I saw this in the Daily Telegraph, which is reason enough to doubt its veracity. However, with a house full of rabbits, most of them called pickles, I can't be taking any risks.
---
Police are investigating a spate of gruesome rabbit killings which has left more than 40 pets dead.
The victims have been attacked in their cages and many have been decapitated and bled dry.
One theory is that the animals, which all lived in Germany's Ruhr district, were targeted by Satanists.
Sabine Riede, head of a group which monitors religious cults, said: "The fact that blood appears to have been deliberately drained from the dead rabbits could indicate that Satanists were gathering material for a deadly ritual."
The killing spree is thought to have started last summer and gathered pace in the spring.
In the latest case in Witten near Dortmund the owner of two rabbits went to their cages on Monday morning to find that one had disappeared and the other was headless.
The local police have set up a special task force in an attempt to track down the assassin.
Five officers are working on the case full time and have interviewed more than 300 people so far.
"We have a number of officers working on the case and we are carrying out exhaustive investigations," said Oliver Peiler, a task force spokesman.
But he admitted they had little to go on.
"We have no idea who is doing this. We are still in the dark."
Animal rights groups have put up a reward of EU2,500 (£2,000) for information leading to the killer.
[the BBC report...]
Two women have been rescued from a river after one was led into the water by her guide dog.
Buckinghamshire Fire Service said one of the women was visually impaired, and a spokesman said it appeared the dog made a mistake.
The incident happened on Wednesday in the River Great Ouse near the Millfield Flats, Willow Lane in Stony Stratford.
Three rescue crews helped the women and said one of them had sustained injuries during the ordeal.
---
I am wondering how the police have decided this was a mistake on the part of the dog. How about acid in his breakfast put there by a scheming cat? How about malicious intent? Maybe the blind owner was nightmare to work with. Maybe it was a simple suicide attempt by the dog and he forgot his owner was shackled and committed to follow. And what about the other woman? Did she just watch while Doofus led his owner into the drink?
Parents of two four-year-old boys in New York are suing officials after their sons were allegedly handcuffed for refusing to take a nap.
Lawyer Scott Agulnick says a substitute teacher took Jaden Diaz and Christopher Brito to an empty classroom.
Then, a school safety officer allegedly entered the room, cuffed the boys' wrists - and told them they would never see their parents again.
Mr Agulnick said the families were seeking damages, adding: "Failure to comply with nap time is hardly an offence that warrants being handcuffed, or threatened, for that matter."
Christopher, now five, told his mother Vasso Brito, 34: "I wasn't shot, but my hands were tied," she told the New York Post.
"Right now, I feel there are monsters in school," she said. "I'm still perturbed. As I'm talking to you, I'm shaking."
Jaden, now six, remembers a man who was dressed like a cop walked in, sat at a big desk and threatened them.
"He was police," Jaden said. "He said, 'You know what happens when you don't go to sleep in there? . . . 'When you go to jail, you're not going to have no fun, no TV, no toys.' "
Education officials and the NYPD, which oversees school-safety officers, have yet to comment about the case at The Bilingual School in The Bronx.
The suspicion that sexual assaults against inanimate objects, including bicycles and hoovers, are on the rise is confirmed by the disturbing news that a man was last month cuffed for "allegedly simulating a sex act with a lamppost", as the Wiltshire Times puts it.
The incident apparently took place at about 4.45pm on 16 February, when police received reports of a man "being indecent" in the Queens Road area of Westbury.
The suspect was arrested on 27 February "on suspicion of outraging public decency" and later bailed pending an "extensive police investigation".
During their probe, officers gathered evidence and statements, "some of which were from children", and the unnamed man yesterday answered bail for further quizzing. He was again released "pending further inquiries".
[found on Ananova]
Romanian cops have closed a vandalism investigation that left local houses in ruins by concluding ghosts were to blame.
Families living in Lilieci reported windows broken, bicycles flying through the air, objects moving on tables and candles blown out when there is no wind.
When they complained they were being hounded by evil spirits to police they were laughed at.
But after officers saw the evidence with their own eyes they filed a report saying that ghosts were to blame.
Mircea Hadimbu, 68, who says his house has now been completely wrecked, said: "The windows started to break one by one. I saw two bicycles moving through the air on their own."
His sister Melentina Bocancea, 78, who lives nearby, added: "There were cups flying around the house and candles I lit were blown out as soon as I put a match to them even though there was not a breath of wind in the house."
A police spokesman said: "There were bottles and things flying around. I did not know what to dodge first. We can find nothing to suggest it was anything other than what the people claim."
A priest has been called in to perform exorcisms of houses in the town in the hope that the attacks will finally stop.
