`Police are searching for a burglar who was nice enough to leave a birthday greeting — albeit misspelled — while making off with cash from a store’s safe.
A manager at a Linens ‘n Things store arrived Tuesday to find someone had knocked a hole in the roof, gotten in through the ventilation system, cut open a safe and fled with some money, police said.
In the store’s break room, near a partially eaten birthday cake, police found a message on a bulletin board: “Happy B-Day, From Ur Friendy Rooftop Boogler, 2-14-06.”‘
`Tiny Lydia Angyiou showed incredible bravery and strength last week when she tackled a polar bear who threatened her son and two friends as they played hockey in front of Ivujivik’s youth centre.
Angyiou, 41, who lives not far from the youth centre, was outside with her two younger children when she saw the polar bear eying the boys. She immediately ran towards animal: all she could think about was protecting her seven-year old son.
Another woman heading to work at the youth centre saw Angyiou fighting with the bear. This eyewitness told police that when she saw Angyiou in front of the youth centre trying to kick the bear, she screamed “polar bear!”’
`A disciplinary hearing has been told how a nurse allegedly hit a colleague with a frozen fish at a Kent hospital.
Patricia Jennings, 55, from Tunbridge Wells, is also accused of inappropriate sexual behaviour with fellow workers.
The incidents were said to have taken place at the Kent and Sussex Hospital in Tunbridge Wells in 2003. [..]
One nurse said she was slapped in the face with a frozen trout after a patient brought several of them into the hospital as a gift to staff.
Ms Jennings then said “give us a kiss” while moving the fish’s mouth, the hearing was told.’
`Denver prosecutors have charged a worker in an after-school program at Horace Mann Middle School with second-degree assault with a deadly weapon for allegedly Tasing a student.
Shaun Ellis, 24, had worked at the school since September but was dismissed after the Jan. 11 incident, according to Denver Public Schools officials.
Ellis is accused of using a Taser stun gun three times on a 13- year-old boy who had been accused of tripping a girl in a hallway, said Lynn Kimbrough of the Denver District Attorney’s Office.’
`Call it a sexual revolution of the virtual kind — young Canadians are practicing a new style of safe sex and the only touching required involves a keyboard.
Of more than 2,500 university and college students polled across Canada, 87 percent of them are having sex over instant messenger, Webcams or the telephone, according to results of a national survey released on Monday.’
`The father who got national attention for punching a teacher’s assistant in front of class full of students has sued the school district.
Dave Swafford was charged after marching into a classroom at Lakewood Ranch High School east of Bradenton last month and punching the assistant, whom he had accused of inappropriately touching his foster daughter, a student at the school. [..]
An attorney for Swafford filed suit against the teacher’s assistant and the school district Wednesday.
Claims included that school officials failed to take proper steps after learning of the girl’s allegations, tried to cover up evidence and fabricated a story that the girl’s claims were retaliation for being punished by the assistant at school.’
`William Donald Schaefer, a former governor who is now state comptroller, ogled a young woman at a Statehouse meeting. And he made no apologies about it.
“She’s a pretty little girl,” the 84-year-old Democrat told reporters. “The day I don’t look at pretty women is the day I die.”
Schaefer stared intently at the woman as she walked toward the governor’s office after she brought him a beverage Wednesday during a Board of Public Works meeting. Then he summoned her back, as people waiting to testify watched and waited.
The aide, looking puzzled, returned to the table, and Schaefer told her, “Walk again,” and watched her as she made the second trip to the exit.’
`Harry Whittington, the Republican lawyer shot by Dick Cheney in a hunting accident in Texas last weekend, emerged from hospital yesterday and apologised to the vice-president for all the trouble the shooting had caused.
Mr Whittington, who suffered a minor heart attack when a shotgun pellet lodged near his heart, absolved Mr Cheney of any responsibility.
As he was discharged from hospital in Corpus Christi, he said: “We all assume certain risks in whatever we do, whatever activities we pursue. And regardless of how experienced, careful and dedicated we are, accidents do and will happen.”‘
followup to Cheney unlicensed during hunting mishap.
`When burying a body in the backyard, don’t put it too close to the septic system. That was one piece of advice offered on Wednesday to a business conference on preparing for a potentially lethal bird flu andemic.
Preparations for a global flu pandemic, which many experts believe is overdue, have begun but the grisly details are horrific and the number of sick could quickly overwhelm the health care system.’
`A former Houston school bus driver showed no reaction today when a Harris County jury sentenced him to 30 years in prison for raping his former girlfriend and branding his initials into her buttocks with a hot wire coat hanger. [..]
