daily limit.

The five-hole lids were devised after talks with catering equipment manufacturers, and they are now being distributed to fish-and-chip shops.

To tie in with Salt Awareness Week, which begins next Monday, Rochdale council in Greater Manchester is conducting a trial.

It has the third highest rate of early deaths from heart disease and stroke in England, both of which are linked to high blood pressure, and 13 local chip shops are being sent the new shakers, which cost about £2.30 each.

Virgin reveals new spaceship

Pictures of the commercial spacecraft that will call the New Mexico Spaceport home were released today from a hangar in California.

Virgin Galactic’s White Knight Two mothership is scheduled to begin test flights by this summer in California.

The company also unveiled scale models of the craft.

Virgin Galactic intends to start launching people into space for $200,000 a roundtrip. One-way flights are not an option the company is currently considering.

The spaceport south of Truth or Consequences remains under construction, but the state’s space authority says everything is on track to open in early 2010.

Virgin Galactic is planned to be the anchor enterprise at the spaceport.

Smuggler on a bike

Border guards in Belarus said they had foiled an attempt to smuggle 277 parrots into the ex-Soviet state – aboard a bicycle.

Spokesman Alexander Tishchenko said the smuggler abandoned his bicycle and cargo – contained in six cages – and fled back over the border into Ukraine when confronted late on Tuesday at the crossing point of Dubki.

"The cages were fixed to an ordinary bicycle. The parrots were stuffed inside like sardines, 40 to 50 to a cage," he said. "You can imagine what it was like. This was sheer barbarism. Those poor birds."

Two birds had died while the others were kept overnight at the border post.

They were then handed over to veterinary inspectors with the eventual aim of offering them to pet shops in the country of 10 million wedged between Russia and three European Union members.

Belarussian border guards last year detained a 19-year-old Russian who was trying to dig his way under the border into Poland using nothing more than a mug.)

I just thought this comment was funny

Wow! I thought I was famous appearing on Sky Sports News, BBC Wales and in The Sun newspaper, but I know I've really hit the big time being part of Dom's Weird News! Keep up the good work Dom!
Andrew Edwards, Caldicot Town AFC.

from a post "Amazing feet !" Nov 26, 2006

Heart stolen

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — The heart of a revered 19th century Argentine friar and patriot was stolen from an urn in the Franciscan monastery where it was kept for years as a religious relic, a church official said.

Whoever scooped up friar Mamerto Esquiu's heart on Tuesday left the urn it was stored in behind, said Jorge Martinez, head of the San Francisco monastery in the northwestern province of Catamarca.

"The theft was carried out because of the heart -- nothing else was stolen," he told local reporters. "It's very sad."

Witnesses reported seeing a bearded man run from the monastery around the time the heart went missing, but no one had been arrested, the Catamarca daily El Ancasti said.

Tuesday's theft marks the second time since 1990 that the friar's heart was mysteriously spirited away, the newspaper said.

Born in Catamarca in 1826, Esquiu entered the monastery at a young age and was ordained a Catholic priest in 1848. He gave stirring speeches and homilies supporting Argentine unity and its 1853 constitution, becoming a famed religious leader and patriot.

Esquiu died in 1883. When his body was exhumed for an autopsy shortly thereafter, church authorities said his heart showed no signs of decomposition. It was removed and given to the monastery where he had begun his religious studies.

Police escort for car thief

YORK, Maine — York police might initially have thought they were doing a good deed in helping escort a pregnant woman to the hospital Monday, but that turned out to be far from true.

Officers initially pulled over the car containing the woman on York Street a little after 9 p.m. because of a taillight that was out, but were told by the driver that his wife was in labor. While escorting the car – which also contained three small children, according to Sergeant Brian Curtin – to the hospital, they ran the plates and discovered that the vehicle, a 1996 Volkswagen Jetta, was stolen.

Curtin said officers allowed the driver to get the female occupant to the hospital and checked in, but there discovered the woman wasn’t even pregnant.

Eventually, police charged the driver, Richard N. Saunders, 23, of Winter Street in Somersworth with receiving stolen property.

While still at York Hospital, the not-so pregnant woman asked a woman waiting on her sick husband for a ride to the Irving station in Wells. The second woman agreed, feeling sympathy for a woman she believed to be pregnant, according to Curtin. Her good deed was ultimately punished, though, when she returned to the hospital after dropping the woman off and discovered $160 and a pack of cigarettes had been stolen from her purse. The matter was handled by the Wells police, according to Curtin.

Cow belching subsidy

A Swedish university has received $590,000 in research funds to measure the greenhouse gases released when cows belch.

About 20 cows will participate in the project run by the Swedish University for Agricultural Sciences in Uppsala, about 40 miles north of Stockholm, officials said Monday.

Cattle release methane, a greenhouse gas believed to contribute to global warming, when they digest their food. Researchers believe the level of methane released depends on the type of food the eat.

Project leader Jan Bertilsson said that the cows involved in the study will have different diets and wear a collar device measuring the methane level in the air around them.

He said 95 percent of the methane released by cows comes out through the mouth.

"This type of research is already being conducted in Canada so we will be in contact with Canadian agricultural researchers in the near future," he said.

The research will be funded by a grant from the government's Swedish Research Council for Environment, Agricultural Sciences and Spatial Planning.

Short thieves

A gang of thieves is employing Trojan Horse tactics by smuggling a 'short person' -- a dwarf or child -- on Swedish buses inside a large bag in order to ransack other bags in the luggage compartment.

Thieves are believed to have been robbing Swedish coaches by smuggling a "short person" into luggage compartments inside a large bag, the coach operator said on Tuesday.

Swebus, which operates coach services across Sweden, said cash and a number of items went missing from bags on two separate occasions this month.

"We think it is a short, young person," Ingvar Ryggasjo, sales manager for Swebus, told SPIEGEL ONLINE. "We are taking extra security measures and are thinking of installing video surveillance cameras."

He said the person is believed to have been smuggled onto the coach in a hockey equipment bag.

One woman travelling from the town of Vasteras to Stockholm reported seeing two men squeezing a large, heavy bag into the luggage space under the bus. After arriving she found a camera, purse and other items missing.

