TWW'S CRAZY NEWS STORIES

[TexasStooge]

Golf fanatics tackle Namibia's barren dunes

By Gordon Bell

WALVIS BAY, Namibia (Reuters) - Elen Gubeb's tattered sandals and torn jeans don't match his pricey new Mizuno glove, but dress is not important at this home-made golf track on Namibia's desert coast, an unlikely golf hotspot.

The 20-year-old part-time caddy practices with a classic swing as the first of a group of eight players tees off from a small rocky mound nearby.

The nine-hole course dubbed the "West Side Club" has no greens or tees, water or grass. Stinging sand and gusts of wind whistle through a lone row of palm trees on the edge of the forbidding Namib desert.

"I don't work, I just play golf everyday," says Gubeb, one of thousands of youths unable to find permanent work in the poor southern African nation.

The Namib, the world's oldest living desert, and the barren Skeleton Coast limit employment options in the former German colony that for decades was under the control of neighboring South Africa.

The terrain also makes for tough golfing country, although this has not discouraged the West Side Club irregulars.

"I eat golf, dream golf, sleep golf, everything in my mind is golf," says Christof Kuludu, 23, his excited eyes peering out from beneath a blue hat.

"Sometimes I imagine myself as Ernie Els or Tiger Woods, I use my imagination and love it," he adds in faltering English, clutching his Nike shirt.

Alec Williams, director of golf at the country club in the capital city Windhoek, said interest in golf was growing fast among Nambia's youth.

The development program at the Windhoek course could not keep up with the new "wannabe" Woods.

"There is definitely growing interest and we are trying to help with development as much as possible," he said.

Williams is the only golf professional offering coaching in Namibia, but free golf balls and old sets of clubs are sent through to smaller towns, such as port city Walvis Bay.

Namibia, with just two million people, has been thrust into the spotlight with the surprise arrival of Hollywood stars Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie to have their first baby in the remote west coast region.

But Gubeb and his friends show little interest in the film stars, preferring to dream of golf greatness as they perfect their skills on a course where the roughs are rougher than most.

SAND AND OIL

Kuludu says he has played the informal desert track, next to the main road between Walvis Bay and tourist town Swakopmund, for eight years.

He can play whenever he wants and there are no fees, unlike the nearby Walvis Bay club -- one of only two courses for hundreds of kilometers where grass takes tentative hold amid the creeping desert.

There are only four grass courses in Namibia -- a country slightly smaller than France and Germany combined -- although almost all other reasonably-sized towns have "courses" made of a mixture of sand and oil.

The West Side Club has neither grass nor oil but the frustrations of the game are as brutally real as on any golf course.

Cries of disapproval pierce the dry air as Gubeb tees up his ball just outside the imaginary line that separates the sand fairway from the equally sandy rough.

Players aim for a shallow hand-dug hole in the ground almost invisible to newcomers, while scores are scratched onto a piece of cardboard.

The course's nine holes range from 110 meters (yards) on the par 3s to about 350 meters for a par 5, although the distances, after many years, remain an educated guess.

The golfers carry their own tee pegs, an allowance for the state of the "fairways," and players scour the area for fear of losing their only ball.

Despite the obstacles, 19-year-old Joseph Ikela fashions a perfect draw.

"I want to make a living out of it. Here in Namibia there aren't too many golf players amongst us blacks. I want to put the country on the map."

The group's members share one set of second-hand clubs, mostly ones discarded by other golfers. The bag is worn down by the gritty desert sand and the sticks are a hodgepodge of makes and sizes.

Their second bag was stolen three months ago, while they were playing just a short sprint from the main west coast road and adjacent township.

"I know it's a rich man's game, but we just want to try," explains Gubeb over the din of laughter as a 17-year-old novice burrows the Hippo driver into the sand, gently toppling the ball from the tee.

[TexasStooge]

Kentucky man finds python in rental car

PADUCAH, Ky. (AP) - The next time Dan McBride rents a car, he may want to inspect it not just for dings and dents but also for snakes. The assistant athletic director at Eastern Kentucky University found a two-foot-long ball python in his rental car this week as he left the Ohio Valley Conference baseball tournament in Paducah.

