`A Colombian man has been sentenced to four years’ house arrest for slapping a woman’s bottom as he rode by her on his bicycle, sparking debate on whether the punishment fit the crime.
Showing re-enactments of the incident, television news shows were filled on Friday with legal experts offering opinions about the judgment handed down earlier in the week by Bogota’s district court.
Some said that to confine bicycle messenger Victor Garcia to his home for four years for smacking Diana Marcela Diaz’s buttocks was excessive. Others said it would deter other men.’
`A Battle Creek man is in the Calhoun County jail accused of trying to solicit sex from a minor that turned out to be an undercover police officer.
The Emmett Township Department of Public Safety says they caught 32-year-old Brian Woodman in an Internet sting. He’s accused of chatting with a girl he thought was 14-years-old and then arranging to meet her for sex.
When Woodman arrived for that meeting, he found out that he had been chatting with an undercover police officer.
Woodman was arraigned today on eight felony counts.’
`A teenage guitarist got so carried away while bouncing up and down on his bed mimicking a rock star that he flew out of a third floor window to his death, a Singapore newspaper reported Wednesday.
The Straits Times said Li Xiao Meng, a 16-year-old from China who was studying at Singapore’s Hua Business School, was a keen musician who liked to jump up and down while playing his guitar in his hostel room.
“But on November 17 he took things a bit too far,” the newspaper said, reporting on a coroner’s court findings.’
`The authorities in Moscow have hastily removed posters congratulating Russian war veterans which mistakenly showed the American warship USS Missouri.
The posters were taken down on Wednesday – just hours before Defender of the Motherland Day.
The Russian defence ministry said it did not produce the posters.’
`There are plenty of legendary sports tales about athletes playing through injury, but none match the local legend, Terra Linda High senior wrestler D.J. Saint James. [..]
“I grabbed the guy for a single-leg takedown and he flipped back and his foot hit me right between the legs,” Saint James remembered. “I wasn’t feeling to great. I thought I was just kicked and I’ll be all right. I wanted to finish the match and it was only after I walked off the mat that I knew it was more serious.”
A few hours later he found out just how serious.
“They told me I was getting surgery on my (testicles) and the nurse started to explain to my mom that if I died during surgery, she would be the one to come and tell them,” Saint James said. “That’s when I started to freak out.”‘
‘A Sudanese man has been forced to take a goat as his “wife”, after he was caught having sex with the animal.
The goat’s owner, Mr Alifi, said he surprised the man with his goat and took him to a council of elders.
They ordered the man, Mr Tombe, to pay a dowry of 15,000 Sudanese dinars ($50) to Mr Alifi.
“We have given him the goat, and as far as we know they are still together,” Mr Alifi said.’
`Dennis Crouch had already slashed himself. And when he refused to drop his knife, Daytona Beach police Officer Betsy Cassidy decided she had no choice.
“Taser! Taser!” Cassidy shouted as she sent a two-pronged wire, packing 50,000 volts, at Crouch’s chest. What happened next stunned everyone.
A Taser probe pierced the pocket of his khaki shirt — and ignited the butane lighter inside. Crouch’s pocket exploded in flames.
“The subject,” recounted Sgt. Al Tolley in a subsequent report, “immediately dropped the knife.”‘
`A heavyweight couple caused a pub ceiling to collapse by frolicking together in a shower.
The pair checked in to the The Black Horse Inn in Taunton, Somerset, and spent an afternoon drinking in the bar.
They then went upstairs and got in to the shower together.
Their amorous behaviour caused some damage and water started to pour down into the bar below.
The couple left early the next morning, but not long afterwards the ceiling collapsed, leaving landlord Steve Ball with a £5,000 repair bill.’
`Jacqueline Dotson and her six-year-old daughter had to be cut out of their vehicle after the accident in which Dotson veered into the median and over-corrected, rolling her truck over the guardrail and landing upside down after flipping several times.
Several people stopped to help, and it turns out, the good samaritans may very well have saved Dotson’s life. Sheila Vice, a nurse’s aide, and an off-duty EMT from another county stopped to help, and put a tourniquet on Dotson’s arm to stop the bleeding. Her arm was found near the accident still clutching a cell phone.’
`For the second time in recent months, somebody broke into a 16-year-old girl’s home and stole her prosthetic leg — including one that had been donated following the first crime, authorities said.
The thieves took a $12,000 cosmetic leg and a donated $16,000 leg that Melissa Huff uses to play softball, her mother, Lisa Huff, said. She said a camera in the room was untouched.
“It’s insane. Who hates her that bad?” Lisa Huff said. “I went back to the girls’ room and the room was trashed. Mostly Melissa’s stuff.”‘
`A family in Hilo, Hawaii, has sued a doctor after the man admitted he implanted a screwdriver into the neck of a patient, instead of titanium rods, according to a Local 6 News report. [..]
