Weird News Thread ....

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BOSTON (Reuters) - A New Hampshire man has been charged with assaulting his girlfriend after flying into a violent rage when she beat him in an arm-wrestling match and called him a "wimp."
The Union-Leader newspaper reported on Wednesday that Raymond White and Lisa Smith had been drinking early on Tuesday when she remarked that he didn't have any muscles and challenged him to an arm-wrestling match.

Smith mocked White after winning the contest, and he responded by grabbing her by the hair, dragging her down a set of stairs and punching her several times in the head, the paper said, citing court documents.

White was charged with simple assault, a misdemeanor. He pleaded innocent in Manchester District Court, and a trial was set for September.

[Jolie Rouge]

Everyone's Worst Nightmare

BERLIN (Reuters) - A German man woke up to find himself stark naked in the middle of a street after sleepwalking from home, police said Thursday. The 37-year-old man called police in the southern town of Buchen at around 6 a.m. after discovering he had left his house keys at home.

"The man waited naked for police at the phone booth, who gave him a raincoat to wear," said a police spokesman.



07/03/03 07:54

[Jolie Rouge]

'Luftwaffe' Scrubbed Off German President's Planes
By Erik Kirschbaum


BERLIN (Reuters) - The name "Luftwaffe" is being replaced on two official German government planes more than half a century after the Nazi air force terrorized Europe's skies.

President Johannes Rau's office said on Tuesday the head of state wanted to replace the German word for air force to avoid stirring up painful memories for people in many of the countries he and Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder use the planes to visit.

"Obviously when the president flew to countries where there are certain historic resentments against the Luftwaffe, he didn't exactly get off to a good start when the plane landed with that word dominating the plane," said one government official who asked not to be identified.

Rau has decided to have "Bundesrepublik Deutschland" (Federal Republic of Germany) painted on the planes instead, modeling them after U.S. presidential aircraft.


Rau has traveled to 66 countries during his four years as president and officials said the Luftwaffe logo particularly raised eyebrows in Eastern Europe.


The German air force will continue to operate the planes and the word "Luftwaffe" will be painted in small print elsewhere on the aircraft, the president's spokesman said.



07/02/03 08:14

[Jolie Rouge]

Lawyer and Son Charged for Mailing Snake

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - A lawyer and his son have been charged with making threats for allegedly mailing a live, poisonous snake to another man.

The federal indictment released Thursday charges Bob Sam Castleman and his son, Robert Jerrod Castleman, with mailing a threatening communication and mailing non-mailable matter with intent to injure or kill.

The package was opened by Kathy Staton, whose husband, Albert Coy Staton, was the target, the indictment said. ``It was on my lap when I opened it and the snake popped up and its head (was) within two inches of my face,'' she said.

The 3-foot snake did not bite anyone, and sheriff's deputies killed it.

The indictment did not explain what led to the alleged snake incident Sept. 29, and U.S. Attorney Bud Cummins declined to elaborate.

There was no answer Thursday at phone numbers listed for the Castlemans in their hometown of Pocahontas.

Kathy Staton said the younger Castleman had made previous threats.



07/03/03 21:09

[Jolie Rouge]

Estonians Win Wife-Carrying Championships
By MANS HULDEN


TAMPERE, Finland (AP) - Leaping over timber and wading through waist-high water, an Estonian couple won the wife-carrying world championships Saturday, for the third straight year.

Egle Soll carried Margo Uusorg over the 760-foot course in just over a minute, beating 22 couples from six countries, including Britain, the United States, Ireland and Finland.

Margo Uusorg's younger brother, Madis, and his partner Ivi Loomets finished second in the competition before 8,000 spectators in the town of Sonkajarvi, Finland, some 350 miles north of the capital, Helsinki.

The contestants don't have be husband and wife - any man and woman can compete.

The Estonians introduced the efficient style of carrying their partners upside down over their backs in 1998 and have won every contest since.

According to local legend, the contest dates back to the 1800s when a local bully challenged other men in the village to prove their worth by carrying their wives - ``a proper wife, a stolen wife, or someone else's wife'' - through an obstacle course.

The contest was revived in this new form in 1992 and has been running continuously since.

