Star Wars is finally f*cking over; heroes all round from crazed journos to using snakes against your bank, idiots, fools and Chairman MIao

'Star Wars' fans embrace the Dark Side of obsession

AFP

Dateline: Los Angeles (AFP) - Caroline Ritter's obsession with all things "Star Wars" has, by her own estimate, cost her 60,000 dollars -- and counting.



The 23-year-old Australian's latest foray into what some might see as the Dark Side of fandom involved flying from her native Australia to Hollywood to queue for the May 19 opening of the sixth and final episode in the galactic saga, "Star Wars: Episode III -- Revenge of the Sith."

"Queue" is something of an understatement for the seven-week campout by Ritter and her fellow Star Warriors outside the famed Grauman's Chinese Theater, where the first "Star Wars" movie premiered way back in 1977.

Ritter, who was not even born when the first film came out, wears her passion on her sleeve and, indeed, on her neck, wrist and finger, where she sports an array of "Star Wars"-themed jewelry.

"What can I say? I love the 'Star Wars' movies," Ritter said. "They are my life. They mean everything to me, everything that is important."

The outsider's view of such a level of commitment is best summed up by Ritter's family members.

"My parents understand me. They are wonderful. My brother thinks I'm an idiot," she said.

Crazed or not, Ritter is certainly not alone, but rather part of a large, like-minded community of fans for whom "Star Wars" is more of a lifestyle choice than a sci-fi film series.

More than 30,000 of them, from as far afield as Japan and Mexico, gathered last month for a four-day convention in Indianapolis.

So strong was the lure of the event, at which an appearance by "Star Wars" creator George Lucas was the main attraction, that Ritter temporarily forsook her treasured spot in the ticket queue to attend.

For most, it was an opportunity to enthuse, reminisce, don Storm Trooper armour and Jedi outfits and spend vast sums of money on their ever-expanding collections of "Star Wars" merchandise.

Ritter's house has three rooms packed with memorabilia from each and every movie in the series.

"Up to now, I've spent nearly 60,000 dollars," she said. "Tips, work, ... I saved everything."

Attempts to build a profile of the hardcore "Star Wars" fanatic have highlighted the apparent attraction to the troubled relationship between two of the films' main characters -- Luke Skywalker and his father, the evil Darth Vader.

"Most of the biggest fans have a father issue, or they don't have a father, or they had an abusive father," said filmmaker Tariq Jalil, who explored the pop-culture phenomenon of "Star Wars" in his documentary "A Galaxy Far, Far Away."

"Through interviews, we also found out that many fans were children of divorced parents," Jalil said.

For the stars of the film series, meanwhile, the inability of some fans to distinguish them from the characters they portray has sometimes proved disconcerting.

Ewan McGregor, who played the Jedi knight Obi-Wan Kenobi in the last two episodes and reprises the role in "Sith," recently told of being assailed outside the stage door of a London theater where he was performing.

"There was a guy screaming 'Obi-Wan! Obi-Wan!'" McGregor recalled. "'Do you have any advice for a trainee Jedi?!'"

The devotees camped outside the Chinese Theater on Hollywood Boulevard have divided themselves into three different categories: red, green and blue.

For fear of ruining the suspense, the reds have assiduously avoided any advance information about what happens in "Sith," while the greens have grabbed and processed every scrap and snippet they can lay their hands on.

The moderate blues, meanwhile, claim an affinity with both factions.

"I am very red," 24-year-old Sarah Allen declared proudly. "I want suprises -- the more surprises, the better."

"Imagine someone organises a party for you with fabulous things, ... food, people, entertainment," Allen said. "What if you didn't know anything about it? Wouldn't that be better?"

For Allen and for many fans, the release of "Sith" is a bittersweet moment, marking as it does the final chapter in the "Star Wars" saga.

Her mother, on the other hand, is delighted.

"She's happy it's finishing so that I can get a real job," Allen said. (:/)

You are all very, very sad. I think I'm seeing it next week.

Chinese TV show's cat slinging act draws fire from pet lovers

AFP

Dateline: Beijing - A Chinese television channel was reportedly forced to apologize after receiving complaints from pet lovers about a programme in which a cat was thrown out of a four-storey building.