[found on El Reg]
A German company will later this year launch flights for nudists, aimed specifically at former East Germans who pine for the good old days under Communism when just about the only thing that wasn't illegal was getting your kit off.
The service will run from 5 July from Erfurt in southeast Germany to the Baltic Sea island of Usedom, with 50 unclothed passengers stumping €499 a pop to fly as nature intended.
Enrico Hess, founder of OssiUrlaub.de, told AFP: "In the former East Germany, naturist holidays were a much-loved way of spending the best weeks of the year. We want to make that freedom possible above the clouds too."
He added: "All the passengers will fly naked, but they are only allowed to undress once they are in the plane. But then they will be able to enjoy the hour-long flight in the way God intended."
In case you're wondering, the aircraft's crew will keep their clothes on.
[from Ananova]
Daddy Fantastic and Bobby Dazzler are two of the record 40,000 people to have registered new names this year.
Daddy was formerly plain Robert Sullivan, a carpenter from Gloucester. While out drinking with pals he decided he needed something more memorable.
Bobby, formerly electrician Paul Lancaster, was also egged on by friends.
Among the other eccentric names recorded by the UK Deed Poll Service is Something Long And Complicated, who used to be known as William Wood, of Scunthorpe.
Oddest of all is Chris Gray, of Bingley, West Yorkshire, who is now called Mouth Who Wants To Know O'Mighty.
[from Ananova]
A Taiwanese lingerie company encouraged all its female office staff to go to work in their undies for the day.
The Audrey Underwear company in Taizhong city named November 21 Camisole Day to celebrate record sales.
All 500 women working in the firm's headquarters were encouraged to wear only camisoles and knickers - much to the excitement of their male colleagues.
"We have been waiting for this day all month. Today, we are super high, and don't know where to put our eyes," salesman Cai Mingda told Straits News.
More than 90% of female workers reportedly went along with the spirit of the day and worked in their underwear.
Zhang Yufeng, 32, a mother of two, admitted: "I have been on a strict diet to get ready for the day. When I was trying on my outfit at home, my husband told me I should dress like this every day."
And Liao Wenshen, 30, added: "The men were red-faced all day, and were becoming so polite to us. It's so funny!"
Huang Bihui, PR manager of the company, explained: "We introduced eight new camisoles into market and sold more than 20,000 in less than two months so we named the 21st as Camisole Day."
Employment lawyers said there was nothing illegal in the move so long as it was voluntary but it had its critics.
Wu Juanyu complained: "Some women may feel forced to join in because of peer pressure and job competition. I don't know if the company is selling underwear or women's bodies."
A US man is facing up to 30 years in jail - for stealing a single doughnut.
Scott Masters, 41, is accused of slipping the doughnut inside his sweatshirt, then pushing away a female store worker who tried to stop him fleeing the store in Farmington, Minnesota.
US authorities said the push was being treated as a minor assault, which transforms a simple shoplifting charge into the more serious demeanour of strong-arm robbery.
It carries a potential prison term of five to 15 years but as Mr Masters already has a criminal record, prosecutors are entitled to double his sentence.
It means that he faces a maximum 30-year stint behind bars.
Mr Masters admits he tried to steal the doughnut but denies having assaulted the clerk.
Speaking from jail, he told the St Louis Post-Dispatch: "Strong-arm robbery? Over a doughnut? That's impossible. There's no way I would've pushed a woman over a doughnut."
To make matters worse, Mr Masters said he did not even get the chance to savour the snack - he threw it away as he fled the scene.
Farmington Police Chief Rick Baker said state law treats the shoplifting and assault as forcibly stealing property - and the amount of force and value of the property does not matter.
"It's not the doughnut," Mr Baker said. "It's the assault."
An amputated leg has become the subject of a tug of war between the man who lost it, and the man who bought it at auction.
John Wood's leg was amputated after a plane crash in 2004 but he kept it so he could be buried "whole" when he died, reports the Daily Telegraph.
But Mr Wood, of South Carolina, saw his home repossessed and his possessions auctioned after he couldn't afford to keep them in storage.
Unfortunately those possessions included the leg which Mr Wood had kept in a barbecue smoker, and which was bought by Shannon Whisnant in the auction.
Mr Whisnant initially gave it to police, who subsequently turned it over to a funeral home once they realised no foul play was involved.
But Mr Whisnant, who put a sign on the empty smoker charging adults $3 and children $1 for a look, now wants it back.
"He's making a freak show out of it," Mr Wood told The Charlotte Observer. "He wants to put money in his pocket with this thing."
Mr Whisnant, who was unsuccessful in a bid to get the leg from the funeral home, consulted with a lawyer and decided his best move was to persuade Mr Wood to share custody and profits.