The victim testified that Reed raped her vaginally, anally and orally at knifepoint after becoming enraged with her during a discussion about his financial worries last year. She said he then heated up a wire coat hanger on a stove burner and used it to burn his initials into her buttocks before urinating on her head.
The jury rejected Reed’s claims that woman’s burns occurred during consensual sex play and bondage. He testified that the woman had branded her own initials on his skin as well, but prosecutors argued that Reed’s burns were self-inflicted.’
`Investigators found saws and chain saw oil at the home of a Sioux Falls woman suspected of killing and dismembering another woman.
Search warrant affidavits filed Wednesday list an inventory of items removed from the house where Daphne Wright was living.
“There was a wide variety of items taken from the house,” said Dave Nelson, state’s attorney for Minnehaha County.
Authorities asked for a search warrant for the house after determining Wright was the last person known to see Darlene VanderGiesen. The two had a conversation in the parking lot of a Pizza Hut where police later found the victim’s truck abandoned, according to court documents.
Wright is accused of killing VanderGiesen because she thought VanderGiesen had a romantic relationship with her girlfriend.’
`The menu at Beijing’s latest venue for its growing army of gourmets is eye-watering rather than mouth-watering.
China’s cuisine is renowned for being “in your face” – from the skinned dogs displayed at food markets to the kebabbed scorpions sold on street stalls – and there is no polite way of describing Guo-li-zhuang.
Situated in an elegantly restored house beside Beijing’s West Lake, it is China’s first speciality penis restaurant.
Here, businessmen and government officials can sample the organs of yaks, donkeys, oxen and even seals. In fact, they have to, since they form part of every dish – except for those containing testicles’
`A man accused of sexually assaulting an Amarillo woman was arrested when he called police to report being robbed of his wallet, which the victim said dropped from his pants during the attack.
Investigators had the wallet in hand when Boungkong Inthirath, 52, called about an hour after the assault of a 23-year-old woman Wednesday.’
`Apprehending a notorious hacker rarely involves a car chase or a team of dedicated private investigators, but in the case of Vitek Boden, life imitated a Hollywood script.
Boden had waged a three-month war against the Scada (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) system of Maroochy Water Services in Australia beginning in January 2000, which saw millions of gallons of sewage spill into waterways, hotel grounds and canals around the Sunshine Coast suburb. He was caught only after a team of private investigators hired by Maroochy Water Services alerted police to his location.
After a brief police pursuit from the Sunshine Coast towards Brisbane, Boden was run off the road. In his car was the specialized proprietary Scada equipment he had used to attack the system, and a laptop; however, it was a piece of $18 cable that ultimately led to his downfall.’
`A man who claims he is obsessed with doorknobs faces three years in prison for a burglary spree in which dozens of them were taken from construction sites, along with tools and other materials.
A criminal complaint said Thor Jeffrey Steven Laufer told police he took a variety of items from the construction sites in the Milwaukee suburb of Mequon to disguise his obsession, “so that it would look like a typical burglary rather than someone just stealing doorknobs.”‘
`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.’
`Two uniformed men strolled into the main room of the Little Falls library in Bethesda one day last week and demanded the attention of all patrons using the computers. Then they made their announcement: The viewing of Internet pornography was forbidden.
The men looked stern and wore baseball caps emblazoned with the words “Homeland Security.” The bizarre scene unfolded Feb. 9, leaving some residents confused and forcing county officials to explain how employees assigned to protect county buildings against terrorists came to see it as their job to police the viewing of pornography.
After the two men made their announcement, one of them challenged an Internet user’s choice of viewing material and asked him to step outside, according to a witness. A librarian intervened, and the two men went into the library’s work area to discuss the matter. A police officer arrived. In the end, no one had to step outside except the uniformed men.’
`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.’
`Japanese peripherals specialist Elecom has introduced what it claims is the world’s smallest external hard drive. Its MF-DU204G packs in 4GB of storage capacity yet is sufficiently small to warrant its own, integrated USB connector.
The secret? The use of a bus-powered 0.85in HDD, Elecom said. The drive is packed into a unit that measures 6.8 x 3 x 1.3cm and weighs just 44g. The company bundles a USB extender cable should the drive prove too large and obscure other USB ports. Elecom also bundles USB Disk Pro, a security utility that password-protects the drive.’
`A socialist youth organisation wants university students nationwide to buy their flag-burning kits next week to show their anger at the federal government.
