When Apple Inc rolled out its iPhone in the United States, some fans paid big money to be among the first to get their hands on the device. In Poland, people are getting paid to line up.

"We have these fake queues at front of 20 stores around the country to drum up interest in the iPhone," a spokesman said.

As part of a marketing campaign ahead of the iPhone's Friday launch in Poland, the country's largest mobile operator Orange is paying dozens of actors to stand in queues.

Apple sold about one million of the new iPhone models in the United States around the July launch weekend, but buyers in Poland may be reluctant to pay hefty monthly charges.

There were no queues at T-Mobile's Era stores, which will also due to launch the iPhone on Friday.




Police: Butter-hungry man pulls knife at church buffet
 
OCALA – Ocala police officers arrested a man Sunday morning who they say pulled a knife on members of a church congregation who would not give him butter in the morning buffet.
 
Frankie Lewis, 48, wanted to get some butter in the buffet line at Four Square Church at 118 N.W.
Tuscawilla Ave., police spokeswoman Sgt. Angy Scroble said. When he could not get any, he pulled a knife on members of the congregation and said he would cut them.

As he put the knife back in his pocket, a church member hit him with a wooden board, Scroble said. Lewis then fled on a bicycle where officers in the area quickly caught him.

Lewis was taken to the Marion County Jail and charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.




Naked painter's nude start

A Lincolnshire naturist has launched Britain's first naked painting and decorating service.

Nick Male, 37, says business is booming and he is fully booked up well into the autumn.

"I work more now than when I left my clothes on and I've had to turn people down," he told Metro.

The tradesman, who advertises on naturist websites and eBay, made the fresh start this year after finishing a six-year relationship.

"The service is a serious one. I don't do titillation and I soon get rid of the people looking for that - they go very quiet when I ask their address," he said.

Far from hindering matters, having a naked decorator oils the creative wheels, he claims, making customers feel less inhibited.

He now plans to spread his style worldwide.

"I am wondering whether to work in every country - with the exception of a few. I don't want to get arrested," he added.




Big mistake: Wife sells DVD case with $1,200 inside for $10

"He thought apparently (the DVD case) was a great spot to hide it from me, and it was. I didn't think to look there." - Belleville resident Tracy Holmes on $1,200 her husband hid in DVD case she sold at garage sale..

When Tracy Holmes of Belleville sold three DVDs for $10 at her garage sale Aug. 15, she thought she was doing well. She was getting rid of some movies that she and her husband hadn't watched in a long time and making a little money as well.

About a week later, when her husband, Fred Holmes, asked her what had happened to the DVD of "Sin City," she suddenly felt sick.

Her husband had been secretly saving up money, at least $1,200 so far, for a Christmas family trip to Disney World in Florida for the couple and their three children, Nick, 11, Trevor, 7, and Isabella, 2.

Reporter John Mulcahy can be reached at 734-994-6858 or jmulcahy@annarbornews.com.

"He thought apparently (the DVD case) was a great spot to hide it from me, and it was," Holmes said. "I didn't think to look there."

As best she can remember, Holmes thinks the man who bought the DVD was about 6 feet tall and in his 50s or possibly 60s. She's hoping that if she gets the word out, the buyer will return the money.

"My kids are pretty upset about the whole thing, and I feel just heartsick," Tracy Holmes said. "It's always been a dream of mine to go to Disney World at Christmas."

Her husband, who had been saving for a couple of years for the trip, stashed the money behind an advertisement inside the cover of the DVD, she said.




Thieves left money instead of taking car

A Brazilian woman says car thieves left her money instead of taking her car when they realised its poor condition.

Flavia Alcantara from Belo Horizonte, had left a note on the windscreen warning thieves that the car was not worth stealing.

Her note read: "Mr Robber, please do not steal this car. It has no batteries, no spare tyre. It is in bad shape. Thank you for your attention."

Mrs Alcantara says someone later tried to steal the car but ended up leaving it - along with a one reai banknote, worth the equivalent of 40p.

"The robber must have felt sorry for me," she told Terra Noticias Populares.

"I put the note to attract the robbers' attention. I wanted to stop them taking a car which wasn't worth stealing anyway."




Indian film fan rents whole cinema to prove movie not so scary

An Indian filmgoer rented out an entire cinema to disprove a director's claim that his latest horror movie is so scary no one can watch it alone, a newspaper said Tuesday.

Pavin Ponanna, 30, booked all 227 seats at a Bangalore multiplex for an evening screening of "Phoonk," the Pioneer daily reported.

He asked cinema staff to have a doctor on call, but emerged declaring: "I never felt scared, not even for a moment. I took just ten minutes to settle down."

Bollywood producer-director Ram Gopal Verma had challenged any fan to watch "Phoonk" -- the story of a happy family suddenly beset by the evil forces of black magic -- on their own.

David Hayes landed the fish, which weighed 21 pounds, one ounce, on Aug. 5 in a private pond in the northwestern North Carolina county. He was fishing with his granddaughter Alyssa, 3, the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission said.

The fish was 2 inches longer than Alyssa's rod and reel, which measured 2 and a half feet.

Hayes and his granddaughter were using black crickets as bait and fishing for bluegill when nature called for Alyssa.

"After catching two or three bluegill, Alyssa turns to me and says 'Papa, I've got to go to the bathroom. Hold my fishing rod,'" Hayes recalled, according to a news release issued by the Wildlife Resources Commission. "A few minutes later, the float went under and I saw the water start boiling up. I knew right then that I had my hands full with that fishing rod."

It took Hayes 25 minutes to land the fish.

The fish was weighed on certified scales at Thurmond Grocery in Thurmond, N.C. It was certified by Kin Hodges, a fisheries biologist with the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission.

The fish was 32 inches long and 22 and a half inches in girth.

The previous record channel catfish was an 18-pound, 5-ounce specimen caught in August 2007.

Hayes told the Wildlife Resources Commission that he and Alyssa have been fishing together since she was old enough to hold a fishing rod.




Woman Attempts To Kidnap Ex-Virtual Boyfriend

CLAYMONT, Del.― A woman wanted in the bizarrely complicated attempted kidnapping of her former virtual boyfriend has been apprehended after a multi-state search.

New Castle County Police said 33-year-old Kimberly Jernigan of North Carolina was apparently distraught after her online relationship with a 52-year-old man from Claymont, Delaware came to an end.

The pair apparently met online in "Second Life." A virtual relationship began between the victim, whose character was a Lion, and Jerrigan, whose online persona was said to be a virtual woman.

When the two met in reality several months ago, police said the victim ended the relationship, sending Jernigan into a downward spiral.

In the beginning of August, Jernigan allegedly drove to the victim's Pennsylvania workplace and attempted to kidnap him at gunpoint. While she was unsuccessful, she returned two weeks later to track down the victim's Delaware address.

Police said Jernigan posed as a postal worker in order to locate the victim's new address, as he had recently moved. After four days of searching, authorities said she found residence in the Whitney Presidential Towers on the 7100 block of Society Drive in Claymont.

With her dog Gogi in tow, investigators said Jernigan cut and removed a screened window in order to enter her virtual ex's apartment.

When the victim arrived home on Thursday, August 21, he told police he saw someone pointing an object at his chest that was projecting a laser beam. He immediately fled the apartment and contacted police.

Officers arriving at the scene discovered a pair of handcuffs, a roll of duct tape, a Taser and a BB gun as well as the suspect's dog.

Police said Jernigan had bound her dog Gogi with duct tape and put him in the bathroom as he was making too much noise. The dog was said to be uninjured, but the SPCA is looking into possible charges of animal cruelty.

Approximately an hour after the incident, authorities in Maryland spotted Jernigan's vehicle at a rest stop on I-95. She was taken into custody after a brief struggle.

BERLIN – German police have confiscated what may be the world's fastest office chair. Police say officers happened on the contraption — the work of two inventive 17-year-olds — in the western town of Gross-Zimmern on Saturday.

The pair had added a lawnmower engine, bicycle brakes and a metal frame to the revolving chair — making into a go-kart-like vehicle.

Police said in a statement Monday the inventors insisted they had only tested it over a few meters, but witnesses reported seeing it on several streets.

They are being investigated over a variety of possible offenses, including defying insurance regulations, driving without a license and violating registration requirements.

Police did not say what top speed the chair could reach.




Man says 9-foot tapeworm came from undercooked salmon salad

Anthony Franz had started to eat healthy, but the salmon salad he ordered for lunch from Shaw's Crab House in August 2006 wasn't the best choice, according to a lawsuit filed Monday.

Franz says he became violently ill for several days after eating that salad and later "passed a 9-foot tapeworm."
A pathologist determined the giant tapeworm only has one source -- "undercooked fish, such as salmon," according to court papers.

The lawsuit against Shaw's Crab House, 21 E. Hubbard, and its parent company, Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises, claims the restaurant's staff was negligent in serving him undercooked fish.

Franz, who was not available for comment, wants more than a refund. He's seeking $100,000 for his pain, suffering, lost time from work and "lost enjoyment of life."

Carrol Symank, vice president of food safety for Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises, said he is confident the tapeworm did not come from the restaurant.

"We have done a thorough investigation and we're confident the restaurant is not the source," he said.




Police arrest man taking naked walk

HAZEL PARK - Clad only in a foul odor, a Hazel Park man was arrested for indecent exposure after police say he decided to walk naked around his neighborhood.  

Charles M. Reed, 35, is jailed on $5,000 cash bond following his arraignment Saturday before Hazel Park 43rd District Magistrate James Paterson.

