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Ultra runner orders fast food on the fly
 Thu Mar 24, 8:38 AM ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Pondering life on his 30th birthday and finding something lacking, Dean Karnazes staggered home from a night out drinking with friends, put on his gardening shoes and went for a run. A 30-mile (48-km) run. All night.
When he survived that, he set his sights on a 100-mile (160-km) race. Then 135 miles (217 km). Then 199 miles (320 km). Then a marathon at the South Pole. Last summer he completed 262 miles (422 km) non-stop.
"I wanted to see if I could make it 10 marathons without stopping," he said. "It took me 75 hours and the conditions were really tough; it rained for about 20 hours of that."
Now 42 and running a natural foods company in San Francisco, Karnazes has just written a book called "Ultramarathon Man: Confessions of an All-Night Runner."
He started running in kindergarten when he decided his mother was too busy looking after his new baby sister to pick him up from school, so he ran home instead. He ran in high school but gave up for over a decade through college, graduate school and into his 20s when he worked in sales for a pharmaceutical company.
"The thing that sparked it was booze," he said in an interview, joking about his conversion to a way of life that seems to have done for him what religion does for many.
"I was in a bar drinking with a bunch of friends, feeling no pain. But I was feeling pain over the course of my life, I didn't feel very satisfied with my job and my career.
"The answer that night seemed to be walk home, put on my gardening shoes -- I didn't have running shoes -- and head south. So I put some money in my pocket and ran all night."
These days he runs 70 to 120 miles (113 to 193 km) a week and regularly runs all night, sometimes putting the kids to bed on a Friday night, setting out for a hot spring 70 miles from home and meeting the family there in the morning.
"I'll just set out with my cell phone and credit card and run up to the Napa Valley," he said. The credit card is to keep him stocked with food since running burns a lot of calories.
"One of the things I love to do is in the middle of the night order pizza. I'll give them my coordinates, where I'll be at a certain time, and they'll deliver a hot pizza."
In his book Karnazes describes in gripping detail the pain and exhaustion of running his first 100-mile (160-km) race in a mountain range with an elevation change of 38,000 feet (11,580 m) -- equivalent to climbing up and down the Empire State Building 15 times.
"The first time I did it was really a journey into the unknown," he said. "I had no idea if I could withstand it."
Despite "pretty severe blisters, losing a toe nail as well as temporarily going blind," he made it.
"I realized when I crossed the finish line that I had learned more about myself in the past 21 hours than I had accumulated in a lifetime."
The next challenge was the Badwater race, 135 miles (217 km) across Death Valley in southern California to Mount Whitney, the highest peak in the contiguous United States, in July, when temperatures can exceed 130 degrees Fahrenheit (54 degrees Celsius).
"You run down the white line on the side of the road because your shoes will melt if you run on the asphalt."
Next a 199-mile (320-km) race, which he has now completed 10 years in a row and which is normally a relay for teams of 12 runners. In 2004 Karnazes ran 63 miles (101 km) to the start and then completed the race, making a total of 262 miles (422 km), or 10 marathons.
"The estimate was I burned somewhere around 35,000 calories," he said. Typically he will eat a mix of power bars, salty snacks, pizza, cheese cake and gallons of water.
In 2002 he joined a group of runners to attempt a marathon at the South Pole. The 12-day trip turned into a month but despite frostbite and ferocious conditions, he made it.
"I was just glad to get out of there alive," he said.
At 5 foot 9 inches (175 cm) and weighing 155 pounds (70 kg), Karnazes is not built like a typical lanky marathon runner. His upper body is highly muscular and his body fat is under 5 percent. He attributes part of his ability to good alignment, which helps his gait and reduces stress injuries.
There are around 12,000 to 15,000 so-called ultramarathon runners in the United States, meaning they run distances of 50 miles (80 km) and up but Karnazes said it was difficult to pin down "world records" given each event was so different.
"There's not good documentation ... (but) 75 hours is certainly pushing the limit as far as anybody has gone, as far as the number of hours running," he admits when pressed.
Karnazes enters up to 10 races over 100 miles (160 km) each year and is aiming for 300 miles (483 km). "If it happens, it happens. If not, it doesn't. And will I stop at 300 miles? I don't think so."
He is regularly asked the big question -- why?
"It's just the supreme challenge of seeing how far the human body can be pushed," he said. His wife Julie puts it more simply: "Just look at him: He's so happy."

Anyone for hot chili fingers?
 Wed Mar 23,11:24 PM ET

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A diner at a Wendy's fast food restaurant in San Jose, California, has found a human finger in a bowl of chili prepared by the chain.
"This individual apparently did take a spoonful, did have a finger in their mouth and then, you know, spit it out and recognised it," said Ben Gale, director of the department of environmental health for Santa Clara County. "Then they had some kind of emotional reaction and vomited."
Local officials launched an investigation after the incident on Tuesday night and the medical examiner determined on Wednesday that the object was a human finger.
Officials are trying to determine if the finger came in the raw materials Wendy's used to prepare the chili, Gale said.
Wendy's corporate office did not immediately return a call for comment. Wendy's is the third-largest hamburger chain.

Pa. Woman Charged in Hugging Muggings
 Wed Mar 23, 3:40 PM ET

WEST MIFFLIN, Pa. (AP) - A woman was charged with stealing money and other items in recent weeks by walking up to six elderly victims, giving them a big hug — and then stealing their wallets or other loose items in the process.
Mary Ann Johnson pretended to know the victims who are too polite to refuse her hugs, police said.
It wasn't immediately clear Tuesday if Johnson has an attorney.
Violet Lawton, 79, said Johnson approached her at a supermarket March 15 talked about seeing her at church.
"I knew I didn't know her, but I didn't want to be rude so I didn't say anything," Lawton said. A short time later, Lawton found her wallet missing from her purse.

