TWW'S CRAZY NEWS STORIES

[AussieMark]

For Sale: First Cloned Kitten

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A California firm that earlier this year launched the world's first cat cloning service has announced its first sale: a cloned, male kitten named "Little Nicky."
Genetic Savings & Clone -- based in Sausalito, California, and financed by billionaire John Sperling -- announced that it had sold the kitten to a Texas woman for $50,000.

The cloned kitten is a genetic twin of "Nicky," a 17-year-old Maine Coone cat that had been kept as a pet by the woman until it died in September.

The client, identified only as "Julie," asked that the company not fully identify her since she feared being targeted by groups opposed to cloning.

"According to our client, Julie, 'Little Nicky,' the clone, is identical to 'Nicky,' her former cat," Ben Carlson, Vice-President of Genetic Savings & Clone, told NBC.

The Humane Society and other animal advocates have criticized pet cloning as potentially dangerous to the animals involved and wasteful, given the millions of dogs and cats that are destroyed each year in U.S. animal shelters.

Sperling, an Arizona entrepreneur who launched the for-profit University of Phoenix, underwrote the cloning of the first cat, CC, for Carbon Copy, who was born in 2001.

Genetic Savings & Clone runs a "PetBank" service allowing pet owners to send in a tissue sample for later cloning. The company says it expects to offer dog cloning in 2005. Sperling founded the company as part of a bid to clone his dog, Missy.

Dolly, a sheep cloned by Scottish researchers in 1996, was the first mammal to be cloned from an adult cell.

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Rare Women's Glamor Magazine Launched

ALGIERS (Reuters) - A new woman's magazine has hit newsstands in Algiers, giving Algerian women their first chance to read a home-grown glossy as the country opens up after a decade of isolation during a violent Islamic rebellion.
"It's really the first women's magazine in Algeria because it's the only one to cover all aspects of the modern woman, including beauty, food and fashion," Naim Soltani, publisher of the French-language monthly Dzeriet, told Reuters Sunday.

"It's a milestone because two years ago this would not have been possible financially, socially or politically," he said.

The first issue discussed how Algerian women stayed healthy, and husbands' reluctance to accept their wives wearing makeup. It also ran an interview with a famous Algerian female singer.

The former French colony is emerging from more than a decade of civil strife, believed to have caused the deaths of 100,000-200,000 people.

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Fathers' Rights Group Targets British Queen

LONDON (Reuters) - British police arrested eight fathers' rights activists after an abortive attempt to scale a church on Queen Elizabeth's country estate.

Fathers 4 Justice -- famous for pelting Prime Minister Tony Blair with a flour-filled condom in parliament and breaking into the Queen's Buckingham Palace this year -- was hoping for a similarly high-profile Christmas Day stunt.

Some 14 campaigners descended before dawn Saturday on the Queen's Sandringham estate, in eastern England, to try and get one of them onto the church roof dressed as Santa before the royal family were due there for morning service.

But police, who track the group closely given their remarkable security breaches earlier in the year, swooped with dogs before they could reach the church.

"It was worth a stab. It was too good an opportunity not to have a go," F4J founder Matthew O'Connor told Reuters.

"It was a bit like 'Colditz' in the end, lots of coppers and Alsatians tucking into some legs for an early Christmas lunch."

Police said eight men were being held for breach of the peace offences, and insisted none had entered the estate.

But F4J, whose past stunts brought mockery and recriminations on security chiefs at a time of heightened alert over terrorism, said members had briefly entered the grounds.

"We have a big pot of ideas we dip into, mainly daredevil stuff. Some comes off, some doesn't. Remember that 2004 isn't finished yet!" O'Connor added.

The protester designated to climb up the church roof on Saturday was to have displayed a picture of just-resigned Home Secretary David Blunkett and a banner saying "Put the Father back into Christmas."

Blunkett left Blair's cabinet this month after being accused of abusing his office to do favors for a former lover.

He is involved in a custody dispute with her, making him a tongue-in-cheek poster-boy for the group campaigning against what it says is court bias toward mothers in determining how much access divorcing parents should have to their children.

