You can't make this shit up . . .

Egyptian doctors remove baby’s second head
10-month-old girl suffered from 'parasitic' twin birth defect

Str / Reutershttp://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photos/050219/050219_twin2_hmed_8a.hmedium.jpg
A nurse holds an Egyptian baby named Manar Maged in a hospital in the city of Banha, 25 miles north of Cairo, on Friday. Egyptian doctors said they removed the second head from the 10-month-old girl on Saturday.

Updated: 12:34 p.m. ET Feb. 19, 2005BENHA, Egypt - Egyptian doctors said they removed a second head from a 10-month-old girl suffering from one of the rarest birth defects in an operation on Saturday.

Abla el-Alfy, a consultant in pediatric intensive care, told Reuters at the hospital in Benha, near Cairo, that Manar Maged was in a serious but improving condition after the procedure to treat her for craniopagus parasiticus -- a problem related to that of conjoined twins linked at the skull.

“We are still working on the baby. After surgery ... you get unstable blood pressure, you get fever. But she is stabilizing,” Alfy said. “We have some improvement.”

As in the case of a girl who died after similar surgery in the Dominican Republic a year ago, the second twin had developed no body. The head that was removed from Manar had been capable of smiling and blinking but not independent life, doctors said.

Video footage provided by the hospital, a national center in Egypt for children’s medicine, showed Manar smiling and at ease in a cot with the dark-haired “parasitic” twin, attached at the upper left side of the girl’s skull, occasionally blinking.

After the 13-hour operation, Reuters journalists saw the baby, her head swathed in bandages and body wreathed by tubes, in an intensive care ward. A separate twin sister, Noora, is healthy after initial problems with the birth on March 30.

Alfy said the 13-strong surgical team separated Manar’s brain from the conjoined organ in small stages, cutting off the blood supply to the extra head while preventing increased blood flow to Manar’s heart, which would have risked cardiac arrest.

Benha, 40 km (25 miles) north of Cairo, was chosen for its equipment and proximity to the girl’s family.

“The family of the child are from near here, we have the equipment, we assembled a team, so why not have the operation here?” she said, explaining the choice not to work in Cairo or at centers abroad with more experience with conjoined twins.

Months of preparation
Alfy said Manar’s skull had been reconstructed during surgery and her skin had been joined over the bone, leaving no need for further surgery.

The doctors decided not to carry out Manar’s operation soon after her birth: “We studied the babies well,” Alfy said. “We had to study how the blood supply of the parasite is working.”

She plans to keep Manar in intensive care for up to 10 days and remains cautious: “Things are getting better but ... at any time things can go wrong.”

The condition occurs when an embryo begins to split into identical twins but fails to complete the process and one of the the conjoined twins fails to develop fully in the womb.

The second twin can form as an extra limb, a complete second body lacking vital organs, or, in very rare cases, a head.

Spain Doctor Rebuilds Penises Cut Off for AIDS Cure

Thu Feb 17, 1:13 PM ET

MADRID (Reuters) - Two Kenyan boys whose penises were cut off to be sold for making anti-AIDS (news - web sites) potions have had them reconstructed in Spain, the doctor treating them said.

The adolescent boys, from a remote region near the border with Uganda, were mutilated after being given drugged food or drink by strangers.

"They had attacked them to cut off their penises to sell ... for making a type of potion which according to a local belief cures AIDS," Doctor Pedro Cavadas, from the Levante Rehabilitation Center told radio station Cadena Ser.

One of the boys also lost an ear trying to fend off his attackers after regaining consciousness during the mutilation.

"It seems that the dose of medication that they gave him to knock him out ... was badly calculated, and so he woke up in the middle of the attack," Cavadas said.

"He then tried to defend himself and because of this has a lot more injuries."

Cavadas runs a foundation that carries out all types of reconstructive surgery in Kenya.

The foundation's Web site said two people had been arrested in connection with penis mutilation, although it was not clear if they were linked to the attacks on the 12 and 14-year-old boys.

"The practice of mutilating the penises of virgin boys is not a tradition among Kenyan tribes. The object of this mutilation was to make a potion to cure HIV (news - web sites)/AIDS," the Web site said.

Cavadas, who noted this type of attack was rare in Kenya, said the boys had been transformed by their surgery.

"They are fantastic, happy, their faces have changed and their lives have changed. They don't have to use a catheter ... and they can live like children, messing around and being naughty."