The Travel Channel broadcast a feature on May 4 showing how a cat can safely survive even when dropped from great height, Beijing Times said.

In the programme, a white cat was dropped from a four-storey building while a narrator said: "Miao Miao (the cat) quickly turns around, adjusts its four limbs, straightens its tail and goes down.

"Let's look at how it's doing ... it is okay!"

Angry pet lovers posted petitions on several websites and lodged complaints with the state broadcasting authorities and the television channel, saying the act could cause bone fractures or damage the animal's internal organs.

The Travel Channel apologised and promised it would not repeat the experiment, the report said.

During the heyday of communist ethics, China banned pets as frivolous and bourgeois but pet ownership has become a new vogue among the country's newly rich amid its robust market economic reforms. (:/)

Not Chairman Miao then?

Czechs cut down on red tape by cutting watchdog

Reuters

Dateline: Prague - The Czech government has found a way to cut down on red tape: Close the bureau for streamlining bureaucracy.

The daily Mlada Fronta Dnes reported on Wednesday more than 40 clerks who had been assigned the job of raising efficiency and trimming the fat in civil service have been let go.

However, since being set up in 2002, the General Directorate of Civil Service did not get very far as politicians never approved a law which would revamp the civil service and give the office the authority to identify where to save.

The Czechs have kept a tradition of an intricate web of bureaucracy set up under the Austrian empire -- as described by Prague writer Franz Kafka in the early 1900s in his works such as "The Castle".

The labyrinth of officialdom was perfected under Communism, inflicting misery on people trying to get anything from a passport to a building permit.

A lot has improved as the country modernised itself and joined the European Union last year.

But there are still lineups behind closed office doors, court cases that drag for years without any progress, and a general feeling that a clerk is the master of all. (:/)

This next is great stuff.

Trooper: DUI Suspect Tried to Hit on Me

AP

Dateline: woodville, Maine - A state trooper says she's baffled by the behavior of a suspect who displayed amorous intentions as she was taking him into custody for getting into a car accident and failing three roadside sobriety tests.

"What did he think I was going to do? Go out on a date with him?" asked Trooper Jennifer Fiske, who arrested Peter Bradley Murray early Sunday morning on Route 116.

Murray, 42, allegedly began behaving inappropriately while seated beside Fiske in the front passenger seat of her cruiser, which has no cage separating front and back seats.

"Then he said, 'You have beautiful green eyes,' and he started touching my arm," Fiske said. "I'd had enough of that."

Fiske got out of the car and went around to the passenger seat to handcuff Murray. She said he tried to cuff himself to her, saying, "I just want us to be tied together."

Fiske responded by giving a sudden short twist to the handcuff and rapping him on the thigh with her police baton. She said he later tried to grab for the steering wheel, forcing additional smacks.

Murray was charged with operating a vehicle under the influence, assault on a police officer, refusing to submit to arrest, and refusing to sign or give a name. (:/)

I love him! He rocks.

'Sorry, you're dead,' pension fund tells German woman

AFP

Dateline: Berlin - A German woman in her eighties said she had been ordered by her pension fund to produce a certificate to prove she was still alive.



Martha Kruse telephoned the Bundesknappschaft fund after her payments were suddenly stopped, only to be told by an employee: "Don't get upset, but you died on January 28."

The fund also asked payments made to the 82-year-old to be repaid.

The employee would not accept the sound of the woman's voice as proof that she was still alive and asked her instead to produce a "life certificate".

The perplexed Kruse was forced to go to the municipal authorities in her home town of Barsinghausen near Hanover which agreed to make out the necessary document, charging her 4.80 euros (six dollars) for the privilege.

The certificate stated that Kruse was alive and well and fully able to present her identity papers.

Thomas Lieth, the head of the Bundesknappschaft fund, said Kruse had been confused with another client who had died, but defended the decision to ask for proof she was alive.

"When someone just telephones us, it is not enough," Lieth said, adding that the fund had apologised.

Kruse was not impressed. "When someone makes a mistake like that, they could at least offer a bouquet of flowers," she said. (:/)

Not lillies, though, one would think.

Court Rules Woman Not Liable in Sex Suit

AP

Dateline: Boston - A woman isn't legally responsible for injuries her boyfriend suffered while they were having consensual sex more than a decade ago, a state appeals court ruled Monday.