McBride got into his car Wednesday night with a colleague and saw the snake draped across the console.

McBride said he thought it was a rubber snake someone put there as a joke. He even gave the snake a pat and put the car into drive.

As he drove toward the exit, the snake lifted its head. McBride hit the brakes, then started to get out of the car. But the snake was on the gear shift, forcing McBride to keep his foot on the brake.

"You can't act tough when you are sitting a foot and a half away from a snake," said his colleague, Simon Gray.

The snake was captured, and was being held until its owner comes to claim it, authorities said.

[TexasStooge]

Ronaldo's room tops Ronaldinho's in online auction

ZURICH (Reuters) - Ronaldo's hotel room topped that of team mate Ronaldinho's in an online auction, fetching 1,010 Swiss francs ($825.8) for a one-night stay in the room of Brazil's leading striker after the team's stay in Switzerland.

"I was surprised that Ronaldo came out on top," said assistant manager Philipp Musshafen at the Park Hotel in Weggis, which launched the eBay auction.

The Brazilian team set up camp at the luxury hotel at the foot of the Swiss Alps last week to train for the World Cup in neighbouring Germany next month.

Ronaldinho's hotel room fetched 850 francs. In total the five rooms auctioned, including those of Kaka, Adriano and Roberto Carlos, reaped 3,200 francs.

"We will donate the amount to a Brazilian institution," Park Hotel's Musshafen said.

The winners will spend the night of June 3 at the hotel, just hours after the Brazilians move out at the end of their two-week stay.

They will also be given signed Brazilian football shirts. Normal rates for the five rooms on offer range from 480 to 780 Swiss francs each.

[TexasStooge]

Turkey detains museum head over fake exhibits

ISTANBUL, Turkey (Reuters) - Turkish police have detained the head of a museum and eight other people amid a probe into allegations that prized exhibits from the 6th Century B.C. were replaced by fakes, a regional governor said on Monday.

The ancient artefacts from the collection known as the Lydian Hoard were repatriated from the United States 13 years ago after being stolen in the 1960s.

"Nine people including the Usak Archaeology Museum director have been detained in four provinces," state-run Anatolian news agency quoted Governor Kayhan Kavas as telling a news conference.

The CNN Turk Web site said the interrogation of the director was continuing at police headquarters in Turkey's western Usak province, not far from the Aegean, where the museum is located.

NTV television quoted Turkey's Culture and Tourism Minister Atilla Koc as confirming that several artefacts had been replaced by fakes. Koc said security had been stepped up at the museum.

Media reports about a theft of the treasures first surfaced earlier this year after an anonymous tip-off.

The Lydian Treasures, which ended up in the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art after they were stolen in the 1960s, were brought back to Turkey in 1993.

The kingdom of Lydia flourished in an area of what is now western Turkey in the seventh and sixth centuries before Christ, but later fell to Persian invaders.

[TexasStooge]

China police to learn how to drive for Olympics

BEIJING, China (Reuters) - Beijing police will be sent back to driving school in readiness for the Olympics and some will get hotted up cars and racing training, state media said on Monday.

By the end of next year, 10,000 police will be given driving safety training, with 1,500 to learn high-speed manoeuvres to complement their customised cars, the Beijing Times said.

"In accordance with Olympic security needs, some police cars will be customised -- especially those patrolling areas around Olympic venues," the Beijing Times quoted a police academy official as saying.

"The (cars) will have anti-rolling capability, racing seats and other safety systems," the official said.

Recruitment for racing training would start next month, the paper said, with police to be tested on their cornering and high-speed skills in a simulated racing environment.

Successful recruits will then be taught the art of "driving down narrow roads, overtaking, intercepting cars and high speed u-turns", the paper said.

Keen to show it can host a world class event and protect the safety of the hundreds of thousands expected to attend, Beijing has already taken a number of measures to boost security.

Earlier in the month, China announced plans to build a 50,000-strong civil security force in addition to the recruitment of 2,000 extra police reported in March.