"We have got reports about several thefts on the stretch between Vasteras and Stockholm," Swebus customer services manager Pia Kravall said in a police statement. "It is very possible that a very small adult or a child is being placed in a bag in order to search through the other bags."

Rock-a-bye-Billy

Former US President Bill Clinton was filmed struggling to stay awake during a church sermon to commemorate Martin Luther King Jr.

Oops sorry mate!

A man has been accidentally shot by a rescuer who was trying to free him from the jaws of a crocodile in northern Australia. The victim, in his late 20s, was attacked by the reptile near a popular tourist spot on the Mary River south-east of Darwin.

He was flown to hospital by helicopter for emergency surgery for bite and bullet wounds. He is currently in a stable condition in hospital.

Crocodile attacks and shootings are rare in Australia. To suffer both at once is - to say the least - unfortunate.

Jason Grant was collecting crocodile eggs at a remote reptile farm when he found himself locked inside a giant set of jaws. For a few terrifying moments the animal wildly shook its victim before the intervention of a fellow worker.

He fired two shots at the saltwater crocodile. One hit the target, while the other struck the arm of his stricken colleague. It was enough though to bring the drama to an end.

The injured man was flown to hospital in Darwin, where he is recovering.

I wasn't driving, I'm dead!

Many motorists caught speeding try to claim that they weren't behind the wheel when the camera flashed. But Shafkat Munir took the dodge to a new level - by telling police he was dead.

Rather than risk losing his licence after being caught three times within weeks, he posed as a friend to inform police he had in fact been dead at the time, even sending a bogus death certificate to back up his story.

He was undone by a series of blunders, however, not least that when officers became suspicious and rang the "friend", he admitted his name was Shafkat Munir.

Yesterday the 26-year-old waiter was reflecting on the error of his ways as he began a 12-month prison sentence - and learned that had he owned up in the first place, all he would have received was fines totalling £180 and nine points on his licence.

Even his own lawyer described his attempt to evade justice as "pathetic". He said he feared losing his job as a waiter if he lost his licence and being unable to take his wife for IVF treatment at hospital in Leeds - which has subsequently led to her becoming pregnant.

However the court was told that as he had no points on his licence, the three speeding offences would not have been enough to see him banned.

Michael Gleeson, in mitigation, said his client had made a "pathetic attempt" to escape justice which was never going to be successful.

Munir was jailed for 12 months after admitting three counts of attempting to pervert the course of justice. He was also banned from driving for 18 months.

"No dogs allowed"

A goth, who likes to take his fiancee out for a stroll on a leash, claims that a bus driver told them "no dogs allowed" and banned them from boarding. Dani Graves, 25, and his girlfriend dress all in black and like to take unusual walks, but the pair have been branded "freaks" and pushed off buses.

He and Tasha Maltby, 19, were told they could not travel on the bus service and believe they have been targeted by the same driver three times.

Gothic Dani claims the driver said: "We don't let freaks and dogs like you on."

He said the incident, which was alleged to have happened in early December, took place when he and Tasha went to Dewsbury bus station.

An off-duty bus driver, who was also on the service, was still in uniform and allegedly pushed Dani off the bus and refused service to the couple.

He said: "He shoved me off the bus. He called us freaks and he called Tasha a dog. He said, 'we don't let freaks and dogs like you on'.

"He basically grabbed my T-shirt and slammed me backwards. I got a bit angry and called him a fascist pig."

Dani, from Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, reported him to the manager at the bus depot, who said his complaint would be dealt with but added that despite his complaints, the same driver shook his head at couple as they approached his bus a few weeks later.

He said that after showing their bus passes and sitting down the driver refused to let any other passengers on until they got off. They refused to get off the bus but were eventually forced off after being threatened with police action.

A third incident occurred last week, when he was waiting for a bus, this time alone. He said he held out his arm to flag it down, but the same driver smiled and drove past.

May the farce be with you

Two Star Wars-loving brothers planning a Jedi church hope it will be much nearer than a galaxy far, far away. Barney and Daniel Jones want fellow devotees to be able to join them close to their home on Anglesey.

Barney, 26 - or Master Jonba Hehol - and Daniel, 21 - Master Morda Hehol - head the UK Church of the Jedi, in honour of the film's good knights. They say their services will include sermons on "the Force," light sabre training, and meditation techniques.

Hairdresser Barney became interested in the Jedi faith after 390,000 other Star Wars fans across England and Wales declared it as their religion on the 2001 census. An internet campaign was fought to see Jedi officially included in the list and although this did not happen, collators included a special code to register the Jedis.

He said: "As children we always watched the Star Wars films anyway. We noticed that there were a couple of sites on the internet, Jedi church sites. We printed off a couple of sermons and did a sermon in our house for a couple of friends one night."

Barney and his musician brother Daniel, from Holyhead, help run four websites devoted to the development of the "faith".

They plan to go to the official opening of a Surrey-based branch or "chapter" of the UK Church of the Jedi in April, and hope to hire an Anglesey venue for their own services.

Already six followers regularly meet in north Wales to discuss setting up the "church".

Cookery lessons compulsory

Cookery lessons are to be compulsory in England's secondary schools for children aged 11 to 14. Pupils will learn to cook for an hour a week for one term. Poorer pupils' ingredients will be subsidised.

Cookery is a ministerial "expectation" but, as an optional part of the design and technology curriculum, is not currently taught in all schools. The move is part of the strategy to tackle obesity, as experts believe 1m children will be obese in a decade.

The Department for Children, Schools and Families says that about 85% of secondary schools do offer cookery in some form.

It wants those schools to make the change immediately, and the rest by 2011. The aim is to train higher level teaching assistants to do some of the teaching and to recruit more food technology teachers.

Schools Secretary Ed Balls wants to see 800 cookery teachers trained.

Speaking on BBC One's Breakfast programme, Mr Balls said the plan was tied in with the government's strategy to tackle obesity and improve people's health.

"I think it is important to act now and maybe we should have acted earlier," he said.

Keystone robbers

An Australian judge on Monday described a pair of bumbling thieves, who stole a bag of bread rolls from a restaurant before one of them accidentally shot his accomplice, as "Keystone robbers."

Benjamin Jorgensen and Donna Hayes attempted to rob the Cuckoo Restaurant in Melbourne on April Fool's Day last year, but escaped with the wrong kind of dough when they mistook a bag of bread for the day's takings, the Victorian County Court heard.

