‘Six more youths have lost their penises as a result of bungled circumcisions in the Eastern Cape.
Provincial health department spokesperson Sizwe Kupelo said 18 would-be initiates were admitted to hospital in Port St Johns last week and four had to have their septic penises amputated. [..]
Kupelo said the death toll in the current winter circumcision season in the province now stood at seven.
Five of the deaths were the direct results of circumcisions; one youth was murdered at a school and another died in a fire at a school in the East London area.’
‘Police detained a man in eastern Belgium after a dinner guest found the bodies of the host’s wife and stepson in a freezer, authorities said Thursday.
The female guest opened the freezer while helping to clear up after a dinner with a group of friends Tuesday at the man’s home in the city of Verviers, 78 miles east of Brussels, said Christine Wilwerth of the city prosecutor’s office.
“It was a lady who at the end of the meal at a friend’s house, and after washing the dishes … decided to take the leftovers of the meal down to the basement to store in the deep freeze,” Wilwerth said. “Once she opened the deep freeze, she discovered the bodies.”‘
‘After 14 failed attempts at joining the United Nations using media campaigns and presidential appeals, Taiwan is turning to a local goth-style rock band backed by Ozzy Osbourne in its quest for membership to the world body.
The band, named ChthoniC, will travel to at least 80 cities in four countries by the end of the year, supported in part by the Taiwan government, which is providing pro-U.N. literature and a slogan-painted truck.
The band will visit Canada, Germany, Britain and the United States.’
This guy made a video of himself building drawers for his wife as a birthday present. Apparently the video was to prove that he was actually capable of making the drawers himself.
Point proven? :)
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‘An Australian manufacturer has called for applications for what it claims could be the world’s best job – condom tester.
Durex marketing manager Sam White said any Australian over the age of 18 could apply for one of 200 positions as a condom tester.
The position is not paid, but successful applicants will receive a free $60 selection of Durex products and will be required to provide the company with honest feedback about the products’ performance. [..]
“With this job on your CV, it really will be a chance to brag to your mates about the special skills you possess, not to mention that your new role will work wonders with the opposite sex,” he said.’
‘Authorities tracked down a 4-year-old girl who called 911 nearly 300 times last month by offering to deliver McDonald’s to her suburban Chicago apartment.
Unbeknownst to her mother, the girl used a deactivated cell phone to call dispatchers 287 times in June–sometimes as often as 20 times a shift.
Dispatchers heard the child’s voice but could only track the phone’s signal to the apartment complex.
So authorities used a ruse to pinpoint her.
“We asked (the caller) what she wanted. She said she wanted McDonald’s,” said Steve Cordes, executive director of QuadCom’s emergency center, which covers Carpentersville.
“We talked with her and we convinced her if she told us where she lives, we would bring her McDonald’s,” he said. “She finally gave us her address. So we sent the police over–with no McDonald’s.”‘
‘A Canadian mother has frozen her eggs for use by her seven-year-old daughter, who is likely to become infertile.
Should the girl opt to use the eggs and gain regulatory approval, she would effectively have a baby that was her half-brother or sister.
Critics said the work, presented at a fertility conference in Lyon, was deeply concerning.
But the doctors from the McGill Reproductive Center, Montreal, called the donation an act of motherly love.’
‘A botched brazilian waxing turned into a horror story for a young Melbourne woman who almost died after the beauty treatment went wrong.
The 20-year-old suffered a life-threatening infection after some minor bleeding while being groomed by a trainee waxer.
Within a fortnight the diabetes sufferer, who has a lowered immune system, was suffering excruciating pain, a fever and a rash extending to her chest, arms and neck.
Other areas of her body became so badly infected, doctors thought she had a flesh-eating disease until they were finally able to examine her under a general anaesthetic.’
‘Microsoft said on Thursday it expects to spend more than $US1 billion to repair widespread hardware problems in its Xbox 360 video game console after a large number of them broke down.
Microsoft said it would extend the warranty on the Xbox 360 to three years after too many of the consoles succumbed to “general hardware failure,” but the company provided few other details about the extent of the problems.
“We don’t think we’ve been getting the job done,” said Robbie Bach, president of Microsoft’s entertainment and devices division, which also makes the Zune digital music player. “In the past few months, we have been having to make Xbox 360 console repairs at a rate too high for our liking.”‘
‘A hero cabbie who took on the Glasgow Airport terror suspects told yesterday how he booted one of them in the privates.