Police: Man attacked trooper with chain saw
Tuesday, February 22, 2005 Posted: 8:34 AM EST (1334 GMT)

WILKES-BARRE, Pennsylvania (AP) -- A man was shot and killed by police Monday after he ignored pepper spray and officers' commands and attacked a state trooper with a chain saw, authorities said.

At least 13 bullets struck William Henkle after state and local officers who had surrounded him opened fire, police said.

Henkle, 40, allegedly struck Trooper Michael Hartzel in the shoulder, lower back and buttocks with the saw. The trooper was treated for minor injuries at a hospital and released.

Henkle called 911 early Monday and said he was having a heart attack, but when police and an ambulance arrived, he was outside the house with the chain saw running, said Capt. Kenneth Hill, commander of the state police barracks at Wyoming.

About 10 state and local officers formed a semicircle around Henkle and ordered him to drop the chain saw, but he revved the saw and refused to put it down, Hill said.

Police said they used pepper spray, then fired when Henkle lunged at Hartzel.

Court Rejects Appeal on Sex Toy Sales Ban

Tue Feb 22,10:33 AM ET
By James Vicini

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court (news - web sites) rejected on Tuesday a constitutional challenge to an Alabama law that makes it a crime to sell sex toys.

The high court refused to hear an appeal by a group of individuals who regularly use sexual devices and by two vendors who argued the case raised important issues about the scope of the constitutional right to sexual privacy.

The law prohibited the distribution of "any device designed or marketed as useful primarily for the stimulation of human genital organs." First-time violators can face a fine of up to $10,000 and as much as one year in jail.

The law, adopted in 1998, allowed the sale of ordinary vibrators and body massagers that are not designed or marketed primarily as sexual aids. It exempted sales of sexual devices "for a bona fide medical, scientific, educational, legislative, judicial or law enforcement purpose."

Georgia and Texas are the only other states that restrict the distribution of sexual devices, according to the court record in the case.

Attorneys for the American Civil Liberties Union (news - web sites), representing those who challenged the law, argued that private, consensual sexual conduct among adults is constitutionally protected and beyond the reach of government regulation.

They said the Supreme Court's decision in 2003 striking down a Texas sodomy law also created a fundamental, constitutional due process right to sexual privacy.

"The evidence shows that this case is not about novelty items, naughty toys or obscene matter. It is a case about human sexuality and extremely intimate acts," the attorneys said.

They said Alabama has never explained "why sales of performance enhancing drugs like Viagra, Cialis and Levitra and even ribbed condoms are not similarly prohibited."

The attorneys said the state did not contest the evidence that about 20 percent of all American women use a vibrator and at least 10 percent of sexually active adults use vibrators in their regular sex life.

A federal judge ruled against the state and found a constitutional "right to use sexual devices like ... vibrators, dildos, anal beads and artificial vaginas."

But a U.S. appeals court based in Atlanta upheld the law by a 2-1 vote.

The appeals court said it agreed with Alabama that the law exercised time-honored use of state police power to restrict the sale of sex. It rejected the ACLU's argument that the constitutional right to privacy covered the commercial sale of sex toys.

Alabama Attorney General Troy King opposed the ACLU's appeal.

"This case involves conduct that is both public and commercial -- the sale of sexual devices to the general public in commercial retail shopping centers" and at in-house Tupperware-style parties, he said.

King said the law respected "the distinction between public commercial conduct and purely private behavior." He said, "It ... stays out of people's bedrooms."

The justices rejected the appeal without any comment or recorded dissent.

College gets money to teach bedside manners
Woman who dealt with rude doctor gives $2 million donation
The Associated Press
Updated: 4:13 p.m. ET Feb. 23, 2005

TOLEDO, Ohio - A woman who got bad news from a rude doctor has left nearly $2 million dollars for the Medical College of Ohio to teach its students better bedside manners.

New York psychotherapist and Toledo native Ruth Hillebrand died of cancer more than ten years ago. School officials say her doctor called her and told her she had a terminal form of the disease, then hung up on her.

Last week, the Toledo college announced that Hillebrand’s trust had given the largest individual donation in the school’s history. The money will help train students on diagnosing and listening to patients.

The school plans to name its clinical skills center after Hillebrand, whose father was a Toledo-area construction and insurance executive. The facility is to be dedicated next week.