The Puss of the Baskervilles?
 Tue Mar 22,10:47 AM ET

LONDON (Reuters) - A London man trying to coax his cat back into the house before he went to bed got more than he bargained for.
Instead of a tame pussy, the cat-like creature that emerged from the bushes in response to his calls was nearer the size of a Labrador dog.
Neither was the snarling beast in the mood for a quiet bowl of milk. It flew at the man, giving him the fright of his life, and several nasty scratches.
The man alerted police after scrambling back into his house.
Officers who visited the scene soon afterwards believe they saw the culprit.
"One police officer believes they saw a large black cat-like animal approximately the same size as a Labrador dog," a police spokesman said.
London Zoo was contacted for advice later on Tuesday morning and schools were alerted.
So far, no further sightings have been reported.

Drunk Driving Suspect Nabbed at Drive-Thru
 Thu Mar 24, 7:29 AM ET

MOUNT CARMEL, Tenn. (AP) - A yearning for breakfast helped end a police chase. Jeffery Lynn Drinnon, 30, was arrested at the drive-through lane of a Hardee's restaurant about 5 a.m. Tuesday after leading police on a low-speed chase.
"He turned into Hardee's, pulls up to the drive-through and rolls the window down like he's going to order a biscuit before he goes to jail," Mount Carmel Assistant Police Chief Mike Campbell said. "They had the car surrounded with guns drawn at the drive-through at Hardee's, and he's wanting breakfast."
Police began chasing Drinnon after a market reported he drove away without paying for $7 of gasoline. Officers said they used blue lights and sirens to try to get Drinnon to pull over, but he kept going until he saw the restaurant.
Drinnon was charged with driving under the influence, driving on a revoked license, evading arrest, resisting arrest and theft under $500.
He was taken into custody before he could place his order.

Pants war erupts in sumo world
 Thu Mar 24, 4:06 AM ET

TOKYO (Reuters) - A tussle has broken out in Japan's tradition-bound sumo world over the right to wear pants in the ring.
Gargantuan sumo wrestlers generally compete naked but for a "mawashi", an arrangement of wrapped cloth that preserves a bare minimum of modesty.
Sumo's amateur association hit upon the idea of allowing shy youngsters to wear "sumo pants", a more substantial garment similar to cycling shorts, to try to boost the dwindling numbers of children taking up the sport, the daily Yomiuri Shimbun said on Thursday.
"Pubescent kids are not going to want to take part if they don't look cool," Yomiuri quoted one local amateur sumo official as saying.
The sport's professional body, the Nihon Sumo Kyokai, however, has made clear that it will not allow wrestlers in pants to take part in youth tournaments at the venerable national stadium in Tokyo, the paper said.
"The national stadium has its rules and ways of doing things," the paper quoted a Sumo Kyokai spokesman as saying. "We have no intention of allowing children in pants into the ring."

Italian Priest Accused of Kidnapping Prostitutes
 Wed Mar 16,10:52 AM ET

ROME (Reuters) - His defenders in the Catholic Church call it tough love. His critics call it kidnapping.
Priest Cesare Lodeserto, the former head of an Italian foundation that looks after illegal immigrants, has been making front-page news in Italy since he was arrested last weekend over accusations he had mistreated Romanian prostitutes.
The women allege that the well-known crusader against sex slavery kidnapped them by taking away their identity papers and refusing to let them leave the immigration center in southern Lecce province.
Lodeserto's lawyer told Reuters that the priest sheltered them for their own good after they were found drunk in town.
"A few times I behaved like a strict father, but what could I do? These are young girls, easy prey for men looking to fool them," Lodeserto told the magistrate following his case, according to Il Messagero newspaper Wednesday.
The scandal has hit a raw nerve in Roman Catholic Italy, where community leaders have in the past been denounced for using tough tactics while helping the less fortunate. That includes Vincenzo Muccioli, who put drug addicts in chains and condoned beatings to help them kick the habit.
The accusations against Lodeserto are less severe.
"(Lodeserto) never refrained from using offensive phrases and expressions," one of his accusers said, according to transcripts leaked to the newspaper Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno.
"In some cases, he even slapped them, ripping up their state permits and threatening to send them back to their countries."
Lodeserto's Foundation on the Adriatic coast was created in 1997 after a wave of Albanian immigrants poured into eastern Italy, and it has a satellite operation in Moldova. It has a special focus on helping victims of the sex trade.
Thousands of women are forced to work as prostitutes in Italy, but victims of sexual slavery can obtain temporary papers under legislation that aims to help them start a new life.
Lodeserto has in the past faced death threats from angry pimps, and an unidentified immigrant suggested in an article published this week that the scandal was a setup, saying she had been offered cash to file a complaint against the priest.
"Lodeserto stopped them from leaving at times when it was inopportune for them to leave. This sparked the talk about kidnapping," Lodeserto's lawyer Pasquale Corleto told Reuters.
Church officials have also been at pains to defend him, and Italy's Episcopal Conference has expressed its "solidarity and faith" in Lodeserto.
The Archbishop of Lecce, Cosmo Francesco Ruppi, also backed the priest. "The arrest of Cesare Lodeserto appears, to say the least, groundless and incomprehensible, if not absurd," he said.
European Affairs Minister Rocco Buttiglione, a friend of Pope John Paul, said Lodeserto "has given his life to help the poor, the immigrants and the prostitutes."
"Now he's being hit by defamatory accusations," he said.