The communist country is on alert for domestic sources of unrest that could disrupt the Games, from angry petitioners from the countryside to activists seeking independence for Tibet.

[TexasStooge]

Parody of Japan anthem spreading as protest

TOKYO, Japan (Reuters) - An English parody of Japan's national anthem with the title "Kiss Me" is spreading on the Internet, the latest protest over forcing teachers to sing the song at school ceremonies.

Japan's "Kimigayo" anthem, based on an ancient poem praising the emperor, has been seen by critics at home and elsewhere in Asia as a symbol of Japan's past militarism.

It was only legally made the national anthem in 1999.

The United States recently had its own furore over its national anthem when the release of a Spanish-language version sparked outrage among conservatives there.

Several hundred Japanese teachers have been punished for refusing to sing "Kimigayo" since the Tokyo Metropolitan government issued a directive in 2003 instructing high school teachers to stand and sing the anthem at school ceremonies.

The parody of "Kimigayo" making the rounds on the Internet offers one solution by providing English lyrics that sound enough like the Japanese original that casual listeners could not tell the difference.

Kimigayo, set to a melancholy 19th century melody, begins with "Thousands of years of happy reign be thine."

The parody starts with "Kiss me, girl, and your old one."

The conservative daily Sankei Shimbun, which carried a report on the parody on its front page on Monday, said the song was an attempt to "sabotage" the national anthem.

A Web site presenting the parody, the origins of which were unclear, said the song was for people forced into circumstances where they had to sing the anthem despite personal opposition.

"We hope that this parody will become a small pillar of opposition in peoples' hearts," the site added.

[TexasStooge]

Italians lap up phone-tap leaks but unease grows

By Gavin Jones

ROME, Italy (Reuters) - Italians already soaking up the early summer sun at the seaside are engrossed in exactly the same beach reading as last year -- newspapers full of details of secretly recorded telephone conversations of famous people.

Last year it was finance, this year it's soccer. Last year the prime "victim" was former central bank chief Antonio Fazio, this year it's Luciano Moggi, the former general manager of Italy's most successful club, Juventus.

Fazio was suspected by prosecutors of insider trading. Moggi is being probed for alleged match fixing. They were both forced to resign by the publication of transcripts of embarrassing but often entertaining taps.

"I locked the referee in the changing room and took the keys to the airport, now they'll have to knock down the door to let him out," Moggi boasted to a friend on the phone after "kidnapping" a referee whom he judged had penalised Juventus.

"Tonino, I'm moved ... I have goosebumps ... I'd like to kiss you on the forehead," disgraced banker Gianpiero Fiorani famously told the supposedly neutral Fazio after he had approved Fiorani's bid to take over a rival bank.

Yet neither Fazio nor Moggi have been charged with any crime and many Italians believe the taps, and particularly their use by the media, are a voyeuristic abuse of defendants' rights.

The transcripts are thought to be leaked either by the prosecutors' office or by clients' lawyers. The publication of transcripts of Moggi's phone calls is illegal because the investigation is still ongoing.

A suspect exposed to public ridicule can be forced from office even if he is innocent and in any case has less chance of subsequently defending himself in the courts, the critics say.

"We are supposed to be a nation of civil guarantees, the phone taps are barbaric," said seven-times prime minister Giulio Andreotti, who was finally acquitted two years ago after more than a decade of Mafia-related trials.

In Italy, a country of around 60 million people, nearly 30 million might have had phone calls recorded in the past decade, according to a study by the Eurispes research institute.

Advocates of wire taps say many high profile arrests, particularly of elusive Mafia fugitives, would not have been possible without the help of phone interceptions.

But centre-left senator Antonio Polito is one of many lawmakers who believe the use of the taps and their publication have gone far beyond what the law allows.

He is planning to set up a parliamentary inquiry into the problem, which he describes as "the biggest risk to (Italian) democracy since Fascism."

MOUNTAIN OR MOLEHILL?

