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Thieves Take Nicotine Patches, Test Strips
 Fri Jan 28, 4:42 PM ET

ELKINS, W.Va. - A pair of thieves who hit four Wal-Marts in a 24-hour period this week weren't looking for guns or fishing gear. They preferred $30,000 worth of diabetes testing strips and nicotine patches.
Stores in Elkins, Buckhannon, Weston and Grafton were raided Thursday, one while it was still open, State Police 1st Sgt. Jim Wise said Friday.
The testing strips cost nearly $70 per box, while the nicotine patches start at about $40 and can run as high as $80 per box, Wise said.
Surveillance video at the Elkins store, which was open at the time of the thefts, shows two male suspects. Wise, however, said he had not viewed it and could not immediately describe the men.
But if the thieves planed to sell their loot, they have plenty of potential customers: West Virginia has consistently ranked among the top six states for adult smoking and also ranks among the worst in the nation for diabetes.

Nicaraguan Dies After Eating Live Fish
 Thu Jan 27,10:49 PM ET

MANAGUA, Nicaragua - A man who joked to friends that he would eat a fish live choked to death when the creature squirmed and lodged in his throat, police and coroner's officials said Thursday.
Police said the incident occurred when 22-year-old Jose Angel Torres Padilla was fishing with friends on Monday in the municipality of Dario, about 40 miles north of the capital.
Police said the man's friends told them he had put the fish in his mouth, joking that he was going to eat it live. But the fish squirmed and slipped down his throat.
Benito Lindo, coroner for the provincial capital of Matagalpa, told The Associated Press by telephone that doctors conducting an autopsy had found a fish in the man's throat.

Co. to Advertise on Neb. Man's Forehead
Mon Jan 24, 6:09 PM ET

OMAHA, Neb. - A Web-page designer who auctioned off the use of his forehead for advertising space is cashing in. Andrew Fischer, who put his forehead advertising space for sale on e-Bay, received $37,375 to advertise the snoring remedy, SnoreStop.
Fischer will display the SnoreStop logo on his forehead for one month.
"I look forward to an enjoyable association with Andrew — a man who clearly has a head for business in every sense of the word," SnoreStop CEO Christian de Rivel said.

Study Finds No Explaining Weeping Madonna
 Sun Jan 23,11:17 PM ET

ROME - AP - A review of the probe into a statue of the Madonna said to have shed tears of blood a decade ago concluded that the phenomenon has no human explanation, a newspaper reported Sunday.
The Civitavecchia diocese ordered theologians, historians and doctors to review the case and compile their conclusions in a document, according to Corriere della Sera, which published what it said was a summary of the findings.
Corriere, Italy's leading newspaper, said the document presented a critical analysis of all the testimonies given at the time, as well as all possible explanations for the phenomenon.
"Everything — they (the experts) say unanimously — indicates that in that corner of the Earth, at the gates of Rome, an event took place that has no human explanation and points at the mystery of the supernatural," Corriere wrote.
Vittorio Messori, a leading Catholic author who helped Pope John Paul II write the 1994 best-selling book "Crossing the Threshold of Hope," wrote the Corriere article.
Diocesan officials in Civitavecchia could not be reached for comment. The Vatican has offered little comment on the case over the years, and nobody was available on Sunday.
The case of the Madonna of Civitavecchia, a small port city about 40 miles north of Rome, made international headlines 10 years ago, attracting thousands of faithful to the town.
In February 2005, a five-year-old girl said she saw the statue cry tears of blood. The 17-inch tall statue was reported to have cried 14 times in subsequent months. The city's bishop, Monsignor Girolamo Grillo, said the statue cried in his hands.
"We have not proclaimed that the tear-shedding of the Madonna was miraculous," Grillo told the ANSA news agency Sunday. "But the facts speak for themselves."
Corriere quoted the Rev. Stefano De Fiores, a Madonna scholar and professor at the Vatican's Gregorian University, as concluding: "There's the hand of God here."
At the time, investigators concluded that the red liquid on the statue was male human blood. An X-ray and CAT scan found no cavities that could house a device to squirt liquid.
The statue was ordered held in a cabinet for months pending tests, and in June 1995 was put back on display.

