TWW'S CRAZY NEWS STORIES

[TexasStooge]

Italy restaurant fined for "cruel" lobster display

ROME, Italy (Reuters) - An Italian restaurant was fined 688 euros ($855) for displaying live lobsters on ice to attract patrons, in an innovative application of an anti-cruelty law usually affecting to household pets.

A court in the northeastern city of Vicenza ruled the display was a form of abuse dooming the crustaceans to a slow death by suffocation.

"We're appealing," said Giuseppe Scalesia, who runs La Conchiglia D'Oro, or "Golden Shell," restaurant along with his brother Camillo.

"They said that the lobsters, laying on the ice, suffer... They compared them in court to other animals, like cats and dogs."

The case was brought by Gianpaolo Cecchetto, a former environmental activist, who took his two young children to the Vicenza restaurant in May 2002.

"They were shocked by the display," Cecchetto told Reuters, adding he immediately got in touch with the ENPA national animal protection entity. "ENPA took care of the lawyers and legal proceedings."

Italy has some of the world's toughest animal rights laws. The city of Rome in October banned goldfish bowls, seen as cruel, while Turin passed a law last year that would fine dog owners 500 euros unless they walked their canine friends at least three times a day.

[TexasStooge]

Teen quizzed in sex assault case

DALLAS, Texas (WFAA ABC 8) - Dallas police investigators said four young girls may have been the victims of sexual assault.

The alleged assaults apparently took place at an apartment complex in the 6200 block of Highland Hills Drive. The youngest girl is two years old.

A 60-year-old uncle of the girls was taken into police custody early Friday and was being questioned in connection with the case.

WFAA-TV reporter Cynthia Vega and photojournalist Robert Flagg contributed to this report.

[TexasStooge]

Man arrested in child sex assault case

By JASON TRAHAN / The Dallas Morning News

DALLAS, Texas - Dallas police arrested a 60-year-old man Friday morning on suspicion that he sexually assaulted four children under the age of 10 at an apartment complex.

Adell Phillips Jr. was arrested in the 6200 block of Highland Hills Drive. He was being held at the Lew Sterrett Justice Center in Dallas, but bond had not been set as of late Friday morning, Dallas County sheriff’s Sgt. Don Peritz said.

At some point late Thursday or early Friday, one of the children told an adult about the reported attacks, Senior Cpl. Donna Hernandez said.

That adult contacted police at 1:30 a.m. Friday to report the assaults.

Police did not disclose details of the reported attack or the relationship of the children to each other or to Mr. Phillips.

The children were taken to the Dallas Children's Advocacy Center, where trained forensic interviewers talked to them.

Phillips lives on Highland Hills Drive, but it was unclear if he is a resident of the apartment complex.

[TexasStooge]

Man exonerated after 12 years in prison dies in hit-and-run

CHICAGO, Ill. (AP) - A man who spent 12 years in prison for murder before new DNA testing exonerated him last year was killed by a hit-and-run driver as he walked on the city's South Side.

The vehicle sped away after hitting Dan Young Jr., 45, Wednesday night, police said. Young was pronounced dead Thursday, the Cook County medical examiner's office said.

Young had been released from prison in January 2005 after new testing on DNA evidence failed to link him and another man to the 1990 murder and sexual assault of Kathy Morgan, 39, whose body had been found in a South Side building after a fire.

“He always wanted to talk about his new life and what he would do once he got his clemency money,” Young's attorney, Kathleen Zellner, said after learning of his death. “He wanted to know if I would help him get a red brick house.”

“He certainly didn't deserve any of this,” she said.

Young had a lawsuit pending against the city and Cook County officials alleging false imprisonment and malicious prosecution. Officials have denied the allegations.

Chicago police said Young's death was under investigation. No arrests had been made in the case Friday morning, police spokeswoman Laura Kubiak said.

[TexasStooge]

Crocodile Attacks Chainsaw in Australia

SYDNEY, Australia - A 14 1/2-foot crocodile mauled a chainsaw a worker was using Friday to clear up debris left by a tropical storm that lashed northern Australia. While the croc and worker were both uninjured, the saw's woodcutting days are over.

Freddy Buckland was cutting up a tree that fell against a crocodile enclosure at the Corroboree Park Tavern, 50 miles east of the northern port city of Darwin when the crocodile, called Brutus, apparently took exception to the chainsaw's noise and attacked.