Despite these concerns, Italy's press and television have shown no reservation about presenting Moggi as the lynchpin of a Mafia-type organisation that pulled all the strings in football until it went one phone-call too far.

A gravel-voiced, cigar-chomping wheeler-dealer, he looks perfectly cast for the role.

Yet Antonio Di Pietro, the former prosecutor who spearheaded the Italian Clean Hands corruption probe that brought down an entire political class in the early 1990s, said there was scarce evidence of the "sporting fraud" the investigators suspect.

"From a legal point of view I think we'll see a mountain has been made out of a molehill," Di Pietro said last week.

Former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has often dismissed data on Italy's weak economy by pointing out that Italians had more mobile phones per head than almost anywhere in the world.

Moggi had six, and in the 2004-5 football season prosecutors reportedly tapped 100,000 of his phone calls, averaging out at an astonishing 416 calls per day.

Justice Minister Clemente Mastella has pledged to investigate reports that a former employee of Italy's main phone operator, Telecom Italia, has created a secret phone-tap database with 100,000 files on Italy's political, economic and sporting elite.

"We cannot live in Italy under the constant fear of being spied on," Mastella said.

[TexasStooge]

Ukraine squad offered sex incentive if reach semis

MOSCOW, Russia (Reuters) - Ukraine's players have been promised quality time with their wives if they reach the World Cup semi-finals.

Asked if he would allow his players to have sex with their wives and girlfriends during the month-long tournament, Ukraine coach Oleg Blokhin said: "I would personally send my players to see their wives if we reach the (World Cup) semis.

"Those who don't feel like it, I'll just drag to their wives. Take my word for it," Blokhin told Russian daily Sport-Express on Tuesday.

Ukraine, playing in their first World Cup finals, have been drawn in Group H along with Spain, Tunisia and Saudi Arabia.

The World Cup kicks off on June 9.

[TexasStooge]

Beijing counting on lucky number eight

By Nick Mulvenney

BEIJING, China (Reuters) - That Beijing organisers have chosen to mark 800 days to the start of the 2008 Olympics on Wednesday will come no surprise to those familiar with the power of numbers in China.

Auspicious numbers have long played a part in Chinese culture -- witness the 9,999 rooms of Beijing's Forbidden City -- and the right digits can still play a role in the choice of a home, telephone number or even a birthday.

Even numbers are luckier than odd. Two suggests harmony, six smooth progress. Four, a homonym for death, is unlucky, while nine, as highest single digit, stands for longevity.

Eight, though, is the luckiest of all.

"The pronunciation of the number eight is similar to the character 'faat' in Cantonese, which means prosperity, money and status," Professor Ding Xia of the Chinese Language and Culture Centre at Tsinghua University told Reuters on Tuesday.

"This opinion was mostly held by people in Guangdong province before, but after the reform and opening up about 20 years ago, it is popular all over the country with the movement of population becoming easier and faster."

It is surely no coincidence that the Games of the XXIX Olympiad will open at 8pm local time on the eighth day of the eighth month of 2008.

The 1988 Olympics in Seoul were held in late September to avoid the scorching north Asian summer and the Beijing Games were originally going to open in the relative cool of late August.

While the official reason for the switch was so as not to clash with the U.S. Open tennis and American baseball's pennant races, the auspicious numerology of August 8, 2008, will not have been lost on organisers.

LUCKY 8 PLATE

Although the current numerological superstitions originated in the south of China, there is plenty evidence of their hold in the north.

In Beijing, a hefty premium is paid for telephone numbers with plenty of eights, while apartments on the eighth floor are much coveted. Fourth floors, in name at least, rarely exist.

Apartment blocks designed to appeal to western buyers and prosperous Chinese often register no floors four, 13 and 14.

Expectant mothers in China are known to pick the dates of Caesareans carefully in order to endow their offspring with the luckiest birth date possible.

Back down south in Hong Kong, businessmen have paid huge sums for personalised car registration and in the 1990s the number '8' licence plate was sold for HK$5 million (343,308 pounds).

But China is not alone in its superstitions.

To some Europeans, Athens looked to be flirting with fate when the 2004 Olympics was scheduled to open the evening of Friday, August 13.

