‘A man who allegedly photographed more than 3,000 women’s bottoms as they toured Venice has been arrested.
The man was stopped after police became suspicious of a large bag he was carrying as he followed women through St Mark’s Square. [..]
Police said he was filming through a small hole in the side of the bag.
The officers had become suspicious when they realised he was only following women with short skirts. When they stopped or bent down to pick something up, he was clearly trying to angle the bag behind them.
When the voyeur was finally caught police recovered several DVDs which held more than 3,000 images of women’s bottoms.’
‘An Omaha man saved a life, his own life by getting the courage to turn a knife on himself and perform a tracheotomy.
Steve Wilder has faith in God and after a near death experience last week he has a lot of faith in himself. “I was scared to death. I was thinking about dying.”
Just after midnight, Wilder found himself in a dead sleep. Dead because he woke up and couldn’t breathe, his air passage swollen shut
“It just blocked all the way and I just got up and I panicked!” The 55-year-old Wilder, who didn’t think he had time to call and wait for help, faced an unimaginable choice. Either lie there and suffocate to death or take matters into his own hands with a steak knife. [..]’
‘Two children and their mother lived for about two months with the decaying body of a 90-year-old woman on the toilet of their home’s only bathroom, on the advice of a religious “superior” who claimed the corpse would come back to life, authorities said Friday.
The children—a 15-year-old girl and a 12-year-old boy—cried hysterically Wednesday after a deputy who came to their Necedah home looking for Magdeline Alvina Middlesworth ordered them out because of the stench from her body.
The children were in foster care Friday. Their mother, Tammy Lewis, and self-described “bishop” Alan Bushey remained in custody on felony counts of being a party to causing mental harm to a child. [..]
Lewis told the deputy that Middlesworth had died about two months earlier, but that God told her Middlesworth would come to life if she prayed hard enough.
She said she couldn’t say anything more until she spoke with her “superior”—Bushey, 57, also known as Bishop John Peter Bushey.’
‘A self-proclaimed manicurist decided to open for business in Concord on Monday without the state’s approval, attacking state licensing laws with a nail file. [..]
His first and only customer was Kat Dillon, of Frost, Texas, who said it was her first manicure. It was also Fisher’s first time giving one.
“I’m going to buff it and shine it with one of these, a buffer, basically,” he said.
The manicure performed without a license was undertaken right outside the state Board of Barbering, Cosmetology and Esthetics office.
“The reason I’m doing this is because it’s one of the harmless things I can do to prove that the law is unjust,” Fisher said. “Without the government’s permission, you can’t do nails, hair, lot of other things.”
Fisher said his manicure movement was inspired by the movie “Ghandi” [..]’
‘An Oregon couple received a frightening phone call from their son in Afghanistan when he inadvertently called home during battle.
Stephen Phillips and other soldiers in his Army MP company were battling insurgents when his phone was pressed against his Humvee. It redialed and called his parents in the small Oregon town of Otis.
Sandie Petee, Phillips’ mother, and her husband, Jeff Petee, weren’t home at the time of the call. They returned home to find a three-minute voice mail on their answering machine. [..]
They heard shooting, swearing and shouted pleas for more ammunition on the phone call from their son.
“They were pinned down and apparently his barrel was overheating,” said Jeff Petee. “It’s something a parent really doesn’t want to hear. It’s a heck of a message to get from your son in Afghanistan.”‘
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‘A California man has been arrested after police say they found about 300 dead cats stuffed into freezers in his house.
Animal control officers also removed 30 live cats from 47-year-old Michael Louis Vondueren’s home over the weekend.
Vondueren was arrested on suspicion of possessing an automatic weapon and obstructing police officers. Animal control officers also are considering issuing citations.
Sgt Jim Hose says Vondueren interfered with officers when they tried to enter his house. The sergeant says they found three freezers crammed with dead cats and the house littered with cat faeces.’
This bear is presumably bored shitless and spends hours a day twirling a stick around. Just waiting to club someone in the head, no doubt.
Because that’s what bears do.
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‘A woman is in custody for child neglect this morning after mixing prescription medication with alcohol and leaving her 2-year-old child to fend for herself.