"As he was trimming up the tree on the outside the croc jumped out of the water and sped along the tree about 18, 20 feet and actually grabbed the chainsaw out of his hands," said Peter Shappert, the tavern's owner.

"It must have been the noise ... I don't think he was actually trying to grab Freddy, but I'm not sure. He had a fair go at him ... I think he just grabbed the first thing he could and it happened to be the chainsaw," Shappert added.

Neither Buckland nor Brutus were injured.

The saltwater crocodile, which Shappert said he now is considering renaming Two-stroke in honor of the saw's fuel, appeared to like the snack.

"He chewed on the chainsaw for about an hour-and-a-half, then we finally got it out," Shappert said, adding that the saw was destroyed when it finally was retrieved from Brutus' giant jaws.

Saltwater crocodiles have been known to attack small power boats, apparently because they do not like the noise of outboard motors.

[TexasStooge]

Crocodile Attacks Chainsaw in Australia

SYDNEY, Australia (AP) - A 14 1/2-foot crocodile mauled a chainsaw a worker was using Friday to clear up debris left by a tropical storm that lashed northern Australia. While the croc and worker were both uninjured, the saw's woodcutting days are over.

Freddy Buckland was cutting up a tree that fell against a crocodile enclosure at the Corroboree Park Tavern, 50 miles east of the northern port city of Darwin when the crocodile, called Brutus, apparently took exception to the chainsaw's noise and attacked.

"As he was trimming up the tree on the outside the croc jumped out of the water and sped along the tree about 18, 20 feet and actually grabbed the chainsaw out of his hands," said Peter Shappert, the tavern's owner.

"It must have been the noise ... I don't think he was actually trying to grab Freddy, but I'm not sure. He had a fair go at him ... I think he just grabbed the first thing he could and it happened to be the chainsaw," Shappert added.

Neither Buckland nor Brutus were injured.

The saltwater crocodile, which Shappert said he now is considering renaming Two-stroke in honor of the saw's fuel, appeared to like the snack.

"He chewed on the chainsaw for about an hour-and-a-half, then we finally got it out," Shappert said, adding that the saw was destroyed when it finally was retrieved from Brutus' giant jaws.

Saltwater crocodiles have been known to attack small power boats, apparently because they do not like the noise of outboard motors.

[TexasStooge]

Tourists in Rio call the cops on 'tourist police'

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (Reuters) - Two police officers from a special unit designed to help tourists have been arrested for extorting money from two foreigners in the violent Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro, officials said on Friday.

Not satisfied with about $260 they got from the tourists on Thursday night in the middle of Rio's famous Copacabana beach for allegedly possessing drugs, they accompanied the Czech and the U.S. citizen to their hotel to get more money.

A spokesman for the Rio state security secretariat said the tourists alerted hotel security guards who called the police and the two officers were arrested on the spot.

The spokesman said the two arrested officers were from the special Tourist Police Battalion.

The trouble started for the tourists when they were sitting in a beach kiosk-bar. They apparently had received a pack of leaflets from a person handing out flyers on the beach when they were immediately approached by the two officers, who accused them of having drugs in the package.

"There is no investigation or case against the tourists," the state security spokesman said.

The officers were charged with exceeding their authority and an investigation is under way to determine if they planted drugs on the tourists.

[TexasStooge]

Man Tries to Parachute From NYC Skyscraper

By ELIZABETH LeSURE, Associated Press Writer

NEW YORK - The host of a cable television show — who passed through security at the Empire State Building wearing a rubber mask and a foam fat suit — was arrested Thursday when he tried to parachute from the skyscraper, authorities said.

J. Ray Corliss IV, a Discovery Channel host from Malibu, Calif., was being charged with assault, reckless endangerment and other offenses, said Police Inspector James McCarthy.

Underneath Corliss' elaborate costume was a parachute, jumping gear and a helmet, police said. When he got to the 86th floor, he went into a bathroom, took off the fat suit and tried to carry out his stunt — wearing the helmet with a video camera attached.

Building staff had been tipped to the caper, police said. Corliss, 30, climbed over a security fence on the side of the skyscraper, but a guard grabbed his leg before he could jump, they said.

"He was fighting with us to get off," said building official Timothy Donahue. "He wanted to jump off in the worst way."