Every Greeks knows, however, that it is not Friday but Tuesday -- the day Constantinople fell to the Turks in 1453 -- that is unlucky and the opening ceremony was a glittering success.

When Beijing decided the cost of a roof on their Olympic Stadium was prohibitive, they were relying on good fortune to prevent the August rains ruining their opening party.

"We are considering what to do if it rains," Beijing Games construction office chief Jun Yuan said in March. "But I'm really hoping August 8, 2008, will be a propitious day."

[TexasStooge]

Russian road rage driver takes policeman for ride

MOSCOW, Russia (Reuters) - Threatened with a ticket, a Russian motorist trapped a traffic policeman's hand in his car window then drove off with the officer attached, police said on Tuesday.

The policeman was dragged along the road beside the BMW saloon for five metres (yards) until a second officer in a patrol car blocked the motorist's path, said a traffic police spokesman.

"We have opened a criminal case on charges of ... using force against an official," said the spokesman. "The officer's injuries were not too bad but he is still on sick leave."

The motorist, a Moscow property developer, told Izvestia newspaper police had invented the incident. He said a business rival with connections with the police was trying to set him up.

[TexasStooge]

Finders keepers for Maltese plane loader

VALLETTA (Reuters) - A Maltese court has ordered the Customs Department to return to an aircraft loader $5,000 (2,665 pounds) he found on a plane.

The loader found the cash on a plane that arrived in Malta from Tripoli in July 2000. He handed it to customs, but asked for it to be returned when no one claimed it. Customs refused, arguing it was illegal to hold foreign currency under a law existing at the time.

A court on Monday decided however that the loader, John Fiteni, had a right to the money, the Malta Times newspaper reported on Tuesday.

[TexasStooge]

China warns of poisonous Dragon Boat dumplings

BEIJING, China (Reuters) - China warned consumers on Monday to be wary of eating dumplings served by millions of families during the annual Dragon Boat Festival, saying they may be poisonous.

The glutinous rice dumplings, or "zongzi," are wrapped in bamboo or reed leaves and shaped like pyramids, but some unscrupulous manufacturers are using copper-based chemicals to keep the leaves green, the China Daily said.

"The leaves dyed by copper sulphate or copper chloride contain metal elements which will penetrate into the zongzi and cause great damage to the health," food expert Shen Xiangkun was quoted as saying, backing a warning by the China Consumer Association.

Food safety is a recurring problem in China where recent scares have included hazardous fast-food containers, chemicals in fish and fake milk powder which led to the death of at least 13 Chinese babies from malnutrition in 2004.

A random study in Yuyao, in eastern China, found the problem of dyeing zongzi was widespread ahead of Wednesday's Dragon Boat Festival.

"The worst zongzi contained 34 times more copper than the national standard," the newspaper said.

[TexasStooge]

Cordless jump-rope can help the clumsy

By SETH BORENSTEIN, AP Science Writer

WASHINGTON - If you think keeping fit is merely mind over matter, Lester Clancy has an invention for you — a cordless jump-rope. That's right, a jump-rope minus the rope. All that's left is two handles, so you jump over the pretend rope. Or if you are truly lazy, you can pretend to jump over the pretend rope.

And for that idea kicking around Clancy's head since 1988, the U.S. Patent Office this month awarded the 52-year-old Mansfield, Ohio, man a patent. Its number: 7037243.

What makes this invention work is the moving weights inside the handles. They simulate the feel of a rope moving, Clancy said. Well, it's only one handle so far because Clancy is waiting for financial backers before building its partner.

But why jump rope without a rope?

It's perfect for the clumsy, Clancy said. "If you are still jumping, you're still using your legs as well as your arms, and getting the cardiovascular workout. You just don't have to worry about tripping on the rope."

It is also good for mental institutions and prisons where rope is a suicide risk, said Clancy, who works as a laundry coordinator in a state prison. And low ceiling fans aren't a hazard any more, he said.

Daniel Wright, who features the cordless jump-rope on his Web site http://www.patentlysilly.com, can barely talk about Clancy's invention without laughing.