No smoking in Cuba

Cigar Aficionados Let Down by Cuban Smoking Ban

Thu Feb 24, 8:26 AM ET
By Anthony Boadle

HAVANA (Reuters) - Cigar aficionados who see Cuba as the Mecca of smoking are dumbfounded by a Cuban smoking ban they say has let down the cause for smokers' rights worldwide.

Still, the hundreds of cigar lovers and retailers who showed up at the annual Habanos tobacco industry festival were grateful for a reprieve that allowed them to light up freely for the week.

Smokers puffed away at opening night in Havana's Museum of Fine Arts and stubbed out their Montecristos and Cohibas in flower pots and on the floor in the absence of ashtrays.

"Nobody could believe Cuba would ban smoking. It's like Spain banning wine," said Jose Luis Flores, a sommelier at a top restaurant in Toledo, Spain, who attended the event sponsored by Cuba's famed tobacco industry.

"It's a bad idea to prohibit smoking in Cuba. If you can't smoke here, where can you smoke?" he said.

"Everyone is puzzled by the ban, because Cuba produces the best tobacco and the best cigars in the world and we look forward to coming here to smoke freely," said Jimmy Ng, manager of The Cigar Divan in Singapore. He was glad an exception was made for the festival he described as a "walking humidor."

Cuban president Fidel Castro (news - web sites), once a cigar-chomping revolutionary, gave up cigars in 1986 and now says tobacco is poison and boxes of cigars are best given to one's enemies.

One of his enemies, the United States, once considered trying to blow him up with an exploding cigar.

Cuba on Feb. 7 banned smoking in air-conditioned public buildings, theaters, schools, sports centers, buses and taxis as part of a health initiative.

"No smoking" signs have gone up in public offices and hotels removed ashtrays from lobbies, but it is far from clear how effective the ban will be in Cuba.

BAN FLOP AT PAPA'S BAR

The Floridita, writer Ernest Hemingway's favorite bar for daiquiris, prohibited smoking for the first time since it opened in 1817. But management gave up after a week because sales to its tourist clientele had plummeted, an employee said.

Travelers can still light up at Havana's airport.

The ban has not been enforced in the factories where Cuba's premium cigars are hand-rolled by workers while they listen to books and periodicals read out on the public address system.

A spokesman for cigar maker Habanos S.A., a joint venture between the Cuban state and Spanish-French tobacco group Altadis, said the company has asked authorities to make exceptions to the ban.

Spanish cigar vendors said restrictions on smoking in public, mainly bars and restaurants, are hurting their trade, with sales down by 15 percent as a result, according to one retailer.

Spain is the largest market for the 120 million cigars Cuba exports each year, a business worth $300 million in 2004. Cuba has a 30 percent share of the world cigar market.



Aficionados in town for a week of good smoking, cigar rolling courses and visits to tobacco plantations and factories, were seeking clarification on how wide-ranging the Cuban ban will be.

"It's not very helpful. If Cuba has introduced a total ban, it will put me on very weak ground," said Simon Chase, marketing director for Hunters & Frankau, which sells Habanos in Britain, and has sought to forestall a ban in that country.

"Everybody in the tobacco industry now appreciates that you have to acknowledge that tobacco smokes is, at the very least, annoying to people," he said, adding that he believed the health dangers of third party smoke have been exaggerated.

"Provided there are places where people can enjoy a cigar, and they are something you should enjoy in company, then I would be happy to return to Cuba," Chase said.

Blind Scotsman accused of biting guide dog
Witness says pooch attacked after it wouldn't help man cross street
MSNBC staff and news service reports
Updated: 10:58 a.m. ET Feb. 25, 2005

A blind man has been arrested in Scotland after witnesses reported he sank his teeth into his guide dog’s head and then kicked the Labrador-retriever mix after it apparently wouldn’t help him across a busy street.
A witness who said he saw the attack outside a busy shopping center in the Scottish capital Edinburgh reported the incident to police.

After several days investigation, officers arrested David Todd, 34, on charges of cruelty to animals and breach of the peace.

A police spokeswoman said the 8-year-old dog had been handed over to a charity dedicated to guide dogs.

The alleged attack has outraged animal rights activists and the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association, which provided Todd with the dog.

Association spokesman Colin Gallagher said that Todd could lose his dog if he is convicted of the abuse charge.