The man, identified only as John Doe in court papers, filed suit against the woman in 1997, claiming she was negligent when she suddenly changed positions, landed awkwardly on him and fractured his penis.

The man underwent emergency surgery in September 1994, "endured a painful and lengthy recovery" and has suffered from sexual dysfunction that hasn't responded to medication or counseling, the appeals court said.

Although the woman may have exposed her boyfriend to "some risk of harm," the three-judge panel said her conduct during the sexual encounter wasn't "wanton or reckless" and can't support a lawsuit.

The man's lawsuit already has been thrown out by judges in Salem District Court and Essex Superior Court.

The appeals court upheld those rulings while noting that its ruling doesn't apply to cases where someone has negligently infected a partner with a sexually transmitted disease.

"There are no comprehensive legal rules to regulate consensual sexual behavior," Justice Joseph Trainor wrote. "In the absence of a consensus of community values or customs defining normal consensual conduct, a jury or judge cannot be expected to resolve a claim that certain consensual sexual conduct is undertaken without reasonable care."

The man's attorney, John Greenwood, said he is likely to appeal Monday's ruling to the state's highest court.

"It's a case that hasn't been seen before in Massachusetts," he said.

Greenwood argued that consensual sex doesn't mean "anything goes. ... The fact that some behavior was agreed to by the parties doesn't mean all behavior was agreed to by the parties."

The woman's attorney didn't immediately return a telephone call Monday. (:/)

Erm, no.

Owner saved by dog-tor

The Sun

DOG owner Mitch Bonham had his leg saved from amputation after his pooch LICKED it better.



Mitch, 45, was told he would lose the limb after it began turning black and withering away following an accident while in the Royal Navy.

But then faithful Jack Russell Milo instinctively began to lick his master’s wound as if it was his own, sometimes for up to FOUR HOURS a day.

And when Mitch returned to the consultant who had said he would lose the leg he was told: “Now there’s no need. You’re better!”

Mitch, 45, from Barry, South Wales, believes the condition Sudeks Atrophy which affected his right leg up to the knee was caused by a broken toe he suffered when a heavy anchor chain fell on his foot.

Milo — who is thought to have known something was wrong through smell — began to lick around Mitch’s toe.

As that got better he worked his way up. Mitch said: “The consultant told me that in licking my leg for such long periods Milo had stimulated the nerves and helped the oxygen get into my leg.

“One day I felt my toe twitch. It was like the muscles in my leg were being reactivated — I had been told this could happen if my leg was getting better, but I couldn’t let myself hope that it really was.

“When the consultant saw my leg again he said ‘My God — what have you been doing?’ He said it was incredible, my dog had saved my leg. Then he told me I didn’t need to come back, just let Milo carry on doing what he did best and go back to my GP in future. (:/)

Good job he didn't have a groin injury...

Following is a story that, as an IT hack/ex-IT hack really made me well up. I have never destroyed anything loaned by a firm like this guy. Someone should give him a prize.

ESPN Writer 'Tased,' Arrested for DUI

24 Hour News 8

Dateline: Indianapolis - A respected racing journalist faces charges of drunk driving and resisting arrest after a police chase on the north side early Tuesday morning.



Bruce Martin, an ESPN correspondent, is in town covering the race. The car he was driving was totaled.

It’s easy to spot the bright yellow pace vehicles around town. The 2005 Chevy SSR's are event cars for this year’s Indy 500 and the Month of May festivities.

Police spotted Bruce Martin, a freelance racing journalist, a contributing editor to ESPN.com and other publications, driving one of the cars around 3:00am. A sheriff's deputy chased Martin west on Kessler and 56th Street for two miles.

The police report says Martin's pace vehicle, assigned to him for the month, was dragging one of its front tires underneath it with sparks flying. The two-mile pursuit ended on west 56th Street, but Martin refused to get out of the car. One deputy broke out a window and used a taser on him. He then failed a field sobriety test registering .22, nearly three times the legal limit for alcohol.

“He's facing resisting law enforcement, public intoxication and operating a vehicle while intoxicated,” said Captain Phil Burton, Marion County Sheriff’s Dept.