Nev. Man Castrates Himself to Lower Libido
 Thu Jan 20, 4:04 PM ET

RENO, Nev. - A 50-year-old Reno man who was hospitalized after he castrated himself told police he learned of the procedure on the Internet and did so to lower his libido. The man, whose name was not released, called 911 at about 1:30 a.m. Monday and asked for help because he could not stop the bleeding from a self-castration operation, police said.
Reno police and medics responded to the man's home and he was taken by ambulance to the hospital.
Washoe Medical Center officials cited privacy issues on why they could not release any information on the man, including his condition. But police said hospital officials confirmed Wednesday the man successfully castrated himself.
"The man obviously needs some sort of counseling," Reno police Lt. Ron Donnelly told the Reno Gazette-Journal.

Family Scuffles, Pastor Says Jeans a Demon
Thu Jan 20, 4:06 PM ET

BRISTOL, Tenn. - AP - When scuffling sisters brought their family squabble into the Assemblies of Jesus Church, the preacher says the devil came, too. The Rev. Clarence June Love was just about to begin his Sunday service to a congregation of less than a dozen on Jan. 9, when sisters Reba Storey, 46, and Mary Steele, 64, entered the hall to talk to their 88-year-old mother, Maude Yates.
The sisters claim they wanted to tell their mother that Storey was going to have surgery. They say they came to church because another sister, 69-year-old Rosa Harrison, who is also the preacher's girlfriend, won't let them see Yates, who lives in a nursing home.
But what caught Love's eye when the sisters entered his church were their blue jeans — forbidden for women in some Pentecostal churches. The 83-year-old preacher came down from his pulpit.
"You're not wearing pants in my church, you demon," Storey claimed the preacher said. "I said, 'I'm glad I serve a God who can work through my pants.'"
That's when, according to Storey, Love allegedly grabbed her and hustled her to the door.
"He said, 'I got all the demons out of my church, and I want you out,'" she said. "I said, 'I don't believe you've got all the demons out yet.'"
Love called the police. Storey and Steele turned themselves in, then filed charges against Harrison and Love.
Now all of them face assault charges. General Sessions Judge Bill Watson said he hoped to deal with the case Friday after spending all his time Wednesday just finding lawyers for everyone.
"It's a family feud," Storey said.

Man Locks Himself in Pizzeria for Beer
 Thu Jan 20, 4:50 PM ET

PRAGUE, Czech Republic - AP - It will be the most expensive keg of beer he's ever had. A 32-year-old Czech man got himself locked up in a pizzeria late Wednesday to have free access to beer overnight.
When the restaurant's staff left, he broke into a cooling box containing a keg, disconnected the pipes leading to the tap, put them in his mouth and drank as much as he could.
The man, drunk and fast asleep, was found by cleaners in the early hours of Thursday.
Police spokesman Vit Cvrcek said he will now have to pay for the beer he drank and faces up to one year in prison or a fine of $346 for the damage he caused to the cooling box.

Shrieking Frogs Unnerve Hawaiian Island
 Thu Jan 20, 7:06 AM ET

By B.J. REYES, Associated Press Writer
HONOLULU - A tiny frog with a huge shriek has invaded the Big Island and won't shut up. Big Island Mayor Harry Kim is looking for $2 million to begin controlling the spread of the nocturnal coqui frog, a beloved native in Puerto Rico but considered an annoying pest in Hawaii since hitching a ride over in shipments of tropical plants around 1990.
The frogs have been mating easily — and shattering quiet island nights — ever since.
Aside from the noise, the frogs have a voracious appetite for spiders and insects, competing with native birds and fauna. And coqui frogs are adaptable to many ecosystems and breed heavily in Hawaii, experts said.
Kim said the Big Island, the local name for the island of Hawaii, will once again ask Gov. Linda Lingle to declare the coqui frog infestation a state emergency to help clear the way for state financial assistance. The $2 million is needed to launch a combined state, federal and county program to combat the frogs, Kim said. He made his plea Tuesday before state lawmakers, who will consider the request later this year.
Kim said he declared a county emergency in April over the frogs, but the state waited to see if the federal government would offer assistance, which it did not.
Spraying of a citric acid solution on the islands of Oahu and Kauai have curtailed coqui populations there, but limited spraying on Kim's island has done little.
"I think the response from all of us has not been timely enough," he said, noting that experts suggest he focus on controlling the coqui's spread, rather than eradicating it completely.
"I kick myself in the back every day for not getting started more aggressively," Kim said.
More than 150 communities on the Big Island are now infested with the coin-sized frogs, named after their high-decibel "ko-KEE, ko-KEE" chirp.