While only a small pressure group, F4J has stolen disproportionate headlines and attention to its cause through an extraordinary string of stunts in the last year, including scaling some of the highest-profile landmarks in Britain.

[AussieMark]

Rain Wreaks Havoc on the Roadways

DUBAI (Reuters) - Unusually rainy weather in the Gulf Arab city of Dubai has caused more than 500 traffic accidents over the past 24 hours, police said Monday.
The state-run WAM news agency quoted Dubai police officials saying that two people were killed during the havoc the light to moderate rain caused on Dubai's roads.

"Most of the accidents were caused because people are not accustomed to driving in the rain," a police official told WAM. "We urge people to be more cautious."

Overcast skies and rain are a rarity in this normally sunny emirate that enjoys warm, humid weather all year round.

Most of Dubai's one million plus residents are expatriates from the Indian subcontinent, Arab and European countries, where the weather is more varied.

Dubai, part of the United Arab Emirates, is a modern city that is the Gulf region's trade and tourism hub. There are normally only around a dozen accidents in the city in an average 24-hour period.

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New Champagne Bottle Keeps Bubbly Bubbling for Days

NEW YORK (Reuters) - New Year's Eve revelers will be able to celebrate a little longer this year thanks to a resealable champagne bottle that keeps sparkling wine bubbling for days.
Andre Champagne Cellars is introducing a new improved screwcap bottle for champagne that allows drinkers to re-cork the bottle, which will allow them to have just one glass and keep the rest fresh.

The Andre cap twists on and off a set of grooves on the neck of the bottle.

The closely held Andre test marketed the new bottles on its $4 Andre champagne in November 2003 and is rolling them out across the United States this holiday season.

The company hopes the bottle will encourage consumers to drink more champagne throughout the year, instead of just during holidays and special occasions, said Jake Whately, associate brand manager at Andre.

The traditional wine cork, made from the bark of cork oak trees, is facing increasing competition from alternatives such as the screwcap and synthetic corks made of plastic.

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Snow White Loses 3 Dwarves Over Cost-Cutting

BERLIN (Reuters) - Snow White had to make do with just four dwarves rather than the usual seven due to cost-cutting at a theater in the eastern German town of Stendal, the Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper reported.
The Altmark Stendal theater said it could afford only six actors for its Christmas rendition of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarves," which led to protests from theater-goers from the nearby western city of Hanover who wanted to see seven dwarves.

The theater said it had attached two puppets in dwarf outfits to a background wall to give the production six dwarves. The actor playing the prince was supposed to double as the seventh dwarf but only made one brief appearance on stage.

"The seventh dwarf wasn't on stage the whole time because he was in stuck down in the mine working overtime," theater spokeswoman Susanne Kreuzer told the newspaper.

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Red-Faced Man in Skirt Freed from Clothes Bin

SYDNEY (Reuters) - A red-faced man wearing a mini-skirt was rescued by police on Sunday after he became wedged head-first in a clothing donation bin in an act of Christmas charity gone wrong.
Police said a startled member of the public had alerted them after seeing what they first thought was a woman trapped in the charity clothing bin late on Christmas Day.

Two patrol officers were unable to dislodge the man and a rescue squad was called. The unidentified 35-year-old man was eventually freed early on Sunday and told police he was donating clothes when he became stuck.

"I guess that's his own prerogative why he was wearing a skirt, it's not really an offense" a police spokeswoman said.

No charges had been laid, she said.

[rainstorm]

Red-Faced Man in Skirt Freed from Clothes Bin

SYDNEY (Reuters) - A red-faced man wearing a mini-skirt was rescued by police on Sunday after he became wedged head-first in a clothing donation bin in an act of Christmas charity gone wrong.
Police said a startled member of the public had alerted them after seeing what they first thought was a woman trapped in the charity clothing bin late on Christmas Day.

Two patrol officers were unable to dislodge the man and a rescue squad was called. The unidentified 35-year-old man was eventually freed early on Sunday and told police he was donating clothes when he became stuck.

