`Vandals took apart dozens of supermarket trolleys in the mistaken belief they contained £1 coins. [..]
They took apart the handles of each trolley before stacking them in a neat pile in a black bin bag left nearby.
Police believe they did not realise the £1 coins are returned when shoppers take the trolleys back. [..]
A Durham Police spokesman said: “We can only guess that those responsible have never used a supermarket trolley before, otherwise they would know where the money goes.”‘
`A 20-year-old man has filed a civil lawsuit in California against Michael Jackson claiming the pop star sexually molested him on different occasions between the ages of two and 14. [..]
The man, who filed the lawsuit in October, also claims that he was subjected to “unnecessary cosmetic procedures.” Mattern claims to have photos of his client “with these red lips just like you see on Mr. Jackson and a big old cleft chin, which he didn’t have previously.”’
`A man was jailed on assault charges after a prosecutor, police officer and courtroom bailiff became seriously ill after shaking hands with him.
During a December 21 court appearance on a traffic charge, John Ridgeway pulled out a vial of liquid, rubbed his hands with the contents and insisted on shaking hands with the three people, authorities said.
All of them got sick within an hour, suffering from nausea, headaches, numbness and tingling that lasted about a day. Two sought treatment at a hospital.’
`Three British tourists were allegedly terrorised in the Gold Coast hinterland by a man vowing to kill Muslims in a bizarre attack reminiscent of the Sydney race riots and the horror movie Wolf Creek.
The tourists hid in a rainforest in fear of their lives after 41-year-old Shane Robert Stephens chased them along a perilous mountain road, trying several times to run their car off the edge, the Southport Magistrates Court heard yesterday.
Mr Stephens then stabbed the tyres on their rented convertible, slashed the hood, tore off the rear number plate and ripped out wiring and spark plugs, prosecutor Peta Eyschen told the court.
Opposing a bail application by the accused, Senior Constable Eyschen said Mr Stephens had referred to the three British men as “Lebanese”.’
`Finally, it has started. People have begun to speak of impeaching President George W. Bush–not in hushed whispers but openly, in newspapers, on the Internet, in ordinary conversations and even in Congress. As a former member of Congress who sat on the House Judiciary Committee during the impeachment proceedings against President Richard Nixon, I believe they are right to do so.
I can still remember the sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach during those proceedings, when it became clear that the President had so systematically abused the powers of the presidency and so threatened the rule of law that he had to be removed from office. As a Democrat who opposed many of President Nixon’s policies, I still found voting for his impeachment to be one of the most sobering and unpleasant tasks I ever had to undertake. None of the members of the committee took pleasure in voting for impeachment; after all, Democrat or Republican, Nixon was still our President.
At the time, I hoped that our committee’s work would send a strong signal to future Presidents that they had to obey the rule of law. I was wrong.’
Long article, makes a good case for bringing George “War Criminal” Bush to justice.
`Two clerks in Pennsylvania attacked a knife-wielding thief in the store and seriously injured him with baseball bats, according to a Local 6 News report. [..]
Surveillance video at the store showed a man in a black hood approaching the counter at the gas station before getting hit with the bat by employee Kuldip Singh.
Singh and his co-worker then hit the man repeatedly in the head.’
with video.
`Clarksville Police are searching for three men they say kidnapped, raped, robbed and held captive a 79-year-old woman for six hours after she attempted to walk into a Madison Street pharmacy.
The woman told police she was approached at about 3:30 p.m. Monday by a knife-wielding man and forced into the back seat of her bronze 1989 Ford Escort, according to an incident report by Detective Sean Averitt.
Two other men got into the back seat with her, and the first man drove away in her car. She was ordered to undress before being sexually assaulted and forced to smoke crack cocaine, Averitt wrote.’
`Fetuses do not count as passengers when it comes to determining who may drive in the carpool lane, a judge has ruled.
Candace Dickinson was fined $367 for improper use of a carpool lane, but contended her unborn child qualified to use the lane. Motorists who use the lanes normally must carry at least one passenger during weekday rush hours.’
`The Prime Minister’s brother, Stan Howard, will be prosecuted for chopping down up to 70 endangered trees on his property at Bowral in the southern New South Wales highlands.
Wingecarribee Shire Council spokesman Larry Whipper says Mr Howard and the contractor who bulldozed the trees could face a jail term and a $100,000 fine.’
`With space scarce as the U.S. prison population grows, a top Idaho lawmaker is proposing that inmates share beds by sleeping in shifts, a practice sometimes used by the U.S. military.