The Porn Tape on the Bus Goes Round and Round...
 Thu Jan 27, 8:57 AM ET

ATHENS (Reuters) - A bus driver shuttling pupils to school in northern Greece shocked their parents when he put on a porn tape, officials said on Thursday.
The incident on Tuesday in the town of Kilkis prompted dozens of complaints by parents who have asked the bus company to fire him.
"The driver said 'kids we've got porn, do you want to watch it'," one of the pupils told reporters. "Everyone started shouting yes, yes and he just put in a tape and we watched it on the small TV screens on the bus."
The children were aged 12 to 15.
The bus company will meet on Friday to decide what action to take against the driver, local government officials said.

Jilted Man Begs for Wife's Return in $17,000 Ad
 Thu Jan 27, 8:54 AM ET

MIAMI (Reuters) - A Florida man has tried to win back his estranged wife with a full-page, $17,000 newspaper ad begging her to give him another chance.
Dubbed "Lonesome Larry" by the Florida Times-Union, the man told the newspaper that his wife of 17-1/2 years had moved out, changed her cell phone number, refused to return his calls, barred him from entering her parents' gated community and ignored the five dozen roses he sent.
So Larry took out an ad addressed to "Marianne" on Tuesday.
"Please believe the words in my letter, they are true and from my heart. I can only hope you will give me the chance to prove my unending love for you. Life without you is empty and meaningless," the ad reads. "Please, please, please call me. I love you with all my heart!"
The ad prompted calls from readers curious to know how things turned out, the newspaper said on Wednesday. It did not identify the man because of an advertiser privacy policy, but contacted him to learn what prompted the ad and whether Marianne had relented.
Larry told the newspaper that he knows his wife saw the advertisement because a relative is still speaking to him.
"She said my wife read the ad and started crying. But so far I've had no response from her," the newspaper quoted Larry as saying.

State Senator Wants Cockfights, with Gloves
 Thu Jan 27, 9:01 AM ET

OKLAHOMA CITY (Reuters) - An Oklahoma senator hopes to revive cockfighting in the state by putting tiny boxing gloves on the roosters instead of razors.
The Oklahoma legislature outlawed the blood sport in 2002 because of its cruelty to the roosters, which are slashed and pecked to death while human spectators bet on the outcome.
But State Sen. Frank Shurden, a Democrat from Henryetta and a long-time defender of cockfighting, said the ban had wiped out a $100-million business.
To try to revive it, he has proposed that roosters wear little boxing gloves attached to their spurs, as well as lightweight, chicken-sized vests configured with electronic sensors to record hits and help keep score.
"It's like the fencing that you see on the Olympics, you know, where they have little balls on the ends of the swords and the fencers wear vests," said Shurden. "That's the same application that would be applied to the roosters."
Janet Halliburton, president of the Oklahoma Coalition Against Cockfighting, which led the drive for the 2002 law, said Shurden is really seeking to loosen the ban.
"What this is going to do is make a platform for him to continually try to amend the existing ban," Halliburton told The Oklahoman newspaper.
The State Senate will consider Shurden's proposal next month.