Doctor Robert Ricketson said that during a surgery on Iturralde, a nurse told him there were no more titanium rods for his neck.
Ricketson said he did not feel he could risk keeping the man under anesthetic with an unstable spine for any longer so he made the decision to substitute the rods with a screwdriver, according to the report.’
`It may have been a borderline call, but it was still a third strike. The Oregon Court of Appeals on Wednesday upheld a ruling that sent Nicholas Meyrovich to life in prison under a 2001 three-strikes law. Meyrovich got his third strike, a felony sex offense, for delivering an unwanted kiss.
Meyrovich, in his appeal, claimed that a life sentence for the kiss violated the Oregon Constitution’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
Meyrovich, 60, an exterminator, was inspecting the home of a Salem woman in October 2003 when he suddenly grabbed her and kissed her. The woman pushed Meyrovich away, but he took hold of her again and sucked her on the neck, stopping when a neighbor walked in.
Meyrovich was later convicted of first-degree sexual abuse, which under Oregon law requires the forcible touching of the “sexual or other intimate parts” of another person.’
`US government officials took Sony BMG to task over its controversial use of rootkit-style copy protection at a security conference this week. If the technology proves harmful to consumers, tougher laws and regulations might be proposed, a senior Department of Homeland Security exec warned.
“Legislation or regulation may not be appropriate in all cases, but it may be warranted in some circumstances,” said Jonathan Frenkel, director of law enforcement policy with the DHS’s Border and Transportation Security Directorate, PC World reports.
Sony BMG’s flawed approach to Digital Rights Management technology was exposed after security researchers discovered XCP anti-piracy software, that shipped with some of Sony BMG’s music CDs, masked its presence and introduced a vulnerability that hackers and virus writers began to target. Under pressure, Sony was forced to recall discs loaded with the technology and create an exchange program for consumers.’
`Lindsey Jacobellis tried to show off and she got what she deserved: She fell on her tail.
Jacobellis had a 50-yard lead in the first women’s Olympic snowboardcross final Friday in a dandy of a race. She had looked over her shoulder several times in the bottom section of the run to see where her opponents were on the course. Obviously, she could already feel the weight of that gold medal around her neck. She was excited. She was confident of her victory. And she tried to show off a bit, throwing a back-side method over the second-to-last jump. But she held the grab too long, lost her edge and tumbled to the snow.’
`A flatulent dog saved two girls from a Valentine’s Day rendezvous with a rape suspect.
The two New York girls, ages 12 and 15, ran away from home Monday on an overnight bus to Minneapolis. One of the girls brought the family dog, Bambi.
She told the bus driver that Bambi was her guide dog. The girls fed the dog junk food on the bus. It gave the dog gas.
Other riders complained about the malodorous mutt. The driver alerted security guards at Cleveland’s Greyhound station and guards called police.
“Of course we quickly figured out this wasn’t a Seeing-Eye dog and neither of the girls is blind,” Lt. Thomas Stacho said.’
`About an hour passed, then it was my time to suit up. A few other gentleman had already taken the Veyron out for a spin, and the flash bulbs were going off like machine guns. It was standing room only trying to catch a glimpse of the burgundy colored Veyron whizzing by. I was eventually waved over by a member of Bugatti, asked to put on a helmet and fill out a brief “driver bio” and then took my place in line. I was instructed to take a nice, easy lap and not to push the car too hard. “Sure” I thought, I can do that.
I get inside the car – which was beautiful by the way – and settle in, trying to get comfortable before my wild ride in the spotlight. After a few minutes of working the shifter and the pedals to settle into my groove, I was waved onto the track and got the green flag. I gave her about half gas and BOOM, I’m off like a shot. I proceed to fly through the course at a gingerly, controlled pace, struggling to keep myself from flooring it and breaking the sound barrier. Turn after turn I fell more in love with the car – the handling and power were so effortless – it was like a racecar with a luxury cockpit. I was in heaven, living every man’s wildest fantasy. For those brief 2 minutes it was good to be me.
Then, about 3/4 of the way around the track, my perfect fantasy was abruptly interrupted. [..]’
`Paris Hilton was reportedly hit by four flour bombs after her catwalk appearance at London Fashion Week last night.
Animal rights campaigners were targeting designer Julian Macdonald, who uses fur, as he and the hotel heiress made their way to the after-show party at Cuckoo Club in Mayfair.
The protestors were from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).’
`A youth who tied himself to a foldaway bed because he was bored was rescued by police after becoming trapped in its mechanism, officials said.
Neighbors alerted the police in the western German town of Schwelm after hearing the 16-year-old’s cries for help.
When police entered the apartment, they found the bed had folded itself away and the red-faced youth was tied upside down to it with a tow-rope and wire and unable to free himself.’