A security guard hit his head on the concrete floor of the observation deck while restraining Corliss and was being examined Thursday night, Donahue said.

McCarthy said Corliss told authorities he had performed similar stunts in the past. Corliss was in custody, and there was no telephone listing for him at the home address provided by police.

Corliss is the host of the Discovery Channel's "Stunt Junkies," a show dedicated to extreme sports like skydiving.

The Discovery Channel's Web site said he is an expert BASE jumper — someone who parachutes from fixed objects — and has jumped off the 1,483-foot Malaysian Petronas Towers and from a 3,000-foot cliff in Norway.

The Empire State Building opened in 1931 and reigned as the city's tallest building until the World Trade Center was completed in the early 1970s.

[TexasStooge]

Man wanted to give wife death with dignity

By MICHAEL E. YOUNG / The Dallas Morning News

DALLAS, Texas - The empty home on a quiet street in west Oak Cliff speaks to the greatness of America's "Greatest Generation" – and its fears, too, as it edges toward mortality.

James and Mary Roberson, both 83, raised their kids here, toiled honorably, forged lasting friendships with their neighbors and weathered life's storms together, for better or worse.

For years, it was mostly better, until Mrs. Roberson's first stroke in 1991 and another last year, and Mr. Roberson's more recent battle with terminal cancer.

"Mother had her first stroke 15 years ago, and I'll tell you, this man never once dropped the ball," their daughter, Sally Roberson, said Friday. "He called me then and said, 'You need to help me because I've never done the things I'm about to do. You need to teach me to cook. You need to teach me everything.'

"He was remarkable. He was entirely devoted to my mother," Ms. Roberson said. "He made a promise when they married that he would always take care of her, and he did."

A neighbor who has known the Robersons for almost 50 years was struck by his patience and resolve.

"He couldn't have been better to Mary, or more caring or more loving," she said. "You looked at them and thought, 'That's so marvelous. That's love. That's the way it's supposed to be.' "

James Roberson dedicated his life to his wife's care, dressing her and bathing her, helping her to negotiate the home they shared for five decades, steadying her as she struggled to walk from room to room.

Her first stroke hampered her speech; the second made it even worse. "She had to have someone do almost everything for her," her daughter said. "She had no use of her right side."

As his own health deteriorated, Mr. Roberson's worries for his wife overwhelmed him.

"My father has never done anything for this family that wasn't out of love," Ms. Roberson said. "I have multiple sclerosis and am compromised, and he knows how difficult it is to be a caregiver.

"He knew I couldn't do it alone and mother would probably end up going into a nursing home after his death.

So on Tuesday morning, as Mary Roberson lay in their bed, her husband shot and killed her.

According to the detailed note he left on the front door, Mr. Roberson planned to kill himself as well, but couldn't.

"The gun jammed," his daughter said. "It was a handgun. I didn't even know there was a gun in the house."

The news shocked all who knew the Robersons.

"I've always said I have the best neighbors in the world," said Billy Adams, who has lived across the street from the Robersons for 40 years. "James Roberson was a quiet, gentle soul. I'm flabbergasted.

"And if I was to serve on his jury, I'd have to acquit him."

Though Mr. Roberson has been charged with murder, he may never go to trial given his health.

"He told a neighbor several days ago that [his health] was really going downhill," another neighbor said. "I'm sure that's true and he's pretty far gone.

"I visited them about 10 days ago," the woman said, "and he could barely talk. He was very hoarse. He was very coherent, he was lucid, but he was very frail. He was never a big man anyway, but I was sure he didn't have much time left."

Much of the shock surrounding the Robersons' case comes from its rarity. But many of their generation face very similar struggles, experts say, and desperately search for solutions.

Dr. Myron Weiner, a professor of psychiatry and neurology at UT Southwestern Medical Center, works with victims of Alzheimer's disease and their families. He knows how spouses fret about assuring proper care, especially if they're in precarious health themselves.

"There's considerable worry about the spouse with Alzheimer's outliving them," Dr. Weiner said. " 'Who will take care of them? And how can we keep this from being a burden on the children?'

"And a lot of them have made commitments to their spouses – 'No, you will never go to a nursing home.' "

Unlike the generations that came before them, the generation touched by the Great Depression lived their lives with an unshakable sense of responsibility, Dr. Weiner said.

"You don't become a burden on your children. You stay independent.