But the mistakes did not end there -- Jorgensen, 38, then made for the wrong getaway car before accidentally shooting Hayes, 36, in the hip.

"I've heard of the Keystone Cops -- this is Keystone Robbers," Judge Roland Williams told the court.

Jorgensen and Hayes have pleaded guilty to armed robbery, the Australian Associated Press reported.

Jorgensen has also pleaded guilty to negligently causing serious injury over the sloppy shooting, which saw Hayes hospitalised for a month, it said.

Hero

A BOY has been hailed a hero after he gave his father mouth-to-mouth and ran 3km for help when their car rolled over. Lachlan "Lochie" Nally, 11, saw that dad Matthew's chest wasn't moving after their car rolled in the South Australian north yesterday.

The brave boy, who suffered minor injuries, performed CPR on his father then ran barefoot 3km to the Koolunga hotel. He bashed on the door and woke the owner, who called an ambulance.

"I went back to the pub because they were the only people I knew in Koolunga . . . I was scared and it was pitch black and I couldn't see anything," Lochie said yesterday.

Mum Kim March described her son as fearless and as someone who would help anyone.

"He jumped out the car window and he ran for help and that just blew me away," she said. "For 3km, and it's pitch dark by yourself -- for a little boy it's amazing. I told him he's saved his dad's life . . . I am just ecstatic he did a fantastic job. I'm very proud of him."

Chief Insp Graham Goodwin said it was "one of the most heroic acts I've seen".

"As you can imagine he's been in a very serious collision so that's distressing in itself," he said. He said Lochie's bravery should be recognised.

Police are investigating the circumstances of the accident.

Mr Nally, 36, is in a serious condition in an Adelaide hospital.

Girl scout earns EVERY badge

In a time when many kids flutter from activity to activity, Katherine Tuggle stands out as a model of commitment. For the past three years, the Girl Scout has worked toward a singular goal — collecting every badge available.

Katherine Tuggle, a home-schooled sixth-grader in Roswell, has earned every possible badge for a Girl Scout, that's 104 in all.

To that end, among other things, Katherine, 11, has cooked supper over a backyard fire pit, hiked a trail using a compass, sampled exotic fruits and vegetables, taught her dog to shake hands and tackled ice skating.

And, of course, she sells the famous Girl Scout cookies every year.

Most of the badges required reading and researching topics, as well as physical activities. When the small circular badges grew to cover her green sash, she started affixing them to a bookbag. Katherine, who lives in Roswell, is home schooled.

Read more & a Q&A HERE

Goodbyetothenormals

Drunk in any language

An Ontario judge has dismissed impaired driving charges against a man stopped by police just north of Toronto, because he was not immediately provided with a Spanish-speaking interpreter to help decide whether to call a lawyer.

Rafael Peralta-Brito was unable to fully understand his right to counsel when he was stopped by York Regional Police after making an erratic turn at about 2:30 a.m. on March 19, 2006.

"It is not sufficient for a police officer upon the arrest or detention of a person to merely recite the rights guaranteed by Section 10 of the Charter," said Justice Peter Tetley. "The accused or detainee must understand what is being said to him by the police officer," said the provincial court judge in a ruling issued Jan. 7.

The officer who stopped Peralta-Brito testified he could smell alcohol on the suspect's breath. When asked if he had been drinking, "no, no, I not drink nothing," responded Peralta-Brito.

He told police he did not need a lawyer and agreed to take a roadside breathalyzer, which he failed.

While the suspect had a "thick Spanish accent," the officers said he answered them in English and appeared to understand what was said.

It was after he was taken to a holding cell that Peralta-Brito said police should have put him in contact with a lawyer earlier.

Peralta-Brito, who is 35 and came to Canada from the Dominican Republic in 1993, testified that he has a "working knowledge" of English, but has limited comprehension of complex terms.

In his ruling, Tetley said he had "significant reservations" about the defendant's "professed limited ability" with the English language.

Snakes on a plane II

Vietnam has seized more than a ton of ratsnakes found aboard a Vietnam Airlines flight from Bangkok, the second time in about a month such snakes were found in air cargo to Vietnam.

The snakes - scientific name Ptyas Mucosus and a protected species - were found in more than 60 boxes that arrived in Hanoi's Noi Bai airport on Thursday, the Vietnam News Agency quoted officials as saying.

"There is a great possibility that Vietnam is only a transit point of the cargo," it said, adding that the snakes were transferred to an animal caring station nearby.

Last month, the airport authorities also seized 1,550 pounds of snakes aboard a Thai Airways flight to Hanoi, it said.

The Street With No Name

It might not appear in any A to Z or guide book, but that hasn’t stopped tourists arriving in droves at the Street With No Name.

Staff at Levenshulme station say a growing number of visitors to the city have been stopping off at the unnamed Levenshulme street to have their picture taken with its infamous sign.

Despite being created more than 160 years ago the street has never had an official title. Neighbours began to refer to it as The Street With No Name and over the decades it stuck.

As recognition of its unique status, nearby residents put up a sign bearing the curious moniker last May. Sadly, it disappeared later in the summer but at the end of last year was replaced with a new larger sign installed 12 feet off the ground to discourage thieves.

Steve Lambert, supervisor at Levenshulme station, said that dozens of people had turned up at the site to see the sign for themselves.

He said: "It was really funny seeing people crowding round and smiling when they get their pictures taken. It is nice too to think that Levenshulme is on a tourist trail. Now that we’ve got a new sign, people are starting to come back again so hopefully we can get more who want to come. It’s a one-off really and I’ve not heard of anywhere else like it, so who knows, maybe we could even have a tourist shop or cafe one day. It’s great to have the new sign because the last one being stolen was a real loss to us. It’s going to put us back on the tourist map again because we used to get lots of people coming to have their picture with it - even Japanese and Chinese tourists.

Tuk-tuk demise

A fleet of 12 motorised rickshaws that were launched in the Sussex city of Brighton and Hove two years ago are to be taken off the roads for good. TucTuc Ltd director Dominic Ponniah said they had become impossible to run due to "archaic legislation".