The manufacturer loans the cars to respected and trusted high-profile individuals. The speedway says it has input as to who receives them. “It is a risk in providing support vehicles like this. In any event you run that risk. This is not a new program. It's been going on for years. There is a risk involved in providing cars to individuals,” said Ron Green, IMS spokesperson.

Martin allegedly told police he'd been drinking in Broad Ripple. After that, authorities say he was involved in a hit and run accident at Westfield and Kessler which damaged the car, totaling it.

Martin was released from jail without bond around noon. If convicted he faces up to six years in jail and $25,000 in fines. (:/)

Motherf*cker. He's a f*cking god.

Veni, vidi, Viagra -- Italy cracks drugged racing horse racket

AFP

Dateline: Rome - Horses injected with the male impotency drug Viagra were used in illegal races organized near the southern Italian city of Naples, police said after dismantling the network.

Italian police seized 80 horses and a supply of drugs used to dope up the animals and closed the race track at Marigliano, which was constructed without permission from local authorities.

The properties were valued at about five million euros (6.3 million dollars).

Investigators issued dozens of search warrants among owners, drivers, trainers, veterinarians and pharmacists suspected of illegal drug sales.

The inquiry was opened in 2004 to look into irregularities within the official horse-racing industry, in particular the illegal use of drugs and secret betting.

At the unauthorized race track, authorities found thousands of doses of drugs, race horses without any documentation, and nearly 1,500 euros in cash from betting.

According to investigators, the drug Viagra improves the horse's cardio-respiratory functions and its performance when competing in races. (:/)

Yeah. And the rest.

Snake man could face lesser charges

SABC News/SAPA

A Johannesburg magistrate has expressed understanding for the actions of the man who released venomous snakes inside a bank last year. Abel Manamela released five puff adders on the premises of Absa Towers in Johannesburg in January last year after a dispute with the bank.

"Manamela misunderstood the system. I understand his problem but that does not condone what he did," said Lucas van der Schyff, the magistrate in the case. He indicated that attempted murder charges against Manamela (53) might be reduced to a count of assault with the intent to do grievous bodily harm. A reptile researcher earlier testified that a bite from a puff adder would not necessarily result in death.

Manamela released the snakes on the premises of Absa Towers after a dispute with Jacobus van der Berg, an Absa manager, regarding his loan repayments and repossession of his vehicle. Amid fevered attempts to catch the creatures, a Philipus Griffin, contract manager for Absa's cleaning company, Prestige, was bitten on a finger and had to undergo surgery. While the State tried to prove that Griffin could have died from the snake bite, Graeme Alexander, a Witwatersrand researcher, said: "It's unlikely that a person may die after a puff adder bites them, unless you have an allergic reaction."

Van der Berg said he had been dealing with Manamela since 1998 and that Manamela was not always a very friendly person. "Before he released the snakes, Manamela wrote us a letter saying he was going to expose us (ABSA) for the 'snakes' that we were," said Van der Berg.

Manamela denied allegations that he had threatened Absa staff. "I disagree that there was another threat. I only said they will see what will happen to the bank and not that I was going to use a bomb," said Manamela. He said he used the snakes to frighten Absa staff so that Absa would sort out his problem as he believed he was being cheated. He said that various Absa branches had given him false information about the money he still owed the bank. According to Adel Strydom, the investigating officer, Manamela had a valid permit to keep the creatures in cages in his yard in Garankuwa.

Manamela had planned the incident and had informed staff at the bank about the snakes.

Manamela, a building contractor who has now been blacklisted, had also asked for the court's assistance to sue Absa. He has pleaded not guilty on two counts of attempted murder and is out on bail of R5 000. His trial is expected to continue until Wednesday. (:/)

Right. That's my plan for the Abbey sorted.

Calf born in New Mexico with 5 legs

AP

albuquerque, N.M. - One of Orlando Romero's calves has a leg up on the other 25 calves born within the last two weeks on his ranch east of Tucumcari. The calf was born with an extra leg, with two hooves, growing from its back.

Ranchers in the area aren't quite sure what to make of the little Limousin heifer. That is, if they can catch her.

"She moves like a damn deer. I had a heck of a time trying to catch her," said Jess Weaks, the ranch caretaker. "She's pretty ornery, that's for sure."

The week-old calf's extra leg does not touch the ground. It is attached to the calf's back between the shoulder blades, and hangs to its right side.