"The way they look at it is, 'This is my job and no one else is going to do it, by golly.' And you see a level of devotion to the spouse. 'I married for better or worse, and this is worse, but it's my job.' "

Some eventually accept the idea of outside help. But others see that as a sign of their own failure, Dr. Weiner said. And some can't believe anyone else can provide the care they've provided.

"A spouse who kills the other is very depressed and sees a danger for their spouse, so they kill them and fully intend to join them," he said. "So 'at least she and I will be together after this life.' "

That was James Roberson's plan. It just didn't work out.

Sweethearts

Mary and James Roberson became sweethearts at Adamson High School in Oak Cliff.

From the start, they seemed a perfect pair.

He was a multi-sports star at Adamson, a 150-pound "hula-hipped speedster" who played quarterback and defensive back for the Leopards football team and lettered in baseball and basketball as well.

She was Mary Johnston then, a member of the student council, the library council, the Peace Forum, the Girl Reserves and the scholarship club, and a star in the senior class production of Life Begins at 16.

After high school, she went to North Texas State College. He took a job with the phone company, where he would work for 38 years.

When World War II broke out, Mr. Roberson enlisted in the Army, serving with the 9th Air Force in England and France. And when the war ended and he was discharged, he came home to Dallas and married Ms. Johnston on Feb. 16, 1946, at the Episcopal Church of the Incarnation.

Since the war had put their lives on hold, the Robersons joined millions of other Americans and jumped into family life. Their son, James, who lives in Argyle, came along a year or so later. And Sally – christened Sarah Ann – was born in 1953.

A few years later, the Robersons moved into their home on Larkspur Drive, the first family on their block, befriending each household that followed.

"They were some of the greatest neighbors you could ever imagine," said Mr. Adams, a neighbor for more than 40 years. "I can't say enough good about the Robersons."

"Mary was much more outgoing than James," another neighbor said. "She was just fun to be around. And he was a lovely person, very gentle. They were just delightful people and wonderful neighbors."

Even after Mrs. Roberson's first stroke, they remained active.

"We used to take family trips. We used to go out to dinner," Sally Roberson said. "It took a little more time, but my mother ..."

She paused for a few moments, then pressed on.

"We were family," she said finally.

But the years and the illnesses took their toll, and when Mr. Roberson was diagnosed with cancer late last year, they were largely homebound.

A woman came by each morning to help get Mrs. Roberson ready for the day, "to do the things my daddy could no longer do," their daughter said.

Ms. Roberson stopped by almost every day to help with lunch and get her parents settled for their afternoon naps. She would visit again in the evenings.

Mr. Roberson's condition continued to slip, though. "It turned out to be lung cancer, and he did undergo radiation and chemotherapy," his daughter said, "but it was caught very, very late and it had metastasized," spreading to his brain.

"The brain 'mets' are small, very small. This [shooting] wasn't the result of that or drugs or anything else."

Instead, it was Mary Roberson's two brief stays in nursing homes that convinced her husband he couldn't allow her to spend her final days that way.

"After her first stroke, she was in a nursing home for rehabilitation, and he couldn't get her out of there fast enough," Ms. Roberson said.

"It was horrible. Then she had the other stroke in 2005 and had to go back into rehab and it was the exact same thing, if not worse."

'He has declined'

Sally Roberson doesn't know how much time her father has left.

"He has declined, definitely. But he's doing OK, he really is," she said. "He's here with me, and you know, the outpouring has been remarkable. Everyone has been so compassionate and so kind. The police, the people at the jail, everyone we've come in contact with – it has really been remarkable.

"But if you're a human being and love other people, you can't help but wonder what you would do in that situation. And it's a situation that, God willing, no one will have to go through.

"I wish he hadn't had to go through it, but he did."

With the number of elderly Americans growing every day, and with the first of the huge baby boom generation already past 60, issues of quality care and death with dignity won't be going away, Ms. Roberson said.

"I'm very much a believer in life, quality of life and death with dignity, and that's something this country will have to come to terms with," she said.

"If somebody doesn't want it, that's perfectly all right. It has to be an individual decision. But death with dignity is something that must be available."

The issue raises huge legal and ethical questions. Few topics are more divisive – death with dignity vs. the sanctity of life.

But as the woman who found her mother's body, and who realizes the utter hopelessness that drove her father, she sees the issue from a particular vantage point.