"I guess that's his own prerogative why he was wearing a skirt, it's not really an offense" a police spokeswoman said.

No charges had been laid, she said.

[TexasStooge]

Red-Faced Man in Skirt Freed from Clothes Bin

SYDNEY (Reuters) - A red-faced man wearing a mini-skirt was rescued by police on Sunday after he became wedged head-first in a clothing donation bin in an act of Christmas charity gone wrong.
Police said a startled member of the public had alerted them after seeing what they first thought was a woman trapped in the charity clothing bin late on Christmas Day.

Two patrol officers were unable to dislodge the man and a rescue squad was called. The unidentified 35-year-old man was eventually freed early on Sunday and told police he was donating clothes when he became stuck.

"I guess that's his own prerogative why he was wearing a skirt, it's not really an offense" a police spokeswoman said.

No charges had been laid, she said.

That's gotta be embarassing!!

[AussieMark]

Ghost of Barry Bounds to the Rescue of St. Bernards

ZURICH (Reuters) - They haven't saved anyone from death on the snowy slopes of a Swiss mountain in 50 years and are prohibitively expensive to keep, but a Swiss foundation has bounded to the rescue of the famed St. Bernard Hospice dogs.
The Swiss St. Bernard Club and other sponsors plan to establish a foundation to take over care and breeding of the big, friendly avalanche dogs from hospice monks who say they can no longer afford to carry on the 300-year-old tradition of keeping and training the dogs for rescue work.

"Everyone in the world knows about this special dog - there are so many legends connecting St. Bernards to Switzerland - and we want to preserve them and their history here," said Rudolf Thomann, president of the Swiss St. Bernard Club and future president of the planned foundation.

St. Bernard's hospice was established in the 12th century as a haven for stranded travelers in an Alpine pass to Italy nearly 8,100 feet above sea level. Its storied fame grew out of the daring exploits of its shaggy coated dogs, who have rescued more than 2,000 people since the 17th century.

The Barry of the Great St. Bernard Foundation was named after a rescue dog, who saved 41 people during the early 19th century. It will house the dogs in a nearby kennel for most of the year, though some will return to the hospice when the Alpine pass is open from June until October.

Searching for avalanche survivors has been taken over by technology such as helicopters and heat sensors, but a museum where visitors can learn about the history of the St. Bernard, their tradition of carrying alcohol-filled flasks and the heroics of individual dogs has also been planned for 2006.

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At War with 'Professional' Beggars

RABAT (Reuters) - Professional beggars prowling about the streets of Moroccan cities with "rented" and drugged children to attract charity may have their days numbered.
The government plans to crack down on the scam used by faux beggars in growing numbers for a kind of "emotional blackmail," a cabinet minister was quoted Tuesday as saying.

"We must fight against this professional, organized begging with children that are either rented or stolen (from their parents), numbed with narcotics or malnourished," said Social Development, Family and Solidarity Minister Abderrahim Harouchi.

The minister, in an interview with daily Le Matin, quoted a report from a local NGO which said about 15 percent of children under 7 seen with beggars in the streets were "rented" for between $6 and $12 per week.

Many ordinary Moroccans know of the scam, usually conducted by young women who often target foreign tourists in major cities like the capital Rabat, Casablanca, Fez or Marrakesh.

Some say this tarnishes the image of the Muslim kingdom, where about 14 percent of its 30 million people live under the poverty line -- about one dollar a day.

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Where Are All the Dead Animals?

COLOMBO (Reuters) - Sri Lankan wildlife officials are stunned -- the worst tsunami in memory has killed around 22,000 people along the Indian Ocean island's coast, but they can't find any dead animals.
Giant waves washed floodwaters up to 2 miles inland at Yala National Park in the ravaged southeast, Sri Lanka's biggest wildlife reserve and home to hundreds of wild elephants and several leopards.

"The strange thing is we haven't recorded any dead animals," H.D. Ratnayake, deputy director of the national Wildlife Department, told Reuters on Wednesday.