The branch-like growth is the only major difference between the copper-colored calf and the rest of the herd, said Shane Jennings, a neighbor who first spotted the heifer.

"It's just cosmetic. She's out there in the pasture right now, like any other cow. The little booger's doing good. It's in real good health," Jennings said.

Jennings was in the field checking on yearlings last week when he saw that one cow was close to giving birth. He left to tend to other work, and when he returned he saw the cow with her new calf.

But he was startled by what he saw when he approached the hours-old calf.

"I thought, 'What in the world is that?' and as I got a closer look and saw the extra leg I said 'Oh boy, what am I gonna come up with next?'" Jennings said.

Jennings said he's seen deformities in calves before and that Tucumcari's ranch supply store used to have a stuffed two-headed, stillborn calf.

"But I've never seen anything like this," he said. (:/)

Lake disappears, baffling villagers

Reuters

Dateline: Moscow - A Russian village was left baffled Thursday after its lake disappeared overnight.

NTV television showed pictures of a giant muddy hole bathed in summer sun, while fishermen from the village of Bolotnikovo looked on disconsolately.

"It is very dangerous. If a person had been in this disaster, he would have had almost no chance of survival. The trees flew downwards, under the ground," said Dmitry Zaitsev, a local Emergencies Ministry official interviewed by the channel.

Officials in Nizhegorodskaya region, on the Volga river east of Moscow, said water in the lake might have been sucked down into an underground water-course or cave system, but some villagers had more sinister explanations.

"I am thinking, well, America has finally got to us," said one old woman, as she sat on the ground outside her house. (:/)

Victim Bites Attacker - Saves Evidence

WMAZ

Officials in Albanay say a sexual assault victim provided authorities with D-N-A evidence against her attacker by biting off a piece of his finger and holding it in her mouth until she could contact police.

Faced with the evidence, 33-year-old Demetrius Clyde of Albany pleaded guilty yesterday to charges of false imprisonment, two counts of aggravated assault, criminal attempt to commit rape, aggravated sodomy, kidnapping and aggravated sexual battery stemming from the May 2003 attack.

Clyde received a 40-year sentence.

Prosecutor Kathy Fallin says he will spend 14 years in prison with no chance of parole.

An accomplice, Melvin Toomer, already is serving a 10-year sentence on charges of aggravated sodomy.

Authorities say that after Clyde beat the victim with a board and tried to rape her, the woman bit a piece of skin from his finger and kept it in her mouth to provide evidence.

Fallin said the victim was in court for Clyde's sentencing and was pleased with the outcome. (:/)

Rhino, goat strike unlikely bond

Reuters

Dateline: Kromdraai, South Africa - A pair of orphans have formed an unlikely bond on a South African game park although horns and a love for horse pellets are about the only things they have in common.

Clover is an 11-month old female rhino calf who was orphaned in the wild when her mother was slain by poachers.

Her constant companion these days is Bok-Bok, a young goat who was also lonely and abandoned.

Improbably, the two made a perfect match and have become inseparable companions at the Rhino and Lion Nature Reserve about 30 km (18 miles) northwest of Johannesburg.

"One would never have thought that a rhino and a goat would get on very well. We were all shocked," said Fran Berkowitz, one of their handlers, as side-by-side the pair tucked into a meal of lucerne, a kind of hay used to feed wild game.

"It's amazing that two different species can get on so well," she said.

The two sometimes playfully butt heads and spend most waking moments close together.

Clover of course is quickly dwarfing Bok-Bok, whose name is Afrikaans for "goat-goat."

A white or square-lipped rhino -- the second largest land mammal on Earth after the African and Asian elephants -- she may eventually reach around 1,800 kg (4,000 lbs).

At close to 200 kg (440 lbs), Clover is already becoming a handful -- as evidenced when she briefly charged a startled Reuters cameraman, ramming her stub of a horn into his tripod.

When visitors are in Clover's pen, lucerne, horse pellets or milk -- which she sucks from an oversized baby bottle -- are about the only things that keep her from roughing them up. (:/)

Woman Charged With Trying To Burn Down Crowded Bar

WFTV

Dateline: Winter Park, Fla. -- A 42-year-old woman is in jail, charged with trying to set fire to a Winter Park bar with nearly 100 people inside.