The group, Resistance, said the kits, containing an Australian flag, a lighter, a fire-lighting cube and Resistance pamphlets, would be sold at university orientation week for $5 each.
“The flag-burning kit displays the sentiment that many young people feel, given the Australian government’s racist refugee policy, its treatment of indigenous people, its use of violence against protesters, its support of US foreign policy and its oppressive military role in the Asia Pacific,” Resistance said in a statement.’
`There may be no such thing as a free lunch, but occasionally there’s a cheap feast for the eyes.
Several topless bars, peep shows and sex show clubs in Amsterdam’s famed “Red Light” prostitution district have declared an open house on Feb. 18, hoping to shore up their reputation with local politicians who are calling for a crackdown.
“You can come in, have a free drink, look around,” said Bob de Maan, spokesman for the “Banana Bar,” which is known for its live sex shows.
“People think that this is something dirty, but now — it’s an open house. They can see for themselves.”‘
`Google called the Bush administration’s request for data on Web searches as “so uninformed as to be nonsensical” in papers filed in San Jose federal court Friday, arguing that turning over the information would expose its trade secrets and violate the privacy of its users.
The 21-page brief filed by the Mountain View search giant angrily dissected the government’s claim that the search results would produce useful evidence regarding child pornography. [..]
Google’s struggle with the Justice Department has focused worldwide attention on the risk that Internet technologies will be used by governments for surveillance purposes — and that the privacy of users could be compromised without their ever knowing it.
In justification of its demand of data from Google, the Justice Department revealed that it had requested — and received — similar data from Yahoo, Microsoft and AOL.’
`A family sitting down to dinner had to call police and an ambulance after a man allegedly bit off the nose of his girlfriend, authorities said.
Jody Bennett came out of a back room of a north Tulsa residence on Thursday with a napkin over her face and said her boyfriend, identified as Greg Hill, had bitten her nose.
Medics responding to the house saw that Bennett’s nose had been severed and called police.
“We looked around and tried to find a nose but couldn’t find it,” Cpl. Larry Edwards, a police spokesman, said. “I think he swallowed it.”‘
`The results of the second OMNI Opinion Poll, concerning predictions for the year 2007, turned up some interesting ideas. The least change is envisioned in terms of religion and the arts, while progress is seen for the medical and educational arenas. All in all, the opinions of the OMNI Online audience didn’t differ too drastically from those of the experts in January’s “The Seers’ Catalog”.’
`A Pakistani Muslim cleric and his followers have offered rewards amounting to over million (.35 million) for anyone who kills Danish cartoonists who drew caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad that have enraged Muslims worldwide.
Maulana Yousef Qureshi, a cleric in the north-western city of Peshawar, said during Friday prayers he has personally offered to pay a bounty of 500,000 rupees (,377), and two of his congregation put up additional rewards of million (.35 million) and one million rupees plus a car.
Qureshi repeated the offer at rally later in the city to protest against the cartoons.’
`Welcome to the Most Holy-n-High Church of the Blinding Light of the Holy Glowing™ Form of the One Toupeed and Gloriously Bloated Shatner!’
`The age of the telescreen is upon us as surveillance cameras that festoon our streets, shopping malls and airports are now moving into our private homes as the panopticon prison is erected.
The Associated Press reports,
“HOUSTON Houston’s police chief is suggesting putting surveillance cameras in apartment complexes, downtown streets and even private homes.”
“Chief Harold Hurtt today said it’s another way of combatting crime amid a shortage of officers. [..]
In the meantime, Homeland Security grants are being used to blanket major cities and even small sleepy communities with arsenals of spy cameras.’
`The corpses of at least 20 newborn babies and fetuses are found each week in the sewers of Zimbabwe’s capital, some having been flushed down toilets, Harare city authorities said, according to state media Friday. [..]
“Apart from upsetting the normal flow of waste, it is not right from a moral standpoint. Some of the things that are happening now are shocking,” the state Herald, a government mouthpiece, reported Chideya as saying.’
`A huge explosion halfway across the galaxy packed so much power it briefly altered Earth’s upper atmosphere in December, astronomers said Friday.
No known eruption beyond our solar system has ever appeared as bright upon arrival.
But you could not have seen it, unless you can top the X-ray vision of Superman: In gamma rays, the event equaled the brightness of the full Moon’s reflected visible light.
The blast originated about 50,000 light-years away and was detected Dec. 27. A light-year is the distance light travels in a year, about 6 trillion miles (10 trillion kilometers).’