Neighbors saw Tiffany Garland’s daughter playing on the balcony and eating cigarette butts for at least four hours.
According to reports, Garland took the antidepressant Paxil and drank an unspecified amount of tequila.
The child was seen on the balcony a short time after and police were called.’
‘This place in Uzbekistan is called by locals “The Door to Hell”. It is situated near the small town of Darvaz. The story of this place lasts already for 35 years. Once the geologists were drilling for gas. Then suddenly during the drilling they have found an underground cavern, it was so big that all the drilling site with all the equipment and camps got deep deep under the ground. None dared to go down there because the cavern was filled with gas. So they ignited it so that no poisonous gas could come out of the hole, and since then, it’s burning, already for 35 years without any pause. Nobody knows how many tons of excellent gas has been burned for all those years but it just seems to be infinite there.’
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‘Detectives say a 43-year-old Palm Bay Woman trespassed into a home and attacked her estranged husband in the shower with a bar of unwrapped soap.
Palm Bay Police charged Cheryl Ann Lunderman was charged with battery and burglary to an occupied dwelling. [..]
Palm Bay Police said the man was home taking a shower about 9:30 p.m. on April 2 when Lunderman got into the residence, walked into the bathroom and struck him in the face with an unwrapped bar of soap.
The man’s right eye was bruised by the soap, investigators said. The couple had been married for over two decades when they separated, officials reported.’
‘As an avid reader of your column, I thought of you and only you for help with this problem. My grandmother, 78 and widowed, is a kind, generous woman who has seen her share of difficult times. She is a bit offbeat, but extremely conservative and religious. After my grandfather passed on, she purchased a lively little parakeet and named him Pretty Baby. Pretty Baby has provided wonderful companionship and entertainment for my grandmother, even learning to speak to her. Pretty is an amazing mimic, repeating phrases she has taught him: “I love you,” “lock the door!”, “give me kisses,” etc.
The problem is the kissing… or what I recently witnessed the kissing leads to. One evening Pretty began to squawk “give me kisses, give me kisses” and my grandmother walked over to the cage and slipped one finger between the bars. Pretty Baby proceeded to “kiss” her fingernail and flutter about. She purred, “Give Grandma lovin’, Pretty Baby, give Grandma lovin’.” She then turned to me and said, “Pretty Baby wants to give me lovin’ and he won’t quiet down until he does.” Pretty Baby proceeded to screech more and more loudly, as he humped my grandmother’s finger wildly. She also moved it back and forth for him. I was stunned and unsure of what was happening so I sat quietly in my chair looking in the opposite direction, hoping I wasn’t really witnessing what I thought I was. My grandmother cleared it up quickly, saying, “He’ll calm down after he climaxes,” smiling away and continuing to repeat, “Give me your lovin’, Pretty Baby, that’s it….” When Pretty Baby was finished, she looked back at me and said, “I better wash my hands!” I left minutes later, unable to process what had just happened. Grandmother, however, never flinched, acting like it was an everyday occurrence.’
‘A 12-year-old boy fatally slashed a man who was attacking his mother at the boarding house where they lived, authorities said.
Salomon Noubissie, 64, died at a hospital after he was slashed across the neck Monday night in the home in the Landover area.
Cpl. Diane Richardson, a spokeswoman for Prince George’s County police, said Wednesday that authorities hadn’t decided whether the boy would be charged with anything. They were reviewing the case with the state’s attorney’s office. [..]
The boy said he was not happy with what happened but felt he had no choice.’
‘Former The A-Team star Mr. T once stunned a sick child’s family by bringing him out of a coma – after doctors begged the actor for help.
The poorly kid fell unconscious in Detroit, Michigan in the mid-1980s – and the only physical movement he made was in response to hearing Mr. T’s name.
And when the mohawked star was in town, he stopped by the hospital to visit the ill boy – with miraculous results.’
‘A Mukilteo man has been sentenced to three years in a California prison for tricking 911 dispatchers into sending a SWAT team to the Orange County home of a randomly selected family.