"This guy was just out of his mind on alcohol," said Hazel Park Police Lt. Michael Kolp.
 
According to the arresting officer's report, Reed smelled strongly of intoxicants and feces.
 
"The smell was apparently bad enough for the officer to mention it in his report," Kolp said.
 
Neighbors in the area of West Hayes and John R called police about 8:30 a.m. after they spotted the suspect walking naked down the street. When police arrived, they noticed Reed had drawn the attention of several neighbors as he strode along the sidewalk. Police approached Reed and asked him what he was doing.

"He said he just wanted to see what it felt like to walk around the block naked," Kolp said.
 
Police said they arrested him after he refused to give his name or address. Reed was fully aware he was naked and seemed to take enjoyment when people looked at him, police said.

The suspect was disruptive once police got him to the station and booked him for indecent exposure, a misdemeanor. Reed repeatedly grabbed his private areas and made lewd comments, police said.

"He was disruptive and acting like a fool," Kolp said.

Police gave the suspect a jumpsuit made of a paper-like material to wear before they put him in a cell, police said. However, police said he took the jumpsuit off and used it to cover a surveillance camera in his cell before he was moved to another cell.

Reed is scheduled for a pre-trial hearing at 1 p.m. Thursday in Hazel Park 43rd District Court.




Gun-toting 85-year-old stops thief  

SPRINGHILL TWP. - State police said an 85-year-old Lake Lynn woman is being credited with stopping a would-be thief after she caught the teen in her home Sunday afternoon.
Trooper Christian D. Lieberum said Leda Smith held the unidentified intruder at gunpoint until police arrived.

He said the incident began around 3 p.m. when a 17-year-old Point Marion boy broke into Smith's home on Old Lake Lynn Road.

Smith said she had just come home from church when she noticed a door open at her home and an outer door broken.

Lieberum said Smith immediately realized someone was in her home and decided to retrieve her handgun and went looking for the intruder.

"I saw him move by my keyboard near the wall but I just walked right on past him to the bedroom and got my gun," Smith said, noting that she started keeping the .22-caliber revolver by her bed after a burglary at a neighboring home several weeks ago. 

Smith said she then found the boy hiding and confronted him.

"I said, 'What are you doing in my house?'" Smith said during an interview Monday with WPXI-TV, Channel 11 in Pittsburgh, a news partner with the Herald-Standard. "He just kept saying he didn't do it."

Smith ordered the teen to turn around and not to run and then had him pick up the telephone and dial 911.

She then ordered the boy to give her the telephone after placing the call and she told dispatchers about the intruder.

Officials from 911 stayed on the telephone with Smith as she had the boy lay facedown and spread-eagled on the floor.

She said it didn't take emergency crews long to respond.

Lieberum said Smith continued to hold the teen at gunpoint until state police arrived at the home.

"It was exciting," Smith said of the incident. "I just hope I broke up the ring because they have been hitting a lot of places around here."

Raymond Clayton Sr., 44, was also ordered to pay more than $28,000 in restitution at his sentencing Wednesday. Clayton is the former pastor of Grace Fellowship Church near Mount Carmel.

Federal prosecutors said Clayton used parishioners' personal information to obtain credit cards between November 2006 and April 2007. He pleaded guilty in March to access device fraud.

The church has since disbanded.




Octopuses' eight tentacles divide up into six "arms" and two "legs"

Octopuses are reckoned to be the world's most intelligent invertebrates and are able to use tools with their sucker-covered tentacles.

Helped by over 2,000 observations by visitors, teams of aquatic specialists carried out a study showing that the creatures seemed to favour their first three pairs of tentacles for grabbing and using objects, Sea Life aquariums said.

"One can assume that the front six tentacles have the function of arms, and that the back two take over the function of legs," said Sea Life biologist Oliver Walenciak.

Unlike humans and some other animals, most octopuses did not appear to be left-handed or right-handed. Those that were suffered from eye problems on their less-favoured side.

"People have always assumed that octopuses coordinate their ... gripping behaviour through visual data. That seems to be true. When one eye is weak, another side of arms is favoured," said Walenciak.

The findings would help care for sick octopuses by allowing them to be fed from the correct side, he added.

Sea Life said the number of observations in its study significantly exceeded that in previous academic investigations.




Birmingham's green! But is that Alabama?
 
Council chiefs in Birmingham were left red-faced when they mistakenly used a picture of their U.S. namesake in Alabama on thousands of official leaflets.

Pamphlets about recycling in the West Midlands bore an image showing the skyline of the city in the Deep South.

Under the headline "Thank You Birmingham!", the picture showed office blocks in the U.S. city, rather than its own distinctive Rotunda tower and the curvy Selfridges store.

The council said it had made a mistake, but had no plans to recall the leaflets.

"We accept that the wrong photo was used but the text and detail contained in the leaflet is wholly correct which is the most important message as we strive to further improve our green credentials," the council said on Thursday.




Calif. mom gives birth on front lawn by herself

Alone and in labor, Jessica Higgins found the first place she could to give birth — her front lawn.

The 36-year-old was driving home from the mall Tuesday when little Mary Claire gave her the shock of a lifetime by deciding to arrive six weeks early.

Higgins — with her 2-year-old son sleeping in the back seat — called 911 as she arrived at her Fullerton home, but she had already pushed her daughter out when police arrived.

"She was just standing in the driveway rocking the newborn, who was still attached to the placenta," Officer Manny Ramos said Wednesday.

Higgins' husband, Jeff, arrived in time to cut the baby's umbilical cord under the front-yard ficus tree.

The proud mother, who was recovering at a hospital Wednesday, said "everything happened so fast." She said she had her son's portrait taken at the mall earlier in the day and was on hold with the doctor's office when the baby started pushing.

Mary Claire was born at 5 pounds, 11 ounces and was doing fine at St. Jude Medical Center, Higgins said.




Man banned from girlfriend's home after noisy sex
 
A British man has been banned from visiting his girlfriend's home after neighbors complained about noisy sex, a local official said Thursday.

A court barred Adam Hinton, 32, from being within 110 yards of his 29-year-old girlfriend Kerry Norris' apartment, Brighton and Hove City Council spokesman Mike Taggart said.

Residents of Norris's publicly owned home had been complaining since 2006 about thumping music, banging headboards and screamed obscenities, Taggart said.

Neighbors also complained about Norris sunbathing naked in her yard, and were upset that a 6-year-old child in the building had been "subjected to the sort of obscenities you wouldn't want a 6-year-old to hear," the spokesman said.

"She is a classic nightmare neighbor," Taggart said, insisting the case was not about sex. "It's about allowing your neighbors to have a normal decent life without being disturbed."

The court granted the city council's request for an injunction banning Hinton from the apartment because Norris had ignored a previous court order demanding that she be more quiet, Taggart said.

Norris last week was forced to pay $560 in fines and court costs for breaking the "noise abatement order," Taggart said.

Neither Norris or Hinton could be immediately located for comment. Brighton and Hove is located in southern England.




Georgia men claim hairy, frozen corpse is Bigfoot

Bigfoot or big fat lie? Whenever someone reports sighting the hairy beast of yore (details always fuzzy) or capturing the hirsute humanoid on film (images always grainy), it scares up a dubious debate of international proportions. Friday was just the latest episode in the Sasquatch show, as unreal as it may be.

Two men who claim to have stumbled across a Bigfoot corpse in the woods of northern Georgia indignantly stood by their story at a news conference in Palo Alto during which they offered an e-mail from a scientist as evidence and acknowledged they wouldn't mind making a few bucks from the "find" they have kept stuffed in a freezer for over a month.

"Everyone who has talked down to us is going to eat their words," predicted Matt Whitton, an officer on medical leave from the Clayton County Police Department.

Whitton and Rick Dyer, a former corrections officer, announced the discovery in early July on YouTube videos and their Web site. Although they did not consider themselves devoted Bigfoot trackers before then, they have since started offering weekend search expeditions in Georgia for $499. The specimen they bagged, the men say, was one of several apelike creatures they spotted cavorting in the woods.

As they faced a skeptical audience of several hundred journalists and Bigfoot fans that included one curiosity seeker in a Chewbacca suit, the pair were joined Friday by Tom Biscardi, head of a group called Searching for Bigfoot. Other Bigfoot hunters call Biscardi a huckster looking for media attention.

Biscardi fielded most of the questions. Among them: Why should anyone accept the men's tale when they weren't willing to display their frozen artifact or pinpoint where they allegedly found it? How come bushwhackers aren't constantly tripping over primate remains if there are as many as 7,000 Bigfoots roaming the United States, as Biscardi claimed?

"I understand where you are coming from, but how many real Bigfoot researchers are out there trekking 140,000 miles a year?" Biscardi said.

Biscardi, Whitton and Dyer presented what they called evidence supporting the Bigfoot theory. It was an e-mail from a University of Minnesota scientist, but all it said was that of the three DNA samples sent to the scientist, one was human, one was likely a possum and the third could not be tested because of technical problems.

At least one other Bigfoot researcher, Idaho State University anthropologist Jeffrey Meldrum, called the trio's claims "not compelling in the least." He told the Scientific American that photographs posted on the Web site "just looks like a costume with some fake guts thrown on top for effect."

Whitton and Dyer have offered three different accounts of how they found the beast's remains.

In early videos, the animal was shot by a former felon, and the men followed it into the woods. In a second version, they found a "family of Bigfoot" in the north Georgia mountains. In the third, the two were hiking and stumbled upon the corpse with open wounds.