“Cases of abuse by owners on their guide dogs are few and far between, but we can withdraw the dog on a permanent basis,” Gallagher told the Edinbugh Evening News.

If the dog is withdrawn, the association trains the blind person to use a white stick while walking, he said.

Security door blocks portly police
Construction error blamed
Thursday, March 3, 2005 Posted: 12:52 PM EST (1752 GMT)

STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) -- Portly Swedish police have a new reason to work out thanks to a new security entrance at the National Police headquarters that won't let them in if they weigh too much.

A construction error in the recently remodeled security entrance, which has a built-in scale designed to only let one person at a time pass through the door, has caused some embarrassing moments for officers who may not have spent enough time exercising.

Those weighing more than 230 pounds (105 kilograms) who try to pass through the entrance are greeted by a recorded voice telling them: "Stop! One at a time!" and are not let through, police spokeswoman Linda Widmark said.

She said the scale is supposed to be adjustable to let people weighing up to 160 kilograms (350 pounds) pass through, but an apparent construction error is playing tricks on those with ample girth.

"We'll have to get that fixed," Widmark said. "We've got some big strong men around here."

The security entrance is mainly for visitors and police denied entrance can use other doors.

"There are other options for them," she said.

For its mayor, Vegas might well be Gin City
Mayor of gambling mecca tells fourth-graders about favorite drink
The Associated Press
Updated: 7:51 p.m. ET March 3, 2005

LAS VEGAS - Sin City’s mayor made no apologies Thursday after being criticized for extolling gin to a class of fourth-graders.

Mayor Oscar Goodman said he was just being himself when he told elementary school students that drinking was one of his hobbies and that the one thing he would want if stranded on an island is a bottle of gin.

“I answered the question honestly and truthfully,” Goodman told reporters. “I’m not going to lie to children. I’m not going to say I would take a teddy bear or a Bible or something like that.”

Asked by a reporter if he had a drinking problem, Goodman answered, “Oh, absolutely not. I love to drink.”

Long known for love of gin
Moments later, he cut off questions and walked out of the news conference.

Goodman, who has been mentioned as a possible candidate for governor, has never been shy about his love of gin.

He hosts regular “Martinis with the Mayor” events and induced a bidding war between two gin companies in 2002 before becoming a spokesman for one. He donated half the $100,000 he made to an agency that provides shelter and substance abuse programs and half to a private school founded by his wife.

Goodman was at Mackey Elementary on Wednesday as part of Nevada Reading Week when he made the drinking comments during a question-and-answer session.

Principal Kemala Washington later called the comments inappropriate but said the students did not appear to understand.

“It just went over their heads,” Washington said.

TheOlderGuy said:

For its mayor, Vegas might well be Gin City
Mayor of gambling mecca tells fourth-graders about favorite drink
The Associated Press
Updated: 7:51 p.m. ET March 3, 2005

LAS VEGAS - Sin City’s mayor made no apologies Thursday after being criticized for extolling gin to a class of fourth-graders.

Click to expand...

Gotta keep up the Sin City prosonna. But some news reporter violated the "What Happens In Vegas, Stays In Vegas" rule.

Cat survives 10-mile trip on top of car
Motorist alerts owner of 'Cuddle Bug's' precarious position
The Associated Press
Updated: 1:48 p.m. ET March 4, 2005

INKOM, Idaho - Torri Hutchinson's cat might just have one less life to live. Hutchison was driving along Interstate 15 one day recently when a motorist kept trying to get her attention and pointing to the roof of her car.

She said she was wary of the man, but wondered if perhaps her ski rack might have come loose.

She pulled over to the side, but kept her doors locked and the motor running.

The man pulled up behind her. Hutchinson rolled down her window to hear the man frantically shouting, "Your cat! Your cat!"

He reached for the roof of her car and handed the shocked Hutchinson her orange tabby.

She had driven about 10 miles with the cat on top of the car, and didn't even notice the feline when she stopped for gas.

Hutchinson said Cuddle Bug, or C.B. for short, had climbed into the back of her car as she was getting ready to leave. She put him out, but he must have jumped on the roof while she wasn't looking, she said.

Killer crocodile snared in Uganda
16-foot beast ate scores of people, officials say
http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photos/050308/050308_UGANDA_CROC_hmed_9a.hsmall.jpg
An official from the Ugandan Wildlife Authority steps over a 16-foot-long crocodile after its delivery to a sanctuary on Tuesday. The crocodile is said to have eaten 83 people over the last two decades.

