Weird News Thread ....

[gemini26]

Man dies at his own wake

Doctors in Argentina say a 94-year-old man died at his own wake.

They say Carlos Gonzales Valencia was wrongly certified dead at a clinic in Ramos Majia.

His daughter, a nurse, noticed he still had a pulse after his 'body' was taken home for his wake.

But by the time emergency services arrived, Mr Valencia had died for real, reports Terra Noticias Populares.

An emergency doctor said: "This man died while at his own wake. He was seen by a doctor and the funeral people but no one realised he was still alive, that is really incredible."

Now the family is suing the clinic.

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[gemini26]

Inquiry launched after human faeces found in prison chili

A US prison governor has launched an investigation after human faeces was found in chili being served to inmates.

Prisoners at the Cumberland County Jail in Maine complained about the smell when the meal was served, but many still tried the dish and suffered vomiting and nausea as a result.

Sheriff Mark Dion ordered the entire batch seized, along with the "ghost meal" preserved from every feeding "just in case something like this happens".

"Some people are sick," he told the Portland Press Herald. "We've had a few cases of nausea, vomiting. It could be as much psychological as physical.

"It's created a lot of chaos throughout this entire facility. Eating is an integral part of the daily routine here."

The sheriff has suspended all 14 of the inmate "trustees" who work in the kitchen under the supervision of three civilian cooks.

And he took DNA swabs from everyone in the kitchen in the hope that one will match the tainted chili samples already at state health labs.

Authorities are examining a security video showing the preparation of the meal. Of particular interest is a freeze frame showing one kitchen worker in the immediate vicinity of the large vat of chili.

Dion, while confident the culprit will be found, said it could be days or even weeks before the necessary scientific evidence is compiled.

He also must determine the appropriate criminal charge: "The problem is we're having trouble finding an appropriate law to hold someone accountable," he said.

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ROME (Reuters) - A church in central Italy may need reconsecrating after police discovered it had been the location for a pornographic film, Italian media reported Thursday.
The church of San Vicenzo's seedy past came to light when a local -- watching "Il Confessionale" ("The Confessional Box") -- recognized the spot. He called in the police who, on closer study of the movie, confirmed his suspicions.

The local priest said the film crew told him they were shooting a wedding scene in the church. But actually, a man dressed as a priest was filmed having sex with a woman playing the bride. The priest of nearby Gioia dei Marsi said that under canon (church) law the Bishop of Marsi, Lucio Renna, would have to re-bless all services held in San Vicenzo, east of Rome, since the film was shot in 1998.

Italian news agency ANSA quoted Renna as saying: "First we have to find out exactly what happened ... I have to speak with those involved and find out what went on and why."

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LONDON (Reuters) - Police chiefs urged their officers Friday to take a more relaxed approach to cannabis in line with a new policy that will effectively leave Britons free to enjoy the drug in private.

The guidance came as Home Secretary David Blunkett handed Parliament a draft order to downgrade the drug from Class B to the low-risk Class C to allow police to focus resources on hard drugs like heroin.

The shift in policy is likely to take effect in January.

"There will be a presumption against arrest, except where public order is at risk, or where children are vulnerable," said Blunkett.

"After reclassification, most offences of cannabis possession by adults will result in a police warning and confiscation of the drug," he added.

Officers on the street would be left to decide the maximum weight at which cannabis smokers could claim their supplies were for personal use and not dealing, said Andy Hayman, drugs spokesman for the Association of Chief Police Officers.

"If we start making statements about weights... those who deal in drugs will just make sure they've got possession of a drug just below the weight," he told BBC radio.

Seizures of hard drugs have reached a record high, government figures show, with heroin up 16 percent year-on-year in 2001. But cannabis still accounted for more than seven out of 10 drug seizures.

Hayman said the rationale for existing drug laws -- that people who tried cannabis were often led on to harder drugs -- had been disproved.

"The theory of 'gateway' drugs doesn't stand up," he said. "The evidence does not support that."

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HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - A three-judge panel upheld the conviction of a woman who sent a holiday-wrapped package filled with rotten oranges, banana peels and hairballs to the owner of a neighboring apartment building.

Robin Troy "recklessly created a risk of public inconvenience, annoyance or alarm" by exposing Postal Service workers to the trash, the Superior Court panel ruled Thursday.

According to the decision, Troy mailed the package to Connie and Brian Striegel's home after complaining several times to Striegel about a tenant who kept putting trash at the curb days before it was due to be picked up, giving stray animals extra time to scatter it.

In December 2001, the Pittsburgh woman collected some of the garbage, packed it up and mailed it to the Striegels. A note placed inside said her children deserved a clean, safe place to live and warned that she would "take any and all legal means to stop you."