“Why does every inmate need his or her own bed?” asked State Sen. Robert Geddes. “The military does it all the time.”
The issue arises as Idaho and other states stiffen penalties for drug-related crimes, putting a premium on prison space. Idaho has nearly 7,000 inmates, and that number is growing by nearly 7 percent a year.’
`An Australian woman will face court on Tuesday charged with repeatedly stabbing her partner because he played an Elvis Presley song over and over again, police said on Tuesday. [..]
The man, whose injuries were described as “non-life threatening,” had been repeatedly playing the song “Burning Love,” a police spokesman said.
The 1972 song was the U.S. rock great’s 40th and last top 10 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.’
`An elderly man apparently upset about a parking dispute died in his burning house after trying to set fire to two of his neighbors’ homes using “homemade bombs,” authorities said. [..]
Police received a call about an explosion early Sunday and found the man standing in the street holding two handguns. One of his arm was in flames. When police told him to drop the guns, he fled into his house. Minutes later, flames and smoke came from the home, followed by several explosions, the city said in a statement. [..]
Investigators said the man had a long-standing feud with several neighbors regarding parking on the cul-de-sac. Neighbors said he also had other gripes.
“He was always mad at the whole neighborhood, always screaming at the kids especially,” [a neighbour] said. “He hated everybody. I just never thought it would get to that point.”‘
`A former Czech army doctor convicted of shooting dead Nigeria’s consul to Prague after falling prey to fraudsters has been spared his full jail term.
Prague’s public prosecutor decided not to oppose a court motion to free Jiri Pasovsky, 74, on grounds of ill health.
He was sentenced in June to eight years in jail, cut to five on appeal.
Pasovsky killed consul Michael Lekara Wayid, 50, and injured another embassy employee in 2003 after losing more than $600,000 (£340,000) to Nigerian conmen.’
`Annoying someone via the Internet is now a federal crime.
It’s no joke. Last Thursday, President Bush signed into law a prohibition on posting annoying Web messages or sending annoying e-mail messages without disclosing your true identity. [..]
Buried deep in the new law is Sec. 113, an innocuously titled bit called “Preventing Cyberstalking.” It rewrites existing telephone harassment law to prohibit anyone from using the Internet “without disclosing his identity and with intent to annoy.”‘
`A pizza delivery man in Cincinnati has told police he was the victim of a robbery attempt yesterday — by a pack of girls.
Police say he described his assailants as five very young girls.
Investigators believe they’re looking for suspects in the eleven-to-14 age group.
A police captain says it’s a little disturbing.’
`A member of the Southern Baptist Convention’s executive committee has been arrested in Oklahoma City on charges of propositioning a male undercover police officer.
The Reverend Lonnie Latham has spoken out against homosexuality in the past.
As he left jail yesterday, he said he was set up and was in the area pastoring to police.’
`Police in a Vancouver suburb reminded residents on Tuesday it was not a good idea to play with a loaded gun while using the bathroom, after a man accidentally shot himself.
A 21-year-old North Vancouver man was facing numerous weapons charges after he shot off one of his fingers while appar’
Has a stabilized version of the JFK assasination film.
`A Manilla, Iowa, man is accused of chasing county deputies with his tractor.
Crawford County deputies said a Taser gun was used on Daniel Hinners and he was arrested Tuesday night.
The deputies were responding to a domestic abuse call at Hinners’ home when he started chasing them on a large farm tractor.’
`A 20-year-old porn actress is wanted by police on child rape charges after allegedly having a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old boy, giving him drugs and convincing him to run away with her to Oklahoma, authorities said. [..]
Silva allegedly met the boy, a former DeAnza High School student, through her brother and began a sexual relationship with him in June, Peixoto said.
The boy ran away from his home in El Sobrante and moved in with Silva in Richmond. In an interview with police, he said Silva had supplied him with methamphetamines, ecstasy and marijuana.
At some point, Silva, her mother and the boy moved to Roosevelt, Okla., where Silva and the boy continued their relationship and their drug use, Peixoto said.’
`Investigators described a marijuana-growing operation discovered inside a cave in Trousdale County as something out of a James Bond movie.
“It’s pretty amazing what they had under there – water for irrigation, special lighting, devices to keep the humidity just right. These guys were professionals. They knew what they were doing,” said District Attorney General Tommy Thompson of Hartsville.