We Need a Gumshoe to Catch These Crooks
 Tue Mar 15,12:09 PM ET

BERLIN (Reuters) - Thieves with a fondness for chewing gum broke into an isolated storage hall in the western German town of Steinfurt and made off with 200 fully loaded gum machines, police said Tuesday.
The machines and their contents were worth more than 10,000 euros ($13,400), police said.
"We don't have a clue," said one police spokesman. "We can only assume they used a large truck to get away with so many machines."

Robber Jailed After Using Banana As Weapon
AP - Wed Mar 16,11:51 AM ET

LONDON - Robert Downey had the mask and the attitude to be a successful robber. But he ruined the effect when he tried to stage a hold-up at his local bookmaker's shop — using a banana.
Noting the suspicious bend in the so-called "weapon," the clerk calmly called the police and on Wednesday, Downey was jailed for nearly seven years for attempted robbery.
Prosecutors at the trial at Southwark Crown Court in London said Downey, a drug addict, hatched his scheme to buy more crack.
Donning a mask, he headed for the bookmaker's shop, pausing only to get a banana from the greengrocer on the way.
In the bookmaker's, he pointed the fruit wrapped in a plastic bag, screaming, "I want the money or I will (expletive) shoot you."
This did not produce the desired effect: assistant Peter Humphrey calmly turned to a colleague and said: "He said he has a gun, but it might be a banana."
Downey then produced a pair of scissors, "but seeing no money was going to be handed over he ran out of the shop," said prosecutor Patrick Cahill.
When police arrived they found the 24-year-old nearby trying to pull off his over-tight balaclava. A police dog found the badly bruised banana still in its bag nearby.
Downey, of Chatham, south of London, pleaded guilty to one count of attempted robbery at William Claridges Ltd. in Tower Hamlets, east London, in November. He also admitted possessing an imitation firearm.
"You did say, although it may seem comic now but not quite so comic at the time, that in the bag was a firearm," Justice Paul Dodgson told Downey.
"As it's been pointed out by your counsel that was an attempt that met with no success. Indeed, your victims having guessed what it was, it was never going to succeed."
Downey's lawyer, Rajiv Menon, called the robbery attempt "farcical and incompetent."
"We have to face facts. It was a banana, not even a plastic gun, or something that even looked like a gun. Not only that, but neither of the bookies was scared."

Sex doll sparks post office bomb alert
 Wed Mar 16,10:03 AM ET

BERLIN (Reuters) - A blow-up sex doll has sparked a bomb alert in a German post office after it started to vibrate inside a package awaiting delivery, police say.
"Workers were unsettled when it began vibrating and made strange noises," a spokesman for police in the eastern city of Chemnitz said on Wednesday. "They were worried the package might be a bomb."
Officers brought the sender to the scene and discovered the source of alarm was an electrical device inside a life-size female sex doll. The man told police he had wanted to return the doll because it kept turning itself on at the wrong moment.
Order was restored after the sender removed the doll's batteries so the defective product could be returned.

Man With 'TIPSY' Plate Faces DUI Charges
Wed Mar 16, 8:10 AM ET

MOORHEAD, Minn. - Having a vanity plate that reads "TIPSY" may not be such a great idea after all. Josiah Johnson, 23, said his license plate might have tipped off the Clay County sheriff's deputy who pulled him over Friday after he left Coach's Sports Pub in Moorhead.
Now he faces third-degree drunken driving charges after his blood-alcohol level allegedly registered twice the legal limit.
Johnson said he bought the personalized license plate for his Jeep to describe the way it rode — then kept it as a joke when he got a Chevy Silverado because he likes to party.
"It doesn't mean I drink and drive," he said. "It just means I have a good time."
Johnson, who was slated to appear in court March 22, said he'll never drink and drive again.
"I feel really stupid," he said.

Man Found Napping in Car With Holdup Note
 AP - Wed Mar 16,11:20 AM ET

QUINCY, Mass. - It's never good to fall asleep on the job, but when you're a robber the consequences can be severe. Police arrived at a CVS pharmacy early Tuesday morning to find Steven Jakaitis, 42, sleeping in his idling car with a nylon stocking over his head and a cap pistol in his pocket.
By his side was a note that read: "I have a Gun DO NOT Press any Alarms or let Custermors (sic) know Empty the All the register."
A customer called police after seeing Jakaitis, who was also wearing a black wig and a scarf. On the back seat of his car, officers found a plastic bag containing 36 unused hypodermic needles. He spoke incoherently after the officers woke him, Capt. Anthony DiBona said.
He never actually went into the store, police said.
At his arraignment Tuesday, Jakaitis pleaded innocent to attempted armed robbery, possession of a hypodermic syringe and receiving a stolen car. He was ordered held on $1,000 bail and ordered to appear for a pretrial conference on April 12.

China parks to curb throwing horses to the lions
 Tue Mar 15,10:24 PM ET

BEIJING (Reuters) - Safari parks in China have agreed to stop feeding their lions and tigers large live animals such as horses -- at least in public.
The gory eating habits could lead visitors to believe that animals, both hunter and prey, were only human playthings, Xinhua news agency on Wednesday quoted Xie Youxin, the deputy general manager of the Wild Animal World in Chengdu, as saying.
"The bloody scene could also have implanted violent tendencies in youngsters," he said. Chengdu is the capital of southwestern Sichuan province.
Managers of 22 of 30 safari parks nationwide who signed an agreement last week said they acknowledged that wild animals had the same sense of "agony, terror and annoyance" as human beings.
Animal rights activists have criticised the state of China's zoos and the mistreatment of wild animals captured for their fur, or in the case of bears, for the healing power of their bile.
But the safari park agreement only restricts the release of large domestic animals, such as oxen and horses, during the presence of visitors, the agency said.
"Feeding when the park is not open is permitted. Parks are allowed to continue to sell small birds for visitors to feed the wild beasts."