Police say Amanda Michael had been kicked out of Odin's Den, located on Howell Branch Road, for causing a disturbance.

The fire marshal says she later returned with a container of gasoline and tried to set fire to the back of the bar. A manager saw what happened and put the fire out. (:/)

DAMN. She knows how to party.

Darwin Award?

Cyanide victims think 'poison' warning a slogan

Reuters

Dateline: Taipei - A man in Taiwan has died and four others were poisoned after drinking a popular bottled fizzy drink laced with cyanide and labelled "I am poisonous. Please do not drink."

Some of the victims thought the warning was a new advertising slogan, police said on Thursday.

The manufacturer of Bullwild energy drink, Paolyta Co., ordered an island-wide recall of about 1.2 million to 1.6 million bottles. The drink, which is popular among taxi drivers and workers, has also been taken off shelves in Hong Kong and Macau.

Police suspect someone laced the drink with cyanide before placing it on store shelves, and released footage taken from a surveillance camera of a man in his 20s or 30s in the hope the public could help identify him. (:/)

He won't be doing that again.

Hump-day goes awry: Camel sits on West Virginia woman

USA Today

Dateline: Shinnston, W.Va. — A 1,500-pound camel picked an unfortunate place to take a breather.

A woman called for help on her cell phone Wednesday after a camel sat on top of her while she was painting a fence.

Firefighters and the camel's owner helped move the animal off the woman, who was having trouble breathing, ambulance driver Brent Hicks said.

"There is no protocol on something like this," he said. (:/)

Roman Shopping Chariot

SKY.com

A self-styled art terrorist has caused embarrassment at the British Museum in London by installing his own 'primative' painting of a caveman pushing a supermarket trolley.



The artwork appeared in the Roman Britain gallery.

Trolleys were first used in the Piggly-Wiggly Supermarket chain, Oklahoma City, in 1937.

The bizarre exhibit, labelled Early Man Goes to Market, was a hoax put there by Banksy, the most famous art terrorist in the country.

Banksy announced on his website that Early Man, painted on a piece of rock 10in by 6in found in Peckham, had "remained in the collection for quite some time".

Museum staff found the rock in Gallery 41 but they had no idea how long it had been there.

Banksy, who calls himself a graffiti artist, has pulled similar stunts to mock the art world at Tate Britain, the Natural History Museum and major galleries in New York in the last few years.

He has attempted to remain anonymous but he is believed to be Robert Banks, aged about 30, from Bristol.

In Bristol, his name is spray-painted around the city and he has become something of a legend and cult figure. (:/)

Banksy = Hero

N.Y. judge tosses forcible touching charge

AP/Boston Globe

Dateline: New York -- A Manhattan judge has dismissed a forcible touching charge filed against a man who patted a woman's buttocks, ruling that a mere pat on the rear, even if unwanted, does not rise to the level of that crime.

The forcible touching statute requires a person to do more than "touch quickly and gently with the flat of the hand," said Criminal Court Judge Richard M. Weinberg, citing the definition of "pat" from The New Oxford English Dictionary. He said the statute's forcible touching language requires "squeezing, grabbing or pinching."

The law is not limited to those types of touching, he said, but its use of the word "forcible" implies that a pat does not qualify.

The judge issued his ruling, made public Wednesday, in the case of Mohammed Nuruzzaman, 36, a Manhattan fabric store employee. Nuruzzaman was accused of twice touching a female customer's rear while she shopped in the store, at 227 W. 40th St., on Nov. 2, 2004.

Nuruzzaman was charged with forcible touching, third-degree sex abuse and second-degree harassment. A complaint says he touched the customer, a student, without her consent and with intent to degrade or abuse her, causing her annoyance and alarm. (:/)

This next might offend, but what really caught my eye was the bit about how this crime is on the decrease - you know, everything's fine! Erm...

Police arrest two suspected human skinners

Reuters

Dateline: Dar Es Salaam - Tanzanian police arrested two men accused of killing a 9-year-old boy and selling his skin for 20,000 shillings ($18) to make sorcerers' get-rich-quick charms, a senior officer said Friday.

Police said they arrested Martin Kalunga, 25, and his associate Nico Benson, 31, in Lilwa village in southern Tanzania Tuesday after neighbors overheard Benson accusing Kalunga of plotting with their buyer to skin him as well.