‘US Vice President Dick Cheney did not have a permit to hunt quail when he accidentally shot a 78-year-old hunting partner over the weekend, the White House says.
The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department informed Mr Cheney that he lacked a stamp for hunting “upland game birds” in the state when the shooting incident occurred, the Vice President’s office said in a statement.
Texas authorities said they would issue a warning citation to Mr Cheney but impose no penalty or fine for failing to have the stamp.’
followup to Dick Cheney misses bird, hits fellow hunter.
Update: here’s the official Incident Report Form.
`A box of X-rated fortune cookies was mistakenly delivered to a fundraiser hosted by a Brooklyn politician.
The 350 cookies stuffed with “the most graphically lurid” fortunes got mixed up in a batch of 1,750 cookies ordered for the Chinese New Year event, Borough President Marty Markowitz said Friday. Some guests “were stunned, to say the least.”‘
`Queensland Premier Peter Beattie has become the second state leader in as many days to be caught up in a swearing gaffe.
Mr Beattie was unaware cameras were rolling when he swore while talking about his deputy Anna Bligh with other premiers at Friday’s Council of Australian Governments meeting in Canberra.
Television cameras recorded Mr Beattie telling his NSW counterpart Morris Iemma: “She’s deputy premier and treasurer and every other piece of shit I don’t want.”
The comments followed Mr Iemma’s own slip-up during the same conversation, when he described Sydney’s new Cross City Tunnel chief executive as a “fuckwit”.’
A bunch of accidents in some tunnel.
Now I kinda see why they’re so keen on people not changing lanes in tunnels. :) Would suck to be a passenger on that bus.
`A port Lincoln man was in hospital after crashing his car into the town’s police station causing several thousand dollars worth of damage, police said today.
A police spokesman said the vehicle smashed through a fence and hit the front wall of the station about 2am (CST) today. [..]
He has been charged and will appear in Port Lincoln court for driving without due care and on licence and drink-drive offences.’
`A teenager who was repeatedly given a potentially fatal overdose of radiation at a leading cancer unit spoke yesterday of her fears after the hospital where she was given the treatment said the mistake was the result of human error.
Lisa Norris, 15, was undergoing radiation therapy for a brain tumour at Beatson Oncology Centre, Glasgow, when she was given the potentially deadly doses 17 times. Doctors have told her they do not know what the long-term effects on her health will be. “I could be brain damaged, I could be paralysed. We don’t know what’s in the future. I could not be here,” she said yesterday.’
`Journalist of Russia’s First TV Channel (ORT) Viktor Shvagerus insists that Russian special services have a video of British spy Andrew Fleming masturbating on the spy stone. Two weeks ago, Russia’s FSB reported seizing of a spy electronic device belonging to the British intelligence designed as a stone. But it turned out later that the national TV channels did not show the most interesting part of the spy scandal. [..]
The cameraman wrote: “Censorship was applied to the footage showing one of the supposed spies performing an indecent action with the stone-like transmitter. Behind the cameras FSB experts explained that the British spy was masturbating in front of the stone. They did not name the man, but they grinned every time the name of Andrew Fleming was mentioned (secretary of the British Embassy in Russia Andrew Fleming is meant).”’
`British motorists made claims last year for everything from a frozen squirrel crashing through a car windscreen to a cow jumping on a quad bike.
Freak accidents involving animals topped the list of odd excuses for motor insurance claims, with food-related mishaps in second place.
In one unfortunate incident, a driver claimed he was unable to slow down because a potato was wedged under the brake, while another blamed a flying, frozen kebab for damage. [..]
“We can hardly tell drivers to beware of flying kebabs and frozen squirrels when they’re on the roads.”‘
`Toxoplasma gondii may be the most prevalent human parasite. As many as 50% of humans worldwide, and up to 80% in urban areas, have been infected with it at some time in their lives. An estimated 60 million people in the US have active cases at any given time. It’s a single celled parasite whose favored host is cats. However it can infect and live in a host of other creatures including rats and humans. Most infected people, and most infected rats, show no particular signs of illness when infected. They continue on with their daily life and work completely unaware they’ve been parasitized. But they may not be as unaffected as they seem.’
`One of the world’s last Stone Age tribes has murdered two fishermen whose boat drifted on to a desert island in the Indian Ocean.
The Sentinelese, thought to number between 50 and 200, have rebuffed all contact with the modern world, firing a shower of arrows at anyone who comes within range.
They are believed to be the last pre-Neolithic tribe in the world to remain isolated and appear to have survived the 2004 Asian tsunami.’
‘This guy shoots his buddy with an airsoft gun while hes on the toilet. We cant see what he his but judging by his friends reaction it was a sensitive area.’
(870kB Windows Media)
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