He said the system where the tuk-tuks had to run to a timetable had proved to be too rigid for the company.

"We have decided to resign our licence as the current situation is just not workable," he said.

"We have really pushed for new legislation to be put in place to accommodate alternative types of vehicles." He added: "There is obviously a market for them, but they can't be licensed in the appropriate way."

Wood you believe it!?

Thousands of pieces of timber have been washed up on the beaches across southern England after a cargo ship sank off the Dorset coast. Coastguards said the timber, several feet deep on the tide line, now stretched along the Sussex coast and was moving east towards Kent's coast.

The Greek-registered Ice Prince sunk about 26 miles (42km) off the coast after a storm. More than 2,000 tonnes of timber have drifted 100 miles through the Channel. Solent coastguard said timber had washed up all the way from Littlehampton in West Sussex to Beachy Head in East Sussex.

He said: "What's there on the beach will stay until it is removed by contractors authorised by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency. Any other wood in the Channel will move to and fro with the tides."

He said coastguards were unable to predict where timber in the water would drift, because it could depend on whether it was affected by the wind.

Dover coastguard used an aircraft on Monday to assess how far the timber had travelled. West Sussex County Council said there were unconfirmed reports of minor damage to sea defences.

It said people taking the wood had become a "serious problem".

A spokesman said: "Lots of people have been turning up, including men in vans taking a load - a significant number of people."

Sussex Police have issued a warning to say removing the timber is unlawful, and if people continue to take the wood, they could be liable to prosecution and arrest under the Merchant Shipping Act.

Worthing beach was closed at the weekend to allow heavy machinery to remove the washed-up cargo.

Street Jury

WELD COUNTY, Colo. -- Some folks who just happened to be out on the streets of Greeley got a surprise Wednesday morning. They were handed a subpeona for jury duty.

Court officials say they summoned 200 people to report for jury duty on Wednesday, but only 39 people showed up. The court had to improvise. "It's sad when we as citizens don't accept our obligations," said Weld County District Attorney Ken Buck.

Weld County officials said this is the second time this week they've had a problem seating a jury.

"It is a great inconvenience for the prosecution, the defendant, the defense counsel, the staff, the judge, witnesses, many of which have come in from out of town to testify in the case, so it's a huge inconvenience to a lot of people when jurors don't show up and for the jurors summoned forthwith off the street, it's an inconvenience to them as well," said Buck.

When you can't seat a jury, court cases can't move forward, he said.

It delays the entire judicial process and Buck believes it's everyone's duty.

"It's an obligation to sit on our jury because our judicial system guarantees justice," said Buck.

This isn't the only time there has been a problem with jurors showing up. It also happened in December.

Bull

It was quite a traffic stop for officers in South St. Paul, Minn. Friday as a bull was loose on Interstate 494. A traffic management camera showed police as they were trying to round up a bull.

The bull jumped three pens to get out of the Central Livestock Association then it wandered onto I-494. Officers tried to keep the bull from jumping the median with the help of a driver in a tow truck.

The bull also tried to ram one officer who got out of his car to try to stop the bull.

The animal weighs nearly 1900 pounds. The bull eventually wandered into a neighborhood, where police said they had to shoot and kill it to make sure it didn't hurt anyone.

Rabbit adopts kittens

Six abandoned kittens have found an unexpected new mother figure - a pet rabbit. Veterinary nurse Melanie Humble took the three-week-old kittens to her Aberdeen home.

The kittens seemed to think Summer the rabbit was their mother and began to climb all over her and try to feed from her. Efforts will be made to find the four males and two females permanent homes in the coming weeks.

Melanie, 29, told the BBC Scotland news website: "The abandoned kittens were handed in when they were about three weeks old and I took them home. Summer the rabbit was taken inside on Bonfire Night because of the fireworks and the kittens seemed to really like her and thought she was their mother."

She added: "They were trying to get milk from her and climbing over her. And Summer was not bothered by them at all. Summer is five months old and she's gigantic. It is lovely to see them all together. They are all doing well and Cats Protection will re-home them."

What's in a name?

MIGRANTS who come to the UK are abandoning more than just their homeland. Thousands of new arrivals are adopting common British names to avoid discrimination or just poor pronunciation.

Arabic names such as Karim and Muhammad are being changed to Kevin and Michael, while Indians bearing the surname Shital prefer to be known as Sheet.

The trend is part of a boom in name changing, fuelled by websites that allow people legally to rename themselves by deed poll within a few hours, usually for about £30.

Chinese people have anglicised their names by adding prefixes such as John, Jason and Sue.

In one instance, a refugee from Uzbekistan called Avlar Jon Akherov became Adrian Barry Roberts. In another case, a young Polish woman with an 18-letter surname opted for the brevity of one of Britain’s most common names - Hall.

“We saw a lot of Muslims change their names after the 9/11 attacks, but in the past few years it’s become much more widespread,” said Mike Barratt, chief executive of the UK Deed Poll Service.

“Often people are just sick and tired of having their names mispronounced. We’re seeing a 20% increase, year-on-year.”

About 70,000 people will change their name using either the UK Deed Poll Service or the Name Change Company this year, two of the most popular services in Britain. In 2001, it was fewer than 20,000.

Black just got blacker

US researchers say they have made the darkest material on Earth, a substance so black it absorbs more than 99.9 per cent of light.

Made from tiny tubes of carbon standing on end, this material is almost 30 times darker than a carbon substance used by the US National Institute of Standards and Technology as the current benchmark of blackness.

And the material is close to the long-sought ideal black, which could absorb all colours of light and reflect none.

"All the light that goes in is basically absorbed," said Pulickel Ajayan, who led the research team at Rice University in Houston.

"It is almost pushing the limit of how much light can be absorbed into one material."

The substance has a total reflective index of 0.045 per cent - which is more than three times darker than the nickel-phosphorous alloy that now holds the record as the world's darkest material.

Basic black paint, by comparison, has a reflective index of 5 per cent to 10 per cent.

The researchers are seeking a world's darkest material designation by Guinness World Records.

Spiked muffins

Repentigny, Quebec. - Seven students and a teacher are recovering in hospital after consuming baked goods that may have contained a strong concentration of cannabis.