Landlord Uses 40 Cans of Roach Fumigate
Fri Mar 11, 8:40 PM ET

STAMFORD, Conn. (AP) - Several tenants had to stay in a temporary shelter and a hotel because of a landlord's attempt to fumigate a ten-family home. The landlord apparently touched off 40 cans of cockroach fumigate at the same time Thursday morning.
"One can is plenty," Dr. Johnnie Lee, the city's health director, who spent much of Thursday setting up a temporary shelter for tenants.
The incident forced about a dozen of the building's 50 tenants to spend the day across the street at the International School at Rogers Magnet School, health and fire officials said.
The tenants thought they would need to spend the night on cots in Rogers gymnasium, but the Stamford chapter of the American Red Cross put them up at a hotel, Lee said.
About a dozen tenants were in the house when the landlord released a cloud of roach poison near the front section of the large home at about 11 a.m. Thursday, Capt. Trevor Roach of the Stamford Fire & Rescue Department said. Officials said the excessive fumigation was a mistake.
One woman was hospitalized for minor respiratory problems, Lee said.

Cafeteria Owner Stops Robber With Fries
 Fri Mar 11, 4:10 PM ET

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) - A Dutch cafeteria owner used piping hot french fries to fend off a gun-wielding would-be robber, police in the southern city of Helmond said Friday.
Fries, or "frites," are a national snack in Holland and Belgium, where they are deep-fried in oil and then salted and eaten with mayonnaise and chopped onions.
It was not known if the culprit, whose age was estimated at 16, was burned. He had threatened the owner and his wife with a handgun Thursday night, police said.
"He wanted money," a police report said. "But once he had hot frites coming his way, he decided he had had enough."
The fries were cooling in a pot when the owner threw them at the intruder.
Police described the youth, who is still at large, as "thin, white, and with a plump nose."

Man Said to Pose As Dead Mom for Pension
 AP - Wed Mar 9, 9:08 PM ET

ISTANBUL, Turkey - Police have detained a man who buried his dead mother in his basement and disguised himself as her to draw her retirement pension, a Turkish news agency reported Friday.
Tipped off by suspicious bank employees, police detained 47-year-old Serafettin Gencel in his home after he tried to withdraw his dead mother's pension, Anatolia news agency reported.
A bank employee had become suspicious upon hearing Gencel's male-sounding voice and notified the bank manager who told Gencel to come back in two days time for the money, Anatolia said. The manager secretly photographed him and called police who raided his home and detained him.
The photo, which was released by Anatolia, showed Gencel dressed in a woman's overcoat and wearing a headscarf and stockings and carrying a walking stick.
Gencel reportedly told police that his mother died two years ago of natural causes at the age of 68, and that he buried her body in his basement to carry on collecting her pension.
Authorities exhumed the body and were conducting a forensic study into the woman's death.
Gencel faces possible charges of fraud, suspicious death and conducting a burial without notifying authorities, Anatolia said.
Gencel, who has previous convictions for armed robbery and carrying firearms, had withdrawn 8,000 New Turkish Lira, or $6,300 since his mother's death, Anatolia said.

Man Loses Fingers in Quest for Girlfriend
 Wed Mar 9, 9:37 AM ET

WINNIPEG, Manitoba (Reuters) - A Los Angeles man who sneaked into Canada in February to see his Internet girlfriend will be deported -- minus all his fingers and some of his toes, the Winnipeg Sun newspaper reported Tuesday.
Charles Gonsoulin, 41, will have the fingers and toes amputated because of severe frostbite suffered during a 100-hour trek from Pembina, North Dakota, across the border to Emerson, Manitoba, where he was found wandering on a golf course on Feb. 23, suffering from hypothermia.
"It is better to have loved and to have lost than never to have loved at all," the Sun quoted Gonsoulin as saying. "It was all worth it for me. It's the difference between sitting around dreaming about things and going out and getting them."
Gonsoulin and the Canadian woman met in an Internet chat room in 2002. The woman lives in Quebec, Gonsoulin's lawyer, Mike Cook, told a court hearing. Quebec is about 2,500 kilometers (1,600 miles) east of Manitoba.
Gonsoulin could not enter Canada legally because he was convicted of robbing a Pizza Hut in Arkansas in 1984, the newspaper said.
His girlfriend could not afford to travel to Los Angeles, he told the Sun. So he took a bus to North Dakota where he crossed the border.
"Mr. Gonsoulin didn't really know that there was any place on Earth that could be so cold and so inhospitable," Cook told a court hearing Monday, adding his client had never felt temperatures colder than 10 degrees Celsius (50 F).
Temperatures dipped below -26 C (-15 F) during his long hike.
Gonsoulin is receiving medical treatment in a Winnipeg jail. He still has not met his girlfriend face-to-face but they have spoken on the phone and Gonsoulin said they are still in love.
No deportation date has yet been set.

Cat Shoots Owner
 Thu Mar 10, 7:31 PM ET

BATES TOWNSHIP, Mich. - A man cooking in his kitchen was shot after one of his cats knocked his 9mm handgun onto the floor, discharging the weapon, Michigan State Police said.
Joseph Stanton, 29, of Bates Township in Iron County, was shot in his lower torso around 6 p.m. Tuesday, the state police post in Iron River reported. He was transported to Iron County Community Hospital.
Michelle Sand, a spokeswoman at the Iron River hospital, said Stanton was treated there before being transferred to Marquette General Hospital for further treatment. But Marcie Miller, a representative of the Marquette facility, said there was no record of the hospital receiving a patient by that name.
A telephone message seeking comment was left Wednesday at Stanton's home.
State police said he was cooking at his stove when the cat knocked the loaded gun off the kitchen counter behind him.