"What really grabbed me," Wright said, was the name the item has in its patent, Wright said.

The idea isn't all that crazy, said Mike Ernst, a professor of kinesiology at California State University in Dominguez Hills.

"I think it's silly but at the same time if somehow, some way it promotes physical activity, gets kids active, then I'm all for it," Ernst said.

The more he thought about it, the more Ernst said he could see the benefit, adding that the act of jumping, not the rope itself, is what provides exercise.

"Do you need to jump with a rope? You don't," Ernst said. "But I wouldn't buy the product, I can tell you that. I'm not an idiot."

High-tech handles aren't needed. You could even use toilet paper holders, Ernst said. On second thought, he wondered if he could patent that idea.

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[TexasStooge]

E. Texas man dies while making pipe bomb

LONGVIEW, Texas (WFAA ABC 8/AP) – A man indicted on federal drug and firearms charges died in an explosion as he was making a pipe bomb that fire officials say he planned to use against agents.

James Charles Torrence, 38, was building the bomb Monday in his home when it exploded, officials said. Authorities evacuated neighbors and detonated a second bomb in a nearby field, said Brian Howell, assistant fire marshal of the Longview Fire Department.

Howell said documents were found in the residence listing names of agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and the Drug Enforcement Administration. Officials believe the Longview man was targeting the agencies because he felt they built the case against him, Howell said in a story in Tuesday's online edition of the Longview News-Journal.

"We're saddened by the loss of any life, but I'm really, really grateful that a plot didn't materialize that resulted in the harm or death to someone else," U.S. Attorney Matt Orwig told The Associated Press.

Officials also found a machine gun and a pistol silencer in the home.

Orwig said Torrence had agreed to plead guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm and conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine. He said Torrence was set to enter the plea June 7 and the drug charge carried a minimum sentence of 10 years in prison up to life.

"He would've gotten out of prison as an old man, if he got out at all," Orwig said.

Donna Freeman, who lives about four houses from Torrence's home, said she didn't hear the explosion but noticed the police activity and crime scene tape.

"We thought it was a meth lab or something," Freeman said. "We had heard that he might have been involved in that previously."

She said she never met Torrence.

"None of us really knew him," she said.

Naomi McPeek, who has lived in the neighborhood about 25 years, said Torrence grew up there. McPeek said she knew him as a boy but had no contact with him in recent years.

[TexasStooge]

"F-word" banned in World Cup-free hotel

LONDON, England (Reuters) - A hotel is offering football-free breaks for "soccer widows" desperate to escape wall-to-wall coverage of the World Cup.

Any guest who overhears a member of staff mentioning the f-word -- football -- will be given a free glass of champagne.

"The bookings are starting to stream in," said Mike Bevans, manager of the Linthwaite House Hotel in the picturesque Lake District, one of the country's prime tourist destinations.

The sport supplements are being taken out of daily newspapers and, instead of blanket TV coverage of the big games, guests will be offered a string of romantic movies on DVD like "Dirty Dancing" and "Pretty Woman."

The World Cup finals in Germany start on June 9, with the final in Berlin on July 9.

[TexasStooge]

Flag-sporting cars frightening the horses

LONDON, England (Reuters) - It's not just the hooligans -- patriotic football fans who attach flags to their cars could also be in trouble with the law.

Police in rural Hampshire have warned motorists that their fluttering flags are frightening the horses.

"It is commendable that the nation is getting behind their football team, but I do have concerns that motorists may cause an animal to bolt and possibly cause injury to itself, its rider or innocent passers-by," said Police Constable Derek Grist.

Thousands of cars and vans across the country are sporting the English flag, either attached to the radio antenna or clamped in windows, to show their support in the run-up to the World Cup which starts in Germany next week.

However Grist, the local force's Equine Liaison Officer, cautioned drivers that they could face assault charges if their flag flew off and struck a pedestrian or a cyclist and hurt them.

"We are not trying to be killjoys. All we ask for is a little bit of consideration," he said.