Police in Repentigny, near Montreal, say the class was celebrating the end of a course at a trade school this morning when students began to fall ill. Police spokesman Guy Belair says an 18-year-old student brought the muffins to class.

Belair says the student could face a wide range of charges including drug-related accusations.

The eight people, the majority of them between 16 and 18, were taken to Pierre-Le-Gardeur Hospital in Repentigny, but officials say they're doing well.

Belair says the muffins will be analyzed to determine what exactly the students and teacher ingested.

Teen spree

A teenager who posed as a wealthy playboy and went on a spending spree at a Japanese area nightclub has been arrested after trying to skip out on his bill.

Authorities say that over the course of six hours Wednesday night the 16 year old boy ordered two bottles of Dom Perignon champagne as well as 60 glasses of whiskey, beer and cocktails.

Police say when it was time to pay the bill, which had ballooned to $3,490, the boy told the staff he had no money.

A police spokesman says staff at the club were shocked to learn the boy's age because he seemed mature and experienced when ordering drinks and talking with hostesses.

The spokesman says the teen was dressed in casual clothes, but obviously successfully gave staff the impression of a rich young man.

Alcohol consumption is prohibited for those under 20 in Japan.

Russians shoot "small" missile into house

A homeowner in Russia got a fun surprise, when the Russian military accidentally fired a missile into his house.

Russia's military offered compensation to him on Thursday, after the missile veered off course during a training exercise. The fact that is was described as a 'small rocket' is presumably a relief to the man.

Russian Internet chatrooms were buzzing late Wednesday after local news agencies reported that 'an unidentified flying object dropped two bombs near Moscow.'

A defense ministry official told Reuters two rockets had gone astray during a military exercise near Moscow on Wednesday afternoon. One hit the roof of an unoccupied house 2.2 miles away.

'The damage is estimated at 60,000 rubles (£1,250). It will be compensated for in two days,' said Yevgeny Konashenkov, spokesman for Russian land troops.

'The owner of the house treats the incident with understanding. He has no legal claims.'

Luckily for the nearby compound of cottage houses, the rockets had disconnected at launch from the load of explosives which they normally carry to clear minefields.

Toothpaste killed girl

A British couple say their daughter died of a severe allergic reaction to toothpaste, although a coroner's inquest ended with an open verdict.

Francesca Sanna's parents, who live in Oswaldtwistle, England, say she had complained for some days before her death that her gums hurt, the Daily Mail reported. She went into anaphylactic shock just after brushing her teeth.

Coroner Carolyn Singleton refused to blame the toothpaste, saying only that Sanna, 19, died of shock and an allergic reaction.

"She must have come into contact with or ingested something that caused her death," Singleton said. "She was a young lady who was very careful. She knew what she could and could not touch."

Sanna's mother said after the verdict that she thinks the Aquafresh Mild & Minty toothpaste, which has redesigned packaging, might have added something that triggered the reaction. A spokeswoman for the manufacturer, GlaxoSmithKline, said the formula has not changed.

Sanna's mother said her daughter, who suffered from multiple allergies, might have developed a new sensitivity.

Wrong place, wrong time

A would-be Canadian robber picked the wrong place at the wrong time this week, attempting to hit a liquor store -- right across the street from a police station in the midst of a shift change.

Police in the western Canadian city of Edmonton, Alberta, said a man wearing a ski mask walked into the liquor store and demanded cash. The clerk refused to co-operate and the man, unable to fill his pockets, fled the store.

The clerk called the police just as the station was packed with officers preparing for the shift change.

Several of them just walked to the store parking lot and arrested the man there.

The 37-year-old has been charged with attempted robbery.

Mitterand's wardrobe up for sale

The widow of late French President Francois Mitterrand is putting many of his clothes and personal effects up for sale 12 years after his death, including silk suits, top hats, crocodile-skin cases and a shapely piggy-bank.
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The January 29 auction throws a spotlight on the Socialist leader's love of luxury and an apparent penchant for hoarding.

Among the 367 lots that the Tajan auctioneers expect to sell are around 100 shirts, some 60 suits and a selection of gifts from international leaders, such as Cuba's Fidel Castro.

Much of Danielle Mitterrand's own wardrobe is also going under the hammer as she aims to raise up to 100,000 euros ($146,600) for her human rights charity.

The sales organiser Benedicte Blondeau-Wattel told Reuters it was hard to tell if Mitterrand, who governed France from 1981-1995, had accumulated more clothes than other presidents.

"It is the first time that we have auctioned the wardrobe of a president of the republic. I haven't had access to any of the others' (wardrobes) so I can't make any comparisons," she said.

Mitterrand died in January 1996 and Danielle has stored all his clothes in her Paris flat ever since.

$10m note

The central bank of the southern African country has a issued a 10million Zimbabwe dollar note. The move increases the denomination of the nation's highest bank note more than tenfold.

Even so, a hamburger in an ordinary cafe in Zimbabwe costs 15 million Zimbabwe dollars. The hope is that such a move will help end chronic cash shortages and disperse long, chaotic lines at banks and automated teller machines.

Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono said in a statement the 10 million Zimbabwe dollars notes will be issued along with 1 million and 5 million Zimbabwe dollars bills. Previously, the highest existing note, introduced last month, was for 750,000 Zimbabwe dollars.

The new 10 million note is the equivalent of about £2 at the dominant black market exchange rate. A hamburger at an ordinary cafe costs about 15 million Zimbabwe dollars (£3).

That hamburger has trebled in price this month amid shortages of bread, meat and most basic goods. Zimbabwe faces the world's highest official inflation of an estimated 25,000%. Independent financial institutions say real inflation is closer to 150,000%.

Acknowledging the inflation crisis, Gono said individuals would be allowed to withdraw an increased limit of 500 million Zimbabwe dollars (£100) in a single daily withdrawal, up from 50 million (£10).

He said special arrangements were being made to pay soldiers, police and other uniformed services "because it is not desirable to see them queuing for cash".

Gono said with higher denomination bills businesses might be tempted to again raise prices of scarce goods. "If this happens the whole objective of solving the cash shortages and to bring convenience to the people will be defeated," he said.

Will to neighbours

Farmer Willis Hatch and his schoolteacher wife, Arlene, lived simply but blissfully together for 57 years before dying in an auto accident in November.