Typing Error Causes Nuclear Scare
 Thu Mar 10,11:39 AM ET

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - A stenographer for the U.S. Congress generated alarming headlines in the Sudanese press this week by giving the mistaken impression the United States conducted nuclear tests in the African country in 1962 and 1970.
The Sudanese government asked the United States for an explanation and began its own investigations into a Web site report that a subcommittee of the U.S. House of Representatives Armed Services Committee had talked about the tests in Sudan.
But Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail, who had summoned the U.S. charge d'affaires on hearing the news, said Thursday it turned out that the word Sudan was merely a typing error for Sedan, the name of a nuclear test site in Nevada.
"The American administration ... said that there is a typing mistake," he told reporters. "Instead of writing Sedan, the typist in the military subcommittee branch typed Sudan," he said.
"Now they want to correct the spelling mistake and they want to confirm the tests did not take place in Sudan but in Sedan, part of the United States in Nevada," he added.
A U.S. embassy official in Khartoum said a statement had been issued affirming no tests were made in Sudan, but did not say how the mistake had happened. The official transcript of the hearing, in the strategic forces subcommittee on March 2, has already been corrected, with a note saying the word Sedan was misspelled in the original.
Ismail said he was very relieved the reports were not true.
"Our first concern of course was for the people of Sudan."

Clerk Laughs Away Robber in Pluto Mask
Thu Mar 10, 7:40 PM ET

CRANBERRY, Pa. - The would-be robber wanted to inspire fear, but his choice of a Disney character mask to conceal his features provoked only giggles from a convenience store clerk.
Cranberry police said a clerk at Gordon's Mini Market burst into laughter when the person wearing a Pluto mask walked into the store about 9:45 p.m. Tuesday.
The clerk was laughing so hard he didn't comply with the robber's demand to turn over the cash register money — so the frustrated robber left the store, police said.
Police Sgt. Dave Kovach said the clerk's response was ill-advised and dangerous, even if it foiled the robbery.
"Pluto could have been a strung-out heroin addict," Kovach said. "You never know."
Pluto drove away in a car, but not before the clerk noticed that he was 6-foot-2 and appeared to be white under the mask. Police believe he's about 20 years old and weighs about 170 pounds.

Mauled Man Tried to 'Reason' With Chimps
 Mon Mar 7, 2:16 PM ET

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - A man who was severely mauled by two chimpanzees at an animal sanctuary last week was quickly overwhelmed when the apes attacked, his wife said Monday.
"One was at his head, one was at his foot. But all that time ... he was trying to reason with them," a sobbing LaDonna Davis told ABC's "Good Morning America." "I couldn't do anything."
Davis, 64, and her husband, St. James Davis, were visiting Animal Haven Ranch near Bakersfield on Thursday when two male chimps escaped their enclosure and attacked the couple.
"When we made eye contact, the charge was on," LaDonna Davis said. "There was no stopping anything, and the big chimp came around from behind me and pushed me into my husband. The male came around from behind and chomped off my thumb. ... My husband must have realized we were in deep trouble because he pushed me backward. At that time, they both went for him."
St. James Davis, 62, lost all the fingers from both hands, an eye, part of his nose, cheek, lips and part of his buttocks in the ferocious attack, his wife said over the weekend on NBC's "Today Show." She also said one of his feet was mutilated. A Kern County Sheriff's commander also said his genitals were mauled.
St. James Davis was being treated at Loma Linda University Medical Center, where doctors said his condition was "minute by minute," his wife said Monday.
"Right now what they are trying to do is keep his breathing constant," she said. "That's all they can tell me, but I told him that he can't leave me. He has to be strong."
The Davises were visiting the sanctuary to celebrate the birthday of Moe — a 39-year-old chimpanzee who was taken from their home in West Covina, a Los Angeles suburb, after biting off part of a woman's finger in 1999.
Authorities were continuing to investigate how the two chimps, named Ollie and Buddy, got loose. Both were shot and killed during the attack.

Smelly Readers Banned From Calif. Library
 Mon Mar 7,12:42 PM ET

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. (AP) - A new county law aims to keep readers from reeking. Libraries in San Luis Obispo County have had their own rules banning offensive body odor since 1994, but the policy became law after the Board of Supervisors last month adopted an ordinance that lets authorities kick out malodorous guests.
Visitors to 14 libraries and a bookmobile also could be asked to leave for fighting, eating, drinking, sleeping, playing games, and printing or viewing illegal materials on library computers.
"The point is to make the library a comfortable, safe place for everyone to use," said Moe McGee, assistant director of the San Luis Obispo City-County Library.
A strict code of conduct, officials argue, is needed to ensure one patron's right to use a public library doesn't infringe on the rights of another.
Yet the law can raise tough questions for librarians, said Irene Macias, Santa Barbara's library services manager.
"What is bad odor?" Macias asked. "A woman who wears a strong perfume? A person who had a garlicky meal?"

Man awakens to tank crashing through front door
 Mon Mar 7,10:44 AM ET

OSLO, Norway (AP) - Norwegian homeowner Odin Viken woke with a jolt Monday, fearing his house was being shaken by an earthquake.
But this earthquake was man-made: a 26-ton tank slammed into Viken's house in Vassbotna, some 350 miles north of Oslo, the military said.
The Norwegian tank, a CV-90 armored fighting vehicle, was part of the 15-nation Battle Griffin military exercise in western and northern Norway, a statement said. There were no injuries.
The tank went through a wall and part way into the bathroom, Viken said on national radio.
"It sounded like an earthquake. The whole house shook, and it was terrible," he said. "I was very afraid and very angry."
The military said the cause of the accident was being investigated, while Viken said the driver told him that he lost control after the vehicle struck an ice patch.
It has not been good week for Norwegian tank drivers.
On Wednesday, a 40-ton Leopard tank ran over a nearly new Mercedes-Benz on a roadway, flattening half the car but causing no injuries.
The Battle Griffin exercise with 14,000 NATO (news - web sites) and other troops lasts through March 11.