"It's a strange incident and Halloween's just around the corner," he said. "The price will be going up if I get [a stake in] the leg."
Mr Wood, who is heading to Maiden to pick up his leg, said the two men can meet, but he is not interested in using the leg to make money: "I just think it's despicable," he said.
[found on Ananova]
A toddler group has been thrown out of a church hall because its yoga lessons are considered un-Christian.
Teacher Louise Woodcock, 41, was told her classes would affect children's spiritual life.
She was also warned that it was unlikely that any Christian organisation would host them, reports the Daily Mirror.
Mum-of-one Louise said: "It's crazy. It is kids pretending to be animals and doing exercise to rhymes. There is nothing that could damage their minds.
"Yoga is non-religious and has been around for thousands of years. My 22-month-old Summer loves it."
After being rejected in June by the Silver Street Baptist church in Taunton, Somerset, Louise's Yum Yum Yoga classes were also turned away by a C of E church.
Rev Simon Farrar, the minister at Silver Street, said: "When we let rooms to people they must be fully in line with our Christian ethos.
"Yoga impinges on the spiritual life in a way we don't believe is the same as our ethos. She has called it yoga and therefore there is a dividing line we are not prepared to cross."
Qualified yoga teacher Louise has now found a hall to hold her music and movement classes.
[from Ananova]
The show went on after a Serb and a Croat stabbed each other for real during a theatre performance.
Dozens of people walked out and one woman fainted after the incident at a theatre in the Croatian port of Zadar.
The actors, seated under their national flags, put their hands on the table and stabbed the woodwork between their fingers with real kitchen knives.
After five rounds the table was covered in blood, and one of the actors had part of a finger missing.
The actors, Croat Boris Kadin and Serb Kristian Al-Droubi, both needed to be hospitalised afterwards to have their wounds stitched, and Kadin had lost a part of one of his fingers.
The play, called Not Like Me, was being performed by the Via Negativa troupe. It focuses on the relations between Croats and Serbs in the troubled region.
[from Ananova]
The DVLA have stepped in to ban a list of naughty number-plates before the new 57 registrations arrive.
They were forced to act to stop cheeky drivers using the number combination to "spell out" offensive or controversial words.
Officials feared the figures 5 and 7 - on new plates from September - may be used to represent letters S and T or S and Y, reports The Sun.
That could have seen cars on the streets with registrations TE57 CLE (Testicle), EC57 ASY (Ecstasy), BA57 ARD (Bastard), MY57 ASH (My Stash), H057 AGE (hostage) and HE57 ABS (stabs).
Also banned is EA57 GAL (Easy Gal).
A DVLA spokesman said the plates were blocked "to avoid causing "general offence or embarrassment".
But a spokesman for the Association of British Drivers said: "The DVLA should be setting their priorities on more worthwhile issues - like reviewing safety."
A blind 74-year-old water-skiier took to Lake Windermere in a protest against a new 10mph speed limit.
Gerald Price, from Stockport, skied at 28mph to test the new bylaw on England's largest lake.
The ban at Windermere was imposed in March 2005 to reinstate the natural tranquillity of the lake.
But Mr Price believes the Lake District National Park Authority limit breaches human rights laws.
Enforcement officers turned up to gather evidence and interview the driver of the boat, Kevan Furber, 51, from Manchester.
Mr Furber had to make two journeys in excess of the speed limit, as enforcement officers only gave him a warning for the first time.
Mr Price, who set a world speed record for blind water-skiing at Windermere in October 2004, said: "We have been robbed of this enjoyment in the Lake District along with thousands of families.
"It's unjust, unfair and unreasonable. You tell me any other sport where somebody with my disability, my age, my problems, could go out to take part in something that's as exciting and enjoyable as what I've just done. I really really enjoyed that ski."
[from El Reg]
The lord mayor of Darwin remains defiant after being found guilty of stealing council funds to buy "a fridge, underwear and a Darth Vader voice distorter", The Sydney Morning Herald reports.
Peter Adamson, 47, was convicted on four charges, including "stealing and making a false statement in declaration". The court heard he'd gone on a "spending spree" with council cash "less than 24 hours before the end of the 2005/06 financial year", in the process buying "a $910 fridge and $1,800 worth of gift vouchers".
The gift vouchers were in turn used to buy "women's underwear, the Star Wars character voice distorter, and a punching bag" - all later recovered from his home or office. The fridge eventually turned up in an East Timorese thrift store*, despite Adamson's signed declaration he'd given it to a needy family. The gift vouchers, he also declared, were handed out to "various organisations for the purpose of fundraising".
