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Inappropriate Kisses: Malaysian Shahimi Abdul Hamid, 33, announced that on March 11, he will, as a matter of Asian pride, challenge the world record for speed-kissing a venomous snake, which is held by an American, and he smooched up a 9-foot-long cobra at his press conference. And last Oct. 31, according to a Minneapolis Star Tribune police column, "An employee of a business ... complained that a former co-worker had been constantly showing up and kissing his truck, leaving lip marks all over it. Police warned the man to stay away." [ABC News-AP, 1-12-06] [Star Tribune, 11-15-05]

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Recent Tacky Political Candidates
(1) In a race between two African-Americans, Don Samuels was elected again to the Minneapolis City Council in November, despite (or thanks to) his 2004 statements that he can effectively serve the city's blacks because he descended from "house slaves" in the South rather than "field slaves." (2) City Council member Clark Griep failed in his bid for mayor of Broomfield, Colo., despite his "October surprise" of revealing that the incumbent mayor, Karen Stuart, had had an extra-marital affair eight years ago with him. (She denied it.) (3) Former Durham, N.C., city council member Jackie Wagstaff was beaten in the race for mayor last fall, having run as "J-Dub" on a "gangsta" platform, promising to bring "street teens" into her administration. (Eight of the 17 mayoral and council candidates in Durham, including J-Dub, had criminal records.) [City Pages (Minneapolis-St.Paul), 10-26-05] [Rocky Mountain News, 10-19-05] [Raleigh News & Observer, 9-28-05]

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Texas-Mexico Border Standoff Reported
Jan 25 9:41 AM US/Eastern

By ALICIA A. CALDWELL
Associated Press Writer


SIERRA BLANCA, Texas


Texas law enforcement officers faced off with men dressed as Mexican Army soldiers and apparent drug suspects near the U.S.-Mexican border Tuesday, after three SUVs attempted to flee state authorities, officials said.

Andrea Simmons, an agency spokeswoman in El Paso, told The Associated Press that Texas Department of Public Safety troopers chased three SUVs, believing they were carrying drugs, to the banks of the Rio Grande during Monday's incident.

Men dressed in Mexican military uniforms or camouflage were on the U.S. side of the border in Texas, she said.

Simmons said the FBI was not involved and referred requests for further details to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The Inland Valley Daily Bulletin of Ontario, Calif., reported Tuesday that the incident included an armed standoff involving the Mexican military and suspected drug smugglers. The incident follows a story in the Bulletin on Jan. 15 that said the Mexican military had crossed into the United States more than 200 times since 1996.

In a news conference, Rick Glancey of the Texas Border Sheriff's Coalition, said three Hudspeth County deputies and at least two Texas Department of Public Safety troopers squared off against at least 10 heavily armed men from the Mexican side of the Rio Grande.

U.S. officials who pursued three fleeing SUVs to the Mexican border saw what appeared to be a Mexican military Humvee help one of the SUVs when it got stuck in the river, he said.

When that didn't work, a group of men dressed in civilian clothes started unloading what appeared to be bundles of marijuana from the SUV, and the stuck vehicle was then torched, he said. A second SUV had a flat tire and was left behind in the United States and its occupant ran across the border, he said.

Glancey said he could not confirm whether the armed men seen at the site were Mexican Army, police officers, or drug dealers, and would not detail what markings deputies may have seen on the men's uniforms or the Humvee.

Chief Deputy Mike Doyal of the Hudspeth County Sheriff's Department said that Mexican army personnel had several mounted machine guns on the ground more than 200 yards inside the U.S. border, the Daily Bulletin newspaper reported earlier.

"It's been so bred into everyone not to start an international incident with Mexico that it's been going on for years," Doyal said. "When you're up against mounted machine guns, what can you do? Who wants to pull the trigger first? Certainly not us."

Hudspeth County Sheriff Arvin West, whose officers were involved in a similar incident last year, said he is certain that Mexican authorities know who was involved.

After the newspaper reported on Mexican military crossings earlier this month, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said the report was overblown and most of the incursions were just mistakes.

In eastern California, Arizona and New Mexico, the U.S.-Mexico border is largely unmarked. But in Texas, the Rio Grande separates the two countries and even when dry, is a riverbed about 200 feet wide.

In November, Doyal said Border Patrol agents in the border town of Fort Hancock called for help after confronting more than six men dressed in Mexican military uniforms. The men allegedly were trying to bring more than three tons of marijuana across the Rio Grande, Doyal told the newspaper.

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Student skirts rules and wins

January 27, 2006

WASHINGTON: A ban on a New Jersey schoolboy wearing flowery skirts to school has been overturned after the American Civil Liberties Union claimed his rights were being violated.

At first, Michael Coviello only wanted to bend the uniform code at Hasbrouck Heights High School by donning shorts, which he had started wearing because of a knee injury. But he was told that district policy prohibited shorts in winter.

He sought a meeting with Joseph Luongo, the school superintendent, and argued that it was unfair that girls were allowed to expose their legs and he was not. The superintendent suggested that if he felt that way, he should dress like a girl.

