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USA:
An
attempted armed robbery in Texas was cut short after police shot
water into the suspect’s getaway car to end a five-hour long
stand-off. The officers from Grand Prairie and Fort Worth forces
fired the water under high pressure through an open passenger door
at the man. Police had chased the car after a robbery at a shop in
Fort Worth and had negotiated by mobile phone with the man, who
was believed to have at least two handguns. Officers had tried to
approach the car several times but were forced back when he
pointed a gun at them. A police spokesman said they had hoped to
end the standoff sooner by using tear gas, but couldn’t without
endangering neighbours in the residential area. The man was
checked by paramedics and taken to a local jail, but was expected
to be turned over to Fort Worth police. |
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Norway:
A Norwegian motorist blamed a Coca Cola bottle after police pulled
him over for speeding. Alfred Lervik, 41, claimed the bottle
rolled on to the accelerator pedal after he braked suddenly. He
demonstrated how it happened in a test car but failed to convince
watching motoring experts and court officials. Police prosecutor
Anette Vangsnes said Lervik was facing a suspended 18-day prison
sentence and a €684 fine. |
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Singapore:
A
Singapore car salesman, whose wife smashed up 18 vehicles in a
rage, says he will pay for the damage. Wah Lay Chin went on the
rampage after friends claimed her husband, Robin Tu, was cheating
on her. Tu said he would bear the costs of his wife’s rampage,
but refused to comment on rumours of an affair.
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USA:
In a perfect example of Americana pop culture phenomenon, a
grilled cheese sandwich that bears the image of the Virgin Mary
has been sold on eBay to Internet casino GoldenPalace.com for an
eye-opening $28,000.Seller
Diana Duyser made the sandwich ten years ago, and after taking one
bite out of it, noticed the Virgin Mary's face staring back at
her. She put the sandwich in a clear plastic box with cotton balls
and kept it on her night stand.
Duyser, 52,
believes the sandwich has brought her luck over the years and is
truly convinced of its divinity."I would like all people to
know that I do believe that this is the Virgin Mary Mother of
God," says Duyser, a work-from-home jewelry designer.
"That is my solemn belief. People ask me if I have had
blessings since she has been in my home. I do feel I have, I have
won $70,000 on different occasions at the casino near my
house."
The paranormal
nature of the sandwich is mainly due to the fact that millions of
people are able to see the same holy icon on the bread, not to
mention that a ten-year-old sandwich has remained remarkably free
of mold. Oddly, no special care has been taken to preserve the
sandwich. Duyser claims that she has placed the sandwich in a
simple plastic case, not "a special one that seals out air or
potential mold or bacteria."
Given Duyser's
success at her local casino, it is fitting that a casino ended up
with the good luck charm that helped Duyser win big.
GoldenPalace.com has become familiar with eBay auctions, having
recently purchased several items and using them to raise over
$200,000 for various charities. Since this "slice of
heaven" has affected so many people worldwide, Golden Palace
intends to do the same with the sandwich by taking it on tour
around the world and allowing people to see the icon, hear
Duyser's story, and share in the good luck that it brings.
The sacred
sandwich has received over 1,700,000 visitors since being posted
on eBay. A Google search on the sandwich returns an incredible
89,000- plus matches, and a search on Diana Duyser's name alone
returns over 3000 matches. |
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Britain:
British workers have been told: Have a merry Christmas, but skip
the mistletoe, don't dance on the desks and definitely don't perch
bare-bottomed on the photocopier. The
Trades Union Congress and the Royal Society for the Prevention of
Accidents advised:
-Nix on
candles, flaming puddings and cigarettes.
-Careful with
the Christmas trees, which injured a thousand Britons in December
2002.
-Skip the
mistletoe. A sexual harassment case is no fun.
-No dancing on
the desks.
-Use paper
cups, not glasses.
-No indoor
fireworks.
-"Resist
the temptation to photocopy parts of your anatomy - if the copier
breaks, you'll be spending Christmas with glass in some painful
places."