Randal T. Ellis, 19, was sentenced Thursday in Orange County Superior Court after pleading guilty to felonies including false imprisonment by violence and falsely reporting a crime. He also was ordered to pay $14,765 in restitution, nearly all of it to the Orange County Sheriff’s Department.
Ellis was arrested last year after hacking into a telephone network and impersonating a caller from a Lake Forest home, saying he had murdered someone in the house and was threatening to shoot others. The technique in which a prank call is made to 911 dispatchers is known among hackers as “SWATting.”
The Sheriff’s Department dispatched a SWAT team and surrounded the home with dozens of officers, dogs and a helicopter.’
‘Chicago Police say no one could make this story up…
18-year-old Ruben Zarate, entered a muffler shop in the 2600 block of North Laramie Avenue yesterday and declared a robbery. He allegedly waved a gun around and demanded money, according to police.
When he was told the money was in a safe and that the manager who knew how to open it was not there, the suspect had a brilliant idea; at least he thought it was brilliant.
He gave the shop employees his cell phone number and asked them to call him when the manager arrived so he could open the safe for him.
He left and the employees opted to call 911. Authorities stationed plain clothes officers in the shop and called the would-be robber back.
Zarate, showed up again, and waved his gun around again, but this time was shot in the leg by an officer.’
‘A 9th-Grade Mentor who works at Lower Richland High School was sent home Monday morning, because he says the school didn’t like the color he dyed his hair.
Michael Rice says Lower Richland High School’s principal called the mentor into his office shortly after the first block of the day ended.
Rice says Principal Marvin Byers told him his green hair color was “over the top.” The mentor says he wore his hair colored with the Luck of the Irish in honor of St. Patrick’s Day, March 17th. Rice says he just wanted to give fellow staff members and students a good-natured laugh.
“I had a lot of people saying, ‘Wow, I can’t believe you’re getting sent home,'” Rice say, “But no one had anything negative to say.” [..]
“It’s not easy being green,” Rice says.’
‘An 81-year-old man has used an intricate suicide machine to shoot himself remotely, after downloading the plans from the internet.
The Gold Coast man, who lived alone, left notes of his plans and thoughts as he struggled to come to terms with demands by interstate relatives that he move out his home and into care, the Gold Coast Bulletin reports.
He spent hours searching the internet for a way to kill himself, downloaded what he needed and then built a complex machine that would remotely fire a gun. [..]
The machine was attached to a .22 semi-automatic pistol loaded with four bullets.
It was able to fire multiple shots into the man’s head after he activated it.’
‘Police officers, secretaries and criminals were evacuated from a Russian police station after a granny walked in with a handbag filled with hand grenades.
Irene Fedorova, 67, walked into the station in the Orenburg Region in the Urals and said she wanted to take advantage of an arms amnesty.
She said she wanted to get rid of some old weapons that her late husband Boris had kept under their bed.
Officers who opened the bag found it contained several hand grenades including two that had faulty pins and could have gone off at any moment.
She said: “I read they were disposing of old weapons and thought it was a good idea. I bought them in on the bus in my handbag. I was sorry to have caused such a fuss – perhaps next time they should offer a collection service.”‘
‘A new type of fire alarm in Japan has been developed using the pungent smell of horseradish.
The device is drawing attention as a new way to warn people with hearing disabilities.
Medical equipment manufacturers have developed a technology to extract components of the strong odor of horseradish, seal them inside a can and spray them out.
Shiga University of Medical Science Hospital cooperated with the makers and carried out experiments to see if the horseradish smell can wake up people from a deep sleep.
Fourteen people, including those with hearing disabilities, took part in the experiments.
In the experiment, 13 out of the 14 subjects woke up in less than two minutes after the smell reached their noses.’
‘Nepal has agreed to a Chinese request to temporarily block access to Mount Everest, amid fears Tibetan activists may stage a protest at the peak.
Climbers will be banned from going beyond Everest’s base camp until 10 May, Nepal’s tourism minister said.
Beijing is thought to be concerned that a protest may coincide with plans to take the Olympic torch up the mountain.
Tibetans have stepped up agitation against Chinese rule as Beijing gets ready to host the Olympics in August.