[TexasStooge]

Mona Lisa "speaks" thanks to Japanese scientist

By Toshi Maeda

TOKYO, Japan (Reuters) - The Mona Lisa's smile may always remain a mystery, but it is now possible to hear what her voice would have sounded like, thanks to a Japanese acoustics expert.

Dr Matsumi Suzuki, who generally uses his skills to help with criminal investigations, measured the face and hands of Leonardo da Vinci's famous 16th century portrait to estimate her height at 168 cm and create a model of her skull.

"Once we have that, we can create a voice very similar to that of the person concerned," Suzuki told Reuters in an interview at his Tokyo office last week. "We have recreated the voices of a lot of famous people that were very close to the real thing and have been used in film dubbing."

The chart of any individual's voice, known as a voice print, is unique to that person and Suzuki says he believes he has achieved 90 percent accuracy in recreating the quality of the enigmatic woman's speaking tone.

"I am the Mona Lisa. My true identity is shrouded in mystery," the portrait proclaims on a Web site at http://promotion.msn.co.jp/davinci/voice.htm.

"In Mona Lisa's case, the lower part of her face is quite wide and her chin is pointed," Suzuki explained. "The extra volume means a relatively low voice, while the pointed chin adds mid-pitch tones," he added.

The scientists brought in an Italian woman to add the necessary intonation to the voice.

"We then had to think about what to have her say," Suzuki said. "We tried having her speak Japanese, but it didn't suit her image."

Experts disagree over who was represented in the portrait, with some saying the smiling woman is Leonardo himself, or his mother.

The team also attempted to recreate Leonardo's own voice in a project timed to coincide with the release of the film "The Da Vinci Code." Suzuki said he was less confident about its accuracy because he had to work from self-portraits where the artist wore a beard, concealing the shape of his face.

Suzuki's work has made contributions to criminal investigations -- in one case after he successfully aged a person's voice by a decade. A recording of the voice was broadcast on television, leading to the apprehension of a suspect.

[TexasStooge]

"Big Thieves" stickers show Saudi ire at stock crash

RIYADH (Reuters) - Saudis hit by a recent stock market crash are resorting to car stickers to vent their anger at the wealthy speculators who have been blamed for the decline.

The English-language stickers reading "Big Thieves!" show a stock market ticker and the names of some popular listed firms. The bourse has fallen by almost 50 percent since the end of February and up to 9 million out of the 17 million Saudis are thought to have owned shares.

Analysts have said sophisticated speculators drove up prices to unrealistic levels last year and then pulled out of the market when the regulator tried to impose order.

Saudis have also resorted to the Internet to vent their frustration. The government of the world's top oil exporter had encouraged ordinary citizens to buy stocks as a way of sharing the billions of petrodollars reaped during the current oil boom.

[TexasStooge]

Man severs penis to prove faithfulness

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) - A man who apparently severed his penis in an attempt to convince his wife that he was faithful to her was recovering after surgery to reattach the organ at a northern Malaysian hospital, a news report said Tuesday.

The 41-year-old man, who was not identified, got into an argument last Friday with his wife, who found a text message on his mobile phone from another woman. The man was heard by his son shouting that he wanted to prove he was not having an affair, the New Straits Times reported.

The assertion was followed by loud screams and the man emerged from his room bleeding profusely, his 14-year-old son quoted as saying. His wife rushed him to hospital.

[TexasStooge]

Police probe bizarre goat head display

TORRINGTON, Conn. (AP) - Police are investigating a bizarre discovery involving severed goat heads, put on display at the end of a driveway.

Last week, police found two severed goat heads, a coconut and a pentagram drawn in chalk in a driveway of a home, police Lt. Francis Balzano said.

"We're not saying this is illegal," Balzano said. "We would just like to know what it means."

Police do not know if the incident was some kind of ritual, practical joke or a crime.

Balzano said police find such combinations a couple times a year, usually in wooded areas.

"This is an isolated incident," Balzano said. "It could be people who use these things in a ritual or copycat kids that saw this somewhere."
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Information from: The Register Citizen