Updated: 12:29 p.m. ET March 8, 2005KAMPALA, Uganda - A 16-foot-long (5-meter-long) crocodile said to have eaten more than 80 people has been caught alive in Uganda and transferred to a sanctuary, officials said Tuesday.

The giant beast — weighing about a ton — was captured by wildlife experts who spent three nights camping in the bush before locating their target.

Residents told local media the crocodile killed 83 people over the last two decades, mostly fishermen plying their trade on Lake Victoria off the shores of Bugiri district.

“Much as the residents of Luganga wanted to kill the reptile after our rangers had captured it, it is our responsibility to protect it by removing it from that area and keeping it in a safe place,” Uganda Wildlife Authority spokeswoman Lillian Nsubuga told Reuters.

The beast — reportedly more than 60 years old — was trapped using ropes and transported by pickup truck to the Buwama crocodile farm, west of the capital, Kampala.

The state-owned New Vision newspaper said it “roared” as it was released into a holding ground at the farm Monday.

Crocodiles sometimes attack and kill villagers collecting water or fishing in Lake Victoria, Africa’s biggest lake.

Toddler dies from severe diaper rash
Mother, grandmother face criminal charges for abuse, neglect
The Associated Press
Updated: 10:49 a.m. ET March 9, 2005

JOHNSTOWN, Pa. - The mother and grandmother of a toddler who died in December face criminal charges for allegedly neglecting his severe diaper rash, leading to a fatal infection.

Amy Livingston, 27, of Johnstown, was charged Tuesday with involuntary manslaughter and child endangerment in the Dec. 12 death of her 15-month-old son, Harley. She was charged with a second count of child endangerment because another son, 3-year-old Hunter, also had severe diaper rash, authorities said.

Her mother, Evelyn Ann Mrsnik, 60, was charged with child endangerment, because she was a supervisor at a day care center Harley attended. Mrsnik had an obligation under state law to report the alleged neglect, District Attorney David Tulowitzki said.

'Worst I've ever seen'
The younger boy developed sepsis, a life-threatening infection, because the rash was so bad, Cambria County Coroner Dennis Kwiatkowski said.

“It’s probably the worst I’ve ever seen,” Kwiatkowski said.

Mrsnik didn’t immediately return a message left at her home Tuesday night. It was not immediately clear whether she or her daughter have attorneys. The Associated Press could not immediately locate a home telephone number for Livingston.

Both defendants face a preliminary hearing March 17. Involuntary manslaughter involving a victim under 12 carries a sentence of up to 10 years.

Livingston’s husband, David, was deployed by the Army when the boy died, authorities said.

Third-grader commutes to school by mule
Wednesday, March 16, 2005 Posted: 10:26 AM EST (1526 GMT)


Saje Beard rides to school on her mule named Ruth.
Image: http://i.a.cnn.net/cnn/2005/EDUCATION/03/16/mule.commute.ap/story.mule.commute.ap.jpghttp://i.a.cnn.net/cnn/2005/EDUCATION/03/16/mule.commute.ap/story.mule.commute.2.ap.jpg

BISMARCK, North Dakota (AP) -- Saje Beard's half-hour commute to class is the envy of her four classmates at a one-room schoolhouse just south of here.

Most mornings, the third-grader makes the trek on Ruth the mule.

"She's called many things, but Ruth is what we call her in public," Saje said of the 4-year-old gray mule. "Actually, that's my dad's joke. She's really nice and gentle. And she sure is smart."

Saje, 9, is an old hand at maneuvering mules. She's been doing it since she was in first grade.

"I feel more safe with her riding a mule than having her ride in a car or on a bus," said her father, Marty Beard.

At the Manning School, about 15 miles south of the North Dakota capital, Saje "parks" Ruth by tying her with a bowline to a tree near swing sets and monkey bars. Ruth then gets some leather hobbles attached to her front legs, a routine Saje began after her other mule, Shirley, got loose and ran home from school last year.

Saje's classmates, who are in kindergarten through fourth grade, help take off Ruth's saddle and tack. It's stored in the school's cloakroom, next to basketballs and other playground equipment.