"No elephants are dead, not even a dead hare or rabbit," he added. "I think animals can sense disaster. They have a sixth sense. They know when things are happening."

At least 40 tourists, including nine Japanese, were drowned.

The tsunami was triggered by an earthquake in the Indian Ocean on Sunday, which sent waves up to 15 feet high crashing onto Sri Lanka's southern, eastern and northern seaboard, flooding whole towns and villages, destroying hotels and causing widespread destruction.

[AussieMark]

Court Backs Firing of Waitress Without Makeup

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A female bartender who refused to wear makeup at a Reno, Nevada, casino was not unfairly dismissed from her job, a U.S. federal appeals court ruled on Tuesday.
Darlene Jespersen, who had worked for nearly 20 years at a Harrah's Entertainment Inc casino bar in Reno, Nevada, objected to the company's revised policy that required female bartenders, but not men, to wear makeup.

A previously much-praised employee, Jespersen was fired in 2000 after the firm instituted a "Beverage Department Image Transformation" program and she sued, alleging sex discrimination.

In a 2-1 decision, a three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court ruling in favor of Harrah's. All three judges are males appointed by Democratic presidents.

"We have previously held that grooming and appearance standards that apply differently to women and men do not constitute discrimination on the basis of sex," Judge Wallace Tashima wrote for the majority.

He cited the precedent of a 1974 case in which the court ruled that a company can require men to have short hair but allow long hair on women.

The Lambda Legal Defense Fund, a gay rights group that backed Jespersen's suit, had argued that forcing female employees to have different standards than men was unlawful under rules, known as Title VII, against discrimination on race, color, religion, sex or national origin.

The ruling found, however, that the casino's appearance standards were no more burdensome for women than for men.

In a dissenting opinion, Judge Sidney Thomas backed the reasoning of the plaintiff. "Harrah's fired Jespersen because of her failure to confirm to sex stereotypes, which is discrimination based on sex and is therefore impermissible under Title VII," he wrote.

"The distinction created by the majority opinion leaves men and women in services industries, who are more likely to be subject to policies like the Harrah's 'Personal Best' policy, without the protection that white-collar professionals receive," he wrote.

[yoda]

I saw that yesterday.... I was amazed and intrigued... could the animals have known that a tsunami was coming? It has been proven (I think) that animals can sense earthquakes before humans can.

[AussieMark]

Quake May Have Made Earth Wobble

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The deadly Asian earthquake may have permanently accelerated the Earth's rotation -- shortening days by a fraction of a second -- and caused the planet to wobble on its axis, U.S. scientists said on Tuesday.
Richard Gross, a geophysicist with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, theorized that a shift of mass toward the Earth's center during the quake on Sunday caused the planet to spin 3 microseconds, or one millionth of a second, faster and to tilt about an inch (2.5 cm) on its axis.

When one huge tectonic plate beneath the Indian Ocean was forced below the edge of another "it had the effect of making the Earth more compact and spinning faster," Gross said.

Gross said changes predicted by his model probably are too minuscule to be detected by a global positioning satellite network that routinely measures changes in Earth's spin, but said the data may reveal a slight wobble.

The Earth's poles travel a circular path that normally varies by about 33 feet, so an added wobble of an inch (2.5 cm) is unlikely to cause long-term effects, he said.

"That continual motion is just used to changing," Gross said. "The rotation is not actually that precise. The Earth does slow down and change its rate of rotation."

When those tiny variations accumulate, planetary scientists must add a "leap second" to the end of a year, something that has not been done in many years, Gross said.

Scientists have long theorized that changes on the Earth's surface such as tide and groundwater shifts and weather could affect its spin but they have not had precise measurements to prove it, Caltech seismologist Hiroo Kanamori said.

"Even for a very large event, the effect is very small," Kanamori said. "It's very difficult to change the rotation rate substantially."

[AussieMark]

Dallas to Send Historic House to Prison

DALLAS (Reuters) - The symbolic first house in Dallas is heading to jail.
The log cabin replica of the home of Dallas founder John Neely Bryan will be moved from its present downtown location in January to make way for construction of an underground garage. Dallas County officials thought the best way to keep the cabin safe during the building project would be to move it to a nearby correctional facility.