Now, about 70 of their friends and neighbors are surprised to find themselves a collective $1.6 million richer as the beneficiaries of the late couple's frugality and generosity.

The recipients of their generosity were bequeathed certificates of deposit ranging in value from $5,000 to more than $100,000. The couple's estate was valued at $2.9 million and included the CDs, the farm and some stocks.

"Isn't that something?" said Sandra VanWeelden, 72, whose family, including three grown children, received about $250,000 from the Hatches, who never had children of their own and lived into their early 90s.

Before they retired, Willis — known to his friends as "Ish" — worked their 80-acre farm just south of Lowell, and Arlene taught at Lowell Middle School.

The couple went everywhere together: church services, community pancake breakfasts, school plays. They enjoyed winter trips to Brownsville, Texas, but allowed themselves few other luxuries.

"They was normal people, good people," Harry Erickson, 72, told The Grand Rapids Press for a story published Thursday. "And it didn't matter to them if you had one dollar or 10, they'd be your friend."

Judging by the amount of money they doled out, the couple had many friends, including fellow parishioners at Alto United Methodist Church, where many of the beneficiaries are members.

"We, the whole church, are obviously grateful to them, and grateful to God that he gave them to us," said the Rev. Dean Bailey.

Added Bailey's wife, Jan: "They left a lot to the people they'd loved, and I think everybody was surprised."

That included the Baileys, who were notified that the Hatches had left the church about $50,000 toward a fund trying to raise $800,000 for a new building. Their gift, said the pastor, represents "about a year's worth of our fundraising capability."

Burglar finds corpse

A Berlin burglar's break-in took an unexpected turn when he stumbled upon a corpse and felt compelled to call the police.

"He called to say he'd just broken into a flat and found a dead body," said a spokeswoman for Berlin police. "He gave the address of the place and then hung up."

Officers discovered the 64-year-old resident of the flat dead in his bedroom. The man had passed away about two weeks ago, and authorities are not treating the death as suspicious.

The burglar has not been heard of since. Local media said he fled the flat empty-handed, but police could not confirm this.

Britain's oldest triplets

Britain's longest-surviving male triplets will celebrate their 80th birthday tomorrow - and their friends still can't tell them apart. Identical brothers Idwal, Ivor and Morgan Llewellyn share a deep bond.

Morgan said: "We are as close now as when we were little boys - and we help to keep each other young. They wanted to put 240 candles on our cake and we would have no trouble blowing them out. We've still got plenty of puff!"

Retired industrial chemist Morgan recalls a fellow Welshman spotted him in a bar in Greece and shouted: "Hello Ivor".

Widower Morgan said: "It took me the rest of the fortnight's holiday to convince him I wasn't my brother."

All three have celebrated golden weddings but sadly Morgan's wife Pamela and Ivor's wife Megan have died leaving Idwal's wife Vera as the surviving spouse.

Church sign removed

A Canadian church's attempt to inspire attendance with a suggestive message on its sign has backfired and the double-entendre has been removed.

The sign at the Heart Lake United Church in Brampton read "Lying in bed shouting Oh God doesn't constitute going to church."

Nicole Cedrone told the Brampton Guardian she was glad her daughter, 11, was not in the car with her when she read the sign. Cedrone called the sign "offensive" placed outside a church.

"If it was said at a party with adults, it's funny, but our children are exposed to enough of this kind of thing," she added.

Cedrone called the church and a local official and got what she wanted. Church officials said they did not realize the sign might be offensive.

Unwashed ruling

A Norwegian court ruled that an Oslo nursing home cannot forcibly bathe the "cave man," a patient reportedly with a Neanderthal standard of personal hygiene.

The 54-year-old man, who was kicked out of student housing at the University of Oslo in the 1970s because of his smell, lived in a cave for a while near the university campus. But his lawyer told Norwegian Broadcasting that his client has a right to make his own decisions.

"He has waited a long time and can now finally decide over his own body," lawyer Nils Nordhus said.

The man was taken to a municipal nursing home to be treated for infections that appear to be at least partly a consequence of his lifestyle. At one point, he lived in a garbage dump, Norwegian Broadcasting said.

Sylvi Listhaug, the director of municipal nursing services, said that washing and cleaning the patient's legs is a necessary part of treating his sores. She said he also poses a risk of infection to other patients and staff.

Nordhus wants his client to be treated in a more "appropriate" setting but he couldn't suggest one when asked where that might be, Norwegian Broadcasting said.

Mao ad withdrawn

French carmaker Citroen has withdrawn an ad featuring a doctored portrait of former Chinese leader Mao Zedong, after complaints it was an insult. In the ad, carried in Spanish newspaper El Pais, Mao scowls at a hatchback.

"It's true, we are leaders, but at Citroen the revolution never stops," reads the text below the portrait.

Citroen apologised for the "inappropriate" ad, which Chinese chatroom users had complained "hurts our national pride".

"This is no small thing," said one visitor to a chatroom about the ad - based on the famous portrait of Mao which hangs in Beijing's Tiananmen Square. "It has an influence on the whole country. It damages the whole Chinese people."

Another writer pointed out that other national leaders - such as US President George W Bush - had also been made fun of in the media. "But our traditions and customs must nonetheless be respected," the writer added.

Nearly 32 years after his death, Chairman Mao remains revered by some Chinese, despite his promotion of policies such as "Great Leap Forward" which ended in the deaths of millions, and the profound social and economic changes China has since seen.

Tambourine removed from girls head

Firefighters had to use equipment usually kept for cutting people out of car accidents to release a toddler with a tambourine stuck on her head today.

A fire crew from High Wycombe were called to Marlow Methodist Church, Spittal Street to release the musical instrument from the young girl's head just before 11am.

Crew manager Graham Danbury said: "I think she was about two years old at a play group in Marlow. She had been playing with a plastic round tambourine with a hole in the middle. It had obviously got over her head.

"Parents and members of staff tried to release it and her head had started to swell that's when they decided to call us. She was in a distressed state. We used hydraulic cutting gear normally used for cutting people out of road accidents. The poor girl took one look at it and started to cry again."

Mr Danbury described how the team put a towel covering her head to stop the tambourine shattering while they cut her free.