The cave was beneath a stylish A-frame home where authorities say three men were able to grow as much as 100 pounds of marijuana every eight weeks. [..]
To harvest the illegal crop, Thompson said the men would hire a half-dozen Hispanic workers in Arizona and drive them to Tennessee. For part of the journey the windows on the van would be covered so the workers did not know where they were.
“They would drive right into the cave and let them out to begin working,” Thompson said.’
`A plumbing problem at a Spokane home turned out to be a naked man. Police say a woman who thought she was having a problem with water pipes beneath the floor called the Water Department. Employees found the basement barricaded, and when they determined there was someone behind the door, they called police.
Police broke through the door, found the naked man and took him into custody. They searched the basement but found no clothing for the man. They also found that a pipe had been broken and repaired.’
`A female duo who tried to rob a man at gunpoint Sunday morning after one flashed him may be the same two women who later chatted with another man at a nearby convenience store and then possibly drove away in his car, police said.
Investigators working the cases are wondering whether another five or six unsolved auto thefts and robberies might be the handiwork of two women, a rare case in law enforcement. [..]
The man told police one woman suddenly flashed him then smashed a window of his pickup with a hammer as he was getting in.
The police said that when he got out of the truck and grabbed the hammer, another woman stepped out of a small beige car and, sporting a semiautomatic weapon, demanded his wallet.’
‘A taxi driver in Denmark bit off the tip of a 48-year-old man’s finger in a brawl over how many people could fit in the cab, police said Monday.
The dispute started early Sunday morning, when a group of five men hailed a taxi in downtown Odense, a city in central Denmark.
Police said things got out of hand when the 37-year-old driver insisted he could only take four passengers. [..]’
You could easily fit five if two of them were midgets.
`A man who robbed a New Zealand bank was so disappointed with his haul he tried again – this time by phone, police said Saturday.
“He’s rung (the bank) and said ‘I’m the guy who robbed you the other day and I want the manager to put some money in a bag and go and stand in the street,” said Detective Sergeant Chris Winder of the Auckland Police.
“(He said) ‘I’ll drive by slowly and take the bag from you and drive off.'”‘
`A police officer has been charged with using a Taser on his partner during an argument over whether they should stop for a soft drink. [..]
Dupuis and partner Prema Graham began arguing after Dupuis demanded she stop their car at a store so he could buy a soft drink, according to a police report.
The two then struggled over the steering wheel, and Dupuis hit her leg with his department-issued Taser, the report said. She was not seriously hurt.’
`A sex assault trial that hung on claims of a large penis was turned into a “cheap joke” by media coverage, a superior court judge said yesterday as she found the accused guilty.
Justice Margaret Eberhard said she was disturbed after receiving calls “from afar” and was ribbed numerous times over the trial in which a man claimed he could not be guilty of rape because his penis is too big. [..]
A 22-year-old student, who can’t be identified, claimed his penis is too big to insert into an average vagina without special preparation or it causes bleeding and scarring.
A urologist brought to court a plastic model that depicted the size of the member at a semi-relaxed state, which measured 8 1/2 inches long and 6 1/2 inches in girth.’
Followup to Penis size used as defence in trial.
`There was a scientific method to Daniel Zeiszler’s madness when he tried to extract methamphetamine from his own urine, after smoking the illegal street drug last September in his South San Francisco hotel room.
But Zeiszler’s experiment went dangerously awry when he spilled some solvent on himself, then lit a cigarette while he contemplated his next move, starting a fire that burned his right hand and arm.’
`German police have confiscated five warez servers with 6 terabytes of illegal copies of movies and games in the German town of Coburg on the fringes of northern Bavaria. The servers, with names as Temptation and Paradise Island, were accessible to over 1,200 people for € 30 to 120 per month. Police arrested at least one 26 year old.
[..] The servers ran for over a year, during which at least 130 terabytes of illegal movies and games were uploaded.
GVU says that the servers are part of a European network of 50 “release groups”, who issue the latest movies and games through closely knitted warez networks. GVU believes that in Germany alone 300 people are involved with these crimes.’
`A man is facing jail after slapping a passer-by with a fish.
Alan Bennie, 20, was walking through a park when he was approached by assailant David Evans, who was carrying a fish. [..]
[The prosecutor] said: “The accused asked the complainer ‘Do you want to kiss my fish?’
“Mr Bennie made no reply and walked on, at which point the accused said: ‘You answer me next time I ask you to kiss a fish’, and slapped him round the face with it.”‘