In one of their YouTube videos, they are shown speaking with a man they identify as a scientist. Earlier this week, they admitted that the man was Dyer's brother. Dyer said they were simply having fun.

Asked why anyone should believe his claims when he already had shown a flair for tomfoolery, he suggested that skeptics simply are jealous.

"They don't have a choice to believe us. We have a body," Dyer said.




"Vampire beast" caught on film

Two police officers in the US reckon they've managed to capture on video some footage of a mythical "blood-sucking" animal known as the Chupacabra.

Cpl. Brandon Riedel was training a new deputy in Cuero, Texas, when they saw something running down a dirt path.

At first glance they thought it was a coyote, but soon realised it looked nothing like one.

The pair describe the creature as short-legged and hairless, with an elongated snout.

"You need to record something like this because it's not everyday you find something that looks like this, running around out in the middle of the county," Cpl. Riedel told KSAT.com.

Stories about the Chupacabra - which supposedly attacks and sucks the blood of livestock and pets - go back to the 1990s and this isn't the first time locals believe they've seen the creature.

DeWitt County Sheriff Jode Zavesky is excited by his officers' footage: "You know, it's just kind of one of those things to hear about and talk about, but to actually see something on video that may actually be a live one, that's pretty amazing."




Moustache protector, anyone? Weird inventions on show

A grenade that puts out fires, a self-pouring teapot, periscope spectacles, a peach peeler and a moustache protector are among oddball inventions on show at the British Library.

The Weird and Wonderful Inventions display, which opened Thursday and runs until November 10 at the national library in central London, is showing off a wealth of eccentric contraptions and ingenious gadgets.

The eye-catching devices are from the collection of Maurice Collins, a man with a passion for crazy inventions dating from 1851 to 1951.

"I've got more than 1,200 items and it's anything that I find a bit peculiar rather than something that would have been successful or other people would collect. I don't collect sewing machines or typewriters," he told AFP.

"It's things that perhaps nobody else would be bothered with, but in some way helped normal people with their lives, like the self-pouring teapot or the dynamo torch."

The collection includes a brandy bottle lock from around 1880, to stop the servants helping themselves to a swig, and a 1920s wristwatch with a scrolling maps on it -- an early equivalent of today's sat nav gadgets.

A memorandum clock with slot-in bone memos and bells sounding when time was up were useful for businessmen with meetings and prostitutes alike.

"A lot of the items could still be produced today. Even the self-pouring teapot," Collins said.

"The most bonkers invention here is the coffee cooler," he said of the circa 1920 metal cylinder which would be plunged into a piping hot cup.

"Why would you want to do that? Why not just blow on it? And it displaces half your coffee."

After merrily demonstrating the 1930 dynamo shaver, the self-pouring teapot and the 1920 automatic nose hair cutter, Collins said inventors nowadays needed to be good marketeers to be successful.

"Britain was a phenomenal nation of inventors but things have changed," he explained.

"Nowadays it's got to be manufactured abroad and the system of selling has become quite difficult. I think 1851 to 1951 was the golden age."

Garden shed inventing has seen a surge in popularity, thanks to television programmes like "Dragon's Den", a successful international format whereby would-be inventors pitch their proposals to wealthy entrepreneurs.

The British Library, which holds domestic patents, now has its own resident inventor in its Business and Intellectual Property Centre, designed to help people start up their own enterprises.

Mark Sheahan, whose Squeezeopen container lids earned him the 2003 Innovator of the Year award, gives advice to help up-and-coming inventors hone their products.

"Inventors are all quite vulnerable and naive at the beginning. We really need advice so it's great to have somewhere to go," he told AFP.

"You have to be pretty determined and it helps if you have some basic skills.




Olympic drunk is sports minister

A drunk fan of Olympic competitors from Belgium has been identified as the country's sports minister.

A loud Belgian fan had been shouting out during a doubles match between Argentinian and Belgian players.

Eventually Argentine tennis ace David Nalbandian lost his temper and told him to be quiet.
But other Belgian supporters recognised the "very drunk" man as sports minister Michel Daerden, media in the country have reported.

Daerden was also spotted drunk when cheering on the Belgian hockey team from the stands, say reports.

One Belgian fan, Marc Demeyer, said: "He was drunk as a skunk. It's an embarrassment for the nation."

"I'm here to nurture inventors and point them in the right direction. You never know what's coming through the door."

He said the days of wild-haired crazy inventors locked in their garden sheds were all but over.

"We're a different breed from the Victorians; we have to be more commercially viable," Sheahan said.

"You've got to go through a process and its not always easy."

In learning from bad inventions, "there's always a positive on the back of a negative. You have to be optimistic to do what we do."




Potato for a pint? British pub barters as credit crunch bites

A British pub is offering pints for potatoes, or any other home-grown produce, in a bartering initiative which is taking off as the credit crunch bites.

The Pigs pub in the village of Edgefield, eastern England, is offering the free booze in exchange for fruit, fish, meat or vegetables which can be used on its menu.

"If you grow, breed, shoot or steal anything that may look at home on our menu, then bring it in and let's do a deal," says a sign in the pub, which has swapped pints for a kilo of potatoes, three mackerel, or a locally-shot rabbit.

Manager Cloe Wasey, 24, explained: "We've been doing it for almost two years now but the success of it has only just recently started to boom with the credit crunch setting in."

"It's also great for us because we get produce at a good price, although we have high standards so the food we get in has to meet those. We find the home grown stuff is often much better than what we can get from the suppliers.

"Someone will say 'that rabbit tasted great' and we say 'here, meet the person who shot it'," she added.




Bearded man in women's garb accused of tip theft

Fairfield police said they didn't have much problem tracking down a theft suspect, a bearded man dressed in a tank top and capri pants. Police say a 22-year-old Norwalk man was caught on tape taking $30 from the tip jar at O Bar Wednesday night.

Police say the man was found a short time after the manager of the bar noticed the missing tip jar and checked the bar's surveillance video.

There, he saw a bearded man carrying a large woman's purse and wearing a dark tank top and light colored capri pants go behind the counter.

A 97-year-old grandmother has travelled 2,400 kilometres (1,491 miles) by tricyle to watch the Chinese badminton team in action at the Beijing Olympics.

Xiao Xincui, affectionately known as old Xiao, sat in the back while her grandson Liu Xianghui provided the pedal power on their mammoth journey from Henan province in central China.

The epic trip took five weeks and they arrived to see women's singles champion Zhang Ning play on Sunday.

"I'm very excited to be here," said Xiao.

Her grandson said he wanted to make the trip as a thank you to Xiao for bringing him up after his father died when he was young.

Their journey has caught the imagination of the Chinese media and public and they now have tickets to see the 110m hurdles final at the National Stadium where the whole of China will be willing Liu Xiang to win another gold medal.




Flying piece of art causes museum chaos in Switzerland

A giant inflatable dog turd by American artist Paul McCarthy blew away from an exhibition in the garden of a Swiss museum, bringing down a power line and breaking a greenhouse window before it landed again, the museum said Monday.

The art work, titled "Complex S(expletive..)", is the size of a house. The wind carried it 200 metres (yards) from the Paul Klee Centre in Berne before it fell back to Earth in the grounds of a children's home, said museum director Juri Steiner.

The inflatable turd broke the window at the children's home when it blew away on the night of July 31, Steiner said. The art work has a safety system which normally makes it deflate when there is a storm, but this did not work when it blew away.

Steiner said McCarthy had not yet been contacted and the museum was not sure if the piece would be put back on display.




Iowa man cited after botched attempt to neuter dog

A Des Moines man accused of using a razor blade in a botched attempt to neuter a friend's dog has been charged with improper care and treatment of animals.

Police say Hung Doc Vu was issued a misdemeanor citation on Monday and faces a fine of up to $500.

Officials say 49-year-old told them he had been taught the procedure by his father and grandfather, but he has no veterinary license or training.

Police say they have no indication that Vu was trying to be malicious when he attempted to remove the schnauzer's testicles on Aug. 2 with a razor blade and no pain medication.

The dog's owner took the animal in for emergency treatment. Police say the dog, named Pooper, was treated and released.




Groom charged with being too near bride at wedding

A New York state man has been arrested for getting too close to his bride on their wedding day. Police said Timothy Cole quarreled with a wedding guest at a party Friday after wedding his ex-wife in Batavia.

Officers knew the 45-year-old Cole from previous arrests and realized his bride had an order of protection against him. Cole was charged with first-degree criminal contempt, a felony, and ordered jailed without bail.

The Daily News in Batavia says Cole was convicted of criminal contempt on July 1.

The Genesee County public defender's office says Cole hasn't been assigned an attorney.




Clare County man finds naked college student in driveway

HARRISON -- A 65-year-old Clare County man is wondering which was more strange -- to find a naked college student in his driveway at 11 p.m. Tuesday or the fact that his wife didn't question him when he walked into their house with her.

Ernest E. Kramer, who lives on Oak Park, said he went outside to unplug some decorative lights when he heard a female voice from the darkness say, "Mister, I'm lost, can I use your phone?"

"There was only a bug light on, so I told her to come to the house," Kramer said. "I couldn't see that well, I thought she was wearing shorts and a pink blouse.

"When we got to the front door I turned and looked at her and said, 'Oh my God, you got nothing on.' So I took off my T-shirt and gave it to her.

"My wife never batted an eye when I walked in the house without a shirt on -- and with a drunk girl wearing my shirt."