The five children then run to the school's flagpole to recite the Pledge of Allegiance and sing the national anthem. The mule, named Ruth, prances and kicks up dirt as the children sing.

"It's cool," Lucas Irving, 10, said of his classmate and her mode of transportation. "She's cool."

Saje would ride Ruth every morning, but her dad won't let her if the temperature is below zero -- "even if she insists."

Saje proved just how much she's willing to endure on a recent trek to school in below-freezing temperatures and strong winds.

"My cheeks are burning," she said, "but that's OK."

Saje gets up at sunup to prepare for school. She brushes Ruth and feeds her grain, then hoists an old saddle that weighs nearly as much as she does over the chubby mule.

"Come on Ruthie, come on mule," she says as she leads her mount to the front yard.

Saje raises her foot above her head to reach a stirrup, pulls herself up and swings the other leg over. She pulls down the coonskin hat her father made and gives Ruth a gentle nudge in the ribs.

"Let's go girl," she says.

Saje has corn and sweet peas stuffed in saddlebags for Ruth's lunch, and for treats during the school's three recesses. Her homework and a tuna fish sandwich are in her backpack, tied to the mule.

Saje and Ruth follow a gravel road and pass dozens of horses from other farms during the two-mile trip. Ruth is fitted with special carbide-studded shoes to make the already sure-footed animal even more so, especially on ice.

Mules are known for protecting themselves and their riders. Marty Beard said the mule would likely attack anyone who hassled Saje along the route.

"She would probably implant those special shoes on their forehead," he said.

The trip home always is a little faster: Ruth knows she'll have some grain waiting, so she picks up the pace without prodding, Saje said.

Kris Beard, Saje's mother, said even some of their rural neighbors find her daughter's mule commute unusual.

"It's not strange for us, but for other people it is quite different," she said. "We're very fortunate to live here."

Trooper tells caller seeking help, 'Too bad'
Conn. officer suspended after comment caught on tape
The Associated Press
Updated: 2:32 p.m. ET March 22, 2005

LISBON, Conn. - A state trooper was suspended for 15 days without pay after he was recorded on a 911 tape saying “too bad” to a caller seeking help for a man injured in a motorcycle accident.

State police said the dismissive answer by Trooper Robert Peasley did not affect the response time to the accident involving Justin Sawyer, 21, who died of a severe head injury a week after the crash last August. Peasley was suspended on Monday.

Russell Shepard, a friend of Sawyer’s, called 911, which was routed to the state police barracks in Montville. When he reported the accident, Peasley said, “Yeah ... too bad,” and hung up, according to a tape obtained by WTNH-TV.

Wrong number?
Shepard said he was shocked, believing he reached a wrong number.

Another friend made a second call. “Yeah,” the officer responded. “Help will get there. Shouldn’t be playing games.”

A third emergency call was answered by a different dispatcher, who asked about Sawyer’s condition and advised those nearby to not touch him.

“I am absolutely outraged every time I hear that ‘too bad’ and then click,” said Sawyer’s father, Jim Sawyer. “I only know that I would have felt a whole lot more comfortable if I had heard people responding on the end of that 911 call with some heart and caring.”

State police said the comments by Peasley, an 18-year-veteran, were unprofessional, and the agency apologized if “our actions added to the family’s pain.”

Diner finds finger in chili
Thursday, March 24, 2005 Posted: 7:13 AM EST (1213 GMT)

SAN FRANCISCO, California (Reuters) -- A diner at a Wendy's fast food restaurant in San Jose, California, found a human finger in a bowl of chili prepared by the chain, local officials said Wednesday.

"This individual apparently did take a spoonful, did have a finger in their mouth and then, you know, spit it out and recognized 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 Tuesday night and the medical examiner determined Wednesday that the object was a human finger.

Officials are trying to determine whether the finger came in the raw materials Wendy's used to prepare the chili, Gale said.

Wendy's International Inc. corporate office did not immediately return a call for comment. Wendy's is the third-largest hamburger chain.

TheOlderGuy said:

Diner finds finger in chili
Thursday, March 24, 2005 Posted: 7:13 AM EST (1213 GMT)

SAN FRANCISCO, California (Reuters) -- A diner at a Wendy's fast food restaurant in San Jose, California, found a human finger in a bowl of chili prepared by the chain, local officials said Wednesday.

"This individual apparently did take a spoonful, did have a finger in their mouth and then, you know, spit it out and recognized 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 Tuesday night and the medical examiner determined Wednesday that the object was a human finger.