Michael, 17, a drummer in the school band and a member of the golf team, called his bluff and went shopping.

He went to the mall and bought three skirts adorned with flowers and started wearing them to school. On the third day, principal Peter O'Hare told him that his clothing was disruptive and that he could be sent home.

Unlike those fighting to keep their headscarves on at school in France or Shabina Begum, the 16-year-old British girl who won a High Court battle to keep on her head-to-toe jilbab, Michael's mother decided that she wanted to help her son expose more - not less - of his body. She contacted the ACLU.

She said: "If Michael wants to protest not being allowed to wear shorts, then he should have that right," she said. "And now he shouldn't be told not to wear skirts."

Last week, the Coviellos, an ACLU representative and school administrators crafted a compromise: Michael is still not allowed to wear shorts, but he can wear a skirt. Michael now chooses from among his three skirts and a kilt as his daily outfit.

"This is the right outcome," ACLU lawyer Jeanne LoCicero said in a written statement that hit out at a "senseless, discriminatory school policy".

Glenn Ruroede, the vice-president of the school board, said that he was not surprised by the student's protest. "Kids want to challenge the code," he said. "You still get kids every day challenging baseball caps." His is not the only case of its kind. Nathan Warmack, a student at Jackson High School in Missouri, was barred from a school dance because he was wearing a kilt.

The Times

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Pimping near police station a bad idea
Associated Press
MARTINEZ, Calif. -
A married couple pleaded no contest to charges they ran a brothel across the street from a Concord police station, Contra Costa County authorities said. Debra Watts, 52, will serve one year of home detention after pleading to three felony counts of pimping and pandering, prosecutor Jose Marin said Monday.
Her husband, Ernest Watts, 63, pleaded to one misdemeanor count of maintaining a house of prostitution, Marin said.
Investigators said the couple ran the brothel for a year in an apartment located a few hundred feet from the Concord police station and used the Internet to solicit clients.
Police raided the apartment in January of 2005, six months after an informant tipped them off in exchange for leniency in a pending fraud case, according to a search warrant affidavit.
Surveillance of the apartment revealed a Monday-through-Friday operation in which women would arrive by 10 a.m. and leave by 7 p.m. Men would enter and leave throughout the day, staying for about 30 minutes at a time, according to the affidavit.
The women charged $160 for every half-hour and Debra Watts would take half, according to the affidavit.
A third defendant, Michelle Secrist, 22, of Vacaville, pleaded no contest to one misdemeanor count of prostitution.
The couple, who lived in Fairfield but recently moved to Las Vegas, will be prohibited from working in any business related to prostitution as part of their probation.

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Iz D cops stpd or wot? British police rapped for 'trendy' posters

January 28, 2006

LONDON: Critics tore into a British police force which erected placards in "trendy" text message-style patois in what was slammed as a "bizarre" attempt to get hip with the kids, a newspaper reported on Saturday.

Avon and Somerset Police plastered baffling messages across rough estates in Bristol, southwest England, to warn young people to curb their anti-social behaviour, the Daily Mail said.

But critics reckoned the masterminds behind the campaign should have their own collars felt for coming up with gobbledegook signs more likely to command derision from out-of-control louts than new-found respect for the law.

"D bil cum arnd hre n wl vzit ur olds if ur messin bout," reads one, which could be translated as "The police patrol this area and will pay your parents a visit should they find that you are misbehaving." Another reads: "du ur olds knw whr U r o wot ur doin coz D bil wl tel em."

This is probably enquiring of street thugs: "Do your parents know where you are or what you are doing because the police will tell them."

Ian Anderson, executive director of the charity Avon Youth Association, which runs a drop-in centre in the area, said the logic behind the signs was beyond him.

"The police seem to be falling over themselves to appear trendy when the simple truth is a sign written in plain English would get the message across just as well if not better. It's bizarre."

Retired local resident Elsie Allison, 68, said: "I don't think the police are gaining any respect from this kind of notice."

However, Avon and Somerset Police insisted they knew what they were doing.

"They are written in a text message format to try to appeal to the young people thought to be behind the anti-social behaviour as a means of bringing it to an end.

"This was considered the best way to reach out to these people."

Prime Minister Tony Blair has made restoring respect and fighting anti-social behaviour a key pillar of his term in office.

He recently blasted off some graffiti with a power hose to hammer the message home.

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Roadkill chef puts taste to the test

February 01, 2006

LONDON: It needs a brave soul and a strong stomach to have dinner with Arthur Boyt. For he is a connoisseur of roadkill flesh, and among the dishes served in his kitchen are casseroles made from squashed badger, hedgehog, otter, rat, rabbit or pheasant.

And his recipes may soon gain a wider following, because he hopes to publish a roadkill cookery book.