Top contestants train assiduously and optimal combinations of strong man-lightweight woman are sought. The women have to weigh at least 108 pounds or wear backpacks that bring them up to that weight.

Estonian dominance has been such, that organizers set up a separate ``classic'' category with stricter rules, requiring that the woman be carried piggyback and that she be marreid to her carrier.

The classic category also was won by an Estonian couple, Jaanus and Anneli Undrest, with a time of 1 minute, 12.27 seconds.

The popularity of wife-carrying has surprised the organizers. ``At first we developed this just as a show number for the local fair and thought we'd only use it for a couple of years. But it was so popular that we've kept it going,'' said municipal director Simo Mkinen.



07/05/03 23:03

[Jolie Rouge]

Finns Form Union for Turnstile Jumpers


HELSINKI, Finland (AP) - Finns intent on not paying for public transportation have formed their own union - fitting in a country dubbed ``the promised land of associations,'' where 80 percent of the work force are members of some sort of trade union.

The Helsinki-based group, pummit.org (freeloader in English), is offering people who don't want to pay for public transportation the opportunity to have their fines paid by joining the group.

Membership is 15 euros (US$17) a month, but if a member is stopped for riding the city's public buses, trams, streetcars, subway and ferries without paying - usually a 50 euro fine (US$57) - the union picks up the tab.

A two-week pass for using the Helsinki public transportation typically sells for between 19-34 euros (US$22-US$39).

``With the help of the freeloader's fund, we can share the risk associated with stealing rides,'' the organization advertises, adding that all public transportation should be free to begin with.

The group has been active for a year, but local transportation officials condemned it Friday.

``Even if doesn't directly instigate breaking the law, the marketing of the freeloader's fund is probably illegal,'' Yrjo Judstrom and Matti Hiili, directors of the city's transportation department, said. ``There absolutely is no such thing as a free ride.''

A similar group in neighboring Sweden provides the same type of insurance, including a Web site that features tips on turnstile-hopping and dodging ticket controls.


On the Net:

Finland: www.pummit.org

Sweden: www.planka.nu



07/04/03 08:09

[Jolie Rouge]

Expert Warns Number of Stinky Feet Rising


SINGAPORE (AP) - The number of Singaporeans with foul-smelling, fungus-covered feet is rising and health authorities want to tackle the problem, a leading doctor in the famously tidy city-state said Thursday.

The number of athlete's foot fungal infections seen at the National Skin Center has nearly tripled to more than 1,000 last year from 350 in 1995, said Dr. Seow Chew Swee, the center's senior consultant dermatologist.

``We get very offensive ones. Some people are very apologetic and don't want to take off their shoes in front of us,'' Seow said.

The increase has prompted the National Skin Center to hold a seminar on athlete's foot and other related skin problems as part of a public education campaign.

Seow attributed the growing problem to changing lifestyles on this wealthy, tropical island. More people are walking barefoot around swimming pools where the fungus can spread, he said.

Behavior modification campaigns are common in tightly controlled Singapore, which has in the past held drives to make people more polite, reduce spitting in public and clean up public toilets.



07/03/03 07:53

[Jolie Rouge]

Pakistan President Reveals Moonlit Beach Patrols


PARIS (Reuters) - Determined to rid Pakistan of an image for lawlessness, President Pervez Musharraf told would-be investors on Thursday he was making an anonymous contribution of his own to upholding public order.

"I roam about the beaches of Karachi at night, incognito I mean, just to see," he told a conference of French business executives in Paris.
"There is no law and order problem in Pakistan. That is in the past now," he added, noting that its crime rates bore comparison with those of U.S. cities such as Los Angeles.

The restive port city of Karachi is home to Pakistan's stock exchange.
Hundreds of people have been killed in religious, ethnic and political violence in Karachi in recent years. Beside Muslim sectarian violence, Karachi has seen attacks on both Christian and Western targets in the past year.

The attacks have been blamed on Islamic militants angry at Pakistan's support for the U.S.-led war on terror.


07/04/03 07:24

[Jolie Rouge]

Spanish Sex Study Dents Image of Latin Lover


MADRID (Reuters) - A survey of Spaniards' sexual habits has dented the image of the spontaneous Latin lover by showing that 77 percent of Spanish people plan in advance when they will have sex.