The one-room cabin will head to a fenced-in area that is off limits to the public and prisoners at the Lew Sterrett Justice Center.

"It has to go someplace that is secure, and it will be moved to a place that is both secure and close," said Dan Savage, the county's assistant administrator.

The log cabin, built around 1841 by lawyer and American Indian goods trader John Neely Bryan, has been completely rebuilt, moved and moved again as the city of Dallas he founded grew over the years.

The cabin is currently located about three blocks from Dealey Plaza, where President John F. Kennedy was assassinated 40 years ago.

County officials do not know exactly how long the cabin will stay on jail property.

An early release depends on how fast construction workers complete a downtown renovation project, officials said.

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Purported Elvis Water Brings $455 Bid on eBay

MIAMI (Reuters) - Wade Jones of North Carolina says he snared a plastic cup from which Elvis Presley drank at a concert in 1977 and kept the cup and the water for 27 years before selling the remaining few tablespoons of water on eBay.
The winning bid for the water was $455. He says he won't sell the cup.

A 40-year-old resident of Belmont, North Carolina, Jones said he was 13 when he attended a Presley concert at the Charlotte Coliseum in February, 1977, six months before the death of the rock 'n roll icon.

After the concert, Jones went to the stage looking for a souvenir. A policeman gave him the plastic foam cup, from which he had seen Elvis drinking earlier, he said.

Jones said he kept the cup and water in his freezer until 1985, when he transferred the water to a vial and sealed it. Over the years, he said, he acquired a photograph of Elvis holding the cup at that concert as authentication for his claim.

"I promise this thing is 100 percent legitimate," Jones said.

It was the $28,000 eBay sale of a 10-year-old grilled cheese sandwich in which some people saw the image of the Virgin Mary that persuaded him to auction off his Elvis water.

"I've been selling on eBay since 2000. People said you ought to sell that Elvis cup," Jones said. "When I heard the recent news ... about the grilled cheese sandwich, I kind of thought about it.

"I didn't get $28,000, it's true," he said of the winning bid on the 3-4 tablespoons of water. "But I'm happy."

Jones said he got a lot of e-mails asking how much he wanted for the cup. He's not going to sell but is offering to allow the highest bidder to "exhibit" it for a short time. Minimum bid is $300.

"It's something I've had since I was 13 and I'm just not going to get rid of it," he said.

[rainstorm]

Purported Elvis Water Brings $455 Bid on eBay

MIAMI (Reuters) - Wade Jones of North Carolina says he snared a plastic cup from which Elvis Presley drank at a concert in 1977 and kept the cup and the water for 27 years before selling the remaining few tablespoons of water on eBay.
The winning bid for the water was $455. He says he won't sell the cup.

A 40-year-old resident of Belmont, North Carolina, Jones said he was 13 when he attended a Presley concert at the Charlotte Coliseum in February, 1977, six months before the death of the rock 'n roll icon.

After the concert, Jones went to the stage looking for a souvenir. A policeman gave him the plastic foam cup, from which he had seen Elvis drinking earlier, he said.

Jones said he kept the cup and water in his freezer until 1985, when he transferred the water to a vial and sealed it. Over the years, he said, he acquired a photograph of Elvis holding the cup at that concert as authentication for his claim.

"I promise this thing is 100 percent legitimate," Jones said.

It was the $28,000 eBay sale of a 10-year-old grilled cheese sandwich in which some people saw the image of the Virgin Mary that persuaded him to auction off his Elvis water.

"I've been selling on eBay since 2000. People said you ought to sell that Elvis cup," Jones said. "When I heard the recent news ... about the grilled cheese sandwich, I kind of thought about it.

"I didn't get $28,000, it's true," he said of the winning bid on the 3-4 tablespoons of water. "But I'm happy."

Jones said he got a lot of e-mails asking how much he wanted for the cup. He's not going to sell but is offering to allow the highest bidder to "exhibit" it for a short time. Minimum bid is $300.