It's the fridge scandal which has particularly incensed the locals. Adamson, who's been on leave since December, further fuelled the controversy when he and his missus "attended a New Year's Eve party dressed as the offending white good and a police officer".
In the end, and despite his lawyer's assertion that Adamson was "the victim of internal council backstabbing, likening him to a sacrificial lamb and his work environment to 'a pool of sharks with blood in the water'", magistrate Vince Luppino decided the defendant had "lied on a number of occasions" and duly rejected his defence.
Luppino said in his judgement: "I find that the defendant had the intention to deceive. The defendant did not intend to donate the fridge or the vouchers and instead he has used both as if they were his own property."
Emerging from court, Adamson maintained his innocence and refused to resign, declaring to reporters: "I know, myself, that I at no stage stole or have been dishonest."
He confirmed he was considering an appeal, describing it as "a very serious option". He continued: "I need to consider all those things, but the reality is at the moment I have done everything up until now in the best interests of the city.
"I was voted in by the people of Darwin and I have tried to show that leadership. Obviously, I have been very disappointed with the behaviour of many of my colleagues, anyway... I've had my day in court and we'll go from there."
[Ananova reports...]
Breast enlargements are now the most common graduation gift for girls who pass their secondary school exams in Italy.
Katie Price /PA
Boob jobs have knocked cars and summer holidays back into second and third places respectively.
Angelica Pesce, 18, from Rome, said she and many of her pals would be going under the knife in a few weeks having just finished school.
She said: "It's a much more useful present than something like a car, which will break down after a few years, or a holiday, which is over within a week. My new breasts will last a lifetime."
[El Reg reports...]A grandmother whose Victoria Sponge was honoured with runner-up spot in a village fete cake-baking contest was rather disappointed to discover she'd actually been the only competitor, the BBC reports.
Jenny Brown, 62, recounted: "My friend came over to me at the fete and said I had come second. I asked her how many more entries there had been, but she just started laughing and said I was the only one."
In fact, Brown's concoction fell foul of Wimblington Sports Committee's judges who marked her effort down "because it had indentations from the oven rack". The committee's Julie Dent explained: "The judges had an expectation and I suppose they didn't feel as though it qualified for first place."
Brown sportingly described herself as "not annoyed" at the snub, and added that despite its deficiencies, the Victoria Sponge was "soon polished off with no complaints".
In case you're thinking the judges may in this case have been just a little harsh, Dent bore witness to the ruthless judging standards of competitive cake-making. "About 11 years ago I entered a show with some fruit scones. I was the only entrant but I came third," she lamented.
Of the Wimblington cake challenge, Dent assured: "This was the first year, but the cake competition will become an annual event."
[from Ananova]
A hard-up British Airways worker slept in a works' store cupboard for nearly eight months.
Stephen McNally, 30, bunked down among computers and photocopiers to avoid security.
He got his supper from office vending machines and, before going to bed, would watch telly in the staff room, reports the Daily Mirror.
But the £18,000-a-year manager was rumbled when colleagues noticed he smelt and security found food in the cupboard at the airline's call centre in Scotswood, Newcastle.
A source said: "He'd never leave blankets or anything and there was no trace of his stay...it is amazing he got away with it for so long."
BERLIN: A wheelchair-bound German stunned police when they pulled him over for using the road and found he was 10 times over the legal alcohol limit for drivers.
"He was right in the middle of the road," said a spokesman for police in the northeastern city of Schwerin on Tuesday. "The officers couldn't quite believe it when they saw the results of the breath test. That's a life-threatening figure."
The 31-year-old told police he had been out drinking with a friend and was about 2 km from home when a squad car stopped him as he passed through the village of Ventschow.
Police said that because the man was technically travelling as a pedestrian, he could not be charged with a driving offence.
"It's not like we can impound his wheelchair," the spokesman said. "But he is facing some sort of punishment. It's just not clear yet what exactly that will be."
Inventor Joanne Drysdale claims it can give multiple, back-to-back orgasms lasting up to a minute a time - and it does not even touch the skin.
The 49-year-old former toolmaker was cleaning her carpets when she came up with the idea for Vortex, which sells for £35 through lovehoney.co.uk.
She saw how a piece of rubber that had got caught in the nozzle was gently resonating in the air flow. She also felt a soft stimulation to her fingertips as she tried to remove the rubber.
At the time Joanne, from Utah, had not had sex for 15 years following her divorce.
She said: "In my attempts to alleviate frustration, I began to think what I could do. I noticed how the rubber moved in the top of the vacuum.
"After several hours, I came up with the prototype. The first time I tried it I reached an orgasm within 10 seconds.
"That was when I knew I was on to something that could potentially bring pleasure to all women."
[ananova reports...]