600 Thai Cops Fail Traffic Law Test
Mon Mar 7,10:48 AM ET

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) - More than 600 policemen in the Thai capital have temporarily lost the right to issue tickets to motorists after failing a test on traffic law, a senior police officer said Monday.
The police department last month tested 4,475 officers on their knowledge of traffic law, and almost one in seven failed to show adequate knowledge, said Maj. Gen. Montree Jamroon, a deputy commander of the Metropolitan Police Bureau.
"A total of 665, accounting for about 14 percent of the traffic policemen in Bangkok, failed the test on traffic law and they will not be allowed to issue tickets until they pass," he said.
Those who failed the test would have to take it again within six months, said Montree.
Bangkok drivers have long complained about the seemingly arbitrary enforcement of traffic laws.

Japanese woman tackles burglar to save designer wallet
 Sat Mar 5, 2:59 PM ET

TOKYO (AFP) - A drunken Japanese burglar became a cropper when he tried to steal a young woman's designer wallet, police and reports said.
Unemployed Hideaki Kinoshita, 41, was tackled by the woman and arrested after he tried to lift three bags after breaking in to her office in Hakata, southern Japan.
Kinoshita threatened to stab the 23-year-old woman with a knife, but she grabbed his arm and cornered him before a male customer came to her aid.
"I was scared, but I was desperate because he was trying to steal my bag with my precious Louis Vuitton wallet inside," she told police, according to the Mainichi Shimbun newspaper.
She escaped with minor injuries. The report said Kinoshita was drunk at the time and did not really have a knife.

Rights Group Has a Beef With State Fish
 Mon Mar 7,10:34 AM ET

LINCOLN, Neb. -(AP)- An animal rights group has a beef with the state fish.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is asking Gov. Dave Heineman to declare the channel catfish, Nebraska's state fish, off limits to fishing.
PETA launched a campaign last year to ban fishing, arguing that it is a cruel thing to do and that fish are intelligent, sensitive animals no more deserving of being eaten than a pet dog or cat.
"We ought to protect channel catfish in a manner appropriate to a state symbol ensuring that they don't suffer needlessly at the hands of anglers," said the letter sent Friday and signed by Karin Robertson, who is identified as PETA's fish empathy project manager.
Heineman rejected the request. "Fishing is a time honored tradition in Nebraska, and I have no intention of modifying Nebraska's fishing guidelines," he said.
The channel catfish, a popular fish with distinctive barbels that look like whiskers, was named Nebraska's state fish in 1997 by then-Gov. Ben Nelson.

The Bad Samaritan
 Fri Mar 4, 9:09 AM ET

BERLIN (Reuters) - An apparently friendly motorist in Germany stopped to tow a broken-down car, stranded the owners as he sped away, crashed their car into a gas station and then drove off, police said Thursday.
"After attaching it, the man sped off so fast that the two hadn't even got into the car -- and were left gesticulating wildly," said police in Aachen. The man then drove toward the gas station, swerving his own car at the last minute.
"But the trailing vehicle went straight on and smashed into the air pump," police said. "The station attendant was roused by the noise and saw a man uncoupling his car from the battered vehicle before departing without further ado."
Police said there was no trace of the reckless driver.

Woman Impaled in Tub for Six Hours
 Fri Mar 4, 9:11 AM ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A 92-year-old Harlem woman who fell in her bathtub became impaled on the cold water tap and screamed for help for more than six hours before she was rescued, the fire department said.
After falling on Wednesday, Thelma Riley banged on walls and shouted for help for hours, said Lt. James McCluskey. "The neighbors at first thought it was a plumber," he said.
Neighbors finally used a key to get into the apartment, finding Riley with the four-pronged knob stuck in her lower back, the Daily News reported.
Firefighters cut the metal tap with bolt cutters and took her to Harlem Hospital where it was removed. "It was in there pretty good," McCluskey said.
Riley was resting at the Harlem Hospital on Thursday.

Calif. Man Sets Off Nuclear Alert Detector
 AP - Wed Mar 2, 6:05 PM ET

ESCONDIDO, Calif. - A man who recently had received radiation treatment for a medical condition set off a nuclear alert detector on a fire engine, prompting police to close down a roadway in Escondido while authorities searched for a nuclear weapon.
The Rancho Santa Fe Fire Protection District engine crew's radiation monitor sounded Tuesday when the man and his friend walked past the crew on their way to fill a gas can.
The Nuke Alert monitor sounded again as the men walked back to their vehicle.
Firefighters notified the San Diego County Sheriff's Department after they drove by the men's vehicle and the monitor sounded a third time.
Sheriff's deputies pulled over the driver and detained him and his passenger for about one hour while they confirmed that the man was not carrying a nuclear weapon and that he had received radiation treatment, according to Sgt. Robert Healey.
The man was described as a Valley Center resident in his late 40s or early 50s. His name and medical condition were not released.
The radiation monitor was purchased with Homeland Defense Department grant money and is used 24 hours a day on each fire truck in the Rancho Santa Fe Fire Protection District, according to Capt. Dale Mosby.