She understands his motives and his actions.

"I just adore my father," Ms. Roberson said, "and I respect him more than you can imagine."

[TexasStooge]

Woman, Son Convicted in Mouse-In-Soup Scam

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. (AP) - A woman and her adult son have been convicted of trying to extort money from the Cracker Barrel restaurant chain by claiming they found a dead mouse in a bowl of soup while celebrating Mother's Day in 2004.

Jurors deliberated nearly four hours Friday before convicting Carla Patterson, 38, and Ricky Patterson, 22, of conspiracy to commit extortion.

Carla Patterson claimed she had already eaten some of her vegetable soup on May 8, 2004, the day before Mother's Day, when she scooped up the mouse.

Charges were filed after a necropsy showed the mouse died of a fractured skull. It had no soup in its lungs and had not been cooked, signs that the rodent was dropped into the soup after its death.

Cracker Barrel officials said the Pattersons sought $500,000 from the company.

The defendants insisted they were innocent, claiming Cracker Barrel officials offered them money to make the bad publicity go away. They wept when the verdict was read.

The Pattersons faced up to 10 years in prison, but the jury recommended sentences of one year and fines of $2,500 each. Sentencing is set for July 5.

[TexasStooge]

Baby with mysterious apnea celebrates 1st birthday

Sachse: Parents find joy amid tough times

By KARIN SHAW ANDERSON / The Dallas Morning News

SACHSE, Texas - There is no place for self-pity in the small hospital room that has become home for Angie Akeman and her year-old daughter.

The Sachse woman talks happily about the birthday Avery Grace spent in the room recently. It was a milestone worth celebrating, no matter the location.

For the Akeman family, finding joy means looking past the surgery scars, feeding tubes, and heart and breathing monitors tethered to Avery.

"It's hard to look at her and think there's anything wrong," Mrs. Akeman said.

Indeed, the most striking features of the little girl who has suffered from a mysterious ailment since birth are her nearly translucent blue eyes and her milky complexion. Avery Grace is undeniably lovely. Her family believes that her story is, too.

"It all started last April 18, when Avery was born," Mrs. Akeman said.

The baby was conceived after five years of infertility treatments for Mrs. Akeman and her husband, Paul. Born five weeks shy of her due date, the frail infant had frequent episodes of apnea.

"She would just stop breathing," Mr. Akeman remembered.

But 15 days after she was born, she was released from the neonatal intensive-care unit at Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas and sent home with a breathing monitor.

"She turned blue on us four times the ninth day that we were home," Mrs. Akeman said.

In the following months, Avery went through countless tests and intermittent trips between Children's Medical Center and Our Children's House at Baylor, a rehabilitation center. She sometimes stopped breathing 10 times a day. Doctors have been unable to find another case like hers anywhere, the Akemans said.

About six months ago, the family checked back into Children's for a sleep study and other tests. They've made one brief trip home since but returned to the hospital after complications reappeared.

A connection began to become apparent between the apnea and Avery's feedings. Suddenly, her heartbeat would slow dramatically, and her oxygen levels would drop dangerously low.

"Our doctor had us not feed her by mouth for an entire week" to prove the correlation, Mrs. Akeman said. "It was the first week in her entire life – it still makes me emotional – that she went that long without having any apnea."

As she related her family's ordeal, the mother's eyes teared frequently. But just as often, her eyes shone with pride as she told how friends, co-workers and members of their church have rallied to help with meals, frequent visits, free yard work and dog-sitting, fundraisers for expenses and emotional support.

"It's amazing that we've only lived here for five years, and we have the support system that we have," Mrs. Akeman said.

Even as the family prepared this week to finally head home from the hospital, they still have no answer for what has caused Avery's illness.

"What they've said a couple of times, which is hard to hear, but they call her kind of the walking SIDS baby," Mr. Akeman said, referring to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.

"Sometimes SIDS can't be attributed to anything," he said. "If she had not gone home on a monitor and we would have continued to feed her like we were, then we could have woken up one day and she would have been gone."

Eventually, surgeons installed tubes in Avery that bypass her stomach. Through the tubes, the family said, she is fed small amounts of formula directly into her small intestine at all hours of the day and night.

"We knew what was important was that she was OK and not necessarily how she was OK," Mrs. Akeman said.