The 19-year-old student tried to make several calls but couldn't reach anyone, Kramer said. Then she headed outside and threw up in his garage.

Kramer called the police.

Clare County sheriff's deputies found the woman walking down the road some distance from Kramer's home.

"(Deputies) brought my T-shirt back, saying she's fully dressed now," Kramer said. "She was with eight other college students staying at a cabin of one of the parents, partying in preparation to go back to school."




Longmont police: Man claimed he was detective to obtain porn

LONGMONT — Police are looking for a man who told clerks at a local adult novelty shop that he is a police detective and then demanded that they provide him with pornographic videos so he could check the ages of the actors and actresses in them.
 
The clerks turned away the ponytailed police impersonator last month, said Longmont Cmdr. Tim Lewis.

Lewis said the man provided a badge and a business card without a name, and told the clerks he was a detective with the Longmont Police Department’s “age verification unit,” which does not exist. The man claimed he would verify the ages of the performers in the videos, Lewis said.

The man made the claims to clerks on July 18, July 19 and July 26. The manager of the business on the 1400 block of Main Street called police on July 28, according to police reports.
 
The man is described as 5 feet 6 inches tall, 155 pounds, in his mid-30s, with long black hair and glasses. He was wearing a leather brace or wrap on his left wrist, according to police. Store officials provided video images of the man.

Fancy a seahorse kebab, deep-fried scorpion, or maybe duck liver paste shaped as a table tennis bat?

Beijing, a city known for its culinary diversity, is offering everything from the bizarre to the beautiful when it comes to food during the August 8-24 Olympics with visitors urged to be adventurous and not put off by the unusual.

Some of the city's estimated 40,000 restaurants have added sporting twists to menus in keeping with the Chinese tradition of marking special occasions with unique culinary creations.

The Quanjude, a well-known Peking duck restaurant, has a range of dishes with an Olympic theme such as abalone shaped like a rowing boat with asparagus oars, baby corn baseball bats, and noodle baskets shaped like the Olympic "Bird's Nest" stadium.

Sports bars around the city were hoping the influx of seven million visitors for the Games would benefit them, such as the W Restaurant and Bar in the popular Sanlitun area that is co-owned by former Swedish table tennis champion Jan-Ove Waldner.

"Everyone is going to be thinking sports all the time and we will have the Olympics showing all the time," said Chris Lee, chief executive of W Restaurant that has a table tennis table in the dining area for diners needing some exercise.

Even though dog meat has officially been taken off the menu for the Olympic Games so as not to offend foreign visitors, tourists can still find a wide range of unusual delicacies.

DONKEY RESTAURANTS

The Guolizhuang restaurant specialises in animal penises while there are several donkey restaurants.

Stalls along Snack Street in the Wangfujing shopping district sell a range of delicacies on sticks such as seahorses for 30 yuan (2.26 pounds) and cicadas for five yuan.

The Chinese traditionally believe certain animals or their organs have medicinal properties.

"The seahorses are good for men's kidneys and their virility. Those (crustacea) are for the girls to improve their skin and looks, and these (lizards) are for both the boys and the girls, they boost your virility," said food vendor Sun Hainan.

However there appeared to be few takers on Snack Street.

"I haven't tried them and I'm not going to," said 11-year-old Fang Jie from Chingdao who was in Beijing for the Olympics.

One of China's largest travel services, China International Travel Service (CITS), said visitors might consider things eaten in China to be distasteful but they needed to "bridge the cultural gap and look at it with an open mind."

Police say there's been an alarming rise in urine-filled plastic containers found along a three-mile stretch of Interstate 84 in eastern Oregon.

A litter crew for the Oregon Department of Transportation picked up an estimated 200-300 urine filled plastic bottles, along the highway, about half of which were found in a short stretch dubbed "Three Mile Hill."

Police say that drivers — particularly commercial trucks — are typically driving very slowly through the area.

Police think the price of fuel may be causing drivers to travel slower than normal to save fuel while at the same time passing rest areas or truck stops.

Under Oregon law, improperly disposing of human waste is a misdemeanor which can carry a fine of up to $250.




Grandma arrested for driving with child on roof

Authorities say a grandmother was arrested for driving around the parking lot of a Marathon grocery store with her 3-year-old child sitting on the roof of the car.

Monroe County Sheriff's Office deputies were called to the Publix store Tuesday and arrested a 54-year-old woman after she was driving around with her three-year-old granddaughter on the roof of her car.

The grandmother was released from jail 15 hours later.

The woman said Thursday she would never let anything hurt her granddaughter. She says she was driving at "snail-speed" and holding the child's leg.

Authorities say the woman told police she was giving the child some air and letting her have fun.

She faces charges of child abuse. The child is back with her mother.




Two arrested after using barbecue pit as a weapon

A man and a woman found a new use for a barbecue pit — one that landed them in jail. An argument over whether a third guest should stay in the house got so heated that the woman picked up the barbecue pit and hit the man over the head with it, police said.

The man picked up the barbecue pit and returned the favor and hit the woman in the head with it, police reported. The woman then told police that she picked up the barbecue pit and hit the back window of the man's car with it.

Police admit that the whole situation was confusing, but after medics treated the man and the woman, they were handcuffed, read their rights and taken to jail.

Flarry's son and grandchildren took a dingy out to the boat to try to coax the animal back into the water.

When they got close, the sea lion hid "behind the lifesaver like a little kid who hides behind a curtain and doesn't realize his toes are sticking out," Flarry said.

Flarry's granddaughter stayed aboard, taking photo after photo of the sea lion swimming in circles around the boat.
"She was so busy snapping pictures she forgot to bring the ladder up," Flarry said.

The sea lion climbed back onto the boat, and the family returned to evict the animal once again.

Marine mammal rescuers said the animal is likely suffering from the poisoning effects of a toxin found in algae.

Such unusual behavior is a red flag for domoic acid poisoning, said Amy Traxler, coordinator at the San Juan County Marine Mammal Stranding Network in Friday Harbor.

Domoic acid is a neurotoxin that occurs naturally in algae. Marine mammals affected by the toxin can display erratic, aggressive behavior and often become disoriented, said Mieke Eerkens, spokeswoman for Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito, Calif.




Dog poo stops discus champion's training
 
VILNIUS- Two-time Olympic discus champion Virgilijus Alekna encountered an unusual problem at a final pre-Beijing training session in Lithuania at the weekend -- his practice venue was covered in dog poo.
 
"Dogs were doing what animals usually do, defecating and peeing," the professional bodyguard told Lithuanian daily Lietuvos zinios after the stadium he was using to train was used for a dog show on Sunday.

"There were lots of dogs and they have left lots of things behind ... and nobody even tried to collect them.

"I have no idea how can I train in such conditions ... and who would clean the discus after every throw."

Alekna said he was looking for another training ground, probably in Kaunas, about 100 km from the capital Vilnius.
The 36-year-old won the discus at Sydney in 2000 and Athens four years ago.




Randy badger sparks police manhunt

A randy badger sparked a police manhunt for a sex attacker when his howls of passion were mistaken for a woman screaming.

Police in Linz, in western Germany, scrambled a helicopter and officers with night vision goggles after members of the public called to alert them about a sex attack in progress.

But as police followed the screams into a nearby forest, the search team stumbled across a pair of mating badgers.

A police spokesman said: "Nervous residents rang the police station and said they had heard several loud, frightened screams of a woman in a forest nearby.

"We scrambled a helicopter with night vision equipment and searched the forest but we only found wild animals going about their business.

"The mating calls of a badger during the mating season in July and August are easily mistaken for human screaming."




'I Am Rich' iPhone Application Retails for $1,000

Upset that the Apple iPhone is just no longer exclusive enough? Feeling cheated that the price has dropped to $200 and the hoi polloi can afford it?

Well, then, Apple has the perfect downloadable application for you.

Called "I Am Rich" and created by some fellow named Armin Heinrich, it costs a mere $999.99 and displays a glowing red gem. That's all it does.

You can put it on the screen of your iPhone, which you probably paid $600 for a year ago, to prove to tennis partners, business rivals and high-end call girls that you truly are of the moneyed class.

Too good to be true? Pshaw. We checked the App Store on iTunes and it's there.

However, when we tried to click through for more details — due diligence is prudent before dropping a grand — a little pop-up message told us "I Am Rich" is not available for sale to U.S. residents.

Given the sorry state of the U.S. dollar, that might make sense.

Various blogs were able to get the official description, however, which reads in part: "The red icon on your iPhone or iPod Touch always reminds you (and others when you show it to them) that you were able to afford this. It's a work of art with no hidden function at all."

Supposedly, when you click on the cursive "I" symbol that offers information, you're greeted with a "secret mantra" teaching that will help you "stay rich, healthy and successful."

As of this writing, no one had ponied up the $1,000 — or 799.99 euros, or 599.99 British pounds — to find out what that mantra might be.

A 71-year-old College Hill preacher was convicted Monday of aggravated menacing for pointing a gun and cursing at a female driver who cut him off in a June 23 road-rage incident.
 
Thomas Howell, founder and preacher at First Commandment Church of the Living God in East Walnut Hills, was convicted Monday of the first-degree misdemeanor by Hamilton County Municipal Judge Brad Greenberg.

Howell was driving his car from his College Hill home to his church the morning of June 23. He turned at the intersection of Burnet and Forest avenues when, he testified, a car cut him off.

The other car was driven by April Evans, a cook at two local restaurants.

She testified the preacher pulled up alongside her car, pointed a gun at her, called her a name and asked if she knew who she was messing with before threatening to shoot.