"It's something I've had since I was 13 and I'm just not going to get rid of it," he said.

i can sell blackies water dish. any offers?

[AussieMark]

Tax Man Cometh for Beachgoers in Argentina

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (Reuters) - Beach vacation checklist: swimsuit, sunscreen and, if you're in Argentina, proof you paid your taxes.

As the summer exodus begins, Argentine officials are hunting down tax cheats at airports, ferry terminals and border crossings. In a country rife with evaders, the splashy campaign is raising hackles.

"Just when people are looking to relax and forget all of life's problems, we want them to know there is no way to escape the tax agency," Santiago Montoya, a top tax official, said on Wednesday as his inspectors stopped cars headed for Uruguay.

Argentines are notorious for not paying taxes, partly because they don't trust corrupt politicians to spend the money wisely. Evasion levels are "shamefully high" at 35 percent, said Montoya.

Many Argentines, scarred by decades of banking crises and currency devaluations, don't declare their money, preferring to stash it in foreign accounts or under their mattresses.

The government estimates that Argentines have $126 billion in assets abroad, more than Argentina's $103 billion debt in default for the last three years.

Montoya said Buenos Aires province has launched a "shock campaign" to scare people into paying their taxes. Officials are telling vacationers that if they don't clear their debts, they could end up in court.

The government has published thousands of evaders' names on the Internet, left messages on people's cell phones and threatened to open safe deposit boxes to get what's due.

"In Argentina people think the tax administration is a joke and we want to end that," Montoya said.

The first travelers targeted were those heading to the glitzy Uruguayan beach resort of Punta del Este, sparking anger among Uruguayan officials who believed Argentina was sabotaging their main tourist season.

Armed with a list of tax-evading ferry passengers and the model and year of their cars, officials stopped a shiny new Audi on Wednesday to tell the owner she hadn't paid her automobile taxes -- something she strongly denied.

Another woman in the ferry terminal described the crackdown as a "disaster" and said she would evade taxes if she could because the money only lines politicians' pockets.
"I don't see the money going to hospitals, to schools, I don't see it going anywhere," said Silvana, a 27-year-old lawyer who declined to give her last name.

Montoya wants 90 percent of Argentines to pay their taxes, similar to levels in neighboring Chile.

Bernardo Tilleria, 45, said he is in favor of the scare tactics. Where he lives in the rundown suburbs of Buenos Aires, some areas have no sewage drains or drinking water.

"These debts have got to be paid or nothing will get done," Tilleria said

[AussieMark]

Astronauts on Candy Diet After Pantry Raided

MIAMI (Reuters) - The two U.S. and Russian astronauts on the International Space Station had to rely on a candy-laden diet for five weeks because their predecessors raided the pantry.

"Both of us ended up losing a few pounds," U.S. astronaut Leroy Chiao said in a news conference from the station on Wednesday. "We looked at it as kind of a challenge, kind of a camping adventure, roughing it I guess."

Chiao and Russian cosmonaut Salizhan Sharipov, who arrived at the station in October, had to cut calories because the previous crew got into their food rations.

They had permission to do that but did not record how much they had eaten and "It was not until we got well into the mission, we started seeing on board we weren't going to have enough," Chiao said.

He and Sharipov inventoried the remaining food, which was heavy on candy and desserts, and worked out a diet to stretch their supplies until a new shipment of food arrived aboard a Russian cargo carrier on Saturday.

"We had to kind of cut back to about half rations of what I would call real food -- meat, potatoes, vegetables. We had to supplement and make up for part of that calorie deficit with sweets," Chiao said. "It was not an unhealthy diet but not an ideal diet."

The unmanned Russian supply ship brought 2.5 tons of food, water, equipment and other supplies, including family photos and other Christmas presents from home. The astronauts were still unpacking it on Wednesday.

Had the supply ship been delayed significantly, the astronauts would have had to cut short their six-month mission and return to Earth aboard a Soyuz capsule docked at the station.