Buddhist monks have been demonstrating in and around Lhasa, the capital of the Tibet region.’
‘A Macedonian court has convicted a bear of theft and damage for stealing honey from a beekeeper who fought off the attacks with thumping “turbo-folk” music.
“I tried to distract the bear with lights and music because I heard bears are afraid of that,” Zoran Kiseloski told top-selling daily Dnevnik after the year-long case of the bear versus the beekeeper ended in the beekeeper’s favour.
“So I bought a generator, lit up the area and put on songs of (Serbian ‘turbo-folk’ star) Ceca.”
The bear stayed away for a few weeks, but came back when the generator ran out of power and the music fell silent, Kiseloski said, adding, “it attacked the beehives again”.
A court in the city of Bitola found the bear guilty, and since it had no owner and belonged to a protected species, ordered the state to pay the 140,000 denars ($3696) damage it caused to the hives.’
‘Ethiopia’s national bank has been told to inspect all the gold in its vaults to determine its authenticity.
It follows the discovery that some of the “gold” it had bought for millions of dollars was gold-plated steel.
The first hint that something was wrong reportedly came when the Ethiopian central bank exported a consignment of gold bars to South Africa.
The South Africans sent them back, complaining that they had been sold gilded steel.
An investigation revealed that the bank had bought a consignment of fake gold from a supplier, who is now under arrest.
Other arrests followed, including business associates of the main accused; national bank officials; and chemists from the Geological Survey of Ethiopia, whose job it is to assay the bank’s purchases of gold and certify that they are real.’
‘An Indian woman has given birth to baby girl with four eyes and two faces, just two years after the world was captivated by the story of Lakshmi Tatma, the “twin” girl born with four arms and four legs.
The four-day old baby girl, born to Vinod Singh and his partner Sushma, is already being hailed as a reincarnation of the Indian God Ganesha. [..]
As news of her birth spread through the secluded rural village where her family reside, local residents began singing and dancing and asking for her blessings.
According to the doctor at the hospital, the baby girl and her mother are both in good health.’
‘American researchers have proven it’s possible to maliciously turn off individuals’ heart monitors through a wireless hacking attack.
Many thousands of people across the world have the monitors, medically known as implantable cardiac defibrillators (ICDs), installed to help their hearts beat regularly.
ICDs treat abnormal heart conditions; more recent models also incorporate the abilities of a Pacemaker. Their function is to speed up a heartbeat which is too slow, or to deliver an electrical shock to a heart which is beating too quickly.
According to the research (pdf) by the Medical Device Security Center – which is backed by the Harvard Medical School among others – hackers would be able to intercept medical information on the patient, turn off the device, or, even worse, deliver an unnecessary electrical shock to the patient.
The hack takes advantage of the fact the ICD possesses a radio which is designed to allow reprogramming by a hospital doctor. The ICD’s radio signals are not encrypted, the Security Center said.’
‘A town in South America is living in fear after several sightings of a ‘creepy gnome’ that locals claim stalks the streets at night.
The midget – which wears a pointy hat and has a distinctive sideways walk – was caught on video last week by a terrified group of youngsters.
Teenager Jose Alvarez – who filmed the gnome – yesterday told national newspaper El Tribuno that they caught the creature while larking about in their hometown of General Guemes, in the province of Salta, Argentina. [..]
“Suddenly we heard something – a weird noise as if someone was throwing stones.
“We looked to one side and saw that the grass was moving. To begin with we thought it was a dog but when we saw this gnome-like figure begin to emerge we were really afraid.”
Jose added that other locals had come forward to say they had spotted the gnome.’
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‘Authorities are still trying to figure out what prompted 28-year-old Kevin Lininger to run naked up and down South Shawnee Street near Aurora today.
“He didn’t demonstrate any signs of alcohol or drug use,” said Arapahoe County Sheriff Grayson Robinson.
After getting reports from neighbors of a man running completely naked at about 7:30 a.m., deputies went to Lininger’s apartment at 5241 S. Shawnee St.
He was dressed and refused to talk, the sheriff said.
But at the police station, he let his urine do the talking. [..]’