Alex McIlveen, 45, kicked the man, whose body was in flames, so hard that he tore a tendon in his foot.
But he said last night: “He didn’t even flinch. I couldn’t believe he didn’t go down.’
‘An 11-year-old Perdido Key girl has been charged with driving under the influence after she led Orange Beach police on a high-speed chase.
Greg Duck, Orange Beach assistant police chief, said the Tuesday night chase — which was caught on a dashboard camera in a police cruiser — started about 10:30 p.m. in Orange Beach near the Florida line. It ended just inside the Gulf Shores city limits when the girl crashed and rolled the Chevy Monte Carlo she was driving. [..]
Police said the car sideswiped another vehicle during the chase, which reached speeds of more than 100 miles per hour. [..]
Duck said the girl told police she was on her way to pick up her sister at a concert in Orange Beach.’
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‘A pair of pre-teen sisters are accused of kidnapping an infant in Enid on Thursday, police said.
The 10-year-old and 12-year-old girl allegedly broke into a neighbor’s home Thursday morning about 5:30 a.m., taking a 1-year-old baby while his mother, Sheila Wells, slept, police said. A ransom note was left. According to police, they were accused of kidnapping for extortion and first-degree burglary.
Officers said the girls not only took the baby boy, Brandon Wells, from a crib in which he was sleeping, they also took assorted baby items, $20 in cash and left a ransom note telling the mother of the baby that “if you want to see your son again, then you won’t call police and report him missing, and you will leave $200,000 on the sofa tonight, and we will return your son back safe.”
Police said the note was signed “the kidnappers.”‘
‘A 300-pound black bear raided a family’s campsite, and the father saved his sons from harm by throwing a log at the beast, killing it with a single blow.
Chris Everhart and his three sons were camping in the Chattahoochee National Forest in northern Georgia when the encounter happened Saturday. The bear took the family’s cooler and was heading back to the woods when the youngest son, 6-year-old Logan, hurled a shovel at it.
The bear then dropped the cooler and started coming at the boy, said his father. Fearing what might happen next, Everhart, an ex-Marine, grabbed the closest thing he could find — a log from their stash of firewood.
“(I) threw it at it and it happened to hit the bear in the head,” Everhart said. “I thought it just knocked it out but it actually ended up killing the bear.”‘
‘The Defence Minister today listed the security of the world’s oil supply as one of the major reasons for Australia’s continuing military presence in Iraq as John Howard spelled out plans to keep troops in the country.
The Prime Minister said Islamic extremists remained a threat to Australia and it would be against “our national character” to let terrorists prevail.
He has again ruled out any timetable for withdrawing soldiers from the country plagued by sectarian conflict and regular deadly attacks against coalition forces.’
I need an “obvious” tag, really.
‘This Friday, it became known that the Swedish Police Board will shut down The Pirate Bay, the popular file sharing site, by classifying it as a child pornography site in the blocklist that Swedish Internet Providers respect. Some time next week, an update to the blacklist will include The Pirate Bay.
This means that anyone from Sweden visiting the well-known file sharing site The Pirate Bay will be greeted by a block page from the Police Board saying they’re not allowed to visit child pornography sites.
“This is a devastatingly ignorant abuse of the trust relationship between the Internet world and the Police that was created in order to stop child pornography”, says Rick Falkvinge, leader of the Pirate Party. “Once given the means to shut down unwanted sites, the Police uses the filter to shut down the Pirate Bay after the failed attempt last year. And just like last year, through abuse of procedure.”‘
Tricky but amusing sorta game.
‘A Hong Kong woman who blinded her boyfriend in one eye in a fight six years ago has been jailed for jabbing a chopstick into his other eye.
Last November, Po Shiu-fong, 58, accused long-time boyfriend Kwok Wai-ming, 49, of having an affair, the South China Morning Post reported.
During the row, Po stabbed a plastic chopstick into his left eye, which she had already blinded six years ago when she poked it with her finger.
“Po became hysterical when she saw the wound and mopped it with a towel. The pair then went to bed,” the paper said.
“The next morning they had another argument in which she grabbed a chopstick and stabbed Kwok’s right eye,” it said.’