The identity of the buyer was unclear.

"The two were arrested after they had a loud quarrel, because Benson suspected Martin of colluding with their buyer to skin him," Suleiman Kova, police commander for the southern Mbeya region, told Reuters.

"During interrogation, Martin confessed that they were both skinners and that they had skinned a boy in Mbozi six months ago. They then threw his body into the river Jianga," Kova said.

"These cases are few but are very shocking," he said.

Kova said police expected to charge the pair once they had completed investigations into the identity of the victim, whose remains have not been found.

He said he was not aware of any report of a missing child that would match the description given by the suspects, but police were still making inquiries.

Human skins are used by witch doctors to make charms or potions designed to make their users rich, especially in southern Tanzania, renowned as a center for traditional sorcery.

Police say the once rampant practice has decreased significantly in recent years due to tougher action by the authorities, describing this as the first suspected skinning case in southern Tanzania since April 2004. (:/)

Whoa.

Ex-teacher has sex and relationship with minor,
runs away, nearly killed by tsunami, returns to court case

Myrtle Beach Sun

A former North Myrtle Beach High School teacher who had a sexual relationship with a student for about a year declared his love for the girl Tuesday just before he was sentenced to six years in prison for criminal sexual conduct with a minor.

Stephen George Zeltman told the court: "She's an angel. My actions hurt my angel."

The girl, who is not being identified because she was 14 when the pair began their relationship in March 2002, now is 18. Zeltman is 50.

"They had a consensual relationship," Assistant 15th Circuit Solicitor Karen Hanebrink said. "They considered themselves boyfriend and girlfriend."

Hanebrink said Zeltman bought a car for the girl when she was 15.

She now knows the relationship was wrong because of the differences in their ages and knows Zeltman needs to go to prison, Hanebrink said, but she doesn't think it should be for long.

Zeltman faced up to 20 years in prison. On Tuesday, he pleaded guilty before Circuit Judge Edward Cottingham for a lesser sentence. It was about seven months after he initially was scheduled for trial. Zeltman fled to Indonesia to avoid prosecution.

While there, he survived a tsunami in December but in February was tracked down by U.S. marshals in Bali. Zeltman ran because he was worried about being held in maximum security, Barbara Pratt, his attorney, said during his plea hearing.

"This is a very serious matter," Cottingham said. "To keep the family and the victim from reliving all this in a trial, I agreed to the guilty plea." (:/)

Wise.

Norway in the news

Handicapped toilet stolen

Aftenposten

Cleaners were astonished to find that thieves had made off with a handicapped toilet at a rest stop in Valle in Aust-Agder County over the weekend.

"They must have had a disgusting job," Helge Homme, a cleaner from road service firm Mesta told newspaper Fædrelandsvennen.

A stinking hole in the floor has been exposed by the removal of the handicapped facility at the Honnevje rest stop.

"A very special theft," said Mesta manager Trond Heia. He has never heard of a complete stainless steel toilet being stolen from a Public Roads Administration (PRA) stop before. There is no question of vandalism, the fitting had been carefully unfastened and removed.

The theft will cost Mesta about NOK 20,000 (USD 3,125) including installation.

The PRA and Mesta may be stumped by the toilet heist, but are used to very petty thievery. Road workers regularly find that lamps, blinking lights on danger signals and even the hinges off garbage can holders disappear.

"We don't know what kind of people steal these lamps, we've never caught anyone," Heia said. (:/)

US says no billboards in space

Reuters

Dateline: Washington - The U.S. government does not want billboards in space.

The Federal Aviation Administration proposed on Thursday to amend its regulations to ensure that it can enforce a law that prohibits "obtrusive" advertising in zero gravity.

"Objects placed in orbit, if large enough, could be seen by people around the world for long periods of time," the FAA said in a regulatory filing.
Top Stories

Currently, the FAA lacks the authority to enforce the existing law.

For instance, outsized billboards deployed by a space company into low Earth orbit could appear as large as the moon and be seen without a telescope, the FAA said. Big and bright advertisements might hinder astronomers.

"Large advertisements could destroy the darkness of the night sky," regulators said. (:/)

Thank god! Until next time...

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