An Austrian teenager was run over by a tractor twice - once when he fell off and again when his friend drove back to see where he was.
Hubert Hochstetter, 17, from the village of Kainisch, fell off the tractor as he and his 22-year-old friend Josef Mittringer were driving along the road.
He fell under the back wheels of the three-ton vehicle and had his ribs and arms broken.
But his pal Mittringer who could not see his friend lying behind his back wheels reversed to look where he was, and in doing so ran him over again, this time breaking his legs.
Mittringer panicked when he saw what had happened and drove off. But witnesses called an ambulance and the teenager was treated in hospital.
Doctors said that he will be in hospital for weeks but he's expected to make a full recovery.
[ananova reports...]
Caffeinated soap has been launched to help people who don't have the time for both a shower and a coffee in the morning.
Manufacturers claim their Shower Shock soap releases caffeine that is absorbed into the user's system and provides the same hit as a two cups of coffee.
The soap is also infused with peppermint and citrus scents so the user doesn't end up smelling of coffee, reports the Guardian.
A shower gel is also on offer, although the makers, Think Geek, warn that neither is recommended for pregnant women or children because of the caffeine content.
Jennifer Kuropkat, of Think Geek, said: "Every full body wash with the Shower Shock soap will provide the equivalent of around two cups worth of coffee.
"The caffeine is absorbed through the skin and into the bloodstream. It has exactly the same effect as if you were drinking coffee. Your blood pressure and pulse rate will increase, making your brain feel more alert and awake.
"The caffeine will then last in your system for approximately four hours - the same as two cups of coffee. They really are time-saves as you don't have to wait around for your coffee to brew in the morning."
The 4oz bars of soap, available via the internet, cost £3.50, and there is also a smaller travel version. The Mountain Dew shower gel costs £6.50.
I spent the weekend moving house and then going to an open day at an agricultural college, which was way more fun than it sounds. The open day, not the moving. The moving was okay though.
Anyway, if I hadn't been doing that, I would surely have been creating my own Transformers (Robots in Disguise!) outfit.
But if I did, it wouldn't be a patch on these guys who have clearly reached the very pinnacle of Transformerdom.
[El Reg reports...]
A Swedish couple is battling the country's National Tax Authority for the right to call their daughter "Metallica", the BBC reports.
In Sweden, both first names and surnames have to be officially approved. On the banned list are "offensive, unsuitable or inappropriate" titles, as well as those which might "cause discomfort for the one using it".
Michael and Karolina Tomaro have already baptised the six-month-old headbanger but, despite a ruling by Goteburg's County Administrative Court that there was "no reason to block the name", came unstuck when they "tried to register the name with tax authorities before applying for a passport". Officials didn't much like the Metallica tag, and sent the case to a higher court for consideration.
Karolina Tomaro bemoaned: "We've had to cancel trips and can't get anywhere because we can't get her a passport without an approved name."
Other names which have in the past fallen foul of Sweden's vetting process include "Ikea" and "Veranda", the Beeb notes. "Brfxxccxxmnpcccclllmmnprxvclmnckssqlbb11116" (pronounced Albin, in case you were wondering) also got the bum's rush back in 1996, when a boy's parents tried it on "as a protest against Swedish naming laws".
Sadly, though, some poor Swedish kid is called Oliver Google Kai. Nobody objected back in 2005 when search engine expert Kelias Kai and his wife Carol slapped the poor blighter with this inspired choice of middle name.
[stuff.co.nz reports...]
LONDON: Britons are a nation of spies, rifling through their partners' text messages, tapping phone conversations and even tailing loved ones with webcams and satellite navigation systems, a survey reveals.
The most favoured way of keeping tabs on a partner is checking their text messages, with more than half (53 per cent) of those questioned admitting sneaking a peek. The number shoots up to 77 per cent in the 25 to 34 age group.
The second most popular way of finding out if a partner has been a love-cheat is to read their emails – 42 per cent told the UK Undercover Survey that they had carried out such a ploy.
The third is the old-fashioned one of rummaging through a partner's pockets, (39 per cent), a technique popular with women.
Men prefer to break another unspoken rule – reading a partner's diary.
Neither is the spoken word safe from eavesdropping.
About one in three (31 per cent) of those questioned in the survey, commissioned by the Science Museum in London, for its Science of Spying exhibition, said they covertly listened in on their partner's conversations.
A small number of the 1129 people questioned, said they had even secretly recorded their partner's telephone conversations, using dictaphones or other such taping devices.
This method was the most popular with the over-55s age group, where one in 20 (5 per cent) put their hands up. This age group also included people using webcams and GSM tracking devices.