Officials are trying to determine whether the finger came in the raw materials Wendy's used to prepare the chili, Gale said.

Wendy's International Inc. corporate office did not immediately return a call for comment. Wendy's is the third-largest hamburger chain.

Click to expand...

Makes you wonder to where all the illegal immigrants go, doesn't it?

I am sure that if I worked in a plant processing (grinding) meat and chopped my finger off I certainly would tell somebody!

expertlinguist said:

Makes you wonder to where all the illegal immigrants go, doesn't it?

I am sure that if I worked in a plant processing (grinding) meat and chopped my finger off I certainly would tell somebody!

Click to expand...

Word!

Belushi lives!!!


http://loseke.net/pics/jb_samurai.jpg

TheOlderGuy said:

German 'Samurai' on the Loose in Woods Near Berlin

Fri Jun 18, 1:48 PM ET Add Oddly Enough - Reuters to My Yahoo!



BERLIN (Reuters) - A camouflage-clad German man wielding a samurai sword attacked at least seven hikers in forests west of Berlin, performing sword tricks before ordering them to leave the woods, police said Friday.



They suspect a 46-year-old local man who trained in martial arts and survival skills in camps in Papua New Guinea and Vietnam to be the attacker.


"He's dangerous and has been hard to find because he wears camouflage," said Catrin Feistauer, spokeswoman for the Nauen police department. Police have used infrared cameras mounted on helicopters to try and track him down.


The man pushed two elderly people off their bikes and, flashing his sword, shouted at them to leave the forest. He later tried to drive a young couple out of the woods. No one was seriously hurt.


"It's frightening because the violence level has increased each time," Feistauer said

Click to expand...

Police pull guns on mom who gave birth in car
Ohio woman delivered baby herself on way to hospital
The Associated Press
Updated: 2:57 p.m. ET March 31, 2005

KETTERING, Ohio - A woman rushing to a hospital to give birth hit a few stops along the way — first at a gas station where she delivered the baby herself, then when confused police ordered her out of the car at gunpoint.

Debbie Coleman, whose 3- and 4-year-old daughters were asleep in the back seat, pulled over at a gas station just after midnight Tuesday.

“I asked if she needed help, and she just leaned back in the seat, hollered a little, and I looked down and there was the baby’s head,” said station co-owner Lloyd Goff, who was alerted to the emergency at pump No. 7 by a customer.

Goff said Coleman “threw her leg over the steering wheel, groaned once, and the rest of the baby came out.

“She caught that baby, put it to her chest, gave me a look, like, 'I gotta go,' closed the door, put the van in gear and away she went.”

License plate mix-up
A customer at the gas station in suburban Dayton tried to give police a heads-up about Coleman’s situation, but a mix-up involving the license plate number had them thinking the van was stolen.

As officers went looking for her, Coleman headed for the hospital, naked below the waist and with the baby boy in her arm. His umbilical cord was still attached.

“I kept pulling over, making sure (the baby) was all right, breathing,” she said.

Meanwhile, police had straightened out the license plate issue. But another caller mistakenly reported someone trying to throw a baby from a van.

Coleman said she noticed several cruisers following her before one cut her off. With guns drawn, officers ordered her out of the van with her hands up.

“I opened the door and said, 'I just had a baby' and just let them see everything,” she said.

Officers sent Coleman on and let the hospital know she was coming.

Coleman was discharged Wednesday. Her 6-pound, 8-ounce son, Richard Lee Coleman Jr., remained in intensive care.

Citizen-volunteers gather to secure a border
A showdown in Tombstone

Saul Loeb / EPA via Sipa Presshttp://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photos/050401/050401_minuteman2_hmed_1p.hmedium.jpg
Arizona Rangers, a civilian police force, patrol Tombstone, Ariz., where volunteers are registering for the month-long Minuteman Project.
By Brock N. Meeks
Chief Washington correspondent
MSNBC
Updated: 3:46 p.m. ET April 1, 2005

TOMBSTONE, Ariz. - It was here in 1881 when the Earp brothers and their ally ‘Doc’ Holliday faced down the Clanton and McLaury brothers in their infamous 30-second gunfight at the OK corral. Now a 124 years later this tiny historical town is set for another flashpoint confrontation. And when an unknown number of the participants are openly packing firearms, apprehension hangs in the air.