The cars chased each other through parts of Clifton, Avondale and Walnut Hills.

"Every time I get in back of him, he would pull the gun out on me and point it towards me and whatever," Evans testified at Monday's trial.

"He said, 'You don't now who I am,' called me another (name) and said ... 'I'll shoot you.' "

Angry, she followed Howell's car. When it stopped by his church, she ran into a hardware store across the street and called 911.

When police arrived, Howell told them he had a gun - it was in a holster strapped to his hip - and he had a permit to carry it.

Howell denied to police and at Monday's trial that he ever pointed his gun at her. In fact, he said he never removed it from his holster that day.

Then how, the judge wondered, did Evans know that Howell - a man she'd never met before - had a gun.

"I think that the only reason Ms. Evans would know that (Howell) had a gun in the vehicle is that he pointed it at her," the judge said in finding Howell guilty.

Howell faces up to 180 days in jail when he is sentenced Sept. 4.




Blow-up church looks to lure Italian beachgoers

ROME- Catholic nuns and priests in Italy are following their flocks to the beach this summer, establishing an inflatable church and a beach-convent in the sands to lure sunbathers.
 
The 30-metre (98 ft) long blow-up church -- staffed by priests ready to take confession -- will debut on Saturday on the Adriatic coast in the Molise region, an organiser said.

"There will be four or five people singing, with music about God," said Chiara Facci with Catholic group Sentinelli del Mattino. Night time activities, which will not include Mass, will run from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m.

The first attempt to inaugurate the inflatable church last month on the holiday island of Sardinia failed after strong winds forced organisers to relocate, she said.

Big cities like Rome and Milan empty in August, when Italians head to the beach for summer holidays, leaving streets empty and many businesses closed. Churches are hardly immune, and also see their congregations thin.

On the Mediterranean coast, nuns from a convent near the southern Italian city of Naples have relocated to beach cabins to join holidaymakers saying the rosary. An adjoining altar was set up under two tents.

"The concept of a beach-convent is something that is appreciated by vacationers and the nuns themselves," priest Antonio Rungi, who helped spearheaded the initiative, told Italian news agency ANSA.




German police women get "bullet-proof bras"
 
BERLIN- Thousands of German police women will receive what media have labelled "bullet-proof bras".
 
Made of white cotton and featuring the word "Polizei" (Police) along the seam, the bras are meant to better protect police women who wear bullet-proof vests.

"There was a slight safety risk for women wearing normal bras with metal parts underneath a bullet-proof vest," a police spokesman in the northern city of Hanover said.

"If the vest is hit by a projectile, this can have an impact on the metal bit in the bra underneath and cause injuries."

Some 3,000 police women working for Germany's federal police will be equipped with the new bras which feature no metal parts and look like sports bras, the spokesman said.




Man tells 911 slot machine stole his money

TAMPA, Fla. - A second Florida man has been arrested on charges of making false 911 calls in as many days. An arrest report says 47-year-old Carlos Gutierrez was at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino early Monday and called 911 to say the slot machine stole his money. The report says Gutierrez left the casino to place a second 911 call to say the same thing.

He was arrested and charged with making a false 911 call. He's being held with no bail set.

On Sunday another man was arrested after calling 911 five times during an argument with his brother. He demanded that dispatchers send deputies to help sort things out.

The sauce for a spicy Italian sandwich was apparently a must have for one Florida man. The man, Reginald Peterson, called 911 twice after a sandwich shop left off the sauce.

Peterson initially called the emergency number Thursday so that officers could have his subs made correctly, according to a police report. The second call was to complain that police officers weren't arriving fast enough.

Subway workers told police that Peterson, 42, became belligerent and yelled when they were fixing his order. They locked him out of the store when he left to call police.

When officers arrived, they tried to calm Peterson and explain the proper use of 911. Those efforts failed, and he was arrested on a charge of making false 911 calls.

Peterson did not have a listed phone number.




Chef: sorry for suggesting poison plant in salad

A British celebrity chef says he's sorry for mistakenly recommending a deadly plant as a tasty salad ingredient.

Anthony Worrall Thompson says he meant to suggest using the weed fat hen, a member of the spinach family whose leaves are edible. He instead told Healthy and Organic Living magazine for its July edition that henbane could be used in salads.

Henbane, whose name means "killer of hens," is a toxic plant that can cause hallucinations, drowsiness and disorientation if ingested. Large doses can kill.

The magazine issued a correction Monday on its Web site. Worrall Thompson told reporters he's sorry for the mix-up, which he called "a bit embarrassing."




Ohio woman bills Michigan $16 for work zone delay

PERRYSBURG, Ohio - An Ohio woman has sent Michigan transportation officials a bill for the $16 she says she wasted on gasoline sitting in construction zone traffic. Carol Greenberg complained there were no signs warning about the work on southbound Interstate 275 where it merges with I-75 near Newport, Michigan, about 27 miles north of Toledo.
 
So, she said she got stuck idling for about 50 minutes on July 23 while trying to get home to the Toledo suburbs with her cat after a visit to a specialty veterinarian outside Detroit. She said her Maine coon cat, Sammy, didn't like the delay either and howled the entire time.

In a response letter, the Michigan Department of Transportation says it's not able to reimburse drivers for time, wages, or gas lost in work zone back-ups.




Pa. man watches helplessly as train squashes truck

Nathan Miller learned the hard way that "Road Closed" signs are posted for a reason. The 25-year-old Milesburg man ventured onto a closed road Sunday afternoon in search of good fishing at Bald Eagle State Park, but got his pickup truck stranded on some railroad tracks.

After trying for 45 minutes to dislodge the truck, Miller said he could do nothing but step back and watch a Norfolk Southern train smash into it.

"I backed up a little bit and watched the show," he said. "It looked just like TV but louder."

Signs clearly stated the road was closed, but Miller said he decided to "give it a shot" after hearing about the fishing spot. He has no intentions of going back.

"I was an idiot," Miller said. "Pretty much a local idiot just trying to go fishing."

Police cited Miller for trespassing.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla.- The owner of a Florida art gallery is facing charges for allegedly breaking city laws by having a nude man inside his gallery while alcohol was being served.

Gallery owner Bill Schramm 46, and model, Joshua M. Culotta, 26, were taken into police custody Friday at the Erotic Lounge in St. Petersburg, Fla., the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times reported.

The incident began when police showed up after getting a complaint about a large penis sculpture outside the gallery, the newspaper said.

The Times said police went back to the gallery later in the night and raided the building.

Officials said they found Culotta inside the building, hanging in an aerial harness from the ceiling with his genitals exposed.

Schramm and Culotta were taken into police custody and Schramm is facing charges of battery on a law enforcement officer and violating the city ordinance, the Times said.

Sgt. Joe Collins said police are allowed to enter a building with a liquor license without probable cause.




Diners flock to flooded restaurant

The owner of a flooded restaurant in China scrapped plans to close it down - after business picked up.
 
Diners in Xiangfan are enjoying the novelty of eating their meals in ankle-deep water, reports Xinhua Net.

News of the flooded restaurant spread and the restaurant is now packed with diners while waitresses say they are struggling to keep up with orders.

The owner said he was prepared to temporarily close the restaurant after the heaviest rains for 50 years brought floods to the city.

But he had a change of heart when he heard how the eatery's new wet look was bringing in the customers.

"It's very cool. Not only in temperature, but also for a fun new way of having a meal," said one diner.




Family buys tank

A German family has bought a six-tonne tank to use for shopping and day trips.

Dad Joachim Schoeneich has even fitted a baby seat to the British-built Fox tank for his two-year-old son Paul.
The tank is armed with a disabled 30mm gun and has three-inch thick armour plating.

"We take the tank to go shopping and little trips," laughed Joachim, from Neu Anspach.

"It is a bit hard to find a parking place, but we get right of way at every junction."

The only drawback is fuel consumption as the £24,000 tank's 4.2 litre engine struggles to better five miles per gallon.

"But the driving experience makes up for it," says Joachim.




German police officers are mistaken for strippers

BERLIN - No one had ordered strippers for the 30th birthday party — but the two policemen who arrived after midnight to quiet the raucous celebration found themselves greeted by a round of applause.
 
Female partygoers in western Germany mistook the real-life officers for fake ones who entertain parties by peeling off enticing man-in-uniform outfits.

Police spokesman Bernd Hoffmann said Monday the case of mistaken identity took place in Simmern, west of Frankfurt, after neighbors called to complain about the noise.

The two officers arrived about 12:45 a.m. Sunday. The partygoers had not ordered strippers, but thought someone had sent them as a birthday surprise.

"It took them a while to realize they were real police officers," Hoffmann said. "It was a bit funny for all sides."




Night at gallery ends in arrest

ST. PETERSBURG — The night started with a complaint about a giant penis statue.

Before it was over, police had pinned the owner of the art gallery to the ground and taken him to jail.

"Oh, my God," said gallery owner Bill Schramm, his glasses falling off in the scuffle. "This is the city's response to a penis. That's fabulous."

Officers arrested Schramm and another man after a raid Friday night on the Erotic Lounge in the Grand Central District of St. Petersburg. It wasn't the statue that they were arrested for.
 
Instead, investigators said they saw a nude man in the gallery, a violation of a city ordinance that prohibits places that serve alcohol from allowing the public display of genitals.

The gallery's show on Friday included a cypress penis statue larger than a person in front of the gallery. Schramm said he installed it there about 5 p.m.