Troy was convicted of disorderly conduct in 2002 and fined $300 by a district justice. She appealed to the Butler County Court of Common Pleas, where Judge John H. Brydon upheld her conviction but lowered the fine to $25.

Connie Striegel, who said she owns the apartment building, said she was glad that Troy's conviction had been upheld.

"We're not the tenants' mothers, and we are not slumlords, either - we've put about $20,000 into the property since we purchased it," Striegel said.

Troy, 41, a hotel housekeeping supervisor, said Friday she now believes she was wrong to send trash through the mail. These days, when she has a problem with trash from a neighborhood property, she said she delivers it to the landlord in person.

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PITTSBURGH (AP) - A man who thought he had hatched a perfect alibi to charges that he murdered a man in a barroom shooting two years ago had his scheme foiled when a letter asking a friend to lie for him was returned and was read by jail guards.

Demetrius Murrell, 24, of Pittsburgh, pleaded guilty Thursday to a charge of third-degree murder after prosecutors read the letter in court.

In the letter, Murrell asked his friend for "a little alibi" during his upcoming trial on charges that he shot and killed a 19-year-old man in a Pittsburgh bar on March 24, 2001.

"Really, I'm home free. Or almost. I need you to come and say you were there and that you know it wasn't me," Murrell wrote in the letter.

Murrell also sought testimony that the shooter was "a lil' bit taller than me and he was darker."

But his friend never got the letter. Murrell apparently had an incorrect address and not enough postage, so the letter was returned to the Allegheny County Jail - where it was read by jail guards.

In exchange for his plea, Murrell could be sentenced to as much as eight years in prison.

Robert Mielnicki, Murrell's attorney, seemed resigned about the result.

"This was a case with many, many issues, and I think sometimes this is the way cases have to be resolved," he said.

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MISHAWAKA, Ind. (AP) - Two would-be robbers left an Indiana convenience store empty-handed after getting into an argument about the contents of a note they handed to the clerk.

The two men entered the 7-Eleven store in Mishawaka, just east of South Bend, early Tuesday morning.

They left the store and came back a few minutes later. One of them handed the clerk a note saying, in part, "put it in the bag."

When the clerk said she didn't understand what that meant, the man who handed her the note said he didn't know either because his buddy wrote it.

The two men began to argue and left the store. They are still at large.

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IDER, Ala. (AP) - A fire truck that had just returned from the scene of a blaze caught fire itself at its station, destroying the building and the vehicle.

The engine of the truck had been turned off, but some malfunction, possibly a gasoline leak, caused a fire under the hood, firefighter Brad Hannah said.

Ider, a town of about 670 people in the rural northeast corner of Alabama, has two other fire trucks. Assistant Fire Chief Ronnie Cloud said Wednesday. Those trucks were out on calls during the fire.

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FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) - A man was evicted from a cave he had lived in for 11 years after pleading guilty to using a national forest for residential purposes.

Thomas J. Crawford had a bed, books and clothes arranged on hangers, along with pots and cutlery for cooking in his cave in the Coconino National Forest in northern Arizona.

He was arrested Friday after a Flagstaff resident reported a suspicious camp.

Crawford pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court on Monday and was sentenced to one year of probation and banned from the forest.

He told Forest Service officials he would come to Flagstaff every week or so to get supplies and water. Sometimes, he would work here.

Crawford, accompanied by Forest Service officials and a reporter from the Arizona Daily Sun, was allowed to remove his possessions after he was released from jail Tuesday.

"As you can see, I don't have a TV or anything," he said. "I've got the sky, the wind, the rain, the canyon wrens. ... This is a beautiful mountain. You could explore it a lifetime."

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PHILADELPHIA (AP) - The crew of the freighter Ahmetbey had one of the best seats in town for Fourth of July fireworks on the Delaware River. Two months later, the postcard view of the city skyline is getting old.

With the Turkish vessel tied up in a legal dispute with a German bank, the eight sailors left on board can't step ashore for so much as dinner or a movie.

Local groups have stepped in to relieve the monotony, sending volunteers for soccer games the Turkish sailors always win, and a salsa dancing party, but time still weighs heavily pending a Sept. 23 trial on the ship owners' alleged debts.

"They're dealing with it, but it's frustrating to be basically 20 feet from shore and not be able to get out of there and do their shopping and go out to eat," said Jack Mudge, chief operating officer of the Seamen's Church Institute, who visits the sailors daily.

The Ahmetbey is owned by Odin Denizcilik A.S. and based in Istanbul. The HSH Nordbank in Hamburg claims the Turkish company owes more than $1 million in principal and interest after defaulting on mortgage payments on the ship, and claims the same family of companies owes the bank more than $19 million.

The bank is asking U.S. District Judge John R. Padova in Philadelphia to order the 499-ft. ship sold. The shipping company has denied the allegations.