Quit Smoking or Quit Your Job, Company Says
 Thu Jan 27, 9:03 AM ET

CHICAGO (Reuters) - The owner of a Michigan company who forced his employees to either quit smoking or quit their jobs said on Wednesday he also wants to tell fat workers to lose weight or else.
A ban on tobacco use -- whether at home or at the workplace -- led four employees to quit their jobs last week at Okemos, Michigan-based Weyco Inc., which handles insurance claims.
The workers refused to take a mandatory urine test demanded of Weyco's 200 employees by founder and sole owner Howard Weyers, a demand that he said was perfectly legal.
"If you don't want to take the test, you can leave," Weyers told Reuters. "I'm not controlling their lives; they have a choice whether they want to work here."
Next on the firing line: overweight workers.
"We have to work on eating habits and getting people to exercise. But if you're obese, you're (legally) protected," Weyers said.
He has brought in an eating disorder therapist to speak to workers, provided eating coaches, created a point system for employees to earn health-related $100 bonuses and plans to offer $45 vouchers for health club memberships.
The 71-year-old Weyers, who said he has never smoked and pronounced himself in good shape thanks to daily runs, said employees' health as well as saving money on the company's own insurance claims led him to first bar smokers from being hired in 2003.
Last year, he banned smoking during office hours, then demanded smokers pay a monthly $50 "assessment," and finally instituted mandatory testing.
Twenty workers quit the habit.
Weyers tells clients to quit whining about health care costs and to "set some expectations; demand some things."
Job placement specialist John Challenger said Weyco's moves could set a precedent for larger companies -- if it survives potential legal challenges.
"Certainly it raises an interesting boundary issue: rising health care costs and society's aversion to smoking versus privacy and freedom rights of an individual," Challenger said.
So far no legal challenges have been made to Weyco's policies.

Firefighters Suspended for Sex on Duty
 Wed Jan 26, 8:41 AM ET

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Four Sacramento, California firefighters who admitted to having sex while on duty have been suspended pending an investigation, a spokesman for the city's fire department said on Tuesday.
The three men, including a captain, admitted to having sex with a fourth firefighter, a woman, while on duty. Superiors put all four on administrative leave on Monday, marking the second recent sex scandal to hit the sleepy state capital's fire department.
"The four individuals have admitted to having sex in the firehouse," said Captain Niko King, a spokesman for the department. "They even conspired to keep it secret by putting one person on watch so they wouldn't get caught."
The firefighters face disciplinary action ranging from time off without pay to dismissal, said King, noting officials took quick action as rumors of on-duty sex circulated through the department.
The probe follows an investigation after city firefighters attended a local porn-star costume ball last July. The department began that probe, its largest internal investigation ever, after a woman who does not work for the department said she had been sexually assaulted by a firefighter in a department fire truck.

Do NOT Give This Man Batteries...
 Mon Jan 24,10:04 AM ET

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (Reuters) - Police were on the search on Friday for a thief who made off with three "male appendages" from a Vancouver-area sex-toy store and may now be looking for batteries.
A clerk discovered the man stuffing the fake body parts into his clothes and asked "if he was going to need batteries for these three objects," the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said in a news release.
"The male calmly stated 'no' and then panicked and fled, running out of the store with the three objects, minus batteries," the police statement said.

Man Survives 35 Days Lost in Mushroom Cave
 Mon Jan 24,10:01 AM ET

PARIS (Reuters) - A Frenchman lost in a labyrinth of disused mushroom caves said he had survived 35 days by eating rotten wood and clay, after being rescued only thanks to a teachers' strike.
Jean-Luc Josuat-Verges, 48, told French newspapers he had gone to the deserted caves at Madiran in the Pyrenees in December seeking isolation during a spell of depression which had left him considering suicide.
While wandering through the cave network his flashlight stopped working, and he was unable to find his way out.
His abandoned car was found 35 days later by three children who were not at school because their teachers were on strike. The children alerted police who rescued Josuat-Verges from the caves. French media said he had lost 40 pounds and was "weak."