Sometime during the evening, police received a complaint about the statue. A St. Petersburg police officer stopped by, told Schramm it was pornographic and told him to take it inside. He refused, saying it was art.

Later that evening, the show was still going on when police converged on the shop. As Schramm was talking to a St. Petersburg Times reporter about the statue, Sgt. Joe Collins dashed inside. Schramm put his hand up to stop him and tried to hold the door closed, police said.

In an instant, officers tackled Schramm, forcing him to the ground and cuffing his hands behind his back.

Officers sat him on a chair under the gallery's overhang while they searched the shop and detained the customers, telling them there was a liquor violation and asking to see identification.

Schramm, 46, was charged with battery on a law enforcement officer and violating the city ordinance.

Inside, police found a nude man, Joshua M. Culotta, suspended from the ceiling in an aerial harness that Schramm earlier called a "chandelier."

"He was in plain view," said Collins, the investigating sergeant.

Officers said they arrested Culotta, 26, for violating the city ordinance. The man, who is deaf, seemed confused and told a reporter, "I was just modeling." As officers handcuffed him, he started to cry.

"He'll be okay. Misdemeanor charge," an officer told one of the man's friends.

The walls of the gallery were covered in erotic images. One painting depicted Superman in underwear with an erect penis.

Attached to a bathroom door of cloth were signs reading: "Human petting zoo," "Tipping allowed & encouraged," and "Dare to explore." Police said they found a man in his underwear inside the bathroom but nothing illegal.

Collins said the police began an investigation Friday night after hearing that the gallery was displaying genitals while serving alcohol. He would not specify how they knew, saying he wouldn't reveal an investigative tactic.

But because the business has a liquor license, police have a right of entry and don't need probable cause to go inside, Collins said.

"It's art," said Craig Christopher, 42, who said he had barely sipped his beer when police entered. "So what's the problem with that?"




Shaken Berry-Pickers Report Sasquatch Sighting in Ontario, Canada, Woods

Helen Pahpasay and her mother say they were scared stiff when they saw the mysterious creature spot them in their truck and then run into the woods near Grassy Narrows, Ont., about 140 miles east of Winnipeg, Manitoba.

"It was black, about eight feet long and all black, and the way it walked was upright, human-like, but more — I don't know how to describe it — more of a husky walk, I guess," Pahpasay told CBC News. “It didn’t look normal.”

The women considered chasing the figure to get a better look, but were so shaken they abandoned berry picking altogether and returned home.

Pahpasay claims others later found a large, six-toed footprint in the area.

“What do I think it was? Right now I'm not even sure what it was. But it really scared both of us,” she said. “There's been talk of Bigfoot, sasquatch. And I'm still not sure what it was, but I've never seen anything like it."

In 2006, there were several reports of a sasquatch-like figure in the woods in Manitoba and Saskatchewan.

Those who believe in the infamous hairy giant say he could be roaming the woods from California, up the West Coast, and across Canada, the CBC reported.

Skeptics say concrete evidence such as skulls or bones has never been found, and footprints or photographs could be altered.




Drunken man tries to fill his car with jet fuel

SAN JOSE, Calif. - A drunken man broke into a small airport and tried to fill up his car's gas tank with jet fuel, police said. Police arrested the man, 20, on Sunday night for driving while intoxicated and attempted theft.

The man probably wasn't trying to save money. The aviation fuel in the pumps used for aircraft and race cars, was going for $5.97 a gallon, accessed by a credit card, authorities said.

"We've had people try and steal gas here in the past," said Jim Meide, who works in operations at the county-run Reid-Hillview Airport in East San Jose.




Police wait for suspect to marry

Police in a Chinese town waited outside a suspect's house for two days to avoid interrupting his wedding.

Officers in Sanjiang township said they wanted to save the groom, bride and both families from losing face in front of their guests.

The suspect, Leng Qiang, had been wanted by police for two years for robbing a nightclub, reports West China City Daily.

"We received a clue that he had a new girlfriend and perhaps was hiding at her place," said Guo Feng, director of Shuanggui Police Station in Sanjiang township.

"When we arrived at the scene, we were surprised to find that the bride's family was preparing a wedding ceremony, and moreover that the bride was obviously pregnant."

Guo said they decided to wait to arrest the suspect until after the wedding was over, in order to avoid embarrassing the bride's family.

After the wedding was over, the police decided to let the newly wedded couple first enjoy their wedding night, and then arrest the suspect the morning after.

"When we broke in the next morning, the suspect was still asleep," said Guo.

The bride said she never knew her groom was wanted by the police, but "it's too late to learn the news now".




Alleged thief stuck under trash bin for 12 hours
 
DILLON, S.C. - A suspected thief trying to steal $10 worth of copper got himself into a stinky situation when he was trapped under a trash bin at a county landfill for 12 hours, sheriff's deputies said.
 
Deputies said Gibson Cook, 56, broke into the landfill, then got stuck as he tried to crawl under the large container. Landfill workers found him about 12 hours later with his legs sticking out from under the bin. Emergency workers had to inflate air bags so they could lift the bin to free him.

Cook was charged with trespassing and petit larceny, deputy Wayne Kirby said. He was waiting for a bond hearing and it was unclear if he had an attorney.

"He's one of our local petty thieves," Kirby said. "But he has never been in a jam like this."

Break-ins at the landfill in Dillon, a town of about 6,400 people in the northeast corner of the state near the North Carolina line, have increased in recent months as thieves look for discarded scrap metal. But employee Charlie Brown said that in 27 years at the dump, this is the first time he's seen anyone get stuck. He said the copper under the trash bin could not have been worth more than $10.

"It was right disgusting," he said. "I wouldn't be under there."




Angry, late, tired passengers make computers crash

BEIJING- Scores of Chinese air passengers smashed computers and desks and clashed with police Tuesday after a night stranded at an airport without accommodation, state media said.
 
More than 170 passengers were due to leave Kunming, capital of southwestern Yunnan province, on three flights operated by China Southern Airlines late Monday, but the flights were cancelled due to bad weather, Xinhua news agency said.

"All the passengers had to spend the night on the planes or in the departure hall," Xinhua said. "No one came to tend to their food and board."

The passengers clashed with airport police Tuesday morning, smashing computers and desks, Xinhua said, blaming the melee on China Southern staff's "inappropriate working attitude."

At around 2 a.m., many of the passengers -- including toddlers and people over 60 -- took taxis to a hotel where China Southern said they could stay, only to be turned away once they arrived, Xinhua said.

Frustration at mysterious delays, diversions and cancellations have at times boiled over into violence at Chinese airports as passengers try to storm grounded aircraft and police are brought in to keep the peace.

There have also been cases in which passengers, after delayed arrivals, have refused to get off the planes in protest.




Stinky gambler fuming over NJ casino ejection

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. - Yes, Michael Wax stank. He's the first to admit it. The 440-pound New York City man said he was playing poker in an Atlantic City casino for 17 hours Tuesday and didn't have time to clean up. He understands why grossed-out gamblers complained about his body odor, but said he didn't deserve stinky treatment from the casino that asked him to leave.
 
Dave Coskey, a spokesman for the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa, said it is company policy not to comment on matters involving customers.

Wax said he told casino officials: "There's no question I stink. I'm not denying it. I do have an odor. I've been playing for 17 hours."

The 54-year-old limousine company owner, who says he is a frequent gambler at the Borgata, said a poker room manager followed him into the restroom and informed him that patrons at his table were complaining about his body odor.

When the Brooklyn man tried to retake his seat at the table, he said a manager told him to leave. He said he asked for a free room to freshen up, and the casino refused.

He promptly filed a complaint about his treatment with the Casino Control Commission. His complaint will be reviewed to determine whether any state gambling laws or regulations were violated, a commission spokesman said Wednesday.

Wax said his instincts tell him to find a different casino to patronize, but he likes gambling at the Borgata. He said the casino was out of line to tell him he stinks in front of other patrons.

"I would like an apology," Wax said.




Officer foils Cadillac driver's free gas plan
 
FORT WORTH, Texas - The third time was an alarm for a Cadillac driver apparently loading up on free gas while posing as a stranded motorist. A police officer became suspicious the third time he saw the same man stopped on the side of a road next to his Cadillac with the hood up, said Charles Gonzalez, the area's neighborhood police officer.
 
The officer stopped and asked the man what the problem was. After the man said the car's starter didn't work, the officer asked him to try to start it.

"And it starts right up," Gonzalez said in a story Saturday in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

About that time, another driver pulled up with a full 1-gallon gas can, Gonzalez said. The driver told the officer that the Cadillac owner had claimed to have run out of gas and was broke. So the driver decided to be a good Samaritan.

The officer then ran the Cadillac owner's driver's license and learned that he had outstanding warrants, Gonzalez said. The man was arrested.

When officers opened the Cadillac's trunk, they found four full 1-gallon gas cans.

"He'd been convincing people he was out of gas and to give him money or buy him some," Gonzalez said. "The officer said he noticed the guy always parked near a gas station, so it would be convenient for people to run and get some for him.

"People were not only buying him gas, they were buying him the gas cans."

It probably wasn't a crime, Gonzalez said. The gas gauge didn't work so police don't know how much gas the car contained. And anyway, asking people to buy you gas isn't against the law.

"You never want to tell people not to help others," he said. "But there are people who will take advantage of it."




Mum scared by 'prat-nav' truckers

A worried mum is too scared to watch TV in her living room - in case a lorry crashes into it for the 16th time.
The winding country lane where Amanda Sandland lives in Bodfari, North Wales, shows up on sat-navs as a handy short-cut.