He added: "It was an unusual incident. I have never seen a tambourine on a head in the 12 years I have been doing the job. At the end of it, all worked out

Man wearing a snake arrested

A man has been arrested in America for walking down a road wrapped in a giant snake.

The man, identified as Curtis Dewberry, 35, was seen strolling merrily down the highway in Mastic, New York on Tuesday, with a 14-foot python wrapped around his body.

Dewberry was spotted by an officer from the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, who – being perturbed by the sight of a man walking down the road wrapped in python – called the police.

Pythons are considered a danger to the public.

The police arrived, and arrested Dewberry, who has now been charged with animal cruelty and failure to protect the public against dangerous wildlife.

The snake was not available for comment.

End of the road for cooker

A keen cook who has used the same oven for 58 years hopes to trade it in for a modern model – after the hotplate broke and no one could fix it.

Dorothy Phoenix, of Myrtle Grove, Barkis-land, West Yorkshire, bought the Revo cooker from her local electricity board when she married in 1949. She said things were built to last in those days and had hoped the oven would outlive her.

"I was sure the oven would see me out," Dorothy. "I'd be devastated if it ended up at the tip. I'm not sure anyone would want to use it these days. It should be a museum piece. I just want it to go to a good home"

Dorothy, who used to work at Lloyds Bank and HBOS, bought the cooker from the Yorkshire Electricity Board shop in Halifax after she married her late husband Peter.

"It was brand new and state-of-the-art. At the time, everything in the shops was green and cream. I have no idea how much it was, but we had saved up for it. I have cooked many family meals on it – a lot of roast dinners and Christmas cakes. I have always liked cooking. And it has never broken down. The only problem has been finding a bulb for the red temperature light. I do like old things, my couch is 25 years older than the oven. But I want a modern cooker."

Barking mad computer

Computer programs may be the most accurate tool for studying acoustic communications amongst animals, according to Csaba Molnár from Eötvös Loránd University in Hungary and his research team. Their research shows that a new piece of software is able to classify dog barks according to different situations and even identify barks from individual dogs, a task humans find challenging.

The aim of Molnár and colleagues’ experiments was to test a computer algorithm’s ability to identify and differentiate the acoustic features of dog barks, and classify them according to different contexts and individual dogs. The software analyzed more than 6000 barks from 14 Hungarian sheepdogs (Mudi breed) in six different situations: ‘stranger’, ‘fight’, ‘walk’, ‘alone’, ‘ball’ and ‘play’. The barks were recorded with a tape recorder before being transferred to the computer, where they were digitalized and individual bark sounds were coded, classified and evaluated.

In the first experiment looking at classification of barks into different situations, the software correctly classified the barks in 43 percent of cases. The best recognition rates were achieved for ‘fight’ and ‘stranger’ contexts, and the poorest rate was achieved when categorizing ‘play’ barks. These findings suggest that the different motivational states of dogs in aggressive, friendly or submissive contexts may result in acoustically different barks.

In the second experiment looking at the recognition of individual dogs, the algorithm correctly classified the barks in 52 percent of cases. The software could reliably discriminate among individual dogs while humans can not, which suggests that there are individual differences in barks of dogs even though humans are not able to recognise them.

Father tapes Packers jersey to son

Upset that his 7-year-old son wouldn't wear a Green Bay Packers jersey during the team's playoff victory Saturday, a man restrained the boy for an hour with tape and taped the jersey onto him.

Mathew Kowald was cited for disorderly conduct in connection with the incident with his son at their home in Pardeeville, Lt. Wayne Smith of the Columbia County Sheriff's Department said. Pardeeville is about 30 miles north of Madison.

The 36-year-old Kowald was arrested Monday after his wife told authorities about the incident. Kowald was taken to the county jail and held until Wednesday, when he pleaded no contest, paid a fine of $186 and was released.

Kowald's wife filed a restraining order Wednesday, so Kowald will not be able to have contact with his family, Smith said. Smith said other domestic issues have surfaced, though he wouldn't elaborate.

The boy refused to wear the jersey Saturday, when the Packers beat the Seattle Seahawks in a playoff game, Smith said. Smith said the incident sounded strange when reported at first, but the mother took pictures with her cell phone and that type of evidence is difficult to dispute.

Kowald, contacted later Wednesday by the Portage Daily Register, said the incident started as a joke. His son challenged him by saying he wouldn't root for the Packers. When he tied the boy up, the youngster was laughing while his wife took pictures, he said.

"Then he couldn't get out and he got upset and that's it. It lasted a minute," he said. "I didn't mean no harm, and he knows that, but I haven't been able to tell him that."

District Attorney Jane Kohlwey said there wasn't enough evidence to support felony charges.

"I wouldn't agree with what he did, but legally a parent can restrain a child," she said. "I have no proof of emotional damage. ... I have to follow the law.

One ton rodent

Scientists in Uruguay have found the fossil remains of a 1 tonne rodent that lived 2 million to 4 million years ago – the largest rodent ever found.

The giant creature probably ate soft food such as fruit or tender plants, Andres Rinderknecht and Ernesto Blanco of the National Museum of Natural History in Montevideo reported on Wednesday.

"We report the discovery of an exceptionally well preserved fossil skull of a new species of rodent, by far the largest ever recorded," they wrote in a report in Britain's Proceedings of the Royal Society.

"Rodents are a very successful group of mammals living almost worldwide and with small body masses (generally less than 1 kg or 2.2 pounds)," they wrote.

"However, our work suggests that 4 million years ago in South America, rodents with 1 tonne of body mass (a 'mouse' larger than a bull) lived with terror birds, saber-toothed cats, ground sloths and giant armoured mammals among others."

They have named the fossil Josephoartigasia monesi. They dug it out of rock along the Rio Plata and said they were amazed at its size.

But it had small teeth and weak jawbones.

"These features suggest that J. monesi had weak masticatory muscles for grinding food and probably did not have the abrasive diet typical of other (similar) rodents," they wrote.

"Palaeobiologically this could imply a diet composed of soft vegetation and perhaps fruit."

The largest living rodent is the carpincho or capybara found in parts of South America. They can grow to about 60 kg(132lbs).

Language to die with woman

Plans are being made to extend medical help to an octogenarian woman in Nepal who is the last known speaker of a minority language. None of the rest of Soma Devi Dura's family speak Dura, despite being from the same ethnic group.