Man Holds Up Sex Shop, Steals Inflatable Doll
 Thu Jan 20,10:04 AM ET

MILAN (Reuters) - He shouldn't be hard to spot.
Police are searching for a pistol-wielding robber who stole female leather bondage gear and an inflatable sex doll from an erotica store in Milan Wednesday.
The clerk at the "Night Shop" speculated that the kinky crook might have been unsatisfied with the payout of his hold-up, which only yielded him about 60 euros ($78).
"There was just a little cash," the clerk, who declined to be named, told Reuters by telephone.
"Then he took some stuff ... an inflatable doll and a leather outfit for a woman," he said.

Thieves Choose Classic Escape
 Thu Jan 20,10:00 AM ET

ATHENS (Reuters) - Thieves who stole valuable watches from a shop in central Athens reached back to ancient Greek mythology for their plan of escape.
Police said three men who robbed a jeweler of the watches at gunpoint resorted to throwing some of the 1,000 euro ($1,300) watches into the path of their pursuers after the shopkeeper raised the alarm.
"We know the men deliberately threw at least four watches into the street as they ran from the scene but only one was handed in," a police source said.
The three thieves were still at large Thursday.
In ancient mythology, the suitor of a fleet-footed princess who vowed to marry only a man who could beat her in a race threw golden apples in her path enabling him to win as the princess stopped to pick them up.

Drug Dealer Leaves Loot at Shopping Mall
 Thu Jan 20,10:08 AM ET

WINNIPEG, Manitoba (Reuters) - A crack cocaine dealer who forgot a backpack containing C$91,000 ($74,000) in a Winnipeg mall was arrested after he tried to reclaim the bag at the mall's lost-and-found desk.
The dealer, Shu Tshung Wong, 32, received a five-year prison sentence this week, the Winnipeg Sun reported on Wednesday. The newspaper quoted the judge in the case as saying the penalty was at the "low end of the scale," but noted Wong, who agreed to the sentence, did not have a previous criminal record.
After police arrested Wong, they found a key to a storage locker that contained cocaine, cash and equipment commonly used to cook cocaine into the crack form, the newspaper said.
"Regret doesn't come close to describing my feelings," Wong said in court. "My family has been devastated and that is something that is my fault."

No Slap on the Wrist for Slap on the Bottom
 Wed Jan 19, 8:42 AM ET

ROME (Reuters) - An Italian man who slapped a young woman on the bottom while she was making a telephone call has been handed a 14-month suspended jail term by the Supreme Court.
The tough sentence made headlines in Italy where judges have been cracking down on sexual harassment with a string of ground-breaking verdicts against unsolicited advances.
A man in northern Italy was fined 300 euros ($392.5) last year for sending a flirtatious text message to a woman.
In the past such cases would rarely have made their way into the courts of a country renowned for its macho society.
Italy's high court ruled that the slap was an act of sexual aggression, which belittled the woman and caused her "duress."
The aggressor, identified only as Ivan P., told the court that the victim was a relative, who had invented the story to get revenge in a family feud.
"I don't believe in justice anymore. The sentence has ruined my life," he told Il Messaggero newspaper. His prison term was suspended because he was a first time offender.

Man with Nail in Skull Has $100,000 Headache
 Wed Jan 19, 9:38 AM ET

DENVER (Reuters) - Doctors who removed a 4-inch (10-cm) nail from a Colorado construction worker's skull have left him with huge headache -- a $100,000 hospital bill.
Patrick Lawler, 23, who was recovering on Tuesday from surgery to remove the nail, said he had no health insurance and would have to find a way to pay the whopping bill after he is released from the hospital this week.
Lawler walked around with the nail in his skull for six days before seeking medical attention after accidentally shooting himself with a nail gun on a construction site.
He said he did not realize the pain in his mouth and blurred vision were the result of a nail in his head.
"We just thought it was like a big contusion or a punch," he told reporters.
Asked what was going through his mind as he sat in a press conference contemplating the nail, Lawler replied: "a new career."