Almost one in 10 (9 per cent) have resorted to checking up on their partner by following them.
Harry Ferguson, former M16 agent, said: "Everyone has the ability to be a bit of a spy every now and again, and you don't need to have James Bond's gadgets to enter the world of espionage."
The Science of Spying exhibition ends in September.
I have derided Denmark in the past for being a country of muslim-hating pig-fuckers, but they do appear to have (accidentally, surely) hit on a decent idea here.
[stuff.co.nz reports...]
BOSTON: A Rhode Island woman who routinely had sex with her boyfriend in front of her nine-year-old daughter to teach her about sex was sentenced to three years' probation, authorities said.
Rebecca Arnold, 37, and David Prata, 33, who received the same sentence this week, told investigators they thought the practice would help the child to learn, prosecutors said.
"Basically, and I'm tempted to say idiotically, they believed it was helpful to the girl, Ms Arnold's daughter; they believed it was helpful to her development to see them engaging in various sex acts in front of her," said Mike Healey, spokesman for state attorney general Patrick Lynch.
The pair told investigators that they allowed the girl to watch their sexual romps but did not compel her to.
Rhode Island Chief Family Court Judge Jeremiah Jeremiah Jr allowed the couple from the city of Woonsocket to plead guilty and accept probation, instead of jail time, because he wanted to spare the girl the pain of a trial, local media said.
The girl mentioned the activity to her father while visiting him in Massachusetts and he reported the incident to authorities, Healey said.
[El Reg report...]
A first class British Airways passenger got short shrift from cabin crew after expressing his displeasure at waking up to find them manoeuvering a corpse into the seat next to him, the Daily Mirror reports.
The elderly woman had apparently died shortly after take-off, and was quickly upgraded from economy to first class
Building firm boss Paul Trinder, who'd stumped £3,000+ for the Boeing 747 flight from Delhi to London, recounted: "I woke up to see the crew manoeuvering what looked like a sack of potatoes into the seat. But slowly through the darkness I realised it was a body. The corpse was strapped into the seat but because of turbulence it kept slipping down on to the floor. It was horrific. The body had to be wedged in place with lots of pillows.
"Then the relatives were allowed to sit in First Class and spent the next five hours wailing and weeping. When I complained, I was told to 'get over it'. I was also told BA's corpse policy would remain 'unless I've got any better ideas'. In future, if I have a choice of airlines on a particular route I'll choose anyone but BA."
BA told the Daily Mirror: "We apologise, but our crew were working in difficult circumstances and chose the option they thought would cause least disruption."
[bbc.co.uk reports...]
A hamster trapped in a kitchen pipe was eventually rescued by being sucked up on the end of a vacuum cleaner.
Henry got stuck in a pipe measuring almost 4in (10cm) wide and 4ft (1.2m) deep at a house in Tamworth, Staffordshire.
After the RSPCA failed to reach him, help was sought from two council wardens who tied a number of hamster ladders and Curly Wurly bars together.
Finally, a narrow attachment on the vacuum was used to retrieve him.
He was unharmed apart from worn down nails.
A statement from Tamworth Borough Council said the owner's son was terrified of Henry so the wardens found him a new home and also paid the vet's bill.
It continued: "Henry is now safe and sound and has been given a good home by the council's customer services manager who has adopted him for her son."
---
The owner's son has to be under suspicion for this whole episode...
Three US students were suspended from school for saying the word 'vagina' - during a reading from The Vagina Monologues.
The three 16-year-olds received a one-day suspension from John Jay High School, in New York, after refusing to drop the word from a presentation on the feminist play.
Megan Reback, who with Elan Stahl and Hannah Levinson included the word during their reading, said: "It wasn't crude and it wasn't inappropriate and it was very real and very pure."
Their defiant stand is being applauded by the play's author, Eve Ensler, who said the girls were right for "standing up for art and against censorship."
"The school's position is absurd, a throwback to the Dark Ages," she said.
The excerpt read at an event sponsored by the literary magazine at the school, in Cross River, a New York City suburb.
The girls took turns reading the excerpt until they came to the v-word word, then said it together.
Principal Richard Leprine said the girls were punished because they disobeyed orders, not because of what they said.
The school "recognises and respects student freedom of expression," Leprine said. "That right, however, is not unfettered."
[from ananova]
A Marlborough arborist with a broken leg spent 95 minutes stuck in a tree, only to be airlifted by rescuers straight into another tree, giving him more cuts and bruises.
Gavin Finch, 31, of Nelmac Marlborough, was topping a large pine overlooking Picton Harbour when a branch twisted and struck him as it fell yesterday afternoon.
Police, ambulance and fire officers were unable to reach Finch, who was halfway up the 40m tree, perched on a branch.