Such advice
provoked resentment. "The purpose of Christmas parties is to
encourage team spirit, encourage relationships and so on,"
said Nick Goulding, chief executive of The Forum of Private
Business. "If you tie them down with pettifogging
regulations, you really undermine the whole thing you are trying
to achieve. "It is like using a sledgehammer to crack a
nut," Goulding said, perhaps highlighting a potentially
dangerous practice overlooked by the Royal Society for the
Prevention of Accidents. OfficeTeam, reported a survey of
2,400 which found that one in three workers dreaded the parties,
and one in five feared they might damage their careers by getting
drunk and misbehaving.
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Canada:
Police
in Canada say a bizarre urban legend has led them to a house
filled with marijuana plants. A woman accidentally called them
after her son told her dialling an extra one after the 911
emergency number would tell if police were tapping her phones. The
60-year-old woman hung up as soon as she realised she’d called
police. But they thought something was wrong at the address in
Surrey, British Columbia, so they rushed to the scene. A spokesman
said once inside, they discovered “a reasonably sized marijuana
growing operation.” |
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Norway:
From arms to disarming, it seems Scandinavian men are in a class
of their own. Officials in Norway are investigating why tax
authorities class female strippers as entertainers but male ones
as artists. An artist is in a lower tax bracket than entertainer
and the countries Gender Equality Ombudsman says she is concerned.
It comes after a complaint that all-male Chippendales only had to
pay a 15% artists’ tax for their tour while female strippers had
to pay 24%. |
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USA:
A
US judge has ordered teenager to take his mother out for lunch as
punishment for trespass and disorderly conduct. Judge David
Donnelly handed out the bizarre sentence to 18-year-old Arturo
Cruz for embarrassing his mother. Cruz, a first-time offender, was
appearing before Roxbury District Court in Massachusetts.
According to local reports Judge Donnelly said: “Let me get this
straight: You made your mother miss work and come here today
didn’t you?” Judge Donnelly called Cruz’s mother Rosa and
asked her where she enjoys having lunch. The judge ordered Cruz,
in lieu of the typical $100 fine to buy his mother lunch at Legal
Sea Foods. “You make sure you eat well,” Judge Donnelly told
Rosa Cruz. He told her son: “You make sure you tip well.” Cruz
later returned with his receipt. His mother ordered crab legs and
the bill came to $90.34. |
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China:
China has launched a campaign against poor English spelling on
signs and menus. Officials are fed up with restaurant listing
items like fried pawns and bean eurd. They say so-called Chinglish
words often confuse and amuse visitors giving them the wrong
impression of the country. “There are many ‘Chinglish’ words
on road signs, public notices, menus and signs describing scenic
spots, which often puzzle foreigners,” Xiong Yumei, Vice
Director of the Beijing Tourism Bureau, said. Some examples:
“Collecting Money Toilet” for a public toilet, and “To take
notice of safe, the slippery are very crafty” on a sign warning
that roads are slippery.
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Germany:
A self-employed
man who earns just €20,000 a year was landed with a €2 million
legal bill after asking a lawyer to do a few minutes work. The
man asked the lawyer to help him sort out a taxman’s mistake.
The lawyer took just one hour to sort out the mix-up where the
local taxman had sent the self-employed man a bill for nearly
€298 million on his €20,000 salary. Under German law, lawyers
are entitled to a certain percentage of the reduction if their
action results in a reduction in the tax bill. A Bonn court
spokesman said the law was clear the lawyer would get the money,
but it’s unclear who pays.
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Croatia:
An
armed robber abandoned a bank hold up after the cashier laughed at
his order to ‘stick them up’. The
masked robber entered a bank at Zagreb’s main square in plain
daylight and threatened the clerk with his gun “Knowing she was
behind a bulletproof glass, the clerk laughed heartily, rang her
boss to say she was being robbed and asked him to call the
police,” said a police spokeswoman.
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Britain:
Dog lovers celebrated after a judge granted clemency to Dino, a
German Shepherd sentenced to death for biting. The
case had gone as far as the European Court of Human Rights. Dino,
a seven-year-old Alsatian, got into legal hot water when he bit
the hand of a woman who tried to intervene in his fight with her
dog in January 2001. He faced a destruction order, but his owner
Bryan Lamon who said the incident was out of character, spent
€94,000 on a protracted legal fight to save him.