Mr Boyt, 66, who used to work in the fire protection business, has tucked into a labrador - "just like a nice piece of lamb" - two lurchers (hunting dogs), cats and a great horseshoe bat, not to mention squirrels, foxes, mice, deer and pigeon. He even brought a dead porcupine back from holiday in Canada. He has a weasel in the freezer but thinks it is too smelly to eat, and he has just picked up a barn owl he is keen to taste.

But his favourite snack is badger sandwich. He is partial to the badger head, which he says includes four distinctive tastes: the jaw muscles, salivary glands, tongue and brains.

Mr Boyt started collecting roadkill as a teenager in Watford, near north London, bringing home a dead bird found in a local park. For the past 50 years he has regularly eaten animals run over near his home in Cornwall, in southwest England.

He is also a keen taxidermist and keeps animal bodies for food or his hobby.

His taste for roadkill started as a way of saving money. In the past 10 years - after his second marriage to Sue, a vegetarian - he has mellowed his menu and now refuses dogmeat out of deference to his wife's views.

"I know people think I'm bizarre." he said, "but I had a cousin who died from variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (the human form of BSE) and I'm sure that was from some kind of supermarket meat.

"Everything I eat is natural, wild and fully organic.

"If the meat is cooked properly there's nothing wrong with it. Cat, though, is a bit bland and it's not my favourite."

People are happy to eat a fallen apple, he says, so what's the difference? "Just because it hasn't got a label doesn't mean it's not edible."

On Christmas Day, he ate a stew of roadkill pheasant, badger and rabbit and added onions, potatoes, parsnips, sprouts, walnuts, chestnuts, mixed herbs, salt and pepper.

Mr Boyt changes his diet when he eats out and will settle for chicken kiev, but otherwise never touches meat from a butcher or supermarket.

The Times

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$85k eBay bid for Aussie blokes

January 31, 2006

BIDDING has skyrocketed for a weekend with four Sydney men auctioning themselves at online marketplace eBay, with a French buyer offering $85,100.

Marketing reps Corey, Mark, Zac and law student Lachie have put themselves up for auction at online marketplace eBay, welcoming bids for a weekend with four blokes in Sydney.

"Couldn't be bothered making the effort finding new friends at the pub?" the offer reads.

"Don't have friends who are up for a couple of beers, a few snags and a hell of a good time? Or just bored with your current friends and their obsession with nerd stuff?"

"What you need is a weekend with four fun blokes in inner Sydney."

The boys won't fly the successful bidder to Sydney or pay for their bus fare, but are promising to wine and dine in true Aussie style - with a few tinnies and a barbie from February 18 to 19.

They also allude to the possibility of an "international guest" from the UK, "making it five blokes for the price of four".

French bidder renaudwald has offered a whopping $85,100 for the weekend treat, the 141st bid since the auction began on January 25.

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Museum gives klutz the boot

AFP
February 08, 2006

LONDON: A hapless visitor who accidentally smashed a set of rare 300-year-old Chinese vases at a British museum after tripping up on his shoelaces has said he has been banned from returning.

Nick Flynn, a regular visitor of the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, southeast England, said he had received a letter from directors asking him not to come back - at least for a while.

The 42-year-old, who tripped as he came down a flight of stairs in the museum, causing the $236,000 mishap, said: "It was just a regrettable accident. I snagged my shoelace, missed the step and crash, bang, wallop, there were a million pieces of high-quality Qing ceramics lying around underneath me.

"I suppose that, seeing the vases were the prize possession of the museum, they were just lying on a window sill ... I thought they might take a bit better care of them."

The three Qing vases, dating from the late 17th or early 18th century, had been at the museum for at least 40 years and were among its best-known artefacts.

After receiving the banning letter from museum director Duncan Robinson, Mr Flynn said: "I think they are a bit embarrassed at the moment, with them being worth such a considerable amount, and there is no way my pocket will stretch to reimburse them for the damage I've done."

Mr Flynn, who is single and receives a disability benefit following a bike accident, explained that he was still sore after the tumble, which happened last month. But he added that regular staff at the museum had not harboured a grudge.

"I think this is just the directors or trustees, because they seem to have got egg on their faces," Mr Flynn said.

Police had ruled out a charge of malicious damage.

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Woman calls cops over unreliable hit man

Tokyo police arrest woman who had tried to have her lover’s wife killed

Reuters
Updated: 2:55 a.m. ET Sept. 16, 2005[/i]

TOKYO - A Japanese woman called in the police after a hit man she paid to kill her lover’s wife failed to carry out the job.

The 32-year-old Tokyo woman was arrested on Wednesday for incitement to murder, the Daily Yomiuri newspaper said on Friday.

The woman contacted a private detective through a Web site last November and paid him $9,000 in cash to murder her love rival, the paper said.

The 40-year-old detective accepted the money and suggested he could carry out the job by chasing the victim on a motorcycle and spraying her with a biological agent in a tunnel.

Police also arrested the private detective and found the alleged target safe and well, the paper said.

Copyright 2006 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters.

© 2006 MSNBC.com

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Iavas_Saar wrote:

This struck me as a pretty unusual headline:

Cheney Accidentally Shoots Fellow Hunter