This modern day showdown pits members of the Minuteman Project, a citizen-led volunteer group intent on stopping illegal immigration along the Arizona-Mexican border against pro-immigrant civil rights activists and a group of Hispanic Arizona lawmakers intent on being in the thick of things and making noise.

"So long as it's a daytime meeting -- and there's no (Klan) hoods out there -- I intend to get right in the middle of things," Rep. Ben Miranda, D-Phoenix, told Capitol Media Services. "I intend to demonstrate by my actions that we will not be intimidated."

While no Klan members have signed on to help out the Minutemen, members of white supremacy groups have signaled their intention to join the border patrolling volunteers.

Media and the Minutemen
Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano on Thursday was urging caution, acknowledging the First Amendment rights and the right to assemble, both of the Minutemen and those opposed to their presence.

"That's why you can't stop the Minutemen from coming even though, from a law enforcement perspective, it's worrisome to have untrained people, potentially armed, performing what should be a law enforcement function,” Napolitano said.

There’s a perfect storm of confrontation emerging here: Opposing and vocal groups playing out on a national stage thanks to a horde of media, domestic and international, that have converged on Tombstone.

Tombstone, a former silver mining boomtown, is now a blip on the map, carved out of the hardscrabble surrounding Arizona landscape that looks like the back lot of a science fiction movie in which the hero crash lands on some desolate and hostile planet. The town’s streets are narrow and few. Huge satellite T.V. trucks have overrun Allen St., where the original OK corral still stands, to the point where the local sheriff has shut down the street to all vehicular traffic. And literally overnight the population of Tombstone, some 1,504 strong, will more than double with the influx of an expected 1,000-plus Minuteman volunteers, plus activists and media.

Uber-patriot’s Woodstock
Chris Simcox, the Minuteman director of field operations and owner of the local newspaper, the Tombstone Tumbleweed, calls what appears at first blush to be a kind of uber-patriot’s Woodstock -- “the nation’s largest neighborhood watch group”.

Registration takes place all day Friday, starting at 9 a.m. Throughout the day Minutemen volunteers will be treated to rallies and speeches before they receive their assignments to patrol a 23-mile patch of desert from Douglas to Naco. The project is slated to last a month; volunteers will patrol both night and day; some will act as radio technicians to help rely any illegal immigrant activity to the Border Patrol.

Border Patrol officials have said they don’t endorse the group’s intensions; however, they’ve also said that any reports of illegal immigrant activity submitted to them will be accepted and acted on just as it does countless times a day by other Arizona citizens.

The volunteers have encamped themselves in several R.V. parks around the area. And 30 miles south of here, in the stubble and burr-filled field of the Miracle Bible College, which has offered its land to the volunteers, for a fee, volunteers have set up tents and staked their claim with state flags.

So next thing you know they are smuggled into the US disguised as chili con carne (see a few posts above)

Professor Accused of Stealing Manure

Professor Accused of Stealing Manure​

ROCKPORT, Mass. - A Harvard economics professor has been accused of neglecting the standard market practice of paying for goods and services by trying to steal a truckload of manure from a horse farmer.

Stable manager Phillip Casey says Martin Weitzman, Harvard University's Ernest E. Monrad Professor of Economics, has been stealing manure from Charlie Lane's Rockport farm for years.

Police said said Casey found Weitzman on the property last Friday, so he blocked in Weitzman's pickup truck and called police. Weitzman got angry, Casey said, then offered to pay for the manure he'd already taken. But Casey said he wouldn't budge because he wanted the thefts to stop.

"He offered me $20 for it and then $40 for it," Casey said.

Casey said the land was marked private property and Weitzman, 63, had been warned before.

"He's been doing it for years," Casey told the Gloucester Daily Times.

The farm sells the manure for $35 a truckload and also uses it to fertilize a pasture.

Rockport police officer Michael Marino said Weitzman, who lives in neighboring Gloucester, is charged with larceny under $250, trespassing, and malicious destruction of property for tearing up some land with his tires.

Weitzman did not immediately return calls to his home or office on Wednesday morning. His attorney also did immediately return a call on Wednesday.


link

Fagin said:

Professor Accused of Stealing Manure

Click to expand...

dont know why, they are full of shit to begin with.

God said "let there be oil" and there was oil-
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7404743/?GT1=6428