British city ponders destruction of 'curse stone'
 Wed Mar 2,11:38 AM ET

LONDON (AFP) - The "Cursing Stone" of Carlisle was intended simply as an innocent community art project, harking back to the British city's colourful past.
But following floods, disease and a string of other local misfortunes, city elders are considering whether the 10,000-pound (14,500-euro, 19,000-dollar) artwork should be removed and destroyed, a report said on Wednesday.
The stone, a 14-tonne granite slab intricately engraved with a 16th-century diatribe against violent raiders, was commissioned by city councillors for the Millennium celebrations.
Created by Carlisle-born artist Gordon Young, is now stands at the centre of the city, near its castle.
The 1,069-word curse was originally levelled at "reiver families", who raided Carlise and other parts of the far north of England from just over the border in Scotland in the 16th century.
However, since the work of art was installed, Carlisle has suffered the worst local flooding for more than a century, an outbreak of livestock disease foot and mouth and a rash of local job losses as factories closed.
Even the city's beloved football team, Carlisle United, has endured their own famine of goals, leading them to be relegated from the Football League, The Times newspaper said.
Now the local council is to debate a motion about whether to move the Cursing Stone outside the city boundaries, or even destroy it altogether.
It was proposed by councillor Tim Tootle, who said he was finally pushed into action by floods which deluged Carlisle in January, killing three people.
"Many groups and individuals warned the council that the placing of a non-Christian artifact, based on an old curse on local families, would bring ill luck to the city," he was quoted as saying by the newspaper.
"This has (been) seen to be correct."
Artist Young -- a descendant of one of the reiver families -- has angrily compared the plan to the destruction of the giant Buddhas in Bamiyan by Afghanistan's Taliban regime in 2001.
"It is of that order. They want to smash it to pieces. It is a powerful work of art but it is certainly not part of the occult," he said.
"If I thought my sculpture would have affected one Carlisle United result, I would have smashed it myself years ago."

Naked Man Threatens Neighbors With Sword
 Tue Mar 1,11:13 PM ET

NORTH LIBERTY, Iowa - A man threatened his neighbors with a sword after they complained about him being naked in his front yard, police said. Curtis D. Rarick, 44, was charged with assault while displaying a dangerous weapon.
Rarick had been naked in his yard and became angry when neighbors asked him to put clothes on Sunday afternoon, police said.
He went inside and came back out with a 2 1/2-feet long sword and began threatening the neighbors, court records show.
He was released from jail Monday after posting $2,000 bond
If convicted, Rarick could face up to two years in jail and a $5,000 fine.
A preliminary hearing is scheduled for March 7

Teacher Has Sex with Pupil While Baby in Car: Cops
 Tue Mar 1,10:03 AM ET

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Reuters) - A California high school teacher was arraigned on Monday at a Sacramento court accused of having sex with a student in a car as her two-year child was strapped into the back seat.
Margaret De Barraicua, 30, a teacher trainee, was charged with four counts of unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor, a 16-year-old student. The married woman was caught having sex in the late afternoon last week in what was apparently a consensual agreement, officials said.
"We received a call about a suspicious parked vehicle at a school here in Sacramento," said local police spokesman Justin Risley. "They got there and observed two people, windows-steamed-up type of thing."
"They found them to be partially clothed and engaging in what appeared to be sexual intercourse."
Her two-year old son was strapped by a seat belt in the back of the car during the time, he said.

I Don't Care What It Cures, I'm Not Taking It...
 Tue Mar 1,10:43 AM ET

By Terry Friel
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Alongside life-size posters of Hindu nationalist leaders, Indian political activists can now buy lotions, potions and pills to cure anything from cancer to hysteria to piles -- all made from cow urine or dung.
A new goratna (cow products) stall at the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) souvenir shop is rapidly outselling dry political tracts, badges, flags and saffron-and-green plastic wall clocks with the face of former prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee.
"You won't believe how quickly some of the products sold out," says Manoj Kumar, who runs the souvenir shop along with his brother, Sanjeev, at the BJP headquarters in a plush central New Delhi neighborhood. "The constipation medicine is a hot seller."
But the biggest seller is a "multi-utility pill" that claims to cure anything from diabetes to piles to "ladies' diseases."
"It's a miraculous cure" the container declares. A month's supply costs a little over $1.
Another cure-all is Sanjivani Ark, a liquid medicine that battles cancer, hysteria, and irregular periods, among other things.
In addition to medicines, the goratna products range from cow dung toothpaste, to detergents, a skin-whitening cream, baldness and obesity cures, soap and a cow urine "antiseptic aftershave."
Siddarth Singh, a spokesman for the Hindu nationalist BJP, which has long campaigned on the sanctity of the cow, said the stall aimed to promote village industry, one of the biggest employers in India.
"If you go back in the history of India, this belongs to our culture. There's no commercial value to us. Village industry in this country needs to be promoted."
The use of cow products in India is centuries old. The five key products -- butter, milk, curd, urine and dung -- are collectively known as panchgavya and are an important part of ayurvedic medicine.
The cow is worshipped by Hindus, who make up some 82 percent of India's over 1 billion people. Cow slaughter is banned in most parts of the country.
The goratna products, made by a cooperative in the northern "cow-belt" state of Uttar Pradesh, are rapidly gaining in popularity.
"Once they use it, they are coming back and they are bringing their friends and their family and their neighbors back with them," says Kumar.
Singh already uses the detergent and is thinking of experimenting further.
"I'm tempted to try something for the hair -- let's hope," he grins, running his fingers through his thinning crop.