"I think that's been one of the hardest things as we've dealt with this, is that God instilled in us the desire to feed our children. It's a basic need. So when that has been taken away, it's been really hard as a mom."

Mrs. Akeman said her faith explains how she can still call Avery's story a happy one.

"Paul and I have always had a desire to go out and share our story, just based off of our infertility experience and just some of the things that we've been through in our almost 11 years of marriage," she said.

With God, she said, "You can make it through hard times."

[TexasStooge]

Women break bra world record

PAPHOS, Cyprus (Reuters) - Women on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus created the world's longest chain of bras of Sunday, linking together nearly 115,000 of the garments covering 111 km (70 miles), organisers said.

The group of Dutch, British and Cypriot organisers took nearly nine hours to create the chain at the harbour in the resort of Paphos, following a year of painstaking planning.

Their success will shove Singapore, which had held the record since 2003 with 79,000 bras, off the top spot in the Guinness Book of World Records.

Women from as far afield as Alaska, Brazil, Martinique and Iran contributed bras to the record attempt, aimed at raising awareness of breast cancer.

Even the British solders based in Cyprus took part helping organisers move the bags of bras and lay the chain.

"I can't believe we really did it," said Louise van Rooij, a Dutch resident of Cyprus, one of the two women whose idea it was to attempt to break the record.

A logistics company carried out the official count to certify the record attempt on Saturday. The final count was 114,782, van Rooij said.

The bras will be stored in Cyprus and organisers will contact the Red Cross to find them a good home, van Rooij said.

Organisers are also building up a database which will send out SMS text alerts to women in high-risk groups and schedule online screenings. They have collected 4,000 names so far.

Breast cancer kills about 400,000 women worldwide each year. Doctors say regular screening, particularly for women over 50, is vital for early detection crucial to survival rates.

[TexasStooge]

Women break bra world record

PAPHOS, Cyprus (Reuters) - Women on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus created the world's longest chain of bras of Sunday, linking together nearly 115,000 of the garments covering 111 km (70 miles), organisers said.

The group of Dutch, British and Cypriot organisers took nearly nine hours to create the chain at the harbour in the resort of Paphos, following a year of painstaking planning.

Their success will shove Singapore, which had held the record since 2003 with 79,000 bras, off the top spot in the Guinness Book of World Records.

Women from as far afield as Alaska, Brazil, Martinique and Iran contributed bras to the record attempt, aimed at raising awareness of breast cancer.

Even the British solders based in Cyprus took part helping organisers move the bags of bras and lay the chain.

"I can't believe we really did it," said Louise van Rooij, a Dutch resident of Cyprus, one of the two women whose idea it was to attempt to break the record.

A logistics company carried out the official count to certify the record attempt on Saturday. The final count was 114,782, van Rooij said.

The bras will be stored in Cyprus and organisers will contact the Red Cross to find them a good home, van Rooij said.

Organisers are also building up a database which will send out SMS text alerts to women in high-risk groups and schedule online screenings. They have collected 4,000 names so far.

Breast cancer kills about 400,000 women worldwide each year. Doctors say regular screening, particularly for women over 50, is vital for early detection crucial to survival rates.

[TexasStooge]

Germany applauds tougher fines for streakers

BERLIN, Germany (Reuters) - A court decision clearing the way for harsher penalties against streakers who disrupt soccer matches by running on to the pitch was welcomed by Germany's World Cup organising committee on Saturday.

Horst R. Schmidt, the committee's vice president, said Friday's court ruling upholding a 10,000 euro (6,874 pound) fine against a streaker would serve as a deterrent.

"We're certain that this ruling will have an effect during the World Cup and are delighted to have the appropriate legal means at our disposal now," he said in a statement. "It has been made quite clear that these are not simply misdemeanours."

A state court in the northern city of Rostock upheld a 10,000 euro fine for damages against a streaker claimed by Hansa Rostock for an incident in 2003.

Rostock had been fined 20,000 euros by the German Football Association (DFB) for lax security in 2003 when three streakers ran on to the pitch in two separate incidents during a home match against Hertha Berlin.

The club, in turn, demanded the damages from the streakers, including a maximum of 10,000 euros from one man who ignored warnings after the first two had dashed on to the pitch.

There have been calls in Germany to clamp down on streaking after four spectators evaded stadium security and ran on to the pitch bearing messages on their bodies and clothing during last year's Confederations Cup.