The only other person who could speak the language died last August.

Now Soma Devi Dura's health is ailing at her home in the hills of western Nepal, and she has severely impaired sight and hearing. But the 82-year-old is a rich source of songs and folklore in the Dura tongue.

In order to communicate with her husband, children and grandchildren she has to use other languages, because she is now believed to be the only surviving speaker of Dura, which belongs to the Tibeto-Burman language family.

Languages decline like this when parents fail to pass them down or children lose interest in them. But some scholars are striving to preserve Dura. Kedar Nagila, who as a child played with Dura children who had already lost their language, has compiled 1,500 words and 250 sentences.

He wants to take Soma Devi to Kathmandu for medical treatment, and to interest Dura children in taking lessons in the language. Nepal has more than 100 tongues, several with fewer than 100 speakers each.

Recently the three recorded speakers of another language, Kusunda, all died or disappeared. But campaigners for indigenous rights went to western Nepal and found a mother and daughter speaking it, and an isolated woman in a different district.

They were brought together, and the woman was able to converse in Kusunda for the first time since 1940, when she was 10 years old. Linguistics Professor Madhav Prasad Pokharel said she was "amazingly fluent".

Although he has been inspired by the revival of Hebrew as a spoken language, he admits that reviving these tiny Nepalese languages is unlikely. But he argues fervently that they can and should be preserved and taught.

Rome ball-barded

The historic centre of Rome has been brought to a standstill by a protest with a difference. Authorities took several hours to clean it up - but the stunt has brought huge publicity to the man who staged it.

Visitors to the Spanish Steps on Wednesday were greeted by a rather peculiar sight.
For most of the morning street cleaners and smartly uniformed policemen were chasing little brightly coloured balls, armed with dustpans and brushes.

To everyone's amazement half a million of these balls were suddenly bouncing down the steps. Within minutes, the famed Piazza de Spagna resembled a children's playground.

The joke was largely on the policemen. It was another colourful stand from Graziano Cecchini, a man who protests against government incompetence in the most unusual ways.

Last year he poured a dye into the Trevi Fountain, turning it red.

This latest stunt cost him £15,000 (20,000 euros) - and probably a rather large fine.

Tourists grabbed the balls as mementoes at the base of the steps.

Edible to Incredible

Incredibly, everything you see in this image can be found in the kitchen. Photographer Carl Warner has painstakingly captured all kinds of food in a series of still lifes.

He says his 'Foodscapes' were partly inspired by healthy eating campaigns. But they have not persuaded his own children to take up the five-a-day pledge.


The Forest of Dean or the Forest of Greens? The road is paved with cumin, peas hang from broccoli trees and cauliflower clouds adorn the sky with bread for mountains.

You can find Mr. Warner's strange to use website HERE ... or see more pictures HERE from the BBC.

If Mr Warner spent less time making veg pics, maybe his kids would eat

Woman catches fire during op

Sweden's welfare board has criticized a hospital in Stockholm after a 40-year-old woman caught fire during a hemorrhoid operation, Aftonbladet reports. While the woman's piles were successfully removed by doctors at Ersta Hospital, she ended up leaving the surgery in September with a partially burned backside.

In addition to the hemorrhoids, the woman was also in hospital to have a lump removed with the aid of electrosurgery. The accident took place after a nurse had cleaned the woman's skin with an antiseptic solution.

With some of the highly flammable liquid having trickled under the women's body, the patient caught fire when staff switched on the electrical current and began operating.

By the time the nurse succeeded in putting out the fire, the woman had been left with three red burn marks. She later made several return visits to the hospital in order to be treated for her new injuries.

The National Board of Health and Welfare (Socialstyrelsen) has now ordered the hospital to draft a set of written procedures to ensure that patients are not exposed to similar risks in future.

Missing french fry rage

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- A 31-year-old man in Jacksonville was arrested after he rammed his car into a McDonald's after not receiving two bags of french fries he ordered earlier, police said.

Investigators said David Spillers became enraged and rammed his car into the side of the Jacksonville restaurant where customers sit and then into an area were children usually play.

"He got angry because his order was incorrect," Jacksonville Sheriff's Office representative Ken Jefferson said. "He rammed his car into the kid play area of this establishment."

Officials told First Coast News in Jacksonville that Spillers caused $75,000 in damages.

"It is a lot of damage but what is worst is that people could have been killed as a result of this guy's poor decision because of an order that was not correct," Jefferson said.

Police said Spillers was tracked down after driving to his grandmother's apartment.

McDonald's issued a note concerning the incident. "The safety of our customers and employees at our restaurants is very important to us. Fortunately, no one was injured in this unfortunate, isolated incident. We're cooperating fully with the authorities in their investigation of this matter."

"People are human and they are going to make mistakes with orders but you have to manage your anger and clearly he didn't," Jefferson said.

Jefferson said Spillers confessed to the incident. He faces charges of reckless driving and felony criminal mischief.

Robber shoots self in genitals

Police said a Kokomo man accidentally shot himself in the genitals as he robbed a convenience store early Tuesday morning.
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Kokomo police said they were called to a Village Pantry store at 100 N. Ohio St. at about 4:20 a.m. after a clerk at the store called them.

The female clerk told police that a man came into the store with a semiautomatic handgun and demanded cash and cigarettes before handing her a white cloth bag.

The clerk said that as she retrieved the cigarettes she heard a gunshot and turned to confront the man, who yelled that he had shot himself.

Police said the man, whom they identified as 25-year-old Derrick Kosch, grabbed the bag full of cash and fled the store.

In-store surveillance cameras showed that Kosch shot himself as he placed the gun into the waistband of his pants, police said. Authorities declined to release the surveillance footage early Tuesday.

Shortly after the robbery, dispatchers got a call from someone in a home in the 1000 block of East North Street about a man who was shot.

When officers arrived, they found Kosch with a gunshot wound to a testicle and leg. He was taken to a hospital for treatment.

Officers said that while at the home they found the bag of money that was taken from the convenience store and clothes seen on the robber in the surveillance tape.

Police said Kosch will be charged with armed robbery and related charges when he emerges from surgery on Tuesday.

There's a video and recording of police call HERE