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Singapore:
Singapore
has enlisted its 40,000 taxi drivers to foil terrorists. The state
has asked them to be on alert for nervous or restless passengers. Cab
drivers have been given pamphlets describing what militants might
do or ask. As part of a campaign, drivers have been told to watch
out for people who wear thick or loose clothing, carry heavy
luggage but decline offers for help, who leave taxies in a hurry
without taking luggage or talk and behave suspiciously.
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Germany:
Staff at Stuttgart Zoo were surprised when a four-month-ole female
gorilla, brought to them from Berlin Zoo, turned out to be a boy. After
its birth in Berlin, little Makouka had been listed as a girl.
Berlin Zoo vet André Schuele claimed it wasn’t him who checked
the animal after it was born but he could understand the mistake.
“In the first days after the birth, it’s easy to get it wrong
because the sexual organs aren’t that well developed.”
But
it is unclear how Reimon Opitz, who changed Makouka’s nappies
every day, managed to overlook so significant a difference. |
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USA:
A woman returning her rented car to an airport drop-off point
drove the vehicle through a terminal building.
The elderly lady was trying to drop the car at the office
at Boise Airport in the US state of Idaho when she became confused
and followed a sign for terminal access. It’s
reported she drove the car through a set of automatic opening
double doors, through the terminal and past the baggage claim
area. Airport spokeswoman Larissa Stouffer said the woman stopped
when she reached the rental-car counter. There was no damage to
the terminal building, nobody was hurt and the woman wasn’t
prosecuted. |
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Croatia:
A veteran hunter was shot by his own hound while preparing to go
into the woods. Spaso Ivaosevic, a hunter in central Croatia since
1957, cleaned and loaded his double-barrelled shotgun as usual on
Wednesday.
He briefly leaned the gun against a wall near his house when his
two-year old dog Lero, chasing chickens through the yard, stormed
past and tripped over the shotgun. It hit the ground and fired,
showering Mr. Ivaosevic with pellets. The hunter was treated for a
fractured leg bone, while the fate of Lero was not known. |
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USA:
A
man who tried to impress his wife by setting up a break-in at
their home in Oklahoma has been arrested.
It’s reported that
the man – a schoolteacher – recruited two students to break
into the house in Edmond. It’s
understood he may have staged the break-in to make himself look
like a hero and salvage his marriage.
He’d
planned to return from a late-night walk, confront the two
intruders and drive them off.
But it backfired when one of the students told his parents
and they called the police. Police
in the town said they launched a major response after receiving
reports of intruders in the man’s house.
The man faces a misdemeanour charge of filing a false
report, while criminal charges could also be filed. Police say the
man may also have to pay for the cost of the police operation. |
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Brazil:
A
rancher accused of ordering the killing of four government agents
inspecting claims of slavery was released from jail after being
elected mayor of his home town. Antreio Manica was let out of
prison after being elected mayor of Unai in a landslide victory.
Federal police suspect Manica and a brother hired the gang
that executed three labour ministry inspectors and their driver
earlier this year. “As he was elected mayor there was little
concern he would try to flee,” a police spokesman said.
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Britain:
Foreign doctors are learning slang to treat their patients.Seven
GPs from Austria speak fluent English but have struggled to
understand patients from Yorkshire.
Now the confused doctors are watching cult movies such as The
Full Monty and Brassed Off to help them understand
their Yorkshire patients while a colleague has compiled a
dictionary of local terms. Dr.
Lis Ridgers from Barnburgh, near Doncaster said: “They didn’t
understand ’boobs’ meant breasts and ‘gone off their legs’
was somebody feeling unwell.” Dr.
Rodgers has now translated ‘Me leg’s all manky’ as an
infected limb while to be ’jiggered’ is over-tired.
The GP’s now know that ‘feeling whammy’ is under the
weather, ‘roaring’ is crying and ‘gipping’ is vomiting.
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