The survey by the Spanish Federation of Sexology Societies (FESS), based on telephone interviews with more than 1,200 people, showed that 18- to 24-year-olds were most likely to plan the day and place where they would have sex, Spanish newspapers reported on Friday.

"The Iberian macho is a myth now, but we have gained in tenderness and communication, which is the key to a satisfactory sexual relationship," sexologist Carlos San Martin was quoted as saying by El Mundo.

High house prices in Spain mean many young people live with their parents, and sexologists said they may prefer to wait for their parents to be away from home before having sex.

The average couple made love two or three times a week, with Saturday night the preferred time, the survey found. Eighty-six percent of those questioned were satisfied with their sex lives.


07/05/03 08:24

[Jolie Rouge]

A June Associated Press dispatch from Macha, Bolivia, reported on the most prominent of the annual Tinku festivals that neighboring tribes on the country's high plains engage in. On a midnight in May, as thousands gathered to drink and dance, the men eventually began to fistfight in a bloody ritual that tribal leaders say is healthy and spiritual, even though some men are beaten badly, and occasionally someone dies (which, legend says, is good for crop fertilization). Villagers say the one-night fighting answers feuds and insults built up over the year and fosters brotherhood. The Bolivian government has tried, unsuccessfully, to stop the violence in recent years.
[South Florida Sun-Sentinel-AP, 6-8-03]

[Jolie Rouge]

Familiar Injuries, Big Bucks:

If you reach for a door while a person on the other side pushes the door toward you, you might get your fingers jammed. It happened to Cedrick Makara, 56, in a restroom stall at his New York City office building, and in May, a court awarded him $3 million for ruptured tendons in his thumb that caused him to miss work for six months.
[New York Daily News, 5-21-03]

And in Camden, N.J., in February, schoolteacher Eileen Blau filed a lawsuit for "severe and multiple injuries" caused when 11-year-old, 90-pound student Daniel Allen accidentally ran into her while engaged in hallway horseplay.
[Camden Courier-Post, 3-29-03]

Michael Machetti, 31, filed a lawsuit in Riverside County, Calif., in April against Bullseye Tattoo and its owner, charging that the tattoo removal he had done on his neck had infected him with the flesh-eating disease necrotizing fasciitis. Machetti said he went for the removal because co-workers had complained about the familiar two-word obscene phrase (the second word: "you") on his neck, and he wanted it replaced with the apparently more acceptable "666."
[San Bernardino County Sun, 5-1-03]

Kenneth J. Lewis II, serving 12 years in prison for burglary, filed a $140,000 lawsuit against property owner Nina Baugh, who had chased after Lewis and shot him in the arm (Bentonville, Ark., April).
[Benton County Daily Record, 4-19-03]

Willie Brown, 44, serving four years in prison for a convenience store robbery, filed a lawsuit against the clerk who had shot him (with Brown maintaining, "(T)here was no need for the use of deadly force," even though Brown had claimed to have a gun)
(Muncie, Ind., April).
[Muncie Star Press, 4-17-03]

And in a court filing in May opposing early release for farmer Tony Martin, who had been convicted of killing a burglar, Britain's Home Office argued against parole, maintaining that the government must protect burglars from violent homeowners.
[The Independent (London), 5-5-03]

Sally Carden Davies, 48, was awarded the equivalent of US$310,000 by a court in Sydney, Australia, in March for falling off an odd-looking chair in a cafe, and suffering various injuries, including the loss of her sexual urge, which she said caused a romantic relationship to falter. Davies said her injuries have also affected her practice as a horse dentist.
[Sydney Morning Herald, 3-13-03]

Justin Scheidt filed a lawsuit in May against the Showgirl III strip club in Fort Wayne, Ind., for "serious and permanent injuries" to his groin area received after he consented to take the stage with several dancers during their show. Scheidt, as a climax to his bachelor party that night, complied with the women's requests and lay on his back with his legs around the dancers' pole, after which they began climbing the pole and sliding down squarely on his groin. Scheidt went ahead with his wedding but said he was unable to consummate the marriage because of his injuries.
[Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, 5-16-03]