The World Cup organising committee has tightened security and urged tougher penalties against offenders that exceed the 600 Swiss francs (263 pounds) faced by last year's violators.

[TexasStooge]

China Paper: Man Buys Fighter Jet on EBay

BEIJING, China (AP) - A Chinese businessman has bought a MiG-21f plane from a U.S. seller on the online auction Web site eBay for $24,730 and plans to use it to decorate an empty space at his offices, a newspaper reported Sunday.

The Beijing News newspaper identified the Chinese buyer as Zhang Cheng.

"I like to collect valuable items. I have the buying power and my company has an empty space where I can display the plane," the newspaper quoted Zhang as saying.

The eBay Web site for the transaction shows the plane is currently located in Lewiston, Idaho.

It said the fighter jet, last flown in 1995, has been inspected by a museum and found to be in excellent condition.

The seller was only identified by the username "inkgirle."

The Beijing News quoted Zhang as saying he learned from the seller's son by telephone that the fighter jet was retired by the Czech military.

It wasn't immediately clear if the fighter jet can be imported into China. Zhang said he is waiting for government authorities to get back to him, The Beijing News reported.

An operator at China's customs department said no one was available for comment.

"There is the precedent of a Chinese company buying a retired aircraft carrier, but I don't know if this jet plane is a banned item," Zhang reportedly said.

Zhang was apparently referring to the Soviet-built Minsk aircraft carrier that a Chinese company bought and converted into a floating theme park in the southern city of Shenzhen. The company went bankrupt and recently put the ship up for sale.

The report gave no indication where in China Zhang was located.

eBay's government relations department didn't immediately respond to a reporter's e-mail seeking comment.

[TexasStooge]

Movie Promotion Confused With Bomb in L.A.

SANTA CLARITA, Calif. (AP) - A newspaper promotion for Tom Cruise's upcoming "Mission: Impossible III" got off to an explosive start when a county arson squad blew up a news rack, thinking it contained a bomb.

The confusion: the Los Angeles Times rack was fitted with a digital musical device designed to play the "Mission: Impossible" theme song when the door was opened. But in some cases, the red plastic boxes with protruding wires were jarred loose and dropped onto the stack of newspapers inside, alarming customers.

Sheriff's officials said they rendered the news rack in this suburb 35 miles north of downtown Los Angeles "safe" after being called to the scene Friday by a concerned individual who thought he'd seen a bomb.

Times officials said the devices were placed in 4,500 randomly selected news boxes in Los Angeles and Ventura counties in a venture with Paramount Pictures designed to turn the "everyday news rack experience" into an "extraordinary mission."

It was just that, at least for the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department arson squad, which destroyed the box.

"This was the least intended outcome. We weren't expecting anything like this," said John O'Loughlin, the Times' senior vice president for planning.

The devices are to remain in the boxes until May 7, two days after the film is scheduled to open.

[TexasStooge]

Pakistan couple, jailed for falling in love, go free

HYDERABAD, Pakistan (Reuters) - A Pakistani couple were released Saturday after serving five years in jail for adultery, their only crime having been to fall in love and get married.

Sodi, 23, and her husband, Abdul Hakeem Kashkeli, 26, appeared in court in the southern city of Hyderabad where the judge ordered their release.

"I am overjoyed. We have got justice at last," Sodi, 23, told reporters waiting outside. "The judgment shows we have done nothing wrong and it is no crime to marry the man you love."

The court heard a statement from the maulvi, or Muslim preacher, who had conducted the marriage and dismissed the adultery case, defense lawyer Khuda Baksh Leghari told Reuters.

Every year, hundreds of Pakistani women become victims of so-called honor killings for marrying without their families' consent, especially in conservative rural areas.

Others end up in jail after relatives file adultery cases.

Sodi and her husband were arrested in October 2001 on adultery charges and held in separate jails after the woman's father accused the man of abducting his daughter.

[TexasStooge]

Thieves gas themselves in cyanide heist blunder

BEIJING, China (Reuters) - Two hapless Chinese thieves gassed themselves to death with cyanide along with five intended victims while trying to rob a gambling den in the city of Ruichang, the Xinhua news agency reported Saturday.

A court in nearby Jiujiang Thursday sentenced their three surviving accomplices to death for the robbery, carried out last June.