But truckers have slammed into her cottage 15 times, wrecking walls and landing her with massive repair bills, reports The Sun.

Amanda's daughter Jemma, 18, moved out after the latest collision, which came within feet of her bedroom.

Carer Amanda, 45, said: "It is very stressful, very traumatic. The point of impact was so close to my daughter's bedroom that she is understandably terrified.

"Sometimes lorries have just driven off, meaning I have to claim on my insurance sending premiums sky-high."

Her plight emerged as new statistics showed more than a third of sat-nav users have been directed along a hazardous country road.

Amanda's home was first damaged 19 years ago, but navigation devices have since increased the menace. She wants signs put up on the nearby main road warning truckers not to use the lane.

She added: "This road isn't built for them - but I don't blame the drivers because they don't realise how narrow it is. They are just following instructions."




The £23,000 oil change

A motorist sent his 'Batman' Lamborghini on a 6,500 mile round-trip to London for an oil change - at a cost of more than £23,000.
 
The £190,000 vehicle was loaded on to a scheduled flight from Qatar to Heathrow, before being flown back to the Middle East owner.

The Murcielago LP640, a two-seater coupe, features in the latest Batman film The Dark Knight, reports the Daily Telegraph.

The car's 6.500 miles journey sparked outrage from environmental groups.

One said the owner - thought to be a wealthy Sheikh - had a 'carbon crater' rather than a carbon footprint.
According to reports, the black and gold car cost £3,552 to service at an approved dealer, plus around £20,000 to freight to Britain and back.

Jenny Evans from the campaign group Plane Stupid said: "This horrifies me. It is another example of how rich people exploit and pollute the planet because of their money."

Friends of the Earth transport campaigner Richard Dyer said the trip was "ludicrous".

"We urge the individual to get their car serviced closer to home," he added.

However David Price of Lamborghini Club UK said the way the owner chose to have his car serviced was up to him.

"I'm not surprised. Thankfully the age of excess in some areas continues," he said.




Police: Landlord crashes Hummer into tenants' home

A landlord who was apparently upset at his tenants because they were behind on their rent crashed his Hummer into their home – his property – and then attempted to kick the door down, according to police.
 
Richard Ott, 30, of Newark is now facing charges of attempted burglary, harassment, leaving the scene of an accident, reckless driving, failure to report an accident and endangering the welfare of the three occupants of the home.

According to New Castle County police, the tenants, a 50-year-old man and his 53-year-old wife, awoke around 2:30 a.m. to a loud crash at their home on Lute Court in the Harmony Woods development in Ogletown.

They looked outside to see "headlights shining into the bedroom" and quickly went to check on their 6-year-old son sleeping in a separate bedroom. They then heard what sounded like a person attempting to kick in the front door.

As the woman was on the phone, calling 911, Ott allegedly shouted, "Tell the police it's the landlord that tore up the building."

He then fled the scene, according to police, leaving a footprint on the front door.

Officers investigating the incident later went to Ott's home on Old Baltimore Pike and found his Hummer, damaged, with a pine branch lodged in the bumper.

Police spokesman Cpl. Trinidad Navarro said Ott was arrested without incident and later released on $14,000 unsecured bail. “It's just bizarre,” Navarro said.

Calls to Ott were not immediately returned.

Navarro said the tenants had never met Ott, but instead had dealt with Ott's brother, who was a neighbor on Lute Court and acted as a property manager for Ott.

If Ott had not identified himself to the tenants, Navarro said, “We may not have solved the crime. They were strangers to him.”

No one was injured in the incident, and Navarro said the damage to the home was believed to have been minor.




Man wins appeal in bizarre gasoline suicide case
 
SEOUL- A South Korean man won his appeal against a one-year jail term for assisting in a suicide by throwing a lighter to his gasoline-soaked rival in love.
 
The Seoul appeal court reversed a lower court ruling, saying that the 30-year-old man had not believed the ex-lover of his girlfriend would actually set light to himself, Yonhap news agency reported Wednesday.

Last September, the former boyfriend had stopped the couple in their car after dousing himself in petrol, threatening to kill himself is she did not get out.

The defendant then threw him a lighter, saying: "Go ahead and kill yourself," the news agency said.

The man died of his burns.

The appeal court ruled that the fact the ex-lover had given his own cigarettes and lighter to a friend so they would not get damaged by the petrol and had not left a will showed he had not planned to commit suicide.




Olympics-Wear ox pendant to avoid rat clashes, leaders

Astrology expert Raymond Lo has a word of warning for China's Olympic leaders -- they should wear an ox pendant to ward off bad karma at the Olympics.

The Beijing Games open at eight minutes past eight o'clock in the evening on the 8th day of the 8th month in 2008, a time that traditionally offers the perfect combination of good luck and prosperity.

The Olympics are being staged in the Year of the Rat but, according to Chinese animal astrology, that could spell trouble for anyone born in the Year of the Horse.

Lo, a noted exponent in Hong Kong of the ancient art of feng shui, said "The clash between the Rat and the Horse is a serious clash between water and fire.

"For people born in the Year of the Horse, it is recommended that they wear a pendant of an ox which will help to attract away the Rat so as to minimise the influence of the clash."

He pinpointed the birthdays of China's leaders -- President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao were both born in 1942, the Year of the Horse in the 12-year cycle of Chinese animal astrology.

In a telephone interview from Hong Kong, Lo explained: "The traditional belief is that you need an animal to attract away the rat."

AUSPICIOUS DAY
But he was full of optimism for China's big day on the world stage on 8/08/2008. For the number eight is lucky in Chinese as it is pronounced like the word "Fa" which is part of the expression meaning "to get wealthy".

"According to the calendar it is an auspicious day. There is nothing wrong with choosing this date, it still represents a positive energy."

Marriage registration offices in Beijing are predicting that more than 9,000 couples will tie the knot on August 8.
"If you pick a good day, this indicates a smooth beginning to the marriage," Lo said.

But, as China has learnt to its cost in a turbulent 2008, not all is positive energy in the Year of the Rat, which also symbolises the turbulent relationship between earth and water.

China was hit by crippling blizzards at the start of the year, rioting erupted in Tibet which prompted worldwide protests surrounding the Olympic torch relay and then the Sichuan earthquake struck.

Those grim milestones for China had an intriguing symmetry.

The snowstorms struck on 25/01. 2+5+1=8.

The Tibet riots erupted on 14/03. 1+4+3=8.

The earthquake struck on 12/05. 1+2+5=8. That was also 88 days before the start of the Olympics.
 
"The number eight can be negative as well," Lo warned -- and the worst may not be over.
 
"You can see water trouble will be stronger in the second half of the year because of these seasonal elements," he said.

"For example the Tsunami took place in December in 2004. Usually water is more powerful in the months after August."




Don't streak, get drunk or sleep outside at Olympics
 
Do not sleep outdoors to save money at the Olympics. It is banned to "maintain public hygiene and the cultured image of cities".

Do not let the stifling summer heat tempt you into streaking, do not get drunk nor set off fireworks nor wave "insulting banners".

Anyone with mental illnesses or sexually transmitted diseases is banned. Smoking is not allowed at Olympic venues.
The rules on the organisers' official website say it all:

"Foreigners must respect Chinese laws while in China and must not harm China's national security or damage social order."

The security-obsessed authorities are taking no chances with the 500,000 tourists set to hit Beijing for the Games.
A battery of surface-to-air missile launchers are being deployed around the showpiece sites.

No detail is too trivial.

Lighters have been banned on domestic flights. Commuters are being asked to take a swig from water bottles on the subway to ensure they do not contain suspicious substances.

All public swimming pools in Shanghai will check shampoos and body wash.

OBSESSIVE MANAGEMENT
Authorities have promised "civilised and convenient" security checks but have been accused of obsessive stage management -- visa restrictions have been tightened for visitors and Beijing is being rid of petitioners, the homeless and migrant workers.

Up to 1,000 Chinese families are opening up their homes to Olympic visitors, a move that would have been unheard of before the reform and opening up of China in the 1980s.

But the hosts could still be in for a culture shock.

Retired school teacher Yuan Xioaoqing, who is opening up her home, said "Foreign students like to stay out all night on the weekend. But in more intellectual and traditional Chinese households there is no way the kids would go out like that."

Beijing has learnt a lesson from the 1988 Seoul Olympics. Dog meat is off the menu in the Chinese capital during the Olympics in case animal rights groups are offended.

Exotic names and alarming translations abound in Chinese restaurants which are being given a linguistic makeover, though only in select restaurants.

Out goes the traditionally named "husband and wife's lung slice" appetiser which is being replaced by the more linguistically correct "beef and ox tripe in chilli sauce".

But no mention was made of the many popular establishments that have donkey on the menu.

The authorities have also worked hard to eliminate "Chinglish" from road signs and menus in the run-up to the Olympics, even if efforts have been a little hit and miss.

Gone is the infamous "Racist Park" signpost for the Ethnic Minorities Park.

Anyone hoping to scoop up a bagful of cheap pirate movies or music could be in for a disappointment. The city has announced a round-the-clock drive to stamp out bootleg sellers, but pirated DVDs are still available if you know where to look.

Yet however much they are obsessed by security and a burning desire to portray the squeaky clean image of a well ordered society, the Chinese insist the welcome will be warm.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said: "China is a safe place. Please be assured. China is a nation with great hospitality and courtesy."




Angry Ohio landlord posts 'Drugs & Sex' sign

One Cincinnati landlord is so exasperated by street crime outside his building that he's posted a large sign announcing "Drugs & Sex For Sale 24/7."