Police Say Men Butchered Goat for Crack
 AFP - Wed Mar 2, 2:44 PM ET

MOUNT PLEASANT, Pa. - Four men stole, killed and butchered a goat so they could trade its meat for crack cocaine, police said. Police charged the men with theft, receiving stolen property, cruelty to animals, and criminal conspiracy on Tuesday for the Dec. 24 incident in Bullskin Township, about 35 miles southeast of Pittsburgh.
James Walter Albright, 37, dragged the 4-year-old pygmy goat from its pen with a rope and tied the animal to a shrub, where he and Charles W. Smith Jr., 20, killed the animal by beating its head with a hammer or a steel pipe, police said.
The men then took the goat to Smith's residence, where his father, Charles W. Smith, 48, and Gilbert Wesley Fisch, 38, skinned the animal and cut it up.
It was not immediately clear if the men have attorneys. The Associated Press could not locate home telephone numbers for the men.

Bittersweet symphony: Swiss musician can taste music
 Wed Mar 2, 1:44 PM ET

PARIS (AFP) - A Swiss musician sees colours when she hears music, and experiences tastes ranging from sour and bitter to low-fat cream and mown grass, astounded scientists say.
Zurich University neuropsychologists were so intrigued by the case of E.S. -- a 27-year-old professional musician whose full name has been withheld -- that they recruited her for a year-long inquiry.
They say she is the world's most extreme known case of synaesthesia, the phenomenon whereby hearing music triggers a response in other sensory organs.
E.S. sees colours when she hears a tone, with for instance an F sharp causing her to see violet while a C makes her see red, quite literally.
Even more remarkable is that she also gets a taste on her tongue according to the note she hears.
A tone interval of a minor second induces sourness, while a major second leaves a bitter taste.
A minor third is salty, while a major third is sweet.
Other tastes, according to the tone, are of "pure water," cream (either full or low-fat, depending on the note), "disgust" and also of mown grass.
To provide an objective test, the scientists applied one of four different-tasting solutions (sour, bitter, salty and sweet) to her tongue and then asked her to press a button on a computer keyboard corresponding to four relevant tones.
She responded with perfect accuracy and much faster than five musicians, recruited for the same test, who do not have her synaesthesic gifts.
E.S.' "extraordinary" synaesthesia has probably been a boon in her career by attuning her to the right pitch, the researchers say.
The study, led by Lutz Jaencke, appears on Thursday in the British weekly science journal Nature.

Judge loses patience with thief he labelled too stupid to jail
 Wed Mar 2,10:57 AM ET

LONDON (AFP) - A judge issued an arrest warrant for a car thief he had effectively labelled too stupid to jail after finally losing patience with the man.
In January, Judge Paul Dodgson admitted that he was unlikely to imprison Mohammed Zaman because his crime -- stealing a car and then driving it directly to a police station to confess -- was too unusual and idiotic.
"You have committed an offence for which, even with your record, you stand a reasonable chance of staying out of prison, because it is an odd offence," Dodgson told the 22-year-old, calling the crime "a little bizarre".
Adjourning the case for four weeks for sentencing, and allowing Zaman bail in the meantime, the judge added: "Frankly you are an idiot and I hope you realise that."
"I do," mumbled the hapless thief in response.
However, Zaman failed to show up for Wednesday's sentencing at London's Southwark Crown Court and after waiting for an hour and a half, Dodgson issued an arrest warrant permitting no bail.
The defendant lived so close that he "could have walked here by now", the judge noted.

Iranian woman in smelly husband divorce bid
 Wed Mar 2, 5:51 AM ET

TEHRAN (AFP) - An Iranian woman is attempting to set a legal precedent by divorcing her husband because he has not showered for more than a year, a press report said.
The 36-year-old woman, only identified as Mina, reportedly told a Tehran court her husband Reza smells so bad that even his children will not go near him.
"Everybody is making fun of us. We cannot go to any parties. I feel so ashamed," the woman told the divorce court, according to the governmental Iran (news - web sites) newspaper.
Iranian women wishing to divorce can only demand one if they can prove their husband has met strict critieria -- including being impotent, abusive, a drug addict, in jail, unable to provide for the family or living away from home for more than six months.
Being smelly is not included in the list of marriage infractions, although a legal expert contacted by AFP explained that Mina could argue that the stink had caused her to hate her husband so much she can no longer live with him -- something that is recognised as a valid justification.
According to the report, Mina complained that before developing an aversion to water Reza used to have an obsessive compulsion to take "at least three showers a day and wash his hands every few minutes."
"I have put up with him for eight years. I have had enough." she said

Nude Man Covered in Nachos Gets Probation
 Tue Mar 1,11:14 PM ET

MARYVILLE, Tenn. - (AP) - A man caught by police last summer on his 23rd birthday running naked and covered in nacho cheese pleaded guilty Monday to burglary and four other charges.
Michael David Monn of Maryville appeared before Blount County Circuit Court Judge D. Kelly Thomas and pleaded guilty to burglary, theft, vandalism, indecent exposure and public intoxication. In a plea bargain with prosecutors, Monn was sentenced to three years in prison but was given supervised probation.
He also was given a judicial deferral, which means if he stays out of trouble for the next three years the charges will be expunged from his record. Thomas warned Monn that if he violates the sentencing requirements, he must serve the sentence in a state penitentiary.
Early on the morning of July 18, 2004, Monn "was highly intoxicated, broke into the John Sevier Pool snack bar area, stole some snacks and did some damage and was caught naked with some stolen snacks," Blount County District Attorney General Mike Gallegos told the courtroom.
A police officer found Monn that morning in the parking lot of the pool facility after Monn had apparently scaled an 8-foot-tall fence and was seen running toward a Jeep with a box of stolen snacks and a container of nacho cheese.
In addition to being naked, Monn had nacho cheese in his hair, on his face and on his shoulders, police said. He also had a strong odor of alcohol and was semi-incoherent.
In his Jeep, Maryville officers found clothing and an open bottle of vodka.

 

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