One of the three passed out for several hours from the effects of the gas -- but still remembered to rob the dead of 15,950 yuan ($1,990), five mobile phones and a gold necklace when he came around, Xinhua said.

[TexasStooge]

Jihadi videos thrive on execution scenes

By Arshad Sharif

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - The movie salesman was selling jihad to the converted.

The buyers thronging his stall on the sidelines of a late-night rally in the Pakistani capital belonged to a crowd organized by a sectarian Sunni Muslim group.

"This is the latest video of the beheadings," he told his customers, as they pored over titles including "Slaughter of Americans in Iraq," "Slaughter of Traitors in Afghanistan" and "Taliban Celebrations."

In Pakistan, compelled to join a U.S.-led global war on terrorism after al Qaeda's September 11 attack on the United States, anger has risen over what many see as an attempt by the West to suppress Muslims around the world.

But that is only part of the story. Pakistan is also locked in a long struggle with its own demons, particularly sectarian violence that has killed thousands.

Three weeks ago, a suicide bomber killed at least 57 people at a prayer meeting in Karachi celebrating the birth of the Prophet Mohammad.

At the other end of the country, in the Waziristan tribal area bordering Afghanistan, the toll from weeks of fighting between security forces and pro-Taliban and al Qaeda tribesmen pushed toward 300.

The video seller didn't have the latest action from the conflict on the Afghan border, but he had something just as gruesome.

"This one is about the activities of mujahideen in Waziristan and Afghanistan," the seller said.

Dated in December, and supposedly shot in Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan, it had footage of hangings ordered by influential militant clerics.

The bodies of the hanged men, described as criminals and bandits, were then dragged through the streets by pick-up trucks, in a grisly demonstration of rough justice in an area where the civil administration has, according to tribesmen, collapsed.

HEAVENLY VIRGINS

"The commentary in them makes no bones about who is producing them -- they are Pakistani Talibs," said Samina Ahmed, the Islamabad-based director of the International Crisis Group's South Asia project.

For less than a dollar apiece, some VCDs glorify the exploits of al Qaeda and Taliban fighters, promise 72 heavenly virgins for prospective suicide bombers and prescribe beheadings for informers.

There are also training films on how to run a guerrilla war, based on Islamist militants fighting the Russian army in Chechnya.

Messages in the films put Presidents George W. Bush, Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan and Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan at the top of a hit list for would-be assassins in a war against what are described as the American "crusader forces."

Musharraf has banned several militant organizations since 2002, and just last year he launched yet another campaign against groups stirring sectarian violence between Pakistan's majority Sunni Muslims and minority Shi'ites.

But some, such as Sipah-e-Sahaba (Soldiers of Companions of the Prophet), keep bouncing back, although they seem to be getting less space to put their message across. The group organized the recent late-night rally in Islamabad but under another name.

BAD FOR BUSINESS

Irfan Ali runs an Islamic bookshop in Karachi and says Musharraf's policies since September 11, 2001, have definitely been bad for business.

"The fact is our business was doing very well when we were selling jihadi literature," Ali lamented. "Now our sales have come down drastically."

The owner of another bookshop in Karachi said such material could always be arranged for trusted customers.

"Jihadi literature, cassettes and VCDs are still available but you will not find it openly. This business has gone underground. It is only sold to known acquaintances or reliable people," he said.

That said, it is not too hard to find the leader of one of the most feared militant groups in Pakistan. His message of radical Islam can be heard outside a number of well-known mosques.

Maulana Masood Azhar, head of Jaish-i-Mohammad, has kept a low profile for some time because of pressure from Pakistan's security apparatus, according to some analysts.

But outside Islamabad's Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, his voice blares out from speakers from among the stalls selling perfumes, skull caps, religious texts, cassettes and videos after Friday prayers.

"Curse on the face of the Americans ... Mullah Omar and Osama are the light of our eyes. Whoever tries to steal this light, we will rob them of their peace," Azhar shouts.

"Spread the message of Jihad in every street."

Not all Pakistani preachers of militant jihad are such shadowy figures. Some are members of the National Assembly, representatives of Islamist parties that form the largest opposition block.

Maulana Mairaj-ud-Din, a legislator from South Waziristan, is captured on a video titled "Ghadaran," or Traitors, inciting tribesmen to take up arms for the cause.

[blogGreen88]

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