John Wallen says most tenants have fled his apartment building because of drug-dealing and prostitution on the street.

The large sign that he put up on Friday urges passers-by to call the City Council to help get the area cleaned up.

Councilwoman Roxanne Qualls says Wallen has every right to be angry. She says police should be more aggressive about cracking down on the drugs sellers and prostitutes on Wallen's block and she promises to take the matter up with the police chief.

Wallen says police come quickly every time he calls but criminals always come back once the police drive off.




World's oldest joke traced back to 1900 BC

The world's oldest recorded joke has been traced back to 1900 BC and suggests toilet humor was as popular with the ancients as it is today.

It is a saying of the Sumerians, who lived in what is now southern Iraq and goes: "Something which has never occurred since time immemorial; a young woman did not fart in her husband's lap."

It heads the world's oldest top 10 joke list published by the University of Wolverhampton Thursday.

A 1600 BC gag about a pharaoh, said to be King Snofru, comes second -- "How do you entertain a bored pharaoh? You sail a boatload of young women dressed only in fishing nets down the Nile and urge the pharaoh to go catch a fish."
The oldest British joke dates back to the 10th Century and reveals the bawdy face of the Anglo-Saxons -- "What hangs at a man's thigh and wants to poke the hole that it's often poked before? Answer: A key."

"Jokes have varied over the years, with some taking the question and answer format while others are witty proverbs or riddles," said the report's writer Dr Paul McDonald, senior lecturer at the university.

"What they all share however, is a willingness to deal with taboos and a degree of rebellion. Modern puns, Essex girl jokes and toilet humor can all be traced back to the very earliest jokes identified in this research."

A Sandy man took offense to a motorist, who, after getting him to roll down his window, asked, "Excuse me, sir, do you have any Grey Poupon?"

After hearing the request for Dijon mustard, the 22-year-old driver pulled a black handgun from his glove compartment, cocked the weapon and pointed it at the three people in the other car.

"Here's your Grey Poupon, roll your [expletive] windows up," he responded.

The confrontation happened June 18 at the intersection of 900 East and Winchester Street (6500 South) in Murray, court documents state.

One of the three people in the car wrote down the SUV's license plate number.

Murray police later located the man, who admitted to an officer that he pulled out the gun, racked the slide and threaten the other car.

Dozens of partygoers at an outdoor rave near Moscow last week have lost partial vision after a laser light show burned their retinas, Russian health officials said on Monday.

Moscow city health department officials confirmed 12 cases of laser-blindness at the Central Ophthalmological Clinic, and daily newspaper Kommersant said another 17 were registered at City Hospital 32 in the centre of the capital.

Attendees at the July 5 Aquamarine Open Air Festival in Kirzhach, 80 km (50 miles) northeast of Moscow, began seeking medical help days after the show, complaining of eye and vision problems, health officials told Reuters.

"They all have retinal burns, scarring is visible on them. Loss of vision in individual cases is as high as 80 percent, and regaining it is already impossible," Kommersant quoted a treating ophthalmologist as saying.

Attendees said heavy rains forced organisers to erect massive tents for the all-night dance party, and lasers that normally illuminate upwards into the sky were instead partially refracted into the ravers' eyes.

"I immediately had a spot like when you stare into the sun," rave-attendee Dmitry told Kommersant.

"After three days I decided to go to the hospital. They examined me, asked if I had been at Open Air, and then put me straight in the hospital. I didn't even get to go home and get my stuff," he said.

Cosmic Connection, promoters of the Aquamarine rave, were unreachable and did not list contact numbers on their Web site.

Industry Web site www.laserfx.com said focused laser light can cause eye damage almost instantly.

The owner of a Moscow laser rental company told Reuters the accidental blindings were due to "illiteracy on the part of technicians".

"It was partly the rain, but also partly the size of the laser. Somebody set up an extremely powerful laser for such a small space," said Valentin Vasiliev, who said his company did not provide the Aquamarine lasers.




Australian man spent 487 pounds a week on beer

An Australian man convicted of his seventh drink-driving charge was spending about A$1,000 (487 pounds) a week on beer -- enough to buy more than 2,500 small bottles a month, a newspaper said on Tuesday.

The heartbroken construction worker began drowning his sorrows after breaking up with his partner five years ago, the Northern Territory News said, quoting his defence lawyer as telling a court in Australia's remote, tropical north.

The magistrate declined to jail the father of four, Michael Leary, noting he had quit drinking since his latest arrest, but he banned Leary from buying or even holding a beer for 12 months.

The magistrate also poked fun at Leary's favourite beer, Melbourne Bitter, in a part of the country where drinkers can be as loyal to beer brands as they are to football teams.

"(That is) poor judgement on two counts there -- drinking that much and drinking Melbourne Bitter," magistrate Vince Luppino was quoted as saying.




Hippo bites Denver zookeeper

A veteran worker at the Denver Zoo suffered a hand puncture today when a hippopotamus chomped down during routine dental training.

The woman keeper was bitten about 9:45 a.m. in the outdoor hippo exhibit as she and colleagues were doing desensitizing training on Mahali, a 5-year-old male, to make dental work more comfortable for the hippo.

"Mahali was doing this training where we ask him to hold his mouth open and while he holds his mouth open another keeper will tap on the teeth or do something to kind of desensitize the animal," said zoo spokeswoman Ana Bowie.

The training helps condition the animal "so he's more comfortable having hands or any dental tool in his mouth," she said.

"For unknown reasons, Mahali decided to close his mouth while one of our keepers had her left hand in his mouth," Bowie added.

Fortunately a smaller tooth — not a large tusk — inflicted the injury, because the keeper's hand was in front of Mahali's mouth, she said.

The 16-year veteran keeper quickly freed her hand after the puncture wound below the pinkie and ring finger on her left hand, she said.

"He closed his mouth. She literally popped him on the side of his nose ... and he opened his mouth right up," Bowie said.

"She walked away and we kept pressure on (the wound)," the spokeswoman said.

The alert keeper just wanted colleagues to drive her to the hospital, Bowie said. But workers called 911 and had paramedics transport her by ambulance.

Later in the morning, Mahali was dozing in the sand, while his dad, Bert, was partially submerged in the pond.

Bowie said zoo officials will review the accident to see if there's a way to improve procedures.

Mahali is the brother of Hazina, a female hippo that died in October after her nearly 29-hour ride to her new home at the Calgary Zoo in Alberta, Canada.

The death was deemed "an accident that no one could have reasonably foreseen," an independent veterinarian's report later concluded.




Woman gives judge earful, lands in jail
Obscene outburst nets Sarah Muller contempt charge in jury selection

OCALA — A Summerfield woman said she blurted without thinking a couple choice words for a county judge during jury selection at the Marion County Courthouse Monday morning—ones which had landed her in jail by the end of the day.

“Sometimes I get upset and I say things,” Sarah E. Muller said during an interview with the Star-Banner at the Marion County Jail Booking Center late Monday afternoon. “I didn’t know I would go to jail for freedom of speech.”

Faced with the prospect of serving as a juror and upset that County Judge R. James McCune Jr. denied her request for dismissal, the 23-year-old insulted the presiding judge by calling him a two-syllable curse word—a crude term referring to the anus — within earshot of several of the other 178 potential jurors seated in the Jury Assembly Room.

When the judge asked Muller to clarify her remark, Muller repeated it. He charged her on the spot with direct criminal contempt of the court — a second-degree misdemeanor— and Muller was promptly handcuffed by a court bailiff and taken into custody.

At a hearing later in the afternoon, McCune sentenced Muller to three days in jail and ordered her to pay court costs and fines.

“I was very upset that my excuse that I needed to go to the doctor was not as good an excuse as a lie,” she said later, referring to the judge’s decision to dismiss a woman standing ahead of her in line. If that woman, Muller argued, could escape jury duty by claiming she did not speak English well, how come she couldn’t be removed for health reasons?

She had come to court alone that morning, she said, severely irritated that she had to spend money on gas getting there, rather than the clinic to apply for Social Security disability.

Muller, who is unemployed, said she was born with a leaky valve in her heart and has had four previous heart surgeries to treat it.

“I can’t waste my money on gas to come [to court] and be able to go to the doctor at the same time. Gas ain’t cheap,” she said.

Muller is even more broke than when she arrived at court: She owes the court $50 and the Public Defender’s Office $183 for the brief counsel Assistant Public Defender Hisham Shanawany provided at the hearing.

Muller was the first to hop in line to ask that she be excused by the judge following qualifications Monday morning.

She cited poor health and the need to visit a doctor.

Finding no urgency in her situation, McCune denied her request for dismissal and ordered her to take a seat with the rest of the jury pool.

That did not deter Muller, who re-entered the line and this time, threw in the claim that she was “a racist,” in efforts to cast herself as someone unable to be a fair and impartial juror.

“I just didn’t want to do jury duty. That’s the best excuse there was,” Muller said later.

McCune denied her dismissal once again, at which point Muller insulted him.

During the hearing, McCune called two witnesses to testify about the incident: Deputy Clerk of Court Tonja Leek-Snyder, who was seated beside McCune and witnessed the entire exchange, and bailiff Larry McLemore, who had arrested Muller.

“How in the world did you think that running your mouth in such a foul, profane way would be appropriate in court, of all places?” McCune asked Muller. “Did it even dawn on you that you were already here and you might as well make the most of it?”

Muller apologized to the judge as tears streamed down her face.