Man Charged with Choking Son's Hockey Coach
 Tue Jan 18,10:19 AM ET

TORONTO (Reuters) - A Canadian man, upset that his 9-year-old son was benched during a hockey game, allegedly choked the team's coach in a fit of rage, Toronto police said on Monday.
The father, who cannot be identified due to a publication ban, allegedly reached over a partition to grab the coach after the boy was kept on the bench during Sunday's game.
"Several attempts were made by witnesses to stop the attack but they were unable to before the victim collapsed to the floor," Toronto police said in a release on Monday.
The incident comes on the heels of several other reports of parents' misbehavior at their children's hockey games. The mother of an 11-year-old was banned from Toronto-area arenas in 2004 after exposing her bra and shaking her breasts in an apparent attempt to intimidate the opposing team.
The father appeared in court on Monday on a charge of choking. Newspaper reports said the coach finished the game after the incident and did not appear to have sustained serious injuries.

Man Threw Mother to Pit Bulls?
 Tue Jan 18,10:17 AM ET

SAO PAULO, Brazil (Reuters) - A Brazilian man arguing with his 88-year-old mother threw her into a neighbors' yard where two pit bulls mauled her to death, police said on Friday.
Painter Luiz Polidoro, 48, picked up his mother Maria and pitched her over the yard wall during an argument on Thursday afternoon at her house. Two pit bulls tied up in the neighboring yard then savaged her and she died later in hospital, a police spokesman said.
"He is an alcoholic. He was robbing his mother's pension money so he could drink," the dogs' owner, Helder Bento Rodrigues, told O Estado de Sao Paulo newspaper.
Polidoro told police his mother had jumped over the wall on her own.
The newspaper said he had tried to rescue her. When police arrived, he was cradling the blood-soaked woman.
Polidoro has been jailed in Sao Paulo and charged with murder.

Old Friends Are the Best Friends...
 Fri Jan 7, 9:54 AM ET

LONDON (Reuters) - A British man was jailed on Friday for repeatedly stabbing a long lost best friend he had traced via the popular "Friends Reunited" Web site, and the victim says he still wants to be buddies.
Brendan Walsh, 27, nearly killed Noel Duff when he stabbed him seven times in a drunken rage because he mistakenly believed his friend had attacked his sister, Karen, whom Duff had started dating.
However, Walsh immediately became full of remorse, called an ambulance and Duff was rushed to a hospital where doctors said it was a miracle he had survived a stab wound to the heart.
Walsh, who was sentenced to three years in jail by London's Old Bailey after pleading guilty to wounding with intent, had been a close friend with Duff at school and had met up with him again via the Web site, later introducing him to his sister.
"The victim is no longer angry at you and the remarkable fact is that (he) even gave evidence on your behalf and said he would like to be friends with you again," Judge David Paget told Walsh, who was cleared of attempted murder.
"Even the victim later remarked 'I can't believe a stupid fight came to this'."

NBC's 'Fear Factor' Sued for Rat-Eating Episode
 Thu Jan 6, 1:51 PM ET

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Watching contestants eat dead rats on NBC's gross-out stunt show "Fear Factor" so disgusted a Cleveland man that he has sued NBC for $2.5 million, saying he could not stomach what he saw.
In a handwritten four-page lawsuit filed in federal court in Cleveland on Tuesday, paralegal Austin Aitken said, "To have the individuals on the show eat (yes) and drink dead rats was crazy and from a viewer's point of view made me throw-up as well an another in the house at the same time."
His suit added, "NBC is sending the wrong message to its TV watchers that cash can make or have people do just about anything beyond reasoning (sic) and in most cases against their will."
He said the show caused his blood pressure to rise so high that he became dizzy and light-headed, and when he ran away to his room, he bumped his head into the doorway.
In a brief telephone interview with Reuters, Aitken said, "I am not at liberty to discuss the complaint unless it is a paid-interview situation."
A spokesman for "Fear Factor" said the show would have no comment until it sees a copy of the complaint. The spokesman said the program did feature a rat-eating scene in New York's Times Square on Nov. 8.
Over the years, contestants on the program have eaten some weird things, including ground-up spiders and live worms.