Nelmac manager Bob Boyes said it was decided to call the Wellington-based Westpac rescue helicopter to lift Finch out.
"He was topping some pines and one of the limbs – a real gnarly one – cut back on him and caught him on the leg. Just one of those things with trees; you get the odd freaky one," Boyes said.
However, as Finch and a paramedic came free of the tree, they swung sideways into another tree.
Finch suffered more cuts and bruises from that collision, Boyes said.
Helicopter crewman Dave Greenberg said it was not the perfect rescue, but conditions were difficult.
Strong winds, nearby wires and other trees made the rescue challenging, but it would have been even more difficult to rescue him from below, Greenberg said.
Finch was flown to Blenheim's Wairau Hospital, where he was being treated for his injuries.
[from stuff.co.nz]
All murders are bad, but some murders are less bad than others.
----
Two circus clowns have been shot dead during a performance in the eastern Colombian city of Cucuta, police say.
The attacker jumped into the arena and fired before fleeing, police chief Jose Humberto Henao told Efe news agency.
Local reports say the audience of about 20 people, mostly children, thought the shooting was part of the show before realising both men had been killed.
Last year, a prominent circus clown, known as Pepe, was also shot dead by a unknown assailant in Cucuta.
The motive for the latest killing remains unclear, police said. Local media reports suggest two attackers may have been involved.
One clown was shot in the head as he performed on stage, about an hour into the Circo del Sol's evening show.
The second, named as 18-year-old Franklin Leal, from Cucuta, was then shot as he stood by the ticket booth, according to the newspaper La Opinion.
The travelling circus had set up in a suburb of Cucuta, capital of Norte de Santander province near the Venezuelan border, about 10 days earlier, the paper says.
[from bbc.co.uk]
Something smells fishy about the recent Mokihinui angling competition, and organisers suspect foul play.
They are offering a $500 reward to anyone who can prove the winning fish was actually caught in a set net and was not fair game on the end of a hook.
The Fishing Paper editor Daryl Crimp, of Nelson, said the judges were highly suspicious of the person who had claimed the $600 prize for the biggest overall snapper just one hour before the 10-day competition officially ended.
However, they felt obliged to pay out.
"What happened was that someone rang up about 2.30pm on the last day of the competition and asked whether it was still open. He then registered at 3pm and 'caught' the winning snapper a little later," Mr Crimp said.
The "winner" was within the designated boundaries – but some distance from other anglers – when the fish was landed and he was not known as a "rod and reel man".
"He had, however, been seen emptying a set net at Hector earlier in the day," Mr Crimp said.
He is now offering a $500 reward for information that might lead to the perpetrators of what he suspects was fishing fraud.
"What aroused further suspicion was that as soon as the prize money was handed over the winner gave it to two shady characters who were hanging around outside. Then, when they were asked to pose for the winning photo they all bolted."
The Fishing Paper sponsored the event but Mr Crimp said the offer of a reward had more to do with protecting the integrity of the competition than 'outing' a cheat.
"People that are out there busting their guts out fishing for 10 days don't deserve to be cheated out of their just rewards. If the winner has nothing to hide he will come forward and explain himself."
Constable Paul Samson, of Westport, said the matter had been reported and was being investigated. Police were following certain leads but were yet to decide what action, if any, would be taken.
[netted at stuff.co.nz]
A Russian man divorced his wife of 18 years after finding she had been feeding him cheap pumpkins instead of courgettes.
Ivan Dimitrov, 47, was devastated to find the pies he had been eating for six months were made of pumpkins and not courgettes.
Mr Dimitrov, from Voronezh, said when he realised the truth, after finding pumpkin rinds in the bin, he immediately hired a lawyer to organise a quick divorce from wife Irena, 38.
He said: "She knows I absolutely hate pumpkins and she lied to me for months about it just because the pumpkins were cheap.
"What else has she been lying about? What man could trust a woman who fed him pumpkins for half a year?"
---
So he hates pumpkins but has been eating them for months? Sounds like he should be thanking her for helping him overcome an aversion.
BOSTON: The lavender and tea tree oils found in some soaps, shampoos, hair gels and body lotions can produce enlarged breasts in boys, researchers reported on Wednesday.
These plant oils were linked to abnormal breast development in three boys, which was reversed when they stopped using them, Dr Clifford Bloch of Pediatric Endocrine Associates in Greenwood Village, Colorado, and colleagues reported.
They said their study, published in Thursday's issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, suggested these oils can act in ways similar to the hormone oestrogen.
"This report raises an issue of concern, since lavender oil and tea tree oil are sold over the counter in their 'pure' form and are present in an increasing number of commercial products, including shampoos, hair gels, soaps, and body lotions," the researchers wrote.