‘Voronoff’s hypothesis was this: hormones, like testosterone produced by the testes, would reverse aging by a process he called “rejuvenation.” One of his first experiments used himself as a test subject. He injected ground up dog and guinea pig testicles under his own skin, but was disappointed when this did not result in any verifiable effect. He reasoned that living grafts of testicular tissue, rather than injections, would have a more dramatic and lasting rejuvenation effect.
This lead to cross-species glandular transplantation surgeries. His early experiments involved transplanting thyroid tissue into humans with a thyroid deficiency. He also began transplanting the testicles of executed criminals into rich old guys (as a treatment for senility and schizophrenia), but had to stop when the demand for the procedure far exceeding the supply of criminal testicles. At this point, Voronoff began using monkey testicles instead, and his first “monkey gland” to human transplant took place in June of 1920.’
‘A Polish court has issued eviction notices to a group of rebellious nuns who have defied Catholic Church orders to leave a convent they have occupied for two years.
The 64 nuns took over the building in 2005, rejecting the Vatican’s decision to replace their mother superior, who had taken decisions she said were based on religious visions and had upset other nuns.
The nuns and their superior in the southern city of Kazimierz Dolny have also ignored their expulsion from their order, the Sisters of the Family of Bethany. [..]
The building’s electricity was cut off in April, but sympathisers from the town have continued to provide food and water under cover of darkness. The nuns have on occasion thrown stones at journalists trying to speak to them.’
‘In a fairly radical departure from the principles that normally govern hydroelectric power generation, Austrian engineer Franz Zotlöterer has constructed a low-head power plant that makes use of the kinetic energy inherent in an artificially induced vortex. The water’s vortex energy is collected by a slow moving, large-surface water wheel, making the power station transparent to fish – there are no large pressure differences built up, as happens in normal turbines.’
They’re on a wharf hitting golf balls into a lake. What could go wrong? :)
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‘Five boys have appeared in the Perth Children’s Court charged over the kidnap and assault of a high school classmate.
The boys aged 12 to 14 are accused of grabbing the boy from the school last Wednesday and dragging him into nearby bush.
It is alleged they hung the 13-year-old up by his underpants and assaulted him.
Police say the boys then dug a grave, pushed the teenager into it and shovelled dirt on top of him.’
‘Police officers in the Dutch city of Alkmaar were surprised to see a car passing by with a man sitting on a bicycle on its roof.
The driver and his wife, when stopped by the police, said they heard a noise while waiting at a traffic light, but did not realise they were taking on an extra passenger.
The 26-year-old man who took the free ride was fined for public drunkenness, not carrying an identity card and providing a false identity to the police.’
‘Dear Co-Workers and Managers,
As many of you probably know, today is my last day. But before I leave, I wanted to take this opportunity to let you know what a great and distinct pleasure it has been to type “Today is my last day.”
For nearly as long as I’ve worked here, I’ve hoped that I might one day leave this company. And now that this dream has become a reality, please know that I could not have reached this goal without your unending lack of support. Words cannot express my gratitude for the words of gratitude you did not express. [..]’
‘A state forensics scientist who said she tested DNA in her husband’s underwear to find out whether he was cheating could be disciplined if investigators determine she violated the use of state equipment.
Ann Chamberlain-Gordon of Okemos testified in a March 7 divorce hearing that she ran the test in September on the underwear of Charles Gordon Jr. Asked by his attorney what she found, she answered: “Another female. It wasn’t me.”
She also said during a May 25 hearing in Ingham County Family Court that she ran the test on her own time with chemicals that were set to be thrown away.’
‘To judge by their lyrics, gangsta rappers are adept at seeing off rivals with a bullet and their women with a slap.
But America’s rappers are now trapped in a corner they don’t seem able to shoot their way out of, with either weapons or words.
Confronted with haemorrhaging sales, the most assertive popular music movement since the Sex Pistols has lost its swagger and is suffering a crisis of confidence.’
‘The floods that have devastated swathes of the country are God’s judgment on the immorality and greed of modern society, according to senior Church of England bishops.
One diocesan bishop has even claimed that laws that have undermined marriage, including the introduction of pro-gay legislation, have provoked God to act by sending the storms that have left thousands of people homeless.
While those who have been affected by the storms are innocent victims, the bishops argue controversially that the flooding is a result of Western civilisation’s decision to ignore biblical teaching.
The Rt Rev Graham Dow, Bishop of Carlisle, argued that the floods are not just a result of a lack of respect for the planet, but also a judgment on society’s moral decadence.’