The Ahmetbey sailed from Egypt on May 12 with a crew of 21 and a cargo of steel, and unloaded at Delaware River terminal in Bucks County, 30 miles north of Philadelphia.

But instead of sailing to Montreal as planned for its next cargo, the ship was ordered "arrested" by Padova and is being detained at the Tioga Marine Terminal in Philadelphia. Padova allowed 13 crew members to return to Turkey, retaining eight with the skills needed to maintain the ship at the pier.

Ann-Michele Higgins, an attorney for the company, declined to allow interviews with the crew, citing the pending legal action. The eight men, in their 20s and 30s, signed on to sail on the ship and aren't aboard against their will, she pointed out.

"They have their food and supplies on board, and they continue to be paid by the owner, so they are still earning a wage," Higgins said. If the ship were allowed to depart, more crew members would be flown in from Turkey, she said.

If the sailors could go ashore, Mudge said: "They'd probably go to the mall. They'd get some dinner. They'd probably come to the Seamen's center and play some pool."

Instead, the Seamen's Church Institute, which offers comforts like a chapel, basketball court, books, Internet access and international phone cards for about 15,000 seafarers passing through Delaware River ports each year, has taken pingpong and foosball tables, cell phones and phone cards to the Ahmetbey.

The Turkish community has pitched in, with volunteers from the Turkish-American Society bringing the sailors hamburgers, books and videos.

"They're hard working people. I think standing still looking at the same thing every day not knowing what's going to happen, they're mainly bored," volunteer Hande Teoman said. "We sing songs. We play games. I give them English lessons."

The crew has painted lines and rigged up a soccer court in a cargo hold, where matches can be played under an open hatch.

"It's one of the nicer indoor fields I've ever played on, other than it's pure steel," Mudge said.

"They've beaten every team who's come on board to play them so far," including a team of Brazilian sailors, Higgins said. The sailors were delighted when she brought her 6- and 8-year-old daughters aboard to watch a game.

Wednesday night, a dozen volunteers went aboard for a salsa dance party.

"They set flags around the deck and made a little dance area, with a boom box, under the moon," Mudge said. "It was a beautiful night."

[Jolie Rouge]

Barbie Deemed Threat to Saudi Morality
Tue Sep 9, 3:57 PM ET


RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - Saudi Arabia's religious police have declared Barbie dolls a threat to morality, complaining that the revealing clothes of the "Jewish" toy — already banned in the kingdom — are offensive to Islam.

The Committee for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, as the religious police are officially known, lists the dolls on a section of its Web site devoted to items deemed offensive to the conservative Saudi interpretation of Islam.


"Jewish Barbie dolls, with their revealing clothes and shameful postures, accessories and tools are a symbol of decadence to the perverted West. Let us beware of her dangers and be careful," said a poster on the site. The poster, plastered with pictures of Barbie in short dresses and tight pants, and with a few of her accessories, reads: "A strange request. A little girl asks her mother: Mother, I want jeans, a low-cut shirt, and a swimsuit like Barbie." Such posters are distributed to schools and hung in the streets by the religious police, or muttawa, an independent body affiliated with the office of the Prime Minister.


Vice police officials were not available for comment Monday.


Sheik Abdulla al-Merdas, a preacher in a Riyadh mosque, said the muttawa take their anti-Barbie campaign to the shops, confiscating dolls from sellers and imposing a fine.
Although illegal, Barbies, the creation of California-based Mattel Inc., are found on the black market, where a contraband doll could cost $27 or more.


"It is no problem that little girls play with dolls. But these dolls should not have the developed body of a woman, and wear revealing clothes," al-Merdas said. "These revealing clothes will be imprinted in their minds and they will refuse to wear the clothes we are used to as Muslims," the sheik said. Women in Saudi Arabia must cover themselves from head to toe with a black cloak in public. They are not allowed to drive and cannot go out in public unaccompanied by a male family member.


Other items listed as violations on the site included Valentine's Day gifts, perfume bottles in the shape of women's bodies, clothing with logos that include a cross, and decorative copies of religious items — offensive because they could be damaged and thus insult Islam. An exhibition of all the violating items is found in the holy city of Medina, and mobile tours go around to schools and other public areas in the kingdom.


The muttawa act as a monitoring and punishing agency, propagating conservative Islamic beliefs according to the teachings of the puritan Wahhabi sect, adhered to the kingdom since the 18th century, and enforcing strict moral code. The muttawa patrol the streets of the kingdom, preventing men from mingling with women, enforcing strict Islamic dress for women, chasing worshippers late for prayers, and punishing shop keepers who stay open during prayer hours. They sometimes work with a police officer who can enforce legal punishments on people deemed violators.


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On the Net:


www.hesbah.gov.sa