Smugglers Hid Heroin in Puppies' Bellies
 Wed Jan 5,10:25 AM ET

BOGOTA, Colombia (Reuters) - Colombian drug traffickers surgically hid heroin in puppies' bellies in a plan to evade international customs controls, police said on Tuesday.
Acting on a tip-off, police found six puppies with scars on their abdomens at a rural property near the city of Medellin in northern Colombia, the Colombian Police said in a news release.
Ultrasound scans revealed bags of liquid heroin hidden inside the living animals. Police said traffickers planned to retrieve the drug once the dogs had passed customs abroad.
"The lust for money leads criminals to commit acts of great cruelty," the police said.
The puppies were recovering after the heroin was removed by veterinarians.
Using animals for smuggling is unusual although drug smugglers often rely on couriers to swallow condoms full of drugs and one Colombian woman was once found with cocaine surgically implanted in her buttocks.
Colombia is the world's largest producer of cocaine and the main supplier of heroin to the United States.

Indian Schoolgirl Survives on Berries After Tsunami
 Tue Jan 4,10:10 AM ET

PORT BLAIR, India (Reuters) - A 10-year-old Indian girl survived for four days alone in the jungle, living off berries and coconuts, after the tsunami swept away her family when it smashed into the Andaman and Nicobar islands.
"She is very much in shock. She says a few words and goes into silence," said federal lawmaker Manoranjan Bakhta, who described the girl's ordeal after helping reunite her with her grandparents Monday.
Schoolgirl Almesh Javed, who is from the Nicobarese tribal group, escaped to a thick forest after she saw her parents and sister washed out to sea when the deadly wave hit their home on Nancowry island a day after Christmas. Bakhta said she had arrived at a local hospital several days later badly bruised and traumatized after walking several miles.
The lawmaker helped locate the girl's grandparents on another island which escaped the killer waves.
"It was very important that she saw some members of her family alive," said Bakhta.
At least 5,000 people are feared to have died in the tropical islands, 1,200 km (750 miles) off India's east coast.
Most of the victims were Nicobarese, the largest tribal group, who were living in villages along the coastline.
They are among the more than 15,000 people either dead or presumed dead in India, whose southern coastline state of Tamil Nadu was one of the areas worst affected by the tsunami.

Gives New Meaning to 'Phone Sex'
 Thu Jan 27, 8:53 AM ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) - This is one cellphone you might not want to set to "High & Vibrate."
Porn star Jenna Jameson is now hawking her "moan tones."
For $2.50 fans of the ubiquitous porno queen can choose from a variety of moans, grunts and lurid sexual noises all recorded by the blond bombshell.
If that's not enough, Jameson will talk dirty to you when you phones rings, in English or Spanish.
Jameson, who recently wrote a best-selling memoir, has launched the venture with Wicked Wireless, a mobile music and entertainment company.
Also available are color pictures of the porn star posing naked that can be displayed on your phone for $2.99.
"Rock stars make music tones, porn stars make moan tones," said Dennis Adamo, head of Wicked Wireless. "We thought it would be an interesting novel approach of introducing new content to the mobile users."
Jameson's charms are already being downloaded in Argentina, Ecuador, Venezuela, and in a couple of weeks will be available from Mexico to Uruguay.
Latin American users can download a moan or a picture for $1.00 each, while U.S. customers will pay $2.50 for a moan and $2.99 for a wallpaper once the service is launched.
Some people were shocked, but others said they wanted more from the product.
"If you can get her to say my name then I would buy it. I need that kind of personal attention," said New Yorker Julian McCullough.
U.S. users will have to wait to get Jameson on their phones as no mobile carriers in the United States have expressed any interest in carrying the service.