"Whether the oils elicit similar endocrine-disrupting effects in prepubertal girls, adolescent girls, or women is unknown."
While it is very common for boys to develop temporary breast enlargement as they go through puberty, the condition is very uncommon in young boys, Bloch's team wrote.
They found the problem in three otherwise healthy boys – ages 4, 7 and 10.
"I got wind of it because I was given a clue by a patient," Bloch said in a telephone interview.
That case involved the 4-year-old "who was using absolutely nothing on his skin except a lavender oil preparation that his mother had obtained from a homeopath. She used to rub it on his chest and body every night" because lavender, in alternative medicine circles, is supposed to have healing properties.
Several months after the boy stopped getting the "healing balm," his breasts returned to normal.
Meanwhile, Bloch then began to see lavender crop up in other cases, including the 10-year-old, who was using a hair styling gel and shampoo that contained both lavender oil and tea tree oil, and the seven-year-old, who had been using lavender-scented soap and skin lotions.
In laboratory tests, scientists at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences in North Carolina found that both substances can mimic the action of the female hormone oestrogen and block male hormones that control both masculine characteristics and inhibit the growth of breast tissue.
[from stuff.co.nz]
Police were called in after a cat tried to pull a mouse out of a jam jar and got its head stuck.
Officers said the incident was reminiscent of a Tom and Jerry cartoon, reports the Peterborough Evening Telegraph.
A motorist went to a police station for help after finding the cat wandering beside a road in Peterborough, with the jar on its head and the mouse millimetres from its nose.
A receptionist and three officers pulled and twisted but were unable to release the cat.
Eventually the animal freed itself - and the mouse - by smashing the jar on the floor of Thorpe Wood police station.
"It was like a scene from Tom and Jerry," said a police spokeswoman.
"I don't think anyone had ever seen anything like it before. The mouse ran off - it's still running around Thorpe Wood police station somewhere."
[from ananova.com]
AMSTERDAM: Anglo-Dutch consumer products group Unilever NV/Plc sent knives to 200,000 Dutch families in a direct mail campaign which resulted in some children suffering injuries, the company said today.
The company had sent the letters, which included a small knife with a metal blade and plastic hilt, in the first half of January to promote the use of one of its brands of margarine.
But Unilever said three children had needed to visit a doctor and around 50 parents had filed a complaint.
"Parents said the knife was too sharp, after which we decided to send a second letter and ask the families to throw away the knife," a Unilever spokeswoman said.
Unilever said it had contacted the families which had complained and had offered them a cuddly toy as consolation. It said it had not received any requests for compensation.
[from stuff.co.nz]
A convicted fraudster escaped from a high security jail in Germany after climbing into a cardboard box and posting himself to freedom.
Max Friedener, 28, escaped from prison in Darmstadt after hiding in the box in the mailroom. He escaped from the mail van as it was driving away.
The escape was only noticed when the mail truck arrived at the sorting depot and the hole in the box was spotted.
It is the second time a convict has earned a ticket to ride by using the mail system.
Only last month a convict in neighbouring Austria escaped from Graz prison by posting himself out in a large box that was supposed to contain lamp post parts. Both escapees are still at large.
[from ananova]
BERLIN: A 46-year-old German motorist driving along a busy road suddenly veered to the left and ended up stuck on a railway track – because his satellite navigation system told him to, police said today.
The motorist was heading into the north German city of Bremen "when the friendly voice from his satnav told him to turn left," a spokesman said.
"He did what he was ordered to do and turned his Audi left up over the curb and on to the track of a local streetcar line. He tried to back up off the track but got completely stuck."
The police spokesman said about a dozen trams were held up until a tow lorry arrived to clear the car off the track.
Several German motorists have crashed their cars in recent months, later telling police they were only obeying orders from their satnavs.
[from stuff.co.nz]
European men are flocking to Bulgaria to buy 'breast-boosting beer' after EU accession led to customs duties on the drink being abolished.
The millet-ale called Boza which is made from fermented wheat flour and yeast is being snapped up by bar owners, shopkeepers and shoppers from across Europe.
They are said to be keen for their wives and girlfriends to benefit from its reported ability to make women's breasts grow.
Constantin Barbu crossed the Danube from Romania to buy Boza in the Bulgarian border town of Ruse.
He said: "I've bought a case for my wife to try out. I really hope I see an improvement."
And Austrian landlord Klaus Schmidt from the ski resort of Schladming said he was planning a trip soon.
He added: "I had heard of Boza before but it was always so expensive once the tax was added. But now that's gone I'm going to start offering the drink to my après-ski customers."
[from ananova]