The Master of His Domain....
 Fri Jan 28, 9:08 AM ET

OTTAWA (Reuters) - A Canadian who masturbated at a window in his house won his appeal against a conviction for indecency on Thursday after Canada's top court ruled there was no evidence of intent to commit an indecent act, and a home was not a public place.
The Supreme Court of Canada noted that British Columbian, Daryl Clark, had agreed it was an indecent act to have masturbated "in an illuminated room near an uncovered window visible to neighbors."
But Justice Morris Fish, writing the 9-0 decision, said such acts have to be done in public places to be a crime -- and a home was not a public place. The law also says indecent acts are only crimes in every location if the person intends to give offense.
Clark was convicted of an indecent act in a public place and given a four-month sentence after a prosecution that followed complaints from his neighbor, named in court documents only as Mrs. S.
The woman said she spotted Clark while she was watching television with her two young daughters in their family room.
She alerted her husband, and the couple observed Clark from their darkened bedroom for 10 or 15 minutes -- also using binoculars and a telescope -- before summoning the police, who said the upper part of Clark's body was visible from just below the navel.
"In my respectful view, the trial judge ... erred in concluding that the appellant's living room had been converted by him into a public place simply because he could be seen through his living room window and, though he did not know this, was being watched by Mr. and Mrs. S. from the privacy of their own bedroom 90 to 150 feet away," Fish wrote.

Pole Wants Telephone Pole Out of His Kitchen
 Mon Jan 31,10:42 AM ET

WARSAW (Reuters) - Piotr Kardys is a Pole with a problem -- a pole; in fact, a telephone pole in his kitchen.
It was erected without his permission by telephone operator TPSA and when he built a home on his property in 2001 he had to build around the offending object, which is how the pole ended up in his kitchen.
Local authorities said since no one objected when the pole went up, it was legal. Kardys, a businessman from Kolbuszowa, disputed this view and Poland's Supreme Administrative Court has now agreed with him.
But his problems aren't over. Local authorities rescinded the building permit for the pole and told TPSA to move it, but TPSA spokeswoman Izabella Szum said the company would appeal.
"We have to have a binding decision -- we could do it on our own, but you have to realize this is a big investment," she said.

Italians told to stop moaning
 Sun Jan 30,10:00 AM ET

ROME (Reuters) - Italy's transport minister has refused to take the blame for traffic chaos which has caused misery for hundreds of people stuck on snow-blocked motorways, and has told people to stop complaining.
Some people were trapped for days as an unusually strong snowfall brought parts of southern Italy to a standstill. The opposition accused Transport Minister Pietro Lunardi of failing to deal with the problem and called on him to resign.
Lunardi rejected such calls on Sunday and said Italians should stop complaining and blaming the state.
"We need to cure the Italians of their childish illness -- moaning," he told Libero newspaper.
"The state cannot prevent exceptional snowfalls, even if Italy is the country of the sun and people think they have the right to have the snow melted immediately by the authorities."
Although Deputy Prime Minister Marco Follini apologised on Friday on behalf of the government, Lunardi said he would not say sorry. "I am not apologising. The government has managed the emergency well, there have been no victims."
By Sunday, the authorities finally reopened a major motorway between Salerno and Reggio Calabria which had been blocked for four days as snow continued to fall.

Stripper sues safari park after getting attacked by tiger
 Fri Jan 28, 7:16 PM ET

TORONTO (Reuters) - A stripper mauled by a tiger in an Ontario safari park has won C$800,000 (341, 560 pounds) in damages because her scars meant she could no longer work, Canadian media say.
Jennifer-Anne Cowles was driving through the park nearly nine years ago with her then boyfriend when a tiger jumped into their car and tried to drag them away. The two insisted their windows had been shut when the tiger charged, although the park had challenged that.
The judge accepted on Friday the couple's testimony that the power windows had been inadvertently lowered when one of the big cats bumped against the car, frightening them.
In a ruling delivered on Thursday and reported in a number of Canadian newspapers, Justice Jean MacFarland said she could only imagine the "stark terror experienced by these young people during this horrendous event."
She awarded Cowles over C$800,000 in damages, almost half of it to compensate for income she would have made as a stripper.
Her musician boyfriend, David Balac, won C$1.7 million, because his injuries left him unable to work as an accordion player.
African Lion Safari, near Hamilton, Ontario, west of Toronto, said it is reviewing the ruling, but it insisted the park was safe.
"Hundreds of millions of people drive through safari style parks worldwide every decade and there are very few incidents causing injury," it said in a statement. "It is one of the safest activities you can do with your family."

 

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